First Lost Tooth

We've had a great week.  Early Labor Day morning, I ran in the America Discovery Trail 1/2 marathon.  Below is a picture of me approaching the finish line.  At least I look halfway decent...

A lot of runners' families are there at the finish, cheering them on.  Bode and Ashley were in bed :-)  The race started at 0630 Monday morning, which is an early wake up for the rest of Team McGuirk.  I ran well.  My time was 1:32:37, and I finished 14th out of 451 runners.  I was thrilled to get second (out of thirty) in the 40 - 44 year group.  I guess that is one good thing about getting older--slower times for everyone :-)

After the race, I was ready to spend the day walking around in 95-degree heat, so we headed down to the state fair in Pueblo.  There was this pretty cool sand castle, if you can call it a castle--more like sand art, but cool nonetheless.

Bode and Mommy rode the Ferris wheel.  I thought four bucks a person was a bit high, so I opted out.

The part Ashley and I like most about any fair is the animals (probably because that part is free).  Here are Mommy and Bode looking at some rabbits.  I love the expression on Ashley's face.

There was a milking demonstration.  Normally, if you ask me to go grab some titties, I'm the first one in the pool.  Not so much here.

There was a little petting area.  Here's Bode with a little puppy on his lap.

Finally, we saw this big pig and her little piglets.  Kinda reminded me of the new health care laws...

We had a lovely weekend.  The Auburn team won another one, so they are an impressive 2-0.  Air Force did not do well, nor did the Steelers, but if Ashley's happy, we are all happy.  Bode is especially ecstatic because today, he lost his first tooth.  His tooth started getting loose on Thursday.  He would not let me near it until today.  We were walking home with Harley and I asked him if I could pull it out.  He simply said, "Sure."  We rushed home, got the camera and some tissues, and away we went.  It wasn't near as dramatic as I thought it would be.

The tooth is already under Bode's pillow, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the tooth fairy.  Does anyone know her number?  Pleasant week to all.

The Albuquerque McGuirks

My brother (Pat) and his family (Dana, Brenna, Sean, and Devin) were in Denver for the weekend.  Sean plays on a competitive soccer team, and the boys had a Labor Day tournament in Denver.  If you recall, the boys came up over Memorial Day weekend and won their division.  This weekend did not result in the previous resounding success, likely due to the fact Sean's team was used to 8-vs-8 games.  This weekend was all 11-vs-11, so the boys were at a disadvantaged.  Still, they played hard, and will use the games as a learning experience.

After the game, we went to Pat and Dana's hotel and let the kids do a little swimming.  This was probably the highlight of the weekend for Bode.  Our regular gym has a swimming pool and a hot-tub that is off-limits to kids who are not six years old.  The hotel had a hot-tub, and Bode went straight for it.

At some point, we convinced Brenna to give Bode a piggy-back ride.  Bode had never gotten up on someone's shoulders, so it took him awhile to figure things out.  Once he did, he did not want to come down.

The kids were very cute playing in the water.  I managed to get this movie.

The kids also did some jumping in from the side.  Note how Brenna just shoves Devin into the water :-)

The grand finale was jumping in together holding hands.

And one last picture.

We are in for the evening.  It's before five, but we are pretty tired.  We'll relax the rest of the night, watch some TV, maybe read some Captain Underpants, and then bed.  I'm running a 1/2 marathon tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.  Happy Labor Day.

Start of the Season

Bode has adjusted to life in kindergarten.  In fact, he already has a girlfriend.  Miss Jeanice was telling us one day after school, they stayed after and played on the playground.  Bode was talking to this little girl, who suddenly decides to yell to everyone that, "Bode is my boyfriend!"  We have asked Bode about Jocelyn.  He simply replies, "She's my girlfriend."  Nice.

The start of the college football season could not have been better.  The day began with a tailgate at the USAFA-Colgate game.  Dave (Ashley's brother), Teddy, Charlie, and Dave's friend Dan came down.  It was a beautiful day--not too hot, with a little cloud cover.  Here is a picture of Ashley, Dave, and Dan.

