Christmas Trip to Texas

Travis and I returned home last night after our annual trip home for Christmas. This year, we started out at my family's house in Cypress before Christmas and then spent a few days in Terrell with Travis's family. The drive home was uneventful with the exception of Wyatt getting into his food and eating a 3-day supply all at once. He's an eater, that guy! Our first stop in Texas was at Lauren and Jim's house to meet our new niece, Abigail!

Wyatt's a fan of babies. Don't worry; he didn't stay that close for too long!

We had a fun few days in Cypress. There was baking, shopping, and general hanging out going on! There might also have been a little bit of wine-drinking.

On the night of the 22nd, when we had our family's "Christmas", I held up a gift to Wyatt, told it that it was for him, and he started going to town! It was absolutely hilarious. The pictures don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea.

Our time in Terrell was mostly spent enjoying each others' company and the usual Christmas traditions. We went to Travis's grandparents' house for brunch on Christmas Eve, saw True Grit, and then went to church that night. Travis, Hal (his father), Wyatt, and I all went for a chilly run on Christmas morning then we all opened presents and had a wonderful day visiting with everyone. Their tree was beautiful, as always! Travis is definitely the better gift-wrapper between us. His mother taught him well!

Beautiful tree with beautiful presents.

The boys all got matching sweaters...

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas, also!

Free holiday cards from Shutterfly!

Since we live far away from our family and many of our friends, photo Christmas cards have become a must in our repertoire of holiday traditions. It's a way to share some moment of our lives in the past year with people we may or may not be able to see often! I'm sure this will become more and more important, especially if we are blessed with children in the future. Might as well get into the habit now!

This year, Shutterfly is offering 50 free holiday cards to bloggers. If you have a blog and want to sign up, click here. If you don't have a blog you can still check out their amazing cards! Shutterfly also offers several other ways to share photo memories with your loved ones, including mugs and totally sweet canvas wall art.

I personally love Shutterfly for their photo books. In my younger years I did it the old-fashioned way and scrapbooked. Those of you who knew me then know how much time that took up! I still love to scrapbook, but with all my spare time I've been doing photo books instead.

Welcome to the world, Abigail Jane Bouse!

My sister Lauren had her baby last night at 5:57pm in Bryan, Texas! They decided not to find out the sex of the baby so it was a surprise to all that it was a beautiful baby girl! She was born 3 weeks early due to some blood pressure issues but is doing well. She's 19 inches and all of 5 pounds, 7 ounces.

Travis and I cannot wait to meet her when we go down for Christmas. In the meantime, pictures will have to suffice! Maybe we can talk Lauren into Skyping with us or something...

Sorry for the small pictures - they were taken from Lauren and Jim's blog. If you'd like some better ones, click here. Now, I'm off to buy some cute pink things, whether my sister likes it or not!!

A Gorgeous Fall

This year we've had an unusually long Fall for Colorado. Typically the leaves will start to turn yellow, then we'll get some freak snow storm or cold snap in October and all the leaves just die and fall off. This year, however, we've had a relatively warm and long Fall. The mercury has been dropping steadily at night, but our days have typically been in the 60's and 70's, with some days of 50's sprinkled in. This has made for some gorgeous colors around here. I enjoy it especially in the morning. One day as I was driving in the neighborhood near school a slight breeze picked up and blew some of the bright yellow leaves off some Aspen trees - it was so pretty to see them fluttering to the ground everywhere!

I only got a few shots a couple of weeks ago when I was in Golden, but I think I'll be remembering this Fall for quite some time. The pictures don't really do it justice, anyway. There's something about being surrounded by all of those beautiful trees and fire-red bushes out in the crisp, cool air.

 As I'm sitting here typing we're in the middle of our first cold snap. The high today is in the 40's and Denver got its first glimpse of snow yesterday. There's more to come tomorrow, with a high of 33!

Baby Shower for Lollipop!

