Future Homeowners

We have decided to buy a house! John and I have both dreamed of owning a house. We finally feel that we are ready to be homeowners. We have seen lots of nice houses and we excited that one of them could be ours. God has placed wonderful people in our lives to help make our dream a reality. We are so thankful for supportive family and friends!

Land of the Midnight Sun

For our third anniversary, John and I were blessed with the opportunity to return to Alaska. Alaska is a special place to both of us, we have a lot of wonderful memories from a previous trip. John and I spent a summer in the "Last Frontier" a few years ago. We lived with five other people and we spent our time working at summer jobs and going on all kinds of adventures. I know it sounds sappy, but Alaska is where we fell for each other. Soon after returning to Colorado, we decided to start dating. We couldn't think of a better place to celebrate our three years of marriage.

Our trip began with a tiring red-eye flight which was significantly delayed due to the Seattle airport being closed because of weather. We barely made our connection and arrived in Alaska just before 2:00 am. The landing into Anchorage is quite exciting. We could see the Ghost range poking through the clouds. Once we were closer to the airport, we could see the Cook Inlet. The runway is right on the Inlet, so all you can see is water. Then suddenly, the plane touches down on solid ground. We picked up our rental car with only a couple of minutes to spare and then it was off to find a place to sleep. A campground outside of Anchorage did the trick, we grabbed our sleeping bags and dozed in the car until morning.

After purchasing our gear and food, we drove south on the Turnagain Arm. We found a campground in Girdwood, and it was there that we realized we had forgotten our tent poles! As members of Team Junk Show, John and I are used to improvising for lost gear.

We spent the next day hiking Little Coal Creek Trail and The Hand Tram trail near Girdwood. After hiking all day we opted to stay in the Girdwood hostel. Of course we couldn't leave Girdwood without sneaking into the Alyeska Resort to use their beautiful hot tub. On our way to Soldatna, AK we stopped by Portage Glacier and Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Our purpose for going to Soldatna was to fish, unfortunately we caught the tail end of the second Sockeye (red) Salmon run. We each had a few fish on the line, but only brought one fish all the way in. John was the hero, and it was nice to have a salmon dinner. Fishing was still a great time, the Kenai is a gorgeous river and we chatted with people from all over the world. While in Soldatna, John and I also went hiking in the Kenai National Wildlife refuge.

From Soldatna we drove to Seward, our last stop. We had a cabin reserved which turned out to be quite nice. We cooked salmon, enjoyed showers and comfortable beds. Our first night we visited the Alaska Sealife Center. The center was funded using some of the settlement money form the Valdez-Exonn oil spill. John and I had a good time watching the animals and touching sea cucumbers, sea anenomes, sea stars, coral and sea urchins. The highlight of our stay in Seward was a kayaking trip to Resurrection Bay. We did an evening paddle and were able to sea harbor seals, eagles and spawning salmon. The Coho (silver) salmon were running, and they jump so high out of the water that we thought they might land in the boats! It was a wonderful evening and a great end to our stay in Seward.

The flight home did not leave until 2:00 am, so had some time to kill in Anchorage. We spent our remaining hours at our beloved Moose's Tooth Brewery drinking some of the best beer in the world. Afterwards, we ate pizza and caught a movie at Bear Tooth Theater and Pub. I think we made every moment count, it was the perfect way to end our trip.

To see more pictures of Alaska, go to our Photo Album.

A beautiful day for a Triple Bypass

We did it! John, my mom, dad and I completed the Triple Bypass. The alarm woke us up at 4:15 am Saturday morning and after a quick breakfast it was off to Evergreen. It wasn't hard to figure out where to go, there were cars carrying road bikes everywhere. With 3500 riders registered, it was a sea of bikes as we arrived in Evergreen. Just before 6:00 am we were on our bikes and ready to go. The bike tour starts out serious with a long climb up Juniper (Squaw) Pass (Mile Post: 15). We had gorgeous views from the top of the pass.

