i feel like the theme of the books i've been reading lately is "how to understand guys". well, i guess angels and demons doesn't apply to that (which was a super fun read) ... nor does the latest j.a. jance mystery i'm listening to on the commute/workout rotation on my ipod.
anyway, i am reading two book specifically related to understanding what guys are all about, which is unusual for two reasons. 1) i don't typically read non-fiction. i do, of course, read it from time to time, but as a general rule, i just prefer to spend my pleasure reading time enjoying a good novel. 2) i don't feel like i don't understand guys. sorry for the double negative, but what i mean is this: i'm very happily married, scott and i scored insanely high on the compatibility portion of the prepare & enrich test in our pre-marital counseling, and i generally feel like i "get" him and where his reactions are coming from.
nevertheless, i've really been enjoying my reading. the first is shaunti feldhahn's for women only, which, as i mentioned last month, kelly recommended. the author did a bunch of surveys, analyzed the data, and came up with i think 7 categories of things that women need to understand about men. i think the thing that i most enjoyed about it is that it gave scott and i good stuff to discuss - about half of the stuff that the author said is true of the average guy, scott didn't think is true for him, but it was a lot of fun asking him the survey questions and hearing his answers. and i did feel like it opened my eyes to aspects of scott that i'd noticed but never really paid attention to before, or didn't know what to do with. very helpful, and very interesting!
the second is john eldredge's wild at heart, which scott actually recommended i read. it is a fairly controversial book in christian circles because of john eldredge's links with open theism, which basically means that god does not know or control the future. eldredge says he's not an open theist, but the stuff he says about god and risk taking and the future sounds an awful lot like open theim to a lot of people. anyway, that's a rabbit trail. because of that reason, scott had never read the book, but the men's leadership group that he's in at church had it on their required reading list, so he went for it. mid-way through the book (and while i was reading for women only), scott said that wild at heart does a great job of explaining guys and that i should read it - and even went so far as to suggest that i find a similar book that explains women that he would read. if you know scott at all, that's a super unusual statement. when we were getting married, i, being a book loving counseling geek, wanted to read every available book on marriage. scott's response was that people have successfully been getting married for thousands of years, and that we'd be wise and take counsel from other people (like the pastor who married us), but that we didn't need to read any books about it. or at least he didn't want to. with that in mind, when scott said i should read wild at heart, i went for it. and i've been impressed so far. the main thesis of the book is that men were created to be - wait for it - wild at heart, and that they need risk and adventure and pursuit. that obviously looks different for different people, but scott felt like it really applied in why he feels a desire to move forward in his career and get a grad degree. so i'm reading it, and 45 pages in at least, enjoying it. i'd recommend it to a friend.
steamboat springs
|
labels:
summer
i think i've had too many things floating around in my head to sit down and blog anything since we got back from vacation. i'll start with a synopsis of vacation, though.
scott went backpacking last friday-sunday with a couple of guys from our sunday school class, and had a good time but (thankfully) came home and said that it was a good experience, but not one he needs to repeat. we're definitely car campers - load up the car, go camp, do day hikes, but leave all of your gear set up at your site rather than strapping it to your back. whew. i think it helps my case that i get a liiiittle bit whiney when i get tired or my legs hurt from hiking, and scott realizes that that situation would not improve with 35 pounds strapped to my back.
anyway, the drive to/from steamboat is gorgeous. lots of rolling ranchland surrounded by still-snowcapped mountains. monday was our touristy day - according to a free map i picked up in town, the fish creek falls hiking trail was the number one tourist destination, followed by the strawberry park hot springs. fish creek falls was really neat - 1/4 mile down the trail you hit the main (lower) falls - there's a cool wooden bridge over the creek, and lots of families playing in the water and stuff. if you want to, though, you can continue on a 2.5 mile hike up the mountain to the upper falls, which was definitely worth it. i haven't uploaded my pictures from the hike yet, but hopefully they turned out. it was a hot, sunny day, so we went back to our motel room, turned up the a/c and collapsed for a while post-hike. there was a huge rainstorm late afternoon, which was actually really nice because a) we were inside and didn't have to deal with the rain, b) it immediately got sunny again afterward, but c) the storm really cooled the evening off. we went out to dinner, then to the hot springs!
on the website for the hot springs i found two things interesting. the first was that after dark, it's clothing optional, and the second is that people said they would go the first time for an hour or two and then love it so much they wanted to come back for a full day. because of the first fact - the nudity clause - we made sure to plan our visit so that we'd be able to leave by the time dusk hit at about 8:30, and we did. (it was very interesting - there was definitely a change of crowd at about that time. there were three or four other groups that i saw walking out around the time that we did, but there were also a crowd of college age people coming in. not going to lie, i was a little bit sketched out.)
