Summer

Just had to post this picture of Audrey...


Ah yes, baby Grady was born two weeks ago and here are a few pictures of him.




It's finally summer so that means lots of work on the landscaping, biking to the coffee shop in Windsor 3 times a week, and having back porch parties at our house. Erin also knows it is summer because she has her own pool...

Biking

It has been a busy week. I took my 7th grade students to the Poudre Learning Center to do independent scientific research. That sounded like a good idea last winter when the idea was born, but it took me all week to get things organized and make sure the students would be ready for the trip on Friday. Overall it went well and I'm looking forward to reading their final papers.
On Friday night we went to the Farnsworth's for a cookout. Erin was her usual cute self and here she is with Courtney.

And Cheryl...

Saturday Eric and I went looking for a patio set. Instead we ended up trying out couches for our basement. After sitting on many couches, we decided to try a very cushy looking one that was actually two recliners you push together to make a mini couch. Despite the awful color and very squishy appearance, we fell in love with it. If this fits in our basement you will all be happy, trust me!

Today (Sunday) Joanna and I rode in the Community Classic Bike Tour. We had fun despite a few flats and lots of climbs.

Here are our bikes resting while we get some yummy food. Carter Lake is in the background.

Here we are in Masonville. Some nice guys changed Joanna's first flat on the ride.


Yet another nice guy, James, changing a flat tire...

And then there was Roy (I think that was his name), a professional bike repair guy who found that Joanna's rim had a little sharp point that was causing all the flats. He fixed that and we were on our way to the finish.

I would recommend this tour for anyone. There are 10, 30, 37, and 62 mile options. We'll definitely be doing the 62 again next year!

Smores

The title says it all! We had a nice evening on our porch, grilling and making smores for our small group. Here's Erin making her first smore! Unfortunately she likes "raw" marshmallows better than gooey toasty ones. You can see that Deborah is still very pregnant, and like Eric says "she looks like an engorged tick."

Eric is the grill master, as he demonstrates here... Eric's birthday gift was rather disturbing to some of our guests, including Cecily who exclaimed to Eric, "Is that your head?" (See my Facebook page for more information on this gift)

I had a lovely weekend working on the side of the house. It is the last "jungle" area I need to tackle in our yard. I think I can see potential.

Here's to many more summer evenings on our porch and lots more landscaping!

Dog

As Kathy put it, "Audrey must have felt like she died and went to hell." They managed to tear open an entire bag of dog food but were only able to spread it around with their snouts because they were muzzled! Ha!

The Bungalow

Many of you know that I have two addictions (currently), coffee and biking. Last year I'd ride with friends from Greeley to Windsor and stop at the Bungalow coffee shop . The shop is located right off the Poudre Trail in the perfect location for bikers. The coffee would call my name and I'd push on to enjoy a good cup and a yummy pastry of some sort. Then last winter I found out the place went out of business and confirmed this by driving there to see. I was very, very sad. Then two weeks ago I went for a bike ride with a friend and we were about to turn around at the end of the trail when I decided to ride to the shop and make sure it was closed. To my surprise the sign glowed "open" so I went inside to see for myself. Turns out two girls from Boulder decided to buy the place, make some improvements, and reopen. Thankful I brought some money we bought a cup of coffee and made plans to ride again. Ah happiness...
Here's the route we take. This map was created from my Garmin 405 GPS watch. It's an amazing way to track routes and pace.

Anyone up for a coffee ride?