lost summer photos

Matching Vancouver t-shirts I brought home for the boys from one of my trips up north for work.  

Famers market at East High.

Goodbye Bowen

We lost Bowen this week. I'd like to write a little something about him like I did for Hailie when she passed but I don't think I can do him any better justice than what I wrote about him a couple years ago after he'd gone missing for a few days.  So I'm going to just point back to that as his digital eulogy and post a few last photos of one of the worst best dogs I've ever known. Some of these photos are a year or two old but the ones at the bottom were taken in the last week of his life.

We love and miss you, Bowen.

Back to School

Looking stylish on the first day back at school after winter break.

Holiday break

 The boys will have had 3 weeks off for winter break when its all said and done.  It has flown by, much to my surprise.  

We discovered how much we love bowling at the DAC (free for members AND their guests).  We have taken friends multiple times.  LT has gotten really into it, Adler too!

 Its been a cold winter break and I always think little guys are so cute bundled.  Adler is no exception.

 I tutor in the projects and they had a fabulous holiday party.  Above we were riding on one of two vintage fire trucks they had at the party.  The trucks were decked out in holiday lights and lit up the sky as they took you on a ride around the block.  Definitely a hit for my kids as well as the guy I tutor!

LT with Santa.  Adler was hesitant, can't  blame him, although this one was the least creepy I have seen.  

My favorite part of the break was sharing a long time Imig tradition with my kid.  My grandmother (dad's mom) made cinnamon rolls every year for all of us to enjoy.  My dad and his brothers would have a friendly competition as to whose were the best.  They take a long time to make, at least a days work, but they are worth it.  LT and I made several batches together this year.  Yum!

Happy New Year!

The following is from another year in coach, a set on Flickr.

This year, much like the one before it, my camera accompanied me on many of my business trips. I consider myself lucky in that I get to travel to some interesting places for work but I'm not on the road so much that it's a burden (to me anyway, the wife might feel differently). Apparently I also don't travel enough to gain any kind of status because I flew coach and sat in the back of the plane on every trip. With the exception of one trip, that is, where I drove my car and got a speeding ticket on the way to Vail. For me, the camera is a wonderful diversion during my travels and this year I got out to shoot in Seattle, Vancouver, Philadelphia, London and Paris. I also took a photo at the one constant in all my trips, Denver International Airport. Happy New Year and may the coming year bring more joy and adventure.

Videos

I generally prefer taking and working with photos rather than video but I do occasionally switch the phone into "camcorder" mode. These are a few videos that collected on my phone over the last couple months.


The DAC has some unique attributes and the old boxing room is definitely an interesting part of the club. Here LT gets a little work in on (what for him is) the heavy bag.



LT's class doing a dance at a school Thanksgiving performance.


Adler flying headfirst down the big slide at Rainbow Park.


LT trying to juggle.


LT's class and their buddy 6/7/8th class singing a song together at the school Holiday program.

Gingerbread houses

The boys are both at fun ages to do holiday projects.  One Friday afternoon (LT has half days every Friday), we walked to the store and bought the materials to make gingerbread houses.  

LT was very focused on placing the candy in just the right pattern.

 While Adler was focused on getting as much frosting on his house as he possibly could.

Xmas Ski Day

After some Christmas celebrations with Baba and Grandpa in the morning, Kari and I took LT to Copper for his first day of skiing of the season. He was a little rusty at first but after just a few minutes he was back to his old form (including having Ramen Noodles for lunch).

Happy Holidays!

Whether you celebrate Retail Christmas or something less mainstream like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc., we wish you the very best this holiday season!

O Christmas Tree

We are living in a semi-temporary house and our fake Christmas tree is inaccessible buried deep in the storage unit somewhere. So LT (with some help form Kari and about 10,000 hot glue sticks) made a tree for us this year! I sort of like it better than the real fake thing.

Unfortunately hot glue isn't as great of an adhesive as it might seem to tree and five year old boys. I don't remember who's fault it was (probably Adler's) but the tree was in pieces by the end of the day.  But daddy came though a couple days later with a few dollars in screws from the hardware store and a power drill. I think the newly refurbished* and reinforced tree should now hold up though the holiday season at least.

