There is a ~3800 acre fire burning about 7 miles from our house. 900 homes have been evacuated and 6500 have received pre-evacuation notices. Mark's work is on the pre-evac list, but our house is not. I did register for reverse 911 calls and make a list of what to take just in case. Its somewhat comforting to realize my list is pretty short. Most of what we have is replaceable.
There's a very exciting video of a family fleeing the fire, which I post at the risk of worrying our mothers. This was right near where the fire started-- I'm sure the rest of us would be warned far in advance of this situation.
http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2012/03/raw-video-escaping-the-lower-north-fork-fire/32715/
I guess this is a good reminder when I'm complaining about the snow all winter. I'm very much enjoying our sunny 70 degree days in March, but I'd welcome some rain/snow right now.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Spring Break Part 1- Moab
We're not actually taking a spring break. But we did get to go to Moab for the weekend. I think its been about 10 years since I've been there-- not sure how that happened. You kind of forget just how amazing all that red rock is. We drove in Friday evening through the Fisher Towers, and Mark gave us a tour of all the towers he'd climbed in his youth.
Ancient Art (this one's in a Citibank commercial). Let's pretend that's me on top (it's not):
The Titan:
The Cobra:
And a few more pictures because I just can't get enough of "super vivid" mode on the camera:
The next day we went to Arches National Park. This is my favorite arch. Its everybody else's favorite too, but we managed to get there before it was too crowded. Here's a family picture at Delicate Arch with the La Sals in the background:
Me & Logan at Delicate Arch.
We're in this one too-- under the arch on the right.
Anderew babysat for us so we could climb a little one pitch tower. Here's Logan at the base sporting his cool new helmet .
Logan is in super Mommy-mode these days and just screamed and screamed until he finally wore himself out and fell asleep in Andrew's arms. Andrew was happy.
Double Arch! Just can't get enough arches. Except that after this we had had enough, and we left.
Day #3 we went to Canyonlands & Gemini Bridges. Here's a view of (one more!) arch in Canyonlands. Through the arch you can see Washer Woman tower and Moses... Mark climbed those too.
Other than that, weekend highlights included Logan throwing up in the car twice (the first time he's ever done that... I guess its not such a good idea to feed him on those bumpy twisty roads) and the xylophone park in Moab where you can play 25 different xylophones. If Mark was writing this he could also tell you about the 23 different types of sandstone and how each one is amazing in its own special way, and also all about the microbiotic soil and how one step in the wrong spot destroys hundreds of years of microbiote effort, and probably about a bunch of other stuff. But instead you have me. So I leave you with one more very significant milestone: Logan is now a forward-facing rider!
The new guidance says you're supposed to wait until they're 2 to turn them around. By day 3 and hour 8 or 10 in the car, 14.5 months seemed just right.
Ancient Art (this one's in a Citibank commercial). Let's pretend that's me on top (it's not):
The Titan:
The Cobra:
And a few more pictures because I just can't get enough of "super vivid" mode on the camera:
The next day we went to Arches National Park. This is my favorite arch. Its everybody else's favorite too, but we managed to get there before it was too crowded. Here's a family picture at Delicate Arch with the La Sals in the background:
Me & Logan at Delicate Arch.
We're in this one too-- under the arch on the right.
Anderew babysat for us so we could climb a little one pitch tower. Here's Logan at the base sporting his cool new helmet .
Logan is in super Mommy-mode these days and just screamed and screamed until he finally wore himself out and fell asleep in Andrew's arms. Andrew was happy.
Double Arch! Just can't get enough arches. Except that after this we had had enough, and we left.
Day #3 we went to Canyonlands & Gemini Bridges. Here's a view of (one more!) arch in Canyonlands. Through the arch you can see Washer Woman tower and Moses... Mark climbed those too.
Other than that, weekend highlights included Logan throwing up in the car twice (the first time he's ever done that... I guess its not such a good idea to feed him on those bumpy twisty roads) and the xylophone park in Moab where you can play 25 different xylophones. If Mark was writing this he could also tell you about the 23 different types of sandstone and how each one is amazing in its own special way, and also all about the microbiotic soil and how one step in the wrong spot destroys hundreds of years of microbiote effort, and probably about a bunch of other stuff. But instead you have me. So I leave you with one more very significant milestone: Logan is now a forward-facing rider!