Note Ashley is showing her support for the team wearing the colors of...Auburn?  We need to get the girl some USAFA attire.  Also, can you see the white dot up in the sky?  That's a sky-diver coming down into USAFA stadium.  Dan was kind enough to take a picture of the three of us.  I guess I shouldn't complain about Ashley's colors...

The parachutist is a little closer to the ground in this photo.  I don't know where Bode, Teddy, and Charlie were...probably playing in the street :-)

Auburn played Washington State Saturday night.  What a game (especially since Auburn won).  While we aren't thrilled with what we saw, we are hopeful, as there was a decent running game, and the QB showed some flashes of greatness (and badness, but we'll focus on the positive).  What made the game even more exciting was Bode's enthusiasm for the Auburn team.  The below video is not the best quality, especially the first 30 seconds.  I was trying to hide it, so we could get the audio of Bode watching the final two minutes.  Little guy is full of questions, and doesn't understand everything about the game, but he certainly cheers when Auburn does well :-)

We are heading up to Denver today to watch Sean (Bode's cousin) play in a soccer tournament.  Pleasant day to all.

First Day of Kindergarten

Bode started kindergarten on Monday.  His last day of preschool was Friday.  He made me sad when he said, "I'm going to miss Rylan.  He's my best friend."  Sniff sniff.  Anyways, he seemed to get over that, because he was very excited for school Monday morning.  Ashley and I dropped him off and met his teacher, Miss Sandoval.  She looks like a teenager (actually, she probably looks her age, which is likely mid-20's; it's simply I refuse to believe I look that much older :-)

Ashley got Bode all duded out with a cool backpack.  Here are some pictures at the school in the morning.  The first picture is a little blurry--Ashley was using her phone.

Next is a picture of Bode in the classroom in front of his chair.

Little man had no problems saying good-bye--he's been going to daycare since he was two months old, so saying bye-bye to Mommy and Daddy is no big thing.  He's so independent.  School ended at 2:30.  Ashley and I decided to be there at the end of his first day of school.  Here's a picture of Bode waiting for us.  He looks like such a big-kid to me (he's the little fellow in the middle of the picture).

Ashley and I have arranged for Bode to have a nanny.  Miss Jeanice will pick Bode up after school and take care of him until we get home from work.  We like this option, because it's nice coming home from work and having Bode already be at the house.  Here's a shot of Bode, Ashley, and Miss Jeanice walking to the car.  I showed this picture to Bode, and he asked, "Why do I have my arms up?"  If only I knew, buddy.

Miss Jeanice is the girl next to Ashley.  Bode really likes her, and I think she's going to work out great. Bode had his second day of kindergarten today, and all went well.  I guess he is now in the capable hands of the public schools :-)  Pleasant week to all.

A Visit to Teddy and Charlie's

Today, the three of us drove up to Denver.  We hadn't seen Uncle Dave, Teddy, and Charlie in awhile, and with the advent of the school year, we figured we better get up to see them pronto.  We first went to lunch at Mustard's, which is a little hot-dog joint about a mile from Dave's house.  The kids all feasted on hot dogs, fries, and juice.  We then went back to Dave's for a little rest and conversation.  The boys spent time with nature's babysitter, the Wii.

It was a beautiful day--a little overcast, so not too hot.  There's a nice park a couple blocks away, so we walked to it...well, the adults walked.  The kids ran, and stopped when we shouted at them to stop.  I guess we all could have run, but I think the fascination with running everywhere ends around age nine.

Once we got to the park, it was all playtime.  Somehow Uncle Dave got the responsibility of being the swing-pusher.

The kids also played on some four-seat teeter-totter device.

At some point, they got tired and wanted to go home.

Dave was kind enough to have some beers at his place, so we relaxed on his porch talking, again allowing Wii to watch the kids.  Gotta love technology :-)  We left in the late afternoon.  It's always fun seeing the Rankins.

On the car ride home, I tried to surreptitiously record Bode playing with Mommy's phone.  Obviously I was not successful.