The top of Juniper Pass 11,140 ft

After a speedy decent down Juniper Pass, we rode through Idaho Springs. As we approached town, there were people lining the streets ringing bells and cheering. This was something we had not expected, but there were groups of cheering people all along the tour. It was really nice to have the support and encouragement.

The high point, Loveland Pass 11,990 ft. This was a very long climb so we were all very happy to be at the top (Mile Post: 60).

[[Husband Log 0001: We had fun and everyone rode with great enthusiasm and endurance. With Lindsay's knee still giving her minor issues (though thankfully not as bad as before the addition of reinforced insoles in her shoes) and Rick not being back to full strength from his not being well, everyone was smart about their pace and saved energy for the last 26 miles (down from Vail Pass). I have been proud of Linds for her endurance through frustration and physical pain as we trained for this ride and am hopeful that some rest will do her knee well. BTW, going 40mph down Loveland pass on newly paved asphalt was really fun! End Husband Log 0001]]

The top of Vail Pass 10,560 ft. All four of us felt a huge sense of accomplishment to be at the top of the last pass. It's downhill from here (Mile Post: 94)!

It was surprising how much fun we had on such a challenging ride.

Sharing the days stories and stuffing our faces (Mile Post: 120).

If you would like to read more about the Triple Bypass, here are some good links.
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070716/SPORTS/70716004
http://teamevergreen.org/

One more week!

Saturday was our last long ride before the Triple Bypass. We had hoped to do one hundred miles, but the rain changed our plans. We did end up riding eighty-four miles and we both felt pretty good afterwards. I guess all that training has made a difference. I hope we do this well on July 14th.

Here we are at the top of Pinewood reservoir.



Team "E"!



Going down!

Pagosa Springs

John and I spent this past weekend in Pagosa Springs with my side of the family. We stayed in a great cabin at the base of Wolf Creek Pass. Its always fun when this group of family gets together. We are blessed that my grandparents make these gatherings possible by providing a place to stay. Everyone had such a great time there are already plans in place to do it again next year.

The Faris House

With the Triple Bypass just one month away, we couldn't give up too much training time. We were able to get in a couple of rides, one of which was up Wolf Creek Pass. We rode with my parents since they will also be riding the Triple next month. My Aunt joined us, we had to be careful that she didn't show us up on her mountain bike! The rest of the trip was spent hiking, relaxing and enjoying the hot springs. The boys did quite a bit of fishing.

Pagosa hot springs



Drinking Mojitos while the boys fished



Mountain Sunsets

Count down: Triple Bypass

The Triple Bypass is only forty days away! Our training schedule has been getting more and more serious. We ride five days a week and we're increasing the distances of our routes. The longest ride so far has been about fifty-two miles. We both have noticed that we feel a lot stronger, twenty mile rides seem very easy. Its great to see the training paying off. We are looking forward to this fun challenge.

The big ride

Training hard

Why we do it. Above all else, it's God's beautiful creation that motivates us to get out and ride.

Memorial weekend desert trip

Memorial weekend 2007, once again we drove to the middle of nowhere and attempted to stuff numerous people down a canyon. It has become a tradition, these last few years to hike slot canyons over memorial weekend. Last year, we hiked Upper Chute Canyon and Bluejohn Canyon. This year, we hiked Moonshine Canyon and returned to Bluejohn Canyon to hike a different branch. We entered Bluejohn through the east wing again, and then we hiked the west branch instead of doing the main branch. The west branch of Bluejohn wasn't quite as impressive and it was a little less technical. We had a very large group, so a shorter less technical route was a good choice.

Climbing out of Moonshine.

A sheep bridge across Moonshine Canyon. I don't think I would want to cross it!

Hiking through Bluejohn. This was a small obstacle, a down climb with some water. Other parts of the canyon required class three and four scrambling, repelling and hand lines.

Robber's Roost, UT just outside of Canyonlands National Park.

Common Globe Mallow, one of the many blooming desert flowers.