Getting High~

Ah Ha! I thought maybe my title would get your attention.....For those of you reading this because you know that I promised a blog about my hike yesterday, welcome! And the few of my fun-loving tree hugger type friends who thought I randomly decided to blog about marijuana being legalized, please stay, I love you as well.

                                                  ~Mt. Elbert~

Many weeks ago, my friend Nicole decided to put together a 14'er hike. The entire summer, we talked about what mountain we wanted to climb and jockey'd back and forth about when to sneak it in (mostly because Nicole likes to take about 15 "vacations" over her summer vacations and it takes putting ourselves directly into her appointment book at the salon in order to pull her away from the business that she ADORES)
This was it.....Nic took the leap and made a reservation for us to stay at the Alps Motel in Leadville on Friday night, so that we could get an early start to our hike in the morning. As we drove into Leadville on Friday night, we wondered what this little town/itty bitty MOTEL would offer us for the night. What a pleasant surprise! Leadville is a great little place, with a ton of old buildings/homes/history  and people, not to mention our itty bitty MOTEL with no a/c but a fan in the window, that smelled JUST like my grandma and grandpa's cabin as a kid, was the best night of sleep I have had in a long while.

We got up at 5:15, packed up our stuff and headed out towards the trailhead. However, the very friendly VERY knowledgeable old man we spoke to when we checked in the night before had missed a tiny detail or two when giving us the local scoop on how to get to the trailhead and we got a little turned around. Fortunately, we did find out that the Fish Hatchery looks like a cool place to visit (when the sun is up) and will check it out next time we are in town.

The trailhead for Mt. Elbert was easy to get to with just a few bumps and pot holes and Nic navigated it like a pro. Nothing difficult like what Chris Lawrence encountered on a previous hike, but I'll save that story for my comedy blog. We realized that the mountain was going to be busy, when we were greeted by a parking attendant and barely able to snatch one of the last 3 spots available,and it's a huge lot. Come to find out, Children's Hospital was having a charity summit climb. Cool idea. LOTS of hikers of all abilities heading up in groups of 5 in a race to the summit. WE were not racing anyone........

We began our hike knowing that this was going to be a long day, because the trail is 9 miles long with about 4,100 feet of elevation gain in the first half. The first portion of the trail is wooded, as with most of the other 14'ers we've collectively climbed and we expected this. It's also a fairly steep incline through that area, which kept us thinking that we were getting a good piece of our 4,100 gain out of the way before even leaving treeline.(HA!) I remember just wanting to get out of the trees and hopefully encounter some sun and change of scenery after a couple of miles. Each time we could see the sunlight coming through the trees around the corner of the trail we'd be like "ok HERE we go" then the forest would eat up all the sunlight again and we would stomp out another 30 min or so wondering when the much needed "change of scenery" would arrive.

About 3 miles in, it happened......the forest opened up into a great view of our mountain (we thought) And I looked to Nicole and said (famous last F@#$%&* words) "Psshhhh...we GOT this"!  We stopped to fuel, hydrate and recover our lungs/heart rates a bit before the big push. Nicole had been fighting a sinus infection/illness for weeks but really wanted to knock this out. She was doing all the right things with hydration, nutrition and meds leading up to the hike and was feeling a lot better, but was feeling the burn in her lungs early on, yet she pushed forward never complaining for a second......

We took off up the steep inclines of mostly rock/dirt, the whole while watching the peak and the size of the people we could (or could not) make out WAY up there, seemingly making their final ascent to summit. Because, I mean really, we had already completed 3 miles of our 4.5 mile ascent.....how bad could it BE? We met and spoke with a ton of super friendly hikers along the way.....in hindsight it should have been a little odd to us that not one of them spoke of climbing this mountain before. It really felt like we were all doing it for the first time. We found ourselves taking 50 steps at time then stopping to recover for a few seconds, which seemed to be a common theme as we leap frogged back and forth with many of the same people all the way up to about mile 4 (ish) which seemed to take a lifetime. During the steepest portions of the first big push, I doubted myself within my own mind, probably hundreds of times.....I even found myself praying for rain and lightning so that we could quickly descend this monstrosity of a mountain before certain death. Alas....clouds, but no lightning, so we continued on.

Nicole and I kept in close contact with each other the entire time about how we were feeling and any changes in our physical ability to move forward. Many times Nicole would respond with "my lungs are burning, but keep going".....it was around that 4th mile that I checked in with her and asked "how ya doing, Nic?" and she responded "I'm feeling some dizziness". We stopped and rested for a bit and her color seemed to get a little better, so we thought if we go slow and break frequently, her lungs will be able to recover in between our chunks of what were now 20 steps at a time, and she could still make it to the summit. Which she wanted so badly!

