Packers and Weddings and Life... oh my!!!

Sorry for the complete lack of blogging!! It's been a mad dash since school started, but I just had to blog about my last two weekends because they were just too much fun not to share :)


First, I got to go spend the weekend with my Daddeeee at my very first Lambeau Field Packers game. It has been permanently filed as one of my bestest Daddy memories ever (and just FYI Daddeeee.... I'm wearing my packers pjs as I type!!) The packers kicked some Bronco-bootie (49-23) and I got to be within throwing distance of my sports-boyfriend Aaron Rodgers (that's MY throwing distance, not his!!). I also got to see my WI aunties and it was fun to get hugs from them :)
If you want to check out the pictures click here

Then this past weekend one of my bestes EP friends, Gwen, got to marry her wonderful boy in a hilarious and extremely fun wedding. There was lots of dancing, Reese's pieces, and laughter!! I'm a lucky gal to have such amazing friends :)


Now comes the crappy couple weeks of report cards and parent teacher conferences... so don't expect to hear from me until November!! :)

Good Day

Extra sleep (check), Toes painted (check), Longs Peak sweatshirt that matches with my friends' purchased (check), funny Longs Peak tshirt purchased (check), too much yummy Chinese food eaten (check), pretty new necklace and fun hat(check), great day with friends (check), papers graded (check).... I think the day could have used some icecream... but overall it was pretty awesome :)

14,259 ft

‎14,259 feet - 4,850 feet up (and 4,850 feet down!) - 15 miles - 18 hours on the trail - 8,120 calories burned - one incredible experience... and probably the longest and hardest day of my life.
I didn't include this picture in the facebook file, but I had to take a "wictory" pic at the top for my family :)


The rest of the pictures are on facebook here.

Now it's time for more advil and more sleep.

From Vegas back to the mountains...

We had an amazingly fun time at Gwen's bachelorette party :)


Then it was time for another peak with the peak club! (Pictures here)

Back to the mountains...

I had a wonderful week hanging with my nephews in Vermont! I got to have some quality sis-in-law time and video-gamed-it-up with the bro! It was a fantastic week, but also nice to come back home to my mountains.

Last Sunday we climbed Deer Mountain... (pictures here)

This week we did the Estes Cone... (pictures here)

We're still possibly attempting Long's Peak this year.... the nice thing is that if we don't make it... the mountain will still be there :)

Now the next fun thing is VEGAS!!! Headed off to Gwen's bachelorette party on Tuesday. Wooo hooo!! :)

Lily Mountain

Our Peak group was a little smaller this week, and we had other things planned for the day, so we picked a much shorter mountain this time. Lilly mountain is 9,740 ft tall. The trail head starts around 8,800 and two miles later you're at the top :)

Not quite the excursion that it was last week, but still lots of fun!
Click here to see the rest of the pictures on facebook.

Twin Sisters

So a group of us who are thinking of possibly trying to climb Long's this summer have started a peak club. We're going to shoot for a local peak a week to work our way up to the big one. Today we bagged our first - Twin Sisters. ‎11,428 feet -- 7.4 miles (round trip) -- 2,400ish ft elevation gain -- 4.5 hours -- 2,270 calories burned -- laughter was immeasurable.
Check out the pictures on facebook here.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddeeeeeeee in the world :)
I love you!

Jurassic Park :)

So I'm a pooped pup this evening! Yesterday Debbie and I went for a great hike in RMNP. There was still quite a bit of snow on the trail we ended up on, but it was a great adventure. If you want to check out the pictures: click this to see/laugh at our ongoing album from the summer hikes.

Today, after a rocking workout at fit camp, Gwen, Laura, and I climbed up to some great rocks above Lilly Lake called Jurassic Park. I added a few pictures to the climbing album: click this to see the ongoing collection of climbing pics.

This one isn't in the album yet as Laura had it on her camera, but it's my favorite!! :)

SNOW!!

