Cooper's favorite time

The kids favorite time is definitely bath time. When we remove the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, he immediately makes his way quickly up the stairs and promptly makes two left turns straight to the bath tub. While he is normally a very happy kid, even on bad days he turns giddy when he gets his bath.


Is it time for a bath?

From Cooper after bath

Please?

From Cooper after bath

Much better

From Cooper after bath

And post-bath with his awesome puppy towel

From Cooper after bath

Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly

"Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me "

Yep, the immortal words to "Come Together" from The Beatles were quite prophetic yesterday. We certainly were grooving up slowly on Flat Top mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. In our quest to hike all the trails in the park, this is one we had put off a number of times. Its tough, and given the amount of time you spend above treeline can be dangerous if the weather changes rapidly.

However, yesterday showed to be a warm, dry day with little chance for getting caught out by rapidly building storms so we decided to test our fitness and take on the trail. You start at Bear Lake, like a lot of other hikes, and proceed to climb and climb and climb until you've reached the Continental Divide at the summit of Flat Top at 12,340 feet above sea level.

Stop to pose for a family photo on the way up

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

High above Emerald Lake on our way past treeline

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

We broke through treeline after a couple of miles, and the views just kept coming. While there aren't many ugly places to see in RMNP, when you get above treeline and get huge, expansive 360 degree views it is pretty much unrivaled. Cooper was a champion the whole way, giggling uncontrollably when people would stop to talk to him.

After a very tough 4.5 miles, we reached the summit on a bluebird day with nary a cloud in the sky. We got Cooper out of the carrier and let him run around on what seemed like the surface of the moon.

Jill and Coop pose before lunch, we left Hallet Peak (background) for next time

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

We're there!

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

Jill and I had real food, Cooper decided rocks were more tasty

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

Loaded back up and ready to head back down, it was time for a nap

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

High altitude, exposed alpine tundra

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

A fat marmot taking in the nice day

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

Big arms for LK

From Flat Top Mountain Hike

The trip down was just about as hard as the trip up. Carrying an extra 30+ pounds for me on the rugged, steep descent took a toll on my joints as we had forgotten to bring our trekking poles. We methodically made our way back into the trees and then ultimately to the parking lot. Cooper did fantastic all the way up and back down, which was a huge relief to all of us. I got a kick out of how many people wanted to stop and talk as they saw me carrying Cooper up to the summit. The higher we went, the more people would comment on it.

And the stats and elevation graph:
9.2 miles
3,471 feet elevation gain
About 4 hours moving time with an hour of stopped time (mostly at the summit)

Cooper hits the playground

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

Had some errands to run in Boulder on Saturday, so Jill and Cooper went with me to Sports Garage (which had some awesome chocolate chip cookies!) to get the bushing replaced on my Yeti shock. After that was done, we headed over to the 29th St. Mall to let Coop play in the play area they have.


He really loved crawling through the tree trunk tunnel

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

Stopping to admire the view as well

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

Back through one more time

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

Time for a rest

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

Then the standard trip into Gymboree, where he found a Cooper sized chair.

From Cooper at 29th St Playground

Reese's first photoshoot

From Reese

Sarah and Martha made it up to Longmont on Saturday for dinner and then some photo shots with Reese. Its strange to me to think Cooper was nearly this small a year ago, its hard to even remember those times as you see him running around the house.

From Reese

From Reese

From Reese

From Reese

From Reese

From Reese

From Reese

Jill of the downhill

From Winter Park DH

It was all planned out so well. Frumpy and Grumpy would watch Cooper at Sarah's Friday, and Jill and I would get a day of downhilling in at Winter Park. Jill loves to downhill, and being pregnant last year and a broken arm earlier this year, she hasn't gotten to rip the downhills in quite some time.

But it wasn't to be on Friday. We crested Berthoud pass on our way and the car thermometer read a crisp 42 degrees with light drizzle. Ugh. We tried to wait it out, but we didn't have the clothes nor desire to fly down the hills on the cold, wet day. So we turned around and headed back home.

MJ graciously offered to watch Super Cooper, all while helping Sarah out with Reece, so we took her up on the offer as our time is running out on the season up there. The weather looked cool, but much better than Friday. We took lots of warm clothes, dropped of Coop and headed up to find much more pleasant riding conditions.

We bought 1/2 day tickets, which were good from 9:30 to 1pm. By 10am we were at the top and heading back down. The first run, as always, was a warm-up run and our pace was slow to start but it increased with each run.

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

Winter Park has quite a few new trails, and with the new trails and lots more traffic come bumps. Good thing we've both gots lots of suspension now, we used it all. Lots of little kicker jumps around were fun to launch off, and we pounded out runs quickly.

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

From Winter Park DH

We blazed down the trail in record time, and just barely caught the chair up at 12:58 just before our 1pm lift ticket cutoff. One more run for posterity sake, and to make sure we were good and tired. Great day on the mountain, 30 miles of downhill our biggest day on the mountain.

The only downside of the day was Jill taking a dirt digger on the jump that I'm hitting in the photo above. I got the words you never want to hear from another biker passing by...

"Dude, better check your girl, she went down up there"

Shortly after that she appeared and assured me she was fine. Quick trip to grab some first aid and we were back on track again. Her she poses with her latest battle scars...

From Winter Park DH

Coop's 1 year checkup

In what seems like a blur, we've gone from being two naive people having no idea to raise a kid to being two tired people who have no idea how to control a 1 year old. Cooper had his 1 year appointment this week, and in what has become a tradition Jill took some pics from his appointment at the doctor. These diaper-only pics are pretty amusing to compare over the year.

The basics are the kid is still tall and skinny. Measured out at 30.5 inches and 21 pounds, though we all agree he certainly feels like he weighs more.

Some pics from the visit:

From Cooper one year appt

From Cooper one year appt

From Cooper one year appt

From Cooper one year appt

From Cooper one year appt

And two pics of Cooper sporting some of his new birthday clothes.

From Cooper one year appt

From Cooper one year appt