I'm BAAAACK

Where did I go, you ask? BOULDER, COLORADO!!! Curious as to why I've been in Boulder the last 2 weeks?

Well about 2 months ago one of my supervisors tells me off the cuff that I've been nominated/selected to go to a once a year training course in Boulder. I was honored of course but my first thought was with Lisa and the girls. How can I just leave them for 2 weeks on their own? Lisa recognized how important it would be for me to go so she assured me that it would be okay and I should go for it. We thought about taking the whole family down there but financially and logistically...we just couldn't do it. So at the last second, Lisa's Mom volunteered to come stay with Lisa and help out with the girls while I was being educated in gorgeous Boulder.

SO many stories to share...

First, as you may or may not know our good friends Ben and Lisa moved to Boulder a couple months ago. What a great opportunity to have someone close to me show me around and entertain me after 8 hours of lecture every day. What was unexpected was meeting so many cool people at the workshop. It's a workshop that's put on by the Canadians so it was mostly Canadian meteorologists, a few from Europe, and 5 from the U.S. It is truly an honor to go since this is only the 9th workshop...meaning less than 50 NWS employees have attended ever!! A real honor indeed to attend! Or as my Canadian friends say..."a real honour, eh?"

So I've been debating about how much I should share. I imagine most of you are not interested in the details of my wild 2 weeks in Boulder and are wondering how the girls are. The girls are fine. Lisa and her mom had their hands full and took plenty of pictures to prove it. I'll get back to those.

ME, on the other hand did NOT have a camera...at least one that worked. I took our old (and by old I mean 10 month old) camera and it froze up on me. I had to rely on everyone else to take pictures for me which was hard since I like to take SO many pictures. I haven't received any pics from my classmates but Lisa and Ben were nice enough to send me home with a cd from our weekend of hiking. Saturday we tackled a local hike near Boulder called Flatiron #2 via the Chautauqua Trail which was about 3 miles roundtrip. What I wasn't ready for was the elevation. As most of you may know, Boulder sits at about 5200 feet above sea level. The climb took us up to about 7100 ft. That's not enough air!!! I was breathing pretty hard the whole time but as you'll see, it was well worth it. It was a gorgeous day and an awesome hike.

I had to take lots of breaks because of the altitude. Really hard on the lungs.

View of Boulder from the top. The red buildings are the University of Colorado.
The TOP!! Lisa showing off her bouldering skills.
Me and Lisa with downtown Denver way in the background.
I didn't want to leave. It was so nice up there.
Cubby and Kiana were great off their leashes.
I like this picture of me.
Again...I stayed up there for a while. I was really content up there and didn't want to leave.

After a fun day of hiking and some relaxing at a local watering hole, it was back to the hotel to lick my wounds and get ready for Sunday. Sunday Ben and I tackled the Rocky Mountain National Park. Lisa was working the night shift so Ben and I went in the morning to do a little exploring in Estes Park and then do one of my favorite hikes up to Emerald Lake. It was again an amazing day! This hike starts at 9475 feet and goes up to 10160 feet. It wasn't nearly as strenuous as Saturday's hike but it was so beautiful. Unfortunately, Ben's camera battery died so we didn't have any pictures from the morning hike. Lisa joined us around 3pm with a backup battery. We decided to hit another relatively easy hike up to the Alberta Falls toward the Glacier Gorge. Another amazing (and relatively easy) hike. Surprisingly, my legs got more and more spring in them as the day went on. The pictures, which I won't share ALL of them, were pretty funny. Ben got a little picture-happy and took dozens of pretty hilarious snapshots of Lisa and I...only one of which I'm not quite ready to share. Alberta Falls.





AWESOME day!

Afterward, we went back to Boulder and had another fantastic evening at....I think that night was the tequila bar. It was like an upscale Mexican restaurant with an insane selection of tequilas. I'm pretty sure that was the night I headed back to the hotel a little early to do laundry and get ready for the next week of lectures.

So this doesn't even come CLOSE to sharing with you how much fun and how much I did during the last 2 weeks. Like I said before, I met some AMAZING people at the class that I will hopefully remain in contact with for a long time. I'm so sad I didn't have my camera to take more photos but hopefully people will email me soon -hint hint!. To any of you that may read this...you are AWESOME!! Thank you for hanging out with me and making me apart of your family away from home.

Thank you Ben and Lisa for sharing your life with me in your new home. WOW did I have a great time!

Baby pictures will come tomorrow.