Fourth Birthday!

Up until now, Cailan hasn't been that excited by birthdays and holidays. Sure, he's been eager to tear into a big pile of presents in front of him, and he's always happy to see cakes or other treats, but what's missing has been the anticipation, the looking forward to the occasion before it gets here.

That changed with his birthday this year. I think his excitement actually ignited in October, when he went to a birthday party for one of his classmates at Kidzplex, a facility here that has gymnastics, a daycare, a climbing wall and an indoor playground called The Fun Factory. Cailan loved The Fun Factory, especially the ball pit, and the whole event - the playground, the party room decorated with balloons, the snacks and cake, the presents, the party favors - left a big impression on him. A few weeks later, when we started talking about Cailan's birthday, he said he wanted to have his party at Kidzplex, "just like Robert's."

Soon after that, he got the idea that when he turned four, he would grow sticky pads on his feet and be able to walk on walls like a gecko. I knew that his chances of gecko-morphosis were pretty small (though I tried not to squash his fantasy) but I figured that arranging the kind of party he wanted was well within my power.


First, we made some invitations and passed him out to (gulp!) all 20 kids in his preschool class. Fortunately, between finals week on campus and holiday events, only 6 kids were able to make it.


We started Cailan's birthday celebration off with blueberry waffles - that seemed to take the sting out of the disappointment of waking up a human boy rather than a gecko.


After that, Cailan and I made his birthday cake and cupcakes. He's been a great help with baking lately - we made two pies together for Thanksgiving.




We made one big cake and 12 cupcakes and decorated them with toy dinosaurs. I couldn't believe my luck, that the package of dinos we got at the party store actually included a dilophosaurus. Cailan claimed the dilophosaurus cupcake (in the center of the picture) for his own.


Grandma Bobbie came to Kidzplex with us and helped us decorate our party room with a dinosaur banner and balloons while I set up some snacks and the cakes. All the kids who RSVP'd showed up and soon they were all running rampant through The Fun Factory. Here's Cailan, feeling a bit trepidatious, crossing the narrow bridge above the ball pit with some help from his fearless friend Tyanna.



After all that running around, it was time for some snacks: we had brought cheese and crackers, grapes, and apples. Most of the kids eschewed the Swiss cheese in favor of the cheddar, but Cailan likes the white cheese with the holes in it. "Does Swiss mean it has holes?"


We lit the candles on the big cake and sang a proper Happy Birthday. The we passed around the cupcakes, and each kid got a little dinosaur to take home.

Snow Day

It started snowing Monday night. This is what it looked like Tuesday morning:


I was out the door at 6 a.m. as usual, taking Utah for his morning constitutional. At first I didn't think too much of it, but as we walked I realized the snow was up over my ankles with every step and it was continuing to fall pretty heavily. Apparently, none of the other dogs had convinced their people to take them out: none of the regulars were in the park so we had it all to ourselves. I let Utah off his leash and he raced away to scamper and wallow in the snow while I trudged around the perimeter of the park. My legs grew tired before I finished one lap, and I wished I was wearing my snowshoes.

When I got back to the house, I turned on the computer to check the forecast and look for school closings. I was as delighted as a second-grader to see that our campus was closed. Yippee! A snow day!

Much of the morning was spent shoveling the driveway and unearthing the cars.


Cailan bundled up in his new mittens, bibs and snow boots and brought his dinosaurs outside to make tracks in the snow. Unfortunately, the dinosaurs kept disappearing in the powder, but we managed to keep track of the boy!

Aspirations

There has been a lot of birthday talk around our house lately. Today we printed up invitations to Cailan's birthday party and distributed them to his classmates. Cailan was a big help reading the names on the invitations and sticking them in the correct cubby.

Later he was telling me that when he turns four he will be able to do lots of things that he couldn't do when he was three.

"Oh, really?" I asked, What kinds of things will you be able to do when you turn four?"

"I will grow sticky feet and a lizard's tail and I will be able to walk on the walls like a gecko."

Wow. I didn't know this birthday would bring about such a metamorphosis.

More on commuting

I noticed this morning that the ratio of prep time to ride time is even more skewed on the days I take Cailan to daycare. Wrestling a semi-cooperative preschooler into coat, mittens, and helmet, buckling him into the trailer, tucking a blanket all around him, and snugly securing the trailer's cover adds several minutes to the prep time. I probably ride a bit slower when I'm pulling the trailer but not enough to substantially change the ride time.

