Our Journey

Date Night

2012-02-10T09:34:00.003-07:00

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!

2012-02-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Training!

2012-02-08T20:39:00.003-07:00

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

2012-02-06T20:25:00.003-07:00

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

2012-02-05T21:46:00.004-07:00

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

2012-02-04T21:17:00.002-07:00

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...

2012-02-03T21:46:00.004-07:00

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

2012-02-02T20:42:00.003-07:00

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!

2012-02-01T20:46:00.006-07:00

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.

My First Kiss!

2012-01-31T19:43:00.002-07:00

Nick and I always ask Cayle for a kiss, and he never really agrees. He'll oblige and let us kiss his cheek or head, and sometimes he'll even blow a kiss, but he has never actually kissed us. Tonight though, things changed! We were spending some "quality" time together, the three of us watching the Illinois/Michigan State game. Toward the end of the game, Cayle was starting to get tired and telling us he was ready for "night night." Nick and I were holding him off a bit from bed, trying to watch the end of the close game. At one point I asked Cayle for a kiss, and he walked over to me and gave me a kiss on the lips! Then, he wanted to kiss daddy. And he gave daddy a kiss on the lips. Back and forth he went, giving each of us 3 kisses before he grew tired of the fun. What a fun little boy he is! We are having a great time watching him grow :)

Drama

2012-01-30T20:34:00.004-07:00

Work has recently been filled with all kinds of drama. There was a big situation with some 8th graders bringing alcohol onto the basketball bus. I got to deal with that because of my athletic director position. There's been more drama with colleagues over planning school events. I hate the drama. I think life is so much more enjoyable when people don't deal in drama and just take care of their own business. I seem to have an especially difficult time dealing with drama ever since we've had Cayle. I just wish people would not cause drama or be so caught up in drama because there are so many more important things in life. I find myself at work each day, counting the minutes until I can get home and spend time with Nick and Cayle. I don't know why people want to spend so much of their day complaining and causing drama. I try focus on spending my time at work doing what needs to be done so that at the earliest possible moment I can leave school and spend time with my favorite boys in the whole world...
*Disclaimer from the author:
1) I am not perfect at being drama-free!
2) I am not sure this post even makes sense! But I do feel slightly better after getting some things off my chest!

Sunday

2012-01-29T21:03:00.005-07:00

As I sit here watching the last event of the 2012 X games, I kind of begin wondering why I have never gone and they are only 30 minutes away in Aspen. Just seems like it should be something to go see. Maybe next year?

Bought some new paint for Cayle's/guests bathroom today from Lowe's. Right now it's dark green and light yellow. Soon to be a new color matching up with the dark green to make it more "kid" friendly. Natalie hopes to be done with it soon, then I will put up a pic and show the new color.

This is Pretty Cool!!!

LeBron James Rode His Bike To Work Today (Photo)

LeBron James rode his bike to American Airlines Arena Sunday morning for the Miami Heat's game against the Chicago Bulls.

James led all scorers in the game with 35 points, along with 11 rebounds and 5 assists, to lead the Heat to a 97-93 win. Maybe LeBron should ride his bike to work all the time.

Smiley Face Pancakes

2012-01-28T21:20:00.003-07:00

Natalie made smiley face pancakes this morning using the pancake maker that her parents got me for Christmas. They were tasty and Cayle really enjoyed them!

Learning Experiences

2012-01-27T20:20:00.005-07:00

Natalie had a super rough day at school, only spending a very brief amount of time in her classroom. The rest of the time was spent doing AD work investigating an incident from a basketball game last night. Apparently a few of the girls decided it would be a good idea to have some "cocktails" on the bus ride home, mixed with gatorade.... Not much thought (intelligent thought) anyway was put into that decision.... Made for a long day for my wife, so when we got home I told her to go out for some appetizers with a bunch of other teachers from school at The Grand Avenue Grill. I think the Italian Nachos may have helped her unwind a bit. Weather was pretty nice earlier today. About 32 and sunny, so I took Cayle out for a little bike ride. My first ride on the "new" bike. We rode the golf course, with about an inch of snow on the ground from last night. I had my first crash of the year as well, and it happened before we were even out of the subdivision. Getting ready to turn a corner, I didn't realize that there was a sheet of ice under the snow I was riding on, and just went down, and went for a little slide... no harm done, was the least painful crash ever! Doesn't feel too bad sliding on ice. Startled myself and Cayle more than anything else. No harm done to the new bike parts though!!! Rest of the ride was great! We got first tracks on the cart path!

Done! Ready to Ride!

2012-01-26T21:45:00.003-07:00

Done! That was quite a bit of effort, and money. But in the end, I think it looks fantastic! It also took almost 4 lbs off the total weight, which is really awesome! More than I had expected. Weight came in at 26.5 lbs, and it will be fairly easy to take it down into the 25 lb range in the future (next year) with a few more minor upgrades. This coupled with good training should help me be competitive my first year racing expert category!
Cayle wanted his bike in the pictures. He was practicing turning his bike today in the living room. He is beginning to get it.
Above it the view I have while riding, and below is the view from the front.
Pretty excited for the weather to warm up and the days to get longer so I can get out and ride some dirt! May have to head down to Fruita sometime soon!!!

Impromptu Photo Shoot

2012-01-25T19:48:00.004-07:00

Cayle's experience with the "baby" so far has been pointing at Natalie's belly and saying baby, and poking her protruding belly button. Tonight, he saw me watching the baby kick, and came over to investigate. So we put him on Natalie's lap and let him feel the baby kick and move. He got a huge kick out of it! Some of the time he was very serious about it, and some of the time he just wanted to poke her belly and then laugh about it. It was pretty cute, and we were able to get some good pics out of it.
Love this one with both of their hands together!
He looks so focused and intense!
His ornery face (above and below,) as he points at Natalie's belly....

Just having fun!

Tomorrow is the day.... hopefully...

2012-01-24T21:07:00.004-07:00

I have had several posts about the new bike parts that I have aquired, but here is a brief look back at how it all began... Decided I no longer needed my road bike wheels (despite how much I liked them!!!)
Bought them for about $600 at about half price from a buddy several years ago. Sold them for just under $600 on Ebay. Pretty good deal there.
Used that money to buy all new mountain bike parts, since that is where most/all of my racing now occurs. Needed some lighter/better parts.
New/lighter wheels were next on the agenda, along with new/lighter tubeless tires.
The above pic is most of the new parts on my mountain bike along with the wheels, but no rubber. Tomorrow I plan on picking up the bike completed, and can hopefully get out for some good rides. The weather has been pretty great for riding around here lately, and I should be able to take advantage of that! Started with all this bike stuff in the beginning of December, it will be nice to finally have it all done!

The Cycling House

2012-01-23T09:53:00.007-07:00

Not sure what it is about getting new water bottles that is so exciting... considering that I have around 20 of them or so in the cabinet. But I got 4 of them in today from The Cycling House and it was pretty exciting! The Cycling House is a destination cycling place in Tucson, AZ that offers a completely supported training experience. All you do is go ride your bike in nice warm Arizona weather, and they take care of everything else, food, ride support, and everything else you could ever think of! So I've heard anyway... You see, I've never actually been there. I live The Cycling House lifestyle vicariously through my pops who happens to frequent the place regularly. It's actually a pretty good motivator for me to get out and ride when it's 30 degrees outside, and I think about the big miles he is getting in while having everything taken care of. Oh well, I am sure I will eventually make it out for a week sometime.

Back to the bottles.... I was reading The Cycling House blog by Andy Schultz about nutrition, and I noticed a wall of bottles in the background. I contacted the Owener of the house and he said he would get me a few straight away. I was expecting maybe one or two bottles, but today when I picked up the mail, there were 4 bottles! And to top it off, the mailing label had a nice personal touch on it as you can see in the pic below... Thanks for the bottles guys! Let me know when you get to Vail, CO and I'll take you out for a ride!

Cross Country Skiing!!! Finally!

2012-01-22T18:21:00.003-07:00

We headed up to Maloit Park near Minurn today after church to do some skiing. Vail was reporting 10" and Maloit Park is close, so we thought the chances were good for new snow!
On the picnic table you can see the new snow... Looks like a good amount, and it was super nice! Especially since we were the only ones on the course, and the snow had just been groomed!

Natalie heading down a small roller. The course out there is super nice, and very beginner friendly! You can go as fast as you wish, and it's great for the Chariot as well. The snowcat was out grooming when we got there, so we were able to get first tracks on the fresh snow! It was fantastic. Weather was great as well! About 25 and sunny, and we got a good little workout in, so we warmed up quickly! Snow was still falling softly as we skied. It was great!
As always, Cayle did great in the Chariot! When we got back to the car after, we let him play in the snow a little bit. He was cracking up and loving it! He hasn't seen much snow this year, so this was a real treat! We hit up Smiling Moose on the way home for some Yummy lunch. Even with stopping, we were home about 1. What a great morning!!!!

Basketball

2012-01-20T21:28:00.004-07:00

Last night we took Cayle to watch the 7th grade girls basketball game in Eagle. He loves watching basketball, on T.V. and when I was coaching. But I did not expect what happened last night. He sat in the bleachers and watched an entire game. The only time he wanted to get up and move around was at half time. The rest of the time it was like he was in a trance... studying the game and watching the girls play.
I went to help "coach" a bit for the 7th grader girls tonight... to offer my "expertise" in a few areas. Afterward I came to the conclusion that this year's GCMS 7th grade class is one of the most athletic classes I have ever been around. The 7th grade boys won the league football and basketball championships. The girls, at least thru 7 deep are extremely athletic and talented with some height. It's fun to coach and work with athletes that have some talent and are still willing to put in the effort and hard work.

More Bike Parts, Flooding, and a play buddy

2012-01-18T09:58:00.006-07:00

Got the final pieces of my bike build in today. Wheels and Tires! Time to get it built up now and ready to ride!
As you can see in the above picture, we are having a bit of an issue with flooding in the back yard and the front drive. The ditch behind the house is overflowing and freezing. It's on a freeze, thaw, freeze cycle, and increases daily. Hopefully it gets taken care of soon!We watched Kennedie for some friends last night for a couple hours. Cayle enjoyed showing her around his house and showing her all of his toys... mostly his balls and his animals. For the most part they played together really well. Cayle is still working on his sharing skills...

Skype, Spaghetti, and Omelets

2012-01-17T20:51:00.007-07:00

Cayle has been Skyping with Grandma B on a daily basis. Every time we open our computers he asks for grandma. These are a couple of his "Skyping" positions. Tebow "Tebows," Cayle "Skypes." Below he is in his squat talking to uncle Bob. In the above picture he is on his belly talking to Grandma B.
We don't give Cayle pasta with red sauce very often for fear that it will end up on his clothes, in his hair, or on the walls and floors. This was pretty great of him to keep it on his face this time. (or so we thought... later we found some on the hair on the back of his head while getting him ready for bed...) In the above picture you can see how tired he is from the look in his eyes, in the below pic, I got a good smile out of him.