The trail then got incredibly steep. And when we stopped to rest I looked over at Nicole her color was not great.....Knowing in my mind that her lungs where not going to carry her any closer to the top of this mountain (but damn straight her heart and mind would.....at any cost) I just asked "what do you wanna do Nic?", she simply stated "I am going to stay here and you are going to finish it". What a great friend she is..... I had a lump in my throat already, because I knew how badly she wanted to make this climb, but I headed onto the trail.

I headed up what I thought was the approach to the "final push" which took me around the side of the mountain (the one I THOUGHT was my peak) on a narrow path which made me feel thankful that Nicole was not putting herself at risk by trying it while feeling crazy dizzy, only to realize that behind that mountain was another....and THAT was my peak. At this point I was feeling poorly myself, trying to rush so that Nicole would not be waiting for 2 hours on a rock for me to return, and a bit of an emotional wreck. I kept it together as my fellow hikers (descending.....I know this because they were happy....I mean REALLY happy) would pass by, they would offer words of encouragement and I would smile and say thank you so much, and after they had passed by, tears would stream down my face. To say that I doubted myself hundreds of times during this hike would be an understatement. The kindness of absolute strangers overwhelmed me and it was a pay it forward kind of moment as I promised myself to give that same energy to others when was I fortunate enough to summit and ascend this beast of a mountain.

I made it to the "real" final ascent by working hump to hump, paying no attention to the summit and just working the ground in front of me. When I took my first steps to the long narrow summit, (compared to other summits I have done, this one was kind of a knife edge....very narrow and long with a flag of sorts at the far end) the first flat ground I had seen in what seemed like 5 hours, I smiled (cried a little) and worked my way through the couple dozen elated hikers who were taking their most awesome crazy summit pics. I so wished that Nicole was there with me. It was stunning.....and literally felt like being on top of the world. Part of its stunning visuals where the black clouds building around us, which made it feel heavy and SO quiet. Within about 5 minutes of summiting, I am listening to the hikers around me talking about the weather, and realizing that everyone is getting to the descent as quickly as possible to avoid the looming storm. My love affair with the summit was cut short by my absolute fear of being struck by lightning, and I hit the trail again, in search of my best friend.

When I reached Nicole, she was smiling and ready to high five me in support of my effort to finish it up.....I cannot even tell you what a good feeling it is to have a friend who is this fantastic. I bypassed the high five, hugged her and told her how much I wanted her with me and how much it hurt doing it alone and most of all thanks for waiting. I needed to see her smiling face and felt such relief to be reunited on that trail. She was feeling better and so excited for me.

We spent the next number of hours getting off the mountain together, feeling more and more respect for Mt. Elbert as we left......a LONG difficult day, and one I'll not easily forget. For those of you ultra fit folks out there, I envy what you seemingly achieve so easily and with grace....There was nothing graceful about this day, in fact it was kind of a train wreck but now that I have recovered a bit I am so proud of what we both did in moments that were an absolute test of who we are...........

Mt. Elbert ~ Colorado's Highest Peak ~ 14,433~ Aug. 24, 2013             

Tongue In The Wind......

This is not a blog for the weak of heart......either take the opportunity to change blogs now, or grab a tissue and settle in.  The feelings that I am about to blog about are pretty painful, but I have decided in the last week that I HAVE to do it, so that in a year, two, three, I can look back and realize just how far things have come in my life, beginning at "semi" rock bottom. (for me)

Christmas ~ 2011

                 In the weeks leading up to Winter Break, I tried to prepare myself for the idea that my children would not only be gone for a week over break, but that I would spend CHRISTMAS without the loves of my life....no goofy things to blog about, no singing from the bathroom, no someone in my bed, no kisses goodnight, no fighting. (yes, I miss that too) Those of you who have known me for a long time, and even some who have just become a part of my crazy life, know that Christmas has always been my time to shine. I have adored this holiday my entire life and every year wanted to do nothing more than gather all of our friends and family, be together, laugh and enjoy life.

          When Christmas 2010 came along,  I was just a few months into what has become a long and painful divorce. Needless to say, it was not a good year financially either and the holiday brought with it a heavy heart......emotionally it was a very different Christmas than I had EVER known in my life, and at that time I remember thinking "next year my love for Christmas will be back....it'll all be better".

