Anna’s pizza party with her school friends

Anna turns 13 on Thursday of this coming week but the celebrations have already begun. Today, Anna decided to have a few friends over for a pizza party and Marcy made eight individual cheesecakes as per Anna’s request.

Anna getting ready for her first game of refereeing

Yesterday, Anna had her first day of refereeing. She had three games in the morning refereeing for U9 and U10 boys. She enjoyed it and did really well. One of the parents even complimented her on doing a great job. So, she will be doing this most Saturdays until the end of the season now.

At the Broncos vs Ravens game

Today Jude and I went to the Broncos game. It was a gorgeous day so we rode our bikes down to the stadium. The Broncos were a bit outmatched by the Ravens so we did not have a win but it was fun to see Lamar Jackson in action.

Marcy and Anna at The Gold Over America Tour

Tonight Marcy and Anna went downtown to see Simone Biles and the US Olympic Gymnastics Team, along with several other accomplished gymnasts in action at The Gold Over America Tour. The show is described as a celebration of powerful female athletes that celebrates the pure joy of performing. It was just that with great music and inspiring narrative threaded throughout the show.

Anna in action on the soccer field

Anna has been asking about taking up refereeing for some time. Jude has been doing it for two years now and loves it. And while Anna doesn’t have the same passion for the sport that Jude does she has been playing it for many years now. She is on the team at Ricks and is playing every Monday and Wednesday.

So, on Saturday morning, while Marcy was driving Jude to his refereeing games I drove Anna to her day of training. She was given five minutes of training and then told to shadow with the regular referee (a 13-year-old girl). Anna really enjoyed it and so we signed her up. And she will have her first games refereeing solo this coming Saturday.

Jude practicing tricks in the park

Jude refereed four games yesterday but today was all about practicing his soccer tricks. He spent a lot of time in the park today (several hours) mostly by himself. He broke his record for juggling (884) and he completed a new trick for the first time. And he practiced some of the tricks he had already done before. In the morning we watched Arsenal have a good win and both the Broncos and Packers won so he was a happy camper by the end of the day.

Anna getting ready for her social – western theme

On Friday night Anna had her school social and it sounds like she had a really nice time. She was certainly dressed for it.

Jude doing soccer tricks in the park as the sun goes down

We finally got our house back this week with all the sewer work done and the dirt removed from our basement. Now, we have to decide what we will do exactly with a blank slate to work from. We are thinking of making a few changes.

It was a busy weekend for all of us. Jude refereed four soccer games on Saturday, earning himself $100. Not bad for a day’s work for a 14-year-old. I was Jude’s taxi driver, picking him up and taking him to lunch. Anna cleaned my car, this has become her job since I have been renting it out on Turo (we only need one car most of the time). She also kept busy with Cheer on Saturday and gymnastics on Sunday.

This morning we tried a new church, one that Anna had researched and wanted to try. It was the Unitarian Universalist Church and it was a lovely service. This afternoon we spent a good chunk of time in the basement setting up the washer and dryer on new pedestals that Marcy purchased.

Jude, as always, spent time in the park working on his soccer game. He has been trying to do this “round the world” trick with his left foot for some time and he finally nailed it this afternoon.

Anna shows what a mess our backyard is in

A couple of months ago we had some flooding in our basement. For a couple of years we had noticed some water bubbling out of the basement toilet or shower drain. We have had people out to look at it but no one had a definitive answer as to what was wrong. Then when we had this major flooding we knew we had to take action. We got several opinions and realize we needed to redo our sewer lines which should have been replaced by the builders but were not.

Mud, torn up concrete and big holes in the basement

So, this week they dug up the old sewer lines all the way from the alley to our basement toilet. So, we now have shiny, new 4″ lines that will hopefully last us for decades. Now, we have to decide what to do with our torn-up basement and backyard. We are thinking of using this opportunity to make some changes.

Jude swinging the sledgehammer at our neighbors house

This weekend Jude started refereeing again. They have a big shortage of referees in Colorado right now so Jude can take as much work as he wants. He did three games on Saturday morning.

Anna had Cheer Sunday afternoon and this morning Anna and Jude went across the road to our neighbors house to help demolish a 40-year-old playhouse in their backyard. And football season started so Jude and I spent the afternoon cheering on the Broncos. And they actually looked good.

Near the summit of Gray Wolf Mountain, Mt Evans in the background

On Saturday, it was our 17-year wedding anniversary, and Marcy and I decided we wanted to spend the day in the mountains. I found a trail that I thought would be great, not too crowded on a holiday weekend but also close to Denver and challenging.

