Erica's updates

We're done!

2012-01-23T19:43:00.003-07:00

(sorry for the bad lighting, it's nighttime)

So, what do you think?

what I've been spinning

2012-01-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've really been getting the hang of this spinning thing!

I started a year ago, spun enough for one hat and the yarn was horrible (but incidentally the hat turned out pretty cute!). The yarn was wayyyy overspun, making it all curly-q-y. I was self taught from a book, and the book didn't go over what to do with the yarn after you're done spinning! So I just knit it right away and it was not great. Then it became summer and I put the wheel away for months, partly out of frustration and partly just because it was hot and I didn't feel like working with wool, and partly because I had so much garden work to keep me busy!

Then I read more online, and my friend Lani's mom (who is an expert spinner--teaches classes in Ann Arbor, and writes knitting patterns!) came to town this fall and offered to give me a free lesson! She trouble-shooted my wheel and helped me fix a few things and taught me more about adjusting the tension (which in my opinion is still the HARDEST thing about spinning!), etc. Now I feel soooo much more confident!

Lani's Mom had me practice first with some cheap, rough wool I got at the Boulder Farmer's Market this summer (with a gift card from Joe--thanks little brother!). She thinks based on the look and feel that it was shetland wool, which has longer fibers so it's easier to spin. Both Lani's Mom and the guy from the mill who processed the alpaca wool said that alpaca is hard to learn to spin on, the fibers are short and it's very "slippery". So I used all of the shetland and made the brown yarn you see below! Then I felt confident enough to try the alpaca! I started with the cream, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be,it didn't take too long to catch on. I spun just enough of that to ply with the little bit of leftover brown shetland to make the brown and cream skein below!

special thanks to Kelly who gave me an awsome stamper for Christmas! This has inspired me to try to make fancy tags for my homemade goods. These are simple but I recently bought some fancy origami paper so I can make even nicer looking tags! Thanks for the great gift, Kelly!

Then I started to get more bold. Denver Broncos and Tim Tebow inspired me--I spent the entire first round playoff game spinning cream alpaca--I filled the bobbin entirely, I've never done that before!! Probably 3 hours or more of straight spinning. Then during the 2nd playoff game the next weekend, I spent the whole game spinning the BLACK alpaca roving, same thing, filled the entire bobbin! Then right after the game I was so excited, so I immediately plied them toether.When you do that you use a 3rd bobbin for the 2-ply yarn, and I was nervous I would have too much singles that I couldn't fit it on the 3rd bobbin (and I only have 3!). But I just kept going and really over-filled the bobbin which didn't seem to be a problem, so I fit it all on the bobbin. I got the pretty black and white speckly yarn below!

(The extra step I referred to above is that after you spin the yarn you have to soak it in water for a few minutes (in a hank like this), then hang it up to dry (in one big circle, which is what it looks like before you twist it into a hank, remember that lesson from an earlier post?). I used a regular clothes hanger, then I weighted it down with a plastic grocery bag with a can in the bottom, tied to the bottom of the circle. That tension on the yarn takes out some of the twistiness, making it nice and smooth and not twisty. I did this with all three yarns pictured in this post.)

The black and white yarn turned out really great, and it made a lot more yarn than my previous little practice skeins. I might be able to actually make something out of this! Which is interesting, because I really felt like I could not have spun any more yarn than this and still fit it on one bobbin. For this weight of yarn, this is the most amount of yards I could ever make in one skein, I guess, without starting a 2nd bobbin and tying it on with a knot, which I guess isn't the worst thing in the world, but in reality I'd probably just make 2 medium skeins rather than 1 big skein with a knot in the middle.

I think it's a little thicker than a worsted weight, but a little lighter than bulky weight....maybe closer to bulky though. I'm thinking about knitting a chunky, cabled hat. Maybe something like this: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ripple-cable-hat Any other ideas?

What do you think of my new hobby......who wants to learn how to spin next!??!

bathroom progress

2012-01-14T16:08:00.004-07:00

The wall work took a lot loner than I thought.

Carter cut holes in the wall to move the outlet where the electricity for the light comes out (to be centered on the vanity instead of centered on the wall). Then he had to patch the holes, sand, prime.

Then I did the painting! we chose to keep the color, I liked it.

painting completed!

Then we pulled up the linoleum and sticky tiles and found this layer of nasty adhesive stuff. Carter spent several hours using several different methods to get it off the floor so we could lay tile

he got nasty and dirty and had to shower every night!

Carter laid the tile with the help of a friend and his wet saw. I was at Handweavers Guild mtg that night, darn I had to miss all the fun! hehe

this is what I came home too

looks good! pre-grout

Carter grouted two nights ago

looks good!

Carter christened the new toilet. (should someone tell him he's doing it the wrong way?)

S$*& Vegans Say

2012-01-13T17:10:00.003-07:00

Have you seen all the youtube videos for "S#$% ____ s Say"?? The one about Girls is SO FUNNY, three episodes. Here are the ones about Vegans, probably just Mary will find this funny hehehe

Now the Meat ones:(the end is sad)

haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!I just wasted a half hour of my life watching these hilarious videos!

More about the house

2012-01-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

I know many of you were surprised that we put an offer on the house, so here's the history. Right now Carter and I live 35-45 min from work, which is a big pain in the butt to us. We try to carpool and sometimes that works but makes the whole process longer. We've always wanted to live in rural, unincorporated Boulder County, but we didn't want to be TOO isolated from things. We've been looking very casually for months, then this house popped up! They reduced the price several times until finally it was in our price range (motivated sellers, yay!).

This house is just PERFECT, has just about everything we wanted in a house! Great location just about halfway between our offices, still only 10 minutes from North Boulder, 15 or so from downtown Boulder, 15 or so to downtown Longmont (address is actually Longmont). The lot is 0.84 acres....we would have preferred 1-2 acres but this is close enough. The house is a decent amount bigger than our current house, and is move in ready but still has many of "projects" for us to work on to improve the house, which was important to us.

It's a super cute neighborhood (maybe 40 houses from what I can tell on google maps?) of all approx. 1 acre lots on a non-through street with a very lose HOA which I like because it provides just a little bit of structure but doesn't control very much (every house is very different!!), lots of houses have different fences, different gardens, very different architecture, etc. I read the newsletters online and every year there's a summer BBQ, a garden tour/walk, kids in the neighborhood that house sit, babysit, pull weeds, and pick up dog poop for money! Seems like people are pretty connected here.

We're on the corner of the main entrance road and a side cul-de-sac. We're both pretty excited about being to bike to work in the summer, but really even just being able to bike ANYWHERE--this house is right in the middle of the prime road biking areas for Boulder bikers. EVERYONE bikes up here, tons of roads with good shoulders, etc. We're also much closer to the foothills (probably just 2 miles as the crow flies), closer to the RMNP (you noticed, Aunt Christine!), etc. Further from Denver though (sorry CCs), further from airport and I-70 to get into the mountains, etc, but not prohibitively far, which was important. We can still do ultimate frisbee and I can still do my Boulder vball league and everything, which was also important (we thought about looking for a house in the foothills/mountains but we didn't want to be far enough that we would drop those activities). The only thing we'll probably drop is Broomfield softball, which is a huge bummer because we've met a lot of good friends. We'll probably go back every now and then to sub and visit with them.

Phew! Any other specific questions just post them as a comment. And remember this is not a done-deal yet, still lots to go through. If everything works out we'll close on Feb 9th!

Here are some photos of the house I stole of Zillow! Inspection is next Tuesday so keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well!

back of the house. The lawn could use some work but doesn't look HORRIBLE. The house description says this place has fruit trees, but I don't know my trees very well in the winter so we'll just have to be surprised! We're still not sure how we'll work the yard with Emma, garden, etc,, but for now I think the garden might be in the FRONT yard. (go to google maps and do street view to see the front of the house)

View from the front door

View of the main living area, front door is in the upper right corner (next to the coat closet door). I looooooove the built in cabinets and space for the TV! I think this will fit our couch perfectly!

Another view of the living area, from the kitchen's perspective. What do you think of that brick wall (with the gas fireplace)? I'm not sure I like it, thinking about painting it but I'm not sure.

Kitchen--this needs some work but also very live-able. We'll work on it little by little I'm sure. I like that it has a bar to sit at! Seems simple but in our current house the kitchen is so cramped and when people come over we're always hanging out in the kitchen, so this way the guests can just sit on a stool while I cook (or vice versa!) The door to the left leads back to a mud room with laundry and 1/2 bathroom, then through the next door is the garage.

bigger of the two guest bedrooms--I think we'll have this one for JUST guests....maybe just a little bit of storage but hopefully not too much

Guest bathroom--this one needs some work but is definitely live-able for now. We can use all the skills we're learning by remodelling our current master bathroom, and eventually work on this one too!

this is the office, I think of it as the 4th bedroom but it's only listed as a 3 bedroom house, I think because this room might not have a closet? I don't really remember. Anyways with the hardwood floors and all we're just going to make this our office/storage room.

