Summer!!

Well well well... what have we been up to? Well, the weather is getting better and better and is starting to actually look like summer!! We've been going up to Rifle to climb on our days off, and it's been awesome. The canyon is a lot dryer earlier in the season than last year, meaning more holds are dry and more routes are climbable early. We've adopted a semi-regular schedule of going for a trail run the first day that I get off of work after Chloe wakes up after having worked that night before, and then drive to Rifle that evening, spend the night, climb in Rifle for the next two days, come home, get up, go for a trail run/another climb, Chloe goes to work that night, and I try to go to bed early and go to work the next morning for two days before getting another four days off and doing it all over again! It's awesome. The lifestyle is simple, yet extremely satisfying :) Work has been busy, and that's good. I love running lots of calls, always interesting and entertaining. I've been seeing Chloe at work a fair amount (dropping off patients to her), which is always fun. Not all fireman or paramedics get a kiss from the nurse as a greeting at the front door :)
Chloe is doing great, almost six months along with the pregnancy and still kicking ass. She climbs, she runs, she does yoga, and I only have to crack the whip every once in a while (just kidding). She's got a 12c lined up Rifle to send next trip: which would be quite the accomplishment at six months pregnant! It's a stiff 12c for sure! Her belly is getting bigger by the day (it seems) and the baby is really starting to move around in there (I can feel it now!). It must be smart, getting an early start on some workout action, because climbing will surely ensue shortly after delivery ;)
Our last trip to rifle got cut short by some bad weather (ie. snow and lots of rain), so we came home and climbed in Eldorado canyon the next day, which was sweet (see pics).
Well the hour is getting late, and I am once again failing on trying to get to bed early the night before work: oh well...
Enjoy the new summer weather!!!!!!
-Brendan

Mom in town

My mom came and visited us last week for a few days. It was her first time visiting us in Boulder. The weather was pretty varied. We hiked around on some trails in Boulder in warm, shorts and t-shirt, weather. The next day we hiked up in Rocky Mountain National Park on some snow and ice. Mom worked on her downhill technique (see video). To finish off her stay, we all went climbing at one of the local gyms for the last day. Mom did great, keeping up with us on the all the activities and even climbing a whole bunch!

Arizona

We went climbing in Arizona / Utah area for ten days. We met up with some friends that used to live in Golden and now live in Idaho. The weather was awesome, the climbing was fun and the company was great. I had switched two days of work so I got ten days off in a row, and Chloe got a few days covered from work. We climbed in the VRG (Virgin River Gorge) where the climbing was really good. Lots of long hard routes :) We also climbed at another place called the Cathedral, which was very cool, but a little on the cold side. Finally we visited a third area called the Black and Tan wall which had shorter, more "bouldery" type routes. Chloe got a new harness to accommodate her new condition (of being pregnant), and absolutely loves it... not really. The new harness is atrocious, actually. Petzl should be ashamed of producing such a piece of crap and selling in for $120. But hey, it takes the pressure off of her belly and accomplishes the basic function. Some customizations will be necessary... Climbing hard is getting harder for her, but she's still going through with it and climbing away!
Part way through our trip, on a rest day, we met up with my brother, his wife, his mother in-law, and little baby girl! We went for a short hike in the Valley of Fire in Nevada and had a little pic-nic. Good rest day :)

Parents in town

Here's a little catch up post: Chloe's parents were in town for few days. We hiked around, went snowshoeing, and had lots of good beer and food :) Here are a few pics.

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Hello people :)
What have we been up to... Well, pretty much more of the same. Chloe and I have been working hard at work, getting better at our jobs. I've officially started the Field Internship program, as a paramedic, at the fire department where I work. It's a six month long process where I am evaluated on every single call that I run, as a paramedic and have to pass various written and practical tests along the way. I'm one month into it, and it's going well. The station I'm working at right now is very busy, and that means I'm constantly up at night and running calls while I'm at work. It's busy, but it's lots of fun, and I'm having a kick ass time. The variety of emergency calls that we run on is incredible and it always keeps me on my toes and hugely entertained. I had a patient tell me the other day that she didn't take her prescribed bipolar medications because they can't be mixed with crack cocaine: duh!
Chloe's brother (Arthur) came into town for a few days and played around with us before he returned to France to finish his last semester of art school before he graduates!
We just got back from climbing in Hueco Tanks, Texas. Chloe and I both got off work on Sunday morning. I drove us down to Texas while the sleeping beauty rested in the back seat after having harassed drunks and gunshot victims all night in the ER (that I will sometimes bring her). We climbed all day Monday and Tuesday, in awesome weather. Chloe has discovered the newfound challenge of trying to climb hard, while pregnant. She's at about three months, and since she has very little room in that area, she is most certainly showing! The flip side is that that bulging thing in her belly is making it hard for her to use her abs. That adds a whole new difficulty to things when trying to climb, especially while in the horizontal position (see photos). She's doing well despite having to climb for two though. We left Tuesday night, drove half way, spent the night in a rest area, and then finished the drive this (Wednesday) morning. The weather here in Boulder was so amazing, we were sure to get in a real nice trail run and work on our tan at the same time, before Chloe went to work tonight. I go to work tomorrow morning for two days and see what kind of havoc I can reap on the community :)
Here are some pics of Arthur and our climbing in Hueco.
-Brendan

Well we've been busy playing around and what not... We visited some family in SF over the holidays, and saw my brother's new baby girl: very cute :)
Fefe came and visited us for a few days and we went climbing down in Shelf Road (just north of Canon City) on a nice beautiful sunny midwinter Colorado day. That's the beauty of this place. A sunny day in the middle of winter can translate to some shorts and T-shirt action on the rock or mellow day on the slopes. Either one is close by :)
Chloe and I continued to take advantage of some good weather and went climbing up in Clear
Creek Canyon (just west of Golden) on some fun overhanging rock with some powerful little routes: very fun. It's so nice to be back out on the real rock.
I'm covering part of a shift for someone tonight so off to work I go for a little longer shift than normal, but it shouldn't be too bad as long as we don't have to stay up all night running calls.
-Brendan