Sunday, November 29, 2009

Hut Trip - Day THREE



Yup, I'm almost done with this hut trip adventure... the snowshoes got used yesterday (attached to the pack today and Friday) and I feel good about that.... but now we had to take the trip out - reverse the 3000 vertical foot, 8 mile hike in. We took a few shortcuts and ended up at the car in 3 hours! (as opposed to Tucker and Karyn's 7 hours into the hut)....

Thanksgiving Hut Trip - DAY 2

That's Vail in the background.... the view wasn't so bad from this Eiseman hut.

The next day we woke up late-ish, had breakfast and then started normal hut activities - talking about who is going to go where and do what outside and then the puzzle got out!
We finally got motivated, after lunch, to head out and explore... with 4 snowshoers and 2 skiers it was interesting to find enough snow for the skiers and keep everyone entertained....
Mike got to ski the trees!
David and Rachel just enjoyed the time together with friends and the beautiful scenery!

Thanksgiving Hut Trip - a new tradition? - DAY 1

In September one of the guys at my work suggested a Thanksgiving hut trip to Ben Eiseman Hut. We knew that early season conditions could be questionable but Tucker and I signed up with barely a pause. We got out of the house about 1 hour later than planned on Friday morning and arrived at the trailhead that same 1 hour later than planned - 9am instead of 8am. At Karyn's 'typical' 1 mile/hour rate of hiking into huts this 8 mile hike should take 8 hours... meaning that a 9am departure was really close to sundown and we didn't want to do that again...


we then got our first glimpse of the conditions....

But, the snow got deeper very quickly... of course, we had left our skis at the car and had snowshoes - not that they got put on for this trip into the hut....
We got to the hut at 4pm... a little too close to sundown for these Browns....
Our friends arrived later in two groups, one group at 6pm and one person at 7pm... the 7pm arrival, Mike was ready to celebrate this long, hard haul with..... champagne? I've NEVER seen that at a hut before!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving! & When was the last time you saw Tucker play with Tinkerbell....?

Tucker entertained while others socialized and/or cooked/nibbled... Jessie really seemed to appreciate it though!!


So, we were Thanksgiving 'orphans' this year with no invites to anyone's house for any festivities... but we had a hut trip to prepare for the next morning which was ok.

Laura and Shelley invited us over early in the week and we decided to hike on over (they live in our neighborhood) and partake in their (food) deliciousness! And, it WAS delicious!


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

From this weekend



p.s. that's Karyn in the blue jacket and red pants on the telemark skis!

Turkey time!

Sounds like we're hosting Christmas this year. We're going to fry a turkey. That's always a fun event, and I really like the outcome.

Everyone has heard the horror stories of burning the turkey when the oil is too hot, and heck burning down the house when the oil catches fire.

We're using the recommended peanut oil, flash point at 460 degrees or so. We'll try to keep the fryer at 350 for best results...

The Vanpool invited us to join them on Thanksgiving... I offered to fry the turkey for them too. Shelly really likes the idea of 1 hour or less cook time... As their party grew, we're going to fry 2 turkeys... This will be fun!

Here are a couple cool links:
Maybe we'll try some gumbo recipes...
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/poultry/fried-turk.html

This one has lots of nice warnings...
http://www.crawfishcoofcentralflainc.com/Fried-Turkey-Instructions.html

Weekend ski trip

Headed up Sunday again. We ran into a few friends.

I haven't played with the helmet cam footage yet, but I'll see if I can get something up in the next day or two.

The weather was nice, but the slopes were icy.

Brian came up to join us, somehow we never saw him. There must be enough of the mountain open to completely miss someone up there, and you know cell phones don't work at a-basin.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

World Diabetes Day (or how the Browns spent the weekend?)


So, November 14th is World Diabetes Day - bet ya never knew that, huh?

The American Diabetes Association in Colorado hosted an Adult Type 1 and Family retreat weekend at Beaver Creek, CO. We had a researcher speak about the research he is doing with mice (using all the great donations to me, your RED RIDER?!?!?) and the progress he has made. It was absolutely amazing! I was on a panel of adult diabetics who spoke to the children

and then another panel that spoke to the parents. There was also a discussion between spouses of us diabetics and all that they deal with which sounded REALLY interesting but I was busy talking to the kids at that point. WOW - lots going on!

At dinner on Saturday night I spoke to the group about Team WILD. I didn't realize all the emotions that parents go through until our Team WILD dinner after the 1/2 Ironman when one of the parents said (through her tears of joy) 'When my toddler was diagnosed with diabetes I never could have imagined that this was EVEN POSSIBLE' I wanted these parents to know that 15 of us, with 300 - yes, THREE HUNDRED YEARS - of diabetes between us did just what so many people in our lives thought our disease would prevent.

I hope I inspired just a tiny bit of hope... I hope.


We also met up with our friends Emily and Dave and Tucker got to meet Carter!

It was wonderful to hang out with them in the hot tub and watch their little water baby splash and play! My hope is that he never has to deal with diabetes.... He (and every other non-diabetic) is why I am now involved with these groups that help to cure and improve the life of diabetics and their support network - cause this disease doesn't just affect us and that is what I walked away with this weekend.... until next weekend?

Sunday, November 8, 2009

I've been working on some video

I finished up the MonoP video from last year. You'll have to wait for the DVD to come out. Its about 35 minutes.

But this one is from today.


Monday, November 2, 2009

I think it worked out

Some video, some taken by me 1 mile away on 20x zoom. The other... I think you can tell who.