Durango, CO...Part III

Here are some misc. pictures from our trip:

Our transportation...we have put 20k miles on the Yukon in the last year

One of our shorter day trips was to Mesa Verde National Park. I really thought Jacob would enjoy exploring the indian ruins. Unfortunately, there was only one that we could go to with a stroller. And, they were doing some serious road work so we spent a lot of time not even moving which was frustrating.

It was a short hike down to The Step House but a hard walk back up :)

Jacob

PawPaw and Mimi

The family

Bryce loved this teddy bear at the house ;)

On our off days, Shane or Shane and Jacob would go mountain biking. One day I drove them up a mountain and met them at the bottom. These pictures are taking at Durango Mountain Resort (Purgatory). Just Shane and Jacob enjoyed this trip. The rest of us enjoyed just being at the house. The owner told us that there were 2 bears that lived behind the house. That kept me from exploring our property, especially with Bryce. Yikes!


A bear (cinnamon colored). Just one of the wildlife that we saw. From our home, we saw wild turkeys and deer every day. This picture was taken from up above on a ski lift.

Shane and Jacob

Jacob

This picture was taken from our living room window after a rain storm

Video of our Durango Trip

Shane loves to make videos and put them to music...Enjoy!

Durango, CO...Part II

Our 2nd outing, and my favorite, was a day trip to Ouray. We did a jeep tour (http://www.soajeep.com/) up to Yankee Boy Basin. We did the exact same jeep tour 30 years ago and have a great picture of my mom and I sitting in the middle of wildflowers. Although we enjoyed out jeep tour this trip, it rained and the temperature dropped and we were all wet and freezing our fannies off. I had hoped to recreate mom and I's picture but by the time we had gotten to the top of Yankee Boy Basin, we could of cared less. It was a disappointment but we (especially me) enjoyed the jeep trip regardless.

Jacob and Bryce

It took Bryce about 30 minutes to cave into all the bumping around we were doing and take a nap. We couldn't believe he could sleep on the jeep. His cheeks were just bouncing around.

Jacob and I at a natural spring

Jacob getting a drink

We also toured a cave mine and got to see some old mines and pictures of what they looked like when they were working mines with towns built around them. Right up my alley.

Going to and from Ouray, the only highway you can take is Highway 550, or the Million Dollar Highway. It is the most dangerous road in America. The sheer drops were so nerve wracking for me as I am afraid of heights. I kept my nose in a book the best I could. On the way home, we were stopped about 45 minutes south of Ouray. A man had driven off the side of the highway and plunged 500 feet. He was drunk, driving in the rain and on a dangerous road. What an idiot! Traffic was stopped for a good 3 hours. We were stopped in 2 hours of the wait. They had to repel down to him to bring him up. He was alive with not too serious injuries considering. The accident even made the Houston Chronicle. I hope and pray that that accident made him sober up!

The next trip to Durango, I would really like to spend a couple of nights in Ouray. The town is so pretty with lots of great shops. I would also like to do a full day jeep tour. Can you tell I had fun?

Durango, CO...Part I

Hello! I know it has been a long time since I have posted. I am going to do a lot of catching up, Bryce permitting. There have been quite a few things on my plate that I have neglected besides blogging. Yes, Dad, I will get your tax return done asap :)

Late June we headed to Durango, CO. You may remember me posting about our family selling our condo in Summit County. We decided that this was an opportunity to see some more of our country, so we headed to Southern CO! I know, it's not that far from Summit County but it is a trip that I remember from when I was younger that we took with my grandparents and I wanted to recreate that trip for Jacob and for Shane.

We took 2 days to drive there. My parents were gracious enough to go along with us. It's not all fun and games traveling with children, much less a one year old. Bryce was a trooper, though. He did great in the 3rd row with Jacob, MiMi and I entertaining him. Ha! Ha!

Our home was about 10 miles (a 20 minute drive) from Durango. We had our own private 60 acre meadow out front and the Red Rock Cliffs behind us. It was a beautiful home and a beautiful drive to the home. Randy drove down from Denver to stay the week with us.

