It's A Person!

Very early on the morning of Saturday, April 13th, Mike and I got ourselves a new niece!  Presenting:
Ila!

I don't generally care much for baby pictures, but I know other people do, so there you go.  Enjoy.

On the preceding Friday night, Mike and I met up with friends Stephan and Arrelaine at 303 Distillery in Boulder to drink some flavored whiskey and vodka.  Jeff also came up from Golden to join us, but at about 10:00 he got a phone call and immediately had to leave.  A half hour after that, Mike got a phone call informing him that we might need to come down to the Lutheran hospital in Wheat Ridge and pick up Liv so that she could spend the night at our house.  So at 11:30pm we found ourselves running around lost in a dark hospital since we (of course) parked at the exact wrong end of the building.  But eventually we collected Liv, transferred her car seat to the Camry, picked up some mac n cheese and ice cream sandwiches on the way home, and got her all snugged up on the couch with every blanket and pillow we had.  Mike put on a Disney movie, Ellie curled up at Liv's feet, and we all fell asleep.

Suddenly, at 2:30am I was woken up first by the dogs barking at something nothing, then by Liv's heartbreaking crying and calling for Mommy.  The poor thing was just standing there in her nightgown snuffling away, and didn't want to be comforted, so I just did all that I could think to do, which was get a kids' book from the den and start reading to her.  She eventually stopped wailing and sat down on the windowsill to listen to the story; then she sat down on the floor; then she slowly melted down the rest of the way onto the floor and went back to sleep.  I didn't want to wake her up, so I just put a blanket over her and turned off the lamp.
At 4:30am the dogs started barking at something nothing again, so Mike picked up Liv and put her in the middle of our bed, and we closed the dogs in the bedroom with us so they would quit freaking out, and we all went back to sleep until 7:00am.  I checked my phone when I woke up and saw that Ila had been born at 5:45 that morning, and then Jeff sent a message saying that we could bring Liv back home around 9.  Until then, Mike watched TV with Liv on the couch, and we coaxed her to eat a little bit of fruit and a bite of ice cream sandwich (best aunt and uncle ever!).  Mike took Liv home at the appointed time, but I couldn't go because I had a softball game in Boulder.  And thus ended the night of crazy.
The best part of this whole debacle was that Mike and I were basically the fourth-string backup crisis team, after Lynnette (camping), Meg (in Vail), Tom and Peggy (in Ireland), and probably some other random person on the street who knows more about taking care of kids than we do.  I think we did okay though: Liv was returned with all of her limbs and (we hope) teeth, and if any permanent emotional damage was done it can probably be repaired with more ice cream sandwiches.

Moaby-Dick!

(The post title will make sense later.)

Last Thursday, Mike and I packed up Supervan and headed west to Moab, Utah for some sweet mountain biking!  We didn't get to leave Boulder until 10:30pm because I had to play a rec-league beer-centric coed slow-pitch softball game, which didn't start until 8pm, and we ended up losing anyway!  Boo.

amateurs.

 So, since I had been drinking (a perfectly acceptable amount of) beer, Mike took the first leg of the 6-hour drive so that I could take a power nap and then take over when he got sleepy.  But the next thing I knew, it was 4 in the morning and Mike wanted me to come up to the front so I could help him find a campsite.  I guess the coffee I had made for the road was very, very strong...
We found a little flat spot in the Willow Springs OHV area to sleep for the night and climbed into the back for a few hours, then got up at 8:30 to hunt for a more agreeable camping spot.  The one we had found was rather small and surrounded by a lot of cryptobiotic soil:

for details click this link: www.gomoab.com/moab_environment.html

 which could easily be crushed by the members of our party who don't tend to be aware of where they step (i.e., Lily and Greta), so Mike scouted a much better base of operations just up the road, with a large fire ring on top of a nice little slickrock outcropping.  We set up our shade tent, camp table, stove, and chairs to reserve the spot against other campers, and then drove a few miles south toward Moab to the Bar-M trailhead.
It's high season in Moab for mountain biking and 4-wheeling, so we chose a more challenging trail to get away from all the noobs clogging up the singletrack, the intimidatingly named Deadman's Ridge.  It's rated as a black diamond (most difficult), but it's not actually that scary: no sudden drops or brutal climbs.   But it was quite hot, so when I spotted a pretty Indian Paintbrush and a blooming cactus I stopped to take a photo and rehydrate:

pretty

spiky

And then I took a picture of Mike coming down some slickrock and rehydrated some more:

super quiet, super awesome

We climbed for what seemed like ages and then finally descended to the bike path along highway 191, and Mike rode back uphill to get the van and I coasted down into town, where we'd meet to stock up on firewood at the grocery store.  Spring comes earlier to Moab than other parts of Utah, so there were lots of pretty flowering trees and shrubs on display:

This one's for you, Mom: an untamed forsythia!

as well as lots of large people in small clothing sitting outside their RVs in crowded 'campgrounds', but I didn't want to subject anyone to a picture of that.  You will just have to use your imagination. Or not.  It's actually better if you don't.

