Mary Jane/WP State of Mind

For the past 5 years I have been getting 1 to 3 of my children in the car with games and toys and snacks to keep them happy on the drive to the ski resorts. The past few years Anne has come with me and so it was a family ski day almost every Saturday. I am proud to say that I never paid a dollar towards ski instruction and took that task on by myself (brothers included).
I started with Jackson and we were excited to come home and tell Anne of the gains that he had on the day. For nearly 3 years it was just the boys while Anne and Lexi would stay home and miss out on the fun.

Claire-Sam-Anne-Josh-Thomas-Jackson

Anne came up "just to try" and found out she was pretty good and could ski the beginner hills. I was told by ski patrol the following season I could not carry Lexi and she needed to ski on her own. This actually happened at the top of a lift in the afternoon while Lexi has fallen asleep on my shoulder.
The next season we started our 3rd and final skier and she picked it up just as fast as her brothers. Jackson and myself transitioned to snowboarding and started again on the beginner hills after learning from some YouTube videos moved up the the blues and just last week took on our first black on snowboards. I told Jackson he could switch years ago once he could ski any run on the resort. I promise I took him down some pretty radical runs to make sure he was able to ski anything and he killed every run.

Rockstar 1-Rockstar 2

Anne-Lexi-Claire-Jackson-Sam-Thomas-Josh

This year is almost half over. We have finally found equipment that is the right size for Anne and now she is rocking the hills. Lexi is all on her own and so the family last week skied together in the morning and had a blast.


Jackson-Thomas-Max-Sam

The new chapter for me came in the afternoon when the older kids wanted to go ski and board the harder hills. For so many years I stayed behind and sent Jackson or Josh with them while I was with the younger kids. Not this week, I was able to go with the older kids and we went to the rail park and had a blast all afternoon. This was such a joy for me and to know that I now have the rest of my life to ski with my family is AWESOME. It is hard to put into words how I feel about family ski day and how hard the past has been and how sweet the future looks. I figure that I will work hard over the next few years to put it into words every time I have an epic day but be warned I expect many of them in my future.
Go team Walton!!!!

Love you Anne,

T

Ready, Set, Derby (Pine Wood Derby)

Being an Eagle Scout and now having both my boys in scouts the Pine Wood Derby is something to take very serious. Father and boys, mostly fathers spend hours working on these small little blocks of wood trying to transform them to the most perfect, most aerodynamic, fastest cars known to mankind. These traits are passed down from father to son, Eagle to Webelos for generations to come. NOT Ok the facts and only the facts please I had another father help me with the "Rough cut" Anne spent 95% of the time getting the cars sanded and painted and made perfect with a surprising amount of time spent with the boys helping and crafting the PWD car themselves. note that it was Anne and not me! Oh it gets better I was left to work on the axles (Nails) and wheels. The three of us borrowed a dremel tool to smooth and get the final stages of the car ready. We finished the night before the "Weigh In" and felt good show up with our PWD cars ready to go. Weigh In This was an event all by itself. We had 4 stations that needed to pass before we turned the cars in to be held for two days in a secure location and only displayed minutes before the actual races would start. Station 1- Getting the name entered and the weight passed Jackson- Pass but the car was 4.4oz of a 5oz max Josh- Pass but the car was 4.7oz of a 5oz max Station 2 Making sure the car was the proper height Jackson- Fail the bottom weights were hitting and needed to be removed Josh-Fail the bottom weights were hitting and needed to be removed Station 3 Making sure all 4 wheels were touching and set properly Jackson Pass Josh Fail we needed to bend one wheel down(NOTE THIS BEND IDEA STINGS ME LATER) We went to the Father reject corner where other fathers were with their heads bowed in shame and only soft words were spoken. We used hot glue guns and made the best of what we could. We jumped back in line and here are what the cars looked like as turned them in. This is Josh's car, the weights were on the bottom originally Jackson's Car ">< Race Day We showed up with a few minutes to spare and were surprised to see the school gym transformed into the race zone. We took our seats and participated in the National Anthem and were jazzed and ready to race. Jackson was first and on his 1st heat of 4 he took 1st. Yes he was down the track before 3 other suckers and I made sure to smile and look at as many fathers as I could. The second and third time down he took a very respectable 2nd place. The 4th time he was 3rd and I just about stated to approach to track official to complain about such a overlooked mistake since my sons car was far superior to other but was distracted by Lexi needing to go to the bathroom. The bathroom took precedence and by the time I was back and even more motivated my window had passed. They were done with the Webelos 2 and were about the name the winners. Jackson took 7th out of 16 boys in his troop and I was extremely pleased with these results. Who says you need to be an engineer to win...Sales guys who only do a small amount of the work can compete with the best of them. Jackson felt great and took a few pictures from fans before heading off the play with some of his friends. Warrior Josh was next 22 boys were facing off the take the title of Bears #1. Josh was in heat 6 and as the first 5 went by I was feeling really confident. I was that father ready to see my sons PWD car kill the others. Heat #6 was started and the cars were released. I was filming the race just in case the local news needed my footage for the leading 5pm story. As the first car zoomed to a stop and the 2nd and 3rd were close behind a strange feeling came over me. I felt light in my knees as I saw Josh's car creep over the finish line a good second behind his other 3 competitors. I looked down just with a growing pit in my stomach and was able to meet eyes with Josh trying to silently ask "What happened". I mouthed the words it will get better and for the next 3 heats until he was up again I was silent. I could say nothing and considered sitting down a few times to avoid fainting at the thoughts of what was happening. Heat#2 started just the same, I held my breath and as the cars started down the track the horror only got worse. Josh's car did not make it to the finish, one of the scouts had to give it a push to the end so it would register REJECT for all to see. Josh was in tears by this time and I did the only thing that I new could help. I ran and pushed the track over in a rage and ran out never to be seen again....I pulled him aside and held him as he cried into my arms. He did not care about loosing but that the car needed help to get to the finish. I failed him as a parent, a scouter, an Eagle Scout. I am a failure and need to be tarred and feathered and stoned to a slow death. We made it through the next two rounds with not much communication between us. Jackson was trying to do anything possible to make his little brother feel better and was able to do so. What Jackson did not know is that he needed to fix the pain I was feeling, today I was the worst father around. We left shortly after and I took the kids out to a lunch at Red Robin to sooth our souls. We fought the best battle we could and came out with some scars that will take some time to heal. Maybe they will never heal but we will do our best to hold our heads high. Today will build character, and we will prevail. We will be victors next year for sure, I have already started working on the cars for next year. Troop 317 will never see PWD cars like the ones we will show up with next year. Watch and see! My little girl Keeping it real! My little rock star Love you Anne, T

