The Rentons and Dahlens on the bridge at River Run over the Snake River in Keystone

We are just back from a week in Keystone with the Dahlens. It was another great week but this one was a little more eventful than usual.

On Monday, we went our separate ways, with Nathan and me riding our bikes up to Montezuma and back – a great workout and we managed to just avoid the rain.

Tuesday, Marcy, Jude and Lily got up early to tackle Buffalo Mountain. This is the large mountain that overlooks Lake Dillon and dominates the Summit County skyline. Unfortunately, the mountain was in clouds in the morning so visibility wasn’t great. Then they stumbled across some mountain goats near the summit. These goats were not friendly at all and were protecting their young kids and looked like they might even attack them, so Marcy made the wise decision to turn back.

At the top of the Spruce Creek Loop hike outside Breckenridge

Anna wasn’t feeling well (she had pink eye) but the rest of us (including Olive) went on a shorter hike outside Breckenridge. It was a beautiful day for a hike and the lakes at the top were stunning.

Ella and Olive leading the way down with Bald Mountain in clouds in the background

We were all back before lunch and then Nathan, Jude and I went to play golf at The River Course. We had a great time until the 16th hole. That is the steepest hole on the course and there is one turn that doesn’t have speed bumps. I took the turn too fast and ended up flipping the cart. I was a little banged up but Nathan was ok thankfully. Jude watched the whole thing from the other cart.

Wednesday was the rafting day in Buena Vista. I had already volunteered to stay back with Olive as everyone wanted to do a full day this time. They had a blast even though both Jude and Ella ended up in the river at some point. They were both rescued quickly.

Thursday was July 4 and we headed out to Echo Lake for a short hike outside Idaho Springs. Then we wandered around the town of Idaho Springs as they were getting ready for a day of festivities. Then it was back to Keystone where we went to see what was happening in River Run. It was not crowded at all as there was no July 4 bike parade any more.

Anna and Lily paddleboarding on Lake Dillon

Friday is always the Dillon Farmers Market. They have such great food so we all had an early lunch there. Nathan, Jude, and Ella rode their bikes, although it was a super windy morning. That afternoon a few of us went paddleboarding at Lake Dillon. That night was the traditional last-night dinner at Dos Locos.

The traditional photo of the five cousins

It was all over very quickly and this morning we all made our way home. For us, our next holiday begins tomorrow on our Colorado road trip to the southwest of the state and Mesa Verde National Park.

The traditional photo of the five cousins around the pool

Last weekend, we drove to West Des Moines, Iowa, for the annual summer trip. It was a great week. As always Baba had the kids doing all kinds of fun things. There was bowling, a movie afternoon, a trip to Adventureland (Marcy did that one, with Anna and Ella) and lots of games and time in the pool.

Ella and Anna on the train at Adventureland

Jude decided he wanted to play golf with Nathan and me for the first time in Iowa. So, we took one morning and hit the golf course. We also watched Ella compete in a swim meet while we were there. She had the whole crew cheering her on.

Jude being goofy, wearing Olive’s food toy

It was over too soon as we drove back on Friday so Anna could attend the cheerleading skills camp that started on Saturday.

Olive might look happy but she hates long car rides

After the long car ride on Friday, it was a quiet weekend. Anna loved being at skills camp, which continues this week. Also, Anna received big news just before the trip to Iowa. She did the lifeguarding course at DU over Mother’s Day weekend and has applied to many jobs since then. She heard that she got the job at the Buck Recreation Center in Littleton. She has a shadow day on Monday and her shifts will start in mid-July. She is very excited.

Jude, Olive and me on the summit of Windy Peak at around 9,400 feet

It was another stinking hot day today so Jude and I decided to beat the heat and head out for a morning hike. We did a loop around Windy Peak in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It was a perfect morning to be on the trail.

At the Walker Mansion ruins on the Mt Falcon trail

It was a beautiful long weekend here in Denver and the three of us had so special plans. Marcy flew to Des Moines on Saturday afternoon to attend our niece Lily’s high school graduation but we had a low key weekend here. Some trips to the gym, Anna went over to a friend’s house, Jude and I watched some English soccer, and we went to Red Lobster one night.

Marcy, Lily and Mandy at the graduation

This morning Jude and I decided to go for our first hike of the year. It was a picture-perfect day, you couldn’t ask for better hiking weather. We chose Mt Falcon, a solid 8.5 mile hike with almost 2,000 feet of vertical. We finished in 3 1/4 hours with some stops at the top. Olive loved being back on the trail, too.

