Time Time Time.....

I loaded a video....just a teaser. The Wildes trip was a sucess, now I just have to get all the pics and video together to share. I tried to take picture.....but the Wildes clan NEVER STOPS MOVING! So I took a lot of video instead and I'm just learning about video editing so it takes me a while. Anyway, here's a video and a picture..... More to come on that later
What a happy baby, so cute!



Running.... i still suck at running! I keep trying though. Since it's been so nice out I started running outside finally. It's a huge difference then on the treadmil....HUGE difference for me! But I've gradually adding more miles of jogging/walking and trying to reduce the walking. This week I added the bike. I'm just tooling around now after I run, but slowly adding miles to the routine.
I've been kayaking a few times already....and it's COLD. We did Shoshone/Grizzly the other weekend. Shoshone is short and fun class III then grizzly is flat and slow class II. It snowed half way down Grizzly. My hands couldn't grip the paddle anymore halfway through the day all of our hands were so cold. but we made it and of course once we hit the take out the sun came out. Did a few other runs since then....can't wait for the sun to warm things up a bit more though.

Snowboarding is over too :( snif sniff... I put my board away (but could use up until May almost June at ABasin). It's going to be a great summer.

More later........

Road Tripping with the 'Rents!!!

Ok....finally I have it done. I started this thing so many different ways and decided the fastest way and easiest to display this much was to make a video. Hope you enjoy, it's about 10 mins long. To be honest I'm a little P'O'd at the internet! It never displays the pictures with the original clarity once they are converted with the blogger movie display. If I posted them individually you could see they are all crisp and nice pictures but the stupid internet fuzzes them out. Oh well, you'll get the picture ;)

Mom/Dad - I'm sending you a CD of these songs among others you asked for so you can import them to the Ipod! Pura Vida~ Tracy

It's been a long long time....

It's been a while eh? Here's what's been happening....

Holidays are over, and they passed by like any other day.

I've been laying low during the week and hitting the hill to snowboard on the weekends. Back in the beginning of January I was going to Arapahoe Basin Ski area and found the trees....oh how I love the trees :) I went with my friend Dede who is a phenomenal snowboarder (she can ski and tele too). she can handle just about any terrain which is good for me because she takes me on terrain I wouldn't have been able to find by myself....mainly the trees. Did I mention I love boarding through the trees, so much fun!!! Traffic SUCKS. If you leave at the wrong time you get stuck in the I-70 traffic back to town...... These pics are me waiting to get to the Eisenhower tunnel (I should have taken Loveland Pass instead CRAP!!!)


A few sunday's ago, I went on a hike in Boulder via the Mesa Trail with Patty, Suzy, and all our dogs (2 of mine, and the other's each had one). It took us about 2 and 1/2 hours to do the loop. It wasn't terribly hard but it was a pretty steep up hill on snow/ice for the first couple of miles, then downhill with slippery mud and clay. The dogs were all over the place running ahead of us doubling back, then sprinting ahead again. Each time they came back to make sure we were still there they were covered with a thicker coat of mud and crud. they were having such a good time. I was very excited thinking about the quite night ahead of us as they normally crash pretty hard after a day like that!!! We got home and Olive, the captain of my geriatric team, walked in the house, ate her dinner and sat herself down on her pillow...she didn't move for over 24 hours. I couldn't get her up to outside, and I had to bring her food over to her to eat on her pillow. she was eating so I wasn't too concerned, she was taking the time to heal herself. The next day she started to get up once or twice to go outside then layed back down. Poor thing she gets so sore. I've got her on glucosamine now and she's like a new dog, bouncing around and hyper, she'll have to stay on it the rest of her life, but if it makes her hurt less I'm happy to get it for her.

The next weekend was another trip to A-Basin on Saturday then Keystone on Sunday.
A-basin parking lot.... I went by myself so it had to be a self portrait :)

Keystone was great, my friend Kim and I stayed in the outback and rode all the tree runs and bumps. It was a work out, my legs were stinging by the end of the day. The last run we chose was painful, it was great in the beginning, powdery trails zig zagging through trees, then we hit the moguls... BUICK size moguls. I struggled the entire way down, it felt like it took hours, I finally hit the flat stretch that eventually led me to the lift to meet up with Kim and that was it..I was POOPED! We decided to call it a day since neither of us could feel our legs anymore (not from being cold either). We had two lifts and about 6 miles of trails to get back to the front of the mountain so we could leave. I walked away from keystone that day wobbly and exhausted, it was fantastic!