           After about a week of break this year, it was time to start thinking about sending my girls off with their dad, and I felt the sadness and pain building. I smiled and laughed as often as possible, but still felt like this was yet again another Christmas that I did not recognize under all the layers of "crap" covering my joy. In the days leading up to the exchange, was informed that my recently "ex" husband has a 10 month old son in Bolivia. Math has never been my strongest subject, but unfortunately, even I could figure that one out. Pain, more pain, anger (by the truckloads) and sadness. I spent the last two days with my daughters, before spending Christmas ALONE telling my children how excited I was for them to have a new baby brother, as they showed his (very cute) picture to everyone they passed. I smiled. I hugged them and told them I was happy for them. I cried angry tears....alot. And then they left.

           Transition happened on Christmas Eve. I spent the next 2 hours after dropping them off driving the town, looking at Christmas lights (through gallons of tears) and trying to get my sadness out of my system, so that I might recover on Christmas Day. I had SO many family members and good friends try to convince me to spend the holiday with their families, but didn't think that my "Christmas 2011" attitude would be good for anyone's spirit, so I went it alone. It turned out ok, and I found out that time for reflection may be an especially useful tool coming into the new year, and new challenges.  I can honestly say that Christmas Eve 2011 was an all time low for me....I can also say that I will never underestimate the hearts ability to strengthen (physically and otherwise) and there is HOPE for my 2012 Christmas. My deep love for this time of year is still in there, of this I am certain.
        I spent my New Years Eve with friends, feeling blessed to have what I have, knowing that it could be SOOOO much worse, and that this too shall pass.

       While driving up to the mountains last week to hike with some friends and our dogs, I witnessed their awesome yellow lab named Sampson sticking his head out the back window of their car......The mountains were the backdrop and the sun was shining.With his ears flapping, tongue hangin' out in the wind, and almost a visible smile on his face, Sampson, I believe had found a few short seconds of pure happiness. It's what I long for.

How bout a little lemon juice?

Ok, so not all of my posts are going to be funny, I guess.
Had a great start to my day yesterday with an almost 4 mile run, followed by a wonderful Children's Program at a friends church where my children were given a couple of amazing gifts by someone in the congregation. Our blessings are abundant this year, even with as difficult as this holiday season feels, you simply cannot look past how wonderfully kind people can be. (even to people they don't know)
 I know that I have always joked about the amount of hormones flowing through my household, but there are days that it is more obvious than others. In hind sight, I think that the girls and myself all felt a little "off" this particular morning as we were getting ready for church. My patience was definitely running a little short, and the girls were fighting with eachother alot....it just didn't feel good.
We went to church and watched a great children's play, and sang our hearts out to some Christmas carols, followed by candy and gifts being handed out. I thought to myself "This will turn our day around". By the time we were beginning to exit the church, the fighting and hurt feelings had begun again. Hmmmmm....
After we got home, we settled in a little and then I offered for us to take a bike ride to the store to get our ingredients for turkey soup. On our ride, the girls were still super sensitive and Natalie was just upset about EVERYTHING...going fast, going slow, being so far behind, wanting to be first. etc. etc. etc. I know my friends who are now parents know what I'm talking about.
When we get home from our bike ride, I decide to slow down this emotional day by having everyone curl up and read for an hour. They all have had favorite books lately that have been keeping them totally enthralled, and in Natalie's case, her chapter book about a cat named Dewey has recently had her laughing almost to tears. It's a true story about a cat who was found in the book drop at the library in a small town when it was a kitten and how it became the library mascot. Well, after about 30 minutes of reading I am astonished to find Nat SOBBING over her book. I cuddle up beside her to ask her what's the matter and through her tears she says "they put Dewey to sleep".  Sweet Jesus! What next?!
At this point consoling my daughter who was mourning as though she had lost her own pet almost brought ME to tears. What a crazy day, good and bad, happy and sad, if I hadn't been able to sneak in a couple of runs for sanity, I might have needed a straight jacket and padded room. LOL
Anyway, the moral of the story is..........there's beauty to be found in imperfection and tomorrow is always a new day. Thank GOODNESS!  ;)

 

Cool Running

As most people in my life are aware of, I have begun to "dabble" in running this year. It is not something that I claim to be any good at, but I have found so much joy in running with friends and feeling that sense of being a "part of something". Kind of tough to explain how that actually feels.