Olive had a blast running all over the mountain (Marcy is in the distance)

The Gray Wolf Mountain hike looked like it would fit the bill. It sure did. We got to the trailhead by about 10am and there were only about five cars. This hike started on a well-defined trail that slowly became less defined and then disappeared altogether once you hit treeline. We arrived at the false summit (that we thought was the actual summit) just after 1:30pm. After lunch and a nice, long break it was time to head back. We got back to the car around 5:15pm.

Near Gray Wolf Mountain summit

We only saw six people all day and none after 11am. We had the entire mountain to ourselves. We didn’t quite make the summit but where we stopped had magnificent views and was a comfortable place for lunch.

We didn’t arrive home until almost 6:30pm, so this was the longest time away from the kids while they were at home. They seemed to have a good time and were not that excited to see us. We had a lovely sushi dinner with a good bottle of champagne. It was a memorable anniversary celebration.

Olive has found a new place to keep cool on hot days…in the strawberry patch

The rest of the long weekend was pretty low-key. Marcy did a ton of work getting ready for the workers coming to start on our basement tomorrow morning. They are digging it up to put in new sewer lines replacing the old ones that were not done to code. This should stop our basement from flooding.

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

Anna dissecting a cow’s heart at her NYLF camp

Last week was our big road trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. But before that Anna finished up her STEM camp as part of the National Youth Leadership Forum. She loved it and wants to do it again next year. They did all kinds of interesting science projects including dissecting a cow’s heart and learning about snake bites.

Settling in at Brooks Lake Campground

Then it was off on our road trip. Last Sunday we rented an RV and drove to Wyoming, just outside Grand Teton National Park to Brooks Lake Campground inside Shoshone National Forest. It was a beautiful and secluded location. Our campground had just 13 spots, and was right on a lake surrounded by spectacular cliffs.

Family hike from our campground to Jade Lake and Rainbow Lake

Our first day we went on a family hike. There were several beautiful lakes in the area and we found a hike that visited some of them. We hardly saw another person all day, nor did we see any bears (but we had the bear spray ready just in case). It was a hot, dry hike that included parts of the Continental Divide Trail and we were all happy to be done after a bit over five hours on the trail.

Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park

Our second day we jumped in the car (sans RV) and drove into Grand Teton National Park. We had planned to go canoeing and hiking but soon learned that dogs were not able to hike inside the national park, only on the paved trails. And Jenny Lake was super crowded. So, we drove to Jackson for lunch and then came back in the afternoon when it was less crowded. Jude, Anna and I rented a canoe and paddled across the lake where we went for a quick swim, while Marcy walked with Olive where they were allowed.

Playing chess at the campsite

The next day we broke camp at Brooks Lake and drove through Yellowstone to an RV camp outside the western end of the national park in Idaho called Henry’s Lake State Park. We stopped a couple of times but many of the places were closed to RVs so we left them until the next day. Ojo Caliente was our first exposure to a Yellowstone hot spring and it was quite something.

The Ojo Caliente hot spring in Lower Geyser Basin

After receiving some advice from the RV park managers we decided to take it easy the next day and leave for Yellowstone in the afternoon. This meant we could go out in the kayaks on Henry’s Lake before heading to Yellowstone around 2:30pm.

Jude wins the “kayak duel” with Marcy on Henry’s Lake

Waiting until the afternoon proved to be a good move. There was no line to get into the park and it was not crowded at all. We saw the Upper Yellowstone Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the painted pots which were really cool and then we had dinner in Canyon Lodge.

Upper Yellowstone Falls, the largest waterfall in the national park

We were keeping an eye on the expected times for Old Faithful and we decided to head there right after dinner for the 7:38pm eruption. Sure enough, at right around that time Old Faithful erupted probably 100 feet in the air right in front of us. There was not much of a crowd so we had a great view.

Riding a see saw with Old Faithful still erupting in the background

Even though it was late we still wanted to catch one of the other real draws of Yellowstone. The Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin is spectacular. We caught it right at sunset and the colors were amazing, rich orange, blue water and steam rising everywhere. It felt like we were on a different planet.

The Grand Prismatic Hot Spring was spectacular

We started the long journey home yesterday. Driving south through Idaho we saw the western side of the Grand Tetons. We drove almost 400 miles  all the way to Saratoga Hot Springs in southern Wyoming where we set up the RV in the dark. Then today, after a quick dip in the hot springs we drove home the scenic route which ended up being longer than anticipated because of a mudslide near Granby. We got home around 7pm and in less than 24 hours we will headed to Keystone for our annual week with the Dahlens.