This last weekend we had a Costa Rica reunion. Most of the group that I was in Costa rica with all meet up at Kay's house in Snowmass, Colorado to laugh and see pictures and video from the trip.

I carpooled with my friend Dede and we headed out on Friday morning. We hit Vail resort to board for the day which was great. I learned two new phrases that day, the first was 'cliffed out'. We took one lift up the hill then traversed what seemed like forever, then we hit a powder filled clearing with a few trees. We got close to the trees and notice there were 3 skiers walking along the ridge carrying their skies. UH OH! so we get to them and Dede turns to me and say "I'm SO sorry, I had no idea'. We were looking over the edge of a cliff and at the bottom of this cliff was a very steep section that lead to a mogul field, VOLKSWAGON sized moguls they were enormous and it was ridiculously steep. No way out except down this section... So I took my board off and got down the cliff to as flat a section as I could (basically I was leaned up again a tree so I wouldn't roll down the hill before I got my board on). When I was walking I learned the second phrase of the day 'post holing'. Every few steps my leg would sink up to my hip in the snow, I'd pull it out walk a few steps and the other leg would sink into the snow. I finally get my board on, and try my best to get down this in one piece. I get to the moguls and I'm already sweating like a pig (It was 8 degrees literally, that tells you how much I had to work to get down that clif). I finally get through the moguls with Dede coaching me the whole way 'you're doing great, take your time, good job, so sorry I sand bagged you with all this'. We tried to stay on groomers the rest of the day but kept ending up on bump runs (moguls). I thought my legs were going to fall off when we finally reach the car. We made it to Kays around 6pm ish, had some dinner and I crashed....hard!!

The next morning Dede, myself, Kay, Rachel, and Daniel all met Kay's friend Skip (world class ski instructor at snowmass) for more boarding.

We had a great day, screaming down the runs! Snowmass mtn is incredible. the views are spectacular, you can see miles and miles of snow covered mountain ranges and the terrain on the runs were rolling hills with trees and powder....I was in heaven! We finished up the day and headed back to greet the rest of the group that came in to town. Patty, Rich, Suzy and Max all arrived late that evening. We had a great dinner that Kay's 15 year old son cooked us and then had cocktails and relived our great time in costa Rica. Sunday we all headed to the hill for more fun in the snow :) We split up into two groups this time, half of us went on the double black diamond runs while I stayed with Patty, kay and skip on the groomers. Patty hasn't skied in 10 years so we were there to keep her company...I wasn't complaining, I'm not sure my legs could take anymore harsh terrain :) We all headed back to town on Monday afternoon. It was a great great weekend, I had so much fun. this group of people is so fun to be around, we all just laugh and laugh. We're planning the next reunion in a few weeks.

As for working out, I've been following the Couch potato to 5 k workout since the first of the year. It's been great so far, I've gotten stuck though because I'm starting to quit smoking again. I know once that is finished I'll have a much easier time. I've been running 4 times a week then boarding for at least 2 days. I take Monday's off to recover. In addition to the running I've started a core exercise routine with the stability ball, sets of ab works outs, the plank, and then i do about 30 mins of yoga 3 times a week. Yoga is great for everything, I just feel so much stronger when I'm done :)

Ok I think that's it. wait.... I went on a date the other week with possibly the biggest dork ever. He's a nice guy and seems interested but not sure he's my type. I have another date this weekend....casual thing. I hate dating :) I have noticed that every person I've met that has their PHD or working towards it is just a little off... I'm not judging...I'm just sayin. I'm weird in my own way too, there's nothing wrong with weird, just an interesting observation.

OK NOW that's it..... I'll give ya some pictures now :) These basically show how I'm only here to feed them, the animals own the house. I was amazed how comfortable Olive looked in these :)








OK seriously make yourself at home guys!!! Notice how Olive had to take the back pillow and lay on that too. DORKS!

Christmas snow... Olive's very own heaven!


