Heart Attacks and Avoiding Homework

Whew! What a week. Not only was I finishing up work for the year, while taking two grad school classes and rehearsing for a play, but then we had some major family health issues that added lots of fear and stress!

I'll start with the big and scary news. Early Thursday morning, Matt's dad woke up with chest pain and pressure. After a trip to the doctor, an ambulance ride to Wichita, and some tests, it was determined that he had had a mild heart attack. In fact, he'd been having a multiple mild heart attacks over the last few weeks. After more tests, they decided that bypass surgery would be necessary. Needless to say, Matt and I got in the car on Friday to join the rest of the family in Wichita.

The great news is that the surgery went really well. It was a double bypass that left Rex feeling pretty crummy. But the recovery has already begun! He got to go home today! Matt's already got his plane tickets to head back out to Kansas this weekend. Unfortunately, I won't be able to join him, but I'm really glad he'll get to spend some time with his dad.

There was quite a crowd there to see Rex into surgery.

In the hospital courtyard, thinking calm thoughts.

Very sad to be leaving family behind, but it was time to head home.

Prior to all the excitement, I had been going crazy trying to get all my homework done. It was becoming so stressful for me, that I decided I needed a break. I took all of last Sunday and played hookie. I didn't do any homework all day!

I went to lunch with my family and played with the youngest nieces. Since my sister never updates her blog, I feel the need to post some pictures of these adorable children of hers.

Evie, eating her spoon. Yum.

Coloring.

Silly!

We rounded out my day of playing hookie with a rousing game of Blokus:

Games are fun!

and buying new patio furniture:

Of course, after a whole day of avoiding homework, I was crazy for the rest of the week trying to get all my homework done and finish at work for the year. But now I can finally be excited that I'm on summer break!

Because the Rocky Mountain Way is better than the way we had...

I don't know what way we had before, but I'm pretty sure the Rocky Mountain Way is better.

A couple of weekends ago, we got our Eagles rock on again by listening to The Long Run, Colorado's Tribute to the Eagles (also known as "my dad's band"). They were playing at a really cool venue called the Soiled Dove Underground here in Denver.

Rockin' out to some Eagles music.

I love seeing live music.

More recently (last weekend), we headed out to experience the real Rocky Mountain Way by going on another hike. This time, my dad came, too! We went up to Eldorado Canyon, which was beautiful, even though we're still waiting for some more green to come in.

Looking through the canyon.

Me. Hiking.

Matt, checking the book. He does this a lot on some hikes.

Cool trail.

We had a pretty good climb up the mountainside.

Up so high, looking down the canyon.

Beautiful snow-capped mountains.

Me and Dad.

Tree growing in the middle of the trail.

The Eldorado Canyon area is also a popular climbing spot. We saw quite a few climbing the Bastille.

The Bastille (or a big rock wall).

Me. This is pretty much as close as I'll get to climbing the Bastille. The heights thing just doesn't work for me.

On the road, walking back to the car.

I absolutely love enjoying our beautiful Rocky Mountains. And no offense, other places, but the Rocky Mountain Way is totally awesome.

I'm awesome... and modest, too!

Tonight, I got this:


So... that's cool.

It's Hiking Season!

I've had this post sitting half-finished for a week! Things have just been completely crazy! I've been finishing one class, starting two more, traveling to multiple schools in my district, and rehearsing for a play. In fact, I only have a few minutes now, so I'm just gonna zoom through this. I hope to spend a little more time updating you all this weekend... We'll see how that goes...

Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, we set out for another Spring hike. We're sticking with familiar and pretty easy trails for now. Green Mountain was a hike we enjoyed a couple of years ago, so we decided to go back.

Things are still pretty cold and dead up in the mountains. But there are pretty things to be found, if you just go look for them. We went looking and saw lots of deer!

At the start of our hike. It was lunch time for some deer.

Deer.

We came across quite a bit of snow on the trail - not enough for snowshoes, but enough to make it a little slippery.

Me, on the snowy trail.

Matt.

The last time we were on Green Mountain, I dubbed it my "fairy forest hike" because every thing was so green that I felt like I was in some sort of enchanted forest. Well, I guess the fairies are still hibernating, because enchanted forests look a lot different in the Spring.

Summer 2008 and early Spring 2010. So different.

Lots of snow. No fairies.

But we were able to get some good views. The distant mountains certainly look prettier with some snow on them.

At the top of the mountain.

And the good news is that I'm in much better shape than I was last time we took this hike. A couple of years ago, I didn't make it all the way to the summit, but I did this time!

Me.

Matt. He's too tall. But you can still see the pretty mountains through his legs!

Us. Yay!