Our first day outing was to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (http://www.durangotrain.com/). We rode the train to Silverton which was a 3 1/2 hour train trip. The views were amazing. I was so nervous that Bryce would be cranky being locked up in a car with us but he had a blast and took a good nap the latter part of the trip in hid daddy's and PawPaw's laps. We had about 2 hours to eat lunch in Silverton and than rode a bus back to Durango. I really didn't think Bryce could handle another 4 hours on the train and I think I made a good call for all of us.

Here are some pics from that day:

The family in front of our train car...The Prospector

PawPaw stretching his legs

The views were amazing, whether looking down or out

Jacob sticking his head out the window

Shane and Bryce

Uncle Randy and Jacob

I'm glad we rode the train but don't plan on riding it again until we are grandparents and can enjoy it with our boys and their families.

Happy 9th Birthday Jacob!!!

We can't believe our baby is turning 9 years old today. I will never forget the struggles we went through to bring him into this world and the incredible day of his birth. The last 9 years have flown by and what a ride it has been. He is such a sweet, loving boy. He is passionate about riding his bike and reading books. Two complete opposite hobbies but both things that he loves to do. And, he is a great big brother. We always knew he would be but he has surpasssed our expectations. He loves to just sit and play with Bryce and understands that babies are sometimes very demanding. He has not once complained about us giving Bryce more attention than him when Bryce needs it. I thank God each and every day that we could answer his prayers with giving him a sibling.

His bday present from us is a new mountain bike. We plan on bringing the guys bikes with us to Durango, CO this summer and Shane is looking forward to riding the trails around our house with him.

His party is at an indoor rock climbing party today. What a special day this is for him. We love you and are so proud of you Jacob!!!

Here is a great picture of him jumping at the track:

Pictures of Bryce

Bryce is now 10 1/2 months old. Man, how time flies. He weighs around 22 lbs as he lost some weight while sick (another post) and is still trying to gain it back. He is into everything. He is walking behind his push toy and looks like frankenstein when he walks....too cute. He will put anything, including dog hair, in his mouth. He is crawling up the stairs, pulling up and walking around things like the table while holding on. He loves to clap and play patty cake. He loves to wave at people and the animals. He will lay his head on Sadie and pat her (melts our hearts). He copies us with his tongue and he has this thing about sticking out his lower lips and making a silly face.

Here are some pics of him:

Yes, that's a mohawk on my head :)

Funny, isn't it?

I have a sweet face and gorgeous eyes!

I like to sit at the window and watch the boys playing in the driveway. Sometimes Sadie sits by me and we stare out the window together. We won't stay put for mommy to get our picture together, though.

This is my high chair. I love to eat and have never given a sign that I am full. I just keep eating and eating. And, if I don't like a food, I just throw it over the side. No big deal!

I can pick up a sippy cup, when I feel like it.

My first 2 teeth...see there, on the bottom....this was about a month ago. Mommy thought those teeth would never come in.

Playing Catch Up

I need to apologize for being so quiet for so long on our blog. There has been lots going on and I will try my best to remember everything exciting, good or bad, that I can to tell you about. Just a glimpse into what is to come....lots of pictures of Bryce including his first teeth and holding a sippy cup, Jacob's baptism, Bryce's first ER visit for rotavirus and, of course, a BMX update.

Let's start with Jacob's baptism. Unfortunately, the lighting in the kid's chapel was so bad that the pictures did not come out. I do, however, have an amusing video for you to watch if Shane will put it on his youtube account. Jacob was baptized on February 7th with several other children in elementary school. I had always imagined him being baptized in the big church, but this was great. Several of our friends from our small group and our family came to witness it. Shane did the dunking, which was very special to him. They had cake afterwards to celebrate the kids' baptisms. Then we went to Hido, a japanese steakhouse to celebrate with our parents. The food was great and the chef was very entertaining.

