Julia's 18th Birthday (Family Edition)

Julia's 18th Birthday Party (Continued)

The party was a huge success even though Bailey tried to steal the show. Bailey even joined in on the slumber party and slept between Julia and Livi on the inflatable mattress...

Julia's 18th Birthday Party

Julia's big 18th Birthday was quite an impressive production. She decided to have a sleepover party at our house and pretty much planned out the entire event and decorations for it.

Jonathan and I went over to my parent's house to stay out of the way that day/night, but the planning and work started way before the party. We have a bunch of pictures from the event, so I had to break it up into two posts. The first one shows some pictures of the decorations and the house, and the second post will be pictures from the party with other people.

Where to begin? Stacey and Julia pretty much redecorated the entire main level. The the was "Fancy Nancy". They got some fancy plates and other things from Grandma, ordered many supplies online, ordered some cakes and bought the food all themselves. There was a piñata that made an appearance as well.

There were definitely crafts involved. Lots of streamers and loops were made. They decorated the cake themselves, and a whole host of others things. I think Stacey had fun but it also took her a few days to recover afterwards from the effort involved. You can see from the pictures that there were a lot of nice little details Julia planned out, including making party hats for some of her stuffed animals and fancy place settings with name cards for all the guests.

Kids on Bikes 12 Hour Challenge

Back after a long break! 2019 was the last time this fundraiser was held in the velodrome. The location change to SRAM this time and we fielded a few teams and a few solo riders.

All of the riders helped this local non-profit meet (and slightly exceed) its $10,000 goal. It was really convenient for me as well, since it's near my parent's house and Jonathan and I were already staying there overnight. Most of us took two hour shifts, which was closer to an hour and forty-five minutes by the time we readjusted and reinstalled pedals for each rider. Some of the solo riders were there all day for the entire 12 hours. 

A Great Family Photo

With a photo bomb from Bailey in the bottom left corner...

UNC Campus and Nursing School Tours

Today was Stacey's Birthday, so we celebrated by getting up early in the morning and driving up to Greeley for our first official college tour at UNC.

On paper UNC has looked like the best overall option for Julia and her pursuit of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, so we were excited to see it in person. Overall we have been very impressed with the communication and organization at UNC, but you can't get the overall vibe and details of a place without seeing it in person.

We arrived a little bit early even though we had to take the toll road around Denver to get there in time. There was a presentation given, then a campus tour of the dorms, classrooms, and dining facilities. We saw a lot and learned a lot, all of which were pleasant surprises on the living and dining situations.

The campus isn't huge, so we then took a short walk over to the Nursing School building for our specialty tour and Q&A of that building. Again, we were really impressed and learned a lot about their program, how it works, and being able to see the actual classrooms, labs, and simulation rooms they had on site for Nursing. We ended the trip with a quick drive by my grandparents old house, seeing a little bit of the town, and then a stop at a cute coffee shop. 

We all had the same impression and got the same vibe that UNC seems like it would be a great fit for Julia. We really liked a lot about it...the size, the community, the cost and Julia's small academic scholarship and the overall vibe of the place. Not to mention the Nursing School itself and how qualified the staff seems to be and the good facilities. UNC is also far enough away to be "at college" but only 2 hours drive from home for when we want to make the trip back and forth. The other limited options in Colorado have some pretty big drawbacks one way or another, and we really didn't see any major negatives at UNC. It just sort of felt like the right place for Julia, so we'll see where we go from here!

Bailey's 6th Birthday

Halloween Costumes

Jonathan and Julia (and Miles) came up with some pretty good costumes this year. Jonathan had a few options to choose from for Student Council...

Grassroots Gravel

Final race of 2025 down in Pueblo today. Grassroots Gravel is always a great event and has sort of become one of our local mainstays on the racing calendar.

I was feeling pretty good after The Rad and having won the short course at Grassroots last year. But you just never know how things are going to play out and who is going to show up.

This year was definitely more competitive than each of the previous two years. We got a good group of several riders that got into the lead group after the first hill. There was a minor crash on the dreaded S-turn heading out, and as a result of that and the long, gradual climb up to the turnaround, that quickly became four riders which eventually became three.

Jess from Rust Cycling did a long attack going out, but Micah and I stayed together and caught him on the long downhills before the S-turn coming back. Jess is more of a steady state rider, and small, so he tried to attack up the last hill on the highway (which Micah and I knew he would do).

Coming down to the finish Micah attacked very early, but I covered his attack and we dropped Jess temporarily. Micah and I stayed side by side and started the sprint about the same time before the final right turn. He had the inside line, so we was slightly ahead for awhile, but I gave it one final push at the very end, including a bike throw across the line, for the win!

Reflecting on this race and 2025, I think this year is going to be hard to beat. In this race I set my highest 60 minute power ever (in Colorado). I won five of the seven races I entered, and all of those were overall victories except the first race of the year where I won the overall Masters category. This is possibly when I peaked, but only time will tell. It's like a combination of experience and continued hard work, bike upgrades, and nutritional changes I've made over the years (eating enough, taking the right supplements during the season) all coming together. I don't know where things will go from here, or what I'll want to do next, but for now, I'm just enjoying it all.

Fire Sky