April 15, 2008: Nolan Rides His Bike!

Well, it was a record 76 degrees in Cheyenne today, Tax Day, and Kelly was able to come home from the hospital after her surgery (details?, give us a call or email), but this day also marks the day that Nolan was able to figure out his balance on his bicycle (with the help of Grandma Carpenter). After a few tries last fall and this spring with Dad, and mastering his balance on his razor scooter, it finally clicked for him after a lesson from Grandma. Here are a few pictures from this evenings bike riding festivities! Way to Go Nolan!!!!

April 10-13, 2008: Frozen Four Weekend In Denver...an Amazing Time!!!!

The Denver Sports Commission, the NCAA and the city of Denver in general did a great job hosting the final four NCAA hockey championships this past weekend! Thanks to the generosity of our friends, Matt and Gwen Solum from Billings, we were able to attend the games. In addition, the NCAA hosted a free youth hockey clinic on Saturday morning at the University of Denver. Both Nolan and Barrett were able to participate in the 8 and under portion of the clinic, along with 88 other kids in this age range. The kids were coached by NCAA coaches and the student athletes who were in Denver to participate in the 2008 Skills Challenge (which took place at Pepsi Center Friday night). The youth clinic was a first class event, and Nolan and Barrett had an absolute blast!!

We were going to meet our friends at N. Dakota fan pre-party, but the bar was overly-packed, so we just walked around outside and happened upon the party spilling out of the bar. This pic is when we were able to watch the UND pep-band and cheerleaders outside of Brooklyn's Bar.

We decided to head into Pepsi Center after listening to the band. Here are Nolan and Barrett by the giant bracket just inside Pepsi Center. Nolan and Barrett accompanied Scott to the Thursday games, after picking up Nolan from school at about lunch time. The crowd was completely dominated by North Dakota faithful, but unfortunately the Fighting Sioux did not puct up much of a fight against a dominant Boston College team. We travelled back to Cheyenne after the second semi-final game wrapped up in OT with Notre Dame upsetting Michigan in a great game!

Nolan and Barrett on the landing about 14 rows beneath our seats. There really is not a bad seat in Pepsi Center, just some that give you more exercise to reach.

This is a picture for the ages. That's right, we were pulling for Notre Dame and the boys got to wear there ND shirts that we picked up in 2006 during our visit to the ND campus. Even Scott rooted for Notre Dame, although it made him sick to his stomach. ND's coach, Jeff Jackson, was previously the head coach at Lake Superior State and led the Lakers to 3 consecutive Frozen Fours and 2 National Championships in the early 1990s. It was great to see him bring another team (even if it was the Irish) and make such a great showing with the trip to the Championship game.

Here we are awaiting the OT session between Michigan and Notre Dame.

Since Nolan was taking a friend to the Saturday Championship game with Kelly, Barrett and Scott went to the Friday night Skills Challenge Competition for a few hours. The photo above shows the men and women who were involved in the challenge watching one of the women take her attempt at the fastest shot. The student-athletes who are shown here were also the coaches for the youth skills clinic that Nolan and Barrett were able to participate in the following morning.

Jumping ahead to Saturday morning, here are Barrett and Nolan waiting to take the ice at DU's Magness Arena for the 2008 Frozen Four Youth Skills Clinic.

Travis sure thought that the Zam was pretty cool in the bowels of Magness Arena, as he and Kelly waited for the older boys to take the ice.

After a warm up, the boys ended up being split up. Barrett's group stayed on the main arena, but Nolan's group went to the other attached rink, Burns Arena.

While Scott and a few other parents were shooting pictures on the bench, DU coach George Gwozdecky walked by to chat with his former player, current Air Force Academy Assistant Coach, and one of the coaches at Gwozdecky's summer camps, Mike Corbett.

Just a cool shot of the pucks on the ice for the skills clinic.

We swapped rinks a few times to see both boys skating, and here Scott caught Barrett cruising around during a drill! Barrett really worked hard and did a great job paying attention for only being 4 years and 3 months old!

Nolan did excellent in all the drills they performed, and Scott caught this nice picture of him during the scrimmage portion of his drills. Nice to see his head up looking for a pass to one of his "red" teammates.

After shedding their equipment, the kids were taken on a tour of the DU athletic facilities and then the student-athletes who coached the kids at the clinic answered questions and then signed each of the kids' jerseys.

Barrett and Nolan really got a kick out of the whole morning event, and it was great to see them having such a great time together.

Nolan's friend Noah was able to meet us at the hotel before Scott dropped Kelly, Nolan and Noah off at Pepsi Center Saturday for the Championship Game.

As you can imagine, Nolan and Noah had lots of fun at the game.

Here are the Boston College Eagles celebrating their National Title after reaching the Championship Game and losing in the previous two years.

The weather really warmed up and was great for a trip to the Denver Zoo on Sunday, before we had to run out to the Denver Airport to pick up Grandma Carpenter. In this picture, the boys are watching the short Sea Lion presentation at the zoo.

And one last shot of the boys at the zoo. Barrett had been really afraid of the Hippos when we visited the zoo to see the Christmas Lights, but he was very brave during this visit!