Spring Break

We spent the past four days up in Breckenridge.  We didn't do much other than ski and watch TV/movies and read.  Not something you'd make a movie out of, but definitely some good relaxing time as a family.  We skied on Monday, and it was almost too hot.  The high was probably in the low 40's, but it was sunny and not crowded.  Here are some pictures.  First up are Ashley and Bode, with Ashley taking a picture of me while I take a picture of them.

Next is a shot of Bode as we head over to the Peak 8 mid-way connect.  This is one of my favorite places to take a picture due to the lack of people and the rather scenic background.

Bode had never been on the Imperial Lift, which takes you up about as high as you can go at Breckenridge (other than hiking to some place).  Here's Bode and Ashley riding the lift.

Next is a shot of the terrain below the lift.  No trees and an intimidating sky...not for the faint of heart.

I don't know why the sky looks such a dark purple...it really was quite blue.  I then took a picture of Ashley and Bode from "the top of the world"...well, our little part of the world.  Bode did great on the way down--he said it was scary but fun.

We skied until lunch time, and then went home for food.  We watched The Flash and Supergirl and Mockingjay parts 1 and 2 (not all at once, but over the course of the week).  Ashley took Joey on some long walks, and we even read some books.  Tuesday was a bit snowy, which was good because we could use the powder, but not so good for skiing (we are quite the weather snobs).  We went to the gym and swam and goofed off in the hot-tub.  Wednesday was a great day--a little cloudy, but the mountain received about eight inches of fresh snow, which made for some good conditions...at least for Ashley and me.  Bode has yet to become a powder hound, but he'll learn to love it as he gets older.  I took a couple of movies on Wednesday.  First is one of Bode and Ashley skiing over some bumps--nothing fancy, but for some reason, the little fellas likes them bumps.

Next is a normal movie of me skiing behind Ashley and Bode.

We also headed over to Peak 8, and I took more shots of my favorite location.  You can see the new snow on the ground, and the clouds were clearing for a beautiful blue sky.

Finally, I took a shot of some of the runs near E-chair--note the snow on the trees.  A very pretty day.

Ashley skied this morning--Bode and I wanted to sleep in, as we are lazy.  Ashley and I are both above the 100,000 vertical foot mark, and Bode is around 80,000.  We'll have one more weekend in mid-April, and Ashley said she might be "sick" sometime in the next week or so.  We did get a nice family photo on Wednesday...Ashley isn't thrilled about how her hair looks, but who really cares about things like that :-)

We are back home now...I'll do some work in the garden and we'll all try to get some rest after some great skiing.  Pleasant weekend to all.

Swim Update

I was a bit premature in my most recent post when I said I didn't think Bode did very well competitively against the other swimmers in the most recent swim meet.  Bode swam in the 10-and-under events, but they awarded prizes to 9-and-under boys.  Thus, Bode was third in the 50-yard butterfly, 4th in the 100-yard backstroke, and 5th in the 200-yard freestyle.

As last time, has he not been DQed in the individual medley, he might have been way up on the podium...but live and learn I guess :-)

Weather in Colorado Springs has been unseasonably warm.  I put my bird-net up in my garden, and even planted some broccoli, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, peas, garlic, and beans.  All but the beans can be planted now.  The beans won't do well if there's a hard frost, but if I lose them, no big deal...but if there is no frost, then we'll be in green-bean city.  The indoor plants are doing great.  I have pumpkins, peppers, honey-dew melon, and corn, all going strong.

I am tempted to put some of these outdoors, and just put buckets over them in the event of a bad forecast.  I might try this in early April--still a bit early to be putting corn outside.

We had a nice weekend.  The three of us went on a ten-mile bike ride (well, 9.93 according to map-my-ride), so Bode and Ashley were spent last night.  We played some putt-putt today, and Bode helped me in the garden.  Tonight, we are going to watch The Goonies, which we think (hope) Bode will love.  Pleasant week to all.

Ho-Hum

It's now almost mid-March; hard to believe the semester is almost half-way done, and spring break is just around the corner...and shortly after that, Bode will be done with school and will be a 4th-grader.  Ashley and I recently realized we have been married for almost 18 years, and Bode has been around for more than half that time.  Scary.  The little Dude is doing fine--he spends a lot of time with his dog, Joey.  I tried to get a good picture of the two of them playing, but this was the best I could do.

Bode has a swim meet this past weekend.  He swam great, but didn't place very well.  This is because there was an 8-and-under category and a 10-and-under category.  Bode is a young nine years old, so he was swimming against guys that could be close to 11.  His times were improvements over any of his previous times--his 100-individual medley time was 1:51, which I thought was very good.  Sadly, he was DQed (again) for a bad turn.  He was really upset when the judge told him--neither Ashley nor I realized what he did was a DQ.  Fortunately, I filmed the race, and I think I now understand the rule.

