Friday, July 17, 2009

Staying active

One thing is for sure, living in Boulder it is easy to be active. The past 10 days have been full of activity:

Monday = climbing
Tuesday = ultimate league
Wednesday = swimming
Thursday = climbing
Friday = rest...yay!
Saturday/Sunday = Frisbee tournament
Monday = rest...thank goodness
Tuesday = ultimate league
Wednesday = climbing

Its nice to be able to stay this active. I am very excited for all the things this place has to offer for the coming year. I just met with my friend Jen and we have book clubs, game nights planned, as well as learning to tele ski together, go climbing regularly in the gym and outside, and joining bike/tri club which means more swimming also. Yikes. Seems i might just be busy!

As for the rest of the summer:

Leaving for Indianapolis this friday to celebrate Nate's sister Kristie's 30th birthday with the whole family...fun to be had!!!!

Then i am finally heading east to see Annie, Ellie, and Jay. I am beyond excited for this. I miss them so much. YAY!

Then maybe some climbing in Jackson (yay LB and Jules...hopefully we will be there).

And work training starts on the 12th.

Ahhh...i cant believe summer is almost over. No fun ;)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

KapakaHI!

Its been hard upkeeping this blog. I don't know why but its seems summer my post frequency goes way down.

So the big highlight of my week was the UPA Masters Women's National Championship (age 30 and above) here in denver. It was AWESOME. I played with a bunch of Hawaii ladies that i know from playing Kaimana and Hopu on Oahu. KapakaHI is our team name and we plan on sticking to this for the next year too :)

I had played with some of them but some i had only watched before. It was so great to finally play with some of these ladies. Very exciting. We played so well together and had fun and kept our spirits high even though we lost our first 3 games. Some games were super close, others we just got crushed. On sunday we came back with power and beat both teams very well. It was so fun to play with a team that had so many strong players on it. I loved it.


I probably had my best layout yet. For the first time i truly launched myself into the air and landed clean. It was such a great feeling. I am beyond sore now but it was all worth it!

In the end we won the tourney spirit award which was so so so nice. Its always so great to take that trophy home, knowing we represented the islands with beauty and spirit.
This was partially due to our ability to boatrace every single team, including the men and the band, and beat them easily. Ahhh...hawaii wahine drinkers. HA! Our finale was challenging the men champions during the award ceremony in front of the whole crowd and beating them too! Yeah, nuff said.

I miss the ladies already! So so sweet to have a little bit of hawaii here with me. :)

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Summer Road Trip 2009

I can't believe its been almost a month since i wrote on this blog. This maybe one of my longest absences yet. Weird. It's almost hard to start up again. Where to start you know.

We are back from out 3 weeks road trip through Cali, Nevada, and Utah. It was sweet. Lots of climbing, lots of new places, awesome company, and some crazy skiing.


Here is a rough outline of the trip:

1. Drive to Bishop, CA with a stop in Ibex, NV...the drive was pleasant especially with the walkie talkies we had. So much fun. Super Trooper (us) and the Rubber Duckie (matt & nora) had way to much fun on those things with all that trucker lingo.

2. Bouldering the Happy Boulders in Bishop...after stealing a free night at the local weirdo campground we started the trip off with some bouldering outside of town. I don't much care for bouldering, you know, climbing 5.10+ 15+ feet off the ground unroped isn't really my idea of fun. There is my ankle to worry about and well lets just say the rest of my body...haha...so i took to photographing the gang as they send the V-whatnots.

3. Climbing at Pine Creek Canyon...sweet free camping back in the valley under huge walls. That was awesome. The rock was nice and the climbs mysterious and fun. We all led our first climb, some strange 5.8/9 bolted thing back in the canyon. Good to be back climbing that's for sure. Then we tried our hands on a 2 pitch 5.9 that got us all freaked out and before we knew it we bailed...haha. So much for strong start. But did find a couple more 10's that made for good climbing.

4. Climbing hard at Owen's River Gorge...sweet sweet place to climb...a nice canyon you hike into and then there is fun cragging to be had. I led 4 awesome climbs (5.7-5.9) and had a blast. The rock was interesting and slippery but the moves very nice. We spent a fun day down there before the nation wide rain caught up.

