Cousins

Cayle loves playing with his cousins, and we are very fortunate to have 3 of them so close by, and others to play with in IL.
cousins Ethan and Lexi

cousin Finley

cousin Sophie

Cousin Nathan (my cousin's son) from Denver

cousin Finley being a bully...

Cooler Mornings and Denver

For a while there it was pretty hot out here, seemingly hotter than I remembered in years past. Although I say that with a grain of salt after coming back from the midwest where we spent about 2 weeks. But it's a totally different kind of heat. There the humidity is so bad you don't even want to go outside. Here the sun is just so intense because of the altitude... although not bad enough that we would need a/c. Even the mornings were warmer than usual it seemed... usually in the mid to low 60's. In the last week or so though, things have really begun to cool off. It's so nice getting out of bed in the morning and putting on a fleece and having coffee and sitting on the back deck looking at the mountains. Cooler mornings have arrived. The plants in the garden better get producing!!!

Updated: Aug 5, 2011, 9:45am MDT

Today Aug 5

Sat 6

Sun 7

Mon 8

Tue 9

Isolated T-Storms	Mostly Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Mostly Sunny
85°FHigh	88°High	88°High	87°High	86°High
50°Low	49°Low	48°Low	47°Low	46°Low
Chance of Rain: 30%	Chance of Rain: 0%	Chance of Rain: 0%	Chance of Rain: 0%	Chance of Rain: 10%

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Next 5 Days

Heading down to Denver this afternoon to run a few errands. Planning on having lunch with Luke, Jodi, and Nathan at the Cheesecake factory, and possibly sampling the new menu. However, it's like people have said, "What's the point of going to The Cheesecake Factory if you are going to eat something healthy...." So we'll see I guess....

He wants to ride!

This afternoon Cayle and I were out in the garage hanging out after our bike ride. He wanted to go for a ride in his little car, so I pushed him for a bit on the driveway and sidewalk. Then when we got back in the garage, I thought he was done. I headed inside the house to grab some chocolate milk, and when I went back into the garage to see what he was doing, I was kind of surprised! He had gone to the shelve where he keeps his bike helmet, grabbed the helmet and was standing by his tricycle holding the helmet waiting for me to help him. While watching him, he tried to put it on a few times with little luck. What can I say? I guess he just wanted to go for a ride! It's super cool that he already knows, in order to ride his tricycle he needs to wear a helmet!

Had a mt. bike race last night. The 2nd last race in the series. The Boneyard Brawl in Eagle. Going in, I was sitting in 2nd overall, 40 pts behind the leader and 10 points ahead of 3rd place. Basically in order to have a chance to win the series, I needed to win the last 2 races. That's not going to happen, but I did get 3rd last night. While I was super excited about the result... the guy behind me in the overall won the race, and because of the 15 point winners bonus, he leapfrogged me into 2nd overall, and I slid to 3rd.
It was probably one of my favorite races yet this year. The course was basically 3 miles up and 3 miles down, we did 2 laps. At the top of the first climb I looked around and it was just the 3 of us overall contenders. Shannon, Brinton, and I. I was feeling really good, and was climbing really good. We all went downhill together, but at the bottom of the downhill, I crashed! Not a bad one, but took enough time that I never saw 1st and 2nd place again... Finished the rest of the race on my own, and took an easy enough 3rd place. It is super fun being competitive in this local series! Going to have to try to grab the win in 2 weeks at the final race in Beaver Creek. If I can do that, I will move back into 2nd place overall, but it's definitely not going to be easy! Results

Results for the Men's Sport
Place Bib Name LAST Team Time Point
===== ==== ===================== ============================== === ======= =====
1. 267 Shannon Crockford 54:17 100
2. 7 Brinton Barry Vail Mountain Bike Camps/M 54:25 85
3. 330 Nicholas Brummer Yeti's Grind 55:53 80

Outdoor Boy

Cayle loves playing and being outside. He tries to sneak out into the garage or the back yard any chance he gets, and often throws a fit when we try to get him to come inside because the bugs may be biting or something. Here are some of my favorites of him playing.

Everything since way back when, errrr July 15...

Yikes, Nick and I knew it had been a long time - too long - since we had last blogged. But then Lindsey made a threat - "if you don't update the blog w/ something soon (and not some stupid crap) i will be deleting it from my favorites pages." Sooooo, here I sit, finally committed to updating the blog. One would think hey, it's summer, they both have plenty of time to update the blog. But for some reason, summer is the time of year that all structure vacates our lives and we find ourselves going weeks without updating the blog (or doing other productive things!). So, to Lindsey and our other faithful readers, I apologize for the lack of updates :) Here's the nitty gritty of Nick, Natalie and Cayle as of late...