No, not snowy weather, but LOTS of snow still in the mountains!! Rocky Mountain National Park FINALLY has opened Trail Ridge Road (the road that connects Estes Park with Grand Lake over the Continental Divide). Usually it is opened on Memorial Day weekend, but there was just so much snow up there this year that they just couldn't do it. It opened on Tuesday, so on Wednesday Debbie and I drove up and over. Here's me in front of one of the snowbanks :)

The Numbers and the Narrows

So Friday afternoon, while lazily puttering around on the computer, a friend of mine from school told me she was going rafting this weekend and that I should come. As I had no big weekend plans, I told her I was in! Later that evening, while practicing my swing at the batting cages and kicking bootie in puttputt golf, I told another teacher friend that we were going, and she was on board too! So Saturday afternoon the three of us jumped in Julian and drove over to Buena Vista, and after a not-so-restful night sleep at the plush Super8, we hit the Arkansas river. The mountains in Northern/Central Colorado have had record snow this year, and the warm weather has just started, so the river was running high and fast. In fact, the morning we went it was running around 2,100 cfs (cubic feet per second) and they close that section at 2,400 cfs. According to their website, this morning (Monday) it's running over 2,500 - so we got in the last day until the water goes down! The trip was AWESOME! These are class IV/V rapids and they were rocking. Our guide was awesome and our boat worked well together, so he let us hit the hardest routes. It was SWEET(and a little scary too!). Yay for summer!!!!! :)

Ahhh... summer!

Oh my it is SO nice to be on vacation ALL summer :) The weather FINALLY cooperated today and it was just a perfect day. Gwen took Sherlock and me climbing and we had a blast!
Here's me getting read to "rock" it:

Getting up there!!

Gwen and Sherlock... the best cheerleaders! :)

Then we went and threw the pooperdog in the lake (it was hot!) and went and had some popsicles and beer on a friend's porch while Sherlock played ball. I wrapped up the day with a scrumptious dinner by Debbie (including strawberry shortcake) and now it's time to read a book and sleep. Yeah... I can handle days like this!! :)

Bear!!

So this is actually my second bear of the year (or fourth if you're counting total numbers) A couple of weeks ago, I saw a mom and three cubs from a distance in the National Park, but tonight, this hungry bear was visiting my next-door neighbors! He was awfully cute, but awfully naughty... he broke their porch, got their humming bird feeder, and their two seed bird feeders.

But he was very cute and fuzzy :) A great way to end my last day of school. (Well, I have to go back in and work all day tomorrow, but it was my last day with kids! Woo hoo!!!)

Rainwalk

So if a free trip to California wasn't payment enough, I got to pick another Mangelsen image to add to my collection. I needed another Africa picture in my bedroom, and have been madly in love with "Rainwalk" since my early gallery days... and now it's finally mine!! :) Thanks Kathy and Tom!!

Don't wanna :(

I don't wanna go home tomorrow :( I've had an amazing trip... photo album has been updated!

Click here for the pics!

Mangelsen Trip!

So I'm back in La Jolla, CA to help out with a reception at the Images of Nature gallery here. I had an absolutely amazing day today... lazy morning, time at the dog-beach, great run in a state park, an evening with Tom Mangelsen photographing pelicans, and lots of sunshine :) I earned myself a sunburn and a scouting assignment for Tom tomorrow morning!
Check out the pictures from my trip here.

The real thing!

We got a little teaser of spring today here in Estes today! We did our Saturday morning workout in the sunshine and then after hanging out in the hammock for a little bit, Gwen took me and Sherlock out for some rock climbing on real rocks. We went to the Thumb and Needle on Prospect Mountain. It was different from climbing in the gym... some ways harder, some ways easier... but lots of fun! The only scary part was when the wind kicked up and felt strong enough to blow me off the rock!! Sherlock was just happy he got to go play outside, although at first he was very worried about us being up where he couldn't get, but then he found some sticks to chew and was a happy pup.

Check out the pictures here!

It was a rough week, and next week is parent/teacher conferences, so it will be another long one... but summer is coming, and will be full of more fun days like today! :)

Home!

Made it home yesterday evening, took the puppy-sitters out to dinner and then crawled into my very own bed with my Fat Kitty. I'd say it's nice to be home, but the windy, cold weather and upcoming school week really make it not-so-true. On the other hand the parents came up to take me out to a wonderful birthday lunch, and the girls are going to spend the night down in Denver dancing and celebrating! It'll be a fun way to welcome in the year of 23-backwards. Here's hoping it's a good one!

A little sore...

Four-ish hours of kayaking and my arms are a little bit sore... but so much fun!! It was a very cool adventure which I'll have to write more about later. Then I drove from the beach to the mountains, and am happily ready for bed here in Big Bear. A few hours with the Cook crew tomorrow and then it will be time to head back to CO.

Kayaking pictures on the same link below!

ZOO!!

Spent the entire day at the San Diego zoo with Kathy. Heaven :) My favorites were the koala bears :) Click the link in the last post to see more pics from today! Tomorrow... sea kayaking and then off to Big Bear.

