Next Great Adventure

As many of you know, two weeks from today Drew and I are packing up and moving back home to Florida. We decided we need some adult supervision (and free baby-sitting) since we're having a baby in 3 months. It seemed like an easy decision at first, but the closer the move gets the harder it's become. We've had so many great adventures here in Colorado but it's time to move on to our next great adventure- parenthood. This will probably by our last blog post since dirty diapers and spit-up are not as interesting as peak-bagging and mountain lion stalkings. Thanks for following this blog, it's been a lot of fun sharing our adventures with you. On to the next!

Drew's final fun fact: Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765.

Let's Make A Deal

Yesterday Drew and I made a deal that if he went hiking with me in the morning (not his favorite outdoor activity) I would go climbing with him in the afternoon. I must have been in denial of my pregnancy at the time; I don't why I thought I was capable of that much exertion in one day. The good thing about being in the second trimester is that you feel great. The bad thing is that sometimes you forget about your "condition" and bite off more than you can chew.

So yesterday morning we drove up to a dumpy little town just west of Boulder called Ward, CO. We parked at the Brainerd Lake recreation area after the nice lady at the entrance let us in for free (we failed to bring cash to pay the entrance fee, oops). We hiked 5 miles round trip along two beautiful alpine lakes just above treeline. The hike felt great but I definitely needed a nap by the time we got home.

After my nap I stuck to my word and went climbing with Drew. We decided on a 3-pitch 5.7 route in Boulder Canyon at Cob Rock. I haven't done much climbing since I've been pregnant especially since my belly has been getting bigger. I guess I should have realized when I could barely bend over to tie my climbing shoes that I was in for more than I had bargained for. It wasn't pretty but after some struggling, grunting, and only a few tears I made it to the top. Don't worry, climbing while pregnant is safe, but certainly not very graceful.

Today I have a date with the heating pad... Drew is out climbing, with someone else.

Drew's fun fact: According to the U.S. FDA standards, 1 cup of orange juice is allowed to contain 10 fruit fly eggs but only 2 maggots.

The Grand

Here are some videos of Drew's trip to climb the Grand Teton a few weeks ago...

Next up... Devil's Tower and the Petit Grepon

Drew's fun fact: Women wishing to enter Canada to work as strippers must provide naked photos of themselves to qualify for a visa.

It was all yellow

This past weekend we went camping near Steamboat Springs with a group of friends to enjoy the fall weather. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to sleep on the hard ground in 20 degree weather at 20 weeks pregnant, but somehow I survived. We had a great time watching the Aspen trees turn yellow, the Gators beat Tennesee (phew!), and Drew and Steve invent something called extreme hammocking... everyone was quick to point out that it was the father of my unborn child dangling from a rope up there...

Drew's fun fact: There is a poisonous plant that leaves the victim with a smile on their face at the time of death.

Another one bites the dust

After procrastinating as long as possible Drew and I finally decided to jump on the baby bandwagon. Most of you probably know by now that our little boy is due the end of January. We had our 20 week ultrasound last week and everything looked great. When we found out it's a boy Drew said to me "haha, you're screwed." I can only imagine the messes, mischief, and mayhem I'm in store for... I couldn't be more excited.

I haven't done much blogging lately because I haven't done much lately. Between weeks of first-trimester nausea and months of 90+ degree heat I have been laying low. I was able to get outside some this summer, here are a few highlights:

Hiking up to South Arapahoe Peak (8 weeks, only made it to treeline)

Climbing at Lily Lake when Kari came to visit (12 weeks)

Camping (RV-style) with my parents in Buena Vista (16 weeks)

Drew was able to do some great climbs this summer and even made a trip to the Tetons. If I can ever get him to edit his GroPro videos I will post them. He seems to have a high tolerance for my nagging so it may take awhile...

Drew's fun fact: Denver, Colorado now has more marijuana dispensaries than it does Starbucks.

