Leigh, the kids and I have all had a great year. The kids are growing like weeds, and love riding their bikes, swimming, etc... All the normal kid stuff. One of our family highlights from the past year was skiing together at Breckenridge, spending the day in the terrain park. Anna and Theo loved throwing themselves off the jumps, hitting rail slides, etc... It was so fun! Theo doesn’t have the skills to land the air he was getting, in fact, I think he only pulled one of them off – but wow did he have fun trying. This also came after the Olympics, so we had to get in the half pipe so they could do their Shaun White imitation!
Professionally, things couldn’t be better for Leigh and I. I received 2 big grants this year, which came on the heels of Leigh’s big grant last year. So – the division of Endocrinology at the University of Colorado gave us our own lab space as well as some money to put equipment in it! We are crazy excited. We are also publishing like crazy, and our data is looking good. I think Leigh is onto a new therapeutic modality to treat pre-diabetes, and I think I stumbled on a new therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes. Time will tell but it is all really exciting.
This year was also one marked by extreme loss. Our 16 year old dog Arthur had to be put down. He was an amazing dog and we miss him every day. It has left a huge hole in our family, and Leigh and I have had a really hard time dealing with the loss. After a while we realized that a one dog house wasn’t for us (we still have my 10 year old mutt Louey), so Leigh picked out a new dog. She is an adorable 5 month old mix of mostly Australian Shepherd and something else really cut. She has a ton of energy, which has been great for our family!
Leigh and I also pulled off some big athletic goals for the year as well. She completed a 50km (32 mile) off road trail running race in the spring in Gunnison, CO. She was having a bad stomach day (which makes a long day of exercise quite hard) but persevered. She completed the event slower than she was looking for (her goal was under 7 hours), but finished! I was in awe watching her run all day long – she is amazing!
I also was able to pull off a goal of mine that I’ve harbored for 25 years. After working on my swimming (I’m a terrible swimmer), I was able to complete Ironman Canada! This is a full Ironman race like the one in Hawaii – 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and then a marathon. I also went slower than I wanted, but finished in 10:49. I’m hooked though – and am doing another one next year (Lake Placid). It was a fun race on and extremely beautiful course. Good stuff!
We also have been traveling a bit, but not as much as we would like. This past fall, we went to Iceland for a week, which is a trip that we have been excited to take for quite a while. We made Reykjavik our base camp, and explored the national parks all over the island. We would trail run wherever we went to see more of the parks – it was gorgeous. Tons of geothermal sites and features, and amazing food.
We also did a vacation in Sedona AZ in the spring which ended up being a training camp where we each put in close to 20 hours of exercise. It is such a beautiful place! We also took the kids to Disneyworld this fall and had a blast. This fall we are headed to St. Thomas where Leigh is speaking at a continuing education conference for physicians, and then in March we are headed Maui.
So things are good here!
Bryan
We also have been traveling a bit, but not as much as we would like. This past fall, we went to Iceland for a week, which is a trip that we have been excited to take for quite a while. We made Reykjavik our base camp, and explored the national parks all over the island. We would trail run wherever we went to see more of the parks – it was gorgeous. Tons of geothermal sites and features, and amazing food.
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