Barch Family Week Reunion!!!

Last Tuesday my ENTIRE family came to visit. It was a big deal to us because I haven't seen them all in a long time. Maximus hadn't met my sister and her family, so I was excited beyond words. It was the best week of my life! Oh how I've missed my family!

They all got in Tuesday afternoon/evening and we met at my house. We just hung out and caught up. Maximus was thrilled to be with 9 cousins! Here's a picture of me with Simon, Bryn and Maximus.

My health nut sister showed up with a bag of goodies from Trader Joe's! She knows the way to my heart!

Maximus and Jared in the woods.

This is Emma. She's the oldest. I loved that she wanted to learn about quinoa and went for a run early every morning.

My brother with his son Simon. They are twins.

A few of the cousins on a log bridge during our hike. The girl in the white shirt is Addie, and she is only 14. She's the size of a junior in high school, just like I was. She's taking after her Aunt Stace!

Maximus and my sister's oldest, Eliza.

Grandpa Barch with most of his grand kids.

I love this picture! Cousins Maximus and Simon in the woods. These two played all the time.

Maximus and cousin Bryn.

Most of us during our hike one morning. Jesse was at work, my sister's husband Jason had work to catch up on in the hotel room and dad was taking the picture.

Emma, Addie, Eliza and Jared.

Jason, my brother's wife Holly, me, Maximus and Emma before boarding the roller coaster in Breckenridge.

My brother and his family: Addie, my bro, Holly, Simon, Emma, Bryn and Eli.

My sister and her family: Mary, Nathan, my sis, Jason, Jared and Eliza.

Maximus and his buddy Eli.

All the cousins! I love this!

Our little family.

We had a catered dinner one evening at the beautiful Silverthorne Pavilion. We had a private room and patio. It was the perfect evening!

Chimayo did the catering. Us Barch's LOVE our Mexican food!

Chimayo supplied us with barbacoa, grilled chicken, beans, guac, lettuce, cilantro, rice, 3 salsas, sour cream, tortillas, cheese, lime, and TONS of leftovers! It was delicious!


I watched my sister's youngest Jared one morning as his family went white water rafting. He and Maximus cuddled in bed watching a show about sharks!

Most of my family is Mormon, so they went to church as my brother went to his Catholic church Sunday morning. I wanted to make them all lunch after services, so I made sandwiches and a late of quinoa with roasted vegetables.

This is what was left after my brother's kids attacked the quinoa. I love that they loved it! Success!

It was such a fun week. The memories were wonderful and we even got to celebrate my parent's 44th wedding anniversary! We did so much when they were here. The four oldest girls stayed in our basement- Emma, Eliza, Addie and Mary. I have never had such wonderful house guests before and these were teenagers! Each day they made their beds, they never left stuff laying around and they even watched Maximus as I ran one morning. They were polite, they did their breakfast dishes and they were up early and ready to go! Jesse and I were both impressed with those young women. We agreed that it's obvious they and their siblings are raised well and will be delightful women. They even left me 'thank you' notes!

All my family has left and now I miss them. It's sad. But what a wonderful week. This summer has been great with all of our family visiting from both sides.

Before I Blog About My Family's Visit...

I just had to type in a quote by Jesse that melted my heart. We had a big family dinner at the Dillon Dam Brewery (one of our favorite places to eat) and as we left, Jesse smiled and said, "your family is so pleasant."

It's true!

I will blog about the visit in a few days. Jesse speaks the truth!

Have I mentioned I'm 7 weeks pregnant?

BOOKS!

Lately Maximus has been all about books. He has books in 3 different places in his room, on a shelf in our room, in the basement, in the livingroom, even in the car. Our televisions aren't on and I rarely let him sit and watch it during the day, and I've found that he is consumed by books! The kid reads constantly! In this picture, I found him at 4 in the afternoon, just crashed out on our bed. He was there for an hour!

Our Neighborhood

This morning Maximus and I (and Googoo too) went for a little hike in the woods. In our own neighborhood! I love living here.

Visit From Val

My friend Valerie visited us last week. I met her 5 years ago, when I hired her at Hilton. I remember how fun it was to interview her. We laughed the whole time! Since meeting her, spent a lot of time together. She is the one who dragged me to the bar the night that I met Jesse! She's responsible for us meeting and hey, even little Maximus! After she got married, she moved to England with her British husband. In the last few months, he was transferred to Dubai, where they currently live. She came back to the states to see her family and friends. Her family lives in Denver, so we were able to spend a few days together at our house. WHAT FUN. I introduced her to a few of my friends here and they loved her! I think my friends like her more than they like me! Hahaha! She has got to be one of the warmest and funny people I know. Jesse and I laughed with her the entire time.


Jesse and Valerie with their insanely LARGE toes. Freaks.


Earlier in the day, Maximus called both Valerie and myself "mommy", so here is our little polygamist family! (Kidding to those who don't get it)

We went and toured some old cabins in Frisco. They've been restored and are actually really cool to see. We are both a couple of kitchen china freaks! We saw this old set and died. Look how adorable it is! We were in heaven.


During her visit, there would be times where we were walking around and we would stop to hug and tell each other how happy we were to see each other. I love her. She's such a strong, intelligent and kind gal. And totally crazy. Maximus calls her "super cool Balawie".

