I didn’t take the above picture. I got it from the Red Rocks web site. What is Red Rocks? Probably one of the most amazing natural amphitheaters in the world and I got to go there this week to see Death Cab for Cutie. Let me just get this out of the way first. Death Cab was awesome. If you’ve never heard of them check them out on itunes. They have a cool and unique sound to them. Seeing them live was great and I think I was most impressed with the way they sounded live. You know how a lot of artist don’t always sound as good in person as they do on a cd. Well this was not the case with Death Cab. They sounded amazing and I’m sure the way Red Rocks is set up didn’t hurt.

Red Rocks is just west of Denver about and hour and a half away from my apartment here in the Springs. As you can see looking at the stage there’s a giant red rock just to the left. Even more awesome is that you are completely framed by another giant red rock to your right as well. I don’t know how there’s such an awesome natural set up that makes a perfect natural concert venue, but God really knew what he was doing here.

We sat just a little past half way up the stadium seating and behind us, once you get to the top, it’s completely open and offers amazing views of the mountains and setting sun. I know because the sun was setting when I got there. As you look down over the sea of heads you see the stage. It almost looks as though God made that too, because it matches the surroundings perfectly. And as you’re looking down at the stage you can’t help but to constantly look past it. Off in the distance you see the city of Denver. It fills your whole view and as you pan the horizon you see down town and all the sky scrapers just to the left. And did I say I saw all of this at sunset? I just kept saying to my self that I can’t believe this place is here and I can’t believe I get to be apart of it. God is so completely amazing and Red Rocks is proof.

And to top it all off the reason I was able to see this awesomeness was it was Sara’s (Emily’s sister) birthday. Sara’s a big Death Cab fan so all the gang here surprised her and took her to see the concert and the site that is Red Rocks.

talk at ya later,
tonyb

Here’s where I was on the Fourth of July. This was taken from the top of Cottonwood Pass looking east. It’s about a 30 minute drive from Buena Vista where my friends and I spent the weekend at our sweet camping spot we found a few weeks ago. This was seriously one of the coolest drives I’ve had since I’ve been here. And on the other side is a really cool reservoir called Taylor Reservoir. Gary and I fished the stream under the dam and I saw some of the biggest trout I’ve ever seen in my life. Too bad they didn’t want anything to do with what we were throwing at them. Although I did come close to having one on my line, but I guess I just didn’t quite set it. I will, however, have his giant head coming out of the water for my fly forever burned into my brian. For a split second my heart almost came out of my chest.

Anyway it was an amazing way to spend the holiday weekend. Camping, fishing, driving through the mountains and hanging out with my Colorado Crew. I’m not sure it could’ve been much better. So enjoy the pics of the weekend.

These next three are all from the top of Cottonwood Pass and yes that is snow. This pass didn’t even get opened back up until a short time ago.

Yes this is B&W. I thought doing it this way could look cooler with the contrast of the white snow and the dark rocks.

That’s Katie on the left, Kristie and me and my awesome self. Katie is one of Kristie’s new roommates that’s here for a few weeks to do an internship at the Air Force Academy.

Here’s our campsite. Cliffs around us and the raging Arkansas in front of us. From left to right, Emily (Gary’s wife) Gare-Bear, Sarah (Emily’s sister) Rachel, and Hailey otherwise know as Hails-Bells. Saturday night we climbed over the cliffs and sat on a rock to watch the fireworks in BV. It was pretty amazing.

Here’s the Arkansas River. This picture was taken about 100 feet from our campsite. Pretty cool huh?

Some shots around our campsite. Check out the house below on top of this ridge. I’d probably take it if someone offered it to me. And I think that’s Mt. Yale in the background to the left covered in clouds.

talk at ya later,
tonyb

I am here.

Like a rock in the sand.
I am here.

Like an oak on a hill,
I am here.

Like a picture not taken,
I am.

I stand and breath,
taking in the now,
being a part of it.

