Colorado Banksons

Haiti - Day 7 - Work Day

2010-03-18T21:14:00.001-06:00

Work day...again today we worked on our various projects and as we worked on getting some viruses off the computers around the office there were two things that came to mind: 1. Everything seems to get done a lot more slowly here as it relates to any type of work and 2. The problems that we dealt with were similar to some of the problems in society here where sometimes the issue didn't look like a real big deal, but the further we got into the project(s) the deeper the problems seemed to be. We were able to make good progress on our projects today and everything seems to be on track to get done over the next few days before we head back.

Tonight there has been a pretty good amount of rain. It started at dinner time while we were eating and was really coming down hard. Seems like in the tropics there aren't just misty rains or sprinkle rains...when it rains...it rains hard. While we were eating we could hear it starting to rain and there was a porch area out the back door of the house we were in. The porch roof had been damaged in the earthquake and had a crack in it that was substantial enough that the water gathering on top of the porch (a balcony) started coming through the crack in the roof into the lower porch area. It was like a shower causing flooding in the lower room. Not much that we could do about it as the house is rented and it's the owners responsibility to take care of those types of issues, but they just really don't and haven't done much to take care of these types of issues. This is a pretty common problem right now as many people rent and pay their rent up front for the year. After the earthquake they have been left stuck with no place to live. In this case at least the rest of the house was pretty much ok, but this was a pretty substantial crack in the ceiling.

From Haiti - Day 7

As we left dinner we heard there was a problem with water collecting on the tent over at the clinic and they needed some help getting it off to keep it from getting too heavy. The clinic is built over a driveway area and also includes an area off the driveway (in the dirt) where cots were on both pieces. The whole yard is pretty much flat and really no drainage was planned when the house was originally built, so with all the rain a 'lake' formed in the front yard that extended into the hospital area. The patients had been moved to higher ground, but it was still VERY wet throughout the entire area. We knocked the water off the tarps as best we could, but it is continuing to rain, so hopefully the water doesn't get too high. It made us think about the people in the tent cities that are spending the night in the rain and flooding ground. This is only the start of the rainy season with the worst still coming. What will these people do? The tarps help, but the ground is flat and puddles form fast and easily. With this much gathering water along with all the trash and poor sanitation it just seems ripe for disease.

From Haiti - Day 7

There is a little boy at the clinic who's name is Emmanuelle and had some scars from being hurt in the earthquake, but despite all this was a fun little guy that always seemed happy. It's great to see him doing so well and he is supposed to get some additional plastic surgery done on his nose soon. He is a great little guy.

From Haiti - Day 7

We walked back to our place after helping and had to walk through ankle to knee deep water. The streets had turned to rivers. All the trash that is in the streets is now floating.

From Haiti - Day 7

As we were walking back we were concerned about dirty water we were wading through and when we got back we rinsed it all off with a shower while others out there tonight are trying to figure out how to keep their family dry in a 10 x 10 tent area. What do we do about all this? What would God have us do?

Haiti - Day 6 - Visit to Pele

2010-03-17T21:31:00.000-06:00

From Haiti - Day 5

Early morning today. The lady that came in to have a baby yesterday wasn't making progress so they took her to the hospital last night for a c-section. When they got there the doctor was insulted because they hadn't brought her in earlier and he told them she couldn't stay. After negotiating with him he agreed to take her in exchange for sending two ladies in labor back to the clinic. This is healthcare in Haiti. So, about 4am 3 cars pulled up outside the house with two pregnant women to have their babies at the place we are staying. One of the rooms we're using is the 'backup' room and with two coming in they needed it. We quickly moved all the stuff out of there and re-arranged to make room. By this time most all of us were up and awake so we helped et some things together for the nurses..coffee (they had been up all night already), water for the ladies... It felt like being an on call doctor...with no idea what to do when woke up from sleep in the middle of the night :) I managed to squeeze in about a half hour extra sleep before we starte the day off. Baby 1 (Belle) was born around 7:30am and weighed about 5 lbs (pretty normal for there) and baby 2 never came and mom was shuttled off to the hospital about 6pm tonight for a c-section.

From Haiti - Day 6

Today Bill and I rode along with the medical crew that goes out to the poor areas and does some after-care treatment of patients injured in the earthquake. Many are still suffering from broken bones and severe wounds from being hit or trapped under fallen buildings. We went into a part of town called Pele where the team goes about 3 times a week. For a while they went everyday, but with fewer patients coming now they have scaled back. We brought along one of the armed guards that stands at the gates where we're staying for added protection. He is a really nice young guy and is from the area, so he knows a lot of the people down there which helps if things get tense because he already knows most everyone. One thing we noticed was that he was wearing a glove when we went down there today. We weren't sure why and we asked him as we left and he said that was his signal to the people there saying that he was carrying a shotgun. When we got there the medical crew starting taking care of the patients that came and lined up behind the truck to 'see the doctor' Our job was to entertain the kids. This was an experience like no other and a moment in life that I won't forget. The kids came running over to us and thought we were cool because we were white (everybody there is black) and american. They would hang on our arms and legs and hug us. We kicked a soccer ball around with them and played the hand-slapping game for the couple hours we were there.

