Releasing in EP

Howdy. We headed up to Estes this weekend for the annual pilgrimage of elk brawls and golden leaves. We saw and heard plenty of elk and even caught a fight. However, we were a bit early for the changing of the leaves and it rained a bit on us. That didn't stop us from having a great time.

We stayed in a really great house on the Big Thompson with g'ma and the Raymonds. Saturday morning we took a hike and the kids loved every second of it. That evening we headed into the park to watch the flirting. As always, the elk were great to see. Sunday morning we did some shopping downtown and caught a great brunch at Claire's. Check the flag there :) Unfortantely I didn't ask to get the story behind it... but Estes has some Slovak eating roots, huh?

So, last night I helped Mac with her first homework assignment. We walked around the neighborhood, collected some leaves and wrote down objects that matched shapes. I can't get enough of her face when she's trying to explain something to you. Nodding her head a bit with the expressive mouth and wide open eyes, it's priceless. I'll have to try to get a pic for you.

While watching Drew run circles around him this weekend, Luke decided to step it up and walk a bit more. He walked across the room between Sarah and I several times. But at the end of the day, he's still way faster crawling and can't give it up... soon enough though.

peace.

the extended report

Hi. Bet you weren't expecting me to really follow through in a week. Me either. Not too much to report other than elaborating a bit on the last post.

Mac has made a few friends at school who she talks about non-stop, always emphasizing their name when she tells you a story. It's pretty hilarious to see what she gets excited about. Today she was absolutely thrilled because it was the first time she ate "hot lunch" at school. She loved it, but learned that she doesn't like strawberry milk. She still loves to learn at home too and insists on plowing through her 1st grade school book. Mom keeps buying her new level 1 books to read on her own too. She can't get enough.

Grace cracks me up pretty much non-stop. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and just listen to her all day. I was trying to remember a few examples for you, but could only come up with this one. When looking at a half moon, "Look mom, somebody broke the moon. It was on purpose." She's constantly singing something, usually made up words to a tune she knows.

Luke is thinking about walking a little more each day. Just tonight he decided to walk without prompting between the chair and the sofa... a good 8 steps :) He's also quite the flirt. We were at a party this weekend and he was on stage in front of about 10 women. He kept standing up by himself, taking about a step and then falling. Upon falling he'd look to the faces, wait for the smiles and then start laughing... repeat about 20 times.

Since I last wrote Sarah has decided to take on 2 more clubs at school: STAND (Students Taking Action Now Darfur), and an Environmental club. She was asked to help with STAND and couldn't turn it down. She's starting the Environmental Club because the students are jazzed about it and the school doesn't even recycle, which I'm pretty sure a lynch mob shows up if the Socialist Republic of Boulder County finds out. So, typical, she's overloading herself :)

Nothing with me. However, we did do another family picnic/hike this weekend. Kids loved it and it was great to get out in the good weather. Went to top o Flagstaff, a beaut huh?

peace.

back on the wagon

Hi! Just as I was getting ready to post and ask if anybody still reads this, I've gained a permanent (I hope ;) reader across the pond yet again... So, I hope to make (at least) weekly updates from here unto eternity, or at least until teleportation gets invented and nobody needs Al Gore's internets for fam updates. Once again, in case you've been looking for updates for the past 4 months... so sorry.

Ok, so what's the haps? Excellent question... I won't bore you with everything we've done over the summer, cuz yet again it was action packed, but here's a snapshot of the now.

Mac has started school!! Sarah and I are pretty freaked by the whole thing for many reasons. First of all, Mac is old enough to go to school and that's pretty bittersweet. Second, we're old enough to have a school-ager and that's just bitter. Finally, having a kid in school takes the parenting thing to a new level. Alas, most of our fears seem to be assuaged thus far. Her social personality is kicking in and she's making many new friends. The highlight of her day usually revolves around recess where "the boys chase the girls", which she says with a smirk and a giggle... You've got to be kidding me. I ask her if they chase all the girls and she says no, mainly just her and her friends. You've got to be kidding me. I ask her if they ever catch her and she says "not usually, I'm too fast". I ask her if they catch other girls and she says yes. I breathe a sigh of relief. Seriously, how does any father of a daughter not have a heart attack by the time they turn 18?!?! In other school news, we haven't been asked to see the teacher yet and Mac still likes to go. So, that's about as good as we could hope for in Kindergarten, right?

