Colorado Vacation: Day Four

Quite a change from the day before.

Monday, May 30, 2011

The last day of our vacation was chilly, windy, and SNOWY!

Paul and Macy got up early to put the fishing licenses to use. I do NOT fish. I don't catch fish, touch fish, clean fish, or eat fish. So, Joel took a little stroll up the road from the cabin while I slept in, got myself ready, and made a scrambled egg and toast breakfast once everyone returned. It was a late brunch really, so we packed some snacks and headed into Estes once again.

As soon as we got to the park, it was clear the weather was not going to be on our side. We drove up to Bear Lake and Alberta Falls where it was blizzarding! While it was beautiful, it really messed with my head!

We didn't even attempt to make it to the Falls with the wind whipping us in the face, but we did "hike" 300 feet or so to Bear Lake. Macy and I exchanged looks of disbelief as a girl walked by with flip flops in the snow. I thought WE were ill-prepared! It was just too frigid to do much outdoors up in the mountains, so we drove around, spotted some Elk (they are EVERYWHERE and don't really care what people are doing!), found a beautiful stream to snap photos:

and ended up back in the town of Estes to shop the stores in the afternoon. It was strange: although it was snowing wherever we went, the sun managed to follow us, keeping the weather somewhat tolerable. Back in town, the temperatures were warmer, the sun was out at times, but that WIND! Somehow, we managed to keep our feet on the ground, and ended our last day with some fun tourist shopping and a walk along a river.

Elk Crossing

We decided we wanted to dine out for the last night, so we made reservations at the Dunraven. With some times to kill, the boys checked out the brick house of some Mills guy (one of the men who created Estes Park), and we drove to the restaurant. We were a tad early, so we drove to the YMCA of the Rockies, saw MORE elk just hanging out all over the place, and then sat down to an amazing Italian feast!

While it wasn't much to look at from the outside, the Dunraven was dim and quaint, cozy and fun. We all enjoyed our meals an garlic bread, and were stuffed to the gills!

Back at the cabin, we cleaned and packed as much as we could, started a roaring (finally!) fire, took down basically a whole bag of marshmallows and the other s'more ingredients, and played some Catch Phrase to unwind. Well, Macy and I played while the boys Joel sulked....apparently they weren't enjoying themselves but didn't say so! I tell you, we can only do so much.... :)

Tuesday morning, we started for home around 7am, and pulled into our driveway right at 7pm. My parents had Brady at that point, so after sending Paul and Macy off to Oskaloosa, we headed over there to get him. It was pretty funny when he saw us - usually he cries and screams because he doesn't want us to take him from "gammaboppa's" house, but this time he just kind of slowly walked to us as a look of realization came over his face. He started laughing and jumping for joy, saying, "Mommy AND DADDY!!" It was really cute and nice to be missed, although ten minutes later I was ready to leave again! I knew he had a ton of fun with Joel's family all weekend, but that kid was CRA-ZY. I'm sure it will take some time and discipline to get back into the swing of things!

We are so grateful to Rebecca, Paul, and Macy for making this such a great trip! Joel ranks it just under our all-time best trip (honeymoon in Hawaii), and I might have to agree!

Colorado Vacation: Day Three

Sunday, May 29

We woke up a little later and took our time getting ready around the cabin. There was an art fair in Estes Park all weekend for the holiday, and we decided to check it out around 10am. We looked at all the vendor tents, bought a few items, and strolled the streets of the pretty town.

Macy and Paul bought fishing licenses for the next morning, and we picked up a new map for the cabin. Somewhere along the way, we caught wind of the fact that the forecast had changed and that while it was originally supposed to be a cool, rainy day, it was, in fact, gorgeous and the yucky weather would be moving in that evening. Hearing that, we high-tailed it back to the cabin, grabbed some leftovers for lunch, and headed out to hike our pants off.

At the cabin, we looked at the easy-to-medium trails and decided on Lily Mountain as our hiking destination. We all wanted to reach a summit, didn't want anything TOO incredibly long or steep, and this seemed to provide the perfect mix of both. At four miles round-trip, it was the shortest summit hike we could find.

