A Fun-Filled Fall day

The weather was exceptionally nice on Saturday (and we knew winter-like weather was coming on Monday), and Brody and I had both just recovered from a nasty cold, so we were happy to get out and enjoy the day.

It started with a hike to Devil's Backbone.  I just went with my friend Chelsey, since Brody still has to take it easy on his foot.  I loved seeing all the cool rock formations (a favorite thing of mine) and I thought the name was very fitting.  It really did look like the backbone of a skeleton.

Next, Brody and I headed to a local farm to pick pumpkins, check out the animals and do a corn maze.  Classic fall activity.

"Which way??"

"Peek-a-boo!"

To end the day, we picked up a jack-o-lantern pizza to eat while we finished our Harry Potter marathon with our friends.

What is a Harry Potter marathon, you ask?  Well, that's when you watch 2 movies every Saturday night for the whole month of October.  I loved it so much!!  That whole series makes my heart happy.  Here are some pictures from our first Harry Potter Marathon session:

TONS of yummy food and cute, relevant decorations: the sorting hat, candles and a cauldron (full of popcorn)

Carrie even made homemade butterbeer!!  Which is basically melted butterscotch and cream soda.  Soooooooo yummy!

All in all, it was just a fabulous day!!  I love fall.

A racing weekend

Brody and I both ran in our very first races last weekend.  I ran 10 miles on Saturday and the next day, Brody ran a marathon.  Here are the details:

Ky's Race:
My race was called the Bacon Strip.  I'm pretty sure it's because the road literally looks like a giant strip of bacon.  It's a dirt road and has vertical lines of different shaded dirt all the way down.  It also has never-ending rolling hills, which create the "wavy bacon" look.

I started running off and on at the beginning of the summer and then I really started training hard 3 weeks prior to the race when I found out about it and signed up.  It's been a goal of mine for a few years now to run in a race (10k or more) and to also run 5 miles without stopping.  I knew the first goal would be pretty easy to achieve, but I was beginning to doubt my ability to complete the second one.  After all my training, I had never been able to run more than 2 consecutive miles without needing a break.  I just assumed that I wasn't that type of a runner and I was OK with that.  I settled on a goal of finishing the whole 10 miles in under 2 hours.

My friends Amanda and Chelsey ran the 10 mile loop with me and Nicole and Casey ran the 4 mile loop.  Brody also came for support and to cheer me on.  It was a very brisk morning with a temp of 40* at the start of the race.

Excited, cold and ready to go!

Aaaaand we're off!

 After 2 miles of running and still feeling as good as I did when I started, I realized that there must be some sort of "running in a race" adrenaline that makes the whole experience much easier than training.  Around mile 4 I thought "hey! I might actually be able to achieve my second goal after all!"  And sure enough, at mile 5 I was still going strong.  By the time mile 7 rolled around, I thought "how cool would it be if I did the ENTIRE thing without stopping?!?"  So that's what I did!!  The last two miles were a little rough (I was finally getting tired and worn out) but I didn't give up.  I was running quite slow by this point, but I never stopped.  I owe it all to my awesome playlist that I created.  My most favorite, upbeat songs are what kept me going when I was SO tired.

Almost there!

Finished!!  Final time was 1 hour, 48 minutes

They provided a small breakfast for us afterwards.  I thought it was pretty fitting that they had bacon :)

Chelsey, Me, Amanda

We had an amazing view of the Rockies most of the time

It was a lot of fun and I'm so happy that I did it!



Brod's race
Running a marathon has been a goal for Brody for a while now.  He signed up in May and trained all summer.  His race was called the Blue Sky Trail Marathon.  Not only did he run a full 26.2 miles, but he did it all on a dirt/rocky trail with a total of 3,800 feet of elevation gain!!

We got up bright and early (5:30 am) to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the trailhead, get checked-in, etc. before the race started at 7:00.  It was fun to watch the sun rise while we waited.

About 5 minutes before the race began

Ready...

Set...

GO!!

The trail consisted of 2 loops kind of in the shape of a figure 8.  The first loop was 8 miles, the second was much longer at 18.2 miles.  After completing the first loop, the runners passed back through the starting line area, so I stayed until Brody reached that point, but then wouldn't see him again until the finish line, because there was no easy access to the rest of the trail.

He took a quick break at mile 8 to swap his long-sleeved shirt for sunglasses.  Here's how our conversation went:

Me: "You're doing great!! How are you feeling??"
Brody:  "Yeah, good, feelin' pretty good."

Then he looked both ways and lowered his voice:

"I think I broke my foot though, it is KILLING me -- See ya!"
And he was off again before I could say anything!

Here's the story: during the first few weeks of his training, he pulled a calf muscle, so he had to take a 6 week break.  That meant he had to make up for lost time and he may have pushed himself a little too hard towards the end of training, because around mile 5 of his marathon, he got a stress fracture in his foot.  But he was determined to achieve his goal and finish the race.  So he kept running.

Off he goes again, broken foot and all.

Me and Salomon just hanging out at the finish line

Here he comes!!

He finished in 5 hours, 23 minutes, which I would say is pretty darn good for having 3,800 feet of elevation gain, rocky terrain AND a "broken" foot!!  I'm so proud of him for having the determination and perseverance to continue even when it wasn't easy.  My husband is hard core!

{For more details on Brody's race, check out his blog}

Other events in September

Labor Day BBQ

On Labor Day (just an hour after the Bundy's left), we met up with our friends for a delightful BBQ dinner and games up in the canyon.  It was a wonderful evening.

Welcome back BBQ

We went to the annual International-Economics-PhD-program-welcome-back-to-school-BBQ one night (wow, that's a long name for a BBQ).  For me, this gathering gets more fun each time as I get to know more and more people in his program.  It was a great way to start off his third year!

Brody's crazy adventure
Brody's friend Nate was in Denver this month (for med school rotations) and when those two get together, things get pretty extreme.  This time, they decided to hike/run/climb the Glacier Gorge traverse in Rocky Mountain National Park.  (This was the week before all the crazy flooding).  The whole thing was a total of 21 miles, summiting 8 different peaks and gaining 9,000 feet in elevation over the course of the traverse.  I don't know about you, but that sure sounds extreme to me!!!  Their goal was to do the whole thing in 10 hours, but due to poor route explanations online, they got lost a number of times and it ended up taking 19 hours.  Barf.  Brody was so sore when he got home, that he couldn't walk normal for about a week afterwards and he lost 3 toenails.  But he said it was worth it because the views were incredible.  I can't argue with him there... take a look:

To get full details and see more pictures check out Brody's new blog.


Cool pattern
I LOVE when the numbers make a cool pattern like this.  It makes me happy inside.  What would have been even better is if the numbers on the bottom matched as well.

An evening walk
With the tempuratures being at a perfect 60-70 degrees during the day and into the evening, we have been taking advantage as much as possible by going on lots of walks with our favorite puppy.

Brody's haircut
Brody hadn't had a haircut since, I don't even know when.  But it was a lot time.  It got to the point where he could even put it in a ponytail!  It's not my favorite look, and I bugged him about getting it cut for a while, but eventually I just gave up and let him do his thing.

And what's even more weird, is after getting my haircut in August, that made it so his hair was longer than mine. (In case you weren't sure who is who, I made captions to help you out ;)

See? I wasn't lying. 

Then one day a few weeks ago, I came home to this!

He found a salon in town and made himself an appointment all on his own without even telling me!  It was a fun surprise.  And for the record, I think he looks handsome both ways :)

Bluegrass concert

We attended a free bluegrass concert on campus, because our friend Carrie works at the University Center for the Arts and got us free tickets!  It was really good.