At the summit of Mt. Falcon at 7,842 feet

Anna is still in the throes of Cheer tryouts. She did well in her first set of tryouts and the final callbacks are this week. She is hoping for a Level 4 team and is excited about another year of cheer.

Anna’s White Out team performing at Summit

The cheerleading season culminates in a huge international competition known as Summit. You have to be invited to compete at Summit, which means you have to do well in one or more of the earlier competitions. Both Anna’s teams, Frost Cats and White Out qualified and Anna was beyond excited to go.

So, Marcy and Anna left on Tuesday night to head to Orlando. Due to a hotel scheduling snafu and some fierce negotiating from Marcy she ended up in a 2-bedroom cottage so Jude and I decided to come down on Thursday night for the weekend. This would be the first time Jude and I would see Anna compete at a competition outside Colorado.

Frost Cats about to start a practice session the day before Summit

Frost Cats performed on Thursday night and they did really well. The top 17 teams out of 56 teams make it through to finals and Frost Cats came in 18th, so while they “hit zero” (no major mistakes) they just missed out on the finals by one place. Anna was bitterly disappointed.

Is that the Millennium Falcon? Yes! In the Star Wars area of Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The consolation prize is that Anna got to spend the day at Hollywood Studios with us. We had a late afternoon break so she could practice with White Out, but we spent most of the day there. The kids had a blast and so did the parents for the most part (I am not a big fan of some of the more adventurous rides).

Saturday was competition day for White Out and while Anna did great in her parts of the routine the team did not do their best and so did not qualify for the finals today. Jude and I left late morning for the trip home and Marcy and Anna decided to head to St. Augustine Beach for the afternoon.

Jude doing well halfway through his 1,600m run

Earlier this week Jude had his last track meet of the year. He did four events and I was able to watch three of them. He ran strongly but did not quite hit any personal bests. He placed in the top eight for both the 1,600 and 3,200m runs. He enjoyed his first season on the track team, and he certainly got a lot fitter over the past couple of months.

Jude ready to go to Prom

On Saturday night it was Prom night for the juniors and seniors of South High School. They had booked out a suite in Coors Field but Jude met with some friends beforehand and they all had dinner together before heading downtown. Jude said he had a great time, that included a short stay at Dave & Busters and then a party before he got home about 1:30am.

Skiing the powder at Breckenridge

Today, he was a bit tired but he still wanted to head up for one last day of skiing. While Keystone closed in early April, Breckenridge stayed open and it just so happened to get dumped on yesterday with 12″ of fresh snow. That is rare for this time of year so we took advantage and headed up the mountain after the Arsenal game this morning. We skied about half a dozen powder runs, it was heavy snow and hard going but still a blast. That will be it for us this ski season.

Celebrating the last Sunday practice before heading to Summit

Anna is all about cheerleading right now. The last and biggest competition of the year, called Summit, is in Orlando next week. This competition is a big deal, you have to be invited so only the best teams are going. Both of Anna’s teams, Frost Cats and White Out received bids so she and Marcy will be heading out on Tuesday night next week. And because of a reservation snafu where they screwed up our reservation, they upgraded Marcy and Anna (after a huge amount of pushing from Marcy) to a 2-bedroom villa. So, we cashed in more points for Jude and I and we will be heading to Orlando next weekend to cheer on Anna.

A family lunch in Iowa

Last weekend Marcy and Jude were away in Iowa on college visits. They did University of Iowa on Friday and Iowa State on Monday. And they got to spend the weekend with the Des Moines family. Jude did not care for Iowa that much but he liked Iowa State.

Frost Cats competing at NCA in Dallas

We have had some technical issues on the blog but I think they have now been fixed. So, it has been a while.

In February, Anna and Marcy had a trip to Dallas for a big cheerleading competition called NCA. Both of Anna’s teams did well with Frost Cats scoring the highest of any time at CA-Denver. They ended the competition in fifth place with a score of 98.45

White Out at NCA

Meanwhile, Jude has been on a couple of college visits recently. We visited Tuscon to tour the University of Arizona 10 days ago. We checked out their College of Business and did an organized tour of the campus. It is very impressive. While it is a very big school with north of 40,000 students, the facilities are some of the best I have ever seen.

Anna was the Rookie of the Year on her high school cheer team

Right after Anna came back from Dallas, they had the banquet for the South High School cheer team. She was delighted to be awarded the Rookie of the Year and received her first varsity letter. She worked so hard for her cheer team so it was great to see her recognized for that.