This is the master bedroom, pretty standard except what you can't see in this photo are the two closets! One is pretty standard but the other one is much bigger than our current standard closets in this house. Both have built in organizers with lots of shelves, which is important because I really don't hang many of my clothes at all. I'm hoping MAYBE Carter and I can fit all of our clothes into one room for once! (right now I am using office closet as my closet)

master bathroom--mostly remodelled, nice tile and nice shower. I like that it has a window, for some reason I really like windows in bathrooms.... Also I love the two sinks, that was something I wanted but I wasn't sure if we could get it.

Not pictured:

2nd guest bedroom: this will be my CRAFT ROOM!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!! Otherwise just a normal room, two windows cause it's in the front on a corner.

Garage: oversized 2 car garage, it's extra deep with lots of cabinets, and extra storage room, etc.

Front porch--small covered patio area that is very shady, might be a nice place to sit in the summer

Front yard--some landscaping around the house and driveway, bigggg evergreen trees blocking the view of the street making the entrance more private. Small pillars at the start of the driveway. Otherwise just grass, and I don't imagine us using that space much unless it's for my garden. Front/side of the house has big lilac bushes, I am soooo excited about that! Back/side has random beds, some with nasty red rocks that I don't like, some front trees, etc. (hard to describe)

First time and Second time homeowners....

2012-01-10T13:50:00.001-07:00

........ Yep, we bought a new house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click on the link here to see the fancy map I made: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=214084527146385819202.0004b632637a5a6fb204a&msa=0&ll=40.128983,-105.220335&spn=0.013207,0.01929 Be sure to zoom in, zoom around, and click on street view to see the actual house.

We're currently under contract--they accepted our offer but now we're working with the bank to get all the loans in place (those darn bankers are so difficult! hahaha) and we'll have an inspection, etc. Cross your fingers that it all turns out OK!

More info coming when I have more time to type.....

Looking back at 2011

2012-01-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

(a little late, I've been working on this post little by little for the past couple weeks)

Here is a little review of what my 2011 was like. I tried to pick ONE photo from each month, but that was just too hard! So here's what I got instead.

Thanks for being awesome, 2011! Hope 2012 is just as great!

January

some of the Curls came for a visit, and we all went to the Oatmeal Festival!

what a small baby Gemma!

is it a Bunny or a Kitty....

February

Baby Grey was born! His love for hand-knit hats started on February 8th.

we painted the master bedroom. Emma helped

March

Carter was afraid of these snakes so he made me pick them up.

April

Sadly, not too many April pics, as my life was consumed with work. Here's my old boss Kevin (from Heil Valley Ranch) on one of my volunteer projects, spreading seeds in a burnt area.

But of course I made time to work in the garden, and Dad even came to help me!

May

Woo-hoo U2! Thanks for the birthday tickets, Carter!!!!

Alpaca fleece arrives--Emma says "is that my Mom??"

Bolder Boulder, my fastest time ever! Carter ran with me this time.

June

This is where my food comes from...

....and this is the guy that grow my food!

however I did supplement from my own garden....

July

Camping in the Snowy Range in Wyoming for the 4th of July weekend. It WAS snowy! (and windy!)

Visited Hillsboro....

....and ran my first half-marathon! Carter ran this one with me too.

August

Erica earns the title of the 2nd fastest knitter in all of Colorado!

Kennedy's come to visit--this is one of my favorite photos!!

this one is pretty great too :-)

we visited a glacier in the summertime

And hiked two 14-ers! (and drove up one!)

Wow, August was busy. Carter became a godfather to his sister Meredith's son, Nathan.

We spent a few extra days in Indiana with Carter's parents.

September

backpacking in the Flattops Wilderness!

soooooooo beautiful, and we only got lost a few times.....

October

backpacking in the Sangre de Cristo mtns with Carter's brother in law

Emma loves hiking.

ND vs. USC!!

November

We said goodbye to Grandpa Christensen in November.....

.....very bitter, but also a sweet opportunity to see extended family all together and celebrating Grandpa's life!

what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas......

Yay, I finally got my yarn and roving back from the mill!

December

December started with a very relaxing cabin trip to Eagle, CO, where I got my Christmas Card photo!

First we celebrated the holidays with Broomfield friends.....

.....then Coopers.....

.....then Christensens!

Things I have knit recently

2012-01-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

baby hat for my boss at Birds of Prey, who just had a baby girl! Pattern from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hats book.

Two Marley hats from the same book--one was sent to Silio's new baby boy, and the other was given to a friend from my softball team who is having a baby boy in February.

Here's Silio's baby, Anthony! Hat is quite big, oops, but at least he can grow into it....in the Texas heat....it's the thought that counts, right?

Elf/Santa hat (forget the real name) also from same Itty Bitty hats book.

Merry Christmas, Baby Grey!

I actually made this hat before the last hat, also from same book. I knit it while I was home for Grandpa's funeral, for better or worse I think I'll always remember that when I see this hat. Anyways it turned out really well!

cute model

just kinda cute

Same as the very first hat in this post, but made in the same colors as Grey's hat. (for Nathan, Carter's nephew)

Still just a little bit big, but hopefully it will fit him all winter. Grandma (Carter's Mom) in background.

Alpaca made from Alpaca!! I made this for Jason and his family. Unfortunately I didn't have a finished pic, but he looked super cute with black french knit eyes and a little nose!

Here's that photo again of me and Jason and our hats. The story goes like this: last year at Christmas time he admired MY hat, the one I'm wearing in this photo, which I made from Misti Alpaca bulky yarn (I think), store bought yarn. He loved the hat and challenged/joked that I needed to make one from him from his own alpaca! Well at that time we still weren't sure how/if his alpaca wool would work out, but it worked very well and I got to give him his gift!!

Now I'm modelling it. This is seriously the BEST thing I've ever knitted in my life! I got the pattern from a knitting pattern-a-day calendar I got for Christmas a couple years ago (maybe from Mary?). I followed the pattern pretty closely with few changes, holding three strands of the machine-spun alpaca at a time (it was probably fingering weight by itself, between worsted and bulky when held 3 together)

Then I used another storebought alpaca yarn in green for the contrasting trim, then felted the whole thing in the washing machine--I was nervous it would shrink too much but I checked it a couple times and it turned out PERFECT!!! I molded it just a bit while it was wet, and actually it was still a little damp when I gave it to Jason and he wore it non-stop, which was good because I think it really molded to his head.

It's sooooo thick and so warm!

The only thing I dont' like how it turned out is the ends of the tassles and top tassle--they look like wet dreads, I wished they looked more yarny and fluffy. But I don't think I could add them AFTER I felted, because the hat itself is just way too thick to crochet on a border like that. I need to think about that a little more before I make this hat again (which I plan to soon, this time for myself and Carter to share!!)

I made this double-garter mobius cowl with Misti Alpaca bulky yarn Carter's mom gifted me for Christmas--Thanks Judy! The pattern is also from Susan B Anderson (if you can't tell, I kinda like her patterns).

Here it is doubled up.

The pattern was unique, I had never heard of or tried double garter before! I love the look though, kinda criss-crossy, I hope this photo shows the pattern.

I had to block this just a little bit--I had used up ALL my yarn but kinda wanted it longer (so I could double it), so I had to soak the cowl then stretch it out to the size I wanted. It's a little more narrow than the pattern calls, but I actually think it's better this way, not as thick when doubled.

This knit from the yarn AND pattern gifted to me by Judy (also Misti bulky). (also the head is new, just got it at Hobby Lobby! Unfortunately it's fairly small, a bit smaller than my head, so the hat doesn't sit the same way it does on me. I think it looks better on this head than my own head :-/ darn!)

before this I had only knit tight fitting beanie type hats, this was the first beret type hat I've ever tried. I really like how it looks, it's BEAUTIFUL and perfect for the yarn!

I also like the yarn over eyelet trim. So cute and feminine! Now I just have to figure out how to wear it......I think behind the ears is better than over ears (or maybe just over a tiny bit of ear is OK), but do I show a little hair in the front? Or keep the hat down below the hairline? I can't decide.

What have YOU been knitting?

On my list are: more baby hats (I guess it's baby season again!), alpaca earflap hat for myself, alpaca shawl for myself.