Handsome

Firecracker 50 and a Visit From Grandma Vicki and Papa Sherwood

Over the 4th of July, Jesse's parents and his brother and fiance visited us. It's been over a year since his parents saw Maximus, so it was enjoyable to catch up and have fun for six days. On July 4th, Jesse had his biggest race yet- The Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge, CO. 50 miles in the mountains with over 9,000 of climbing. The route was changed because there was still 4 feet of snow in some spots of the race, so it ended up being 54 miles total. It's funny, because we never thought we'd be endurance athletes. Notice how clean and pretty his bike is in the picture above.

Jesse before taking off for the start line. He was so nervous!

Look how cool our team kits (kits are cycling uniforms) from the shop are. "Powered by Beefies" is from Maximus. He calls his legs his "beefies" and that's what powers the team. Makes me smile as his mom.

Maximus and I were going to hang out for the 6 hours it would take him to race. Jesse's parents met up with us later that morning.

How they have the race set up, is the racers lead the 4th of July parade down Main Street. The racers don't start off sprinting, they are lead by someone keeping them slow, so everyone could wave and cheer. After Main Street, they killed it and started racing.

The parade itself was so fun! It was very traditional, with horses and fire trucks and all that. Maximus had lots of fun standing at the line watching.

Here's Maximus and Papa Sherwood walking around in Breckenridge. Isn't it sickeningly beautiful?! Seriously, all the views we have here are epic!

Here's a shot of the finish line. It was a huge race. The announcer was really good too. The crowd was amazing. Man, Jesse's mom can whistle. And I thought I was a good cheer leader! His parents had never been to a race, so seeing their son cross the finish line was emotional. It's a huge accomplishment!

I like this picture because it shows how casual all these races are. It's all about families, little and dogs kids running around, people just chilling out and having a good time.

...and after 6 hours, we saw Jesse come down the mountain switchbacks. He crossed the finish line and when he races, I give him time before approaching him. He's so exhausted and need a few minutes to well, not die. After a bit, he came over and sat. Look at my love. He's covered in dirt from his head to his toes and utterly beat. He didn't say too much.

Here's what a really expensive bike looks like after you take it to hell and back. We later learned that his legs cramped at mile 25, leaving him to do the rest in pain. My legs cramp on my long runs, but they cramp at the last mile. I will never complain about the pain after knowing what Jesse went through. What a machine.

Group shot after he could smile.

Jesse's dad loves to fish. He took Maximus to the pond and fished a bit. Hey, I even caught a fishing pole! And it's nice! Thanks to Maximus, we ate fish last night!

Half Marathon

Half Marathon from Stacey Barch on Vimeo.

I'm sorry I swear in this video, I was running up hill with strong wind at my face and it sucked. You can see the guy on a bike behind me struggling up the hill too.

I ran my first half marathon last Friday. It was a goal I had when I started to get serious about running, 3 months ago. I've trained and trained, and running it wasn't difficult. It made me realize that I can run a full marathon in October.

I ran from Frisco to Copper Mountain and back and ended up running 14.1 miles. Jesse was on his bike and pulled Maximus behind him. They supplied me with water along the way and spent time fishing in the ponds that were along the path I ran. Maximus caught a fish too!

My run was beyond entertaining- when I reached Copper Mountain, a dude on a bike came up next to me and started talking. We chatted and when I mentioned Jesse, he said, "oh nevermind" and I was dumb to not realize that he was hitting on me! Ha! I also watched the long boarders- there were a bunch of guys on long board skateboards just flying down the mountain on the paved trail. No helmets, no protection. I even ran through a flood! We've had something like 200% more snow this past winter, so with all of it melting, there's a lot of flooding. The path had a couple inches of water on it and I had to run through it, so I ended up with freezing cold, wet feet for more than half my run. When I got closer to the finish of my run, I witnessed a mountain rescue for a missing person who had flipped over in their kayak. That was freaky and sad.

But I finished and my legs hurt. I did it. I have permanent damage to my left foot from arthritis, so I'm taking a week off before I begin training for my full marathon. It feels amazing to reach a goal and I am so thankful for the love and support I have from Jesse and my family. I think after I finish my marathon, I'm going to spend all my fitness time on my bikes. I have 3 really nice bikes that are in the garage all sad because all I do is run and ignore them.

New Crib and Pillows

We got an order from QBP (Quality Bicycle Products) today and Maximus told me the box is his new crib and the inflatable packaging are his new pillows. Totally safe, I know.

Now, he is upstairs, naked, piling the inflatable squares and jumping into them. I really wish I could post a video of him doing it, but I'm not since he's naked. It's hilarious. Little naked Maximus with his huge billowy hair jumping through the air landing in a pile of plastic with loud "pops" when he steps on them. I can't stop laughing!

Go Jesse Pops!

Jesse after his race yesterday. It was in Breckenridge and I thought he died when he finished. He crossed the finish line covered in dirt and blood, got off his bike and laid in the road. He didn't get up. His poor legs were done and so was he. He got up, swore, laughed, kissed Maximus and me, got a beer (actually a decent recovery beverage) and ate a peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat sandwich. He was so happy. I love seeing him like that. What a fun race to be at. Maximus threw rocks into the river with other kids as I socialized. I love it here!