Spring time in Utah

Lucas loves swinging

 Spring is here in full effect and I am loving the warmer weather. I can't wait to get out and get hiking. But for now, the little time that I have, I am spending with Mary and Lucas. We have been hanging out a lot outside at her parents house cuz Lucas loves to explore.

First time on a horse

A couple Sundays ago, I took Mary and Lucas to Alpine to introduce them to my mom. I stuck Lucas on Chase. His smile says it all :)

"Oh, hey there neighbor"

bed time kisses

A boy and his dog

Why must kids put everything in their mouths? ha ha. He had a heck of a time trying to get the water out of this hose. He could see it, and hear it when he shook it, but could never get it up to his mouth when he tipped it up.

We have started a little tradition of putting him to bed together. Last night he was feeling extra snuggly before going down. His mama is such a good mom.

Love her.

Happy Valentines Day

This Valentines Day came a little early this year. I have to ref a play-in in Juab tomorrow, on the 14th of Feb, so I will be unavailable for fun Valentines Day activities. So I celebrated a day early. This is the beginning of the cake that Mary and I made for her son's first birthday party, which is also, coincidentally, Valentines Day.

Who is Mary you might ask? Well at work the other day, a cute blonde pushing an adorable baby boy came in. I was impressed by her looks, and was curious. She spent a little time in the store checking out some outfits, and was on her way out the door, when I had to stop her. I wanted a little more time with this one. So I suggested a hoodie that I really liked, and thought would look great with her blonde hair. She really liked it too, luckily (phew!) and bought the hoodie, and left. I was happy she ended up with my favorite girls hoodie, but wondered if I'd ever see her again.

Luckily, about a week and a half later, she came strolling and rolling her son into the store. I wasn't going to let her get away this time :) After talking her into trying on a few cute

shirts and jeans, I really wanted to ask her out. But I didn't feel it very professional to do at work. So I awkwardly avoided more conversation. Cuz all I could think about was asking her out, and I couldn't think of anything else clever to say, or clothes to suggest. She ended up buying a shirt I had suggested, but I went back to doing some duties at the front of the store while a co-worker rang her purchase in. And as she started heading for the door, she passed me....... And I finally blurted something out. Don't even remember what I said, but I got her number somehow, by some miracle, and tonight was our first date.







We went out for sushi for dinner. I am not a huge fan of raw things, and have always been a little wary of sushi. But I've always wanted to give it a fair shot. And Mary really likes sushi, so we gave it a go. It was really good, and we had great conversation. She is really enjoyable to be around and has beautiful eyes, and a great smile.

After dinner, we went back to her house and made a birthday cake for her son's first birthday. This picture on the left is her and her dog Baxter. He is a little sweetheart.








And here is the finished product :)
I think little Lucas will really like the cake, and learn how fun birthdays can be.

Well I'm back......

It's been a little while since I've blogged. Not because I haven't wanted to, I've just lacked motivation. Then I watched the latest episode of Parenthood today, and learned that the beautiful thing about each one of our decisions in life, is that it writes a story. Sometimes when we make a choice, we don't realize that it will affect us for the rest of our lives. Some decisions are small and insignificant, but others have long reaching effects. I want to be more conscious of the decisions I make, and write my story, so that 20 years down the road, I am happy with what I have written. And blog posting is a great way to record every day events, and think about the story that I am writing each and every day. And a big thank you to my cousin Rachel, for making me make a resolution to write this year. So here's to you Rachel, and writing and recording my story.

Shadows of Resemblance

The Spearhead!! (as cool as it sounds)

There are so many peaks in Colorado, and I would love to bag them all. But there are just so many hours in a day, and so many days in a week, and very few of them do I have off. So until I find a way to make a living while summitting mountains, I have to be picky. While browsing through a list of peaks in Colorado, one name particularly jumped out at me. It wasn't the tallest, heck, it wasn't even a 14'er, of which I said I wouldn't even waste my time on anything under 14,000', but there was just something about this peak that caught my attention. It was called "The Spearhead". My curiosity got the best of me, and I looked into it's stats. Standing at 12,575' above sea level, it's height isn't it's most impressive feature. But the fact that it's shaped like the head of a spear, and it's perched in the middle of this massive glacial couloir, surrounded by 4 massive peaks, 3 being over 13,500' and the fourth a whopping 14,200', it could have easily been called "The Throne".

And one would certainly feel like a king to reach it's summit. It's northeast face is a giant, flat faced triangle with a vertical height of 900+ feet. The spine of rock that connects it to the surrounding wall of mountains is made up of house-sized boulders, that look like giants are about to have a game of Jenga. And the summit is nothing more than a precariously stacked 20-foot high pile of rocks, like a dainty angel on top of a Christmas tree.

The total hike is 13 miles roundtrip, from the Bear Lake trailhead, and sifts through one of the most beautiful glacial valleys I have ever seen.

By far one of the most beautiful places I have yet visited. Top 3 coolest hikes I have ever done. And now if I could just figure out how to make a living doing what I love.

Kings Peak!!

Well I'm not quite sure if my brain is unscrambled yet, and least not enough to write a comprehensible post about this mammoth hike. Uncle Fred, Dave McConnell and I headed out Sunday night to conquer the "top of the world!!" Well Utah's world anyway. Kings Peak is the 7th highest state highpoint at 13,528'. We had foolishly decided to tackle the lengthy monster in one day, despite numerous witnesses to "NOT ATTEMPT KINGS IN ONE DAY". But Grandpa Teichert had done it at the age of 82, so why couldn't a couple spry 50+'ers and a lightweight 29 year old. The total mileage was 27.5 miles. We covered that distance in 13 hours. We gained some 4000+ of elevation. And by the end, none of us could remember being in worse pain. We came, we saw, we deliriously conquered.

More Colorado exploring

I drove to Laramie, Wyoming on Tuesday morning, for a referee camp at the University of Wyoming. Being new to Colorado, I needed to go to this camp, in order to be seen by the big dogs of basketball in Colorado. It went really well, and I made most of the necessary connections that I needed to. On the way home, I had a couple extra hours, and decided to venture out into the Colorado wilderness. I took a scenic route that led me to the right place at the right time.