Natalie's uncle Robbie and his wife Rhonda gave us their "Famous" family omelet recipe for Christmas. We got around to making them Monday morning. They were pretty yummy! You can see the ingredients are eggs, classic lays, Velveeta cheese, flour, and milk. The chips are an interesting touch, but add a bit of flavor and crunch. Cayle especially loved them! He ate an entire omelet himself!

That's all she wrote

2012-01-14T23:24:00.004-07:00

On the Bronco's season. We are by no means big Bronco's fans or anything, but it was kinda cool for the state while it lasted.

Some big upsets in College basketball today!!! Northwestern got a HUGE upset against a top 10 ranked Michigan State. Iowa scored a big upset against 13th ranked Michigan. What does this mean? The Big Ten has some extremely talented teams. The Big Ten is extremely competitive top to bottom and the bottom teams are going to challenge the top teams all season long. Illinois has beat Iowa and Northwestern and are now tied for FIRST place in the Big 10 with Michigan State! Do I believe they are the best team? Not necessarily, but they are scrappy, and fun to watch!

	\|------CONFERENCE-------\|		\|--------OVERALL--------\|
STANDINGS	W-L	Pct	W-L	Pct
1. Michigan State	4-1	.800	15-3	.833
Illinois	4-1	.800	15-3	.833
3. Michigan	4-2	.667	14-4	.778
4. Indiana	3-2	.600	15-2	.882
Ohio State	3-2	.600	15-3	.833
Purdue	3-2	.600	13-5	.722
7. Iowa	3-3	.500	11-8	.579
8. Wisconsin	2-3	.400	13-5	.722
Northwestern	2-3	.400	12-5	.706
10. Minnesota	1-4	.200	13-5	.722
Nebraska	1-4	.200	9-7	.562
Penn State	1-4	.200	9-9	.500

Bonfire Brewery Tebrew

2012-01-13T22:55:00.002-07:00

Had it! Great drink! Greatly enjoyed my Tebrew! Don't usually care for barley wines, but this one was very smooth, with a good little kick at the end!

Friday the 13th!!!!

2012-01-13T22:19:00.002-07:00

It wasn't actually scary at all :) Today we had a half-day workday since yesterday was the last day of the semester. I worked from 6 am-10 am, and Nick worked 8 am - 10 am. Once we got off work, we picked Cayle up and headed down to Glenwood Springs to run some errands. We have a long list of house chores to do this weekend! So far, we have rearranged Cayle's toys (way too many of them!), and started work on his bathroom. Since he didn't take a nap today, Cayle hit the sack early. Nick headed off to Bonfire Brewing with the neighbor, Rob. And I stayed home, enjoyed the quiet, and watched some tv. Today was a great Friday the 13th!!!

1st Semester

2012-01-12T20:57:00.005-07:00

is over... Holy Cow!!! We changed to semesters this year from trimesters, and tomorrow is the last day of the semester. We go in for a few hours to get things finished up with no students. The year is half over, and what a great 1/2 year it has been so far. I have had a ton of fun teaching my classes, Health, Media Productions, and Debate! Compared to my other years of teaching this one is SO much more FUN!!! Not that I didn't enjoy teaching SPED, but there were other things associated with the job that were not so enjoyable.... 1/2 down... 1/2 to go.

Baby B #2 will be here this semester. I think the time will come quickly. Looking forward to new students and new family additions during semester number two!

Random Pics

2012-01-11T20:47:00.004-07:00

We've been getting some really good moons the last week. The above picture is at about 430 in the afternoon. The below picture is right at about 600 pm. The moon is trying to get over the mountains. Pretty cool!

The above pic is from Christmas when my dad took Cayle to the John Deere place in Teutopolis. I really like the hat that Cayle has on, and can't believe that I failed to purchase it for him!
This was in Colorado Springs over the last part of Christmas break when we went to visit the Focus on the Family center. Cayle was playing "king" of the log, and was so proud of himself!

National Western Stock Show

2012-01-10T20:57:00.004-07:00

Nick had the PLACE test on Saturday. He took this test so he can get certified to teach elementary education in a regular ed classroom. Since the test was in Denver, we got a hotel room and made sure the hotel had a pool, so that I could keep Cayle occupied while Nick took his test. Nick and I had discussed taking Cayle to the aquarium or children's museum after Nick's test was finished, but then when we arrived in Denver, we were reminded the National Western Stock Show was in town. We knew Cayle would love this event, and we were really excited to take him to see the tractors, and horses, and cows. We knew there was a children's area at the stock show, but we weren't sure what to expect that Cayle would really be able to enjoy. We found a petting zoo, which he loved. Cayle also loved looking at all of the cows and horses. Nick and I were so happy to be able to take our little guy to such a fun event :)

Cayle with his friend, the goat

Excited to find some baby potbelly pigs

Trying to milk the pigs!

Cayle loved this duck - but was quite shocked when

the duck went nuts and sprayed water all over Cayle!

Mommy and Cayle in the cow barn

Daddy and Cayle enjoying the ducks

Back in the Swing of Things

2012-01-10T20:19:00.003-07:00

It seems last week was overwhelming - maybe because we had been off so long and had to get used to structure again, or because I was sick, or because we had a laundry list of items on our "to do" list, or because we headed to Denver right after work on Friday, or probably because of a little of all of these things! But this week it seems we are settling in to things a bit better, even though we've been busy.

Cayle showing off on his bike

Monday morning Nick and Cayle made it to the pool to swim a bit with Melinda and Macklin. They had to cut their swim time a bit short since I had to go see Dr. Kohn and get checked up from being sick so much. We heard the baby's heartbeat (mid 140s again), and had some tests and everything looks fine. So, we're back to just making sure I get all my nutrients and help this little guy grow :) Next check-up is Monday (1/16), with the diabetes check.

Today Nick and Cayle went to library before Nick went to work. Cayle got very close to looking for the mouse (lifting a piece of felt in front of the group), but he bailed at the last minute. Maybe next time! I had an eye dr appt tonight and found out why I detest wearing my glasses so much...an updated lens prescription will be in next week! Nick made a nice dinner of rice and stir fry vegetables before we put Cayle to sleep and settled in to watch the Illinois basketball game.

The boys ready for the Ohio State v Illinois game

The rest of the week will probably go by quickly - we have 2 more full days of school, then a half-day work day on Friday, and are looking forward to next Monday off (thank you to Dr Martin Luther King!). Lots of house chores to do this weekend - let us know if you'd like to come visit and help rearrange the kitchen pantries, do some paint touch-up on the walls, clean fans, wash down baseboards, that kind of fun stuff :)

Sick, Sick, Sick :(

2012-01-08T16:32:00.003-07:00

I finally caught what Nick and Cayle had on New Year's Eve, but my "fun time" didn't arrive until it was time to go back to school! So I came home early on the first day back from break. I recovered and was fine a few days. Then I couldn't keep anything down all day Friday. Saturday was ok. But then I was up from midnight pretty much straight through until Sunday morning, again not keeping anything down. I called the OB dr on call and she said I could try and treat it at home first, then come in for IVs if it didn't work, or I could just go get IVs. I chose treat from home. So I spent all of today sitting in the chair, trying to rest in between trips to the bathroom. Nick got me some suggested meds and Gatorade from the grocery, and now that the day is about over, I seem to be on the mend.

The biggest concern behind all of this is I have an extra dr appt at 26 weeks to check my weight gain and the baby's growth. At our 24 week appt, the dr was concerned that I hadn't gained enough weight yet, and the baby seemed to be measuring small. Hopefully I'll recover from being sick in time for next week's appt!

Standardized Tests

2012-01-07T20:35:00.003-07:00

Suck! Took me 3 ish hours to do the elementary Place test today in Denver. Then took Cayle to the National Western Stock show. Then a snowy/slippery drive back through the mountains going home. It was pretty nasty... I'll get some pics up tomorrow.

1st Bike Ride

2012-01-05T22:03:00.002-07:00

Of the year tonight on my road bike after school to Eagle and back! Low 40's and sunny was nice, but got cold quick when the sun dropped! Cayle chose not to join me and stayed with mommy instead :-( But after I got home he insisted on putting my bike shoes on. I sent a pic to my mom and she thought they were new skis that we had gotten him....

2012 Blogging

2012-01-04T21:55:00.004-07:00

Haven't really mentioned any goals or anything for the new year. I have personal goals for the mountain bike season that I will likely get into at a later date, and a few other personal goals. I do have a goal for the blog however, and that is to hit 200+ posts for the year. We started the blog when we moved to Colorado in 2008 and had 65 posts that year. In 2009 we hit 60 posts. 2010 we did much better with 119 posts, and then last year in 2011 even much better than that with 180 posts! The summer months have traditionally killed us. Seems weird since we have time off that we should be able to use to blog. I think it's the change of routine that messes us up the most. If I can increase the blogging in the summer and keep all the other months consistent 200 should definitely be reachable! This blogging thing has just taken a bit of time to get the hang of I guess. In the amount of time we have had this blog going, I have personally seen so many others start up and die off. It's just really hard maintaining a consistently and consistently interesting blog! It takes a certain amount of dedication for sure!

In other news Natalie got the bug that Cayle and I had on New Year's eve. She had it yesterday and had to leave school early. It seemed to last 1 day with her just as it did with us. Now her brother Patrick has it. Wonder who else it may affect? Hopefully no one, as it's just not much fun!

Looking forward to many more blogs about Cayle and his baby brother/sister ?????, biking, hiking, school, and just in general life in the high rocky mountains where we live. Excited for 2012 and all the writing opportunities it brings! Here's to year 5 of our blog!

AdAmAn

2012-01-03T21:38:00.004-07:00

Over break, while we were in Colorado Springs, I found out about this club in Colorado Springs called the AdAmAn club. It's such a cool concept. Every year they select a new member from a pool of applicants, and that's how the club grows/maintains it's size. They do mountaineering type things including a summit of Pikes Peak every New Year's to light off fireworks at the top of the peak at midnight. We saw them on their way up Barr Trail, as we were coming down off The Incline. It was pretty cool. Read up on them by clicking on the link above, it's really interesting! They had to deal with crazy high winds (100 mph+) and insanely cold temps on top (-33 windchill!) Facebook

Home!!!

2012-01-01T20:10:00.001-07:00

What a Christmas Break it has been! Illinois, Gypsum, Colorado Springs, Gypsum. Home. Finally! Happy New Year!

The Celebration Continues...

2011-12-31T20:49:00.005-07:00

Spending the last day of 2011 in CO Springs today with my family. Mom, dad, Ronnie, Ethan, Patrick, and Reo headed partway up Pike's Peak today on the cog railroad. They didn't get to go to the top because of 75-100 mile per hour winds, but they went about 12,000 ft up and had a great time. Nick, Cayle, Michelle, Lexi, and I stayed around the house and hung out. Cayle did succumb to a haircut today (second try's a charm) - although begrudgingly - and he looks so old now!