5. Driving to Lover's Leap, South Lake Tahoe...what an amazing place. You essentially camp right under the huge wall called Lover's Leap. The rock is fantastic. The first day we explored, did a few climbs on the Hog's Back, and then hid out from thunderstorms before doing a couple more climbs (surrealistic pillar and the groove). The next couple of days is was time for multipitches. I was a bit freaked at first, the height, the climbing, just getting back into the systems etc but it was fun. We climbed a wicked route called haystack, 4 pitches, clean fun. We also finally took showers at the local strawberry lodge which was more than needed!

6. Mt. Shasta, CA...and then came time for the big climb up shasta and the big ski down. I'd been nervous about this the whole time. Almost dreading it. The elevation after coming fresh off the boat (i.e. sealevel), the skiing since i had only skied 3 times in the past year, and the big hike...yes...out of shape. We hiked in a couple of miles the night before with skis and boots on our backs. Set up camp in the snow below the behemoth.
At 3am it was time to rally and we skinned up towards the summit. It was fun and not that hard. It looked like bad weather may keep us from summitting but the sky and clouds did some crazy stuff that day, all cool and safe. Up to 13,000 feet i was doing great! Then we started straight up the snow slope, with these huge steps, steep, and hard and that's when it all hit me. I was so tired and seriously didn't think i could keep on going. I can hardly explain it but it hurt. All over and especially my lungs. Thanks to Nate who essentially pushed me up to the summit, i made it. Happy and delirious i stood above 14,000ft with a stunning sky and view. But all my lil brain could think about was that scary ski descent. Yeah! Steep icy start. And i was on tele skis and yet i dont tele. So i am doing sloppy alpine turns down this crazy mountain mass. And then, because that wasn't hard enough yet, the clouds move in and we have zero visibility. ZERO. Me and nate sitting on the slope staring into nothing but WHITE. We slowly slid down the mountain in between cloud breaks until we opened up into the blue sky and a huge snow field with luscious snow and sweet turns to be had. That now was my favorite part!!!
Until i was about a 100 yards from the tent and after falling on my ass out of weakness i just plain ol' broke down. Sobbing. I never felt so tired and exhausted in my life. Yikes. Nothing a 1000mg of Vitamin I (biprofun) cant handle. Haha. We hiked out that night, found a local restaurant, stuffed our faces, snuck a shower at a nearby campground and then slept somewhere in the woods. Its all a haze now, i probably lost a bunch of braincells...but as matt would say: that was stupid awesome!!!

7. Driving back to Lake Tahoe...and the luckily diverted plan of climbing/skiing Mt. Lassen. I was like: no way! I could barely function, and my lungs were hurting and there they were with binos in hand staring at another mountain not a day later. Crazy people i hang out with!!! But the snow was junk and huge weather moved in which in turn had me sleeping in the car since my tent decided to totally fall apart. Sigh. So much for giving my body a good rest.

8. Bliss campground at Lake Tahoe...nice but expensive camp near good climbing right on the lake. We went for a fun run and a morning swim in the icy lake. So friggin' beautiful, i could so move here. I LOVE it! We bouldered at the middle bliss boulders and spent an afternoon climbing at a place called Mayhem. Hard 10's and one fun 9 which i led. YAY! I was tired after that especially since i had spent the previous night scared out of my mind while a bear was wrestling with the garbage container not far from our tent. Yeah...exactly.

9. Back to Lover's Leap...change of plans since we loved this place. So we skipped yosemite etc and hit up more routes the Leap. And was it ever awesome!! Corrugation corner, the Line, East crack just to name a few gems that we climbed. So So So fun! We stayed another 4 days in this beautiful place until it was time to head out.

10. Kayaking Lake Tahoe...before we headed to Utah, Nate and i took a rest day kayaking Lake Tahoe. We explored a bay called Emerald bay which was beyond beautiful! So So So pretty. What a fun day we had. So nice to do something different.

11. Drive through Nevada towards Utah...we found a blissful campground (which we also escaped free) in the middle of NV near Angel lake. It was so gorgeous. The drive itself was trying...nevada can be soooooooo boring. Good thing for crosswords, which is what Matt and i were completely addicted to the whole trip.

