Hiking Kenosha Pass

Kenosha Pass is the first trail I hiked when we moved to Colorado 2 years ago.  Ryan promised me changing aspens and feed me granola bars as I huffed and puffed my way up the trail.  Thankfully I'm a-okay with the altitude and now can really enjoy the view.

Isn't this place magical?

I shot some film while we were exploring, I can't wait to see how they turned out.   I'll be sure to share. 

And then it snowed.

Fall, I really enjoyed the short time we spent together.
Until next year...

A beautiful shade of yellow

We almost missed the aspens changing this year at Kenosha Pass.  The trees seemed to be a little eager to find that beautiful yellow coat of leaves because when we arrived, only a few weeks later than our hike last year, they were almost bare. 

My Sunday was happily spent hiking the area with Ryan and Zia.  We hope to make this trip every year.  It's an incredibly beautiful sight. 

Littlefoot Triathalon

Ryan has been training, and training, and training the past few months for this upcoming sprint triathlon.  He and Elsa have been inseparable (okay, I made up a name for his bike, humor me).

We got up at the crack of dawn to head toward Golden, CO.  Our friend hosted the race, so I decided to volunteer and help out however I could.  Ryan was participating, of course, so we arrived around 6am, just in time to see the most beautiful sunrise.

Soon, the participants started to get ready for the race to begin and Ryan darted off for a warm up run.

Thankfully I had a buddy to keep me entertained during the down-time before the race began.  We were in charge of marking numbers on participants.  

And dancing.  We were instructed to dance a lot.
That's a lie.
But we couldn't help ourselves, anything to stay warm.  It was quite chilly Saturday morning.

After everyone had their number Sharpeed on their arm, and their age on their leg, I then was graced with the job of keeping time at the transition area.  Holy pressure!  Everyone had a chip on their ankle, but just in case the chip malfunctioned, there was Yours Truly keeping time.  Sort of.

See that wetsuit?  It's impossible to see the number I just wrote on her arm.  She did not get her time out of the water tracked by me.  Sorry participant, I really hope your chip worked.  I really really do. 

I tried to not stress about it too much.

And before I knew it, Ryan was flying by!  (tiny photo stolen from Facebook) 

GO RYAN!
He rocked that race in 1:24.

I'll be back in 2 weeks with a recap of his 2nd triathlon, it's coming up so very soon.  And I'm not keeping track of time, hooray.  There will be lots more photos. 

And then, we climbed another 14er

Just a week ago, I climbed my first 14,000+  foot mountain.  And before I knew it, we were going up another!

Meet Mount Sherman.  He was a rocky fool.

A storm rolled in just as Beth and I were about to summit -- the boys had already  made it to the top and we knew we had to hustle.

We pushed and pushed and pushed to finally make it to the top, took ONE group photo (this is not acceptable for me), and hauled back down.  Ryan was really worried about the storm and told the group to walk as fast as we could, without falling down the rocks of course.

It rained on us a lot and Zia had to get a free ride in Ryan's jacket because she was so cold, but we all made it back safe and sound.

More of the Great Outdoors

... I realized this morning just how much this blog has evolved since we moved to Colorado. And with those changes, I'm sure a few followers are probably bored to death with all the outdoors-y photos, lack of crafty projects, or kitchen creations.  But I've always wanted to stay true to myself through blogging, and well, this is sort of what I do with my extra time now.  And I'm pretty darn happy.  Thanks for following along on this new journey with me!

Without further ado, here are a few photos from the weekend:

We got in a great hike on Friday before the storms rolled in for the weekend.

Zia is OBSESSED with chipmunks -- obsessed as in, capturing these little guys  must happen or life is amiss.  

My friend Josh visited us this weekend for a mountainous escape from Phoenix.  He and Zia were best buddies.  This is also one of my favorite pictures of all time.  Pure Joy!

Rainy days ahead. 

 Our campsite for the weekend.  The rain put us right to sleep.

Atop

WE MADE IT.

So much work to snap a photo of this land marker!

The adrenaline kicked in and we all hauled up to the top of this mountain.  And right as we reached the top, it started snowing.

Best PB& J, ever. Seriously though.

We worked really hard to get to the top, so pictures of our accomplishment were in order. And just look at the views.

A huge accomplishment for me and honestly I don't think I could've climbed the mountain without our little group. They were my cheerleaders and much needed comic relief and I truly had the best day.

Hiking my first 14er

My friend Heidi and her husband moved to Colorado recently and wanted to go on a hike with us this past weekend.

As we were figuring out plans, I had this little convo with Ryan Friday night...

Kendra - what hiking trail do you want to do Saturday?  I need to let Heidi & Marshall know our plans.
Ryan - bierstadt.
Kendra - the mountain?
Ryan - yep, the mountain *big smile*
Kendra - hike to the top of a mountain?!  My first 14er?! 
Ryan - yep.

Side note: don't you love how calm he is?  And cra(z)y I am.  

So, here we go on my first 14,000+  ft. Colorado mountain...whoa... 

Mt. Bierstadt is a popular mountain to climb, mostly because you start a little higher than the other 14,000 ft. mountains so it takes a shorter amount of time to summit, but also because it's so close to Denver.  When the boys tried to check in, there was no paper left!  The mountain was pretty crowded on Saturday.

Our pup, Zia, can climb a mountain, but she refuses to cross a stream.

Can you see the tiny little specs at the very top?  We thought that was the top, and had the same thought multiple times through the hike.. it was never really the top, there were so many turns.  And everyone we passed said "just 15 minutes or so".  Lies.  I guess that was our fault for asking so much!

I had to stop a lot to catch my breath.  My muscles felt fine (well, sort of), but the closer we got to the top, the harder it was to breathe!  So, I had to "stop and take a photo".  It was my excuse to take a little break, but also to really capture some of the vegetation -- aren't these little succulents darling?  I wanted to scoop them up and put them in my pocket.  But I didn't. 

Zia went exploring...
Heidi started dancing.
Whatever it takes to get up this thing.

After a quick bathroom break (yep, Heidi and I went there) and an adorable photo-op, it was time to scramble our way up to the top of those boulders!  It got real.

Summit photos tomorrow... oh, the anticipation.