Another Westcliffe Weekend

I am alive. I wasn't eaten by scorpions while residing in Arizona for the week. I was baked by the sun, but this just caused me to never again complain about how hot it gets in Denver. It literally feels like you are in an over down there, and are just being baked. It was up to 108 degrees one of the days I was there. 

We went down to Westcliffe on Friday night, and spent a fun weekend with the fam. We got to see goats and kittens

and a view of the smoke coming off a fire in the area, pretty close to where my parents live (don't worry, they are safe)

We also rode bikes with the kiddos and went hiking up on Rainbow trail.

My mom, Daniel, and Hannah

Mike and I at a pretty little stream crossing. I love bridges on hikes!

Hannah doing her version of rock climbing

Mike, reflecting on the rock climbing situation Hannah puts herself in

Playing in the creek

And of course, since we were hiking with children, playtime in the creek was required. Shoes came off, and wet feet commenced.

We also woke up on Sunday, loaded up the bikes and my entire family, and headed to Salida for the FibArk festival. It is a rafting festival but they had races for both biking and running. Mike and I entered the mountain bike race. Mike raced semi-pro and had a tough, long, grueling race, of which he mastered.  I just raced the sport category (the category above beginner) and I got 3rd in the womens! It was the first time I ever made podium! I won a jersey from it, I was pretty stoked.

Mike coming across the finish!

After the race we had some delicious pizza and ice cream with my family and then headed back to Denver. My flight to Tucson left at 9:37pm so I had some time to clean up from the ride and relax with Mike before flying out. My flight happened to be delayed 3 hrs and we didn't get into Tuscon until 2am their time (3am Denver time) and we had to be up at 6:30am Tuscon time to get to the mine for training. It was quite the week. It was definitely a big eye opener for how hard and long some people work. I guess I have always been pretty spoiled about work hours. In tucson was the first time I have ever worked 70hrs in a week. I had two 13+ hour days. It felt really good to be back on Friday. I don't have to leave again until the 5th.

That's the update. I'll try to further update more soon!