Daron and Rachael SHORT

3,421 miles + 85 friends & family = The Midwest Tour

2012-01-02T20:44:00.012-07:00

Finally, it is time to move on from the grotesque picture of Daron's knee and on to our busy, but incredible, Midwest Tour. Here are some highlights from each state (in no particular order):

INDIANA:
Watching the Crossroads Classic basketball games- Butler/Purdue and Indiana/Notre Dame
Playing the new disc golf course @ the park
Bowling
Walking to the park with Sawyer, Ben, and Belle
Watching the traditional "Christmas Vacation" movie
Enjoying coffee made by "barista Daron" with his new French press

MICHIGAN:
Creating gingerbread houses (and eating a little candy while we were at it)
Flying a remote-control airplane at the park
Reading books and playing dolls with our beautiful nieces
Playing the disc golf course at Garfield Park
Catching up with extended family and high school friends

OHIO:
Touring Akron, Ohio with Josh and Kristi with a special stop at Swenson's for dinner
Playing euchre (the girls had an awesome comeback!)
Enjoying time with the Short family
Introducing Belle to her first feline friend-Buckeye

INDIANA:
Relaxing at Molly's cottage on Lake George
Eating incredible cuisine made by Molly (including the best homemade ice cream EVER!)
Reconnecting with college friends (plus the newest (and cutest) addition- Ms. Whitney)
Watching the Indiana/Ohio State game at Erika's house

A Season for Slowing down

2011-11-02T09:47:00.009-07:00

Daron's ACL surgery on October 12th officially marked a much needed season of slowing down for the Short family. The surgery went very well and his recovery is going a lot smoother than we anticipated. We even made it to the state tennis tournament on the 14th and 15th to see Air Academy take 4th in the state and win the sportsmanship award, which was a huge accomplishment after a rough season last year with the boys. The weather this fall has been beautiful and the trees have been brilliantly colored because of the high levels of moisture this year. I have become slightly addicted to pinterest, which has resulted in a lot of cooking and baking. For some reason I have always been a little intimidated by soup recipes, but this fall I have really enjoyed experimenting with making stock from scratch and trying my hand at lots of different soups. To celebrate fall to the fullest, we had an Oktoberfest party with some of our friends complete with delectable fall foods, pumpkin carving, and a backyard bonfire. Belle suffered through another Halloween this year as a "watchdog." We continued our tradition with the Betz's by having a fire in their driveway and handing out candy. We are really looking forward to visiting the Midwest for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which are quickly approaching!

1 week after surgery. Looking pretty good, eh?

Oktoberfest with friends.

Playing in the leaves.

Belle's Halloween costume.

Fall Backpacking Trip with the boys

2011-10-22T10:46:00.008-07:00

My hiking buddies from work and I had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. Another trip to the San Juan's was in order as our final excursion of the year. Uncompahgre, Wetterhorn and Matterhorn were the peaks we were after. We packed up the cars early Saturday morning and headed for the scenic route along the Silver Thread Scenic Byway to Lake City. The forecast had turned quite precarious over the past week and we knew we'd be in for some precip on this trip. After lunch at Poker Alice in Lake City, we headed out on the dirt road towards the trailhead. It was misting/raining steadily and we were not looking forward to packing in to camp in the wet weather. We met the 4x4 junction and I decided to give it a shot in the Subaru. As we headed slowly up another couple of miles, the rain gradually turned to snow. By the time we made it to the trailhead it was full on snowing: big wet flakes. We decided to wait it out in the cars for a bit to see if it let up before putting the packs on. Most of us got a great little snooze in and after 30 minutes or so, the snow was letting up and the sun started to poke through! We eagerly put our packs on and headed out into the wilderness. After setting up camp, we were anxious to get out and try to knock off Matterhorn (a 13,590' peak situated right between Wetterhorn & Uncompahgre). The hike took longer than anticipated with the fresh snowfall, but it was quite gorgeous. Very peaceful and serene. Due to the late hour and fresh snow, we were the only hikers within miles. There were still some clouds swirling around the mountains and the sun was setting, so after summiting we pranced through the snow back down to camp and ate our freeze dried meals. The next day we woke up later than expected when no one heard the alarm that was set. It was probably a good thing in the end. We needed the rest after our late night summit. After breakfast we headed out towards Uncompahgre. Because of the snow we were able to try a shorter (albeit harder) approach up a loose talus slope. It wasn't the most fun part of the hike, but it did save us some time (also zapped a lot of energy). We all reached the summit around 11:30 and decided that a combo summit of Wetterhorn probably wasn't in the cards for us. We were wet, tired, and hungry and the previous day's snow would make a Wetterhorn summit much more complicated than dry conditions. The scenery was splendid though. Fresh snow in the San Juans, the sun shining down to warm our cheeks against the crisp summit breeze. We soaked it in for a good 30 minutes while coming up with a new game plan. Our new idea was to try and head over to Ouray and hit the hot springs. The problem was there is no easy way to get there and the snow would make the passes nearly impassable. We headed down the mountain enjoying the beauty and thinking of what our options were. After making it back to camp, all of our boots were soaked through and we were feeling pretty miserable about the idea of spending another night on the frosty ground. In the end, we decided to pack up camp right away and pack out. We made it back to the cars around 4:00 PM and headed back to Lake City for a hot meal. After some great BBQ we started the long trek back to C/S and made it home around 11:00 PM. A long day for sure, but a great weekend. We're all looking forward to getting back to this gorgeous area to tackle Wetterhorn in the future.

upon arriving at the TH

fresh snowfall.

Belle's packed up.

more snow.

summit of Matterhorn.

sunset behind Wetterhorn.

talking routes up Uncompahgre.

Wetterhorn & Matterhorn profiles

heading up Uncompahgre's slopes

summit shot with the boys.

summit shot with Belle.

heading down, peak securely in bag.

packed up and out.

great day in the mountains!

Fall

2011-10-09T13:52:00.005-07:00

It is definitely fall here in Colorado Springs; actually, it felt more like winter here this weekend as we got a few inches of snow and struggled to hit 40 degrees on Saturday. Today the snow has melted, but the whole ordeal made us realize that we need to soak as much of the beautiful fall weather up as we can before winter officially hits. After our backpacking trip at the beginning of the month, the rest of the month was pretty much a blur. Daron has been working hard balancing his job and coaching tennis, and I have been trying to keep myself afloat at work while working at sporting events after school. Daron has his ACL surgery on Wednesday, which will be a much needed slow down at the Short household. I have fall break this week, so I will be at his beck and call for a few days. I have also been stockpiling recipes off of pinterest that I am eager to try this week. Please pray that his surgery goes well, and more importantly, that his recovery goes smoothly over the next 6-9 months.

A couple weekends ago my grandma and grandpa made the journey from Michigan and spent some time exploring Colorado before they came and spent the weekend with us. We had a fabulous time with them and perfect weather to top it all off. On Saturday we went up Pike's Peak on the cog, which was something Daron and I had wanted to do for a while now. It was great to soak up the beauty of the mountain without having to climb it on our own two feet. The yellow aspens were beautiful in the high elevations, and it was calm and sunny at the summit. After we got down from the cog, we headed over to Garden of the Gods for a picnic and a short walk. On Sunday we enjoyed a relaxing day with them as well before they took off on Monday morning.

on the way up

view from the summit

Last weekend we were able to get out for a fall hike and drive. We had not hiked the Crags trail in a while, so we headed that way and were not disappointed. The leaves were at their peak color, and the view from the top of the Crags was stunning. We also continued to drive along Hwy 67 towards Cripple Creak, which was breathtaking. I will never say that fall here in Colorado is more beautiful than the Midwest, since the Midwest colors are much more diverse, but there is something to be said about the bright yellow aspen trees against the evergreen trees in the mountains.

Four Pass Loop: Add it to your Bucket List

2011-09-08T19:24:00.013-07:00

Depending on how adventurous you want your bucket list to be, the Four Pass Loop might just be one of those trips that you should add to your list. Over Labor Day weekend Daron and I embarked on an incredible backpacking trip with our friends Matt and Jess. We took off on Friday at 3:00 a.m. (not my normal wake-up time) and drove to the Maroon Bells outside of Aspen. Even the view from the parking lot was stunning, which continued throughout our four day trip, covering 26 miles of trail over four 12,500 ft. passes. Our first challenge was Buckskin Pass, which Daron and I climbed last summer; however, it was a little more challenging with the weight of our packs on our backs. We saw a sole mountain goat a little ways off the trail and enjoyed the view from the pass as we ate our lunch. We made it down to our first campsite, situated right on Lake Snowmass, at around 3:00 in the afternoon, which gave us plenty of time to relax on the lakeshore overlooking the mountains that rose right out of the lake. The boys went for a refreshing swim while the girls soaked up some sun. We voted on eating Santa Fe Chicken and Rice for dinner, which was incredibly tasty, and then eagerly got camp packed up so that we could get some much needed sleep in the tent. We got in the tent just as a small rain/hail storm rolled through our area and even managed to stay awake for a game of Skip-Bo before we crashed into our sleeping bags.

Maroon Bells

Going up Buckskin Pass surrounded by wildflowers

Pass #1: Buckskin

camping seat = best idea ever!

Takin' a dip in Snowmass Lake

Daron decided to tackle another 14er while we were on our trip, so he woke up as the sun rose on Saturday and headed out to bag Snowmass Peak. After trekking a ways down the wrong trail, he ended up scrambling down a steep slope onto the right trail and made his way to the summit. The rest of us were still sound asleep in the tent until about 9:30 a.m. (trying to catch up on our lack of sleep from the night before). It was great to have a slow morning complete with a cup of hot chocolate overlooking the lake and time to sit and read in the sun. Daron got back around 12:30, so we got a late start on the trail around 1:30. We had heard horror stories about our next pass, Trail Rider, so we were prepared for a very hard day even though we were not planning on covering very many miles. The pass ended up not being that bad, but the descent on the other side was a bit of a challenge because it was very steep. However, the views made up for it. Everywhere we looked it was amazing- lush green fields, wildflowers, stunning mountains, aspen groves, etc. We finally made it to a campsite around 6:30 p.m., after a chilly stream crossing, and quickly set up camp and made some Chilly Mac for dinner (Daron's favorite).

sunrise

Snowmass Peak

Pass #2: Trail Rider

We woke up on Sunday morning to another perfectly beautiful day. It is amazing how long it can take to get ready in the morning when you are backpacking. It took us a while to make oatmeal, purify water, break down camp, and pack everything up again in our bags before we hit the trail again. Our goal was to make it over two passes, so we wanted to get somewhat of an early start to our long hiking day. We made it over Frigid Air pass and enjoyed the breathtaking views and the incredible wildflowers as we hiked between Frigid Air and West Maroon Pass. We all felt very accomplished as we made the last couple steps up the final pass of the loop. After descending into the valley, we found a beautiful campsite around tree line that was close the river and overlooked the mountains around us. Our gourmet dinner of choice that night was Chipotle Chicken Pasta topped off with hot chocolate and a fun-size Snickers bar. There had been a couple of bear attacks around the area we were in, so I was a little on edge the last night. I thought I heard something trying to move our packs, so I woke Daron up, but he didn't think it was anything. I also heard some of our trekking poles fall over, but I thought it was the wind. When we woke up in the morning we discovered that some marmots had eaten the hand grips on some of the trekking poles. I knew I wasn't just hearing things in my head!

Pass #3: Frigid Air

Pass #4: West Maroon

wildflowers galore

On Monday we had a pretty easy hike out. It was great to get an early start and we all enjoyed the peaceful coolness of hiking in the morning hours. Even though our feet, hips, and shoulders were sore from hiking and carrying our packs and we hadn't had showers for days, we all felt pretty good physically and we almost didn't want to leave the trail. The beauty and peacefulness that continually surrounded us on the trail was incredible. We had perfect weather- sunny, warm days and cool nights. We even met some pretty cool people on the trail, including a ranger named Andrew who we saw multiple times. It was definitely a hard reality check coming back to our everyday life on Tuesday morning.

morning view

Full circle... back at Maroon Lake

To view more photos CLICK HERE.

East Coast Road Trip

2011-08-10T20:15:00.018-07:00

Since we had such a blast covering the West Coast last summer, we decided to tackle the East Coast this summer with our college friends, Josh and Kristi Miller. On Tuesday night we flew into Newark, NJ and met Josh and Kristi, who drove from their home in Ohio. We woke up bright and early on Wednesday and set out into New York City (after sitting in traffic of course!). After experiencing the adventure of navigating through and finding a parking garage in the city, we grabbed some breakfast and made our way to Central Park. The sheer size of the park itself was overwhelming, let alone the whole city! After exploring the park, we covered lots of miles on foot between Central Park and the tip of Lower Manhattan, where we jumped on the free Staten Island ferry. Along the way we saw most of the touristy things that New York City has to offer- 30 Rock, Grand Central Station, the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Wall Street, etc. Ironically, the C&MA had a 15 second spot that aired every hour on one of the jumbotrons in Times Square, and when we finally found it, the C&MA ad was on the screen! (Check out www.cmalliance.org. to see more.) We also ate dinner at a place called John's Pizzaria, which was the former location for the first C&MA church where A.B. Simpson laid it down. After dinner it started to rain, so we didn't stay very long in the city before we headed out for an overnight in Connecticut on our way to Boston.

Central Park.

City streets.

Give me liberty or give me death.

Times Square.

On Thursday we drove to our friend Dwight's house, who calls Boston home these days, and set out to tour the historic city. We started out our time in Boston grabbing some lunch and walking around the campus of Harvard. From there we took the T to the center of the city and followed the Freedom Trail around to many of the historical sites including the King's Chapel, the State House, Paul Revere's house, and the Old North Church. We spent time walking around the Old North End, exploring the winding brick streets with cute little boutiques and apartments. After that we walked down by the river, filled with lots of beautiful sailboats, to Fenway Park for dinner and then got to see a Red Sox vs. Indians game at the historic ballpark. Our experience in Boston was incredible and we loved the mix of modern and historic in the city.

Feeling smarter while hanging around Harvard Square.

The Old State House built in 1713.

With our Bostonian friend, Dwight.

Catchin' a game at Fenway.

Friday morning we woke up before dawn and headed for the small coastal town of Boothbay, Maine. We took a whale watching tour with Cap'N Fish's Whale Watching Tours. It was great to be out on the water and the weather was beautiful-smooth seas, warm sun, and some scattered clouds; however, we didn't see very much wild life. We saw some harbor seals, porpoises, and a couple of minke whales (which looked like big dolphins from the top of the water). After eating a wonderful lunch overlooking the harbor we made our way up to Acadia National Park. We set up camp and then made it to the top of Cadillac Mountain just in time to see a beautiful sunset over the park. For dinner we made our camping classic, pizza pies and s'mores, and then we crashed in the tent.

Whale watchin'.

Lobster bouys.

Sunset from Cadillac Mountain.

Ready for bed.

We woke up Saturday morning and headed out to the Precipice trailhead in Acadia. The Precipice is an almost vertical climb with rungs and ladders that goes up over 1,000 to the top of Champlain Mountain. It was an awesome experience with incredible views of the surrounding area, but definitely not a climb for the faint of heart. It was also quite hot and humid, way more so than we expected, which made the beach look very inviting. From the top of Champlain we hiked down the ridge to the top of the Beehive trail, which I remember doing with my family when I was in middle school. We climbed down the Beehive and walked to Sand Beach dreaming of the cool water. It turned out that the water was very cool, "refreshing" as Michiganders would put it, so Daron was the only one who managed to get all the way in. The Maine coast was spectacular and it was great to meander our way from Sand Beach to Otter Point, hopping from rock to rock, taking lots of pictures as we went. After exploring much of the natural beauty of Acadia, we made our way to Bar Harbor for some ice cream in the park overlooking the beautiful harbor. We tried to catch the sunset again on Cadillac Mountain, but the clouds came in so we didn't see much. We had a scrumptious dinner of baked beans, hotdogs, and s'mores and then spent another cozy night in the tent.

Hiking the Precipice Trail.

View from the Beehive.

Rock climbers.

Hangin' out in Bar Harbor.