Outside the football stadium at the University of Arizona

In Arizona, Jude and I met up with my friend Julian and his wife, who is from Tucson, and they gave us a great recommendation for dinner: an authentic Mexican place that was more than 80 years old. The next morning, we went for a hike in the Tucson mountains. The terrain is so different from Colorado but still very beautiful.

Hiking in the mountains west of Tucson

We flew back to Denver and we were home for just a few hours before we drove up to Keystone for Spring Break. My birthday was last Sunday and I wanted to wake up at our Keystone place. This was our first family ski trip for several years because until this year the kids had different dates for Spring Break.

Snowshoeing on my birthday in Keystone

They hadn’t had much fresh snow in a while so I decided I wanted to go snowshoeing on my birthday. We found a trail near the Keystone Ranch golf course and did a six-mile hike in the wilderness there. Then it was home and to my favorite Mexican place for dinner.

A powder day at Keystone

The night of my birthday it started snowing so we had a powder day on Monday. It was our first family ski day since before the pandemic and it was fantastic. We had a few powder runs and some bumps as well. It was Marcy’s first ski day since before she had bunion surgery and her feet felt so much better.

The CSU Rams in their admissions center

We came back from the mountains on Thursday and then on Friday Marcy, Jude and I drove to Fort Collins to tour Colorado State University. This was another great tour, and Jude came away impressed. It is was a little smaller than U of A but the campus was still very impressive.

Easter morning with full baskets

Today was Easter Sunday. No Easter Egg hunt this year (we thought it was the first time ever, but Anna reminded us we didn’t do one in 2022). Marcy still filled their Easter baskets with their favorite treats. We decided to do a non-traditional Easter dinner. I wanted to grill some ribs so we had a good old barbecue dinner with ribs, potato salad, coleslaw and cornbread. And Marcy made a delicious strawberry cream cake for dessert.

The annual Iowa birthday cakes from Baba

We had planned to drive to Iowa on Boxing Day (Dec 26) but a winter storm was pounding the plains and it looked like it could be dangerous driving. It was a good decision as the roads were terrible. So, we left home early (for us) on the 27th and made it to West Des Moines just after 7:30pm local time. Anna and I both missed the summer trip to Iowa so it was our first time in Iowa since summer of 2022.

Playing the “Saran Wrap” Christmas game

As always on our visits Baba keeps us entertained with endless games. We played Code Names several times, we had an epic game of Christmas Bingo with prizes and then there was the “Saran Wrap” game. Baba had wrapped dozens of small Christmas gifts inside an endless ball of Saran Wrap. There was well over 100 layers that we had to undo but you had time until the person next to you rolled a double on the dice. It was a lot of fun.

Toasting in the New Year with the cousins

New Year’s Eve was spent watching a lot of football and then all the kids toasted in the new year with “kids champagne” around 7pm. We also did the confetti poppers which were very loud and scared the crap out of Olive. Soon, there was confetti everywhere.

Shooting off the confetti poppers

Letting Olive know everything was ok

The trip was over too soon and today we drove back to Denver. It was a long but uneventul trip home. The kids have the day off tomorrow before returning to school on Wednesday.

On top of the Empire State Building looking south

Anna has always really wanted to go to New York City and around the dinner table a few weeks ago we were wondering if we could go on a trip to celebrate Marcy’s birthday. With cheerleading taking up so many weekends we saw there was a window in the week before Christmas. So, we cashed in a bunch of points for free flights and a free hotel room at the Sheraton Hotel just a few blocks north of Times Square.

With “Fearless Girl” outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street

We arrived Monday night and went straight down to Target in Times Square because we forgot the air mattress for Anna. Then the first morning we walked around Times Square, went to the New York Public Library and then brought in Joe’s Pizza for lunch at the office (the Fintech Nexus office is right in Times Square). Then it was on to the Empire State Building, still a beautiful and imposing building at almost 90 years old. That night we had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant in Hells Kitchen.

Getting their first taste of the NYC subway

Marcy booked a walking tour of Lower Manhattan on Wednesday so we all jumped on the subway to get the train downtown. We had a wonderful guide, Megan, who showed us all the high spots of Lower Manhattan including the City Hall, Seaport, Battery Park, Wall Street, the 9-11 memorial and more. It was one of the highlights of the trip. After another pizza lunch we decided to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and explore Brooklyn. We walked along the East River promenade and then to the Dekalb Market for an early dinner. Then it was back to Times Square where we bought tickets to see & Juliet, one of the popular new musicals. It was great.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

Thursday we walked through Central Park and on to Columbia University which is just a few blocks northeast of the park. We walked around the campus a little and tried to get into the library but it was closed. Not to worry we enjoyed taking in the beautiful campus. After lunch at Pret it was another subway ride to the pier for our Circle Line cruise. This was a cruise around Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. It was a gorgeous day but a little cold. That night we went to Grand Central station and caught a train to have dinner at our work friend Joy’s house in New Rochelle.

