Running for Fun?

This Saturday I ran my first race in two years. Now I've never been a world-class runner but I do enjoy the competition of a local race. I ran the Erace Homelessness 10K and did okay for me. Time 49:54, 3rd in F 20-29, 7th Female overall out of 86. My legs are sore today but I'm so ready to do a 5k and "train" to be faster.

In honor of getting back into running races, I thought I'd find some fun cartoons about runners.

I hope I will never get this serious about running.

Or this lazy.

But maybe I should use this tactic in my next race.

Fancy Nancy Rachel

Rachel & Elizabeth went to a Fancy Nancy birthday party on Saturday and loved dressing up but only Rachel would pose for me.For those that don't know Fancy Nancy, I didn't either before the party, here's a picture of a book cover.

The Big Cheese

We have been doing things I promise, I just haven't taken pictures of our everyday occurrences like school and my fun mommy only time (book club, soccer, girls movies etc.).

In Elizabeth's class, they do something called The Big Cheese where a student is randomly chosen each week to take home a stuffed mouse and chronicle the fun things the mouse enjoyed with the family. Elizabeth was the first one in her class to be chosen and here are the pictures of Elizabeth and The Big Cheese.

This past Saturday I was just worn out and wanted a long afternoon nap with quiet so Eric took the girls on some errands and to a movie & ice cream with The Big Cheese.

So who's the bigger "Big Cheese?"

When I finally looked at my camera, I noticed there were about 75 pictures taken by a sneaky little photographer or two. I probably should supervise them more so they don't break my camera as they have broken a lot of other things around the house (curtains, cups, each other (JK) Here are the best pictures.

"You can't handle the Tooth"

We must like balance in our house as one child gains a tooth, another loses one. This little cutie now has top teeth.

Hairstyle courtesy of Rachel

And this little grown up girl lost a bottom tooth and the other middle one is wiggly. When she showed me it was wiggly on Thursday, I all of a sudden felt like she was a big girl. Going to kindergarten didn't make me feel it but losing a baby tooth did. The whole process only took 30 minutes and a PB&J sandwich and then she skipped into her class and excitedly told her teacher all about it. I think she's the first one to lose a tooth this school year.

I also had a visitor this week, my friend Shannon just moved up to Longmont and came down for an afternoon. Now if I could just recruit all my friends to Colorado, I've done a good job so far. Have I mentioned we have beautiful mountains?

Birthday Ride

I'm terrible at climbing (on a bike), but it's great to enjoy the Colordado scenery, escape the urban jungle, and enjoy a good workout on the bike in the mountains. This is what I did on my birthday. Like I said, I'm not that good at it but it was still fun. Check out the elevation profile.

Deer Creek Canyon

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Birthday Boy

Happy 32nd Birthday to this guy (yep that's Eric as a boy). To celebrate, here's 32 reasons why Eric is so special in no particular order, except for the first one.

1. He married me, enough said :)
2. The song "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" is so true in our house. Elizabeth & Rachel are daddy's little girls and I think I'll turn Evelyn over in two months.
3. He's a great provider for our family.
4. I hate to admit it but he does look pretty good with a shaved head.
5. He's a great basketball player, I get comments from the wives of fellow players.
6. He's great at reaching things up high and opening jars (that's the only reason I keep him around :).
7. No matter the church assignment, he takes it very seriously.
8. He knows when I need a break at the end of the day.
9. He does dinner dishes, takes out the garbage, and I've never mowed the lawn--how do you turn a lawnmower on?
10. He loves nature, even if he gets a little too close for comfort at times (see post below).
11. Is willing to drive the whole way on long road trips (or maybe he's worried about me falling asleep at the wheel in broad daylight).
12. Can fix almost anything electronic, especially our hard-drive after I thought it was toast.
13. Enjoys sitting at home with me on a Friday night after a long week and vegging in front of a movie or our favorite TV show.
14. Has great choice in foods when we eat out (oftentimes we choose the same thing after the "what are you going to order" question).
15. Is willing to use alternate modes of transportation to work (walking in OH for a year and riding his bike).
16. Even though he would like to be called Dr. Carlsen, he'll settle for Master Eric (MS in Electrical Engineering).
17. He likes to cook breakfast and yummy desserts including cheesecake (my mouth is salivating just thinking about it).
18. Even though we have 3 girls, Eric will get down and wrestle with them.
19. He helps me keep my temper down.
20. We have very similar taste in books that we can read together and TV shows that we watch together.
21. When we do buy electronics, he knows the good ones to buy.
22. Very good at internet shopping and getting deals there.
23. He does the bedtime routine with the girls.
24. Is interested in learning new things.
25.Is a good example of keeping in shape; hopefully we'll be out hiking trails together into retirement.
26. Gets along with my family, even when all us Bartholomew girls get together and get silly.
27. A definite night owl.
28. Enjoys good cultural events and music.
29. Easy to talk to.
30. Very supportive of me and all the crazy schemes I come up with.
31. Loves the gospel.
32. For all those Mr. Hitt students out there, Eric's just a warm, kind, sensitive, 2009 kind of guy.

