Leap Day

February 29th... Happens once every 4 years. Now I guess it's officially know as 29er day. Referring to Mountain Bikes with 29" wheels, compared to 26" wheels which are what most older bikes have.

So we have an extra 24 hours this year for a blog... Natalie took Cayle out in the snow after school today. She had picked up a sled from The Everything Store in Eagle and was eager to take him sledding. From what she told me when I got home was that he pretty much wanted nothing to do with the sled, and kept asking for his bike. However, when I got home and walked out behind the house to see them, he was happily playing in the snow. I thought that maybe by showing him how much fun sledding was, he would want to do it. But he just laughed at me... I couldn't fit in the smallish sled.... and he still wanted no part of it. So after playing in the snow for a while, we went back to the house and he got his bike out and rode around the neighborhood for about 20 minutes. I'm sure he will enjoy sledding someday, but is currently just all about riding his bike.

Snow!!! Finally!!

Dang! Just when I was thinking we weren't going to get any snow this year... Kidding, we all knew it would come at some point. It has been snowing all day. About 3-4" when we woke up, then it stopped for a bit. Cayle and I headed out so he could ride his bike while I shoveled the drive. He rode for close to an hour. Shortly after we got back inside, it really started coming down! And windy! White-out! At 11 we went to the library, and then while we were there the snow stopped and the sun came out... crazy! As soon as I headed to school, the snow began falling again, and snowed most of the rest of the day. Sometimes crazy hard, and sometimes just barely. Still snowing now, just barely. Probably only got about 6-8" of accumulation, and everything was already melted off the roads when we got home from school. I doubt it will snow anymore this year.... :-)
He loved riding in the snow, but quickly found that it was much more difficult to push through the deep stuff than it was to stay on the singletrack that daddy had created!

Reflections from Class

I have come to 3 realizations about school lunch. I have come to these realizations through discussions with my students in my health class, my discussions with Natalie, and my own personal experiences. Pizza sauce counts as a vegetable... according to the FDA...
1. It is extremely difficult/almost impossible to eat school lunch as a vegetarian. The days that Natalie doesn't bring her lunch to school, which is rarely, it's tough for her to find something to eat in the cafeteria.
What some of the kids lunches look like at school! I can't believe we let kids eat this crap!

2. Today in Health, I had the students list what they ate for breakfast and lunch, and then identify what was healthy/unhealthy. Common things for breakfast were, milk, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, bananas, orange juice, and toast. Lunch, which was eaten at school, was grilled ham and cheese on processed hamburger buns, fries, potato chips, chocolate milk, tator tots, pizza.... you get the point. I just learned on the Jillian Michaels podcast this week that pizza sauce (because it is made from tomatoes) and french fries count as vegetables for school lunch! And our society wonders why 50% of our society is overweight or obese... hmmm....
The nuggets hit the protein necessity, and the hash browns are potatoes (veggies...)

3. To the best of our abilities we will be packing lunch for Cayle when he starts school. Unless something changes by that time. I know there is a big push for healthier lunches with fresh ingredients taking place (even in our district), but I wonder how long it will take for ALL schools to adapt to these practices, and if so, how can we afford it?
Why is it so difficult to be able to provide a lunch that looks like this for our kids???

Mid-Winter Break Part II

Well, there's not much exciting information to add about spring break! Clearly the first part of our break contained most of our plans - which hasn't been a bad thing :)

Thursday
We were able to leave Ronnie's and stop in Highlands Ranch to have lunch with Nick's cousin, Jodi, and her son, Nathan. Lunch was a nice pit-stop before the treacherous drive home. It took us an extra hour to get through the mountains, but we finally made it. Needless to say, after the stress of the drive, I wasn't much good for anything :)

Friday
Nothing. That's what I accomplished. Literally nothing. Nick did a few things around the house (chores, picked up dog poop, did some kind of repair on the fence?). But that's it. Too bad there were things I really should have accomplished!

Saturday
Nick was gone to Fruita for the day with some bike friends. He left about 730 am and got home about 745 pm. A long day, but he had lots of fun (which I'm sure he will tell about it unnecessarily great detail). Cayle and I had a relaxing day together watching basketball, riding his bike, taking a nap, and getting groceries.

