Good times with good friends!

I know I've been a bit MIA this week but it's for a good reason! After my family left on Tuesday, we had our good friend Russell Bobbitt and his lovely girlfriend Katie fly in from Georgia on Wednesday afternoon. We started their trip out with a fun dinner to catch up then we sent them up to Winter Park Thursday morning so they could get their snowboard on. It was Katie's first time on a snowboard and when we met up with them later that evening, she had already gone through a half bottle of Advil :)

After a relaxing morning, we decided to meet up with the Boulder crew to get our skate skiing on at Snow Mountain Ranch. Russ and Katie have never been before but they picked it up like champs.

I haven't been skiing in almost 3 years and I was nervous as all could be that it was going to irritate my hip, but thankfully it didn't. I was able to ski just fine and my new Salomon boots that I got for Christmas were awesome.

 Later that evening, we had everyone over to our place for a delicious meal and fun games. This was our first time entertaining our friends at the new condo and it couldn't have been more fun.

The night wouldn't be complete without a homemade dessert from Shelby. Mmmmm! Between dinner, dessert and all the wine we drank, I'm pretty certain everyone left quite satisfied :)

Christmas 2011

Since we just finished setting up the condo in Winter Park, we decided to celebrate the holiday season with our families at the new place :) We had a Bingham-Kummer gathering on Christmas Eve that included hikes, laughs, chats and lots of good eats!

Christmas Day was filled with more delicious foods, another great hike, lots of relaxation and fun times with our good friend Shelby!

We headed back to Boulder late Christmas night where we indulged in Chinese food and opened our gifts. I'm not going to lie, almost everyone had a pretty good idea of what they were getting but we did have some great surprises. Last year we inherited Courtney and Tito's 2000 piece puzzle that was on our floor for almost 3 months before it got finished so this year my parents bought us another one but included a cool mat that can be used to store or transport the puzzle so we can work on it anywhere!!! Perfect gift :)

As always, there were many new MTB and moto videos to be unwrapped and watched! We actually watched all three over two days and everyone loved them!

I had planned Monday as a relaxation day with some go-karting in the late afternoon, however, when we got to Unser to rip it up, they were booked solid for the next 4 hours! I was super bummed out but there's always next time. Instead, we went shopping on Pearl Street and had a great dinner at the Gondolier. My mother even got her ''New Year'' picture of Jerry and I for the yearly card! Big thanks to my family for coming out and spending the holidays with us at our homes and battling the crazy holiday madness!

Hooray for Christmas Time!

There are several things I love about the holidays but one of my favorites is all the family cards that come in the mail the week leading up to Christmas! These are only a few but it's exciting to hear from family and friends and see all the fun photos from the year.

Christmas is never as exciting without a fresh blanket of white snow :) I think we may just have that this year! It hasn't stopped snowing since 6pm last night and it's coming down like crazy! Good thing I got those new snow tires, huh?!?

And the final touches have been made!

 

After all the craziness of last week, we were looking forward to going up to Winter Park to put the finishing touches on the condo before our families meet up there for some holiday activities.

 

 We put up some wall art in the living room and master bedroom and hung a really cool wine rack in the kitchen.We also met the cable guy and now look forward to our first DirecTV experience.

 After about an hour of rest and relaxation, we got conned into riding moto down in Colorado Springs Sunday morning. This meant that we had to get up at the butt crack of dawn Sunday morning and drive from WP to Boulder, pick up the bikes then head down another 2 hours to Colo Springs. It was definitely a long day worth of travel but worth every second. It was great to meet up with some good friends and rip around on the dirt bikes in some of the warmest winter weather we've had!

A Rough Week!

December and January are some of the busiest months of the year for my accounting business and this year has been the busiest yet! On my list of nightmares, there is one thing that rates worse than my computer crashing this time of year. Luckily I didn't have any stomach related issues, however, my number two on the list came to haunt me. After my computer got attacked by a virus early Wed morning, it immediately went dark and my heart completely sunk. I ran into FRG where the IT guys worked as quickly as possible to extract all my data off the hard drive. Ironically, they had ordered a new computer for me and it was almost ready to go until I flew through the doors and begged them to expedite the process. Mark and Mike worked their magic for several hours and by noon I was finally able to be semi productive! I'm still slowly adding programs and files but I am now 100% functional and cranking away.

