Bode's 9th Birthday Party

Bode's birthday isn't until 28 November.  However, we always have his party a few weeks early because we are never sure if anyone will be in town over the Thanksgiving weekend.  We had the party at The Summit, which is just a big indoor arcade/bowling center/Lazer Tag arena.  Ten kids came to the party--Dylan, Dylan, Tylen, Eli, Teddy, Charlie, Rylee, Mya, Ava, and Shiloh.  We had a wonderful time.  First, was some pizza and drinks.  It's kind of dark in the Summit, so none of the pictures are that great.

We had the obligatory cake and candles, which Bode successfully blew out.

The highlight had to have been the not one but two games of Lazer tag.   Here are the kids in line waiting the start of the contest.  No cameras are allowed in the arena, so I don't have any action shots.

Each kid also got a $20 arcade card.  They loved playing all the games.  I think Bode and Eli spent a lot of time on this one--it was more of a ride than a game, and they loved it.

Bode repeated the experience with Teddy.

The party was a big success, although it was more work than I thought it would be.  Most parents dropped off, which was fine, until I realized I better not lose a kid :-)  Bode is blessed to have some great friends, and we were thrilled they all came.  Here's looking forward to his real birthday on 28 November--can he really be almost nine?

Opening Day!

Not really.  We had planned to go up Breckenridge for the opening of ski season.  Sadly, we have had an unseasonably warm October and November, which has prevented any type of snow-making capability, not to mention there's been almost no snow fall on the mountains.  Thus, opening day has been postponed for at least a week (and I'm betting it's going to be closer to two weeks).  Any one that had Thanksgiving ski plans will be in for some extremely poor conditions.

We left on Friday morning--Veteran's Day--and Joey wanted to do the driving.

The drive was uneventful, and we arrived shortly before noon.  We went to lunch at Eric's, and then decided on a hike.  The trail is in the shadow of a high peak, which meant is was a little chilly, and there were very small patches of snow.  First up was the quick hike to the trailhead.

Obviously there is some snow.  But note the peak in the background--all above treeline, and no snow to be seen.  Any area that gets even a modicum of sunshine has zero snow cover.  The trail criss-crossed a snow-melt river--perhaps it's a feeder into the Blue River that runs behind our house.  The scenery was beautiful.

The hike took about an hour, and we stopped for other pictures along the way.  Here's a nice one of Bode near the end.

At the end was a nice waterfall.  Bode spent some time chucking rocks into it.

Finally, a nice one of Bode

The hike was lovely, although coming down near the top was a little nervy.  The sun was setting, so it was a little dark, and some of the paths looked a lot like the trail.  A couple times we had to turn back and find the right trail.  We were never very far off the path, but I can't imagine the feeling (terror) one would feel if they realized they were lost in the woods and the sun was going down.

We had a nice weekend in Breck--spent some time swimming at the rec center, and did some work around the house.  Sadly, we watched the Auburn-Georgia game, which ended badly, which effectively ended the fun.  We came home this morning, and are just thrilled about going to work tomorrow :-)  Happy week to all.

Swim Meet

Bode competed in a swim-meet this past weekend.  He swam in five events:  the 100-yard relay (where each member of the team swam 25 yards), the 100-yard freestyle, the 50-yard backstroke, the 25-yard butterfly, and the 100-yard individual medley.  He did awesome.  Let me show you what he collected:

He would have had one more ribbon as well, but his old Dad failed him.  In the 100-IM, apparently you aren't suppose to do a flip-turn when you transition from backstroke to breast-stroke.  Before the race, I reminded him to "do his flip turns."  Sadly, my advice led to a DQ :-(.  Here are some pictures from the events.  First is Bode waiting for his leg in the relay race.

Next we have Bode in the ready position for the 100-yard freestyle.

He was 4th out of 12 or 13 eight-year olds.  The next event was the backstroke.  I took some rapid pictures and got the following sequence--note how he explodes into the water.  He also finished fourth in this race.

Finally, here are some action pictures of Bode during the IM.  He is in lane two, and you can make out his butterfly stroke in the first picture, and he's obviously doing the backstroke in the second picture.

It was a great meet.  The only problem was it conflicted with the Auburn game.  Ashley used up most of her data watching the first half of the Tiger-Commodore game on her phone.  Fortunately, the meet ended, and we were able to watch the fourth quarter at Jersey Mike's.  Auburn (thankfully) won, but had a key player get injured.  Hopefully he's healed for this weekend's matchup against hated Georgia.  Pleasant day and happy voting to all.

Gone Too Soon

We had to say good-bye to Harley today.  The cancer had spread to her lungs and probably a lot of other places.  Poor girl simply could not catch a break, but she fought so hard.

Be in peace, girl.  You are our best friend, and you are gone way too soon.  We love you.
Harley, 25 Feb 2011 - 4 Nov 2016.

Final Soccer Game

The Sabertooths had their final game of the season yesterday.  To spoil the ending, I will tell you the team won 3-0, avenging a 4-0 loss to this same team a month ago.  The boys have improved a ton over the season, and everything came together at this final game.  Bode had a clean sheet (to use the soccer parlance as taught to me by my brother), and had a number of good saves.   I tried to take some action shots of the game, but no real gems surfaced even though I had the camera in burst-mode.  Bode's the one in the yellow jersey in all the pictures.

