Two old fogies trying to get a photo….without falling off a cliff!

 

We finally (on the third try) got our photo—and the only thing we hurt is our pride.

Memorial Day: Our yearly tribute to Cousin Guy Alley

We published this entry (see below) on our blog several years ago.  We remember him every Memorial Day, and so have republished the blog entry several times.

Our lives are so good.  So very good.  

Why?  Because of Guy Alley, and because of all of the Guy Alleys.  He never had his life so we could have ours.  

As we say in the blog post below.  Memorial Day is not just a grill-hamburgers day.  It is mainly a day to remember all of the men and women who died so we could enjoy those hamburgers.

Cousin Guy:  We love you.  Thank you for the ultimate sacrifice for our us, for our children, and for our grandchildren.  We can never repay you.

We live in a world of "social influencers," of Tik-Tok, of Facebook, of Elon Musk's Twitter, of people like Cadet Bone Spurs (Trump).  All of those people, combined, aren't worth Guy Alley's spit.  Yet nobody, except maybe us, even knows who he was.  Can you imagine his mother's pain?  His father's pain?  It undoubtedly never went away.  It was probably the defining moment of their lives.  Can you imagine when the telegram arrived? 

Here is our original blog post about Cousin Guy who died fighting in WWII while trying to rescue another fallen soldier.  

It breaks our hearts.

Photos of Guy:

He is the oldest boy on the right:

He is the boy in the right:

We'll never know, but this could have been the last time his family ever saw him, as he was going off to war:

What should we do today….hike, cycle, or dance?

This is what we get to ask each other every morning—our life together is a dream come true!

The  Pine-Strawberry Trail….a wonderland less than 1/2 mile from our cabin.

Volunteers were rerouting the Pine-Strawberry Trail….they even got an excavator high up on Strawberry Mountain!

Up on a mountain road near the the Rim….Danny’s favorite part of this ride—close to where we saw the HUGE black bear run across the road last summer.

Dancing in our grasslands on the Rim…

Our Graybill Meadow hike (we so named this peaceful valley surrounded by mountains, bet you couldn’t have guessed that).  This hike is 4-1/2 miles and 450’ foot elevation gain/decline, AND we leave right from the front door of our cabin!

The Graybill Meadow Trail is one of our go-to hikes, for sure!

I wonder what we’ll do tomorrow?  Whatever we do we’ll do it together, and we’ll have another good day in our lives.

Candice crossed the finish line—200 days….a new World Record!

She ran a 50K every day for 200 days straight….that’s 32 miles a day for over 6-1/2 months. A new Guinness World Record!

As she said, “I just felt like running.”

She started on November 5, 2022, ran during the winter in Boulder, Colorado in -15 degree weather, and had to recover from frostbite on her toes.  She continued her World Record streak while running the Hurt 100 in the mountains above Honolulu, Hawaii.  She ran for a month during the spring in Tucson in 100 degree weather.  And drove to Pine to run one day on our trails and to visit us.  Then she returned to Boulder to run for days on end in so much rain that there was extensive flooding.  Even the paths where she was running were flooded.  The final assault on Candice during her World Record streak was running the last several days of her streak in unhealthy air quality due to smoke from forest fires.

While running this steak as a single mom she was involved with her two daughters' care, activities, schooling, and celebrated both of their birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and every day with them together.  She cared for their four dogs, managed all the complications involved with maintaining a home, made dinners, and so much more.  She is our hero!

In addition to all this, she continued to run 32 miles each day without more than a five minute break per hour (this five minute limit per hour is a requirement to achieve an Ultramarathon Guinness World Record)….all the while managing her highly successful business—Destination Trail.

She started running November 5, 2022….and finished today, May 23, 2023.

Early this morning as Candice started her 200th day running, we sent her our love.

 After crossing the finish line on her 200th run…..Candice celebrated with her family and friends and us!

