Summer Activities

Now that summer is in full swing, we've both been preoccupied with our athletic pursuits as well as hanging out with friends (kickball league Tuesday nights!) and cooking on the grill. I love summer!! The only bad part about it is the heat, but we finally broke down and bought a portable A/C unit for the house. It helps so much! Here are some pictures showing what we've been up to lately.

Travis has been doing a lot of this:



I've been doing a lot of this (ignore the poor running form - it was at the very end of a long hot race):



and Wyatt's been doing a lot of this:



Actually, not really on the last one. I just like pictures of my animals. Isn't that golf course that Travis was on beautiful? It's down south of Denver a bit and he was there playing in a tournament for a charity that supports the widows/widowers and children of fallen soldiers. He played on the Air Force team whose entry was paid for by someone else. I think he enjoyed the whole experience. It was a weekend-long event including shows and dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. The Gatlin Brothers headlined it and they brought in a lot of other Nashville song-writing talent. It was a great event to be a part of!

The picture of me was taken yesterday at an Olympic-distance triathlon called Loveland Lake-to-Lake. It was my first Olympic-distance tri and I had a great time, though it was painful at times. The bike ride was pretty hilly and the run was pretty hot and exposed. I ended up 19th out of 54 in my age group - one person shy of qualifying for the USAT national championship!! I was kinda bummed about that. At least now I know what to work on (biking and running form!) and I have another reason (like I needed one) to buy a TT bike that fits me! Mine's a little small and it's definitely not a TT bike. After the race (and after the initial nausea subsided) I did a little of this:



...and it was amazing. Now we're getting ready for our trip to Europe! I leave for Switzerland tomorrow morning for a conference, and Travis will meet me there on Friday to travel to Italy. We're planning on spending a few days in Tuscany, then a few days in Rome where we'll meet up with Jon and Misty Schindler. We're really excited about it. Plenty of pictures to come!!!

Oops.

So, on Sunday I did this event called "Elephant Rock Ride". My friend Danielle and I did the 100-mile ride. It was tough - lots of hills and wind - and of course we were riding against the wind on the entire first half, which climbed at least 1,000 ft. The second half was nice! Riding at above 40 mph sure felt better than climbing at 8 mph. Normally anything above 30-35 mph scares me, but the road was smooth and straight, not much traffic was around, and the thought of boosting my overall ride average made me happy. The worst part of the entire ride, however, was when we turned to go south on the feeder of I-25 (Mom and Christi, feeders here aren't like they are back in Texas, so there was no traffic). We were riding against wind that had to have been blowing steadily at 30 mph. When dealing with these conditions at mile 90, you sort of want to curse everything you see. Luckily that didn't last too long and we headed back north shortly and finished the ride with a total riding time of around 7 hours. We went in and grabbed some of the free food. Pasta salad has never tasted so good!! My chocolate chip cookie even got a little soggy on one edge from the Italian dressing, but I really didn't care. I ate it anyway.

So, I really wasn't too sore the next day. I was really, really tired, though, and had a heck of a sunburn on my back and feet. That's right, I said feet. See, I wore my triathlon shoes, which are designed to be worn without socks. I didn't wear socks. And I didn't even think to put sunscreen on the little square of skin that was exposed on each foot. See picture below. Oops. I'm going to have some pretty tan lines this summer.

Bolder Boulder 2010

Yesterday, Travis and I participated in the 32nd Annual Bolder Boulder 10K race. As Travis pointed out yesterday, the name of the race makes absolutely no sense. I definitely agree, but whatever. The race always takes place on Memorial Day in Boulder (obviously) and serves as a tribute to past and present soldiers, as well. It's America's largest 10K. This year there were 52,000 participants! That's A LOT of people. As I pointed out to Travis on Sunday, that's a little more than the amount of people who attended the almost-sold-out Rockies game that day. Add in all of the spectators and volunteers, and that is a whole big mess of people all over Boulder. The race is so well organized, though, that it runs smoother than most other road races I've participated in. We chose to take advantage of the transportation system run by Denver's RTD. $7 round-trip per person and we didn't have to fight the traffic or the parking!

Travis and I both did well. My goal was to break 50 minutes, which I fell short of by a little less than a minute. However, technically I ran 6.35 miles rather than 6.2 (according to my GPS watch) because of all the weaving between people I did. I think if I had been in one of the beginning waves and wasn't constantly passing people I definitely would have had an official time under 50 minutes. Next time! Travis did fantastic in his first 10K. I think his plan was to just run how he felt like running. He said he could have gone much harder because he had a lot left at the end. It's hard to pace well when you don't know what to expect! Along the course there were bands, people throwing marshmallows for runners to catch, Jell-O shots, bacon, and a lot of other fun nonsense. Dani and Jerad ran, too, and they took advantage of the Slip-n-Slide in someone's front yard. It's definitely a fun race! Travis even sheepishly admitted to me last night that he enjoyed the experience.

After we took full advantage of the freebies at the Expo, we made our way back home to shower and take the traditional post-race nap. Later in the evening Dani, Jerad, and the German post-doc Marco joined us for a Memorial Day BBQ. All in all, a great day. Now it's back to work!

Graduation

I apologize for the delay in my posts. Our camera was in my purse that was stolen out of my car a month or so ago and we have yet to replace it. I'm relying on other people's pictures! My sister Lauren is a much better photographer than I am, anyway.

A few weeks ago Travis and I went back home to attend the graduations of both of my sisters. Lauren graduated from Sam Houston State University with a Master of Science in Forensics Science, and Sarah graduated from Texas A&M with both her B.S. in Accounting and her Master of Science in Management Information Systems (I could be wrong on that). We had a great time visiting back home and hanging out with family. After graduation on Saturday we made a mandatory visit to the Dixie Chicken, of course!

The graduation ceremony for my Master's degree was on the same day as Lauren's graduation. Needless to say, I did not attend. If it would have been my last graduation ceremony, I think I would have attended. Since I did not get a choice in purchasing the cap and gown or not, we decided pictures were necessary :). And yes, my dad is a goof.

Good news!!

I'm clear to finally announce that Travis and I will have our first niece or nephew come December!! My sister Lauren and her husband Jim are expecting their first child. We're all pretty excited about it. Here's a link to her blog where the first ultrasound has just been posted: www.jimandlauren.net.

Sipping and Painting!

Oh, man, do I have some catching up to do! I'm terribly sorry - the time got away from me during that headache of a thesis-writing process. I meant to post these pictures a long time ago from a "Sipping and Painting" class Travis and I did with our friends Dani and Jerad a while back. We saw coupons for this company come up on Groupon (if you do not know about Groupon, you need to: www.groupon.com) so we decided to do it. It was a $40 class that we paid $20 for. They provide the canvas, paint, wine, and instruction, and you end up with a cool painting to take home with you. It was a blast! Such a fun way to spend the evening. We chose to do the class entitled, "Poppies". Here is what we ended up with. Can you guess which one of us painted each of these?



Got your guess? Here we are holding each of our paintings:



Surprised? It was so much fun :). Here are some more pics from the night:

In case you were wondering...

Aside from going out for a couple of amazing meals during Denver Restaurant Week and running, swimming, and biking, this has been my life lately:



Writing my Master's Thesis. Super fun and interesting, I know. For some reason I decided it was a good idea to set my defense date for April 1. That means I need to get this thesis to my committee around March 18 or so. It's getting there. Just plugging along.

Travis is finally finished with the inspection at work - yay! That means I get to see him more and (especially important right now) he gets to help around the house more. Good timing, except he's ready to celebrate and I'm, well, not quite there yet.