Tally-Ho!

    For those of you who read this blog, I really try to update more than once a week, but working M-F makes that pretty difficult, so I hope the once a week posts will suffice=) Arni and I have been staying pretty busy, he is super swamped with his thesis, but than the Lord it will be finished by the end of the year! I stay busy as well, which is funny considering I am not in school anymore. I don't know how I find so many things to occupy my time, lending me to what seems very little time to do the stuff I actually want to do, and the never ending to-do list. I don't know why I wanted to be a grown up so back back when I was 16... laundry, dinners, cleaning, working, animals, good grief! Anyway work hard play hard right? So by some sort of luck I only worked half a day Friday, so I called up my friend Soley and we went for a hike. We drove to Nederland and hiked the Fourth of July Trail in Indian Peaks. We decided on this trail because quite frankly we are tired of hiking the same ol trails in Boulder and we also wanted to see some of the aspens color changing. What an amazing trail we picked! Beautiful waterfalls, lush meadows, crisp golden aspens in technicolor, and a mirror lake at the top where we stopped for a snack and to let Dahlia swim.

   On Saturday I drove my happy butt down to Larkspur (~ 1.5 hr away) to go to a Cross Country Hunter Pace . Click on the highlighted words for an explanation. I also invited a new friend Chantel, whom I met once through Laura. Chantel is not a fellow horse girl, but I knew I wanted to get to know her better and I figured she would be down for a new experience, and I was right! We met at this gorgeous horse farm and the weather was just perfect, warm with a slight fall breeze and sunny. We walked the course as I explained some of the rules of cross country to her and decided to settle on the water jump to hang out. This was because a) there was a great shade tree to spread our blanket under and b) anyone who knows cross country knows the water jump is the best place to watch horses freak out and dump their riders...heh heh. Anyway we chatted and watched the riders come and go, ooed and ahhed over the really pretty horses and laughed at the costumes, because apparently this hunter pace also had a 'best costume' category. The best was the avatar themed horse and rider. The best part of this Pace was the "Running of the Hounds". The Arapahoe Hunt Club had a demonstration and also invited the participants to join in the hunt. This was a terrific experience to watch and also the theme of this blog title! Tally-Ho is a term used in fox hunting to get the hounds excited, they also blew what I think was a french horn, and boy did those hounds sound off!

   Later Saturday evening we went to our good friends Nina and Paul's house. Paul cooked us a very tasty dinner and we putted around Nina's garden and then watched a movie. Nina has one serious green thumb and I always tease her that she's totally a Boulder 'Earth Momma'. She always jokes back that she could never be an earth momma because she shaves and doesn't have dread locks, touche. Visiting Nina's garden is like going to the candy store, except for vegetables heh. I'm always getting to try a radish or carrot pulled right from the earth, and ask her a million questions about what's this and that and how come this grows like so.. because unlike her, my thumbs only job are to be opposable. This trip yielded a GIANT cabbage pulled right up for yours truly!  I can't wait to cook it up perhaps for some corned beef and cabbage or maybe a big bowl of coleslaw! Thanks Nina!!

Note the cabbage is bigger than her head.

To taste the sweet salty air...

    What a crazy few weeks we have had! My in-laws left on Friday, we had a good visit with them. I hope to be able to post more often now, although sometimes I just don't have anything very interesting to talk about. I figure it's better to post less often with something good to talk about then everyday with mindless rants. Don't worry though, I will never stop my mindless rants completely =).

    I guess I'll tell you about our weekend. Saturday we drove to Golden to meet up with new friends Erin and Rob. I've actually known Erin for a while now through work, but this was the first time meeting her husband, and the first time Arni met either. We went to the Coors brew tour, which we have actually done before, but love doing plus it's free! Originally we wanted to do the New Belgium tour in Ft. Collins, but after looking at their website and realizing that every single Saturday from now until next year are booked solid, we decided to stay local. I guess we will wait until next year to do that tour. Anyway we enjoyed our free beers at the end of the tour and I got to try the pumpkin ale (Loved It!). After the tour we walked downtown and had a mouthwatering bison burger. Turns out Rob is quite a funny guy and when he told me Erin was a "Woo" girl (How I met your mother reference aka one of my favorite shows) I knew we would be friends.

  My husband. He's special.

 Erin and Rob doing the wedding toast

 We are goobers!

Enjoying out Saturday!