I recently heard that my friend/mentor/inspiration David Clark was putting together a family friendly 5k in support of the Superman Project. Dave's passion for this particular cause is so inspiring, that I thought it would be fun to check it out and say "Hi" while getting  in a fun first 5K experience with my daughters.

Having already had such a fun weekend doing some great Christmas activities with friends and family, I knew that if we were going to run even a 5K, we would need to get to bed early last night in preparation. However, when we went to bed early last night, all that the girls (and myself) had eaten while out at X-mas parades and parties was some seven layer dip, and cake. Although pleasantly  full, the "proper fuel" chapter of what I was supposed to be teaching my daughters was right out the window.  
When Camryn awoke this morning with a giant "kink" in her neck, I thought for sure that we would never get out the door. As we woke up a little more, I talked to her about the option of just having her stay back with grandma for this one, just in case we got there and she still couldn't move her neck. She declined......and I quote "My friend keeps bragging to everyone about being in the Parade of Lights, so I HAVE to run a 5K today!" (spoken through tears, because her neck was hurting so badly) LOL Atta girl. :)
So off we went with our hot pack on Camryn's neck, in hopes of working it out some before the run! When we got there and realized that this was going to be a super small event, I felt the girls anxiety about it drop by about fifty percent. Perfect!

The course was pretty easy except for some icy/snowy patches in the first block or so. McKenna says to me just as we are about to begin, "So, this is a REAL race?"  I responded with yes, without realizing that as soon as Dave gave us the thumbs up to go, McKenna was going to take off like a SHOT and try to keep up with some of the adult runners in the bunch who were out front. I stayed back with the twins and prayed that she would pace herself sooner than later. And she did, but not without feeling like her legs were hurting pretty badly. We talked about all of these things on the way down to the race, but I think that she just couldn't stand to have anyone in front of her. LOL NOW she understands a little better, I'm sure.

I just tried to float back and forth between where McKenna was and where the twins were running together. They all did great. For the last half of the 5K, I mostly stayed with Mckenna, because she had fallen behind enough that I didn't want to leave her by herself. (the difficult part about running with 3 of them at the same time) Before I fell back to stay with Mckenna, I reminded the twins to stay together and try to stay in front of the people behind them, as well as make sure that Mckenna and I didn't catch them. It was so fun to watch them running together and listening to eachother when one of them would tire and want to slow down. The girls seem to fight with eachother so much lately, that it really was heartwarming to see them working as a cute little team!  Mckenna and I stayed together for the next stretch, and I could tell that she was frustrated about not feeling like she was doing well. I tried to keep talking her into running more when she could (especially on the down hill slopes) and walking less, but she was complaining of her knee hurting, so I wasn't sure how much to push her, and I didn't want her to walk away hating to run.....so SLOWLY we went.  As the twins approached the finish I was able to catch up with them so we could run in together, and then run back to where Mckenna was walking and convince her to finish running as well. All in all it was a fun experience for all of us, and the girls are super proud to have done their first 5K, even with their individual struggles.(Camryn's "kinky" neck as she called it on the way home, McKenna's knee, and Natalie seemed to struggle with her breathing more than the other two) I hope that someday this becomes something that we ALL enjoy immensely and with any luck,we'll be doing Half Marathons and Adventure Races for our fun family outtings!! Fingers crossed......... ;)

~ Days To Remember ~

 To all of my faithful blog "followers" .....I think I am up to 4 now. :) This one could be a little long, so I apologize in advance for my longwindedness.
       My life in the last couple of years has taken so many turns, twists, ups, downs that I feel a little like a test monkey for NASA, but in the grand scheme of things, it ALL makes me who I am as a person, and of that I am proud.
       Thirteen months ago, I began my travels down the path of divorce.....while it is not something I am proud of, it has changed my life and the way I view myself FOREVER. I am a firm believer of the fact that everything in life happens for a reason, and have chosen to embrace that theory and move forward with my life in a way that makes me feel proud, and gives my daughters an example of how to really LIVE, how to love and be loved, and find happiness in our short time here on this earth. I only pray that in the most difficult time of my life, I have still been able to keep my head up and guide my daughters while exhibiting something that at least resembles grace.
      The woman I used to look at in the mirror that made me feel sadness and and an overwhelming sensation of being lost, has become someone whom I honestly do not recognize........I have found what it feels like to have lifelong relationships, build confidence in myself, find an absolute love for being outdoors, climb MOUNTAINS (for real), laugh until my face hurts more frequently than ever in my life, smile at perfect strangers knowing how wonderful it feels to feel that from another human being.....I could go on for days.
      As most of you know, (mostly because I never stop talking about it) I have found an absolute passion for kickboxing in the last couple of years. This has been the very CORE of my weightloss and changing of my mentality on so many levels. I am not sure that I can completely put into words just how the people (instructors and kickboxers alike) of my kickboxing group have absolutely changed my life. I have built such beautiful friendships with all of them, and can't imagine my life without each and every one. Today, was a special day.....I had the opportunity to test with my fellow kickboxers for my Brown Belt in kickboxing. For those of you who don't know, I absolutely freak out at the word TEST and still find it very difficult to be on display during things that are physically and emotionally difficult for me, and today was a big dose of both!
I go into these situations uneasy, and doubting myself and my abilities EVERY time only to be faced with so much love and support that I feel like I could MOVE mountains. I achieved Brown Belt status today, surrounded by people whom I love cheering and giving unbelievable amounts of support. ( must break for tears....hold please)  If I am able to return just a portion of the love and energy that I felt today to the people around me, then I will be so happy!!  In all of this, It is tough for me to put into words how much gratitude I have for Chris Lawrence and Ashley Bradley for being so supportive no matter what portion of my journey I am moving through......you make me want to strive for greatness and are such amazing examples of beautiful people (inside and out).

