Italy...

was fantastic!

We had so much fun hiking around some beautiful mountains and hanging out with Dad and Dan.  We were in the Dolomites, a range that's a part of the Alps but has different geology.  I hope I got that right.  Anyway, it was beautiful.

Getting to Italy was a mess!  If you fly EasyJet in Europe, you might want to get to the airport about 5 hours early.  Better yet, don't fly EasyJet unless you want to be super stressed on your vacation.

When we did get to Milan, we met up with Dad and Dan and jumped on a train (or two?  I should really have blogged while my memory was fresh.)  Then, we caught a bus.  We were supposed to catch a second bus, but haha it was Sunday and we had planned with the only bus schedule on-line which turned out to be the weekday schedule.  We were able to take a taxi for that last leg, so it turned out ok.

The hotel was a traditional style for the area, which is in the north of Italy.  In fact, more people speak German than Italian.  So much for the Italian/English phrase books I checked out from the library!  The food was amazing.  It was a mix of Italian,German, and local food.  There was lots and lots of pork.  Every dinner was 5 courses: salad, appetizer, pasta dish, main course, and dessert. And we aren't talking small portions.  We were very pampered.  Jules was in heaven!

The first full day we took one of the ski lift up and just hiked around a bit.  We had a plan but just ended up wondering around.  There were beautiful wildflowers everywhere.  We hiked back all the way down and that's where we encountered the most beautiful wildflowers.  There were so many different kinds,  completely blanketing the hill sides.

After the first day, we mostly did Via Ferratas, which are trails through the mountains that are hiking with some rock climbing.  The name means Iron Way and it refers to the way you clip into the mountain.  Along the trail, in any even semi-dangerous area there are steel cables, ladders or stemples (think staple) attatched to the mountain so you can clip in.  It was a lot of fun and very challenging, for me at least. Jules had to find ways to make it harder, sometimes making me incredibly nervous to put it mildly.  I think he's part mountain goat.

My sweet husband went first so he wouldn't have to wait for me, the slow poke.  Unfortunately, that means we don't have as many pictures of him.




















Dad got this one of Jules climbing up an old trail that no longer has a cable to clip into and is much more dangerous!  Jules is the crazy guy on the left.

So, that's not us in the picture, but we did climb up that way!
















Overall, it was an amazing trip with way more beautiful pictures than I can post here.  We had so much fun hanging out with Dad and Dan on the trail and at the hotel.  We're so thankful that we were able to go.

England

As summer winds down, I figured I should probably get around to blogging our Europe trip.  Well here it goes...

The plan was to fly into Heathrow then jump on a train south to close to Jess and Gerrard's, but when the airline was looking for someone to bump, we of course volunteered.  Instead of going straight to London from Chicago, we would go to Amsterdam then to London arriving only 40 mins later.  In return, we got to fly FIRST CLASS and got a $400 travel voucher with the airline!  Sweet... until the plane headed for Amsterdam spent an hour and a half on the tarmac.  We of course missed our connection and our train in London.  We've had some interesting luck with air travel lately!

We finally made it onto a train and here's where I admit my nerdiness.  All I could think about was Harry Potter.  Unfortunately the train looked nothing like in the movies, but to my great delight there was a food trolly that passed by.

But enough about the travel.

It was so nice to meet Julian's sister and her family.  They were so very welcoming and warm.  They live in this great cottage called Blue Haze Cottage.  I can't believe we didn't manage any pictures of it, but I did find it on Google Maps.  I don't know if this will work, but here's the link.

We had such a good time exploring the area.  We went down to a World Heritage Site on the coast.  Multiple layers of rock are visible in the cliffs along the English Channel, testament to the relentless progression of time through the millenia.  There were lots of school groups admiring this lovely geology while we were there.

What kind of trip to Europe would it have been without a trip to a castle?

My favorite outing was to the church fete (pronounced 'fate' for all us Americans).  Basically, a fete is a church fair that serves as a fundraiser.  Jess' family helps out each year at the fete coming up with different booths or stations or whatever you want to call them.  Jules and I got to help with this year's activities.  I helped touch up the paint on some plastic fish that were for a little kids' fishing game.  Jules got in on the big project.  In the course of one morning Gerrard, Jules, Nigel and Jeff (the two oldest boys) made this.

