Life on the Runn...

Last week, my bestie, Katie, came to Boulder.  We were able to catch up with one another - we're both English teachers, so time is not on our side from mid-August until mid-June - share stories of married life and husbands who love nature and rocks, and hike a whole bunch. I wanted to be sure that we had plenty to do, so I did what I do best, I made a list...a list of what we would do, where we would eat, and how we would spend our evenings.  Being the go-getters we are, we crossed almost everything off that list, which is also a testament to Katie's tenacity.  You see, when you've been married to Captain Hike & Climb for as long as I have been, you lose sense of what a 'normal' person can and is willing to do.  Katie was on board with everything I had planned, and we packed a whole lot into our week together. We did take a few wrong turns, and we did have to make regular morning chai runs, but we were pretty much unstoppable when it came to conquering Boulder...

Truthfully, I've been a part of the wonderfully loving Runnells family long enough now that those moments when I first met everyone and started to feel like I was one of the group are harder to pinpoint.  It's like I've always been a Runnells, and it's that way for all of us who join this crew. So while we've been like family for a long time now, it would be safe to say that I, like a number of other Runnells family members, couldn't wait for Brian's cousin Mike to propose to his girlfriend Christina (one of my partners in crime and fellow Badger girls) and officially make her a Runnells family member. As a group of four Madison alums, Mike, Christina, Brian and I have spent our share of time together bonding over all things Bucky -- and biting our nails and yelling at the players, the TV, anyone who would listen -- so when the big day, proposal day, came, Brian and I were especially excited and totally honored when Mike and Christina called us to tell us ...

There are no words to express how grateful I am to have spent the past eight years married to the this guy!  While we were standing in front of our family and friends in 2006, I had so much hope for our future, yet I could not have come close to imagining the wonderful life we would build together, and I am grateful for it every moment of every day. You, Brian Runnells, are "All the best things!"

The past several days have been filled with family, which is just the way I like it, but it was time to get to the business of being a Colorado resident that Brian likes best, being in the mountains.  For the first time this summer, we stood atop a 14er, a 14,000 foot mountain.  Brian had planned for this outing to be a family affair, so after his work day ended on Friday, we drove to Salida where Tom, Ann, Daniel and Xavier were visiting Ann's sister-in-law.  We didn't do much beyond enjoy a fabulous dinner on Friday as Saturday was an early morning.  One cannot underestimate how much work it is to hike a 14er, and I wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea, especially as this hike was a 10 mile round-trip outing and because it wasn't known to be an 'easy' hike.  Nonetheless, we left the parking lot and headed toward the summit at about 6:30am (this was a nice delayed start for Brian and me). Mt. Yale, 14,196'  We summited, after much work, at abou...

It's likely not a surprise to anyone that I thoroughly enjoy being on the go and hate when it gets too quiet for too long or when I have little to do.  I've never been very good at being silent or sitting still. That's why it has been so wonderful having so many family members visiting Colorado as of late. In fact, since my arrival at our western home, there have only been four days where I haven't been with at least one family member. Becky joined me for the fantastically uneventful drive that is the journey from Wisconsin to Colorado (thanks, Nebraska, for that one!), and was here for about a week.  At nearly the same time, my parents were heading this direction, and after a horseback riding excursion, they came to Boulder for a visit.  After saying goodbye to them, which I always hate doing,  I got to spend some time with Mike and Pat, who were visiting Estes Park and were thus were less than an hour from our condo.  Ruth and Justin were also in Boulder for...