We spent the afternoon watching college football and basketball. Dad made homemade pizzas tonight for dinner and we exchanged Christmas gifts. Things were going well, until both Nick and Cayle got sick. Nick spent most of the evening in bed with a stomach ache. Cayle threw up on me five times. I'm glad I was able to take care of both of my boys :)

For the rest of tonight, we plan to all hang out, play games, eat snacks, and head outside to the front porch to watch the fireworks off Pike's Peak at midnight.

It's been an unbelievably fun break from school. We have had lots of time to spend with our families and spoil Cayle with non-stop attention. We have so much to be thankful for, and so much to look forward to in the new year!

STEAK!!!

2011-12-30T21:27:00.003-07:00

Natalie's brother took us out in Colorado Springs for steak tonight. We went to The Famous Steak House in downtown. Best steak ever! Period! All the boys went, Patrick, Reo, Ronnie, myself, and Big Ron. We all got the same thing. Some scrumptious appetizers and 20 oz. Colorado raised boneless ribeyes. It was absolutely fantastic!

2nd day in Colorado Springs

2011-12-29T22:55:00.005-07:00

We introduced Natalie's mom and Michelle to the game of sequence and have been having some INTENSE games the last 2 nights. Michelle and I are winning the most right now. I think our record is 4-2.
We took Cayle and Ethan to get their hair cuts today. Ethan did great, and Cayle liked sitting in the car, but he was not a big fan of the lady trying to comb or touch his hair. We left with no hair cut... :-( He has done fine with the previous 2 cuts, so not sure really...
Cayle was being crazy on the couch with Uncle Patrick tonight!
Cayle loved playing in the play area at the focus on the family kid play area. He was super excited!
Getting ready to go down the slide with cousin Ethan, under Grandma's supervision.
Cayle has been asking to sit on the couch and watch college bball a couple minutes before bed each night.
Cousin Ethan loves to "help" clean up Cayle after he is done eating! What a great cousin! :-)

Planes, planes, and more planes

2011-12-28T22:33:00.002-07:00

Last Thursday flying back into Denver from IL one of the coolest things (in my honest opinion, (IMHO)) happened! We had made a bunch of turns in the air in different directions in the last 30 minutes of the flight, not really sure at the time what was happening, but I think the pilot was buying time to land and just getting lined up with the landing area.... It was super cloudy out the entire flight. When the pilot announced to prepare for landing, Cayle and I began looking out the window. Soon we saw another large plane just a little distance away from us traveling in the same direction parallel to us. We then disappeared behind some clouds and when we emerged, there were now 2 planes flying parallel to us! The first was less than 1/4 mile from us, and the 2nd was about a 1/2 mile. Or that's about what it seemed like in the air. At this point Natalie began to get a little nervous, wondering if we were all shooting for the same runway space... yikes! Because all we really know is that at the airport behind our house there is only 1 runway. Turns out we were all 3 landing at the same time on different runways. It was really neat! Flying in that large of jet in that close of proximity to each other was really cool!
Monday, the day after Christmas, the Eagle County Airport broke it's own record for the single busiest day in it's short history. 350 flights either in or out through the course of the day. I noticed, all day flights were leaving (privates) about every 5 minutes. We don't notice flights coming in though, and when I drove past the airport on tuesday, there were at about 200 planes in the parking lot!!! The most I have ever seen there! On the map, all the blue planes are flying into Eagle. It's kind of like a puzzle, the flight controllers have to get all the incoming into one runway, and all the outbounds out on the same runway in between the inbounds.... Sounds like fun!

Another good day

2011-12-26T20:38:00.001-07:00

We have had tons of quality family time the last couple of days! Cayle is loving his bike and his basketball hoop! Mainly just his basketball hoop!!! He has spent HOURS!!! shooting baskets the last 2 days. It was 4 degrees when we woke up this morning, and when we went to the park to play at about 2pm it was 40 degrees and sunny. It was really nice out. Cayle and I played at the park for about 15 minutes, then I put him back in the Chariot and ran another 4.5 miles. Beautiful afternoon. When we got home he shot some more baskets, ate dinner, shot some more baskets, and then went to bed. Before he went to sleep he made us promise him that he could shoot basketballs in the morning.... It's kinda crazy really... One more day of hanging out around the house before we head down to the Springs to celebrate Christmas with Natalie's family.

The Best Laid Plans...

2011-12-25T19:59:00.005-07:00

What a fantastic Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Nick and I have been working on plans for these two days for a while since we were pretty excited about starting some of our own family traditions with Cayle. Ever since Cayle was born, Nick and I have been pretty good at going with the flow, understanding plans will change, and just trying to be generally more flexible. So, it should have come as no surprise to us that even though we put lots of thought in to our plans for the past two days, nothing went exactly as we had planned. But we still had lots of fun with the three of us having lots of time together!

We had planned to put Cayle down for bed at his regular time on Christmas Eve (about 7 pm) and let him sleep until we left for church. Nick and I were planning to play board games, watch Christmas movies, and have some appetizers while Cayle slept before church. But, about 15 minutes in to "It's a Wonderful Life", I went to bed, and slept for 2.5 hours! So much for games, and movies, and appetizers :( Nick woke me up and we got ready for church and headed out to look at Christmas lights. Cayle loves looking at lights! So we drove around Eagle a bit, then headed up to Beaver Creek for church. The place was packed! Cayle did well, but he is in a very talkative state...so he seemed very loud as he pointed out all of the lights at church, and made cow and horse noises, and said "bye-bye" to people who got up, etc. He was by far the youngest person at church (by about 7 years??), and he stuck out like a sore thumb! But he did a great job and even got lots of smiles from those sitting around us. We got home from church about 145 am and put Cayle to sleep so that Nick and I could play Santa. What fun that was! After putting out the gifts, Nick and I had some yummy cheese sticks and played a game of Sequence (I won yet again!). We finally went to bed about 3 am.

presents all set out by the tree

chef nick with the cheese sticks

Cayle slept in a little bit today - all the way 'til 730 am! We had a butter braid (yummy pastry) for breakfast, and opened some gifts. Cayle skyped with grandma and grandpa Brummer for a bit and showed off his new toys.

having fun opening his gifts

he played with the basketball hoop for hours...literally

his new bike!

it's so cute when he lays on his belly like this in front of the computer

I started lunch, and figured it would be served with perfect timing for when Cayle usually eats his lunch. But, he decided to take a nap about 11, so Nick and I went ahead and ate without him. We had a ton of food - ham, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, rolls, and cheesecake. Nick and I had planned to go cross-country skiing with Cayle after lunch...but the little guy ended up taking a 3.5 hour long nap! When he finally woke up, he had a little lunch, and then we were able to head out. When we got to Sylvan Lake, we found they didn't have nearly enough snow for us to ski, or even snowshoe, so we ended up just going on a walk. We spent the rest of Christmas skyping with grandma Hammers and just hanging out.

daddy and cayle on the hike

mommy and cayle by the frozen lake

Nick had been concerned about us not differentiating to Cayle that some presents were from Santa and some were from mom and dad...no worries here, he had no idea why he had presents to open, or who they were from, or why we went to church at midnight last night. I think he's just enjoying all the attention he gets from mom and dad being around 24-7. I promise you, his mom and dad are enjoying all the family time. He's a great little boy, and tons of fun to be with :)

Merry Christmas!!!!

2011-12-24T21:50:00.002-07:00

What a great year it has been! Thanks for reading the stories about our lives! Have a Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Traditions

2011-12-24T13:44:00.002-07:00

Last year, Cayle was only 7 months old, and obviously not much of a participant with regard to opening presents, talking about Christmas lights, playing with the "baby" (Jesus) - that kind of thing. This year, he is a much more active participant, and we are really excited to start to some Christmas traditions with him - even though he'll probably never remember exactly what we did on Christmas Eve and Christmas when he was 19 months old!

Nick and I have spent a fair amount of time discussing our childhoods and family traditions and what events we enjoyed the most, and what we'd like to do as we start our family Christmas traditions. Even though it's Christmas Eve, we don't yet have everything set in stone! But, here's what we have so far:
Christmas Eve
board games/appetizers/watch Christmas movies (evening)
drive around and look at Christmas lights (before church)
midnight mass (literally, at midnight)

Christmas
butterbraid for breakfast (it's a yummy pastry)
open gifts from Santa
yummy lunch of ham, potatoes, brussel sprouts, mac and cheese, salad, rolls, dessert

We're still unsure when we'll open gifts from each other...but we'll figure it out I'm sure! We're also contemplating going cross-country skiing, but are still waiting on Cayle's skis to be returned to us from some friends who borrowed them. I'm thinking a nap is also an essential part of today since we'll be up so late tonight!

It's another girl!

2011-12-23T16:40:00.002-07:00

The Hammers family is getting a bit lopsided! There are now 4 girl grandchildren and 2 boy grandchildren. Shay Lee Steele was born to Michael and Lindsey on Wednesday, December 21 just after 9 am in Rockford, IL. Shay was almost the heaviest grandchild in the family, but Cayle was born one ounce heavier than Shay's 8 lbs 2 ounces. Sadly, I have no photos for you :( But, Shay is such a good girl, she got to go home from the hospital today! Both Lindsey and Shay are doing well, and Finley (now a big sis!) is trying to adjust :)

A trip to IL

2011-12-22T20:09:00.006-07:00

We had a fun time in IL celebrating Christmas with Nick's family. Cayle spent a lot of his time asking for balls, and wanting to play in the gym. The last three days we were there flew by, so it will be easiest to give a picture montage of everything we did!

Nick's birthday was on Monday (the 19th).
Grandma and Grandpa joined us for his birthday dinner!

Grandma and Grandpa passed out their Christmas presents to everyone after dinner.
Grandma made Cayle a pillow cot to take naps on!
We also received some new hot pads that she made for us!

We stopped by Grandma Alice's house on Tuesday for a short visit. She had a piggy bank for Cayle that plays music and helps him learn to count. He loves that pig!

We went to dinner at the Firefly on Tuesday night. It was amazing! We had stuffed mushrooms, lentils and pitas, pizzas, entrees (Nick had the Ahi Tuna and I had the crab cakes with baked shells and cheese), dessert, and, of course, plenty of wine (I had hot apple cider)! After dinner we drove Cayle by some houses that had Christmas lights synchronized to holiday music. We thought his neck was stuck because he spent so long staring at the lights!

On Wednesday, Grandpa took Cayle to the John Deere store to look at tractors.
Turns out Cayle really likes John Deere!
He has only been home a few hours, and he has already
been playing with his new tractor from grandpa!