I feel the sand around me.
Smell the grass that grows before me.
And am a part of the scene that is me.

I am here.
I am now.
I am.

And where is she?
She stays there.

talk at ya later,
tonyb

So two weeks ago, I ran the Garden of the Gods 10 mile run. I’m surprised I’m still not sore. Basically it was a 10 mile race up and down hills at 6500 feet. No big deal right? Well it sure wasn’t for the winners. At mile three we get shoed over to the right and I see a motorcycle. Following the motorcycle were three long skinny guys that sprinted past me on their way to the finish just three miles the other way. They finished before I was even half way done. But I did get done. Not the best time in the world, but I didn’t get to train as much as I’d like. I finished at 1:48. Sounds really slow I know, but remember it was up and down, up and down and up and down again. I’ve never run a race that intense before, but man it was fun. I’d do it again if it was next weekend and I’d try to finish closer to 1:40. Yea I can talk big now that it’s over.

Anyway I did have fun and this is a picture above of some of the over 1500 of us that ran it. I did find myself in it, but I think it’s impossible for anyone else to.

And guess what else I did that weekend. Just camp on the Arkansas river in BV, have more success fly fishing and hung out with friends. Just a typical weekend in Colorado. On Friday night we went out to Buena Vista and camped on the river. Saturday I fished with Gary and Levi and that night drove back home to get some rest before my race. Got up at about six Sunday morning mosyed down to Manitou and ran 10 miles through the Garden of the Gods. The I came home gorged myself and took a two hour nap. Great weekend right?

talk at ya later
tonyb

Well I’ve had a busy last two weeks. Too many adventures in Texas two weeks ago to expound on so I’ll give a quick summary. On my way down I did stop off at Palo Duro Canyon just outside of Amarillo and took a few pictures of a truly amazing Texas landmark. Once I got to Dallas it was off to my Springs’ friend Levi’s engagement party. On Saturday we had Cade’s second birthday and that night baby Will’s baby dedication at Kelli and Patrick’s church. I spent the rest of the week trying to catch up with friends and working the Byron Nelson. Which, by the way, I was able to walk with by far the most famous golfer I had ever walked with before, Vijay Sighn. I got a signed golf ball from him because he threw it at me. Pretty cool huh? Then it was off to East Texas. I had a great time playing golf with my dad out in Hideway and man if I could’ve putt at all I would’ve had a pretty decent round, but I was happy with how I did considering I hadn’t played in a year. After some time with Dad I was off again to the ranch in Gilmer. Again I had a great time hanging with the fam and getting to play with my nephews and niece. They’re awesome. We had a great time. And of course one of the highlights of the weekend was catching the monster bass you see at the top of this blog. Mom and Jim expanded the lake out there, but I don’t think any of us thought the fish would get that big. It’s awesome.

Speaking of fishing I was back at it this weekend, but instead of catching delicious bass off a bait caster I was pulling in some brown trout with a fly rod. Yep I’m a legit fly fisherman now. My friends and I drove out to BV (Buena Vista) for the weekend and had an amazing time camping and fly fishing. Man it was a blast. Gary navigated us to this mining claim area free campsite with hardly anyone around right on the river. Did I say it was amazing? There were seven of us sitting around the fire looking up at the stars and eating lots of grilled meat. Can it really get any better? Well it did. I think I mentioned last time my buddies Gary and Levi started teaching me how to fly fish. Levi’s a fairly serious fly fisherman and a great teacher. He had me casting mostly decently pretty quick and by the end of the weekend he was able to take off the training wheels and let me go. I’m not only a big fan of the sport now but I think I can officially say I’m a fly fisherman. I caught two Saturday afternoon and two Sunday morning. It was amazing. Setting that fly on top of the water and letting it float a little and then watching that fish pop it’s head up out of the water to get it is extremely exciting. So I plan on going much more through the summer and getting my moneys worth out of the waders I bought on the way out of town last Friday. Interesting side note about the weekend was that I actually drove out to BV twice this weekend. Once for the camping trip getting back into town about four on Sunday and then driving my friend Kathryn to her assignment at Trail West that night. It was a long night, but I don’t mind driving to BV with a goods friends and seeing all the views of the mountains on the way back. It still hasn’t gotten old.

