Picnic in the park

As I'm sure you've heard in the news, we've had fantastic weather. Of course this has equated to no rain which has caused serious wildfires in the area. I'm really loving our fall so far though! Today was yet another beautiful day (75-sunny) to enjoy a picnic lunch.

We walked the girls to Subway and then to the neighborhood's main park. We remembered the girls' 40' tie-outs so they had lots more freedom. We even spent some time being kids on the jungle gym. I sure don't remember monkey bars being so difficult! HA.

We enjoyed our lunch while we watched a man train his extremely obedient lab to fetch items out of the lake and fields. The girls watched intently and hopefully picked up a tip or two. Ah, who am I kidding?! They are huskies afterall!

At one point, Dave walked beyond the girls' leash reach to throw trash out. This caused little Sequoia to get really upset. Dave had to console her upon his return. It was pretty adorable.

We walked back via the scenic route along the lakes and creek. All in all, it was a great way to spend our lunch and afternoon!

Team Jacob or Team Edward?

Dave and I finally saw the 3rd Twilight movie (Eclipse) this weekend and it was definitely very heavy on the Team Edward vs Team Jacob. Gotta say, I am still Team Edward. And the final installment better find my team winning! :)

Sorry for the lack of exciting posts these weekend. We had two date nights (dinner+movie on Friday) and dinner last night. We scattered in a bunch of home projects for which I'll post pictures of when complete. We contemplated a hike today but after finding out the Pack's first game would be televised here in CO, we couldn't pass up being lazy!

Buck Bowling

We ended our Labor Day weekend with dinner and bowling with our friends Brian and Miranda. They recently made the (becoming common) move from Sunnyvale to CO. We are very excited to have more of our CA friends out here!

Dave struggled the first few frames but rallied!

We were surprised to find out that it was dollar-mania night at the alley. We got there a bit late so we only had time for 2 games, but judging by our team score in that final game, it was probably all we needed!

Brian and Miranda

As you know, I didn't inherit my mother's talents in bowling. I'm normally very ecstatic to score above 100. Well, our friends must've been the magic ingredient as I bowled EXCEPTIONAL! I had 3 strikes and 3 spares in the first game for a 140!

Oh, and I almost forgot the best news of all regarding our friends moving here! They are currently under contract on a house in our neighborhood! We are so excited to have them close-by!

Been there, DUNE that!

We have wanted to get out to the Dunes for quite awhile, but timing of life has gotten in the way until now. I'll be honest, until I moved here, I did not know that North America's tallest dunes were in Colorado! I guess I had never really thought of CO as desert-like!

Great Sand Dunes National Park

We were actually kind of glad the timing had us going in September because I'm not sure the June-August summer heat would've allowed us to take the dogs. The highs while we were there were mid-70s and the overnight lows in the 40s [perfect camping weather!].

Not quite half-way up to High Dune

We decided to load up on water and make the trek to the top of High Dune. With a 700' climb, we figured it would be cake! What we did not account for was the lack of rain in the past weeks. This, combined with high winds, made the sand very loose and deep. Rain can help firm it up which makes it easier for hiking. It was definitely very different having your foot sink in a few inches with each step you took.

One of the many ridgelines we traversed on our way up

The hike was pretty slow going as a result, but at least the weather was not hot! We kept an eye on the sand temperature (actually, I hiked most of it barefoot) so that we knew when it was time to put the booties on the girls. About half-way up, we stopped to rest and eat our lunch. Sequoia had a blast playing with the little wiener dog that was off leash. From our lunch location, you could see a ton of dunes-goers [most of which would never make it as far as we had for lunch].

Our lunch location-- aren't the girls cute?

After lunch, we had two more major dune ridgelines to traverse before we had a more gradual climb to the top of High Dune. At this point, the girls were doing better than I!

We are almost to the top!!

From the top of High Dune, we got to enjoy 360 degree views of the Sangre De Cristos, the San Juans, and sand dunes for as far as you could see! There were several folks who had hiked to the top with snowboards, so we enjoyed watching them cruise down the dunes. The secret is apparently WD-40. Not that you'll ever get me to hike up those dunes with a snowboard in tow!

Family photo at the top of High Dune

On the way down, the girls paws got hot. Sequoia started to walk funny and would randomly sit down. After we got their booties on, they charged full-speed down the dunes. Going down was (obviously) much easier than going up. While we had to zig-zag all the way up, we took the faster, more efficient way down.... straight. It was quite fun!

Dave with the girls and their booties

Girls first camping trip!

After our time in Buena Vista, it was off to the Great Sand Dunes. Because we left a day earlier in anticipation of large holiday crowds, we were able to get nearly a first pick of all the campsites.

The girls LOVED camping!

We found a site with shade (trees), a great view of the Sangre De Cristo mountains and the Sand Dunes, and one that came with a firepit and picnic table. We got the tent assembled pretty quickly and the girls almost immediately fell asleep on their tent beds.

The view from our campsite of the Dunes

After relaxing for a bit, we headed down to the National Park to wander around. It was the girls first experience on sand, so they had a good time! We snapped some sunset photos of the dunes and the wildlife before grabbing a hot meal at a restaurant near the campgrounds.

Our campsite

Dave's big camping thing is smores. We didn't pack any of the necessary gear or supplies (woops!), so we had to stop at a convenience store. We got a good fire going (yay Dave!) and we roasted marshmallows for those oh-so-gooey-and-perfect smores. I think Dave took down half a dozen of them!

Yummmm!

