Jude starts high school

Jude is now officially a high-schooler. It was a pretty good first week by all accounts. There was not much in the way of serious work done, it was more orientation. And it was good for Jude to have had several weeks of soccer practice so he knew many people before he started.

Speaking of soccer, Jude made the JV team, which he was happy about. And they have already had three competitive games: on Monday (they won 8-0), Tuesday (they lost 2-1), and Saturday (drew 2-2). I have watched every game and Jude has played well in the midfield and he is one of the best passers on the team. Soccer is pretty serious at South with practice or a game every afternoon of the week.

Anna starts seventh grade

Anna is back at Ricks for 7th grade and was delighted to be back. She was happy to see her friends again and spent the first afternoon at Starbucks as they did last year.

Math is still her favorite subject and she was pleased to be placed in Integrated Math 1, the advanced level of Math. They introduced electives for the first time which broadens the choices available such as musical planning, candle making, and cooking/baking. She also said she might play soccer again this year but she has a full schedule with gymnastics and cheer taking up several days a week.

This weekend we didn’t do much. Jude had soccer on Saturday morning and Anna had cheer both afternoons. It was good to have a quiet weekend after the first week of school.

Walking along Gore Creek in Vail on our way to dinner

Yesterday Jude and I went to Vail to spend the night so we could get an early start on the 14er we were climbing. We decided on Mt of the Holy Cross this year as it is not that popular and is a relatively short drive from Vail past Minturn. We had a great night. We walked along the creek to get some dinner and then came back to the hotel to spend time in the hot tub. And a game of chess finished off the night.

Mt of the Holy Cross is the tallest mountain in the distance. We still had 5+ miles to go

We were up bright and early the next morning, on the road by 6am. We drove to the trailhead and were on the trail before 7am. It was a long hike, took us 4 1/2 hours to make the summit, we spent 30 minutes for lunch there and then 5 hours to get back down. Jude was patient with me because my knees, back and hips were all struggling by the end.

Made it to the summit, can you tell we are freezing?

Anna had gymnastics camp this week which she loved and she still did her XCEL evening classes as well as Cheer, so it was a busy week for her. They ended the camp with a performance on Friday afternoon.

At the end of the performance, Anna is on the right

This evening we were visited by Baba and Grandpa on a very quick trip to pick up their car. It was great to see them.

Jude is off in the 2021 Race for Research

Today was the annual Race for Research 5K to support cancer research. We all participated in memory of Brody, the son of our dear friends Jeff and Tina, who succumbed to cancer earlier this year at the age of 14.

It was a great race for Jude. We started in the second wave at 8:30am and he actually came first in our wave. He ran really well, finishing in 21:44 which was good enough for first in his age group and second overall. I had my best 5k finish since I restarted running a couple of years ago, running in 25:48.

Anna with her cheerleading team

Anna’s weekend was taken up with a lot of cheerleading. She had a four hour training yesterday and today another two hours. She loves it and always comes home energized and talking all about it. She is still doing gymnastics and wants to do both for this year. As long as he school work doesn’t suffer we are ok with it.

The big project this weekend was clearing out our basement. After it flooded a few weeks ago we have dug up a lot of the carpet and we have since found out we have asbestos. So, on Wednesday of this week they are coming to do mitigation. And then we will deal with the flooding.

Anna wanted to go shopping at Ikea this week for bedroom furnishings

Jude makes everyone laugh at River Run in Keystone

We were back from our RV trip less than 24 hours when we left for our annual trip to Keystone with the Dahlens. With commitments for all five kids this was the week that worked best, so we ventured up to the mountains last Sunday afternoon.

Jude teeing off at the Rover Course at Keystone

It was another great week. The first day was low key as everyone was a bit tired after so much driving to get here. Tuesday, Nathan and I played golf at our local course, the River, and then all the kids except Lily came out to join us for nine holes in the evening. It was a rainy day so we had the course pretty much to ourselves. The kids were unfazed by the rain.

Anna, Chloe, Ella and Mandy taking a break from their hike

As we do every year, Nathan and I played 36 holes of golf one day so the others went on separate hikes. Marcy, Jude and Lily all tackled Buffalo Mountain while Anna, Chloe, Ella and Mandy went on a less challenging hike nearby. They all met up for lunch at Chimayo afterwards.

Lily and Marcy on the Buffalo Mountain hike

We ate well all week. We cooked in pretty much every night and had a variety of treats as well. It was great to see the Dahlen girls create great dessert snacks with chocolate and nuts. And we had s’mores one night, not over an open fire mind you, just on the electric stovetop. The kids held their marshmallows close and they cooked just like a real fire.

Enjoying s’mores on the deck

We also went to the Farmers Market in Dillon one day, went wading in the river and went for walks around Keystone. It was all over too quickly but everyone agreed it was a great week.

The annual ritual photo under the kitchen island, this time with Olive