Whelp I think most of you know by now, but I have decided to come back home. Yes I said home because that’s what Texas is for me. I absolutely love it here and moving here has been one of the best decisions of me life, but come September I’m moving back. I told my friend Levi this weekend that I knew I’d have fun moving here and I’d make some friends, but I had know idea how amazing those friends and my new relationships would be. I absolutely love these people here and I will miss them so so much, but I’m planning on having a place to stay up here now whenever I want to go skiing, or fishing, or hiking, or just hanging out with people that have become family to me. And speaking of family that’s probably the biggest reason I’m moving back. I miss them especially now that Chris and Mindy and the kids are back in Texas. I want to be able to see my nieces and nephews grow up. And my friends back home are pretty cool too. So that’s it. I’m moving back in September. Until then I’ll try and keep up with my adventures here through this blog, but forgive me if I’m too busy having fun to update it sometimes. Enjoy the pictures from the last couple weeks.

talk at ya later
tonyb

Here’s Palo Duro Canyon. You should check it out sometime if you get a chance. These pictures don’t even cover 1% of what’s out there in that giant hole in the ground.

Kelli, Patrick and Will at Will’s dedication.

Here’s a cool picture Kelli took with my camera of little Will. I think that’s a gang sign he’s throwing up. He’s already hard core. He has his own gang.

I’ve had a great last couple weeks and thought you guys might like to hear about it. The pictures below will give you some visuals of how great it was. Two weeks ago I went up to an amazing Young Life camp called Crooked Creek with some friends and future friends to do work crew for a weekend camp. The church I go to was having a youth retreat there and needed some help cooking, serving and cleaning. I, along with my friend Kristie, got to cook. My favorite part was stirring giant vats of meat. That meat became tacos and I hour enjoyed eating it.

Like I said Crooked Creek is an amazing camp and I have tons of great memories from taking kids there in the summer. It does look a lot different in the winter. In the summer there’s not 10 feet of snow stacked up on the sides road leading into camp. It also usually doesn’t snow while I’m in the hot tube, although I have seen snow up there in the summer. Anyway it was an amazing time and an amazing place, but the fun didn’t stop there.

On the way home Kristie and I decided to get a few runs in at A Basin. Why not right? I mean it is on the way home. This was the first time I had skied there and I kind of liked it. It’s pretty small, but sometimes I like that. We got in probably about 5 or so good runs before they kicked us off the mountain. At one point we went all the way to the top and for a long time we were the only people we could see skiing down the mountain. BTW, I was driving and for the first time in my life took a car past tree line. A Basin is what the heck up there and it was pretty amazing to look out my windshield and see how far up it really was. Also let me know if you’d like to here Kristie and I’s encounter with a Sasquatch. It’s pretty amazing.

And last week I just went up to Trail West to hang out and ski with almost all my old YL crew from Carrollton. No big deal. Whatever. It was a big deal. An awesomely, awesome big deal. I hadn’t seen some of my friends in a long time and I had an amazing time. I think those guys really do miss me and the whole week I was a little overwhelmed with the love they showed me. Including some of the senior guys that came that I’ve know since they were sophomores When I first meet those guys I was looking down at them. Now they look down at me. Way down.

Anyway, any one from C-town that’s reading this I just want to thank you so much for loving on me like you did last week. I had so much fun with you guys last week. I already miss you again. And no I still don’t know what I’m doing after this year is up, but hopefully that will get figured out soon.