We arrived back at camp and were relieved to find that it hadn't been plundered by people or animals, and just sort of hung around until Meg and Lily and Stevezie rolled up in Steve's awesome old 1989 Chevy Suburban.

Lily and I went exploring while the grown-ups set up all their gear, then we made a fire and roasted hot dogs, and then marshmallows for s'mores.  Meg and Lily went to bed shortly after s'mores, and I dragged some pillows and blankets out of the van and over to the fire so that I could stay warm while Mike and Steve hung beer cans from the trees and shot at them with a BB gun (boys...).

The next morning, Meg coordinated with her friends Megan and Josh so that we could meet up and ride with them for a couple hours.  Lily and I hunted for lizards while water was boiled for coffee:

"Go away."

"Seriously, go away or I will bite you."

And Lily made me wear her hat:

We took our time making breakfast, thanks to the really fabulous Bloody Marys that Steve made for us, and eventually got our gear and ourselves into the van and headed back south toward the Bar-M trails again.  Megan and Josh are pretty new to mountain biking, so after they got their bearings on a couple of green trails, we all tried out a green/blue trail that includes some rocks and slightly steeper terrain.  We found ourselves near a great big scary cliff, and took a break to get some photos of the monumental geological feature, including one where I am pretending to ride straight toward the edge:

hardcore!

But I made sure not to get too close, because I am totally the kind of person who would get distracted and end up riding over the cliff after all.

And because pictures of people just standing there are boring, we took some jumping pictures!  Yay!
Except on the first attempt Meg looks like a T-rex trying to do ballet...

That's more like it

Then we headed back to the parking lot and returned to camp so that Mike and Steve could go ride a more difficult trail while Meg and I watched Lily and the dogs (and drank beers).

The five of us piled into the Suburban and made our way up the canyon along the river, and finally found a little pull-out where we could get down to the water so that the dogs could swim and cool off.  Within five minutes, Greta had gotten herself into a thicket of burr bushes, and spent the rest of the time pulling the sticky little seeds out of her fur.  (Except for the ones on her ear, which I had to assist with extracting.  I had to pull out a lot of fur along with the burrs, but Greta just sat there patiently.  I wonder if she had any idea what was going on, or if the only thing going through her head was, 'Heyyyy...my ear feels funny...)
There was a medium-sized rock in the river about a foot from the shore, and Lily spent her time being lifted from one side to the other.  Eventually she devised the scenario that she and I were on a boat, and we had to paddle to the moon and do something to it (I lost the thread around this point), and she kept Meg busy finding us sticks that could serve as paddles, a task which was complicated slightly by the fact that Emma wanted to swim after every stick that Meg picked up.  But Emma is 14 years old, so she was pooped after a few retrievals and we could get on with our game.  Greta also went after a couple of sticks, but she seems not to realize that she is a Newfoundland and would only go in as far as she could still touch the bottom.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from this adventure, because I was worried about dropping the camera in the water.
After we'd had enough, we headed back to camp, where we met up with the boys, and then we all changed and piled back in the Suburban to meet Megan and Josh and some other folks at a Mexican restaurant in town.  We had been assured by the other folks that Fiesta Mexicana had the best flan in the state and possibly the entire western United States, but it turned out that the restaurant had only made a fresh batch of flan earlier that day and it still wasn't set up enough to serve.  So we consoled ourselves with their enormous margaritas and vowed to try again on the next trip.
The next morning, after another round of amazing Blood Marys a la Stevezie, Mike and I entertained Lily while Meg and Steve packed up all their stuff so that they could move out and return to Boulder at a reasonable time.

