Bode's Recital

Bode had his sort-of-annual piano recital on Saturday.  His teacher (Miss Pat) has all her students do this in order to help with performance anxiety and to also allow the kids to play before a crowd.  Bode did amazingly well--I don't think he had a miskey during his play.  The pieces he played were 1) Minuet in G by Bach and 2) Mr Camel by Scott Costley (which probably isn't as well known as the Bach piece :-)  Below is the movie of Bode's performance.

We also took a picture of Bode in front of the instrument...

and a nice shot of Bode and Ashley.

Nothing too exciting happening here.  Weather is sunny and in the 40's, so I might go for a run or to the gym.  I have some gardening prep I should do, as it'll be planting season in another 45 days or so, which is scary.  We'll (of course) also watch the Steelers today as they try to knock off the dreaded Patriots.  Pleasant week to all.

A Boy and His Dog

I spent the last few days up in Breckenridge.  School doesn't start up until Tuesday, so I wanted to get some final ski days in.  Breckenridge has received over five feet of snow this January.  I skied on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday--Ashley and Bode (and Joey) came up Saturday night, so we all skied together on the weekend.  The weather was nice and pleasant, but no real new snow after Thursday, which is nice for Bode, as he's not yet a big fan of the powder.  We started on Peak 10--it wasn't open the last time we skied, so we decided to do Falcon chair first thing.

We didn't get any group shots, but I did take some of Ashley and Bode as they were swooshing down the mountain.

This next picture is scenic--that's Bode and Ashley in the middle.  Not many people around them, and the view is spectacular.

We skied for close to three hours, and by then, it was packed (it was MLK weekend).  We all headed to the base of the mountain and were ready for lunch.

We spent a lot of the weekend shoveling snow.  We had to clear off the roof, as the roof of one of the buildings in the town of Breckenridge collapsed due to the weight of all the snow.  We weren't worried about that, but we did want to get rid of a lot of the ice dams that had formed.  Thus, both Ashley and my arms are very sore :-)  Bode and Joey are now such good friends--I think each looked to the other after the loss of Harley.  Plus, Bode is getting to the point where he can do some dog chores (feed Joey, get him water, but he doesn't think he's ready to clean up the yard :-)  Here's a nice shot of a boy and his dog.

Now I am going to watch the Steelers--hopefully they can beat the Chiefs!!!  Pleasant week to all.

The Wolfe Pack

An "old" friend, which now has two meanings, one being we've known each other over 27 years and the second being we are getting older, came to visit.  Kristine Wolfe (Sharp) from my Papillion days and her family stopped in Colorado Springs on their return from a ski trip to Utah.  The house was packed because the Wolfes have four kids:  Paige, Abbie, Parker, and Avery.  I had no idea how to shop for a house of nine--I just started throwing stuff into the cart and hoped for the best.

The Wolfe-Pack stayed with us for two days including New Year's Eve.  I did take this one picture, which really only Avery was prepared for while the others hunted and grazed in the kitchen.

I also took some pictures of the kids when they were shooting off some party supplies as we rang in the east-coast new year (which occurred at 10 pm MST).

Kristine was kind enough to snap a group photo when we were in our festive gear.

I must also comment on the Scrabble games.  I got off to a slow start, finishing in dead last in the first game (I even lost to Avery), but I did come on strong and win the final two games, keeping the title of greatest Scrabble player to have ever lived.

We are now three days into 2017.  Auburn lost, so hopefully that isn't a harbinger of things to come.  Otherwise, Ashley is back at work, while Bode has a couple more days off at home.  I'm hoping he can go to a friend's house today, as I think he's starting to go a little stir crazy.  Pleasant week to all.

Final Post of 2016

As has become the tradition, the final post of 2016 has Bode's school picture.  This year, we get a treat and also have his soccer picture.  It's always fun to look back on the years and see how Bode has changed, but also how much his features have remained.

2016 was a decent year.  I'm still a bit down because we lost Harley, but I guess you have to play the ball life serves you.  Sometimes you'll do great, and sometimes that ball will smack you in the man-parts and leave you crying.  However, it is always a great year when it ends and Ashley and Bode (and Joey) still put up with all my idiosyncrasies.  We are looking forward to an amazing 2017 and some exciting adventures.

Happy New Year to All!

Albuquerque

We spent the week after Christmas in Albuquerque, visiting my brother and his family.  It was a wonderful visit.  The first night, we belatedly opened our Christmas presents, and also had a mini-snowball fight with fake snowballs.  Quite the occasion :-)

Bode, as usual, loaded up on too many gifts and remains the most spoiled kid in America.  He also spent some great quality time wiht his cousins.

