Light Speed Vedauwoo Trip

So the weather has decided to turn nice out here.  So, we decided that we have a super packed summer so we are going to pack as much into every weekend as possible.  Because there is so much here we want to experience and explore.

The entire time we have been here, people have been talking about Vedauwoo.  (It is actually in Wyoming, not Colorado, but that is okay.)  So, I did some research and I decided we should go.

So, every week we trade of date night and fhe planning.  I plan fhe and Derek plans the date and vice versa.  Normally these things are pretty low key because that is the way we roll.  However, it was my week for date night and I decided we were going to go camping in Vedauwoo and we were going to rock climb and mountain bike.

So, I did my research.  I gathered up all the supplies we would need and we took off.

We found the most perfect camp spot (we always do).  Did some bouldering Friday night and hung out around our fire (which smelled really good because we burned some sage.)

Check all our awesome fire wood I gathered.  We got even more.  All just laying around.

Did some bouldering and exploring Friday night and hung out around our fire (which smelled really good because we burned some sage.)

Saturday, we woke up after not the best night's sleep (our perfect camp site didn't have a good flat spot for a tent.  So we slept in the bed of the truck.  And it was a little bit cold, and I was too out of it to realize I only needed to pull one of the strings to tighten my sleeping bag around my face.  So I had the cold night air sneaking into my toasty mummy bag all night until about 4 am when Derek fixed it for me.  And I didn't bring warm socks....we were at like 8500 feet.  But it was only like 42 degrees.  No biggie.)

Anyway, the best thing about car camping is in the morning when it is cold you can get in your car and turn on the heater.  And that is just what we did.

Then we set out and searched for our climbs....the websites all said there was lots of sport routes.  Yeah, we could not find them.  Or the first bolt would be 30 feet off the ground and the next bolt was 15 feet above it and then nothing until the chains 30+ feet higher.  Sketch ball in out book.  So we hiked and scrambled and explored and mountain biked and bouldered and it was fun.

Then we came home because I had a work "social" at 1:00 in City Park that I was fashionably 45 minutes late too.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day.
Even though I am not a mother, I still got a carnation, chocolates, and chocolate covered strawberries in church.  (Derek was happy about the chocolate, so we both won.)

Anyway, after church we headed up Big Thompson Canyon toward Estes Park.  We stopped at this super awesome park (that I no longer remember the name of) but we can't wait to go picnic there soon. It was awesome and full of families, which is even more awesome.

We drove up to Estes Park and walked around the town.  It was nice to just get out and walk around, even if we didn't go into any stores.  We also went and did the Twin Owls Loop in Rocky Mountain National Park (why not?  We were right there.)  And that was great.  We met a delightful couple.  The lady invited us to hike Long's Peak with her on August 10 to celebrate her 70th birthday.  How awesome is she?  Very.

 Yes, that is a reindeer on the side of the road.

 Lumpy Ridge: RMNP

 A beautiful shot of Long's Peak: RMNP

I think these people are Catholic....just kidding.  We parked behind this car at our great friend's (Katy and Lincoln) wedding reception in Arvada on Saturday.  (He is from here, so we didn't have to miss their wedding entirely.  And, we were the only people she knew there and their reception was awesome)

If you look really close you will see that not only do they have a BYU sticker, their family (including pets) and a Romney/Ryan sticker but all the people in the family are wearing BYU shirts.  So funny.

Grandma

We have a grandma.  Yes, a grandma here in Fort Collins.  Okay, technically she is in Loveland.  She is about a 10 minutes drive from us and she is great.  How did we meet said grandma?  I shall tell you.

A long time ago, before Derek started PT school, he worked as a PT Aide for a PT named Steve.  Steve has a grandma in Loveland.  Said grandma needed some love from a physical therapist.  Long story short: She called Steve, Steve called Derek, Derek called her, we went over, Derek fixed her, she = our grandma.  To the extent that she called us yesterday saying she baked two loaves of bread for us and gave us homemade peach jam to boot.  It was delicious and she is delightful.  I have seen her more this week than I have seen my real grandma’s in 6 months.

Addendum to Sparta

We got the race results last night.  I don't normally brag.  But I am gonna brag.

Chesley and I took 13th and 14th place overall for women, with a time of 1:24.  So we say 1:14 to minus the 10+ minutes we had to wait for the last obstacle.

Derek got 81for men, with a time of 1:15 (so proabably about 1:05).

There were  5751 contestants

WE ARE SPARTANS!

Yesterday, Derek and I ran the Spartan Military Sprint with a few friends of ours.  It was at Fort Carson (hence the extra military obstacles) in Colorado Springs and it was awesome.

About 4.5ish miles (normally you'd say poo poo at that), but add 20+ obstacles and mud and it is a different story.  It took Derek about 1:05-1:10 and it took Chesley (my friend) and I did it in about 1:15 (we deducted the 15 minutes that we had to wait for one of the obstacles at the end).

But it was awesome and grueling.  It was muddy, sweaty, and bloody.  We definitely have our scars from it.  But it was worth it in every way.  I don't have pictures of the run yet (have to get them from Chesley's sister), but I have pictures of our battle scars.

 Right hip

 Left hip (from military crawling in the trenches under the barbed wire.  They were full of gravel in the bottom)

 My legs

Derek had a gnarly fall.  He fell crawling down from an obstacle and caught himself on that arm.

There are more bruises and cuts but we won't post pictures of those.