Sunday
We had a nice breakfast together and headed off for church. Cayle was not in a good mood to say the least! By the time we dragged him in to church (literally, dragged him in!), he was seriously unhappy. We gave him about 5 minutes of non-stop wailing before we bailed on church. It was pretty embarrassing, but we finally got out of there! Cayle had been telling me yesterday and today that it hurt in his mouth and his ears. So we guessed it was an ear infection and took him up to Vail to the dr. They checked him out and said it was just a cold, not an ear infection. Back home we came, where we proceeded to do...nothing! Well, nothing much. We made dinner for tomorrow night, and watched plenty of basketball. Cayle never took a nap (boo!), so he went to bed pretty early tonight.

Now that we're heading back to work tomorrow, there's 7 weeks of work until Baby B #2 arrives on April 16. The time is going to fly by!

Mt. Biking

Natalie gave me the opportunity to get down to Fruita with a few guys yesterday. We left Eagle about 830, and got to our destination of the day, Rabbit Valley, around 1030ish, and ready to ride about 11. Temp when we left the parking lot was about 40 and sunny, so dress code was bibs, jersey, long sleeve base layer, and knee warmers. Pretty light compared to how I have been dressing to ride around here. We hopped on some single track/quad double track right out of the parking lot. Man, it felt great to be riding on dirt!!! There were 7 of us, so we had a good crew. The first trail we did was the Western Rim. It was all up above the Colorado River Basin, on the edge of the rock cliffs. It was super sweet! The trail itself was never closer than about 10 feet from the edge, so you were never worried about falling or anything, which was nice! It wound around the edge of the cliffs for several miles, then dropped down into the Kokopelli Trail.
The picture below was staged... the trail actually headed the other direction. We were still about 6 feet or more from the edge here. We wanted a pic that looked like we were riding on the edge...
After riding on the Kokopelli Trail for a few miles, we connected with a trail leading to the Zion Curtain. The pic below is from the top of The Zion Curtain. Looking off the other side of this ledge, you could see I-70 several miles away as it streaked through Utah, and you could see a long ways after that. From the Kokopelli Trail to the top of Zion was a LOT of climbing... 3-4 miles worth of rocky technical ish climbing, with a GIANT, STEEP, hike-a-bike section at the very end. On top was kind of rolling single track, to the high point of the trail. From there is mostly downhill back to I-70 in Utah. We started the ride at Mile 2 in Colorado, and now were in Utah, almost 27 miles later. At this point we had 2 options. Continue on the trail for another hour ish to get back to the parking lot, or hop on I-70 and ride back East 3 miles to the parking lot. Because we had 2 guys who were struggling a bit, and we were all really worn out, we hopped on the road, and it took us about 10 minutes with the 25mph tailwind to climb back into Colorado. It worked out great since the interstate at that point has like 10 foot shoulders.
This was my first serious ride on the Western Slope. I did a few other rides up 18rd when we were camping, but nothing of this difficulty or length. It was really cool having the opportunity to ride in Colorado and Utah on the same ride. 30 miles, about 3,500 feet of climbing and warm sunshine made for a fantastic February day in the saddle! Thanks to Natalie for giving me the day to head west!

New Construction

We got home yesterday to discover that construction had begun on 2 new houses going in between ours and the neighbors. Finished digging the foundations today and then concrete guys came in and began laying forms. As long as the weather cooperates, should have 2 new houses next to us before baby #2 arrives. Hopefully heavy construction at least is done by that time...

Made it Home

The weather today was crazy! This morning in Colorado Springs it was VERY gusty and snowy. When we left at 11 this morning, it was still blowing pretty good but had stopped snowing. We met my cousin Jodi in Highlands Ranch for lunch at Firehouse Subs. It was good to catch up and for Cayle to see cousin Nathan. That visit completed his visitation of all of his Colorado cousins that he knows. Ethan and Lexi in the Springs, and Nathan in Denver. Then it was time to head back up into the mountains. The weather on the passes left a bit to be desired. Snow covered roads and high wind gusts were the norm. Thankfully we made it home safe and sound and now have a few days to relax before school begins again next week.

Mid-Winter Break Part I

I say this is part I of the mid-winter break because surely there will be more things to write about before the end of this week. But so far, we have had a fantastic break!