The new guidance says you're supposed to wait until they're 2 to turn them around. By day 3 and hour 8 or 10 in the car, 14.5 months seemed just right. Thursday, March 22, 2012
Congratulations All Around
Three reasons to celebrate this week:
1. Kendall got a permanent teaching job in JeffCo! She's a great teacher-- and I'm not just saying that because she's my sister-- but all the funding cuts in Colorado (apparently we are #48 out of the 50 states for education funding) have made permanent positions scarce. She had to re-interview for her job every year for the past 3 years, and last year she had to switch schools. The uncertainty over whether you'll have a job next year combined with the low pay makes me wonder how anyone sticks with teaching. But Kendall is now a tenured teacher and can slack off for the rest of her career. Instead, however, she is staying up all night writing grants to get iPads for her classroom and organizing science fairs and designing class websites (https://missz.21classes.com/weblogCategory/1sc21chr53d8z) and taking all her continuing education classes and doing all the other things teachers do for next to nothing. I hope Logan is lucky enough to have teachers like her. Congratulations Kenny!
2. And then... Andrew got a job this week too! He will be working at Haynes Group, a construction company with materials, construction management, and real estate development divisions. We think he's going to be supervisor at a quarry. It's either that or sales. Either way, it sounds like a great company (I've scoured their website), with lots of opportunities. And it sounds like a good fit for Andrew-- he'll get to spend some time outside and I think he'll be a great supervisor with all his people skills. I can't wait for him to open the Colorado division so he can give me deals on landscape supplies and manage my home remodel for me.
3. And finally, Mark has reached a new level in climbing-- he is a sponsored athlete! He's part of Trango's 2012 Grassroots Athlete program (http://www.trango.com/team). In return for a bunch of free gear, Mark will: 1. Represent Trango at 5 events; 2. Provide pictures and videos for their marketing materials; 3. Encourage people to admire, desire, try, use, and buy Trango products; and 4. Be personable and approachable. Mark's got plans for #1 & 2. I figure we take care of #3 when we send out Mark's Christmas list every year with a long list of eGrips climbing holds on it (one of Trango's brands). As for the personable/ approachable part, I think that can be Logan's job. He's pretty good at waving and saying hi to people.
1. Kendall got a permanent teaching job in JeffCo! She's a great teacher-- and I'm not just saying that because she's my sister-- but all the funding cuts in Colorado (apparently we are #48 out of the 50 states for education funding) have made permanent positions scarce. She had to re-interview for her job every year for the past 3 years, and last year she had to switch schools. The uncertainty over whether you'll have a job next year combined with the low pay makes me wonder how anyone sticks with teaching. But Kendall is now a tenured teacher and can slack off for the rest of her career. Instead, however, she is staying up all night writing grants to get iPads for her classroom and organizing science fairs and designing class websites (https://missz.21classes.com/weblogCategory/1sc21chr53d8z) and taking all her continuing education classes and doing all the other things teachers do for next to nothing. I hope Logan is lucky enough to have teachers like her. Congratulations Kenny!
2. And then... Andrew got a job this week too! He will be working at Haynes Group, a construction company with materials, construction management, and real estate development divisions. We think he's going to be supervisor at a quarry. It's either that or sales. Either way, it sounds like a great company (I've scoured their website), with lots of opportunities. And it sounds like a good fit for Andrew-- he'll get to spend some time outside and I think he'll be a great supervisor with all his people skills. I can't wait for him to open the Colorado division so he can give me deals on landscape supplies and manage my home remodel for me.
3. And finally, Mark has reached a new level in climbing-- he is a sponsored athlete! He's part of Trango's 2012 Grassroots Athlete program (http://www.trango.com/team). In return for a bunch of free gear, Mark will: 1. Represent Trango at 5 events; 2. Provide pictures and videos for their marketing materials; 3. Encourage people to admire, desire, try, use, and buy Trango products; and 4. Be personable and approachable. Mark's got plans for #1 & 2. I figure we take care of #3 when we send out Mark's Christmas list every year with a long list of eGrips climbing holds on it (one of Trango's brands). As for the personable/ approachable part, I think that can be Logan's job. He's pretty good at waving and saying hi to people.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Welcome Spring
In what is normally our snowiest month, we have been enjoying some very warm weather. Andrew's here visiting, and we've gotten to play some frolf, ride the bike trails around Denver, do some landscaping (have to take advantage of Andrew's expertise!) and have a St. Patty's Day barbeque. Logan now loves the park. You have to watch him though, he will dive toward the slides with reckless abandon, and head down feet first, head first, or sideways.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Timber!
