Corn Maze

With Halloween just around the corner, we decided to go to a corn maze, and not just any corn maze.  Thirty (30) acres of corn maze located at Anderson Farms just north of Denver.  We met up with Dave, Teddy, and Charlie early on Sunday morning, early because we wanted to beat the crowds.  Here are a couple good pictures of the cousins (Charlie is in the mask).

The farm is huge, but I don't know if they do any harvesting of the corn.  I think they can make much more money growing corning, cutting it into a maze, and then charging $15 per person to visit (plus concessions, etc) for a couple months.  Maybe I should look into something like this for my retirement...but I digress.  There were chickens...

and also some goofy signs.

The farm is kind enough to provide a map, which was rather accurate, both on a piece of paper and at the start of the maze, which Bode immediately committed to his photographic memory.

If you can't tell, the pattern is a skier (bottom) and a snow-boarder riding a chair lift.  All the lines in the picture are the maze paths.  We headed out, with the goal of reaching all eighteen checkpoints.  There was a nice lookout platform at the start.  I headed up and snapped a picture of Bode and Mommy.  It looks like we are miles and miles from civilization (or in Nebraska), when in reality, we're only a few miles from your normal suburban-type structures (strip malls, Subway, gas stations).

We took turns playing the part of navigator.  Bode nor Charlie wasn't very interested in finding our way through the maze; they did love the stalks and stalks of corn that were lying around.  Teddy tried his hand at navigating, with some success (and an assist from Uncle Dave).

It took us close to 90 minutes to complete the maze, which isn't too bad.  We did take some short cuts through the rows of corn rather than following all the paths.  We tried to eat lunch at the farm, but the lines were horrendous.  Instead, we opted for a nearby Firehouse Subs, which, as luck would have it, was also televising the Bronco game (note Uncle Dave's shirt--he's a big fan).

Bode has his school's Fall Carnival tomorrow, and then only three days of school next week (parent-teacher conferences).  I think Ashley and Bode might head up to the mountain estate.  The ski lifts aren't yet open, but Breckenridge did get some snow yesterday.  Winter is coming :-)

First Swim Meet

Bode had his first swim meet today.  We could not be more proud of how he did.  This was our first swim meet as parents, so it was a bit of a learning experience.  First, Bode is in the 8-and-under age group.  Thus, he swimsagainst boys over a year older than him, so we had to temper our expectations.  Bode signed up for four events:  the 25-yard butterfly, the 25-yard backstroke, the 25-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard individual medley.

If you've never been to a swim meet, you must realize it is organized chaos.  Every child competing has two or three family members cheering them on, there are tons of swimmers, and a pool deck is only so big.  It was very crowded, but I was very impressed with the efficiency the officials conducted the events--very German-like, although by the end of the day, I was very tired of hearing a whistle blow.  We arrived a little after 7 am, and Bode and his team swam for 25 minutes to warm up.  This seemed odd to me, because some kids' events were until two hours later, so it wasn't clear to me how the warm-up was helpful.  But being a newbie, I kept my mouth shut.  Soon, it was time to race.

First up is a picture of Bode getting ready.  Next time, we need to get him a cap for his head and some bike shorts to swim in to cut down on the drag.  No speedos thought--a small number of kids wore them, and, in short, it looks horrible.

His first event was the butterfly.  Ashley brought the good camera and took videos of each race.  However, the file sizes are huge, so I had to reduce the resolution.  If you want the HD video, you'll have to come to the house to watch :-)  But I think the below accurately capture the events.  

Note he gets second in his heat.  He was third, but he had a strong second half of the race and passed that other boy.  Ultimately, he was 7th out of 12 boys, but he beat all the other seven year olds with the exception of one boy, Max, who is a ridiculously awesome swimmer, and he's six months younger than Bode.  Max was the overall winner in the butterfly.  Bode knows Max from his days at Donna's Dolphins, and I think the two of them enjoyed hanging out together between races more than the meet itself.  You can see Max in the first frames of the above movie--he's the blond boy leaning against the diving board.  Bode's second race was the back-stroke.  We think this is his best stroke, and he did very well, winning his heat by a large margin.