On Monday, we took Cayle to the pool. It was so exciting for him to have mom, dad, and grandma go swimming with him! Obviously dad gets to see him swim weekly, but mom and grandma don't ever get to see him swim. He did such a good job. It was so cute to see him running from the locker room to the pool because he was so excited to get in the pool. He was so funny to watch as he walked/squatted around the pool. Cayle also loves the slide they have!

Tuesday was a sad day for Cayle because he had to say "bye bye" to his grandma.

Cayle and Grandma riding his bike one last time before her visit ends

We dropped her off at DIA on our way to Colorado Springs. We arrived in the Springs and had all three kids put down for a nap...yay! The kids all played a bit Tuesday afternoon and evening. Ronnie had made an awesome veggie lasagna, and the adults also had chocolate fondue for dessert! We played Sequence, and Michelle and I kicked Ronnie and Nick's butts (4 games in a row)!

The boys hanging out together

On Wednesday, we took Cayle, Ethan, and Lexi to a place called Tumbling World. They had open gym for an hour and it only cost $6. The kids LOVED it! What a good find this activity was!



It was also an exciting day for Nick and I since it was our last "date night" before the baby arrives. We had an awesome dinner at "Nosh" before heading over to see Cirque du Soleil. I had never seen any of their shows and was pretty impressed by the acrobats' strength and movement. Nick says it isn't often he finds me speechless, but the circus left me in such awe!

Heading out the door on our date night

We were supposed to be heading home today, but it looks like numerous highways are closed (470 and 70 being the key closings), so we may be stuck in CO Springs or Highlands Ranch with Nick's cousin (depending on if we get moving at all today). Of course you should expect a snow storm during the mid-winter break!

Busy Sunday

After church today we went to Maloit Park in Minturn to do some Cross Country skiing. The weather was great but the snow was a little hard, and there were more people there than I've ever seen before. Not crowded by any means, but we weren't the only ones there, that's for sure!


After skiing we headed home for just a bit before heading to Carter's 1 year birthday party. Niles and Tiffany had make your own pizzas for everyone. They were fantastic! Then cake and playing in the basement. Carter got a Strider for his birthday. Cayle was loving it! He just kept riding it around the basement. Once Carter gets the hang of it, Cayle can ride with him.
Here is Cayle playing with grandma after eating some birthday cake. Being silly! He crashed shortly after this and was ready for bed!

Shopping day!

Today was a long day of shopping in preparation for the baby's impending arrival. We left about 830 and finally got home about 3. Yikes! We hit Target (crib sheets, changing table cover, newborn diapers, a rock 'n play sleeper, newborn onesies, and a few other odds and ends). Then we stopped by the Carter's outlet to get some new "coming home" outfits for the baby (Nick picked them out and will show me at the hospital), a few birthday presents, and Cayle's Easter outfit. On our way through Vail we stopped and picked up grandma's new x country skis and show her where the hospital is. After that, we stopped by Wal-Mart for some groceries, and also Costco for some groceries.

Unfortunately, all the shopping and driving never lended itself to Cayle sleeping, so the poor guy didn't have a nap today. He was pretty tired early tonight. When we tried to put him to bed, he fought it like crazy.

Tomorrow we're off to church and x country ski, then Carter's 1st birthday celebration. Hopefully we'll have some good pictures to share :)

Grandma is here

We've been busy the last couple of days with Grandma being here. She and Cayle are having lots of fun together during the days. Cayle has been riding his bike like crazy now that he has Grandma here to go out with him everyday! He is even starting to go off roading in the dirt around our house. Now Natalie and I are off work for the next week, so we will all have some time together. Cayle was able to help grandma pick out some new xcountry skis today at the Vail Nordic Center during their President's Day Weekend sale. 30% off everything! Boots, skis, bindings, and poles! Great deal on nice equipment. Planning on getting out to try it all out on Sunday in Minurn!

RIFs

So the school district has been talking about major budget cuts that were coming our way. Today and tomorrow are the days they are finally sharing who will be cut (RIFfed - reduction in force) and who will stay. We had been fully prepared for Nick's position to be cut. But, today he found out that even though his position does not exist for next year, he is still employed. What position he will be offered for next year remains to be seen - the subject and amount of time he would be working are unknown. So for now we don't have much more info on the situation for next year, but hopefully we will know more before the baby arrives in mid-April:)

Valentines Day

Our Valentine's Day dinner found by me from "The Feed Zone" cyclist cookbook, prepared mostly by Natalie. It was yummy!

