High Altitude Autumn Free Fall Training

Snowmass Hot Air Balloon Festival

Sam enjoyed the hot air balloons so much that he excitedly yelled "POP" the whole time . . . so we had to have a talk about not sending "bad vibes" or "negative energy" to others.

Vasque Golden Leaf Half Marathon

Becky and I, together with my sister Megan from Salt Lake City, ran the beautiful Golden Leaf Half Marathon yesterday. The course is a trail that runs through the mountains from Snowmass to Aspen. The trail was rough, but the leaves were AMAZING. Unfortunately though, I did NOT win.

So failure . . . I guess.

Autumn

The time to hang from trees in the woods

College Football Saturday

. . . much to Becky's chagrin.

gloves, headlamp, and a bear bell

Now that the cold autumn mornings have arrived, it is dark as night at 5:30 AM when we go out to train for the Vasque Golden Leaf Half Marathon. It's an interesting feeling; knowing there are bears lurking in the trees as you run. And then the sun comes up and along the trail you see fresh bear "shat" (rhymes with scat, and means the same thing). But with gloves, a headlamp, and a bear bell, all is well.

UPDATE: This morning (Friday 9/12/2008), I returned from a beautifully rainy early morning run, and at the bottom of the driveway was a bear with her cub. I clapped to shooo them away. The cub ran away, but the mother just stared at me. So I backed up while clapping at her. She just stared. Nothing like a "stare-down" from a black bear to wake you up in the morning.

Summer Slipping By

In the last few weeks, summer has been a whirlwind of travel. We skipped over to Salt Lake City for Labor Day, where we had so much fun that we only took this one photo of Sam enjoying the yogurt. Before that, Sam and Becky spent a few days in Chicago with Little Lou. Now, the mornings are colder, and summer is slipping away. Autumn is on its way.