regarding the staying all day thing, though - when we first got there, we were both sort of like, "meh, it's fine, but nothing i'd want to spend 8 hours doing." the more i looked around, though, the more i could understand it. there are a few different hot pools, and we soon realized a cooler pool off to the side. despite the fact that the pools were definitely built in, they did a good job of using stone to keep it looking natural - but in the pools, they have some ledges for sitting and stuff like that. so we would hang out in the hot pools for a while, then go into the cooler pool (which i think is maybe just the creek running next to the hot spring - but the hot spring definitely feeds into the creek a little bit, so the creek isn't freezing). anyway, i realized that there are also some hiking trails with trailheads on the property, so you could go pay your $10/person entrance fee in the morning, enjoy the hot springs and swim around for a while, dry off and go do a day hike, then come back and chill in the water/on the chairs on their little gravel beach for a while. the $10 is a little excessive for an hour, but becomes a good deal if you stretch it out like that.
anyway, that was monday. tuesday, we had to check out of our motel room, then decided to go bike around downtown. scott loves the water way more than anyone from arizona should, and wanted to see if there was a trail on the river that runs through town - lo and behold, there is! we found the yampa river core trail, which is about 6 miles long, but nice and wide and smooth and flat. we sort of got on in the middle, rode to the end one way, then turned around and did the rest of it. the botanic gardens backs up to the trail, and is free, so we did stop and walk around there. it's small, but well taken care of and very pretty. the trail could have been longer, but was really a perfect fit for us - enough work that you're not just coasting both ways, but not so much that you're getting overly sweaty or exhausting yourself. plus, we got to see the whole town, and enjoy the river at the same time.
i'd definitely go back to steamboat on a family vacation when we have kids someday. one of the things we saw but didn't get to do was people renting tubes and floating in their tubes down the yampa river, which would be super fun. and there's a neat sport park in town that has things like an alpine slide - not to mention plenty of other hiking trails. plus the drive there is fabulously beautiful. i think the major thing i'd change is getting a cabin or condo so that we could cook our own meals and not have to eat out constantly. i really enjoy eating at restaurants for special occasions, and picking up something cheap when i don't feel like cooking, but i just hate spending the money when i don't have to. i don't know why we felt it necessary to decide on this just yet, scott and i decided that of our summer vacations thus far, if we were to add kids to the equation, we'd do twin lakes again if we had a 2-3 day vacation, and steamboat if we had a 5-6 day. 4 days we'd go either way.
scott went backpacking last friday-sunday with a couple of guys from our sunday school class, and had a good time but (thankfully) came home and said that it was a good experience, but not one he needs to repeat. we're definitely car campers - load up the car, go camp, do day hikes, but leave all of your gear set up at your site rather than strapping it to your back. whew. i think it helps my case that i get a liiiittle bit whiney when i get tired or my legs hurt from hiking, and scott realizes that that situation would not improve with 35 pounds strapped to my back.
anyway, the drive to/from steamboat is gorgeous. lots of rolling ranchland surrounded by still-snowcapped mountains. monday was our touristy day - according to a free map i picked up in town, the fish creek falls hiking trail was the number one tourist destination, followed by the strawberry park hot springs. fish creek falls was really neat - 1/4 mile down the trail you hit the main (lower) falls - there's a cool wooden bridge over the creek, and lots of families playing in the water and stuff. if you want to, though, you can continue on a 2.5 mile hike up the mountain to the upper falls, which was definitely worth it. i haven't uploaded my pictures from the hike yet, but hopefully they turned out. it was a hot, sunny day, so we went back to our motel room, turned up the a/c and collapsed for a while post-hike. there was a huge rainstorm late afternoon, which was actually really nice because a) we were inside and didn't have to deal with the rain, b) it immediately got sunny again afterward, but c) the storm really cooled the evening off. we went out to dinner, then to the hot springs!
on the website for the hot springs i found two things interesting. the first was that after dark, it's clothing optional, and the second is that people said they would go the first time for an hour or two and then love it so much they wanted to come back for a full day. because of the first fact - the nudity clause - we made sure to plan our visit so that we'd be able to leave by the time dusk hit at about 8:30, and we did. (it was very interesting - there was definitely a change of crowd at about that time. there were three or four other groups that i saw walking out around the time that we did, but there were also a crowd of college age people coming in. not going to lie, i was a little bit sketched out.)
regarding the staying all day thing, though - when we first got there, we were both sort of like, "meh, it's fine, but nothing i'd want to spend 8 hours doing." the more i looked around, though, the more i could understand it. there are a few different hot pools, and we soon realized a cooler pool off to the side. despite the fact that the pools were definitely built in, they did a good job of using stone to keep it looking natural - but in the pools, they have some ledges for sitting and stuff like that. so we would hang out in the hot pools for a while, then go into the cooler pool (which i think is maybe just the creek running next to the hot spring - but the hot spring definitely feeds into the creek a little bit, so the creek isn't freezing). anyway, i realized that there are also some hiking trails with trailheads on the property, so you could go pay your $10/person entrance fee in the morning, enjoy the hot springs and swim around for a while, dry off and go do a day hike, then come back and chill in the water/on the chairs on their little gravel beach for a while. the $10 is a little excessive for an hour, but becomes a good deal if you stretch it out like that.
