Hi Friends!

I have not been on here in quite a while. I am sorry. I have no excuse, I just have not been on my computer much. Things have not been too exciting around here. My friend Maria came to visit a couple weeks ago. We had a great time, it just so happened that her parents were with their friends in Keystone skiing, so on the Saturday that she was her we joined them. I have not been skiing in about 4 years, so it was interesting. I think I had an anxiety attack mid-mountain. Her parents went out with us and were taking us down some intermediate slopes (I have no skiied in 4 years and have only been about 5 times and 4 of those were in one week). It was really hot and all of the sudden I felt like I was going to be sick and my legs were killing me, I was panicing. I sat down, and Maria's mom had some water she made me drink and I took my boots, coat, gloves, and helmet off to assist with cooling down. I was able to calm myself down and get myself back on my skis and make it down and after that I just chilled out the rest of the morning and went back out after lunch. I was able to complete the rest of the day with no problems. Small success for me! Now I am thinking about a season pass for next winter!

The pictures above are from my hike with Max last Friday. It is on a trail properly named "the Incline." If you want more info check out www.manitouincline.com It is a mile long hike that gains 2000 feet in elevation (that is really steep) i think it said the average grade is either in the 20s or 40%s with it getting as steep as 68%. The top picture is a picture from near the bottom with most of the climb visible, and the bottom picture is the view from the top down into Manitou Springs and farther east into Colorado Springs. The guy sitting to left in the picture completed the last half of the hike with us, well we kept passing eachother as the other was resting. He was very friendly and it was so nice to be able to have someone there as there were parts that were very challenging. It took Max and I a little over an hour to complete the incline (another hour to get back down on the first 4 miles of the Barr trail). There are people who have completed the incline in 20 minutes and can run back down in another 10. CRAZY. But it was a great workout and I look forward to continuing to climb this and improve my time.

Hope all is well with everyone else! I miss you all! My friend Kelly is coming this weekend! I cannot wait! We are going to a sunrise service at Red Rock Ampitheater for Easter. Ill provide pictures in my next post! Love you all! Happy Easter Week!