On Wednesday night, we had an intense game of family wiffle ball in the gym.
It was a great game filled with some untimely strikeouts and errors!
We also exchanged gifts with each other. Cayle is really learning how to unwrap gifts. He got some new farm animals that he loves playing with! Nick and I got some new clothes
and some other fun items (ask Nick about his awesome new boxers!).

The trip was a lot of fun, lots of good family time, and lots of good laughs. Cayle did great on the trip with the travel, and adjusting to a new place to sleep and a new schedule. He learned everyone's names and was able to say them and recognize everyone.

Now that we're home, we'll spend a few days relaxing here at home and starting some Christmas traditions with Cayle. Our only real plan is to have some appetizers Christmas Eve - probably about 10 pm? - and then head out to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We'll take Cayle to his first midnight mass on Christmas Eve, then head home to get some sleep and let Santa have time to drop by!

Family day

2011-12-18T20:40:00.005-07:00

Today was family day, so we started off at church.
After church, we had an awesome brunch and did some relaxing. Cayle took a nap while the others got their bikes ready for the ride to go get the Christmas tree. At the tree farm, Cayle came up close and personal with a horse, which he didn't care for!
Then, he didn't show much appreciation for his time with Santa either!
Once the tree was up, we had dinner and decorated the tree. Cayle helped grandpa put up the nativity set.
I also played Nick in knockout and one-on-one basketball tonight. I didn't fare well in either event, but I did enjoy the exercise!

And away we go!

2011-12-17T21:03:00.006-07:00

So we finally got through the three weeks of school between Thanksgiving and Christmas break - yay! Immediately after school on Friday we left town with Tiffany and Carter in tow. We headed down to Highlands Ranch, where we all had places to stay for the night - Nick, Cayle, and I with Nick's cousin Jodi (and her husband Luke and their son Nathan) and Tiffany and Carter with Tiffany's friend Jodi (and her two kids). It was a short night as we all five had to be at DIA for 9 am and 935 am flights. The security lines went smoothly, and the flight was short on turbulence. We arrived in STL about 1230 pm, got our bag, and found Nick's mom in the parking lot quickly. After stopping for lunch at St Louis Bread Co, we arrived in Teutopolis at 330 pm CST. The rest of the day was spent playing in the gym. Cayle loved it! Tina, Emma, and Brady were able to join us for a bit. We all had a great time!

brady, cayle, and grandpa playing a game of baseball

emma and i playing with the glow in the dark balls

nick teaching brady the "victory" dance - used after kicking a soccer goal

emma, cayle, natalie, brady, and tina :)

Tebrew

2011-12-15T21:57:00.003-07:00

Man this whole Tebow thing is really outta control! I think it's super cool that they are winning, and he is doing his thing. Plus it's a ton of fun to watch in the last quarter. Bonfire Brewery in Eagle created a Barleywine and named it TEBREW.... They went from being this tiny little brewery "which we love to visit," in Eagle, CO, to now being all over the news, and having people yell at them on their Facebook page, all just because the name of the beer represents a Christian football player who doesn't drink. It's amazing how angry some people get over this kind of stuff. I personally think it's great publicity for them and for the town. It's very creative, and kinda cool! I hope to try some next week. Hopefully they don't run out too quickly!

Hang in there!

2011-12-14T21:48:00.006-07:00

Just a few more days and we'll be out of school for 17 whole days! Absolutely cannot wait to spend time with my 2 favorite boys, and see our families! We will head down to Denver Friday night, fly to St Louis Saturday morning, spend time in Teutopolis for a few days and fly back to CO on Thursday, the 22nd. We're going to spend Christmas here, and start some traditions with Cayle. We'll leave again on the 28th to visit Ronnie and Michelle and kids, and also meet up with Mom, Dad, Patrick, and Reo. It will be a fantastic break!

A few pics from this past weekend:

Cayle showing me exactly where he threw the yogurt on the wall...

Cayle "painting" ornaments (very little paint actually made it's way on to the ornaments...)

Nick had his basketball end-of-the-season party on Monday, so the season is now officially over. His kids won the league championship, which was pretty exciting. Nick has done lots of laundry so far this week, and we're working on lots of little things to get ready for the big trip: clean the car out, leave few leftovers in the fridge, wrap gifts, clean the house, etc. Tomorrow night is packing night, and we'll get it all ready to load in the car Friday morning.

Tonight we celebrated Nick's birthday (a few days early) with some friends at Bonfire Brewing. We had Costco pizza and a pineapple cake I made, and the boys played some Foosball and shuffleboard. Happy almost-thirty-first birthday to my handsome husband :)

Nick showing off his shuffleboard skills

That's a wrap!!!

2011-12-12T20:14:00.003-07:00

What a great basketball season it was! I liked coaching in IL but the season went on so long, and there was always a Christmas tourney, and then the season didn't get over until end of January or so. My first season of coaching in Colorado was for sure a different experience, but I did really enjoy it! The season was 7 weeks, which turned out to be about perfect. Over the week before Christmas. My team started out kind of slow, lacking confidence needed to take down the big teams (Summit and Eagle). As the season progressed I could see their confidence growing by leaps and bounds. They also learned to play better as a team, and learned to trust each other. I could go 10 deep and really not have to worry about anyone not wanting to play with anyone else, or have to worry about attitudes or egos. It was so nice in that regard! We finished up the season in fantastic fashion! Taking down the 1 seed and the 2 seed en route to a league Championship! We just kept getting stronger as the season progressed! If all these kids keep playing they will have a heck of a team next year, and on into high school! I had a great time teaching the game to my kids, and look forward to watching them in 8th grade next year, as well as getting a new group of 7th graders to work with.

Busy weekend!

2011-12-11T21:24:00.002-07:00

This weekend was very busy, but productive! Friday night, Nick attended the GCMS staff holiday party while I stayed home with Cayle and his friend Carter. I was able to get Christmas cards done Friday night...yay!

Then on Saturday, I had math grant meetings from 8-4, while Nick had his league basketball championship tournament. The math meetings weren't overly exciting. But the tournament was! Nick's team entered the tournament with the third seed in the league. They took out the 6th seed, then the 2nd seed, and finally won the championship trophy by 4 points. Yay! The boys were pretty excited. Nick has his basketball party tomorrow after school, and then he'll be completely done with the season. Last night, we continued to work on wrapping presents, baking cookies, and making ornaments.

Today we finished everything up and are ready to start packing for our trip to IL later this week. Only five more days of school! That calls for a double yay!

Done

2011-12-08T21:53:00.002-07:00

Had our last basketball practice tonight. It has been a ton of fun, but I am excited to be coming home after school again to be with Natalie and Cayle. We have the league tournament on Saturday, then a team party on Monday, and that's all she wrote. We have the 3 seed in the tourney and start off by playing the 6 seed, then we will have the #2 seed if we take care of business and win game 1. We beat the #2 seed on Tuesday of this week, but it may be difficult to beat them again. Hopefully the last win gave the kids some confidence! Regardless, it should be fun!

Basketball and a.... Lion!

2011-12-06T20:50:00.005-07:00

What an awesome Day! Got a message this morning that a friend's husband had gotten a mountain lion last night (there is a mt. lion hunting season.) She said I was welcome to go look at it if I wanted. It was on the porch of their house about 10 minutes from us. So I called Rob, next door, to see if he wanted to go look at it with me, and he said of course! It was pretty freaking cool! What an amazing animal! They are apparently always watching you when you are in the woods, and you just never see them. Super sneaky. Always in the back of my mind when Mt. Biking. It's paw was the size of my hand, and it was about 6 feet long!

I have been in several overtime games with Middle School basketball teams, and have always come out on the losing end. Took care of that one tonight! We were playing the #1 team (Summit) in the league at our house. Played great the first half, and then laid a goose egg the 3rd quarter while they scored a bunch. Down by 7 to start the 4th quarter. Some aggressive steals off the press and a timely 3 and we tied it up with 4 seconds left!!! Held them on defense and into overtime where we took control until they drained a 3 with less than a minute left in overtime to cut it to 1. They fouled us immediately, and we drained our next 2 free throws to seal the win! Great win! Great team effort to comeback! Great fun!!! Love coaching this age level! 2 more practices then the league tourney and the season is over!

Christmas Preparations...

2011-12-04T20:18:00.005-07:00

...are well under way! Last weekend we had decorated the house and put up lights but did not have the tree! Well, now we do! Here's how it all went down...

Friday after work, we came home for a bit before heading out to Pazzo's for some pizza. We had a great coupon (large pizza for $11.95), so that made the night even better. Once Cayle went to bed Nick and I pent some quiet time hanging out on the couch together, spending time relaxing.

Saturday morning Nick worked Saturday School and Cayle and I hung out around the house. I had lunch with Jess and Alana to celebrate a belated birthday for Jess. Then we got ready for the Christmas on Broadway celebration. We headed over to Eagle with Mark and Blue a little after 5 to join in the festivities. There were lots of people walking around, a few stands offering soup, hot chocolate, and cookies. And Santa was there...but we missed him :( We hung out in the coffee shop a bit to await the parade's start. Cayle wouldn't keep his gloves on, so his hands got very cold. But he didn't want to watch the parade from inside...that boy is so indecisive! After the parade, we headed over to Justin and Melinda's for the Ugly Christmas Sweater party.

Cayle still happy at this point!

Cayle ready to go home :)

Our ugly Christmas attire

On Sunday we had a nice breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and eggs before heading out on the tree search. We left Eagle with Mark and Blue, Rob, Yvonne, and Zoe, Torrey and Alana, and Jeff and Jess and arrived at our destination just after 9 am. The temp was 10 degrees :) We set out looking for the perfect tree amongst the thousand of trees in the forest. Just over two hours later, we found a keeper. (Let's not discuss the fact this tree we found was one I had noticed when we first arrived...) At least we got some great exercise snowshoeing through several feet of snow! We got the tree decorated today (Cayle loves the lights). Once Cayle got up from his afternoon nap, we took some great photos in front of the tree.

Nick cutting down the tree

Not a bad looking tree!

2011 Brummer Family Photo

Cayle Joseph hanging out in front of the tree

Now I've been able to order the Christmas cards! We just have a few more people on our shopping list. We're down to two more weeks of school before we leave for IL. Nick and I are both super-excited for Santa to arrive on Christmas morning! The countdown to Christmas is on!

Christmas Parade

2011-12-03T16:15:00.002-07:00

Christmas Parade in Eagle tonight. Christmas on Broadway, then Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at Justin and Melinda's. Trees tomorrow with the crew. Christmas time is here. Tis' the season. Pics and stories soon!

Fulford

2011-12-02T09:50:00.003-07:00

We had a game last night at Vail Mountain School (VMS). Crazy! It's expensive to send your kid there. ($18,000/year) It was the first time I've ever see the school, and it's crazy nice! Big too, although it is K-12. Sits right across I-70 from Vail mountain. Most schools have a bike rack outside. VMS has a ski rack, with lots of ski's in it. Just really foreign to me, but pretty neat! Below is a picture of the cafeteria... Our cafeteria for sure does not look like that... :-) (we won our game, although they would prolly for sure beat us in a ski competition!)