Burning Up

Summer has arrived. I know because my ugly chaco tan is reappearing. I also know because it's been over 100 degrees everyday for the past 2 weeks. Drew's parents came to visit for Father's day and after spending a few days in our "dry heat" they were happy to go home to Florida where it's only 86 degrees.

This weekend was a prototypical Boulder summer weekend. We went climbing in St. Vrain Canyon Friday night after work. Saturday we hiked up to South Arapahoe with Steve and Caroline. Drew was the only one of use that was brave enough to do the traverse, you can see why from his video.

Sunday we rode our bikes down to the Boulder creek to cool off. It was quite the party down at the river complete with people dressed up in pirate costumes floating in inner tubes and drunken college kids playing floating beer pong.

Unfortunately this summer has been very dry and we've already had several wildfires. There is one burning in the foothills of Ft. Collins that has destroyed 250 homes and is only 45 percent contained. I think we're going to have a government-mandated statewide rain dance soon.

On a happier note, our 4th wedding anniversary is this Thursday and we're celebrating by going to see the Avett Brothers at Red Rocks!

Drew's fun fact: The High Park fire that is currently burning near Ft. Collins is the most destructive fire in Colorado's history, and the second largest by acreage.

Taking Advantage

My weekends may have been rained out lately, but Drew has been a bit luckier with weather on his days off. He's always good about taking advantage of his free time, the proof is in the pictures:

Quandary Peak

The Young and the Rackless

MacGregor Slab

Drew's fun fact: Elmo is the only non-human to testify before the U.S. Congress.

Rained out

May is so frustrating!! It has been raining the past 2 weekends, and the one before that I was on call. I am so ready for summer and spring is just a big tease. The same thing happened last year- not enough snow for skiing and too much rain for hiking/climbing. I shouldn't complain though, we definitely need the rain since we didn't get much snow this year.

I tried to go camping with some of our Denver friends this weekend. The plan was to meet at the campsite Friday night, hike on Saturday and leave on Sunday. But after setting up our tent it quickly got very stormy. We did our best to stick it out, but we got tired of trying to keep our tent from being blown into Pinewood Reservoir so we gave up and came home this morning.

So instead of spending my Saturday outside in the mountains, I'm having a rainy day on the couch snuggling with Bogey, listening to hummingbirds buzz around my backyard, and watching Legends of the Fall. I guess Brad Pitt is an acceptable condolence prize.

Next weekend, climbing at Vedauwoo (if the weather permits)...

Drew's fun fact: One of Taiwan's most successful theme restaurant chains is Modern Toilet, where customers sit on commodes and enjoy chocolate ice cream and curry chicken served in dishes shaped like small toilets to resemble feces. 

Friday Night Lights

A couple weeks ago Drew and I climbed the 2nd Flatiron on Friday evening after work. We attempted to do this climb a few months ago, but got chased off by a mountain lion. We got an earlier start this time, and since it's spring we had a few more hours of light to work with. The route is about 600ft of easy climbing. A lot of people free solo it (Drew included) but I'm a wimp so we roped up. We were able to top out just as the sun was setting, but we ended up hiking back down to the car in the dark. It was awesome to watch the sunset and the lights of Boulder turn on, and thankfully we did not encounter any curious wildlife.

Drew's fun fact: There's a Hello Kitty-themed hospital in Taiwan.

Anne's fun fact: Drew secretly really likes the show Friday Night Lights.

Spring Fever

Spring has sprung, and not a moment too soon. My skin tone has been slowly deteriorating from pasty to ghostly to see-through. Thankfully the warm weather turned on like a light bulb as soon as March hit. The same thing happened last year when I got to experience my first true spring. Until then I had never known how exciting it is to see everything turn from brown back to green. Spring is also exciting because you get to start doing warm weather activities again, but there's still some snow in the mountains to play in. Drew and I decided to celebrate spring yesterday with the first inaugural St. Patty's Day Triathlon.

Unfortunately Drew and I were the only actual participants in the first inaugural St. Patty's Day Triathlon because it's something we made up the day before. But it was so awesome we're sure we can get a few people to join us next year, along with official $50 entrance fees and an extra-large T-shirt.