anyway, that was monday. tuesday, we had to check out of our motel room, then decided to go bike around downtown. scott loves the water way more than anyone from arizona should, and wanted to see if there was a trail on the river that runs through town - lo and behold, there is! we found the yampa river core trail, which is about 6 miles long, but nice and wide and smooth and flat. we sort of got on in the middle, rode to the end one way, then turned around and did the rest of it. the botanic gardens backs up to the trail, and is free, so we did stop and walk around there. it's small, but well taken care of and very pretty. the trail could have been longer, but was really a perfect fit for us - enough work that you're not just coasting both ways, but not so much that you're getting overly sweaty or exhausting yourself. plus, we got to see the whole town, and enjoy the river at the same time.
i'd definitely go back to steamboat on a family vacation when we have kids someday. one of the things we saw but didn't get to do was people renting tubes and floating in their tubes down the yampa river, which would be super fun. and there's a neat sport park in town that has things like an alpine slide - not to mention plenty of other hiking trails. plus the drive there is fabulously beautiful. i think the major thing i'd change is getting a cabin or condo so that we could cook our own meals and not have to eat out constantly. i really enjoy eating at restaurants for special occasions, and picking up something cheap when i don't feel like cooking, but i just hate spending the money when i don't have to. i don't know why we felt it necessary to decide on this just yet, scott and i decided that of our summer vacations thus far, if we were to add kids to the equation, we'd do twin lakes again if we had a 2-3 day vacation, and steamboat if we had a 5-6 day. 4 days we'd go either way.
help for the challenged boy
|
scott makes me laugh a lot in general, but some things just make giggle every time i think about them. take, for instance, this e-mail he sent out to some friends he's going backpacking with this weekend (they're all going with the men's group at church), entitled, "help for the challenged boy":
Hey Guys,
So since Mike talked me into backpacking I figured that I should make sure that I actually have stuff to backpack with. Jordan can definitely attest to the fact that I don't have backpacking gear since on our trip to Telluride, Marisa and I packed like Hannibal trekking through the Alps.
Do you have a general list of gear that I should make sure I have? I know I need to bring a flashlight, water containers, rain jacket, stilletos, a feather boa, and a VHS collection of Jazzercise Season 2.
But seriously what else? And here are the things I know I don't have that hopefully one of you can lend me...
1. A tent smaller than a German U-Boat: Mike I think you said that I can share with you.
2. A sleeping bag that doesn't look like insulation that could cover an entire attic when it's rolled up.
3. A backpacking pack...since I don't think we have to take the ACTs then I can leave my Jansport at home.
Hey Guys,
So since Mike talked me into backpacking I figured that I should make sure that I actually have stuff to backpack with. Jordan can definitely attest to the fact that I don't have backpacking gear since on our trip to Telluride, Marisa and I packed like Hannibal trekking through the Alps.
Do you have a general list of gear that I should make sure I have? I know I need to bring a flashlight, water containers, rain jacket, stilletos, a feather boa, and a VHS collection of Jazzercise Season 2.
But seriously what else? And here are the things I know I don't have that hopefully one of you can lend me...
1. A tent smaller than a German U-Boat: Mike I think you said that I can share with you.
2. A sleeping bag that doesn't look like insulation that could cover an entire attic when it's rolled up.
3. A backpacking pack...since I don't think we have to take the ACTs then I can leave my Jansport at home.
bah to formatting.
|
okay, i am not a fan of how blogger's format freaks out when you add pictures. and, i don't know why those pictures are so tiny and don't blow up when you click on them, like they should. just go to my facebook for the full size pics. sound good? good.
elbert in review
|
labels:
photography,
summer
last weekend was our mt. elbert adventure - and it was pretty fabulous! scott was totally surprised by the rafting, we both really enjoyed it, and scott ended up being the only person to fall out of our raft ... in completely calm water, after we bumped up against a small rock. granted, he had taken his feet out of the footholds and wasn't really paying attention. i laughed. i did not, however, get any pictures - you obviously can't take your camera on the boat since you're getting soaked the entire time, and they do take pictures of your raft as you go through one of the rapids, but it was $20/picture, and it just wasn't worth it since we didn't know the other people on the raft. maybe if the whole raft is buddies and you can split the cost of one picture ... oh well, we have memories!
i ended up feeling a little bit sicky friday night/saturday morning, so we nixed getting up at 5am to leave on the hike of mt. elbert and attempt to summit. scott offered that we could do a light hike that day and try to summit elbert on sunday, but i was fine with just doing a hike on elbert rather than needing to summit. plus we had small group at 6pm on sunday back in denver and i really didn't want to go to group totally exhausted and covered in sweat. so we had a fun time hiking on elbert on saturday. pictures, of course:
1) hmm, thought that would be bigger. oh well - it's a profile of the elevation of our hike. i put a little red arrow to show how far/high we got ... about 2000 foot gain over 2.25 miles. and other 2.25 miles/2500 feet to go. we were both glad we nixed the summit plan.
2) we had a pretty sweet view even if we didn't make it to the top.3) we got within view of south elbert, at least. i should have marked it on the profile shot, but it is the little peak (just over 14,000 feet) that then goes into the camelback before the summit. so you climb climb climb, little plateau, climb up to south elbert, then drop back down before climbing back up to the summit. yeah, we got stuck back in the climb climb climb stage.after we recovered from the hike, scott built us a fire in the private little fire pit we had next to our cabin, that happened to be right on the black cloud creek. while he did that, i took pictures of the creek and the waterwheel and played with my camera settings. here, i was discovering aperture and film speed. (my camera's a little limited - aperture range is from f/2.8-8.0, and iso range is 100-800.)