Lily and Greta (not) helping Mike take down the shade tent

We were able to get a good picture of Mike's musketeer/pirate facial hair situation before it would be shaved off the next day:

Emma was still pretty worn out from the previous day's excitement, and just wanted to be left alone and crash out under the shade tent:

(snooze)

Once everything was packed up and accounted for, we climbed into our respective vehicles and said goodbye to the awesome campsite.  The Suburban headed north toward I-70, and Supervan headed south toward the Colorado River and the road that would take us to our trailhead.  A new trail has just been opened as an addition to one of our favorite trails, Amasa Back, and it is called (here's where the post title makes sense!) Captain Ahab. (Ta da!)  I was actually pretty nervous, because Captain Ahab is rated double-black, and the sign at the beginning says that expert skills are recommended and the trail includes many drops, cliff edges and steep descents.
Now, let's get something straight real quick.  To me, a 'drop' means 'mandatory air', which means that at some point you must have both of your wheels off of the ground at the same time, or you will crash hard and die (or snap a couple little bones in your lumbar spine; either situation is no good).
But ultimately, I was able to clear almost everything, and the things I didn't clear were because I lost traction, not nerve.  So...I guess that means I'm an expert rider now?  I mean, I'm good, but I'm not sure I'm that good...
Anyway, here are some pictures from Captain Ahab, which is probably my new all-time favorite trail:

It was a very hot day.

Genus: Owtafoccusi

squish.

Booyah!

And at the end of the ride, we were treated to the sight of a climber scooting up a big fat rock spire:

Ten points if you can spot him!

And then we went back to Supervan, opened a couple of beers and began the long trek back to Boulder and the pups.

Thanks for reading!  Super quiet, super awesome!

Easter: Lily's!

This past Friday night Mike and I joined Meg and Stevezie up in the mountains for some winter camping.  Our friend Chris's wife and daughter, Juliana and Sienna, were visiting family in Florida, so Chris came along with us as well.  We all brought our dogs: Paddington and Ellie, Greta, Emma and Nala, and they all got along famously, so it was a very good crowd.
Mike and I didn't make it to the campsite until about 9:30pm, so Lily was already being put to bed, but they had a nice big fire going and a bottle of rye whiskey at the ready, so we got down to the business of complaining about work and politics and other people in general, and then Meg brought out a couple bags of candy and plastic eggs and put us to work filling the one with the other.  Once all the eggs were filled we hid them put them in obvious places at or below Lily's eye level, then retreated back to the fire and had a few s'mores and some whiskey.  A big fat bright full moon started rising at that point, so we oohed and ahhed at that for a bit, and then I have a vague recollection of explaining to Mike what's currently going on with North and South Korea, and Mike made fun of Meg for saying things that Ralph would say on The Simpsons, and then we all went to bed around midnight, because let's face it, we're all nearing or over 30 and it was way past our bedtimes.

Meg had said that Lily would likely be up early to see if the Easter Bunny had come, so when I woke up around 6 I pulled on all my warm clothing, found the camera and headed back to the campfire ring.  It had gotten windy during the night (surprise) so I spent a few minutes restoring the fallen eggs back to their perches, and right on cue Lily burst from her tent and immediately collected the eggs she could see.  We all expressed delight that the Easter Bunny had found us and had left a great big basket of toys and goodies for Lily in addition to all the eggs (Rainbow Dash, a My Little Pony you can draw on, was a particular hit).

Lily wandered around finding eggs while Steve and Chris boiled water for coffee and cooked up some eggs and bacon:

The dogs all parked themselves right next to the cooking table, hoping that some morsel would fall.

...except for Emma, who wanted to make darn sure nobody stole her spot in the nice cozy tent, and grumbled at any other canine who came within 10 feet of her:

(grumble)

When Lily finished her Easter egg hunt, she and I went for an explore of the surrounding rock piles:

Lily is a champion climber.  She didn't want any help getting up or down anything, and when she got a small scrape on her hand, it didn't faze her in the slightest.
But she did feel she was missing an important climbing accessory, so we headed back to camp so that she could retrieve it and so that I could change into more appropriate footwear and also shed one of my five million layers:

Princess gloves provide good grip.

There should probably be a purple satin purse at the top of Everest.

Paddington and Ellie joined us for the explore, but the other dogs optimistically stayed by the food:

At that point, Mike finally decided to rouse himself and join us, so I got to fire up my shiny new Coleman stove that I received for my birthday! (Thanks, Mom and Dad!  Holla!)  It worked like a dream and we feasted on oatmeal and breakfast burritos.

In the meantime, Lily shanghaied Steve into helping her set up her new pink train/railroad thingiemabobber:

And then I was summoned to help decorate Rainbow Dash with stickers and markers:

(My butt is going numb.)

Then, alas, it was time to pack up camp and head back into the real world.  Greta helped out by napping on every available soft surface:

snooze

And a good time was had by all!