What else should I knit next?

bathroom progress

2012-01-07T09:41:00.002-07:00

Demo is all complete, and some of the goods have been purchased. Here is our new sink and the tile on the left is one of our favorites but we're gonna get more samples today to make a final decision.

Here's our sink close up--it's granite!! ooooooh fancy!

Here's Carter and the new vanity, complete with DRAWERS (which are very exciting to us, our old vanity was one big cabinet only)

sink and vanity together. we think we're keeping wall color, I really like it.

Today Carter (with a little bit of my help) will be sanding the back wall, priming, laying down new knock-down, and possibly starting to paint (we're going to home depot now to get supplies!). Our goal is to have the back wall completely done this weekend and hopefully start on the floor (ripping up the old laminate and sticky tiles and preparing to lay tile). Then during the week after work we can install things little by little (vanity, sink, faucet, light, other fixtures, new toilet, etc.). Maybe we'll be done by next weekend at the earliest, but I have a feeling it might be the END of next weekend :-)

Wish us luck!

Hangin' with the Coopers (for Christmas!)

2012-01-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

We left for Indiana on the 23rd--the Denver airport was SUPER busy, but we had an uneventful and easy flight to Indiana. We had a plan to surprise Carter's Dad (his Mom was in on it). Carter's sister-in-law picked us up and brought us back to their farm (this is Jason, the brother with the alpacas). We had a great couple hours just playing around the farm--we played golf on his new "course", talked to the alpacas, etc. Unfortunately we didn't take any photos that day :-( All of Carter's siblings and their families all came over to Jason's house for dinner that night, and we surprised them all! Carter dressed in his Buddy the Elf costume and we hid in random places around the house to surprise people, it was a great time :-)

The 24th we shopped and bummed around most of the day, then in the afternoon we left for Aunt Carole's house in Brownsburg (she hosts every Christmas Eve) and got to hang out with some extended family (cousins and their kids).

The 25th was the big Carter-mas dinner! Everyone came over again, including Carter's sister from Columbus and her family. Here are some photos of Christmas day!

They all love jumping on Uncle Carter!

Carter's youngest nephew, Nathan (7 months old)

Everyone wanted a photo of Carter's new outfit!

Carter and Kaitlyn, one of Jason's kids

Carter and his oldest sister, Carrie

Carter's Dad is really into bird feeders, he has TONS, and twice we saw piliated woodpeckers! They are huge, about 1.5-2 ft tall, beautiful bright red tufts on their heads. Just gorgeous!

Another view of the woodpecker. There were at least 2 males, we saw them together once.

Carter and Daniel (Nathan's older brother)

Nathan gets a bath in the sink. Look familiar?

On the 26th we slept in, played with the boys, and shopped in the morning (after Christmas sales!). In the afternoon we had a bonfire outside (the weather was GORGEOUS, so warm and clear skies) and explored the new barn, took gator rides to the creek and around the fields, etc.

The 27th we finally got SNOW! Just about an inch or two, but it was beautiful! We tried sledding but it just turned out into a mud hill (it was still fun). More gator rides, just this time in the snow :-) In the evening we met all of the Coopers at a local bowling alley for pizza dinner and bowling! I even won one game (I beat Carter AND his Dad! We talked about it for days!)

Makayla, Carter, and Nathan

He's pretty cute. Look at all that blond hair!!

The whole IN/OH fam (missing Brad and Barrett and his family)

The 28th was our last day in IN. We went ice skating in the morning with Jason's and Meredith's families:

I'm a natural figure skater

Colton, Jason's youngest. He was so cute, just kept RUNNING on skates! He was surprisingly fast and didn't fall much!

Me and Jason and both of our hand-knit and then felted alpaca earmuff hats!! (I'll write more about this in another post, stay tuned)

After ice skating we ate at Which Which and then left for airport. We had so much fun in Indiana, and we miss all the Coopers already!

we started a project after work today......

2012-01-03T19:25:00.001-07:00

Test

2012-01-02T09:54:00.001-07:00

I just bought "blogsy", which is a blogging app. Seems really nice, but it's taking a little while to figure things out.

Here are some photos.

Emma LOVES this chicken! Thanks Kennedys!,

I can't figure out how to add a caption, but I guess regular text will do.

Creepy

Carter was really proud of this WWF move!

My first Christmas presents

2012-01-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

Carter and I exchanged most of our gifts early, before we left for Indiana. I got him a bunch of tools he wanted, and he got me 3 fiestaware baking dishes (not pictured) and a yarn swift and ball winder! For those of you who don't know what that means, I'll illustrate below in pictures:

This is how most nice yarn comes when you buy it in a nice yarn shop. It's called a hank or a skein, and it's all twisted up. You can't knit from it until you untwist it into a big circular loop, and even then you can't knit DIRECTLY from that big loop, it gets tangled super easily. So that's where the need arises to get the yarn into a center-pull ball.

After I untwisted this yarn (from Jason's alpaca) I loaded it on the yarn swift. This is a big umbrella-type thing that adjusts to different diameters and spins around. (please don't judge me on how I look--it was 1st thing in the morning and I'm still in my jammies and hadn't showered yet!)

Here's the ball winder--the silver arm on the left takes the yarn from the swift, then the yarn goes into the other silver arm, then when you crank the crank the 2nd silver arm rotates around the cream colored cone as the cone ALSO rotates.

final product--a center-pull ball that is easy to knit from!

Here's everything I knitted from that first morning, along with one green hank for comparison. I wound more balls later when I could show Mary, Justin, Mom, and Dad.

Finally, here are some videos of me "winding".

In the beginning I'm thinking Carter is taking a photo! hahaha

First post from new iPad

2012-01-01T14:43:00.001-07:00

Mom and Dad got us a new iPad2 for Christmas!! The only problem is that I can't figure out the blogging. Does anyone know how to upload photos and enable things like changing font and the undo button (things I can see on my real computer but I cant see on blogger when I open it in safari. Any thoughts ? Do I need to work from an app instead of safari? Any recommended apps?

Let It Snow

2011-12-22T09:05:00.003-07:00

We woke up this morning and here's a pic out our front door. And we're expecting a few more inches.

fun and busy weekend

2011-12-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a holiday party for our softball team! The theme was ugly sweaters, and Stephanie let me borrow hers. Thanks Steph, I WON!! I gave the prize to the guy who got 2nd place. Can you tell from the photos below what his prize would have been.......?

No photo would be complete without this pose.

Other activities at the party included a white elephant gift exchange. Look at what Carter won!!!!!!!!!!

Also Carter had a great sweater--it was from Grandpa Hubicz! It wasn't extremely ugly but definitely Christmasy with trees, etc. The best part was it had these HORRIBLE hanger creases! It looked like it had been in Grandpa's closet for 40 years (and it probably had! I had never seen grandpa in a sweater like that). Carter wore the sweater with the tie he's wearing above, Santa's playing golf :-) I believe that came from his Dad. After this party we continued on to a 2nd party another friend was hosting (we are so popular, I know!) which was a cocktail party complete with fancy dresses. It was great to show up in our crazy outfits! However late partying gave us a late start on Sunday......

....which was a day I had been looking forward to for weeks--we finally got to visit Sport Authority Field and I got my eyes on Tim Tebow in person! Now when Tim first got drafted to the Broncos I was skeptical....after his first couple games I was still skeptical, definitely slow to joint the band wagon. But seriously, there's something ABOUT that guy, I just can't stop loving him! So now I'm officially on the band wagon. I hope to bear his children someday. They would be beautiful AND athletic!

We tailgated just a bit before the game. Here is Carter paying corn-hole with his brother and nephew (we gave them our 3rd and 4th tickets)

Walking to the stadium I noticed a MARCHING BAND! I had no idea the Broncos had a marching band, that really made my day! Unfortunatley no clarinets. I think that's a void I could fill, they definitely need some 'nets!

Here we are before the game. We were exactly 5 rows from the VERY top :-) Surprising the view was still great, we could see everything going on and we also got to see mountains!

The weather was great, very sunny and probably 58 degrees. It was HOT in the beginning, we were afraid we were getting sunburnt and we wished we brought our sun hats. When the sun went down it felt great, not exactly cold but definitely cooler. I put on a hand-knit hat :-)

The first quarter of the game was great, Broncos scored right away and really seemed in control! 2nd quarter was very slow and not as exciting. The halftime show really sucked. Monkeys on dogs sounds like such a good idea, but they really didn't do anything cool. The best part was that at the very end he showed us the monkeys were NOT tied to the dogs! That made me feel so much better!

Before the game.

After the game. Needless to say, we lost to the Patriots that day. I was hoping for an exciting comeback (Tebow-style) like last week, but none to be found. I still love the Broncos.