Sunday morning started off a little rainy while we packed up our campsite and then it rained on and off throughout the day as we drove down Highway 1. We quickly realized that Highway 1 on the East Coast is very different than the one on the West Coast. Highway 1 on the East Coast does not run right next to the ocean like the West Coast, but it does hit all the little, charming coastal towns. The first town we spent time in was Camden, which is known as one of the prettiest coastal towns, but it was pouring rain while we were there so we didn't get to see it in all its glory. For lunch we stopped at a place called Wicked Good Restaurant to experience a traditional Maine meal complete with lobster, fries, blueberry cobbler, and some whoopie pies for the road. I am sure we looked like rookies trying to get the meat out of the lobsters, but we had a good time trying it! Then we headed to Portland and spent time exploring the Portland Head Lighthouse. From there we made a quick stop in Kennebunkport to see the beaches and the quaint little town and then set up camp at Riverside Campground. We had pizza pies again after struggling to get some wet logs lit- we basically had a paper fire going for the first half hour while the wood dried enough to burn!

Sunrise in Acadia N.P.

Coastline.

Gotta eat some LOBSTER!

Portland Head Lighthouse.

Clear skies greeted us on Monday morning as we packed up camp for the last time and drove to Ogunquit for breakfast and a walk along Marginal Way, which is a beautiful path along the rugged shoreline. It was incredibly relaxing and refreshing to smell the salty water and feel the sun on our faces as we took in our surroundings. After our stroll we drove on to York Beach to see the famous Nubble Lighthouse, which was breathtaking (probably my favorite lighthouse). We also took a barefoot walk along Long Sands Beach, enjoying the refreshing water and the beach atmosphere. We ended our Maine experience with a visit to a famous ice cream parlor, Brown's Old Fashioned Ice Cream, and all enjoyed large waffle cones with wonderfully homemade ice cream. It was the perfect ending to a fabulous East Coast trip. Josh and Kristi dropped us off at the Boston-Logan airport on their way back to Ohio. We ended up missing our connecting flight in St. Louis, so we spent the night there (luckily on Southwest's bill) and made it back to the Springs on Tuesday morning.

Foggy morning.

Shorts & Millers dominating the East Coast.

Marginal Way coastline in Ogunquit, ME.

Getting our ice cream on at Brown's Famous.

To view more photos CLICK HERE.

Dad's visit = DIY project + 14er

2011-07-30T12:53:00.008-07:00

Last week Daron's dad made the trip out here to spend some time with us, which included retiling our shower and climbing another 14er. This summer has been pretty chaotic the past couple weeks, so needless to say, we were out looking to buy tile the day before our actual project (not ideal). After realizing that we would need to order the tile that we first picked out, we headed to Home Depot and Lowe's to find something similar and get all of our supplies. Since we had never tiled before this was all new territory for us, so ready-or-not we jumped feet first into the world of tiling with very little knowledge on our part of what was to come. This project involved borrowing tools from friends, making many trips to area hardware stores, renting tools, coming up with plan Bs, and even hiring our wonderful friend Don to come over and help with the plumbing. Daron and his dad did most of the tiling work, which turned out beautifully, and I was just the sidekick that did odds and ends and, most importantly, made sure they were well-fed. On Friday we hooked up with some of Daron's family- his Uncle Tim and Tim's Dad, Ron- to hike Quandary Peak. We left Colorado Springs at a very ungodly hour and started hiking by 7:30 am from the trailhead near Breckenridge. On our way to the trailhead I realized that I had forgotten my coat and trekking poles at home, due to my lack of consciousness at that time of day, but luckily it was an absolutely beautiful day with very warm temperatures so my coat would have been overkill. The hike was about 6 miles round trip and the best part about it was all of the mountain goats that littered the mountain as we climbed. Belle was on high alert the whole time and, when the opportunity arose, she definitely gave them a run for their money. Daron's dad and his Uncle Tim both made it to the summit in better shape than the year before on Mount Elbert. The view was incredible, and it was fun to see many of the peaks we have already done from the summit. We ate a fantastic dinner at Chipotle and then pretty much crashed that night. On Saturday morning we met up with Daron's family again to climb the incline in Manitou. Tim was very motivated to climb since he had already boughten a shirt that claimed he "survived the incline" a couple days before and Tyler was ready to go as well since he had not climbed the day before. It was very warm and very busy, but we ended up making it to the top with respectable times (around 1 hr.). That night we had all of them over for dinner and some ladder golf and Daron and his dad finished up some of the tiling in the bathroom. On Sunday we went to church and then we worked on grouting the tile and washing the residue off of the tiles, which was a very lengthy and patience-testing task. Only after we had all of the tile up and ready to go did we realize that we would need to rework the plumbing in order to put on new hardware, so we decided that we would rather cut a hole into our toilet room wall rather than rip out the tile that we had just put in. Our friend Don came over and helped us with the plumbing, which was a huge life-saver. Although the project had a couple bumps in the road, we are so thankful that we had Daron's dad here to help us tackle it and we absolutely love our new shower. It was great to spend some quality time with Daron's dad and we look forward to hiking more 14ers with him in the future (and possibly a couple more DIY projects).

before

demolition

cutting tile

tiling

washing, washing, washing, etc.

finished!

Quandary Summit! (more photos to come!)

mountain goats

Top of the Incline

Cooties: The Boy's Trip

2011-07-27T14:08:00.001-07:00

Post coming soon

Cooties: The Girl's Trip

2011-07-20T10:57:00.007-07:00

This past weekend Daron and I split up and did different backpacking trips- boys and girls. We both had fantastic trips, but definitely VERY different experiences. Jess, Allie, Elizabeth, and I headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday morning, and after getting our backcountry permit and the required bear canister, we drove to the Wild Basin trailhead. We quickly realized that the bear canister was not going to hold as much as we initially thought, so we started purging out unnecessary supplies, such as deodorant:). We hiked in almost 2 miles to our campsite, which was situated on a bluff overlooking the valley below. After we got the camp set up a thunderstorm rolled in, so we took cover in the tent and enjoyed sharing stories and just spending quality time together. After exploring the area a little bit we made dinner- potatoes, vegetable soup, and chicken- and then crawled into our sleeping bags for a pretty good night of sleep. We woke up around 8:00, mostly because it got really hot in the tent, and after gobbling up some oatmeal we started hiking up to Bluebird Lake. We made it to within a mile of the lake and then lost the trail because of avalanche damage. We tried scrambling up a ridge to try to find the trail and get our bearings, but unfortunately we couldn't locate the trail so we headed back a different way stopping at Ouzel Lake, Ouzel falls, and Calypso Cascades, which were all breathtaking. When we got back to camp we relaxed, took naps, and read some books before dinner. We kept having to dodge storms throughout the evening, but nothing too severe. We played Phase 10 in the tent and then enjoyed another good night of sleep. Sunday morning we packed up our site and headed back to the trailhead. We meandered through Estes Park for a while after stopping at the Donut Haus. From there we drove to Denver and ate juicy burgers at the Vine Street Pub and then dropped Allie off at the airport. On our way from Denver back to Colorado Springs we got a flat tire on the highway, so AAA came and saved the day (we figured that three girls, just feet from the highway traffic, trying to change a tire for the first time would be a little too much adventure for one day). Overall it was an incredible trip with some even more incredible ladies who I love and cherish deeply.

Tough Girls with Long's Peak in the background

Heading out from the trailhead

Copeland Falls

Near Ouzel Lake

pure strength

Calypso Cascades

Beautiful church near Estes Park

Side of the highway

Back to the Heartland!

2011-07-13T13:08:00.007-07:00

We have just returned from our annual summer heartland tour- Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. It was a fantastic trip spent with lots of great friends and family from the Midwest. On Thursday, June 30th we headed out after Daron got home from work and stayed with the Clark family in Topeka. Then we made our way to Indiana to spend some time with Daron's family, complete with three golden retrievers in the mix now! Belle, Sawyer, and Ben romped around the yard and wore each other out. Daron, Erika, and I went to the community pool one afternoon to enjoy some respite from the hot temperatures (and so that I could go down the water slide as many times as I could!). We went out to a great little pizza place called Willard's in Franklin and really just enjoyed relaxing with everyone. On Sunday we made the 3 hour drive to Columbus to see our good friends, Emily and Ryan, and their new baby girl, Whitney. We also had a surprise visit from Josh and Kristi while we were there, which was really fun. Ryan and Emily took us out to a fantastic BBQ place called City BBQ and then to Jeni's for some incredible ice cream. On the 4th of July we drove back to Indiana and went to the Indianapolis fireworks at night with Daron's parents. On Tuesday we drove up to Michigan with a stop in Huntington to see some other friends- Molly, Zak, and Andy- and walk around the beautiful campus, reminiscing about our college years. We made it up to my parent's cottage on Lake Michigan for dinner. The days we got to spend at the lake were fabulous-lots of sun, warm water, delicious food, and plenty of time outdoors. Daron got to play golf at his favorite course, Benona Shores, three times while we were there, improving his score each time he went. My parents took us out to a great restaurant in Pentwater to celebrate my graduation, which was a lot of fun. On our way to the restaurant my mom saw some signs for strawberries, so we drove around trying to locate the strawberry stand only to find out that they only had "you pick" available. So my mom convinced all of us to get out of the car in our somewhat nice clothes and pick strawberries. It was definitely worth it because the strawberries were to die for-sweet and juicy! We were able to get out on the catamaran a couple of times, although there was very little wind the whole time we were at the lake. On Thursday some of my friends from high school came up for the day and it was great hanging out with them and catching up on their lives. Daron tried his hand at windsurfing as well, after a lesson from our friend Mark, who made it look a lot easier than it actually is. At night we had a beach bonfire and tried out a new form of s'mores with Reeses' cups in them. On Saturday we were honored to photograph Brandon and Kendra's wedding in Pentwater. It was an incredibly beautiful day and we had a blast taking pictures at the beach and other locations with our good friends. On Sunday we had breakfast back in Grand Rapids with my family and Susan and Michael, and then we headed back down to Indiana (with another stop at Ritter's) before we completed the 17 hour drive from Indianapolis to Colorado Springs. We are continually thankful for our friends and family back in the Midwest and we always look forward to spending time with them.

Took the pups to Johnson County Park for a swim.

Belle, Sawyer & Ben.

Cousins.

Family photo.

Tired pup.

Folks waiting for the fireworks downtown.

Little Ms. Whitney Holliday.

Impromptu strawberry pickin'.

Grandma managed to keep her white pants spotless.

Calm water.

Trying a little wind surfing (without much wind).

Mark was a little better.

Relaxing.

Worth the trip to MI just for this.

The sun sets on another great vaca.

DEmocrat + CAmeron + LIncoln + BROss = DECALIBROn

2011-06-29T08:42:00.010-07:00

This past weekend Daron organized another hiking outing into the mountains to conquer four 14ers- Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross- which all together are called "Decalibron." We enjoyed having other friends and co-workers join us for the day. Daron and Ron camped at the trailhead, but the rest of us left the Springs at 4:30 am (not my optimal waking time!). We started hiking at the Kite Lake Trailhead around 8:00 am. Since we had record snow fall in the mountains this past winter, there was still a lot of snow up on the peaks. We had a lot of different level of hikers with us on the trip, some who had never climbed a 14er before, so we all went at different paces and some only conquered a couple of the mountains, while most of us bagged all 4 of them. The views were incredible from the peaks and the weather was pretty comfortable as well- LOTS of sun! I had my first experience with glissading (sliding down the snow on your butt!). It is definitely a very efficient way to go down the mountain, but you need to have the right conditions to make it worth your while. The entire loop for the 4 mountains is just over 7 miles long, which is not bad, but the fact that you spend so much time hiking at high altitude makes it difficult and draining. I was sound asleep by 9:00 that night after another great day in the mountains.

The whole group: 12 humans, 3 dogs

snow!

w/ Jenn on Democrat

Belle eyeing Jeff's jerky

Group shot on Lincoln

Heading down from Bross

Glissade!

Mt. Antero

2011-06-20T11:07:00.014-07:00

While Rachael was back home in MI with family, I got together with a few guys from work to hit up our first mountain ascent of the summer hiking season, Mt. Antero (14,269'). We left my house early to make the well-known drive west to Buena Vista via the Donut Mill in Woodland Park. Mt. Antero sits just south of Mt. Princeton and north of Tabeguache and Shavano in the southern Sawatch Range. Upon arriving at the trailhead I quickly discovered that the Subie wasn't going to make it as far up the 4x4 road as I thought, so we ended up adding over 5 miles to our roundtrip hike. Oh well, you can never have too much mountain, right? We all reached the summit just in time for a quick storm to blow over us. It's amazing how quickly weather can change at that altitude. Thankfully it was on us and over us in less than 15 minutes, but when you're above tree line with no protection, it can seem like much longer. After the long slog of switchbacks was over and we were back at the car, we started dreaming about our upcoming meal at Coyote Cantina. Chimichangas and burritos all around! After we were adequately stuffed, we sauntered back to the car for the lazy drive home up Hwy 24 with another successful climb under each of our belts.

liquid ice crossing about 3 miles in.

enjoying the hike with Belle.

summit ridge.

Belle urging us on.

summit shot.

quick photo before the descent.

taking in the view after the storm passed.

on the way down.

switchbacks.

4th Anniversary in the San Juan Mountains

2011-06-20T11:07:00.010-07:00

For our 4 year anniversary we decided to head to a part of Colorado that we have not had the chance to explore yet- the Silver Thread Scenic Byway. We took off on Friday morning after grabbing a 99 cent heaping cup of fabulous ice-cream from YoYogurt. We meandered our way to South Fork, CO, where we joined the Silver Thread Byway. The drive was absolutely breathtaking, making this one of our very favorite places in Colorado. The colors were stunning- lush green meadows and aspen groves, red rocks, white snow, and bright blue skies. We stopped at North Clear Creek Falls and hiked around a bit. We were surprised to have the falls pretty much to ourselves. After that we made our way to Lake City to camp at Mill Creek Campground. As we were talking to our neighbors at the campground, a couple of moose walked straight through the campground right by us. It was an exciting moment to be so close to them and it was the first time we had seen moose in Colorado since we moved out here. We savored some hobo pizza pies around the fire for dinner and then enjoyed our first night in our new tent. We woke up early and headed to what we thought was the trailhead after eating some hot oatmeal. Unfortunately, after hiking for about an hour, we realized that it was not the right trail so we had to head back the way we came. We drove to another trailhead farther down the road, close to Cinnamon Pass, and got a late start at the Grizzly Gulch trailhead. The hike up Redcloud was absolutely stunning, following Silver Creek up a valley for most of the way. We did run into quite a few snow patches on the way up, but for the most part we were able to walk on top of the snow without post-holing (aka sinking into the snow). After summiting Redcloud, Daron continued on and bagged Sunshine as well, while Belle and I soaked in the view on Redcloud and enjoyed the very comfortable summit temperatures. We made great time coming down from the summit, with dreams of a hot tub waiting for us at the bed and breakfast we were going to stay at. We ate dinner at a fun little place in Lake City and then made our way back to South Fork to stay at the Arbor House Inn Bed and Breakfast. We definitely made use of the hot tub, situated right on the Rio Grande river, as soon as we got there. It was the perfect ending to our adventurous day in the mountains, covering over 10 miles of trail. On Sunday morning we got up and enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast of eggs, sausage, and cinnamon rolls, along with fruit and yogurt. After breakfast we drove to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, where we spent our 2 year anniversary while I was going to Adams State College. We started to hike up the dunes, but then got turned around because the sand was getting hot and we didn't wear shoes. It was relaxing to stroll up the slowly flowing Medano Creek, surrounded by the dunes and mountains. Belle apparently had some unused energy from the hike the day before and so she ran around in the creek, happy as can be. After that we were ready to make the 3 hour drive back to Colorado Springs. Overall the trip was fantastic and we would love to make it back to that area during the fall time to see all of the aspen or in the winter to ski at Wolf Creek. It is crazy to think that four years ago we took a leap of faith as a newly wed couple and moved to Colorado; it has been an incredible journey exploring Colorado together since then and we look forward to many more adventures.

North Clear Creek Falls

Moose

New tent nestled by the river

Redcloud Summit

Lake San Cristobal

Silver Thread Scenic Byway

Arbor House Inn

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Belle thoroughly enjoying being wet and dirty!

Time for a new post!

