Carnage in Colorado

On Thursday morning, I got a phone call from Bode. I was working, so I ignored it. He called again, and I ignored it thinking I'd call him back in a few minutes. I then got the dreaded text: It's urgent. So I dropped what I was doing, called Bode, and found out Ashley had broken her arm after a bad fall while snow-boarding. She had to be skied down the mountain by the snow patrol, and they took x-rays in the hospital at the base of the mountain; not good.

That is Ashley's right arm, and she was in a lot of pain. They considered doing surgery, but opted against it, so the poor girl had to fly home with her arm in a splint; any type of motion caused those bones to move, and that, according to her, was very unnerving (and painful). Fortunately, Ashley has some amazing friends that got her in with an incredible doctor over in Pensacola; he was able to get Ashley in for surgery this past Monday; doc patched her up with one plate and ten screws.

Amazingly, she is not even in a cast. She can start moving her arm now and can start rehab next week, so she is very blessed that it was not more serious than it was; in fact, the doc told her this surgery is "a layup" for him--very straight-forward, does them all the time. She actually worked most of this week, and she even was the track official at a high-school track meet this weekend. Go Ashley!

Sadly, Bode did not return without an injury. He fell early during the ski trip and thought he sprained his thumb. It didn't seem to be getting any better, so I took him to the doc. He has something called skier's thumb (yes, really), and a small bone in his thumb is displaced. It is the small bone at the bottom left of the middle joint; it is not where it should be.

We had a lot of different options, but long story short, the hand specialist over in Pensacola said "no surgery; we'll put him in a cast for six weeks, and he should be fine." Not what Bode wanted to hear, but he knew he was going to be sidelined for awhile after the initial diagnosis, but six weeks from this past Thursday is probably the best news it could have been. What I find funny (not really) is that Bode has such a small break while Ashley's arm was snapped in half, yet he is the one in the cast. He can't swim for six weeks, so I'm trying to do stuff with him to help him stay fit. We did get everyone out to Peppers for dinner the other night; all seemed in good spirits.

Bode has some Go-Pro videos from the trip, and he has promised me he'd get them to me, but as of yet, nothing; I'll gently nudge him with a cattle prod to see if I can get him to do something :-) Here's hoping everyone heals up quickly and we can get back to our normal routines (I'm currently the only one that can shower without first having to put a plastic bag on :-)

Spring Break Part 2

 The ski conditions were great. I think the mountains got almost three feet of snow a few days before Ashley and Bode arrived, so they were blessed with good snow and fantastic weather. First, some scenery photos.

They skied for four days, and had beautiful weather every day. Here is a nice picture of Bode and Ashley.

Here is a selfie of Ashley.

And here is one of Bode when needed a rest.

Bode skied with Teddy and Charlie a few days. Here is a nice one of the three of them at the end of the day.

One night, the whole crew went out and did an escape room.

All in all, it was a great trip...until the very last day of skiing; then, the bad times started :-(

Spring Break Part 1

A couple weeks ago, Ashley and Bode headed out to Colorado for their annual ski trip. They had a great time (sort of). They arrived on a Friday night and spent a couple days at Uncle Dave's. The highlight of this had to have been going to a boxing gym. First, here is a nice picture of Bode and Teddy.

Next are some action shots of Bode learning how to box. First, we have Bode getting taped up.

Next, some action shots.

Ashley had some videos, but (per the usual), it was too hard to get them from her phone. Bode said he had a great time learning how to box, but I don't think he'll be fighting in the Gold Glovers any time soon. Next up, the mountains.

Southeastern Swimming

I can't believe it has taken me so long to get this posted to the website. Per a previous post, Bode qualified for the Southeaster Swimming short-course championship meet in the 100-butterfly, the 200-butterfly, the 200-freestyle, and the 50-butterfly. This is the first time Bode qualified for this meet, so he was excited to go. I drove him up on the Friday (this meet took place in the middle of February), and then Ashley came up to see him over the weekend. Thus, I only have the pictures and movies from when I was up there. There are more pictures on Ashley's phone, but it seems like its easy to break into a bank than to quickly get large movie files off her phone. First, some pictures. The meet was in Huntsville, and the venue was very nice.

Here's Bode talking to a couple of his friends before the meet.

I only have videos of Bode swimming the 50-fly and the 200-free. He swam personal bests for both, which is good, but he always seems to think he could have gone faster. Below is the 50-fly (he is in lane 1).

Here is the 200-free. He swam in 1:48:69 (or something like that--not sure of the exact hundredths of second that he got); pretty amazing considering he only went below the two-minute market less than a year ago. I was very high up in the bleacher, so it is not a great video.

When I got home from the meet, Rowdy had let me know his displeasure about being left alone. Such a sweet dog.

Of course, it is always good to see the dogs no matter how bad they were. Here is a cute video of the two playing tug-of-war.

Ashley and Bode are currently skiing in Breckenridge, so I'm sure I'll post some pictures of their vacation.