Emerald Lake

Took a hike up to Emerald Lake yesterday and had snack at this gorgeous spot.

Emerald Lake

Took a hike up to Emerald Lake yesterday and had snack at this gorgeous spot.

Hmmmm....

I think these kids need some boots to go with those hats! :)

Fun at the rodeo!

Our lunch stop

We stopped to enjoy a picnic lunch and had to share our table with
this guy.... Lunch with a moose - can't beat that!

First Stop at Rocky Mountain NP

A gorgeous scenic outlook at the park.

A tour of the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center

  

Since Nicky and Maddy have aspirations of becoming Olympic athletes, a trip to the Colorado Springs training center was a necessity.  It was very interesting.   More photos to come...

Sitting in a Panera Bread in Boulder CO

Sorry I haven’t been keeping the blog updated – guess I need a cool DROID or IPHONE like my sister or hubby have.   We haven’t had Internet access until today (1 July – Happy Canada Day!).  Laura has been keeping her Facebook wall filled with pictures and I will copy them here.   Don’t know when I’ll have Internet access again, but I’ll try to get Laura to make some posts along the way.

Here we are in our driveway in Durham – note the trusty axe being carried by Walter!

Now we’re in Lake Barkley State Park in KY.  We arrived about 6pm to find the park office already closed.  So we found a site, set up and had no wood for a campfire.   A severe thunderstorm had us packing up camp at 4am in the very early dawn.   Sorry to all those other campers who had to listen to us pack up!!!   But packing a wet pop-up camper is no fun, so we beat the storm and got an early start on the day!

Third day of driving – we stopped in Kansas at the largest man-made lake in the state.   It was a beautiful evening and the kids even got a chance to swim.   Unfortunately, high winds at 3am caused up to pack up camp (AGAIN!) and we were on the road at 4am.   This time, we stopped at a rest area and slept in the car for about 2 hours.  Then we were on our way to Colorado.   We stayed in Mueller State Park outside of Colorado Springs.   It was a nice campground but very vanilla.  At least it had a shower! 

Here are the kids in Mueller State Park with Pike’s Peak in the distance.   Walter, Laura and the kids were debating hiking Pike’s Peak, but we settled on a drive up to the Peak.

At the top of Pike’s Peak!!!!   The drive up was harrowing but we made it and Walter is a FANTASTIC driver!  (you’re welcome, Walter!)   The drive down was no picnic either, especially the three miles of unpaved road that was under construction.  We also visited the Garden of the Gods (Beautiful!)

Well, that’s all for pictures now.  We left Colorado Springs yesterday (30 June) and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.   Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we left very early and were able to find a first-come camping site in Camp Dick in the National Forest outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.  (all reserved sites were booked A LONG time ago!)   We set up camp and endured yet another huge wind and rain storm.   We had set up the awning this time as we were planning to stay for 5 days.   Unfortunately, the wind blew it clean off!  Another wind storm hit us in the evening and we all thought the camper was a goner!  We survived, but we found another spot in Camp Dick (Laura walked the campground at 6am to talk to other campers to see who was leaving!) and currently our camper sits in a sheltered spot that hopefully will survive another wind storm, if it comes.

So now, we sit in the Panera Bread sucking up Internet time.   We finished a grand tour of the Univ of Colorado in Boulder which is one of the schools Nicky is considering.  It’s a beautiful campus with the Rocky Mountains just in the distance.   Nicky could do worse than coming here!   Maddy also liked the school – she seems very eager to start her college experience!