Enter side-story here: In May 2004, Macy and I (and another roomie, Nancy) went on a college service trip to Colorado. Part of the time we stayed at the Salvation Army campgrounds in Estes, and on one of our "free" days, several of us decided to spend a few hours in the mountains. Macy and I were interested in a little light hiking, so we started up a trail, only to realize it was more of a short path than anything. So, we made our own trail. On a mountain. Without cell service. Or backpacks. Or water. Now, Macy is a very cautious person, but once I started up that mountain, I think I was bound and determined to get to the top.

"C'mon Macy, just a little farther! It's not too bad. We still have a lot of time. We've gone this far, we might as well keep going!" I think maybe she thought I wasn't going to turn around, and it was better to go up WITH me than down WITHOUT me! We made our way to the summit of this mountain, had breathtakingly beautiful views of the range, and then figured we should start the decent to rejoin our crew. Only we were kind of stuck. We didn't realize it was easier to crawl hands-and-knees to the top of a mountain than it was to try and walk back down it! It was too steep, so we went to the other side of the mountain where we at least had some trees to hang on to and keep us from just rolling to the bottom.

After climbing down a little bit, I started to think about how a mountain gets wider at the bottom, and how climbing down the wrong side of a MOUNTAIN would not make it easy to find our starting place, and our group. We tried to weave a little bit back to the other side, but again, being trailblazers instead of trail FOLLOWERS, we just had to kind of go where the terrain allowed us to go. After many harried moments, a run-in with a bee (Macy was ready to fall off the mountain instead of get stung by a bee), a somewhat terrifying leap off of a rock plateau, and a slightly twisted ankle, we saw....a highway! It was truly amazing to see the ground :) And although I appeared calm at the time, I later told Macy I just wasn't quite sure how things were going to turn out. We made it to the highway, but didn't have a clue where we were. I knew the general direction we needed to head, and lo-and-behold, a few minutes later, our group just HAPPENED to drive by us on the highway and stopped to pick us up. Hands down the dumbest thing we've ever done. And I do a luh-HOT of dumb things....

End side-story.

So, we pull up to Lily Mountain, and as soon as we pull into the park area, I got this weird, deja vu feeling. I said, "Macy....does this look familiar??" She immediately responded, "This is it!" We had been reminiscing about our previous hiking experience for two days, and here we were, out of all of the mountains in Estes Park, ready to summit the very same one. I was super excited to re-live our experience, only this time on an actual trail, with two other people, and plenty of snacks/drinks!

 

It took just over an hour to hike the steep, bendy two-mile trail and summit the 9,786 ft. mountain. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the views were spectacular!

Doesn't this look like some kind of reality show promo?

There was no wind, the sun was shining, and a couple little ground squirrels came up to the peak to say hello.

The top was so flat, we could wander around without feeling like we would fall. And yet, when you looked straight down or turned too fast, it was quite a woozy feeling!

Paul and Macy headed down first, while Joel and I enjoyed the views a bit longer (all that work to get up there, I couldn't just leave!!).

About 20 minutes later, we started running down the mountain and caught up about a third of the way down. I don't think the running was a good idea - while it seemed easy and fun at the time, by the end of the hike, my elbow, knee, and thighs were BURNING! Talk about total body workout! I was still very sore three days later....

Tired and happy, we decided to drive around a little bit and find another short trail we could visit. Not knowing what the weather would hold for our last day, we wanted to make the most out of the absolutely gorgeous, sunny, 70-degree day we were blessed with!

Lily Mountain Lake

We were famished around 4:00, so we ordered some pizza (Poppy's was good, but $40 for pizza? Yikes!), hiked a little ways up the mountain the cabin was perched on, started a more roaring-ish fire, and began a looooong conversation. We all four talked about everything: marriage, friends, family, the good, the bad, the ugly! It went on for hours, but it was so great to reconnect with one of my best friends, and see just how eerily alike our hubbies are, for better and worse :)

Around midnight, we crawled into our beds to get some rest for our final day in the Rockies.

