Peanut butter goodness!

I made these cookies this afternoon and they were sooo good. Very peanut buttery. Usually my oatmeal cookies come out flat and crispy, but they even had a nice texture after baking. I was worried because the dough was really dry and I had to work to form the balls into, well, actual balls and not just dough crumbs. The only adjustment I made for altitude (or maybe just b/c I'm impatient) is cooking them at 375. I highly recommend!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Us vs. Weeds

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to Steamboat with our friends Mollie and Rob. Steamboat is one of my favorite mountain towns, and has amazing mountain biking, so I was pretty excited. But, in a rare act of responsibility, Chris and I decided to stay in town instead so we could work on the yard! We have several busy weekends coming up, and were out of town last weekend, so it actually has been really nice to be around today.

Last night, our friends Jeramy and Christine stopped by for "happy hour" on our back patio. Their 2-year old son, Carson, was a big help and watered the lawn for us. He is a cutie! Check out this picture, he is kind of sticking out his tongue from the effort - that watering bucket is pretty heavy for him.

Today, I spent 4 hours (and Chris spend 5-1/2!) battling the weeds in the back yard. I decided to take before and after pictures, so I could prove to myself that I've been productive. We got a lot done today, and will probably work for a few more hours tomorrow too.

Along the side of the house, the grass had gotten REALLY tall. It was a struggle to pull some of it up, I might have fallen over a few times - and I might have really sore hamstrings tomorrow!













Last summer we planted wildflowers along the side of the yard, but since then the weeds have helped themselves to this area (along w/ a family of snakes who lived under the plastic last summer, which is why I haven't moved it yet!). We've reclaimed it - for now.

Chris really had his work cut out for him in the garden, but now it looks much better than before, and some of the veggies are doing really well. We have a lot of lettuce to eat over the next few days - yay for salads!

Here's what happens when an over-analytical person is also obsessed with biking, running, and hiking

About two months ago, I made a goal to run 625 miles and bike 3000 miles in a year. (What was I thinking??) 9 weeks into it, how am I doing?

So far, I've ran 84.3 miles and biked 545.8 miles, and according to my goal I should be at 108 and 675 miles. I am little behind, but oh well. I had some pretty pathetic weeks (a few weeks ago I only rode 13.5 miles, and last week I only ran 3.2), but also some good accomplishments (last weekend I mountain biked 42 miles, I rode over 200 miles in the last two weeks, and two weeks ago I ran one of my fastest 5Ks in 24:36). Also, I've commuted almost 273 miles (about half of my total riding), which since my car gets about 25 mpg has saved me more than $28. And honestly, another major accomplishment is not letting the "need to train" take over my life.

Since I am a dork, I've included some charts :). I count playing softball or kickball as running 1 mile, unless it's a really slow game. I haven't done any trail running yet, which needs to change ASAP because it's so much fun.

I have two races I'm planning on doing in the next two weeks: the Boulder Sunrise duathlon on Saturday, and the Winter Park hill climb on June 12. Hopefully I can continue to enjoy all this exercise, and not obsess over it too much, although the pie charts on this post might suggest otherwise ... :)