On another note...

Josh tried to play today with just an ace bandage on his cast. Wrong! They wouldn't let him. They did tell him if we padded it with bubble wrap or something, then he could play. Hmm...that is a wonderful idea! I wonder who it was who suggested it BEFORE the game but was ignored?!?!? Must have been a really really smart woman!!! There is a lesson in this..Always listen to your mom!!!!!

Amityville Horror!

What is the deal with all of these flies??? In the past couple of days I would swear we have killed at least 50! They aren't your normal little house flies...these are the really big dark black ones. Roger was the exterminator this morning - running around with a fly swatter. Nasty little critters!

Hmmmm...wonder if this has anything to do with the critter that uhm...went "silent" in our chimney a while back? But none of the flies are anywhere near the chimney, we never smelled anything at all and we seem to have a bout of these flies every year. It just seems this year is a little worse.

Spring Basketball

Well it is time to start again. This time we will 3 games to go to on Saturdays. Josh is now in a cast and says he is going to try and play tomorrow. His wrist is not broken..just injured slightly. The Dr. said yesterday that he thinks Josh may have strained the ligaments in his wrist sometime. He said it didn't have to be anything major to cause it. But that has caused an irritation/separation resulting in some inflammation. The best way to deal with it is to immobilize the wrist so that it can heal. Josh didn't think he would be able to dribble or shoot with the cast so he was not planning to play. Well, after messing around at the gym today, he decided it wouldn't affect him as much as he had thought so now he wants to play. They check the rules and it doesn't say he can't play in a cast so he is going to try it. It will not be a good thing if he can't play. We have 2 players that will not be there tomorrow so if Josh is out also..then they are short players.

We have 9:15, 2:15 and 6:15 games tomorrow so a good portion of our day will be spent in the gym. I will keep posted on how little miss Kylie's first game goes. Hers is the last one of the day. She looks like such a little baller in her uniform all decked out! I wonder if Roger will know how to sit in the bleachers like a normal parent since he isn't coaching her team???

Not much happening...

Well, since I got back from our vacation I have been working really hard on marketing my photography business. It is kind of like a well kept secret! lol I have a few people who contact me regularly for pictures and they have been spreading information by word of mouth, but it is so hard to build a business without a huge marketing budget.

I have added a slide show on this page of some of my work because I have had some requests for samples and with my website not being completed yet, this was the best way I could think of to make it available to the public for viewing. I would love to hear what you all think. Thanks!

Kylie is starting basketball this season and Roger said she made the most shots at her first practice...so maybe this is going to be her sport! Their first game will be this weekend and I can't wait to take pictures! I will post some for you afterward.

All done but the packing!

Today was an awesome final day of skiing. Kylie skied with us again today and she did really really good. Chris went down the hill backwards!!!! So he could video her, so we were all going pretty slow for him.

My legs didn't fail me too bad...I was a little sore at the end of the day, but for the most part all was good. I will try to post the video when we get home. Until then here are a couple more pictures...

Pain, misery and agony..

Well, what started out as a pretty good day quickly took a turn for the worse for me. Yesterday we skied more runs than we had all week. We had a really good day and other than my calf muscles being a little sore that evening, I felt really really good.

Today Kylie and Lil' Kamron skied with us and that meant we had to slow down a bit. I don't know why, but the slope we did yesterday kicked my butt this morning. We had to do really slow S's so the kids didn't get too much speed up and take off down the hill out of control. I am not sure if it was this or something else that caused it, but by the time we down this first run and stood in the lift line - I was dying! My legs felt like they would explode! When we got to the top of the lift we were by a little restaurant at the top of the mountain. I had to stop and take my boots completely off and put my feet up in a chair. Roger and the others headed on back down the hill without me.

I sat there for maybe 20 or 30 mins and my legs felt 110% better, so I decided to go on down the mountain. I took one of the green trail runs and everything was going good. I had to take another lift (I was so glad there wasn't a line at it!!!) to get back to the gondola so I ride it down. I didn't even want to attempt to ski the lower slopes. The snow turns to slush late in the day as warm as it is here right now and it can be really a pain to ski in! When I got to the bus line Roger and everyone else was there waiting for the shuttle, so we all rode back together.