The first leg involved slushy spring skiing at our favorite resort, Keystone. It was a sunny, bluebird day and about 60 degrees. We ski'd 9,000 feet with a half hour break for provisions (Coors lite in a can and a granola bar), and then drove back to Boulder.

The second leg was climbing in St. Vrain Canyon. We made it to Scout Rock around 4 o'clock and climbed for about 2 hours. This was my first day climbing outside since last year and it felt great to be back on real rock. We had another quick provision (Sunshine Wheat in a can) while the sun set, then headed home.

The third leg consisted of bike riding downtown to participate in the St. Patty's Day festivities. It was a short leg, more of a sprint because we only live a few miles away. But in some ways it was the most difficult leg. We were tired, sunburnt (yay!), and didn't have enough bike lights to properly illuminate the pitch black bike trail. But we powered through, made it there safely, and even stayed awake long enough for one drink before deciding that we were too old to be dealing with drunk college kids on St. Patty's Day. Luckily the bus stop is close to our house too, the ride home was a little more relaxed.

So that was how we celebrated the beginning of spring and St. Patty's Day. We will begin taking entrance fees for next year's Second Annual St. Patty's Day Triathlon as soon as Drew figures out how to set up a Paypal account... stay tuned.

Oh ya, pictures. I only managed to take some during the second leg...

Drew's fun fact: The entire 1968 Swedish Olympic pentathlon team had to return their bronze medals because one member drank too much beer to calm his nerves before an event and was subsequently disqualified for violating the Olympic drug rules.

Freshies!

It's the middle of winter and there's 15" of snow in our backyard, but we haven't gotten sick of it quite yet. We've been having a lot of fun in the snow which has really helps keep us Floridians from getting tired of the cold. On Friday Drew got to snowboard in two feet of fresh powder at Eldora. Here's a GoPro video of Drew shredding waist deep freshies. It does quite do justice to the amount of fresh snow, but you sorta get the idea.

Yesterday we took our friends Steve and Caroline to Rocky Mountain National Park for their first snowshoeing trip.

Steve was so excited about all the fresh snow he did a belly flop.

I was equally as excited but I expressed my joy with less grand gestures.

We've also had some great days riding lately. We had a fun powder day at Vail a few weekends ago and last weekend we went snowboarding at Keystone and had an awesome photo shoot. As long as all the snow fun keeps up, another 6 weeks of winter sounds good to me.

Drew's fun fact: The IRS manual contains information on how to tax people during nuclear war.

Best friend and New enemy

This year for New Year's Drew and I decided to split up. He went home to Florida, and I went to California to visit my best friend Emily. She moved there five years ago and, sadly, it's taken me that long to plan a trip to see her. But I figured that if I made my New Year's resolution to be better at visiting my best friend Emily, I would have immediate success in 2012 and I wouldn't have to bother with other silly resolutions like eating healthier or exercising, or being nice.

This vacation was the perfect mix of relaxation and excitement. I got to sleep in almost everyday and Emily's boyfriend Wes brought me coffee in bed every morning. She must have told him ahead of time how to win me over. But each day we did something fun and different, including going to museums, Joshua Tree, the beach, and a hockey game (the Colorado Avalanche beat the LA Kings in double overtime).

The only unfortunate part of the trip, besides having to go home, was when I sprained my ankle. We made a day-trip to Joshua Tree to do some bouldering and easy hiking. I was already a little nervous because Drew and I usually climb with ropes. I'm not used to falling 15 or 20 feet and landing on a less-than-glorified mattress. Which is exactly what happened. I slipped at the top of a Boulder, fell on top of Emily, and jammed my right ankle. I couldn't even walk on it let alone climb anymore. So my bouldering excursion in Joshua Tree quickly came to an end. But hopefully it won't take me another five years to visit my best friend, and when I do I'm gong to go back to Joshua Tree and I'll get that boulder, I will, I know I will.

Drew's fun fact: China has more English speakers than the United States.