Next year we want to do the same thing as this year--we got the tickets half-off at a special sale in the beginning of the season. Hopefully we'll recruit more people next year to get tickets too so we can have a bigger and more elaborate tailgate! Let me know if your'e interested.

Broncos game today!!

2011-12-18T10:50:00.005-07:00

Despite the hundreds of yards between us (me in the nose-bleeds and he on the field), I'm sure the love connection between Tim and I will be unmistakeable. I can't wait!!

Hi Tim! See you soon!

funny website of the week

2011-12-13T10:59:00.002-07:00

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hgrant/26-of-the-best-of-the-worst-family-holiday-cards

seriously, this is hilarious!

xmas card rejects

2011-12-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here were the candidates I did NOT choose, I won't reveal which photo I chose until I send out all my cards and can be sure you see it in the mail first!

relaxing snow weekend before the crazy holidays......

2011-12-08T20:42:00.003-07:00

Last weekend we went to Sylvan Lake State Park near Eagle! (which is just west of Vail). We hadn't spent much time in that area before, so we really enjoyed exploring, we love going to different places in the mountains every time! Eagle was a super cute city, small and quaint but still really close to skiing, mtns, etc. It had a cute downtown, where we ALMOST saw the holiday parade! (we got there right as it was ending.....we only saw one fire truck :-( I was sad.) Anyways here are some photos of the weekend, including a preview of what may be one of our xmas card photos (we haven' decided yet!) along with some outtakes :-)

Enjoy!

We got to the cabin late Friday. Saturday we hiked up a closed forest road that went up a pass. It would be great to go back in the summer so we could drive further up the road and do different hikes! Lots of lakes at the top but we didn't make it too far.

we hiked about 4 miles that day (2 up and 2 down)

I wore my NEW SNOWSHOES (thanks to my friend Barbara, who works at REI! Best xmas gift ever!!!), even though it was really borderline whether I needed them or not. Carter just wore YakTrax and was fine, but it was pretty icy under the snow so I was glad to have the spikes.

Emma loves snow!

It was SUPER cold, and snowed most of Saturday

Carter and Emma walking to a potential photo site.

outtake

this was our cabin, so cute!!!! There were 9 cabins, I think we should plan a family reunion at a place like this! We didn't get any photos of inside, but it was super cute--2 rooms, sleeps 6, gas stove for heat, nice table and shelves, etc. We loved it! We actually spent more time relaxing than anything....I finished 2 magazines and 1 book, and got halfway through another! Also I started a new xmas knitting gift and almost finished it on the drive home.

Here we are hiking around Sylvan Lake on Sunday. I'm wiping the snot off my nose.

eating Emma's ear

JUMP!

soooooo happy!

Emma running toward me

Carter running toward me

Vegas, Baby!

2011-12-08T20:30:00.001-07:00

As you probably saw from the phone-pictures I posted a few weeks ago, Carter and I had a long weekend vacation in Vegas over Veteran's Day long weekend! We had a great time, just the two of us--I think this might have been the one and only time we've ever gone on a vacation together to a NON-family related function! yay us! I had never been to Vegas before, so Carter showed me around and we saw all the sights and did pretty much everything. I liked it a lot, but decided 3-4 days was just about enough Vegas for any one person, so I was also happy to be home. Vegas is tiring!!

Here are my pics, enjoy!

This was the beautiful entry-way inside the Wynn. I waffled a lot, but I think the Wynn was my favorite casino/hotel! We didn't stay here, but pretty much went back every day because we liked it so much. The decorations and feel were the perfect mix of modern and classic, very sophisticated.

This is still at the Wynn--we had the brunch buffet! The wait was a little excessive (1.5 hrs in line I think???) but the food was AMAZING! we both left SOOO stuffed.

I had a bottomless mimosa! mmmm

also at the Wynn

my favorite model in front of our hotel--Circus Circus

We got a really good deal on this hotel, but it definitely is not the nicest place on the strip! It was fine though, very family oriented and kinda "classic". The room was MUCH nicer than we thought it would be, it must have been recently renovated. We were fairly far from the main part of the strip so we took the bus a lot.

not the best photo, but this is us all dressed up before going to our show! We saw Cirque De Soleil show called "KA" and it was AMAZING.!! We weren't allowed to take photos but I'll just describe it here.
I knew we had good seats, but I didn't realize HOW great they were--we were FRONT ROW and in the exact middle! Apparently our tickets were not the most expensive kind but the 2nd most expensive tickets, as you can't see quite everything from the front row (almost TOO close, but not really). We thought it was fabulous though, were so close we could really touch the actors if we wanted too! In fact, one of them almost DID hit Carter in the head! They also ran right through our front row and we had to put our legs down otherwise we would have tripped them! The show was great, it had more of a plot than the other Cirque show we've seen, but still plenty of crazy stuff too. The stage and set were also amazing.

One day we spent in old town (Freemont Street). I liked it a lot, for some of the same reasons as Circus Circus--it's old, classic, not much has changed, but it's still clean and fine. We had breakfast here and gambled a bit in some smallll casinos!

Freemont Street

Trying to be artsy until Carter told me what sort of place this a sign for.....can anyone guess?

they gave free beers much more freely on Freemont Street! Yay!

These people were getting married on the sidewalk in front of
Circus Circus, so romantic :-)

Our last night in Vegas we didn't have plans, so we bought last minute tickets to a magic show! Also we made friends with some people while we were waiting to get into the show , and they invited us to sit in their booth in the front row!

His name was Jan something, from Germany and with a thick accent. He was very cheesy but his magic was good, we couldn't really figure many of them out! (Carter claims he had a few figured out)

After this show we went to a very nice italian restaurant recommended by Becky. We went all out and got appetizers, desserts, etc. It was sooooooooooo good!

I think that's the Wynn again. These pictures are apparently not in order....?

This Chilhuly glass art work was on the ceilling at the Bellagio, so beautiful! Now it is the background on my cell phone.

Bellagio brunch buffet on our last day--Carter got entire plates of meat!

Waiting for the Belagio fountains on our last day

shopping on the strip!

mmmmmmmm M&Ms in sepia!

and Coca Cola in black and white! I'm so artsy.

I took this one for the Boehms!

At the huge coke store we got a sampler of 16 types of Coke products around the WORLD!! It was so interesting, crazy crazy flavors from all crazy counties.

mmmmmmmmmm

One more fountain experience before we got on a bus to the airport.

They played "Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis! Perfect!

Goodbye Vegas

goodbye, Circus Circus

Harvesting into the fall....

2011-11-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today we had beautiful weather here in Colorado, so I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and do some harvesting in the garden! (I'll be working in the garden tomorrow too to finish cleaning up last years plants, harvesting and turning compost, etc.)

Here's what I got:

greens! top left is turnip greens, bottom middle is swiss chard, right is curly kale. this is the end of my turnips and probably the last of the chard (I had to dig around to find nice leaves not affected by hard frosts!), but there is PLENTY more kale!

Carrots! I am so proud of my carrots this year, I had so much more success than last year! This is the last of the carrot patch.

Kohlrabi on the left, beets on the right, and one onion in the middle. I love how the beets are cute and small--bite sized! Really it would be nice if they were bigger though, I think I forgot to thin them, they were all growing together :-(. This is the last of the beets and kohlrabi, but there are plenty more onions.

Turnips! This is the last of the turnips. I picked these then realized I still have a big bag of turnips in the fridge from one of the last CSAs.....oops! Guess I'll be having lots of turnips this week!

This is my biggest turnip--I wanted to hold it in my hand for scale. It's HUGE!! And of course it was even bigger before I chopped off the top and bottom in the cleaning process. I have been watching this sucker all summer, it's so nice to pick it!

Some things I didn't pick that are still surviving in my veggie garden include 2 stalks of brussel sprouts (one stalk has tiny sprouts though, not sure it's even worth harvesting), onions, a couple more kohlrabis, mint, and lavendar.

Are any of you still harvesting? Are you getting anything different than what I have?

an early Christmas

2011-11-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

I finally got all my yarn and fiber back from being processed! Just to remind everyone--this is the wool that came from Carter's brother Jason's 3 alpaca.(here is the post from when I got that in the mail) I sent it off this summer to get processed but the place was really backed up so I JUST now got it back in the mail. Here are some photos:

opening the box--I'm so excited!!!

Examining the goods. The hat I'm wearing is made with the first and only yarn I've ever spun myself!

Here is half of the booty--14 skeins of 200 yrds each (2.6 oz each), 1 larger skein of 285 yrds (3.7 oz). This is a combination of two animals (the cream colored one and the cream-and-brown colored one)

Here's a close-up. I LOVE the tweedy look! and it's soooo soft!

