Summer Vacation Part I

We headed down to Fort Walton Beach for some fun in the sun.  We were anxious to be in the warm weather, as we've concluded Colorado summers aren't the nice humid experiences we so thoroughly enjoy.  Don't get me wrong--we do like the Colorado weather...but when it's hot, it's very dry.  We prefer the rain-forest environment.  We headed out early to the airport on a Tuesday morning.  Ashley was surprisingly cheery this time of day.

Bode was in a goofy mood.  For some reason, I laugh every time I look at this picture.

I look like my normal dopey self no matter what time of day.

When we got to Nana and Papa's, it was not super sunny; a little rainy and overcast.  However, it was humid.  Ashley was content to sit on the dock and absorb some of that Florida warmth.

Bode had to get in the water.  I think he averaged two swims a day while on the trip.  He even grew some gills.

We had a lovely first day in Florida.  Day 2 coming up next--it's when Uncle Dave, Teddy, and Charlie arrived.  Let the fun begin!

The Petersons

We had the pleasure of hosting Jon, Shelly, Brendan, and Cody Peterson for the past couple days.  Jon and I went to high school together.  We met back in 1989--almost 26 years ago.  It's crazy to think it's been that long.  Even crazier is this year is Jon and Shelly's 20th anniversary.  Congrats to them.  We didn't do anything spectacularly exciting--dinner, the pool, talking about old times.  The weather really cooperated, so we were able to sit outside and reminisce.

Bode loved that Cody slept in the same room.  He also loved the fact Cody shares the same birthday as him (albeit being born a few years before).  I wish I had taken more pictures--I guess we were having such a good time at the pool that no one remembered to snap some pics.  Oh well--I can vividly picture JP going down the water slide and doing a hydro-plane as he hit the water.  Good times.  I did get a picture of Clan Peterson with Bode as they were heading out.

The garden project continues.  My hands have been so tired, and I never knew how tired hands could get.  I didn't think there were muscles to get sore, but I exhausted something stirring cement and putting up posts.  I didn't realize Bode had the camera and was taking pictures, so here is a very rare action shot of me doing work.  Where's Ashley?

There's only one post up in this picture.  I think I'm up to five posts in the ground, and I even have some of the fencing attached.  Note the boxes.  You might being thinking, "That's some really poor construction, even for Jeff."  I concur.  I nailed together some boxes out of scrap wood just to give me an idea of how things would look.  My plan is to do some nicer boxes when the project is done (or better yet, ask Mr. Frank to do some when he's here in August for a visit!)  Bode took some other pictures when he had the camera.  Evidently he likes taking pictures of the dogs' butts.  I have six or seven close-ups of dog-ass.  Lovely.  Since this is a family sight, I won't post them :-)

Bode is such an amazing swimmer.  We love the fact even though he's only four feet tall, we can hang out together in the five-foot deep section of the pool (it's not near as crowded).  He still does Beginner Stroke Clinic two times a week.  Coach Danny really works them.  Here's a movie of Bode doing some flutter kicks on dry-land.  Little man needs to work on his core strength.

Coach Danny also makes them do push-ups.  I don't think Bode gets his chest to the ground, but he's trying super hard.

Today was a lot of laps and lung-busters.  Here's Bode finishing one set--he looks fantastic!

Finally, here's a picture of Bode with Coach Danny.  Coach Danny is such a great coach--he's really pushed Bode and helped him a ton.

I'm off from work for the next two weeks!!!  How cool is that?!?

Independence Day

Wow, did I really fail to make a post the entire month of June?  Shame on me.  I think that's the first month I've missed since the blog started.  I'll have to make up for it with some serious posting in July and August.

I wish I could say I had a lot to report...but I don't.  June was fairly benign.  We had my birthday (41...yuck), Ashley and I worked a bunch, and Bode spent his days at camp.  He says camp is "fun" but "not great."  We asked him why.  He said, "Because I don't get to stay home with you guys."  Very sweet of him.  I explained to him that we aren't home while he's at camp.  We tried to convince him coming to work with us would not be near as fun as camp.  We think we were successful, but who really knows.

I did start work on the backyard garden.  Here is a "before" picture.

