weekend with dre!

one of my closest friends from yellowstone came to visit a few weekends ago, so all the colorado yellowstoners got together and made our annual ruckus.

now that i'm fully recovered from that weekend, i can put pictures up.

dre, me, and pants at late-night happy hour sushi on thursday night.

a crappy picture, but we all look so cute, i had to put it up.

my awesome iphone panorama of the sun setting over

downtown denver from pants' and brian's sweet terrace.

an obligatory visit to the coors factory. this is my...8th time?

pauly wogs being, well...wogs on the way to the rockies game.

rockies vs. detroit tigers. we were the only tigers fan in a sea of rockies fans.

needless to say, we were not popular...

me and dre. that joy is real, people. you can't fake that.

a classic dre-wogs moment.

pretty sure pauly did/said something stupid, and dre reacted.

mig

favorite photos of myself from iceland.

can i go back there now?

after 2 full days of grey and overcast skies, the sun finally came out around 6pm on the 3rd day.

everyone was ready to pack it in after a full day of laps, but the

sun rejuvenated all of us, and we skied for another few hours. this was one of the

best moments of my life (also, this photo is not posed). plus i loved those la sportiva skis.

this is the picture that makes me feel like an absolute badass. i'm the one a little bit in the

front farthest away from the camera. on the last full day of touring we had to wade through

the mouth of the river a few times to get to where the zodiac could pick us up. so cool.

i'm the second one coming up the mountain. this was taken on the day

when we skied up from one fjord all the way down to the water in another

fjord. there are very few places in this world where you can ski right

down to the water, so this was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

apparently everyone thought this look was hilarious, but it kept me warm, so i didn't care!

heading out of camp on the first day. absolutely loved those

scarpa gea boots that i tested the whole time. the bright green color didn't hurt. :)

this was my get-up for the 5 days in the backcountry. the westcomb jacket and native sunglasses

pretty much never left my body the whole winter and spring in boulder and iceland.

yes, laura, i did semi-retire my old white sunglasses, but i replaced them with this pair,

which you'll notice are still pretty white and pretty large.

camping.

nature really does heal all wounds. i was feeling down and out and lonely and sad at the end of last week as evidenced by my blog post....

then i went camping in some of my favorite mountains in colorado with two of my friends and my lizzie dog. we camped and ate good food and hiked and bonded. it was great. i came out a happier and healthier person. i need to remember the outdoors as my fix and my savior in situations where i can't get out of my own head.

words can't do it justice, so here are some photos instead (all taken with my new iphone!):

my partners in crime:

lily having way too much fun pumping water.

dave looking like a rock star.

lizzles looking skittish and nervous (as always). she managed to butt-down run back and forth on the snow and had the time of her life the whole hike. she's definitely a snow dog.

pumping water. i remember being so happy at this moment. a nice rushing creek, sun on my back, long hike done, two good friends, fresh cold water, a warm hearty meal we would soon cook, and cold beers we would soon drink. a moment to end all moments. i remember thinking to myself, you need to store this moment in your brain and remember it whenever you're not happy. this will make you happy. it's worked so far.

nice sunset on a random mountain on the drive in.

mt. princeton

the creek where we filtered, surrounded by a green meadow.

lizzie and i on the ride back. we were both tuckered.

sunset over a lake on the drive down friday night.

as of late.

too tired...

too sad...

too overwhelmed...

too much to blog.

training

i have some big plans in the works that will require superb physical conditioning, that includes endurance, strength, power, balance, and excellent cardiovascular health. having been sidelined because of a back injury for the past 3+ months, i'm just now cleared to hike and bike,

so it's go time.

i plan on developing a relatively regimented three-month workout routine that will get me into kick-ass shape. it will be a lot of hiking and stairmaster, but i've always liked those things anyway. i've done this a few times with injuries and periods of laziness: gotten out of it for a while only to come back with a vengeance, so i'm used to this sort of 3 months on-3 months off training. my mindset is incredibly positive, and i can't wait to start seeing results.

5 points to whoever can name the peaks below.

oh fish all.

it's official. i'm 25.

is this what a quarter-life crisis is supposed to feel like?