   Since Arni is so busy with completing his thesis, I really only get one of the weekend days to spend with him and the other has to be devoted to writing. That's okay though because I have established friendships with some really great girls. It is just a bonus they also enjoy spending time outdoors like I do. I spent the first half of Sunday at the barn. I rode Cracker and gave them both baths =) I love my barn time, it is definitely my me time. In the afternoon I drove to Boulder to meet up with some friends to hike Mt. Sanitas. This hike is one I have done many times, It's relatively short (2 hrs) but quite challenging on the way up because it's pretty much like walking stairs. I was pleased though because it wasn't as hard as last time I hiked it, so that much mean I am getting stronger! What a great weekend I had. My quality of life has certainly improved since moving to Colorado, which is pretty amazing considering I grew up in Florida. Next weekend we are going to try to either hike or ride in the mountains somewhere to see the Aspens changing color. I also have a flight back home very soon which I am looking forward to. It will be nice to see some friends and I am most certainly going to visit the ocean. I do miss the salty air. Well until next time folks!

14,036 feet

  On Saturday I hiked my fourth fourteener!  That makes four down and only fifty more to go! I met up with my friend Laura and her friend Andrea at 6 am in Denver and from there we drove about a couple hours to Mt. Sherman,a peak west of Fairplay, CO. You can read more about Mt. Sherman HERE at 14ers.com. Mt. Sherman is in the Mosquito Mountain Range. It seems that no matter the distance or elevation gain, or how much better in shape you are 14ers are just plain HARD! So this trail, like most 14ers was a pretty busy trail. There was a large group of people in front of us and when we caught up to one of the members of the group we asked if it was some sort of meet up hiking group. Apparently it was the 100 year anniversary of the Colorado Mountain Club and so every member of the club signed up to hike one of the state's 54 peaks over 14k ft. Little did we know we would be part of this 100 year climb when we started our day! This day was a girls hike day, so I didn't have my pack mule aka husband to carry all my stuff for me. I tried to lighten up my pack as much as possible, without leaving behind life saving essentials (Hello, have YOU seen the movie 127 hrs?!) but it was still pretty heavy after food and 2 liters of water plus extra clothes and the works. Wow, what a difference wearing a heavy pack makes! I don't think any of the 14ers I have been done would be considered easy by anyone in their right mind, but darn, this one was hard for me! I think I may even claim that is peak had the best view yet. It was a 360° panoramic view and I couldn't possibly take enough pictures to show this. For such a cool day ( 34°F at the start of the hike) the lack of wind that Sherman is notorious for made for quite a warm hike. It could also be the 10 layers of clothing my husband insist I wear because "It might snow on you at 14,000 feet!". Anyway, we found a nice spot in a man made rock alcove to have lunch, where we did the third grade trade, you know "What do you have? Wanna trade?" haha, it was a fun day and  I love having friends who like to be active like I do. I'm not 100% sure, but I'd bet that this will be my last 14er of the season. The Aspens are already changing, although still warm here, the high country is chilling quickly and there will soon be snow covering these peaks. I figure four in one summer is pretty good and early snow means early skiing! Today we have had a nice relaxing Sunday Funday. This morning we went to a local farmers market and bought some peach goat cheese made by local farmers and sampled all sorts of deliciousness like whole milk from Longmont Dairy. Love supporting the local farmers! As promised, I made buffalo chicken dip and other artery clogging football foods for opening season for the Denver Broncos. They play @home this evening, so we will be rooting them on and I'm sure explaining American football to the inlaws! =)

Cheers!

Road Trip 2012

This is a summarized recap on our road trip! I'm also attaching some pictures:

    Day one Drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico!
Santa Fe was a fairly short drive (~7 hrs) from Denver. What a cool and artsy city. The Adobe style houses were definitely one of the best attractions, along with the local Native Americans lined up flea market style selling their jewelry and pottery. I bought a couple of bangles and we walked around enjoying the good weather and lovely art. The in-laws also enjoyed this, but being as this was their first day at altitude (Santa Fe is over 7000ft! Had no Clue it was so high) they were quite a bit winded and tired. I remember what it was like coming from sea level to over 5000 feet not much fun! We had a nice southwestern dinner with some tasty margaritas and called it a night! One of the things I loved most about Santa Fe was the colors!

Day two long drive to Sedona, Arizona.

