NOTE TO SELF:

DO NOT MENTALLY CHECK-OUT FOR YOUR VACATION WHEN YOU'RE STILL 20 DAYS OUT!



The past few weeks have been interesting: trips to Texas and Santa Cruz, shopping at REI for important items like rain pants, and signing leases on new Boulder pads... but one thing has stayed constant... we all have New Zealand on the mind! We leave in 16 days... taht's 2 weeks and 2 days which means just a little over two full work weeks. When April kicked off, I found myself trying to mentally check out of work, which proved to be impossible once I realized what needed to get done between now and our departure for New Zealand. I think we all tried to do that, but now we're back at it for the next couple of weeks. Then it's time for out of office messages and no cell reception. Can't wait!



Adam, Kyle and I signed a lease on a new place in Boulder. Let's just say that this place is a little piece of heaven. Even though it's a little 70's style, with green carpet and lantern lighting, the view off the back porch is ridiculous and it's nestled right into the foothills (literally!) and just a short drive to town. In fact, we can hike to the top of our subdivision (where the rich neighbor has an Eisenhower-esce Tunnel for their driveway) and drop right over to the top of the Mt. Sanitas trailhead and into town! We're going to be all moved in before NZ and will have a house warming and welcome back party when we return. Invites to come. Kyle has decided that for now we just need to move in the grill and the dining room table so we can head up there for some BBQ and the sunset. Here's the view:

We also got the great news that our layover in LA while en route to NZ grew to 6 hours. United canceled our original flight and replaced it with a flight that didn't give us enough time to connect. The only other option was giving us 6 hours in LA... oh well.. better safe than sorry I guess. Amber has come to the rescue once again and is going to send a fleet of her friends to pick us up at the airport and take us to the beach for a few hours in between. Now that I think about it, I love this 6 hour layover. Our vacation begins that much earlier!

Otherwise, we've been just doing the normal day-to-day stuff: naming non-profits, picking out dogs for Kyle for once we return, and talking to NZ flyfishing gurus who are going to document our entire trip. That's normal right?

The two week countdown is about to begin... ye-ah!

Jill

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" ~Immanuel Kant

And that's what we did this weekend up in Breckenridge: We'd planned and imagined our trip to New Zealand and created the perfect adventure which will begin in 32 days. Yes, you read that right... 32 days! At the 30 day point, we'll all make countdowns for our desks and slowly start removing all of our personal possessions from our cubicles, in case we never come back!

The meeting kicked off with Brian wowing us with his amazing yoga poses, mixed in some tunes, some brews, and of course some hostel bookings.

Amber and David flew in from California and Texas, so we had the group in full effect, except for John who was extremely busy drinking Cooderbears and watching basketball at an annual March Madness Mancation. Definition: Cooderbear 1. Noun- An alcoholic drink made with Vodka, Kahlua, half and half, with a splash of Coke. 2. Noun- One of your good friends or bugaglugs Abbreviations: Cood (pl Coods), CooderBizzle, CooderBeeps.

Here are the planning highlights:
- Booked lodging at a school house hostel in Okartio (populations 40!) on the drive from Queenstown to the 2nd big hike up north.
- Created a packing list with a MINIMUM of 1 pair of travel underwear
- Executed complicated mathematical equations about how many tents we need to bring
- David sulked about how he's missing the first week of the trip (It's not too late to change your flight buddy!)
- Laughed nervously about the possibility of bungee bumping

Then the girls of course needed to go shopping, and picked up some sexy hiking 'zip-off pants' for the trip while the guys watched basketball and ate hamburgers... whoa that sentence was so stereotypical, well except for the 'zip-off pants'.
We hit up some disco tubing at Keystone that night, and then danced until the wee hours of the morning to the musical genius of ConHair, a local Breckenridge legend.
Sunday morning started slowly, however breakfast at Amazing Grace proved to be the best decision ever. Superfood Burritos and homemade Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches around the wood burning fire concluded the Tramping for Treatment planning weekend, and soon we were all off to different adventures. Mine thankfully included crying tears of joy over a MSU basketball victory, but others included some skiing, I-70 traffic, and airport drop-offs.

All of our plans (except the 1 pair of travel underwear) are pretty flexible, and as Kyle would like to say, "We'll play everything by ear". But one thing's for sure: I have never felt this excited or privileged to go on an adventure with such an amazing group of friends. I can't wait to laugh, play, drive on the left side of the road, and hike with all of these Coods!

Until next time, which will be even closer to our departure date,

j