Cass playing VBall

Couple of VBall plays by my girl:
Serving up a few points...

Passing and hitting...

Halloween

Probably our last one. In fact, Cassidy just hung out at home this year and watched Poltergeist. She said it was her favorite ever.

Cassidy is a zombie, and Max is Slash, by the way.

Monarch Crest

Probably the crowning achievement of my short biking career. This trail goes from the 11,300 ft Monarch Pass, and rides as high as 12,000 st along the continental divide. Total climbing is about 4000 ft and descent is about 7000 ft over 37 miles... which took about 6 hrs with stops. We (about 11 of us) couldn't have picked a better day to go. No wind, t-shirt weather, and fall colors. Amazing day!

Mount of the Holy Cross

This was the goal... MT of the Holy Cross. The kids' 14er for 2010, and 2nd one overall. Teri and I are up to about 13.

Incidentally, this 14er routinely results in more dispatched search and rescue missions than any other in Colorado. Not really technically difficult... but people seem to get lost in this huge wilderness all the time. We were very careful to study our maps and routes before taking this one on.

It was LONG... we had to take a few rests in the endless boulder field:

In the end... we did conquer! And even made it home without a search and rescue!

Until next year...

Backpacking Music Pass!

This was amazing... the highlight of my summer, maybe my year... I can't believe I don't get out and backpack more often. We will definitely squeeze another trip in before summer is over. About a 10 mile roundtrip with packs, plus a nice little day hike to get up to some pretty cool views.

Anyway... here are some pics to tell the story:

State Games Tri

Me and Jamie and Holly and Celeste Higbee did the State Games Triathlon a few weeks ago. Max would have done it with us, but he missed the age cutoff by a few months. We should have a much bigger group next year. Alisa... you should come up for this. It's a great event. We'll be going back every year.

Hiking the Manitou Incline

We made a spur-or-the-moment decision late yesterday to hike the Manitou Incline with our friends the Hansens.

This is a straight shot that goes up over 2000 ft in about a mile distance. Up a bunch of railroad ties. It's about an average 40% grade.




And a little over an hour later... here we are at the TOP!

Here's a little video I took. But it's kinda hard to capture the steepness with pics or video....



To come back down, you jog-hop-trip-slide the Barr Trail, cuz it'd be too dangerous and tedious to down-climb those incline steps.

The kids hike-climbed like champs. What a cool hike... can't believe we have lived in the Springs all these years and just got to this...

Cass and Teri mtn biking Kipps Loop

Max 50m breaststroke - first swim meet

Mama don't 'low no guitar pickin round here...

Buena Vista Bike Fest - CANCELED

May 15 in Buena Vista, CO... after months of preparing for my first "century" ride (100 miles)...
But, consistent with Colorado weather, about an hour after the event was officially canceled, the sun broke through and roads dried off. So, after fueling up with ham, eggs, hash browns, green chili, and griddle cakes... I got out for a 70 mile solo ride along the base of fourteeners between Salida and Buena Vista...


Totally worth the trip.

Cassidy practicing for her recital...

Euro-Ogdens

Not sure I have it in me to try to put these in any particular order... so here goes:

Max and Cassidy looking particularly french next to La Seine river -

First of all, we rode subways all over London and Paris. This was the waiting are for one such ride. Apparently, Parisiens like gay, sparkly vampires as much as everyone else. Figures.

My favorite street of the whole trip... Rue Cler in Paris. It's kinda like the French version of Pike Place Market in Seattle. Fruits, pastries, cheeses, little outdoor cafes, etc. I probably coulda spent my whole vacation on this street and been happy -

Probably the coolest structure we saw, in a land full of cool structures... Notre Dame cathedral. Could almost convince a Mormon to turn Catholic -

...and more of Notre Dame. With a crazy bird lady hanging out with Max. No offense crazy bird lady, if you're reading this -

Maybe the coolest structure in Max's opinion...

Le Louvre. The building is probably more impressive than the art inside. Especially the Mona Lisa, which we saw and was pretty lame. But, don't get me wrong, the art inside was awesome. Mona Lisa was just lame -

Fromage baby... wonderful, putrid, stinky, moldy fromage. And we ate it on paninis every chance we got. Mmmm.

I can't remember the name of this thing...

We combined to down about 400 crepes in 2 days. This particular model was loaded with ham, egg, mushrooms, and cheese and was the ultimate breakfast.

Arche de Triomphe in Paris.

In a plaza with St Paul's cathedral in the background waiting for mom to find a bathroom, as we occasionally did.

Pillars on the front of St Paul's. Max did his best to disrespect many of the European landmarks.

These buses saved our relationship with the kids. The more we walked, the more their hatred of us grew. But, they loved riding the buses around. And Teri and I did too, for that matter.

Buckingham Palace. The ultimate in inherited wealth.

British Museum... one of the many free attractions. Pretty impressive art inside and out.

Some of the art impressing Max and Teri.

Cassidy outside the British Museum.

Big Ben.

The kids were fascinated and took tons of pics for a few hours.

Moving on to areas of mom and dad's mission...

President and sister Ogden watching us on the following...

"Go Ape!" high ropes course. Awesome 3 hour long course with 200 yard long zip lines, Tarzan swings into cargo nets, etc. Very cool. Max and Cass rocked it too.

Gadfield Elm chapel... the oldest LDS meetinghouse. Just purchased in the last 15 or so years by local members and restored to what it looked like back when Wilford Woodruff taught there.

Warwick Castle... one of the several castles we saw. Highly recommend for you siblings that will be going out for a visit.

These are some pics taken up on a hill called British Camp. Amazing views of the English countryside. This is another site with historical church significance. Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff would come up here to meditate, pray and make decisions about the church in England.

There was no meditating as far as Max was concerned.

Cool pic of dad, eh? Think Isaiah 52:7

And Cassidy checking out the view.
WHAT A TRIP! Thank you mom and dad!
Maybe we'll get crazy and post more pics later. But, probably not.