Back in MN

The flight was good and we're back home now. The river is only part way up our back yard and isn't forecast to rise any higher in the near future.

The next two weeks will be a little crazy with Holly's year end and us trying to get back in the groove after vacation.

Great Timing

What great skiing the past few days. New snow with decent temps and very little wind. Vail Thursday with Holly. Vail Friday with Beth and Geoff. Beaver Creek Saturday with Beth, Geoff and Kalie. Vail Sunday with Kalie and then Lilly for the last hour after ski school.

Lilly progressed to the next level each day of skiing. By the end her class was skiing at the top of the mountain. Very fun to see her take to it that well and really have fun.

Here's some pictures of skiing:

Aunt B and Lilly before ski school:


Beth and Geoff at the top of Blue Sky Basin:


Beth and I in the same place:


Kalie by the buildings at the top of Blue Sky Basin:


Lilly and I on the lift:


Lilly:


Lilly with the mountains in the background:

Great Ski Day

Wow, what a great day. Beth, Geoff and I skied the entire day at Vail. With over 2 feet of new snow.

Afterward we skied down and sprung Lilly from ski school and did a few runs with her. Here's a video I took with my phone while skiing. It turned out really well.

Colorado

Our flight from Minneapolis to the Eagle/Vail airport went well. Lilly was great! She met a friend named Millie who's family was headed to Vail from Connecticut. Here's Lilly on the luggage belt in the Vail airport:



Lilly didn't sleep on the plane but did catch a nap on the 30 minute drive to Vail from the airport:



As of now (Thursday evening) Vail mountain has gotten over 24" of snow in the last two days. Powder!



Lilly's first day of ski school went really well! She loved it and even moved up a class for tomorrow. They had jelly sandwiches and pizza rolls for lunch. They have to walk through the rainbow to enter school:



Now the bad news. Actually, good news considering what could have been the outcome. On the last run of the day Holly fell and heard a "pop" in her knee. She got a ride down the mountain by the ski patrol and was taken to Vail Valley Medical Center. What a great hospital and what great people. After some twisting and prodding the doctor determined it was only a sprain and wasn't a ligament tear. Whew... So her trip is over (at least skiing wise), but at least her summer isn't.

The guy next to us in the ER was snowboarding and broke his femur in two places. Yikes.

To Higher Ground

We're off to Vail, CO tomorrow AM. The mountains have been getting snow so it sounds like the conditions will be great. A little last minute packing tonight, fresh wax on Holly's skis and we should be ready. Lilly has been pumped all day and has talked to her friends many times about the airplane ride to Vail.

Here's Lilly displaying her Rosie the Riveter T:



Hopefully we won't return to a basement full of carp. The river is almost into our yard and according to flood forecasting by NOAA, still has 6 feet to rise. Works out well that this was the year I was lazy and didn't pull in the dock and boat lift. Below is the observation/forecast of the charting station on the bridge behind our house.



For reference:
Our basement floor is at 847 feet above sea level. The 100-year flood high was 843 in 1967. The highest levels in recent history were 840 in 1997 and 839 in 2001.

Boo is Going to Grandma's

Here's a picture of Lilly after falling asleep last night:



This morning's service was run by Sheltered Reality, a drum group founded in Iowa. Very cool, very loud, and a great message. Here's Lilly after the show:



We went down to Rochester to meet my parents and drop Boo off with them. He's staying with them for the next two weeks so we can head to Colorado. We played at a park for an hour and then had dinner. My dad looks fantastic after loosing weight. Go dad!

"It's Good to Be Alive"

What a great day to be outside. I took off for an afternoon ride with the temperatures in the mid 50's. There were over 20 riders at the shop ready to get out of their basements and on the road. It's good to see everyone again. Mike, Dave, Dave, Neil, Jorge, Retro Joe, Melinda, Amy, Tom C, Larry, Andy, Al, Dan, Perry, Madonna, Pat, Erik, CJ, JayT, Jay's friend, Kim. Some did the 144 and some took the longer route which ended up being about 50 miles by the time I got home.

Lilly played outside all afternoon and loved it.

Tonight we started packing for Vail. Only a few days away. One minute I'm gushing about how nice it is to be biking again and then next I'm packing for a ski trip.

I found out today my dad has lost 66 lbs on his diet. 66! He's shooting for another 40. That is AWESOME!

It's Spring!

Holly pointed out that it snowed on the 1st day of spring.

Lilly's class had fire saftey day and got to tour a fire engine and talk to real fire fighters. Fun!



We rode outside yesterday. I thought temps in the 30's would be cold but I was plenty warm. Neil's bell let us know exactly what the situation on the road was at the time:

• 1 ring = "all clear" or was it "slow down"?


• 2 rings = "car back"


• 3 rings = "all clear" or was it "slow down" or was it 1 ring + 2 rings


• 4 rings = "construction equipment ahead"


• constant ringing = "I'm going over railroad tracks" or "annoyed teammates"

Dave Will was there and said he rode outside the entire winter. "Nothing inside," he said. Wow. I'd still be frozen to the core.

The indoor spinning season is over and everyone met after their ride/spin to wish Paul good luck as he ships out to Iraq again. Good luck Paul. Thank you.

Bike Riding and Fun Outside

Holly headed out on her first outside ride of the year. It was so warm she had to shed a layer of clothes in the park! Lilly and I took the bike and trailer out for a ride to the dam to play at the park.




We went right outside after we got home and played with the neighborhood kids. Here's a picture of us playing "Human Tic-Tac-Toe":



It was one of those Minnesota spring days when everyone is outside.

