Welcome to Ride the Rockies

I dropped Lucian off at the Airport around 7:30am Saturday morning. He flew into Denver and met up with his crew to transport them to Crested Butte, around a 4 hour drive. Lucian's friend's parents provided a truck and car to get the guys and their stuff there.

Packing up at the Denver airport

Registration was Saturday and camping commenced as well.

You have to slightly disassemble a bike to put it in a shipping box. Here's Lucian testing out his ride after reattaching the wheels, seat and handlebars.

Attaching his number. I think it says #1282.

Camp the first night

Lucian said it was cold and loud overnight and he didn't get much sleep. Unfortunately, day 1 of riding is one of the toughest. It's Crested Butte to Buena Vista, 76 miles through Cottonwood Pass – 12,126 ft. He said his tent was covered in frost in the morning. Here is his tent broken down and remnants of the coffee and oatmeal he packed rather than pay for breakfast.

Lucian's bike was locked to his buddy's, who happened to stay in a hotel the fist night. Here's Lucian waiting for Chris to arrive so they can unlock and get going.
Day 1 consists of a 14 mile stretch of gravel road. Sounds pretty difficult on a road bike, but Lucian didn't report any issues. Cottonwood Pass is one of the snowy peaks behind the guys in this shot. They rode to those peaks and, then up and over.
I read online that this is the most snow Cottonwood Pass has seen along the road for early June. It is only open to vehicles in the summer.

I spoke to Lucian tonight and he said today's ride was the hardest he's ever done. He was lucky enough to meet up with his mom (Nana Kathleen as some readers may know her:) at a cabin next to some hot springs. He was treated to a nice soak and dinner and decided to stay there overnight. He figured he'd sleep better next to a rushing river rather than 2,000 tents. I hope it works, tomorrow is a big day as well!

Tree Drama

Last Wed. night there was a decent storm that rolled through our area with high winds we noticed as we were finishing up dinner. We went to bed later that evening and half asleep, I heard a distinctive crack, crack, swoosh. We have some trees on the side of our house we have been concerned about falling. I knew exactly what it was.

The kicker is that after buying our minivan last weekend, we've been parking my old Honda Accord at the foot of the driveway... near these trees (Spencer will drive it starting in Aug.). I got out of bed and looked out the window to see a large branch had fallen. On the car.

We went outside in the rain, thunder and lightning, moved the car up the driveway out from under the branches and called the police, since it was lying across the road. Two cars came to access the situation. They put their lights on and called public works to come and clear the street. This is all happening a little after 11pm, mind you. They told us we could go back to bed.

Around 1am a tree crew, chainsaws and all, arrived to clear the road. I hadn't been sound asleep prior to that with my adrenaline going and listening for a car to run into the limb or the trucks to arrive.

The fallen branch

The next morning a crew arrived and told us the trees technically belong to the city because of how close they are to the creek. They would remove the remaining tree and one with a cracked trunk next to it. We still need to investigate if they will pay for the car repair as well. The trunk and side was dented from the falling branch, but not terribly.

Anyway, this was the scene at our house the past week. Never a dull moment, right?

Thursday evening. The crew's shredder was broken so they left all this.

But came back Friday morning to collect the remaining debris.

Our new view. Supposedly, they will be back to remove the rest of the trunks and grind down the stumps. We'll see.

Beautiful Weekend

The weekend started out a little rough for Claire. She was running a fever Friday evening after getting picked up from daycare and basically snuggled all night until going to bed. I was worried about a rough weekend ahead, but she seemed to bounce back Sat.

After a light morning nap Sat. (I needed it) Claire was crying and crying and asking to go in the car. So I put her in the car and went to get an oil change. I decided to run to the mall and get an iced coffee after that and to our surprise, there were safety days going on with fire trucks and ambulances and a dive team on display. Claire liked exploring all the trucks, but was shy and didn't want to sit in any of them. It was a perfect surprise.

I took both kids for a haircut in the early afternoon. Claire did okay. I'm glad I don't attempt that myself anymore. I'm sure it would look terrible with how much she moves around.

Saturday afternoon we headed to the Chicago suburbs to purchase a new car. Spencer will get his license in August and with much discussion we finally settled on the fact that a minivan would suit our needs best. Car seats take up a heck of a lot of room and with an adult sized child riding along side it, neither of our cars were very accommodating. After about a month of shopping we found one we liked and managed to get there before it was sold.

