On July 28 we celebrated our 9th anniversary; can it really be 9 years already?! It's been fascinating and wonderful to see how we morph and change over the years, both as individuals and as a couple, into who we are today. I'm so grateful for the time we've had together up to now and I can't wait to see what the future holds for us.
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July 26-28 we participated as volunteers at the Courage Classic, a fund-raising ride benefitting The Children's Hospital in Denver which treats chronically ill children (www.couragetours.com). There were over 2000 participants as well as all of their friends and family, so it was a busy and inspiring time in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Quite a few of the riders were children and young people who are in and out of treatment regularly but who still rode 60 miles a day. (And I complain about my 6-mile, slightly uphill grade, ride to work with a fully healthy body!) Steven provided mechanical support to many, many people and their bikes while I helped out answering questions and selling products in the Bicycle Village tent.
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On our last day in Copper, we got to go for a ride of our own. There is a beautiful paved bike path that goes throughout all of Summit County (where most of the famous Colorado ski resorts are located); we rode over Vail Pass and down a super fun, fast section towards the town of Vail. Parts of the path are right next to the Interstate, so it can be a little intimidating to be riding directly next to speeding cars and semis, but lots of fun, too when you see how fast you're going. Then we had to come all the way back up, of course! Our total ride was almost exactly 20 miles; less than 5 minutes after we got back to the car a huge thunderstorm started. It turned out to be one of the biggest storms the area had seen in a long time, so our timing was just perfect.
This weekend a few people from Walter Drake went on a hike to Horsethief Falls near Divide, about 45 minutes from Colorado Springs. While the waterfall wasn't quite as big as I was expecting, it was still a beautiful hike. It's been a really long time since I've just gone hiking and it was nice to get out into the woods. Because of all the rain we've been having lately everything was exceptionally green and lush, kind of rare for Colorado. One of the main things I've missed about western North Carolina is the variety of trees and plant life and how verdant it always is, so it was refreshing to see a little bit of it here in Colorado. 
This moss especially reminded me of NC; there are so many varieties of moss everywhere you look. I liked the small red things that looked like antennae poking out of the top and it was so soft when you touched it.
There was a super cute little boy who came with his dad on the hike; he held onto the Camelbak tube most of the time and drank from it whenever he wanted. But if the tube fell out of his hands he'd wait for his dad to reach back with the tube and he would just open his mouth and wait for it to come to him, which of course it never did and finally he would grab it and hold it again for a little while. Adorable!
The waterfall was smaller than I thought it would be but was still a very pretty place and the water was cold and clear. Amazing to think of how long it took for the water to carve out the little channel for itself into that huge rock.
