Slacker.

I have officially completed one of the goals I established after moving to Denver: run a half marathon in the Mile High City. I guess my ambitions ran away from me (haha, pun kind of intended), and I ended up signing up for the Slacker Half Marathon -- the highest downhill race in the country. It starts at Loveland Ski Area, at a whopping 10,630 feet above sea level, and travels down 8,400 feet to Georgetown. I was super excited to run it, but also really nervous, because it's taken me about half a year to really feel comfortable running at 5,280 feet! But, I did it anyway, and the good news is: I SURVIVED.

Granted, I was hobbling over the finish line, but I did, in fact, survive. The first five miles of the run were breathtaking -- we ran through a forest of densely-packed evergreens, complete with about four or so waterfalls trickling so beautifully down the mountain. Ahh.

The next 8 miles? Not so much. Still beautiful terrain, of course (how could it not be gorgeous in the Rockies?), but that constant downhill really starts wearing on your knees...and your right leg's IT band. Oh, and it got even better when they threw a half mile climb in the middle of the course (read: half mile climb of death in full mountain sunshine). So by the time I made it down the mountain and back into Georgetown, I was pretty beat! I finished in 2:28, which certainly was not what I was aiming for, but I guess running 13 miles down a mountain with hardly any oxygen is something not many people can say they can do! So, I'm proud of myself. But mostly, I'm really glad it's over.

3 half marathons down....zero more to go. I think I'll stick with 5k's and 10k's from now on.

Also: A shout out to hubby Mike Wall, who took care of me as I, er...got sick, the entire car ride home. And who went to the grocery store to get me 2 Gatorades, 1 Vitamin Water (NOT VITAMIN WATER ZERO), and some redwhiteandblue popsicles. (Apparently, I was very specific in my post-run delirium). He has also declared that I am cut off from pursuing any more half marathon endeavors, and I honestly don't blame him.

The rest of our weekend was lazy: lounging at the pool with church friends, hanging out at City Park Jazz with more friends (and family!), and watching Arrested Development until we fell asleep.

Overall, a great weekend. I feel like I end most of my posts that way, which is a good thing I guess :)

Peace, love, & NoMoreHalfMarathons.

Sand, Sand, Everywhere. Literally.

One reason we love Colorado is that there are endless opportunities to explore. And we're the fun-loving, adventurous 23 year-olds who can't get enough of the mountains, so we're pretty much in heaven.

Anyway, this weekend we found ourselves down in the middle of Colorado at Great Sand Dunes National Park!  This unique/weird place has been calling my name since we first moved here last summer, and I am so glad we finally made it! I had no idea how this sand arrived in Colorado until we got there. Since I enjoy a little history/geology (nerd alert), I'll just tell you briefly. A massive pile of sand in the San Luis Valley, situated between the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains, the Sand Dunes were formed when Lake Alamosa dried up and left a huge sand sheet behind. With the mountains on both sides of the valley, the winds are well, kind of insane and really intense, and blow down through mountain passes and then back up towards the mountains, creating this cycle that makes the dunes grow really tall.

So, we decided to hike High Dune, which isn't the highest dune, but it was still really hard! The climb was 1.2 miles up, with 650 feet elevation gain. I know that doesn't sound like much at all, but when you lose half a step for every step you take because you're sliding down the dune, you end up climbing a lot farther than 1.2 miles! Not to mention the fact that the wind is beating sand into your eyeballs, as well as your ears and your mouth, and the sun is beating down on you! Not easy at all! But still fun nonetheless. Our favorite moment was when we reached the peak of High Dune: a grandpa (props to him) and his grandson came up not long behind us, and the grandpa was carrying a sled for his grandson to ride down the dunes on (very common). The guy had the best quote ever: "Well, I schlepped it up here for ya, BY GOD YOU'RE GONNA RIDE IT!" We left the peak laughing pretty hard. :)

Other highlights of our little adventure:

Hiking to Zapata Falls, a little mountain waterfall tucked away behind a big wall of rock
Burning our breakfast burritos to a crisp because we are amateurs at campfire cooking
Camping in Lake Pueblo State Park (beautiful!)
Climbing down a big and extremely unstable ravine to go swimming in the lake
Not being able to sleep because the wind was blowing our tent flap around like crazy
Hiking at Garden of the Gods
Going to the Air Force Academy, but then deciding to leave shortly thereafter because we were too tired to care at the moment

Overall, a great trip and a wonderful time together! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! 

Peace, love, & burnt burritos. And sand. 

Dispatch Rocks My Face Off

If you've never heard of Dispatch, then you absolutely must check them out (click to hear one of my favorite songs). Falling somewhere between rock, folk, roots, indie, and reggae, they are an incredibly talented band. They actually broke up in 2002, but have done a few reunion tours over the years. Their most recent one landed them in Denver this past weekend for a three-day rockfest. We didn't get to go to all three concerts, but we did have the time of our lives at the Saturday night show!

We headed out to Red Rocks Amphitheater with Jimmy and Amanda, and some other folks, to tailgate and hang out before the show. Not only is Red Rocks beautiful, it's a great place to relax, have a Coors, and enjoy some down time before heading in for the concert. We absolutely loved it....and fell even deeper in love with Colorado. :) 

I don't have too many photos from the concert, and the ones I do have are pretty much just flashes of bright lights and neon glows. Suffice it to say though, that it was one of our top favorite memories so far here in the Mile High City. 

On an entirely different note, a random thing that happened to me today: Our office has had an infestation of moths the past week. Seriously, we have no idea where they're coming from and they're really gross. I've seen like 20 in the building. Anyway, my most recent encounter was today in the bathroom. As soon as I sat down to, er, go, a huge moth FLEW INTO THE STALL and couldn't figure out how to get out. Let me tell you, it is really gross mortifying to have wings flapping in your face while you're trying to do your business, even if it's just a harmless moth.

