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.

Christmas in Colorado

This year Drew and I stayed in Colorado for Christmas. We moved to a new house in Boulder, which is a terrible endeavor to attempt on Christmas. Moving tends to provoke an attitude that is the exact opposite of the Christmas spirit. Thankfully we had amazing weather yesterday, along with a foot of snow on the ground. We took a break from unpacking to take a snowshoe trip with our friends Kevin and Holly. We stumbled upon a beautiful snow-covered lake with a view of Long's peak on one side and the Indian Peaks on the other. As you can see, lots of snow shenanigans ensued.

When we got home we made mexican hot chocolate, Abuelita, in my new crockpot Drew gave me for Christmas. We also beat the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of a piñata that Kevin and Holly gave us for Christmas. Having a slick, icy deck added a whole new level of difficulty to the game. Somehow no one got hurt. I'm not sure if our new neighbors appreciated our loud rendition of Feliz Navidad, sung while aimlessly swinging a trekking pole in the air, but I sure did.

Drew's fun fact: In Mexico, wearing red underwear on New Year's Eve is said to bring new love in the upcoming year.

Twinkle Toes

Drew's fun fact: The major ingredient in ice cream is air.

Close Encounter

Lately Drew and I have not been having our weekly climbing date nights because it's been cold and we've had so much snow. Plus, it's been getting dark before 5 o'clock. We really miss climbing so today Drew decided we should try a nighttime climb of the second flatiron. It's really easy climbing (rated 5.0) and Drew actually solo'ed it a couple months ago. We planned to rope-up though since it would be dark and cold and probably pretty windy. We got to the trailhead at about 5:15 and it was already dark. We piled on all our warm layers and started the 0.7 mile hike to the base of the climb. It was a beautiful, chilly night and the trail had great views of Boulder Valley lights.

After about a half hour of hiking in the dark Drew spotted a pair of eyes watching us ahead on the trail. Initially it was about 100ft away, but within seconds it moved to about 50ft away. This was obviously pretty alarming, and just as we started to debate whether we should keep going or turn around, Drew caught a glimpse of the body- a large cat with a long tail. AKA Mountain Lion, Cougar, Killer Cat. Drew remained freakishly calm, I did not. We slowly started to walk away, but the cat started to follow us. Luckily, after a few steps it stopped and we were able to successfully, and somehow calmly, walk away.

When we got back to the ranger station we looked at some of the posters to see if we could identify what it was- sure enough, it was a mountain lion. Then we got on our cell phones and started looking up what you're supposed to do if you're attacked by a mountain lion (I know, 'closing the barn door after the cows get out' ). Apparently you're supposed to act big and scary, yell at them, and fight back if they attack you. However, usually you don't get a change to do all that because when they attack they tend to surprise you and kill you immediately. Awesome.

Anyway this all probably sounds more dramatic then it really was, but the bottom line is, next time I'm packing heat.

Drew's fun fact: You have a better chance of being struck by lightening than dying because of a mountain lion attack.

I'm dreaming of a white.... Halloween?

Yesterday we had our first snow of the season. We got 12" of snow in less than a day, which is more than we got in one snowfall all last year. I think Colorado's weather is in cahoots with all the retailers to skip Halloween and Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas. It's a little strange to see everyone's pumpkin's and skeletons covered in snow, though it does add a little eeriness. Here's a picture of our backyard, where we're supposed to be having a party in 2 days...

So we may have to come up with a plan B for Saturday. Luckily I found matching Pumpkin costumes for Drew and I, which is sure to be entertaining (that is if I can actually get him to wear it...)

Drew's fun fact: Drivers kill more deer than hunters.