From Haiti - Day 6

Most all of them spoke pretty much no english, but loved playing and having their picture taken. Some of them would beg for money, but most all of them just wanted to play. They would run their hand up and down my arms because of the hair on my arms (i guess that's not common there :) ). It was a great time to just love on these kids (probably a lot of the orphans) and just see them smile. At the same time it was heartbreaking. The area we were in was an extremely poor area where everyone lived in a little 'house' made out of piece of corrugated metal. A lot of the kids ran around in just a t-shirt or no clothes at all because they don't have any. There was a ditch that ran alongside the road where they would just throw their trash and it also acted as their bathroom.

From Haiti - Day 6

It's almost too much for words to try to describe the scene. Despite all this these kids were some of the happiest kids I've seen. They could have fun and loved to play. Wrestling through some of the thoughts today when facing the true reality and putting faces and people behind it made this one of the toughest days so far, yet one of the most rewarding. To be able to go spend time with these kids makes it a lot more personal and I believe started a life-changing mindset specifically toward orphans. I pray that God can help to show me how we fit into this picture as believers both here and once we get home. It is easy to get caught in the america bubble and ignore or just not care about what is happening in some of these other parts of the world, but i think it is wrong to do that. I haven't always felt this way, but after being here this week and specifically this experience with these kids my perspective is shifting. It's a work in progress and I think God will continue to work on me and show me how we should help.

From Haiti - Day 6

It is amazing the work that is being done here through Heartline. They are making a huge impact in the community as it relates to orphans, injured, displaced and those who are unemployed. They have cared for them through this tough time the last few months (and years before) and are committed to help for years to come. They have set a great example of Christ and sacrifical love that really goes beyond what I could imagine.

Haiti - Day 5

2010-03-16T21:32:00.003-06:00

From Haiti - Day 5

Today we started the day off again with our morning meeting. We reviewed what had been done and the plan for the day. Something that has been tough for everyone this week is the availability of resources to complete the projects. John told us a story about recently when Ronald (one of the guys that help out around the clinic) was riding his motorcycle into town and was stopped because his license plate was missing. The officer told him that he needed to have a license plate and they were going to have to take his bike. He responded that he tried to get a new plate, but that the government isn't issuing them right now because they have been too pre-occupied since the earthquake. They responded saying it didn't matter he had to have a license plate. So, he asked where he could get one and after arguing a little more they finally let him go. John said this is a typical scenario of the logic that happens in Haiti where it just doesn't make sense. There's nothing that Ronald could have done differently and yet he was going to be punished for it. They were also saying how 3 of the people on staff had expired drivers licenses now and the government isn't open to renew them, but if they get stopped and asked about it then they will most likely have to try to convince the officer that they have tried to renew it but couldn't. Crazy.

Today we tackled our projects again and continued to make headway on them although still slow going. There were times when we ran into the situation of 'if it will go wrong it will' making it not so fun and more time consuming to get the issues fixed. All went ok though and we are getting closer. Still more to do...

From Haiti - Day 5

The place we are staying is the women's center/birthing center. It is where local Haitian women come during the week to learn a trade (in this case sewing primarily) and then they are able to sell what they make to people in the US and make a living. Right now they make purses and they are backlogged and selling very well in the states. It's a great opportunity for the women to be able to work and earn money. Most people in Haiti survive on about $2/day. These ladies are able to make a few hundred dollars a week making it a pretty good wage for them. It's neat to see how Heartline is helping these ladies change the course of their lives and learn a trade at the same time.

From Haiti - Day 5

As for the birthing center piece, well this morning a women came in this morning with Beth (John's wife) and a couple of the volunteer nurses and she was in pretty active labor. Having a baby in Haiti is a little different than in the US. They took over one of the rooms in the house (note 'house' not hospital) and she has been laboring pretty much all day today...it's been probably close to 12 hours now. They don't have any pain killers or special equipment like heart-rate monitors or anything like that. It's pretty much just child-birth as it was before modern technology. Things went on as normal around the house all day with the women sewing purses outside and all of us working on our various projects around the house there and she labored away all day in the room alongside everyone. Not how most ladies would like to give birth i imagine, but this is how it is done in Haiti. Hopefully things get going soon for her tonight or else it could be a long sleepless night for all of us as our bedrooms are all right outside the room she is in.

