Tales of the Ordinary Days

October 2009 - October 2019 Garrett and I just wrapped an amazing 9 day road trip through Oregon, focusing our travels on the southwestern region of the state. By our calculations (which was basically a combo of loose memory and verification through my flipping through iPhone pictures), this was our sixth annual fall trip together. We started this tradition with hiking the Rocky Mountain National Park in 2014, taking in the beautiful orange aspen leaves and all the great fall mountainous views. The other calculation that came to light was that it was ten years ago when Garrett and I first met. TEN YEARS. Wow. We had to recheck our math on that one too. A lot has happened in our collective lives since that fall day in 2009. By twist of fate, I followed up with Garrett, a presenter at a conference I was attending in Denver ten years ago and so it all began. This was before texting was the prevalent form of communication. I sent him an e-mail on my way out of town and we later se...

5 year anniversary dinner A day of milestones; Garrett and my 5th anniversary and more importantly, our baby pup was 10 months old today. Along with day three in Boise, much to celebrate. We started the morning with a 5:30 am wake-up call (I like to hit the snooze button at least twice while Garrett lies wide awake upon initial alarm). The pup followed my lead without a peep coming from his crate until second snooze. After I remembered it was our anniversary, we had a solid five minute debate on how many years we have been married. I finally proved without doubt by finding the "5 Year" stamp on my TimeHop app photos via iPad (never more than an arm length away from our bed). Other than a full day of work in our new digs, with great views and lots of natural sunlight pouring into our office, the extent of our adventuring centered around a dog walk and searching for a restaurant to eat dinner. Zeke and I ventured out into the crispness of the winter morning air....

Day 2 | 30 Days of Writing Sunday Funday. How about a bike ride? (Old Market sculpture in the background) I am a firm believer that fun is what you make of it. Regardless of circumstances or surroundings, it is available at our beck and call.  Wrapped with the bow of positive perspective, I have found that most fun adventures come in the most ordinary places and on the most routine days. Today was no exception. A gorgeous day by all accounts; perfect temp, low humidity, and no wind. There was enough sun to get people outdoors and smiling, but enough clouds to make the sky interesting. A perfect Sunday. We started our day with our alarm clock of a sixty-pound pup resting his head on our bed with a low pitched whine of wanting outside. We love this time of year when we wake up to the coolness of the morning from our opened windows. The love of a puppy to greet us is just frosting on the cake. After lazily enjoying my morning coffee and catching up on read...

And so I sit on our back patio, sipping hot coffee and watching golfers enjoy a beautiful morning in Denver. Amid the chaos of everyday life, I find my Outlook calendar and travel schedule has me in Colorado this weekend. It's been a month since I've spent any time outside of Nebraska, so a refreshing reprieve in all of it's mountainous glory. I have also been quickly reminded that it is my birthday weekend, with birthday hitting tomorrow. A Sunday. A weekend birthday deems it a birthday weekend. At least that's my rule. With Labor Day feeling like yesterday, I really hadn't a clue that my mid-month birthday was this soon. Wednesday night I received a text from a friend and co-worker in the midst of a work interchange. "What are you doing for your b-day this weekend? Knocking something off your bucket list?" Birthday? This weekend? With computer on my lap, I pulled up my Outlook calendar. Sure enough she was correct. Birthday on Sunday with gree...

Finish I completed one heck of a climb yesterday. I knew it was going to be a challenge for a flat lander from Nebraska. And it was. Garrett mentioned the previous night that we'd be climbing Bachelor's Gulch. Having skied this area, I had a good idea the vertical gain that was entailed; but this time without the benefit of a ski lift. The graph below depicts the climb starting with the bottom highlight on the left and ending with the highlighted "Bachelor's Gulch" on the top. I'm glad I didn't look at this visual before riding it. Some things are best left for the imagination. Following a ride from Edwards to Beaver Creek, Garrett and I joined a couple of friends for lunch in the village and then hopped on our bikes to take on the climb. The first hint of the difficulty level was the first sign marking the route. With an arrow pointing up, the words on the sign read "KOM-King of the Mountain". The enormous houses, landscaping, and view...

Robbie enjoying the concert in her "leg-warmers" It has been quite the weekend. It's felt a bit like a flashback to my college years. Concerts, packs of friends, late nights, dining after midnight....all rolled up in one weekend. There is one conclusion I have come to: What we did night after night, weekend after weekend at age twenty is much more difficult to pull off in one solo weekend at age forty-five. But I'm giving it the good-old college try. Let's start at the beginning; Friday night. After a day of work and great anticipation of our Ohio guests arriving, things didn't go quite as planned. Cindy and Rick notified us with a quick text that they would be delayed by four hours. Details would emerge later. Bummer. Friday night's crown jewel activity was an outdoor concert put on by the Doobie Brothers. And it didn't disappoint. There is nothing better on a warm summer night than to pick up a space on a grassy knoll and listen to a 70...

A little morning stroll past Memorial Stadium I was talking to Garrett on the phone Saturday night, telling him about my upcoming Sunday plans. "I'm going for a bike ride in Lincoln in the morning," I told him. "Did you run out of places to ride in Omaha?" was his response. Hmmmmm. I didn't know the answer. Why were we riding in Lincoln? Perhaps I am too eager to join the fun without asking questions. Earlier in the day, I put out a post looking for someone to ride with on Sunday. I received an invitation to join two for a ride in Lincoln. It never crossed my mind to ask, why were we going to Lincoln? All I knew was that a van was involved to transport bikes. As I pulled into my friend's driveway, I was anxious to get resolution to my question. Why Lincoln? Scott quickly apprised me of the situation. A rental car that Kerri had rented for a family vacation needed to be returned to Lincoln. So the idea was to drop off the rental van and ride o...

Me...navigating around rocks and through white water Well, I did it. I kayaked down the Arkansas. And I did it all by myself; in my solo duckie with the help of a set of connected paddles (and some great kayak companions). I will declare the name of my journey "Survival and Swimming". The great tips given to me on how not to panic and where to place my feet after a spill (not in between rocks) came in handy. More handy than I would have liked. For the record, Garrett did not push me to go faster. I am guessing that he saw the look of panic on my face throughout the day and he was good with my chosen speed. Speed on the river, I quickly learned, was more driven by the beast of the river than by me and my paddles. The skill in maneuvering around rocks and the directional challenges of paddle usage was more than I anticipated. I had never before used oars or paddles, so the technique of paddle left to go right and paddle right to go left was foreign to me. And not an...