Onto Grace. You'll be happy to know that none of Grace's personality has been lost with the addition of full sentences. She's really changing quite a bit now and it's a blast to watch. She's coloring beautiful masterpieces staying in the lines all the time and executing excuisite palette choice. She's also starting to "read" books now, which is a kill. We were wondering how she'd do at day care without Mac there and she loves being the "biggest kid" there (representing our family that is). I was also wondering if they'd still like to play together as much now that Mac is so big and in school. They seem to be closer than ever and love to lock themselves in rooms, emerging wearing interesting outfits complete with accessories and usually playing house. If Mac gets home before Grace, she can't wait until she gets home so they can play together.

Bubba. He's starting to walk!! We've been wanting to push him to walk sooner, as he is totally ready, but he has a broken leg :( That's right, you read correct. It's a longish story, but the good news is it's healing really fast and he didn't even need a cast. He doesn't show it if it's hurting him at all and pulls himself up all the time. He took his first 2 steps ever with aunt Kristie the other night. Since then, we can get him to walk 2-3 steps pretty much at will. However, he still enjoys being the tallest kid I've ever seen crawl. When he does start strutting his stuff, he'll go from being the "short" crawler to a head taller than all the other walkers close to his age as he's a growing weed. In other news, the dude is a blabbin machine. I'm sure he's saying something important most of the time and I can't wait to understand what it is. His most effective communication (aside from the fake cry and shreeking) is sign language for "all done" and the latest addition of "uh oh" which is repeated after we say it.

Sarah is back to teaching. Because she hates doing anything easy, she decided to completely change up almost all her classes and now teaches pre-IB US History. It's a lot of work, but she seems to be enjoying it so far. I will go back to summer news a bit to tell you that she did the Tri for the Cure in August and killed it. It was quite an accomplishment, because not only did she compete, but she started a tri club, "Girls Gone Tri", in which she helped 20ish other lovely ladies train for their first triathlon. Of course she had it organized to the gills and they even had their own custom made bike jersey. It was a lot of work, but the participants were grateful for her zealous encouragement in the end.

Nothing new with me... Work hasn't changed much, which means I'm really busy, but it's good most of the time. The only thing I do have coming up is 24 hours of Moab, so I'm in full-swing training for that. Oh ya, Sarah and I went to NY 2 weeks ago to catch the NY Yankees play the Royals in the old stadium one last time. It was our first trip (but hopefully not the last), so we took in all the tourist sites. We LOVED it.

So, the latest event is that we went on our first ever family hike (sad I know) with Kristie and Drew today. I've been wanting to since May, but alas that silly time thing. We went on a 1ish mile jaunt to see Horsetooth Falls (aka the trickle) up by the Fort. The girls loved it and I hope to repeat as soon as possible. Luke liked the ride as well and passed out as we neared the end.

Ok, so I think we're all caught up. I'll let you know as soon as bubba is full-tilt on walking, but I'm sure something blog worthy will happen before then.

peace.

I want to ride my bicycle

I want to ride it wear I like... and so does Mac. She figured out how to ride it like a rock star in a matter of a couple of days and is now zooming around the neighborhood. We took our first ride together last week. It was awesome.

In other news, we've been graced with Brent and Meg's presence 2 weeks in a row. Last week, Meg joined Sarah and Kristie for the March of Dimes walk up in Cheyenne (we missed the one in Denver due to the tri). Later that afternoon, we had our first "That's What She Said" team ride on Hall Ranch. I'm not gonna lie, there was some pain involved. Brent banged his knee up and I left a piece of my forearm on the hill. Nothing a little Oscar Blue's brew couldn't fix. We also went to see a show that night of the same peeps from the movie "Once". It was in the opera house in Denver, a great venue for a great show.

This week, Meg and Brent were back for more... only this time they rolled into town with Deb, Jill and her mom, Diane. This weekend's mission was 2-fold: check off as much as possible off Meg's wedding list, and getting the sprinkler system installed in the backyard for Sarah. That's right... it was my Mother's Day present to Sarah. Thanks to some awesome help (as you can clearly see) we actually finished it too. It'll be nice to have a back yard that isn't dead... Unfortunately, Luke got sick with the flu and Sarah didn't get to go along for much of the checklisting with the ladies. But he's seemingly better this morning. So, all is nearly well in Bubba land... just as soon as we can figure out this random puking thing it'll be all good.

Oh, one more thing... Matt got a new computer and took some pics of our lovely family with it. Aren't we beautiful?



















peace.

an apple a day

Wow... 20 days since my last post. Time flies, so sorry. I've been wanting to capture this on video for quite a while and I finally did, but just with Grace. One of my favorite things to do is to watch the girls eat an apple. It's mesmerizing. Sounds odd, I know. But watching them truly enjoy every bight is priceless. It takes their full concentration to rotate the apple and find the perfect bite, over and over again.