I ask him every morning when we get to campus, "Are you ok? Did you stay warm enough?" He always answers yes. I hope it's true.

Winter commuting

The good thing about having a short bike commute is that, in the winter, I don't have to worry about overheating on my ride to work. Layering and moisture management aren't issues for me; I just have to bundle up enough to survive the eight minutes, and if I start getting to hot I can just ride slower and make it there in nine.

The bad thing about a short bike commute is that it seems to take as long to get dressed for the ride as it does to actually do the ride.

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that wearing a snug balaclava doesn't actually seem to make my hair look worse. Hmmm.

Lost

So although I have been out to the local trail network (Lunch Loops) frequently, Heather has only been a few times. Those were mostly just the smallest loops for lunchtime getaways. There is actually a quite large network of trails available there, most of them quite challenging. Last weekend we decided to spend our biking day close to home (the Lunch loops trail head is about 4 miles from our house). One good/bad thing about the trails is that we have a very avid trail maintenance and development organization here in Junction: the trails get good upkeep, but they frequently change location and routing. Just in the past year they have opened about seven new trail sections, closed two, and rerouted numerous areas due to erosion.
Grandma came over and we loaded up Utah and went out for a medium/long ride of about 12 miles. We got lost. Five miles from home and we got lost. Unlike many trails though, it was hard to get too stressed about it as we could often see the town down below us.
The tall black building is St. Mary's Hospital which is about .5 miles from our house. Here's another view of town.
One with Heather
Since we live in a valley, pretty much everything goes UP on the way out and DOWN on the way back.
Maybe next time
After about four hours we had gone 12 miles and ended up on a totally different road than we came in on. It was also getting dark. Fortunately we were only a couple of miles from the truck, so we made it home for chili and cornbread.

Utah had a good time getting lost

A Tale of two weekends

We have had a beautiful Autumn here in Junction! So nice that we have been out doing things instead of posting. Last weekend Heather and I realized that we had been here 16 months and hadn't yet gone biking in Moab. So we made a plan... The hardest part about the trip was what to do with Cailan. He isn't nearly big enough or coordinated enough to handle these trails, and we feel guilty handing him off to Grandma Bobbie while we go out on an eight-hour day (including travel time). So we made a big day of it:

First we decided to take advantage of the significant number of dino things available in the area by going to the Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway to see Jurassic dino prints!
Here's Grandma, Cailan and Heather looking for them


Found one! (note the deeper claw prints at the end of the toes!) Cailan tells us that this was probably a small Allosaurus
Cailan also showed us several diplodocus heads he made/found
The prints were quite easy to find and included small and medium carnivores and a good sized sauropod (Cailan: "probably camarasaurus") that made a sharp right turn while walking. Evidently this is unusual as they are not particularly agile.

After the trackway we split forces and Grandma and Cailan went to the Mill Valley Dinosaur Trail which has fossils and signs and stuff. We had been there before in January but it was not very visible:
While they went to the trail (no snow today - about 65-70 degrees!) Heather and I took our biggest bike to Klondike Bluffs. It's a fairly easy trail, but one of our favorites. As usual we didn't get shots of us riding because we were on our own. The trail goes about 4 miles on dirt road then right up a big slope of rock. At the top there is a bike rack to park at
(we had the longest bike there) while you do an optional short hike to one of our favorite snack places of all time
(For scale: If you look carefully you can see a couple visiting from Nashville near the left side at the end of the big white rock.)
We had a great time on the ride and the Ventana bike handled it's first Moab ride admirably.

After that we decided that we hadn't had enough dinos yet, so we went to another set of tracks. We drove out on a dirt road to the back door to Arches National Monument, parked on a big Jurassic sand dune
and found lots of these
All in all, good fun! We had an early dinner in Moab then drove home at sunset
This weekend: not so much. I've got two concerts plus rehearsals. And then there's this
Plus a roof leak that needs repair before winter.

Pee-commerce

Cailan has been learning about money! Over the past year he has amassed eleven dollars that he occasionally gets out and throws around. He also really likes reading the prices of toy dinosaurs. Recently he changed day care centers (he's now at "Little Mavs!") but this change seemed to loosen his tenuous grip on potty training...he was potty-trained for all of two weeks when he changed schools. Mostly he just had trouble with being afraid of the noisy toilets and getting his pants out of the way. To help him remember to be extra careful, we told him that if he went the whole day and was still in his same (clean) pants, he would get one dollar to put in his money jar.