I guess it's that time of year when my blog starts filling up with hiking posts and hiking pictures! I'm so ready! Are you?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ahh, the weather is getting warmer. The trees and flowers are blooming. I love Spring!

Usually, Summer is my favorite time of year, but I'm currently loving Spring and all it brings. Yesterday, Matt and I got out to enjoy two of my favorite things about this time of year: hiking and playoff hockey!

The first hike we ever took together in Colorado was a short, but moderately steep (at times) hike to Mallory Cave by Boulder. We've gone back a couple of times since that first hike in March of 2008 to see how far we've grown in our hiking ability (and to see if we're in better shape!). So yesterday, we headed to Mallory Cave again for our first hike of the season, and we definitely handled it a little better than we did that first day!

A couple of odd trees that we always remember as a landmark. A weird bonzai-looking tree in the middle of the trail, and an awesome twisted tree.

Trees.

Matt at the end of the hike. You can't actually get to the cave from April to October, but we still got a decent view out of it.

Boulder.

A view of the building where we started our hike... and Boulder in the background.

I always love this time of year because of playoff hockey, but my excitement obviously varies depending on whether or not my Avs are playing. Well, this year they are! Last night, Matt and I headed to the third game of round one against the San Jose Sharks (boo!).

The ice crew started dancing to Michael Jackson when they came out to clean the ice. It was funny.

Though the game was low-scoring (or no-scoring until overtime), it was an extremely exciting game. We had a blast, and even though I had homework waiting at home, we were still excited when the game when to overtime. But we didn't have to stay too late because the Avs scored 51 seconds in to overtime! It was a bizarre bounce, but we'll take it!

So excited! We won!

Our goalie made an amazing 51 saves throughout the game, so the crowd was chanting, "Andy! Andy!" all through the arena. It was very exciting.

Final score!

Yay! We won!

The Avs lead the series 2-1 now. We're excited to see where they go next!

And I'm very excited for more hiking! Yay, I love hiking and camping and shorts and flip-flops and concerts and barbeques! Yay summer!

My New Love

I have a new toy:


Isn't she pretty? I've had a growing list of issues with my old laptop, and it was getting pretty annoying. With so much relying on my being able to access a computer daily for school, we (Matt and I) decided I needed something new. I decided I needed something little and cute.

And look, pretty swirly designs on the back!

So far, I like my new lappy. It's technically a netbook, though it's got an 11.6" screen, so it's a little bit bigger than most. It's still rather tiny though:

It's like a baby lappy.

But even though she's small, I think she'll work just fine for me. Plus we have Matt's desktop for serious school work (as opposed to trivial school work?). And Little Lappy is certainly an improvement over the Giant.

Other than anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new piece of awesomeness (we ordered her online), we haven't had a lot going on. A couple of weekends ago, we went skiing for the last time of the season. We headed up with Dave again, and Melissa joined us! It worked pretty well to have another person at my skill level around (Mel had only been skiing once before, although she had tried snowboarding quite a few times). It was crazy cold and snowy and windy, so the camera stayed put away for most of the day. But I did get to snap a couple of quick photos.

Taking a break. We both liked to take breaks occasionally.

Me and Mel!

I'm pretty excited about my growth over the season. While I'm still spending my time on the easy, EASY runs, I'm getting way better with my control. And Matt is out there doing harder greens and even some blues! So we've had a pretty good season, and we're already excited for next year. But for now, we have summer! My favorite time of year!

Six Years...

Today is our anniversary. Not our wedding anniversary, but our "together" anniversary. Once most people get married, they tend to focus on the wedding date as the day to remember. While I will always acknowledge my wedding day as one of the happiest days ever, I like remembering the date that Matt and I first started dating, too. We could have chosen a large variety of days for our wedding, but we had less of a say in the day that we started liking each other. That's something that is kind of left to fate. So I always enjoy recognizing the day that we decided to "try and see where this could go."

We're not an extremely sappy couple (at least Matt isn't), so I won't go crazy with my memories. But here are a few pictures of our life over the last six years:

April 1, 2004. The day we first started "talking."

November 2004.

August 2005. Matt shared his first love with me.

October 2005. This picture cracks me up!

May 2006. In Italy!! About a month after our engagement.

December 2006. Graduating! Matt with his Master's, and me with my Bachelor's.

July 29, 2007.

August 2007. Our honeymoon at Niagra Falls.

Summer 2008. Beginning our love for the Colorado outdoors.

December 2008. Skiing for the first time.

April 2009. We bought a house!

October 2009. We continue to love traveling! In San Francisco.

February 2010. Still finding new things to explore together. (Ok, I got a little sappy in the end.)

And many more adventures are still to come!