Steamboat Girls Weekend with Mom and Amber

In early August, my mom and sister and her kids joined me for a weekend in Steamboat Springs. It was our first all girls weekend (well, except for Wyatt) of fun, of which I'm sure we'll do more!

Amber and Kayla playing along the Poudre River

My mom and Kayla playing

Driving near Walden in Jackson County with a beautiful sunset shining on the surrounding mountains

Next day in Steamboat, we took a short hike to the beautiful Fish Creek Falls

Wyatt was a trooper!

My mom, Amber and kids on the bridge at the bottom of the falls

Someone's sleepy!

Next stop, Steamboat Ski Resort for some bouncy castle fun!

For those of you who know my mom, this photo is HUGE! The last time my mom was in a gondola, she passed out (as she's a bit nervous of heights to say the least). Well, she made it all the way to the top and down! Nice job Mom!

A great storm brewin in the distance!

Enjoying some food and drinks at the top

Next stop - the Wine Festival! One reason we went up to Steamboat this particular weekend, it was the annual Steamboat Springs Wine Festival. My mom and I went to a wine tasting at a book store - super fun to taste wine AND hear about great books!

And last stop, sit by the Yampa River for a relaxing sunny afternoon!

Deer!

This guy showed up in our yard this summer....

you have NO idea how badly the pups wanted to go chase!!!

"Let me at 'im!!!"

Royal Arch hike

Back in August, my friend Angela and I went on a hike up to the Flatirons...got lost, and ended up heading to the Royal Arch. Awesome! After running out of water several miles back, it was a beautiful sight as a reward for our miles.
Angela under the Arch - it doesn't look as big in the picture, but its ginormous!

The view of Boulder from the Arch

Cubby was TIRED!

As a treat, Ben made us a fancy dinner that night (some sort of stuffed pork), complete with hammer-tenderized meat!

Final product before putting it in the oven!

We miss our climbing buddy!

Our great friend Jon Eichelberger has recently moved to Germany, where he has been experiencing days upon days of endless rain. Yet here in sunny forever Colorado, it has been the perfect weather for climbing. Unfortunately Jon was Ben's climbing buddy (as an injury has kept me from any rock climbing :( ). We miss you Jon!!!

Back in July, Ben and Jon went to go climb Lumpy Ridge in Estes Park. Here's some great photos of their fun times

A view of the climb

From what I heard from Ben....this was a bit of a precarious spot to be taking a picture of Jon

The view from the top!

DATR 2010

We went to Drums Along the Rockies this summer, an event that is the home show for the Drum Corps I used to march with - The Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. It was great to catch up with old friends and be immersed in the world of corps, such passion, commitment, craziness and fun. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures, especially of all the old friends I met up with who became my family the several summers I was involved!

The Blue Knights snare line - which I was a part of for a brief time in 1998.

The beautiful sunset at Denver's Mile High Stadium

The Santa Clara Vangaurd Drum and Bugle Corps

The Blue Knights!!!

Some of the best people around!!! Colby, Jon and Charmian - Love you guys!

Hiking a 13er

The next day after our camping trip, I got an invitation from a friend to hike a 13er (13,000ft peak) near Breckenridge. Since I've been wanting to do a 14er, I figured this would be a good starting point. I headed up to Breckenridge in the morning and by about noon was near the top! Unfortunately, I think the elevation difference from Boulder (5500ft) then to climbing the 13er was a little much for me and I got altitude sickness...600ft sort of the summit. But the views were still amazing and I had a great time! Click on the picture for some great pics!

Bald Mountain summit

A quick camping trip near Pingree Park, CO

Since it was Lisa's last weekend off (she works 6, then has 4 off, and the first 3 weekends off were taken while she was in Alaska), we went on a short camping trip up towards Pingree Park with some friends. This is a little area in Larimer County, just south of the Poudre Canyon. Some great times, with great friends, including some sling-shotting and beautiful sunsets! Click on the picture below to see more!

Pingree Park Camping

Finally, I'm a certified IMET

Right after I went on the mountain bike ride with Ben and Vanessa, I was called to go out on a fire as an Incident Meteorologist in Alaska, near Tok specifically. So the next day I headed on a 18 hour trip to get to the fire, where I spent the next 3 weeks (and missed our second wedding anniversary :( ) and finally got certified! Click the picture below to see photos!

Tok IMET

And.....we're back!!!!

I know, its been almost 3 months since we've last blogged, well here we go again! Sorry for the break. I've been posting to Facebook a lot, but I know not everyone has that, and its nice to have all our adventures/trips/events all in one place.

So here's one! At the end of May, Vanessa and Brian and Zander were back in Colorado. Ben and I brought our mountain bikes up to Estes for some fun with Vanessa, just like we used to do back in Alaska 4 years ago! Here's V happy as ever, with the awe-inspiring Longs Peak in the background.

Ben...taking it all in!

Finally a straight-away!!! Before this it was all uphill for about a mile, it was a nice reprieve.

Tearin it up!

Ben racing off through the aspens....

Vanessa right behind him!

The Big Thompson back in Estes Park was roaring! A great hangout weekend

Vanessa's Birthday

Vanessa's birthday is a week after mine and even though we were together in Tucson last week cheersing to both our birthdays, we wanted her to have a super fun day on her actual birthday. So, with a little motorcycle ride, some fruit basket, some cupcakes, tapas and some wine, it turned out GREAT!

Vanessa's Birthday

A Tucson Birthday

For my birthday this year, we headed down to The Old Pueblo for a visit with family and friends as we hadn't been back since we were married in June 2008. It was great weather, we got to see TONS of friends (including Kevin Clegg, George Kalli, Mark and Merlyn McClure, and my dear Pam Elslager), and even had some great friends from CO come down for a visit with us - Brian, Vanessa and their son Zander. It was so great to get to know our nieces better, we can't wait for our next visit with Zoe, Zea and Zali!!! Check out some of the pictures!

Tucson Birthday

A wintertime hike!

This hike actually happened in early March, but I had the best time and wanted to share them. Vanessa came down with Zander and Tikka and we wanted to run some energy off the dogs - so a fun hike was planned. Its up on the Betasso Loop trail up Boulder Canyon, and I knew there probably wouldn't be a lot of people around.

Pre-hike, Zander playing with my hair

Zander is totally ready for the hike! Love his outfit

Mama and baby, ready for anything!

Group shot!

Tikka, Cubby and Ka'ena running off some energy

Sumimasem, eigo ga wakarimaska?

Here is our Japan trip photos FINALLY!!!! :) The title of our post is what we used A LOT in Japan, its asking if a person understands english, which, overall almost everyone did understand just enough that made the trip pretty easy. When they didn't, it just made it fun and a surprise (not knowing what you ordered!). This trip was great, and would highly recommend it to everyone. We went to celebrate our friend Kevin's birthday, and bringing Ben's dad Ken along too. The Japanese are SO friendly and hospitable, it was hard to come back to the US. We even ended up making a couple of super fun friends that are from Fort Collins - the world is SO small sometimes! Hope you all enjoy the pictures, and it inspires you to consider going to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Japan