On the way up to the game I spent some time talking to the 8th grade coach who is a long time local (native) and spends lots of times up in the hills. He also is in charge of the county roads dept. There is a town about 20 miles up the mountain from us called Fulford. We go up there in the summer every year to go hiking and just exploring. It's absolutely gorgeous! Anyway, there is an old mining town up there, that might have about 50 residents at it's busiest time, and only 2 year round residents. It's a ghost town now (no mining) but still has some shacks and houses. The only resident who lives there full time is also a bus driver for the school dist. The cool thing about this is the fact that the town is completely snow blocked from about September till June.... She keeps a truck and trailer at the point where the road is plowed to (about 5 miles from her house.) She has to ride her snowmobile down to her truck every morning, then back home every night. She also drives an event bus, so that means she won't be getting back to her parking lot until maybe 9 or 10 at night, then still has a 5 mile snowmobile ride back to her house in Fulford. The coach said he sees her sometimes when he is up there at 3 in the morning plowing the road, and she will say hi, and offer him some fresh baked cookies as she is getting ready to drive down to the bus barn for her morning route.... It's just such an intriguing lifestyle, and so completely removed from everything modern! They do have solar electricity, but not much else. I think it's so cool!

1 Month

2011-11-30T20:38:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow is December 1st! Can't believe we only have one more month of 2011. Seems like this year has flown by so fast! Cayle has grown an unbelievable amount, and is learning so amazingly quickly! There is a new baby now growing in my wife's belly that we are so incredibly excited about. I will be 31 in a few weeks.. yikes!!! Gettin old! I am in a completely different situation at work than I was one year ago, and absolutely loving it! Life is good! This year has been a great one for so many different reasons. 1 more month to continue making this a great year!

IL Basketball

2011-11-29T20:27:00.006-07:00

I got so frustrated watching last year's basketball team. There was loads of talent, but they were consistently lacking on the effort end. I would much rather watch a team play with lots of effort and not have the talent. Of course it's always nice when they do have the talent to match the effort. That's when you get the teams like Kentucky, N.C, Duke, and Kansas. Talent and effort.

The good thing is that this year's IL team has the talent and play with the effort. The only thing that may be holding them back is some immaturity/lack of confidence which will result in some bad choices. That being said, I would much rather see a team play aggressive and make some mistakes, than a lazy team. Excited about the season after tonight's win vs. Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC challenge!

Cayle went to spend the afternoon with some friends, as his regular sitter was unavailable. They had a little basketball hoop set up. Apparently Cayle shot baskets all afternoon.... :-) It makes me laugh!

Back to work

2011-11-28T21:05:00.002-07:00

First day back to school went as smoothly as could be expected. 3 weeks, (15 days,) till Christmas break. We can do that... :-)

Cayle did fantastic at the pool this morning!!! Our best trip in a while. He was sliding, splashing, and just figured out today that with the weightless effect of the water, he can jump a bit. Several times he fell over forward in the 3 feet deep water. He would then flounder for a bit before I would help him up, but he continued to jump and splash! He even interacted with Macklin a little bit. This is the first time this has ever happened. He tried to splash with him a bit, and played with the ball with Mack a little bit. He was just having a ton of fun! There were several weeks where he really struggled and acted like he wanted nothing to do with the water, then 2 weeks ago he did a little better, just spending the entire time on the slide, then today he was all over the place. Hopefully that continues, as it is much more fun playing with him in the pool when he really enjoys it and is not afraid to get wet and go underwater once in a while.

A Grateful 9 days

2011-11-27T20:29:00.009-07:00

We have had 9 days off work. Two of the days were furlough days (we lost 1.5% of our salaries this year, and have an additional furlough day January 2). Although the pay cut wasn't much appreciated, the past 9 days with my boys have been exactly what we needed :)

We spent the first few days hanging out here at the house, getting ready for Thanksgiving and relaxing. Cayle had a chance to play in the snow a little bit (small snowstorm). He's getting more used to snow, but is a bit scared of it!
On our way to Colorado Springs on Wednesday, we had a pit-stop at the Dr's office to have our ultrasound. Cayle enjoyed seeing the baby, and kept on saying, "mommy, daddy, baby" over and over again. We didn't get many good profile shots of the baby because it is transverse (laying across me, not up and down). But we did see the baby moving lots, which I had wondered about since I haven't felt it moving much at all. The dr called later on Wednesday to let us know the ultrasound looked good, and the baby has all the working parts it needs!

We had a really good time spending Thanksgiving with Ronnie, Michelle, Ethan, Lexi, and Michelle's parents - Ron and Marge. The meal was a big success! We had some relax time after the big meal. Then we took Cayle to a park across the street from Ronnie's house where we played on the playground equipment and shot some hoops on the basketball court.
On Black Friday, we headed out for a shopping trip just after 10 am. We stopped at a bicycle shop for Cayle's new Strider. That boy loved that bike! Now we have to hide it from him for a few weeks! We also had to pick up some child safety locks from Toys R Us and figured we had waited late enough for the shopping madness to die down. WRONG! The checkout line wrapped around the entire store, which pretty much eliminated any ideas Nick and I had of picking up a basketball hoop and baby doll real quick for Cayle. We had to wait about 45 minutes in the customer service line just to pick up the locks we had already ordered and paid for. The place was a zoo! We did venture to Target and Wal-Mart later in the day. I was able to score a basketball hoop for Cayle at Wal-Mart. It's safe to say Nick and I will not be shopping on Black Friday anytime soon. The rest of Friday, Nick, Ronnie, and Ron spent time dry walling the garage so that Ronnie can heat the garage. We also had an outstanding dinner of very good Mexican!

Before we left CO Springs, we had a few family photos taken...hopefully to be used in the Christmas card!
On our way home, we stopped in Golden for pizza at Woody's. Yummy! We made a seond pit-stop on the way home at Wal-Mart, still in search of a male baby doll for Cayle. We found the last little boy doll in the store! Go us! The Thanksgiving trip must have taken more of a toll on me than I knew, because once we arrived home, we got everything put away, and then we crashed. I had wanted to start putting up the Christmas decorations, but didn't move off the couch until Nick woke me and told me it was time to move up to bed.

What a great 9 days we had! Lots of time to recover from the first few months of school. Now, only three weeks until Christmas break :)

PS - There's another blog from today under this one!

Getting Ready for Christmas!

2011-11-27T20:01:00.004-07:00

Now that we've celebrated Thanksgiving, we're moving on to the Christmas festivities. We spent a few hours today putting up Christmas decorations. Last year, Cayle slept through much of our decorating and he didn't get into any of the "stuff" that was out. This year it's a completely different story! Cayle helped put up some decorations today, then was pretty excited to play with the "baby" in the nativity sets I put out.
We'll be going out to the forest this upcoming weekend to cut down our tree. We also have the Eagle Christmas parade and an ugly sweater party on Saturday! Lots of celebrations coming up!

It will be a busy three weeks of work, Nick's basketball season wrapping up, Christmas preparations, and packing for our trip to IL, but that will make it that much more fun :)

Bucket list!

2011-11-26T18:29:00.006-07:00

Haven't really ever put together a complete list but.... short list off the top of my head...

24 hours of Moab - done
Ironman
Thru-hike the AT
Thru-hike the Colorado Trail from Boulder to Durango
The Manitou Incline - DONE!!!

This morning before we left The Springs I got up and headed up to do the Manitou Incline. Got started about 630, and it took about a 1/2 hour. Definitely difficult and extremely challenging and fun! Then got a good couple mile run back down the Barr Trail back to the parking lot. Back to Natalie's brothers for waffles and bacon before the drive home. Awesome start to the day, and a nice way to end a great Thanksgiving trip!View from the top.
About halfway up...
At the top!!!! That was incredible!
Sunrise at the start @ 630
View from well below the top...

So Thankful!!!

2011-11-24T20:08:00.005-07:00

So thankful for my family! My wonderful wife, superior son, and blissful baby (who we got to see on the ultrasound yesterday!)

Natalie had her ultrasound yesterday, and we found out that she really was pregnant! Despite her not feeling pregnant at all. She had been thinking for a couple weeks now how weird it was that she never felt the baby move. Well, we found out why. The baby is laying in the transverse plane... laying horizontal across her belly with the placenta facing her belly button. In which case the placenta absorbs all the movement and she feels nothing. We found out though on the ultrasound that the baby is moving bunches! The ultrasound tech let us know that the baby has everything he/she needs and looks to be healthy! So exciting to see, and Cayle actually seemed interested and kept saying, "mommy, baby, mommy, baby, daddy, mommy, baby..."

Got down to CO Springs yesterday to spend the holiday with Natalie's brother and his family. Spent the day hanging out and planning for the big day. Today Natalie spent the morning slaving away in the kitchen to prepare our awesome meal with the help of her little brother Ronald. It all turned out fantastic. Had all the staples plus some... green bean casserole, jello, turkey, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, wine, gravy, cookies, and pie... apple and pumpkin! Spent a bit of time outside this afternoon, and laying on the couch and watching football and drifting in and out of sleep.... :-) Very filling and relaxing!

Cayle is loving it here! There are so many toys to play with! He really just loves the basketball hoop though! He has shot hundreds of baskets today... he just focuses in and doesn't stop... it's kinda freaky really how focused he is on making baskets... Reminds me of his uncle Bob with his ability to focus on one thing until he has it mastered. Definitely doesn't get that from me... Thinking Santa may have to bring him a basketball hoop...On the agenda for tomorrow: Just a little bit of shopping and not sure what else? Nothing crazy though that's for sure!

4th Day

2011-11-22T21:44:00.002-07:00

Got out for a bike ride today! 45 degrees and sunny. Did the cart path loop on the golf course. My first actual bike ride since Oct. 23rd!!! Felt great to get out, and Cayle loved his ride in the Chariot too! Got to watch the Illini pick up the win in basketball tonight. Great day! Off to Co Springs for Thanksgiving in the morning after Natalie's ultrasound. Hoping to climb The Incline while we are down there...

Day #3

2011-11-21T20:21:00.002-07:00

We took Cayle to the Doctor this morning for his 18 mo. appointment. Doc said he is doing great! (We already knew that...) He is 34 1/4" long and 23 pounds. This put him in the 95th %tile for height/length, and 20th %tile for weight... As my mom says, "he just has a big ol' belly, but he's definitely not heavy or anything!" It's true. He eats a ton! He has a huge belly! Especially after he eats a bunch, but the rest of him is pretty skinny I guess. It's funny because I always think his thighs look big.... We went to Glenwood today after his nap for hair cuts (Natalie and Cayle.) He looks so much older when he gets his hair cut! He looks really good! I like it short better!

