About to head off for the first day of freshman year

Anna was first to start school this week as the freshmen class went back on Monday. She had a good first week, she enjoyed most of her classes and she made some new friends. And funnily enough, Anna was able to move up to Math 3 and ended up in the same class as Jude.

Jude towers over Marcy on the first day of his junior year

Jude started Tuesday and he also had a good first week. They ease the kids back into it after the summer so no major homework or tests on the first week.

Cheerleading for the first South High football game

The Varsity cheerleading team at South has been practicing for weeks and they had their first outing on Thursday. It was the varsity football team’s first game and they were on the sidelines doing their cheerleading. There was a big crowd, probably almost 1,000 people including several hundred South High kids. Anna did great, it looked like they had been doing it all season.

The boys varsity soccer team celebrating after their 2-0 win against Lakewood

On Friday night Jude had a soccer game at Lakewood. It was 60 degrees and pouring rain, so it was miserable conditions at least for the spectators. Jude didn’t mind it at all. He came on as a substitute after about 80 minutes and his first touch was a goal! His first varsity goal and more importantly it secured the 2-0 win for his team.

One of the many great things about playing on varsity is that every game is streamed live and recorded. Here is the clip with his goal:

Jude in the opening game of the 2023 Ravens season

Jude made the varsity soccer team at South and they opened the season this week at home (I think it is strange that the sports season starts before officially starting school). Jude started the first game at right back. It was a tough game and South lost 1-0 to Heritage. Jude played well in the first half but struggled a little in the second. The pace of the game is so much faster than JV and it will take a little while to get used to I expect. They played their second game at Thunder Ridge on Saturday and that was another tough 1-0 loss, made worse by the fact that South was clearly the better team.

On Friday night we went to Marczyk’s burger night, something we haven’t done since before the pandemic. When we lived in Park Hill we used to go regularly but it takes more effort now that it is a 15+ minute drive instead of a 5-minute walk. The burgers are still delicious.

Ed Sheeran in full swing at Mile High Stadium

On Saturday night Marcy and Anna went to see Ed Sheeran. After a little bit of a ticket snafu (which was resolved) and a rain/lightning delay, he finally came on around 10pm. They both loved it, although he comes a distant second to the Taylor Swift concerts from last month.

Jude comes in 1st in his age group at the Race for Research 5K

This morning Jude and I did the annual Race for Research 5K. We both ran well, Jude did it in 21:14, his second fastest 5K time and I recorded my fastest since getting serious about running again four years ago: 25:24. Jude won his age group, and was 8th overall, and I was 3rd in the 50-59 category.

We also undertook another big backyard project this weekend. We are getting new fiber-optic internet and they need to get it to the house from the alley. So, we dug a one-foot deep trench in our yard for it.

On the summit of Mount Massive, the second-highest mountain in Colorado

Looking at the view about 2/3 of the way up the mountain

It was a long hike, just under 8 miles to the summit. It was a gentle slope most of the way up, but it got a little steep near the summit. The views were spectacular, we could see for hundreds of miles. We got back to the car around 2:45pm, so just under eight hours of hiking with 30 minutes at the top.

Anna with one of her best friends from Cheer

Anna had a cheerleading team bonding event at her gym that was called a “foam party”. We didn’t really know what to expect but they basically filled part of the parking lot with foam and let the kids go nuts. They had a blast.

My good friend Ron Suber hosted a summer party at his house

On Friday night, Marcy and I went to a summer party at the Subers. Ron is a good friend from the fintech space and he moved to Denver a couple of years ago. He has a beautiful house by Cheesman Park and it was a fun time.