We climbed Everest!!

Okay, so not exactly Everest, but the highest peak in Colorado and the second highest in the continental United States.. Mt Elbert at 14,433 feet is a pretty tall mountain by any standards and will probably be our last fourteener this year as fall is fast approaching.

We got up around 4am, said goodbye to Tyler, left the house at 5am, 2 hour drive to the trail, on the trail by 7:45am



We got to the top at 12:15pm, back to the car at 4:30pm, home by 8pm.

Will update the blog with more details soon, but here is a picture of Siew Gin, Alan, Steffen and Armen at the top..

Holy Cow Stampede take II

Last Saturday the 16th was supposed to be the Holy Cow Stampede 5k, but rain stopped play.. Not sure how rain would stop us running, but it did, so I signed up for the erace homeless 5k in downtown Denver.

The race started later than normal, 9am rather than the usual 8am so it was very hot when we ran (Steffen had also signed up) and I swear the course was longer than 5k. 173 people completed the 5k and I finished in a respectable 23rd place, 3rd in my age group. Maybe I could have made the top twenty if I done some training the previous week...

Holy Cow Stampede Breakfast

Saturday was Holy Cow Stampede day. The same rec center where we play badminton has a once yearly 5 and 10k race on the big dry creek trail. A few of us had signed up Alan, Steffen, Damith, Sabrina and Uyen.

Race day came and the weather didn't look very good, but Alan and Steffen made it to the parking lot, only to be told that the race was cancelled due to bad weather... We quickly called everyone else and told them to turn around and arranged instead to pick up Siew Gin and Tyler and go for breakfast at cracker barrel. After a few minutes wait, shorter than normal maybe because of the weather we sat down and had a good old country breakfast..

Tyler enjoyed his high chair which looked like a regular chair

Two (or is it Three) 14'ers in 1 day

Flushed with success at completing our first 14'er, a few us of decided to attempt to do two 14'ers in 1 day. This is actually easier than it sounds because the two we chose were right next to each other.

We selected Grays at 14, 270 feet and Torreys at 14,267.

Alan, Steffen, Damith, Sabrina and Uyen made up the intreprid hikers who met up Sunday morning to start the hike. We had to endure 3 miles from the I-70 exit to the trailhead of rutted dirt tracks, pot holes and a distracted Steffens driving, but we eventually starting hiking at 8:30am.

This seemed a lot harder than Mt Bierstadt. We started at a lower elevation and had more elevation to climb. Steffen and I had run the day before so were feeling in pretty good form. Uyen, Damith and Sabrina were setting a slower pace, but were coping well with the hike.

About an hour in with the weather turning a little rainiy and the two peaks covered with mist and clouds I proposed that Steffen and I go ahead, complete the first peak, hike to the second, then hike back to the first to meet the three tortoises..

Everyone agreed so off we went. The climb up seemed to take a long time, with quite a few short stops and a lot of switchbacks, but we did make it to Grays in pretty good time, so that was one 14'er down.

Then we set off down the mountain to the saddle and a direct shot up the other mountain to the top of Torreys. Second 14'er down

We hadnt seen the other three all this time, so we decided to head down the mountain and take the middle path back to the trailhead.

Imagine our surprise when we got to the saddle and the trail down to see Damith, Sabrina and Uyen waving to us from a distance. We spent a few minutes deciding if they were going up or going down.. We could see they were going up, so we decided to take the direct path up to meet them. Yes that is us in the middle of the picture, just one step away from going down the mountain..

All five of us managed to arrive at the same time at the top. Third 14'er for us

Damith and Sabrina were excited that they had completed their first 14'er, but Uyen was even more happier (probably to see the top).

We spent a few minutes taking pictures, signing the log, eating all of Uyen's sandwiches, then as the weather started to turn and snow we decided to head back down the trail.
The journey down seemed fast although like Bierstadt there is a quick descent, then a long path to get back to the trailhead. We did pass a few people going up, but when we arrived back at 3pm most people had already left. Around 9.5 miles for the entire trip.

We then faced the dreaded 3 mile dirt road and the busier than normal I-70 traffic as we headed back. We stopped off in Idaho Springs for Beau Jo's pizza where we had the 5 pounder pizza.

Then a quick trip back to the rendevous point where the rain magically started as we arrived.We have maybe a couple of weekends left to do a few more 14'ers. Mt Elbert beckons and possibly Pikes Peak.