It was a huge hit at the fete.

The other huge hit at the fete was a type of raffle.  For a pound, you picked 5 raffle tickets out of a bingo tumbler.  If any of your numbers was a multiple of 5, then you were a winner.  You went over to a table and found the item which had the same number as yours.  Now, the great part of this raffle was that 95% of the prizes were alcohol!  I guess that's not normal, usually you have a variety of things like stuffed animals and other random things you think of as carnival prizes.  I think that the guys got a bit addicted to this game.  We ended up with oh... about... 10 bottles of alcohol ranging from wines to whiskey to cider.  Julian was the big winner of the day.  He won his very own bottle of ironing water!

Picnic on the beach!

 (the water was freaking cold - lucky we had some rubber dinghies along) 

All in all, our time in Shipton Gorge was much too short.  We had a fantastic time and would love to go visit again tomorrow if we could.

Try a Tri

So at some point in the last half year I decided to try doing a sprint distance triathlon. Since I was a kid, I have always watched the Ironman Triathlons that they show on Sunday morning t.v. Now there's no way that's going to happen ever (or at least any time soon), but I was always so impressed with these crazy people.

I did a bit of research and found that sprint, or short distance, triathlons are all over the place. There will be about 10 on the front range this summer. So, why not try a triathlon?

My goal was just to finish! I figured I would be nearly crawling across the finish line.

I'm number 354 in the background.The 1/2 mile swim turned out to be the hardest part. I kinda freaked out at the beginning and forgot that I knew how to swim. About halfway through, I managed to remember and finished strong.

17 mile bike ride

(Thank you Sarah for letting me borrow your bike!)

5k

They give a medal for finishing. The lady who was handing them out was busy chatting with someone when I finished. So even though it's super corny and I have no idea what to do with it, I stubbornly waited for her to pay attention and give me my medal.

I had flashbacks of field day growing up.

5k Pics

 
 
 
 

Sad News

Today I found out that one of my former student's dad passed away this weekend of a massive heart attack. It's hard to be in the position of his former teacher. I still love the kid very much, but I'm not his teacher anymore. His current teachers are the ones that will need to really take up the reigns and help him. So what do I do? Let him know that I'm there for him and let him know that I love him, I guess.

I am starting to feel like the angel of death though. When that group of students was in my class, my grandpa passed away. When they went to second grade, another boy's father passed away. Now this. Unless I'm mistaken, they all passed away of heart problems. Let's hope this isn't a pattern.

5k

Sarah and I ran our first official 5k today.

33 minutes... not bad.


Pics to come.

running in dress pants

First, you need to know that I'm a very forgetful person.

I often forget my socks or headphones for going to the gym after work. Today, I forgot my workout pants, but I really wanted to go on my run with Sarah. So, I pulled on my sports top and tennis shoes and went for a run in my dress pants.

The best part of the story is that earlier in the day, I noticed for the first time that the pants said "Dry Clean Only".

Oops

The Trip Continued

Day 4: We had originally planned on going to Havasu Falls, but since that required a 10 mile hike in with packs and our bodies were not yet ready for that, we went to Zion. I had never been to Zion and loved the chance to go explore another park. We hiked around in the afternoon, and then shared a camping spot a really nice couple from Canada in an RV after the campground hosts gave away our spot. In the end we really didn't mind, the couple made us coffee!

Day 5: We drove to Bryce where we were originally going to spend one night. Well, it was a good thing we changed our plans! There was a couple of feet of snow on the ground there, and a snowstorm on it's way in. We hiked around most of the afternoon, then headed for Canyonlands.

Pics of Bryce:

National Park Extravaganza: Hard Core or Not So Smart?

Months ago my friend Sarah mentioned that it would be fun to go to the Grand Canyon over spring break. I enthusiastically agreed, but like so many other ideas, never thought it would happen.

Well, I should never underestimate Sarah. She totally made it happen and we had a blast! (Unfortunately, med school doesn't give spring break to the poor 3rd years, so Jules couldn't come.)

Day 1: Driving

Days 2 &3:First, we went to the Grand Canyon. We camped just outside the park so we wouldn't have to pay for a site :) It was so cold that night that when I went to put in my contacts in the morning, they were frozen inside of little saline ice cubes. There was also a good amount of frost on the tent.

