This is why we came here

Today was a big day. It took us 2 years since we moved to Denver to make it happen, but today we summitted our first 14er!!! (A 14er is a mountain with an elevation of 14,000+ feet. There are 53 of them in Colorado.)


Other than a few modest hikes - moderate enough for me while I was pregnant, or short enough for Roan's short attention span - we have done almost no hiking. So it was a big deal to have Aunt Jen and Uncle Micah watch Roan for us while we went on this little adventure.

We woke up at 4:30 this morning and were out of the house by 5. We were on our way up the trail to Mt. Bierstadt by 6:45, reached the summit by 9:15 and were back at the car by 11:30. It was a short, but excitement packed day. I had butterflies in my stomach this morning, wondering to what extent we would feel the effects of altitude. Altitude sickness is a real threat. You can start vomiting suddenly, or even black out from lack of oxygen. We made sure to pace ourselves and stay well-hydrated.


It's funny to feel on the one hand like an extremely experienced hiker with over 2000 miles under our belts and many many mountain summits. And yet on the other hand we are total novices at high altitude hiking. So it was a humbling experience. We were eager to see how we'd do. And I'm glad to report we did just fine. Bierstadt is one of the easiest 14ers in the state, with a well maintained trail. The 3000 feet of elevation gain was spread out fairly evenly throughout the 7.6 mile hike, with just one brief vertical boulder scramble at the end. And I've got to say, it was great just to have a few hours alone with Arwen doing something we love to do.

Now we feel like we are officially Coloradans!

You can see all the photos from the hike here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/11647815@N04/4Q6sU7

In Roan news, Little Miss is still just the cutest thing. She was a little off this evening though. After a fun-filled relatively trouble-free day she suddenly started talking about wanting to go to bed at 6:45 (normal bedtime is 8). When I sat down with her to cuddle up with her blankie, baby and a book, our normal nighttime routine, I noticed she felt hot to my touch. Sure enough she had 100.5 * fever, which by our pediatrician's standards barely crosses the threshhold of fever. We'll have to see how the next day or two unfolds but at the moment we're not sure if she's coming down with something or perhaps just teething. I thought I saw a couple more molars coming in (she already has 4 molars... how many molars do you have? maybe these are called something else but they're BIG).

In any case I hope hope hope that this is not the start of some new terrible illness. I'm slated to leave town tomorrow night for a weeklong business trip to Houston. She and Arwen will stay here in Denver. It is my first time to be away from her for more than one night. I'm not exactly thrilled about it. But I figured she would do better here in her normal routine with all the people around her who normally dote on her (except me), than if I carted her down to Houston and completely changed up the routine on her. We are just getting to the point now where she seems to be happy at daycare. This week we've had virtually no crying! Hopefully my being gone won't throw her off too much.

Here's a quick video that is sure to make you laugh.