Peace, love, & Dispatch.

Is that an elk skeleton?

Geez, where to even begin? Our Memorial Day weekend was packed with fun. On Friday night, I went to the Denver Day of Rock with some friends (Mike had to Outback it up). The Day of Rock is a free concert series down on the 16th Street Mall, which is this awesome area downtown with a ton of shops, bars and restaurants. Probably the main reason I love it is for the people watching and seeing the random Denverites that try to make a buck off being ridiculous (like this guy "Robo Mike" who dressed like a robot....just to get some cash).  It kind of seemed like it was working, and for a split second I questioned my career. Anyway, we saw Trevor Hall live, which was the main reason I went. He is amazing in concert--his voice sounds so true to his albums, which I love in our world of AutoTune and voice manipulation. And he has hot dreadlocks, so that's a bonus.  :)

Then on Saturday, after a quick run in Wash Park (another Denver fave), Mike and I went and got a Weber grill, camping chairs, and a manly grill utensil set. And we didn't pay a dime (thanks, everyone, for the Target gift cards!!) We tried to grill tonight, but it was insanely windy and the fire blew out in half a second. Oh well, probably later this week!

Sunday was a big day of fun, mostly because the Cardinals were in town! We hung out down in LoDo, grabbed lunch, and then headed to the stadium, proudly reppin' our hometown. It was great, the Redbirds won, and we got fried and now we look like lobsters. We went back down to 16th Street Mall after the game, had a cocktail and a few appetizers, and then headed home. 

Today we got up early for our hike in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It's about 30-40 minutes from our apartment, but it's an excellent place to go hiking without having to go all the way up into the high country. We figured we did about 6 miles (we had a few detours), made it up to Windy Peak (where it was indeed windy), and had PB&J under a huge tree right by a beautiful mountain pond. Pretty sure it just doesn't get much better than that. Oh, and we saw an elk skeleton.  

So now we are relaxing, and getting really confused (again) because we're watching Lost (for the second time). I will never fully understand that show...but I guess that's the point. 

Peace, love, and Cardinal baseball.

Two New Obsessions

Obsession Number 1:  dribbble.com

For design geeks only :) Get your fix of awesome designs. Inspiration. Creativity. Love it.

Obsession Number 2: blurb.com 

Ok, this one I am seriously in love with. I'm currently making our honeymoon photo album on it (and potentially our wedding album!), but the possibilities are simply endless! Design a book -- any book -- that you want! It could be a book you wrote. A photobook of your kids. A recipe book (currently my next project....after the wedding one). And then what? Enroll in their free "Set Your Price" program, where you can sell your book for profit! If it's cool enough to get people interested, that is. I'm probably going to make a book of my absolutely favorite recipes, so if anyone wants to buy one (once it actually exists), let me know!!

Our honeymoon album: http://www.blurb.com/books/2207870.

In other news, I am home sick today with a cold. I watched the last Oprah show out of boredom, and was very disappointed. Mostly because I am not a fan of Oprah. Although her 90s outfits were pretty killer.

That's about it for today....

On Being Married

So, I'm sitting here by myself while Mike is working, watching Survivor on our new TV that we just got a few weeks ago! I don't care at all about the show, I'm mostly watching it because I haven't had TV in 10 months and could really use a good dose of mind-numbing trash (apologies to Survivor fans). The best part? We pay nothing for our cable. :) Good ol' rabbit ears gave us 30 free channels, for a $10 one-time payment. We are really good at crunching money.

Anyway, I was thinking that I should share some things I've learned about my husband/marriage over the last month, and what life looks like now that we're semi-settled in.

1. Annoying living habits: Mike leaves cups of water everywhere and always forgets to shut the cabinets in the kitchen (which are, conveniently, the perfect height for me to hit my head on when open). In his defense, I have little habits too, like the fact that my electric toothbrush leaves crusty toothpaste messes everywhere; or that there is a constant arsenal of socks in the bed because I take them off in my sleep; or that I don't like him squishing my cute throw pillows on the couch. ("Christi, they're pillows! They're supposed to be squished!" Yeah, ok, I know. But it makes them deformed.). Anyway, we're kind of enjoying learning about our little quirks (for now), just because we're so happy to finally be living together. :)

2.  Similar vices: These include leaving clothes on the floor, forgetting to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer (resulting in having to re-wash the already-washed clothes because of the mildewy smell), and using entirely too many bowls to the point where we have to run the dishwasher just because we need more bowls. Oh, and hating to clean the bathroom.

3. Wonderfulness: Marriage rocks, hands down. Especially when your husband always cleans the dishes, will sit down with you for hours to form a budget, constantly makes you feel loved and cherished, and never ceases to make you laugh.

I'm glad that special person is you, Mike Wall. And I plan on not annoying you too much, or at least trying not  to. :)

Back to the Real World

Now that Mike and I have been settled into our little awesome Denver apartment for about a month now, I feel like I can finally breathe a little (although that's difficult at 5,280 feet in the air). The wedding gifts have been crammed into every nook and corner of our 670 square foot abode, the thank you's have been sent, and the old gaming systems that Mike "just couldn't get rid of" have been....discarded. :)  

So, I guess this is the part where we settle into married life, have 2.5 kids and the coveted white picket fence. However, we are only 23, and we live in a rockin' state with a lot of 14,000-foot mountains that are calling our name. We'll have the kids and the house...eventually. But for now, we're excited to live and learn in this new place. And we want YOU to hear about it and follow our adventures, just as a way to stay connected with us. 

Peace, love, and Rocky Mountains.