We were hoping to get a last minute pass to camp at the bottom, but no luck. So we decided to hike to the river and back in one day. Smart idea, don't you think?




Well, we did make it out alive but it took us a while and we were exhausted when we reached the top. It was definitely worth it though. The views were amazing along the trail. The bottom half of the canyon has such different geology than the top half; a different kind of beauty.






The next day we hobbled around the top of the canyon with sore legs. We spent some quiet time journaling, praying and reflecting. It was so nice to just sit in such a beautiful place and just take it all in.

My Dearest Mum

Yesterday I recieved my final birthday card from my Mum. It was postmarked February 25th, Australia (my birthday). As she always does, she filled every bit of blank space on the card with her neat, characteristic cursive. As usual, the front of the card displayed a piece of God's creation - in this case a Frangipani flower. She described the weather (dry), the extent of the honey harvest from my Dad's beehives (large), and how she and my Dad fed each other wedding cake (a first for them) at the celebration of their 46th anniversary only days before. She sent her love, always so tangible despite the distance between.

Yesterday she was gone. Within the span of less than a week she suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed into eternity early yesterday morning. Losing a loved one is never easy, but her death is an extremely difficult pill to swallow. So sudden, so unexpected.

Yet by all reports she suffered relatively little during her last days. She shared a few lucid moments with my Dad, a complete gift in light of the severity of her condition at the time. She left this earth surrounded by family and friends who loved her deeply, completely at peace and no doubt overjoyed to meet her Maker and his Son to whom she had given her life.

I could not have asked for a better mother. Her example of unconditional love for all living things is one that I will forever attempt to emulate. I thank God for her, her life, and her memory that will be with me always. What an incredible witness to the power of faith. Mum, I'll miss you.

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt his faithful mercies who through life have been my guide?

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort ere by faith in him to dwell

For I know whatever befall me Jesus doeth all things well

All of the way my Savior leads me and He cheers each winding path I tread

Gives me strenght for every trial and He feeds me with the living bread

And though my weary steps may falter and my soul a thirst may be

Gushing from a rock before me through a spirit joy I see

And all the way my Savior leads me, oh the fullness of His love

Perfect rest in me is promised in my Father's house above

When my spirit clothed immortal wings its flight to realms of day

This my song through endless ages, Jesus lead me all the way

- Rich Mullins

A BIG day

Today we bought airplane tickets. LOTS of airplane tickets.

Julain has to travel to take the USMLE CS (a big, important test) because they only have 5 centers in the country. One of those centers just happens to be Houston, where his sister Marion and her family live. I'm going to tag along on the trip and we'll spend 5 days there. It also just so happens that some mutual friends will be passing through Houston at the same time. We're so excited to get to see everyone!
2 round trip tickets

Now the rest of the tickets have a bit of a story to them.
I've been wanting to go on one of the Sierra Club trips with my dad to Italy to hike in the Dolomites for a long time now. When we went to visit my parents in New Mexico for New Years, they made us an incredible offer. They told us that they would take care of the costs of the trip if we took care of airfare. We were blown away!



We had to wait to get Julain's schedule for next year to start looking for tickets. During this process it dawned on us that we probably won't be in Europe again for a long time. Why not go visit Julian's sister Jess in England. Jules hasn't seen her in years, and I haven't met her yet.



When we first started looking, it seemed that the side trip to England from Italy would be expensive. Then, after getting some great tips from my dad, we figured out that buying round trip tickets from Denver to London, then buying round trip tickets from London to Milan was actually cheaper than buying tickets from Denver to Milan. Crazy!
So that's what we did!!
4 round trip tickets.

Total - 6 round trip tickets in one day

I think I'm in shock. A very happy shock!

A-Basin

The wife's been able to hit up the white stuff a few times this year, but until last week I had yet to do the same secondary to 3rd year schedule craziness. The fact that the Basin has had less snow than Vancouver "looks like it's summer aside from the patches of machine-made snow" lately hasn't helped things. However, I got President's Day off (hallelujah!) and there was a coincidental 2-day 8-inch A Basin snow accumulation over the preceding weekend so we took the chance to ski together for the first time this year. Remarkably, we managed to get up early enough to get a prime parking spot in view of the lifts, spent about 5-6 hours on the slopes, then got back to town ahead of the worst of the I-70 traffic. Good times.

