Another Talent Show

Abbey did it again, silly girl. The talent show was part of a week long fund-raiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation at her high school. She performed Honey Come Home by The Head and The Heart, which ranks high on the scaq list of favorite bands. We went to see them at the Ogden here in Denver just a few weeks ago.

I did a little better with the video this time than the last, but I was just using our ancient camera, so the video quality isn't the best.

Miscellaneous

How about some miscellaneous pictures? 

We rode up the Waterton Canyon Road in November 2013. We hoped we'd see some of those bighorn sheep up on the steep slopes surrounding the canyon, but we didn't. 

The weekend before the really big floods that nearly washed away the town of Lyons, we were there. We pedaled up Apple Valley Road beside North Saint Vrain Creek from the town of Lyons to Hall Ranch Open Space to access the Antelope Trail (below), and it was totally washed away less than a week later. Abbey wasn't feeling well that day.

Remember July 2012 when Quinn's Santa Cruz was almost too big for him? This is October 2013. I hope he doesn't grow too much this summer!

Centennial Cone Park in early October 2013. A beautiful, mountainous, 13-mile loop; definitely one of our Front Range favorites. Not sure why I look fat. I'm not really, very much, fat. But I am rather old and gray.

And then it turned cold and snowy. Ski helmets and goggles are great for a ride on the local park trails.

The green Chameleon used to be Abbey's bike, but she outgrew it. Now's it's Quinn's school, neighborhood, and park bike. And snow bike.

From August through October, our lives pretty much revolved around the Cherry Creek Marching Band. Here's our awesome Abbey and her mellophone. Abbey loved it and is already excited to do it again this fall.

Brainless hound, Amos, doesn't often get to go with us to the mountains because he can't be unleashed on most mountain bike trails, and it's rather difficult to ride while leashed to a wild beast, so once in a while we leave the bikes home and bring the mutt. This was Deer Creek Canyon. Notice Abbey's swollen cheek from a little bit of oral surgery. 

Skiing

We've been skiing. We live in Colorado now, after all. As a 5th grader in a Colorado public school, Quinn gets a ski pass for three free lift tickets at each of 20 ski resorts. So we thought we should give it a try. Not that we can go to each of 20 resorts three times, but we can at least take advantage of his pass and ski a few times. To get started, a couple of weeks ago we took a round of full-day lessons at Loveland Ski Resort. That went really well, so today we went back on our own to see what we could remember. We're still slow, but I think we're doing pretty well.

Loveland is nice because for beginners there's a whole section of the resort -- the ski school in the valley -- that's set aside for beginners -- that's where we skied the first time. Today we went on up to the easiest runs in the main part of the ski area -- called "the basin." Since the Broncos were playing afternoon, we practically had the resort to ourselves. And since they won, we can count on another uncrowded day of skiing on Superbowl Sunday.

I've dropped in a map of the portion of Loveland Ski Area on the south side of I-70. The first time we went to the valley on the left, this time to the basin on the right. Today we kept it simple and just worked from Lift 2. We rode it up and got off at the mid-point four times in the morning, each time going down Turtle Creek to Tango Road -- a super-easy run that still gave us a challenge this morning. After a little lunch break, feeling a little more confident, we took Lift 2 all the way to the top and followed Fire Bowl around to Turtle Creek and then Tango Road again. We did that a few times and by about 3 p.m. we were pretty tired, so we headed home. It was really fun.

Up on top, with Fire Bowl in the near background, and the more distant ridge on the north side of I-70 in the far background.

Cindy took this picture of Abbey and me in the chair lift ahead of her and Quinn.

Another picture from top of Lift 2, looking east across the valley towards I-70.

Loveland is just a little over an hour from our house -- plenty of time for a short nap on the way home.