Me and Patty on a short flat hike on the Bobo Links trail in Boulder, with the doggies... Flatirons are in the background.

Tagged

Here it goes...tagged by Jenny :)

5 (or is it 6?)intersting things about me....... maybe not so much interesting as just facts!

1. I hate the HOLIDAYS!!! Unless I'm around my family. I appreciate my friends for inviting me to their houses or their families houses or out for a drink even. But, I'm so uncomfortable celebrating anything Christmas or Thanksgiving unless I'm with family. I'm super crabby when the holidays come around and I can't go home. I hate it when my neighborhood decorates because it looks like Xmas threw up on the block. I know I'll get the mandatory phone call where I'm passed around to everyone and it just breaks my heart every time. I know what the house smells like and what all the food taste like (YUMMY), I know what the table looks like and where people are going to sit, I know there's plenty of laughing and having a good time. The teasing jokes, the laughs at the kids, the games afterwards...... It kills me to always miss that!

2. I view the world as if I was taking a picture of it. Whatever I'm doing I'm always looking around for a good picture. I usually have a soundtrack to go along with it too....all in my head like a little movie making machine that won't stop.

3. Every stuffed animal I was given as a present (from boyfriends usually) has been given to the dogs as toys that they instantly shred. It started off innocently enough, Olive got a hold of one and within minutes the room was filled with stuffing and plastic eye balls, the pure joy she took in shaking it and ripping it to shreds was such fun to watch! I honestly tried several times to put the stuffed animals up knowing they would be destroyed if ever left at dog level.....but I find myself giggling and secretly happy when I would come home and Houdini (aka olive) would have gotten a hold of them and made a mess which I would find her rolling in and getting all the stuffing stuck to her fur. Sorry guys...don't buy me stuffed animals I guess is the solution!

4. I have an inner Ninja that I channel when I'm trying something that scares the crap out of me. don't get me wrong I love the adrenaline rush of trying a new kayak run or going down a hill steeper then I've ever done before. I'm not scared to do much of anything, but when I am...I call upon my inner Ninja who is never scared, she's always confident in her skills and knows how to keep things safe while still kicking ass! It's cheesy but it works for me!

5. e-mail.... I prefer it to the phone, but get so obsessed about it. I send ridiculously long e-mails because it's where I feel most comfortable expressing myself. I get irritated when people reply without answering questions, or they don't reply at all. I will check my e-mail a million times constantly wondering if you're gotten the e-mail, why you're not answering it faster, did I not get across what I wanted to say..blah blah blah... its borderline crazy really :)

6. I'm an incessant list maker. I make lists about my lists and rarely remember to bring them with to check off the things I've done. I periodically stack all my outdated lists and make a new list with the items from the old one's that I didn't get done. It's ridiculous....probably a bit OCD.

Costa Rica fun...yes there was a little!

Ok, so my orginal post about Costa Rica was a bit shocking, but I did have some fun. I didn't really mind the rain all that much, things were just as peaceful and pretty when the clouds hung on the trees. So here are some pictures.Even though the trip was chaotic and had it's moments of doom, it was a fantastic group to go with and I wouldn't trade any of it. It was an adventure of a lifetime, that I hope I can do again, minus the deportation and hospital stay :)


This is Me and Patty walking through town (just past the whore house) to the beach to begin our morning hike through the rainforest. It was aobut 6:30AM, I had only slept about 3 hours at this point in the previous 48 hours I had been up and traveling back to CR.



This is on the death trap dingy! We had to wade out up to our hips to get in this thing...it wasn't very big and we almost tipped over by the waves crashing into us as we motored parallel to the beach up to the tip of the pennisula. Front to back and right to left the people are: Mad Max, Rachel, the eyeball of Kay, Suzy, Dede, Charlie, Robert, Me, Jeff, Patty, Rich, Tom, Amatto, Lyle (aka Lelo).


Here we're waiting for the dingy death trap to show up. We had hiked for about an hour or so at this point. Notice Amatto in front with the red rain jacket and red shorts. He didn't speak much english and was one of the van drivers. He always smelled good and even with the communication barrier he was a hoot to talk to, we always seemed to get what the other way saying. Such a funny guy.