2011-06-13T14:43:00.015-07:00

Yes, we are definitely due for another blog post. Now that summer is off and running we have much more to write home about. The end of the school year was a little crazy trying to wrap things up with my schooling at Adams State and also with my students at TCA. It feels great to be done with my Master's degree and I am excited to see where it will lead me in the future. Daron was working in Kansas City the week before Memorial Day at the C&MA Council. He did photography and design work for the conference and really enjoyed his time in the city. On Memorial Day we decided it was time to break in my new hiking boots and so we hiked Mt. Rosa, not a 14er, but it was good training for the mountains to come this summer. On June 1st I headed for Grand Rapids to prepare for Susan's wedding. Darcy and I enjoyed spending time together making favors and programs before the big day. Daron flew in on Friday night and then back out again on Sunday morning, so it was a very quick trip for him. Susan's wedding day was gorgeous, although quite hot and humid, especially for us who are used to a very dry climate. Her reception was at the Fredrick Meyer Gardens, which was beautiful. Once Daron left on Sunday, most of my family headed up to my parent's lake house on Lake Michigan. It was an incredible week full of fishing on Joel's boat, swimming in the chilly lake, tubing down the channel, sailing on the catamaran, and eating wonderful food that my mom prepared. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my adorable nieces, Daraby and Dakota. On Friday I headed to Columbus, Ohio to have a Huntington girl's weekend and to meet my friend Emily's new baby girl, Whitney. It was a lot of fun to spend time with some very special friends. From there I headed back to Grand Rapids in order to fly out on Monday morning. Overall it was such an amazing time to spend with family and to enjoy the beautiful lake.

Mt. Rosa summit.

Bachelorette Party

Fun with bubbles

Wedding Day @ Meyer Gardens

Perfect night on Stony Lake

18 inch. Large Mouth Bass

Joel and Daraby watching the butterfly in the garden

Huntington Girls (+baby Roman)

Playing at the park

April Odds and Ends

2011-04-26T16:29:00.006-07:00

So it seems that spring has snuck up on us this year, although the past couple days have not felt like spring around here! It has been a month of planning! As always, we are really looking forward to the summer months, but that also includes searching for flights, planning road trips, analyzing trail maps, finding open dates on our calendar, coordinating dates with friends and family, etc. We are looking forward to a couple trips to Michigan, an East Coast road trip, and lots of adventures around the Colorado area as well.

The first weekend in April we took Sarah (one of Daron's co-workers) and Kevin (one of our friend's from college) skiing at Loveland. Both of them had only minimal skiing experience, so it was fun to introduce them to Colorado skiing. The day started with light snow on the slopes, but as the day wore on we faced blizzard conditions. When we were warned that the winds were pushing 75 miles per hour at the top of the ski lift, we decided to take a different run and then called it a day. We really enjoyed skiing at Loveland since it is a slightly smaller resort that is a lot closer than the other resorts. The next weekend I was able to go up to Camp Elim for a women's retreat with my church, ClayHouse Alliance (formerly Bridgeway). It was an awesome time to just get to know a lot of the other women in the church. We got to spend a lot of the day hiking and doing other activities together, like the ropes course.

We were able to make it to a Air Academy girls tennis match last week, and although it was great to see the girls, we have really felt a sense of peace not coaching this season. I am a couple weeks away from graduating from my masters program at Adams State College. I am really pumped to see where this leads me and the paths that are opened in the future. Last week we had the 8th Grade Dinner Dance, which is always a fun time for the teachers and students to celebrate their time in 8th grade and start thinking about the daunting task of sending them on to high school! Daron just finished a huge project at work that is going to be showcased at Council, which is May 24-29. This past weekend we hosted a going away party for our good friends, Kirk and Christy. We are really sad to see them go, but we are very excited for them as they move out to California. It will definitely be on our list of places to visit this year!

Kevin, Sarah, and I @ Loveland

ClayHouse Women's Retreat

8th Grade Dinner/Dance

Kitchen Cabinet Overhaul!

2011-03-27T11:54:00.007-07:00

Since I didn't already have enough things on my to-do list over spring break, I decided to finally tackle our kitchen cabinets. In our kitchen we had light wood (pergo) floors with light wood cabinets along with light wood laminate countertops, which makes for a very interesting look. Since we have stainless steel appliances that are black and silver and we have lots of light in our kitchen area we made a bold decision to paint our cabinets black. A good friend recommended that we try out Rustoleum's new cabinet refinishing system, so we did and here is how we did it.

Step 1: Take all of the doors down and place them in a dust free area to work (aka our garage) and put tape down to label which door goes where. Take down all of the hardware and put them in cups to label which door they belong with. Also, take out all of the contents of your kitchen (we ended up giving LOTS to goodwill and also finding hidden treasures we forgot about).

Step 2: Clean the cabinets with soap and water and then use the scrubbing pad and deglosser liquid and scrub the heck out of the cabinets and any other place you want to paint. Make sure you wipe them down with a wet and dry cloth immediately afterwards.

Step 3: Apply the bond coat (aka the paint) to the cabinets. This can get a little tricky with cabinets that have a lot of detail because you don't want the paint to build up in the corners. Apply 2 coats of the bond coat and then go back over a third time to make sure everything is covered.

Step 4: Apply the top coat (a clear, protective gloss) over the cabinets. This was the most difficult part because it can be hard to tell where you have applied and where you have not and even though it doesn't give the cabinets a super glossy look, it can easily be seen when there is a lot of light in the kitchen.

Step 5: Clean all of the hinges and then spray paint them the desired color (make sure you keep the hardware with the cups that label where they belong.

Step 6: Attach the hinges back on to the cabinet doors and attach the doors back on the cabinets making sure they are perfectly in line with each other.

Step 7: Put the new handles on the cabinets.

Before

After

March Mountain Madness

2011-03-17T19:32:00.008-07:00

As I was flying back from Grand Rapids, my parents and Joel started the long drive out here to experience some Colorado mountain snow. They arrived Monday night just before a "big" snow storm that ended up to be just a dusting of snow here in Colorado Springs. Andrew, Darcy, and our beautiful nieces made the trip here from South Dakota as well and arrived out here on Tuesday. We squeezed nine people around our dinner table for a couple nights and just enjoyed spending some family time together. On Thursday we headed up to Silverthorne for some real Colorado snow and some serious skiing. We hit the slopes at Copper on Friday with my dad and Zak, one of our college friends. It was a little windy, but overall it was a pretty mild and sunny day on the slopes. Andrew skied with us for a little while in the afternoon as well, which was fun because he had not been skiing for a couple years and he had never skied outside of Michigan. On Friday night Brandon, one of my high school friends, and his fiance Kendra joined us as well. My dad and Daron skied at Keystone on Saturday morning and then Daron was joined by Brandon, Kendra, Zak and Jordan (a co-worker) in the afternoon and evening for some night skiing. It was great to spend some time with my family, especially Daraby and Dakota since it had been about 10 months since we had seen them! On Sunday we went back to Copper with Brandon, Kendra, and Jordan for another fantastic day on the slopes, this time with about 5 inches of fresh powder. Sunday afternoon we made our way back to Colorado Springs with Brandon and Kendra. It was great to spend some time with them here in the Springs for a couple days, even though Daron and I had to work during the day. We are excited to be back in Michigan for their wedding in July! Next week I have spring break, so I am looking forward to first and foremost relaxing, and then working on some graduate school work. We are incredibly grateful that so many of our friends and family make the journey out here to spend time with us in Colorado.

Daron & Zak @ Copper

Rachael & Andrew

Rachael and Dad B.

Us w/ our nieces- Dakota and Daraby

View from Copper

Daron, Rachael, Kendra, Brandon, Jordan

Love is in the Air!

2011-03-17T18:16:00.007-07:00

I spent the first weekend in March celebrating all kinds of love back in my home town of Grand Rapids (ironically, without my love). I was able to pack a bachelorette party, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and baby shower all into one wonderful weekend. I flew out of Denver on Wednesday evening and then came back on Sunday night. My good friend, Jess Gundy, who I literally went to school from preschool through college with, got married and it was an honor to be a part of her special day. My sister had a bridal shower and then I helped host a baby shower for one of my college friends since many of them were in Michigan for Jess' wedding. It was great to be able to spend time with so many great friends and family and to just be back in Grand Rapids again (I had not been there since August).

Bachelorette Party

Rehearsal Dinner

Jillian, Jess, and I @ the rehearsal dinner

College Girls with the beautiful bride!

High school friends

Baby shower Bfast

Soon to be parents... Ryan and Emily

Africa

2011-02-17T19:31:00.022-07:00

I tried to keep a journal of events throughout our trip in Africa. You can read my thoughts below.

January 23:
A broom fell on my head as we were heading to the Whiteman's to pack up and make our way to the airport. Starting off the trip with a bloody head is not cool. Rachael (spontaneously) rode up to DIA with us. It was nice to spend another hour with her. I know I will miss her dearly.

January 24:
We flew through the night to Paris. I watched "Social Network" and "A-Team." I got maybe an hour of sleep. We landed in Paris and made our way through the terminals and got on our flight to Brazzaville. One thing I already notice is that Africans stink! They just do. It's ok, because they think white people stink. I'm tired, excited, nervous... Gary Howell met us at the airport in Brazzaville. It's incredibly hot, even at night. Josh and Jordan's clothes bag never arrived. Got to bed at 11:30 PM.

January 25:
Woke up at 4:30 AM to get to the bus station for our ride to Ollombo. We are traveling with Sabin (thank God he speaks english & french). The bus ride was long (7 hours) and very hot/bumpy/stinky, etc. The road was terrible. The bus driver would speed, slam on the brakes, serve to avoid potholes, drive off-road in rough sections and generally bounce us around like rag-dolls. We made it to Ollombo at 2:00 PM and are staying with Dave & Teresa Bill. We took a nap and then went out for a walk with Teresa and Bruiser (their German Shepherd).

January 26:
Great night of sleep last night! First real sleep since the night before we left. Anxious to get out and start shooting today. After breakfast we headed to Celestine's school. It was surreal to be shooting at an African village school. So fun! The kids were awesome. Afterwards we interviewed Celestine about the work he is doing at his house. In the evening we came back to the Bill's house for Kids Club. There were 130 kids packed into their little carport. It was nuts, but so fun to see & shoot. Tomorrow we're back on the bus to Brazzaville.

January 27:
Today we woke up early to catch the bus back to Brazzaville. The ride didn't seem as bad this time, but we were in the back so it was a bit bumpier. Upon arriving in Brazza, we assumed we would at least head back to the Howell's to drop our bags, but we were met by Barbara and were whisked away to downtown to shoot a sewing/salon ministry site where single mothers are taught skills to obtain jobs so they can provide for their families. In the afternoon we interviewed Mimi and then went to the Howell's church for a youth group bible study (youth in Africa means 20-30s). Finally we came home for dinner and unloaded our memory cards & our brains.

January 28:
Woke up feeling refreshed from our long day yesterday. Benoit came over for the house for an interview since we weren't able to do it the previous evening. Afterwards Josh went to the prison with Barb while Jordan and * went to check out the Congo river with Gary. It is the deepest river in the world (750 ft in areas) with the second largest volume (behind Amazon). It also separates Brazza from Kinshasa (DRC). After lunch we went to an HIV center for women to meet & interview Honorine. The women there were so welcoming & open to our presence. They have sad stories but are very beautiful people. Later in the evening we drove around Brazza with Sabin to get some b-roll. That night we had dinner with the entire Brazzaville team. Tomorrow we are heading to Pointe Noire.

January 29:
This morning I woke up feeling queasy...not good. We flew to Pointe Noire at 9:30 AM and 45 minutes later we met Jay Belamy at the airport. After driving to his house, we met his wife Bev and the Nelsons (Wyman & Carma). That afternoon we went to interview Nicaise and hear about the radio ministry that he is leading. In the meantime, Jay had been telling us some stories about Nicaise and how he pretty much saved their family during the war in Congo in the late 90's. He is a pretty incredible dude. Later, Jay took Jordan and I around Pointe Noire for a bit to see a couple of the C&MA churches. It was really eye-opening to see the places they have to worship in. Very, very poor. Dirt floors, pigs running around, trash everywhere. But their worship was so beautiful.

January 30:
After a great night of sleep (and feeling better!) we awoke to Cinnamon rolls made by Wyman. We then headed out to Mboukou for church (1.5 hour drive into the bush) and to meet Honorine (#2). Church was awesome! Split bamboo hut church. The women were so excited we were coming, they stayed up until 4:00 AM preparing our meal. We were warned that it may make us sick, but so far so good. The meal was rice, chicken, saka-saka and manioc. It was awesome to see Honorine's heart for God and people. I don't think we stopped sweating the entire day.

January 31:
Today I woke up early (6:15 AM) to go for a run with Carma. They live 1/2 mile from the beach and she runs almost every day. The beach was really clean (surprisingly) and full of people. A lot of people were saying things in French to me, but I had no idea what. Carma later told me they were all wondering what I was doing and why I was there (not many Africans exercise). If felt great to do something active but it was probably the hottest run of my life. There were big freight boats right off the beach (the port was very close) along with wooden fishing boats. There were also some shipwrecks right on the beach that were neat to see up close. I wanted to get back with my camera but never got a chance before we left. We got to the airport & waited over 3 hours for our flight (should've gone back to the beach after all). We finally left and landed in Libreville, Gabon this evening. We had some trouble with the customs lady but eventually got through. We were met by the EnVision team here (LeAnn, Hannah, Dan & Alicia). It's great to meet some young missionaries! We had a great time over pizza & pamplemousse. We finally crashed at the EnVision guest house around midnight but not after I helped Dan kill an enormous (size of my fist) spider!

February 1:
This morning we were up early (after a late night) to catch our bus to Mouilla and meet our ride to Bongolo. About 2 hours into our 8 hour trip we busted an axel and were stranded for over 3 hours. We were close to a little village that happened to have a bar (Club Central) so we got some cold drinks along with the other passengers. Finally another bus came and picked us up and we continued down the road. Not long after though, we blew a tire and were delayed again. I heard one of the passengers exclaim, "Solo en Afrique!" Only in Africa was right. Thankfully that was our last auto problem (for today anyway). After getting to Mouilla, it was another 2 hour ride to Bongolo. We finally made it around 9:30 PM (15.5 hours after we left the guest house). We had chili with Dennis & Mary Ann who are here for 6 months running the guest house and doing maintenance. We are looking forward to staying here for a few nights. Bongolo Hospital and David Thompson are pretty famous within the Alliance community.

February 2:
Today we woke up rested to a great breakfast by Mary Ann. Then Dave Thompson took us out to Bilingue to meet the three men who were persecuted for their faith and had their feet burned by fellow villagers. They have an incredible story. It was a 1.5 hour drive out into the jungle. The church women greeted us with song and dance. It was a very flattering welcome. One of the ladies even made us all hand-woven baskets. When we returned to Bongolo, Dave showed us around the hospital grounds. Later in the afternoon, three high school kids and Lisa (the lead nurse) came to "Foye" (the house we're staying in) and sang some songs with a guitar. It was beautiful. They were very talented. For dinner we went to Eric & Wendy Hoffman's for mexican chili (why are we eating such hot foods when it's 90+ degree and humid!?). Wendy is here with Samaritans purse as an opthamologist.

February 3:
Today I got up early to play tennis with Keir Thelander (one of the surgeons) who happens to be from Indiana. It was great to spend some time with him and play tennis in the jungle. Then we spent the day around the hospital just getting shots of the surgeons, nurses, patients, etc. The hospital is really amazing! I even got to be in the operating room to see a baby delivered! First time ever witnessing that. This evening we went to the Thompson's to interview Dave for the Core Values initiative. Then they had us over for dinner. They really are a neat couple with a great heart for lost people. Before dinner I climbed a 150 ft radio tower in their yard. A little scary up top, but very cool to get that perspective of the jungle/hospital campus.

February 4:
Today Jordan & I woke up early to play tennis with Lisa (lead nurse) & Keir (surgeon). It was fun to get out and hit, although Lisa and I lost in a tiebreaker. We then had pretty much a free day around the hospital. We watched as docs took bandages off eye surgery patients, looked in on some classrooms and just moseyed around getting shots. It was nice to not have such a hectic day. In the afternoon Jordan & I played basketball with some of the local Gabonese kids (Prince, Abdiel & some of their friends). We played Americans vs. Gabonese (2 on 5) and still won 11-0. They were good dribblers, but they couldn't shoot to save their lives. They were really funny/fun to play with. Tonight most of the staff came to Foye for pizza dinner and then we played SCUM for a couple hours. Tomorrow we're off to Libreville in the A.M.

