Makin' it to Winter Break

The school year is off to a great start, and as much as I'm glad it's winter break, I have to admit I'm really enjoying this year. Each year we welcome the new seventh graders with an introduction video. This year, we took the silly route and came up with this.

7 Blue Trailer

For this year's Wellness Day, I had the chance to teach a parkour workshop. I had fun finding challenges in front of the school, and each session concluded with a short time trials course. The kids seemed to really enjoy it, and I got to spend a work day doing what I love.

Vaulting Over a Wall at Work

I love that I work in a school where not only are we allowed to do things like this, but I have coworkers who will play along and enjoy it with me.

To unwind after fall conferences, we took a weekend trip to Steamboat. As always, it was a ton of fun. We hung out, hiked up Rabbit Ears pass, went to the Hot Springs, and ended the weekend by watching the Broncos game.

Hiking up Rabbit Ears

At the Summit of Rabbit Ears

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but up until this fall, I had never been to a Red Rocks concert. (I know, what kind of Coloradan am I?) We went to see X Ambassadors, American Authors, and Panic! at the Disco. The concert was great overall, but American Authors was especially awesome, and I am now a bit obsessed with their music.

Eric & I at Red Rocks

I have been back at work for the past few months, and have been doing parkour as much as possible. Unfortunately I've been fighting a sprained ankle and torn cartilage around my ribs. It can be tough to balance letting my body heal while still pushing myself to learn new skills.

My focus has been on gaining more flow and confidence during time trials and learning new flips. In the recent weeks, I have been working on cast backs from a wall, standing gainers, swing through gainers, and devil drops. About a year ago, I gave up on cast backs from a wall. Also, I have always had gainers on my "never going to learn" list. I was beyond excited to learn both in one day. It was another push of confidence that facing your fears can pay off. It has been so great having all the positive feedback from others each time I attempt something new.

First Recorded Time Trials Run

Running Gainer & Cast Back

My goal for last year was to do a backflip without a spotter somewhere other than the trampoline. This is one of those things that I often watch first timers come in and get within a day, yet, for some reason, I've really had to work on it. I did my first one without a spotter right before New's Year's Eve last year, and before spraining my ankle, it seemed I was making moderate progress with taking them to the grass. This is still one of my goals, but here's my progress so far. I feel like landing a standing back tuck is within my reach, I just need to be more consistent about working on it.

Backflip Progress

Every time I learn something new, I return to the gym with intentions to work on it again. There's always so much going on that it's easy to get excited to learn something else new and work on that instead. That's one of the things I love most about parkour. I feel like there are so many different ways to move that I never get bored of doing the same thing.

We kicked off winter break with happy hour. From there, a few friends and I went to Former Future for a beer and doughnut pairing. It was awesome, and definitely a highlight of the night. Oh yeah, I also won an ugly sweater contest at work with my "Ninjabread Men" sweater. We finished off the night at Pub on Pearl listening to a friend play music. It was the perfect start to winter break.

Beer & Doughnut Pairing at Former Future

Live Music at Pub on Pearl

We continued winter break by meeting up at CO-Brew with several friends and spent the afternoon brewing our own beer. It was a cool experience and we will return in two weeks to bottle our beer.

Hanging out at CO-Brew