You look burnt... or dead.

Here is my official picture from the race:


I look like I'm dying because this was the end of the race, when I could barely breathe. It was also at this time when a medical volunteer, hearing my wheezing, told me urgently, "Take your medicine!!"

Embarrassing? Naturally. Risk embarrassment for a good laugh? Of course.

Mighty

I want this. It would be perfect in the office of our house -- where I plan on writing daily (or maybe semi-daily).
L'ho trovato qui.

Felicitá

Two years ago you made me the happiest woman in the world.

Happy anniversary, Kuwtstan.

It's hard to get 2 dogs to look at the camera at the same time.

Run Bolder

Distance: 10k (6.2 miles)
Time: 1:02:40.22 (Kurt was spot on with his estimate! (we forgot a watch)
Pace: 10:05/mile
Feeling: Elated (slash exhausted)

I did it! I ran my first 10k! And I only had to walk once for about 100 yards (minus a few stops to let asthma calm down).
I am strong woman, hear me roar.

And yes, I meant to say "my first 10k."
Seems I've caught the fever.

(But I'm still not currently planning on ever running a marathon.)

I'm only happy when it rains

Call me morbid, but there's nothing like perfectly black storm clouds like these.

Walks with Zumi

Common sights:

Curiosity

Gorgeous weather

Walking on ledges

Beautiful, fragrant flowers

Natural chew toys

Maple trees, one of my favorites

Little bit more curiosity

I'm excited to move to Denver, but I'm going to miss Littleton and my lunch time walks with Zumi.

A Getaway

Great minds think alike. At least, Kurt's and my great minds think alike. A coworker told me a few months ago that Estes Park was one of her favorite spots in Colorado. I relayed this information to Kurt. Then, we both started concocting plans to surprise the other with a quick trip up to Estes Park for our 2nd annivesary. One of us cracked (can't remember who) and told the other their idea, at which point the other side, "I was thinking of doing the same thing!" Good thing the cracker cracked (I think it was me), or else we would've have two getaway trips! Or maybe not such a good thing...
Our anniversary is actually next week but this weekend is going to be fairly crazy (that is, if we actually close on time), so Kurt booked it a week early. Plus, we still got off-season rates and a no-night minimum. :D So on Sunday we dropped Zumi off at Jen and Evan's and headed up to Estes Park to stay here:

We stayed in a cute little private cabin right on this river. On Sunday we: ate pizza, took a nap, soaked in the hot tub, ate ice cream, watched a movie, ate more ice cream and pizza, watched another movie, went to bed late. It was so rejuvenating! I seriously have so much more energy this week. We really needed to recharge our batteries (especially Kurt). Monday morning we woke up around 8:30 and I, of course, jumped back in the hot tub.

Because that's how I roll.
(PS--I learned that when you're pregnant you can't sit in hot water. WHAT?! I'll never be able to survive 9 months without a single bath or hot tub session, especially in the winter. My children better appreciate this sacrifice...)
We packed up and, after a little "detour" got to Rocky Mountain Park for some hiking. The original hike we planned on doing was completely snow blocked, so we found another one, a little shorter, that didn't go quite as high.

My husband, Tupac.
The hike took us past 4 gorgeous mountain lakes. The trail was completely snow packed. It ended up only being 6 miles round trip, but in the snow that is tiring! And especially at about 9500 feet.

Lake #1. This picture is so gorgeous. And I had to ruin it by sticking my tongue out.

Yes, I was feeling the ugly faces that day. And now you are too.

Here's a rock overlooking Lake #2.

There's Lake #2. (These lakes had names, but don't ask me what they were.)

Action shot!

Running in the snow...

is harder than it looks.

Our destination, Lake #3! It was incredibly--completely frozen over, tons of snow, all this white and the blue, blue sky. Definitely worth the crispy sunburns we incurred that day (hasty packing=forgetting sunscreen).



A pretty view of the mountains from the road. Obviously.
Next, we headed down to Boulder for delicious, dirty Mexican food that burned our taste buds off. Spicy=yum. We started to head home, but decided our anniversary fun-time wasn't over yet. So we headed to Golden. Golden is a cool town. We want to live there one day, except it's too far of a commute downtown and the only real place to work is the Coors brewery. But we will make it work.

There's this river that runs through town that is, seriously, like the beach. Everyone was hanging out! Kayakers, high school kids, families. There was even a sandy mini-beach. I now want to take up kayaking.
I still can't believe we're coming up on our 2nd anniversary. Not because I think that's an impressively long time, but just because it's zipped by. I mean, in the last year alone we've graduated, moved, bought a puppy, and we're buying a house. Crazy times. But amazingly good times. Because happiness really is being married to your best friend.

Simpler Times

I've been listening to Coldplay [A LOT] recently and it's really reminded me of last summer.
That was seriously one of the happiest times in my life.
We were both (finally) graduated.
I was working full time at WestPro for a measly $11/hour.
I hated 90% of my job.
Kurt was studying for the CPA exam.
We were poor.
We lived in an extremely old, quirky house.
We slept on a mattress on the floor.
And we were so happy.

