October 23, 2007: Cheyenne Hockey

Hockey season is underway here in Wyoming and NoCo (that's Northern Colorado for all you flat-landers).

One of my projects in addition to helping coach the mini-mites is to keep the CCYHA web pages in order and updated. Feel free to take a look at www.cheyennehockey.com and let me know of any suggestions. You have to be a member to see the News and Info, but I think you should be able to see some of the stuff. If you want to sign up as a "fan" and be able to see more items, just let me know.

Tournaments (or Mini-Mite Jamborees) as they are called around here will start up in early December when the Cheyenne folks will travel to Casper, WY.

October 10-17, 2007: Grandma and Grandpa Findeisen's Visit

We enjoyed another grandparent visit earlier this month, when Grandma and Grandpa Findeisen made the drive up from the Houston area. This was Grandma and Grandpa's first opportunity to meet Travis, and to see Nolan and Barrett ice skating.

Nolan, Barrett and Grandpa playing the Bob The Builder dominoes-like game.

Wrestling fun!

Kelly and Grandma in the kitchen.

Grandma Findeisen got into Mancala so we even got her a version as a gift. It was used a lot during their visit.




Grandma and Travis (aka t-bone)

Grandpa and Travis enjoying lunch.

On their last day here before heading to Mount Rushmore and points east, Kelly, Grandma and Grandpa, and Barrett went down to Grandma's cousin Skip's home near the Denver Airport. Barrett had a great time seeing the alpacas, emus, and especially feeding the goats (above).

After our traditional visitor's dinner at On The Border down in Loveland, we did manage to get a few pictures of the group before bed-time.

Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa Findeisen for the visit.

October 6th, 2007: Wyoming 24, Texas Christian 21

Nolan, Barrett and I braved the not-so-good-weather forecast for Laramie on Saturday and attended the Wyoming-TCU football game. Thankfully, it turned out that the poor weather held off until about 50 minutes after the game ended and we enjoyed a cool and breezy, but sunny, fall day at "the War" for the 300th game there!


As we walked into the stadium, the boys wanted to stop and watch TCU warm up. They were amazed at how big the players were.

Nolan and "pistol Pete" (Barrett was terrified and up the steps to the right screaming, but I managed to get a quick picture before consoling him that the mascot would not get him).

Barrett and Nolan from our seats in the western stands.

We moved down to the north end zone to watch the end of the game. When we left our seats, Wyo was ahead by 18 points. As it turned out, we watched from the opposite end of the field as TCU missed a game tying field goal as time ran out. Whew!

Following the game, we went out on the field and Nolan got to high-five a few of the Wyo players who were celebrating squeaking out a win against TCU (Wyo had not won against TCU since the Mountain West Conference was created, and this was the only school in conference whom they had not been able to beat). Nolan's memory continues to amaze, as he recalled which player had high-fived him during the Frontier Days parade and gave him a high-five on the field after the game. Barrett eventually had fun on the field running around after making certain that the mascot was nowhere nearby!

Overall, the game and environment really lived up to the hype and we hope to get up to more games in the future. I had forgotten how much fun it is to attend a Division I college football game after 5 years in Billings.

October 2nd, 2007: Miller Farms Field Trip

Scott was able to accompany Nolan's Kindergarten class to Miller Farms, near Platteville, Colorado. This was a fun trip which mainly consisted of riding a wagon around the farm and stopping at various crop areas to pick vegetables. The kids seemed to have fun loading up their bags with potatoes, pumpkins, squash, cabbage, beets, carrots, onions, and indian corn. After a quick lunch, the kids did have some time to play around in a hay maze, on a hay stack, etc. before we boarded the buses for the return north to Cheyenne.

Monday, October 1st, 2007: The Rockies Win The NL Wild Card!!!!

WooHoo!


After 13 innings of the tie-breaker game, and winning 14 of their last 15 games the Rockies have advanced to play the Phillies in the playoffs!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007: Denver Zoo and Casa Bonita!

After dropping Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter off at the airport, we decided to check out the Denver Zoo. The Zoo is great and we had a great visit there and plan to return as often as possible.

As we left the zoo, I remembered that we have been wanting to visit Casa Bonita so we headed over there and had a fun dinner. Nolan especially expressed that he had a great time at the zoo and dinner (the restaurant has a mariachi band and on-going shows including divers on their 30+ foot indoor waterfall!), and Barrett later said he had fun too even with the loud cap-gun noises which were part of the shows. Nolan even braved Black Bart's (the pirate) haunted treasure cave!

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007: More Fun During Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter's Visit

The boys on our front porch with some Autumn Decorations.

Another nice picture with the Grandparents from Michigan.

Grandpa and Travis having a conversation.

Barrett helped Mom and Grandma replant some

On Tuesday we went over to the YMCA after Nolan got out of school for a swim. The following are a few pictures at the Y.

And finally, a picture with Grandma and Grandpa at DIA before they departed.

September 15th, 2007: A Day Trip to Steamboat Springs

We decided to take advantage of Nolan being off of school on Saturday and head to the mountains for the day. We debated where to go and decided to test the theory that Steamboat is only about 3 hours from Cheyenne. Thankfully, the rumors are true!

The first two pictures below are of the "older" boys and Grandma while we were at our lunch stop and feeding point for Travis in Walden, CO.

After we arrived in Steamboat, we went to this park on the far end of town and saw a few of the natural springs there. We had to get som photos in front of the huge elk statue too, of course.

From downtown Steamboat, this is the view of Mt. Werner (where the actual Steamboat ski area is located) in mid-September.

After a huge peanut butter cup at a local ice cream store, here is Barrett's mess. He somehow almost kept his shirt chocolate-free! How? We are not sure.

Both boys wanted to get up on the pretend horse downtown.

This is another photo of Mt. Werner from the other end of town.

After wandering around downtown, we headed back up to the base of the ski area to check out some of the changes since my parents had come here to ski in 1984 and 1989. One spot that was still here was the Tugboat Saloon where we had a lot of meals during our ski trips long ago. It turns out that the Tugboat will be going away next year as its building will be destroyed to bring in EVEN MORE condos and retail space. Rumors are flying that the Tugboat may be recreated in the new building, but whether or not they can recreate the atmosphere will remain a question.

We rolled out of Steamboat at about 7 pm and were back home in Cheyenne by shortly after 10 pm. This was a great day trip and nice to be able to give Mom and Dad some time sightseeing in the mountains.

September 14th, 2007: Time With Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter

Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter spent 9 days with us in September and we had a great visit. Kelly and Mom created a new curtain for our dining room door-wall and below are the before and after pictures of their project. It looks great!

Before

After

Grandma and Travis having a conversation.

Grandpa had a good time playing some back yard soccer.

September 6th, 2007: The boys