After an hour and a half commute, another hour and a half of test driving, paper work and no nap for Claire, she lost it. While trying to discuss final terms, her screaming became too much and we walked out of the dealership. The manager, sales rep and loan officer all followed us out to the parking lot asking if they did anything wrong and what they could do to fix it. In the end, they agreed to the price we were asking, lowered the interest rate and got those last steps done in about 5 minutes. Although we are happy with the end result, what a stressful process! I don't want to do that again anytime soon. And now I know to plan for a sitter... although we have Claire to thank for our final negotiating.

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. Lucian washed his bike and we ran a few last minute errands for his big ride next week. Claire was very eager to help with the washing.

I changed her into a swim shirt, but she wouldn't go barefoot and got her mary jane's sopping wet. We picked up a pair of "crocs" and water slippers at Target later while she napped.

Memorial Day Weekend

Ahh, the bliss of a three day weekend. I had some quality time with Claire over the weekend as Lucian went up north to a friend's cabin for a few days and Spencer was at his mom's all weekend. We walked the neighborhood, read books, shopped with Aunt Mimi and headed to a few parks.

On a morning walk smelling the lilacs

Claire still loves to swing and pushes herself like this on the "big" swings

We met Sydney at the park both days so the girls could play together.

I think their favorite part was sharing the snacks we each brought.

Skater girl. Enjoying Monday's beautiful weather.

Lucian is doing another epic bike ride this year; Ride the Rockies, a week-long trek through Colorado's Rocky Mountains. He and a few local guys are going. They headed north to a friend's hunting cabin this weekend (near Spring Green, WI) to get in some training rides with decent climbing/elevation. He shared a few photos for the blog. Looks like a beautiful area.

Saturday morning ride

The cabin and "water truck". They use this old jalopy to get water from a distant neighbor for the cabin.

Horses running to greet them

Morels they ate for dinner. (That is a regular size dinner plate, by the way).Lucian flies out Sat., June 11th for the ride. We'll be without him for a week, but I know he'll have a great time.

Life is Busy

Claire is on the go these days. Learning, exploring, running and discovering. There is never a dull moment with her and she brings so much joy to our lives. Recently, I changed my work hours so that I can pick Claire up from daycare at 5pm daily (when it closes). It has made a significant difference in our evening shuffle, not to mention saving a few dollars by not paying a second sitter every day. Most nights I can feed her, get our dinner started and give her a bath before Lucian gets home. Other nights we play outside with the neighborhood kids or go for a walk. It's amazing how getting home at 5pm can change your attitude.

This weekend we sneaked in a couple trips to the park. Sunday's weather was such a tease, almost 80° and now it is 50° and raining again. Claire went down all of the slides by herself, the first I have seen.

She also loves to swing.

I got a text message from daycare last week that Claire found a jar of hair gel (while she was supposed to be napping) and put it all in her hair. Here she is having an afternoon bath. She looks very proud.

She enjoyed pretending to drive Papa's van.

We had some ducks in our back yard on Sunday. They are usually on the other side of the fence near the creek, but some strong winds blew a section of our fence down a week or two ago. Now the ducks are free to explore. Claire kept telling them "c'mere" and "more". She wasn't scared until they flew away.

Lastly, we joined a CSA this year, providing us with a box of fresh produce each Thursday. They deliver right to Lucian's office, which is awesome. Here is our first sampling. I'm not sure what some of the items are, but that's part of the adventure, right? We are using as much as we can, trying to let it inspire our meals. Lucian begged me to make a strawberry rhubarb pie with the rhubarb from this batch. So far so good.

Mother's Day Weekend

Our niece, Lucille, celebrated her 9th birthday last month. We had a family party on Saturday with delicious grilled food and a chocolate ice cream cake. Claire was a very big fan, as you can see.

Lucy has a guitar that Claire is often interested in. She had it out on Saturday and did a little performance for us all. Can you guess what song she wanted to play. It's at the end of the video.


On Sunday, we had a late afternoon picnic planned with our friends on what we hoped would be a warm day. Living near the lake has it's pluses and minuses. While it was much warmer inland, our drive to the park was accompanied by clouds moving in and a significant temperature drop. We opted to eat indoors at a restaurant and then head to the park for a bit. The girls had a lot of fun and we were home in time for baths and bed.

Claire and Sydney on the slide

Claire loves to swing. We hope to put one in our front tree this summer.

Spen on the rocking motorcycle

Claire was very upset to give a shovel and pail back to Sydney when it was time to leave. She sat herself down in the grass and cried. We asked Syd to go hold Claire's hand to walk to the car. She obliged and it cheered Claire up instantly.