Monday, September 7, 2009

Thoughts of Fall

A melancholy time as a kid - having to go back to school, the weather getting too cool for those sunny afternoon swims, days getting noticeably shorter. I guess the brunt of it was the freedom given up for education. I was never good at getting up to be at school before 8.

Nowadays, though, how different it is. The start of the NFL season means that ski sales are underway, the Great American Beer Festival is right around the corner, I don't have to worry about hot days doing yard work for another seven or eight months, and it's getting to be time to wax the snowboard. How glorious the fall can be if given the right incentive to cheer for winter.

Before too long, I will once again have to think of this time of year being "back to school" time as the daughter reaches school age, but for now I savor the good things that come of the colder seasons. I can also take time to savor the sheer cuteness of those toddler days:




I've gotten to the point now where blogging as a parent, I realize that most of my audience has done this before, probably more than once. So I kind of feel that whatever I say about parenting has already been felt and expressed elsewhere. I do want to say, though, that I am honored and privileged to be able to spend so much time with such a child. I'm glad the first year and a half isn't something that I missed out on. What a great time it is.

Too late to be writing. It's a "school night", and I should have been asleep a couple of hours ago. I hope everyone had a great long weekend and gets an even better short week. Cheers, and good night.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

1 and a 1/2 as of the 4th of July

Little V is 18 months as of today and hopefully this video will express how amazing this one is. I know every parent thinks their kid is the smartest, cutest, most amazing but I really do think we got an amazing baby in Little V. My brothers have said they didn't know the ABC's going into Kindergarten and yet my little V has really started to recognize letters on signs and by my signing them to her.




Thursday, April 23, 2009

Little V is growing


Hey there everyone who watches our blog. Update on V on 4/20 she went poop in the potty. I thought maybe it was a fluke and wanted to wait until poop number 2 before telling people. Today she also pooped in the potty. She will say aaa poop and potty. I just have to make the time to take her to it and just like that she will do it. I think it must be a world record for the first time ever, a 15 month old will tell you that she is going potty and is willing and able to go in the potty for us. So not that everyone elses child is not amazing but we, the proud parents, are thinking we have one of the smartest ever. Also we went to the park today and this is a photo from us swinging. Love to all of you.

Monday, April 6, 2009

One of my favorite places

Well, with the relative drought we had between about February 1st and late March of this year, there wasn't much to talk about in regard to my snowboarding habit. I have, however been up a few times of late and have had some great experiences.



Copper Mountain offers a great array of terrain for snowriders. With the bunny hill safely tucked away at the northwest end of the park, Copper's claim to fame is its "naturally divided" terrain that segments its mountain(s) into different areas frequented by riders of different abilities. One of my favorite spots is located in the "saddle" between Copper Mountain proper and its neighbor, Union Peak. From this saddle, you can get to almost every lift on the Mountain with maybe two or three exceptions.
To the west of the saddle are Union Peak and Union Meadows on the front side of the mountain, and Copper Bowl on the back side. Union Peak offers a short but steep hike to a short black run down a wide-open face. Copper Bowl is a wide ridge of steeps, deeps and cliffs. Not for the acrophobic as you're staring down off of the top of one of Copper Bowl's snowy cornices. Copper Bowl also offers access to Tucker Mountain (a short but worthwhile hike to the mountain seen in the first picture above). Tucker is north-facing and not heavily traveled, so is usually good for a fresh line through deep snow. The third picture above looks down from the top of Copper Bowl.

Below the saddle on the south (back) side of the mountain is a great set of short black runs underneath the Blackjack lift. People often skip these runs in favor of the other lift on the back side of the mountain heading toward Copper Bowl. A perfect opportunity to run quick laps through what usually amounts to some very nice powder. Atop these runs is where the second picture above was taken.

Below the saddle on the front side of the mountain is a nice short tree set at the south end of the Lower Enchanted Forest, and a virtual playground of short, usually very powdery, green runs under the R lift.

All in all, great days over the past few weeks at this, one of my favorite places. Happy spring everyone!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A couple of too cute videos.

Sorry it has been sooooo long. We have just gotten over our first ear infection and life is settling back into a normal routine. V still sleeps about 10 to 12 hours a night and 1 or 2, 2 hour naps per day. She is taking a few steps but not walking really. She is however making her brain grow with all of that sleep. She is saying a lot of words, signing some and just cute as cute can be almost 24 hours a day. Sorry about my singing on the videos. Love Us.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

V is 1 and growing....







Well as Kevin has said in his post we had the holidays and birthdays over the last couple of weeks. V is now with a cold. Imagine that a one year old doesn't know when to sleep and after a couple of weeks of lack of routine, she is sick but even so she is adorable and a very good baby. She is not a baby anymore but she does recognize herself as a baby and a pretty baby at that. Of the 30 words are Baby and Pretty, Bubble and Bath, Dog and Kittah (just like we say it), yeah, and no, plant and button. She is amazing in the way she learns so quickly and looks at me if she doesn't understand. But why Momma? So she is sick but still a very happy child. The cold will pass and she will soon learn to walk not just stand. We got a lot of wonderful toys for Xmas and Bday, including a little table that plays about a hundred different songs and sounds. I have also posted a picture of what I believe was her second word. First she said Dada then she said Dog. She called all animals dogs for about 3 months and has now figured out that fish are different than the dogs and cats are cranky when you get up in their face. So here is your dog until you can really ask. I love you V and am so proud to be your momma. You are the most amazing, smart, beautiful, wonderful being in my little world.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Happy, Happy, Happy

Happy Holidays, everyone. 2008 drew to a close with some relaxing time off - visiting friends, hanging out with the family, snowboarding, and plenty of Wii. Most enjoyable.



Happy New Year! We brought in the new year by staying awake until just after 12. I thought that was quite a feat considering this was our first New Year's Eve with a daughter. But then I got to talking to friends at work, friends around town (with and without children), and found that we night owls may be the exception to the rule anymore. Sounds like a lot of people didn't even make it until midnight. One co-worker was sick, made it to about 9:30. Talked to another who lost the battle to sleepiness around 11:30. Still more friends who decided to ring in the new year either softly, quietly, or asleep. Our only complaint for the evening was "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on TV. What tripe. Music was awful. Ended up watching reruns on some other channel. Better than the bad music of New Year's Eve was the good company of the 3rd and 4th. Many celebrations at once:



Happiest of all: Happy first birthday to our beautiful daughter. She is amazing in so many ways. Sure she does all of the cute baby things: she's starting to stand, she's talking (understanding and at least partially-saying about 30 words now, holy crap) ... (sorry, she's not actually saying "holy crap", I was just thinking "holy crap, it's amazing to hear her talk, it's amazing that we're really starting to communicate with her and she's really starting to communicate with us"), she's walking with the help of adults, she's growing, she's crawling fast and getting into things that she shouldn't. But that's not what I find amazing. I find it amazing that she brings smiles to strangers' faces, she gets comments from passers-by about how cute she is, she looks at us when she doesn't understand something and really tries to figure it out, she has her moments of discontent but usually has so much fun doing everything she does, and she brings so much joy to our family and friends. We're lucky to be your parents, Li'l V. Thanks for a great first year.