From Haiti - Day 5

On our walk home from dinner tonight we had an interesting talk about less is more and how 'things' can complicate life and decisions. It seems there are good and bad to both. When you don't have much and food and a place to sleep are your biggest concerns you have a lot less distractions. It seems it would give you a much stronger dependence on God and relying on him to provide for your basic needs. We are so blessed in America to really not have to worry about that even in some of the worst of situations and as a result we can be more easily distracted by things that are insignificant in comparison. It's really nice to have time this week to step back from the craziness of life and re-evaluate things as it relates to life, God and others. It is a good reminder of how good things are at home. I'm looking forward to seeing Abby, Blake and Kona later this week. I see a lot of people here who are apart from their family either because their family has died, they are too poor to live together and are all apart just trying to survive or they have been left and orphaned and it makes me appreciate my family all the more. Things are starting to feel a little more comfortable the longer we're here. It is trange to not feel completely out of place in a place where things are so different. I'm looking forward to tomorrow as we are planning to go out to Pele with the medical truck to play with the kids while the nurses do some field care.

Haiti - Day 4

2010-03-15T21:12:00.002-06:00

From Haiti - Day 4

Today we started tackling some of the projects that needed to be done. Jared, Ken and Brian worked on some construction projects at the house we were staying in where the market was located downstairs, John was working on some electrical issues at a few different locations (the electrical conditions are sketchy at best. kudos to John for doing good work...i wouldn't go near it...John's an electrian, so it didn't scare him off), Joel helped sort and organize a pile of medical supplies that needed to be inventoried so that they could use them at the clinic, Jeremy went to the market & did some cooking for the team and volunteers at the clinic (as well as the patients) and Bill and I tackled some of the computer issues at the office. It was a bit of a tough day because we had a hard time making fast progress. One thing we have found about working in Haiti is that things move very slowly. If you need supplies you don't just run down to Home Depot and grab them, if you're cooking food you don't just run to Safeway, if you're working on computers the internet is very unreliable and slow...so no matter what the project there were obstacles in trying to get it done quickly. We were working on some big time virus and hardware issues that are time-consuming to resolve on a good, reliable connection so it was shaping up to be a pretty long process of getting these cleaned up.

From Haiti - Day 4

It was a pretty full work day for all of us and we were all pretty tired by the end of the day. It was a tough day for all of us as we were all working in our skills and doing the same type of work we do everyday at home. The good thing about this is that we were all using our abilities to help, but sometimes it is nice to do something different and (in our case) get out of the office. But this was something that has been a substantial problem for them as they run the ministry there and there really isn't anyone there that can take care of the problems for them. So, our skills were being used and we were able to help with something that makes a difference for them as they need this to be working to help keep everything running with the volunteers and their connections to the US. We'll be working on these issues more this week to get them all squared away due to the slowness of the systems and the internet.

From Haiti - Day 4

I finally got a better night's sleep last night as I'm feeling a little more adjusted to sleeping on the ground in 85 degree heat. It's crazy how hot it stays at night. At home it's still cool enough to sleep with blankets. Here it is so hot you sweat all night long sleeping on a mat and it makes it hard to sleep. I've had a couple nights that i haven't slept good, so last night i think i was finally just tired enough that it didn't matter. I haven't had any substantial mosquito bites yet (just a few) and have been trying to keep the bug lotion on as much as possible. There are mosquitos, but not an overwhelming number of them. Those of us sleeping outside are still being careful and sleeping under the mosquito nets, but everybody seems to be avoiding the bites pretty well.

Tomorrow we're planning to continue on the projects and hopefully be able to make some really good progress on things.

Haiti - Day 3

2010-03-14T16:14:00.000-06:00

Roosters. I guess I've never lived on a farm and know they wake up early, but but 3am? Seems the internal rooster clock is off by AT LEAST a few hours. So, it was a little sleepless from then until we got up around 6:30.

From Haiti - Day 3

We left for church this morning about 9am. The church meets a few miles away across town on a school campus. To get there we piled in the truck that the ministry uses to do their field medical care and doubles as an ambulance. It has a big enclosed areaon the back that you can sit inside of and an area on top where you can ride with a better vantage point. The only thing to be careful of up there are low hanging branches, powerlines and barb-wire. Definitely a good idea to keep eyes up. As we made our way through town we could start to see the devestation. Buildings that had crumbled, tent cities that had formed, people asking for money on the corners. It was pretty amazing the amount of damage caused in such a short period of time. Some houses had collapsed and slid down the side of a hill and 4 story buildings that just dropped like a pancake to the ground.