Overall, we had a nice weekend.  We did have a scare on Saturday.  I received a call from our neighbor, who informed us Harley was out in the cul-de-sac.  Evidently the little bitch dug a hole through the fence.  He said she seemed out of breath--he thinks she made a trek around the neighborhood, chasing rabbits and what not, and then came home (thankfully).  He managed to get her back in the fence, and temporarily plugged the hole.  I spent Saturday evening with hammer and nails, securing the perimeter.  She's a mischievous little dog.

First day of kindergarten tomorrow.  We'll all nervous.  Well, I'm nervous.  Bode seems fine :-)

Falcon Football

Today was Kid's Day at Falcon Stadium.  We are two weeks out from the start of the season, and the Mighty Air Force Falcons had a scrimmage.  It was a beautiful day, so we decided to go watch some football, albeit of the preseason variety.  Here's a picture of Bode and Mommy outside Falcon Stadium.

I'm trying to convince Ashley Falcon Stadium and Jordan Hare are roughly the same size.  She's not buying it.  The scrimmage was decent, but a little unrealistic.  Air Force runs the wishbone, which means the quarterback runs the ball a lot.  However, the QB was wearing a "don't touch" jersey, so it was up to the refs to determine if the QB would have been tackled.  The coaches must beat the fact players cannot touch a QB into the players heads, because no one laid a finger on them.  Bode was interested in the game...for a little while.  He liked it a lot more when Mommy got him some flavored ice.

I filmed a couple of plays and thought about emailing them to the Notre Dame folks.  I'm sure they are sweating bullets about the prospect of facing the Falcon attack.  This particular play was interesting.  I think the DB was nice--he could have leveled the RB but chose a less violent hit.

After the scrimmage ended, we could go down on the field.

Bode posed with Mommy at mid-field.  If he plays his cards right, he could be in this same spot 13 years from now wearing a Falcon jersey.  Hopefully he is blessed with more athletic ability than his parents.

Some of the players came out to sign autographs (for free) and pose for pictures.  I had both of these kids in class.  Steph is a starting DB and did quite well in electrical engineering.

Briceton doesn't start, but I think he plays in the nickel defense.  He did amazingly well in my class--so much for the dumb-jock stereotype.  I'd like to see the any starter for Alabama take an EE class and pass :-)  (I'm sure the Auburn team would do much better...)

Bode starts kindergarten on Monday.  He's amped for it.  I'm sure they'll be pictures.  Pleasant day.

Almost a Shark

Bode has really progressed with his swim lessons.  We started in January--I think it was the first post of this year.  We started the lessons because Bode didn't like putting his face in the water, and any attempt by Ashley or me to teach him to swim was met with shrieks and cries.  Fast-forward eight months, and we have a boy who can swim the entire length of the pool (sort of--it is a combination of freestyle aka rainbow arms with some side-stroke to take breaths), has gone the entire length of the pool doing the back stroke, and is starting to learn the butterfly and breast strokes.  Amazing.  Here are some pictures from today's lesson.  First, Bode making a goofy face.

Next, we have Miss Alyssa working with Bode on the proper position of his arms during the butterfly.

This movie shows Bode's progress doing butterfly.  Don't expect anything Phelpsian--he's still learning, but after the first stroke, he really gets his body doing the correct motion.

Bode finished the lesson with an introduction to frog-kicks.  I think it will take awhile for him to get good at the breast stroke because there are complicated motions for both the arms and legs.  Miss Alyssa calls the different arm positions stages of a pizza-making operation--spread the sauce, put the pizza in the oven, etc.  We'll have to work on this at home.  He needs two more stickers in his progress book, and he'll be an official shark.  Too bad shark week just ended on Discovery.  After a hard lesson, it was play time.

Ashley and I are busy at work.  Ashley always seems to have a lot to do, while classes have started up again for the cadets.  Thus, we must take advantage of our weekends.  We took Bode to see Planes today, which he loved.  We also did some yard work yesterday, and just relaxed.  I also went for a nice long run this morning.  Afterward long runs, I like to sit in a cold bath to cool down and soothe the muscles.  Today, I discovered it is possible to spend too much time in the cold bath.  After I got out, I went to the grocery store.  I could not warm up--teeth were chattering and I was shivering (it was 80+ degrees outside).  I was fine after I rode home in the car with the heater on high.  Live and learn I guess :-)  Pleasant week to all.