* The word refurbished is fresh on my mind after this recent incident

Colorado History Museum

LT had a half day one day and Adler was in school the whole day.  I asked LT what he wanted to do and he said to have a playdate with his friend from school.  I had heard that the new Colorado History Museum was very interactive and great for kids, so we checked it out.  It didn't disappoint.  There is an old Model T that the kids can drive (with a screen showing the terrain they are driving through and the car bumps and rattles as it moves through the terrain, very cool!)  

It also had a ski jump, which was probably the biggest hit amongst these two.  The only problem was that they were too light for the machine to know anyone was there.  We probably did 30 jumps all together (it took all 3 of us for the weight to register).   

Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum has a Van Gogh exhibit in town.  They trying to incorporate kids activities to go along with the latest exhibit.  LT tested out his vangoghisms by painting with tempera paint.  On another visit, they made "stroke paintings" like Van Gogh with sticky felt and beaded flowers.  So fun!

Brothers

Watching TV together on the couch one morning in August.

Sofi and LT

Sofi and LT have been good buds since day 1, literally.  Here's a recent picture of the two of them.

Estes

A few weeks ago, our family's exchange student, Ignacio (from my senior year in high school) and his girlfriend Irene were in town visiting.  They stayed for about a week, but my dad, the boys and I took them up to Estes Park for a few nights.  We took them on a beautiful hike, but it was incredibly cold, windy and icy.  The adults were fine, but it was a little chilly for the kids.

 While walking to the car after dinner, we ran into a herd of elk.  There must have been 20 or more standing right in the middle of the town. This guy above took off from his friends to cross the street first.  They all followed him before they disappeared.

Ignacio and Irene after the hike with the boys.

Boyz n the Leaves

[I'm a wee bit behind on things and these photos are from October] Raking the leaves with the boys takes a little longer than it would without them but is a heck of a lot more fun too.

Sunflower Farms

LTs school has a tradition of going to a farm called Sunflower Farms each year around Halloween time.  I wouldn't go so far as to say its the most amazing pumpkin patch (because besides choosing a pumpkin out of a pile, there were no pumpkins).  I would say its the most enchanted, magical land for little guys and adults alike.  

 There are animals roaming free around the farm.  Goats, chickens, turkeys, dogs all living a happy life.

 There are hay bales staked up, made into jumps, bridges, tunnels, allowing these little explorers to get lost in their own little land of hay.

 LT loved feeding the goats.

 There was a huge campfire to roast marshmallows and make smores.

Probably the best parts were the magic treehouses with huge swings and rickety bridges connecting the various tree houses and the zipline, which LT would have done a hundred times if there were no line.  I think by the end he did it about 20 times.  I have a great video, which I will try to put up soon!

Thanksgiving '12

We had Thanksgiving at Baba's house in the mountains this year and the boys got to spend some time with both sets of grandparents. LT (with a little help) made decorations and place mats for the table. Appropriately, he also found himself at the head of the table for dinner. Adler, having just been woken up from an unplanned nap, cried though most of dinner.

The boys made ice cream with Grandpa. To be honest, I expected it to be a disaster. But the whole operation went very smoothly, was only a little messy, and the results were fantastic. I was rather fascinated and impressed with the whole thing so took a lot of photos.

I may or may not have helped myself to a late-night bowl of homemade ice cream after everyone was asleep the last couple nights.

I brought a bunch of photo gear up with me with the great intention of taking some family photos. I was thinking this might be a good opportunity to get some shots of the boys with their grandparents. But I couldn't convince anyone other than Grandpa's new dog Daisy to come pose in my makeshift studio (and Daisy wasn't exactly an easy subject). Not even LT would sit for photos and he usually likes to show off for the camera. 

Of course LT changed his tune and demanded that I take some pictures of him after I tore down most of the gear.

A family viewing of a few episodes Curious George preceded the big dinner.


As did a little nap. Adler fell asleep face down in couch with his little butt in the air. And Grandpa fell asleep next to him not long after.

Bowen and Daisy hit it off pretty well. Although Bo's advanced age becomes all the more obvious in contrast to a young dog like Daisy. 

 The old man held his own plying with the young pup but it wore him out for sure.