A not so white Christmas

This year in Denver we have not had one snowstorm that has left us any snow for more than a few hours. Our mountains are getting dumped on and we are seeing records in some parts of the state but as far as Denver we are zip, zilch, nadda. I miss seeing the snow until I look at my training load. A few weeks ago we had a 4 hour run and the last two hours were in tee shirts and near 70 degree temps. I was actually able to get a good sunburn. This season the coats have been used just a little and the jackets have been used all the time. I wonder if this will be the case for the rest of winter or will we get some change soon. Either way it is historic and worth mentioning.
Our house has been full this year with the Christmas spirit. It started with Mom right after Thanksgiving and never let up. I believe this year more than ever that if Mom is excited and in the Christmas spirit it is impossible not to catch it. Just like a cold but in a good way!
This year has been different from the start. Jackson and myself started Snowboarding and Lexi decided that she could ski without the "weeski". I had a tough time keeping up with her and will post some video of the kids later. We have been skiing 5 times this year so far and we are really loving the kids being just a litter older. They can stay out longer, do more by themselves and the overall day seems to be more fun.
The Christmas week started with some skiing and and we were able to stay at Susan's condo overnight. Staying up in the mountains and not having to drive up and down to Aurora is the most enjoyable way to do skiing and loved it.


Family at Winterpark



Christmas eve dinner was spent at John and Jennifer's home and we had a great night.

John and Jennifer Christmas Eve 2010

The table was set with Christmas China and better than any restaurant I have ever been to. The conversation was light and tolerable and the kids had a blast. We had a Christmas program and even opened some gifts.

Christmas Eve dinner in style at the Waltons




Christmas eve program a Walton tradition



We ended the night by reading our own Christmas stories at home by the tree and fireplace. The kids went to bed just after hearing Santa do a "fly by" and for the 5Th year in a row was the fastest bedtime of the year.



The next morning I was blown away by the excitement I was able to see in my kids. Jackson was most excited to give Mom her present and was glowing after she opened it. Our family was able to enjoy the season of giving this year and not getting. This is a huge switch from years past and I wish it continues for years to come. It is hard to put into words what I felt this year seeing my son put so much thought into a give, pull out his own earned money and buy it. On Christmas morning seeing how eager he was to see Mom open the gift, he was so excited to give and the joy on his face seeing her open it. I was in tears most of the morning but I bet you all guessed that well before and it is kind of expected in my home. I love my family and was excited to just be involved this year. For me it is the best Christmas I have had in many years. I hope that my kids continue to grow into the people I see them able to become. They have so much potential and I try so hard to keep pointing them in that direction. I know that it is up to them to become who they want to be but wow do they have a lot of potential and I am excited to see them grow up.