More later…

Amy

Itinerary for 2011 Odyssey

Colorado Itinerary
Sat June 25:: Durham, NC - Lake Barkley State Resort Park, KY (606 miles) (near Cadiz)
Sun June 26: Cadiz, KY - Milford State Park, Milford, KS (612 mi)
Mon June 27: Milford, KS - Colorado Springs, CO (457 mi)
 We can go to Cheyenne Mtn SP or Mueller SP, or we can try one of the State Forest campgrounds
Tue June 28: Hike
Wed June 29: Garden of the Gods
Thu June 30: Colorado Springs, CO - Rocky Mtn NP, Estes Park, CO (133 mi)
Fri July 1: University of CO, Boulder (37 mi) [Hopefully pick up Craig from Denver Airport]
Sat July 2: Hike
Sun July 3: Hike
Mon July 4: Hike
Tue July 5: Estes Park, CO - Alamosa, CO (298 mi) [Great Sand Dunes NP]
Wed July 6: Hike
Thu July 7: Alamosa, CO - some place in KS
Fri July 8: Some place in KS - some place in KY?
Sat July 9: Ky - Durham, NC

Beach Itinerary  (visiting Grandma Jane)
Sun, July 10 - Amy, Joey, Laura, Maddy & Katie drive to Grandma Jane's / Shalimar
Sun, July 10 -> Sat, July 16 - we're at the Shalimar ON THE BEACH

Chicago/Thomson Itinerary (visiting Oma, Ota, Little Grandparents, other relatives, Nana & GPaZ)
Things are not quite settled as to dates but here's the jist...
Sun, July 17 - Drive to Philly & pick up Scooter & Bear
Mon, July 18 - Drive to Chicago (one day???  or two???)
Tues, July 19 -> Sat, July 23 afternoon - Chicago
Sat, July 23 evening -> Thurs, July 28 - Thomson
Fri, July 29 - Drive to Philly, drop off the Littles
Sat, July 30 - Drive to Durham
FINISHED!!!

A violinist in the family!

This is from Joey’s Orchestra performance.   He earned first chair for the concert!   The young man sitting next to him is his friend David.   They seem to be good friends even though they compete in Strings class.   Both were in attendance at the All A’s in Middle School assembly today.   Very nice!

Joey’s violin quartet

Joey and his violin quartet

It’s a bit long, but here is Joey and his violin quartet playing at the music scholarship fundraiser at a local mall.   The kids are all about the same age.   I think they did really well.

Joey playing his violin

Joey playing solo violin

Here’s Joey playing solo on his violin.   He had forgotten his music so was playing by memory.  Hopefully you can understand his few pauses.   He has come a long way in just a year!

Piano Duet–Nicky & Joey

Duet by Nicky and Joey

This is from February but I thought our audience would enjoy hearing a duet played by the boys.

Here is Katie at her last horse show with Jefferson. They ended up with a 4th, 6th & 2nd. Not too shabby considering Jefferson dumped her in the dirt on Saturday's lesson (very unusual for him) and also threw a shoe and we had to get the farrier out pronto. I think Jefferson was telling us he didn't want to work this weekend.....

Plus Katie was the only one in the Prechildren's division, so she had to compete against kids in the Children's Hunter Pony division. Jeffy was the only pony out there with no lead change... (For those non-horsey folks - a pony canters like we "gallop" with one foot always forward. That foot forward has to be the foot that is on the inside of the circle. Katie has to trot Jefferson to get him to switch feet and the other kids could just give the command to the pony and their pony switches feet automatically. This is called having "the correct lead" and is part of what is judged.)

Here is a link.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHMwWL7aW8Q

Krispy Kreme Challenge

On Saturday, Feb 5, Nicky and his friends (fellow cross-country’ers) entered the Krispy Kreme Challenge.   For those who are unfamiliar with the race, one runs 2 miles, eats 1 dozen doughnuts and then runs 2 more miles to the finish line.   You must keep your doughnuts DOWN in order to officially finish the race.   As part of the race festivities, Nicky and his pals dressed up in pink “sofies”, white compression shorts, a t-shirt with “Crème Team” on the back (sleeves cut off), white headband and rainbow socks.   Nicky did finish the race, but I don’t think he wants to see doughnuts again for awhile!

The breast cancer ladies invited the “pink” guys for a photo op.   Too bad Nick’s in the back, but you can see what a festive group they were.

 

It’s a bit fuzzy, but you can see Nicky running in the race.   Sorry, no pictures of him eating the doughnuts, but I’m told the key was to smunch 4 doughnuts together, eat, drink a sip of water and continue on.