After an incredibly long day of catching up due to my computer issues on Thursday, I met Bryce at the Trek Store for the 2012 Team meet and greet. Bryce is riding for a bike team for the first time in many years and he's really excited about it. After catching up with some good friends, we hit up the second party of the evening at Courtney and Tito's. This was a cookie party where everyone was supposed to bake a batch of cookies and bring them to share. Not gonna lie...I substituted about 14 cookies for dinner and dessert that night!

The cookie party was going great until we all began to take off. Apparently a new parking policy had been instilled and almost everyone got a boot on their car for not having a parking permit. Great day for Bryce and to both drive to a party, huh?!? I was surprisingly calm considering the all the other madness going on in my life, however, the sticker stated that we couldn't get the boots off until 7am at earliest the next morning. Thankfully, Allen and Jenny gave us a lift home and we would figure things out in the morning. To make a long story short, I tried calling the number on the sticker to meet someone at the cars for over 2 hours and no one answered. I called the Police, I called the apartment leasing office and 5hrs/$150 later, I was able to get both cars un-booted.

Friday followed the same trend with a familiar busy day at work, followed by a holiday party.  Friday's evening party was Bryce's work Christmas party held in Westminster.  I worked late, and we arrived to the party a little bit late.  We planned on making it to our friend Allen's annual Christmas party later in the evening, but unfortunately ran completely out of time and energy.  We've really been burning it at both ends and are looking forward to a having a few days to relax over the holidays!

Top 3 Holiday Gift Guide

There's no doubt that holiday shopping is a difficult task! How do you find the perfect gift for someone who already has everything? Who wants to battle the insane crowds anyway? Personally, I absolutely despise shopping malls but I do like to find that "perfect" gift for my friends and family. Below are my top three holiday gift ideas for the endurance athlete that may seem impossible to buy for!

Nordic Ski Package - In all honesty, as much as we try, type A personalities just simply cannot rest during the winter. Our lives wouldn't go forward without some sort of daily exercise, even if it's running in below zero temps or getting on the bike trainer and suffering for hours. Although this gift is a higher price point item, it's definitely an investment. Whether skating, touring or classic skiing, any form of nordic skiing is a great way to cross train for endurance sports in the winter time. It's new and exciting so you don't get burned out, it's outside, and it's a killer workout! Packages start as low as $250 new but going to your local ski swap is perfect way to find inexpensive used gear that is perfect for starting up. Check out this link for new Nordic Ski Packages - http://www.skiessentials.com/browse.cfm/complete-packages/2,333.html

Timex 80 Watch - In case you haven't noticed, the 80s have been creeping back into style :) Personally, I'm not that into clothing but I absolutely have to have matching hats and watches. The Timex 80 watch is a fun gift that is assured to get tons of compliments and within a great price point. Check out the full line at www.timex80.com

DVD of Choice - This item is not only the best bang for your buck, but totally customizable for any type of athlete. Whether you're rocking out on the bike trainer, smashing it on the treadmill or just enjoying some hot cocoa on the couch on a cold winter night, an entertaining sports flick/documentary is where it's at. Since I'm a big mountain biker, I like to shop at www.mtbmovies.com - they have a variety of videos that suppress that itch to go out and shred the trails. In our house, we call watching biking/moto/ski videos "e-riding". There's nothing like a rad video to you get you motivated and excited for the sports you love. I have to admit that opening new bike videos on Christmas morning is certainly the highlight of the day!!!

NEW SNOW TIRES!!!!

I'm happy to announce that I have officially done the correct thing this year and purchased specific wheels and tires that fit my vehicle (at retail) for my winter setup. For those of you that know what happened last season, I will NEVER make that mistake again :) 

Since I wasn't trying to fit tires that were in my garage to a set of cheap aftermarket rims, I had lots of options. I decided to go with the burliest and best snow tire they had with studs. Go big or go home, right?!? Kummer family - there will be no issues going up to the mountains this holiday season, I promise!!!!

I'm starting to feel old!