February 5:
Today we drove from Bongolo to Libreville with Phillip. Thankfully we didn't have to ride with O.P. Transport again. The truck even had A.C. so the 8 hour ride didn't seem bad at all. Tonight we just hung out with the EnVision staff that's here (Dan, Alicia, LeAnn, Hannah & Jean-Roman). We looked at some of our photos/videos of the hospital & played Cranium.

February 6:
This morning we went to a couple of different Alliance churches to shoot a bit. One was very large (700/service x2). It's neat to see the Alliance reaching people in places like this. It really gives the work we do at the National Office new meaning. After church we went out to the beach. The water was really warm. It was nice to relax and have a little bit of downtime from our break-neck pace we've had since arriving. In the afternoon we went over to Hope House to interview Pastor Israel & his wife. They've taken in over 30 kids off the streets and are caring for them out of the kindness of their hearts. It is an incredible ministry. They don't always know where the money for food comes from, but they are surviving day to day, putting their faith in God. Tomorrow we're off to Burkina Faso, our last country stop.

February 7:
This morning we woke up early to get some final city shots in Libreville with Jean-Roman. After a quick lunchc we packed up and headed to the airport for our flight. Our travel to Burkina was flawless (first time on this trip) and we're hoping it means good things to come. It's instantly obvious that Burkina is a totally different landscape than the previous countries we've been in. It's very dusty and desert-like. It's also much dryer! So long humidity. We are happy to have you behind us. The guesthouse in Ouagadougou is very nice and has the fastest internet we'e had on this trip. After getting settled we headed to Steve & Amy Nehlsen's house for a delicious steak dinner along with another short-term team from Las Vegas.

February 8:
This morning we went out to Dorcas House with Amy to meet the girls living there and interview the Alliance Women president of Burkina. They have a great thing going there to help underprivileged young women. In the afternoon we went out to a church to interview the pastor with Karen. He's had some powerful things happen at his church due to prayer. The faith of the African Christians puts me to shame... They had a little boy pronounced dead at the hospital and the pastor said, "He's not dead. We need to pray." After praying the boy started showing signs of life and was revived shortly after. Tomorrow we get on a bus headed to Bobo Dioulasso for a couple days before returning to Ouaga.

February 9:
Today we got up early to catch our bus to Bobo. It wasn't too bad of a ride (about 5 hours). Kevin Oberg picked us up from the bus station and we had lunch with his family. Right after that we repacked and headed out to the bush region of Kenedougou. We were taking out several long steel beams on a trailer that were to be used for a new church building. We were also trailering a new Honda quad that will be used by the village pastors to travel around. At some point along the way, most of the beams fell off the trailer (the roads were ridiculously bumpy/washboard). Kevin left us along with Toby in a village while he went back to look for the beams. As Kevin was driving back, one of his wheels fell right off the SUV. Now we were in a bind. Eventually Toby was able to have his wife come out part-way to meet us so we'd have a vehicle to continue on (sans Kevin). We could definitely feel the enemy trying to keep us from doing the work we had set out to do. We eventually made it to the village around 11:00 PM. We were exhausted, but the village pastor and his family was expecting us for dinner. After chicken & rice, we set up our cots and crashed hard after midnight.

BTW: A funny story. When we were hanging out at the village waiting for a ride, there were several boys hanging around with us. I farted out lout without thinking and the kids CRACKED UP laughing. A couple even fell down rolling in the dirt with laughter. I guess some things are funny in any culture (:

February 10:
I slept very well in the village last night. Refreshed for another day. We met with several villagers and had them share their testimony on camera. I don't know much of anything that they said because it was in Jula or French, so I am excited to see these stories come to life when the video team edits them down. We had chicken & rice for breakfast & lunch again but thankfully none of us are feeling ill from bush food yet. We spent the whole day in the village, shooting from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM when we left. It was a long day and a long drive back into Bobo, but we made it around 11:00 PM. We stayed at Andrew & Esther Shaeffer's house and will be spending the day with them tomorrow.

February 11:
Today we spent most of the day with Esther. She took us to an Alliance High School that was really neat to see. Over 1,000 kids attend and it's very prestigious because of the test scores the kids are getting. A lot of Muslim families want their kids to go there for school & they end up hearing the truth about Jesus. Later she & Andrew took us to the Maranatha Seminary where they teach. In the afternoon we went out to a village where Esther has a bible study once a week. It's really incredible to see how hard the missionaries work & see the sacrifices they make. In the evening Kevin took us around town a little bit and we got to go into a mosque. It was pretty interesting. This particular mosque is somewhat famous for how old & large it is (built in 1848). Then we had pizza with the Bobo team. I got to shoot some hoops with some of the missionary kids so that was nice to take a little bit of the edge off. Tomorrow is our last day in Africa! We're heading back to Ouaga in the morning and will hopefully have a relaxing afternoon before packing up and heading to the airport.

February 12:
This morning we caught our bus back to Ouaga @ 7:30. It was uneventful thankfully. After arriving in Ouaga, Amy took us out to the artisan market to do a little shopping. I bought a Burkina basket, a small leather box and a set of 3 masks made from soapstone. We got back to the guesthouse and did a quick interview with Amy before it got dark and then she took Jordan and I out to get some capri pants that I've been wanting since we got to Africa. We went out to dinner with the Ouaga team and we're now sitting on a place headed for HOME (via Paris & NYC)!

February 13:
We had a several hour layover in Paris on our way home. We landed around 5:30 in the morning and our connection to NYC didn't take off until 1:00 PM. So we got some bus tickets and headed into the city. We stopped at Notre Dame and got to see an actual service since it was Sunday morning. We also made it to the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty foggy & overcast so we didn't pay to go to the top, but it was cool to be there nonetheless. Our real burden was to make it home after being gone for so long though, so some of the magic may have been lost to weariness. Regardless, it was a great diversion and much better than sitting in an airport. It was such a relief to finally land in Denver after 30+ hours of traveling. Rachael met us at the airport and it was sooo good to see her and give her a bear hug and a sloppy kiss. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder and it was wonderful to have her meet me at the airport.

Culmination:
It's hard to describe to people what this trip was really like. There is no one word answer. It was incredible yet difficult; energizing and draining; sad in some ways, but overwhelmingly joyful in others. One thing I do know, is that I am so thankful for the opportunity to visit and interact with the local Africans as well as the missionaries and see the work that God is doing around the world. My eyes have been opened and my worldview has been shattered. It was an experience that will never be forgotten.

Please check out more photos HERE.

Weekend in Cali!

2011-01-31T20:06:00.007-07:00

This past weekend I was able to get away to sunny San Diego with some of my amazing coworkers from TCA- Allie, Elizabeth, and Jess. We flew in Friday night and enjoyed a fabulous dinner at a seafood place on the coast with Allie's brother and his wife. The baja fish tacos were incredible! Then we walked out on the Pier and just enjoyed the salty air. On Saturday we woke up to perfectly sunny skies and headed to Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial to enjoy the 360 degree view of the area. Then we headed down to La Jolla beach and saw the seals (much cuter than the elephant seals we saw this past summer). From there we set up camp on the beach, enjoying a delicious picnic lunch, and then Elizabeth and I headed out in the kayak. It was great to be able to get out on the water, even though it was pretty cold, and kayak by the cliffs and seals. On our way in to shore we somehow got turned sideways and then we were dumped into the ocean, which was not the plan but added to the adventure. We played bocce ball on the beach (my team got destroyed) and just tried to soak in the sun. Jess, Elizabeth, and I took a walk down the beach to some tide pools and saw a starfish, an octopus, and lots of crabs and sea anemone. After an amazing day at the beach we were completely drained from all of the sun so we went back to Allie's brothers apartment to take showers and relax. We ate some awesome Mediterranean food from Off the Sage and then topped it off with some awesome yogurt ice cream. Needless to say we collapsed into bed that night and slept hard to prepare for another day. On Sunday morning we drove to Coronado Island (really a peninsula). We toured the Hotel Del Coronado, which was amazing, and then walked the beach. We saw some awesome sandcastles and some incredibly cute houses around Coronado and then realized that our stomachs were craving some In N' Out goodness. We had a perfect lunch complete with burgers, fries, and shakes and then made our way to the enormous entity of Ikea (my first time!). It made me really excited that we are getting an Ikea in Denver sometime this fall. To complete our tour of San Diego we went down to the bay and walked around by the boats, such as the USS Midway aircraft carrier. It was definitely hard to leave such an amazing place, but I couldn't have asked for a better weekend with some incredible friends.

I am crossing my fingers that tomorrow will be a snow day. It is supposed to be a high of -2 degrees in the Springs, which is probably 100 degrees colder than where Daron will be tomorrow! Daron is having a great time in Africa, however, they have a pretty grueling schedule to get all of the photos and videos that they need. I am looking forward to attending a literacy conference in Denver at the end of this week put on by the International Reading Association.

View from Mt. Soledad

seals

kayaking near La Jolla

La Jolla

Coronado

USS Midway

A day at Copper amidst the CRAZINESS!

2011-01-22T12:24:00.005-07:00

We returned from the Midwest on a Sunday night around 9:30 pm on January 2nd, and since that point in time our lives have been incredibly crazy. Daron has been busy at work preparing for his trip to Africa as well as balancing some freelance jobs and designing some photo books for us. My job as the literacy director has been very stressful the past couple weeks and coupled with working basketball games at night has made it a pretty insane schedule. Last weekend we were able to get away on Saturday to Copper Mountain for some skiing. We took the back way to avoid the crowded interstate and it was an incredibly beautiful drive. We saw the sun come up on our way there and the sun set on our way back home. It was a perfect day for skiing- sunny, warm, a little fresh snow- but since it was a holiday weekend, it was pretty busy on the slopes. This was our first time using the new ski gear that we got at the Sniagrab sale this past fall for our Christmas gift to each other. I really enjoyed my new stuff and felt like I could be a more aggressive skier because it was easier to maneuver (aggressive is used very lightly in this sentence!). It was awesome to have Monday off for MLK day just to catch up on stuff at home and get ready for another crazy week. Please pray for Daron as he will be in Africa for the next three weeks doing photography for C&MA. He will be traveling with two other video guys within three different countries- Republic of Congo, Gabon and Burkina Faso (in that order) - to capture the stories of the work God is doing through the missionaries who are stationed there.

sunrise in Hartsel

sunset on Wilkerson Pass

Midwest Tour

2011-01-04T22:10:00.005-07:00

It was fun to come back to a white Indiana to celebrate the rest of the holiday with Daron's family and friends. We had a great time celebrating Christmas with Daron's parents and Erika. Then we headed up to Wauseon, Ohio to spend time with Daron's extended family. Belle enjoyed running around in the park with the Shipley's dogs, Lacy and Snickers. Daron enjoyed playing tennis with his cousin, Tyler, and also upholding his reign as ping-pong champion (3 years running!). We enjoyed the traditional Mexican dinner with Daron's family and played some speed scrabble. The next day we drove to Huntingon, Indiana to see our college friends. It is tradition for the boys and girls to split up the first night for separate sleep-overs. The boys played NBA Jam until the wee hours of the morning and then played their own version of NBA JAM (minus the jamming) and the girls sipped wine and just talked and enjoyed time catching up together. On New Year's Eve the girls went and visited April at the hospital, who just had a baby, and then headed up to a cottage on Lake George. The boys met us up there and we made a big Mexican dinner with our traditional sopapilla for dessert. We enjoyed playing whacky games like Quelf and just being able to spend time with our dear friends from college. The next day we headed back down to Indianapolis and ate out at a fantastic restaurant called Oaken Barrel in Greenwood. Overall it was a fantastic break, but we were ready to be home and to be in our own bed at night. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends that continue to be close even though we live many miles apart.

the Short girls relaxing.

dad sleeping.

Belle & Lacey playing.

the HU girls.

new year's eve fun.

Tropical Christmas

2011-01-04T21:22:00.014-07:00

For the first time in Boersma history we spent Christmas in 80 degree weather instead of snow filled Michigan. This trip was inspired by one of my high school friends, Lauren, who has lived in Tegucigalpa for the past couple years and visited Villa Helen's with her family last year. Daron and I drove to Indiana and dropped off Belle at his parent's house and then took 2 flights, 2 taxis, and 1 bus to get to Villa Helen's Hotel in Sambo Creek, Honduras. Amazingly enough, with our limited Spanish skills, we managed to get there without any big snafus. We immediately got on jungle time waking up at the crack of dawn and falling to sleep at unusually early hours. The rest of my family met us the next morning after traveling all night and they were surprisingly in good spirits after a serving of Jack's (the hotel manager) pancakes.

We spent the first day just exploring the area and swimming in the pools and ocean. The flowers all around the hotel were stunning and it was just very surreal to be in such a hot and humid climate coming from a very cold and dry one! Daron quicly got into photography mode and enjoyed catching not only the beautiful natural beauty of Honduras, but also the villages and people who lived there.

Villa Helen's

View from our room.

The next day we decided to take a boat out to the islands of Cayos Cochinos which are about 45 minutes away from Sambo Creek. This area hosts the worlds 2nd largest barrier reef and it is the home to the Garifuna people. Our guide, Wilson, only spoke Spanish, so we had a couple frustrating moments trying to figure things out, but overall it was a great day exploring the reef and the fish.

Cayos Cochinos

The following day we decided to spend the day rafting down the Rio Cangrejal with Omega tours. We transitioned from speaking only Spanish with our guide the day before to speaking English with our guides from Australia, Ireland, Scottland and America. One of our guides, Sam, picked us all up in a small pick-up truck, so some of us got a up close and personal tour of Honduras in the back of the truck. Overall it was quite the adventure rafting down the river amidst the lush jungle. One of the class IV rapids was pretty intense and after our raft went through smoothly, Susan, Andrew, and Michael's raft took quite the plunge and flipped in the rapids. I think it was a scary moment for Susan and Michael, but they were able to bounce back and enjoy the rest of the day. We also got to hike up in the jungle to a waterfall with a deep pool. Some of the guys braved the 20 foot jump from the slippery rocks above the pool and luckily all landed safely. After a very adventurous day on the water complete with more rock jumping and viewing some toucans, we enjoyed a tasty spaghetti meal at the Omega Tours Lodge.

On Thursday we decided to relax after two days of intense adventures. Some people ventured through the town of Sambo Creek and others just relaxed on the beach and played games. This was our cloudiest day with a little bit of rain and cooler temperatures, so it was a good day to regroup and relax. The hotel was not in a touristy area, so we were definitely surrounded by the culture and the local people. It was an eye-opening experience to see how other people live and to really think about how we live in the United States.

Ocean front property in Sambo Creek.

An amigo Daron met, Hegardo.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go out to Cayos Cochinos again, this time with an English speaking guide. On the boat ride out there we got soaked in the rain, but then it cleared up and we saw an unbelievably beautiful rainbow. We picked up a boy on one of the islands, Miguel, who was our guide to hike up to an abandoned light house on a different island. The Cayos Cochinos islands are the only place in the world that have pink boas. We had a fun hike up through the jungle and then pushed ourselves to climb up the metal rings in the dark shaft of the lighthouse with our bare feet to the top, which looked out over the other islands. We were hoping to see some snakes, but we couldn't find any. Then we spent the rest of the day snorkeling around the islands. We saw lots of fish, a stingray, beautiful coral, but I was really hoping we would see some sea turtles. When we got back to Miguel's island he took us to his home and showed us his pet boa, which was pretty cool. We had some engine problems with our boat on the way back, so it took slightly longer than expected, but we didn't have to swim back, so that was a plus. We decided to have our Christmas Eve dinner at Paradise Found, a restaurant and hotel really close to Villa Helen's. It was an incredible meal complete with salad, turkey, mashed potatoes, lasagna, pork, ribs, stuffing, and apple pie. We could hardly walk back to Villa Helen's when we were done.

snorkeling.

coral.

the fam.

Miguel's "pet" snake.

ready for dinner at Paradise Found.