The church service was really good. It is lead by John and some other missionaries in the area. There were probably about 60-70 people there and it was similar to a church service in the US. They are meeting outside right now as the campus where they meet has been a home to the US military since the earthquake. It was really awesome to be there and worship with the Haitians. As I mentioned earlier, they are a happy people despite the conditions and it was great to see the hope that these believers had and the passion that they showed. I sat next to a Haitian man about 20 years old and we talked after the service. He was very interested in what we were doing and how we were helping. At one point in the conversation he asked me "How is the us different from Haiti?" Wow, didn't expect that question and I wasn't really sure how to answer it. The differences are huge, but I didn't want to make it seem like the US has it all together and Haiti doesn't, although when comparing a lot of things it does seem that way. As i realize some of these differences it makes me think about how life would be different had i been born in a different part of the world. Andy mentioned he lives up the hill a little ways from the church in a building that survived the earthquake, but he didn't have a job and wasn't able to find one. I thought this was interesting given the 'work' that would have been created from the earthquake, but the problem isn't so much 'lack of work', but 'lack of money'. People can't afford to hire people to do work for them. Interesting problem. Many people rent the building that they live in and they pay rent for the year upfront rather than month to month. So, in these cases they have a place to stay, but a lot of these places collapsed, so now they have pitched a tent on the roof of the collapsed building or on the ground next to it and that is where they live. The owners don't have the money or choose not to fix the house and the tenants are stuck.

From Haiti - Day 3

John took a us out to see more of the city this afternoon. Sunday is the best time because there isn't as much traffic and it is less busy. As we drove through the city it was a very eye-opening and at times disturbing scene. A lot of it was similar to images that we had seen on TV over the last few months, but it is a lot different to in person. It was interesting how some buildings would crumble while others were find with only minor (visible) damage and others right in between were fully destroyed. The magnitude of the tragedy began setting in more as John pointed out things affected by the earthquake and things were beforehand. I wrestled with the reality of the situation as we drove around. People walking in the streets were dressed nicely as if you would see in america, so i had a hard time understanding that they don't just walk around the next corner and go into their nice house, take a warm shower and sleep in a bed. Yet that is not the case for pretty much everyone. As we drove through the streets there was trash just piled out in the road where it is then burned all day long.

From Haiti - Day 3

The smell was pretty intense at times. Throughout a large part of Port-au-Prince this was the scene. This is normal life to them. Most of the people have no idea that there is anything different and this is where they have spent their life. In a lot of ways they are stuck. Even if they wanted to live a different life or try to be successful the resources aren't available to them to do it. There is no education, except in some private expensive schools, no money, a virtually inactive corrupt government to help....just each other and whatever they have at the moment in time.

From Haiti - Day 3

We drove past a 'market' where food is sold out on the street. It was just in piles and when it was no good anymomre they would push it out into the street where it is crushed by traffic and trampled on until it rots away. You can imagine the smell. Not like your typical produce dept down at safeway. We went down to the palace where we drove past the equivalent of the white house. It was like something out of a movie. I'm not sure that Hollywoord could have done a better job It looked surreal. Across the street from the palace was a huge tent city in the field. Kids running around naked, people cooking dinner.

From Haiti - Day 3

We finished up the day with dinner at Bryon and Shelly's and then had a sunday evening service at their house. Joel spoke about what we saw today and about how we need to look at how we can impact people we come in contact with on a smaller more personal scale. One thing i grappled with today was how does anyone fix these problems? These are God sized problems that really seem beyond the scope of 'anything' that any number of people and any amount of money could solve. We have to trust that God has a plan for Haiti and look at how we fit into that. These are God's people too and it's hard to understand why things are good for some people and bad for others sometimes. I was a humbling day as it feels like no matter what you do it just doesn't seem like it really can make a significant impact on the population of people there.

From Haiti - Day 3

Haiti - Day 2 - Arriving in Haiti

2010-03-13T21:35:00.005-07:00

From Haiti - Day 2

We arrived in Haiti today. We got to the airport in Miami where we spend a few hours before getting on the plane to and it was interesting observing some of the people going down there. Some Haitians, some teams of workers and others that looked to be going on vacation. Maybe not the time to be vacationing in Haiti :) The flight was quick and when landing it didnt look a lot different from the sky than somewhere like Jamaica or Hawaii. At the airport we got a taste of Haiti. There was a lot of military setup at the airport still helping with relief efforts. We got to customs and didn't have any trouble, then we got to baggage claim. It wasn't quite like the typical baggage claim experience. They basically pitched luggage into a pile through a door where 200 some people started digging through to find their stuff.

From Haiti - Day 2

We had 16 checked bags (2 a piece), because we had all loaded as much as we could to bring down with us to Heartline, and it took probably close to an hour to track them all down. We had one person watching the bags as we found and piled them and the rest of us hunted through the piles of bags to find the ones that belonged to us. Not really the most efficient system :) We finally got them all and then ventured out to try to find John and our ride from the airport. There was a fence that separated the airport from the people outside. They would open the gate long enough to let people out into the crowd of hungry baggage carriers who would basically jump on you to carry your bags to make a couple bucks.

From Haiti - Day 2

Fortunately there were a couple guys there to help us (who John had sent for us) and they took our bags. We had all 16 bags loaded onto 2 of those little airport luggage carts. We walked out of the gates through the mob of people and proceeded into the street to get down to where John had the truck parked. The streets are busy and crazy so it was interesting trying to get these two overloaded carts down the street between all the cars. Twice all the bags on the carts fell off all over the place in the street and there was a scramble to get them back on the carts before the 'other' baggage guys grabbed them. It was pretty intense for a few minutes.

