Bike riding in Breckenridge

We decided to take the trail-a-bike to Frisco on Sunday. It's 9.5 miles from Frisco to Breckenridge. Jenelle had complained that her bike seat was uncomfortable so we bought her a "granny" seat. The thing was huge. Definitely a lot of room for "ample trunkage". Not that Jenelle has a big butt. Anyway, we spent the first 30 minutes of the ride trying to adjust the granny seat. It was too big and cumbersome for her little butt. She couldn't reach the peddles and her legs were just dangling. So Curt put the granny seat on his bike and gave her his bike seat. Much better! She looked stable and she could peddle. I didn't want her slipping of the bike once we reached our high cruising speeds. :) Curt on the other hand was very uncomfortable. (I returned the granny seat to Walmart today.)

We had a great ride. The weather and the ride was beautiful. We had a yummy lunch at The Motherload. It was the first restaurant that we came to. It smelled great and we were starving. After lunch we walked around the art festival a little. We noticed a storm coming in. So we rode our bikes back. It started raining so Jenelle and I hung out at the furniture store while Curt rode back to get the car. Everything in the furniture store was that log furniture you find in mountain homes. All very expensive, but a fun place to take shelter from the rain. Thanks to Curt for self sacrificing by using the granny seat and riding in the rain. He's the best dad/husband ever. He is watching "Barbie in Swan Lake" with Jenelle right now. Cute, huh?


There were a lot of bronze statues at the art festival. I have lots of photos of Jenelle with all the different animals.









We were all tired by the time we got home.

Labor Day weekend fun

We went tubing this weekend. After spending the weekend in Steamboat Springs and wishing we would have gone tubing; Curt bought some inner tubes. The Platte Canyon river is very near our house. I would say it was more of a stream. Anyway, it was perfect conditions. It was a hot day. The water was pleasantly cool. Jenelle and I shared a raft. The first time down the river she kept saying "We're going to die." Yes, she is very melodramatic. She was nervous on the rapids, but after our first run she was just fine. We went with Chris and Zack. We cruised down the river for about a mile and then drove back up to do it all over again. It was the perfect Labor day activity.

Hair Cut

I got my hair cut last week. I decided I needed something shorter and easier. I need any time savers I can get so I can get Jenelle to school on time. When Jenelle saw my hair she said, "It's badish goodish." Notice she said it was bad first. I haven't had my hair this short since Junior year of high school. It wasn't a very good look for me back then because I had this horrible perm. It's taking some getting used to, but overall it's goodish.

Trail-a-bike

We went for a bike ride this weekend in Waterton Canyon. We haven't been on many bike rides this summer because of Curt's broken wrist. His wrist is finally doing better and he can ride with the brace on.

Curt always keeps an eye out for free things on Craigslist or good deals on the classifieds at his work. I think he secretly likes to shop. :) Anyway, he found a used trail-a-bike for $40. Jenelle can ride her own bike, but she tires out and complains about her legs hurting on every hill. If we want to do any kind of long distance ride, she needs to ride in the bike seat. Well, she is getting way too small for the bike seat. Her knees are up to her chest in that thing and her knees dig into Curt's back. So we have upgraded her to the trail-a-bike. She loved it. At first she asked Curt to go real slow. By the end of the ride she said, "Daddy don't brake. Pedal faster."

On the way down the canyon, Curt got a flat tire. We checked the bike bags for our spare tube and tools. My bag contained leaves and rocks that Jenelle wanted to keep from the last ride. Curt's bag contained a bag of carrots that had turned to liquid mush. Hmmm...I thought we were better prepared. All we had was a bike pump. So we're trying to figure out how to finish the last 4 miles of our ride without Jenelle having to walk the whole way. Finally I started asking "spare tube?" to other bikers whizzing past us. A really nice couple stopped and gave us a spare tube and they let us use their tools. Next time we will have everything we need to fix a flat.

Waterton Canyon is such a beautiful place to ride. It's a big horn sheep habitat. A bunch of sheep were grazing right off the trail. (See the sheep in the background behind Jenelle.) We saw some male sheep with the big horns, but we didn't stop to photograph them. I don't want to disturb the males. It was really fun to see all the sheep. Sort of a combo bike ride/zoo trip.

First Day of Kindergarten

I'm so behind on the blog! We've been gone every weekend and I've been busy getting Jenelle ready for school. I haven't had any time to sit down at the computer and update everyone. So my entries will all be out of order, but you get the gist.



Jenelle started school this week at Front Range Christian Elementary. She is in Kindergarten. We had a "meet-n-greet" with her teacher last week. She gave Mrs. Hart a hug and kiss. She loves all her teachers.

We had orientation on Monday. Jenelle was sitting at her desk looking so studious. She was glued to everything the teacher was saying. How long will that last? I think she is going to get in trouble for talking too much with all her friends.

Her first official day was Wednesday. She will go to school all day Mon, Wed and Friday. I picked her up from school and this is what she said. "Mom, not one, not two. We went out for recess three times!" She is very excited about the playground at the school. She said her favorite part of the day was lunchtime. They ate outside at a picnic table and she thought that was very cool.

In the afternoon they have rest time. Jenelle fell asleep the first day. She is wiped out from all that recess! Hopefully she'll build a little more stamina soon.

On the first day of school they had a "coffee and kleenex" time for the moms. I was a little sad about Jenelle starting Kindergarten, but I didn't need a kleenex. (Not to say I haven't shed a tear over kindergarten.) This is just a new phase we're entering and I'll adjust. I told Jenelle that I will miss her while she's in school. She basically rolled her eyes at me and said she'd be home after school. Like what was the big deal.

Here she is sitting at her desk next to Carson. Carson was offering to help her open her play doh on the first day of school. Jenelle still talks about marrying Sam from preschool, but I don't think it will be long before Jenelle will be marrying Carson.



This new school has a policy for tardiness. They lock the doors at 8am and if you're late you have to go down to the office and get a pass. Today was the second day of school and we arrived at 8:00am according to my watch. The principal was standing at the door and she said I was late. The clock on their wall said 8:01. We were heading down to the office for our pass when I saw another dad with his kindergarten child. I asked if he was getting a pass. He pointed out another clock that said 7:59. I think we got by on the technicality today, but I don' t think the principal was too pleased. I'm not making a very good first impression. Hopefully, she isn't very good at remembering faces. :) Getting to school on time is going to be our biggest challenge. Jenelle is just slow in the morning. She is slow all the time! I've got to get us in a better routine in the morning and I think I'm going to set all the clocks 5 minutes early.