We spent the days doing various activities--the Main Event, which is a big arcade, and we also tried our hand at an Albuquerque Escape Room.  Sadly, we didn't escape in the allotted time--we needed about another two minutes.

We also played some cards, which is always entertaining.  We tried our luck at spoons, BS, and Uno.  I managed to get this (poor quality) visit of one of the spoons hands.

And, of course, the kids got in their fair share of video games.

We had a wonderful visit, and are now anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new year :-)

Christmas 2016

Christmas has come and gone, and we had another grand time.  We spent Christmas Eve together, going to the gym, swimming, and lunch at the Waffle House (yes, really).  We lounged around the house last night, watched some football, and relaxed.  We also kept track of Santa's progress on the Santa tracker.  Around 9, we snuggled up into bed, but we left the tree lights on and cookies out.

We sort of slept in, with Joey rousing us at 7:30 or so.  We then proceeded to the cornucopia and dove into the mass of presents...but we did take a picture of Bode before starting.

Here are some action photos of us opening various gifts.

We all hauled in some great loot, and spent the better part of the morning trying things on, adding batteries to games, and just (again) relaxing.  After lunch, we headed up to Dave and Jennie's for Christmas dinner.  JoAnne and Frank were there, as was Larry (Jennie's father), Jason, Olevia, Teddy, and Charlie.  The prime rib was amazing, as was the gravy.  Ashley chipped in and made a cherry pie.  And the icing on the cake (pie) had to have been the Steeler victory over the dreaded Ravens (the Donkos didn't win...sad).  We also opened gifts, which was the highlight of the day (other than that tasty gravy).

I also got a nice picture with "Santa."

 And, of course, a double-selfie with my wife, who must always wear something Auburn-related.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a (WarEagle!) goodnight :-)

Camping Part 2

We stayed up in Breckenridge until the 23rd of December.  We skied a bunch, and Bode spent a day in ski-school.  I can't believe how good of a skier he is.  We skied on Thursday, and were thrilled (again) by the lack of people (although today it was starting to pick up in town, which was our cue to leave).  Thursday was such a great day.  Thus sun wasn't out, which might make you think it was cold; it was not.  Plus, there wasn't a hint of wind.  We got there right as the lifts started, and headed up the Mercury lift to warm up.

We did a few runs, but Bode complained they weren't "blacks," so we headed over to the Peak 8 superconnect.  We again paused for a quick photo.

Bode's new favorite run is a black diamond called Shock, which is steep and bumpy.  I don't want to exaggerate and say he whips down this type of run.  He does your typical "learning how to do bumps" thing, where he skies in and around the big bumps, and is quite cautious while doing so.  Still, it's amazing he's doing these types of runs.  We even went up Chair 6 a number of times, and he's really keeping up with Ashley on the way down.  Here's a nice shot of me and my little guy.

We skied until 1130, which is when more people started to show.  Ashley was extremely upset when she checked her vertical feel count on the Epic website.  We all skied exactly the same runs, but my pass registered 9,500 vertical feet, while Ashley's showed 5,500 (Bode's showed 8,900).  She has sent a strongly worded email to the Epic folks demanding they remedy the situation :-)  We all had a great start to the ski season, with everyone already over 30,000 vertical feet.

Ashley's parents (JoAnne and Frank), her brother, Jason, and his wife, Olevia, and her other brother David, and Teddy and Charlie all came up to Breck.  We had a couple nights together at our place, visiting, eating, and staying warm by the fire (although many complained the fire was too hot).  Here are some basic photos.

Today we slept in (sort of--Joey always wakes up early), and headed over to Frisco to go tubing.  It was such a beautiful day--almost too hot for the mountains.  We had a stranger take a large family picture, which was pretty cool--I think this is the first time in awhile all the Rankin children and grandchildren have been together for a photo.

We tubed for an hour, and I managed to take some shots.  First, here's Ashley on the "lift" and then before her run.

Next we have Bode, Teddy, Charlie, and Dave getting ready for a 4-banger.

The three kiddos wanted to do one on their own.  They were successful in that no one fell off :-)

We had a wonderful stay in Blue River.  The weather could not have been nicer (well, maybe more snow, but being warm while skiing is a big bonus).  I'm sure Joey will be happy to be home, as he won't have to go to the bathroom in a snow tunnel.

Temps in Colorado Springs today are close to 60.  Thus, we probably won't have a white Christmas, but we will have this memory of all of the Summit County snow :-)

Santa comes tomorrow night--we hope he isn't confused as to Bode's location :-)  Happy Christmas to all!