The ride through town was crazy. Kids coming up to the truck asking for money, people lining the streets trying to sell things...As we went through town we could see some of the damage from the earthquake...some collapsed, or leaning, buildings and walls and people living in tents right off the side of the road.

From Haiti - Day 2

We got to the house we were going to be staying at and could see some of the outer protective walls were still damaged and some completely down in a pile of broken bricks. Each of the houses has an armed guard at the gate for protection. We went over to the makeshift hospital where they have cots lined up under a tent made from PVC and tarps.

From Haiti - Day 2

It actually is a pretty ingenious design considering what is available to them. It was pretty large, probably about 40 feet in length and 20 feet wide. There were probably about 30-40 people in the hospital being treated. Some are still in after-care or recovery from earthquake related injuries, while others are just there for more recent sickness or injuries. Some had pins in their legs, others IVs hanging from a pole that was cemented into a large bucket with an eye-hooked zip-tied to the top. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Right after the earthquake occurred there were a lot of people requiring amputations due to being stuck under a building, etc and most of these were done with no pain-killers or anesthesia. It just isn't available to them there. There were a lot of mothers who were either about to have a baby or just had one and were sitting in the tent nursing their newborns among the crowd of people. This field hospital had significantly better conditions than most of the local hospitals from what the doctors who were volunteering had to say after visiting a few of them. It's all perspective I guess. We handed out some dumdums to the patients and then were all very excited, especially the kids. Following the time at the hospital we went over to Byron and Shelly's house and had a great meal of ham, beans, salad and some great Mango. We headed back over to the hospital after for the evening church service and it was awesome to watch the injured who were so excited to have the service. Things are different here in many ways. Time is relative, work is optional. Most people don't have any sort of plan for their day and everyone seems to enjoy spending time together at the hospital or anywhere we see them...in the streets, the market...Once again makes me think about how American culture is so different and a lot times so rushed.

From Haiti - Day 2

4 of us decided to sleep outside on the balcony because it is SO hot and since the city power shuts off towards evening time all the houses have a battery / charging system that runs the lights and fans and stuff at night. As a result about 2 in the morning the fans shut off because the batteries die. So, at least sleeping outside it was a little cooler. Because of the mosquito problem and the possibility of Malaria we each had our own mosquito net tent that we slept under. It definitely was cooler to sleep outside.

Haiti - Day 1

2010-03-12T22:59:00.004-07:00

Friday - 3/12

From Haiti - Day 1

We left Denver this morning on the flight to Miami where we are staying the night and heading to Haiti Tomorrow. I think this is going to be a great trip and a good perspective adjustment. Everyone on the team has expressed that the have had a tough week leading up to the trip with a lot of challenges. It is encouraging to know that it wasn't just me. It has been interesting so far as people have asked us what we are going to be doing while in Haiti and everyone thinks that what we're doing is great, but still to want to keep Haiti at arms length and not be affected by it personally. Maybe because it isn't something that we can directly relate to on a daily basis makes it easier to overlook.

From Haiti - Day 1

I'm excited to get there and to get started with things. I'm a little nervous about the trip, but at the same time curious to see how I will be affected when we get there and see some of the things we have talked about like the extreme poverty, sickness, injured and devastation of the area after the earthquake. Still I believe this is an important trip and is what God wants me to do. I want to be fully engaged this week and try not to be distracted or be unaffected by the things we'll see and the people we encounter. I believe God wants to teach me some important things through this experience and I'm excited to learn what they are.

From Haiti - Day 1

Christmas 2009

2010-01-03T16:07:00.001-07:00

Ok, so i'm WAY behind schedule posting about Christmas, but I'm going to try to get caught up...

Christmas was really nice...we stayed home just us for Christmas and had a really nice relaxing time. I decided that i think i like having Christmas on Friday the best...take Christmas Eve off, make it a 4 day weekend and it really seems longer. We had snow a few days before Christmas, so it wasn't snowing on Christmas day, but we still had pretty substantial snow on the ground. We took Blake out through the neighborhood in his little sled (that we found at a garage sale this summer...for $3!). He REALLY likes the snow...the funny thing is he doesn't seem to get cold. Maybe it's just that he can't 'tell' us that he is cold. Either way, he seems to like it a lot.

From 2009-12-25

We made it out to The Cheesecake Factory on Christmas Eve for a family dinner together. We decided we want to work on getting some yearly traditions together for the Christmas holidays that we and the kids can look forward to each year. So, we're taking suggestions. If anyone has any that they have done with their families that has been fun, we'd love to hear about them. We have some friends that do a big seafood dinner Christmas Eve and others that open gifts that night and so on. We're just trying to pin down a few unique fun ones that we can adopt. Let us know if you have any good ones :)

From 2009-12-25

Kona and Blake were in charge of opening gifts. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Kona learned a couple of years ago how to open gifts and so she taught Blake what it was all about. Didn't take long for him to catch on and pretty soon they were both tearing the presents apart. The hardest part was explaning which ones were theirs. We still wanted to open our gifts :) They had a great time. Blake's second Christmas was even better than the first. It's pretty fun to see him get excited about it. I'm sure next year will be even better!

