Our friends Dylan and Ann have adopted a permanently nomadic lifestyle, and spent the last 8 months traveling around the western US. In July, they lived in Vedauwoo for the month, and we spent every weekend with them.

During the month of July, I entered into my 6th month of pregnancy, and officially grew out of my harness. My last climb was a 5.8 offwidth at 23 weeks of pregnancy.

Vedauwoo is such a special place. It is a quite grove of rocks and aspens, but sometimes the wind howls or other campers party nearby. It is criss-crossed with roads and trails, cows and climbers, but still has a wild and free feeling to it that cannot be tamed. The rock is sharp, painful and unforgiving, but offers so many opportunities for climb and play. It is a place where you meet people, meet up with friends, and meet your real self.

Mark and I were not able to take too much time off of work to spend with my family, so while we were back in Fort Collins during the week, Mom, Dad, Kev and Andrew took off for a few days in Fruita, Colorado. They then drove leisurely southeast towards Wolf Creek Pass. They stopped to camp along high mountain reservoirs, and took the tram to 11,000ft above Monarch Pass.

Due to a little mix up, we decided not to stay at the campground where we had reservations for the long holiday weekend. Instead, the fam headed west towards Pagosa Springs. We managed to score a great campsite at the base of Wolf Creek Pass (at the Bruce Spruce Ranch) for two nights, and then grabbed the last two rooms at The Springs Resort & Spa in downtown Pagosa Springs.

Our two nights at Bruce Spruce were wet and rainy, but absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend this little campground and guest ranch to anybody looking at a stay in the area.

Kevin and Andrew had a great hour long trailride through the mountains. We found some beautiful geodes in a local rockhounding site. We hiked up to a great view of Treasure Falls. And we hung out under the awning at a rainy camp, eating mom’s great dutch-oven meals and enjoying vacation.

On our last morning in the area, we met up with a local guide outfit for a morning of fly fishing lessons. While my Mom and Dad have been fly fishing for years, and I’ve grown up around fly fishermen, I’ve never actually cast a rod myself. Neither has Mark. So this morning, we went out to a local stocked pond and learned the basics of fly fishing.

It was pretty entertaining at first. Mark lost a few flies to the grass behind him. Kev and Andrew were both happy to be wearing hats every time the fly bounced off the brim. But we eventually got the hang of it, and even managed to catch a few fish that morning!

It was a really nice morning, and a great few days in the mountains.

For summer vacation this year, Mom, Dad, Kevin and Andrew drove the RV out to Colorado for two fun weeks of camping, fishing and exploring. Mark and I were able to meet up with them twice: Once at Estes Park for the weekend, and then in Pagosa Springs for the long 4th of July holiday weekend.

In Estes Park, we spent two nights camping at Mary’s Lake campground. We watched the US v. Ghana world cup game at Ed’s on Saturday, and then spent the afternoon Sunday hiking near Brainard Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

The hike from Brainard Lake up to Long Lake was a good one for us. Not too long to make the pregnant lady or flatlanders too tired, but we were treated to amazing views of the surrounding peaks the whole time. We ate lunch next to the alpine lake, and watched Liv roll around in the deep summer snow drifts.

Also, there was a Tesla in the parking area. We never figured out who it belonged to.

“Gratitude, that very specific feeling of thankfulness in your heart, allows you to see and absorb all you have, forgetting for a moment all you may lack. It connects your brain with your heart, and gives you the ground to be more giving, effective, loving human. Being grateful allows generosity to flow. And many believe it also makes us more receptive—as in, the more you love what you have, the more you get what you want.” by Valerie Reiss at BeliefNet.com

I’ve found adjusting to being pregnant a little bit difficult. While some girls seem to just love every minute of the experience, I’ve found it hard to make such drastic changes in my life. I’ve spent so much time complaining to people, that I thought I should take a minute to list out some of the fun and actually enjoyable aspects of pregnancy. They do exist!

1. Bigger boobs!
2. Eating ice cream – lots of it. (Hey, if I’m going to get fat anyway… !)
3. An excuse to take long afternoon naps.
4. Wonderful pampering from Mark.
5. Spending a little less time on work, a little more on massages.
6. A chance to feel sick so I can really appreciate feeling healthy.
7. Appreciating smaller victories (like climbing a 5.8 on toprope) instead of stressing over insane goals.
8. Learning about patience.
9. Incredible sense of smell and taste – food is a whole new adventure.
10. Making my whole family deliriously happy.
11. Feeling my baby wiggle around and imagining what kind of person he/she will be.
12. Crossing one more thing off of my “to do before I die” list (have a baby!)
13. Clear, pretty skin for the first time in years.
14. Learning about acceptance and giving up my usual attempts to white-knuckle control every aspect of my life.
15. Complements and smiles from so many people.
16. Starting out on a whole new adventure, one we’ve never attempted anything like before!

It’s been a long time since I put up a photo for a background image. My computer at work still has snow-covered pine trees! So, here’s a couple spring or summer-time offerings for your desktop pleasure.

As usual, I’ve saved the image as a few different sizes for the most common screen resolutions. Feel free to down load the one that works for you by clicking on the link to the correct size below each shot! These files can be a bit large, so be a little patient as your computer downloads them.

Blue Flax in the Morning

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Longtail and Thailand Sunset

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Yes, I know, mid-June is hardly “spring” any more, especially in places outside of Colorado. Around here, we just turned off our furnaces a couple weekends ago, and the world is green and lush! I’m sure summer will be hitting us soon, any day now.

This spring, gardening got a bit of a sideline due to morning sickness, but it was the first activity I turned to when I could get off the couch. Mark has really chipped in more than his share as well, and we’ve managed to pull together a good looking set-up this year.

Subtle Changes

Another reason I managed to pull together a garden between bouts of yaking is that I have manged to build up a good infrastructure for containers, a raised bed, and watering in the last few years. Based on my experiences from last year, though, we made a few little changes.

First of all, we wanted a tomatillo, but didn’t want it crawling all over the lawn this year. I’ve stuck it in a container hoping that will help restrain its growth slightly. We had discussed putting a tomatillo in an up-side-down grower of some sort, but Mark felt that if the plant wasn’t anchored to the earth, it might get free and run around the neighborhood, making “RAWR” noises and wearing it’s little green topsy-turvey hat.

We moved the big mountain tomato to a container as well, as I didn’t like my tomatoes hanging into the basement window-well last year. This left plenty of space for our pepper plants in the raised bed. They fit very nicely, but haven’t seemed perfectly happy this year. They got some hail damage over Memorial Day, and may be wanting more sun than that east-bed gets.

Little Successes

One of my proudest moments as a container gardener came last week when we decided to crack open the compost bin. I’ve had this homemade compost bin behind the garage for two years now. We made it out of a small black trash can, covered in holes and lined with window screens. I’ve spent two years filling it with leftover veggies from the CSA, egg shells, coffee grounds and other random greenness. And finally, it has all paid off. Under a layer of dry leaves, sat some of the prettiest, lovely dark compost I could have hoped for. I grew dirt! WOW!

We pulled about a cubic meter of the lovely dark organic matter out of there, and used it to fill in a new tomato container. Those two years of composting have now officially saved us $5 in bought soil!

If everything works out, we should be looking at a big load of crops this year. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, pumpkins, sugar and snow peas, bush and pole beans, lettuce, carrots, onions, cilantro, basil, and lavender!