Here we're unloading at the put in on the first day I got in my boat on the river for this trip. On top of the first van is Cacho and Ferdinand. Both Costa Rican natives and excellent paddlers!

This was fun. The run was challenging but not over my anyone's head and it was relatively short. At this point we've already gone through all the rapids it had to offer and were just paddling the last flat section to get to the take out. The scenery on the river was so breath taking...I wish I had more shots of that. Hopefully more will come from the other's in the group. It's was beautiful to say the least.


This is just one of the houses we past during the day that was flooded. This wasn't even as bad as what Cacho and I saw on our journey through the middle of the night...the water had gone down by this point. It's really sad when you think about what the families options are...it's not like they can go to the hearest hotel for a few days.


This was the view on Saturday morning from our Hotel. It was beautiful...a little hazy but what can you do...we were standing int he middle of a cloud :) It really is a beautiful country!

More to come later.....

Music

Tune for running...I likey!

Adventures in traveling.....

I'll start the beginning and by the end I predict jaws will have dropped. Michele's response was classic after hearing this adventure story from the past week all she could say was 'Wholly Balls!'

Here it goes..... I was suppose to have a little over a week of whitewater kayaking in beautiful Costa Rica. Instead I had the following adventure. On Friday 11/2 a group of 6 of us all headed to the airport to catch our flight in route to Costa Rica. We had 6 kayaks, 6 dry bags and 1 very confused counter person who wasn't sure to do with all that gear! It went smoothly though as the counter lady eventually accepted that we needed these boats on the plane.

From Denver we stopped in Mexico City, Mexico for a 2 hour layover. I was sitting on the plane while landing with my passport out filling in the immigration/customs forms and when done put my passport back into the travel pouch that held onto my cash, bank card, credit card and my liscense. I locked my backpack best I could and we deboarded the plane. Once we walked through the crowded airport, sat and had a soda in a little cafe, we headed to immigration so we could board our final flight to Costa Rica. I start to go into my backpack while waiting in line and my heart sank. No pouch with my passport or anything else. The whole thing was gone. Panic set in and ran back to the cafe to look and ask if anyone saw it, then I ran back to the gate we exited after deboarding and argued with the policia and airline people trying to get back on to the plane. No one was interested in my urgency, they just shewed me away and said go to this person or that person over there...not a helpful person in the bunch. When I retured to the immigration section I saw two people...and I was so happy to see these two women I can't even tell you. Prior to running back to them I thought to myself 'I'm alone without any documentation to say who I am, in Mexico city one of the most crime infested cities and some of the most corrupt police and government. I'm without any money, very little spanish...OMG!'. So my friend Patty was standing there crying, and Rachel who grew up in Mexico City and speaks fluent spanish was also there trying to find me. We went through hell trying to get in touch with the US Embassy and anything we could think of to fix this. We were told to go to so many places to look for my stuff which lead us to have to be seperated from Rachel who ended up having to leave the aiport security area and not allowed back in. Eventually immigration caught up with me and put me in a temporary holding tank which I was guarded with armed guards and not allowed to leave. Patty ran back and forth to make phone calls to whomever she could, trying to find Rachel and to keep her sanity. Eventually my fate was in the hands of the immigration people, and I was stuck for the night. They let Patty stay with me in the holding tank until 4AM when they kicked her out. I didn't sleep for a second...eyes wide until noon when they escorted me to the very exact place I entered the airport and sat me in my seat on a plane back to Denver. I was the first US citizen to be deported from Mexico!

