Phoenix and Boulder

Hi friends - hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!  What is new with you? 

From our side...

A few weeks ago, Evan's sister got married!  They had a wedding in Phoenix, Arizona in a courtyard with lighted palm trees.  The groom and bride had big smiles on their faces and seemed very happy together. 

We flew down with Evan's grandmother, and had fun talking to her while waiting for the plane.  It was the first time she had flown in decades, and the new security measures that came into place after 9/11/2011 were new to her.

The following Friday was a presentation at my work.  Our office does a "bagel meeting" once a month, where they buy bagels for all employees, and one team presents their work.  This month was our turn to present.  Usually, not too many people show up since the meeting is in one of the farther, less-populated office buildings.  Or people come for the free bagel and leave. 

This morning, someone had called in a bomb threat to the office, so they had evacuated the other buildings and told everyone to go to this one.  So everyone in the entire office came to hear our talk.  Was nervous but it went well.  I even (somewhat successfully) made a joke which a few people laughed at.

Thanksgiving Break was great - four day weekends are always incredibly nice.  

Evan and I ran a small race Thanksgiving morning.  Evan ran it very fast.  I ran it slow, but ran the whole way.  I actually took a minute longer running slowly the whole way than I did last year, running most of the way and walking some.  So, this is evidence that slow and steady does not necessarily win the race.

Evan's parents usually host a Thanksgiving dinner for family, but this year they were understandably exhausted from wedding planning, so it was at Evan's aunt's place.  It was fun to see family, some videos from the wedding, and eat some tasty food.

My parents threw my sister-in-law and me a birthday dinner the next day - so we stuffed ourselves more on tasty food. 

Went climbing with a friend on Saturday at Bihedral in Boulder Canyon. 

I was feeling foolishly over-confident, so attempted to lead the first route.  The first bolt is about thirty feet off the ground, but the climb up to it looked very easy.  I say it "looked" easy,  because about 10 feet up, I got nervous and didn't feel comfortable climbing up any higher.  I couldn't easily come down either so I panicked and felt very foolish. 

The other climbs were fun though.  My climbing partner kindly lead both of them.  There is a short, steep and fun hike to get to these two routes.  They are in a corner and are protected from the gusty wind.  The view is amazing, of the surrounding mountains, canyon and creek.  The sky was so blue and vast. 

The quickest way to get down from these routes is to rappel down half way, clip into a new set of bolts, and rappel down the rest.  This was one of the funnest parts.  On the second set of bolts, someone was already waiting there to rappel, and kindly offered us to use their same rope. 

When I got back home, Evan was out playing tennis with his dad, so I took a nice hot shower, wrapped up in a blanket from Evan's mom and dad, some warm slippers from my brother and his wife, and drank some nice hot herbal tea from my mom and dad.  Happy to get to use the kind gifts that they all gave us.  Watched a beautiful sunset - a glowing pink sky peaking out from behind a the lovely, black branches of a large tree.

One thing I really wanted to do for my birthday was bike to downtown and hang out there.  One of our good friends offered to come along, but then found that their bike tires had punctured.  Also found that the clamp that holds my bike seat in place is broken.  So, we just walked around instead. 

It is nice to have the company of these good friends who are always so willing to hang out on a moment's notice and try out new things.

We are lucky to have so many kind family and friends to spend time with and enjoy the company of!