Thanks to everyone there today..... I can't wait for the next adventure! xoxo     Erika

What IS a "facial" anyways?....no, really.

            When my good friend Nicole gave me a gift certificate for my birthday in September to go to her salon (Inspire/AVEDA) and have a "facial", I was so thankful, yet clearly not well versed in the world of "facials". Until this morning, my idea of what a facial was, made me think of my mom's Mary Kay business when I was a kid, where there is washing, scrubbing, cleansing and moisturizing of the FACE, after which they always covered their faces with MORE toxic make-up and went on their merry way.
            I have to admit that when Nicole gave me a 90 MINUTE "facial" for my birthday, I was thinking to myself, "WOW, Nicole must think that my face looks like HELL", because she obviously thought it would take an hour and a HALF to somehow try to save my face. Anyways, as I enter the awesome little cave of AVEDA wonders, I meet Kayla, a super cute/sweet 20 something blonde who will be saving my face today. After we got inside, Kayla requested I remove my CLOTHES and put on a little wrap.....which threw me off, but who was I to resist? Clearly the avenues to fixing up one's FACE were not as clearly marked as I had imagined.....but I decided to roll with it.
              When I was "wrapped",warm and comfy under the blankets, Kayla returned, at which point she asked me, because this was my first time, whether I wanted the play by play of what she was doing, or just to relax in silence. I of course responded with "nah, I'll just relax and you can tell me what happened afterward." 
Let the relaxation BEGIN........................
I soon found myself in TOTAL relaxation mode ,which I am not completely certain wether to consider awake or asleep, and the following is what I  experienced. (or at least what I REMEMBER experiencing)
During this 90 minutes, I went through aroma therapy, application of multiple AVEDA products (of which I am CERTAIN will make it to where at my next facial, Kayla will only need 30 min. MAX to save my face) massaging of my face, chest, neck, hands/forearms, feet/legs and head, not to mention the brushing of my hair, which in itself if wonderfully relaxing. I experienced cycles of hot things, cold things, steam and a few funny sensory things that made me think "hmmmm, how does she DO that?"  I DID find out that once I got past the idea of someone massaging my chest (chest...not breasts....men) it was SO relaxing that, after my weekly workouts/kickkboxing, I could envision going and getting an entire massage of nothing but this area, and walk out feeling GREAT! There were times during this experience that I was so relaxed that when I tried to think about my extremities, had no idea if they were even on this planet anymore, let alone attached to my body. When all else was said and done, I sat up and stretched while Kayla massaged my back with some kind of magic AVEDA oil, I assume just so it didn't feel left out from the luxury that the rest of  me just enjoyed.
Ahhhhhhhh.............. there must be a better name for this than "facial", as I clearly had no IDEA how serious AVEDA (and Kayla) are about bringing in the "total body" experience!
             After arriving home, I was talking with my mom and Jenny (my sis-in-law) about how wonderful this was, when my mom asked "Did she use a little laser thingy on your face?" to which I responded " Honestly, I have NO IDEA....I was so relaxed that they could have snuck in a colonoscopy, and I wouldn't have noticed." LOL
All joking aside, this was a WONDERFUL experience and I can't wait for the next time I am fortunate enough to be pampered at Inspire! (Santa, I pray you are listening!)         Erika :)