A Lovely Life

It's New Year's Eve. I always find myself a little emotional (shocking) and a lot reflective when it's time to say goodbye to one year and welcome in a new one. This year, like last, though, there is a profound feeling of excitement. 2017. January. Goodbye to Georgia. Hello to #coloRADo. Snow. Tears. COLD. New job. Celebrating having Brucey for 1 year. ADJUSTMENT. February. Intro to hiking. Brewery visits. Cristy visits from Georgia! Fat biking. Snow shoeing. Pam visits from Alabama! My attempt to date again.. March. The Publix Half Marathon (marathon #2) with #TEAMNOAH. Visits with my Georgia family...lots of hugs. So much more snow (and stuck cars) April.  Snow. AGAIN. Chase visits from Georgia! Moved into my first, big girl apartment. Meet the Malloys and become fast friends. Sarah and Mike visit from California! First trip to Boston. The best visit with Uncle Paul and Aunt Irena. May. Starting to feel settled into my job. Summer! Hikes...

When I first moved to Colorado, the house I was staying in at the time had a book titled, "The Colorado 14ers". I had to Google what a "14er" was and quickly ascertained that hiking one of those bad boys was completely and unequivocally out of the question. Living in the snow at 9,000 feet was going to have to be enough for me. For those who have no idea...a 14er is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. There are 53 of them in the state of Colorado. 7.5 months after saying "never will I ever", I climbed one of those bad boys on a day that will no doubt be remembered as another massive accomplishment achieved in the first year of living in Colorado. Mt. Bierstadt is rated one of the "easy" ones. It stands at 14,062-ish feet (depending on what damn boulder you stand on, I suppose). "Easy" is a cute term. You begin at over 11,000 feet and climb up a literal mountain to get to the peak....the peak, by the way, is...