Nice job, Nicky!

The Footlocker Race

Nicky and a few of his friends traveled to Charlotte for the Footlocker Freshman Race on Friday, November 26th. We drove to the course to let the boys run it before the actual race the next morning. We then went to check in to our hotel and get the boys checked in for the race.

The freshman race was the second race of the day, and started at 8:30am. We had to get there pretty early to give the boys time to warm up. It was pretty chilly, but it was clear and the sunrise was pretty.

Here are some pictures of Nicky at the starting line and during the race.

Nick ran a 17:14 (PR by 1 second) and finished 36th out of 155 freshman runners. Nick will tell you that he learned a lot during the race and that the course is too flat, and he'd rather have a few hills.

Here are Nick and his buddies after the race.

Nick had a very good season and won the Best New Runner award at the season ending banquet. We're very proud of him!

Now it's on to winter track (which is outdoor here in NC) and then track season.

Updates on Nicky, the XC runner

Okay, I’ve taken a lot of razzing from you all about not posting current updates on Nicky’s XC progress, so here goes!!!!

Nicky’s Varsity team had an undefeated season this year for their conference (PAC-6).  They also took home the trophy and first place for the PAC-6 championship (Oct 19).   Nicky ran Varsity for the PAC-6 championship – his time was 18:12.  It was about 80 degrees.  Here’s a picture of the victory team -

Next up was the Mideast Regional – this occurred on Saturday, Oct 30 at Nicky’s favorite course, the WakeMed Soccer Park (in Cary, NC).  This time it was about 54 degrees – the first time Nicky raced in cool weather.   Nicky blew us and his team AWAY!!!  His time was 17:15 !!!!!!   He came in THIRD of his Varsity team – his coach had this to say:

The race was one of the best ever by a frosh at JHS.

He was 58th of about 150 guys.  And Nana & Grandpa Z were there to watch him race!   It was super!

Here’s a picture of Nicky and his teammates (#1 & 2 on Varsity) near the finish line – like the smile???

So now, XC at Jordan is over, but Nicky has signed up to run the Foot Locker South race on Sat, Nov 27.   He is training on his own (with some guidance from the coach).   The Foot Locker race is in Charlotte NC, about 2.5 hours away.  

So, that’s the update.  Will keep you updated as to the results of the Foot Locker race – Good Luck, Nicky!!!

Maddy's debut as a cheerleader!














And for those of you interested, her middle school, Penndale, SOUNDLY won the game. I think Craig was reliving his old High School glory days on the field! :)

Another Nicky XC Update

Well, Nicky posted another Personal Best this Saturday (Oct 25) at the Greensboro Invitational at Hagan Stone Park.   Out of 319 boys who ran in his race, Nicky came in 4th with a 9 second faster time of 18:17.   He was the first JV Jordan runner to cross the line.  Will this boy ever stop running faster?   Here are some pictures – enjoy!

Look for him one row back…

How’s that for a coupla misfits watching the race??!!

 

Approaching the finish line…

 

The Jordan Falcons were missing one of their better runners on Saturday so they came in 4th but Walter believes that if he had been there, the team would have come in 2nd.   (XC scoring is pretty weird – ask Walter if you’re interested.)

Nicky’s off for a week then he has the Durham City/County championships next Tuesday.   We’ll let you know how he does!

Amy

Nicky, the Cross-Country Runner Extraordinaire!

The XC team participated in the Wilmington, NC, invitational event last weekend.   There were 30-some teams involved and in Nicky’s event, about 200 runners.   Nicky is the 8th best runner on the team (out of about 24 runners).   This puts him at the top of the JV runners.  However, that weekend one of the Varsity runners was unable to attend.  Soooo, Nicky was invited to run with the Varsity runners!   He ran a personal best for the 5K – 18.32 minutes.  To top it off, Grandpa Swanson & Grandma Jane came up from Myrtle Beach to watch!   Here are some photos from the meet -

The start – check out all those runners!

 

Running…

Grandpa & Grandma congratulate the runner!

It was a great weekend for the family!

Amy