Only in Aspen...

Earlier this year I had a face-to-face encounter with a brown bear at my jobsite. Today, at the same location, I encountered this fox. He had no fear and allowed me to get only a few feet away for some great pictures. Pretty cool.

- B

In love with the Yoga practice!!

Esak Garcia

So while we were in Boulder 2 months ago for the Yoga State Championship, Ben and I met the last year International yoga champion Esak Garcia and his wife. I was really amazed by what I saw that day!! :0 He's such the most amazing yogi ever!! His wife won the Championship in China a couple years ago. Just had a baby, and still looks perfection.....yoga transformed her body just like that!!....awesome!!

They are such a source of inspiration to me....it is just so incredible to see what people can do. Unbelievable.....I can't believe everything I saw that day....so many people going on stage to show what they could do! Even Ben and I were part of the competition.

Esak travels widely demonstrating the art of yoga, promoting yoga asana championships. Esak is married to Chau Kei Ngai, who was the 5th place International Ghosh Cup Champion in 2007 representing China. They live in Boulder, Colorado with their son Osiris. We actually met him too that day :) Here's the link if you are interested in seeing Esak and his pregnant wife doing some crazy yoga poses....it's pretty awesome looking. I can do a lot of those poses now even after only a year and an half of yoga practice......pretty incredible :)

http://www.esakgarcia.net/pictures/index.html

I'm really interested in going to Bikram yoga Teacher Training! It's pretty much $15,000.00....that's way too much money!!! 9 weeks, 2 classes a day + 8 hours reading and learning everyday. If you look at the pictures, you can see how many people go every year. It's usually between 300 and 350 people. And there are 2 teacher trainings a year....They actually have to turn down a lot of people because there is a maximum people accepted. The Fall training has just started in Vegas.....a lot of people were really disappointed with the location this year. Vegas sucks for such a Yoga Teaching Program because it is usually right on the beach in Mexico, Hawaii.....but Vegas...Seriously?? It's the total desert!

I really want to have my own yoga studio soon....so I'll have to sacrifice a lot to realize my dreams right? That's what we have to do in life to get what we want: Sacrifices

We'll, I'm working on it harder and harder everyday of my life. I've been feeling really weak this week. Maybe I pushed myself to hard by doing 2 classes a day. Waking up at 6:30 am, so I could catch the 7 am and the 9am in the same day. I did yoga for 16 days straight.....23 classes in 16 days straight actually. I started taking 2 classes of power yoga every week also which are making my muscles hurt like hell.......I'm taking the day off tomorrow, and I'm working a double anyway!!!

Well, all I can say about Bikram yoga is that it is the best thing that has ever happened to me!! I lost 29 pounds in less than 3 years. I just LOVE it!! That's what I wanna do of my life.....God bless you Bikram Yoga!! You're my life saver....BIG TIME!

Love
- Christine

Lovely weekend

Ben's parents were in Aspen last weekend and it was fantastic to see them. We all went to an
Italian restaurant called: L' hostaria. It was Ben's treat......so fabulously awesomely good!! Thanks babe!

Mark and Jo gave me tons of gifts for my birthday, and let me tell you that I fell in love with a pair of beautiful earrings!! I love them :) Thanks maman et papa Dorr :)

Rocky Mountain camping trip

So last week, Ben and I decided to go camping in the Rockies for the weekend. So, since I was working all day and all night Friday, Ben got pretty much everything ready for the trip. He's so great!!

We were supposed to leave right after the 7 am yoga class on Saturday...so, around 10 am, but Ben was invited to go golfing with uncle John, his brother Dave and Eric. I let him go for sure. I went to bed at 1:30 on Friday night so I could use a little more sleep.....so I woke up at 9:30 am and did the 10 am yoga class instead. It felt amazing like always.