Last weekend I went home to Cypress for the baby shower that my sister, Sarah, Lauren's friend, Katie, and I were throwing for my other sister, Lauren. Lauren grew up obsessed with frogs, so naturally, the shower was frog-themed! The picture above is of the diaper cake my mom and I made for Lauren. It was super easy (much easier to decorate than, say, an actual cake) and she'll get to use absolutely everything on there, minus some of the decorations small enough for a baby to swallow of course! The shower was a success. She raked in a lot of the things she really needs off of her registry. Her gift from Mom, Sarah, and me was a pack n' play. I love going home for events like that because they're exciting and I get to see all of my family and lots of family friends at the same time!

We also celebrated my dad's birthday while we were there. He absolutely loves having all of us home (Travis's absence was noted several times, though) - he beams the whole time! I love my family (and Travis's) and consider myself to be very blessed.

Lauren, Nanny, and Mom made the quilt for the crib.

Some of my favorite nights involve standing around the kitchen counter with the fam!

Our Home Improvement Project

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted last! Travis and I are currently renting a house with quite a large backyard, but we felt like we couldn't enjoy the actual yard much since the only patio was a narrow area next to the house. Our patio table fit, but it was a tight squeeze. We decided we wanted to put in a flagstone patio in the back of the house to add a little more room. The landlord agreed to pay for the flagstone, so we just put in the labor.

After a hectic summer, we finally got around to the project last Sunday. Our friend Nick, whom I work with, was nice enough to come help. We repaid him in the form of burgers, guacamole, and beer.

Before.

 After digging out the very, very hard dirt.

Tada!! After. (That's Nick.)

We're pleased with the results. Finished just in time for....Fall. We haven't had any freak snowstorms or cold fronts yet, so maybe we'll get to use it before Winter really starts.

I am, well, half, Ironman!

When someone finishes their first Ironman triathlon, everybody says "You are Ironman!" to them. I figure that in this case, I am half Ironman! Sunday was a big day for me. It was a day that I had been preparing for for at least 10 months - my first half-iron distance triathlon. The race includes a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. Please forgive me for posting all of these pictures, but I think my parents might want to see them! 

The day started when my alarm went off at 4:15 or something close to that. I hopped out of bed and into the shower (apparently a hot shower helps you wake up - I read it somewhere), then into my tri suit. I ate my normal pre-race breakfast of whole wheat Eggo waffles with almond butter, honey, and banana. Nerves made it a little tough to eat a lot, but I knew that I would need it. Travis had selflessly agreed to drive me to the race and accompany me the whole way, which was fantastic. I was so glad he was there all day - I couldn't have asked for him to be any more supportive! He was even getting excited for me the whole week before. There was some traffic getting into the Aurora Reservoir, but one we got there I got numbered, picked up my timing chip, and started to prep everything in transition.

I chose the spot right near the Texas flag. I figured it'd be easy for me to see when returning to transition!

I was soooo nervous before the race. Travis kept having to tell me to calm down; that I was well-prepared and I would be able to finish. After setting up my transition area, I jogged a little to warm up and then prepped for a swim warm up. 

                                            

Good thing I warmed up. Holy cow that water was COLD! I think they said it was 68 degrees. I definitely could have used some of those neoprene foot booties and some earplugs. Too cold. Shortly after the warmup, it was time to start!!

                                  

I'm somewhere near the front of that pack. Swimming is the one thing in tri that I accel at, so I normally head for the front to avoid too many punches and kicks to the face. If you're not familiar with seeing a tri swim start, check out this video on "training" for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_6tOzt-nfM

Here's where I was saying, "My feet are NUMB!" Seriously, it was like trying to run on razor blades. Dani and Jerad were there for the start and this part. I'm so grateful to them for their support!

In T1 getting ready to bike.

See ya in a few hours! After this Dani, Jerad, and Travis went to breakfast.

The bike went well. The unfortunate thing about being good at the swim is that you get passed a ton on the bike, but oh well. I managed to not get passed too much by the women in my age group, but there were plenty of 40-60 year old men who started behind me on the swim and flew by me on the bike. I followed my nutrition plan and felt good, but my crotch was sure ready to get off the bike at the end!

Yay! T2 - gettin' ready to run.

"Bye! Love you! See you in a couple of hours!"