4) iso 800, f/2.85) iso 100, f/8.0
i finally settled in to read next to the fire with scott, but i saw a plant and i just couldn't resist playing with my newfound aperture skills.
6) ooh! the top is f/8.0, the bottom is f/2.8. neato.now that i knew how to do cool close-ups, i just had to do more.
7) this was scott's favorite picture of the weekend. i'm pretty sure i had my camera camped out on iso 400, f/2.8 at this point ... plus i was using the special "close-up" button.8) and this was one of my favorites! you can see scott sitting by the fire back there.then i sat back down for a while, but as it got darker and the fire got bigger, it was just too much to resist, so i grabbed the camera again.
9 & 10) another two of my favorites. having to choose a favorite picture is like having to choose a favorite child, i swear. i'm incapable of doing it.anyway, so saturday was very well documented. sunday we decided to just take a little hike on a trail towards interlaken (a turn-of-the-century resort on the shores of twin lakes that's no longer running, but had some restoration work done a few years ago). we forgot to get directions to the trailhead from the binder in our cabin before checking out, so after driving back and forth for a while, we stopped at one of the two stores in twin lakes and got directions. the chick said that there's a road about a mile before the highway that leads to the dam - you turn in there, park, and the hike is along the colorado trail. okay, good. we drive back that way, see a little road that leads straight to the dam, and there's a little parking area right at the base of the dam and it looks like a footpath across it. we parked, i saw a sign off to the right noting the colorado trail, good. we start across, and quickly come to some no-trespassing signs. hmmm. well, this is where she told us to be, and oh look, there's a biker coming this way off the dam, it must be okay. so we went on our merry way. halfway across the dam, we see that maybe a 1/2 mile down the road, there's a road that turns in and leads to the other side of the dam, and that there's more parking over there ... oh well, we're already going this way, no biggie. ahem. as we approached the other side, i see a guy in a gray uniform climbing up the rocks at the side of the dam, looking at us. hmm. i glanced at scott and thought, "we're so busted." lo and behold - i guess the federal government takes its dams very seriously. so we got arrested and had to pay a $7000 fine.just kidding! the security guard was a total jerk at first, making really snide comments like, "oh, aren't you so glad you saved the gas money by not driving down to the entrance, but there's a $3500/person fine for trespassing on federal property," etc. it was a simple mistake! he took down the info on scott's driver's license and wrote down my name/dob since my license was back in the car, and said he'd turn over the info to the fbi to investigate us. and told us that if it was higher security, he'd have to call in backup and put us down on the ground and have us searched. oh, and we weren't allowed to walk back across the dam to our car - we had to walk the mile back down the road. and he wouldn't give us a ride. he was nice enough at the end - told us to enjoy our hike, etc. i hate getting in trouble, so it kind of freaked me out, and made me very mad at us for not taking the signs seriously and mad at the biker who didn't bother to mention that you'd get stopped at the other end of the dam for trespassing. (and mad at the security guard for being such a jerk to us at the beginning - seriously, you don't have to be mean to me to make it stick that i did something wrong. tell me and i'll feel really bad and won't do it again, i promise.) scott thinks it'll be fine, though - we didn't get a ticket, and according to scott, they won't just send you a bill for a $3500/person fine without arresting you or something first. we'll see. maybe i'll have a note on my permanent criminal record - "7/19/2009, walked across a dam wearing a backpack."so, that was my weekend! whitewater rafting, hiking on a 14er, playing with my camera, and a brush with the law. whew. hopefully we can at least nix the brush with the law part on our trip to steamboat next weekend.
i ended up feeling a little bit sicky friday night/saturday morning, so we nixed getting up at 5am to leave on the hike of mt. elbert and attempt to summit. scott offered that we could do a light hike that day and try to summit elbert on sunday, but i was fine with just doing a hike on elbert rather than needing to summit. plus we had small group at 6pm on sunday back in denver and i really didn't want to go to group totally exhausted and covered in sweat. so we had a fun time hiking on elbert on saturday. pictures, of course:
1) hmm, thought that would be bigger. oh well - it's a profile of the elevation of our hike. i put a little red arrow to show how far/high we got ... about 2000 foot gain over 2.25 miles. and other 2.25 miles/2500 feet to go. we were both glad we nixed the summit plan.
2) we had a pretty sweet view even if we didn't make it to the top.3) we got within view of south elbert, at least. i should have marked it on the profile shot, but it is the little peak (just over 14,000 feet) that then goes into the camelback before the summit. so you climb climb climb, little plateau, climb up to south elbert, then drop back down before climbing back up to the summit. yeah, we got stuck back in the climb climb climb stage.after we recovered from the hike, scott built us a fire in the private little fire pit we had next to our cabin, that happened to be right on the black cloud creek. while he did that, i took pictures of the creek and the waterwheel and played with my camera settings. here, i was discovering aperture and film speed. (my camera's a little limited - aperture range is from f/2.8-8.0, and iso range is 100-800.)
