Leap Day

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

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

Snow!!! Finally!!

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

Reflections from Class

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

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

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

Mid-Winter Break Part II

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mt. Biking

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

New Construction

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

Made it Home

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