August 26, 2009: Barrett's 1st Day of School

Barrett started Kindergarten and Nolan entered 2nd grade this week, and they are both loving it! They even started riding the bus to school this year!

Barrett and big brother Nolan ready to head out for the first day of school!

Kelly dropped Nolan off at his class first. He has Mrs. Ailes this year and really enjoys her class.

Barrett then got set in his Kindergarten class with Mrs. Schaefer. Suzy was Nolan's teacher for K too, and she was one of our great neighbors in the old neighborhood.

Barrett at his seat in his first classroom!

Nolan and Barrett at the end of the first day of school!

Swimming, music and scouts start soon. Ice is expected back in early September and hockey starts up again in early October. Here we go...

August 18, 2009: Denver Childrens', Denver Zoo and Casa Bonita

Travis had a really good check-up at Denver Children's Hospital on the 18th, so we decided to make a day of the trip to Denver to celebrate the end of summer. We headed over to Denver Zoo ater the appointment and had a nice visit. Barrett was particularly interested to see the Tigers since he had collected donations for the Denver Zoo tigers during his birthday party in January.

Travis was also very excited to see the two types of Penguins at the Denver Zoo.

And Nolan thought it was cool to get so close to his favorite animal, the Lion.

After the zoo, we went for some Blue Bell Ice Cream at Russel Stover's and then headed to Casa Bonita for dinner (dessert before dinner, mmmm).

August 10-12, 2009: Nolan, Barrett and Scott tackle Flattop Mtn!

Scott and Nolan had planned on trying to hike up Flattop Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park last summer, but it did not work out. After a great effort snow-shoeing this past winter, Scott decided that Barrett could come along and try too. After one date in July had to be cancelled due to the extended baseball season, another opportunity was found in mid-August. Scott and the older boys headed up to the park to camp and hike for a few days. Below is the traditional photo at the entrance to the park.


After a few hours of figuring, we finally were able to get our gigantic tent assembled for the first time. It is interesting to put up, but it sure is spacious!


Just before sunset after setting up camp, we decided to take a warm-up hike of almost 2 miles roundtrip to Alberta Falls. It went well so we thought we were ready for the early morning outing up Flattop.

We awoke at 6am to a cold morning, and hit the trail at 7am at Bear Lake Trailhead. After 4 hours, and 4.6 miles, we reached the summit of Flattop (below).

The 4.6 miles back downhill made for a long walk, but we were very excited to reach the trailhead after 7 hours of hiking. We headed into Estes Park so the boys could buy their "trail tags" for Flattop Mtn. They were very proud getting their patches and telling the folks at Outdoor World about their achievement. Needless to say, Scott was very proud of the boys for making the 9.2 miles!

The next morning, we broke camp and went for a little drive in the park. Below, the boys are pointing to the top of Flattop Mtn. The summit is actually really close to where Barrett is pointing.

Barrett was ready to go again the next day, while Nolan and Scott were a little more sore. Nolan and Barrett were already scouring the map for another challenge for next summer!

July 31-Aug 4, 2009: Our long weekend trip to Billings

Kelly suggested that we take my long weekend at the end of July and beginning of August to travel up to Billings for a visit with friends. It was a great weekend and we were able to introduce Travis and meet many new additions to the Billings crew.

We enjoyed a nice visit with Crystal and her new son Ethan. We'll definitely catch up with Ryan next time too! Crystal was Nolan and Barrett's babysitter during our time in Montana.


We swung by the old house to check on our Aspen trees. Two of the three are still there, and the oldest one is really getting big!

Sarah and Rod Bach invited us over for a Saturday afternoon cook-out and we had a great time visiting with friends all afternoon. Above is a nice pic of Jake, Nolan and Madeline.

Saturday evening, we surprised Glenna and Tom at their home with a birthday cake for Glenna. Glenna was the boys daycare provider when Kelly was working at KTVQ and up until we left for Wyoming. It was great to visit with them, and they were sure surprised!


We didn't make it to church during our trip to Billings for hockey in 2008, so we took in church Sunday morning and then had a nice lunch with the Alexanders.

Barrett was very, very excited to see his friend Sophie during this trip, and it just happened to work out that Ruby's birthday party was Sunday afternoon. We missed the party, but still had a good visit with the Carter's. Below are the kids in the front yard, and then a nice picture of Barrett and Sophie before we left.

