At the summit of Mt Morrison near Denver

This week started off with me heading to a hotel room because of the need to get up very early for our Europe event. With two mornings in a row of 3am wake-ups I needed to go to bed early and get uninterrupted sleep. Our event started at 3:45am Denver time from our office so it was a challenging start to the week.

The event went well and I was happy to be able to sleep in and take Wednesday off. Marcy and I decided to do a hard hike in the foothills, Mt Morrison, with Olive. It was challenging near the summit and we had to carry Olive over a few rocks where there was no foothold for four feet of smooth rock face, but she did great overall.

Out two cute kitties at the park

Jude had all week off school for fall break and Anna’s break started at lunchtime on Wednesday. Jude and Marcy did the Incline on Tuesday (Marcy did it in 38:53 and even beat Jude to the top). Anna decided to do some face painting one day with some cat whiskers. Then one day they tossed an egg up in the air and then headed it – just because.

The result of “heading” an egg

This weekend was pretty quiet. Jude had a day of refereeing on Saturday while Anna went to a friend’s house to work on Halloween outfits. Today, we had an arctic blast of winter with a top temperature of 16 degrees. We had about 3″ of snow with more coming overnight tomorrow. Jude’s school has already been canceled for tomorrow.

Olive playing with her BFF Zoe at the park

Olive, of course, loved the snow. She could spend all day out there playing in it. Of all the dogs she plays with at the park, her current favorite is Zoe, a 9-month-old lab who lives down the block.

At the top of the Manitou Incline

This weekend we decided to do something active. It had been a while since we did the Manitou Incline as it was closed down for several months this summer because of Covid. They opened back up a few weeks ago with a reservation system which actually made it more enjoyable as there were fewer people on the climb.

Marcy and Anna reaching the top

The Manitou Include goes up 2,000 vertical feet in less than a mile. It is basically 2,768 steps straight up without a break at average grade of 45% (getting as steep as 68%). It is such a great workout. Jude crushed it climbing to the top in 31:28, I also did pretty well in 48:01, beating my record from March by six minutes. Marcy stayed back with Anna who was having second thoughts halfway up but she pushed through to make it to the top a second time.

The obligatory family photo at the top of the Incline

There are bunch of doodle-mix dogs around us these days. There is often an impromptu doodle-fest at the park around mid-morning and Olive loves playing with the other dogs.

Meeting up with Olive’s friends at the park

Today was a very chilly morning, humid and 38 degrees. Jude had his soccer game and was unfazed. He had to be convinced to take a jacket and hat. He had another solid game and scored his first goal of the season in their 2-1 victory.

Anna with her birthday cheesecake and 12 candles

Anna turned 12 on Wednesday. She got to call the shots, apart from having to go to school, of course, and she decided on a cheesecake instead of a regular birthday cake. Marcy does make a fantastic cheesecake so we all enjoyed her birthday dessert. She decided she wanted steak and baked potatoes for dinner.

Showing off the birthday cake

Anna decided she wanted a birthday party this year. It was going to be an afternoon party with an early dinner. Anna and Marcy spent a lot of Saturday making a special rainbow cake for the birthday dinner. But no candles on this cake, one of the bummers about the new world we live in.

Playing games in the backyard

Anna had an afternoon of games organized and judging by all the laughing and screaming they all had a good time. She decided on Marczyk’s burgers for dinner and, of course, a delicious rainbow cake for dessert.

A birthday dinner with close friends

Finally, Jude has been playing with the Rubik’s cube for the past month. He watched some YouTube videos to help figure out how to solve it. And now he has been working on solving it fast. His record before this weekend was 1:45 and after many timed tries he managed to get his time to solve it down to 58 seconds.

Jude has become quite the expert at solving the Rubik’s cube

At the TV studio where the big LendIt conference took place

I have been insanely busy the last few weeks (which is why it has been a while since our last update) with our big annual LendIt conference. It happened this past Tuesday to Thursday at a TV studio in Denver. It went pretty well and it was great when Marcy and the kids came down after it was all over and got to see how it all came together.

Jude in his refereeing uniform

Jude is back refereeing again. He passed his exam in February but them the pandemic hit and all spring soccer was canceled. Now, they have started back up again and Jude is doing a couple of games every weekend. The pay is excellent once you become fully qualified, he gets $25 a game and the little kids (U9 or U10) are over in a bit more than an hour. For a 13-year-old that is great money. But the most important thing is that he really likes doing it.

Anna washing my car

Anna has been doing some babysitting but she is keen to earn more money. So, this weekend she washed both Marcy’s and my car (including vacuuming) and she mowed the front and back lawns. She is saving up for her own iPad mini and with the work she has been doing she is already 15% of the way there.

Anna has also started cheerleading class. She really missed gymnastics and they still hadn’t restarted classes at DU yet so Anna went searching for cheerleading classes and found one down in Highlands Ranch. So far, she loves it.

Helping out with some computer work

Marcy has been doing some volunteer work for the election. And we know Olive likes to stick close so she tried to help Marcy with her work.