We sent her our congratulatory message on this amazing 6,436 mile……200 day Ultramarathon World Record!

She called us shortly after she finished so we could celebrate this magnificent and hard-fought achievement with her.  Thank you, Candice!

While reading the comments throughout Candice’s World Record journey and on the 200th Day, it was apparent that there have been many, many people who have been inspired to attempt and accomplish things in their lives that were only dreams before they saw what Candice has done.

She also inspires us.  There have been many days that the weather is too hot or too cold, or we just don’t feel like getting out and hiking or cycling.  But we said to each other, “Candice is out running (again).”  So out we go, and every time we have a wonderful experience.  

This will be our new mantra, “Candice did it….she ran everyday for 200 days, no matter what.”

We are so very  proud of her!  We're going to leave the congratulatory banners up for a looooong time!

And we are so proud of all those who supported her—Marina, Stella, Garrett, Adam, her Destination Trail Team, the Bagel Shop, and so many others.  

And thank you to her puppies that were always happy to see her come home and comforted her during her pain and joys?

And we can’t forget Hank, who ran with her so many morning….and now deserves a rest, as does Candice!

Two days after Candice crossed the finish line on her 200th consecutive day of running a 50K, this article was published in the Wall Street Journal about her amazing feat:

Kathy and Bill visit us at the Rim Country

Our dear brother and sister stayed with us in our tiny cabin in Pine last week.  We took them to our favorite road….the Rim Road.  

The views were spectacular!

We talked and laughed a lot and had lively discussions where, in the end, we realized that we all want the same thing for our life, our family, and our country.

We sat outside on the deck of our cabin to eat all our meals together.  Here we are eating breakfast in the morning sunshine.

We could have had them stay with us forever….we are all so comfortable together and love them so very much.

Candice is on day 196 of her World Record Ultra-running streak

The previous Guinness World Book record was a streak of 23 consecutive days of running 50K (just under 32 miles).

Not only does she have the world record, but she also has broken the previous world record 8 times in a row!

Her goal is to get to 200.  She's an amazing long-distance runner.  She could keep going past 200, but this record is not all there is to her life.  She's also a mother, our daughter, a successful business owner, and a woman with other interests.

Go you girl!

To be a Mother

 What is it to be a Mother?

To know that I was growing a baby inside my body, to suddenly feel my baby moving, to hear a heartbeat, to see my belly moving as my baby turned and kicked, to know my baby was safe inside my body, that it was being nourished and fed, that we were sharing the same blood, that my heart was beating and pumping blood through my baby’s body, that my baby could hear me talking and singing songs to it, that my baby was comforted by my movements and voice, that my baby would choose when he or she wanted to leave my body and see the world….all of this was a joy, a miracle.

To see my baby, hold my baby for the first time, to hear it cry, feel the ache in my breast as it suckled and the milk began to flow, to nourish my baby from my body, rock and comfort my baby, watch my baby sleep, hear the sounds as my baby slept and awoke, watch my tiny baby with tiny fingers and miniature fingernails, begin to grow…..all of this was a joy, a miracle.

To see the first smile with waving arms and legs, to watch strength flow into my baby, rolling over, sitting up, starting to stand as little teeth appeared in my baby’s sweet little mouth, suddenly “mama”  or “papa” or perhaps “goggy” to call the dog, a walking, talking baby….all of this was a joy, a miracle.

My baby was no longer a baby, but now a toddler, a child with it’s own thoughts, it’s own desires, it’s own dreams, and I knew that all I needed to do was to love and adore my child, to keep my child safe, to give my child room to grow and learn about the world and create a world of  it’s own….all of this was a joy, a miracle.

My child has a child now, their own child, a grandchild for me, for Dan.  For each of them, we will let our grandchild be who they want to be, who they are meant to be, and we will love this grandchild with all our heart, as we did each of our children….all of this is a joy, a miracle.  

The cycle continues….

This is what it is to be a mother….a joy, a miracle!