 

Okay, not really...however, I have recently been meeting with a financial advisor so I can begin to understand the road to retirement. I've always been a good saver but since I'm actually starting to grow up a bit (obviously only in age), I think that planning for the future is probably becoming more of a necessity :) I honestly wouldn't have gone out seeking any advice on the topic myself, but I had a great opportunity to meet a very intelligent young man who offered to get me going. After a few meetings, I am already feeling confident in my current plan and hope to be able to continue at the same rate, if not better. If you're in the market for a personal, smart and good looking financial advisor, Eric Hoelter is the man for you!

A relaxing weekend!

Since the first weekend in November, this was the first weekend we were not up at the condo in WP fixing it up and getting it ready to rent! Instead, we did a lot of relaxing, a little shopping and a bit of walking. Although I did find out that I am no longer testing positive for Epstein Barr on Thursday, we got a bunch of snow this past week so going on any sort of bicycle ride was out of the question. Instead, we did a few snow walks all bundled up which was just as much fun. We also did some present wrapping and tree decorating. Above is one of our new 2011 ornaments. We decided that we would buy 2 new ornaments each year for the tree that were meaningful instead of a bunch of generic stuff. I couldn't resist...it looks sooooo real!

Bryce also received an early birthday present from our roommate, Joe. He won a 24 pack of Red Bull in his race on Saturday and knows how much Bryce loves that crap so he put the pack under the tree for him :) Too funny!

To top off the weekend, we also planned out some fun new meals to cook for the week as well as bake some delicious ''Peanut Butter Buckets'' to celebrate Melanie's birthday and engagement on Monday evening! The recipe called for 40 cookies but between Bryce and I nibbling on batter and a few completes, I think we manage to save just under 30 :) Oops!

My boyfriend is a moron!

So Bryce decided to participate in the whole ''No Shave November'' party. He's never had facial hair like this before so it was kinda funny seeing how thick it got so quickly!

 

 I knew Bryce was ready to shave the whole thing off, but I didn't think he was going to go artistic on it!

After I fell asleep at 7:30pm Wednesday night, Bryce went to Target to get a new shaver and started going to town. After several different options, he finally settled for the creeper stash.

I absolutely despise mustaches and this is what I woke up to this morning. Gross. I still can't believe he actually went into work like this either...at least he's not driving the van :)

Looks like we're getting a new van...

Just ordered this sucker today!!! Moto/MTB road trips, here we come :)

Some good and some not so good!

 

After a really great time with Doug and a couple of relaxing days in Boulder, Bryce and I headed up to the Winter Park condo to put the finishing touches on the property! The first thing that we always do when we get there is start a fire in the wood burning fireplace...luckily we have A LOT of cardboard to burn after unpacking all the new furniture.

The trip started out really great with an easy drive in the sunshine with little traffic. We were able to get the chandelier up and the granite cut without too many issues and then hung up some fun artwork in the bathrooms and bedrooms!

 

I did somehow manage to break the glass in a picture frame while trying to fasten the back board and then all things went downhill from there :(

 

Bryce somehow wired the 4 prong 220 volt plug incorrectly and not only blew the main power circuit to our entire unit, he also sent 220 volts to a 110 volt circuit inside our oven and it no longer functions...oops! After several phone calls to the electrical company, we found the main breaker box to turn the power back on but unfortunately the range display still needs some fixing...I think Bryce is calling Whirlpool today :)

I honestly cannot sew to save my life but the curtains we chose for all three closets were 3-6 inches too long and it just wasn't going to work for me! I decided to hem each curtain (yes, that would be 6 total) by hand so they would not drag on the ground. I'm pretty sure I poked myself about 15 times per curtain and my fingers are extremely sore today!

 

After we get a new picture frame, hang a few more pieces of art and fix the range, we will officially be 100% finished with the remodel. All the kitchen drawers have been fully furnished with every cooking gadget you could think of and the place feels just like home! Now all we need is a renter for the winter and we'll be all set :) You can find more pics here https://picasaweb.google.com/Golfchick84/WPForRent.

More Holiday Fun!

Well, I made my first attempt at going uphill on my MTB and it wasn't a failure. It was pretty either, but I made it and good times were had by all :)  After running a few errands on Friday morning, Doug and Bryce convinced me to head up to Betasso on the mountain bikes for an easy spin. It was absolutely perfect and a great ''first ride'' back!
 

