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.

Boonshoft

Today, similar to the previous five days, the high was forecast to be a whopping 22. Yikes. Not much to do outside, so today seemed like the perfect day to take Bode to the Boonshoft Museum, which is basically a kid's museum with lots of things to interest them (little animals, cool displays, etc.) A big bonus is there is also a large play area--well, honestly the whole museum is one big play area--so the kiddos run around and tire themselves out (which is item one on the parental hidden agenda). It opens at 9 am; we pulled into the parking lot at 9:07 and were the second car there. Thus, we had the place to ourselves for a little while. First up was the sandbox...but the great thing is, it's not really sand. It's actually ground up bits of rubber (probably from old tires), so it doesn't stick to you or get in your clothes. The drawback is you can't really build large sand castles because there isn't much adhesion. However, Bode was thrilled to sit, dig, and discover the bones buried underneath.
Here's a shot of me and kid cleaning off what appears to the leg bone from a dinosaur from the Mesozoic era (or it could be a piece of hard plastic shaped as such...)
After some time in the sand, err, rubber-pit, we moved on to the water works. This is simply A-W-E-S-O-M-E. I probably have as much fun as Bode. It's basically just some flowing water that is funneled into different sprinkler-type fixtures. The one shown below makes that cool umbrella pattern that Bode loves to put his hands in and splash around.
What's even cooler is you can build little water highways with some plastic pipes and bends. Here I am directing the water flow towards Bode.
Finally, here's a picture of Bode splashing around. Words cannot describe how much he likes this. Since we arrive early, we get this whole place to ourselves. Later in the day, it is literally packed with kids and father's like me that enjoy constructing water towers.
There is a small Lego-area. Nothing too exciting, although they do have some cool Lego-creations. Bode was more interested in jumping into the tub of Legoes.
There's this cool room that has a big sphere in the middle. The sphere is like a TV screen. This morning, the "movie" playing was about the planet Jupiter, so the ball took on some cool colors and looked just like the solar system's largest planet (yes, I was paying attention to the narration).
There is also a small zoo, but it's all little animals. Below is a woodchuck (groundhog) eating some lettuce. I made sure to inform the little rodent that we do not want six more weeks of winter. Notice that there are no pictures of the giant Burmese python...heaven forbid Bode ever want to become a herpetologist.
There are also little rooms focusing on various parts of every day life. There's a mock courtroom, a dry-goods store, a land-fill, and a recycling center. Bode really likes the garbage truck. It had some cool lights and a horn, and he could put fake trash in the slots on the side, which would then be dumped out the back. Endless entertainment :-)
There is also a huge play area, with large and small slides, climbing nets, and other items designed to fatigue the little ones. Here's a shot of Mommy and Bode in a tunnel. The bad thing about this tunnel was the lack of padding...Mommy was feeling her age when she crawled out.
We spent a solid two hours at the Boonshoft Museum. By then, Bode was tired, and the parking lot was full. We bought a year membership, so if the groundhog does see his shadow, you know where we will be for the next six Saturdays :-) Pleasant day to all.

Bode in the Basket

Bode has toys. Lots of toys. The entire sun room is devoted to Bode's entertainment. He has a train table in his room, he has a lego table in the living room, and now that he knows about DVD's and the stories they can provide (his favorite is Angus Lost), he is encroaching on the office. But with this wealth of toys, this vast cornucopia of entertainment options, how does Bode choose to amuse himself? With a laundry basket. Had we known this a priori, we could have saved a considerable sum of money :-) Here are some action photos.

About three seconds after this last picture was taken, Bode fell face-forward into the wall, which seemed to end his fascination with the basket. He has since moved on to bigger and better things, namely Ashley's exercise ball. Here's a movie of Bode doing a flip.

I need a physician to explain why Bode's shoulders do not dislocate when he does that; I know mine sure would!

Life is grand here in Ohio. We haven't seen the sun since last Wednesday. Someone please verify that it's still there :-) Pleasant day to all.