Tonight we went to the a water park that is feed by natural hot springs. They had a rock wall with waterfalls for people to climb. The kids all decided to give it a try and it was a hoot to watch. Kylie didn't make it too far, but had fun trying. After a couple of failed attempts and a few pointers from a lifeguard, Chris finally made it to the top and rung the bell. He ended up climbing it 4 times! Then Josh decided to listen to the others and was able to ring the bell also. I was visiting with the Aquatics Director and mentioned to her that Chris was thinking about coming up next season and joining the ski patrol. He had already told her he was a lifeguard...she raised her eyebrows and said "Oh, have him contact me!! I would love to have him work here too when he comes!" So, the kid hasn't even moved here and has 2 potential jobs!

I have to say the hot springs were quite nice to relax in...hope my legs don't betray me tomorrow on our last day of skiing!

Another great day...

We found an awesome slope today. We have been coming here for years and this was our first trip to ever try out a slope called Flintlock. It is a blue run..it is a little steep at the start and but then it opens up to a wide slope with some rolling hills. It isn't too steep and everyone of us loved it. I think it has taken the place of Tomahawk as our group favorite run. Tomahawk is still a great run...but it is has a bit more hills which can be tough on the boarders if the snow is a bit slow. Another advantage that Flintlock seems to have is that it is like people don't know it is there! There are not nearly as many people on it as there are on Tomahawk. That is another advantage for all of but it is really important to our still emerging boarders. It is hard to work on your skills when people are crowding or cutting your pattern off. I think we made more runs today than we have any day so far.

Chris had a fun adventure today also. He got to shadow the Ski Patrol today. We had discussed in the past that we thought he would love to be on the ski patrol up here. Well, he confirmed it today. We got to see him several times today racing down the hill behind the patrols to a call. Anything like this is right up his alley. Add skiing to it and he is in hog heaven. He spoke to the boss man today and he told Chris to contact him again in September about any open positions for next season and to start working out living arrangements and stuff. Chris was also invited to hang out them any he wants the rest of the time we are here. He is really excited about the possibility of doing this next season and is already planning for everyone to come here for Christmas next year to see him.

Today was Kylie's last day in ski school, so she will be spending the next 2 days hitting the slopes with the rest of us. She does so good and keeps right up with all of us.

Up on the mountain...

We made our trip up the mountain this morning and the was awesome. I was really worried about how the snow would be. There is little to no snow in town, so I was concerned the snow on the lower mountain would be either slushy or icy. We went to the top and it was amazing! Cameron and Josh are getting really great on their snowboards. We used to have wait for them some, but no more. Chris and Roger have been zipping down the slopes for years. I have always been the cautious one. I was always leery of the steeper slopes. They made me uncomfortable. I really like to go fast, but was never into the big hills. I never felt like I had enough control. Especially when there was ice on the steep part. I am soooo proud of how I am doing so far. I am way more comfortable on these slopes this trip. I am not sure if it is me getting more use to my skis or if it is the fact that I was just here a few months ago! :) They say practice makes perfect!!

We are taking a mid-day lunch break at the room. Kylie gets out of class at 3:00 and the plan is for all of us to make one more trip to the top of the mountain. As long as Kylie isn't too tired after class all day. I doubt she will be..she is young!!!

Colorado...

Well we arrived in Steamboat last night. We made this trip in one day straight through as opposed to the 2 days we used to take. Today went as follows - Sleep in (oh yea!), go get rentals, go eat at Pizza Hut (a tradition we have been doing since the first year we came), Chris got here (he had to fly in because of a Fire fighting class yesterday), go get his rentals, go buy groceries, sit in the hot tub, cook hamburgers and hot dog and settle in to watch a movie. I think everyone likes the little slower pace we can when we came in early like this.

We will hit the slopes tomorrow, check back for an update! ;)

Almost time!!!!

In less than 2 days we will be on the road to Steamboat! The kids are getting excited...uhm, the grown ups too! We had made plans to take the bus this time because we found out there is a place to park it there. Roger went to get it out and drive it last Sunday. We have not driven it in quite sometime due to the high gas prices...and it wouldn't start. So, we don't want to take any chances on it breaking down on us. Chris is flying because he has a class on Saturday and with his classes you cannot miss one....period! If you do you have to start it over. So we were getting a luggage rack added to the Edge and were going to drive it. We took the car in to have them added and asked them to check out the passenger seat and the sun roof. The seat motor recently stopped moving forward or back...it will go up and down and tilt but that is all. And the sun roof has acted like it might not finish closing a couple of times. So they tell us the sun roof is a problem they are aware of and the short version is that we won't have the car back in time for the trip.