The pasta above was served on a bed of mixed greens. Fettuccine noodles with walnuts, blue cheese crumbles, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice.
We also had these Sweet Potato cakes. They have a little cube of swiss cheese pressed into the middle of them. They were kind of sweet, and very delicious!
For dessert we had white chocolate fondue with strawberries and Oreos. Fantastic way to finish off the evening!

Breakthrough Day at the Pool

Above is a picture of Cayle and his buddy Macklin. He meets "Mack" at the pool for swim time on Monday mornings. Macklin is way more adventurous and eager to try to new things than Cayle is. Cayle likes to "think" through things and try them only once he feels comfortable. The only time I haven't seen this to be true is when he is riding his bike, then he just goes.

He has been doing really great in the pool for several weeks now! He has recently started squat walking around the kiddie area of the pool trying to keep his shoulders on down under the water. Today he was going down so far so that half of his face was in the water. Then he would "act" surprised. Mack likes to go out into the lazy river and the deeper area with his mom. Cayle has never been interested. He doesn't like when he can't feel the bottom of the pool, so I was kinda surprised today that when I suggested we go to the deeper area or the adult area, he went along with it. He went down the steps to the deeper area on his own, only reaching out for help when the water got up to his chin. Then he was ok with me holding him in the deeper water. After that I was putting him (standing) on the ledge, and he was jumping into my arms and then "falling" into the water. He did this 6 or 7 times, and then was ready to go back to the kiddie area and his comfort zone. I was super excited at his newfound confidence and willingness to try something new. It's a step we have been working on for a while now. Grandma will be here next week and mommy will be off work, so the whole family can go swimming!

Making Hearts

Cayle road his bike outside again today. He is requesting to ride his bike outside all the time, no matter the time of day or the temperature! This afternoon we finally got him to come in from riding his bike long enough to work on making his valentines. I can't show you a picture because that would ruin the surprise, but I can show you a picture of him making his valentines...

Loving His Strider!!!

Can you tell if he's happy or not???? :-)

Free Family Fun Fair

I took Cayle over the the Free Family Fun Fair in Eagle today for a little bit. There was tons of FREE things to do for kids up until about middle school age. 3 or 4 bounce houses, big blow up slides, balloon animals, magicians, free bike helmet fitting, petting zoo, and loads of other things. Cayle liked the petting zoo and watching people. I tried to get him into the 3 yrs and under bounce house, and he wanted nothing to do with it. He would have liked some of the big blow up slides and things, but he was just a little too young for them this year. Maybe next year he will be able to do those things.
The pygmy goats were by far his favorites! He loves pygmy goats! They had the mini donkeys, the young pygmy goats, a few ducks, some chickens, and some bunny rabbits.

Date Night

Natalie and I had a "date" last night. Cayle stayed home with Mary, and played great and then went to bed great for her despite being a little under the weather. Natalie and I headed up to Avon to meet with our insurance agent to discuss a few "plans" for things for the upcoming years. Then after we went to The Gore Range Brewery for dinner. The place used to be one of my fave's, but recently underwent some ownership changes, and we hadn't been back since that happened. I ended up getting a pizza. It was FANTASTIC!! Goat Cheese pizza with craisins, tomatoes, fresh basil, and pistachios. It was amazing! Def. will have that again sometime! The great pizza along with the great time spent with my valentine = a fun, relaxing night!

So Cool!

Training!

Cayle has started his "training..." Not really, but for some reason (Natalie is taking credit) he has really started to take a liking to his Strider. He rode it around the living room for about 2 hours this morning, then for another hour or so this evening. He should sleep good tonight after all that riding. He may have challenged Grandpa B. for the most bike time today! It's so much fun watching him just cruise back and forth. I can't wait till he has the opportunity to ride outside some when it warms up. Our little boy is growing up too fast!

Monday

Cayle and I completed our morning routine... Swim, donuts, and mail. He loves his donut on Monday mornings! He is now eating it so quickly that he has it finished (1 whole glazed donut) by the time we get home from the post office ~ 1 mile. Must be working up an appetite from his time in the pool...He got a Valentine card in the mail today from Grandma. He enjoyed opening it while talking to her on Skype. He got some truck and tractor stickers in the card. He took one sheet of them over to his friend Zoe's house and shared some with her.

