So we beat on, boats against the current..

Some pictures from the last few weeks:


Annelisa, our friend Rocky, and her dog at the St. Mary's glacier hike trailhead.


The lake at the base of St. Mary's glacier.

Hiking up the glacier.

Grant and Carrie came to visit us a few weeks ago. Here we are at Confluence Park in Denver.

On our way to the art museum (Denver library in background).


City views on my bike ride home from school today.

Summer Archives

Although I recognize that these photographs may be somewhat of an anachronism, I was desperate to find something that I could send out into cyberspace which would validate my existence on this planet. In our computer age is not enough to simply have an experience; it must be authenticated and legitimized through a process of meticulous virtual documentation. And since I have not been vigilantly documenting anything as of late, here is a glimpse of what Annelisa and I might be like now, based on photographic evidence from this past summer.

All of these pictures were taken on our trip to Oregon's famous Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, our first camping trip as newlyweds (July 2008).

Driving down the Oregon coast

Annelisa warming up by the fire

A red barrel

Embarking on an excursion into the dunes
Annelisa and lots of sand

City Park/Ethiopian Food

Annelisa and I continue to live our lives within the structure and limits dictated by society. I go to medical school. Annelisa works at a library. We do not hop on freight trains bound for unknown destinations nor do we spontaneously buy one-way plane tickets to exotic foreign lands. Fortunately for us there is no need to venture out on some wild, cathartic, Kerouacian odyssey in order to experience culture and beauty. We have Ethiopian food down the street and a beautiful park a few blocks away.

Here are some pictures I took in the fall. Featured below are the Ethiopian restaurant and the lake at City Park with downtown and the mountains in the background.

A Nice Weekend in Denver

I had my final anatomy exams this past Monday. It feels good to have all of those long days in the cadaver lab behind me. Annelisa and I decided to celebrate by getting out and enjoying some warm October sunshine this weekend. Yesterday we hiked up to the cliffs on Table Mountain (near Golden) and did some rock climbing with a few friends. It turns out that Annelisa is a much sturdier climber than I am. I think she climbed everything about twice as fast as me. Nonetheless, we all had a splendid time.

Then today after church we went for a bike ride around Denver. We made a big loop around the city, biking up to LoDo, then along the Platte River and Cherry Creek, out to Sloans Lake, and back home via 12th Ave through Cheesman Park. I took some nice photos of Annelisa with the downtown skyline in the background. She looks as beautiful as ever.

Annelisa in front of Union Station/Downtown

Biking around Sloans Lake

Annelisa climbing

Yes She Can (marry him)

My dreams run a wide gambit. Scary, weird, boring, etc but rarely funny. Or at least they might be to me, but Nate never seems too impressed after I insist on recounting many long dreams each morning. Yes, I am one of those people. Sorry. However, this one got a hearty laugh from him this morning and I think is worth sharing:

It started out at home and I was just hanging out with the family. Melida had a new boyfriend but was being pretty secretive about him. Finally, through little hints she let it drop that they were pretty much engaged, but it had to be hush-hush because he kept a high-profile life. We were all pretty intrigued and tried to noodle the info out of her. Finally she let it spill that she dating.... Obama. The Obama. My family, on the whole, was impressed and congratulatory, but I had reservations. I didn't believe her. I kept telling her: "No way, Melida. No way. He's married and running for President and there's no way he would risk this scandal and I don't see how he would even have time for dating and this is too crazy and how would you even meet? Melida, hurt, said she could prove it. Then out came a wallet photo album of fun Obama/Melida times. I sputtered he was simply a look-alike but eventually felt I had to face the facts. My sister was dating Obama.

Lost Lake, Indian Peaks Wilderness

Yesterday afternoon Annelisa and I hiked up to Lost Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness (near Eldora Ski Resort, west of Boulder). It was rejuvenating to be surrounded by such extraordinary scenery, far removed from civilization. A welcome respite from a rigorous week of anatomy...



Annelisa enjoying some meditation time out on a rock...

A creek we crossed...

Finally a contributing member of society

Hello everyone! Annelisa here. I figured I'd add a little post myself since Nate's been doing all the work.

Denver is fun, beautiful and a great place to live. I haven't really made too many friends yet, and Nate spends a good part of his day with dead bodies, but I'm not too lonely. It's been a little boring because I still don't have a job, and job hunting is the WORST. But the good news for today is I finally got a job!

It's a fun one, working at an elementary school as a school librarian. That's right, I am basically Mrs. Van Horn for Brush College alumni. They are too poor to hire a real librarian so I get to be the one to manage things. It's also only about four miles away so Nate and I will both be commuting via bicycle. And the best part about it is it has school vacation time. So I get a long Christmas break and get to come home for longer. And I just found out Kaisa and family are coming home Christmas as well! I could not be more excited about this.

Nate's done a good job chronicling our adventures so far but he's left out some of the more interesting parts. On the day we climbed Grays Peak we forgot our sunglasses and when applying lotion I missed a good chunk around my eyes (raccoon style). Sadly, my eyes and a mask-like portion of my face were horribly sunburned. I looked like a demon and was pretty snowblind and could only see blurily. Then I had to go to church and teach some 6-7 year olds about making wise choices. I'm pretty sure they thought I was a monster. We took some photos, but somehow they disappeared. What a tragedy.

And since posts aren't as fun without photos, here are some of Washington Park last Sunday:















Our normal park is City Park (only 2 1/2 blocks away) but we switched it up and biked around Washington Park for the Sunday afternoon. Denver really has the most beautiful parks with lakes and animals and winding trails. City Park definitely deserves its own post and Nate will probably oblige sometime in the future.





















Our bikes. Mine is a craigslist steal for $10.




Nate is really quite a good amateur photographer. Might the Olsens have another Matt on their hands? I can only hope.