on moose alert...

it's a tough job, fortunately they're both highly qualified. crazy how time flies - caz is already bigger than pella! yup my little girl is growing up so fast! caz is definitely the most excited about dea's whole dialysis thing - it means lots of dogsitting for us :) 

Colorado

had a great, but ridiculously quick, trip last week to a conference in Estes Park, Colorado. it snowed every day i was there and was much colder than here at home! not suprising though seeing how we were staying at ~9000 ft. the conference was interesting, but not really my thing. i loved the ponderosa pine habitat and seeing all the elk wondering around on the streets, but the weather wasn't very inspiring for taking photos... 

coolest fans ever...

i may not have had the fastest time of the day but i certainly had the best fans ever. kristen and caroline crewed for me all day - following me around with water and food, and caroline paced me a lot on bike/running. stacia and tawna set up this makeshift aid station around mile 19. they had all the essentials - gu, water, good tunes, a beach towel.. it certainly rivaled the aid station at mile 22 which had a live band, beer, and donuts. the equinox may be one of the hardest marathons in the country but the fans make it worth it!

 

equinox marathon

we did it!!

 

Fall

gorgeous fall weekend here - hard frost at night, mid sixties in the day, peak colors...

caz
porter supervising stac picking cranberries...
how many dogs can you fit in the back of my little car? 

Denali bike trip

I met up with anne thomas and we biked the denali park road this weekend - a 91 mile, one lane dirt road, over several mtn passes through the park... we totally lucked out with the weather. it's been a really wet summer, the mountain hasn't been seen in weeks, but we got spoiled with 2 days of incredible views...

we had many lunch/nap spots like this...
90 miles with a loaded bike is a lot of quality time - i don't think i've had this much time with anne since we played around in the desert while in college together more than 10 years ago - crazy! it was just an incredible weekend all around... 

waking up to a killer view of denali....
anne showing off her biking expertise off-roading with the bob trailer...  

more denali biking pics...