Eric's (Mis-)Adventures

It's been an interesting summer. Let's start with a few things I've learned:

1. I'm really bad at mountain biking.

2. It's also hard and scary doing technical stuff - I'm a wuss.

3. I'm really bad at mountain biking.

4. I don't need to have the threat of bodily harm to get a thrill from an activity.

5. I'm really bad at mountain biking.


6. My tarp tent works great and is light. Still slightly worried about wind though, but supposedly this can be set up in a pretty wind-proof fashion.

7. July is nice for hiking as wildflowers are still in bloom.

8. Sometimes July sucks for hiking because the trail is snowed over (see below - trail goes right through the steep snow field).

7. This is the point where you actually turn around when your plan was to "check out the hike and if it isn't going well do the easy route tomorrow."

8. Colorado is an awesome place to live!
9. Sometimes the easiest part of the hike looks worse than it is.

10. False summits are from the devil.
11. You wouldn't think it would be possible to find a way down the mountain through the picture below. Well, that's at least what the search and rescue team said. But we did it! Divine intervention?
12. This was nothing compared to the part we bailed on.

14. Don't buy or trust Colorado's 14ers when it comes to hiking Quandary. Get multiple sources of information.

15. Never, never, ever leave the trail!

16. Put ego and summit fever aside and do the smart thing - turn back now and save yourselves!

17. Everyone carries the 10 essentials (including the topo map you left in the car).

18. Class three climbing means different things to different people.

19. This is only the tip of the iceberg, well, it's only the tip of the obstacle, literally. This is where I freaked out seeing a guy stick his but out and hop around a boulder with a straight drop of at least 30 feet below him. I think I said something like "there's no way I'm doing that!"
20. Always get an early start.

21. Stick to your timeline.

22. You're actions can make a difference. Wonder why the red text warning appeared on this website?

23. Sometimes being in a group gives you the courage to do stupid things you would never do on your own.

24. I should know better.

Camping at Granby Lake

This is how good of parents we are, we left right after school and pulled Elizabeth out of her second day of kindergarten to go camping. We went with our friends Cameron & Kelly and the kids had fun just wandering around and playing with each other. Our camping spot this time was Granby Lake north of Winter Park and close to the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. It's so sad to see all the pine trees dying from the pine beetle but it was still gorgeous.

Here's the view from our campsite

Friday morning we went for a .3 mile hike to Adams Falls that borders Grand Lake and RMNP. It was very pretty and just long enough for the kids to start complaining, I guess we need grandma and a stick not to whine like at the Narrows.

Rachel and her "scriptures" that is actually just hymn book

We were planning to stay two nights but the weather had other plans so we camped in our comfy beds Friday night instead. I would definitely go to the area of Granby Lake again but not camp at Stillwater (it's a long story).

1st Day of KINDERGARTEN!

It's official, Elizabeth is now a kindergartner and I'm a school mom. Elizabeth is so excited for school and I think she'll make lots of friends easily and have fun doing it. Now we have to get back in the school routine but she is in B-track afternoon kindergarten (12:05-2:45) and her teacher is Mrs. Wenze.

The first day (Thursday) was a little anti-climactic as I walked down to the school with Elizabeth while the clouds and 50 degree weather (yes, it is JULY) threatened rain. The kids stood in line with Mrs. Wenze, waved goodbye, and then walked into the classroom. 2 hours and 40 minutes later, Eric picked her up and that was her first day. Needless to say, I wasn't crying but it is just a little weird to start the whole real school thing.

I asked my friend Julie to teach me some hairstyles for the girl's hair and here is one I thought would do for the momentous occasion of starting kindergarten. It's called a hanging braid I think. This is momentous for me too since I don't even know how to do my own hair.

Don't let the worried expression fool you, she was so excited but just didn't want to show it to the camera.

Goodbye big girl, have fun in school. That's Mrs. Wenze in the foreground as she came to comfort a crying child.