MMX

Wow, what a way to ring in the New Year! No, I'm not talking about a bibulous night of drunken debauchery (we were in bed by 10:30 and prefer to celebrate New Year's on Icelandic time...) No, I'm referring to the victory in the Outback Bowl by the mighty Auburn Tigers over the pesky Wildcats of Northwestern high school, err, I mean, from the Big Ten conference. I think Ashley and I each had two major heart events during the game. If you missed it, allow me to give you a brief recap (and also so I can document exactly when the damage to our hearts occurred for our future medical problems...) Auburn jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead, but NW fought back. It was a good game, but by the mid-4th quarter, Auburn was again up by 14, leading 35-21. However, Auburn had intercepted NW five times, so it was like we had a 12th player on our side. NW proceeded to move the ball and scored with ~four minutes to go but they MISSED the extra point. Auburn 35, NW 27. We're up by eight, and I even called a friend and said, "Well, at least we can't lose in regulation." NW tries an onside kick, but Auburn easily recovered it. All they needed was a couple first downs and the game was ours. Ben Tate rushes for an easy eight, and it's looking good. He runs again and FUMBLES! OMG! Now there's less than three minutes, and Auburn's defense looks like the French against the Germans. NW moves the ball, rather easily downfield, but amazingly, Auburn stops them enough to force a 4th down conversion. Auburn blitzes and sacks the NW quarterback. Game over...? NO! There's a penalty on Auburn. While sacking the quarterback, they pulled on the QB's facemask. Oh the humanity! Personal foul and automatic first down! Needless to say, NW quickly scores, but I'm confident Auburn will stop the two-point conversion, and I think they do, until I realize NW was running a trick play. They did a reverse and then passed to a wide open guy in the end-zone. Tie score. Looks like we're going to overtime...except Auburn FUMBLES THE KICK-OFF. Oh the humanity (again)! Now we're really worried, as there's about a minute to go. NW again easily drives down the field and tries a~37-yard field goal with seconds to go. Fortunately it was WIDE RIGHT! Overtime. Auburn gets the ball first, and Ben Tate runs the ball down to the NW five-yard line. NW couldn't stop him (except when he fumbled). So I'm clueless as to why the next three plays were either Kody Burns runs or some lame pass attempts. The result? An Auburn field-goal, and we lead 38-35. A good thing, except for the fact our defense had not stopped NW in a long time. NW gets a first down near the Auburn 12 or 13. We're worried. Then, they get sacked for a big loss. Auburn forces NW to try a FG. Same kid who just recently missed at the end of regulation. He kicks...it's long enough...and IT HITS THE RIGHT UPRIGHT. NO GOOD...? Except there's a flag. Auburn roughed the kicker! (Bode, earmuffs) F---!!!!!! Personal foul, automatic first down. It's not looking good. NW drives the ball inside the ten yard line, and we're really worried. Somehow, the boys muster a good defensive stand, and it's 4th and goal from the four yard line. NW brings out a different kicker because their primary kicker was injured when Auburn roughed him (it looked pretty bad--knee got taken out). The announcers are talking about the back-up kicker as he's setting up. The camera is focused on him. But then, there's some commotion. NW was running another trick play. They did a quick snap, fumble-rooski type play to try to catch Auburn off-guard. Instead of a FG, it's a fake! We see the NW guy trying to get the corner, but somehow the Auburn defender fought off the block and knocked him out of bounds at the two yard line. We hesitate-any flags? No. GAME OVER! THEY WON! THEY WON THE FIRST GAME OF 2010! And then we collasped, exhausted.

After the game, Ashley lay there, elated, but tired. Bode came over to play with her. They were having a great time...
until Bode jumped on Mommy's tummy. Ouch! Mommy's down!Fortunately, she was ok. I told her she obviously needs to do more situps to strengthen her abs. She was not amused.

Here's a good shot of me and the Bode-man playing with his Legos. He's able to put them together and take them apart...although his favorite seems to be building the big tower and then pushing it over.Finally, here's a good picture of me and the little Dude.We had a wonderful holiday break, but like all breaks, it ended and we went back to work this week. It's bitterly cold here. I don't think the high has been above freezing all decade :-) Plesant day to all.