Day #2

2011-11-20T19:45:00.004-07:00

Cayle went to bed before 6 last night and slept all night. He has a cold/runny nose and cough, so the sleep was surely good for him! We gave him a steam bath this morning when he woke up.

We were a lot more productive today. We made it to church at 830, then headed up valley to Wal-Mart for some groceries and errands. We made it home by early afternoon to get Cayle his afternoon nap, then Natalie and I made sugar cookies... well, Natalie made sugar cookies, and I offered "advice..." :-)

No more snow today, but it was super foggy when we woke up. Couch and tv time this evening. Super relaxing break so far!

One Year!!!

2011-11-19T19:09:00.003-07:00

I wrote about the local brewery almost a year ago when we went for my birthday.

Today they had their 1 year anniversary celebration. They had a full day of celebrations planned, but I just met our neighbor there for the free keg from 12-1. It was fantastic! Love having a local brewery! So nice to be able to head over for a drink and some bar games or just to sip and relax! Can't believe how fast they have grown, and can't believe they have already been open for a whole year! Looking forward to many more annual celebrations!

Snow!!!

2011-11-19T19:07:00.004-07:00

It snowed most of today. Our first real snow! ...still only got about 2".... Cayle enjoyed it though. We got him all dressed up in his snowsuit, hat, gloves, boots, and all, and he played for about 5 minutes before he was ready to go back in... :) He enjoyed it while he was in it though! I will upload a pic tomorrow.

Time Management....

2011-11-18T09:35:00.003-07:00

Obviously never learned much about time management growing up (the time before I graduated high school.) I mean, for the most of my life during that time period, I woke up, went to school, sports practice, and then came home and did homework. During High School, the only change in that was going to work some days after school, and on Saturdays, and summers. But even with all that routine, I always had as much time as I ever could have wanted to do the things I wanted to do. I honestly believe this was partly because my parents didn't have T.V. (cable), so I was able to spend TONS of time outside! I spent countless hours just exploring in the woods, riding my motorcycle, or hunting.

Obviously, not much time management is learned in college, or not by me anyway... I went to class (most days) did most of my homework, and worked 10-15 hours a week at Jimmy Johns. Despite all this, and this is why college life is so great, I rarely had to manage my time wisely in order to get what I wanted. I still had TONS of time to sleep, party, workout, play video games, play intramurals, and lay on the couch.

Fast forward to today... The ability to manage my time wisely to get what I want, and still help my family function properly is my greatest challenge. Now time management has much greater implications on my daily routines. If I manage my time wisely, I usually am able to work out with Cayle in the mornings before school. Go for a run or a bike ride, or x-country skiing, or something of the sort for an hour or so. If I don't manage my time wisely, the physical activity is the first thing that gets lost in favor of the daily chores. If I manage my time wisely, I easily have plenty of time to get things done, and still have time for myself.

Basically I think it comes down to motivation as I wrote about in an earlier post. If I really want something on any given day, I am more likely to get the chores done, if I don't really care, then things don't get done as quickly.

I am trying to be more like my wife in this aspect. As far as chores and professional responsibilities go, she is one of the best time managers I know. :-) She is a good role model for me!

Coaching

2011-11-17T19:23:00.004-07:00

Basketball has been going great. It's so much fun working with the 7th graders in that aspect again. I missed it more than I had realized. I have a team that runs 1o deep with talent. They lack size and belief in themselves.

We had a big test tonight against Eagle Valley Middle School, who also happens to be our biggest rival! We were coming off a 3 game win streak and starting to believe in ourselves a bit, but I knew my kids didn't truly believe they could win tonight. They believed that they really wanted to win, but the confidence just wasn't there. We played great the first half and 3rd quarter. We held our composure until 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. We were up by 3, then gave up 3 easy layups, and turned the ball over on two consecutive trips. We lost by 10.

The kids were pretty disappointed, as was I. I was more disappointed for them because I believe they are the better team. I have to try to get them to believe in themselves more... Of course, it never helps when you go 13/30 from the free throw line.... ouch...

A week off for Thanksgiving break. Time for some rest and family time! Looking forward to spending lots of time with Natalie and Cayle, and Natalie's brother's family in CO Springs!

A busy and productive weekend!

2011-11-13T16:57:00.003-07:00

Nick and I received an email Friday afternoon from his sister, Anne Marie, letting us know she was in Denver for the weekend. So, we quickly packed our bags after school on Friday, asked our neighbors to watch the dogs, and headed down to Denver for the weekend. We arrived at Luke and Jodi's house in Highlands Ranch about 830 on Friday night. They were out of town, so we set up Cayle's pack-and-play, put him to bed, and headed off to bed ourselves.

We got up early Saturday morning and drove to Golden to pick up Anne Marie and head out for a yummy breakfast at IHOP. We had a good time chatting and visiting with her! After we dropped Anne Marie off, we went to a bike store in Aurora to pick up a bike for Nick's dad. Cayle had an awesome time riding the bikes there. We're pretty sure Santa is going to have to get him a Stryder for Christmas!
We also got new tires and stopped at the mall for some things we had been waiting to get: a new baby book, some new jeans for Nick, and some safety door locks to keep Cayle from getting in certain places. Saturday night was spent with Luke, Jodi, and Nathan once they got back from the airport. Cayle and Nathan had lots of fun playing together!

This morning we got up and had breakfast and let the boys play together a bit before heading back home. Good thing we got new tires - we had a chance to try them out today in a winter storm. It's good to get lots of things taken care of, but it's also good to be home :)

This is our last week of work before Thanksgiving break. Nick has three basketball games this week, so it will be busy. But once the week is over, we will have 9 wonderful days off work!

Cayle at School

2011-11-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

Cayle's babysitters little girl was sick today, so I ended up staying home with him. I went up to school just before noon to get my sub plans prepared. After, I decided to take Cayle to see Mommy. I went into the room opposite hers, and then let him go, and stayed out of view. He walked into her classroom and really loudly said MOMMY!!! then took off running to her in the middle of her class! She loved it, and he was really excited to see her and the kids all thought it was really cute! (It was in the last 5 minutes of class anyway.) He's always so excited to see us, kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy... :-)

Trying to tell me something???

2011-11-08T10:01:00.004-07:00

The neighbor/Cayle's sitter has a toy that looks something like what you see above. But it's some kind of animal, a horse or lion or something. Anyway, not sure he plays with it that much. But it's kinda funny because whenever I drop him off or pick him up, he runs to the tricycle and hops on and pushes himself around the room. They have a wood floor. He goes crazy on it, then he looks up at me and laughs, as if he's looking for approval. It's cool to see that he likes it so much, and that he is pushing himself around on it like he is.

Tells me that he will be ready for a strider by the time spring rolls around!

Ran

2011-11-07T20:45:00.003-07:00

Did it... did some kind of physical activity again... the first time in about 3 weeks. Oddly enough though, despite all the eating and laying around I have been doing, haven't gained but a couple of pounds. Ran to the rec center this morning with Cayle, swam/played in the kiddie pool for 45 minutes, ran to the grocery store for donuts, then ran home. Cold out, but felt pretty good. Cayle had so much donut glaze on his face when we got home. I think he was actually falling asleep while he was eating his donut. He was a mess! Sometimes I think he likes to go to the rec center just because then he knows he will get a donut after. He likes the donut more than the swimming!

Feeling better

2011-11-06T19:31:00.004-07:00

After being super sick yesterday, (he just laid in mommy's arms all day,) he was feeling quite a bit better today. He continued to improve as the day went on. He is now eating normal and playing great! Not good that he got sick, but it was nice that it happened to be over a cold, nasty weekend, when it was nice to sit inside and take care of our sick little boy.

I just found out today that the official start to winter doesn't begin until the 22nd of December...and here I always thought I was born in the winter...(12/19) but really I was born late fall... :-( But that being said, it sure does seem like winter outside. For the past week, it has been super cold... highs in the low 40's, lows in the low teens, snowy, windy, and just plain nasty. Can't wait for April/May to come back, but in the meantime, will put on a smile and get out on the snowshoes and x-country ski's! I think Cayle will really enjoy the snow this year!

Like a Jigsaw Puzzle

2011-11-05T19:07:00.004-06:00

What do Middle School basketball and a Jigsaw puzzle have in common?

Specifically, I'm not really that sure, but it occurred to me after our loss today over in Frisco against Summit Middle School that coaching a bunch of 7th graders to play effective basketball is kind of like solving a tricky jigsaw puzzle. Allow me to explain....

First of all... about my team. We don't have much height, but run 6 deep on strong talent, and the other 4 on the A team are solid. We practice well, but fall apart in games.

1. We turn the ball over WAY too much.
2. We struggle to break a press.
3. We struggle to run our zone offense.
4. We struggle with boxing out when rebounding.
5. We forget in-bounds plays randomly.
6. We make too many stupid mistakes.
7. Most importantly we SOMETIMES play hard.

So while we have anywhere from 2-3 games a week, we have to work on all these things at the same time while trying to win basketball games, and still have FUN doing so.... It's like trying to put the puzzle pieces together to make the picture. Once the big pieces start to fall into place and the little pieces follow, we will be a pretty dang good team!

I offered sodas for rebounding today, that seemed to help a bit, now how to solve the other pieces of the the puzzle????

On another note... Cayle is super sick today :-( Just laying around and sleeping all day, fever and no energy. At least it happened on a weekend!

Motivation

2011-11-04T09:16:00.004-06:00

Motivation: is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic.

It's such a tricky beast! Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Most of the time during the bike racing season, I have it... big time.... sometimes though, I lose it... When the mountain bike racing season was over this year (Aug. 17th,) I decided I wanted to run a sub 6 mile at school with the kids. I was able to stay extremely motivated and knocked out that goal, then when dad asked if I wanted to bike race in Missouri in October, I was able to find the motivation again to train 3 weeks for that... But even keeping the motivation for that was tricky. After my major goal of the season, the mountain bike series, I always have some down time of laziness and low motivation. I had not really had that yet this year, since I started running hard about a week after the mountain bike series.

Now what brings this topic up? It is now November 4th and I haven't ran, or done anything physical other than riding my bike the 3 miles home from work since October 23rd... I haven't done anything except eat... lots!!! And struggling to find the motivation to get started with anything.

It's a good sign though, I have been getting antsy the last couple of days to get out and do something. Run or x-country ski or something. But that's at least the first step, feeling like I should get out and do something.

Until then, I am motivated to figure out a way to get my 7th grade basketball kids to start playing better. We have the talent, but lack good game time decision making skills.

Baby!!!

2011-11-03T10:18:00.003-06:00

Last week Natalie taught Cayle... or tried to teach him..... that there was a baby in her belly. Not sure if he got it, not that we expected him to or anything. The funny thing is that now he walks around the house pointing at HIS belly and saying.. "baby, baby, baby." Guess he thinks that he has a baby in his belly.... could be interesting!

