Happy Birthday to Our Marriage!

We just celebrated our fifth anniversary, and upon reflection, our marriage is in some ways similar to the average five-year-old human. It's old enough to be more independent and self-sufficient, yet still full of wonder and imagination. By this analogy, our marriage goes to kindergarten this year, and is still many years away from the trying middle school years. Whatever the years actually have in store for us, we are just glad to be enjoying and/or weathering them together.

Speaking of weather, it has been quite a year for snow fall in Colorado. Some places got over 200% of their typical average snowfall. The Arapaho Basin ski area, which sits at about 12,000 feet elevation, got over 400 inches of snow this year and was still open for skiing on the fourth of July. Apparently, Mother Nature did not consult us about our July plans back in January and February when she was piling on the snow. As a result, the backpacking loop near Aspen we planned to do over our anniversary was still full of snow the week before we were to leave. So instead, we took advantage of some lower elevation areas nearby and still managed to plan a bang-up last minute trip.

We started with three days of camping and hiking near Grand Lake, Colorado, along the western border of Rocky Mountain National Park. The area has a much different feel to it than our more familiar eastern entrance. Most notably, you are surrounded by lakes and streams. Ogling the gigantic houses situated on the lake and watching people water ski and kayak felt a little like being in Michigan, only with gigantic mountains in the background.

We left early Friday to try to snag a walk-up campsite, then went to sniff out an afternoon hike. Being without a map for the area, we stumbled upon the trail to Cascade Falls rather accidentally and ambled along the gentle 4.5 miles uphill along the raging Buchanan River. After crossing the bridge, you follow a trail to the top of a hill where you have a great view of Cascade Creek plummeting downward to meet the Buchanan.

Saturday, we took in a 10 mile round-trip hike, this time to the top of the Storm Mountain fire lookout. The area had experienced two massive storms that week with 80 mph gusts of wind up through the valley. The tall pines already weakened by bark beetle infestation were no match for the wind, and the trail looked like a veritable tree graveyard. But the top rewarded us with a cool old stone fire lookout with great views of the surrounding peaks and lakes.

Sunday morning was spent kayaking around Grand Lake. The first hour was peaceful and lovely. The second hour consisted mostly of trying to avoid getting run over by an expensive speed boat as the day grew later and more and more Fourth of July traffic began to show up. Time to get out of here.

Most of our anniversaries have revolved around one of our favorite combinations of activities: hiking and camping until you are tired, sore, and rather smelly, then spending a few days at a hotel relaxing tired muscles and just doing some general lounging. Sunday afternoon we made our way to a hotel in the small ski town of Beaver Creek for a two-day stay at a hotel and spa. We ate well, slept well, watched terrible old movies from bed, soaked our tired muscles, and just enjoyed each others' company. It feels good to be five!

Summertime Update

I got a call from work today, which means that the impending start of school is already starting to infringe upon my free time. So I am spending some time today reflecting on some of the fun things I have done this summer so as to avoid thinking about the fact that my summer vacation is already half over. For those of you not on a school schedule, feel free to take a moment here to feel indignant that you don't get 8 weeks off in the summer. Feel better? Let's continue. In no particular order, here are the highlights:

Cooking

My summer wouldn't be complete without cooking projects, though this year you haven't seen much on this blog. Most of my food blogging efforts have been going to Digestible Diaries, a collaboration with some super cool Fort Collins friends on eating with dietary restrictions.

Hanging with Jo-Ro-Roommate

We've become regulars at the pool, we've had some major backgammon and Carcasonne throw-downs, and we've even been to Waterworld (the water park, not the fictional location in the terrible Kevin Costner movie). It has been fun to having some sister bonding time.

Hiking

After last summer's epic road trip, we were looking forward to having some time to enjoy Colorado in the summer. With Doug now working full time, I am probably enjoying summer in Colorado a little more than he is. We have managed a few weekend trips, notably an evening hike to the top of Horsetooth to watch the sunset with snacks and good company, and a hike to Mount McConnel, in which Ally and I had to do a little route-finding and bushwhacking but thoroughly enjoyed the view.

Memorial Day Climbing

It's been several years since we last spent the long Memorial Day weekend together. But the end of May arrived with no graduations or other family functions to attend, so an outdoor adventure was clearly in order. Jo-Ro-Roommate had the weekend off too and came along for the ride. First stop, Shelf Road, for some climbing and camping with a big group of outdoor lovin' folk at Cheesehead Ranch.

We of course left our guidebook at home, so we were at the mercy of our climbing companions to direct us to some climbs easy enough for those of us coming out of hibernation. So while we can't really tell you any of the climbs we attempted, we did remember to bring a camera, so hey look! Pictures!