12. Uinta rock, Utah...our last stop was the high Uintas in northern Utah just outside of Salt Lake city. Awesome beautiful place. The first day was soooooo cold. But the rock was fantastic and i led my first 10 of the season, which was nice. Also climbed a total of 10 routes that day most above 10. My arms and hand were butter! It felt like alpine climbing, the surroundings were stunning! Snow everywhere and aspens and blue skies. Bliss.
The next day we climbed a different crag that was HOT. The mosquitos were almost unbearable but the climbing superb. After that we decided it was time to drive home.

13. Home sweet home...we drove that night to the Flaming River Gorge in Wyoming and spent a nice relaxing night there. The next day we took small roads all the way back to Boulder. Beautiful scenery all along the way.

Overall a stunning, fun, amazing trip. Loved being with our friends and loved all the new places.

Now i am back home. Alone. We had a nice few last days just kickin' it around town, running, riding bikes, climbing at the gym. I also got some bad news with regards to my work authorization...the saga don't end. But that's for another post.

Here is to summer!!!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Testing our marriage

Holy remodeling...that was quite an endeavor. Who knew?!

It ended up taken almost a whole week to do the whole thing, from deciding on the wood, the colors, the appliances and then the gluing (never again) hardwood, the painting, the ripping and reinstalling of trim, the cutting, the sawing, the sanding, cleaning, etc. We finished last night at 2am. Just kept going coz we needed to get done. And i love it. Now its all worth it.

Nate told the guy who was gonna do this for us that we decided to do it ourselves and he said: "testing your new marriage already"...haha.

Well so here are some promised pics - before and after:
























I love the red wall and the white trim and the wood floor...so so so beautiful!

I also discovered that i am so much more OCD than i had ever thought. Like the floor...oh my god the pattern...it hurt my eyes and head when we first tried to lay it out...i wanted it to match so badly. Which was totally impossible and so i just had to let it go. My poor pattern oriented brain! And then lil things like the trim and filling putty in the holes...so many holes...it had to be perfect right? Sigh! I could never do this for a living, id never be done. But i did love it too!

Here are some more of the process...

concrete floors make sooo much dust...argh

And note the first red we picked...bloody gutsy...but i just couldn't do it








The dreaded glue factor!!!

What a mess!












I love the way the floor looks...so pretty!


Sunday, June 07, 2009

Filed under never doing that again

Today was the day we finally were ready to install our hardwood floor...and oh my god...that was hard! I am exhausted, tired, hurt, and proud.

I dont know what made us think that doing it ourselves would be easy, and that GLUING the floor would totally be fine and that all those corners and edges would be no problem....HA!!!!

That glue is the bane of my existence...i hate it. Its everywhere, my hands, my arms, my butt, my hair...everywhere!!! And pushing, hammering, cutting, measuring those boards...man...what an adventure. Well we are saving money...i hum that under my breath as i work. But right about now i wish i wouldn't have to get up tomorrow and do it again. We still have to finish the entry way. Ahhhhh....and it has lots of corners.

But i learned a ton today (like that i will never glue hardwood again) about tools and wood floor and just stuff. Thats cool!

I am exciting when this is done and over with and i can have a kitchen and a living room again!!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Covered in paint

Its a quiet and late night here in Boulder. The smell of pine floating through the window. I sit amongst random pieces of furniture, a new fridge, a new range, paint buckets, cabinet doors, lots of planks of wood and lots of other random stuff.

This is what happens when you remodel your kitchen in the spur of the moment. We are putting in new wood floors, painting the walls, replaced our appliances with a generous gift from my sweet parents (THANK YOU!!!). Its all very exciting. The kitchen really is the last room in the house that really needed to be overhauled. The new fridge and range make me giddy...haha.

We decided to be bold with the colors and paint the main back wall bright red...yikes!!! its like really red. Now i am nervous. HA....but its exciting. I will post pics as soon as we are done. Right now the place is still a war zone.

We also got a really sweet deal on a nice new dining room table set. Its so nice to finally have a real table to eat off and the lanai got it furniture back...which mean breakfast on the porch. YAY!!

And when we get tired of hammering concrete, painting, building, scraping, cleaning, we got climb. Man am i out of shape. But we got to go to the gym and to dinosaur mountain in the flatirons and cragged a bit with our good friend Matt. Fun to get back into climbing.

I am so tired right now and so hungry...but the range is not really usable in the middle of the living room...sigh! Maybe cheese and apple will do the trick ;)

Sunday, May 31, 2009

On life around town...

