Valentines Day

Valentine's Day is a big deal in the States - they celebrate everything with gusto.  The stores were filled with chocolates and hearts, and the boys had parties and card exchange at school.  I had no idea what the card exchange was, but once in Walmart or Target, there are so many to choose from.  They are sold in packs of 16 or 32, and Luke got Sponge bob, Ryan got Angry Birds, and Quinn chose Superheroes.  They write on them for all of their class mates, and they had to take in a decorated box or bag, to bring home them home in.  Ryan's cards came with tattoos, and Luke's came with stickers, so that was their 'gift' to go with the card, but most people put candy, or a pencil or something with their cards, so it was like Christmas for the boys! This is a picture some of the Valentine's loot they came home with.  Some places have become very enterprising too, and use it as a marketing exercise. There is one from a Taekwondo centre, which says "Have a Kickin' Valentine", and offers two weeks free, with their Valentine's cards, which they obviously give out to children already attending the centre.  It was a good writing exercise though, and that was their homework one night, to prepare all their cards to take into school the next day.  It is pretty over the top though, as there were 'Daddy-Daughter' date nights at some fast food outlets, and a 'Daddy-Daughter' ball being held at the Rec Centre.  There were also dad's at school with bunches of flowers for their kids when they were picking them up!  Quinn and I went up to school and had lunch with the boys for Valentine's Day, and some of the parents had bought their kids big boxes of chocolates to lunch - it

is pretty crazy. Phil said heaps of the kids at Mesa Middle School, where he teaches had big bunches of flowers, and when you went to the shops, everyone wished you a Happy Valentine's Day. 

The boys started Taekwondo this week (with the same people who offered a few free weeks for Valentine's Day - Murphy's Law!)  It is an introductory course for six weeks, and they go Monday and Wednesday from 5-5.45pm, and get to keep their uniform at the end of it.  The school is run by Han Lee, who competed at the Olympics, and also coached the USA team for the Sydney Olympics.  Not that I think it makes a lot of difference to our boys - it was just something to try and burn up some energy while it is too cold to go outside and play!  Ryan is really enjoying it, and says he wants to keep going with it, Luke thinks it is OK, and Quinn thinks he is a little ninja.  He just keeps spinning around, and wanting to kick things (mainly his brothers).  We are hoping some of the discipline element will rub off on him, cause goodness knows he needs it!  Trouble is, he looks a bit cute in his uniform, and he gets away with murder.  He has been pulled up a couple of times for trying to wrestle out on the floor, as it is all non-contact, but he does like it when they have to do kicks, and try to knock over some stationary pads!  Luke and Ryan just want to know how they can get a coloured belt - there is a long way to go.  I think it is really good though, as to progress with the belts they have to do well at school work, and outside things, as well as being able to perform the Taekwondo.

Friday was a pupil free day at school, so the boys got an extra long weekend, as the following Monday was a public holiday, being President's Day. However, not that many people get the public holiday - only really teachers and public servants, apparently. It had snowed on Thursday, and it was still pretty cold, so we went to an indoor play centre, called Jumpstreet.  It has lots of trampolines which extend up the walls, and a foam pit which they can either jump off a trampoline into, or swing off a rope.  You had to be 4 to be able to go on it, and so when the guy

 asked Quinn how old he was, he told him he was 3! I think he took pity on him though, and allowed Quinn to have one go.  We realised why though, as Quinn was fine to jump, but struggled to get out.  They had an area for smaller kids with blow up slides and play equipment, and there was also a maze that the kids could go and get lost in for a while, as well as the usual arcade games, that they could go and play.  We took Avery in with us, as well, and while it got quite busy as the day went on, they were quite happy to play in there for a few hours. 