So, I do everything I need to do to get back to Costa Rica....which didn't happen until Tuesday. I returned after another layover in Mexico city ( I was on the exact same flight and one seat over from my orginal seat). I made it safely into Alajuela, Costa Rica around 11PM, took a taxi to the hotel and had Cacho (hotel owner, kayaker and Costa Rican Hub for this group, plus he was one of he drivers) waiting for me with open arms. He wanted to get me to the others in the group that very same night. So we loaded my kayak and gear into his van and headed out. Cacho was very worried when driving, it was downpouring the entire time, which then creates flash floods, mud slides and many dangers while trying to drive through the mountains and rainforest...int he middle of the night... Our first route was long and windy with lots of rain....every now and then I'd heard Cacho unclip his seat belt...and say 'It's not wise to have your seatbelt if we see mud slides'. So I follow his lead unclip my seat belt and we saw numerous mudslides that happened right before our eyes... we then get to a sharp turn in the road and see a full sized tree along with a mountin of mud which had wiped out the road...there's nothing to do but turn around. We turn around and back track about 1 hour and a half to our starting point. Cacho asks the Red Cross about the conditions on the other route which they said if you go now you might make it. So we're off again following the second route. It was also filled with lots of mudslides but the bigger danger was the roads being flooded and washed out. We saw a entire community being evacuated from their homes....their houses were filled with water up to the roofs, and babies crying, family members from different villages bicycling in to help. It was very sad...very serious! Cacho and I at this point were both clenched and wide awake...seatbelts off ready for whatever might happen. We get to one section of road that had a full stream of water flowing over it...Cacho said we need to go through this fast so we don't get swept away...so he punches it and I can feel the large van being pulled with the flow of water and hearing the engine fight to keep us going forward... We made it and high fived each other ! We came accross a few more villages being evacuated and more sections of road that had water flowing over them. Cacho says we're almost there...and then we see it...a river where the road was! The water was so forceful coming down the mountain and over the road that at the downside of the road was a full sized rapid with whitewater on it. My stomach sank and I look at Cacho, he said we're gunna punch it and he was visiblly worried as was I. We started high on the left hand side and by the time we made it to where we could feel the grip of the road we were on the very edge of the right hand side. Whew...another high five! about a mile down the road was where the group was and at this point it was about 4AM. I see Patty waiting for me and took a sigh of releif that I was finally there. Come to find out in the morning that minutes after Cacho and I made it through that section of water/road a tour bus tried it and failed. They were swept off the road and turned upside down.
Day 2 it was a long day in the van as all the rivers that we were by had flooded and were unrunable. so we headed for the beach on the Carribean side. It was still downpouring...actually the entire trip it didn't stop raning for more than an hour...the entire time! We had a really good time here... I got to surf my kayak in the ocean which was the most fun I'd had in a long time!! I loved it...then a nice dinner, lots of drinks and off to bed. The next morning we got up around 6 AM for a morning hike through the park in the rainforest which was also along the beach of the pinnesula we were on. We saw some monkeys and snakes but most of all we saw the largest mosquitos you'll ever see. We were suppose to hike and then go snorkling which didn't work out. We hiked in a ways so we could be picked up by this very small dingy like fishing boat (think canoe that can hold 14 people (barely) and then put a motor on the back). We were told once we loaded this thing to not move much...there's a good chance we'll capsize. SUPER! We slowly made our way to the tip of the penninsula and got off that death trap of a boat! We then find out that the smaller boat which carried our snorkling gear did capsize...sank the boat and the gear. So we had to hike out without snorkling. It was a long hike and if you didn't walk fast enough you were engulfed in a cloud of mosquites who were eager to bite you. I hit a pack of about 5 all chomping down on my neck and thought to myself as I looked at the smeared puddle of blood on my hand...hmmm I wonder if I just got some rare diseas or malaria... how fun!! We finally got back and I took a 4 hour nap then went back to the beach to surf in my kayak again....so much fun!!
The next day was uneventful...we found some water run that wasn't flooded and got a nice day in our kayaks on the river. It was short but the wave trains were HUGE and it was fun!
Saturday...the last day .... We ran the same river but put in a little higher this time. It wasn't anything we all couldn't do...just a big wave train, no moves to make or anything. A smaller group put in even higher to get in some tougher water. They were going to meet us at the put in in about 30 mins.... an hour and half later they still hadn't shown up....we were all worried and just staring upstream hoping to see them any second now...tick toc tick toc. We had been in our boats...in the water....getting rained on the for the entire time they were gone...too long, we were all cold at this point so nothing good could come of it! They finally arrived and we could all breath again. We found out Dede who is a solid class V boater, very strong, ended up swimming twice. That's not a good sign! She had to hike up a trash heap in barefeet at one point during her swims to get out... GROSS!!!
So we sat and sat until we were realy cold, then all of a sudden we were off... with a bang! I flipped when we got into the wave train and attempted to roll 4 times before I coudln't take the beating anymore...the water was running SO FAST it was so pushy! Then Patty flipped and ejected, then Jeff flipped and ejected... 3 swimmers on class II/III water ... ridiculous! Patty and I went for possibly the worst swim either of us has ever had. I got hit by so many rocks...I bruised my ribs on my left size, almost deflated my left breast, scrapped off a lot of skin from my right hip and butt cheek, my knees were bloody and instantly bruised as well....then the water got shallow again and patty and I both had to let go of our of recue boats that were trying to tow us to the shore to avoid having our arms ripped out of the socket. I found myself feel the bottom of the river which was like gravel there and I could sit down without being pushed by the water.. I was literally in the middle of the river sitting on my butt catching my breath. I look to my left and Jeff is on the banks of the river, safe! I look to my right and at the exact position I was in about 10 feet away from me was Patty. We looked at each other and just kind of giggled out of nervousness and said 'Hey, how's it going for ya'. We sat in shock for about 5 mins...then attempted to make it to the left hand bank of the river. The water started to pick up pace and get deeper and within a second we were again swimming full speed down the river hitting every rock and pour over it had to offer. I see Max, our group leader, with safety ropes so I started to swim as hard as I could to get to him and then I was sucked into a hole...a hole which didn't spit me out right away...but bobbed me up and down, I felt it suck me down deep and I tried to relaxe...i finally found the exit stream and got some air into my lungs, caught onto the resuce rope and stuck my foot out so patty could grab on... we got pulled to the banks and Patty and I both threw up buckets of water. But we were safe. Patty was done and wasn't going to boat anymore. I wanted to finish it so I got back in my boat. We sat on the banks and eagerly waited while the lost paddlers roaming the banks were found and back in their boats. I noticed the water was changing colors...from milky brown to dark chocolatly brown and it was rising fast...so fast you could watch it go up and up and up. We went about a half mile down the river and the guides pull over and said we have to get off the river now... it was a flash flood and we were in some serious danger... come to find out there was a keeper hold not that much farther down the river which would have easily swallowed the entire van we were driving in....not to mention what it would have done to any of us in our kayaks and worse yet if anyone was swimming. So we hiked out with our boats, waited for our ride and tried to keep warm. We finally got to the hotel after we stacked the van 10 boats high, got in a car accident on the freeway and huddled together for warmth. Whew...we're back...finally.