Sunday night we met up with Barry and Tamra and their baby boy Carter, along with Matt, Gwen and Rylan Solum at Buffalo Wild Wings for a nice visit. Nolan and Barrett had a ball playing trivia that evening.

Monday morning, we made some more visits including a stop at KTVQ to see Kelly's former co-workers. The boys and Scott really wanted to show Travis the spot where we watched planes come right overhead by the Billings Airport. The photo above is of a Delta flight arriving from Salt Lake. Travis loves planes so he thought this was pretty cool!

After watching planes, we headed to MacKenzie River Pizza for lunch with the Humphrey's. This was another great time getting to catch up.

Finally, we really wanted to see the new Mustangs ballpark, Dehler Park, since we had helped to vote it into existence. Not only did we get to see a ballgame, but it turned out to be National Weather Service night at the ballpark, so we had more fun with old friends. We do miss our minor ball. The new stadium is outstanding!

We really look forward to seeing the Billings folks again soon, and hope that all know they are welcome in Cheyenne.

July 24, 2009: Kenny Chesney Concert at CFD

Nolan and Barrett both decided to get ropes at this year's CFD. Below, Nolan is practicing on a calf dummy near where he purchased his rope.



After practicing some ropin', we headed up to our seats for the Kenny Chesney concert. Scott noticed that Mac McAnally from Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band was walking down the track. It turns out he is touring part time with Kenny Chesney since they have the song "Down the Road" out together. A cool surprise to see Mac!


A nice family shot just before Chesney took the stage.

The boys did great for the show. Barrett started getting pretty tired by the end, and Travis slept through most of the encore.

Overall, a great evening at Frontier Park and another great concert.

July 23, 2009: More CFD Rodeo and Rides

Travis and Kelly on the train.


Nolan on the ferris wheel.


Barrett on the ferris wheel.


Kelly and Barrett braved the Matterhorn ride, and they both loved it!

July 22, 2009: Travis' 2nd Birthday celebration

We celebrated Travis' 2nd birthday with cake a day late, but he really enjoyed his Penguin (" britches ") cake created by Kelly.

Below is Travis with all of his birthday presents. It was definitely a Penguin and Cars birthday for him.

July 22, 2009: More CFD

Scott decided to stay up after his midnight to meet the family in town for the 2nd pancake breakfast of the week. If you've never done this, it is a great and delicious experience. The Kiwanis club puts it on, and by 9am this morning they had served over almost 10,000 people in 2 hours! 3 pancakes, ham, butter, syrup, milk, coffee for everyone. You do the math, that is a lot of pancakes and ham! The above photo was taken while we were in line with a whole lot of folks!



We also went back to the old neighborhood again to watch the Thunderbirds with Margaret and a few of the other former neighbors. Here is a shot of the diamond formation over the Gonzales' home.

Scott headed home to sleep after the airshow, but Kelly and the boys went to see the rest of the airshow displays at the National Guard base. Travis loves airplanes so this was a big treat for our littlest guy.

Above, the boys pose in front of the Thunderbirds after they returned to the base.

The boys and the C-5 that was in town.

July 21, 2009: More CFD fun

On the 21st, Kelly and the boys continued to take in a lot of the festivities during this year's CFD by attending the Tuesday parade and meeting the pilots of the Thunderbirds.

July 20 2009: Watching the Thunderbirds practice over the old neighborhood.

We stopped by our old neighborhood to watch the Thunderbirds practice with the Gonzales'. We also stole this view of our flower bed of poppies on the east side of our old garage.

July 18, 2009: Cheyenne Frontier Days gets underway!

Kelly and the boys were able to take part in the 1st parade of this year's Cheyenne Frontier Days festivities. Below is a photo from just before the parade, as Nolan's Cub Scout Pack prepared to start walking.



For being in the parade, Kelly and the boys received free tickets to the first rodeo of CFD too, so since Scott was home sleeping off a midnight shift, they took in their first rodeo of the week!

July 4th, 2009: Part 2 Poppies and Fireworks

We headed to Estes Park , CO for the 4th of July fireworks over Lake Estes and to visit a little more with Kelly's friends from college who were there.

Below is our attempt at a poppy picture for 2009. With the move from our old house, we missed the blooming of the flower bed full of red poppies but we got a decent shot for our tradition up in Estes.



Below is our setup in the Holiday Inn parking lot for watching the fireworks. The teenagers are the church youth that were traveling with Kelly's friends.