On the cruise to see the Statue of Liberty

Friday was more walking (we walked around 13 miles each day). We started off at the Intrepid Museum which is on the Intrepid aircraft carrier that is moored in midtown Manhattan. Marcy and I have been there twice before for Fintech Nexus functions but we thought the kids would really enjoy it, which they did. We got to see a ton of old planes, including the one from the Top Gun movie. We also toured the bridge and the officers’ quarters and learned about life on an aircraft carrier during times of war.

At the Intrepid Museum on the aircraft carrier

From there we walked down the High Line to Chelsea Markets for a delicious lunch.

Walking through Chelsea Markets

Then we happened to be walking past Cornelia Street and we had to stop to get a picture of Taylor Swift’s old house.

Outside Taylor Swift’s old house on Cornelia Street

Then we walked through Little Italy where we stopped for some dessert at the Cannoli King. Next we walked through Chinatown before returning to the hotel. That night we went our separate ways with Marcy and Anna going to see Chicago while Jude and I went to see the Nuggets play the Brooklyn Nets – just a fluke they were in town while we were there. It was Jude’s first NBA game ever.

Outside the United Nations building

Saturday was our last day and we split up again. Jude and I wanted to watch the Arsenal game in one of New York’s bars devoted to Arsenal, so we chose Olde City in Chelsea. We had a great time, it was a very rowdy but friendly bar with lots of singing and drumming and yelling at the TVs. Meanwhile, Marcy and Anna rented bikes and rode to Holly Golightly’s apartment, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Then they walked through Central Park to Columbus Circle to visit the Taylor Swift exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Our last walk through Times Square

We then walked back to our hotel and headed to the airport. Our plane was a little early but it was still 11:30pm by the time we got home.

Yesterday was spent unpacking and doing laundry and, of course, getting ready for Christmas. It is a little easier now the kids are older but Marcy still puts in a big effort to make the day special for everyone.

Christmas Day lunch at Little India’s restaurant, a family tradition

Christmas morning began with the sharing of presents, and Marcy and Anna made cinnamon rolls. After a quiet morning we headed to Little India’s for lunch. We usually get takeout but this year we decided to dine in. It was a delicious meal and we had lots of leftovers to enjoy. This afternoon Marcy baked her nut rolls and I made a fruit salad, just like my mum used to make on Christmas Day in Sydney.

Celebrating with Marcy’s birthday cheesecake

It was Marcy’s birthday on Friday and she wanted a low key day. She baked herself a lemon cheesecake because that is what she wanted for her birthday cake. Marcy and Anna had their nails done, then we all went for lunch at Modern Market. We played Pictionary and for dinner we had pizza from Whole Foods.

This weekend was all about Anna’s cheerleading. It was the first competition of the year for Cheer Athletics and they had been working on their routine for more than four months.

Anna and her team about to start the Frost Cats routine

Anna is on two teams: Frost Cats and Whit3 Out. Frost Cats performed early, around 9:15am both days and Anna needed to be there at 7am. I took her early on Saturday and Marcy on Sunday. Whit3 Out performed late afternoon both days so Anna was there around 12 hours each day. Each performance is 2 1/2 minutes and each team performs on both Saturday and Sunday.

Anna was so excited this morning when Frost Cats won their division with a flawless routine. Whit3 Out also performed well, hitting zero in both performances but unfortunately, they came in third place, a big disappointment for the team.

Whit3 Out after the awards

Frost Cats at the end of their routine

After training since June, the Cheer Athletics season officially began today with the Blue Debut at the National Western Complex. This is the day when they perform their routine in front of an audience of a couple of thousand people but they are not graded and it is not an official competition.

White Out doing a stunt (Anna is the base closest to the camera)

Anna is in two teams this year at CA. She started off in Frost Cats which is a level 2 team and then a spot opened up on White Out, a level 3 team, and Anna was invited to join. So, she has two teams as well as her high school team. This is a lot but we are ok with it as long as Anna keeps up her grades which she is doing.

Today, the teams did well although they didn’t “hit zero” meaning zero mistakes. There was a small hiccup in each routine but Anna was so happy to be back performing again, she just loves it.

Jude came today and saw both routines. There was a 90-minute break between them so Jude and I went to a sports bar to watch some of the Broncos game.

Anna with her favorite cheer coach, Coach Eddie who coached her last year