Winter Vacation: Part IV

While in Breckenridge, we stayed in a great condo about 100 yards from the gondola. The gondola will take anyone to the base of peak 7 or peak 8. After we skied on Wednesday, we took the Little Dude up the gondola. He loved the ride (thank heavens Jaws didn't attack us--reference the movie Moonraker if you don't get the joke). Here's a picture of Mommy and Bode.

Bode really enjoyed it when we crossed over the gears and the car bumped up and down. Here's a video.

While on this trip, Bode learned how to use our digital camera. For a long time, he has enjoyed holding the camera and looking at the stored pictures. He has now figured out how to switch the camera mode from 'view pictures' to 'take pictures,' and he has also figured out how to actually take a photograph. I realized Bode had a new skill set when I was scrolling through the store images and there were 100 pictures of random things (yes, one hundred). Here are some of Bode's best shots--we have a budding Ansel Adams on our hands. First a blurry shot of Mommy.Next, a self-portrait.My favorite that Bode took is the following. It's a shot of the three of us watching the Olympics. That's his little foot in the middle, my bare feet are on the right, and Ashley's socked feet are on the left. We spent our final night in Colorado in Denver at Kathy and Dave's place. Bode was able to spend some more quality time with his two Rankin cousins, Teddy and Charlie.

That about does it for our winter holiday. We both go back to work tomorrow. The weather is a bit warmer today (in the low 30's), so spring is near. Pleasant week to all.

Winter Vacation: Part III

Skiing. We hadn't been in 14 months, so we were both a bit nervous to see if our skills had diminished. Some locals in Ohio might point out that we can always go skiing here--there's Mad River and other "mountains" about an hour away. As tempting as that sounds, we reasoned the 200 feet of elevation change these places offer just wouldn't do it for a couple people that lived in Colorado for six years :-)

Sunday night, the mountains received about six inches of snow. We got to the lifts early Monday morning. Conditions were fabulous, although the visibility was still a little low because it was cloudy. The skiing/boarding was great, although quite tiring as skiing in powder is always a workout. Sadly, I didn't bring the camera this first day, because I figured the initial day back would be filled with tumbles and falls (fortunately, it wasn't). We went again on Wednesday. There wasn't any new snow, but it was a beautiful sunny day with no crowds of which to speak. We were one of the first on the lift. Here's a shot of the base of Peak 8 before the lifts open. Notice the dearth (or paucity if you like that word better--Ashley recently got me a thesaurus) of people.
Here's a shot from the top of the mountain. Again, notice how few people there are.
Next is a picture of Ashley getting ready to hit the slopes. Notice her cool snow pants, which made it easy to pick her out on the mountain.Here's a photo of me at the top of Peak 8 a little later in the day. Quite a view.
We skied until 1230 or so. Ashley's parents were kind enough to watch Bode for us, and for that, we are grateful (especially since the cost of mountain daycare isn't cheap). That afternoon, we took Bode up to the base of the runs. He couldn't do ski school because he's not yet potty-trained (hopefully next year). Here's a great shot of Mommy and Bode in front of the big terrain park. Who knows--in just a few years, Bode could be tearing up those monstrous jumps in the background.
One more post will follow about our winter vacation. Stay tuned and pleasant day.

Winter Vacation: Part II

Following the ice-skating debacle, we went and visited our little place in Blue River (three miles south of Breckenridge). We have two nicknames for house. The first is The Mountain Palace, and if you've ever been there, you'll understand the tongue-in-cheek humor (968 square feet is no palace). The other nickname is The Snow Hole. This is a more accurate description, because our house typically gets a ton of snow. Here are some pictures of what we hope will someday be our future home. First, we have Ashley on the deck.
Next we have three shots from the front of the house. Normally the snow is piles so high that the house isn't visible from the road. The locals said the snow is a bit off this year...I guess global warming is true.We met with an architect while we were there, and he seems to think we can add on to the existing home for a reasonable cost. While we probably can't afford to build a dream-home (building costs in Breck can run up to $400 per square foot; you can probably do the math and see how much this really is...) If anyone wants to nominate us for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, please feel free :-) Our goal is to be living full time in the mountains by the summer of 2017. Here's hoping the stock market really surges!!!

Next post: Our time on the slopes. Pleasant day.

Winter Vacation: Part I

With all the snow in Ohio, Ashley and I decided we needed a vacation. Did we choose some place balmy and warm to escape our current climate? Heck no--we went to Colorado to do some skiing and to check up on our little mountain retreat (can you say, "Tax write-off?").