He got his first bloody nose today. He was walking around the house with a blanket on his head, and ran into the wall. Blood started squirting out and he was screaming! Luckily with daddy's calming hand, we were able to get it stopped, and him settled down... :-)

Goodbye

2011-10-31T20:43:00.003-06:00

Tony... I have always like TLR, but lot's of people loved to hate him. The Cardinals have enjoyed great success under him, and have been one of the top teams with 2 world series titles in the last 5 years! Hopefully we get somebody else good...

Took Cayle to a church Halloween/Harvest Festival tonight with Justin, Melinda, and Macklin. They had a bounce house that the kids loved! But not Cayle, he was fairly frightened by it I believe. Cayle did enjoy playing some of the games, especially dropping the beanie bear through the holes in a board.
He also loved playing in the nursery area! He loves to play, but does not like it when there are lots of other kids that are loud and have lots of energy. He likes to survey his surroundings for a bit first before he jumps in to play.
He looked super cute in his lion outfit!

Carving Pumpkins

2011-10-30T19:06:00.004-06:00

The letters from Natalie's pumpkins face. (Nick, Natalie, Cayle)
....Obviously... Did you know they won the World Series?
Natalie and Cayle's pumpkins!

The Long Weekend

2011-10-29T20:41:00.002-06:00

We had a 1/2 work day Friday, so I worked from 6 am-10 am, and Nick worked 8 am-10 am. That way we got home early from work and had most of the rest of the day to spend together with Cayle. We worked on winterizing the outside a bit, and then headed for lunch. Got some groceries and prepped to have a few people over to watch Game 7 of the World Series. Nick, of course, enjoyed the game and the outcome. He received many congratulations from his friends :)

Nick had his first tournament (and games) of the year today in Eagle. The boys did ok, and had 1 win and 2 close losses. They definitely have lots they can work on :)

Tonight was Jeff and Jess's annual Halloween party. I detest dressing up in a costume, but had decided to put in some major effort this year. So last week while Nick and Cayle were gone, I made costumes for Nick and myself...
Cayle had a lion outfit from Grandma Brummer. He looked adorable!

Tomorrow we plan to carve pumpkins. We'll see how Cayle enjoys it!

CHAMPS!!!!

2011-10-28T22:03:00.002-06:00

WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!!!!

World Series!!!

2011-10-27T22:37:00.003-06:00

What is going on in this game???? It's absolutely crazy!!! The only bad thing seems to be that the Cardinals can only tie it, while coming from behind, but seem hesitant to go ahead and take the win by scoring a guy from third.... Bottom of the 11th now, hopefully they can figure out a way to get a run for the V!!!!!

Update!!!!! HOMERUN FOR THE W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAME 7 HERE WE COME!!!!!!

The races

2011-10-26T08:12:00.009-06:00

I did 2 races this past weekend. The trip to the midwest was to race The Berryman Trail Epic with dad. It is a 1 loop 56 mile mountain bike race almost entirely on pristine Ozark, leafy, rocky, singletrack. Not overly technical, but very rocky and bumpy. I was on a brand new Trek Elite carbon hardtail frame for the race. Dad was on his Fisher Superfly 100.
Cayle and I flew in on Friday morning, getting into STL at just after 10. Then we drove down to Bass River Resort in Steelville, MO where the race would start and finish. On Friday afternoon, dad and I headed out to preride the first 5 miles of the trail. At this time all equipment was working great, and the trails were in great condition!
The race starts at 830 on Saturday morning. Temp was in the low 30's, but supposed to be warming up to mid 70's by early afternoon. Perfect for racing! It was Dad and I, and another friend from Effingham, Blackberry. Blackberry had done the last 100 mile race with me as well in Ohio, and had done this race last year. We lined up about 4 rows back which put us somewhere in the top 50 starting out, out of 221 racers. Mass start. Unfortunately, some poor souls forgot how to clip into their pedals, and there was a massive traffic pile-up/jam at the start! By the time we got going a few seconds later, we were closer to 100+ people back of the leader. Only one thing to do... I TOOK OFF!!! I knew where I wanted to be (near the front) going into the first 3ish mile rock road climb to the beginning of the singletrack. I quickly passed bunches of people, and finally settled into a rhythm about 40 back of the front. When the climb started I continued passing bunches of people, until I was eventually riding with a group of 4 just behind the leading group of 15 fast guys. We were running a good paceline, trying to close the gap when we entered the singletrack. I was first in my group into the singletrack, just a bit behind the leaders.

I felt great! Coming from altitude, there was so much oxygen, I never even got winded. Shortly after entering the woods, my chain fell off to the inside of the crank.... (OH CRAP!!! Not shifting issues this early in the race!!!!) Turns out I could just shift and get the chain back on, ok, no biggie. Within the next couple miles, my chain did this 5 more times.. I thought I was hitting the shifter with my hand, but nope, that wasn't the issue. Front Der. just wasn't lined up quite right to prevent the chain from hopping off. So anyway, I hit the first checkpoint about 11 miles in, right at about 20th position. Didn't stop, just kept going, out onto the highway for a 1/2 mile, then back into the woods. Climbing. About halfway up the 1/4 mile climb... BAM!!!.... chain had snapped in half.... DAMN!!!! Never have had this happen to me before, not sure why it happened this time... No tools to fix it, so I rolled back down the trail about a mile to the checkpoint, and luckily somebody was able to help me fix it. Took about 10 minutes or so. At some point in this time, Dad had passed me, and Blackberry also. I told Blackberry I would catch back up, and he said "I hope not." I caught him within 3 miles... I was really moving, trying to make up lost ground, and I ended up having a small crash on a tight switchback that bent my derailleur a little bit and yanked the chain out of the der. More trouble... Seemed to be the theme of the day. This one put me out of the race. Luckily another guy was also having trouble, and he helped me fix mine enough to get to the next checkpoint where the rest of the family was waiting. Soon as I got there (20 miles in) I was done! Tired of shifting issues, and bike not working properly, I was forced to quit. Damn! I was feeling great too. On the plus side Cayle had a Huge Smile for me when he saw me!
Dad had a great race! No bike issues, and was able to cruise to the finish with a time of 5:15 good for 32nd place out of about 150 finishers. Great result for sure!The race was super well organized and super fun! Great weather! Great Beer after! Great Swag! I still can't believe all the things they offer for this race!
Free Beer!
Tons of Swag (including backpacking tents, GPS units, and 3 single speed mountain bikes!)
Great prize $$$ $1000 to first, plus $400 for breaking the course record, plus good money to the top 10, and the top 3 finishers in each age category!

Just a very well organized and well run race, and I would like to try again some time!

Sunday was a cyclocross race in STL. Bubba Cross race #3 out at Fort Bellefontaine Park on the north side of town. We were undecided if we were going to participate or not until Saturday night. Mainly because my race went so poorly on Saturday. I decided to line it up with the B category, while dad was doing the C's. He gave me the option of riding his cross bike after he was done with it, but I just opted to stay with the mountain bike which I was more familiar with anyway. The start is super important in cyclocross races, so I made sure I got a front row spot. I had my pink argyle Yeti's kit on, and got tons of stares and compliments! That kit gets so much attention outside of the local race scene here in Colorado. I didn't really know what to expect, and I think people underestimated me because they didn't know who I was, and I was on a mountain bike. A guy asked if he could have my front row spot, and I gave it to him.. (stupid!)Dad finished 5th in his race the day after a strong 56 mile mountain bike race!

When the race started I shot out of the pack and quickly settled in at 4 spots back. 1/2 way through the first lap, I decided we were going to slow, and tried to make a pass, and everyone started yelling at me... (ride faster then...) There were 4 of us most of the first lap, and I felt pretty great. Down to 3 on the 2nd lap of the 45 minute race, and then down to 2 for the rest of the race. I led for several laps, and he led for several laps before finally putting in a little dig and gapping me by just enough to hold me off. I ended up taking 2nd about 8 seconds back on a full suspension mountain bike! Would have been interesting to see if the result would have been different on a cyclocross bike. But I made my choice, and was more than stoked with 2nd place! It was great having Bob, Michael, Mom, and dad, and a few others yelling at me and cheering for me the whole race! This made up for the bike problems the day before!

Bubba #3 B Race Results

Fort Belle Fontaine Park - Sunday 10/23/2011

My fitness was dialed in! Weight was great! And got the results to show for it! Now time for chicken wings, donuts, ice cream, and beer whenever I want. It's snowing outside right now, winter is here, and time for some rest and non bike riding activities! First 7th grade basketball tourney this weekend!

Missouri Trip/Travel Home Day

2011-10-25T20:12:00.006-06:00

Back from our weekend of bike racing and visiting family in Missouri. Every flight home on Sunday was delayed. This was after supposed to be leaving STL at 650 pm. We ended up leaving closer to 730. Then, when we got off the plane in Denver, it said we were departing from that same gate. Then about 30 minutes later, they changed the gate from B88 to B53... that is a pretty significant change in gates. Took us a bit to walk to the new gate, and then we still had to wait a while. The plane was late, and we finally took off just after 10... and Natalie picked us up in Eagle at about 1045pm. It was a long evening for sure. When we left Denver, Cayle fell asleep immediately laying in my arms, and slept till we got off the plane in Eagle.

Our schedule for the day... Sunday...
6am breakfast
8am church
9am drive to STL for a cyclocross race
2pm race
4pm head to aiport
5pm airport
530pm - through security
730pm first flight
10pm 2nd flight
11pm BED :-)

To make up for this tiring day, Cayle slept almost 13 hours last night!!! And slept for 5 hours napping yesterday.

Race reports coming soon...

I don't know....

2011-10-20T20:24:00.003-06:00

Cayle has been doing this thing with his hands when you ask him a question, and he wants to act like he doesn't know. He puts out his hands and shrugs his shoulders. Neither of us are sure where he got that from, because we don't think we do it, but when he does it, it's pretty comical!

At 6am tomorrow, Cayle will be on his 3rd plane trip of his young life. The first he was really young, and slept most of the time... Smart money says he doesn't sleep much this time...

St. Louis is

2011-10-19T21:04:00.002-06:00

going crazy! I can't believe the World Series is back in St. Louis already! It seems like just a couple years ago that I was there. Well, I guess it was actually just a few years ago... (2006) (So happy I'm not a Cubs fan...)

Cayle and I got our bags packed tonight for our trip. We leave early Friday morning for STL. We got all our stuff into 2 carry on bags. Now that's pretty efficient packing for and adult with bike gear and a 1 and a half year old! Our bags are packed and we're ready to go.....

Basketball!!!