At first I wasn't sure I wanted to combine animals, but the guy from the processing place convinced me that it would look great (and it was a bit cheaper). I'm so glad I did, this is really beautiful yarn!

Yes, very soft. I am happy!

Emma loves it too

:-)

The other half of the booty we didn't take pictures of because we were just so excited about the yarn! It includes two big bags of roving, or wool that has been cleaned, carded, and prepared for spinning. I have 24.1 oz of cream and 21.8 oz of black.

In total, that's 45.9 oz of roving, 40.1 oz of yarn, and just a little bit (maybe 2 oz?) of the brown/cream roving used to make the yarn (I think it was what was left over but not enough for a full skein?). That should give me 15 more skeins after I spin it, making the grand total of 30 skeins!!

I'm meeting the mom of a friend of mine this weekend to get a quick spinning lesson so I can get started on that part. Then I might have another lesson with my mentor from Handweavers Guild (Debby).

We got the house painted!

2011-11-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

Just finished everything this week. Sorry Curls, I hope you don't mind that we kinda copied your color scheme--we just loved your house color so much!

Enjoy these pictures!

Vegas!!

2011-11-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

I like bananas

2011-11-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

And my brother Joe

Happy Halloween......

2011-10-31T20:41:00.000-06:00

......from Erica's Haunted Zombie Vegetable Garden!

dead branches in yard from recent snowstorm

veggie graveyard

at least the kale and carrots are still alive!

those are the sheets I used to cover the plants, then I took them off and put them in a corner of the walkway and they got all wet/frozen. Now I'm drying them out so I can shake them off and wash them and put them away for the year.

still have brussel sprouts and beets! Remember when that back wall was all filled with tomatoes?!?! I also had peppers in the front, lots of viney stuff (gourds, squashes, etc.) in and out of everything.

aaaaaaaaaaand here's the carnage! piles and piles of vegetable plant corpses!

I piled the plant material on the sides because next on my list is to scrap everything off the top of the compost pile to dig out a harvest of COMPOST!! Then I can pile everything and leave it for the winter.

veggie label carnage and gnomes gathering together for the winter.

I did get a harvest despite pulling out so many plants! Here are some carrots, onions, and broccoli. I'll have more harvests of all of these (except maybe broccoli) and the plants i mentioned above (b.sprouts, beets, kale). Also I still have mint and thyme, which should last somewhat into the winter.

How are all of your vegetable gardens? Is anyone else still harvesting? Does anyone else have zombie vegetable gardens in their back yards?

Running like monkeys........

2011-10-31T20:29:00.001-06:00

Gorilla Run 2011 was a success! On Saturday morning Carter and I met Joe and Stephanie downtown just before the race. (Joe ran, Stephanie was just support :-) ). We really missed Mom and Dad, it would have been great to have them here. Check out my Mom's blog to follow her training goals--she did actually walk the 5K today--her first 5K EVER!!!!! Way to go, Mom!!

Back to the race--I wasn't sure if I could/would run the whole thing since I haven't been out for a jog in several months (since July!!), but we all decided to start off the race jogging together....then we just kept jogging....and we ended up jogging just about the whole thing! (except for some small hills that we walked). I didn't time us, and the race didn't include any timing system, but Joe thinks we were around 35 min maybe?

Here are some photos from the Denver Post:

http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2011/10/photos-going-ape-at-gorilla-run/23440/#name%20here

And here are two photos from my camera! (Yes, I only took 2! I took a couple more on my cell phone (earlier post))

After the race there was a block-party on a section of Wynkoop downtown (by the Wynkoop brewery)--tons of free food and even a free beer! The best part is that we were part of a wonderful fundraiser for mountain gorillas. Frank (the organizer) announced tons of interesting Mountain Gorilla fun facts before the race, but the two that stuck with me were:
*there were more people dressed as Mountain Gorillas on Saturday (~1200) than are alive on the planet (just over 700)
*however, the good news is that Mountain Gorillas are the only primate species on the RISE!! All others have on the decline. Scientists and locals attribute the increase in population to be largely the result of increased veterinary care, which is the the main objective of the Gorilla Run fundraising! Yay us, we actually helped!

Next year I'd love to continue the family tradition........this time we have to get the Christensen-Coopers involved (esp the little one)......and Mom and Dad of course.....Amy, Becky, anyone else wanna come out for the race??

At Rapids game

2011-10-30T19:20:00.001-06:00

Gorilla run

2011-10-30T18:02:00.001-06:00

Saturday, with Joe and Carter

funny website of the week

2011-10-27T13:12:00.001-06:00

http://animalstalkinginallcaps.tumblr.com/

Here are some of my favorites:

"you will always be my boo"

"vegan potluck aka Portland joke"

"flufflepuff"

"froyo"

"ikea" (this one is just for Carter)

"lost"

"ANTM" (for Barbara, even though I don't think she reads my blog)

"tickling eagles"

"yoga bunnies"

"jelly"

"beeper"

"topical occupy humor"

OMG I can't stop laughing!

My babies

2011-10-17T14:33:00.000-06:00

Boy, do I love these animals!

Fall Garden update

2011-10-17T13:28:00.002-06:00

My garden is still in full swing, this has been the best year ever! I think I've finally conquered the weeds--I've pulled way less weeds this year than any other year. (Actually, I have a theory: I think the bindweed just moved--it figured out that I pull it when it's in the veggie garden, so it has decided to move into the lawn. Sooooo now the entire lawn near the veggie garden has more bindweed than ever, but at least it's not in my veggie garden!)

I've had lots of successes but a few failures--plants that for some reason didn't grow well this year include: lettuce, spinach, dill, radishes (they were Ok but not as plentiful as past years). Things that did great included: sweet corn, beets, turnips, kale, swiss chard, TOMATOES!!, onions.

Today I made yet another harvest, see the photos below. I'm still getting lots of tomatoes from the cherry tomato plants (I planted 3 but one is producing less than others), and the 4th-of-July tomato plant (this one produced early but didn't produce at ALL in the heat, now it's producing again with cooler temps!). Brandywine, beefmaster, and yellow plum have slowed down but I've been picking them and ripening them in a bag with an apple, which has worked really well for me. Other things in the photo include kale and kohlrabi (for tonight's stir fry), and mint in the bag (for tonight's mojitos!), and carrots (best year ever for these, but they grew much later than Mary's).

Here's a photo from a couple weeks ago: beets, beet greens, purple cauliflower, and a gourd!

Flower gardens are doing well--I'm running out of room! This fall and/or spring I'd like to create a new bed in the front yard with a little walkway, and in the backyard all of my sunny spots are almost full but there's still room in the partial-shade areas. These areas are too hot for things like coral bells, but not sunny enough for yarrow and black-eyed susan. What other perennials would do good here?

How are your gardens faring? Has anyone had a hard frost yet? (we haven't, but I did cover my plants a few times just in case).

beerfest

2011-10-14T22:34:00.000-06:00

Carter and I went with his brother-in-law PJ on the first night (Thursday).

Test

2011-09-28T19:47:00.001-06:00

This is what we came home to....

2011-09-27T19:49:00.001-06:00

....after going to the store for just 45 min!!! Emma ate almost half of a homemade peach pie (it was toooooo good!) And half a stick of butter. Surprisingly, she didn't break one thing or even knock anything to the floor!

Longest carrot ever!

2011-09-26T19:25:00.002-06:00

It came from my garden!!

Quick update to catch up........

2011-09-25T20:39:00.001-06:00

Since I'm WAY behind in posts, I thought I would catch you all up on my life through Picasa albums! Please let me know how you feel about this--is it harder to view to have to click on an album below and look through pictures that way? To me, I figured it's best to do an album for cases when I'm uploading more than 10 or 15 photos, which makes for a very looooong blog post. But I'd be open to advice.

So here they are--two albums to start!

This first album is from the long weekend trip Carter and I took to Indianapolis and then Columbus OH at the end of August for his nephew's baptism (Carter was godfather) and another nephew's birthday party. We had a great time, trips like this make us miss the midwest and being close to our families.

Indy and Ohio trip 2011

This next album is from the following weekend, when Carter, Emma, and I took a backpacking trip to the Flattops Wilderness area!! (south of Steamboat Springs, east of Meeker, north of Rifle, etc.) The wilderness area is HUGE, with TONS of trails and lots of lakes, wetlands, etc. so I'm sure we'll be back in the future. There was just no way we could see everything! We hiked about 26 miles (one big loop) in 3 days, with the longest day being 10 miles! It was all worth it, we had a great time.