Colorado Vacation: Day Two

Saturday, May 28, 2011

We woke around 8am hoping to find some decent weather on our first day. The forecast for our whole trip was less than pleasing (cool and rainy!), so we were glad when it was at least dry.

We put on our hiking gear (Joel and I were seriously unprepared for this whole thing: we didn't even bring water bottles or backpacks while Paul and Macy had real hiking pants and shoes!!), drove 20 minutes to Estes Park, and started driving the winding roads up the mountains. We stopped at the Moraine Visitors' Center to pick up a map and get some advice on where to hike on a cool, cloudy day. The lady who was working knew EVERYTHING about the park, and she let us know it! The only problem was, she used a highlighter to indicate everything she told us. Road closed: highlight. Recommended trail: highlight. Wildlife sightings: highlight....it was quite ineffective for us when she got done because none of us could remember what was what because the whole freakin' thing was a yellow mess! Well, she tried, right? We picked up a stuffed Eagle 'Bee' puppet for Brady, (he calls any large bird an "eagle bird"), and went on our way. We decided the Ypsilon Trail seemed promising, so we took our packed lunches and started hiking the trail.

It was a looooong trail, with medium ascent and not the greatest of views. We hiked along a river that created a huge gorge when a dam broke and washed out the ravine. The river was nice, but the thick trees prevented us from really seeing a lot as we hiked. Once we got to the river crossing, we got to witness some really beautiful scenery.

On the other side of the river, we kept hiking, but decided we weren't going to make it to Ypsilon Lake. It was a 4.8 mile hike one-way, so we turned around and drove upward instead.

We went as far as we could to the Rainbow Road pass, which was closed due to snow. SNOW! Oh my, the snow....these banks were what, 40 feet tall? It was surreal to imagine that kind of snow at the end of May. Although it was pretty, my mind was having trouble digesting the cold temperatures (below 40 degrees!) and massive amounts of snow I was seeing. Well, we still got some pretty great views and a few stops along the way.

After driving around the park for awhile, we decided to head back to the cabin for tacos, games, boys cheating at Monopoly Deal, a heated discussion about the definition of a light year, and another, slightly more roaring fire :) A great end to a pretty decent first day!

It's Ovah!!

It’s over! Months of running and training are finally done, and I did it. I ran all of the 13 miles in 1 hour and 55 minutes, much faster than anticipated. And the weather was GORGEOUS! And even though I’m ready to not run for a long, long time, after all that hard work it feels like I should keep it up instead of just letting myself get all soggy again. I’m too sore right now to think about extra movements :) but I am planning to run the Race for the Cure 5k downtown this Saturday! Three miles is NOTHING!!

 My thoughts about the half-marathon:

• Des Moines is a really beautiful place when you are forced to look around and not just whiz by in a car!

• Your body can do things you never thought it could.

• Running is very much a mind game.

• I will be forever grateful for Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” for getting me through mile 8 when I hit my wall. And for Greenday for ending the race with me!

• It was really strange to be running and running for what felt like forever until my legs wanted to fall off and then….I just stopped. I got to the finish line and all of a sudden the thing I was trying so hard NOT to stop just stopped.

• The body types and ages of people who could run well amazed me. Some people who look like they should be really good or fast are not, and others who you’d never guess could run a mile were right up front.

• Some people can run crazy fast. Just about 15 minutes after I crossed the finish line, the first marathoners were finishing their race. That is CRAZY fast!!

• Go to the bathroom before you start running.

• Don’t drink too much while you are running. One girl did, and it wasn’t pretty….

• If you are there to watch a runner, maybe consider the fact that they will probably run faster than expected, and be at the finish line a few minute early. Just sayin’….

• I can’t imagine getting to 13 miles and being like “well, I’m halfway there!” Marathoners are crazy….

• A giant HILL at 11.5 miles?? Not cool, Des Moines, not cool at all….

