The Woolleys: What month is this?

The weather this September has been all over the place. For example, last Monday we went swimming in our complex's pool. Saturday we were hiking in the snow. Growing up in the south, I remember that if the temperature swung more than 15 degrees in a couple of days, half of the kids in my class got a cold. Here in Colorado 30 degree temperature swings are par for the course.

Still, I'm not ready for winter yet. I like going hiking without having to wear six layers of clothing. I like not having to worry about my son being cold and miserable (though he is so resilient...he never complains about the cold). We didn't do a lot of swimming this summer, mostly because of all the traveling and the fact that our FOB hasn't worked all summer (don't even get me worked up about that). Now with the weather starting to turn, all I want to do is to go swimming, of course. Don't get me wrong, it's actually in the 70s and low 80s this week, but we can feel the precious remaining weeks of warmth starting to slip away.

Back to Saturday. Bright and early Saturday morning, I ran the Golden Gallop, a 10K race for pancreatic cancer in Golden, CO. After my half-marathon, I nearly completely stopped training. I went from running 5 days/wk to maybe 2. I think I was discouraged because I lost NONE (not an ounce) of my baby weight in training for and running the half-marathon. Well, the week before this 10K I didn't even run once, so I wasn't exactly expecting to make any PRs . I still did respectable, finishing at about 10 min/mi (to all you runners out there, don't laugh, I already know I'm slow). I actually had a really good time running the race, and I got a little bit of the fire back for running. Here are Jeremy and me after the race.

It was actually pretty cold and overcast that morning, and the race started at 7:30 am, so Jeremy had to bundle up.

I was really impressed with the Golden Gallop. They had a lot of booths set up afterwards and gave out some great free stuff (a lot better than my half-marathon, which was more than 4 times as big a race). We got a water bottle, frisbee, a race shirt, food, and drinks, and there was a bounce castle for the kids. Most importantly, there were about 30 massage therapists there, giving free massages to the runners. Exhibit A:

After the 10K, there was a 5K walk/run and a 1K kid's Fun Run. It was quite the family affair, and I highly recommend it for anyone in the Denver area.

And because we're the Woolleys and can't let a Saturday go by without a hike, we packed up and headed into the mountains after my race. We went to Rollins Pass at the Continental Divide and beyond. On the way to the trailhead, we swung by Moffat Tunnel, a railroad tunnel that runs underneath the continental divide.

As we approached the trailhead, it started snowing on us!! I was already sore from the run, so with forced enthusiasm, I headed out into the cold towards Forest Lakes and Arapahoe Lakes.

The first Forest Lake is less than 1/2 mile in.

Just as we got there, I slipped on a snowy rock and sprained my ankle. I've never broken, pulled, or sprained anything in my life, so the wicked POP sound my ankle made really freaked me out. Here I am with my bum ankle.

Still, I felt better when I was walking on it. When I stood or sat still, it started to really stiffen up and just throbbed more, so we kept going to the upper Forest Lake. Plus, the baby was sleeping, so I didn't want to head back to the car and wake him up.

We did a little fishing at both the upper and lower Forest Lakes.

But we didn't want to push my ankle too much by hiking to the further Arapahoe Lakes, so we headed back after the Forest Lakes. In all, the hike was just a couple of miles, but we still had a really good time. Ryan caught one little tiny guy shortly before we left. It had dark spots and no red at its throat, so I'm guessing it was a rainbow trout, but there's about an 80% chance I'm wrong. I can never get those right. Ryan said it was freaky casting into the nether.

The lakes were eerie but really beautiful.

Yesterday (Tuesday), Ryan used his 'work from home' day to take Jeremy fishing again (he says that when winter comes he'll actually get work done b/c the high mountain lakes will be frozen over). They went to Blue Lake (in the Brainard Lake area), which looks gorgeous, and Jeremy had a blast.

Don't you just love all of Jeremy's gear?

A passing hiker played cameraman for the pair.

Ryan caught several fish, two of which he brought home for dinner, including a 14" cutthroat (I know it's a cutthroat b/c he quizzed me on it, I got it wrong, and then he told me the right answer).

Here are just a few more adorable pictures of Jeremy so far in September.

Aren't his eyes looking better?