From 2009-12-25

Grammy and Grampy & Rachel Bankson came out the week after Christmas to visit and also to watch Blake for us for a week while we escaped the cold and made a trip out to Hawaii. We had a really nice time visiting with them for a little time on either end of the trip. It was a lot of fun to see them. It's nice to see family during the holidays and even though it wasn't on Christmas we still enjoyed getting to spend some time with them. I had talked with a few clients and friends the weeks leading up to Christmas and in talking about what everyone was doing for the holidays they had mentioned family coming or going to visit and most of them would make a comment about how 'well, it's the holiday's and that's just what we have to do' making it sound like it was a painful experience. I'm glad that we don't feel that way about it and always look forward to spending time with family. It's unfortunate that people see it that way i think. As a side note, we went bowling while they were here, just for fun one day, and had some of the best bowling ever. Collectively we were able to break 300 as a team of 3...i consider that pretty good :) AND, i had my best game EVER throwing 5 strikes in a row (i was in a groove) and breaking 200. Not too shabby. Makes me wonder if i need to look into the bowling club :) Not really...maybe in like 20 years.

From 2010-01-08 - Hawaii

It's a Girl!!!

2009-12-20T15:47:00.004-07:00

From 2009-12-19

This week was the 20 week ultrasound and it's a girl! We're pretty excited. We'll start things off with a boy and girl. Not too shabby. Guess we don't have to worry about not having any girls :) The ultrasound went great...everything looked good, all measurements were right and the due date is the same (May 6, 2010). We'll see if she comes on her due date as Blake did. We can't wait. We were excited to have Abby's grandparents and cousin in town for the ultrasound and to visit with this last week. We had a lot of fun and it's always nice to visit with family. We're glad they came.

From 2009-12-19

It's been a busy few weeks leading up to Christmas...we've been shopping, getting our tree, putting lights up and chasing Blake around. It's been a lot of fun, but the holidays seem to be coming up very quickly and will probably be over before we know it. Blake is excited and thinks the Christmas tree is a lot of fun. He keeps pulling ornaments off of it and trying to crawl behind it. But otherwise hasn't got into too much trouble with it.

From 2009-12-19

We have had the chance to go to a Christmas parade in Boulder a few weeks back. That was cold but fun. We had a cold streak there for a few weeks but since have warmed up again and it's been really nice the last week or so. We've been going to the various Christmas parties for this time of the year and those have been a lot of fun. I've never been a big fan of white elephant gift exchanges (just seems like 'here have my junk and you can have mine'), but this year they seemed a little better than usual. Hard to believe Christmas is less than a week away now, but I think we're ready. Blake is excited to see Grammy and Grampy and Rachel the week after Christmas and so are we.

From 2009-12-19

We've been thinking the last week or so about the year as we wrote the Christmas letter and as the year comes to an end and it has made us think about the blessings that we have in each other as family and how God provides. It has been a crazy year in many ways, but overall good. We have had the opportunity to go on some adventures this year and have learned a lot as parents (still have a long way to go). We really value our friendships and although we miss seeing our family we really enjoy the times we have got to spend with them this year and hopefully all the more next year.

From 2009-12-19

Merry Christmas!

November

2009-11-15T15:17:00.004-07:00

From 2009-11-07

Guess i have a little catching up to do...just realized i hadn't posted to the blog in a few weeks. Well, we have been pretty busy these last few weeks getting ready for the Christmas season already. Seems like it gets earlier every year, but that's alright. When the snow falls a few times and they start playing Christmas music and serving the Christmas drinks at Starbucks you start getting excited for Christmas. Just the same, it is still a ways off so we're trying not to jump the gun too early.

Blake is keeping us busy and is good entertainment. He likes to run and tackle us if we're sitting on the floor now, so that's fun. Only problem is he thinks it is fun to charge at you head first and his head is harder than ours. He is also dancing, climbing and running everywhere. It's fun but keeps you moving :) He'd really like to be able to do some talking because he wants to say something sometimes, but just can't get it out. We did some sign language with him, but he really just doesn't like to do it. Every once in a while he'll do something, but most of the time he just points and shrieks....unless there are doughnuts involved...then he's very willing to use sign language. So, either more doughnuts or forget the sign language...well that's kind of a no-brainer....doughnuts of course :) j/k

From 2009-11-07

We just got the second storm of the season this weekend...about a foot. I think it is going to be pretty snowy this year. Two storms that have been pretty substantial in November...not normal. We may just be making up for the lack of snow last year...i think we had one substantial storm (more than a foot) last year. Guess we'll see.