The weekend was predicted to be fine and around 50 Fahrenheit, and Saturday was a beautiful day.  We had been talking about climbing Castle Rock since we arrived, although we were going to wait until Spring when it was a bit warmer.  However, we decided to go and have a walk on the paths up around the rock on Saturday, and once we got there, of course we had to climb it! It was quite a nice walk, but once you get up a little higher, there aren't any safety railings, and it was a bit frightening travelling with little dare devils who liked to go too close to the edge.  This is a picture of the rock, and it is quite a landmark which can be seen from all over the town.  At night it is lit up with a star on top of it.  You can see some small patches of snow on the side of the hill in this photo, and there was a lot more snow on the other side, which does not get as much sunlight.  There were lots of people doing the walk though, and there is a sign which lets you know if you want to train for the 14ers (there are 54 mountains in the State of Colorado, which are over 14,000 feet high, and some nut cases think it is a good idea to try and climb some or all of them!), you had to do this particular hike 4 or 5 times.  Once was enough for us! 

On Sunday we went up to Lovelands, for a day skiing.  It was another lovely day, and apparently we missed the big crowds which were there on Saturday, which we were pretty happy about!  Quinn had a lesson for the first time, and was doing well.  However, the instructors  wouldn't let him go on the lift until he could do a 'pizza' - or snow plough - so that he could hopefully minimise any injury to himself or anyone else, coming down the slopes, so he decided to call it quits. Ryan had had enough of his lesson as well, so the three of us spent the afternoon together!  Luke and Phil finished their lessons, and as they had completed three, they were entitled to a season pass, and went to get their photos taken.  We are hoping to encourage Ryan to take another lesson, so that he and I can get our season pass!

In Georgetown, which is a town close to Lovelands, there is a frozen lake. Some friends had been up skiing the day before, and told us that there were cars out on the frozen lake, driving around. When we got here, there weren't many cars, but there were a few people out ice fishing, so we stopped and had a look - and of course, we wanted to walk on the water as well! It was absolutely freezing, and the couple who were fishing were rugged up with all the gear, and there were a few beer cans around too!  They had caught some rainbow trout, and had two fishing rods each, which was the maximum they were allowed.  Apparently the lake is only about 10 feet deep, and they had to cut through the ice

about 3 feet, to get to the water. It was pretty hard work to get through the ice, and they had to keep doing it, as it would ice up as they fished.  They had fish finders with them, and told us the fish usually moved through in large schools, so all the lines would get bites at the same time. It was pretty fascinating talking to these people, and he was obviously pretty passionate, and knowledgeable about the ice fishing.  Neither of them had ever been outside of Colorado, though.  They were out in the middle of the lake, and the wind was blowing, and we were soooo cold!  Quinn was crying by the end of it, and told me that he never wanted to walk on a frozen lake again - traumatised for life!





Sick House

This was a pretty uneventful week.  On Monday, Luke was unwell, and Ryan was still not 100%, so we had everyone at home!  We made our first trip to the pediatrician - he was very lovely, and gave Luke some tablets which made him feel a whole lot better.  He sent our script directly to the pharmacy, and then when we had finished with him, we could drive straight to the pharmacy and pick it up - great system!  If I was feeling a little more adventurous, I could have even tried out the drive through script service, where you stay in your car, drive to a window and pay and they pass out your drugs to you - very nice, especially when it is freezing cold, and you have sick children in the car.  However, they don't yet provide a pick up service for cough lollies, cough medicine and the like, so I did have to get out of the car and go into the pharmacy.  I am looking forward to using the drive through service at some point though!  The boys are also very impressed with the drive through postal service, at the post office, where you stay in your car and just drive by the post box, and drop your letters in.  Every time we have been to the post office, we have been sending something to Australia, so have needed to go into the post office, but another handy system, if you want to avoid getting everyone in and out of the car, unnecessarily!

