John & Kayla

these two are literally just too wonderful, i LOVED photographing them last weekend. we went and spent some time in blackhawk and central city, and they were up for ANYTHING (which was good, because there was significant amount of hiking around abandoned buildings for the best view) and so in love. it was hard to find a photo where they weren't both laughing their heads off at each other or loving on each other! can't wait to see them again, their wedding next year is going to be amazing! enjoy a few of mine for now:

































i love love.
thanks to carrie from carrie swails photography for letting me tag along and snag these photos :)

surprisingly, erik and i had some time off together (which NEVER EVER happens) last week, and we made a grand day of it. breakfast at a great cafe, followed by hiking up flagstaff with the pooch.












it's so fabulous... i couldn't wake up and go hike a mountain in the morning in indiana... it's just amazing here; the sky is bluer than anywhere i've ever seen. loving it here, so much.

DU crit

it occurred to me that i didn't post any of these, what a goof i am!! a few sundays ago, i had the great fun of watching erik and clayton race together once again at the crit put on in downtown Denver by DU.























both of those big sweetiesssss:


i just love caroline's gestures when talking, hahah:


another great day spent with great people.

it's days like today that remind me that my life (and your life) is a one-time-only ride.
you only get to go through it once.... and you had better make it count.

it was april's birthday today.
so we went to Ruben's and celebrated.
it's a one-time-only opportunity.
you only get that exact birthday once in a lifetime.

so glad we went and had celebratory burgers and beer.

also in celebrating happy times, i don't know if you know, but there's exactly 24 days until i get to see (most of) the people i hold dear. we'll be seeing our blood relatives (moms and dads), but equally as important, the family i consider as close to blood relatives as possible, our cutters family... jim, linda, teddy, caroline, clayton, sasha, alycin, kristen, woj, (of course pilling and april), fowler and hursh, hank, sam s, booby, thomas, eric b, patches, sonne (and jaime!), kevin (and brian!), erin, tim, robert and kay... and everyone who won't potentially make it back... the nevilles (+1!!), paul, dave c, vargo, hazelbear...... gosh there's so many people i probably missed that deserve a shoutout for being the most incredible part of my accidental family.

i can't wait to come back and cry at you all like it's my wedding day again.
you know what i mean, the happiest tears a girl could ever have.

sometimes you just need to remind yourself what things are all about.

our friend alex visited last week, and it was just so great having him around, i can't even tell you. he's just pure positivity, so wonderful. i'm not sure that's a word, i may have just made it up. anyway.
he was doing something incredible all week long, and i'll bet he doesn't even know it.
everywhere we went, alex took photos. he took photos of himself while driving out here, he took photos on every ride he took, he took photos of food as i was cooking (and photos of some really, uhm, unique faces i made while cooking), and photos of our dog hiding in our room.
it was really important because it made me realize that i have stopped doing just that, taking photos of little things that matter to me on a daily basis. i get my camera out for jobs and races, but less and less for little life events like cooking dinner and taking the dog on walks and when our friends all get together for dinner. i mean, i'm going to want to see photos like the ones alex took when i get old! it's so important, and i'm definitely going to make it more of a habit from now on. here's to life's little moments.

just another day in paradise.

My favorite Fridays

the first friday of every month is pretty much my favorite friday every month.... the little velodrome in boulder holds a pretty great evening of racing, complete with beer from the wonderful Oskar Blues brewery just outside of boulder. it's always a good time with good people, and i must say, one of my favorite events is the kids' race... it's almost as good as putting down dollar bets on the races at the bloomington speedway (ahem, geraint)!

enjoy highlights from my favorite friday evenings.































also, i realize that i should be doing more photo-ing of race things.