I love you Anne,

T

A weekend away and watching IMAZ

From the deck of our room at the Biltmore

"You should come and watch the race, it would totally be fun and cool." This is was stayed in my mind for the next 2 miles on a regular run with Sonja and Michelle in CC res. We had a good time talking and running slow and were about 30 days away from Ironman Arizona. We moved through several topics and as usual the run was over really fast and we all took off to finish the rest of the day.
I called Anne and asked if we could change our Arizona trip that was planned in February to November. She did not see a problem with it so I made all the arrangements and we were booked. We were going to give the kids to my brother Rob whom we kid exchange with and our dog to my other brother John who we dog exchange with.
The month rolled by fast and after a fast day we were headed to the airport. We did not end up flying together because we used miles and only had enough for 1 ticket with each of the airlines I fly. So I was on Frontier and Anne was on United. We stayed at the Arizona Biltmore for two nights and then moved down to the race site with the rest of the gang.
ARIZONA BILTMORE is one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in. It is a hi stoical hotel dating back to the early 1930's. It had 8 pools, restaurants, shopping and 2 golf courses. The rooms were great and we just sunk into the bed after getting checked in after 1am. We slept in and started to count the things that we were not able to do at home. Sleep in is high on the list. Second was a calm and relaxed breakfast.



We took a long run along the canal and ended up running for 2.25 hours, which was the longest run Anne had done by over 45 minutes. We talked and ran and laughed and had fun looking at the Arizona desert and making plans for the rest of our lives. I love running with my best friend and wow will this stage of life be fun.
We went to fancy dinners, lunch at the pool, hiked up Camelback mountain and went dancing.


Anne and I on the top of Camelback Mountain AZ

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Me overlooking where the IMAZ race is the following day

We slept in again for the second day and as we left we felt that we made the most out of our time at the Biltmore
The best part of the Biltmore was sitting at night by the fire pits relaxing to the sounds of a fountain nearby and looking at a full moon. This was a place to remember and I did it with my best friend!
IMAZ
Travel to triathlon races are always fun for me and it was interesting being a spectator and not a racer this time. This was also much longer of a race than I normally do and so the preparation time was a bit longer than normal. After getting plans made and a group dinner by the pool we said our good nights to Sonja and Michelle as they made final arrangements and headed to bed. Anne and I headed to the hottub and was joined by Michael.
The rock start support crew

Calm before the start

The first 30 seconds of the swim start, can you see Michelle in the front?

The Swim:
Finding a spot on the bridge was tougher than I thought. I am not use to being the spectator and was off my game. We ended up taking a spot on the far end of the bridge and was able to see everything really well. The amount of families that were present to watch loved ones at this race was huge. Of the 2700 racers just under 1100 were first timers. The gun went off and the mostly calm water turned white and you could only see limbs and caps for the next 2 minutes. The talk about the brutal swim start is more true 5 stories above than ever and I was amazed to see the crazy efforts that were going on. We did not have much time and so we headed back to transition to were we could watch them come out of T1. We stood and waited on the fence line close to where Michelle and Sonja racked there bikes and after about 20 minutes they laid down the mount line right in front of us. We watched the pro's come by and shortly after the age groupers were next.

We almost wanted to give her a push to start but in the end she did not need it as she smashed the all time record

Watching the pro's and then finally seeing Michelle out of the water was awesome. She was in the top 20 of all age group swimmers (out of 2700) and was looking really good. We yelled as loud as we possible could as she grabbed her bike and headed for the bike exit.

Michelle kept this smile all day long!!!


Sonja getting out of T1


We had enough time to get Michelle of and then came Sonja. She looked good and it was again awesome to see a her exit the water faster than expected. We cheered her on loudly, maybe a little too loudly but we wanted to make sure she remembered it until the next time we saw her.
The bike course was fun since it was 3 loops, we settled on the course about a mile out and so we would be able to see the riders 6 times on the bike.
The run course was the same where the racers did 3 loops and we the spectators sat where we could see them 6 times. We spent most of the day with Michael and Charlot. Once we settled on the bike course we found Chris, Troy and Anne with Helen. Eric was out on the course most of the day.



The finish was spectacular and I was inspired to see the racers as they came through the finish line. We were impressed with Sonja taking a 1 place AG finish and Michelle taking a 3rd place finish. They both took their Kona slots and will be racing on the big island next year.
The whole weekend was great and as I had a few days to reflect, I am even more impressed with the commitment it takes to make it to the start line let alone the finish. If you hear the words coming down the finish line "you are an Ironman" it is something pretty spectacular not only for the racer but the ones that supported you all the way.

Great job girls,

Love the weekend with you Anne,

T

This is a picture of Anne looking at a finisher run in. Or could it possible be a sign of another finisher in the future running down the shoot?????