Go back a few weeks...July 8-July 19 we were in Illinois. The first stop was Effingham to visit with the Brummers, and then we headed up to L-P to visit with the Hammers. On our way from Effingham to L-P, we stopped in Chatham for a few hours and picnicked at a park with a lot of our friends from that area.

Highlights of the trip:
* Cayle did awesome on the drives.
* We left the dogs in CO with our friend Mary, which made the trip a lot less stressful!
* Cayle went swimming (and boating) in the lake and loved it!

Cayle loved floating on his back. He'd squeeze his eyes shut (no clue why??)!

* Nick and Nat got a chance to paddle board together...lots of fun!

Nick & I had fun working out on the paddle boards. We were both able to stay upright
even with a few waves!

* Cayle enjoyed many wagon rides at grandma and grandpa Brummer's house!

No matter how tired Cayle was, he was always up for a wagon ride. He loved this!

* Emma was Cayle's best friend from the trip. I'm pretty sure he would have brought her back to CO with us if he could have!

Emma did such a great job with Cayle. He loved the attention he got from her!

* Cayle got to spend some fun time swimming and playing with his cousins Finley and Sophie!

Finley brought her swimming pool to share with Cayle. They also went to the
LaSalle Pool together!

Poor Sophie...in this pic, Cayle had just stolen the cell phone she was playing with :(

* Cayle got to enjoy hanging out with grandma and grandpa Hammers!

Cayle was obviously not in a reading time mood, but grandma did her best!

Grandpa introduced Cayle to cars. We brought 4 cars home with us :)

Other summer highlights:
* Cayle got a new swing set for the backyard. He loves this thing and uses it pretty much everyday!

This swing set turned out to be a lot bigger and sturdier than we expected. It's really high
quality and will last for many years. We even joked about Cayle being able to bring his
dates to his backyard and swing on his swing set!

* On our way home from a concert in the park in Eagle, Nick and I came across some people on bikes. Turns out they were Biking Across America to raise awareness of disabled and homeless veterans. The folks (Erick and Monica) ended up staying at our house for two nights. The crazy part of the story is that I had seen them featured in the News-Trib in the middle of June.

These concerts are so much fun. Basically you bring some snacks and drinks, plop
down on a blanket in the park, and hang out while listening to some great music. It's
an awesome family event!
Erick and Monica taking off from Glenwood Springs after their rest day at our house!

* Nick, Cayle, and I got to spend a few days camping at Steamboat Lake, about 26 miles north of Steamboat Springs. We got to try out our new tent. Cayle loved his experience: the dirt, the lake, the fire...all of it.

Cayle loved sitting out by the fire with us at night!Reflection images seen on one of our morning walks.
Our new 6-man tent fits our air mattress, Cayle's pack-and-play, the dog cage, and more!

* We had a visit from two friends from Springfield. Nick got to spend some quality time biking with Andy and Trevor, and we all went on some hikes together.

Trevor, Andy, Nick, and Cayle at Hanging Lake (about 20 minutes from our house).
Family photo at Nolan Lake, at the end of a 3-mile hike each way!

What's next:
* I start back to work August 9. Boo!
* Nick will be working part-time this year (12-4 each day) in order to give Cayle more time at home. Nick will not be teaching special education anymore. His classes this year are study skills, tutoring, health/nutrition, and media productions. Nick starts back to work August 22.
* Nick has been doing awesome in the local mountain bike race series. With two races left to go, he is in 2nd place in the overall standings. The final 2 races are Aug 3 and Aug 17.
* We are planning a local camping trip (explore somewhere close to us - up Coffee Pot Road?) with our family, Torrey and Alana, and Jess and Jeff for the weekend of August 12-14.

Pretty sure I've missed tons of details...but that's the overall picture. Hopefully we'll keep things more up-to-date in the future :)

good day

First full day at Natalie's parents consisted of watching the Tour de France and an awesome win by the God of Thunder... Thor Hushovd..., playing with the kids, Cayle, Finley, and Sophie stopped by for a bit for dinner, a good bike ride out to Starved Rock State Park which is about a 30 minute ride from her house, and a great dinner of hamburgers and homemade fries. Cayle and cousin Finley spent some time in the kiddie pool in the back yard. Cayle seemed to really enjoy it!

Sounds like it's been raining a bunch back in Colorado, but temps sound nice. Thankfully the temps here today were manageable. Low humidity (For IL in July) and mid 80's.

More tour watching for tomorrow, and hopefully some exercise and playing with the kids. It's nice for Cayle to be able to play with his cousins!

1/2 way

Finished with my parents in central, IL. Had some wonderful days out at the lake. Stopped by the State Capital to say hi to a few friends. Not much time to hang out though... :( Now in the north of IL to spend a few days with Natalie's parents :-)

A few pics to share from the lake: