Mt. Sneffels

One of the best things about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro was saying it: Kilimanjaro. The name is so full of mystery and adventure and romance...

Mt. Sneffels? Not so much!

But it is truly stunning. One month ago today we headed out on the girls' fifteenth 14er via the Blue Lakes ridge because, according to my Nicolas, the normal route is too boring. We were rewarded for that choice by surprising some gorgeous bighorn sheep who were spying on the crowded rock gully where everyone else was. 

The ridge vs. the loose rock route in the foreground

Both humans and sheep were thinking, "Whoa! Where'd you come from?"

Cozy

Nice hair, Papa.

A little blowy on the col

My friend Atsushi - the one unfortunate enough to have been in the Landy with me when I rolled it in Namibia - bought me these boots 20 years ago. They're still my favourites.

Post-climb we headed to Ouray where we met up with the Grands for a wonderful evening
 before the following day's swim meet.

Yellow cap in the closest lane is Acacia doing the butterfly.

The girls have been asking if we're actually going to go anywhere interesting this summer... Hmmm...

Fiery Skies

If a picture paints a thousand words, I wonder if those painted by the following pictures would include:

"Mom, put down the camera!"

"Really Mom? Ten shots?"

"Okay Kim, you can sit down now."

But it was so beautiful!

The only thing on fire was the sky itself. Perfect!

    

Fire

My first childhood memory is of my mother on fire. She was cooking dinner for her large family when the pan suddenly burst into flames. She raced outside to toss the pan into the winter garden, but when she did the flames jumped to her arms, melting the flesh as she rolled in the snow.

Fire freaks me out. Not candles or matches or campfires  - actually, my family singing around a campfire is one of my favourite memories. I mean fires that course with a ferocity matched only by Mother Nature's other temper tantrums: hurricanes... tsunamis... tornadoes...

When I saw footage of the Waldo Canyon fire cresting a mountain and tearing into a Colorado Springs neighborhood a few days ago, it made my arms tingle.

This is my friend's cousin's neighborhood, and the home at the bottom right was his.

Colorado is burning. Eight large fires peppered the state at the same time, including one in nearby Mancos that left my keyboard covered in ashes, the view hazy and the air thick. Dry lightening one evening sparked 120 new blazes, most of which were immediately put out except for Lightner Creek, where my friends stood hosing down their new house.

Meanwhile, over on the east coast, Tropical Storm Debby was drowning Florida and violent storms pummeled the Mid-Atlantic.

Madness, I tell you!

But even Mother Nature wants to look pretty when she's pissed off, and she used the smoke to paint some fabulous sunsets. Beauty in everything, right?

Shock & Awe

For Cayenne's 11th birthday, Acacia and I decided to redecorate her room and add a desk, as my goal this year was to help her feel like the middle-schooler she almost is.

Ten hours later Acacia was asleep on her feet, encouraging me not to go to bed before we replaced the doors on Cayenne's and my bedrooms. She was a rock star. The desk would not leave the master bedroom without removing the door, to which the scratches in said door will attest. Whoops.

Was it only ten hours? Felt like more. Turns out our episode of Extreme Makeover was actually one from Hoarders. 

Nightmare.

During Operation Shock & Awe, which lasted until midnight, I was annoyed, exasperated and deeply disappointed. I seriously worried about how I was going to present this gift with a glad heart. But the pure joy in my not-so-little-anymore girl when she saw her new grown-up room was magnificent. 

The new desk is in the left-hand corner just out of the photo. This was taken at midnight! Acacia could barely lift her arms after helping me move all that solid oak furniture - Nick's set from when he was a boy.

Today we went bowling, tucked into the triple chocolate cake Acacia and I baked yesterday and enjoyed dinner at the Grandparents' place by their pond.

It's so hot and dry right now - the Four Corners is surrounded by wildfires -
I felt as though just walking outside with these little flames was going to ignite the actual air!

This is the moment she realized her grandparents had given her
her first computer, for middle school.

See? He really is just a lap dog.
Satcho reveled in the a/c chez les grandparents...

Cayenne was so happy today. So so happy. It almost made me forget the visions I'd had of running away to a grass hut on the beach, my only belonging a sarong, my only decision what curry to have for dinner.... But this wasn't about me. It was about giving Cayenne a leg-up into this next phase of her evolving self, and using the state of her room as a lesson in respect.