So, this vid is Grace obviously. It's not the best example of what I'm talking about, but you get the idea. Also, you should know that she loves to put lotion on, but she never rubs it in.

In other news, Mac was accepted to every day kindergarten next year. We're really excited about this as she really wants to go and it's a lot cheaper than day care! She's already talking about school and colored her first picture tonight for one of her new friends at her new school (that she has yet to meet). She's also taking swim lessons and doing really well. She's learning to hold her breath and a few swim strokes. We signed her up for tee ball and she's stoked for that. She's also going to basketball camp this summer... and so it begins.

Grace has really turned up her speech as of late. She has whole conversations rather than just small sentences. It's great, because none of her personality is lost on this new ability... shines through the whole time, good and bad :) She's always up for playing with sissy and wants to do everything she does. Mac may like that now, but give it 10 years :) We'll be buying Grace a bike soon as she's feeling the itch to ride.

Luke keeps getting longer, but not wider... The dude will stand up if you help him, but no signs of wanting to do it by himself or wanting to take any steps. He's working with a therapist as he's behind in a few areas, but nothing of concern. He'll catch up. He's also been sick lately, but it's odd as it only seems to come on during night feedings. Can't figure it, but he's going to see the doc soon, so I'm sure they'll get him straightened out. Nevertheless, he's as content as can be.

I couldn't leave this last pic out. Sarah went to check on Grace 2 nights ago and found her like this in bed. Obviously, much better in person, but good stuff.

peace.

skiing on a leash

Howdy. It's been a while... work's been nuts, went to Euro (check Mandy's blog for the details there... awesome), and to top it off my drive that stored all my music, pics, and videos (some home vids I hadn't made to DVDs) crashed. I freaked, but luckily a program could recover it all... sweet huh? So, I'm back and I have some catching up to do.

First up is the Demmel/Raymond fam ski trip back at the end o February on Copper Mountain where Mac went skiing officially for the first time. She took lessons for a day, and then the next day we took her to the top of the mountain and skied her down on a leash. It took 2 hours for 1 run, but the important thing is that at the end she still loved it and was ready for some more. The fam in the pic are the ones you see skiing around in the video too. Good times.

The other big story of the ski trip was how Ganma D tried to kill her grand children. In a very nice gesture, she took Mac and Grace sledding. We brought a red, plastic sled that can hold them both at once. She walked them up the mountain a ways and sent them on their way. Upon looking at the situation from the bar next door, I thought Ganma was walking them pretty high up the mountain... and I noticed there was nobody down below to catch them. I saw them start flying down the mountain and skid to a stop on the brick patio. I thought that was a little dangerous (and my standards on danger are pretty loose)... but figured it was Grandma, so it had to be safe. However, I thought it'd be good to go help her out and catch the kids lest they crash into something at the bottom of the hill. On may way over there, I notice Papa was at the bottom ready to catch them just as they started another run. Papa sprinted over to the girls as they were careening towards a lift and dove on them. Evidently Mac's teeth met with his eye and he got quite the shiner. The girls were crying and Grandpa was convinced he saved them from certain injury. I agree. Of course Grandma laughs the whole thing off and thinks it was fine... but you know if I'm disagreeing it had to be bad. I will say that despite this, I still trusted her with my kids for a week while Sarah and I jet-setted across Europe... so I guess it turned out ok :)

All in all, a great trip.

peace.

Happy Birthday to You and You and You

In the spirit of big family bashes, we held all the kids' Bday partay on the same day. This year introduced Luke to the mix and he was pleased as punch. The shindig was horse themed in honor of Grace's obsession. There was pin the tail on the horsey, a horse related quiz, obviously horse decorations (My Little Pony of course), and even a carousal cake. Just about everybody took a trip to the Longmont Rec center in the afternoon where Mac started out scared of the water slide, but warmed up quick and went down about 396 times in 1 hr.

Bubba ate his first cake, which was a big hit. The big hit for Grace was the "Grace" bag she got from her aunt Mandy... she takes it everywhere, when it hasn't been put up due to her misbehavior (which it has been for a week now). Mac loved her educational gifts and the color me pony too.

All-in-all, a great weekend that even witnessed a dixie chicks siting... only this time Sarah had another partner in Jen. Here's all the pics from the historic event.

In other news, Luke is a army crawling machine. He's getting faster everyday. He has 4 teeth coming in up top, which will make 8 total. I think the dude is going through another growth spurt too as he's eating more and more... it takes a lot to feed a melon that big.

peace.