Since Christmas was our last day in Honduras we spent the day soaking in the sun, swimming in the ocean, and walking the beach. Daron went on another one of his photography adventures around town. On our walk down the beach we ran into a heard of cows walking down the beach toward us. We could have reached out and touched them. It was a very odd experience, but it was just another reminder that we were in a foreign country where things happen that we do not expect in the U.S. We enjoyed getting to know Jack at the hotel and appreciated all of his help setting up excursions and making us pancakes each morning.

We left the next morning bright and early with a big travel day ahead of us to get back to Indiana. We had a slight scare in San Pedro Sula because we were not aware of the departure tax. We did not have enough cash on us to pay the tax and they would not take our credit card ANYWHERE! We had met some American girls that morning at Dunkin Donuts and ended up running into them again after we frantically tried to get money for the departure fee. One of the girls ended up giving us the money to pay for the tax and we got her information to send her the money when we returned to the U.S. It was definitely a divine meeting that morning at Dunkin Donuts!

coming home!

To see more photos from our trip, please view OUR ALBUM.

Griswold Family Christmas at the office

2010-12-15T17:37:00.008-07:00

We decorated our wing of the office to commemorate the Griswold Family Christmas. I think we are a shoo-in to win. If you've seen the movie, hopefully the images will give you a chuckle.

some of the team putting the final touches on the display.

welcome.

Quick Trip Home for Thanksgiving

2010-12-06T21:19:00.003-07:00

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to make the long trek home to spend some time with the Short fam. We left Wednesday afternoon, stayed the night in Topeka with our friend Allie, and finished the drive on Thursday. We were able to spend Friday and Saturday with family before driving home again on Sunday. Friday we just lounged around and had our traditional Thanksgiving meal (granted a day late, but it still tasted the same—excellent!). On Saturday we got tickets to the Butler/Evansville game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. It's always a pleasure to watch a game at Hinkle. It's Indiana basketball at it's finest. Unfortunately, the Dawgs lost in OT, but it's nearly impossible to leave feeling upset when you've just experienced the sights, the smells and the atmosphere of basketball in one of it's purest forms. Later that night we went out to dinner to celebrate and give thanks for a multitude of things. My parents 30th anniversary, my sisters new job, Rachael's upcoming birthday, and the fact that Rachael and I have officially made our last student loan payment (at least for undergrad). What a weight off our shoulders! The next morning we were up at 5:00 AM to start the trek home. Even though the trip was quick, it was well worth it to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with those you are thankful for.

driving through KS @ night.

where we spent a portion of our Thanksgiving Day...driving through MO.

Hinkle Fieldhouse character.

on the road again.

Movember!

2010-12-02T18:02:00.003-07:00

Most of you know that I participated in Movember (grow a mustache for the month of November). By request, here is the evolution of Mo! (be sure to click for larger versions!)

Up close and (too?) personal on the final day.

October Highlights

2010-11-07T18:15:00.014-07:00

1. WEATHER: After another weekend of temperatures in the 70s, we are looking forward to some cooler weather coming up this week. This fall has been absolutely beautiful with abnormally warm temperatures. Last year we had snow already starting in September, but we haven't seen snow yet this fall.

2. TENNIS: Daron's tennis team had a great end to their season and all of the varsity players made it to the 4A state tournament, which was a great accomplishment. However, Daron is definitely enjoying the extra time he now has in the afternoons since tennis is done.

3. JOBS/SCHOOL: I am enjoying a more relaxing semester without typical graduate school homework. My job as a Literacy Director this year is counting as my main internship for my degree, which is going really well. Next semester I will be working with the elementary special education program at my school. Daron has been working on some really cool projects at work and he is looking forward to his trip to Africa (now moved to January).

4. FALL DRIVE: We took a beautiful fall drive up to Cripple Creek (an old mining town that has been overtaken by casinos). We went slightly after the real peak of color, but it was still an incredible drive.

Belle enjoying the fresh air

5. DENVER: One of my friends from elementary school-high school, Krista, was up in Denver so we went up there one weekend and spent some time in Denver. It was great to be able to catch up with Krista and stroll down the 16th street mall.

Krista and I

6. CHURCH: It has been an awesome experience getting plugged in to our new church, Bridgeway. Daron is involved in an intense men's leadership group and we are also in a small group together.

7. MIDWEST APPLES: Daron's parents surprised us by sending us apples from an orchard by their house in Indiana. They were fantastic! We have had plenty of apple pie and apples with caramel dip this past month, which has been a treat.

Dutch apple pie!

8. HALLOWEEN: For Halloween this year we decided that we would dress Belle up as a basketball star and Daron was a referee. As always, Belle did not appreciate the fact that we were dressing her up and that she needed to stay still for some photos, however, she endured it for a while so we could have our fun.

Air Belle

Personal Foul on ... the dog?

What a Month...

2010-09-28T13:35:00.009-07:00

Wow, this month came and went faster than, well...faster than something really fast! Trying to think...what have we been up to since our last post...

For Labor Day, Rachael and I hiked Mt. Princeton (14197'). We got up early and headed out on Hwy 24 for Buena Vista. We saw the weather forecast called for wind so we were anxious to see just how windy it would be, especially above treeline. On our way up we passed a couple that decided today was not their day to climb Princeton due to the wind. We (I) wanted to see for ourselves. We kept going and got above treeline and saw a group of four headed down. We asked if they had already hit the summit (it was still quite early) and they said they turned around once they got to the ridge b/c of the wind. They said it literally knocked all four of them off of their feet. We (I) still wanted to see for ourselves. We went a little farther and heard the same story from another man and then again from a couple. Well, we kept going and made it to the ridge where there appeared to be another route that stayed low (and out of the wind a bit more). I convinced Rachael to keep going after a quick break and after climbing over boulders for another mile, we were heading back up to the ridge. By this time, it was still really windy, but had been calming down considerably over the past hour. We decided we were close enough and were going to still try to summit. We were encouraged by a few folks coming down that had made it so we forged ahead and topped out 30 minutes later after a steep approach. All in all, it was great to summit another 14er, but this one won't be making any top 10 lists. Still, you can't beat tackling another mountain on a day off. On the way home we drove up to St. Elmo (an old ghost town now) and also stopped at Agnes Vaille falls. It was a quick .5 mile hike in to a pretty cool waterfall.

Mt. Princeton looming on the drive into Buena Vista.

trying to stay out of the wind on the summit.

Mt. Antero in the background.

on the way down; Buena Vista in the distance.

Agnes Vaille falls.

September 8/9/10/11 I was with our tennis team traveling all across the state for matches and a tournament. We began our trip with a stop in Steamboat Springs for a duel. Then we headed to Grand Junction for a match plus a 2-day tournament. It's always fun to get out on the road and bond with the boys and the other coaches, but draining at the same time.

the boys of fall.

The following weekend I went on a backpacking trip with some guys from work (plus a few other guys) down to the San Juan mountains in southwest CO. We headed out before the sun on Friday AM and drove to Telluride where we stopped for a quick lunch and a gondola ride. We then headed out to the Navajo Lake trailhead in the Lizard Head Wilderness area a few miles outside of town. After arriving we loaded up our packs and began the 5 mile hike in to the lake where we would make camp for the next couple nights. On Saturday we woke up to a starry sky around 4:30 AM, made breakfast (oatmeal for me) and hit the trail by 5:30. The mountains we were trying to tackle were some of the toughest in the state (and consequentially, America!). They were (in order of ascents) El Diente (14,159'), Mt. Wilson (14,246') and Wilson Peak (14,017'). I'll spare you the technical climbing details, but we got into some pretty gnarly, intense stuff. Thankfully my boss/buddy Matt brought a light rope and most of the guys had a harness as almost everyone roped in at some point during the day. So we summitted El Diente, then made the rugged traverse to Mt. Wilson and finally made it down and back to camp around 6:00 PM (over 12 hours later). We debated about getting back up to climb Wilson Peak the next morning since we were so bushed from the days climbs, but Matt, Rick, Jordan and I decided it would be a shame not to make the effort since we had already made the long drive and hike in. So we headed out on Sunday as the sun was coming up and reached the summit around 10:00 AM. After celebrating with our third summit in 2 days, we headed back to camp, packed up camp and made the long slog out to the trailhead with our packs. We arrived at the car around 3:30 and tried to motivate ourselves to make the 6 hour drive back home. It was an incredible, challenging weekend out in the wilderness with friends and we reminisced about our experiences the whole way home.

summit of El Diente (the tooth).

summit of Mt. Wilson (El Diente and the traverse behind).

summit of Wilson Peak (3rd in 2 days).

on the way out of Lizard Head Wilderness. fall colors starting to show.

saying goodbye to the San Juan's...until next time.

All the photos from the trip can be seen HERE.

Finally, last weekend, My V2 team has a tournament in Castle Rock. I was feeling a little burned out and not looking forward to spending a whole day out in the sun, but the boys came out fired up and played some very inspiring tennis, the best of the year. After a looong day, we found ourselves in every final (1, 2, 3 singles and 1, 2, 3, 4 doubles). We came away with wins at 1 singles and 2 and 4 doubles which was enough to earn the team title over one of our bitter rivals, Chatfield!

my V2 boys.

The next day I was able to attend the Colts vs. Broncos game with one of my players who had received season tickets for his 16th birthday. The kicker was that his tickets are on the 2nd row! It was so cool to be that close to the action. It really gives you a new perspective on how BIG some of the NFL players are. As one of few Colts fans in the house, I was definitely heckled at times, but it was well worth it to see the Colts come away with the 27-13 win.

2nd row! Big Dudes!

Invesco Field @ Mile High.

surprised Mickey is still smiling after that drubbing.

It's been one of the busier months in recent memory, but filled with so many cool experiences. Tennis season continues through mid-October so it will still be a few weeks before I can sit back and catch my breath...just in time for my upcoming trip to Africa (:

and September begins...

2010-09-02T16:48:00.005-07:00

September has begun with a bang! School is in full force right now and I am starting to really enjoy my new position as the Literacy Director at TCA. My largest workshop class is 8 students, which is incredible, and I have three planning periods every day to tackle other aspects of my job as well. I am really enjoying the change of pace from teaching 8th grade English and really focusing on students who struggle with reading and writing. Daron had his first tournament last weekend with his tennis team and, as always, he is thoroughly enjoying coaching high school boys. We are looking forward to a pretty relaxing long weekend with maybe a hike somewhere in there. We are also really enjoying our new church, Bridgeway, which is a Christian and Missionary Alliance church close to our house. We had been searching for a new church for a while and so we are excited to get plugged in this fall. I realized we didn't post pictures of some of our projects this summer, so here are a few things we decided to tackle along with our grass.

Christy and I after we planted the flower garden in May

August

Guest bedroom before

after- with a homemade headboard

Last Summer Hurrah in Michigan

2010-08-13T13:04:00.003-07:00

This past week we enjoyed our last summer trip this season to Michigan. I flew in to Grand Rapids first and was able to spend time with my high school friends and family and then Daron flew in to GR in time to shoot my friend Lauren's wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding with lots of little creative touches (Lauren has a knack for that type of thing). After the wedding we drove to my grandparent's cottage on Lake Michigan. Here are some of the highlights from our time at the cottage (in no particular order):

-time with family
-hanging out with Josh and Kristi Miller for a day
-swimming in the unusually warm waters of Lake Michigan
-floating down the Stony Lake channel
-waterskiing and sailing
-enjoying beach bonfires with s'mores
-running down the Silver Lake Sand Dunes with a stop at Whippy Dip on the way back
-golfing at Benona Shores (despite the humidity and our scores)
-playing frisbee in the water
-walking the beach
-catching a bass while fishing at Stony Lake
-eating delicious food (not prepared by me:)

We have had such a fantastic summer, but now we are making the transition to our normal schedule. Next week Wednesday is my first day with students, so I have been trying to get myself back into school mode. Daron will start coaching tennis this coming week as well. We are continually reminded of how blessed we are to be surrounded by such great family and friends. Thanks to everyone who made an effort to come out here and also to visit us while we were in the Midwest!

Josh & Kristi

Friends + Aspen = Fantastic Trip!

2010-08-03T11:21:00.010-07:00

This past week we enjoyed our last set of guests for the summer- Ryan and Emily Holliday and Molly Edgel. For the first part of the week the girls took day trips out to different hiking places around the Springs and Ryan and Daron worked. It was great to just relax and spend some time with such great friends from college. On Friday we headed out for the charming mountain town of Aspen. It was a bit of an adventure to get all of our camping stuff plus 5 people and a dog in our Subaru, but somehow we all crammed in and made the drive in relative sanity. We enjoyed walking around the town and window shopping (couldn't quite afford the insane Aspen prices!). We camped at Difficult Campground, a couple miles outside Aspen, which did boast the cleanest pit toilets that I had ever seen/smelled. We ate a scrumptious dinner over the fire of hotdogs, baked beans, potato chips and s'mores (seems to be a classic camping dinner with us and the Hollidays). One of the Holliday's friends from back home, Katie (who now lives in CO.), also joined us for the night. On Saturday morning we headed up to the Maroon Bells area for a hike up Buckskin Pass. The hike was incredibly beautiful with tons of wild flowers and stunning mountains surrounding us. We even got to experience mountain goats up close and personal when we got to the top of the pass. After the 9-mile hike we headed up to Glenwood Springs for dinner and an evening swim at the Glenwood Hot Springs. It was the perfect way to end the day and help soothe some of our sore muscles. We had our underwater camera along so we had fun taking underwater pictures (for some reason I struggled to open my eyes all the way). We got back to camp and slept soundly Saturday night after a long day of adventures. Sunday morning we had breakfast at a fantastic bakery in Aspen and did some more window shopping. We even found some free stuff lying by the road from a garage sale and got a lamp for our guest bedroom. Somehow we all got back into the Subaru for the drive home and then relaxed before our friends hit the road back for Indiana and Ohio. It is crazy to think that it is already August- the summer has flown by! We are very excited to go to Michigan this week for our friend's wedding and some much needed time at Lake Michigan. It has been awesome exploring more of Colorado this summer with our friends and family. We are so grateful that people are willing to make the journey out here to spend time with us.

Ryan and I hiked to Eagle's Peak on the AFA base.

the girls packed in on the way to Aspen.

Magnificent Maroon Bells.

which came first, the town or the tree?

Molly and Rachael, enjoying life.

N. Maroon Peak from Buckskin Pass.

family of mountain goats.

staring contest, you and me...

they were very brave/curious/dumb?, especially since Belle was chomping at the bit to chase after them!

our group on top of Buckskin Pass.

360º Panorama from Buckskin Pass

wildflowers littered the entire mountainside ... so beautiful.

plenty of aspen trees in Aspen.

Belle cooling off in the icy waters after a long hike.

Molly and Ryan doing the same.

underwater fun at Glenwood Hot Springs.

Humble Humboldt (14,064)

2010-07-27T07:06:00.013-07:00

This past weekend we immersed ourselves in the Sangre de Cristo wilderness with our good friends, Kirk and Christy, and climbed another 14er while we were at it. We headed out from the South Colony trailhead on Friday afternoon and hiked up to one of the lakes to camp. The wildflowers were incredible along the whole trail. Belle and Ernie (their Beagle) had a blast chasing marmots, playing with each other, and just sniffing around (they never stopped). As we reached the area of the lakes to camp and were searching for a good site, our packs felt like they had doubled in weight since we had put them on and we were attacked by TONS of mosquitoes. Needless to say some of us were a little crabby by the time we finally found the "perfect site" which ended up being the furthest away. We set up camp and enjoyed a hearty meal of meat, vegetables, and potatoes and some "chocolate surprise" and then headed to bed. We didn't get much sleep the first night between the lumps on the ground, the wind, and Belle moving around. I would wake up at night and find her sitting and staring at the tent door just waiting to go out and play some more with Ernie. We woke up Saturday morning and had some oatmeal to start off our day and then headed for Humboldt Peak (14,064). The clear skies that we woke up to quickly changed as the clouds moved in at rapid speeds. It was almost mystical looking at times with the clouds coming in and out. We summited Humboldt but we couldn't see much from the top because of the clouds. We made our way back to our campsite and took an afternoon nap (much needed after the previous night's sleep). After our naps the boys decided that they needed a brisk swim so they jumped into the frigid lake and experienced the shock of swimming in an alpine lake. We had another hearty dinner of chicken, vegetables, and rice and even got to play a game of euchre (sadly, the boys won). We slept much better the second night and then took off Sunday morning back down to the trailhead. We saw a bunch of big horn sheep on the way down, which is always fun, and just enjoyed our beautiful surroundings. Overall it was a fantastic weekend to just relax with some friends in the wilderness. This week we are looking forward to having Emily, Ryan, and Molly come and stay with us and we will be heading to Aspen for the weekend to explore that area.

heading up to our campsite.

ridgeline.

clouds rolling in the next morning.

finishing breakfast, then heading out to tackle Humboldt.

columbines (state flower).