Jacob first accepted Christ when he was just 4 years old. He doesn't remember it, and I would not expect him to as he was so young. I remember Shane was out of town and Jacob and I were reading this big board book about the life of Christ. It is a pretty long book and I kept saying "let's finish this tomorrow night" but he pressed me to go on. When I read the pages about what they did to Jesus and his crucifixion, Jacob began to cry about the suffering Jesus went through and asked "He did that for me?" The next page talked about what a Christian is and he said that he wanted to become one, so we said the prayer together. I was amazed by his understanding of it all at such a young age.

When he attended VBS at church a few years later, we told him that they would be giving the message of salvation to the kids and reminded him that he was already a Christian but if he wanted to say the prayer again, that was fine. He did, of course, and has a vivid memory of it.

I used to keep a little kids bible in the car and he would read it everywhere we went. He would ask me if I knew the story of someone important and I would always ask him to read me the story. This not only improved his reading but his knowledge too.

We are so proud of Jacob's decision to tell the world that he is a Christian and pray that he will grow to become a God honoring man, husband, son and father. Of course, we can expect a few rough years somewhere in there. I mean, he is Shane and my's son, right???? Yikes!

2010 BMX Sooner Nationals

I'm finally getting around to writing about this race, which occured in late January. Jacob and I took a father/son weekend and left momma and baby behind. I love them dearly, but must admit that the weekend away was a blast :-)

It was about a 7-7.5 hour drive from Houston, which isn't so bad. We've gotten used to making road trips with the baby, so traveling without him all of sudden seems like a breeze. Jacob is a pretty good traveler for an 8 year old and not too overbearing with the "are we there yet" but he does have his moments.

We arrived in Guthrie on Friday afternoon, Jan 22 and headed out to the track for our practice sessions. Practice is segregated by age groups. I went first and then Jacob got his 25 minutes on the track. The track was really nice. I heard one of the pros complaining about a little bumpiness. I was thinking, well where do you ride because our outdoor track is extremely bumpy. The indoor National tracks are always pristine as they usually make them with rodeo dirt and groom them to near perfection. Jacob and I both dug it. I loved the track because it wasn't too difficult like so many tracks can be. It was extremely ride-able and fun, which we both liked.

Jacob raced the pre-race on Friday night, just to feel out some of the competition and get more track time. There were 5 riders including him in the pre-race in 8 intermediate; he got 1st place and a huge trophy (national trophies for the top three are always huge).

The Sooner National races started on Saturday. Actually they treat Saturday and Sunday as two totally separate races. So its not like you are qualifying on Saturday for the race on Sunday type of thing, rather Saturday is National #1 and Sunday is National #2. While the whole weekend was incredible, Saturday was extra awesome for Jacob. He raced two classes, 7/8 mixed open, which consists of 7/8 year old boys and girls in both the novice and intermediate class and he race in the 8 Intermediate class, which is just 8 intermediate boys. There were approximately 13 riders or so in each class. Jacob wont 1st place in both classes in the qualifiers and then got 2nd in 7/8 mixed open and 1st place in 8 Intermediate, which is the class that counts. He got beat by an 8 year old girl in open class that was every bit as big or bigger than Jacob and just as fast. Those girls are really fast! I told him there was absolutely no shame, he had a good race and just got beat. The 1st place in 8I was incredible. The whole National was streaming live on the internet by go211.com. Here is a video of Jacob's 1st place win. He's the one.... well in first place :-) And no the head shaking is not normal and something we are working to stop, which will only speed him up more. Not sure how he rides with his head floppin' around like that :-)


http://www.go211.com/u/abasoonernationals2010/videos/20342

Jacob ended up with two 3rd place wins on Sunday, which we are still extremely proud of. He did make some mistakes and I think he understands what they are as he was in 2nd both races and literally let a rider pass him in both main events almost at the finish line, which he could have avoided had he peddled a little harder at the end. Oh, your being too hard on him you might say, well the video tells all friends... you can't stop pedaling until you cross the finish line ;-) He did awesome and we are extremely proud of him.