He was 9th (I think) out of 22 boys, and, like before, beat all the other seven year olds with the exception of Max, who was the overall winner (the kid is a beast).  Next up is the freestyle.  He won his heat by a large margin.  Note at the next meet, Bode will be in faster heats because he will now have an official time and will seeded accordingly.

Like the backstroke, he was ~9th (I think), but this time, another seven-year old (and Max) beat him.  Max must have swum poorly because he only got second--he's slipping :-)  Bode's final race was the 100-yard IM.  This consists of a 25-yard butterfly, a 25-yard backstroke, a 25-yard breaststroke, and finishing up with a 25-yard freestyle.  There is no IM for 8-and-under, so Bode was swimming against other boys who were 10 years old.  Thus, the reason for him looking slow.

He swam great, but sadly, he was DQed :-(  Apparently he didn't do his turn off the breaststroke properly--he needs to put two hands on the wall instead of only one.  He wasn't bothered by this--understood why, said he'll do better, and was his happy self.

It's getting darker earlier, the weather is a bit cooler, and the garden has stopped producing.  Winter must be coming :-)  Pleasant evening to all.

Cross Country

Bode finished his second year running cross country.  As I've said in previous posts, Bode is more of a social runner--the type of guy that shows up for the evening runs at the local pub just for the beer and the company and believes the run is just something to get over with.  The team had six meets this year, but two were cancelled due to rain and/or lightening.  The last one was somewhat annoying, as both Ashley and I raced to get to the meet.  The kindergarteners and first grade races went, and as the second graders were getting ready, the meet was called.  And I've no issue with the meet being cancelled--it was fixin' to pour down.  We even got some large hail on the cars as we were driving home (which is the primary reason for my annoyance).  As always, we are very proud of our little dude.  Here's his certificate...

and here's the team photo.  Bode is in the second row from the back towards the right-hand side.

We spent Columbus Day weekend up in the mountains, doing a little work on the mountain estate.  The weather was amazing.  Ten years ago, Ashley and I went up to Breckenridge over Columbus Day, and we almost were stranded because we got 20 inches of snow.  A little different this weekend--highs in the 60s and maybe even the 70s.

The trees in the picture above were painted blue to raise environmental awareness.  It was a water based paint, and there were signs up saying the paint didn't hurt the trees...but I'd sure be ticked off if someone painted me all blue even if the paint was water soluble...but I digress.  We walked around the town, and even went ice-skating (sadly, no pictures).  This week is a big week.  I'm sure I don't have to remind people of the Auburn game Thursday night (not been a great season thus far).  Then, on Saturday, Bode has his first real swim meet.  He will swim the 25-yard freestyle, 25-yard butterfly, the 25-yard backstroke, and the 100-yard individual medley.  We are excited to see him in action.  Not much else is going on here.  The dogs are fine, Ashley is fine (smoking fine if you ask me), and I'm still teaching.  I also received a new charger for my camera battery today, which is the reason for the dearth of pictures--just in time for the big swimathon, so look for a lot of pictures next Sunday!  Pleasant week to all :-)

Bode's Recital

Bode had his first piano recital yesterday.  Fifteen thousand people from Colorado Springs packed World Arena to hear him play (a bit of an exaggeration).  Actually, there were probably 50 people and 12 players at a local church.  Still, it was very enjoyable.  In the morning, Bode told me he was scared of the recital because playing in front of people was hard.  I told him not to worry about it, and he seemed fine, although I was concerned after he said this.  Still, we knew he could do well because he'd been practicing so hard.  Bode got to the recital early, and spent some time with Miss Pat going over things and loosening up.  We all then gathered in the church, and Miss Pat said some opening remarks. I snapped a quick photo of Bode and Mommy.

Miss Pat then said the first player would be Bode McGuirk.  Little Dude gets up and calmly walks to the front.  I told him to bring his bag which contains his music.  He had told me he had everything memorized, but I thought he might want it in case he froze up (although I didn't tell him this).  Miss Pat introduced Bode to the crowd (small group of people), and said he'd be playing three pieces.  I took the opportunity to snap another photo.  No signs of nerves in this little guy.

His first piece was Pop Goes the Weasel.  Only a couple mistakes, and those were with the dreaded left hand.  Plus, no need for any sheet music.  The kid has a memory!