Crestone Needle poking through the clouds.

group shot on the summit of Humboldt Peak.

a bit chilly.

Ernie going in for a tasty piece of Belle's thigh.

buddies ... scanning the area for big horn.

crossing a stream on the way out.

Family Matters

2010-07-18T10:41:00.010-07:00

The past couple weeks we have had the pleasure of hosting both of our families out here in Colorado. We love it that they are willing to make the long journey out here to spend time with us and explore Colorado. Daron's family (Mom, Dad, Erika, Tim, Sue, & Tyler) came out over the week of July 4th. We rented a house in Buena Vista for the first part of the week, which was fantastic. The first day we took a day hike to Kroenke Lake near Buena Vista. It was perfect weather and the scenery was beautiful. Tyler, Daron, and I made it up to a high ridge overlooking all of the surrounding mountains and ended up putting in 12 miles of hiking. The next day Tyler, Tim, Dad, Daron, and I took off to conquer Mt. Elbert, which is the highest peak in Colorado @ 14,440 ft. (3rd highest in the U.S.). Daron decided to take us up the non-standard route to avoid crowds and because it was more scenic. We definitely avoided crowds (I think we saw 2 other people on the trail that day) and the scenery was incredible, but it was a pretty challenging hike and after 12 hours on the trail we were all exhausted. All of us made it to the peak and it was another perfect day with no storms in the mountains. On Tuesday we headed back to Colorado Springs and spent the rest of the week relaxing and sightseeing around the area. We went to Manitou Springs one afternoon and as we were walking down the sidewalk we ran into a black bear trying to get into a trash bin. This was actually the first bear I have seen in Colorado since we have moved out here. We got to play putt-putt with his family and Daron and Tyler got to play some tennis together as well. Daron's family left early Friday morning for the Midwest as my family was packing and getting ready to head out here.

Belle trying to be the center of attention, as usual.

looking good on the trail dad!

Kroenke Lake.

Tyler and I at the top of the ridge.

Starting out from the Black Cloud Trailhead.

two years in the making ... climbing a 14er!

our view on the way up!

taking it all in...

Rachael with La Plata in the background.

Dad and Tim making the final push to the top of Mt. Elbert.

On top of the highest peak in CO., Mt. Elbert (14,440').

one last group shot before the steep descent.

starting the descent.

Everyone in front of our Buena Vista home for the weekend.

My parents and Joel made it out here on Saturday, July 10th, to spend the next week with us. We enjoyed a lazy day on Sunday and then checked out different hiking spots the next couple days along with accomplishing some projects around the house. Susan and Michael joined us on Wednesday so we hit Garden of the Gods and the Crags to get them in shape for the big hike on Friday. On Wednesday night we headed out to Front Range BBQ for dinner and then the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo for some bull-riding, calf-roping, and barrel racing action. Early Friday morning we set out to hike another 14er, Gray's Peak. Susan, Michael, Daron, and I all made it to the top of Gray's and then Daron hiked Torrey's as well to add to his list of 14ers (#10 overall). It was a beautiful day and the scenery along the trail was awesome. The wildflowers were in full bloom still and there were a lot of old mines and houses along the way. We took another non-standard route to the top, which was a lot shorter than the standard route but it got pretty steep at the top of the trail. We rewarded our hike with Beau Jo's pizza in Idaho Springs and then my parents and Joel took off towards South Dakota to pick up our niece, Daraby. On Saturday we went to Manitou Spring with Susan and Michael and enjoyed a hearty breakfast and some shopping. We played some games at the penny arcade and then relaxed for the afternoon. Michael and Susan left Saturday evening for the Midwest. We had a great time with both of our families and really enjoyed all of the hiking we got to do with them around Colorado. Now we have a pretty low key week ahead of us and then we will be hiking another 14er, Mount of the Holy Cross, this coming weekend with some friends.

watching the sunrise on the drive up to hike Gray's and Torrey's Peaks.

group shot at the trailhead (Argentine Pass in Horse shoe basin).

the trail started from an old mine.

Joel and I on the trail (Gray's Peak in the background).

on a steep ridge.

Daron and I at the top of Gray's Peak.

Susan and Michael making it to the top of Gray's (and Belle greeting them as she did many hikers!).

one final group shot.

Mt. Bierstadt & Mt. Evans

2010-06-29T14:26:00.003-07:00

Last Friday I took the day off work to hike a couple mountains with some friends from work (Mt. Bierstadt: 14,060; Mt. Evans: 14,262). We met at the C&MA partking lot at 4:00 AM (that means we were up in the 3:00's!) to head up to Guanella Pass and begin our day. We bagged the first summit (Bierstadt) by 9:00 AM, while everyone back at work was just starting their day. After taking in the view we headed to Evans via the Sawtooth Ridge. Just this little section took over 2 hours (it was a challenging class 3 hike/climb/scramble). After summitting Evans (which was quite disheartening to see how many tourists had driven to the top) we began our long descent back to the parking lot. All in all we hiked over 10 miles and took over 10 hours to finish. We were all exhausted when we finished to we treated ourselves to a Mexican dinner on the way home.

Follow THIS LINK to see some of my photos from the hike.

Below are some videos that my boss, Matt, took during the hike.

The One and Only Highway 1

2010-06-09T15:50:00.019-07:00

killing time during our 2 hour delay at DIA.

Saturday, June 5
Last night we got into LAX really late after a delayed flight. We were amazed at how busy the freeway was after midnight. Today we did a whirlwind tour of LA to see lots of friends and family. We stayed with my high school friend and his wife, Mark and Jenna, in Pomona. We began our day with a big glass of fresh squeezed orange juice from a tree in their backyard (best juice I have ever had). We met Dave Nearpass, a college friend, in Seal Beach for breakfast and then enjoyed some time down at a beach near Laguna with him and his girlfriend. Then we headed back to Seal Beach where Daron had lunch at Taco Surf with his uncle and I got together with Kelly, another high school friend. Kelly and I decided to go kayaking for the afternoon in these beautiful channels lined with huge houses and boats. After that we checked out Huntington Beach, which was incredibly busy because of a volleyball tournament and a boogy board competition (who knew that existed?). During this time Daron met up with Matt Bruce, another college friend, in Azusa to catch up for a while. At night we made our way back to Mark and Jenna’s house for a BBQ and bonfire. Needless to say it was an incredibly busy day catching up with many friends, but it was great to see everyone and enjoy the city of Los Angeles.

Our buddy from college, Dave, and his girlfriend Aubrey.

Rachael and Kelly.

Matt and Daron.

with our gracious hosts, Mark and Jenna.

Sunday, June 6
Today started out a little bit rough, but ended up being a fantastic day. We said goodbye to Mark and Jenna and headed out for a morning of sightseeing around LA when I realized that I had lost my cell phone (I guess I should preface this vignette by saying that I also lost my phone in the Denver airport on Friday). After a great search I realized that I had left it in our friends car who were at church, so after a couple hour ordeal I got my phone back and we headed out to see the city. We drove up to the Hollywood sign and saw the city from a distance. Then we headed back to the airport to pick up Emily and Ryan Holliday, our friends from college who live in Ohio. We finally got out of LA and started up Highway 1. We decided that our first lunch stop should be In N’ Out Burger, which was fabulous. Once we were a little way out of the city the coastline was breathtaking. Daron had to fight the urge to stop every 10 feet to take a picture. We stopped at an elephant seal beach and laughed a lot as we watched the incredibly ugly animals lay in a big smelly group and make very weird noises. The boys admired their lives- eating, sleeping, fighting with each other, making farting noises, etc. :) We barely made it to Big Sur with the gas that we had and ended up paying $4.29/gal when we got there. We stayed at a beautiful campground creatively called Big Sur Campground. We didn’t get to the campground until around 9:30, so after we set up camp in the dark we crashed very quickly to the sound of a creek and Ryan snoring.

Hollywood.

In N' Out burger.

elephant seals.

Hwy 1.

Road Trippin' with the Hollidays!

Monday, June 7
This morning Daron and I got up early and headed back south on Highway 1 to go back to McWay Falls which we only got a glance at the night before because it was so late. It was an incredibly beautiful morning with clear blue skies. The falls were beautiful, one of the only falls that goes directly onto the beach, as well as the curvy drive along the coast. We stopped at a bakery and picked up some fresh-baked croissants for breakfast. Then we hit the road again for another day of beautiful scenery. We stopped at Santa Cruz for lunch and walked the boardwalk for a little while and then headed for San Francisco. We rented bikes and headed down to the Golden Gate Bridge. We had a blast riding across the bridge and seeing the city on bikes. Then we headed down to Fisherman’s Warf and took a ride on the historic cable car to China Town. We had an amazing Chinese dinner in China Town (even Ryan was full, which is a pretty big accomplishment). We decided that biking around the city wasn’t enough exercise for one day, so we walked UP Lombard street, the most windy street in America. Then we headed across the bridge to get to Olema Campground by Point Reyes National Seashore. It was another late night getting to the campsite, so we basically set up camp and crashed.

McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur, CA.

beautiful seascape just north of Big Sur.

riding bikes around San Fran.

China Town restaurant.

San Fran at dusk.

Tuesday, June 8
We started out our day exploring Point Reyes. It was an incredibly beautiful park with dramatic coastlines and rustic ranches. There were even cows in the road! We hiked out to a lighthouse and then saw some seals swimming in the ocean and some more elephant seals in a pile. Point Reyes is known as the windiest spot on the coast with recorded wind gusts at 133 miles/hour. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out for another beautiful day. The coastline around Bodega Bay and Mendocino was incredible. We stopped at a little place where we could drive thru a redwood tree. We slightly scraped the side of the mirror, but no extreme harm done. It was a funny little place, but we got a kick out of it. The curvy road got to us a little bit and by the end of the day we were definitely ready to get out of the car and stop turning. We made our way down to Shelter Cove and enjoyed some pizza pies and s’mores over the fire. We were practically the only ones in the campground, which was right next to the ocean, but the owner was really nice and even gave us more firewood because he thought our fire looked a little small. It was great to finally have an evening just to relax verses still driving to our next stop. It started to sprinkle as we headed for bed and continued to rain throughout the night.

Point Reyes lighthouse.

CA coastline.

curvy section of Hwy 1.

after driving through the tree.

leaving Hwy 1 for Hwy 101 in NorCal.

Wednesday, June 9
Today we woke up to a slightly wet tent and rainy weather. It was hard to get up hearing the rain on the tent and knowing we would have to pack all of the wet gear up. Daron and I woke up and headed down to Shelter Cove and enjoyed a walk on the black sand beach in the mist (a perfect walk to start off our anniversary today). The cove was really beautiful and there were small waterfalls coming down off of the rocks onto the beach. Then we headed back to the campsite to pack up our wet stuff and hit the road (our goal is always to leave the campsite early and it seems like we never really make our goal). We drove the "Avenue of Giants" in Humboldt Redwoods State Park and roamed around in the incredible redwoods. Highway 101 also brings you right through Redwoods National Park in northern California. We stopped at Harris Beach State Park and Port Orfords Heads State Park. The weather is typical Oregon weather- grey with intermittent mists and sunshine. Everything is lush and green, green, green. We camped at Sunset Bay State Park near Coos Bay. It was one of our favorite places to camp because it was almost like camping in a rainforest and the shore line was amazing. We headed to Fisherman’s Grotto for a family dinner of clam chowder, beer-battered shrimp, fish, and fries. We thought it was only fitting to have a dinner of that caliber on the coast of Oregon. We were the only people at the restaurant, so they started to close the place down as we were leaving. It was cold and rainy outside and we quickly found out that we had a problem with the remote car opener and so we were basically stranded in a tiny town with no car or supplies. All of our cell phones were in the car and none of us even had a coat on us. The restaurant owner graciously let us stay in the restaurant with her while we waited for a locksmith to come and bail us out of our dilemma, which took about 1.5 hours. The moral of the story is that from that point on we never locked all the doors of the van because we did not want to spend the majority of our trip waiting for AAA. We set up our tents in the rain and prayed for dry weather in the morning.

misty morning in Shelter Cove.

Avenue of Giants.

redwoods.

Pentagon, Hexagon, Welcome to Oregon.

Celebrated our 3 year anniversary this day! (Harris Beach)

Thursday, June 10
We woke up to a surprisingly dry tent and no rain outside, so Daron and I set out early to see some of the sights around the campground. We explored Sunset Bay and then headed to Cape Argo and saw a couple hundred sea lions and a beautiful lighthouse. Then all of us set out for another day driving the coast. One of the major bonuses of Oregon is that the roads are not nearly as windy as the roads in California, so it is easier to get from one point to another. We stopped at Heceta Head Lighthouse, which is supposedly one of the most photographed spots in Oregon and also the brightest beacon on the coast. From there we took the Three Cape Scenic Loop to Cape Lookout State Park and hiked the cape trail. It was a beautiful hike out on the peninsula. The trail often hugged the ocean with dramatic drops with rocks and beautiful plants all around. The trail was a little tricky because there were some extremely muddy sections. Daron had his waterproof hiking boots on, so he often carried me over really muddy spots and even helped Emily and Ryan over a bad spot as well. It was great to get outside for a while and see the sights on foot. After the hike we drove to Cannon Beach and stayed at Wright’s for Camping, which is a little family-owned campground. There was one other tent at the campground, so we got to pick out what site we wanted and had the place basically to ourselves. We cooked hotdogs, brats, and baked beans over the fire and had s’mores again for dessert. It was delicious!

Oregon coastline near Sunset Bay.

Heceta Head lighthouse.

view from Cape Lookout Loop Trail.

acting as a sherpa and carrying Ryan across a muddy section.

it was great to get out of the van for a hike.

Friday, June 11
We woke up to another cloudy morning, but were happy it was not raining. We got out of our campsite in record time (8:00) and headed down to Cannon Beach. There is a protected marine garden that was really cool to see in low tide. We saw tons of sea anemone and starfish and learned that starfish eat by pushing their stomachs into muscles and digesting the food while their stomach is out of their bodies. Our next stop was Olympic National Park, which was incredible. The weather cleared up by the time we reached Ruby Beach, which was beautiful with lots of rocks and driftwood. Olympic National Park is incredible because it hosts three different types of ecosystems- coastal, rainforest (the only temperate rainforest in North America), and mountain. From there we went to the Hoh rainforest and did some hiking on the Hall of Mosses trail. It was almost surreal to be in the rainforest- everything was blanketed in green with ferns shooting up all over. The river was crystal clear with lots of plants growing in it. The rainforest has an annual average of 142 inches of rain (in comparison Seattle has 34 inches). Next we headed across the park to Hurricane Ridge to set up camp. We decided to check out the Olympic mountains and were pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the mountains and the amount of snow that was still on them. Emily started to talk about her fear of bears at night when she spotted a black bear right off the road we were on. The bear was about 50 yards away from our car, so it was cool to watch it for a little while. The views from the road were incredible! We enjoyed the mountain scenery for a little bit and then went back to make another dinner over the fire. We decided that hotdogs were such a big hit the night before that we would have them again. We had another blazing fire with hotdogs, beans, and s'mores. Amazingly it tasted just as good as the previous night (or maybe we were just really hungry).

Haystack Rock @ Cannon Beach, OR.

starfish and other marine life on the rock.

Olympic National Park (Beach).

Olympic National Park (Rainforest).

Olympic National Park (Mountains).