Whelp enjoy the pictures from the last couple weeks of my life. I actually didn’t take most of them and even stole several from facebook, but I’m sure you don’t mind right?

talk at ya later
tonyb

This is most of my crew I hang with up in the Springs. From left to right: Kristie, Hailey, Bethany (Hailey’s sister), Emily (trying to cover my face with her dirty dishwasher hand), Joanna, Gary (Emily’s husband) and me. We’re posing in the Crooked Creek kitchen.

Me with a giant vat of meat. Cool huh?

Guess where this is?

Kristie’s skies on the left and mine on the right riding up the lift. And yes we did do this mogul run below down the lift line. I might have fallen.

Am I awesome or what?

This is Wilkerson Pass. It’s one of my favorite palaces in Colorado. It’s on highway 24 going west from Colorado Springs. I go through it whenever I go to Buena Vista or Breckenridge. It’s pretty amazing. Once you’re on top you look down at a valley and about 40 miles away are the mountains you see in the background. BTW, Frontier is on the one to the far left.

This is everyone that came to the Denton County Young Life Family Ski Trip. It was about 180 people.

Yes we do look pretty amazing. This is Mirkwood. It’s about a 15-20 minute hike to the top of Monarch. With me is my old college buddy that’s getting involved with Carrollton YL, Brandon and my new friends who did program for the trip. That’s all the funny stuff. On my right is David, Mark and Matt.

Well Tony made another surprise visit to Texas to see my new nephew. My sister Kelli gave birth to William Jonathan Sommers on February 10th at 2:30 in the afternoon. I drove down Wednesday and surprised her. It was fun to see her face when I walked into her hospital room. As you can see from the pictures below he’s pretty awesome and very handsome. Mom and Kelli say he’s cute, but my brother-in-law Patrick and I agree he’s more handsome than cute.

I had a great visit for the few days I was there and was so proud to see how awesome of a mom my sister is. From everything I could tell she was doing such a good job even though it looked like a lot of hard work.

I’m sorry I didn’t get to see very many of my friends while I was down there. I hope you understand and I can’t wait to see some of you up here in a couple weeks.

Life has been really good up here. I’m still having a blast experiencing Colorado. I’ve been skiing several times and hope to go several more before the season ends. I’m excited about summer coming because I plan on doing a lot more hiking. And heck yes I’m going to climb that dumb ole Pikes Peak again and this time I don’t plan on getting sick. One thing I’m really excited about that will be happening pretty soon is learning how to fly fish. I’ve made some really great friends up here and there are a couple guys I’ve gotten close with that love to fly fish. Even better is they love to teach people. I can’t wait. I hope to have some pictures of that in the next couple months.

Until then enjoy these pictures of my awesomely awesome nephew Will. He’s handsome insanity’ he?

talk at ya later
tonyb

talk at ya later,
tonyb

Whelp, another weekend and more visitors from my family. Last weekend my brother Chris and his wife Mindy left the kids with the grandparents and came up to the Springs for a weekend of fun. And yes we did have fun. I picked them up from the airport on Friday at noon and by two o’clock we were at the Garden of the Gods hiking around and having what Mindy called the most peacefully moments she’s had in a long time. I took them up to the Siamese Twins (pictured below) and since it was a Friday afternoon we didn’t have to fight our way through all the tourist once we got to them. We were the only people there and all we could hear was the crisp mountain air blowing through the trees. I kind of wish we would’ve stayed up there a while longer.

Saturday was filled with site seeing from the Air Force Academy Chapel, to Manitou Springs and finally over to The Olympic Training Center. All were great, but I got to take the tour of the Training Center for the first time and it was way cool. And check this out. While we were there the Men’s US Olympic Gymnastics Team was training and we got to watch. I even recognized two of the guys from this summers Olympics. Take a look at the picture below to see which ones they where.