The boys were a little disappointed when they returned to school, as the Monday they were sick was the 100th day of school for the year. Each class does it's own thing, but both their classes had party food, which they missed out on, but I am sure there will be plenty more celebrations they will be able to be a part of. Luke's name was also called out, and he got to choose a prize, for Bison Strongs. They have a reward system in place at school whereby they get 'Bison Strong' stickers for behaviour, effort etc, and once they get 20, they go into a draw to be able to select prizes. For Luke's prize, he chose to have lunch with a friend and a teacher, which he thought was lots of fun. He told me it was heaps better than going to the the noisy, smelly cafeteria - it has lost it's gloss quite quickly! However, he was happy enough to order his lunch for the first time this week. Thursday is pizza day, and he tells me now that he likes pepperoni pizza. It is a pretty good system - you make a meal payment, online, for each student - you can put on as much or little as you like, and then when they get their lunch, the cost is deducted. It cost $2.50 for a hot lunch, which they have a choice of three different selections each day, and then they get plain or flavoured milk with it. Ryan got his on Friday, once he had worked out the ordering system, and reckons it was great!  The picture above is of the school cafeteria, where all the students eat lunch.  Each grade has lunch at different times, and it is a pretty efficient system getting each grade in and out, and they have just 20 minutes to eat their lunch, then either go outside to play, or if it is bad weather (rain, snow or just too cold), they have what they call indoor recess, where they go back to their classrooms - this is not a favourite!

One of the highlights of the week (I told you it was uneventful!), was the delivery of the Girl Scout cookies).  Phil was happy to support a good cause - one of the guys he teaches with, has a daughter in the girl scouts, and this is one of their big fund raisers for the year.  I think we have tried every flavour they make, and some of them twice.  We haven't really found a flavour that we don't like - funny that! The boys need to be eight before they can join boy scouts over here, so that is one activity we don't need to worry about.  We missed the cut off for registration for basketball which was prior to Christmas, but the season is about to start for football, soccer, and baseball, so we need to see what the boys want to play.

On Wednesday, there was a Pot Luck lunch for the spouses of people who are here on exchange.  Quinn and I went along - it was in Denver, about a thirty minute drive from our house, but it was interesting, as we have not really been into Denver except to the Science & Nature Museum, during the first week we were here.  It was hosted by Americans, most of who had been on exchange to Australia at some point, and they were all very helpful with things we should see and do, and just information in general.  Two other spouses attended, and it was good to chat with them and see what they had been up to.  They were pretty impressed that we had driven there, as neither of them had been game enough to drive over here yet - I would be going crazy!  It is not that bad once you get used to it, I just keep reminding myself that the driver is always on the inside of the road.  It is the little things that get you through, I guess.

Quinn and I pretty much lied low for the rest of the week, still not feeling great.  I know when he asks me to go for a sleep in the middle of the day, that he is not very well!  On Saturday, Phil, Luke and Ryan ventured into town.  They all came back with hair cuts, books and DVDs from a visit to the library, and a new remote control helicopter.  The helicopter was Luke's purchase from his Christmas money, and he was pretty rapt.  However, it wasn't launching very well, which we put down to just needing to be charged.  Phil has since looked into it, and the manufacturer explained to us that apparently that model of helicopter doesn't work well at this altitude (we are in the mile high city - Castle Rock is at over 6,000 feet above sea level).  He told us that if we cut off the blades and sent them a picture of it, they would send us a different model, that will work at this altitude.  So Luke is patiently waiting for a new one to arrive!

On Sunday Phil and Ryan found some snow shoes in the basement, and decided to try them out. Just as they were out in the backyard walking around, it started to snow, so that was quite timely.  We are going snow shoeing in a couple of weeks with the Colorado exchange League, and some other families who are here from Australia, so it will be interesting to see how we go.  The snow shoes are a cross between little skis, and tennis rackets, that you strap your snow boots into, and just go walking in.  Phil and Ryan might be ahead of the pack, now that they have had some practice...



 

Garden of the Gods

On Monday, Quinn and I took Jo and Stewart to the airport, to fly home to Australia. They were a bit concerned about the weather in Colorado, as they had been told about how quickly it can change, and you can get snowed in very quickly.  It got quite cold in the morning, and you could see snow clouds moving in over the mountains.  By the time we were driving home from the airport at 3pm, it started to snow, and it snowed all night - so they timed their visit perfectly.  We woke up to a big covering of snow over everything on Tuesday.  Quinn and I had things we had to do, so we tried to de-ice the car, so that we could drop the boys to school, then keep going.  That proved easier said than done, to a novice ice remover, and I was fortunate that my neighbour Mindy saw me struggling, and came to my rescue.  Everything is easy when you have the right equipment, and I have since been to Wal-mart to purchase a de-icer which has a scraper on one end, and a brush on the other.  It snowed again Wednesday night, and we were much better organised.  We walked the boys to school through the snow, which was much easier (except for the boys, who thought they were too cool to wear their snow boots, and got their skateshoes full of snow), then we came home and did a few things around the house before we went out, and the snow had softened from the sunlight, and it was a whole lot easier to remove!  The things you learn, that I may never have to use again :)