2011-10-18T20:56:00.000-06:00

I coached middle school basketball for 3 years in Chatham, IL and loved it, but when we moved to CO, I decided it would be nice not to deal with the amount of time that it takes to coach. Until this year. The opening for the boys basketball position for 7th grade came open a couple of weeks ago, and I decided it was time to begin again. Monday was the first day of practice. Everyone was telling me to take what I had experienced in IL and dial it back about 10 notches... (basketball is not the biggest sport out here)

You can only prepare yourself so much for reality... I came home and told Natalie after practice yesterday that it was going to be a long 2 months, based on what I had seen. One kid shot a free throw over the backboard... :-) Oh the joys of 7th grade basketball... However today was much better. There are actually 5-6 kids that have some skills. There are 18 out total, so we should have enough for an A and a B team, and I think we will be alright. I have not yet seen the competition, but we have tournament coming up in 2 weeks, so I may get my eyes opened. We don't have much size, but we can deal with that. We do have some athletic wings, so that should make things a little more fun.

I am excited to see what the season brings!

A very good weekend!

2011-10-16T20:01:00.004-06:00

Here's the recap:
Friday - Nick went for a long ride after school. Cayle and I headed to the Brush Creek for dinner with Jeff, Jess, Torrey, and Alana. Then Jess, Alana, and I took Cayle to the park for some playtime. Cayle loved the slide. He's so adventurous and loves to take risks :)

Saturday - Rise and shine nice and early to head to IKEA in Denver. Ronnie, Michelle, Ethan, and Lexi met us there for a day of shopping. After IKEA (where we got Cayle a cool new table and chair set for $20), we headed across to the mall.
We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and did a bit of shopping (some maternity clothes were calling my name!). After that, we headed home. On the way home, we saw a first - one of the runaway truck ramps on the way down the pass was occupied. The tow truck that had apparently lost its brakes had finally come to a resting place about 3/4 of the way up the ramp...a very steep ramp. As my dad said "I bet he (the truck driver) pooped his pants!" A nice night once we got home...we watched the Rangers/Tigers game and hung out together.

Sunday - Lots accomplished today! Although we were off to a slow start (woke up at 730, yikes!), we made it to church on time (830!), and left from there to head to a pumpkin patch. It's about 45 minutes west on I-70, past Glenwood Springs.
After the pumpkin patch, we stopped in Glenwood to pick up a few odds and ends and for me to get my hair cut. Next stop was groceries and Costco, and finally home. More relaxing tonight, and watching the Cardinals game. Also put together Cayle's table and chairs...he loves them!
What a fun weekend! Lots coming up this week with Nick starting to coach basketball, me having a few meetings, and Nick and Cayle leaving for MO early Friday morning!

Busy Day

2011-10-15T21:42:00.003-06:00

Went to Denver this morning to run a few errands, and see Natalie's brother and his wife Michelle. Finally made it to the "new" IKEA store. Place is HUGE and pretty cool, but very crowded! Too many people for me, but I like to look at the displays, and all the cool ideas! Then off to the Cheesecake Factory. Natalie and I both did good there because after we left we both commented how it was the first time we have ever been to that place that we didn't leave feeling absolutely bloated!!! :-) Then some shopping/browsing at Park Meadows Mall for some maternity clothes, candy, and just misc. items. Back home in the mountains about 6. Makes for a long day, but definitely necessary once in a while to get some things.

Last night I got in an awesome 30 mile 3 hour bike ride. I rode up Spring Creek road from Gypsum, then across Hardscrabble, rode catwalk west, then back east, down Abrams Ridge, and then did a loop and a half around the race course with lights, then home to Gypsum on the bike path. Great ride and the weather was awesome! My longest ride in the last couple of months, but I def. feel ready for the race next Saturday in Missouri!

Pumpkin Patch with Cayle tomorrow to wrap up this busy weekend, and then basketball practice starts on Monday at school.

Sick

2011-10-12T19:22:00.004-06:00

Was supposed to go for a long bike ride tonight with some friends, but that went out the window. I woke up early in the morning, shortly after midnight, and spent the next several hours in the bathroom. Cold, cold sweats, hot, all over the place. Being sick sucks! Think I got food poisoning, I ate some chili that had been in the fridge for a week that no one else ate. Luckily nobody else got sick, so that's great at least! Made this morning kind of hectic with us trying to figure out what to do. Luckily Cayle is super awesome and played the whole morning while I was laid up on the couch.

Being sick last night reminded me of last year when I got the flu. I almost never got sick before Cayle, but have now had a couple bad instances... not sure how much of it has to do with him. But because of being so healthy I have never gotten the flu shot. Last night reminded me of how badly it sucked... Think I'll go get a flu shot soon.

The day went about as good as could have been expected thanks to my awesome wife taking care of me, and my awesome son being so good at playing on his own, for hours on end.

Goings On

2011-10-10T21:00:00.005-06:00

12 days till my race in Missouri. The Berryman Epic 56 miler. I'm almost ready. Sounds like my bike is coming together nicely. That would be 11 days till Cayle and I's 2nd time on an airplane together.

Parent teacher conferences are finished. Finally. That's nice to have over for sure.

So much fun watching the Cardinals in the post season. Hope they continue to play as good as they have. This could be a 2006 flashback. That would be fun!

Going to head to Denver this weekend for a bit to visit with Natalie's brother Ronnie and his wife Michelle. Looking forward to that, and getting some good food (Olive Garden) and seeing a shopping mall... some of the things we miss out on living in the mountains... not that I'd trade by any stretch of the imagination. :)

Some of my favorite pics from our trip up on Hardscrabble a couple of weeks ago...I love the contrast of the solitary pine against the bright yellows of the aspens. The yellow leave covered dirt road surrounded by the changing Aspens.

My wife and son enjoying the beautiful scenery and time together sitting on a log in the grass with the mountains in the background.

2nd annual Oktoberfest

2011-10-09T19:56:00.004-06:00

Friday night we hosted our 2nd annual Oktoberfest Party. Last year we got a lot of Fall Seasonal beers, the theme this year seemed to be Pumpkin Brew. There were probably 6-7 different pumpkin seasonal ales. Lots of good different tastes. The weather thankfully cooperated great! It had been rainy/snowy and windy all week, but cleared up very nicely for Friday! It was definitely chilly, but felt great as long as you were sitting around the fire!
The conversation around the fire pit was very lively all night long. Neighbor Rob even stopped by for a while. It felt pretty good sitting by the fire, but when you got too far away, it got cold fast!
We had tons of food, and it was pretty fantastic! I made caramel corn and it turned out great and disappeared quickly!!! The food really complemented the drinks and the season!

Oh yeah! The Cardinals also wrapped up game 5 against the Phillies! 2nd round baby!!!!

Bike Race

2011-10-04T17:53:00.003-06:00

On August 17th I had my last bike race of the season. Since then I have been running a bunch (ran a 5:52 mile and a 20:45 5K) and mountain biking about once a week for fun. My weight has stayed down pretty good despite not eating the best and not trying to keep it at any certain weight.

Friday, Dad called and asked if I wanted to do a 56 mile mountain bike race in Southern Missouri. The Berryman Epic. I hesitated a bit because of the lack of specific training, but the few times I have been on my bike I have felt pretty good, so I said sure, I'll give it a shot.

Now I have 3 weeks to get back into race shape. Gotta get the legs used to the pain of racing, and build some endurance to finish 56 miles at a good pace. I think I can do it!

So in 3 weeks, Cayle and I are heading to STL to meet mom and dad and brothers and then south to the race for the weekend. We have a cabin to stay in near Steelville, MO at Bass River Resort.

Busy Week

2011-10-03T21:38:00.003-06:00

Parent teacher conference weeks are always crazy for us! Lots of time at school, less time with Cayle, and less time to take care of things at home. Luckily I only have to be at half of them! Took Cayle to the pool today. He loves being in the water, and is getting more comfortable with going all the way under. Lifeguard told me today that the next step is letting go of him in the area where he can't touch.... ok, we'll get on that next week. Today we worked on jumping off the side of the pool wall.

Beautiful Day

2011-10-01T16:26:00.004-06:00

We have no real plans this weekend except to relax! So thankful to not have an alarm wake us up...well, except for the alarm clock known as Cayle :)

We had a yummy breakfast of potatoes (grown in our garden!) with onions and peppers, and eggs with tortillas.

Then we got the car loaded up and drove up Valley Road to Hardscrabble. After driving for about 40 minutes, we parked the car and went for a bike ride through the beautiful aspen groves. We had a picnic lunch before riding our bikes a bit more.
Once we got back to the car, we finished the drive and ended our loop in Eagle.

Now it's time for more relaxation and post-season baseball!

Tired little boy!!!

2011-09-30T20:57:00.002-06:00

Natalie and I have both been waiting for that time when Cayle is so tired that he just falls asleep on the floor in the middle of playing. That hasn't quite happened yet, but he did fall asleep during lunch. Last time I looked at him before he fell asleep, he was eating his applesauce and grilled cheese. I was vacuuming the house. The next time I looked at him, he was out. He skipped his morning nap, and I could tell he was tired, but I didn't know he was that tired. I picked him up, carried him next door, and he went straight to sleep at the sitters. Must have been tired. Natalie's mom suggested it may have been because the food was that boring... :-)

Swim Time

2011-09-28T09:59:00.003-06:00

Great routine today. Ran to the rec center at about 8 to swim with Cayle, just over a mile. Swam/played in the water for 45 minutes (which was his longest time to date, and just the right amount of time, as his lips were starting to turn blue.) Got changed and back in the Chariot for a run to the Post Office to mail some things to some people.... After the post office we walked to the grocery store which is across the street for some donuts! Donuts are a part of our pool morning routine!!! Cayle ate his donut and fell asleep during the run back home. Nap in the Chariot in the garage. The pool sure does where him out! Cayle did a better job of interacting with Macklin today. He likes being around other kids, but doesn't really play with them much yet, at least today he was taking the ball from Macklin when Mack offered. Macklin and Melinda go to the pool with us in the mornings.

Go RedBirds!!!

2011-09-27T21:14:00.003-06:00

Everyone (myself included) thought the Stl Cardinals were done a month ago! Not so much anymore, although they could have helped themselves greatly by winning a couple of their last games. Looks like they have the win tonight to tie the Braves, so whatever happens tomorrow, at least they made an interesting season out of it! Never know what may happen if they make the playoffs. Reminds me of 2006 when they just snuck in.... and thanks to the Detroit Tigers, we all know what happened that year!

Go Cardinals!!!!

Changes

2011-09-26T21:12:00.004-06:00

Making changes to rooms in the house. We moved all Cayle's play things out of the living room and into the loft. Now he has the entire loft as his play area. We ended up buying a little floor for him to roll cars on. He loves it so far! And we love not having toys all over the living room floor!
Reading with mommy before bed tonight. He LOVES to read!!!
This is the bed we got yesterday for him off of Craigslist from someone in Eagle. He loved it! He was crawling all over it, up and down, sitting, laying, it was like he got a new toy! However still sleeping in the crib for a little bit yet.
He was laying on the bed dropping little lotion bottles down along the wall, and then going around to the side of the bed to look under and pick them up.