Sat, 27 Mar 2010
Back to realityAnother busy week, but I can't think what's been going on. I guess it's just the shock of getting back to school and work after a week of relaxing. My work was particularly difficult because there was some kind of virus going around at work. Both staff and patients were getting sick. I used my hand sanitizer faithfully and no one here seems to have caught it.
Thomas had an orchestra concert on Tuesday. This was all the string students from all thirteen elementary schools in the district. It was impressive how well they played together (with only an hour practice together) and what a nice big sound they got with this many students. I was expecting cacophony and they really sounded good! Thomas sounds good by himself, but all those screechy violins…they did great.
Bryan had his first track meet this morning and it was freezing. We huddled in the bleachers and were really glad that we didn't have to run in shorts. Once again, I didn't get pictures of Bryan going over the hurdles. My photography skills are pretty weak in the area of action shots. I will work on that this track season.
Final picture, since I didn't get any others of Melody. She got to go to a sleepover this weekend and had an end of quarter party for getting 100% of her assignments in, but I didn't get any pictures of those events. This is from last weekend, when Melody and Thomas were playing Monopoly together.
Sun, 21 Mar 2010
VACATION!What can one say about vacation? I love vacations. Long ago, we reserved a week at our timeshare in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I was a little nervous about driving that far in the middle of winter, but we had beautiful weather all week. Even with the good weather, we drove about fifteen hours to get to our condo. It is three mountainous hours away from Denver. We were in the mood for winter sports after watching the Olympics just a few weeks ago, so we rented cross country skis for the week. Just to let you know, we are not really Olympic level skiers. None of us has been skiing (other than around the school field) in the five years we've lived in Missouri. Last time we went to Spooner Lake in Nevada, Thomas was in a trailer we pulled behind us…Also, Colorado people take their skiing seriously. We were directed to several "moderate" trails, but we found them to be fairly challenging.
When I asked where flatter trails were, I was told that Colorado doesn't do flat. So we struggled up and down the slopes. This trail on the second day did have a nice long trail along a ridge.
The locals also apologized to us about the poor quality of snow. I guess it's been a low snow year as well as quite awhile since new snow. It seemed pretty typical of snow I've been used to in California.
The last day we were in the mood for some easier skiing so we drove about an hour away to get to an easier trail around Steamboat Lake.
We took a day in the middle of the week to hike to a nearby waterfall. It was really pretty. We met some people coming down the trail who'd climbed the waterfall, but since we didn't have crampons or ice axes, we had to be content with admiring from below.
We also spent one day downhill skiing. We didn't go to the big Steamboat Springs resort, but to the smaller Howelson Hill where the locals go (and where the Olympic athletes train). A family lift ticket for the whole season here is only $350! Kids here learn to ski about the same time they learn to walk. And then they start jumping. We were there on a day that they had the last jumping competition of the season. We watched three year olds "bump-jumping" It was just like T-ball or junior soccer. As we headed up the hill, we could also watch the bigger kids jumping. It was pretty cool. Annoying were the little ones that clogged the lift lines and got underfoot. They may have been annoyed also by us. Thomas took out several when he was unable to stop himself from sliding down backward while waiting in the lift line. Sorry about that.This first picture is at Howelson, looking to the lodge, over the town, and to the bigger resort across the valley.
The little kid with the big skis in front of Melody is a jumper.
This is not anyone in our family.
In addition to skiing, we did a lot of swimming at the indoor pool at our condo. We also tried out the sauna, and found the jacuzzi a great way to soothe those sore underused skiing muscles.
Years ago, we found the tradition of keeping board games at the front desk a good one. We haven't used them in awhile, but played cards, twister, and trouble this time.
The only problem with our condo was that we didn't get the usual twin beds in the second bedroom. Thomas ended up sleeping on the window seat. He won't be able to do that for much longer, but it worked fine for this trip.
Our drive home was long, and we did it at night again in order to leave and stay ahead of a predicted storm. We arrived home to find all well here. After a rest, we were able to attend Melody's camp certification meeting and Bryan's robotics competition on Saturday. Ahh, reality. Vacation is so much more fun…
Sun, 07 Mar 2010
Two weeks!It has been two weeks AGAIN since I've written. This is getting bad. So I got up early before church and will try to write something quick. I haven't taken many pictures either, which is my way of remembering what has gone on in my life. I have a picture of Melody's science project, which reminds me that last weekend I spent judging the tri-county science fair. It was fun. I got to be in a group that judged third grade projects. Melody did not win anything in the seventh grade division.
Bryan started track for real. They've been having pre-season practices, but on the first day of "real " track, he came home saying he couldn't start until he got a physical. We should have known this, but missed the notice somehow, so we went racing off to see how quickly we could get him a physical. Needless to say, "urgent"care is never really that quick in spite of the name, but we had his physical by 5:00, in time for him to attend the second day of track practice.
We went to Thomas' school to watch him dance the Troika and see the work he's done on researching the Republic of Georgia. They do a big culture unit every year. This year they ate all kinds of unusual things. They even got to taste caviar. Thomas performed a shadow puppet play for us, and did a reading of his radio script. His teacher says he needs to slow down when speaking in public. Imagine that.
I'm really enjoying my job, in spite of the adjustments in my sleep schedule. A couple of days ago however, our nurses' station ceiling was painted in the middle of the night. I was impressed with what a quick job they made of it, and kept thinking that I've been meaning to paint my kitchen ceiling for quite a while. So yesterday, just before noon, I decided to go for it. How hard could it be? Bryan had come home from track practice, but decided to help me. Just like any house project I ever do, I was sorry I started. We started with the idea of giving the ceiling a quick coat of paint, but ended up scraping off the "popcorn" ceiling stuff, then had to sand a section that had been patched a while back when we had a pipe leak. That put plaster dust all over everything. Then we finally painted. Then we had a huge mess to clean up. I was so tired last night. But the ceiling does look better that it did.
Now for the weather report. Yesterday and the day before, we had sunshine and warm weather! It really feels like spring. In fact, when Melody had a friend over yesterday, they rode bikes to the park and played tennis. And the crocuses are blooming. I hope the weather lasts through our spring break which is in a week. We are planning a drive to Colorado to play in the snow. I don't want to have to put chains on to get there. If we hit a storm it's going to be a long drive…
Jan Dill Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 31 December 2009