4) iso 800, f/2.85) iso 100, f/8.0
i finally settled in to read next to the fire with scott, but i saw a plant and i just couldn't resist playing with my newfound aperture skills.
6) ooh! the top is f/8.0, the bottom is f/2.8. neato.now that i knew how to do cool close-ups, i just had to do more.
7) this was scott's favorite picture of the weekend. i'm pretty sure i had my camera camped out on iso 400, f/2.8 at this point ... plus i was using the special "close-up" button.8) and this was one of my favorites! you can see scott sitting by the fire back there.then i sat back down for a while, but as it got darker and the fire got bigger, it was just too much to resist, so i grabbed the camera again.
9 & 10) another two of my favorites. having to choose a favorite picture is like having to choose a favorite child, i swear. i'm incapable of doing it.anyway, so saturday was very well documented. sunday we decided to just take a little hike on a trail towards interlaken (a turn-of-the-century resort on the shores of twin lakes that's no longer running, but had some restoration work done a few years ago). we forgot to get directions to the trailhead from the binder in our cabin before checking out, so after driving back and forth for a while, we stopped at one of the two stores in twin lakes and got directions. the chick said that there's a road about a mile before the highway that leads to the dam - you turn in there, park, and the hike is along the colorado trail. okay, good. we drive back that way, see a little road that leads straight to the dam, and there's a little parking area right at the base of the dam and it looks like a footpath across it. we parked, i saw a sign off to the right noting the colorado trail, good. we start across, and quickly come to some no-trespassing signs. hmmm. well, this is where she told us to be, and oh look, there's a biker coming this way off the dam, it must be okay. so we went on our merry way. halfway across the dam, we see that maybe a 1/2 mile down the road, there's a road that turns in and leads to the other side of the dam, and that there's more parking over there ... oh well, we're already going this way, no biggie. ahem. as we approached the other side, i see a guy in a gray uniform climbing up the rocks at the side of the dam, looking at us. hmm. i glanced at scott and thought, "we're so busted." lo and behold - i guess the federal government takes its dams very seriously. so we got arrested and had to pay a $7000 fine.just kidding! the security guard was a total jerk at first, making really snide comments like, "oh, aren't you so glad you saved the gas money by not driving down to the entrance, but there's a $3500/person fine for trespassing on federal property," etc. it was a simple mistake! he took down the info on scott's driver's license and wrote down my name/dob since my license was back in the car, and said he'd turn over the info to the fbi to investigate us. and told us that if it was higher security, he'd have to call in backup and put us down on the ground and have us searched. oh, and we weren't allowed to walk back across the dam to our car - we had to walk the mile back down the road. and he wouldn't give us a ride. he was nice enough at the end - told us to enjoy our hike, etc. i hate getting in trouble, so it kind of freaked me out, and made me very mad at us for not taking the signs seriously and mad at the biker who didn't bother to mention that you'd get stopped at the other end of the dam for trespassing. (and mad at the security guard for being such a jerk to us at the beginning - seriously, you don't have to be mean to me to make it stick that i did something wrong. tell me and i'll feel really bad and won't do it again, i promise.) scott thinks it'll be fine, though - we didn't get a ticket, and according to scott, they won't just send you a bill for a $3500/person fine without arresting you or something first. we'll see. maybe i'll have a note on my permanent criminal record - "7/19/2009, walked across a dam wearing a backpack."so, that was my weekend! whitewater rafting, hiking on a 14er, playing with my camera, and a brush with the law. whew. hopefully we can at least nix the brush with the law part on our trip to steamboat next weekend.
planning for adventure
|
labels:
summer
currently making my packing/grocery list for this weekend. i think the longest we've ever hiked before is like, 4-5 hours? so this will be an adventure. tomorrow we're leaving the house around 7am (earlier than i leave for work!) to head down to buena vista and go whitewater rafting - scott thinks we're canoeing ... ha! rafting starts at 10 and lasts about 6 hours, so we'll be able to check into our cabin that afternoon/evening, have a nice chill evening, and get to bed nice and early so that we can be ready to go for our mt. elbert expedition! we haven't firmed up a time to leave yet (maybe around 6-6:30??), but we did decide that we're going to do the black cloud trail that leaves from right next to our cabin. the goal is to summit mt. elbert, but if we don't, that's fine. either way, i'm packing plenty of aloe, icy hot, bandaids, and advil. and swimsuits so that we can go make use of the lodge's hot tub that night. scott was asking what we're going to do saturday night, and i told him to bring a book, because i don't think we'll be moving around too much.
being the planner that i am - and having such copious amounts of free time during the day - i've been a little worried about hiking mt. elbert, that it might be too much for us, etc. then i was looking at the trip reports page on elbert to see what the summit looks like right now (ie, should we pack for snow, or just chilly weather), and came across this posting ... yeah, those kids are like 7. and they summited elbert just fine. yes, we are taking the more challenging route, but i don't think i need to worry too much.
