The Tree

We finally had to have the ash tree in the front yard removed. Most of the neighborhood had already taken care of it, but our "builder grade" tree held on for a bit longer.  Although we had to have someone remove it for us, our neighbor John and I each saved about $500 by doing the rest of the work ourselves.

Stacey was out of town visiting Pat and Melinda this week. Thankfully, Jonathan really wanted to help me plant the new maple tree. From start to finish including the clean up. I didn't realize it at the time, but afterwards I was really happy we did this together. We'll be able to watch it grow and every time we look at it, we'll be reminded of doing this together.  Over the years we may even take pictures of it and us together, just to see the changes in all three of us.

Homecoming Dance

After the Air Force football game Julia went over to a friend's house to get ready for the homecoming dance with several of her friends. Look how pretty she is!

CU versus Air Force

The big game this weekend was held at Falcon Stadium.  Jonathan and I went to the game, while Stacey and Julia worked concessions for the Pine Creek Cheer team fundraiser. 

It was a rare cold and rainy day. Probably the most consistent rain I've seen here for awhile. But we came dressed for it. Air Force won comfortably, which wasn't a surprise!

First Day of School 2022

Wow, Julia is now in high school and Jonathan is now in middle school. That's pretty unbelievable when it feels like I was just in high school myself. It seems like yesterday when these two were just little kids running around the house barefoot.

I went with extra large photos to commemorate how big this first day of school was for all of us. Including Bailey. Undoubtedly this will be a big adjustment for both of them, but I'm confident that we'll be able to tackle this together, and that they will do well in this next chapter of their young life.

Happy 10th Birthday Freckles!

I can't believe that Freckles is ten years old!  She's such a sweet cat, even if she looks a bit grumpy in these photos wearing a birthday hat. To celebrate we gave her some yummy tuna flavored canned food. She wasted no time scarfing it down!

FoCo Fondo

I finally was able to do a race this year!  After a long spring and summer of craziness I finally felt "good enough" to roll up to the start line. In a lot of ways this race was about me proving to myself that I could still compete...

I drove myself up to Fort Collins and shared a hotel room with Steve. We had a good time eating delicious Thai food with the rest of the COS Racing crew Saturday night. We got absolutely dumped on with rain that night, which was either going to be a a really good thing or a disaster for me regarding course conditions. It turned out to be the former.

There were 405 registered for our distance & the event hit the 1000 mark overall. About halfway through the race I found myself off the front of the main group after a technical double track section, so I went for it, which isn’t something I’ve ever done. And probably not the best idea given my lack of training!

Kudos to Curtis Singmaster and Erik Hartel for the awesome team tactics and trying to slow the group down. I was away solo for the last hour and should have stayed away, but both quads started cramping and I had to back off. It’s like I haven’t raced in several months! The group blew past me with a few miles to go.

I am really happy with the day, the results, and team (we had multiple AG podiums). Glad to be back racing again...and at the time of writing this post a few weeks later, glad to be back to feeling like myself again!

Sunset Tour

At some point vacation has to end. I went on an easy ride our last night in town with Winston. It was one of those perfect Spokane summer evenings, and a really fitting end to our trip!

Mount Spokane

This was a fifth year in a row that I was able to ride my bike up to the top of Mount Spokane!  It's always such a great ride up...and of course, down!  This year Alex put me in touch with a couple of people from his cycling club, Matt and Jenna. We had a great time and conversation on the ride!

Having Fun in Spokane

More highlights of our 2022 trip! 

Jonathan and I were able to go for a ten mile bike ride along the Centennial Trail while the girls walked Bailey. We had a lot of fun together. Jonathan laid down a sprint for me and we had to come to a screeching halt at one point due to a bull snake blocking the path.

We also hit up another Spokane County pool on the South Hill. This one was free to get into and had a fun waterslide. I still have a scuff on my back from the bottom of the pool after bombing down the slide. The kids loved it.  Nice little pool and a good way to spend an afternoon.

The money shot of the trip is from Loon Lake. This is our favorite spot to go swimming and have been there a couple of years in a row. We waited this year for the perfect weather and it ended up being the last day before we drove back to Colorado. 

Siemer's Strawberries

We had a lot of fun today picking strawberries at Siemer's Farm. This was our first time picking strawberries, since we are usually in town during cherry season. But the weather this year had been really cold and rainy, so the season was a little bit delayed.

We went up to Greenbluff and had a nice picnic lunch, then headed to the usual spot for some cherry picking. Although we were surprised and slightly disappointed at first, it turned out well after we were directed to Siemer's.

Their strawberries are really sweet and delicious but didn't last long in the fridge. Apparently they just grow naturally there and they don't even have to water the plants!