Taken on a recent hike with her Papa.

Happy Birthday, my Pearl. The world is your oyster!


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   Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!!

Summer!

What: A summer sunset family party
Why: To celebrate summer
When: Friday June 8th, 5pm - ?
Includes: Music, dinner, dessert and a beautiful sunset
Dress: Summery

Our latest invitation into Cayenne's World. She cooked dinner, laid out a blanket and we enjoyed our supper sitting on the grass overlooking the mountains. Bliss.

Less blissy was the growing fire we were witnessing climbing up those mountains. We'd been tracking it for about an hour by the time we sat down, and were watching helicopters dump 95 gallon buckets of water over it. It's the 10th anniversary of Durango's Missionary Ridge fire - an inferno that consumed 72,962 acres - so the town takes these things seriously. Our firemen were on it like ants at a picnic.



View from dinner


The triangle is water pouring out of the bucket


Actually, the fire raging near Fort Collins right now started on June 9th, same as Missionary Ridge. That one was started by lightening - or rather, by Mother Nature rejuvenating herself. Normally I would say let it burn itself out, but when it's so close to people, it's scary stuff.

Speaking of which, we are heading out at the crack-o-dawn to climb the first 14er of the season, so I'd better go pack up and then pack it in.

But I'll be back!

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Happy Birthday Ilona!

Congratulations to my wonderful friend Ann Cobb who became a Grandmother today. WooHoo!

Beaten by the Train...

Holy smokes! That was my nuttiest Iron Horse yet. It kicked off with a major pile-up near Michel and Ilona's house - at least a dozen bikes went crashing to the ground sending five people to the hospital.

Then just before Needles, a huge bear came bounding out of the woods, lumbered across the road right through the race and into the forest on the other side. If I hadn't stopped to fix my fallen-off chain, I would've missed the bear, so thank you crappy chain! Good thing I wasn't really racing or I would've been bummed about the lost couple of minutes I spent chasing my water bottle. I'd had a sip at the top of a hill and went to replace the bottle before speeding downhill and missed the holder. It went rolling off, but stopped before I did and I had to run uphill to get it. So much for gravity.

I suppose it allowed the blood to re-inhabit my legs for a few minutes. By the time I got to Coal Bank Pass (10,640ft) my lower extremities were so starved for circulation, I nearly fell over from light-headedness after getting off my bike.

Then things got exciting again. See that little dip in between Coal Bank and Molas Passes? There's a hairpin turn right before it starts going up and the wind loves that corner, but last Saturday was especially windy and I saw a couple of people get knocked over. Tourists! Actually, it was all I could do to keep my bike going too - thought I was rolling backwards at one point. But at least I was prepared for the blast when it came. Local knowledge helps occasionally.

Doesn't it all sound fun?

And then coming off Molas Pass, where my friends Julie and Tim called in our drink orders to the local rum distillery, two cops on motorcycles collided head on. More ambulances. That happened just behind me which was lucky because they closed the race for a half hour.

Rolled into Silverton to thousands of cheering people. Felt like Moses parting the Red Sea.

Cardamom-infused cocktails were waiting, I ran into friends at every turn, and the chili and company at the annual bike party at my friends Kim & Mike's house hit the spot.

But I'm thinking the best part still had to be the bear...

Landings

So when I want to know if Nick is going to be home for dinner, for example, I go to FlightAware.com which tells you what's going on with all flights in the nation. It's pretty cool, actually. It'll either say how many minutes until landing or "landed." But today when I went to check, it said "tentatively landed." Huh? FlightAware needs to know that in this family, that is not okay!!

But all's well that lands well, and we thought we might get a quiet few hours this evening, as the girls were heading to a boys-against-girls Capture the Flag event. Thing is the boys got there first and by the time the girls started arriving, one of the lads had climbed to the roof of an under-construction part of the house and fallen through a sky light (no glass). His landing was not tentative. Ruptured his spleen.

Instead, I've been gathering my gear: helmet, warm gloves, summer gloves, toe warmers, bike shoes, windbreaker... Because tomorrow morning is the Iron Horse Classic. WooHoo!

Not looking forward to riding over the passes, but love the feeling of flying down them!