So how did Shane do at his first national? Well I didn't qualify for the main on Saturday but I was extremely proud of where I fell in the pack of experienced riders. Sunday was interesting. There were 17 riders in my class, which is 36-40 cruiser. I qualified to the semi final by winning against two other riders in my second moto. I raced 5 other really fast guys in the semi; four of us were going to the main event. Here's how it unfolded... gate drops and one guys chain busts, so he's out, but I didn't realize this until after the race. As we approached turn one, the 2 riders in front of me got tangled up and went down, I ended up running in to the back of them and also went down. All I was thinking was... get up, get up, get up... this is your opportunity to get one of the four spots. As I got up and back on my bike, I saw one rider still on the ground, one of the riders from the crash (one of the local riders from Houston that I know) had got back on his bike and was in front of me and then two riders heading down the track that got past the crash. I was peddling as hard as I could to regain speed and it finally dawned on me that there were only four of us left. At that point, I still wasn't sure what happened to the 6th guy and then I was told at the finish line that he busted his chain. I had qualified for a main event at a National! Friends, nothing mattered at that point. I didn't care what happened in the main, I was just happy to be there :-)

I got lane 5 in the main and had a really good gate against some really fast guys but my front tire hit another rider's back tire as we entered the first jump. You see the outside riders were all converging to the middle of the track as everyone wants the inside line in to turn one. I was being extremely bullish and wasn't going to back down. I was like I am headed this way and you can't have this spot, but he was already just enough in front of me that I clipped his back tire and almost went down. My clip shoes came unclipped from the pedals as I tried to stay upright. I didn't end up crashing, but when something like that happens, it's race over. You can't catch up unless the other riders crash or something. I ended up passing one rider at the end of the race to get 7th, but reality he had shut it down because he didn't care whether he got 7th or 8th. I cared however. I wanted the extra points. Nationals points count as triple district points. So I got 90 points instead of 60; works for me :-) Wow, it was really fun. I mean 17 riders, only 8 in the main event. It felt really good. Just for kicks you can see how fast these old guys are. I'm in the very back coming out of turn one and you can see how my near spill really slowed me down. If I hadn't gone done I probably still would have been in 7th or 8th but at least with the pack :-)

http://www.go211.com/videos/20400

The guy to the left of Jacob with the #1 on his jersey is the current National #1 AA Pro, Randy Stumphauser. The starting gate is in the background.

New Pictures of Bryce

Bryce was not the least bit cooperative when I took him to get some pictures taken at JCPenney's recently. He refused to smile and would start to crawl to me when put down. I didn't spend much money as I really want his million dollar smile and might try again at another picture place soon. Here are some of the better ones:

What's Bryce doing these days?

Update on Bryce: Bryce started crawling correctly (he was doing the inchworm and frog jump before) a couple of weeks ago. He is also pulling up on everything and into everything. Each day I baby proof a little more but we have some major things to do very soon. He is happy just playing at the bottom of the stairs now but already bringing his knee up like he wants to climb to the next step.

He is still very unpredictable as far as sleeping and his moods. He is a very serious baby and will stare down anyone who dares to stare back at him. I love to see the differences in the boys personalities and can't wait to see how Bryce's changes as he grows. I can tell he will be the child that cries like crazy when I drop him off at Mother's Day Out (but that's not for another year +). He used to be just fine when left at the church's nursery. Not anymore. He has had a couple of bad weeks lately and that just breaks our hearts.

He says "Mama" and "Dada". He loves to terrorize the cats (both are great with him and haven't bitten, hissed or jumped on him...yet). He likes to climb all over Sadie. She is great with him too. He loves when Shane takes a break from work and comes to play with him downstairs. He just can't crawl to him fast enough and holds out his arms to be picked up.

Here are some recent pics of him. You will notice that he is finally getting some hair.

If that's not a happy face, I don't know what is :)

Hiding under the kitchen table...he will crawl over the chair bars

I love that smile