I did get a decent series of photos of Bode performing a goal kick.

After the victory, the boys were in a festive mood, especially since Frankie's mom brought cupcakes.  Coach Trista wouldn't give the boys the desserts until after they posed for a final team photograph.

It's sad to see the season come to an end, but we will surely try to get on the same team come spring.  What made Saturday even better was the Auburn victory over Ole Miss.  Auburn has climbed to #11 in the rankings, which is crazy considering they started 1-2.  Here's hoping they continue to roll.  Pleasant week to all.

Some Pictures

It's hard to believe Halloween is just around the corner.  To mark this event, Bode's school had its annual Fall Carnival.  Bode and Ashley used this opportunity to test-drive their costumes.  Here's a nice picture of the two of them.

Bode is Ghost Rider (from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and Mommy is some sort of creepy gothic/ghost creature.  The weather was unseasonably warm, so we were worried Bode would be too warm in the leather jacket, but fortunately, he was fine.  At the carnival, Bode and Ashley got this nice picture taken.

The fond memories :-)  October marked the ending of Bode's cross country season.  Like I've said before, the boy wasn't made to run, but he tried real hard and competed in every event.  The team had a season-ending ice-cream party one day after school and took the below picture--can you find Bode?

We have also been very busy with soccer--practices twice a week, and games on Saturdays, and we've been fortunate that no game has conflicted with the Auburn football games.  Here are some pictures--first is Bode's official photo, and below that is one with the team, and they were told to act goofy for this one.

I've tried to take some pictures of Bode during the games, but I have found I'm usually pacing the sidelines and trying to keep calm :-)  But I did get some warm-up shots of Bode and Austin practicing.

Bode really likes being in goal--in fact, his coach said we should think of putting Bode on a competitive team.  We were flattered, but we need to think about the time commitment that would entail--it might cut into our ski time :-)

We are riding high on the Auburn-victory endorphins that have flooded our body with the beat-downs of Mississippi State and Arkansas.  Ashley, as always, is still nervous, but Auburn is now ranked #15 in the nation--that's gotta be worth something, right?

All else is going well in Colorado.  A-basin opened up for skiing this past weekend.  We will likely hold off a bit until there's some more snow...but (as the Starks say), "Winter is coming."  Pleasant week to all.

Stark Vegas

We took our biennial trip to Starkville for the Auburn-Mississippi State football game.  We headed out this past Friday and I stayed until today (Sunday), and Ashley and Bode will return tomorrow (I have to teach my class on Monday).  We had a fabulous time, and not just because Auburn was victorious.

Unlike most past trips, the camera didn't come out that much--I failed to get pictures of Jon, Meghan, Elliot, and Oscar.  The only real pictures were from the football game.  We all had hoped for a real treat on Friday night, which as the annual Bulldawg Bash, which is a big street party very near Jon and Meghan's house.  The coolest part would have been the concert by Flo-Rida, who was scheduled to perform.  Sadly, Flo-Rida "missed his flight" and didn't make it, which had to have stunk for everyone who was out there (we were on Jon and Meghan's porch--we couldn't see anything, but we sure would have heard it).  I'm sure the organizers were bummed.  My biggest question is, "Does Flo-Rida really fly commercial?"  I would have thought a big-time rap/pop artist would have a charter.  But I digress.

Saturday morning, Ashley and I took Bode to the Tiger Walk, which is where a bunch of Auburn fans gather where the Auburn team buses will stop when they are bringing the team to the stadium.  There are Auburn students that go around and hand out shakers to get everybody in the the spirit.  Bode and Ashley had fun with theirs.

I think I insulted the guy that was passing out shakers.  He asked if I needed one.  I responded, "I'm an adult male."  Evidently that wasn't very spirited of me.  The buses showed up, and we even saw Gus sitting on the front seat (Gus Malzahn is the head coach of Auburn).  Other than that, we didn't see much, as we didn't plan our location.  But it was fun to see it, and we did get high-fives from Aubie.

The game was awesome--there wasn't a cloud in the sky (despite Hurricane Matthew a few hundred miles to the east).  We were all smiles before the game started.

The game started off poorly, with Auburn throwing an interception on their third play from scrimmage.  Mississippi St drove to the ten yard line, but missed the field goal attempt.  After that, the route was on, and by half-time, Auburn was up 35-0, which sounds cool, but I would have preferred a closer game (You shut your mouth--it was AU-some!!!)  I took the below movie in the second half.  It appears Auburn scores a TD, but sadly, it was called back by a holding penalty.

Here's a shot of the score-board.  Note it's Auburn 38-14.  Quite the game :-)

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and visiting with Jon and Meghan.  I wish I could say we went out partying, but I think we just hung out in their living room.

I got home this afternoon, and took care of the dogs and cleaned up the house.  I also checked the garden.  Apparently, we had a frost this weekend, so all my pumpkin vines were dead.  This isn't a bad thing--it just meant it was time to pick the pumpkins.  I'm quite pleased with my harvest--I got three or four good-sized ones and a couple of small ones.

I suppose I should go take a shower and get ready for work.  What fun :-)  Pleasant week to all.