During the week I went along to a bookclub.  It was my first meeting, and I obviously had not read the book that they were discussing, but it was interesting to hear about it, and I met some new people.  We are reading a book this month, called "Easy in the Islands", which is a collection of short stories by an author from the Caribbean. Of course, I couldn't get it on my e-reader, or from the library, so I found it on Amazon for $2 - it cost me more in postage! Hopefully it will be here so I get a chance to read it before we meet up again next month.

It was the 1st Grade Music Performance on Thursday night, and we all went along.  Ryan is in Grade 1, and as Luke is in  a 1/2 composite class, they were a part of the performance too - so we got two in one, which is always a bonus!  The theme was Hats, and they all wore hats, recited poems and sang songs about Hats.  It was on at the school gym, and if you look carefully at the picture above, you can see Luke with his Billabong cap on.  1st graders all had to wear a crown that they had made, while Grade 2 could choose the hat they wore.  One of the songs was 'Uncle Sam is who I am', and one of the lines was 'America, America, I love you through and through', which Luke and Ryan told me in practice they changed to Australia, Australia.  They are very patriotic though, with the boys (and Phil) having to put their hand on their heart, stand, and face the American flag which is in every classroom, and swear allegiance to the flag every morning before school starts. 

Phil shovelled the driveway after the snow, and I shovelled the footpath out the front of the house.  Luke was bored, so he decided to have a go at shovelling the patio area in the back yard.  Quinn had a bit of a go too, and Ryan started but didn't get too far!  I can't be too harsh though, as Ryan did have Friday off school with a bit of a virus, which he then proceeded to give to Luke and I, but that is another story! Luke did a pretty good job, and hopefully will continue with the shovelling, as apparently we get most of the snow here in February and March.  However, as there are mostly clear, warm days, it melts pretty quickly.  If you don't get out and shovel straight away though, you end up with a lot of ice as the snow melts, which can cause chaos when you go sliding on it!  But if you shovel most of the snow, the little bit that is left behind, melts pretty quickly and clears away.  Common sense, but something else I have learnt!

February 2nd is Groundhog Day.  The tale goes that if the groundhog sticks it's head out of it's hole and it is cloudy, Spring will come early.  If it is sunny, and it sees it's shadow, it will retreat to it's home, and Winter will continue for another 6 weeks.  Apparently, we can expect an early Spring - here is hoping!  This picture shows some groundhogs we came across on a drive - you can't see them very well, but they are pretty mad, as they do just poke their heads in and out of the holes (all the mounds you see on the ground), and you can just imagine having a hammer, and playing a game, trying to hit them back into the hole, before they retreat.  Or maybe that is just my sick mind!

Saturday was a beautiful day, and we went for a drive to the Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs.  It has amazing rock formations, and heaps of hiking, mountain bike and horse riding trails, as well as heaps of red dirt - nothing we are not used to!  It is the cities most visited park and it is also really popular with rock climbers, which you can see in the pictures below, along with our own little rock climbers.  The track we were walking along here was one of the minor ones, and apparently rattlesnakes are a pest in summer.  The boys went racing off into the bush as soon as we got out of the car, and Quinn soon returned crying - he had touched some bush which had all of these really fine prickles that you could 

hardly see, all up his arm. So I spent the next five minutes trying to get all of them out, but it was pretty easy to convince them to stay on the tracks, after that. The main walk in the park is contained within a certain area, so we drove over there. However, by this time Ryan was feeling sick again, so he and I stayed in the car while Phil, Luke and Quinn went into the main area.  Phil said it was quite spectacular, and that is where they got the photo of the rock climbers, up the wall (see below).  While in there, they ran into Del and Pete, who are involved in the exchange program, and they were there with Jane and Bruce, who are on exchange in Colorado Springs, from Adelaide.  So, we ended up going back to their place for afternoon tea and a catch up, which was really nice.  They live in Manitau Springs, which is a really quaint little town, just outside of Colorado Springs at the base of Pike's Peak.  They have an amazing view of the mountain from their house, and it was a really nice afternoon. 