The run was where I died. I started out feeling good at an 8:45 min/mile pace but that slowed down immensely as the day started to take its toll on me. There were hills. There were no trees. There were hills on the bike. I was tired, and probably hungry, though I didn't feel it. Unfortunately I get stomach cramps if I even take in more than a sip of Gatorade on a run during a tri, so I couldn't do much in the way of boosting my energy with fuel. I was just tired. The flat coke helped a little, though. I was soooo happy by the time I got to this point and saw the finish:

I almost cried. Yay! I did it!!! And 15 minutes faster than my sort-of goal time of 6 hours. Despite dying on the run, I still managed a 2:07 half marathon. That's faster than I did a half marathon by itself last year, so I'm super happy with that. I also placed in the top third of my age group and qualified for nationals next November (2011) in Vegas!!! I may just do that race....

I really could not have done any of this without the support of this guy over the past ten months! Love you, Travis!!

Amy and Wyatt's Grand Backpacking Adventure

I can officially say that I am no longer a member of the "never-been-backpacking" club. Okay, so that's not a real club, but you catch my drift. On Labor Day weekend, I was invited to join Dani, her mom, and Jerad on a short backpacking trip. I'd been wanting to try it, so I agreed to go since I knew that it wouldn't be too strenuous with Dani's recent appendectomy. I didn't want to wear myself out before the half-iron distance triathlon the next weekend! Travis ended up going home to go to the A&M game with his family that weekend, which is good, because he didn't want to go backpacking anyway!

Of course, I don't have any of the equipment, but I rented or borrowed the essentials and went with Dani to REI to buy a pink spork, pink headlamp, some foldable dishes, and a freeze-dried dinner. Clearly, all essentials. We headed out on Saturday morning to somewhere west of Boulder and the Buchanan Pass trailhead. We hiked about 4 miles in and found a perfect camping site with a nice fire pit, trees, and close access to the river. The scenery was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip, aside from Wyatt vomiting in the tent at 5 am. I couldn't get it unzipped fast enough! Wyatt thoroughly enjoyed himself, as well, and did a fantastic job at carrying his pack. I even took some stuff out of my pack to add to his on the way back! It was a short, one-night trip, but so worth it for the peace and scenery. I will be doing this again, and I think I may even be able to get T to come along with us. Enjoy the pics! 

At the trailhead before heading out.

Ace...caught in action!

Not a bad place for a little snooze....

Pooped puppy. Too bad he didn't sleep that well in the tent!

This weather is AMAZING!!

Man, I've been bad about posting. It's been a busy month! About a week after the New Braunfels trip, my brother (Bryan), sister (Sarah), and Sarah's boyfriend (Clint) came out to Denver for a visit. We had a fantastic time. We put the grill to work a lot to make fajitas and homemade pizza. They came out to Golden and I showed them around where I spend most of my days. We were even having a "Lab Happy Hour" at Golden City Brewery (the 2nd largest brewery in Golden), so they got to meet a lot of my friends. Clint shipped his bike out along with mine so we had three cyclists with three bikes. This meant that I needed to take them on a proper Colorado bike ride. We thought about doing something longer, but settled on the ever-popular Lookout Mountain ride that starts from Golden. We started at our house, rode to the top, and back home again. Here are some pics from the top (and near the top):

 Lookout climbs about 2,000 ft over 5 miles. Considering the fact that we started in Denver and therefore climbed around 4,000 ft on that ride, Sarah and Clint were champs. Their sea-level lungs did just fine :-). We headed to Boulder later that day but we were all quite tired and didn't stay too long. It's always a good place for people-watching, though, and somewhere that every visitor should see. That night we took them to our absolute favorite restaurant in town, Osteria Marco. I believe they all enjoyed it.

     Bryan's request was to go hiking, so on Saturday we headed to Estes Park to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. I hadn't been before, either, so it was a new adventure for me, too. We hiked a bit while inside the park. Such gorgeous landscapes!!

   There are many more pictures which will probably be posted to our Picasa page soon, as long as I can remember to do it. All week long Clint kept commenting about how amazing the weather was (and it was!), hence the title of this post. Thanks for coming out, guys! Had a blast!