Sunday, June 30, 2013

Black Forest Fire and Breckenridge

The weekend after Vail, we were supposed to have a nice quiet weekend at home and ride in the Starlight Spectacular race around Colorado Springs... but our plans got a little changed once the Black Forest Fire started on Tuesday.

It started about 7 miles south of my parents house and about 5 miles north of Colorado Springs.  I could see the smoke plume from my desk at work and called my mom to have her go see where it was.  A day later my parents were under a mandatory evacuation from their house because the fire had grown and was heading their direction. My brother and I drove up through a lot of smoke on Wednesday and helped them pack up their camper and cars and head out.  Mom was really ready to go once a police officer drove up their driveway with the lights and sirens going asking us to leave as soon as possible.  We left about five minutes later.

Photo from my phone of the smoke plume

The next day, Thursday, was my brother and his family's turn at being evacuated, somehow my dad and I both made it to their house before the cops had blocked off all the roads in, so we helped pack up everything we could fit in our cars and they headed to my brother's in laws house.  They luckily were able to get back home on Friday when their mandatory evacuation orders were lifted.   My parents were still not allowed back home so they decided to head up to Breckenridge to stay the weekend with some of their oldest friends!  And Mikey and I got invited, well really, I invited myself.  We didn't know if the bike ride was still even going to go on and we had lined up my brother as a babysitter, but they were still out of their house when we left for Breck.

So, I had Friday off and went up to Breck with my parents and then Mikey drove up after work.  We went for a hike to the Sallie Barber mine on Saturday morning and then hit up the pool during the afternoon.  For our hike, I pushed Noah up in the stroller until the trail got a little too rocky and then he got to go on his first hike in the baby bjorn carrier.  Mikey rode his bike up the trail and then ended up heading the other side of the mine to another rode that circled back into town.  He met a lady that taught mountain biking classes in Israel and she was nice enough to give him a few pointers for his trip down.

We got everyone to hit up the pool, which was much warmer than the pool in Vail.  I think they all came so they could see what Noah did while in a big pool!

After the pool, I'm pretty sure everyone took a nap.  We had a lovely evening dinner and then walked to downtown in search of some ice cream.  PS, if you are looking for ice cream after nine at night, just go straight to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, everywhere is closed!   It was a great weekend away from all the fire news and we found out on Saturday that my parents house was untouched by the fire and on Sunday they could return home!

Family photo after breakfast


Mikey and his bike!
Family photo in the pool!
Bundling Noah up in lots of towels!
He fell asleep on the walk back to the room!

Noah update!

Our little kid is growing up quick!  He is going to be four months old tomorrow!  He has started rolling over from his stomach to his back!  He has started talking and giggling all the time.  Well, he likes to scream too!  And he has started drooling everywhere.  He drools a lot when he tries to put both of his hands in his mouth.  I figured I had some pictures from the last two weeks that needed to be blogged!  I'll probably post another blog soon about his 4 month stats!  The first few are of Noah being taught to hold his own bottle, hanging out, doing some tummy time and his first time in his jumper.  We also got to visit Nana and Grandpa and got to meet their new chickens!




Growth picture for week 16!
Visiting Nana
Noah checking out the chickens
Noah enjoying the family 

GoPro Mountain Games in Vail

Two weekends ago we headed to Vail for their annual Mountain Games.  In the past we have participated in the half marathon, the mud run, and the 10K.  This year Mikey signed up for the Road Bike Time Trial and I signed up to participate in the photo competition.  This was also Noah's first nights away from home, so we were in a for a big weekend adventure!

We headed up on Friday, and Noah did great in the car the whole way out there!  Once we got to our hotel to check in we were told that they had overbooked themselves and they offered us a free room at a different hotel just two blocks up the road.  Free you say?  Sure, we're game!  (Especially since Mikey and I both got dental crowns put in that week)  The place we went to wasn't super fancy, but we got a whole one bedroom suite with a kitchen and it had a patio that was overlooking the creek!  It worked out great for us. 

To celebrate our free accommodations we decided to have a nice dinner out and we headed to an Italian restaurant in Vail Village.  Noah did pretty good except for one breakdown that ended up as him napping in my arms while I ate!  The next day we watched kayakers go down the river, dog jumping, slackline competitors, dirt bikers, and flying fishing competitors.  We hit up our favorite pizza place in Lionshead for lunch and then Mikey went on a test bike ride around Vail.  

Later that afternoon, we decided it was time to take Noah to his first swimming pool!  It took him a little getting used to it, but then he did great!  There are pictures below of the first moments in cool water and then another two pictures once he got used to it!  After that it was definitely time for naps for everyone!  That evening we just hung around the hotel and ate dinner on the patio by the creek.  



Noah watching something intently!

The next morning we looked up Mikey's race time at it was 11:18 AM.  So, we got some breakfast and packed up the car and then he headed to the starting line!  He thought the ride would take him about and hour, so after he started I fed Noah one last time in the hotel and checked out and then went to pick up the time trialist and head home!  As it turned out, I didn't really have much time to take pictures of the events since Noah needed our constant attention.  And as for the time trialist, he was known as the guy riding a mountain bike!  We are thinking next year we might just have to try the fly fishing competition!

Happy Baby while waiting for Dad to start his race!
Michael lined up to start
On top of the starting ramp!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

TWD: Baking with Julia - Cheese and Tomato Galette

This week's recipe was delicious!  You can probably find the recipe out on the interwebs if you are interested, but it was pretty easy.  I whipped up the dough last night so it could get good and cold in the fridge, it was a mixture of flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, sour cream, water and butter.  It was pretty rich but went really well with the toppings of mozzarella, monterey jack, fresh basil and roma tomatoes.  You can check out more variations at the Tuesdays with Dorie LYL.

I rolled out the dough with a few sprinklings of flour on parchment paper, which worked pretty well seeing how the dough is pretty sticky.  Then, I chopped up the cheese and chiffonaded some basil, putted those on top, added some sliced tomatoes, rolled up the edges and baked it for 45 minutes.  I did make sure to get as much juice off of the tomatoes as I could so that it would not get too soggy.  Mikey and I ate the whole thing for dinner!


Cheeses and basil
Sliced Tomatoes
Rolled up the edges and ready for cooking
Dinner is served!


Tuesday, June 4, 2013

He's 3 months old!

It seems like just last week we came home with our new baby boy, and now he is already 3 months old.  I went back to work full time last week and he has been spending time with his Grandma's and his Auntie and cousins while Mikey and I are at work.  The first few days back at work were good, but now that I have had some adult time I am ready to take some days off and go play with Noah!  He has been cooing and smiling more and more and even started giggling last week.  And he got a really fun sign that his Great Uncle Gary made for him, he likes to stare at it!  We haven't taken a ton of pictures this last week, but here are a few pictures and two growth picture with his teddy bear!

Noah's sign from Uncle Gary!
Ready for a ride in the car
His bathtub is getting much smaller!
Ready for a fancy occasion
Trying to get his picture for week 13
Showing his length 
He's getting chubbier, 3 months and 3 days old
Always moving his feet!

A recent project

Over the last few weeks I have been working on two quilts for my friend who is having twin girls in a few months!  They turned out great even though they were much bigger than I was thinking!  My Mom was in Florida so I tried to make them all by myself, but it was a good thing she came home last week and could help me with the binding.  I think cutting the fabric was the hardest part, but here are few pictures of my work!  I'll told Mikey I would have to find another project and he suggested I make him a quilt for our anniversary.
Trying to sew in straight lines
Finished the top layer
Both completed!
Mom to be with the first quilt!
Dad to be with the second quilt!
A shot of the back