Flat Tops backpacking 2011

I hope you enjoy these pictures, I'm hoping to stay on top of blogging more this fall. Some things we've been up to include 2 Rockie's games, 1 Rapids game (pro soccer), new french door patio door, lots of gardening, etc. Ultimate frisbee also started back up 3 weeks ago (every Sunday) and this week I start back with volleyball as well--I'm in two different leagues (co-ed on wednesdays, womens' on thursdays) both in Boulder! AND we're still doing softball every Friday night. So starting next week, I have organized sports leagues 4 nights a week!! I love it!

This coming weekend we're looking forward to Beerfest with Carter's beer-snob (oops, I mean connosiour) brother in law, then we're taking him on a backpacking trip in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

I made pickles tonight!

2011-09-22T20:52:00.001-06:00

This is my 3rd batch this year. Not pictured is a jar i added curry to......can't wait to try my curry pickles!

10 bucks....

2011-09-18T10:55:00.001-06:00

.....for all these plants ( and organic fertilizer) for 10 bucks! God bless clearance sales!!

FlatTops Camping Preview

2011-09-08T08:13:00.004-06:00

RIP (literally) our GPS

Tomato lunch with Coopers.

2011-08-29T12:46:00.001-06:00

Biggest tomato I've ever grown...

2011-08-26T16:57:00.001-06:00

.....and I have to leave it in fridge this weekend as we're going to IN and OH.

Joe, don't eat it!

Generation gap

2011-08-26T13:56:00.000-06:00

This says it all...

Tour de Colorado

2011-08-22T13:32:00.001-06:00

favorite website of the week:

2011-08-17T13:54:00.002-06:00

http://www.happyplace.com/4286/brilliantly-sarcastic-responses-to-completely-well-meaning-signs

One Hardcore Chick

2011-08-14T22:51:00.003-06:00

Did I say chick or b****? Either way, she's hard core. Saturday we went to Winter Park Colorado and did downhill biking. Since Erica had never really been mountain biking before, we decided to take an intro class. With the class we got a bike rental, all the gear you see Erica sporting, and an instructor to help us with theory.

The main difference between downhill biking and regular mountain biking is that with downhill (as you could guess) you don't have to bike uphill. You purchase a lift pass for the ski lifts and they take you and the bikes up. It's a lot faster and easier.

Then you get to do the downhill part which is a lot less work, but more exciting and dangerous! Erica did really good for her first time. By the end she was getting some good speed, taking turns, and avoiding trees like a pro...well, not quite like a pro, but she didn't hit anything.

Anyways, we were afraid to take the good camera so we only got this one picture of Erica before our class. You can see her sporting a stylish pink helmet, body armor, knee pads and gloves.

2nd fastest knitter in all of Colorado!

2011-08-06T21:03:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Carter and I went to the first ever Denver County Fair! The fair itself wasn't that exciting, but the main attraction was the speed knitting contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I hadn't, but I had to try it. I was just excited to try it and I was hoping I wouldn't get last place :-) Follow the progression below to see how I did...........

There were 15 or so people signed up so we had to knit in two heats. Here I am getting ready to start in heat1! We had to cast on 10 stitches, then when they started the clock we had to knit as many rows as possible in 10 min.

Here I am hard at work. I was so nervous! My hands were shaking!

This is what I completed in 10 min!

Here's the judge counting my rows. I'm so nervous! Carter really liked her boots. Anyways, I won my heat by like 10 row!!!!!!!!!! woo hoo!

Here was heat 2. The girl in pink won and she TIED me so we had to have a knit off! It was the most exciting speed knitting contest ever!

Of course I was even more nervous for the knit off, and this time it was different--stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch that we did in the first round. That means I had to purl! Doh! Needless to say the girl in pink kicked my butt by like 2 rows. (the contest was only 2 min for the knit-off). I was very happy with my 2nd place ribbon, but I think Carter was disappointed in me!

Here are some videos Carter took:

they interviewed me (heat 1). it wasn't very exciting.

And here's the knit off (they were also knitting off for 3rd/4th tie). You can see in this video how much faster the other girl is. I think she's using continental method, yarn in the left hand.

2011-08-03T20:23:00.001-06:00

Summer perfection!

2011-08-01T18:04:00.001-06:00

Eldorado state park

2011-08-01T12:30:00.001-06:00

Free state park day today! Can you see Emma in the ruins?

Friday's harvest

2011-07-31T11:30:00.001-06:00

Friday I was just in a harvesting mood (does anyone else ever get in a harvesting mood?) and picked the following veggies:

kohlrabi and beets

kohlrabi--I'm gonna put it in stir fry later this week! I don't think I was supposed to let it get this big....I hope it still tastes good!

I even picked flowers for my small vase (thanks, Judy!) Extra bonus points for anyone that can name the little yellow flowers.....

rest of my harvest! why are my onions so dinky? these are from LAST year, I don't understand whyt hey are so small. My cherry tomato on the right is "chocolate cherry"--I've had several already! (1-2 a day). Yellows and reds are just starting (this is the first of both of those). I've had 4 or 5 "regular" tomatoes, but none from my "yellow jubilee" yet. I can't wait!

corn tasted great but was SO small, 2 ears each was barely enough! These are our first cucumbers but we have LOTS more on the vine. I eat cucumber everyday in my salad so it will be nice to not have to buy them anymore. Also I can't wait to make pickles! My pickling cucumber vines are much smaller though, and I'm a little nervous they won't have such a great harvest.

Friday we had a great dinner of grilled corn, grilled beets and onions, portabello cap (not from garden), and zucchini (from a friend's garden, I still don't have any :-( ) I love harvesting from the garden!

Next on my garden to-do list is planting a new batch of radishes, lettuce, spinach, etc. for the fall. Does anyone know when I should do this? Now? mid-August?

my new favorite website:

2011-07-29T08:05:00.001-06:00

what would you guys do without me?.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/07/28/portraits-of-dogs-as-they-shake-off-water/

Today's harvest.

2011-07-27T18:35:00.001-06:00

A Very Wyoming Fourth of July!

2011-07-25T16:07:00.000-06:00

This is a little belated, but better late than never......

For the 4th of July Carter and I took off to go camping for the first time this year! We had this crazy idea that Colorado might be busy (sarcasm), so we decided to head north to Wyoming. Both of us had driven through before but never spent much time (other than Yellowstone), so we bought a gazeteer and hit the road! We had an idea of where we wanted to go based on the maps.....a high altitude area with lots of lakes and several campgrounds nearby, etc. When we got there we figured out how this area earned it's name....the Snowy Range! It was BEAUTIFUL but unfortunately the vast majority of the places we wanted to go (continental divide trail, campgrounds, other trailheads and potty facilities, etc.) were all closed and had not been open yet for the season! Seriously! We happened to find one dry spot in the entire national forest, and we put up our tent there and left it for 3 days :-) Below are our pictures! Enjoy!

Snowy Range--this is just the pass on the highway, above treeline.

It was a little bit windy up there....

We took random forest roads to find a campspot.....many of them looked like this and we had to turn around.

dead end!

Emma's heavy.......

napping!

our one dry spot between two small "rivers". Everything was SO WET because of all the snowmelt!

view from the tent.

day hike

day hike. emma LOVED the snow!

Here moose-moose!

this is for Aunt Jenny! (does she read my blog?)

day hike to a lake.

Carter: "Erica take off your sunglasses"

my little snow bunny

Erica and Emma exploring while Carter messes with photogrpahy

nice shot, Carter!

the photographer and his dog.

I love emma's tail going straight down, she's so silly!

this is Centennial, WY, VERY small town but it was cute. We went to a farmers market here and listened to some live jazz music!

beautiful lillies like this were ALL OVER our camping area!

hunting

I loved the plants and lichen growing between the boulders!

day hike--Emma loves water in this form too.

Carter was playing with the shadows at our campsite. I tried to tell him everything looks better in sepia, but he chose b/w instead.

a little further west there was a landslide!!! We drove over to visit it to see what it looked like and here it is:

we expected more rocks/boulder/mud but really it was just a road that was undermined and washed away.

of course Carter and Emma wanted to explore.....luckily this was Monday the 4th and there were no cops/emergency people/construction people there so we could do whatever we wanted!

nice crack

be careful!!

another day hike--this was a GOOD find, and we wished we could have stayed longer! There was one washout on teh road (not the one above, different road) otherwise we could have driven further down and therefore hiked further in. It was still a great hike, we didn't see ANY other people at this place!

the water was SO HIGH in this creek!!!!!!!

Happy Dog.