Beautiful Buena Vista

Our Labor Day camping weekend started in the Pike National Forest. We drove far deeper than we had ever gone on 285 exploring areas like Santa Maria, Kenosha Pass, and Buena Vista.

Santa Maria; Pike Nat'l Forest

We've always heard from locals that we should go to Kenosha Pass in the fall and I think we just might now! The entire area is covered in Aspens and I can imagine turns beautiful gold in late September.

The dogs love car rides!

As always, the girls were great travelers. They pretty much sleep in the car until it slows down. Then they sit up, put their noses all over the windows, and try to figure out where or what we are doing. Once we get going again, they lay back down.

Kenosha Pass-- those are all aspens!

One of the highlights of our day was Buena Vista. The Collegiate Peaks were a big surprise for us. I hadn't realized there were THAT many 14'ers in that area. And the dramatic contrast of the peaks to the plains was just breathtaking. We had meals at Pizza Works and K's. The wait at K's was ridiculously long, but the ice cream more than made up for it!

Collegiate Peaks outside Buena Vista

Daddy's Little Helpers

I've always found it unfair that dogs don't have the luxury of toilet paper. And yesterday reminded me how I miss this fact, too. Sequoia had an issue with some left over doo-doo that got on our white down comforter. Luckily, I'm a magic stain getter outer (thanks Mom!) and after some sa8-magic and a load of laundry, it's looking brand new.

Girls helping dad make the bed

Dave and I always put the duvet cover on together. It's our thing. We enjoy shaking it like those parachutes you would shake in 2nd grade gym class. Sequoia thought it was quite fun to pounce on it until mom and dad out-smarted her. We would time the top of the parachute arc to coincide with her entrance on to the bed. Then boom! We'd cover her up. She had a blast. Both girls helped break in the newly cleaned comforter with dad.

Walk this way!

As Dave and I have been recovering from two weeks of passing a nasty cold back and forth to eachother, we haven't done any hiking in 2 weeks. The girls, however, don't understand mommy and daddy being sick. So we toughed it out and took them for a 3 mile walk around the open-space trails by our house.

Ok, so maybe I do need the new iPhone so I can take better pics...

We originally intended to do the "Denver loop" [this is the 4 mile route that takes you back up towards the hogback up high enough where you get a nice view of all of the metro area including the downtown skyline], but we were both just lacking energy.

On our way to Safeway

We even combined the walk with a stop at the grocery store. The girls always hate to see mom go in without them, but they are always relieved when I come out. It's like they think I might not return? So strange. Love them!

Hit me with your best shot!

My coworker Stephanie held her first annual golf tourney this morning at Littleton Golf and Tennis Club. Pretty informal, we played a 4-person scramble for 9 holes. With only one bogey and a few birdies, we shot an impressive 29.

This was enough to win by 6 strokes! I thought we all played better than we usually do, so we rarely had to take a bad shot.

Given that its been a very long time since I golfed, I was pretty happy with how I was hitting the ball. Even my short game was on par with the rest of my game!

We had a good time with everyone and look forward to winning the 2nd annual next year!

Full House

Tonight Dave hosted a bunch of our friends and coworkers for an evening of poker. He held two games: a post-dinner cash game for those who needed to get home early and a late-night tourney for the more serious players.

It was definitely a lucky night for beginners. Tim's wife won the first cash game and our new-to-CO friend from Sunnyvale, Brian, won the tourney. The usual suspects didn't even find themselves in the top 3 this time!

We had a good time hosting everyone-- it had been too long since the last game!

Third times a charm

Dave wrapped up his summer racing season today with the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half-Marathon. This is his 3rd year racing this course and he's improved every year. He felt horribly unprepared for this years race (been more focused on his swimming and biking), but he pulled off an impressive 1:33 time over the 13.2 miles. That's a 7:08/mi pace for those of you who are counting!

While it was tough getting myself up at 5 am to go watch, I always enjoy being Dave's cheerleader. The girls joined me this year as well. I think they enjoyed the 7 hours in the car with us rather than spending the equivalent in the kennel. I still think this race is a parking and traffic nightmare, but this year I was able to see him at the start, mile 2, and mile 13. I'll call it a success, even though I find it pretty pathetic that I can barely drive 12 miles on I-70 and find a parking spot before the 1st place runner has completed the entire 13 mile run.

Let's go Rockies, Let's go!

To celebrate Friday the 13th, Dave and I enjoyed our annual Rockies game with our neighbors (and awesome dogsitters), Mark and DeAnna. Game started off pretty slow, but we enjoyed each others company. Dave and I left during the 8th inning because we had to be up at 5 am for Dave's half-marathon. We left thinking the Rockies had very little chance of making a 9th inning comeback. But apparently they did and we missed an exciting 3 run homerun to win it!

Somewhere over the rainbow

...there's a pot of gold, right?

Tonight, after one of whats becoming a nearly daily 15-min evening thunderstorm, we had a beautiful double rainbow. By the time I got my camera, only one remained, but it was really neat to see both ends of these rainbows.

Where an adult can be a kid?

After a nice date-night dinner at Claim Jumper (with the exception of hearing the tragic news of the removal of the heath bar mud pie from their menu), we made a stop at Chuck E Cheese before they closed. Yes, I know it's where a kid can be a kid, but it's also where an adult can play 10-cent skeeball. What's not to love about that?

We always have a blast here! They had rearranged it and added newer games since the last time we were there, but we always find ourselves spending the most time at skeeball. Who needs an expensive place like Dave and Busters when you can hit up this place after all the kids go to bed?