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My boyfriend and I headed back to my home state of Colorado for a much needed vacation a few weeks ago.  We planned our trip so that we could participate in “Race for the Cure” in Denver during the time we were there.  This is a tradition that my mom and I have done for the past few years. “Race for the Cure” in Denver is one of the largest races around the country and I can honestly say year after year, I’ve never seen so much pink in my life!  It’s a blast!  We ended up just walking the 5K, maybe next year we’ll take on the run!

Since my boyfriend had really never spent much time in Colorado, I was trying to give him the whole “Colorado Fall Experience”.  We had talked about skydiving since we started dating a few years ago.  We decided for our dating anniversary, we would take the jump!  HOLY COW!!  It was the most insane experience of my life.  Sure, after seeing several stories in the news pop up about parachutes not opening, I was a little worried.  After we arrived, we were waiting our turn and filling out paperwork, a family had just come back from their jump.  A little elderly woman took a seat next to me to take the jumpsuit off.  Completely impressed that someone at her age could jump (92 years old), we decided that we could do it too!  We jumped with a company that was known for the longest free-fall, which was right around one minute.  We both tandem jumped and landed safely. After living through the skydiving experience, I think everyone needs to try it once.  It’s an unexplainable feeling… but completely amazing! 

The next adventure we took on, was to climb what Coloradoans call a 14’ner.  It’s a 14,000ft mountain.  There are about 50 of them in Colorado.  We decided to tackle Mt. Bierstadt, purely based on proximity to Denver and ease.  If you knew me growing up, you would know that I’ve never been a real hiker. My family would take camping trips numerous weekends a year when I was younger.  When they took hikes, I almost always chose to read magazines in the car at the base J So this was a pretty big deal.  I try to work out on a regular basis, but training for a 14’ner was pretty hard considering we live in one of the flattest states in the US.  Saying the hike was hard would be an understatement. 

Not only was the elevation difficult, the altitude was a whole different issue!!  It was hard to breathe.  We finally made it to the top after WAY too many hours and enjoyed what my boyfriend called a “peak-nic” (cheesy, I know!) Believe it or not, I almost thought going down was harder than going up!  We decided to take one of our dogs on the hike, Bentley.  He’s a German Shepherd mix and absolutely loves being outside. We bought him hiking boots so the rocks wouldn’t hurt his paws…he was pretty cute, and loved his shoes!  He made it to the top with us… 14,065ft! 

All in all, it was a really fun vacation and a great time to see my family.  I am proud of myself for completing activities on this trip that I never thought I could physically do.  Next on the list… a marathon!