His next piece is a song called The Accompaniment.  I started the camera late, so I didn't get the beginning.  Because of this error, I decided to just keep rolling and include his third piece in this clip (yes, I know there are easy movie editing software packages that would cut and splice the footage; I'm too lazy to do this).  His third song is called Go For the Gold, and I think he played both pieces amazingly well AND all from memory!

Obviously he needs to work on his bow at the end--he just sort of dropped the microphone and walked off :-)  The whole ensemble posed for a group picture afterwards

We are very proud of how hard Bode has worked on the piano.  We don't really have to bother him to practice--he'll sit down and play a few songs, although we think he does this just to butter us up so we'll let him play Agario, a very addicting and simple computer game.  We don't have much else going on right now.  The garden is winding down a productive year.  We even got a few stalks of corn and some peppers to go along with the tomatoes and broccoli.

The corn was ok--a little rough and chewy.  I don't know if it makes sense to grow it here.  I think next year I'll start six seeds in cups in March, and then transplant them.  Otherwise, I don't think the growing season is long enough.  I spent a couple days this week at the mountain estate cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood.  I think we have close to three cords of wood ready to go.  It took me all of Thursday and part of Friday morning to do this.

We are going up again over Columbus Day weekend in a couple weeks.  I still have about 100 more logs to cut.

Obviously the weather was gorgeous the two days I was there.  In Colorado Springs, it's been great--almost annoyingly hot, as the high for today is predicted to be 87.  A week ago, I took Bode on a short bike ride.  I didn't know if he really liked it or not until last night when he said, "Daddy, can we go on a bike ride tomorrow?"  Of course we will be going.  Pleasant week, and Happy October to all.

Swim Team

As I said in a previous post, Bode has joined the Rocky Mountain Rapids as a Class I swimmer.  There are five classes, with Class V being a high-school level swimmer.  Bode is doing amazingly well, and I say this as an unbiased observer (really).  I tried taking some pictures and movies yesterday.  They didn't turn out great, but it's not really my fault (yup, this craftsman is blaming his tools).  Bode was swimming on the other side of the pool, and all the parents/observers are sitting in the bleachers on the far side.  I didn't want to be "that parent" that is taking pictures of an ordinary workout.  Therefore, I had to use the zoom feature on my circa 2004 camera.  Thus, things are blurry and shaky.  Still, I think you can get the idea.  First up in Bode just chilling in the pool.

Next is a movie of Bode doing butterfly, turning off the "wall," in quotes because they Class I team only had one lane, so they put in a fake wall in the middle of the pool.

Note how good he looks doing butterfly.  Also note how fast his turn is off the wall as he transitioned to backstroke--just a couple months ago, he would stop, and let his feet touch the bottom of the pool before starting again.  Now, he just goes right in to backstroke, and simply overtakes the swimmer in front of him.  Very nice!  Next is a blurry movie of Bode doing freestyle.  His flip turn is very good, and he looks very smooth.

Towards the end of practice, they work on their starts.  Today was Bode's first time going off the starter's block.

Finally, the team did some sprint racing at the end.  Here's Bode winning his race--I think the person he swam against is about a head taller than he is.

Swim practice again tomorrow and Thursday.  I foresee many hours spent sitting on a pool deck :-) Bode has a meet on 17 October.  He will be swimming the 25-meter freestyle, 25-meter backstroke, 25-meter butterfly, and the 100-meter individual medley.  Should be a great time!  Pleasant day to all.

Lots Going On

...since my last post.  Has it really been over a month since I've put anything on the blog?  Shame on me.  We've seen a lot of activity over the past month.  First and foremost, Bode started 2nd grade on 18 Aug.  Here's a nice shot of him on his first day of school--such a grown up young man.

He has a very nice teacher, and it's her first year teaching, just like his kindergarten teacher was a "rookie."  She's very motivated and excited, so we are confident she will do a fantastic job.  Nothing too exciting has happened in school, which is good.  He says he likes it, although when we ask him about the best part of his day, the answer is always, "Recess."  At first, we thought this was not good, but then he would ask me about the best part of my work day, and my answer is usually, "When I went to the gym," so we can't get too upset with him.