On Sunday, the boys and I went up to Bison Park, with Avery, to throw around the new footy.  As well as having great swings, it also has tennis courts, and an astro turf football field, which is really good.  Phil stayed home and got some marking done, and then in the evening, was the Superbowl.  Unfortunately, the Denver Broncos were beaten in the play offs, but it is such a big deal, and you always hear about it at home, so we figured we should watch it.  We were invited to a party up at our neighbours house, Luke and Mindy, who have two boys Hunter and Ethan, who are the same age as Ryan and Quinn. It was quite fortunate really, as they could actually explain to us what was going on, rather than us trying to guess! 

The San Fransisco 49ers were playing the Baltimore Ravens (who had beaten the Denver Broncos).  Ryan and Phil were going for the Ravens, and Luke and I were going for the 49ers.  As you might be aware, the Ravens won 34-31, and it seemed like it was going to be pretty one sided at the start, but after a half hour power outage, things went a bit more the 49ers way.  Obviously not enough to secure a win, but it made the game a whole lot more exciting!  Mindy had cooked, and we had pulled pork burgers for dinner, with coleslaw and her 'famous' baked beans.  It was really yummy - the pork was cooked in the slow cooker all day, and then shredded and put onto burgers.  The baked beans were from a tin, but then added ground beef, and a whole lot of sauces and spices - they were good.  Our contribution was lamingtons, which no-one had ever heard of, and pavlova, which was a big hit.  So we combined the American dinner, with the Aussie dessert for the Superbowl - a pretty good combo, I reckon!

 

 

Australia Day

This was another short week, as Monday 21st of January was Martin Luther King Day, so it was a public holiday. We went for a drive, and did some Bison spotting, but I think the only thing we saw were cows! We did stumble across some hiking and mountain bike tracks though, which we will go back to once the weather is warmer. We also found some good vantage points for photos. This one has a pretty good view of the Rocky Mountains behind us, as taken by Ryan! They really are beautiful mountains, and it is hard to do them justice in photos. Like the beautiful beaches of Port Macquarie though, you have to remember to actually look at them each day, and not just drive past without seeing them.

On our drive into the mall last week, we got a stonechip in the windscreen, which apparently, is quite common. Our insurance here is the reverse of Australia, so it was free to get the stonechip repaired, but we would have had to pay the excess if we required a new windscreen. So, I called up and had a guy come out to our place, and filled the chip while the car was in the driveway - very efficient service!

This week, Luke was the star of the week. Each person in the class gets a turn throughout the year. It means that for that week, you get to go at the front of the line each day, organise the lunch orders for the class each day, everyone writes something about the 'star', and Ms Morgan compiles a book for you to take home, about yourself.  You also get to take home Jack the Bear, and write in a book each day about your adventures with Jack, as well as put a photo in the book. This was Luke's photo for the book, as Jack had a sweater on that someone had knitted for him, which was the American flag, he was covering it up with something more appropriate for Luke. As star of the week, you also get to bring in a guest speaker, and I was the guest speaker, on Friday.  Luke and I spoke about Australia, which was pretty appropriate given that it was Australia Day on Saturday. We had a little presentation showing everyone the flags of Australia, a map of Australia, Australian animals and icons. We took in some soft toys of the platypus, kangaroo, and koala, and some Australian coins so that everyone could see and touch them. We also went to Ms Jacobs 2nd class next door, as they had just finished a week studying Australia. They had some good questions for Luke and I, the best coming from an inquisitive little boy who gave me the double barrelled - "Why have you only got 8 fingers, and doesn't Australia have really deadly animals?"  If I was quicker on my feet I could have given him some tall tale about a poisonous spider or snake!  It was lots of fun telling them about Australia, and Port Macquarie, and Ryan and I are going to do it for his class in a few weeks as well.  Luke's class all wrote thank you notes for me and drew pictures, which were very cute!  The platypus was the star of the day, but I think that is because they have a cartoon here, which has 'Perry the Platypus' in it, so they all knew a little bit about them.

