Christmas 2005
Merry Christmas to all as we embrace all the wonderful blessings in our life over the past year. In celebration of soaring gas prices we decided to take a 35’ RV on a 2,000 mile jaunt through Yellowstone for our Summer Vacation. The savings in accommodations alone would easily off set the 2 gallons per mile we rationalized. To further increase our savings I hooked up with Ronnie down off Santa Fe for all our RV rental needs - Not Exactly. Although we did permanently loose one hub cap on a shortcut through Curt Gowdy State Park (after we complete our National Parks tour I am already plotting out our semi-famous Sportscaster Park tour) we were fortunate to lose the second one during a Yellowstone Wildlife Jam (a result of a Bison eating Cheetos on the side of the road) – fortunately the Bison realized it wasn’t snack food and left Lily alone as she snuck out to collect our effects. Losing all the hubcaps are mere blemishes – the real scars surface when your extended living room’s – what is called “the slide” – motor quits. I beat it with all the tools I had (primarily firewood) but the slide remained opened – permanently I feared. As we slowly slinked through the Grand Teton RV park with our fully extended living room and being frantically summoned by the alliance of RVers “Hey your slide is out” – they flashed their lights, honked their horns, waved their flags attempting to save us from having a room housing our children and dog come cascading on to the highway. We approached the Park entrance and the ranger leaped out of his hutch for one last – “Hey your slide is out.” Lucky for us Darryl and Joe at the Phillips 66 had seen guys like me before and fixed Although we let our RV membership card expire, we are able to tell the tale.
Micki is all grins as she saunters out to seize the day. She joins the Colorado Academy class of 2019 this year. In comparison to the historical timeline of the earth this is not a very long time away. Although we have not set a venue for the graduation celebration it is on the calendar check your mail soon. She is developing into our own little Denise Rich befriending everyone and extending invitations to multiple birthday parties regardless of actual date. Micki is our future Song and Dance girl and is absolutely in love with her big sister and big brother -
Nathan a true custodian of life as he enjoys the roar of nature. Now in Kindergarten Nathan is embarking on the great world of literacy and is very committed to learning. He continues to amaze us with the detailed information he absorbs – from god knows where – he walked me through a step by step process of an angioplasty procedure as he warned his little sister to lay off her Halloween candy or else she will be feeling the balloon. It wasn’t until my mid-thirties when I took note of general health risks. Nathan as added two wheel
Lily ripping down North Peak has officially retired her skis for the less cerebral life of snowboarding. She is a very sweet child and has a great deal of compassion and commitment for the world around her. Lily continues to excel in piano . She is now in the ruling class of the lower school as the big lockered 5th grader. Although her hair seems to be more important than the Pythagorean theorem she is working hard at her studies and enjoys – she will soon move into middle school where all her efforts to be
the big kid will suddenly be erased as she regresses back to the little kid. In observance of her fellow classmates you can easily see the green hormonal fog surrounding them as clumsy 6 footers are lab partners with petite 3 ½ footers and missing items …pales in comparison to our newest adolescent Astro.
Astro is the designer mute of the 2000’s - the acclaimed Labradoodle. The scouting report on these curly wonders is they don’t shed – multiple strangers have stopped us from Morrison to Thermopolis with “Is that one of them Labradoodles? They don’t shed - right?” Baloney – they shed, bite, bark and have an insatiable diet of inedible things. In addition to eating the sled, hot tub cover, hoses, sprinkler heads, rocks, door mats, and so on - Astro has the mighty call of the wild and with a hint of an opening bolts to be with Buck, Curly and Spitz. Sometimes we are far from the wild – like in the middle of downtown Cheyenne - at the train station. Although the hobos had time on their hands they really were not a great help – interestingly enough they embraced Astro in their circle as a long lost brother. Astro seemed to enjoy the camaraderie but just stopped for a quick tug and speed away as we attempted to corner him. Lily the only true animalist in our family persistently stocked him and finally tackled him at the corner of Missile Dr and Hwy 30 – another close call.
In addition to a fine school, Colorado Academy has an excellent day camp for Moms – as Sylvia has discovered and attends regularly. She continues to be the glue of reason for our family and truly knows when to step in and rescue the kids and halt my shenanigans. Over Thanksgiving I was destined to speed through the Blizzard weaving between the twisted carnage of Semis and poorly piloted SUVs deposited throughout eastern Colorado because – “We’re not stopping.” Sylvia pulled us off and got us in the last room a 50 mile radius just as they closed the highway. Another save. Although we felt guilty as refugees pressed their noses against the windows of our quaint B&B I just felt proud to be married to Sylvia, took another sip of my Beaujolais and thought – Hey at least your slide isn’t out.
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