Jeep!!

So I've wanted a jeep for years, but it was just a dream car for someday. Then Julian and I realized that if we don't buy a jeep now, we might not get another chance until we retire. Now is the time to have a car that is awesome, but might just have some troubles. Besides, my car has had problem after problem recently, but the kind that mean the car is only going to have more and more problems. If we have to do some work on a car, which would you rather work on, a Taurus wagon or a jeep? You don't even need a jack for the jeep!

a classroom conversation

I really need to write more of these conversations down, but here's a great first grade moment.
I know it's probably silly, but I changed the names of my students anyway.

Me: What continent is this? (Looking at google maps)
Sue with her hand waving frantically: ...I forgot
Me: Would you like to ask a friend for help?
Sue: Yes, May
May: um... I don't know
Me: Would you like to ask a friend for help?
May looks around at a class full of raised hands: Sue?
Sue: long pause I forgot.

Oh first grade!

Grays & Torreys

It had been two years since we did our last 14er together. That changed yesterday when we knocked off Grays and Torreys peaks. Also along for the fun were Amy's co-teacher Nicole, her husband Eric, and four other friends. We started hiking at 6:40am, arriving back at the car around 2:00pm. At 8.25 and 3600 respectively, the mileage and elevation gain weren't as impressive as some of our previous 14ers, but any time you have to summit, drop 600 feet, then summit again it carries with it a nice sense of accomplishment. It was a good thing we left as early as we did, as by the time we got to the top of Torreys an ominous looking cloud bank was moving it. We noticed some lightning on the way down, but by then we were off the more exposed parts of the route. All in all a beautiful double-whammy of a climb.

Grays summit

Our group on Grays

L-R: Sarah, Nicole, Amy, Jenny

Grays summit looking across traverse to Torreys

Torreys summit

Torreys from the descent - see cloud comment above

lesson 2

I read somewhere that Sierra Leone is considered the poorest country in the world.

Stop and think about that.

The poorest country in the world.


Then think about the US.

We have so much.

And what do we do with it? Does it make us happier, better, closer to God?

So then, what do we do with that?

Starting to Process

There's no easy way to summarize my time in Sierra Leone. The easy thing to say would be that I had a great time and the food was great. That doesn't even begin to describe my time their.

Especially in the last several years I have been a quiet, shy person that never knew quite what to do in social situations. The whole culture in Sierra Leone is very interpersonal. I think the one of the lessons I learned is that I need to work on being more relational. I don't quite know how to interact with friends much less people I have just met, but I shouldn't let that stop me.

car trouble

First of all, I'm home safe and sound. I'll write more about Sierra Leone. I need more time to arrange my thoughts on that particular topic before I write about it.

Having said that... my car...

I wanted to drive down to Cortez to visit Jules, which is a 7 hour drive from Denver. About 2 hours into the drive I stop at a gas station in Pueblo. When I'm walking back to my car I notice a ton of coolant on the ground around my car. My car has a history of overheating and I have to add coolant occasionally just because the car is a beast. I decide that it must have been from another car because my car hadn't been that hot when I pulled in and there were no other signs that I had overheated.

About 2 miles down the road, my temperature gauge is ALL the way up.

A tow and 6 hours later, it turns out I blew a hose and now I'm all patched up. Ok, I'm back on my way.

I stop at the Wallmart in Alamosa because I forgot to return a Redbox movie I have in my purse. I notice coolant dripping out of the bottom of my car. I look under the hood and a cap in the system hadn't been tightened properly, so I tighten it and add some duct tape for good measure.

Sweet reunion with the husband in Cortez.

On Saturday we decide to go visit Mesa Verde.



On the way back at an intersection at the entrance to town I hear profanities from the driver seat. We are overheating. We made it off the road. Jules starts taking my car apart with his leatherman. We're not quite sure what happened. We're tightening everything up when we hear an aweful gurgulling sound in the system. I blew another hose!

We pulled it out and walked to the parts store, got a new hose and installed it.

I hope that's the end of my car troubles for a long time.