Bode also started swimming for the Rocky Mountain Rapids swim team.  He practices three times a week, and we think he's doing awesome.  We have some videos, but those are on Ashley's camera, and she's yet to upload the videos.  We have practice tomorrow night, so I'll be sure to get some action shots and post them (hopefully before mid-October).  Bode is also running cross-country.  He's more of a social runner--he likes hanging out with his friends, as evidenced by his demeanor at the starting line--not exactly laser-focused on dominating the race.

I did get the below action shot of him on the course.

He ran the whole way, and we are very proud of him.  Bode's friend, Hunter (the tall kid on Bode's left is the pictures above) won first place--he's quite fast and has a nice stride.

Another new event in the McGuirk home is we have a new "manny"--Corey has been taking care of Bode after school.

We spent Labor Day weekend in Breckenridge at the Mountain Estate.  For some reason, I didn't take any pictures (not sure why).  We had some friends visit on Saturday (the Hardman's), and we all enjoyed an Auburn victory.  And even though Auburn won yesterday, we can't really say we enjoyed the game, as going into OT versus an FCS opponent was enough to make Ashley say, "I'm going to the Mountain Estate this week to cool off," (she's going up to work on some things, but it's funnier to say she had to leave town to recover).  The dogs are doing great--Bode really enjoys playing with them.  I'm not sure if they dogs enjoy everything Bode does, but they sure seem to love their boy.

The garden is winding down.  We've had 20+ tomatoes, lots of excellent carrots, peas, lettuce, broccoli (I'm very impressed how this has done), about 15 strawberries, and a couple ears of corn.  The weather is still very warm, and I'm hopeful we'll get five or six more ears before the weather turns.  Our raspberry plants have really grown, but no fruit yet.  Maybe in a couple more years.  Finally, we have a very large pumpkin growing.  It's about the size of a honeydew melon, so I'm hoping it's really large come Halloween.

Pleasant week to all!

Garden Harvest

Yes, another garden update.  And yes, this might be construed by some as believing the McGuirks have little going on, which is probably a correct statement, but I don't think there is anything wrong with having a lazy summer.  In fact, with the start of USAFA classes tomorrow, I'm really startint to miss having nothing going on.  But that is a tale (complaint) for another day and another post.  For now, let's focus on the garden.  First, some peas.  I think I planted too many, and as Ashley pointed out, I should have staged them so they wouldn't all be ripe at the same time.  Last Saturday, I went out and picked a mess of peas (not sure what the correct term is for a large grouping of peas, and I'd have to open a Google window to find out, and that seems like far too much work).

I've also been eating my carrots.  I tried to take a picture of one the other day, but I think the flash on the countertop messed up the focus, resulting in just an orange blob.  I've been very pleased with my carrots--some have been really long, measuring close to a foot in length (this, of course, counts the long dangling root string off the end, so don't get too big a picture in your head).  The corn is really going to town.  I count four good-sized corn cobs growing on various stalks, and there should be six or seven more coming in very soon.  I hope the remaining days of August are warm; once we hit September, I think the corn is done, as the temperatures can get too low.

The tomatoes should be ripening up any day now.  I've close to 30 tomatoes on the four different plants.  They will probably all turn red on the same day, meaning I'll be bringing tomatoes to work with me.

Finally, I have my first sun-flower bloom.  I can't believe how tall these plants have grown.  I'm looking forward to seeing them all blooming at once.  I don't know what to do with the seeds--I've never been a fan of them, so if anyone wants fresh sun-flower seeds, let me know.  I think next year I'll take a picture of the same spot of the garden every day (or as often as I can), and then do a time-elapsed movie showing the garden grow from planting day to harvest.

Ashley and Bode are up in Breckenridge for some Mommy-Little Dude time.  Ashley traveled the start of this week, and she'll be gone all next week.  School (for Bode) starts the following week, so this is a great time for the two of them to get away.  Plus, the weather will be beautiful up there.  Temps were in the 90's here today.  Ashley called this evening, and said she hadn't even put on jeans yet, which is unusual for up there, as temps drop quickly after the sun goes down.  Forecast is the same for the next few days, so I'm sure they'll have a great time.  That being said, with them gone I can get a lot done, and by a lot, I mean nothing--I needs my down time :-)  Pleasant day to all.