From 2009-11-07

We're getting pretty excited for baby #2 coming in the spring. Still a ways off at this point, so not much other than a thought right now, but excting nonetheless. Seems to be in the water again right now b/c a lot of our friends are having kids too.

Fall

2009-10-25T16:00:00.002-06:00

You know fall has arrived when you drive down the street and see pumpkins smashed all over the place, we're starting to wonder when we are going to get the first substantial snow and the boat goes into storage for the season. Just the other day we were out for a walk and the smell of fall was in the air and leaves were everywhere...pretty sweet. We're never too sure about the change of seasons when they first start because it seems like we just got used to the season and it changes, but then you get all the great colors of fall and the first snow is always exciting.

From 2009-10-25

Last weekend we went out to the pumpkin patch with Blake and wandered through the fields of pumpkins, ran around on the hay bails and checked out the farm animals. Blake thought it was pretty awesome. It was pretty fun...i don't think i've been to a big pumpkin patch quite this large before...it was fun (even it it did take us like 30 minutes to get out of there because the pumpkin patch traffic was so crazy...dang).

From 2009-10-25

We spent a nice day downtown at REI and walking around the park down there. It was a beautiful day...people were swimming in the river down there. Blake would have liked to and probably would have if we had let him :)

From 2009-10-25

We have Blake already for Halloween...and he went to a costume birthday party for his buddies first birthday a few weeks ago. Only problem is he is growing so fast we're not sure he'll fit in the costume by Halloween, but at least he had a chance to wear it. He also got a couple treats from grammy for Halloween and was pretty excited about what he found in the box.

From 2009-10-25

Lake Powell

2009-10-02T19:13:00.002-06:00

From 2009-09-29 - Powell

Over this last weekend we were able to squeeze in a quick trip to Lake Powell with a few of the neighbors on our block. They had been talking to us about going out there since last summer, but our schedules hadn't worked until now. It's a pretty cool place. It's like being in a river in the grand canyon (which i suppose it is...just not quite to Grand Canyon). We met up with some of Abby's cousins there and it was Blake's first camping trip. So, we tackled his first camping trip in a place we hadn't been before...probably not a good idea in most cases, but it worked out well. We made our way down the river about 10 miles on Saturday to Annie's Canyon where we spent lunch in a cove of giant rocks. It's hard to imagine the size of them without seeing it, but it's pretty impressive. We met up with the neighbors on our way back...they came a little after us with some friends of there's.

From 2009-09-29 - Powell

Camping went good. Blake did great actually. We put him in dirty clothes and let him run around at the campsite. He thought it was pretty awesome. He would site down and just play in the dirt, then he would run around and try to eat rocks...good times.

From 2009-09-29 - Powell

Sunday we went and explored a canyon about 10 miles up the river where there's a hike known as the slot. Basically you boat in as far as you can, then you anchor down and hike the rest of the way and the canyon gets narrower and narrower the further you go. Pretty soon it is only like 4 feet wide and straight up for at least 50 feet. Pretty cool.

From 2009-09-29 - Powell

We got in some good end of the season wakeboarding and feel like we had a good end to the season. I think we're ready for the next season to start. Time to shut it down for the season and get ready for the next.

From 2009-09-29 - Powell

Blake turns 1!

2009-09-02T20:37:00.003-06:00

From 2009-08-29 - Blake's B-Day

Wow, one year already...seems like this last year has just flown by. It's been a ton of fun with the little guy. It's been really cool to see him learn things and grow. Abby did a great job of getting his birthday plans together and it went off without a hitch. We had his great grandparents, a few of the grandparents, an aunt and a couple cousins that came out from Utah and California and then a handful of friends from around here....a few being like 40. Crazy. It was a good time though, we did a surfer themed party and had the kids take pictures on the surfboard in front of a beach scene. It was a good time.

From 2009-08-29 - Blake's B-Day

Blake thoroughly enjoyed his birthday cake and made a huge mess eating it. Pretty fun to watch. Presents must be big on the 1st birthday, it looked like Christmas....he did just fine....only problem is he didn't really understand the opening gifts part. One of the best gifts Blake got was a rocking chair that Grampy made for him. It's just his size and has the Broncos logo on it. Only 1 and already has his team.

From 2009-08-29 - Blake's B-Day

It was a really fun weekend with all the family and friends. Monday Abby, Blake, Tony and me made it out to the lake for a couple hours in the afternoon. It was a little cloudy/hazy from the smoke for the CA wildfires, so it wasn't REALLY hot, but there was nobody at the lake. It was a great day. It tied for second best day of the summer. Glassy and warm water. Would have tied for best day of the summer if the sun had been out. Pretty fun.

Well, now we're into September and getting ready to wind down for the summer. Blake is running around and we can hardly keep up. We're looking forward to seeing what he learns next.

At dinner a few nights ago he was getting a kick out of us slapping sugar packets on the table. You have to watch this video it'll make you smile...