Very exciting events transpiring... our dead tree is falling! A few weeks ago we had a really windy day, and our dead tree (I think people with big vocabularies call them "snags") started leaning about 15 degrees. Now its almost all the way down, just resting on one branch that is slowly crumbling. We like to update everyone that visits on the status of our tree. Kendall is typically our only visitor so she gets frequent updates. Our tree is falling! Have you seen our tree today? Its leaning 10 degrees more than it was yesterday! She doesn't think its quite as exciting as we do. Andrew arrived in town today and the first priority was to take him out to inspect our tree. Don't all of you want to rush over and see our tree? Take my word for it, its very exciting!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
14 months
At 14 months, Logan loves to dance. He bounces up and down and waves his arms at the slightest hint of music. He loves stairs, buckles, brushes (tooth and hair), slides, kids, and dogs. Always dogs. He can navigate our one step by himself. He has 8 teeth. He talks more-- his words are hi, dada, mama, no, da (his first Russian word), dog, tree, done, duck... basically anything with a "d" sound ... car, spoon, Mike, up, brrrr, whoa. Despite the fact that he has taught himself Russian, he still cannot- or won't-- clap his hands or point to his nose.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Uncle Mike comes to visit
Unfortunately I didn't actually get any pictures of Uncle Mike. But maybe you can just pretend this picture of Mark & Logan is Mike & Logan. Logan couldn't tell the difference! I remember this from when Lucas was little-- he couldn't tell Mike and Mark apart either. Its funny to me, because they're pretty obviously different to me... but apparently not to a one year old. This worked to our advantage, because Logan was happy to go off with Mike when he woke up at O dark thirty (Mike did too since he was on Eastern time), and Mark & I got to sleep in a couple mornings. Thank you Mike!
We spent five days climbing up at Sinks Canyon in Lander. It was a fun trip-- partly because of the good weather and the good company, but mostly because we upgraded to the Holiday Inn Express! A long, long time ago when we were young and hearty, we used to camp. That was a long time ago. Then, we upgraded to crappy roadside motels. Our Lander home was "the Maverick", one of those dingy cement block hotels with questionable shag carpet and a parking lot that caused flat tires. But for this trip, we went all out. Our Holiday Inn had indoor hallways! Clean white sheets! Plus free breakfast and an indoor pool. We spent many hours walking up and down the hallways finding all the exit signs (a favorite of Logan's), pushing elevator buttons, and climbing up and down the stairs. It was also right next to the Safeway, so we were within walking distance every time we needed more cookies. Ah, the luxury.
Me & Logan at the crag:
Logan playing with the buckles on the backpack. He LOVES buckles.
Getting his caffeine fix. No, we don't let Logan drink coke (well, I don't at least). But we did let him shake it up a bunch so it was extra fun for Mark to open.
A devilish look in his eye
Swimming with daddy at the hotel. Our past swimming attempts have not been met with great enthusiasm, but he really liked it this time. Unfortunately he also broke out in a rash this time.
Logan has a cowlick! I love it.
We spent five days climbing up at Sinks Canyon in Lander. It was a fun trip-- partly because of the good weather and the good company, but mostly because we upgraded to the Holiday Inn Express! A long, long time ago when we were young and hearty, we used to camp. That was a long time ago. Then, we upgraded to crappy roadside motels. Our Lander home was "the Maverick", one of those dingy cement block hotels with questionable shag carpet and a parking lot that caused flat tires. But for this trip, we went all out. Our Holiday Inn had indoor hallways! Clean white sheets! Plus free breakfast and an indoor pool. We spent many hours walking up and down the hallways finding all the exit signs (a favorite of Logan's), pushing elevator buttons, and climbing up and down the stairs. It was also right next to the Safeway, so we were within walking distance every time we needed more cookies. Ah, the luxury.
Me & Logan at the crag:
Logan playing with the buckles on the backpack. He LOVES buckles.
Getting his caffeine fix. No, we don't let Logan drink coke (well, I don't at least). But we did let him shake it up a bunch so it was extra fun for Mark to open.
A devilish look in his eye
Swimming with daddy at the hotel. Our past swimming attempts have not been met with great enthusiasm, but he really liked it this time. Unfortunately he also broke out in a rash this time.
Logan has a cowlick! I love it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)