Julia is now in the "big leagues", being a "big first grader" and all. Someone at work joked about this the other day, but the funny thing is, Julia really is taking school very seriously. We haven't specifically said anything to direct her behavior, other than praise, so we think it's just her personality.
It's fun to see her personality develop. We already knew she was very smart, and we all knew that she's pretty specific about what she wants, or likes certain things to in order. Looking back at play times where she's created specific scenarios and has told each person what to do and what to say, seems to support how she's approaching school.
A few days ago I was coming downstairs at the same time that Julia had woke up. She stumbled out of her room, half asleep, rubbed her eyes, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Dad, can you help me with my homework?" A couple of days later she seemed worked up about something, so we asked her about it before breakfast. She was having a spelling test that morning and was worried about it. The thing is, she had already nailed all ten of the words on the test. She was worried about the EXTRA CREDIT words, not the real test. So, before we left for school we practiced the extra credit words and she got them all correct.
We're starting to get back her homework and schoolwork and she's basically getting 100% scores on everything, with a few exceptions. In some areas she's close to moving on to the next grade level. I've always said that I'm never going to worry about her as she gets older when it comes to these sorts of things, and this post is an example why. If anything, we're going to have rein her in and encourage her to stop and smell the dandelions on the playground.
Julia and I went hiking together on Labor Day. It was her first real hike, about 3 miles round trip to the top of Devil's Head and the fire lookout station. The lookout is the only one of seven origin front range stations still in service - at almost one hundred years old, it's a unique piece of history and fun experience for people of all ages. It's the only lookout station in Colorado staffed by the National Forest Service and is on the National Register of Historic Places. There's an interesting article about it here.
For Julia and I, the drive and hike took most of the day. There were tons of people there, and we had to stop an climb on every big rock or play "pine cone golf" with Julia's hiking pole every few feet, or stop and goof around about something. One of her favorite games was for me to stop and wait for her to hike ahead, wait for her thumbs up, then run to catch up with her before she could get away. Large, Dad assisted jumps off of the steps were also pretty fun.
Julia did great and had a lot of fun. At the end she was able to get her picture taken with Ranger Bill, a semi-celebrity and veteran of the lookout of over 30 years. If you think your office has a good view, it's probably not better than his 100 mile view in every direction.
DeCaliBron...short for Mt Democrat, Mt Cameron, Mt Lincoln and Mt Bross.
Distance - 7.25 miles
Elevation Gain - 3,700 feet
Time - 6 hours
Four peaks in one day. Not bad even though the trip was short and really only two of them counted towards my total. I had already completed Mt Democrat and Mt Cameron really doesn't count as a 14er since it's just an unofficial bump along the route to Mt Lincoln. This trip brought the total up to 20 of the 53 14ers in the state.
I woke up at 3 a.m. and met Eric, a former coworker of mine who was in town visiting from California in the blue hat, at his friend Rich's house. We drove just south of Breckenridge and were on the trail by 6:15 in the morning. I took a few photos, but most of the time the weather didn't make for good pictures. The wind was blowing and we encountered some snow on this trip. Although it didn't stick, the ice crystals hitting your face in the wind made for a colder than expected journey.
Eric and Rich braved the elements in cargo shorts. I guess I should have suggested that they bring more clothes, but the selection was limited for Eric anyway while he was here on vacation. I felt great on this hike, mainly because the pace was a little slower than usual. However, I've also concluded that these trips are just becoming easier because of experience - physically and mentally I know what to expect, and I've also really fine tuned my optimal food and drink.
My knees hurt, but otherwise I feel good. I almost considered mowing the lawn when I got back home on Saturday, to give you an idea how good I felt. I was glad to get these checked off the list. I didn't find it to be that scenic, I had already tried in the winter to hike them and the weather didn't hold, and they were the last few around this area of the state.
I still had a lot of fun even though the hike wasn't much to write home about. It sure beats the alternative.
All of my time and hard work this summer, summed up in one pleasantly surprising letter...
