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.

New England

My June schedule has been very consistent. I have had every Tuesday and Wednesday off. So I've taken advantage of the days off to see some of the parts of the country that I have always wanted to explore, and continue my goal of reaching the top of every state. I started Monday off in Bismarck, North Dakota, as the last overnight of my 4-day work trip. And was the flight attendant for the first flight of the day back to Denver. I got into Denver at 7:10 am and was excited to get an early jump on my New England vacation. And right when I got into Denver, I got a call from SkyWest Crew Support, asking me to do a "turn" to Santa Barbara. So instead of getting off of work, and starting my vacation early, I would now be flying until 6 pm that day. A little hitch in the plans. My friend, Deanna, that was also going to be heading there with me, got called out to fly as well, and wasn't going to be able to fly til after 9 pm. So we booked ourselves for the 11 pm red eye to Boston, putting us there at 5 am on Tuesday.

We rented a car, and headed out to northwest Massachusetts. The plan was to take I-90 towards Adams. Our first turn out of the airport, led us onto a toll bridge. The troll in the booth informed us that this toll we were paying was just for the underground tunnel. Sure enough, as soon as we got to the other side, more tolls. And we learned that we would be charged the entire way if we stayed on the freeway. So we got off, and took the backroads, severely putting us behind schedule. But we saw Fenway Park off the freeway, and also some beautiful scenery and homes.

We reached Mount Greylock, the highpoint of Massachusetts, by 9 am. It was beautiful! A very large hill according to East Coast standards, with small towns surrounding it. And the day was perfect. Small wispy clouds with blue skies all around. And trees everywhere!

Then we headed south towards Connecticut. The state highpoint of Connecticut is only one of three state highpoints that are not actual summits. It is on the side of Mt. Washington. But since the border of Connecticut and Massachusetts runs along the side of Mt. Washington, and there is no higher summit in all of Connecticut, the highest point in the state is on the Southwest shoulder of this Massachusetts mountain. It was a healthy 2 mile climb to this highpoint. By far the most difficult highpoint I've done to this point, but that's because I haven't done any of the Western states yet.

Then we headed across Connecticut towards Rhode Island. Connecticut was beautiful, in it's backwoods, but as soon as we started to come to the city of Hartford, it became more and more ghetto, until it became one of the dirtiest, and nastiest towns I have ever seen. I don't see any reason to ever go to Hartford, CT, and now I really don't ever wanna go there again. We crossed over the border into Rhode Island, and Jerimoth Hill is just across the border. It is a tiny hill and Rhode Island doesn't even celebrate the significance of this highpoint. Just a tiny concrete stump and a USGS marker. A lot like the uncelebrated highpoint of Mississippi. But I agree with them, there isn't much to celebrate there.

Then we headed into downtown Boston, to try to catch a Red Sox game, but we were just a little late, and there was no place to park. So we'll have to go back to Boston someday for a Red Sox game. And next time, I won't rent a car. The public transportation system downtown is fairly good, and everything is relatively close. Boston is one of my new favorite cities though. There is a huge brazilian influence there, and it feels so safe.