Super Bowl XLVI

Nick and I had invited a bunch of people over for today's big game. We had about 15-20 people and tons of yummy food. Some of the highlights: Nick's bacon-wrapped jalapenos, and Tiffany's s'mores desserts. Opposite ends of the food spectrum, but both enjoyed by all! (Nick says Tiffany makes "the best damn desserts, and then she brings them to our house!).

pre-baking...

Today was Cayle's first real time to host some kids at our house. We had Zoe (who he stays with every day for daycare), Macklin (who he swims with on Mondays), and Carter (who turns one on Feb 14!). The kids liked playing upstairs in Cayle's toy room, and checking out his "big boy" bed. Cayle is still working on his sharing skills :)

Cayle was so tired from playing with all of his friends! He cried the entire time he was getting ready for bed, and while we prayed, and wouldn't kiss us night-night, but he fell asleep within moments of us turning out his light. Cayle is such a good boy. We are so proud of how he is growing and learning :)

New Kids Bathroom Paint

Where the orange is now, used to be a light yellow. Just wanted to add a little color and have something that matched the shower curtain a little better. Brighten things up a bit.

It's Friday...

Let's go out and have an appetizer and a drink.... or maybe we should re-paint the kids bathroom... Yep, the 2nd sounds like a better idea....

So we are in the process of re-painting the guest/kids bathroom. Actually, when I say "we" I actually mean Natalie. She did the majority of it, I just came in and did a bit of rolling after she had the tough stuff done. Just taking care of final preparations before baby B #2 comes along. We'll get some pics up soon, after we finish this weekend. The color is a shade of orange... :-)

Shades of orange
Amber	Apricot	Atomic tangerine	Bittersweet	Brown	Burnt orange	Carrot orange	Champagne	Coral	Dark salmon
Deep carrot orange	ECE/SAE Amber	Flame	Gamboge	Gold	Gold (metallic)	International orange	Lion	Mahogany	Old gold
Orange	Orange (web)	Orange-red	Orange peel	Papaya whip	Peach	Peach-orange	Peach-yellow	Persian orange	Portland Orange
Princeton orange	Pumpkin	Rust	Safety orange	Salmon	Satin sheen gold	Sunset	Tangelo	Tangerine	Tea rose
Tenné	Tomato	Vermilion

Playing and Working Outside

Cayle really wanted to go outside behind the house today, so I put his jacket on him and his hat and out he went. Temps were in the mid 30's and sunny. He just kind of walked around, exploring the different areas of the yard. He really liked the rocks and the garden area (as usual.) He probably spent close to an hour out there before he finally came back and knocked on the door for me to let him in. He did have his dogs out there with him to keep him company. I spent some time watching him out the back window. He seemed so happy, just to be walking around and exploring things. He also really likes the snow that we have left in the shady areas. It's funny, when his fingers get cold, he blows on them. Natalie taught him that, and he likes to do it. I never saw him do it today, but he does it once in a while. Love watching my boy play outside!

When I got home from work tonight, I decided to break the ice dam that has formed outside our house. It formed after the ditch behind the house flooded then everything froze in front of the house several weeks ago. HOA cleaned up most of the sidewalk mess, but we have had this frozen block in the drainage area in front of the house. It was about 6" thick in places, and wouldn't have melted until May. It only sees a few hours of sunshine a day in front of the house and it's amazing how long snow and ice will stay there. I had to use an axe and a dirt digging shovel to pry it all apart. Took about an hour. Good exercise! Hopefully now that it's broken up it will melt in time for the Superbowl Party.

Crazy!

In keeping with the blogging goal of 200 posts, last month was the most we've ever had in January! Ended up with 26. The previous high was 15! Good start!

Just read the news about Facebook going public. Crazy to think that some guy thought about it while in his dorm room, and now he is worth (or Facebook is worth) just over 17 Billion dollars!!! Who'da thunk? Also saw the information about Google+, interesting, and interesting concepts, especially the circles concept, but not sure I can do another social networking site... Facebook and Twitter are really pushing my boundaries....

Stopped by Yeti's Grind today for their 5 year birthday and got a Coffee (for me) and a cupcake for Natalie. She claims it was the best cupcake she's ever had! With that being said, I may have to get over there and try one for myself sometime soon. It's called a Batter Cupcake.