We hiked every week, sometimes more than once a week.
We played games.
We spent all of our free time together.
We took multiple spontaneous road trips where we lived off bagel sandwiches and camped at night.
We were relieved to finally both be done with school.
We were excited for our upcoming move to Denver.
Man, I miss those times.
(And it's only been a year...)

I know life will always get more exciting.
We've got a puppy,
about to buy our first home,
kids soon,
and we're middle class
(that's an odd feeling)

But I know I'll always remember summer of 2008 with joy.

My Heart Aches With The Beauty Of It

I almost forgot!`

My May goals are:
-Survive this month

Hahaha. But seriously though. We close NEXT WEEK! So we need to:
-pack
-pick out paint colors
-tv shop (our living room is not large and a flat screen tv would help a lot with the space issue)
-mattress shop (we're thinking about upgrading to a king sized mattress; Kurt's wanted one since we got married)
-decide on what improvements we want to make to the house and a schedule (and use our architect friend's help)
-build a kennel for Zumi in the backyard

All this while trying to keep a clean apartment, help my girl in Activity Days finish her Faith in God award (she's almost done!), take care of Zumi, be a good wife, train for the 10k, eat healthy, and stay sane (struggling with that one). So right now reading and editing have taken back burners and it sucks because I've been feeling motivated for writing lately!

Big Trucks, Big Families, and Bigger Hair

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go back to Utah. It is so strange to me that I just spent 7 full months away from Utah, and during the school year no less! We went up this particular weekend for a century (read: 100 mile) bike race Kurt signed up for in Tooele.

Ok, this pic is not from Utah but the night before leaving, at our apartment. I just thought it was funny how Zumi was lying on the floor to eat his food. Lazy dog.
So, we left Thursday evening and made it in at 2 am. We got to stay with our bestest friends, the Wilcox's! Man, I missed them so much! Thanks again, Alexson, for letting us stay at y'all's place! We had a swingin' good time!

On Friday I got to get lunch with Jamie. I was so excited to see her and her beautiful baby girl, Asha. She was so cute and good natured! I can't believe Jamie's a mom, since I was there for her first day of college. My little Jamie-butt's growing up! *Sniff sniff*
That night we got sushi with the Wilcox's, then Kurt and Alex went and watched Taken at the dollar theather while Allison introduced me to High School Musical 3. It's the first one I've seen and I gotta tell ya, Allison, I liked it more than I let on. ;D It was really cute!!
Saturday morning Kurt and Alex left at 6:30 to head up to Tooele. I woke up at this time and took Zumi out for potty, then got back in bed. A few hours later, I awoke to find Kurt walking into our room. I felt like I was going crazy. Why was he here at only 8:45 am? He explained that because of the thunderstorm, they were strongly discouraged from doing the race. So, he got a $45 t-shirt out of the whole deal (no refunds b/c it was for charity. lame).

Next we went to lunch with the Sibert's! I can't believe how much their little Toby has grown up since the last time we saw them. He is so cute and he loved Kurt and me (me especially). We introduced them to Art City Trolley and their fabulous Danae's Sweet Sensation Salad. Mmmm...
We headed back to the Wilcox's to pack up and say goodbye. They have two small dogs, Bentley and Coco. Zumi is great with other dogs and always wants to play with them. However, he was afraid to play with Bentlers or Coco because they were so small. They kept trying and trying to get him to play. Finally, he did and was chasing them and barking happily, which scared Coco. Maybe next time will be better. :D

Here is Allison successfully teaching Zumi tricks! He is a hard dog to train (short attention span, always curious) so I was very impressed! She taught him Fox (Zoom's versions of Bentley's Polar Bear) and Sit. Yay! I finally have an obedient dog!

Fox!

Fox again! He's so adorable.

Allison loved Zumi, and rightfully so. He's freaking cute. And hopefully these pics clear up any confusion to his size. I keep hearing how he looks really big in the pics I took right when we got him. He's not. He's only 13 pounds.



Two peas in a pod.

I look ugly. I didn't take good pics this whole weekend. I think I kept scrunching my eyes up too much.
Then we headed up to Salt Lake to drop by real fast and say hi to Jessica and Reece (and for Jessica and I to finally meet each other's husbands!) and it was too fast, so I didn't get a pic! It was too short because Kurt kept playing the PS3 with Alex a little longer, then a little longer, then a little longer...
Then we ran down to Sandy to eat at Cafe Rio (yes!!) with James and Camille Winfield and Ty and Erin Spurgeon. I adore Cafe Rio. And I was a lard and at my entire salad, including my tortilla, and then got ice cream next door at Coldstone. Basically this trip was one big feast.

Ty and Erin took us to their sweet new home they're in the process of remodeling. They have birds. Camille was excited to finally find a pet she's not allergic to!

The whole gang! See how ugly I am again??
Then we went to Grandma Hatch's. While they were at church, we ran to see Kurt's mom, then brought her up for dinner at Grandma's where we saw my awesome cousin Carly and her new hubby Derek. I wish we had had more time for family. I looked outside and saw a little fox asleep in the yard!

Then it was time to go home. We sure did miss Utah and all of our friends and family there. If it wasn't for all the mormons, as Kurt and I kept saying, we'd totally live there.