Look out, Rocky Mountains!

It has come to my attention, in recent months, that I am not a "winter" Colorado girl. Rather, I prefer the warm. I love when it's blazing hot in the city and 70-75F in the mountains. I love tooling about by Boulder Creek and going to Blackhawk for picnics and camping off of Hwy 285 (no idea where, but I've been there twice and it's perfection) and while I bitched heavily about it when I was younger, I do enjoy hiking.

I love skiing, don't get me wrong, but if I only go 1 -3 times a season, my heart isn't broken. I just haaaaaaaate being cold! So spring skiing is for me (and for Todd, as well) and we've made a pact to go hiking as much as we can this spring/summer/fall.

I'm VERY excited! We have our first foray into hiking this weekend with M, P & H, weather permitting. We're staying at these super swank cabins tomorrow night in Estes Park and then heading into RMNP on Sunday to get our feet wet (probably literally). I've done a LOT of hiking in my day and even did a 14-er when I was 10 or 12 or something. All I know is that every time I've gone hiking, I tennis-shoed it up and went for it!

So when M asked Todd and me what our hiking shoes situation was and he told her I was planning on bringing my trusty tennies, she about fell out of her chair. "Meet me at REI at 630pm" she tell me.

So Todd and I made our way to REI, a store which I have absolutely no business being in, and M took it upon herself to show me all the shoes that I could try on to make for a reasonable, safe and fun hiking season.

I wound up trying on 4 pairs and walking all over the store and up and down their little mountain test-your-shoes-out thingy and I would up loving these ones:


M bought them for me as an early birthday present and Todd and I got him some awesome LOMAs and we each got a pair of good wool socks. I'm wearing my shoes today to start getting the broken in before the weekend and so far, I totally love them! They're incredibly heavy compared to what I'm used to having on my feet (3.5" stilettos and standard running shoes) so that'll take some getting used to. But so far, very very good!

Also, I ran 3.1 miles in 35mins last night which is a massive accomplishment for me...and I did that outside, not on the treadmill. Yay!