It stormed really hard on the 4th of July and we were worried fireworks would be cancelled, but low and behold the sky cleared and we got this great rainbow before the fireworks!! We watched them in Saratoga, WY, a super cute small town (but much bigger than Centennial)

we took a photo in front of the tractor just for my Dad!

nice tractor!

meat-eater's guide

2011-07-25T11:37:00.000-06:00

Though I still don't condone eating meat, everyone can improve on what they are eating so some degree, This website has some neat graphics that describe why eating less/different meat is important, and how you can do that.

http://breakingnews.ewg.org/meateatersguide/at-a-glance-brochure/

Trip to Oregon

2011-07-18T23:26:00.002-06:00

Last weekend Carter and I flew to Oregon to hang out with the Curls! Here's the photo summary:

SATURDAY:

Geocaching was so fun! We did this on Saturday. First we tried a couple that the Curls had already done before, then we tried some new ones, all together.

We found it! Generally they have little toys or knick-knacks in there.

yay Geocaching!

This one was hard to find--it's under that fake sprinkler cover thing! The kids got a kick out of Carter and I trying to find it ourselves without their help (they had been here before)

One more geocache at a really nice city park.

This one was really hard--lots of waypoints to find along the way before you got to the final goal. We got tired about halfway through so we started playing in the creek hahahah

Even at the end it was really hard to find! The last time someone found it was over a month ago, and there weren't many toys, so we were sure to leave a couple extras for the next person.

Carter and Gemma--BFFs!!

After geocaching we went to Burgerville......great pre-race fuel! The onion rings were a highlight!
(This was the kids' table)

The Curls are fostering two kittens.

This one is my favorite.

SUNDAY:

after the race we just hung out at home and had a fire with smores

LOVE this photo of James. This is a keeper.

bffs

this is completely normal.

bunny took these shots, she's so artistic!

(nevermind that the flowers are weeds! hehehe)

MONDAY:

Monday we went to the beach--on the drive through the Tillamook Forest we saw elk crossing the highway!!!!!!!!!! There was a baby too! (dont know if you can see it in this photo)

On the way to the beach we stopped at the Tillamook Forestry Center--a really cool museum with neat activities, trails, etc. Here we were climbing to the top of an old fire lookout tower.

view from the top--Hi Becky and Gemma!!

Homeschool!

James would only be a 2.5 year old tree.

Only the CURLS can prevent forest fires!

Finally we made it to the Tillamook cheese factory--a nice lady took this photo because she thought that Bunny and Gemma were our kids. heehhehe

Tillamook was PACKED, so busy, especially for a Monday! They've changed the sample line to include lots of different types of cheese.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

We were gonna have lunch there but it was SO busy that we decided to just get ice cream instead :-)

open up!

then we had lunch later in the day closer to Cannon Beach--the girls just LOVE Carter!

finally at the beach--the tide was reeeeally low so we got to see the tidepools!!!

exploring

starfish

can you see the baby seagulls?

this is very normal. she runs everywhere.

I love this progression!!!

homeschool!?

how romantic!

Becky tried to get all three of them to jump at the same time.....

easier said than done!

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!! becky let me know if you want the full-size photo and I can email it to you.

Bunny and James tried it to but almost ran into eachother. hahahah j/k they did this on purpose.

TUESDAY:

Tuesday Carter and I had to fly out in the afternoon, but in the morning we had just enough time to pick berries!!

mmmmmmmmm

Jedi's like berries too.

nice pants/boots combo!

we didn't want to leave!

Thanks for having us out, Curls, we had a great time!!!

Fueled by Fine Wine

2011-07-18T22:23:00.000-06:00

We're not fueled yet--this photo is before the race. We are very squinty.....

....there, that's better!

The race was really fun! There were about 1500 people running and the race started and ended in a very small town called Dundee, OR. It's a super cute town about 25 min away from the Curls' house, SW of Portland. The town must be known for it's wine, several wineries, etc.

The race started at a city park and immediately started UPHILL. Generally, the race was WAY more uphill than I thought it would be. At this link you can see the race course and profile. Really the profile didn't mean anything to me until we drove part of the course on Saturday afternoon. Seriously, it was SO HILLY!!! I still ran the vast majority of the time, but I (we) stopped to walk a handful of times when it became really steep. I felt great on the gentle hills but for the steepest hills it was just the same speed for me to walk as to jog!! In those places EVERYONE around us was walking and when we were jogging we were barely passing people. We also walked aid stations but that was pretty much necessary--we brought "goos" with us and it was pretty hot out and I was SOOO thirsty all of the time (oops guess I didn't hydrate enough). The paths were nice--we ran on a combination of paved roads, dirt roads, two-track farm/winery roads, and sometimes just down the grass at the edge of fields! It was incredibly scenic and we passed lots of neat houses, wineries, etc. Definitely a lot of things to look at to take our attention off running, which I appreciated :-)

We met and talked to some interesting people along the way, and since Carter wasn't as tired as I was he did most of the talking. Our best friend was Jim, an older guy (maybe 65?) from Canada that's into running and cycling. We bounced back and forth with him for a long time. He was impressed that this was my first half marathon since it's so hard! He thinks that any other half marathon I'll do after this will be easy, and I agree!!

Becky, Bunny, James, and Mariposa came to cheer us on towards the end of the race, and their cute smiling faces propelled me to the finish! We finished in 2hrs 40 min which is slower than I would have liked but it's still an OK time. At the end we got a medal, free wine glasses, and all the wine we could drink in small samples!!

All in all it was a great race, and it made me feel good about running. I'd like to do more half-marathons and I maybe just might one day maybe be talked into a real marathon! Not this year though.

Here are some after-shots!

free wine glasses at the end of the race!

Daisy hung out with me after the race. That's my number and the black bag on the left was one of the things we got for free--I think it's for wine.

our feet got disgustingly dirty from running on all of the dirt paths!

Garden update

2011-07-18T22:05:00.000-06:00

But first--Carter weed whipped yesterday and we had a little accident................

looks so beautiful! maybe we'll just keep it like this........

Carter's proud of himself.

analyzing the situation.

After putting a tarp down to catch any glass, we decided to tape long strips of saran wrap up to catch the glass. It worked out pretty well--Carter had it all cleaned up in about a half hour and I didn't have to do anythign! Luckily it's a two-paned door so we can keep using it until we decide what to replace it with. We're not sure if we should just replace the pane of glass or use this as an opportunity to upgrade to something like French Doors. What do you think???

OK now onto the garden update! First here's a video tour. Windows Movie Maker has some new features with Windows 7 that I really like, so I played with a few of them in this movie. Let me know what you think! Also sorry about the awkward no-talking in the flower part of the video.....it just seems like whenever I talk to describe things it makes the movies way too long. So I saved the talking for the important part--the veggies :-)

And now, some photos:

Emma's favorite place to hunt snakes.

My veggie garden! Starting to look like a jungle, I'm so happy! I love the jungle phase!

1st bed--lots of cool season stuff (greens, onions, radishes, carrots, etc.)

2nd bed, all kinda of random stuff.

3rd bed--strawberries, corn, and cucumbers in the back.

sunflowers, full bloom! The bees are so happy! This one was is having sugar coma. (very common)

so pretty. unfortunately these suckers are just breeding grounds for earwigs--gross!!! we've had lots more earwigs the past two weeks because of all of this rain. I don't like it.

my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th red tomatoes!!! These are beefmaster, my first was about a week ago, 4th of July variety. Unfortunately that plant hasn't done anything since the 1st tomato, but now the other plans are catching up. I think I'll eat these tomorrow when I have Mary, Justin, Grey, and Joe over for dinner!

Corn! Full tassle and forming silk. I can't wait!!!

I'm growing garbanzo beans!! I have NO idea how this is going to work out, but I thought it would be fun to try. this is my first small pod.

Plants are so crazy.

cucumber!

beet! (this is my biggest one)

compost pile!

this is what's growing in the compost pile. any idea what it might be???

We finished!!

2011-07-10T11:45:00.001-06:00

Unofficial time 2:42, VERY hilly!!

Playing and geocaching in park

2011-07-09T16:29:00.001-06:00

2011-07-09T16:28:00.001-06:00

2011-07-08T23:10:00.001-06:00

Voo-doo donuts

2011-07-08T23:07:00.001-06:00

Best video ever...(this week)

2011-07-07T14:21:00.002-06:00

Enjoy....

Hiking with Emma

2011-07-01T14:21:00.001-06:00

Mondays aren't so bad for me--it's my day off! (yes, I know you have all forgotten that) Last Monday I took Emma hiking in Boulder. We parked at NCAR and hiked up Fern Canyon to Bear Peak. From there I thought it would be nice to keep going.....and South Arapaho Peak was just barely in the distance, less than 1 mile away.....so we went for it! After that peak I looked at the map and decided to go another way back to the car, making a loop instead of out-and-back. I mis-estimated the difference in mileage and ended up with a VERY longh hike back. All in all I hiked for 6 hours and I think we travelled 8.5 miles! I was SUPER sore, more than my last 10 mile run! Emma was tired too but she loved it. Here are some photos from my phone:

her harness says "Swim, Bark, Run"--I think that's ADORABLE!!

we took a break and Emma decided to lay down in the MIDDLE of the trail. Doesn't she look pathetic?