Well it was a short visit so I had to take them to the airport Sunday morning, but before they left they did get to see some snow, and feel some really cold weather. When we woke up on Sunday morning it was snowing like crazy and the temperature was dropping like crazy. So we piled in the Jeep and on the way to the air port ate breakfast at The Olive Branch downtown. It’s ranked as one of the best breakfast spots in the Springs every year, and it was good. It was also way cool to eat breakfast in a warm place while watching the snow come crashing down outside and cover everything in white while listening to Christmas music. It’s hard not to get in the spirit when you’re surrounded by all that.

So after I dropped Chris and Mindy off I spent the rest of the day inside occasionally watching the snow fall. By that night we had about two to three inches on the ground and the temperature fell to about two degrees. That night it got down to -9. Crazy huh? So the next day when it was 0 what do you think I did? I put on all the long underwear I had and went for a joke. When I got done my beard was frozen with little pellets of ice all over it.

Enjoy the pictures below of Chris and Mindy and I hope to see as many of you guys as I can next week. I’ll be driving the Jeep down to the mother land this weekend. Most of next week will be spent in East Texas, but I’ll be in Dallas the weekend of the 27th. Let me know if you’re around.

talk at ya later
tonyb

Here’s our special moment at the Siamese Twins.

This is Chris and Mindy hanging out with their new friend in Manitou Springs.

That’s Alexander Artemev on the pommel horse. He’s the one that had that crazy awesome pommel horse routine from the summer olympics. The other guy with his shirt off is Kevin Tan and he was also on this summer’s team.

Last week was Thanksgiving and it was a good one. Mom and Jim came up and we had a blast. Thursday we went to the Broadmoor for our Thanksgiving lunch and it was great. That place is pretty awesome. Probably one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever been in. After lunch we headed over to met up with my new CO friends and ate more food with them while enjoying some good times. And then the snow started. It snowed off and on through Sunday. It was way cool. There wasn’t just a ton of snow, but enough to feel like you weren’t in Texas. And my new jeep handled it pretty well.

On Friday we took a road trip back out to Buena Vista so I could show Mom and Jim Frontier. I was really glad that I was able to show them a place I’ve spent quit a bit of time at and that means so much to me. I think they enjoyed it as well. They seemed most impressed with how nice and well kept it was. It’s hard to tell people how nice YL camps are, but for those of you that have been before you know. Pretty awesome. We had a great day and drive through the mountains going and coming back from BV. It is an amazing drive. Probably the most beautiful valley I’ve ever seen when you come down Wilkerson Pass.

On Saturday more snow and more sight seeing. We toured the halls of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and I know what your thinking, but it was actually not bad. I like the rodeo and it was cool to see the history and the characters that have made that history. Those people amaze me with how tough and passionate they are about their sport. I can’t imagine what it’s like sitting on top of an 1800 pound animal that wants to hurt you.

Well it snowed all night and all day Sunday. So much that it made Mom and Jim’s trip home a little tricky. They called me about three hours after they left Sunday morning and wanted me to look at the radar because they could barely see in front of them when they got to Trinidad. Pretty scary, but they did eventually get through it and made it home safely. Mom and Jim I had a blast with you and I’m glad you came and glad you made it home through the snow. Don’t worry because that might have been the only snow you see this year.

So speaking of snow, guess who’s already been skiing this year? Yep me and my friends. We went up to Breckenridge the weekend before Thanksgiving and carved up that mountain. At least the part that was open for skiing. At that time the mountain was open, but not very much of it at all. They still hadn’t got all that much snow, but enough to open a handful of runs. I had fun, but I got run over twice on Saturday because there where so many people and not many places to ski. It was really crowded on the main run. When I wasn’t getting run over I was dodging people. But hey I say it was all worth it. Especially for the adventure that happen that night. I wont tell you the whole story but I will tell you it involved my friends and I sitting in a hot tube outside a bed and breakfast, getting locked out of the bead and breakfast with only our swimsuits on, no cell phones and no way to get anyone to let us back in side. And it was really cold out side. And no one had shoes. Fun times right?

talk at ya later
tonyb