Colorado

Sweet friends. Cool town. Fun hikes. Hilarious gaming. Great eats. Thoughtful discussions. Academy insights. Encouraging words. Lots of laughs. that about sums up our experiences when we hang out with the Elams. We were able to go visit at the end of August for a long weekend and boy did we soak up our time with them. If you've never played the game of Quelf...you should definitely look into it if you want some good laughs.




But really, besides the game it was just nice to hang out with friends who were cherish dearly. Thanks guys for being such wonderful people!!

night skyline for our first dinner out

yummy!

before Kimi and I got too cold and asked to move inside.

we visited Garden of the gods. It was neat

everyone got the Chaco memo, except Jack. But even if he had he wouldn't have worn any anyways.

Then later that night we hit up the putt-putt. Going for birdie...

The sunset was pretty

aren't they cute?

Then Jack and I had the privilege of taking Matt back to the Airforce Academy. It was so cool!

The chapel

it's supposed to resemble airplanes

campus, we weren't allowed down there. that's where they march and do drills and stuff.

Los Alamos Triathlon

Back in August I had the opportunity to be a part of a triathlon relay team. I did the running leg, and one friend did the swim and another did the bike. It was my first experience ever with a triathlon and I enjoyed only having to do one leg of the race. However, it did pique my interest in one day doing a triathlon where I actually do all three legs. I will admit I felt like I was cheating as I was flying past other runners on my fresh legs after they had biked and swam. Oh well! It was hosted in Los Alamos (talk about convenient race morning start) and the order was a little different because the swim was held in the indoor aquatic center in town (famous for the Japanese Olympic swim team training there for the 2008 Olympics). It was a 13 mile bike ride, 400m swim and 5k race. Our goal was to hopefully win our age group and if possible take #1 overall for the women's team relays. Well due to an unfortunate mishap in the pool (our timing chip fell off our swimmer) they messed our times up at the end of the race but thankfully we finally found out a few days later that yes, we had actually won our age group and taken 2nd overall of the women's relay teams. It was a blast! The race was well organized and scenic and I just love the home town feel of races up here in Los Alamos (like the Jemez half marathon I ran in May). Team name was - Team 10:31 referencing 1 Corinthians 10:31 - Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Our desire was to be Christ honoring triathletes and glorify God in our race day. It was a good reminder when we realized we might be jipped out of our 1st place recognition but we decided we didn't care if we got the recognition or not, we were happy with our performance.  We all wore blue (mainly because that's the color of the swimmer's suit) and enjoyed the experience. Gonna have to decide if maybe next year I'll try this thing on my own seeing as how one of the team mates will be off to college and the other will have her second baby by then (she was pregnant in this race, the swimmer)!

Trying to stay warm before the race started

pre-race shot. we were so cold!

enjoying watching the bikers going by.

finishing up her biking leg! she did great!

looking fresh and trying to push for my fastest 5k yet

goal achieved, 8min miles...but I almost tossed my cookies at the end

shew, recovered it

Team 10:31 post-race. What a fun time to spend with these ladies!

Summer Annual Cliff Jumping

I honestly thought we had lost the opportunity to go cliff jumping this summer because we ended up going so late but alas, we pulled it off. It was a small but fun group that got to go. We enjoyed some great jumps, fun swims, interesting flip attempts and overall good hanging out. Abiquiu Lake offers some of the best cliff jumping I've ever done basically because it feels safe. The cliff is a shear face with very few out jutting rocks and the water is clear and deep. This is definitely something I'm thankful we live close to!

the lake

the girls 

the guys

friends

attempt

backflip

courage!

hair

bro weekend...the girls tagged along. thanks guys!

flipping

Chicago Trip

Back in June (so I'm a little behind), Jack and I were able to go to Chicago to visit some friends. It was great. We hit up the Aquarium, the Pier and some good eats. Thankful for the friendships that have forged over the years...starting with the guys meeting on summer project in 2003 and now the wives have become great friends as well. 

sweet Ruby girl

Nemo!

The ladies. (Alinna and Rachel)

cooking away

gents

jellies

the gang

What kind of food do nuclear engineers like?

Fission chips...HA! [get it?]

I felt like I had to start this post off with a good joke told by our dear friend Rachel [aka the Brill Brit].

Earlier in June, Jack and I had the pleasure of hosting our dear friends Jeremy and Kimi on their quick trip to Los Alamos. What a great time of catching up with them and chatting about life and encouraging one another. No doubt friends like them are one in a million.

While they were here we were treated graciously by the Christensens [also, one of the great families we have connected with here in Los Alamos] to an Isotopes game! The Isotopes are the minor league team in Albuquerque which is a farm league for the LA Dodgers. It was fun enjoying the game and sitting in great seats [albeit, dangerous seats as well!]. We participated in the wave, jumped and screamed for free t-shirts, sang our hearts out to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and cheered on the home team to a victory. All in all it was fun and relaxing!!

best buddies :)

awesome seats...watch out for foul balls though!

love this girl! both looking a little silly but that's ok, that's what you do when you're with a friend you haven't seen in ages.

Captain Kirk! YUM funnel cake. we all enjoyed a bit of that cake.

sweet mckay-kay...fun to hang out with her. sadly didn't get a pic of Greta her mom!