More pictures...

http://boulderbabyphotography.com/blog/index.php/2010/09/03/36-weeks-boulder-co-maternity-photography/

Pregnant belly

We decided to have someone who knows what they're doing take pictures of me while my belly is gigantic and so round... and still has a baby inside! This is one picture, and the lady will send us plenty more, which I will relay as soon as I get them. Check out that basket ball!!!! -"La grosse dame"

Chloe is getting very pregnant and ever so closer to popping that little one out. Climbing steep hard stuff has gotten significantly harder for her so we have stopped going to Rifle for the moment...which is fine because we had a great season there this year spending lots of time camping and climbing in the canyon. I was able to get the first ascent of a an old route but on which a key hold had recently broken making it significantly harder, send another 5.14, and make some progress on a wickedly hard 5.14c. So, a good season really.
So now what? Well, we just get to play around here (Boulder) a lot, and that's pretty sweet. There is so much great trail running around here and lots of additional climbing as well. Just because Chloe isn't climbing the super steep, super powerful stuff at Rifle anymore, doesn't mean she isn't climbing some great moderate stuff around here. One of the great places we checked out recently is called the Monastery and has some really cool climbing and is about an hour hike to get into. Check out the pics :)
This really is a wonderful place to live... and with our schedule, every two days we get four days off, and it feels like we're on vacation and on a roadtrip every time!

Corine in Town

This post is also late, but along the same lines as the last one, Corine came and visited us a little while ago. She just came for an extended weekend so we went hiking and camping in Cache la Poudre canyon about an hour north of boulder, just west of Fort Collins. It's a really nice river with awesome countryside extending off of both sides. We ate yummy food, drank beer, dunked in the cool river and hiked up a mountain. Thanks to a relatively recent addition (an actual small refrigerator) to our wonderful little Flip-pac camper set up, we now have ice cold beer at our disposition when we're camping, climbing, or whatever. It's pretty deluxe I must admit :)
Stand by on photos. They are coming soon. Just a little technical difficulties. -Brendan.

OK, here are the photos!! My Mom was the guest, and I am the pregnant lady, so Brendan cooked some awesome quesadillas for us in the flip-pac! It was a sweet little week-end. The little one inside is already getting a taste of life around here! -Chloe

Michel in Town

This post is a little late, but, whatever... My dad was in town a little while ago. He had some work related business to take care of, but we still got to hang out a bunch and we brought him to see where I work :) So he got to see the training facility where I went through my fire academy and check out some fire trucks!

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!