The bad turn occurs at the ~1:06 mark.  I think Bode's body has to remain mostly horizontal until he touches the wall.  In this case, his body was coming perpendicular when his hand touched, which made it an illegal turn.  He also swam the 50-yard butterfly, the 100-yard backstroke, and the 200-yard freestyle (the last one was probably too long, but we're proud of him for finishing it).  The meet is very well organized, and there's even a scoreboard with the swimmer's name for each heat and event.

Here's an action photo of Bode getting ready to start his backstroke.

Finally, a sweet one of Bode and Mommy.

Afterwards, we let Bode pick the lunch location.  Ashley has brain-washed the kid, and all he wants to eat is Waffle House (the boy is a true southerner...)

The weather has been unseasonably warm, and I am tempted to try to put some of my plants outside...but I won't fall for this deadly call of the Siren.   I'm sure we'll have some hard freezes in late March or early April.  My indoor plants are going great--I've moved the pumpkins and corn to bigger pots.  The melons are also going strong, and my hope is to have an edible honey-dew melon in late August, but I do need to figure out how to keep the bugs off my fruit (short of keeping chickens, which is a definite no-go).  Pleasant week to all.

Bode Superior

Bode participated in the Colorado Springs Music Festival.  He did this same festival last year, and the format was the same.  Bode had to memorize two pieces of music, and then provide the sheet music to the judges.  He then had to perform the music from memory in front of judging panel.  Yes, it seems a bit nerve-wracking, but Bode didn't show any signs of anxiety.  We were allowed in the room for the performance, but, like last year, there was a big sign on the door that say no recording of any kind was allowed.  Thus, we only have our memory of Bode's playing, which was exceptional--note perfect on both pieces and I also believe the dynamics were spot on.  Here's a picture of Bode with Mommy holding up the blue-superior ribbon.

Bode and I also got a shot together, but this was before he was awarded his Superior rating.  Note also how tall Bode is getting--just past Ashley's shoulder, which is just scaring the crap out of the both of us.

Finally, a close-up of the ribbon and certificate.

The festival is structured such that if you participate for three years in a row, and get a Superior for each performance, then you will be awarded a gold-cup.  Bode is very excited about this possibility, but we have told him he needs to keep practicing because next year's pieces will be that much harder.

It's the end of February, so this means it's time to get ready for the garden.  I spent some time putting up some lattice for the ever-growing raspberry bushes, and I also planted some seedlings.  I have planted pumpkins, melons, corn, and peppers.  Thus, far, only the corn and the melons have hatched, but it has only been seven days.  Here's hoping to continued good indoor-growing :-)

Work is going great (there's always one lie in each blog post)...but spring break is only four short weeks away.  Pleasant week to all.

Warm Skiing

We headed up to Breckenridge on Thursday evening.  We had a feeling Bode would be "sick" on Friday :-)  The weather was incredibly warm for February--45 degrees and sunny.  The mountains were pounded with close to five feet of snow in early January, but they haven't received much since.  This is not to say we had a bad time; quite the contrary, we always enjoy our time skiing.  Per the usual, I took some pictures.  First up is Mommy and Bode just after riding the Falcon lift, which happens to be Ashley's favorite.

Next is a shot, albeit a poor one, of Ashley and Bode.  They are one of the little dots in the picture below.  I wanted to take the picture earlier, but I fumbled the camera.

I then took a movie of Bode skiing.  Obviously it was a beautiful day.

Someone right after this movie was taken, the fun quickly ended.  Riding up the Colorado chair, Ashley realized, with awful dread, that she no longer had her phone.  What a sick feeling that must have been.  We tried to figure out the last she had it, and it was on the other side of the mountain.  We said our goodbyes, and she hot-footed it over to peak 10.  We told her we'd meet her at the car.  Bode and I leisurely made our way back to the base of Peak 9, and decided to stop for some professional pictures, which we pirated off the website.  We look happy, but pictures are more fun with Ashley.

While waiting for Ashley, I decided to call her phone, and amazingly, someone answered.  They had found the phone, and were back at their condo.  Ten minutes later, Ashley arrived at the car, dejected and downbeat, but her spirits quickly lifted when I told her the good news.  She met up with the Samaritans, and then we had a nice lunch at Eric's.

We lazed around the rest of the day.  The skiing was good, and Bode is doing great.  However, I had elbow surgery a couple weeks ago, and couldn't really plant with my pole, or really move my left arm in a normal balancing fashion while skiing.  Thus, we decided not to ski on Saturday (that and the fact it was crappy weather).  We did go to the rec center and played in the pool, but otherwise, a very uneventful weekend.

Back to work tomorrow--boooooooo! :-)  Pleasant week to all.

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.