PPP, Outside Riding, Amy's Party

The morning started off with Holly and I heading over to Elm Creek to volunteer (Holly) and participate (me) in the Pole Pedal Pant Winter Triathlon. The weather was perfect. Any warmer and the course would have been mashed potatoes. Here are the results. I had the 8th fastest ski, the 5th fastest bike and the 4th fastest run netting me 4th place overall. I was pretty happy with my performance. The entire event was run well and I'm guessing will only grow at the new metro venue. Nice work Amy and volunteers. The only bummer of the event was Neil was forced to give back the megaphone.

After lunch and a family nap Holly and Lilly went to a movie and I headed out for a group ride in the 50+ degree weather. It was a great day to be out with some great guys but unfortunately I was pretty shot from the morning and kind of rode in my own little world. At one point towards the end of the ride I was bonking pretty bad and really wet and cold and Russ had a flat tire. I had say, "Goodbye," and keep riding as I was loosing heat really quickly. Thanks guys for great ride and sorry I wasn't a great riding partner that day.

Holly and Lilly got home shortly after I did and we all went down to Amy's for an after race party. Mike and Amy are great hosts - we always have a good time with them.

Game On

Today after work I went and ran the 7k bike and run loop of this weekend's PPP Triathlon. The snow really helped the course. It's all snowpack with almost no ice. If it holds up for tomorrow, it'll be perfect. What a difference from this past weekend.

Busy week for Lilly with 2 sessions of Twinklers (gymnastics), swim class and Ice is Nice.

Our niece Alicia and Grandma Shonna (Holly's mom) are coming up tomorrow for a college visit to the U of M and to shop for a prom dress.

Trail Run

Holly joined Madonna for a 3-hour spin class at Lifetime this morning. They had intervals and such to keep interesting for the entire 3hrs and 10 minutes. What a workout.

Lilly and I went to church. They were sold out of doughnuts again!

After lunch a troop of 4 neighbor kids came over to play. We played a little bit of the "monster game" and Zingo.

I ran the 7k multi-purpose loop at Elm Creek with Boo. This is the loop to be featured in both the bike and run in Saturday's Pole Pedal Pant triathlon. If conditions are the same it'll be a slippery run and a dangerous bike (w/o studs).

I was leaning back at my computer chair and when leaning back forward brought the chair leg down on Boo's paw. Poor guy is limping around the house now. Awwww...Boo. I'm sorry buddy.

Outside Riding!

March 7th - my first outside group ride of the season. And what a great ride. We did the 144 and had lunch and beers afterward at BW3. Andy was meeting Ryan (a crew member from last years' TSH team) to discuss crewing for them this year. It was very cool to see him again - he'll be a great addition. It sounds like they're getting close to having all their crew filled. Jeez, last year we signed on Ryan only a couple weeks before the race and he made the 6th member!

It was great to see friends I haven't seen for 5 months.

Here's a picture in front of BW3 after the ride:



Everyone rode great today.

Team Strong Clown Makes a Movie

All of Team Strong Heart showed up at Elm Creek this evening to shoot a video showcasing the trail of the 20th annual Pole Pedal Pant winter triathlon. Melinda skied into the transition and tagged me. I biked a tiny loop and tagged Amy. She ran a little loop and brought it home for the finish. We were all in our TSH skisuits. Wearing Melinda's size small, baby blue helmet while in my skin tight race suit made me feel like I'm all man.

I planned on skiing so after production ended on the next Bond movie I set the goal of skiing 8 loops (20k). It was slushy snow and fairly fast skiing. About halfway through I saw someone in shorts! Actually it was Amy in her skisuit back for some skiing. "Since I was in the neighborhood," she says. We skied the last 10k together and talked. We agreed it was interesting how we take for granted the people who are closest to us. Easily one of the best skis I've had this year.

Ruby

Lilly and I had swim class after work/preschool and headed over to Wade and Stacee's to see their new daughter Ruby (born on Valentine's Day). Wade had mentioned at work that tonight would be the first time at home with both kids so Lilly and I brought a pizza over and played for a while. Ruby had me convinced that 2 kids isn't very hard as she slept in her bouncy seat for almost the entire 2 hours we were there. She only woke up when Stacee came home and she heard mom's voice.

We also went over to see the new addition to their house (straight up). They added a 2nd floor to their rambler. All the while they were pregnant/giving birth to their 2nd child and Wade is in MBA school two nights a week and work has been a little crazy for him too. Sheesh...

Ready for Spring

It is light out now until well after 6:00. Spring is coming. At first I was hoping for snow to extend the ski season but now I'm hoping for warm. Lilly even said, "I like spring. It's when the birds come back."

It has been 75 degrees the last few days in Denver. Sometimes that's hard to look at.

Weekend in Iowa

"Is this heaven?"
"No. It's Iowa."

We headed to Iowa this weekend for three visits. The first was to see Cory and Lacey and little baby Ellie. Cory was my college roommate and best man in our wedding. Their baby Ellie had a congenital heart defect that had to be surgically repaired when she was just 2 weeks old. The surgery went well and she was bright-eyed and happy this weekend. It was nice to finally get to meet Lacey and very fun to meet the new family in their (in progress) new house.

The second visit was staying the night with my Grandma. She looked great and seemed in good spirits. Here's a picture of her and Lilly doing a puzzle:



Grandma had 95% of it done when we arrived and Lilly and Holly helped finish it off. We stayed Saturday night and went to church Sunday morning. Grandma helped keep Lilly in line until the doughnut portion of the service. We had doughnuts and coffee in the fellowship hall with my uncle Jerel, a future ham radio operator.

The third visit was meeting Kecia and Tim in Ames to have lunch and see their new house. Lunch was great at Stomping Grounds. They haven't closed yet on their new place but we could walk around and peek in the windows. It is a great little brick one-story in a nice, quiet Ames neighborhood. It is always good to see them again.