being the planner that i am - and having such copious amounts of free time during the day - i've been a little worried about hiking mt. elbert, that it might be too much for us, etc. then i was looking at the trip reports page on elbert to see what the summit looks like right now (ie, should we pack for snow, or just chilly weather), and came across this posting ... yeah, those kids are like 7. and they summited elbert just fine. yes, we are taking the more challenging route, but i don't think i need to worry too much.
mt. elbert
|
labels:
summer
holy cow, the more i look at mt. elbert, the more i think i may need to scale back my expectations for this weekend. consensus is that it's wise to leave from the trailhead as early as possible - ideally around sunrise, so just before 6am. also, there's a trailhead about 100 yards from our cabin, which would take us up the southeast trail, but the standard/easier trail is the northeast, the trailhead for which is about an hour drive from our cabin. and the place we're staying says that their guests who use the trailhead nearby usually spend about 8-12 hours on the hike, roundtrip. i think i might should bring this up with scott and get his input, since i don't think i see us getting up before the sun to spend a full day hiking ... although it would be really awesome if we did.
formatting issues.
|
oh yeah that format did not turn out well. sorry, but i don't feel like going back and changing it. or maybe i will, and just do 2 pictures per line instead of 3. i think i need to find a 2-column format for my blog instead of this unnecessary 3-column nonsense. it makes the actual blog column way too narrow.
vacay pics and planning
|
labels:
summer
oh! i forgot to post pics from our vacations thus far - i got them uploaded and into an album on facebook last week. i'm clearly not going to re-post here the 40+ that i put on fb, so if you want to see the whole shebang, go there. here's a selection of my favorites for now:
(above: us with the beautiful sunset on hwy 50, the rainy gondola ride down into telluride)
(above: us with the beautiful sunset on hwy 50, the rainy gondola ride down into telluride)
(above: sunset at the bluegrass fest, all of our gear for camping that weekend)
(above: my dad and mom during their visit with us the weekend after telluride.)
good times! hopefully the formatting will work with those pics ... it's so hard to tell sometimes.
scott ended up being sick all weekend - i counted last night, and i think he spent something like 20 hours in bed between 1pm saturday and 8pm sunday. he was feeling mostly better this morning, though, and went to work. i'm crossing my fingers that the worst is over with, and also that i don't get sick!
this next weekend is our mt. elbert adventure, which i'm getting really excited about. i think it'd be super fun to summit it - it is the tallest 14er in the state, but also one of the easiest, or so i've heard - but if we don't make it, it's not the end of the world. we can still enjoy a good hike. friday is whitewater rafting, which scott still doesn't know about, so shhhh! i was very proud of myself - i was at target last night picking up more advil for scott, and decided to take a look at their activewear, since all of my normal active stuff is all cotton, which is very comfy, but not so good for a river situation. i found a good inexpensive pair of workout shorts and a cute duo-dry tank top (that i'm still debating - it'd be fine with a swim suit top on the river, but wouldn't necessarily work with a sports bra for general working out) for myself, and even found a duo-dry t-shirt for scott to go with his board shorts. i am quite positive that i can sneak all of it into our luggage to have it ready to change into when we get to the rafting place. while i definitely prefer to know that a surprise is coming so i can anticipate it, i think scott will be quite thrilled. my plan is to just give scott directions from denver straight to the rafting place on friday, although i'm not quite sure how i'm going to get him out of the house that early in the morning ... we need to leave by 7ish to get there by 10 with time to spare. i think as long as we have all of our stuff packed and maybe even in the car by thursday night it shouldn't be too bad. i might need to come up with an excuse for the early morning on our day off, though - any suggestions? i also need to come up with a menu for the weekend - our cabin has a full kitchen, so we can make our own dinners and whatnot. i think i'll try and pre-make some easily heated things like enchiladas that we can just throw in the oven in the evenings. fun fun. i love summer!!!
good times! hopefully the formatting will work with those pics ... it's so hard to tell sometimes.
scott ended up being sick all weekend - i counted last night, and i think he spent something like 20 hours in bed between 1pm saturday and 8pm sunday. he was feeling mostly better this morning, though, and went to work. i'm crossing my fingers that the worst is over with, and also that i don't get sick!
this next weekend is our mt. elbert adventure, which i'm getting really excited about. i think it'd be super fun to summit it - it is the tallest 14er in the state, but also one of the easiest, or so i've heard - but if we don't make it, it's not the end of the world. we can still enjoy a good hike. friday is whitewater rafting, which scott still doesn't know about, so shhhh! i was very proud of myself - i was at target last night picking up more advil for scott, and decided to take a look at their activewear, since all of my normal active stuff is all cotton, which is very comfy, but not so good for a river situation. i found a good inexpensive pair of workout shorts and a cute duo-dry tank top (that i'm still debating - it'd be fine with a swim suit top on the river, but wouldn't necessarily work with a sports bra for general working out) for myself, and even found a duo-dry t-shirt for scott to go with his board shorts. i am quite positive that i can sneak all of it into our luggage to have it ready to change into when we get to the rafting place. while i definitely prefer to know that a surprise is coming so i can anticipate it, i think scott will be quite thrilled. my plan is to just give scott directions from denver straight to the rafting place on friday, although i'm not quite sure how i'm going to get him out of the house that early in the morning ... we need to leave by 7ish to get there by 10 with time to spare. i think as long as we have all of our stuff packed and maybe even in the car by thursday night it shouldn't be too bad. i might need to come up with an excuse for the early morning on our day off, though - any suggestions? i also need to come up with a menu for the weekend - our cabin has a full kitchen, so we can make our own dinners and whatnot. i think i'll try and pre-make some easily heated things like enchiladas that we can just throw in the oven in the evenings. fun fun. i love summer!!!