Phil took the didgeridoo in, for the kids to try and play for Australia Day.  He also had vegemite sandwiches for all his classes to try, which is no mean feat, given the number of kids he has each day.  I made heaps of sandwiches, and just put the littlest bit of vegemite on, and cut each sandwich into about 16 little squares, so they just had a tiny taste.  He said a surprising number of them liked it.  I also made lamingtons for him to take in for his colleagues.  However, they were a pretty poor excuse, as shredded coconut is the main type of coconut that is sold at the supermarket, so they tasted OK, but looked a bit odd.  I have since found dessicated coconut at Sprouts, which is marketed as a health food store, so it is all good now.

Friends of ours, Jo and Stewart had been holidaying for a few weeks in California, and organised to come across to Colorado for the weekend, before flying home to Australia.  Quinn and I drove over to the airport on Friday to pick them up, and eventually made it!  There is lots of road works going on over there, which I think is mandatory for any airport, and we got to the arrivals area fine, but missed the short term carpark and ended up at the valet parking. I spoke to the guy there, who would have been happy to park my car for me for $30, but I opted for the 10 minute circuit I had to take to exit the airport, and come back to the arrivals section, where, fortunately, Jo and Stewart were waiting, so we could just pick them up and take them home. We went for dinner to the Rockyard, which was a nice family bar/restaurant. Most places to eat over here seem to be franchises, and Phil is convinced that the burger is their national dish. Both burgers and pizza feature on almost all of the menus of places we have been out to eat. It was an early night though, as last week's skiing must have still been taking it's toll, and Luke was falling asleep at the table.  On Saturday, I took Jo and Stewart to check out the outlets at Castle Rock.  It is one of the things that Castle Rock is renowned for, and has stores such as Osh Kosh, Gap, Columbia, Timberland, Guess and Nike, all with stock at reduced prices.  We had a great time!   

  In the evening, Phil and I had an Australia Day function which was organised by the exchange people. Phil had an information session in the afternoon, then I joined him for the party where most of the people who are here on exchange from Australia, as well as people from Colorado who have been on exchange to Australia, came along. It was really nice to catch up with some of the people we had met in September last year at the information session in Sydney, and see how there first few weeks on exchange had been going. The boys school had a fundraiser, whereby there were subsidised tickets to go and see the Denver Nuggets basketball team, who are in the NBA, play the Sacremento Kings at the Pepsi Centre in Denver.  Jo and Stewart bravely volunteered to take them, so I was the taxi service for the afternoon (which was good practice for city driving, anyway). I dropped Phil into Parker for the

afternoon, came home and picked everyone up and dropped them into the basketball in Denver, then drove to meet Phil back at the function in Parker. Then we got a call when the basketball had finished, and drove in to pick them up and got home about 11pm. The boys loved the basketball, and apparently the Nuggets scored there highest points in a game this season. I felt a bit negligent as I dropped them off to the basketball though, as I had envisaged a crowd similar to the Sydney Kings, and when they got out, there were people everywhere - as you can see from the crowd in the photo Stewart took above! Luckily Jo and Stewart were more than capable, and apparently the boys were very well behaved, with someone who was sitting behind them commenting to this effect. It is nice to know they do know how to behave well, sometimes.

On Sunday, we went for a walk on 'Plum Creek Walk'. It is a trail on the way into Castle Rock, and we have been wanting to do it since we moved here, so it seemed like a good thing to do while Jo and Stewart were here. The boys took their bikes, and had a great time racing through the trail on their bikes, while we had a leisurely stroll behind them. Phil rode in from our house to the trail, as it was too much hassle to get his bike in any other way.