Tyler's 9 month update

It's been exactly 40 weeks. Tyler has finally been outside my body as long as he's been inside!!


Always curious, always nosy..


His cheeky smile lurking


His crazy laughs.. see his little teeth?

1. Weight - well, we're finally out of the bad books and managed to fatten him up enough for the doctor to not look at us like we're starving him. We even managed to jump from 1 to 4 percentile. He asked us how we did it and i may have said it a little eagerly "force feeding" and his smile disappeared and warned us it might backfire on us. *sigh*..

2. Still a bug magnet. They say breastfed babies have better immunity. But i must have wimpy milk or something because Tyler is definitely catching every single bug/virus/bacteria within a mile radius of him. Besides the virus infection on his finger, he was also down with Roseola for a week and we lost another precious 10 oz because of that!! Everybody says all these illnesses build immunity for later, i just pray it's true!

3. His crawling is getting better and faster. Though he stands up a lot and cruise around at ease, he is still reluctant to take steps on his own.

4. He's beginning to pick up little bits of food with his fingers but getting him to put it in his mouth is another issue. If it's not food, it'd be in his mouth before you can say "no". So, maybe i should dress up his food a little?? And he's finally learning to drink from his sippy cup!! Another way to sneak calories in!

5. Oohh.. how can i forget this? I think he's saying Mama!! hehe.. well, not as clear as that, but when he wants me, he mumbles "muh muh muh" continuously .. i think it's close enough!!


My precious little baby..

6. Other notable new behavior: chase his own shadow, laughs hysterically when playing, learning to give, blows bubbles, tries to give kisses(we think), gets super hyper when tired.

7. He is starting to get a little bit of stranger anxiety and refuse to go to some people. On the other hand, he has a few favorites like Uncle Damith which he never refuse.


Tyler and Uncle Damith

8. After 9 months of free and easy schedule, we are finally starting to introduce semi-fixed schedules for eating and bedtime and also a calorie target to shoot for. Not sure if it's too late to start??

Sleepy Lion Trail Hike

Despite the late night, I was pleasantly surprised that all of us managed to pry ourselves out of bed to hike on Sunday. We headed to Sleepy Lion Trail just outside Lyons for a easy 4.7 mile hike.

It was a HOTTTT day for a hike and we were all wondering why we do this to ourselves. At the top of Hall Ranch, all of us were treated to a nice view of Longmont Dam.


Nice view of Longmont Dam

The hike also takes us to the base of the dam where a powerful spout of water(from the dam) shoots outs into the stream, filling the air with cooling splashback. Tyler and I sat by the side enjoying the nice relief while getting a feed in while Alan, Damith and Sabrina climbed up to the top of the dam to scope it all out.


Powerful splash in the background


Alan at the top of the dam

After the hike, we headed to Oscar Blue in Lyons for a spot of lunch. We saw some cute kiddie chairs that we thought Tyler might like. We were wrong...


Tyler completely terrified of the Big Bird chair..

A party to start August with...

We've known Uyen for quite some time now but we've never been invited back to her house. So, during one of our outings, we pointed out this fact and heavily hinted to her that she should throw a party for us and she cracked!!! Yay peer pressure!!

So, this weekend, we went to Uyen's house for a summer bbq. She had a nice little back yard where we enjoyed burgers, brats, chicken legs grilled by Jim and other yummy salads and curry that Uyen prepared. Weather was nice, company was great.


My baby and I


Opportunity for family photo..

Tyler was getting a little restless so we let him go on the grass. He seemed quite happy sitting on it with a ball or racquet, but it freaks him out a little when he wants to move. When we tried to stand him up, he curled his feet up so that it doesn't touch the grass. Silly boy!


Tyler checking out the badminton racquet


There was discussion which 2 of us looked more like sisters..

All in all, it was a nice evening getting to know Uyen's husband, friends, sister and brother in law better. But what really broke the ice was the started-friendly-but-became-super-competitive volleyball match. Between the loud cheering and rowdy smack talk, i was afraid we were going to get a knock on the door from the cops. I was more than relieved when it finally ended(the game) at about 11 ++ and we bid them farewell and thanked them for a lovely evening.


The final game that drove the crowd mad!!

See, good things do come from peer pressure.