He did two things almost immediately: 1) He stopped having accidents at day care 2) he decided to save his money to buy a $35 diplodocus. Last week he got to $21 and during a visit to the toy store discovered that there was a big T-Rex that cost $22! This caused some turmoil, but eventually he decided to buy the T-Rex when he got another dollar - then he would start saving for the diplodocus.

This week he got his dollar and we set off for the toy store. I should mention that Cailan is well-known at the toy store. They call him by several cute names but the most common is "little dinosaur boy". Nearly every employee has had the chance to listen to Cailan talk about the various dinos they have there.

The Big Day
Here's on of him when I asked him to look at the camera. I think his inner-thought is "Don't distract me, I'm busy looking at this T-Rex!"
Then it was time for the exchange.

We then raced home (on the trail-a-bike) to introduce the T-Rex to his new friends. On the way Cailan said "maybe he will love his new friends" I was all sloppy happy about that. He then decided to name the T- Rex "Chompy-chomps". It makes me wonder what he meant by "love".

In Which Grandma and Grandpa Visit Grand Junction, part 1

In September, Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Nick came to visit us in Grand Junction! They arrived on a Sunday, just before lunch, so we immediately stuffed them with sandwiches and crammed them into the back seat of the Subaru and took off for a bike ride, with 2 tandems strapped to the top of the car. We drove west from town, up to the top of a big plateau, and started our ride from the town of Glade Park.

From there we zoomed downhill about 4 miles until we reached the Colorado National Monument. Then we rode for a few miles along Rim Rock Drive, with views of red rocks, deep canyons, the valley where Grand Junction sits, and the Bookcliffs and the Grand Mesa that rise up from the other side of the valley. Cailan kept looking down at the buildings, trying to find our gray house. We could see the tall tower of the hospital near our house, but we couldn't actually identify our house.

Riding on Rim Rock Drive is amazing, because of the spectacular scenery, but also unnerving, because of the large drop-offs on the side of the road. We stopped for a rest break and to let Cailan get out of his bike seat, and these are the only pictures we got of the ride:





The return ride from the monument back to our car at Glade Park was as grueling as we had expected - when you start a ride by whizzing down hill at 30 miles per hour, it's a bit disheartening to think about climbing back up all that elevation at the end of a ride. Fortunately, we were in no hurry and could take a few rest breaks on the way! We got back to the Subaru just as the sign on the Glade Park Store flipped from Open to Closed, so we missed our chance for a nice cold drink. Instead, we went back to the house and had showers and homemade pizza.

Grandma Mesa (Grand Mesa)

So one of the reasons we moved to Grand Junction was the "Mesa". We know that the desert and town would be scorching during July and August, but we told our selves that we could always escape to the 10000' Mesa for a break. Here it is August and we hadn't made it there yet. It has in fact been hot enough to keep us from doing much outside, so we finally got around to arranging a day trip. Here's the plan: Load up Grandma Bobbie's minivan with all the family (Heather, Chris, Bobbie, and Cailan) all the dogs (Dusty, Buffy, And the ever-eager Utah) a bunch of food, and one big red bicycle! The Mesa has lots of trails and lakes and Grandma agreed to watch Cailan throw rocks for a few hours while Heather & I chased Utah around some trails. High temperature in GJ 95 - 100, high temp on the Mesa 76! (about 65 when we started riding).


Did I mention that it's wild flower season? The trail we rode is named "West Bench" and is a 20 mile out and back. It starts by a lake, goes to the top of a ski area and finally climbs up to the mesa top before returning by the same route. Since this is on a mesa, there is relatively little climbing (for 20 miles of mountain riding). We started at about 9200' and climbed to just over 10,000'. The trail is mostly smooth

with a few rocky sections.

Once past the mile of rocks, it really was a beautiful trail that was almost swallowed by the mass of flowers growing everywhere

Needless to say - Heather smiled.

After the trail left the ski area it joined an old road to climb up to the top of the mesa. Thi was really the only big climb of the day, but it was a big grunt at elevation.

Still chock full o' flowers though!

The trail finally reached the top where it leveled off and was amazingly flat and open. It was dotted with medium sized lakes and boulders. Almost every boulder seemed to have it's own private ground squirrel perched on it. At first I thought they were pikas, but alas not.

There were a few other odd things up there as well

Not really sure what that building was, but we saw it and about fifty transmission towers at the edge of the mesa. Fortunately we also saw this:

After a short break by a lake (happy dog!) we headed back to rescue Grandma, eat a big picnic and drive through the rest of the mesa. A really beautiful day!