Mt. Sherman-Elevation 14,036 ft.

Here it is. The second 14'er we climbed this summer. This was actually about a month after we did Grey's Peak. Heather's husband Andrew works with a group of people who get together every August and do a group climb. This year we tagged along with him. The actual summit is a little bit further back from the farthest peak in the photo above. But from that point it's just a straight shoot to the summit, it doesn't even feel like you get any higher. You'll see from a pic I have posted later.

This climb was quite different than Grey's. For one, it was much easier. Not to say that it didn't take work, but we climbed it in half the time, and it was not nearly as steep an incline as Grey's so it was a gradual rise. As you can see in the pic above, this was an old mining region. Some of the old buildings are still standing, and water still runs out from some of the mines.

Here's Koa, sticking close by. How odd, eh?

Andrew saying, "Can you stop taking pictures of me and keep walking??"

This is a look back down to the valley where we started. Waaay down there.

Koa playing in the snow!

See how rocky it is? These trails were very slippery. Oddly enough, I didn't fall. I fell coming back down Grey's and actually cracked the face of my watch. But we actually took Koa off leash for this hike and I held onto her collar alot going down, so maybe she steadied me.

This is the ridiculous ridge we had to cross nearing the end of the climb. For the most part it wasn't too scary, but some places were really narrow and those loose rocks made me feel like one wrong step and you'd go tumbling down the back side of the mountain! Koa was a pro. When you read about hiking with your dog they say to assume that your dog will walk twice the distance that you walk. Now I know why. She would run up ahead of us, and then come back, and then run up ahead, and then come back! She is in the habit of nudging your legs when she comes back, so that adds to the nerves. Hence why I held her collar alot.

Looong ridge.

So once you cross the ridge and go up a few more feet, you think you have summited! No cigar my friend. See those people way in the distance? That is the summit. When I got up here and saw the people I just started laughing. I'm thinking, "Are you kidding me? Why can't the summit be right here. This is a good summity spot." So I had to take a picture of the specks in the distance because I just thought it was hilarious! Talk about exact science.

This is a photo from the top! This is actually Mt. Sheridan, which at a measley 13,900+ feet does not quite qualify as a Colorado 14'er.

Me, Peter, and Koa-Elevation 14,036 feet!!!!!!

Andrew decided to stay at the summit a little bit longer than Peter and I. Actually, Andrew had summitted and then decided to head back down to meet up with a few of his co-workers who were still climbing and he summitted again! It was pretty chilly at the top so by that time Peter and I decided to head back down. While we waited for Andrew, Peter caught some shut-eye...

...so did Koa.....

And I laid in the back of my Sante Fe and marveled at the gorgeous blue sky.

Colorado- from 14,036 feet or 5,280 feet, you gotta love it.

Thanks Mom and Dad, for taking the time when Jenn and I were younger to teach us how beautiful this place is. I think that's why I appreciate it so much now. I hope I can do the same for Ella and Blake.

For both of these climbs, Dad, I thought of you the whole way.

I can't wait to climb again next summer!

They Had The Right Stuff!!

Last night Me, Elizabeth, Heather, Shannon and Maria went to the New Kids on the Block concert!! While a few of our fellow fab fans were not with us....you were all in our thoughts!
I have to say, I was excited all day about the concert. But was apprehensive too. I kept thinking, "What if this show isn't any good?" and "What if they sing our favorite songs and they're just not how I remember them?"

All for naught! NKOTB is back! As the lights dimmed and the music started, the screen above the stage was flashing N....K...O...T....B, I leaned over to Elizabeth and said...."This isn't happening." She laughed and said, "I know! I feel like I'm ten years old!" It's hard to explain how surreal the whole experience was. As they finally made their way on stage it was crazy.....I couldn't help but think back 16 or 17 years ago when I was on the lawn at Fiddler's Green (no sponsor's name) losing my mind, and my voice, over these same five boys. Men now. And very good looking men at that!

One of my favorite parts was when Donnie was just passing time with the crowd while the guys did a quick change in the back, and he was walking up the stairs just kind of babbling about whatever and the all of a sudden says, "No more games is about positivity...." and the crowd went wild!" It was awesome...I hadn't even thought about them singing that song...but they did and it was awesome!
However, I thought the best song of the night was Step By Step. It was one of their encore songs and it really really took me back. They did the same dance, and Jordan even mimicked playing the fiddle. Again...awesome!

It was also really fun to see these guys now that we are all older. They really were a bunch of goof balls. Joey especially. They just seemed to be having so much fun up there. Except Jon....who was almost painful to watch sometimes.

Not only did the boys from Boston deliver on their oldies, but we all were pretty impressed with their new music. I will be purchasing the album this weekend! And so it begins alllll over again!
I was never really a fan of their first number one hit I'll Be Lovin' You Forever, but last night, as Jordan belted out the ballad, I thought that the title of the song could be no truer than last night--all of those screaming 30+ year old women (and a few of their husbands) still "Lovin" Donnie, Danny, Jonathan, Jordan, and Joe!

Here's to Hangin' Tough for 20 more years!