Almost a week in Boulder now. After a tough initial couple of days i am feeling ok.
I am pretty sure that taking the WFR (wilderness first responder) recertification class helped. Being busy, meeting people always helps. And i LOVE the medical stuff...really do. Its fun, the scenarios, the information, the pics, the stories, all of it. I could see myself doing an EMT and maybe teaching this stuff some day. That be sweet. Although i would need way more outdoor experience for it, medical related that is. Maybe some day!

The 3 days course was good, 30+ people and all with interesting jobs and stories and backgrounds. Love it, and everyone of them loves the outdoors...amazing. I met the founder of a local women's outdoor organization that i love and that was sweet. My instructor is a NOLS hotshot, so that was cool, and i made some new contacts around town.

The really weird thing was that half the people in there looked exactly, i mean so so so close, to people i know or have known. It was so freaky. I mean like close friends, and if they didnt have different names i would have thought them twins. So weird.

Oh and i would bike to class every day. It only took about 20 mins and was all on bike trails that run all through boulder passing right by our place. Its perfect. And each morning i would dodge prairie dogs, bunnies, deer, and fox. Its so funny to see all these animals in the city! Its very green still and i love that. I wish it would just stay this way.

Other than that course, we had dinner twice with close friends and went to see a fun small honky tonk/bluegrass band tonight at a local joint. Oh the fun. People dancing, drinking, laughing, just good simple fun. Loved it. Missed live music thats for sure!

We have one week before we head out on our 3 week road trip skiing mountains and climbing rocks in California. I am having a hard time motivating to climb or ski. I just want to be lazy and lay on a beach and surf. Sometimes my heart aches...lil things will jump out and trigger memories and then it gets tough. I think there is part of me thats still a bit in denial, thinking this is just my usual summer get away. See how this develops.

I miss you hilo!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Loving every moment...

These last couple of weeks have been amazing. I surfed every day, saw my friends a ton, really lived to the fullest, loved every moment. I feel so happy i had this time to reflect and to focus on what and whom i love. I feel so grateful for this.

I am already incredibly sad to leave. I managed to stay fairly positive and happy interspersed by moments of panic about the whole thing. I don't quite know how to deal with this properly. On one hand i am so stoked to be with my man, but i also ache for the island and its life. I just hope that i have the strength and courage to see this through with a smile. That this is the path and to trust that it will be best in the end.

Here are some highlights of these last days:

Surfing has been amazing. Everyday i go out at 8am and mostly Phil will be there with me. We tag team with August, and if we're really lucky someone else is there and we actually get to surf together. Its all laughter, a dropping in, and teasing, and fun small yet sweet rides to shore. I even finally called people off my wave...hehe...just hollered and they backed off as i flew down the line. It totally worked. Woohoo. Also feeling really good about cross stepping and had my toes near the nose. I will miss these mellow mornings with a child's laughter, a friend's support, and crosswords :)









My beach day with Erica was perfect. Kua bay at its finest. I never tire of that place. We sat in the sun, chatted, snacked, swam, and just enjoyed our time together. Bliss. I will miss you erica!



We had a really fun Italian dinner night for me hosted by dave and bhama. It was so so so sweet. My closest friends showed and we ate some really delicious food. Wow. We watched a slide show of the past 4 years together as friends and everyone just really bonded. It meant the world to me. Thank you!











And on my last day in town we went to the Kona side for a lil fun in the sun. Katie and I tried our hands at paddle boarding. First each their own and then together which was nothing short of hilarious...who thought it be so hard to balance that thing together.

There was also random dinners, game nights, frisbee, beach bbqs, napping, and general merriment.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Nothing but sweet lovin'

Here is to my sweet and dear friends Katie and Phil!!!!
After 10 wonderful years and one hell of a beautiful baby boy, they are engaged...

I wish you both nothing but joy and happiness. You are one of those couple that i know will last forever and it makes me so excited for you. So lucky to be your friend.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A middle name

My new social security card came...so fast!
I officially have changed my name. Yippie. And that means i now have a middle name.
I never had one, but i simply moved my old name to the middle...sweet.
Its all very exciting.

Now i have to change my license, my passport, my credits cards....ahhhhh....so much more. I think this may take time.

Moving day: Monday