September

My childhood friend Tracy and her family were driving from Montana to Chicago this summer, so we went up to Wyoming to catch them during a rest stop on their journey. It had been 6 years since we'd seen each other, and there were 3 new babies to meet! I love seeing my kids befriending my childhood friends' kids.

Ama, Logan, Izzy, and Crosby

Me  & Tracy

My mom stopped in Denver on her way back to Florida from her high school reunion in Washington. We got to celebrate her birthday with her.  

Happy birthday Grandma Z!

Tiger feeding horses. This is a 12 mo. size tiger costume, but that doesn't prevent Amelie from squeezing into it at every opportunity

Ama talking to baby Zimmy

Mark Singer turned 40! They did a costume pedal hopper brewery tour.  Mark is the Big Lebowski guy on the left.  I heard it was awesome...

Mark Singer's 40th birthday pedal hopper

But I missed the birthday party because I was at the Tough Mudder race out in Snowmass. I did the race with Logan's teacher Kristin. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it was fun to do once.  I didn't train much for this race, and the week before I started watching videos of all the obstacles and psyching myself out.  To make up for lack of training, I started buying gear... wicking clothes, new sticky hiking shoes, knee pads, gloves.  It turned into a pretty expensive race! In the end it was easier than I thought. The hardest part was getting back to my car at the end.  The shuttle buses stopped running and after a 10 mile race I had an extra 2 mile walk to the car :(.

There was quite a bit of boo-ya'ing at the start and a drill sergeant type person psyching everyone up.  Yes, we were doing this voluntarily...

Funky Monkey obstacle-- monkey bars over a water pit. This was the one I was most afraid of, but my gloves did the trick and I made it across.

On top of the Everest obstacle

On this one, you float on your back under the fence, and pull yourself through with just a few inches of air between you and the fence. 

Low crawl through mud

More mud

Electroshock therapy.  All those wires dangling shock you as you run through. This is the last obstacle and the shocks hurt!

At the finish!

Receiving our Tough Mudder headbands

Celebrating Zimmy

My 3rd baby/nephew is due December 14th!  We're all excited for his arrival and have been celebrating with a gender reveal party, a baby shower, and some nesting.

Olivia & Ama helping to get the pinata ready.  Inside there is a pacifier that is either blue or pink, and will reveal the baby's gender.  Kenny's neighbor put it in so even Kenny and Nate didn't know.

It turns out the pacifer was teeny tiny-- like the size of a dime.  It took us about 15 minutes of combing through the candy, dirt, and leaves to find it. It was blue!  Amelie, Olivia and I were kind of disappointed its not going to be a girl, but Nate was really happy.

Ama

Whole family at the gender reveal party

Kenny's baby shower. Aunt Maria knitted him a Bears sweater!

Grandma, mom, and Aunt Kate

Kenny's shower- future mom and aunts

We moved Ama & Logan's crib over to Kenny's.  The baby's room is super cute.  It will be perfect until he's as tall as his dad, at which time they'll need to renovate to raise the ceiling. Kenny's been watching lots of HGTV and has it all worked out.

Our last(!) weekend in Rifle

After spending most of last fall and last spring at Rifle, we had geared up for another season there, but thanks to Mark's quick send we only ended up with 3 days there.  I can't say we were too sorry to leave, but I'm happy we got to see the beautiful fall there.  Its pretty all the time, but the fall colors make it extra so.  I especially loved walking down the narrow trails enveloped in fall leaves.    It was a fun spot for the kids too to explore and bike and build forts without risk of falling off a cliff (the river was another story).

And with that, goodbye Rifle!  See you again in many, many years.

Congratulations Mark!

Congratulations to Mark on achieving a new level in climbing-- 5.14d (9a)! He worked so hard for this over the past year-- and the previous 20-- with smart training, perseverance, and discipline. We're proud of him!

Mark Anderson Sends Shadowboxing 5.14d

Harry Gates Hut

We did our annual fall Hut Trip with friends to the Harry Gates hut this year. We've been to this one before and its probably my favorite. Its in a really pretty meadow with stands of aspen, right near Lime Creek climbing area and some mountain lakes. We took the back way from Aspen, and getting there tested the Civic's off-road abilities, but Mark always gets us through.  We even saw a bear on our way out!

Amelie in the meadow in front of the cabin

Wheelbarrow rides

Campfire

Roasting marshmallows

Aspens!

Kiddos

Lime Creek climbing

Fulford Cave hike

We did this hike last year too, and its amazing the difference a year makes in kid-hiking.  It felt much shorter this year.