Saturday, June 12
Sunny skies greeted us this morning as we packed up our tents for the last time since we will be staying at a hotel by the airport tonight. We started our day at the Olympic Bagel Company, which was incredible! Then we headed for the Edmonds-Kingston ferry to go and explore Seattle. Seattle was everything we expected it to be and more. Today was one of the first nice days they have had since winter and it was incredibly clear. We made our way through Pike Place Market, which was insane! There were so many people out and about and lots of musicians lining the streets. We stopped for a carmel frappuccino at the original Starbucks and enjoyed the culture of the city. We even visited the famous gum wall on Post Alley known as one of the top 10 germiest places to visit in the U.S. We strolled down by the bay and watched all of the sailboats which made me miss sailing on Lake Michigan. Daron and I decided to suck it up and pay the $17.00/person fee to go up the space needle, which ended up being really incredible. We had awesome views of the city and of Mount Rainier. We finished our tour of the city with dinner out on the dock. We decided to stay in a hotel because we had a very early flight the next morning and it ended up being a really nice hotel, which really seemed comparable to heaven after camping for the last week! We enjoyed our last couple hours with Emily and Ryan and then tried to get some sleep before waking up at 4:00 AM to catch our flight in the morning.

the original Starbucks.

Pike Place Market.

Ryan adding his piece to the famous gum wall in Post Alley.

Space Needle.

view of Seattle and Mt. Rainier from the Space Needle.

Overall the trip was incredible! It would take a long time to really explore all of what the Pacific Coast offers, but we made the best out of the time we had. We really enjoyed reconnecting with Ryan and Emily since they live so far away from us and just adventuring together up Highway 1/101.

This was obviously a limited collection of our photos. To see more follow THIS LINK.

North to Nebraska

2010-06-01T10:27:00.007-07:00

For Memorial weekend we went to Nebraska to meet up with Andrew, Darcy, Daraby, and Dakota for the weekend. They came down from South Dakota and we came up from Colorado to meet in the middle in the bustling town of Oshkosh, Nebraska where they used to live. It is hard not being close to our family, so we really treasure the moments we get to spend with them. We enjoyed the beautiful sand hills, green meadows, and abundant wild life, but the best part was hanging out with our adorable nieces. This was the first time that we were able to meet Dakota, which was incredibly special. Daraby was a bundle of energy, always wanting to go and pet the puppies, goats, horses, and anything else she could find. Andrew took Daron and I on a nice horseback ride around their friend's ranch. Daron had a moment where the horse almost got out from under him, but no harm done and now he is ready for the rodeo:) We got to stay at a really cool guest bunkhouse that was decked out with a rustic western theme, which fit with the surroundings. We always enjoy getting away from city life and experiences the wide open spaces in Nebraska. It almost feels like we go back in time when we are there.

This is my first real week of summer after a crazy week turning in grades, cleaning my room, and saying goodbye to my students. I am looking forward to a change of pace and hopefully catching some moments to just relax. On Friday we head for California to start our drive up the coast to Seattle. We are very excited to take the trip with our close friends from college, Emily and Ryan, who will be flying in from Ohio. The Sunday we fly in from Seattle, I will be taking a quick pit stop at home and then driving down to Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado to finish up my classes for my degree. Summer will slow down a little after that and as always we look forward to having guests come and visit.

I was able to borrow a lens from work (70-200, f2.8 for you camera buffs) and had a lot of fun messing around with it on our trip.

baby goat.

mama goat.

lots of goats.

great pyrenees pup.

Dutch.

Blossom & Patricia.

nose-licker.

too cute.

Rachael & Dakota.

swiiing.

sisters.

happy.

Rachael & Dakota.

horseback ride with Strawberry, Dutch & Dually.

10 Steps to a Re-vamped Backyard

2010-05-17T18:21:00.011-07:00

Step 1: Begin by loathing the weeds, dirt and aspen roots in your backyard. The amount of loathing will equal the effort put into your yard. The more you hate it, the better. Along with the loathing, there needs to be a visionary and a slave (guess who was who in our case...)

Step 2: Beat your yard to death with an 8-ball in a sock (or a rototiller).

Step 3: Buy some rocks. A lot of them. 13.5 tons. And have them dropped in your driveway. Just don't forget to move your cars out of the garage first.

Step 4: Recruit some high school boys who have nothing better to do on a Saturday. Bribe them with all the pizza, pop and gatorade they can consume. When you sense they are getting tired of working, offer to buy them Chipotle. That should buy you a couple more hours.

Step 5: Move the rocks from your driveway to your preferred location(s) in your backyard using the high school boys mentioned in previous step.

Step 6: Buy $100 worth of compost and steer poo. Proceed to spread it around your yard in an artistic manner. This is a very important step and the success of your landscaping project can hinge on the manner in which you spread the poo.

Step 7: Rototil the compost and steer poo deep into your soil. Rake out any excess clumps. Spread until smooth.

Step 8: Pay for some genuine sod and hire the pros to install it for you.

Step 9: Water, water and water some more. Also, prominently place a lawn ornament to add a bit of class to your newly landscaped yard.

Step 10: Relax and enjoy!

Lawn Progress Cont.

2010-05-09T20:05:00.004-07:00

$100 worth of dirt and manure (no joke!).

artwork.

if you're tired of seeing pictures of me tilling our lawn, believe me, I am tired of tilling our yard!

Rach hard at work.

ready for sod.

our faithful companion (though she doesn't work very hard).

Finally Some Forward Progress!

2010-05-02T19:31:00.010-07:00

To begin this post I think it is important to give the history of our lawn adventures in Colorado. Let's just say that growing grass here is not like growing grass in the Midwest! When we moved into this house, in June of 2008, both our front yard and back yard were in a state of dire distress. We chose not to deal with them that summer and focused on the inside of our house. Last summer, by some miracle, a little grass started to grow in our front yard so we just over-seeded and started our sprinkler system up and amazingly enough we grew some grass! The back yard, however, was still a major battle. We tilled it all up, put down seed, fertilizer, and topsoil- then we grew a whole yard of weeds! It was very disappointing to say the least! This year we decided to try to tackle the backyard again (Daron says this is the last try). Last weekend we tilled everything up and sprayed Round Up like it was our job. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative with us and we had snow this past week (I know, it is May) and so the Round Up did not do much. This weekend we had 13.5 tons (yes, you read that correctly) of rock delivered to our driveway. I can honestly say that it didn't look like much rock in the driveway- I was expecting it to be a bigger pile. But, once we started shoveling the rock into wheelbarrows the pile didn't seem to get any smaller. We had two Air Academy high school boys and some of our neighbor kids helping us for about 8 hours on Saturday. Let's just say it was a long day, but all of our helpers were hardcore! We could barely get ourselves out of bed this morning! But, we have finally made some positive progress in our backyard. This way we can focus our grass-growing skills on a smaller amount of space. First, we are going to do a couple of grow-kill cycles, which basically means we are going to water our lawn to germinate as many weeds as we can and then we will kill them before we put down grass seed. I am also going to attempt my first flower garden (I am sure it will not compare to my grandma's garden, but I will do my best). We are hoping that at some point this summer we will truly be able to relax in our backyard instead of being stressed at how horrible it is! Daron has promised me a hammock and a fire pit when we start to grow grass (extra incentive I guess). We are always open to gardening/landscaping advice, so please feel free to leave a comment or give us a call with your wisdom.

This is my last week of tennis and graduate school, so there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. I am ready for a change of pace this summer and hopefully finding some time to just relax. My last day of school is May 27, so that will be here before I know it. We will be heading to Denver this week for tennis regionals and then we will see if any of our girls make it to state the next weekend. We had all of the tennis girls (we have 26 total this year) over for dinner on Friday night. Everything was going great until we ran out of gas for our grill about half-way through grilling. It was a slight disaster, but everything worked out in the end. We are fortunate to be able to coach together, but it really takes a lot of time and energy to run the whole program. I know that one part of our family will definitely miss tennis when our season is done- Belle. She has been a fantastic mascot this year. She just hangs out with us on the courts when we practice and enjoys being around the girls and the balls. Even at our matches she typically just makes the rounds with the crowd and uses her eyes to get food and attention. We love the fact that Belle is able to be a part of our tennis team.

before tilling.

starting the tilling.

re-tilling.

dumping the rocks.

13.5 TONS! (or roughly two average sized elephants)

Chris, Zach and I hard at work.

taking shape.

I Will Survive!

2010-04-19T13:24:00.009-07:00

I feel like Rachael and I are in survival mode right now. You may have read her previous post about how many things we have going on right now. Don't get me wrong, we are enjoying it all (for the most part), but sometimes I feel like we are just getting by and trying to weather the proverbial storm. Speaking of surviving, a couple weekends ago I was talked into climbing two fourteeners (mountains over 14,000' in elevation...in other words, BIG mountains!) with my friend Kirk and his brother Leif who was in town for a few days. We headed out to tackle Kit Carson and Challenger Point on a Sunday morning with a drive to the Sangre de Cristo range a few hours Southwest of Colorado Springs. Once arriving at the trailhead, we backpacked in about 5 miles to Willow Lake to camp for the night. The next morning we began our ascent of Kit Carson. It wasn't long before we had to strap on our crampons (spikes) in order to navigate the snowy/icy slopes. I didn't own (nor had I ever worn) crampons so I borrowed my boss' pair. Since I had never worn crampons, I wasn't quite sure how to adjust them correctly. Needless to say it wasn't long before my toe slipped out and I was sent hurtling down (all estimates considered) a 100 yard field of ice at 40 MPH, totally out of control. On the drive up I had been reading one of Kirk's mountaineering books and taking in the tips about what to do if said situation occurs. Well, I didn't have my ice axe out yet so I couldn't try to self-arrest so I at least tried to get my feet pointing downhill ... it always looks much easier in the book. I ended up flipping around a couple times until I realized I was closing in fast on two very large boulders. It was definitely one of those life-flashing-before-your-eyes moments. The next thing I knew I slammed into a thick snow bank of powder directly between the two boulders which killed my momentum and stopped me before I could continue my wild sled ride (minus the sled). I won't lie, it shook me up. After collecting myself for a few minutes, I realized it was my fault that I didn't take the time to properly adjust my crampons, so after making sure everything was squared away, I headed back up the mountain. It was very difficult (and pretty slow going...I wasn't about to take another spill like I just had). There were times when we were (again, all estimates considered) on a 65º-70º slope, side-stepping across the mountain, kicking in each step along the way; nothing between us and a fatal ride but the 1.5" inch spikes on our feet. We had our ice axes out by these points, and even roped ourselves together on harnesses, but those were more for mental stability than anything I think. After several hours, we bagged Kit Carson and headed on towards Challenger Point before making our way down the mountain (just as scary ... one loose step and swoosh!). Waiting for us back at camp was our 60 lb. packs, ready to greet us and looking for a free ride back to the car. After little sleep the night before (we camped on the snow seeing as there was no other option) and a nearly 12 hour hike up two fourteeners and back, we were E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D-! but we were survivors. It was an incredible "experience," one I'm not sure I would have sought had I known what was in store for me. How was your weekend?

Here is a link to the PHOTOS. Needless to say, I was pretty intent on staying alive and taking cool photos was not as high on the priority list.

All photos below courtesy Kirk Nordgren.

Looking out over the valley where we started the hike.

snowshoe-ing.

showshoes off for the night.

thank you snow bank.

heading back up.

steepness.

Leif congratulating me on the 2nd peak, Challenger Point.

heading back down.

Tennis, Teaching, and Grad school, Oh My!

2010-04-07T08:49:00.004-07:00

Since I am enjoying a snow day today I thought it would be a good idea to post an update about what has been going in our lives. The past couple weeks have been extremely busy with all our commitments this time of year. Daron wanted to make sure that I noted that he won the March Madness family bracket for the first time since 1994 when his family started the competition. I was hoping that Michigan State would pull through to the finals, but they made a good run none the less. We were both cheering for Butler in the finals, so needless to say we were very disappointed that Duke won.

Tennis is going full force right now. Daron is coaching the Varsity 1 team and I am coaching Varsity 2. It is great to see the team unity between both teams. We have a lot of weekend tournaments this year (5 out of the next 7 weekends) so needless to say we don't have a lot of down time. Daron and I have been getting lots of practice driving high school girls around in huge Expeditions- it always feels nice to get back in my little Honda. Belle is our team mascot and loves running after balls and all the attention she gets from the girls (dog heaven). I am about to start my last unit with my 8th grade students, which is To Kill a Mockingbird- one of my favorites! This time of year it can be difficult to keep 8th graders motivated, but I am going to do my best. Graduate school is in full force as well right now. It has been a challenging semester, but I am continually learning so much that can be related to my teaching right now. Daron is still really enjoying his job at Christian & Missionary Alliance. Check out his website (daronshort.com) to see some of the projects he has done for CMA so far.

We have also started planning different trips we are going to take this summer. We are going to start the summer off by flying into Los Angeles, CA and drive up highway 1/101 to Seattle with our good friends, Emily and Ryan Holliday. So, if you know of any good places to stop along the way, let us know! We are also planning some camping trips to Buena Vista, Aspen, and Mount of the Holy Cross. We are always excited to have family and friends out here as well! We will be back in Michigan the second week of August to celebrate one of my high school friends wedding and to spend some time at the lake. I will also be going back to Alamosa, CO to complete my last two classes for my degree! In the fall I will be doing an internship to finish my degree.

Catching Up

2010-03-08T20:33:00.004-07:00

It's been awhile. Tennis season is officially underway and things have gotten crazy since the season started. We have already gone through tryouts, a scrimmage and a trip to Steamboat Springs to play a couple of dual matches. We're finally settling into a routine though. I'm also working on a team website where I'll keep our schedule and updates about matches. Feel free to check it out (www.kadettennis.com). Tennis is pretty much consuming any free time we have now, so there's not much else to update. We did go skiing a couple weeks ago though with our friends John and Lindsay. Had to use those free passes I won from hitting the 1/2 court shot!

John and I at Monarch.

R&D.

tennis team in Steamboat Springs.

Celebrating St. Valentine

2010-02-15T13:53:00.008-07:00

In honor of Valentine's Day, which in the past just meant that Daron prepared a wonderful dinner at home, Daron surprised me and took me to the Denver Aquarium. It was a little chaotic when we got there, lots of loud little kids and crowded walk ways, but it turned out to be a great experience. We had a fantastic three course dinner with live music at the Aquarium Restaurant. We had our picture taken as well, which turned out pretty cheesy, but a memory keeper none-the-less. We also walked through the aquarium again after we ate (and also after most of the kiddos had gone home). It was great to just be able to enjoy the beautiful fish and animals. The sea turtles were one of our favorite animals to watch. It was great to have a night out together and do something we had wanted to do for a while.

Daron is enjoying his day off skiing at A-basin with Ron (the boys tennis coach at Air Academy) and I am home enjoying the peace and quiet for a while. I guess I don't know exactly how to celebrate Presidents Day, but I think relaxing, baking, and getting some school work done is going to have to cut it. Next weekend I am hosting a movie night for my book club. We just finished "Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay, so we are going to watch the movie. It is a fantastic book if you are interested in South African history during the Apartheid, but there are some violent scenes. It was also interesting to learn about the Dutch influence in Africa during this time, especially about the Boer War. On Saturday we are going to hit the slopes again at Monarch Ski Resort with our friends Jon and Lindsay. After next weekend tennis will begin, so our lives will become drastically busier.

aquarium.

Rachael, checking out the tigers...at the aquarium...?

undersea dinner.

backside bowl at A-basin. Keystone and Breckenridge are visible in the distance.

skiing with Ronald.

Bathroom Makeover

2010-01-31T11:20:00.011-07:00

This past week we had the pleasure of having Daron's dad out here to help us with our bathroom projects. Our inspiration for this project was the fact that our guest bathroom floor had a resounding squeak whenever someone was in there, even in the shower the floor squeaked! So, we decided to just gut the whole guest bathroom and do some upgrading in our bathroom to give them a fresh look. We decided to keep both of the vanities and have Daron's dad make us new doors. They turned out beautifully! We sanded and stained our vanity and painted the guest bathroom vanity white. Daron was thrilled to be able to work all week with his dad and learn new handyman skills for future projects. It is great to finally have our bathrooms back together and it is exciting to see how all our ideas came together in both bathrooms. Daron's first day at CMA is tomorrow, so he is ready to start a new phase in his career journey.

Master Bath- before

Master Bath- after

Guest Bath- before

during

Daron the Demo Dude

Getting there

Done!

The crew

To see all of the before/during/after photos follow THIS LINK.