It was late, people were frantically packing their things as just about everyone was leaving the next morning (except for me) and I look down the hallway to see Patty fainting...and Max catching her. We get her back upstairs into her bed and she's twitching and halucinating, her eyes rolling back into her head, when she did speak it sounded like a child...high pitched, scared and weak. The night was long and filled with sounds of retching and convulsing. The morning finally came and Patty tried to get herself together so she could get on her plane...she could barely walk. She fought hard, but failed...and at about 6AM Max and I took Patty to the clinic while the rest of the group was headed for the flights home. She was admitted immediatley and pumped with fluids for sever dehydration and also testing for Dengai Fever. Oh those two days she can barely remember but they are burned in my brain forever... two american women in a foreigh country, receiving medical care with an obvious communication barrier... It was scary....I can say it now ..... I was scared shitless at this point. If it was Dengai she couldn't fly for at least 5 days if not longer... I wasn't going to leave her.. she stayed with me while I was being deported and I couldn't imagine leaving someone in that situation while hallucinating and not knowing where she was...it just wasn't an option. So when the docter came in the next morning and said she was cleared to fly and must see a DR when she gets back home (he pretty much said run while you can get back to your own country), I was so releived. I arranged the next flight I could get for us which was Tuesday afternoon... We made it home safe and compared to the rest of the week it was a piece of cake. Patty was very weak still, but she was a tropper and we pulled in to my house around 12:30. Whew...never been so a happy to be home in my life!!! And this all is the short version of the trip. Just a string of events that alone would be scary but tollerable... all happening in the same week on the same trip is just beyond my comprehension. I woke up this morning and had to think hard on whether or not I dreamt it all :) I did not...As Michele's put it so accurately.... WHOLLY BALLS!!!

I did manage to get a few pictures...which with my luck probably didn't turn out.. But when I have some I'll post them!