My general rule of thumb is that the Christmas tree cannot go up before Thanksgiving so Friday evening was the perfect time. We had just devoured a great lunch at Moe's and Shelby had come over to hang so we put on some good tunes and got in the holiday spirit.

The boys also even convinced Shelby to make her world famous chocolate chip cookies! I have to admit I wasn't part of the heckling but I sure didn't mind that she wiped those things out...holy yummy cookies!

A Very Relaxing Turkey Day!

My favorite mechanic in the world, Doug Berner, surprised me on Tuesday evening by telling me that he was on his way to Colorado after working at Ironman Arizona! After he got into Boulder Wednesday afternoon, we went out to the Valmont Bike Park to play around. This was my first time on a bicycle in over 5 weeks and it was Doug's first experience at Boulder's newest $4.2 million bike park! After our short ride, we headed home to meet up with Bryce and hit the infamous Rio Grande restaurant for dinner!

Doug's most favorite thing to do while traveling on the road is to hit up all the mountain bike trails he can find! Since I am most definitely not ready for any kind of mountain biking, Bryce took him out to Heil and Picture Rock where they connected via the ''Wild Turkey'' trail...how ironic for a Thanksgiving Day ride :) Shelby and myself headed out for an easy spin on the CX bikes while the boys did their thing then we all had a delicious dinner of potatoes with BBQ chicken and yummy pastries from Alfa Alfa's for dessert! Not the typical turkey and stuffing meal most people were having but the combination of the simple food and a good movie was perfect for a relaxing Thanksgiving night!

Health Update

I know I've been busy posting photos and updates about the condo but I've been pretty quiet about how I've been feeling. I had several rough patches during the first few weeks as my body really struggles with the high dosage of medication, but I've almost hit 6 weeks of resting and I'm starting to finally feel a bit better. I'm not getting the head rushes and dizzy spells I was before but I'm still falling asleep on the couch around 8pm and waking up around 6am each morning. It's supposed to be REALLY gorgeous this week so I think I might try to get out and go spin around outside very easy with some friends to enjoy the nice weather! I have another blood test next week to see where the Epstein Barr Virus stands in the body but I'm definitely heading in the right direction which puts a huge smile on my face :)

Soooo close!

Bryce and I drove up to the WP condo Thursday evening so we could have the appliances delivered and the plumber come fix the hot water heater on Friday morning...we also spent the day working from the condo :)

Although the plumber was there for over 2.5hrs and our stupid home warranty wouldn't cover the claim, we now have hot water and that is truly all we care about. On the appliance side of things you might have noticed the nice gap in the counter top on the first photo...well that is because our range is less than 1cm too wide and will not slide in! We were not prepared for this so we will bring the proper tools to cut the granite tiles next weekend. I keep forgetting that everything that is supposed to take 2 minutes usually takes 2 hours and that was true for the dishwasher and refrigerator as well. We still need to hook the dishwasher up because we were missing a piece and the fridge came with the hinges on the wrong side so those needed a lengthy fix as well!

As Bryce worked on the technical pieces in the kitchen, I was busy building more IKEA furniture. This queen sleeper is NOT lightweight but it was actually pretty simple to put together.

The bunk beds in the guest room, however, were NOT simple to put together :) This piece of furniture was by far the most complicated of all items I've purchased from IKEA...I totally understand why but I'm still going to complain.

Several hours later, we had 2 bunk beds with bedding, a dresser, and a nightstand for a finished guest room.

I know I swore that I wouldn't pick up another paint brush ever again, but I had to finish painting the brown bathroom white. I also added the final decor to both the master and guest baths and we took our first showers using the newly heated hot water!

 

Bryce made a huge difference in the overall look of the place by changing all the switches, plugs and thermostats.

After picking up that center beam from IKEA that we were missing last weekend, we were finally able to get the master bed all made up. It felt so good to sleep in our own place for the first time since we've owned it.

What a difference the long stainless pulls make on the cabinets. The combination of the appliances and finished cabinets really make the place feel complete.

Lastly, I began to un-package and organize all the kitchen and dining items. I know it's nothing too exciting, but it feels good to start putting all the boxes of stuff that have been on the floor in their proper place! We plan on making our final shopping trips for the last minute items this week then completing all the remaining work during Thanksgiving weekend so it will be ready to rent by December 1! If you or anyone you know is interested, please send them my way :)