Two days of climbing was just enough for our sore limbs, so we packed up Monday and headed down to the Great Sand Dunes National Park near Alamosa, CO, hoping to spend another night camping and exploring this rather strange geological anomaly. As we got close, however, all we could see what a giant dust cloud shrouding the entire park. Upon entering, we learned that the wind was gusting at 50 miles per hour. The wind swirling through the park made the idea of hiking and camping in a sandstorm about as appealing as it sounds. So we spent about 10 minutes running across the dunes and taking pictures before calling it quits and driving back to Fort Collins.

Mistaken Email Identity

I received emails today from the University of Michigan, where an individual has apparently been accepted to attend school and has a similar civilian email address to one of my own. The guy in question correctly wrote to them with his email address, and the UofM admission office decided to remove a single letter from it and mail me all day with stupid messages about joining the marching band instead of him.  I thought I would share my response to them in order to use any chance I get to poke fun at those wolverines, as it is contractually required by to do so by any MSU grad. You're welcome.

Good Afternoon,

You have incorrectly changed [Name Redacted]'s email address. The correct address to be changed to is [email redacted]. Please copy and paste this time instead of incorrectly sending emails to an MSU graduate who happens to have a similar address who has better things to do than deal with UofM mistakes.

Go Green,

-db-

Long Time Coming: A Semester in Retrospective

I have a personal pet peeve to admit. I cannot stand it when people begin blog posts with apologies about the length between the most recent past posting and their present writing. So, even though it has been.. /checks blog history... January 10 (yeesh) I am not terribly apologetic. Most of my time this spring has been taken up with finishing my grad program and taking not-very-fun tests, with little worth taking pictures of let alone blogging about.

And since my sister-in-law and I just beat EVERY LEVEL on Super Mario Wii, I am feeling accomplished enough to blog.

So what the heck happened? Lets see... in January I began my final semester of school, we had some family out for a couple days (see January post, I suppose) and I watched a lot of disappointing MSU basketball games. Oh! And we built a snow-fort with the neighbors!

February was much more of the same: working my internship, writing papers, screaming at collegiate athletes on my television. Oh! I think at one point I got a free Chik-fil-A breakfast. Pretty sweet. February also was home to the only skiing weekend of the season as I attended and toasted to my friend Josh's upcoming nuptials.

In March, believe it or not, I actually took some pictures! I visited my pops down in Florida for a handful of days and for once did not get myself sunburnt.

You can tell fairly easily which one of us lives there.

We spent a lot of time on the water, drinking beer out of an iced cooler and also visiting with some other family that lives on the island. Eventually my brothers showed up before I had to take off, and we got our annual joint picture:

I am very much slacking off in the hair department, obviously.

We had some other family visitation happen in March, when my Mom and Liz's dad both came out for weekends in the Fort. (Not together, or even on the same weekend. What a misleading sentence). Looking through the camera, though, not a single piece of pictorial evidence was taken, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

March ALSO (man, this was a busy month, now that I think about it..) was the birth-month for a new blogging project that Liz and I have taken on with some friends: The Digestible Diaries. We have embraced our reality as a diet-restricted household, and found some like minded souls to create some output and (hopefully) community in Northern Colorado and the internet. Personally, it was the most tech-savvy project that I had ever undertaken, and am really happy with how it turned out.

April brought the conclusion of the NCAA March Madness tournament, and also our annual bracket challenge. Our good friend Dustin won it all this year, and was sent a lovely Saison from Funkwerks for his trouble. (Just to prove that I am not a delinquent tournament challenge director.) Liz also turned the ripe old age of 29, and to celebrate we spent a weekend in Denver doing the city up right.

We visited the Denver Art Museum (first Saturday of the month is free!) and really enjoyed trying to feel smart enough to ingest all of the pieces. We then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening drinking and eating, having dinner up in the Lower Highlands on the patio at the very tasty Root Down and enjoying their city views.

We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel for the night, which was incredibly nice and stylish. On Sunday morning Liz let me win at a few games of backgammon as a reverse birthday gift, which I heartily appreciated.

And just for fun, here is a picture of my cat helping me do homework:

Moving along to May, well, it was mostly more of the same schedule: doug school, internship, Liz work. UNTIL: I graduated from school for the (probably?) last time and had mom out to celebrate with us.

It was a fantastic weekend with friends and family and a pony keg from Odells. (which incidentally, is being returned this afternoon).

We also got to join Kate, Mark and Gabe on their first ever climbing afternoon out at Duncan's Ridge on the reservoir. We were all very proud of the way that Gabe handled the 5.7 crack, considering he is only 6 months old. (patently false. though he did feed himself like a champ)

This brings us up the present, where schedules are shifting once more, but the promise of good summer fun is very very close. Jo has moved back up to the Fort from her dorm room at CCU for the summer, and we're kicking it all off with a camping and climbing trip at the Cheesehead Ranch in Canon City for the Memorial Day weekend. Liz literally just got home from her last day of work for the 2010-11 school year, and in June I will begin working full time with a local non-profit that works with kids and families who are in need of support and usually involved in the foster-care system.