Our trip started early Saturday morning. And I do mean early. Our flight left at 0615, so we had to leave the house by a little after 0400. Bo-bo did not want to get up...Fortunately, we were able to make it safe and sound to the airport. Carrying the six (yes, six) pieces of luggage (four bags and two ski bags) was a bit of the challenge. Bode was a big help because he offered to carry the thermos with his food (and by offer, we mean he screamed until we let him carry it). We navigated through security and got on the plane. We flew on Frontier, direct to Denver from Dayton. Bode did great--he even napped a bit, although in the picture below, he was trying to escape into the aisle.There was this really cool cloud...if you can call it that. It was basically a thin line of clouds above the regular cloud-layer. It went on for miles. I thought it could be a contrail from a previous plane, but it seemed too intact to be one. If you know what it is, please let me know.We spent the Saturday and Sunday in Colorado Springs, visiting my Mom (Grammy), and also saw our friends, Kristin and Eric, their two children Brenna and Rylan, and Ashley's boss, Vern. Brenna and Rylan are a month older than Bode, so the kiddos got to play together for a few hours. Brenna and Rylan have a great basement equipped with lots of cool toys, so afterwards, Bode was exhausted. This was a good thing because Sunday evening, we drove up to Breckenridge (he napped in the car) and stayed at a great condo within walking distance of the Breckenridge gondola (more on that in a later post). Ashley's brother Dave and his family (Kathy, Teddy, and Charlie) as well as Ashley's parents, Frank and JoAnne, joined us.

I'll cover the skiing in a later post (we went on Monday and Wednesday, and it was awesome). On Tuesday, we took a break and tried to get Bode on ice-skates. The rink wasn't crowded at all, so we didn't have to worry about Bode getting run over. As you'll see, this was never a problem. Here's a good shot of Bode getting his skates laced up by Mommy.Next, we have Bode in his helmet. Safety first.Alright, now we're ready to get to the ice. Unfortunately, Bode didn't really like the skates, and the minute he stepped on the ice and his foot slid, it was over.
We spent the next hour or so with one of us skating while the other held Bode in the stands and tried to convince him how much fun it was. He wasn't buying what we were selling, so Bode's first trip to the ice rink was somewhat of a failure. However, his first trip to the swimming pool was met with a similar amount of tears, so we can't yet rule out a future as a professional hockey player.

This ends part one of the winter vacation. Parts II and III will be added in the near future (but that could be preempted if Bode refuses to let me type on the computer. He's quite adept and grabbing my fingers). Pleasant day.

Punxsutawney Phil was Right

The ground hog sure was right. This past Friday, the base sent us home at 2 pm because of a brewing snow storm. We received about eight inches of snow Friday and Saturday morning. It was a real wet snow making shoveling a very difficult task. Somehow, the division of shoveling labor is such that I get to shovel while Ashley watches the Bode-man. On these heavy snow days, I believe I'm getting the short end of the stick and deserve some sort of compensation (back-rub?) I'll have to bring this up at the next committee meeting.

The heavy snow caused a neighbor's tree to fall on the main power line that feeds about 50 homes in our neighborhood. We lost power a little before 2 am on Saturday. We were really worried that it'd be a couple days before we got power back because after the big wind storm in 2008, we were without power for 13 days. Fortunately, I saw a Dayton Power and Light truck across the street around 11 am. The guy told me it would be another five or six hours, which was bad because it was getting cold in the house, but it really was good news knowing we'd get power back that night. About four DP&L trucks showed up, and the guys got to work. A guy from the local ABC news channel was filming and wanted some neighborhood folks to interview. Ashley ended up being on TV. The best part was she was wearing her Auburn sweat-shirt, so all of Big-10 country had to have the SEC rubbed in their face one more time :-)

Sunday the high was forecast to be 22. What a wonderful day for a race (yes, really). I ran the Frostbite Five miler down in Centerville. Evidently a lot of (fast) people wanted to get out and run on Sunday, so there really is no need to discuss in what place I finished...but I will say my time was a PR (likely because this was the first five-mile race I have ever run). We watched the first half of the Super Bowl at some friend's house, and then came home and saw the Saints win before falling to sleep (it was after 9:30 pm!). Early Monday morning (0400), Ashley headed off to the Dayton airport. She flew into Washington Dulles, which was closed all weekend due to a massive blizzard on the east coast. Some reports had Dulles getting over 30 inches of snow in a 2-day period. Thankfully, Ashley's flight was uneventful and she arrived safe and sound. Unfortunately, another snow storm struck today, hitting Ohio first thing this morning. By 1045, the base decided to send everyone home. Thus, Bode and I spent the day together. He turned out to be a big help shoveling the driveway (unlike some other people in this family). Here are some action photos.
The storm has moved out of Ohio and is now pounding the east coast. I spoke with Ashley on the phone. D.C. is forecast for another 12 inches of snow. She has moved her return flight from Wednesday to Thursday, so hopefully she's able to get back without further delays.

After a hard day of shoveling, Bode and I played some trains. The little dude is quite adept at getting the trains running. He still doesn't understand how to fix the track if it comes apart ("Daddy, fix choo-choo" is a common refrain). But he does enjoy it, as do I.
We have a birthday tomorrow. Auburn aka Graybeard is turning ten...has she really been with us that long? Thankfully dogs live forever :-)Pleasant day to all and happy sledding.