• I got passed by a guy who looked 80.

• I passed a guy who was wearing a t-shirt that said he’s run a marathon in every state….twice!

• And last but not least – the Des Moines Marathon web site needs a MAJOR overhaul. At midnight the night before the race, Joel happened to notice something on the site that said you had to pick up your registration stuff BEFORE Sunday morning or you couldn’t race. I was devastated – all that work for nothing! I had read the website, registered early, and read the emails they sent to me. Nothing anywhere said I had to pick up my stuff before race day, except for this one buried page on the site. Thankfully, we e-mailed someone right away and they let me know I could pick up my stuff in the morning. Geesh, talk about total panic!

What an accomplishment for this non-running girl to complete this race. When I said I wanted to do it two years ago, I think I was mostly kidding. At that time I couldn’t even run one mile, and the most I had run before that was 4 miles during Miss Iowa training. And honestly, until I crossed that finish line, I had my doubts whether I could run the entire race or not. People were dropping like flies during the last mile. But I pressed on, and am so glad I did. What goals are you going to take steps toward tackling today?? Get out and do it!!

Update with official results: I finished 938th out of 4,369 half marathon runners, and 328th out of 2,522 female participants. My official 10k time was 53:10, and my half marathon time was 1:54:11, placing my rank at 79th for females ages 25-29, whatever the heck that means!

Fall Time

Hello total blog abandonment! 

What has been going on in my world? Everything and Nothing! Life feels stressful, but I'm not sure why really. Maybe it's because this fall has been and continues to be jam-packed on the weekends. Between out-of-town weddings, races, birthdays, family mini-vacations, pumpkin carving contests, church activities, football games, etc., I think the rest of this year is just booked. Thankfully, my weeknights have cleared up now! I have a love/hate relationship with being busy.....if I'm not I get bored, and if I am I get stressed.

So, T minus five days until race time. I am so ready....for it to be over! I am looking forward to accomplishing this goal, but man have I been unmotivated to run the last few weeks! It's even been unseasonably warm lately - mid to upper 70s and even the 80s - and so pleasant for outdoor running, and yet I think I began the "tappering" part of training oh....three weeks ago! Well regardless, Sunday is Go Time, whether I'm ready or not.

I'm hoping I can stop feeling so stressed and enjoy this wonderful fall we've had so far - because soon enough, it will be winter.

What's Your Color?

Even though I say summer is my favorite season of the year, there are so many things I love about fall. A relief from the humidity, football, bonfires, smores, hayrack rides, pumpkin carving, jeans and long sleeves, blankets, hot chocolate, and of course the colors that comes with the season.

I have always loved the turning of the trees from vibrant green to varying shades of red, brown, yellow, and orange. I learned a few years ago in biology that these shades are actually the true colors of the leaves; something about chloroplasts or whatever mask the actual color of each leaf, making it green (sorry for the less-than-technical explanation!). Then when the season wears on, temperatures cool, and the life of the leaf is drawing to a close, its true color comes out, each one a different shade from the other.

I don't know about you, but I would much rather see trees full of vibrant color, each a little different, than a bunch of all-green leaves. I never notice trees in the summer, but when those colors start to turn I immediately see all of the life around me. It always makes me think about the masks we wear, especially while in school. We try so hard to be somebody's shade of green when it isn't our true color. We desperately want to blend in - to go unnoticed. But what a BORING world it would be if we all allowed our green masks to cover the vibrant color that makes each of us unique.

Next time you see a tree full of leaves that are "changing" color, remember those beautiful colors are exactly what God made them to be - and go be your own shade of vibrance in the world!

Cheese!

Yesterday was Labor Day and I went boating. It was windy, but it was great to get out on the water again. Since I have a fancy new Samsung Intercept (I hate the word intercept, I don't know why), I had to try the new camera feature.

