Anna had nebulizer treatments multiple times every day this week

It has been nearly a year and a half since Anna has had a bad enough respiratory illness that she needed the nebulizer. But on Tuesday morning this week Anna had a bad night coughing badly and her breath was really ragged. So, rather than wait and see how she did we decided to get aggressive and start her treatments right away. This meant keeping Anna home from school for three days and giving her treatments several times a day. And by the weekend she was pretty much back to normal.

Reading on a Saturday morning

Over the past few years I have spent many hundreds of hours reading with both kids sitting on my lap. It is one of my favorite things to do, but they are both getting so big now I am not sure how much longer we will be doing that. So, I asked Marcy to take this photo above.

Jude after his first flag football game of the season (that’s the mouthguard, not blue teeth)

Today was the first day of the the flag football season for Jude. He enjoyed the game, particularly given the fact that he scored his team’s only touchdown of the game.

Anna sporting her new visor

Playing one of their endless games in the basement

Most of the time Jude and Anna get along great. They will sometimes play together in the basement for hours creating imaginary games and adventures with their toys. These adventures will both have them sharing ideas with a sentence that begins with “How ’bout…”. It has become a bit of a standing joke with Marcy and I as we listen to them going back and forth with their games. This morning was one of those times. We had a quiet morning and Jude and Anna went down to the basement for several hours playing with their toys and once again creating these rich imaginary worlds.

Marcy and Anna share a kiss during a break in Jude’s soccer game

Today marked the start of Jude’s touch football season, although it was just a practice today, there was no game. For the next several weeks he is going to have soccer on Saturday and football on Sunday. While we were at Jude’s soccer game on Saturday Marcy snapped this really cute selfie of her and Anna above.

In front of Big Ben and Parliament House in London

I spent most of this week in London as we are gearing up for the next LendIt conference there is a few weeks. We stayed right across the river from Big Ben.

Jude in action in the first game of the fall season

After several weeks of practice, this weekend marked the opening of the soccer season. Jude is playing in a more competitive league this season with six players a side including a goalie. He enjoyed the game although he would liked to have had more playing time. With 10 players on the team he spends almost as much time on the sideline as he did on the field.

Jude showing off his new library books

Jude is settling in to school well. Every day when he comes home now he says that school was great. They are learning the Jewish traditions and holidays, so now Jude wants to do Shabbat on Friday nights where we bless some bread and have grape juice. He is also playing the viola now and this week the school library was opened to him for first time. He loves books and was excited to be able to go there and check out books. He has been practicing his reading every day and this weekend started reading through his new library books.

On the annual school field trip to Berry Patch Farms

Anna is also enjoying school. I chatted with her teacher this week, who Anna loves, and said that Anna is very engaged and is one of the most friendly students in the class. She is very inclusive and goes out of her way to make the others feel at home. She also says she enjoys school.

Last week they did the annual field trip to Berry Patch Farms. I think Anna has been there every year since she was two years old, because she used to tag alone with Jude’s preschool class back in the day. All the first graders picked berries and played on the farm equipment there.

Today, was the start of the football season and Jude was excited to see the Packers play and I was excited for the Broncos. But before there was any football we had to get out and do some exercise. I took Jude to the soccer field and we played a 30-minute one-on-one game (it is quite the workout for both of us). Then I came back and took Anna to the ice skating rink. Then we watched some football.

Jude and me on top of Grays Peak at 14,270′

In Colorado we have these mountains that we call fourteeners. These are mountains that are all 14,000 feet above sea level, there are 54 of them. Marcy and I have done several of these hikes individually and together, and we started talking about doing a family fourteener this summer. We decided that Anna was still a bit young for it so Jude and I took up the challenge.

We had a practice hike up a 13,000 foot mountain a few weeks back and Jude did great. So, I thought he was ready for the ultimate Colorado hiking challenge. Last night Jude and I drove up to Keystone and stayed at the condo. Then at first light this morning we were off to the trailhead.

On the way up Grays Peak at around 13,300′

It was cold when we started at 7:15am. Very cold. The car said 35 degrees as we were parking but there was a stiff breeze so with wind chill it was a lot colder than that. But Jude did great. He did not complain once and was a trooper even when the wind really picked up near the summit. We arrive at the summit at 11:30am, Jude was thrilled to have made it to the top on his first try. He was given a lot of encouragement from all the other hikers as he was one of the youngest on the mountain.

We made it back to the car at around 3:10pm and Jude skipped/ran the last 100 yards when he saw the car. I think I was in worse shape than he was at that point.

While we were doing our hike Marcy spent the day with Anna. They did lots of bike riding, partly because one of our cars is still having repairs for hail damage. One of the many places they rode today was to get their nails done. This is becoming a favorite activity for Marcy and Anna when I am out with Jude.

At the nail salon