Garden update

2011-06-30T21:43:00.002-06:00

Photos of the garden--flowers and veggies. The veggies are just starting to get exciting, it's starting to become a jungle back there, slowly but surely! I cna't wait until it's hard to walk through the aisles again!!

Watering the dog.

foxglove! I love it so much I went out and bought another one (on sale of course) at Lowes.

my favorite part of the garden, because of the three colors and growing so close together. I wish all of my garden was like this, with no spaces between the plants!

Carter having fun with camera

Carter is so artistic!

One of my favorite flowers of all the gardens are my onion blooms!!!!!!

This is Carter's favorite part of the veggie garden--the "volunteers" growing out of the compost pile! What do you think they are? I'm guessing either pumpkins or zucchini or maybe a different squash....?

Our Sunday project last weekend--we built another small patio! This one holds the grill, and therefore improves the flow of the patio (before the grill was always in the way, and always rolled around from one place to another. Now it will be stationary)

Today's harvest! The bags on the left are mint, snap peas at the bottom, my GINORMOUS turnip, and my bok choy that bolted so I just pulled it all up to salvage what I can. I turned up being to big gallon bags. Does anyone have experience growing bok choy--will my bolted greens be nasty?

This picture is for Kelly :-) My quest for the granny-square blanket continues, I've been working on it as Carter and I catch up on the Harry Potters!! You can kinda tell it's getting more and more "warped" as I go, but I'm hoping it still functions fine as a lap blanket. I'm just using my cheap acrylic yarn from the stash so I don't have any desire to tear it out and try for something better--this is good enough!

longest run EVER

2011-06-21T21:32:00.000-06:00

New record--10.1 miles, 2 straight hours!

half marathon, here I come!!!!!!!!!!

Tigers game

2011-06-20T14:43:00.000-06:00

Saturday I met the fam downtwn for the Tigers vs. Rockies baseball game!

Greyson was very happy to be there.

A little better now that he's back with Mom and Dad!

I think maybe he's going to be an ultimate frisbee player, not a baseball player!!

finally he fell asleep.

what an angel! soo tired.......

.....just like his uncle! hehehe

Mini Haha Triathlon

2011-06-15T22:12:00.001-06:00

Carter and I raced our first triathlon of the year last weekend--the Broomfield MiniHaha! For those of you who don't remember, this is the one I refer to as "world's smallest triathlon". It's even shorter than a sprint tri, with a 300 yard swim in a pool, a 11 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. It's really a lot of fun and very convenient becuase it's in Broomfield (I don't know if I would do it if I had to travel!). It's very beginner friendly.

Anyways, I didn't take any pictures, but here are the results:

ERICA
I finished in 1 hour and 9 minutes, which is a personal best!! Two years ago I finished in 1 hour and 12 minutes, and last year I finished in 1 hour and 18 minutes (it was very cold and rainy last year). This year I felt great during the swim (didn't get passed and didn't pass anyone--just how I like it!), even better during the bike, and also pretty good during the run (10 min miles). Now I'm inspired to do even better--next year I'll have to train harder to try to break this record....

CARTER
Carter finished in 55 min 44 seconds and won first place in his age group!!!!!! Even though this wasn't his fastest time ever (54:17 last year and the same time the year before (can that be right, Carter?) , and 51:40 the year before) , we were both surprised and happy that Carter got 1st place in his age group. (For those of you paying attention, his sexplace is #1) Great job, Carter!!!

Now it's on to more triathlons......I think I want to do another sprint triathlon later this summer (August or September, perhaps?) but I haven't signed up for any yet. Carter's not sure either, but he's definitely not doing any Ironman races this year. Does anyone know of any good races we should sign up for?

Half Marathon training

2011-06-14T22:10:00.000-06:00

Today Carter and I ran for 8 miles--that's my longest distance ever and my longest time ever--1.5 hours! We started with Emma for the first 45 min / 4 miles, then looped back around to the house and dropped her off (it was hot and she is very black and slightly out of shape, which makes for a very tired puppy!). Then we went off in another direction for the last 45 minutes.

In the next two weeks we'll work up to 10 and then maybe 11 or 12 miles running straight, then three weeks from now will be "taper" (just short easy runs so we don't fatigue our muscles right before the race), and then the race itself is just 3 weeks from this coming Sunday!!!

Red Wagon Organic Farm CSA tour

2011-06-13T22:59:00.001-06:00

Carter and I went on the early summer tour of the organic farm we are a CSA member of -- Red Wagon Organic Farm! Last year we had to miss this tour and we only went to the fall tour, so this time we got to see everything a bit earlier and smaller.

they put walls of water on the heirloom tomatoes only , because they take slightly longer to start producing so this way they can plan them earlier. Also so they can have tomatoes earlier in the farmers' markets.

They had started to take the walls-of-water off earlier last week, trellissing the plants as they go.

These are the "regular' tomatoes (ie not heirloom), planted on May 15th (our average last frost date)

Owner/head farmer (don't know what else to call him!) Wyatt shows us some greens!

More baby tomatoes! The red plastic gives off the same wavelength as plants do, so it tricks the crops into thinking they are competing with weeds! The plastic also keeps water in and weeds out.

tomatoes on the right, greens on the left (under the row cloth, which protects the greens form bugs, keeps moisture in, and keeps them from burning from the heat (extends the season).

Here I'm smelling something I believe to be garlic, only to later learn it's leeks. doh!

mmmmmmmm this is where my daily salad comes from! I like seeing that most of the plants grow with the weeds--the farm doesn't use any chemicals of course, so all weeding is done mechanically. This isn't some sterile farm with nothing growing except the crop. Lots of different weeds are on the farm and as Wyatt describes it, he just tries to "stay ahead" of the weeds, as there's no way to completely get rid of them all together.

In the snap-pea patch :-) free samples!! They taste good enough for me, but Wyatt says they need another week or more to plump up and get even sweeter (he only picks the plumpist pea pods). We'll get them in CSA next week maybe. For the record, my peas are just now flowering, no pods at all yet :-(

This is their settling pond that they draw their irrigation water from.

Carter likes this tractor (he's a boy)

Granny Square Blanket progress

2011-06-13T22:44:00.000-06:00

I'm running out of the gold yarn faster than the blue, which is interesting to me.....I don't know how much further I can make it! And I don't think it's worth buying another skein of crappy Red Heart yarn! What's a girl to do? I'll post another photo when I'm out of gold.

Running.......and running......and other stuff.

2011-06-08T22:05:00.000-06:00

Here are some overdue photos from the card I just cleared off my camera. I know these are everyone's favorite types of posts. Enjoy!!!

Carter and I after the Bolder Boulder--I had a PR!!! Fastest time ever! Thanks for pushing me, Carter!

After the race we walked a couple miles downtown to enjoy the Boulder Creek Fest. Someone had decorated the creek. I reeeally liked this.....

....you can tell Carter was excited about it as well!

I think this booth was Rocky Mountain Raptor Center--one of our competitors!! hahahah j/k we don't compete, there are plenty of birds for both organizations. This group is out of Fort Collins, I believe. This is a Great Horned Owl--just like the Owlie family in our open space!

I REALLY wanted to take this pup home. He loved me so much! Do you think Emma would get along with another dog....?

Here's some big news--turns out I got THIRD PLACE in my age group (I think this is the same as sexplace )!!!!!!!! I got the certificate in the mail just yesterday. I knew they had timing issues so they didn't give out the awards after the race, but I had no idea I actually placed!! As you can tell it must have been a small race if 30:54 won me 3rd place. I'm not complaining though--I've never placed in a road race before!!

Other exciting news--we got a new TV and Carter mounted it this week!

It's a swivel mount so we can watch it while we're upstairs. Works perfectly! Now we just need to figure out what to do with all those cables and receiver and BlueRay and Wii blahblahbal (I put Carter in charge of that. Who wants to place bets on when it might get done?) The eventual plan is to have matching built-in bookshelf cabinets on either side of the fireplace now. Again, probably quite a long term project.

On my last Monday with Mom in Denver, she taught me how to crochet! I really wanted to learn how to make a Granny Square, and believe it or not Granny Nanny didn't know how. So we learned together thanks to YouTube and books! This was my progress as of Monday evening. I'm just going to keep alternating colors every two rows and keep going until it's huge, blaket size. I can't wait!!!!! It's fun to work on and quick. No pattern needed, I've memorized it now.