saturday night at home
we're enjoying a good weekend for the most part. last night, we took goo to black hawk (a casino town just outside of denver) as a birthday present. we meant to take her last year, but house crises intervened (i think that was the night the hose in our bathroom burst and flooded the room), so we did it for her 22nd birthday instead. we had fun hanging out, but i think goo and i quickly realized we aren't gamblers. it just seems like such a waste of money: sure you have the chance to win big, but you also have the chance of going home with nothing. if you don't gamble and just keep the money you came with, you're guaranteed to not lose it! i did mostly penny slots with a little bit of quarter video poker thrown in - gambled $7 and at the end of the night was down $3.68, which wasn't bad. just this month black hawk started doing more table games like craps and roulette, but there weren't that many tables with them yet, and they all had the minimum buy in of $5. whatever, i enjoyed the experience, and i think i'm good to go with having my gambling fix for, you know, life. and i still have zero desire to ever go to las vegas.
today was fun for me, slightly less so for scott. our good friends lori and aaron who moved to mexico to teach two years ago are finally back in colorado, so they and their three month old daughter clara, and mike and maura and kinley all came over for lunch and hanging out - we were tentatively planning to go hiking down in roxborough. while he was at men's group this morning, though, scott started feeling sick. he laid down for a few minutes before everyone got here, made it through most of lunch (but didn't eat anything), and then came inside and went to bed for almost 5 hours while the rest of us hung out. i think he's feeling a little better now, but we're cancelling our plans to play kickball with friends tomorrow. all that to say, though, it was really fun getting to see lori and aaron and meet their sweet (and very pudgy) baby girl. i'm glad to have them back nearby.
i think scott and i are heading to blockbuster to pick up a movie for tonight. we're still in the midst of our no-tv month, and it's been really good for us, but a) movies don't really entirely count, and b) scott's sick and i think having something to do while lounging around will be good. it's really interesting to realize how much we - who really don't even watch that much tv - use it to sort of fill the void, or just provide background, or let us just veg. i don't think tv's bad, but i think this month is a great exercise in making us realize how many other things there are to do at night. and in making us realize how much we tend to rely on tv - for instance, dinner's ready, so we both grab our plates and start to head to the basement to watch some tv while we eat. instead, we've been sitting outside on the patio and talking and enjoying the fresh air. two weeks down, three to go.
today was fun for me, slightly less so for scott. our good friends lori and aaron who moved to mexico to teach two years ago are finally back in colorado, so they and their three month old daughter clara, and mike and maura and kinley all came over for lunch and hanging out - we were tentatively planning to go hiking down in roxborough. while he was at men's group this morning, though, scott started feeling sick. he laid down for a few minutes before everyone got here, made it through most of lunch (but didn't eat anything), and then came inside and went to bed for almost 5 hours while the rest of us hung out. i think he's feeling a little better now, but we're cancelling our plans to play kickball with friends tomorrow. all that to say, though, it was really fun getting to see lori and aaron and meet their sweet (and very pudgy) baby girl. i'm glad to have them back nearby.
i think scott and i are heading to blockbuster to pick up a movie for tonight. we're still in the midst of our no-tv month, and it's been really good for us, but a) movies don't really entirely count, and b) scott's sick and i think having something to do while lounging around will be good. it's really interesting to realize how much we - who really don't even watch that much tv - use it to sort of fill the void, or just provide background, or let us just veg. i don't think tv's bad, but i think this month is a great exercise in making us realize how many other things there are to do at night. and in making us realize how much we tend to rely on tv - for instance, dinner's ready, so we both grab our plates and start to head to the basement to watch some tv while we eat. instead, we've been sitting outside on the patio and talking and enjoying the fresh air. two weeks down, three to go.
i'm so excited! (genuinely, not channeling jessie spano)
our 4th of july weekend was fun - lots of hanging out with friends and eating food that we didn't cook and lounging around. i did get a sunburn on friday because i decided it would be fun to lay out and tan, but skipped the sunscreen step. it wasn't that bad of a burn, though, and thanks to my constant aloe-ing, is mostly gone by now.
but what has me tremendously excited, though, is labor day weekend. yes, we have tons of fun just-us stuff planned this summer in colorado - mt. elbert and steamboat this month, camping with our sunday school class next month. but labor day weekend is when our good from andrew from college is getting married. it's been kind of a whirlwind romance - andrew and his fiancee met last fall when he moved back to the midwest for grad school, started dating last winter, and are now engaged to be married this fall. it'll be fun to meet the girl of his dreams, but the best and most thrilling part is that almost all of our good college friends will be there! two sets of friends will be bringing brand new babies - they're both due around the beginning of august, so depending on when the kids come, caleb and abba's axel and keith and amy's tbd will be 2-6 weeks old. not only that, but we haven't seen most of these people since our own wedding almost 4 years ago! it's going to be like a mini-reunion, and it's going to be fantastic. i've already started looking at dresses. (by which i mean, i was shopping for swimsuits at kohl's last week and walked past a dress that i thought was really cute, and then tried it on when i went back with scott this weekend to buy him shorts.) this is a fabulous summer!!!