Roger makes sure they understand that is unacceptable!!! So, now they are trying to find us a loaner vehicle that we can take on the trip so they can keep the edge. Why can't anything be easy?

Update on Cade

He is home from the hospital now. Apparently he is pretty sore and is keeping pretty regular on taking his pain pills. He has some after pictures on his face book. One of his wounds looks like an arrow once it was stitched up. Thank you all so much for the prayers...he and the other little boy have some work ahead of them to heal and get back to 100%.

Look out world....here comes Cameron!!!

Well, he did it. Cameron is now a permitted student driver. He was a little nervous as we were leaving the DPS office. He was looking around and he turned to me and said "Where did all of these trucks come from? There weren't this many when we came!" Then he said "I think 55 is too fast right now." I bet he gets over that second that one fast!

Now for a story on Kylie...this girl has a way of just cracking us up! When we left the gym on saturday she wanted to go to Target with me and mom. I told her she had to go with Dad and go take a shower because she was getting a bit smelly. She said "You won't get rid of me that easy...you haven't smelled the last of me!!!" Mom and I nearly died laughing. She is a little stinker even when she is all nice and clean and shiny!

Cader Tot!

My nephew Cade was involved in a pretty bad dirt bike accident on Friday. He was on the practice track at a race and a 14 yo kid came around a corner going the wrong way and hit Cade head on. Cade has a broken femur and several deep gashes (to the bone) on his knee. They had to stitch the flesh back together and he had to have so many stitches that the Dr. actually lost count. There is literally layer upon layer of stitches. On Saturday he had surgery to place a nail in the bone. This will be in place for about 1 year and then it will be removed. He actually walked on it today with a walker already. He is pretty sore all over, but he is an incredibily tough kid. He has not cried once since it happened. When my brother approached him after it happened he looked up at him and said "Dad, my leg is broke." I guess this runs in the family...my brother didn't realize he was having an appendix (sp?) attack. He just told mom his side hurt and Cameron gets bad ear infections with no pain or anything. He finds out he has them when we go to the Dr. for something else. He had his first one at age 3! We only went in because he was having trouble hearing! He actually had one a week or so ago and had no clue. We took him in for a bad sore throat and cough and she asked him if his ear hurt. He was like, "No, why?"

The other boy was injured also but I don't know much about him. I heard he had a broken collar bone and some cuts on his face. I had heard originally he was worse off then Cade because he was only wearing shorts and Cade had on all of his safety gear.

They say Cade will be able to go home tomorrow, though I think Chris and Trisha would like him to stay a little longer. We will see... Chris has some pictures of the cuts on his facebook, but if you are weak stomached don't look. They are deep! It is amazing the medical advances that have happened. Years ago, he would have been in traction for weeks or in a complete lower body cast. Please keep Cade and his family in your thoughts and prayers as he heals.

Done with Lesson 2

I finished lesson 2 in my photo editing class today. Lessons 1 and 2 basically teach you 2 different ways to accomplish the same thing. I have attached a cut sheet with the original photo, the edit from Method 1 and the edit from Method 2. Which one do you like best?

Just a tad behind...

Yes, I am just a couple days behind. But give me a break...we can't all be perfect like Liz! So on that note...here is my Weeks 8 & 9 LO. This template was a bit hard to use since I take close up pictures mostly. They were tad hard to fit into these openings. I had to just place them where they worked and not worry about any specific daily order. I did swipe a picture from Liz, but if ya'll don't tell her she will never know. ;)

1st place....

Well they did it...both teams finished the regular basketball season in 1st place in their divisions. Josh's division actually had their first tournament game last weekend and won. Cameron will play his first game this Friday night. And if he wins, then they both play for first on Saturday. They are really eager to play.

I got the basketball page a did for Josh blown up into a 20 x 30 to see how it turns out. I am really please...I was afraid the gym pictures would be to grainy when enlarged.

Do you ever feel like you are busy all day and then at the end of the day you look back and aren't really sure what you got accomplished? I am dealing with that a lot lately! Ugh!