Technically: yes. By definition: no. Or is it by definition: yes. Technically: no. Who knows, but I can tell you that Ezra and I weren’t roped in on a lead climb with a harness, chalk, and extra quickdraws. We were however on the rock that gives Castle Rock it’s name. It’s a short 5 minute drive from the house and a relatively short hike that is normally door to door in about an hour. It was a pleasant morning with temps right around 50 degrees (winter is definitely in the air: it’s been getting into the low 40’s at night). Ezra got the ride up to the top, but then walked around the base of the entire rock noticing all of the flowers up there; which he is now calling ‘wowers.’

As mentioned in the previous post, I once again took part in the annual Denver Memorial Stair Climb. I was thrilled to be part of the few folks that organized the event and Friday was the culmination of many hours over many weeks of preparation. Five of us met at the Qwest building in Denver at 6am and did our climb early so we could work the event. The building is 55 stories tall (when you count the basement) and we climb it twice for a total of 110 stories, or the same height of the World Trade Center buildings.

The climb took us about 1 hour and 30 minutes and we wore all of our gear. Each year, we wear a picture of a FDNY firefighter that was killed and climb in their memory…since I am an organizer and get to choose, I once again climbed in memory of Ray Downey. It’s a very emotional and stirring climb. There are some amazing truths about what happened on 9/11 that you can only begin to discover when you participate in something like this.

We limit the climb to 343 firefighters (and the climb filled up in 7 days way back in July) since that was the number of brothers killed eight years ago. There is a picture below of everyone just before the climb began…take a minute to think about it….that’s what 343 firefighters look like. Just imagine the number of spouses, children, parents, brothers, and sisters left behind.

I ran Lobby Control this year, which is a position that has ultimate accountability for everyone entering the stairwell. Everyone has to check in with me before the first trip, before the second trip, and after they are done. It’s a great honor to be able to talk with every single firefighter that gets ready to enter the stairwell. This year we had firefighters from 5 different states and 48 different departments.

There are no pictures of me climbing…but there are several during the event (I am wearing the t-shirt that says “God Bless The Brothers From FDNY”). Photos were taken by my Dad and a photographer from the Boulder Daily Camera. In one of the photos you will see a piece of hose with names written on it. There was a firefighter from Arizona who came up and on that hose is the name of all 343 firefighters killed. Oh, there is also a nice video attached.

This past Sunday morning we were all able to steal a little time together and head down to Colorado Springs for the annual Colorado Balloon Festival. We got down there early – 630 – for a 7am launch time, but soon realized that due to a fog bank and ‘aloft’ winds that the launch time would be slightly delayed. Luckily for us, it was only delayed about 45 minutes (on Saturday, they never launched) and we were witness to a great show of nearly 80 balloons getting prepped, inflated, and launching. Ezra walked the grounds only saying “oooooo” and “wowwowwow” for a long long time as each balloon appeared seemingly out of nowhere. We were able to meet up with a few other brave folks, some friends that we have through Ahna’s school, that also brought their youngster to the early morning fun. I think that we are going to put this on our calendar for next year…!

Yes, we did go and see ‘Julie and Julia’ while we had a date-day yesterday.

Yes, the movie was entertaining.

Yes, it did re-energize the desire to try to make hollandaise sauce.

Yes, it was successful.

Yes, it did use a lot of pots and pans to make Avocado Eggs Benedict.

Yes, hollandaise sauce is very needy in the cooking phase.

Yes, it is worth it.

Yes, there will be more to come.

Yes, Yes.

A few days ago we celebrated my brother’s birthday, and I got some of the pictures from the evening sent over today….