La Jolla!

I rolled in (through quite a lot of rain) to La Jolla yesterday afternoon just in time for the sun to come out :) I met up with my friend Kathy at the Images of Nature gallery, and while waiting for her to be done with work, wandered down to the beach. There's a cove where seals come to hang out, so that entertained me for at least an hour, and then I stuck my toes in the ocean too :)

Click here or check out pics on facebook!

Great trip so far!!

I'm quite sure that there's a lot of people in this world that wouldn't want to drive as far as I'm driving for this trip, but I had such a great day today :) Maybe it's just the quiet time in the car, maybe it's getting to listen to a new audio book (early bday present from the brother! Thanks Daniel!!), maybe it was the fun of finding a Dairy Queen to fulfill my blizzard craving in Beaver, UT... maybe it's all of the above!! :) Tonight I'm hanging in St. George, UT and tomorrow I'll be in La Jolla, CA.

Here's a picture from some random pretty canyon in Utah where I stopped for a stretch break.

Climbing :)

Gwen brought her camera to the climbing gym tonight, so you get to see me in my climbing glory! :)
This is my new nemesis - the overhang... I've gotten most of the way up, but have still yet to ring the bell at the top!!


Gwen then climbed to the top of another wall and hooked in so she could take some shots of us on our way up!


This is the fun one with the "ball grab" at the top ;)

Belaying for Gwen (who's rocking a 5.10b) - someday I'll do that one too!!

Fun fun fun!! :) And only one week (5 days to be precise) before spring break!! Woo hoo!! :)

14 days....

14 days until spring break... and yes I sure am counting. This year has been so much more stressful than last year and I am in major need of a break. Unfortunately there's two more weeks to survive, which includes the CSAP (Colorado State testing) and I'm sure more individual kid issues (as I can't seem to go through a week without some one having a breakdown, meltdown, or blow-up). Thankfully the next two days are kid-free, and me-thinks I'm going to make the decision to head to California for spring break. I have a couple of really good friends that I haven't seen in a long time, and Julian hasn't been on much of a road trip yet, so... I think that's the plan!

In other news, climbing still rocks. I just got back from a super fun night where I did a 5.fun warm-up, a 5.7 with no cheats, two times up the slanty wall to grab the rather phallic hold at the top (it's very hard to get the last two hand holds when you're laughing at the people below saying "Grab those balls!!") and my first attempt at an overhang. It's also fun to spend time with NON-school people sometimes.

So that's it from here... not a lot of exciting news I know, but hopefully in a couple week's I'll have some super fun spring break stories to tell! :)

Climbing!

It's been another really crappy week at school, the story of which is way too long to write here... however life outside of school has gotten a little more fun. Gwen, (my amazing trainer/friend) is now teaching me to climb. There's a big indoor rock wall/gym here in town and I'm having so much fun! I think it's that little kid in me that loves to play :) Usually I just try to get up the wall, but of course there are also real routes, and tonight I did a 5.7 with only one little cheat! Yay me! :) It will probably be a while before the weather around here cooperates enough for us to climb a real rock, but for now it's so nice to have something fun to do! :)

New Haircut :)

So we ended up getting a second "cold" day off school this week, so I got out of my pjs, had a great lunch with a friend, visited with another friend and her new baby, and got my hair cut. Here's me! :)

It's a rough day...

School was called off due to super-duper cold weather, so it's been a rough day of being lazy. Fat Kitty is worn out :)

Happy 7th Birthday Sherlock!!

So..... yeah.

So I'm feeling guilty for the lack of blogging for a while. Unfortunately I'm just not all that happy with life right now, and I'm not a big fan of complaining-blogging. I'm feeling like there's not many ways I can go about changing the stuff that's making me unhappy, so.... yeah. I wouldn't say that I have my head buried in the sand, but I'm feeling kinda like I'm on autopilot most days.

While work has some serious sucky-ness going on, my kids continue to make me smile every day. These days it doesn't balance out the frustrations, but it does remind me why I continue to do what I do. The other good thing I've got going for me right now is my slow but steady progress towards a healthier me. My friend from school introduced me to a trainer this summer, and not only is she a great teacher/motivator, she's also a great new friend and I'm proud of the work I've done and the results I'm seeing. I guess since this is something I DO have control over it is helping a bit to take the focus off the crap I can't control.

Anyway... I'm still alive and hoping that 2011 gets better than this.