The JOB

2010-01-19T16:22:00.005-07:00

This past Friday, after sweating it out waiting to hear from C&MA for the past 4 days and at 8:00 p.m. no less, Daron found out that he will be joining the staff of The Christian & Missionary Alliance as a Senior Graphic Designer! He is very excited to be able to join their design team and be a part of their organization. It is also (hopefully) possible for him to do some photography around the world documenting missionaries in the field. One of his former co-workers from ACSI also works at CMA, so he is looking forward to working with him again as well. We are really excited for Daron to move on to this great environment. His first day will be February 1st, so he has a couple weeks off to finish up some freelance work and lots of odds and ends that need to be done before tennis season starts. We are also really looking forward to having Daron's dad out here on Saturday for a week to hang out and work on our now demolished bathroom. Yesterday we tore everything out, which went smoother than we anticipated (not typical for a Short house project). This past weekend we headed up to the crags to do some hiking since the weather has been so amazing the past couple weeks. We had a beautiful hike, but then on the way down the winding forest road it was like ice skating in our Subaru. It took us 2 hours to go 3 miles because people kept sliding off the 2-track road and it was impossible to get around anyone. We made some new friends and learned some new methods for helping people back on the road. As I was walking down to another car, during one of the slide-offs, I slipped on the ice and fell right on my tailbone. It is still incredibly sore, but hopefully I will be able to sit down without wincing soon! Today was the start of the second semester at TCA; it is crazy to think that the year is already half over! I start my grad classes next week, so I have one more week to enjoy not having homework!

DEMO-DAY!

Crags (in our new jackets we got for Christmas!)

Holiday Hoopla

2010-01-04T19:47:00.010-07:00

We began our holiday journey on Friday, December 18, and headed to Nebraska to see Andrew, Darcy, and Daraby. The rest of my family also met us out there, so it was great to have time with the whole family in the beautiful Nebraska countryside. Daraby is getting so much bigger and is starting to say some words (one of her favorites is "Abby"). Abby, their springer spaniel, had puppies 6 weeks before we came. They were incredibly adorable and Belle loved having lots of playmates. We enjoyed a hay ride with their friends to "cake" the cows. Daron had his first experience driving their team of horses (Jim & Sarah). From Nebraska we headed to Indiana to see Daron's family. Daron enjoyed playing tennis with his high school coach and we had a great Christmas with his family. From Indiana we headed up north to Michigan to spend some time with my family. We got to see my high school friends, which was a blast to catch up and reconnect. On Christmas we spent the day with the Boersma side. In 1999, everyone on the Boersma side filled out a paper about their predictions for 10 years in the future, so we opened the time capsule this year and laughed a lot at what we wrote. I predicted that we would have pills instead of syringes, so it was a little disappointing to realize my prediction has not come true. We also enjoyed our Boersma family tradition of creating gingerbread houses and had a fabulous Christmas with them. From Michigan we headed to Ohio to see Daron's extended family. Daron was the proud winner of the annual Short family ping-pong tournament. Daron and Tyler played tennis and I got to join in on a Cardio Tennis class, which was great. Huntington, Indiana was our next stop on the tour. The girls and guys split up to have sleep-overs, which was a lot of fun. The boys were able to stay at the Pool House, the house Daron lived in his senior year, and stayed up until 5:30 am playing NBA Jam and whatever else boys do for 12 continual hours together. We had a great New Year's Eve in Huntington and then headed back to Indianapolis for New Year's Day. Daron's parents were an incredible help watching Belle while we did our Midwest tour. She was spoiled with new toys, long walks to the park, and plenty of attention. We had such an incredible time reconnecting with friends and family. It was hard to leave, but it felt great to be back in our own bed.

Boersma clan on our hayride.

driving the horses back to the stall.

puppies!

love Ben's ears!

curious.

remember being that little, Belle?

Aunt Rach and Daraby.

Dad's new headlamp. Lookin' good.

Mom, Erika and Rach.

Friends.

NBA JAM Tournament.

Miller and Slick on air drums and guitar!

The girls.

Mah Boys!

Crested Butte Getaway

2009-12-08T15:51:00.007-07:00

Last weekend we headed out on our (now) annual Crested Butte Christmas Vacation. This is the second year we've taken this trip to Crested Butte and stayed in the Elk Mountain Lodge. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they have a stay & ski FREE deal so we are making a habit of taking advantage of it. We arrived on Friday afternoon to clear skies and chilly air. After dropping our stuff off, we headed up to the mountain for some afternoon skiing. There was hardly anyone out which was nice. When we were about to get on our first lift, the chair attendant says to Rachael, "Nice vintage skis! I think I have a pair of those hanging over my fireplace." It was classic! She is looking forward to getting new skis for Christmas to avoid the common embarrassment of people pointing out that her skis are older than their grandkids. Later that night we went out to The Secret Stash for the best wings and pizza in town. The next day went something like this: sleep in, eat breakfast, relax, ski, ski, eat lunch, ski, shower, Christmas parade, steak dinner, hot tub, go to bed early. It was beautiful. The next day we headed out after breakfast to try and beat the snowstorm. We made it to Monarch Pass before it settled in on top of us. Now we are covered in cold and snow back home (Rachael had another well-timed snow day today). Less than 2 weeks until we head out on our trek back to the Mid-west!

ready for the slopes.

Rachael's ancient boots.

watch out.

the view.

skiing!

Rachael's birthday gifts (new boots & skinny jeans, apparently they're all the rage these days).

everyone rides bikes in CB...

...even in negative temps & snow!

crazy little house/coffee shop covered in old license plates.

until next year Elk Mtn. Lodge.

Turkey Travel

2009-12-01T16:55:00.006-07:00

We had an incredible time visiting friends and family over Thanksgiving break. I was very thankful to have the whole week off from school, so I spent Monday decorating the house (against Daron's wishes that Christmas stuff should not be out before Thanksgiving) and most of my time doing grad school work so I wouldn't have to worry about it on vacation. We flew into Indianapolis on Tuesday afternoon and enjoyed seeing Erika's beautiful new house. It was great to spend time with Daron's family and just relax at their place on Wednesday. Wednesday night we headed down to Kentucky to stay with Daron's grandparents. We always enjoy taking long walks around his grandpa's farm and even visiting his donkey named Charlie. He was super friendly and when we walked away he started he-hawing at us really loud- it was quite the sound. We enjoyed tons of great food on Thanksgiving with the Smith's extended family. On Friday we headed to Columbus, Ohio to spend some time with our college friends, Emily and Ryan. We had a fantastic time just having quality time together. I got to have my first experience eating at a Japanese steak house, which was great. Emily and I decided we needed to get matching outfits, so we got to do a little shopping as well. Josh and Kristi were able to come over on Saturday to spend some time with us as well, which was fantastic! It was hard to leave on Saturday, but it was comforting to know that we will be back for another Midwest tour in a couple of weeks for Christmas. Belle spent her Thanksgiving with our friend's Annie and Josh and their dog Charlie. She was so worn out that she fell asleep in my lap during the 5 minute drive home! We went to a Christmas tree farm this year to cut down our tree. Let's just say it wasn't like the Christmas tree farms in Michigan- Daron would say we have a very "natural" looking tree. We are very excited to head to Crested Butte on Friday morning for a weekend of skiing and fabulous restaurants for our annual Christmas trip.

somewhere over Nebraska.

our annual walk around grandpa's farm.

modeling.

Charlie.

Smith family.

late night Sequence with the Hollidays.

Emily and Rachael's matching outfits (Miley Cyrus brand, no less).

family photo in front of the Christmas tree.

November Craziness!

2009-11-19T17:34:00.003-07:00

This month snuck up on us so fast and now it is flying by. It is crazy to think that Thanksgiving is only a week away! Life is busy as always at the Short house. One big change that has happened in the last couple weeks is that Daron has a new job. This has been quite an adjustment for him (no more Sports Center in the morning, working in pjs, etc). He really enjoyed doing freelance for the past 6 months, but this job seemed like the perfect fit for him, so he decided to go in that direction. He now works for Innovative Learning Concepts, which is a company that develops math curriculums, specifically Touch Based Math. It is a small company, about 15 employees, and it has been around for about 30 years. They have been super flexible with Daron's coaching schedule, which is a huge blessing. Daron is really enjoying coaching at the tennis academy that he helped another coach start called Charlie Hustle Tennis Academy. I am currently drowning in 85 8th grade research papers and all my graduate school work. In the next couple weeks my grad classes will be coming to an end, so it will be nice to have a little break before the next semester classes begin. We are VERY excited to go back to the Midwest for Thanksgiving next week. We will be visiting Daron's family in Indianapolis and then driving down to Kentucky to see his extended family. We are also going to visit some college friends in Columbus, OH. After we get back from the Midwest we will be heading on our Christmas trip to Crested Butte for some spectacular skiing. Then Christmas will be right around the corner! I love this time of year!

Belle's Halloween Costume

2009-10-31T09:06:00.006-07:00

So, no go on the pumpkin carving last night. We went to 3 different places to get them, and everywhere was sold out.

This morning we were thinking of what we could dress Belle up as for Halloween (without spending any money). Here is what we came up with...

hmmm...I don't know about this.

Ok guys, not really feeling this "cow-girl" thing. Can we lose the hat, PLEASE!

Howdy Paw-nah!

Wake Me Up When October Ends.

2009-10-30T15:52:00.009-07:00

Sorry for the delay in blog posts folks. We realize it has been awhile and October has come and (almost) gone. Let's recap with some highlights.

1. I was invited to go to the Rockies home playoff game earlier this month. Unfortunately, they lost to the Phillies (who I am currently rooting for to crush the Bombers now!) but the atmosphere was electric. I had never been to an MLB playoff game before so it was a cool, new experience.

2. Tennis season is over! We had our Regional and State tournaments earlier this month as well. We placed 4th in Regionals as a team and were able to send our #1, 2, and 4 doubles teams to State. We drew tough matches in the first round and only our 4 doubles team was able to get through, but our goal is always to score points at State and we did that.

Here is a picture of the three coaches (myself, Ron and Tim). Tim and I convinced the boys to all buzz their heads for Regionals. Some (including myself) even added the racing stripes on the side. OLD SKOOL!

3. As our tennis season was winding down, Tim and I started discussing an idea about creating an off-season tennis training/conditioning program to keep kids involved. It has been going pretty well and we already have over 30 kids in the group (from several area high schools). Working with Tim is always an adventure because we are very different, however, we think that is what has drawn so many kids to the group so far. The sky is the limit for this "academy". Here is the logo I created. I'm also working on a website.

4. Our friends, the Wests, are moving to NY next month. They have been instrumental in helping to start our church (we met at their house every Sunday for the past year) and we will dearly miss them. We took a group photo at church one night to put in a frame for them to remember us by. Here is the cast of The Well.

5. To celebrate the Wests being in our lives, we hosted a party for them in which most of the girls tried to dress up like Kim.

6. Rachael is continuing to work hard on grad school! She has greatly enjoyed 2 delays and 2 snow days this week! It is still October right?

7. Tonight we are heading to the Nordgren's for some pizza and pumpkin carving. Be on the lookout for the winning pumpkin in the next blog.

Next month we will be coming home (to Indiana) for Thanksgiving. Can't believe it's (almost) November!

D&R

Fall is Here!

2009-09-30T16:31:00.006-07:00

Fall is definitely here in CO! Last week we had a big wake-up call with a couple days of snow! This past weekend we got to get out and enjoy some beautiful fall weather and colors. We took a drive up to the Rampart Reservoir near Woodland Park. The yellow aspen trees were gorgeous! We had a picnic lunch and went hiking around the reservoir with Belle. Is was great to just relax and spend the day outside. Life has been pretty busy, but seems to be slowing down a little the past week. Daron has been very busy with tennis, but his season will be over in a couple weeks.

Two weekends ago Andrew, Darcy, and Daraby came to Colorado Springs for the weekend. We got to watch Daraby overnight while Andrew and Darcy had a company outing up in Denver. It was great to be able to spend time with Daraby- she is growing up so fast and is extremely adorable! Belle also enjoyed having Abby (their Springer-Spaniel) here to play with. We are excited that Abby will be having puppies in November! We always love to spend time with family and have visitors to our house!

U.S. Open

2009-09-08T21:06:00.004-07:00

I had the guys on my tennis team over tonight to watch the Nadal vs. Monfils match. We had a match of our own (which we won 4-3) before the guys came over for pizza, pop and scotcharoos!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T10:58:00.008-07:00

Amidst the craziness of the past two weeks we had a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day weekend. On Saturday we took a drive out to Buena Vista, CO. We stopped at our favorite donut shop in Woodland Park on the way and enjoyed the two hour drive. We did a day hike in the San Isabel National Forest. It is a beautiful park with lots of trails and beautiful alpine lakes. We hiked up to Ptarmigan Lake, about 8 miles round trip, which was beautiful!! We managed to dodge some of the rain around us and had a wonderful hike with Belle. We even met some people at the top who lived about 5 miles from us! We had a picnic lunch by Cottonwood Lake and then enjoyed some ice cream in Buena Vista before we made the drive back. It was the perfect day trip and we would love to go back again to explore more of the area. On Monday we were able to go hiking with Adam and Kenzie Gillespie, who recently moved here from IN. Daron and Adam were friends from elementary school in Whiteland. We took them to the Air Force base to hike Stanley Canyon to the reservoir. It was a perfect day for a hike and it was great to get to know them more. On Monday night we had a BBQ at our house with some friends. Overall, it was a perfect weekend to slow down our crazy lives right now.

On Monday I leave with about 200 8th graders and 40 parent/teacher volunteers for Mountain Lab, a three day camp. I took the job of teacher director this year and it has been pretty crazy the past two weeks trying to get everything ready. I am really enjoying my graduate classes, but feel a little stressed having that on my plate right now as well. Daron was gone this week doing a tennis tour with the Varsity team at Air Academy. They went to Steamboat Springs first and then did a tournament in Grand Junction. It will be great to have the day together tomorrow (Sunday) before I leave for camp. Next weekend we are looking forward to having Andrew, Darcy, and Daraby here.

on the way up to ptarmigan lake.

selfie!

gorgeous lakes and ponds up here.

rachael and belle on the way back.

our duck-hunting dog.

with old (and new) friends.

And it begins...

2009-08-30T09:39:00.005-07:00

The past couple weeks have been pretty busy with the start of a new school year. I am really excited to be teaching again, and I have taken on some new responsibilities this year that I am really looking forward to. One of the responsibilities that I have taken on is to be the director for Mountain Lab, which is a three day camp that we take all the 8th graders up to. It is a really great opportunity for the kids to experience outdoor learning and be in a camp setting for a couple days. It is also a huge process to organize everything and be ready to go on September 14th!! Tomorrow I start my graduate classes online as well, so needless to say life will be busy this year!! Daron has started his tennis season and they won their first match last week! He is looking forward to the team's 4 day trip to Steamboat Springs and Grand Junction for matches and a tournament in a couple weeks too.

Last weekend my parents and Joel came to visit, which was wonderful!! My dad helped out a lot around the house getting little projects done that were on our list. My mom was a huge help baking Daron's favorite desserts for his birthday party on Saturday. We celebrated Joel and Daron's birthday by having all our friends over for a big game of kickball!! We had almost 30 people over and it was a perfect night to play kickball. We did some hiking at the Crags with my family and just really enjoyed spending time with them.

This weekend we had big plans to go hiking and continue to work on our yard, but Daron came home from playing basketball Saturday morning with a badly sprained ankle. So we have been taking it slow and just relaxing around the house.

Since we didn't get these up earlier, here are some pictures of our families that Daron took this summer at Lake Michigan!!

Cottonwood Creek

2009-08-24T19:05:00.002-07:00

Since Belle has fallen in love with the water due to our trip to Lake Michigan this summer, one of our new favorite spots is just down the road at Cottonwood Park. There is a creek running along the north side of the park and it has been fun watching Belle get some energy out there. I took my camera along once last week.

2009 Pike's Peak Ascent

2009-08-18T08:17:00.005-07:00

Instead of writing about this year's 13.32 mile Ascent up Pikes Peak, I decided to try my hand at a mini-documentary about the experience. Check out the video below.

I finished 380th overall out of 1647 finishers with an official time of 3:45:51.