Early winter recap

It was a Fall of highs and lows. 

Per the norm, I have had a lengthy blog absence but I hope to be able to regain some level of consistency from here on out. 

Quick recap, mostly in pictures. 

Reunited!

In early October my cousin Evan came back for a weekend of constant athletics.
We biked in the rain, climbed mountains, ran the Bethel trail race and spent an afternoon trail running at Bradbury. It was certainly one of the most fantastic weekends of the fall and one that ended too soon!!

Sunset on Hawk Mountain, early October

New babayyyy!

The same weekend that Evan visited, my new pony arrived! I bought him in July and he finally arrived (from Germany!) in October. He is better than anything I ever could have hoped for, and I am so incredibly excited to see what we can do together.
(and no, this is not a horse blog. but believe it or not, a horse blog is coming soon. Details TBA)

Last Bradbury outing 

Amazing weather

Eric and I enjoyed one final Bradbury day late in the season. Both of us enjoyed our dirtbag status so much this year, and I haven't enjoyed running so much in a while! Apparently, the fear of tripping and falling down a mountain is fun to me....??

Lester.....

In early November, our youngest dog became severely and suddenly ill (complete renal failure). We chose to hospitalize him for the best treatment, but it quickly became apparent that he could not be saved. Heartbroken, we brought him home for hospice care.
We had him with us for several days before we knew it was his time.
This was a really hard time for us. I have struggled to find peace with his sudden passing and have only recently been able to become more at ease with what happened.

Running away from the feelings....

Eric and I both needed time to clear our heads after his passing, and found that hitting the road for some quiet runs helped. It was tough.

Birthday hike!

A couple weeks later my birthday weekend arrived, as it seems to every year. It's nice that despite this, I never ever age.

Eric, Kate and I went off of a wintery hike, fueled by peppermint mochas and coconut lattes.  (#fueledbynomad) (and beer by Norway Brewing!)

It was a chilly day, but we went 6 miles waterfall hunting, (gnome hunting too, but you had to be there!)

Birthday beer!!

Legit

 And then winter came, or at least the daylight hours became much fewer.

SAFETY

After our trail running days came to a close, we weren't really sure what we would do for fun.
It's hard to beat running up and down mountains and drinking beers in the back of the truck afterwards....

Being the geniuses that we are in the Bradlowski household, we decided that all Saturday runs would end at the pub.

YOU GUYS. What a stroke of pure brilliance! Nothing makes a double digit run more fun than knowing that beer is waiting at the end! (and so is Lee, to pick us up!)

So that's pretty much it, in the fewest words possible.
Cheers.

Bear Bones Brewing, our current favorite.