Okay, on to other news.
Ella can sit up by herself now!

And she also has two teeth on the bottom. I forgot to put that in my last post. She got them a few weeks ago. She's been doing really well. There was few times last weekend where she was pretty upset, but it's always hard to tell whether their gums hurt or whether they are just having a bad day. But she really likes to chew on her baby spoon so I give her that if she seems kind of fussy for no reason. Other than that though, she's a trooper.

She also had her 6 month check up last week. She is 17.8 lbs, and 27 in. long. The doc thought at first that we would need to be moving Ella into the next size car seat because most car seats for infants only hold them until they are 29in. But actually when she read the side of our seat it goes up to 32in!. So I can hold off a bit longer on buying the new seat. We must have had subconcious inklings that our child would be long.

She also had to get 4 shots. Ugh! I hate that. But again, she was a trooper. She cried for all the sticks but was calming down by the time the nurse was putting on the band-aids, and by the time I picked her up, she had found her thumb and was happy again.

Here's some more pics of her.

This is Jenn and Francis' tea leaf plant that they left with me when they moved to Hawaii. I just wanted to post a pic of it for them to see. I thought for sure I would kill it, but I'm pretty proud of myself. It's really doing well! I'm going to put it up on a table in this room so that all of it can get the sunlight that it seems to love.

And these last few picks are of Koa and Venessa's and Bar-El's dog To-Ku(sp?) The name is pronounced "toe-coo". Anyway, this huge mammoth of a dog is still a puppy. If I remember correctly she is about six months old now. She's way bigger than Koa! But they love to play together so that's really nice.

That's it for now. I'll hopefully have some time this weekend to get those pics of our other mountain climb this past summer.

So Much Time and So Little To Tell...

Strike That...Reverse It.

Once again, time has gotten away from me. I suppose if I didn't go to bed the same time that Ella does, then I would be able to keep up with the blog a little bit more, but really, when it comes to sleep....I try to get all I can!

So since we last "visited", Ella had a new friend! Connor is doing well. Still the tiniest thing ever...compared to Ella!

Ella is now eating rice cereal everyday at the babysitter's house, and on the weekends I try to add in some bananas or pears. It's a whole learning experience for both of us, so sometimes I get frustrated, but for the most part she's too dang cute to stay mad at! She really likes to just play with the spoon, so I've taken to using two spoons-- she can play with one and when she opens her mouth to chew on that one, I stick the one with food on it in her mouth! It's a whole ordeal. It's kinda crazy.

Look Mom, I can do it myself!



Muuuuaahhh!

What? That stuff was supposed to go IN my mouth??

Ella has also started to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. She gets around pretty well by army crawling, but soon enough she will be all over the real thing.


By the way...I turned six months old when these pictures of me were taken! And the next day Barack Obama will be elected President of the United States of America!!




Halloween was lots of fun this year. We actually got trick-or-treaters so that was cool. A few weeks before Halloween we visited Nick's Farmer's Market to pick out pumpkins. And the next weekend we took Blake and Ella to Heritage Square and rode some rides and painted some pumpkins.
On Halloween night my parents and Heather, Andrew, Connor, Shannon, and Elizabeth came over for a night of Scrabble and and tag teaming the trick-or treaters! (One person had to hold Koa back and the other had to hand out the candy!)


Me, Blake, and Peter at Nick's

Big punkins....



Lil' punkins.

This guy was handing out hot cider.....Even though he was a stutue Blake opted to stay out of this photo!
Getting ready to show off the cosutmes at Heritage Square

Painting pumpkins
I'm a corn husk people....not a caterpillar!

Mr. Connor was a police officer....
he must have had a long shift!

It's been a long month! So much has and is happening, I'm sure I have forgotten to update you on everything. And with Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, it only looks to get even more hectic! This year my goal is to actually send Christmas cards. I should probably start on that now!

Hope everyone is doing well. I will try to be in touch more often.

A New Friend!

On October 10th Connor James was born. Here's a few photos.
I'll let the proud new parents give all the details.

So sweet! E.J & C. J.

Our New Hobby

A few weeks before I returned to work from maternity leave Peter and I decided we would like to start climbing fourteeners. So we did.

Grays Peak - Elevation 14,270 feet

Grays peak is to the left. Torreys Peak is to the right. It is common for most climbers to do a combination climb and do both peaks in one day. Being our first 14'er there was no way I was attempting to do both! But we will certainly go back and tackle Torreys someday.

This is a close-up of Torreys

A close-up of the saddleback between the two peaks

Water break!

Pup and the proud dog mom

Colorado Columbine


Getting closer... The peak is not the one in this picture. You actual follow a switchback and start a particulary steep incline to the top of Grays.

We're at the top! This is a view down the backside of the mountain. You really realize how small and perhaps insignificant we tiny little humans are!

Grays is one of the most popular fourteeners to climb. Can you tell! This is the top. And this is not showing any of the people behind me.

A view of Torreys from the top of Grays

All three of us- Elevation 14,270 feet!!!!

We climbed Mt. Sherman in August. I will post those pics tomorrow night.