but what has me tremendously excited, though, is labor day weekend. yes, we have tons of fun just-us stuff planned this summer in colorado - mt. elbert and steamboat this month, camping with our sunday school class next month. but labor day weekend is when our good from andrew from college is getting married. it's been kind of a whirlwind romance - andrew and his fiancee met last fall when he moved back to the midwest for grad school, started dating last winter, and are now engaged to be married this fall. it'll be fun to meet the girl of his dreams, but the best and most thrilling part is that almost all of our good college friends will be there! two sets of friends will be bringing brand new babies - they're both due around the beginning of august, so depending on when the kids come, caleb and abba's axel and keith and amy's tbd will be 2-6 weeks old. not only that, but we haven't seen most of these people since our own wedding almost 4 years ago! it's going to be like a mini-reunion, and it's going to be fantastic. i've already started looking at dresses. (by which i mean, i was shopping for swimsuits at kohl's last week and walked past a dress that i thought was really cute, and then tried it on when i went back with scott this weekend to buy him shorts.) this is a fabulous summer!!!
how is it july already?
|
labels:
photography,
summer
thus begins our tv-free month. we talked about cancelling cable for the summer since nothing's on, which spiraled into the idea of just ditching tv for the month of july. last night scott helped a friend move and i went swimsuit shopping, but we got in an episode of the closer and one everybody loves raymond before turning it off. i'm excited for us. i don't think we've ever done a tv-free month - scott did a sports-free month a few years ago - so it'll be a learning/growing experience for sure. one of our goals for the summer was to start reading the bible more together, so i think this will help us get in the swing of things. plus we have yard work, sunshine to enjoy, a pool to go to, plenty of fun things to do in denver ... and two vacations this month. (we also need to figure out how to limit internet for the month too, since it would make no sense to turn off the tv but still be camped in front of our computers all month ... maybe just e-mail at home and that's it? tbd.)
the weekend with my parents was really fun! we finally drove the length of guanella pass, which was beautiful, went to the botanic gardens, took in a free jazz concert at city park, grilled out and enjoyed our new patio set, and played a few rounds of boggle and scrabble (i won them all, of course). i took plenty of great photos, which are currently sitting on my laptop at home (with the bluegrass fest pics) waiting for me to sift through them and get them posted. maybe i'll do that at work tomorrow since no one will be in the office ...
speaking of photos, my dad brought his dslr out and let me play with it a bit. i've been wanting a dslr for a while, but have never used one before, so he explained some of the iso and aperture settings to me - fascinating stuff, let me tell you. since things often make more sense to me if i can either write them down or see them in writing, i went over to check out the pioneer woman's photography blog to see what she had to say. lo and behold, there's an entire section dedicating to dumbing down cool manual settings. as i was looking at my dad's camera this weekend, i had sudden realization that my point-and-shoot camera has some of those very same manual settings! since i do not have $800 stashed away to drop on a dslr at the moment, my plan is to see what i fun things i can do with my current camera while saving my spare pennies and trying to soften scott up to the idea of buying me a super nice camera. obviously there are limitations to my point-and-shoot, such as not being able to switch lenses, but i can at least teach myself the basics in the meantime. i think i do need to upgrade my memory card, though, since i'm still using the 256mb card the camera came with. oh 2004.
the weekend with my parents was really fun! we finally drove the length of guanella pass, which was beautiful, went to the botanic gardens, took in a free jazz concert at city park, grilled out and enjoyed our new patio set, and played a few rounds of boggle and scrabble (i won them all, of course). i took plenty of great photos, which are currently sitting on my laptop at home (with the bluegrass fest pics) waiting for me to sift through them and get them posted. maybe i'll do that at work tomorrow since no one will be in the office ...
speaking of photos, my dad brought his dslr out and let me play with it a bit. i've been wanting a dslr for a while, but have never used one before, so he explained some of the iso and aperture settings to me - fascinating stuff, let me tell you. since things often make more sense to me if i can either write them down or see them in writing, i went over to check out the pioneer woman's photography blog to see what she had to say. lo and behold, there's an entire section dedicating to dumbing down cool manual settings. as i was looking at my dad's camera this weekend, i had sudden realization that my point-and-shoot camera has some of those very same manual settings! since i do not have $800 stashed away to drop on a dslr at the moment, my plan is to see what i fun things i can do with my current camera while saving my spare pennies and trying to soften scott up to the idea of buying me a super nice camera. obviously there are limitations to my point-and-shoot, such as not being able to switch lenses, but i can at least teach myself the basics in the meantime. i think i do need to upgrade my memory card, though, since i'm still using the 256mb card the camera came with. oh 2004.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