I showered and got all my stuff ready before Ben got back home around 12:30. And we finally left the house. Cody was so excited to get in the truck not knowing where we were headed. It took us about 2 hours to get on top of the mountain , which was about the altitude of the tree line, which means where the trees don't grow because it's too high in elevation.

We went on a hike and Ben showed me around......we even discovered an old cabin. We could actually open the door and get inside. It was kinda gross in there!! 3 old beds were just decomposing in dust.....we thought hunters used to sleep in there maybe 25 or 50 years ago.

Anyway, after getting sunburned and after a little sweating, we headed to the camp area we had picked earlier and set up the tent and everything we needed. Took us 5 minutes! :) Then a number 2 was coming up, so for the first time I had to poop in a hole and then cover the whole thing with dirt!!! Ewww!! Ben said it was a safety thing all campers had to do so the bears would not come kill us. And YES, Ben dug the hole for me....hehe

So, at night, we made a fire and cooked up some food......there were so many mosquitos.....it was awful! I'm not scared of them, but I hate them......Cody was also trying to eat some.....he killed some butterflies and moths.....and of course he ate them. Good for him - lots of protein.

Eventually, we went to bed and slept horrible......shoulders, backs, everything was hurting since we didn't have a good mattress! Plus, it was awfully cold, so we didn't sleep much! We woke up, packed up everything again and started heading home. We pretty much wanted to sleep in our bed. I needed to sleep a couple hours since I was working a night shift on Sunday.

I would do it again, but next time we'll make sure we have all the materials needed to sleep tight :)

Here are some pictures of the weekend....short weekend!

The view we had from where we camped

The sunset

Climbed a tree wearing camo pajamas

Right after we set up everything

We went on a hike and Cody was so hot so, he found some snow and rolled himself in it for like 10 minutes

We took some pictures of a 100 year old silver mine

Ben, on top of a mountain....it looks cool!!

Nice flowers.....far away I am :)

The old cabin we found

Here I am , holding a disgusting broom and pretending to be cleaning the gross beds....yukk!

Ben was trying to fly I guess

Coco and I.....I love him

The end

Trip to Quebec!!!! :)

SO, I just got back from a 2 week trip in Quebec......which was so GREAT!! Ben got to be with me for the first part of the trip, and then I spent the rest of the time alone with my family. It was great to see everybody after an entire year living here in Aspen.

We got to see my dad, who I haven't seen in more than 5 years. We talked for a couple hours and it was a very positive experience. The same weekend, we all drove to Pohenegamook, the town I was raised in until about 5 years old. That was also nice because I got to see some more family including my grandparents.

All good things come to an END!!!

Now I'm back to RAINY Aspen, but I'm back with my wonderful, amazing, awesome, handsome fiance!!! Rrrrrrrrrrrrr :)

When I got here last night, I was really surprised because Ben got me flowers and redecorated the appartment!!!! So nice!!

Here are some pictures of THE trip.

This is a foot-bridge in Pohenegamook that separates Canada from the United States. It's weird because there are no customs officials.

A huge spider was just hanging out!!!

I risked my life and my mom was freaking out...hehe

Doing so yoga meditation by the river!

Ben and I, doing some yoga in my mom's backyard

Ben and my mom, Annie!!!



Dancing with my grandpa

My step-father Rock, Ben and I!!!

Family picture

Engagement pictures

We got our engagement pictures taken!!!

Just Another Day on the Job.......

So I was at work today on a remodel near Aspen Mountain when we noticed a bear climbing the neighbor's roof (pictured above). The bear then climbed down, went to the backyard, knocked over the bird feeder and began searching for other sources of food. I was a little nervous but I decided I should get as close as possible for a good picture. How could I lose? If I get close and survive, I have great pictures of a wild bear... If the bear feels cornered and attacks and kills me... then I got killed by a wild bear... good way to go. So the bear didn't kill me and allowed me within about 20 feet for these great pics. I think I'm done encountering bears for a while... at least until hunting season.

-Ben