    Arizona is in ways what I expected it to be like but in more ways it is totally different than anything I expected! The landscape is so varied, I saw everything from dusty plains, to red rocks, to lush green forests, to mountains lined with cool streams! As we were driving an incredibly scenic byway through winding mountain roads we suddenly came across the fairly small town of Sedona. What amazing views! This town is exactly what I pictured Arizona to look like. Soaring red rocks and bright blue skies, its like we were sitting in a John Wayne movie. After we "Oooed and Ahhed" over the town we found our hotel and decided to rest beside the pool. Oh my Gawd was it hot! I am from Florida and I am declaring that Arizona was as close to hell's heat as I think one can be. I felt like I was boiling even in the pool! So we decided to wait until the evening before venturing out to the trails. When we finally decided it would be tolerable to hike we chose "Bell Rock", one of the more famous rock formations and from what we read a fairly easy hike. We also read about Sedona having certain trails that contain "vortexes" of energy, Bell Rock being one of them. Now,  I'm not so sure about that hippy new age energy stuff, but hey anything is worth a shot right? Apparently where you find twisted Juniper trees the energy surge is highest, so I found the biggest twisted juniper I could find and stood by it, hmm nothing.  Oh well, regardless I did have a ton of energy hiking, but who knows it could be from the beautiful surroundings, or perhaps I did tap into some "Earth Energy"! As we were completing our hike a storm started to set in, churning the grey skies and sprinkling the dry ground. We were on the last section of trail when a double rainbow (OMG...lol) appeared. It was seriously breathtaking!

Day 3 short drive to Flagstaff, Arizona

Nothing to report about Flagstaff, ehh, some good Mexican food... yep guess that's it.

Grand Canyon visit!

    Okay so the Grand Canyon is definitely something worth reporting on! Having one of the 7 wonders of the world, so close to me would be a travesty not to see. I can't believe I waited this long in my life to visit. We visited the south rim, and it is nothing short of magical and totally worth the drive. You drive for a very long time through what I can best describe as a scrub forest and then BAM you are looking at a giant hole in the ground! Okay, although literally it might be a giant hole, it was so much more than that. It is like directly observing the earth's history through geology. Of course like anything magnificent, pictures don't do a damn thing for the human eye. The best recommendation I have it to see it for yourself. Take your kids, take your folks, hike it, ride a donkey, whatever... just go see it! Although we wanted to hike, we had Giselle with us and dogs were not allowed on the trails, so we settled for walking the rim, which turned out to be much more  work than we expected, so all in all we got some good exercise and made some amazing memories.

Day 4 Drove to Monument Valley, Utah and Cortez, Colorado

    On day 4 we headed north to Utah just to grab a quick portion of the four corners to see Monument Valley. Oh, and before that we drove down Route 66! Anyway, for such a long drive it went by pretty quick, I find when you have such a scenic trip, driving is half the fun. Monument Valley was another "right out of a Western" scene. We stopped just a couple times for pictures, but mostly just enjoying the clean air and amazing landscape

Oh and I can't leave out my little trooper who is probably the most well traveled dog there is!

When we got to Cortez, CO we went to the Mesa Verde National Park. This is the home of the Pueblo Indians who were curiously cliff dwellers. They left behind their dwellings in canyons but obviously no written records so they still remain a mystery to us. The reason their dwellings are so curious is because Pueblo Indians were traditionally nomadic people, meaning they followed their food sources. If the big game migrated, so did they. So for them to set up permanent residence in these cliffs still makes archaeologists scratch their heads. They speculated that with the introduction of corn, they no longer needed to follow the game, and a probable 70% of their diet came from corn. As for the dwellings being integrated into the cliffs, that could very well be for water source, or shelter from the harsh elements, or possible even defense. At any rate, scientists still are no closer to having answers, but what a cool history experience this was.

On day 5 and the final day of our trip we drove through beautiful Durango, CO and headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

   Right smack dab in the middle of nowhere, after passing miles and miles of farmland you come across the Sand Dunes. Cradled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is literally a desert. Miles after miles of gigantic sand dunes have formed after millions of years of wind erosion and below freezing temperatures. I have never been to the Sahara Desert, but after looking at these I can imagine what it must be like. So we four, doused ourselves with sunscreen, shades and flip flops and decided to hike to the dunes! Heh, after about half way there we had to carry the dog because the sand was so hot, and then my Icelandic in-laws declared their viking bodies were not designed for this heat and turned back (I was actually thinking the same, but since my husband was still trekking along I figured I might as well keep going). Well being the geniuses that we are, IN OUR FLIP FLOPS, we hiked to the top of a dune. The fate of my scorched feet is still yet to be determined. A couple of times I thought "Screw this I don't need to see this dirt that bad!", but then I am glad I didn't. The view from the top was amazing and I really felt I was in a desert! The half a mile trip back uphill in soft sand was quite fun... cough cough, but hey I got some unintended exercise in and saw some pretty amazing things.

    We had a pretty swell road trip this year, it is always nice to sleep in ones own bed, so I am glad to be home! Happy Labor Day!