As I was perusing the images later in the day, I noticed one shot of me that looked particularly odd. I was sitting in a boat seat, and due to the angle of the shot, it looked like my suit bottoms were ABOVE my belly button. At closer inspection, it wasn't actually the case that they were hiked to my navel, but the illusion was immensely worsened because of my incredibly short torso. Steve Urkel, anyone? 

I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday, and channel your inner Urkel sometime today :)

The Race Is On

Last week, I ran seven miles - SEVEN MILES! I just kept going and going....in 74 minutes I ran my hilly circuit seven times, followed by a half-mile walk. It was hard at the end, but I've never run that far before! Then the blisters set in...

I knew I needed to invest some money into this running thing if I was going to continue. My seven-mile run was proof: I got blisters on both feet, one which was about an inch in diameter. I couldn't put much weight on it, I had to wear flip-flops for a couple days, and I was worried about the 5k on Saturday. Thankfully they cleared up enough by then that I could run just fine, but it lit the fire under me to start shopping for proper running attire!

Wow, are shoes expensive! Real running shoes are heinously ugly and run $100-$150. I opted to just get some shorts and socks last week, but they really made a difference! No blisters, no chaffing - horray!

Saturday was my first race: I ran the 5k in 26:37, which isn't record-breaking by any means but not bad for me! It was hillier than I expected, so I guess running my hills at home was a good thing. It was also good for me to learn how to pace in a race: my tendency is to run too fast at first and poop out at the end. This time, I kind of did that but overcompensated in the middle so that I had TOO much energy left at the end. I wasn't completely sure of the route, and they only posted the 1-mile mark, so I was trying to reserve energy when I was unknowingly nearing the end of the race. So all-in-all it was a great experience, and I can't wait to do it again!

Here are my official results: Finished 65th of 205 total runners. Finished 16th of 110 female runners. Finished 4th of 23 female runners in their 20's. There were some MAJOR serious runners here, which was I wasn't expecting.The winner finished over a minute before everyone else at around 16 minutes!

Now I just have to hope this weather breaks (temps in the 90's, heat index in the 100's!) so I can get back outside and keep trucking toward my goal of the half-marathon. And hope that I don't gain major weight on vacation next week!

In other news, Brady totally schooled all the other one-year-olds in his race :) We have a fast little bugger on our hands!!

Spring Has Sprung

It is March 29, and this week is going to be the first time in at least four months that we will experience temperatures in the 70’s. Although this whole month has been, minus one snowstorm, decently mild and pleasant, I cannot express how happy it makes me to see the current forecasted temperatures after the long, cold, snowy winter we just experienced here in Iowa. I truly feel like an animal coming out of hibernation. We are meeting some of our neighbors some of whom we have never even seen in the five months we’ve lived in our house. Birds are chirping, plants are blooming, and Brady is loving the outdoors.

I am so excited about our first summer in the new house. Although I have extremely little experience growing plants, I plan to plant a huge garden this year. It will probably fail: I’m sure there is some rule about planting certain things next to each other, and spacing them apart, and stuff like that. I also want to plant lots of tulips and daisies and other colorful flowers in front of our house….which will probably all be eaten by the deer. But I don’t care. I don’t know when or where this love for gardening and flowers came from (well, from my grandma I suppose!), but just like cooking and baking, I hope that I am able to overcome my extreme shortfalls and grow a successful crop this year. I did already warn Joel that he will have to do the weeding, though, because I CAN NOT risk seeing/touching spiders. I already found a huge one in our garage when I was clearing out empty boxes and that was the end of my garage project!

I can’t wait to go to the pool with Brady this summer. And take him to parks. He’s so different now – at the end of last summer he was just barely beginning to walk, and now he runs. I was able to still “wear” him in a pouch, or at least push him in a stroller, but now he wants to be the pusher and the walker. Last year he hated the grass, but he doesn’t seem to mind it now. Last year he couldn’t care less about most things, but now he stops at every piece of dirt and exclaims “KKKKKK!” (his word for ICK). We might have to work on that one….he thinks everything outside is dirty. He may be a little neurotic :)

Yes, spring is here, the weather is warming, and I am more than ready for it.