The summer is upon us, and the rains have almost stopped! Lets hope for more blogging in the future, if only for the attention span of the family members who read this rag.

Spring Break Craftstravaganza

Well, two months have come and gone, and all the while the Blogmas have been hibernating under a blanket of schoolwork and blogging lethargy. But spring has come to Colorado. For many, the best part of spring is the return of longer days and budding flowers. They think that because they don't have spring break, which is clearly the best part about spring. Typically I have traveled somewhere or had visitors over spring break, but this year I had the whole week to myself, which translated into me staying in my pajamas until noon and planning elaborate sewing and cooking projects. Some of you know I tend to be a little, shall we say, consumed by cooking projects. I wake up in the morning thinking about food and spend the whole day writing recipes in my head. Case in point: it is 8:00 in the morning and I am making homemade barbeque sauce. But it is spring break, and I have given myself free reign to cook and craft as I please. Here are a few of my more attractive accomplishments of the week:

Homemade Yogurt

Cloth Backgammon Board (Bells vs New Belgium)

The backgammon board ready for travel (it's coming to a coffee shop near you, Jo!)

Homemade Chicken Stock

Reversible Apron #1

Reversible Apron #1

Reversible Apron #2

Reversible Apron #2

Yoga Bag (I even managed to get out of my pj's and into my workout clothes for yoga this week)

Tuesday Night's Dinner: Chicken with Yogurt and Spices, with Moroccan Cauliflower Rice 

Take a week of reading, cooking, and crafting, add in a pedicure and a new pair of shoes, and you have a perfect spring break stay-cation. I hope the sun is shining and flowers are blooming wherever you are!

It's a Loch Like Snowshoeing

I would have to say that Colorado is a very proud state. Spending the last two weeks back home (technical term) in the midwest, wifey and I were lucky enough to have brought back two siblings in the car with us to the front range. While home, we managed to see the sun twice (!) through the pea-soup haze that constitutes a skyline there, and were more than excited to get back to the land of vitamin D. Every time we come back home (actual term) to CO we are reminded of how much our spirits are tethered to being able to wake with sun on our faces and be able to watch snow actually melt in the afternoons even though it is still January.

Considering all of these nice bullet points from the Colorado tourist board pamphlet, we are also quite fond of getting lost in the mountains. And in particular we made a point to take our visiting siblings down to Rocky Mountain with some snowshoes in hand (foot?) to enjoy the views. We arose earlyish, made some sammiches and within two hours were standing at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead fumbling with rubber latches and bootheels, smiling back at the sunshine warm on our foreheads, excited to earn our lunches.

Our siblings being flatlanders (part of being proud of your state means holding onto derisive terms for the citizens of other states) we chose a moderate hike for day up the Loch Vale lake. The whole hike rounded out at roughly six miles and about 1000 feet in elevation gain which seemed the perfect balance of challenge and reward, considering the fantastic spectacle of the Loch Vale awaiting us.

What was especially interesting was that we had spent some time this past July on this very trail when all of the extended family (including our now visiting siblings) were out to see us and we hoofed up to Alberta Falls. It was neat to hear our second-time visitors comment on how different and calmer the hiked seemed this time around, with it slowly falling snow and lack of 1000 tourists on the trail in front of us. This may be the best endorsement of all for getting out on a pair of snowshoes: landscape that was crowded, huffy and loud just months prior feels starkly different in the cold, almost like you've just stepped through the wardrobe and into Narnia.

We managed to get up the falls again without too much problem, and drank while considering the above paragraph. Turning uphill to continue, the bane of snowshoeing reared its head: untrustworthy trails. While I've been out in the snow dozens of times over the last few years, the trick of reading man-made snow trails (or lack thereof amongst the drifts) is still a challenge to me. Subsequently, we took a handful of U-turns in order to find our way from the Falls up the large trail junction that eventually pointed us to the Loch. Trudging up this last portion (which in the winter mainly meant walking directly up Icy Brook) we eventually discovered a whole new weather system sitting upon the lake. With the winds blowing hard in our reddened faces and squinted eyes, a few pictures were snapped and we then retreated to the cover of the trees to have lunch.

Traipsing down the hills in large bounds with our large footprints, we eventually found our way down to the car again without incident with a trip time ranging on four hours. We toasted the event with warm drinks back in Estes before rolling down the Big Thompson Canyon, everyone slouched with sleep except the driver (harumph).
 

It felt good to be really home, and even better to have some snow in my boots. Does it really get any better than those two things?