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

Guest bathroom finished!

That's it... ! Our guests can have their own bathroom now :) The kitchen bar is also finished, and the baseboards are up and drying! We are super psyched to be done, and it's perfect timing: we are going to be climbing outdoors as much as we can in January, no more house work! Speaking of work, working in the ER for me is much better, I am getting used to the insanity there, and I can't wait for Brendan to bring me a patient in the middle of the night, hehe! I also can't wait to go climbing... I feel like I haven't touched real rock in a long time (it has really only been a few months, but it feels way too long!) Hope you guys are ready for Christmas...??! We're still waiting for the good snow dump to get the skiing season going here. I can't believe it's the end of the year already! I know it is though when I see people psychotic about the holidays! We are ready for the new year, this last year has been super busy for both Brendan and I, but I think we're set now!! ~~Chloe

Bathroom project #1: mission accomplished!

Oooh yeah: our bathroom is done! Brendan told me he "wasn't into painting"..... I should have known it was fishy! I told him I'd love to take care of the painting... It is actually into sanding that Brendan wasn't into... It's ok, I sanded, inhaled all the dust... (less cleaning that way!) and finally painted! We're still working on finishing the bar/counter in the kitchen, and the guest bathroom... so I'll put up more pics ;) -Chloe

Made It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...so I made it!! I graduated from my fire academy and am now officially a paramedic/firefighter. It was a long 3.5 months, but it has come to an end. It was a very interesting process for me, to say the least. The fire service is based on paramilitaristic type of structure in order to function effectively and efficiently in times of crisis and emergencies. This is very important and effective, but there are less desirable side effects to this situation. The academy is part of a test of one's personality and ability to adapt to a very different environment. I was very careful to capitalized on my ability to adapt to a very different environment. Especially with my background and where I come from, I did find it challenging at times. Graduation was good because it brought the academy to an end, but thankfully that ceremony only needs to be done once. Some of you may wonder why I would put myself through such a process. For one, everything changes once I go "online" (meaning start actually working in the field out of a firehouse). The academy is a place to learn a lot, but it is also a big long test. As with many tests, there are issues with the way it is run and its effectiveness, but like many tests, it basically tests your ability to adapt to that test, and inevitably, the strongest tend to come out on top, and ultimately that's what happened. Out of over a 1000 applicants, 14 were selected for this academy and 13 ultimately graduated. We work for one of the best fire departments in the nation. It is very progressive with its vision and practices, well funded and sets the standard high. We have some of the best medical, fire and emergency equipment available in the world, and this department is actually rated as the fittest fire department in the nation. I have to admit as to my hesitation about the people that I was going to have in my academy, but ultimately, I ended up with a really cool group of guys, and we did have a lot fun. Now that I am online, and actually running 911 calls, the people I work with are just as awesome, and this is an awesome job, even when I have to get up at 3am to run some guy with abdominal pain to the hospital. Not to mention my schedule now is great! I still have a lot of work ahead of me as one of the "new guys" online, and going through what is set up as a three year apprenticeship, but it's all a lot more fun from now on!!
-Brendan
P.S. Here are some more academy pics and a video of one of our "entanglement" drills.