Big Friday!

OK! We're moving! We are going to move to Boulder at the end of April. We have a nice little apartment waiting for us in Boulder May 1st. We signed the lease a couple of weeks ago, when Brendan got a job offer with Pridemark. He is still waiting on 2 more deals, with Denver Paramedics and West Metro Fire Dpt, and will pick if he can. For me, I was still waiting for an official job offer. I just got "the" HR call on Friday, and was offered a full time night position in the ER at Denver Health (which is the new name for Denver General Hospital)... a busy trauma level I hospital, and I am A-BSO-LU-TELY psyched!! I am very happy to be able to leave Grand Junction and St Mary's Hospital. I am bummed to leave the nurses I worked with, because they are the ones who helped me get started in nursing, and all of them were great and fun people, but I need change. The commute and time I spend away from Brendan were getting heavy on both of us, and there is no reason for us to keep it that way if we have other options... so we're trying something else :P It'll be a pretty big change again, but we both really want it, so it should be fun! My commute will be significantly shorter and they are paying nurses much better in Denver, so that will be nice! In Denver Brendan should be able to get some good paramedic experience, which he is very ready for. We are totally looking forward to working in Denver and hope that Brendan can get a job with Denver Paramedics, as they operate out of Denver Health ER... :))))) We'll find out at the end of the month.

I get a week off now, and I am going to meet up with my Mom In Salt Lake City on Monday morning, and we're headed for Zion and Bryce National parks, on board of a little RV! Brendan will meet us halfway through the week. We'll take pictures... Then I get 2 more weeks at St Mary's, and then we'll be moving! We'll keep you posted, it is all going to come very quick!
-Chloe

Joe's Valley

Well, as usual, we got snowed out of Joe's! We don't quite have the weather figured out for this place yet ;) We met up with Steve and Natasha from SF though, and that was well worth being snowed out! We got 2 days of climbing in, a freezing day, and a nice one, and then the storm chased us out. Here are a few pics from Joe's.
We were bundled up most of the time, and didn't take many pictures, but here are a few. It was so windy the gas station sign blew off. And I kicked Brendan's butt at his favorite "pre-K game"... he can't win quite yet :P

Stevo is working hard, and because it was so freaking cold, it hurts bad when you fall off sharp little holds on a V10!

We have a whole lot of things to do to get ready for action in May. We'll keep you guys posted, but we started packing already, and we're super psyched for change! xoxo

-Chloe :)

Spring is in the air...

Yes, the snow is melting away, the sun is shinning, and the rock is warming up! After one of the biggest overnight snow dumps in Colorado last week, and carving up some some good deep snow (while my mom was in town), we switched over to the rock. Chloe twisted/sprained her knee at the end of last week in some of the deep stuff that was turning heavy and slushy with the warm bluebird weather at the end of the day. So, Chloe took a few days off of work, rested up some, and did some knee rehab on the good rock walls of Rifle Mountain Park. The climbing was great, some really warm moments and some cooler ones, but so nice to have the canyon to ourselves with no one else there. There is still a fair amount seepage and a lot of wet rock, but conditions are a million times better than this time last year. Chloe had to go easy on the routes because of her knee, but she still managed to pull down. It was nice to get back on some high stuff and work on getting back into route shape, after a winter of almost exclusively bouldering. We feel like we have good power, but just need to work on getting the endurance back. Now that were all sore and achy everywhere from all the climbing, looks like we're going to hit up the hot springs tonight and sooth the muscles :)

Skiing in Aspen with Janis!

Hey guys! We had Janis over in Glenwood for 3 days. First day we hit the Hot Springs, first night it dumped 20 inches overnight... so we skied the rest of her stay!! What else better to do??? We went to Sunlight for a couple, and then headed over to yuppy country, and skied the Aspen slopes for a day. Here are pics from Aspen. Thanks for making the trip over here Janis!!!! :)))))))

Fefe came to Glenwood!

We went snowshoeing at Sunlight... and decided to have some snow angel action in the pristine Colorado powder! Brendan did camera duty for the stars ;)
And yes, we still have the snowshoes on!

Chloe climbing the Pearl (V4/5) in Vegas

Just barely stuck that first move!

Vegas

We made it back home yesterday from our little trip out to Vegas. We had a good time climbing in the warm sun in the Nevada desert for three days. We climbed long and hard on Sunday and Monday, leaving our skin worn thin and our muscles weary. So the third day we ventured to a different climbing area known as the Black Velvet Canyon where a little more of an approach hike was involved. Unfortunately, due to some bad directions, we hiked around for about two and a half hours before we finally found the right area. The setting was little different, among the cacti and desert brush, making the geography look a lot like Mexico. We saw a large group of bighorn sheep roaming around, which was kind of cool. I finished the day off with a sketchy send and top out of a fairly intimidating boulder problem called the Fountainhead (V9). But luckily with all our pads and Chloe spotting, I had just enough confidence and energy left to accomplish the final mantel at the top. We went and checked out Wetdream (V12) just up the canyon after my send, just to see what it was like. It's a really amazing looking steep line put up by Ethan Pringle back in '05 (I think). I'll definitely have to return fresh for that one! I'm back at WECAD today and Chloe's doing the nurse thing, so we'll play some more in a few days.
Cheers.
-Brendan