I cleared a large area, and the wood marks an expected location for some boxes.  Note the Afghanistan-like soil.  There is nothing organic in our existing dirt, so I've been bring in bags of sheep and peat-moss and have also been scavenging grass clippings from anyone in the neighborhood.  We have planted three trees (an apple, cherry, and plum).  The picture was taken before the trees went in.  They are to the right of the back-right corner of the picture.  They went in the ground a couple weeks ago, and they are still alive which is amazing considering the horrible soil conditions.  The plan is to put in a fence to keep the dogs out, and we have a lot of little ideas I won't go into.  The garden looks amazing...in my head.  We'll see if the end result matches my imagined blueprint.

Speaking of the dogs, they are hot and cold.  One minute, they are tearing around the yard, play-fighting and chasing each other; the next, they are a lazy bitch and bastard.

We spent the 4th of July with Uncle Dave.  We went to an old friend's house (Josh and Shannon, and their two kids, Henry and Cora).  Josh had the foresight to buy fireworks.  Ashley and I didn't get any because all fireworks are illegal in Colorado Springs.  Fortunately Josh and Shannon live in Highlands Ranch.  The first firework, and probably the funniest, was the one shown below.

When lit, the way the materials burns makes it look like the dog is taking a dump.  Words simply cannot describe it; thankfully, I have a movie.

The kids (and the adults) all loved the dog.  Great fun.  The next best firework was this rooster, that, for some reason, laid an egg when lit.  As before, I'll let the movie to all the talking.

Here is a good action photo of Dave and Teddy lighting a tiny one with Bode and Charlie supervising.

Kids love to watch things burn, and they don't yet understand the dangers of fire, as this next picture will attest.  Fortunately, no one was injured the entire night.

Our most dangerous and loudest firecracker was pretty cool.  Lots of sparks and noise.

When it got dark, we lit off some ones that sparkle, but pictures don't really do those justice.  I did get the below photo of Bode with a sparkler.

We had a lovely evening in Denver.  We spent the night at Uncle Dave's.  This morning, we slept in, had some food, and spent an hour at the pool.  We came home in the mid-afternoon.  I did some work on the garden project.  Hopefully it will be done by fall :-)  Pleasant weekend to all.

Bode in the ABQ

Bode has gone to Albuquerque for two weeks.  He's spending time with the Albuquerque cousins.  We've spoken to him every night on the phone, and he is having a blast.  Uncle Pat sent us a couple pictures.  First, here is Bode hanging on some playground equipment with the whole crew (and some extra friends).

Next is a cute one of Bode from the pool.

On one of the days, they all went to lunch at McDonald's.  We have never really been to one with Bode, and Ashley has a tendency to call the food, "Fat Food."  Apparently this has made its way into Bode's lexicon.  To get him to eat, Uncle Pat had to special order the "non-fat chicken nuggets."  I know this because when I spoke to Bode on the phone, he was so proud when he told me about these special "non-fat" foods.  Ashley and I are staying busy (no we aren't).  We've been working on our deck and other odds and ends.  Sadly, we seem to be going to sleep around 7:30.  We are pitiful.

We had a real treat at work.  Yesterday was the Academy's graduation, complete with a Thunderbirds performance.  Today, the Thunderbirds usually leave town.  Prior to leaving, they wanted to do some fly-overs of the Academy and have a chase plane take pictures.  Thus, a group of us was up on the terrazzo with cameras in hand.  In this first picture, you can see the standard triangle formation.  To the left, you can see the camera plane (I think it was Thunderbird #7, but I'm not positive).

For the next pass, I put my camera on burst mode and let it do the rest.

Finally, a movie so you can get the sound effect.

I suppose I should get downstairs and help Ashley with dinner...or maybe we'll just go out to eat :-)  Pleasant weekend to all.

Kindergarten Recital

The kindergarten classes at Helen Keller Elementary gave their final recital.  I won't overhype the event and say how awesome it was, but it did have its entertaining points.  It cracks me up how the kiddos will sing a verse, and then it's rather quiet at the start of the next verse because most have forgotten the lines.  However, once reminded, the volume quickly ratchets up a few notches.  Before the start of the program, I took this picture.  Ashley quietly shook her head--she was doing the math to figure out how old we'll be when Bode graduates high school :-)

Next, the kids entered the gymnasium.  Bode is always very sweet and waves to us.  He is the one in the plaid shirt if you can't tell.

