Some thoughts on living

My dear friend Reese sent me this link (Walk Slowly Live Wildly) this morning. Her friend of a friend of a friend, Sara, has a fantastic blog on faith, health, green living, etc. It was just what I needed to read today, so I thought I'd pass it on. Enjoy!

Training.

The 24 Hours of Sunlight is this weekend. For some crazy reason (which I have not figured out yet), I decided to solo it. I crewed for Mike last year, which means I should really know better than to go out and do it myself. But, what the heck. So, I've been training like a banshee trying to get strong and ready. The race consists of skiing in circles and that's pretty much it. You put your skins on, ski up the mountain, take your skins off, ski back down, and repeat as many times as you can in 24 hours. Sound like fun? I didn't think so! I've got all this anticipatory energy in my system and am forcing myself to relax for the next few days before the race. I just had to get out this weekend, though (it was 50 degrees and sunny!), and did a 16 mile run on Saturday and skinned 3 laps at Sunlight Sunday morning before work. All you positive thinkers, send 'em my way this weekend, please!

3rd Annual Glenwood Ice (and snow) Festival...

Last month, Mike and I hosted the 3rd Annual Glenwood Ice and Snow Festival. Great times were had by all! Don't be fooled by the name, it's actually just an excuse to invite all our friends out to climb and play in the snow. About 15 people came and stayed at our place--what fun!

Wes, Stef, Sam, and Mike enjoying breakfast at the homestead--raspberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, Yum! Our new friend Sam (from Breckenridge) was the breakfast master (he's cute and single, ladies!).



If a bunch of ladies ice climbing in bra tops isn't the sexiest thing ever, I just don't know what is!

Eric showing us how it's done.

The boys set up a killer lunch spot with brats, apple cider, and PBR of course. Here's Wes (the other Wes, there were two Wes's...and 2 BJ's, 2 Tracy's and a Lacy--lots of head turning went on) rocking out the guitar solo.
We did actually climb a little, but the fest is truly all about having fun with good friends.

Saturday night's party attracted about 50 people. Mike had the idea that everyone should dress up as their favorite climber. Somehow we missed taking a photo of his costume--he was Sly from Cliffhanger and looked hilarious! Polly wore the outfit she learned to climb in---two years ago (the blue spandex is for real!) I guess the Fest is getting sorta official--we had slide shows, a climbing movie (thanks to Mike), schwag, and . . . the shot ski!

This is the only picture I could find-sorry it's kinda blurry. The shot ski is an old ski with 4 shot glasses affixed to it. So, you and 3 of your friends line up, the glasses are filled, and the shots go down on 3. There is no hesitation with the shot ski! It provided lots of laughs and will definitely come out again next year!! This pic is of Lacy, Tracy, Polly, and Katie partaking.

Skinning up Williams Peak on Sunday--many of us were working Saturday night out of our systems... I guess you could say it was a "leisurely" pace.

I think the wind was blowing about 70mph on the summit, but we made it, dangit!

Hawaii for Christmas!

My sweet parents took Wes, Stef, Mike, and me to Hawaii for Christmas and New Year's. We had a blast!! We stayed on Maui in a town called Lahaina and had a great condo right on the beach. Here are some photos from the trip.

We hiked through a bamboo forest to get to this waterfall.

What a feast!! My dad is a professional BBQer.

We took a day trip to Molokini and did some snubaing. It's a combination of scuba and snorkeling, and you swim with a 20 foot hose connecting you to oxygen at the surface.

We saw lots of sea turtles and learned that they can dive more than a mile deep and can stay underwater for 40 minutes without coming up for air. Wow.

Awww, newlyweds. So cute.

Mike, what are you looking at?!

The fam.