Bode's Recital

Bode had his sort-of-annual piano recital on Saturday.  His teacher (Miss Pat) has all her students do this in order to help with performance anxiety and to also allow the kids to play before a crowd.  Bode did amazingly well--I don't think he had a miskey during his play.  The pieces he played were 1) Minuet in G by Bach and 2) Mr Camel by Scott Costley (which probably isn't as well known as the Bach piece :-)  Below is the movie of Bode's performance.

We also took a picture of Bode in front of the instrument...

and a nice shot of Bode and Ashley.

Nothing too exciting happening here.  Weather is sunny and in the 40's, so I might go for a run or to the gym.  I have some gardening prep I should do, as it'll be planting season in another 45 days or so, which is scary.  We'll (of course) also watch the Steelers today as they try to knock off the dreaded Patriots.  Pleasant week to all.

A Boy and His Dog

I spent the last few days up in Breckenridge.  School doesn't start up until Tuesday, so I wanted to get some final ski days in.  Breckenridge has received over five feet of snow this January.  I skied on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday--Ashley and Bode (and Joey) came up Saturday night, so we all skied together on the weekend.  The weather was nice and pleasant, but no real new snow after Thursday, which is nice for Bode, as he's not yet a big fan of the powder.  We started on Peak 10--it wasn't open the last time we skied, so we decided to do Falcon chair first thing.

We didn't get any group shots, but I did take some of Ashley and Bode as they were swooshing down the mountain.

This next picture is scenic--that's Bode and Ashley in the middle.  Not many people around them, and the view is spectacular.

We skied for close to three hours, and by then, it was packed (it was MLK weekend).  We all headed to the base of the mountain and were ready for lunch.

We spent a lot of the weekend shoveling snow.  We had to clear off the roof, as the roof of one of the buildings in the town of Breckenridge collapsed due to the weight of all the snow.  We weren't worried about that, but we did want to get rid of a lot of the ice dams that had formed.  Thus, both Ashley and my arms are very sore :-)  Bode and Joey are now such good friends--I think each looked to the other after the loss of Harley.  Plus, Bode is getting to the point where he can do some dog chores (feed Joey, get him water, but he doesn't think he's ready to clean up the yard :-)  Here's a nice shot of a boy and his dog.

Now I am going to watch the Steelers--hopefully they can beat the Chiefs!!!  Pleasant week to all.

The Wolfe Pack

An "old" friend, which now has two meanings, one being we've known each other over 27 years and the second being we are getting older, came to visit.  Kristine Wolfe (Sharp) from my Papillion days and her family stopped in Colorado Springs on their return from a ski trip to Utah.  The house was packed because the Wolfes have four kids:  Paige, Abbie, Parker, and Avery.  I had no idea how to shop for a house of nine--I just started throwing stuff into the cart and hoped for the best.

The Wolfe-Pack stayed with us for two days including New Year's Eve.  I did take this one picture, which really only Avery was prepared for while the others hunted and grazed in the kitchen.

I also took some pictures of the kids when they were shooting off some party supplies as we rang in the east-coast new year (which occurred at 10 pm MST).

Kristine was kind enough to snap a group photo when we were in our festive gear.

I must also comment on the Scrabble games.  I got off to a slow start, finishing in dead last in the first game (I even lost to Avery), but I did come on strong and win the final two games, keeping the title of greatest Scrabble player to have ever lived.

We are now three days into 2017.  Auburn lost, so hopefully that isn't a harbinger of things to come.  Otherwise, Ashley is back at work, while Bode has a couple more days off at home.  I'm hoping he can go to a friend's house today, as I think he's starting to go a little stir crazy.  Pleasant week to all.