They sang some songs, which were good fun.  Below is the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

After the program, there was a reception in Bode's class.  The kids ate some cookies and ran around playing.  We took the time to snap some pictures.  Here's Bode with Mrs. Foster, the teacher's helper.

Here is Bode with Miss Sandoval.  This was her first year teaching, and she did an amazing job.  Hopefully all his teachers are like her (and no, I don't just mean young and attractive).

We also took some pictures of Bode with his classmates.  Here's Bode with his buddy, Louis.

And some general rowdiness with a large group of the younglings.

Finally, Bode brought home a scrap-book with different assignments throughout the year.  It included a side-by-side comparison of Bode's handwriting from the first writing assignment on the first day to the last writing assignment.  It's an amazing improvement.

Our little guy has one more day in kindergarten.  Then, he'll be a first-grader...and right after that, in college :-(  Pleasant week to all.

Bode's Science Journal

Bode has made so much progress this year.  We have saved all his work.  It's so neat (and a little sad) to see how his writing has improved, how well he can draw (cut the kid some slack, since he is cursed with my art gene), and how much he understands.  Today, he told me something was "magenta."  Not blue or pink or purple.  Magenta.  

In science class, they put a bunch of caterpillars in a jar.  Each week, they had to draw and write about what they saw.  Below is the result.  I am submitting Bode for the Nobel prize.

Pretty cool stuff.  I'm sure Newton started off doing something similar.  Pleasant week to all.

The Basement Project

If you've ever been to our home, you will remember our basement was one big room.  It was nice to have all that space, but we felt we could get more bang for our buck.  Hence, the basement project.  Like most projects, Ashley had a vision for how things should be, and then we contracted out the real work :-)  Fortunately, our daily lives weren't disrupted.  The dogs, on the other hand, were confined to the side yard so the workers could use the basement entrance.  The project lasted a little more than two weeks.  We are very pleased with the results.  We had one wall put in to give us a bedroom in the basement.  We made the bedroom door a double so we could move the piano if we ever need to.  We moved the bar to the other wall, added a door to the laundry room, and painted.  Voila!  You have the below results.

Ashley would love to get rid of the green couch.  It is the last piece of furniture I own from my single days :-)  Bode continues to improve as a swimmer.  The outdoor pool at the gym was open today.  He, of course, wanted to swim.  I think the water temperature was warmer than the air temperature.  It really wasn't bad--Ashley didn't get in, but Bode and I swam around for an hour.  The little guy can go anywhere he wants.  He swims all around and never gets into a panic.  I wouldn't throw him in the deep end and expect him to tread water for a long period of time, but we're probably at the point where he could be unsupervised.  Of course, being the worriers, we won't get to that point just yet :-)  He also is now in Beginner Stroke Clinic.  Coach Danny makes them do "deck work" before practice.  Fun.  Obviously Bode needs to work on his core strength.

They also did push-ups.  I didn't take a movie, so I don't know if it's obvious but Bode needs to keep his butt down.  In the picture below, he looks pretty good.

After a couple push-ups, his form broke down.

Here's a movie of Bode doing some freestyle.  He seemed a little tired at practice today, but I assume I should cut him some slack since he's six.  Well, almost six and a half!

I recently mentioned how Joey will sleep with Bode.  This has become the norm at night.  Joey will simply jump up on the bed and sleep with our little man.  In the mornings, he'll come down for breakfast, and then head back up until it's time for Bode to wake up.  Very cute.  I took this picture early one morning.  I think the flash woke Joey up, as he looked at me as if to ask, "What's with the bright light at 5 am?"

Bode will sometimes take the camera and shoot a lot of pictures.  I won't know about these until I download them onto the computer.  Most are shots of the ground or blurry.  Some are gems.  Here's Harley eating, not really a gem, but I feel obligated to include a picture of both dogs.

Next is a funny one of Joey.  Note the tongue--it is always out.

Bode has three days left of kindergarten.  We can't believe we are about to have a first grader in the house.  He's got some camps lined up for the summer, some trips, and some quality time with Mom and Dad.  Should be a great summer.