Ummm, not so pretty. But at least there’s a cute guy in the pic!

Let’s just call it a work in progress shall we.

I’m pretty sure I’m still high after the marathon staining session. Stain on the brain, insane in the membrane. Nevermind, I’ll just go back to the 90′s now and if you see my missing brain cells please send over.

Houston, we have improvement! And the makings of a place to relax.

Stay tuned for more awesome improvements!

I am loving that it’s warm enough to take outdoor showers, especially in the mornings. There is nothing like watching the sun warming the canyon rim, listening to the bird chorus and feeling the sharp sting of the warm water as it steams off your skin in the crisp air.

It’s time to learn something new. Have you ever considered the value of a natural resource? How much is a tree, a trail, a watershed worth?

Evenings are being spent outside. #30DaysPlay Call me crazy but building trail is a lot of fun and hard work.

I am thankful that I can put the mint plants outside. They grow so much faster with sunlight and warmth which means more delicious blueberry ginger mint mojitos!

Hope your week is going as well as mine!

This weekend we journeyed over to Wyoming for a visit with Jake’s parents. Usually when we visit we just hang out at their place but on this trip we had an additional mission to deliver a treasure to a geocache. Before leaving I researched  www.geocaching.com for a fun, not incredibly difficult cache. I found two that fit the bill and Wyoming bound we were.

We were going to visit the first cache the night we arrived but due to a little dog jumping out the window and causing me to bite the end off my tongue incident we didn’t quite make it. Sunday morning, we ventured off to find the second cache. The route we took followed Clear Creek, a blue ribbon trout stream that winds in way up into the southern end of the Bighorns. I’ve never explored in this area and wow, what a treat! It is so incredibly beautiful!

My favorite part of the weekend though was the hand pump at the picnic ground/trailhead. There is just something fun about these that makes me smile! If you’re in the Buffalo, Wyoming area and have some time I’d highly recommend this hike. The trail, scenery and hand pump at the end make it a perfect half-day distraction!

Happy Monday!

Summer is well on it’s way to being here and there is nothing like getting out for a hike in the beautiful Black Hills. Day 1 of the 30 Days of Play turned  out to be a 3 hour hike in the woods. My work took me to a new area I’d never been in and it was worth the uphill jungle tactics for the view from the top.

I also saw something I’d never seen before. The carcass of a dead mountain lion. I didn’t find it very photographic and skipped that part but it did give me something to ponder for the rest of my hike. Lions don’t have any other predators around here except humans or natural causes and I had to wonder how this one met it’s demise.

Day 2 was a doggy day! Our three have been getting a little unruly lately and so it was an hour of walking and training for them. I find it completely amazing that an hour to training can wear them out but it does. I’m pretty sure I saw smoke rolling from their ears after this training session because we definitely put them through their paces!

Yesterday, Day 3, was all about trail running. My IT band has been acting up a little so I kept to the trails and only ran 3.1 miles. It was a perfect little run though and the trail near my office is perfect for an end-of-day mental decompression session. I had to laugh when I saw these dirt jumps along the trail because the thought that rolled through my head was, “If you give a bike some dirt…” something a long the lines of if you give a mouse a cookie!

So while they haven’t been the most epic of adventures they have been a solid hour of outside time which has been awesome! What have you been busy doing for the #30DayPlay?

Welcome May! Are you excited for this month? I totally am. Because April was super stressful I decided that that it was time to incorporate some play back into my daily life this month. As a kid I loved playing outside after school until Mom called us in for dinner and then it was back out to play until darkness forced us to head to bed. Instead of a project list this month I’m issuing a fun challenge to myself and anyone else that wants to play along. The name of the game is 30 Days of Play.

The rules are simple. Every day, for a minimum of one hour, you must play outside and document it with a photo. Activities can be almost anything, climbing on the jungle gym at the park, digging in the garden, taking the dog for a walk, exploring an alley you’ve never been down, hiking, biking, trail running, fishing, climbing, kayaking, geocaching, even sleeping in a sleeping bag under the stars. Things like working on your computer on the porch don’t count though! I’ll be blogging about some of my adventures here and of course being the twitter addict I am you’ll definitely hear about them there. I’ll be using #30DayPlay as the hashtag if you want to join me there.

Here’s the calendar I came up with as an outline and idea board. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas too! I’m not planning on strictly following it. This is about having fun, remember?! It’s more of a way to get out the door when I’m not feeling creativeand out of ideas. You’ll notice a few strange things on there like golf. I figured since I’ve never played why not take a lesson? The goal is to mix it up and play. So here’s to May and 30 Days of Play! I hope I see you out playing too!

So what’s go me so stoked for May? You’ll have to check back for the full story tomorrow but I’ll give you a teaser. The hashtag will be #30DayPlay. Intrigued? I hope so and I hope you’ll join me for the game. Tomorrow 7AM MST the rules of the game will be posted.

See you tomorrow…in May!

I am thankful for spring! Yesterday’s run was so perfectly spring and exactly what I needed; the smell of the lilacs, the gentle burble of the creek, the crunch of the trail beneath my shoes, cool temps and best of all, no wind! I feel pretty lucky that I have such beautiful places to run so close to my work.

Happy Friday all!

I feel very fortunate that I’m almost completely through the list, thanks to some very hard work by my wonderful husband. A few weekends back he did a ton of work in the yard, while I was lying on the couch, curled in a fetal position, wishing I could die. With the help of a brand new Stihl 441 chainsaw he single-handedly cut and moved 7 loads of slash, almost completing the goal of completing the first Firewise Zone around our house. We still have some mowing/weed-eating to accomplish and two full-size trees that need professionally removed but we are super close. Our 30’ space around the house is almost complete!

He also decided to start yet another landscaping project. I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t a ploy to avoid remodeling inside our house but who am I to object if he wants to build a flight of stairs from our deck to the soon-to-be side yard. Here are a few before and after pictures that we managed to snag.

If you are curious about what Firewise is and why we decided to make our home Firewise I’ve added the links.

Happy Thursday!

Finally after a l-o-n-g month my vision has come to fruition. I’d like to introduce you to my new-old bike.

I didn’t do all the work on the project. A lot of the components are old Campagnolo aka very difficult to work on. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my sweetie. However, I did do all of the cleaning, polishing and building of parts that I could.

Ooohh, shiny!

Patience young jedi, patience.

And the part I’m most excited about. Leather saddle baby!

I did get to take it out on it’s maiden voyage although it was only around our driveway in the dark. I’m hoping for a longer trip later this week but until my 100-mile round-trip commute changes it won’t be my daily driver.

What’s your favorite bike like?