Back to school

A lot of really disjointed stuff...

Hannah and I are back to the full-time school routine. She's back at a wonderful preschool 3 days a week and a really great home day care the other two. I really wish that I could be with her more, but I love what she's getting out of both places.

My big excitement this month - I bought a piano! A real, live, acoustic piano! I feel like such a grownup. Took about 5 months of searching on Craigslist, but I finally settled on a 1989 Everett studio upright. It looks pretty good, has a nice action, and holds a good tune. Hannah got some practice on my digital, so she's been great about playing gently. And she can find all the C's and F's!

For our summer fun, Andy and I got away for 10 days in Hawaii while his wonderful mom stayed here with Hannah. We had a wonderful time in Waikiki and then Kauai. The highlight was Kayaking the entire Napali coast - 18 miles, a headwind and counter current, one poor woman who puked for the first 5 hours (no, not me!), some seriously sunburned hands, sea turtles, dolphins, AMAZING scenery, and one lost wedding band (Andy's). It was fabulous! We have some kayaking and snorkeling photos, but they're not digital yet...

Diamond Head in the background. We had an awesome run out around and up it! Good training for my other summer adventure!

A view down the Kalalau trail, heading out to Hanakapiai falls. A gorgeous hike, but insanely muddy. Not sure I'd to it again!

Hannah modeling her new flower clips from Hawaii. She wears her new Hawaiian dress probably 8 days out of 10.

And now for my big running fun this summer. I joined a team of 10 of the local Louisville runners and raced the Wild West Relay from Ft. Collins to Steamboat Springs. Just under 200 miles through northern Colorado and a little bit of Wyoming - it was a blast!! The real excitement was finding out, just after blowing out my quads on my midnight run, that one of our team mates was going to have to pull out for injury. After the necessary rearranging, I ended up adding 6.5 miles for a total of just under 20 miles in 4 legs. Other than not being able to walk down stairs without cringing, I managed to come out of it okay! It was a wild experience and a great escape from reality - either running or being in a van for 27 1/2 hours. Running in the middle of the night by myself wasn't as scary as I thought, and my 6:30 am run was gorgeous!

Red Hot Solepeppers after our awesome finish - 9th overall and 3rd in our category. I have some fast running friends!

My last leg. Slightly downhill, but really hot and with very unhappy quads. That "one mile left" sign had to have been a lie. Still totally worth it!

Monster wearing a costume

Spontaneous fun from Hannah. We thought she was spinning around, but check out her feet!

Happy Father's Day, Baba!

The sunny side

At the splash park enjoying the summer. Notice the control freak with her foot on the restart button so no one else gets to hit it when the water turns off.

Joy!


With Baba on a hike above Ouzel Falls during his recent visit. She's getting really hard to carry, but she's also able to walk a mile or more, so we manage to still get in some good combo hikes.

1 - I ran a 4-minute 10K PR yesterday! For those of you who aren't running dorks, that means I ran 6.2 miles about as fast as I possibly can. I finished in 47:59 and placed 3rd in my age group. Too bad the awards were for 1 and 2. Double too bad the 2nd place woman my age was only 3 seconds ahead of me!! Many thanks to my wonderful running friends who paced me a pushed me.

2 - I've decided to get even crazier in my running and am joining a 10-person team to run the Wild West Relay http://www.wildwestrelay.com/index.html in early August. I'll be running 3 legs in the mountains between Ft. Collins and Steamboat and am likely to run 6 or 7 miles in the middle of the night, possibly down hill, in open range. For you city folks, that means cows on the loose! Never mind things that eat cows - I'm chosing not to think about those.

3 - We're loving our new house. Thanks to a few days of cold and rain, we did a bunch more unpacking this weekend. Just a few boxes left! Hey you Texans - it was 55 and rainy here today. I ran a race in capris yesterday. Come visit!!

4 - Hannah is amazingly grown up. She's been saying things like "So, um, Mom...." and I actually caught her putting the word "like" in the middle of a sentence. What??

5 - Despite my best intentions, Hannah had become quite the "kid food" eater. We set a goal of eating "big kid food" this summer - as in way fewer meals of fish sticks and freeze-dried veggies - and she's taking to it quite well. Of course it means she ends up in bed later because we cook for all of us together, but for now she's still napping (knock on lots of wood), so it seems to be all good. Feeding has been one of the most challenging parts of parenting since the beginning, so these little milestones are huge for me!

6 - Did I mention that it's summer and I'm break? I'm loving getting to be a stay-at-home mom for a while again! Of course Hannah's still going to school a little bit each week, so I also get some time to work around the house and take some long runs by myself or with friends. Very nice.

7 - Saved the best for last. We were running an errand in Boulder the other day, and Hannah asked, "Why is that man was standing by the road holding a sign?" So I did my best to explain begging and some of the realities that go with it. (Twice, because she often asks me to repeat my long answers.) Her response: "Not us, because we're on the sunny side of life." I cried and laughed the rest of the way down Arapahoe. We've listened to the song a few times in the car recently, but certainly not had some great discussion about the meaning of the lyrics.

First verse and refrain, for those of you aren't familiar with the song:

There's a dark and a troubled side of life
There's a bright and a sunny side too
Though we meet with the darknest of strife
The sunny side we also may view

Keep on the sunny side
Always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day
It will brighten up our way
If we keep on the sunny side of life

The New House

Obligatory opening shot of Hannah. Modeling my new fancy-pants running headband. Wonder if they need some marketing photos?

Egg dyeing - a week late, but still fun!

We're finally homeowners again! We've been in the process since the fall, waiting for our brand new house to be built. The plans were already permitted, but we got to choose the finish out - cabinets, counters, floors, and a couple of extra little windows. The neighborhood is great. Full of families with little kids, walkable to a decent grocery store, bike able/runnable to downtown Louisville, and amazing views of the Front Range. The little windows we added even line up so I can look at Indian Peaks in the bathroom mirror while I get ready in the morning. Outstanding! We feel very fortunate to live here.

Part of the view out our bedroom window.

Zoom of the bedroom view - Meeker (Longs Peak is behind it), and the church that will hopefully never get the 2-story bug! They seem like pretty good neighbors. Hosting a series of meetings titled "2012 Time of the End - are you ready?", just in case we decide that are indeed unprepared for the Christian/Mayan end of the world...

An indoor shot - the first floor has a great room, open to the kitchen, a study/playroom, and powder room. And that floor almost looks like a lived-in home after only 2 weeks!

Mount LeCuyer

Gotta love Colorado weather - 60s on Thursday and snow shoveling on Friday afternoon.

All about me

I may not even put any of Hannah's cute phrases or songs in this one. It's all about my great adventures in skiing yesterday. You know those cool-looking tracks that snake down the powdery slopes in the movies? I got to make those! It involved a ride in a snow cat and hiking in ski boots at 12,000 feet, but it was so worth it. Of course we didn't have a camera (though Nick did have an extra strap to carry skis so I could use my poles to hike - thank you!!!), so I did some googling and am posting fake but fairly accurate photos of my adventures yesterday...

The snowcat - took nearly an hour wait to get a ride, but it was worth it to get up most of the 12,000 feet.

Our hike up Tucker Mountain. Not sure exactly which run we took, but I do know that I walked up this "trail"!

I know, it's not me, but I do wear a black ski coat, and I did get to make tracks in powder like that. Thanks to my wonderful husband and brother-in-law who coached me through a fabulous ski day! And to those of you still just considering visiting us in Colorado - it really is this good!!