We have a contract

We will soon be surburbians! Craig and I started house hunting at the end of May. We really wanted to live downtown but housing is a bit pricey in Denver. So we moved our search to suburbia and found a house close to where we live now. And today we got our contract!! We’ve attached some photos. Warning: We bought a WIP(work in progress). An example would be that there is no plumbing at the moment. Apparently, someone discovered that the house was empty and took all the copper piping. However, the house has a lot of potential and we’re pretty exited! So while we can’t be urban Denverites we will be suburbians with a mountain view(the back porch has a great view of the mountains).

Here’s the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/2explorers.com/7541MeadeWay?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX8zKGKj6HTpQE&feat=directlink#

 

Catching up

We’ve been slackers on our blog and I, Sara,  take full responsibility for this!  But now we’re back and here’s some highlights from the last few months:

Sara's work trip to las vegas

Craig and his flask

Craig’s dad’s visit to Denver

Sara's first skiing trip

Craig's bad ass car after a trip!

Our first backpacking trip in Colorado

At Katy's wedding reception

 

My Dad’s Crazy Adventure

Mt. Aconcagua

I must admit, I’m pretty proud of my Dad right now. About a year ago he started planning a trip to Mt. Aconcagua (in Argentina), the highest mountain outside Asia. At 22,841 feet, it’s a killer of a mountain. For comparison, the highest peak in the continental US is Mt. Whitney at 14,505 (we did that a few years ago as a family). While some may minimize Aconcagua since it’s not technical, the real threat is altitude sickness. Man was not created to survive at such elevations and after a certain point (I forget what height that is) you slowly start to die. But with some acclimatizing, your body will increase the production of red blood cells, allowing for short visits at such elevations. My dad has been training very hard for this trip, working out every day, taking small training trips to the smokey mountains and southern ohio with a 70lb pack just to hike up and down “hills”. Hopefully all that work will pay off in the next couple weeks. He is on the mountain right now, and will be for the next 12 days. Over the next week they will move back and forth between base camp and two other camps moving equipment and allowing their bodies to acclimatize. On day 9 they are scheduled to make a summit attempt, with 2 extra days as backups in case of bad weather. He is with his brother (my uncle) and 10 other people along with a couple of guides. None of the 10 other men or women are from the US and ages range from 33-69…how cool is that!

Any who know my Cousin Ben will understand who is responsible for their carrying a small device that transmits information to family and friends via satellite. They press a button and it sends an e-mail to us with GPS coordinates and a googlemap. It’s really pretty cool. If you are interested in tracking their progress, here is the link. You’ll have to zoom into Argentina to see their progress on the mountain.

I’m definitely a bit jealous of Dad’s adventure and all the super cool new gear he brought for the trip, I think subconsciously that’s why Sara and I hiked The Twin Sisters yesterday in Rocky Mountain National Park. It wouldn’t have been all so bad if there wasn’t snow on the ground and I was in better shape! The wind at the top was incredible! We had a hard time standing without getting blown over by gusts of wind! It’s encouraging that we can still hike in the winter, I wouldn’t have thought that before moving here.

Sara atop twin #1

Our water bottles got frozen over!

[caption id="attachment_187" align="aligncenter" width="509" caption="Sunset on the hike down"][/caption]

 

The bus

I’ve become a fan of public transportation. My company pays for my RTD pass which basically means any public transportation is free for me. Unfortunately the lightrail has not been built up north. However, I drive 3 miles to a park-n-ride and take a bus that goes straight downtown and drops me off 3 blocks from my building. I was nervous at first from my one and only experience on a bus in London: my good friends, Erin and Ashlee, and I assumed that the double decker bus(that i’ve always wanted to ride) would take us right back to the train station…instead we ended up where they park the buses at night and the driver didn’t see us because we of course were on the top level of the bus. It was a scary experience as it was our first day in Europe and being on a bus. Fortunately, we escaped from the bus, had a great trip and now have a funny story to tell.

After some help I attempted the bus and love it! I feel like i’m in Kindergarten again. Everyone quietly gets in a single file line and waits for the bus. When the bus comes we all quietly file on the bus and fill the seats. If there is an elderly lady left standing, some man always gets out of his seat and offers it to her. The bus drivers are interesting too. I have a favorite. Everyday he’s so friendly and nice and says “have a nice day!” and I do feel like i’m going to have a good day after hearing him say that. At first while riding I would people watch. Most people read or listen to music but there are a few who talk and have some pretty interesting conversations. It was fascinating.

However, my people watching days have ended now that i’ve rediscovered one of my most favorite things….reading books. I’ve noticed lately that it seems that people are quieter on the bus, but i’m not sure if that’s true or i’m completely absorbed in reading. I think it might be the latter because sometimes when i’m almost to my bus stop, i’ll realize someone is sitting next to me and i don’t remember ever seeing them sit down.

I had a small stack of books to read by I’m almost to the end of the stack and am need of new material. I’ve mostly read Grisham and am a bit bored reading about murder trials. The book i’m reading now is called A Thousand Splendid Suns and it’s amazing. It’s tragic but soooo good! However, I’m almost done with this book and would love any book or author recommendations. My only request is that it be fiction or as Craig calls it “Sara’s trashy fiction”. I own up to not liking nonfiction unless reading it in a group setting. But i don’t feel guilty anymore now that I heard Eugene Peterson say that a good novel is just as important if not more than some theology/self help book(well it’s not an exact quote but close):> If anyone has any recommendations of any kind please send them my way.

 

Column ‘o Hyundai

It was negative 7 out this morning when I woke. Sara was up an hour or so earlier when it was like -200 or something with the windchill, thankfully she didn’t freeze in place on the walk back from the gym. These conditions somehow created a geological wonder on the back of my car…stalactites and two columns. I couldn’t remember what it was called when a stalagmite and a stalactite joined, so I had to look it up. To my disappointment it’s just called a column…this blog post would have been so much better with a title like “stalamit-a-tite”.

Unlike the first couple snowfalls here in Denver, the temperature is supposed to stay below 60 this week…so it looks like the snow is here to stay. I must apologize, when we lived in cincinnati I was appalled with small-talk topics like the weather…why couldn’t people be a bit more authentic and talk about something interesting? I wonder if my new fascination with the weather offers any insight into this new life in Denver? Have I really become that shallow? (Brad-insert cleaver insult here).