From 2009-08-29 - Blake's B-Day

Family Reunion - Redfish Lake, ID

2009-08-09T11:18:00.002-06:00

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

Well, we're a little slow getting around to blogging, but we've had a busy week back at home. Our trip with family was a lot of fun. It's a bit of a drive from Denver (~14 hours), but Blake did real well considering. We headed out on Wednesday night to get to Salt Lake so that I could head up with a few of the guys (grandpa, Jason, Tony) to do a little backpacking in the Sawtooth mountains for a few days before the rest of the family came up. We got up there to the Sawtooth Lodge on Thursday night. It was a neat little place although we had bad directions getting there that resulted in about a 35 mile stretch taking us 1.5 hours. Bummer. It worked out though and we got there, just a little later than planned. When we arrived it turned out the place is fully run by a generator (b/c it is so remote) and the generator was busted. So, that meant no electricity, which also meant nothing that required electricity was working either (water pumps that run the water). Well, other than that it was a fun little place and it was an experience.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

We headed out early the next morning (9 am...early is relative...out guide hoped to leave earlier :-) ) and we rode horses up to the Baren Lakes (~10 miles). We got in that afternoon and got camp setup. We were the only ones staying at the lake. It was a pretty beautiful view and the fishing was great. A lot of little fish, but a lot of them to catch and they would bite almost every cast. It was pretty fun. We had a nice time relaxing, eating Mountain House (freeze-dried food), fishing and had a couple nice campfires. When we headed out on Sunday, 3 of us (Jasen, Jason and Tony) hiked out toward Redfish lake where we caught a boat ferrie across the lake to the Lodge while grandpa headed out with the gear and the guide on horses back to the truck to bring it around to the lodge. It was a beautiful hike out over mountain peaks, past mountain lakes, along creeks and rivers through forests. Pretty amazing country. Definitely some great hiking.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

We all met up at Redfish Lodge Sunday evening and got all settled in. At the lodge there are a bunch of cabins and then a few different camping areas. Most of the family stayed in cabins while a few of the family did camping. It was all very nice. The views, wildlife and lake closeby gave us a lot to check out, explore and enjoy. There were ~35 of us total with most of the family being on our side, but also a handful of people from grandpa's brother's side. It was fun to see everyone and a lot of people that we hadn't seen in a long time.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

One thing i've learned as we've ventured out on some of these family trips/vacations/reunions is that these guys like to do things. It makes for a fun time. Monday was the one day we were kind of on our own to do whatever we wanted to. We just kind of took it easy that day going on a bike ride with Blake and checking the place out some since i had never been there before.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

Tuesday we headed out with everybody to do some river kayaking. We all got in boats and floated down 8 miles of river. We stopped at some hot springs that came into the river and sat in those for a little while. The babies couldn't come with us in the boats (probably was a good idea anyway) and met up with us during our break at the hot springs. We finished up the kayaking ride and headed back to the lodge to hang out, fish and relax.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

Wednesday was riding horses day. While most everyone went and had a great time, i stayed back with Blake this time (i had rode the horses up to backpacking). The consensus was that it was a fun time, the views were great and the horses behaved...most of the time...except for when Jason tried to pass Jacob and freaked him out :-) We had a big all-family bbq that night and got everyone together. It was fun to eat good food, relax and talk with everyone.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

Thursday was white-water rafting day. We headed out with most everyone...i think 26 or so total. So there were 4 boats of us and 1 boat with another family. This was a lot of fun. Uncle Dave got everyone rialed up with the water canon, soaking us all...the rapids were good, but not TOO intense and the guides were good. After lunch things got a little crazy as we all were ready for revenege after being soaked. We had one point where our boat the boat with the soakers on it pulled up next to each other and Abby and I went in...Abby went for the water canon and i went for Uncle Dave. He and I ended up in the water and Abby accidently pushed the guide in while trying to get the canon...so she ended up in too. It was all in good fun and we had fun although the water was freezing...probably around 55 degrees. We all got back in the boats and everything settled down until our boat got comandered by Tony and Jason who flew onto the boat to get a water canon and accidently knocked two of the grandparents (from the other side of the family) into the water. Everybody got back in the boat fine and it was no problem, but things kind of settled down after that. It was a lot of fun. The rafting guides said we were definitely the wildest bunch of the summer (referring to the whole family)...they enjoyed the excitement. Everyone had a good time, no one got hurt and it made for some good memories.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and then getting packed up to head out. We had to leave thursday night to get back friday as there were things we had to take care of before the 1st. Overall it was a really great time and we all really enjoyed it. Blake behaved himself, got a lot of practice walking and had plenty of attention.

From 2009-08-01 - Redfish

Walking

2009-07-18T22:18:00.002-06:00

Here's a short video of Blake walking...

From 2009-07-18

Weekend at the Lake

2009-07-18T21:51:00.002-06:00

From 2009-07-18

Well, we just finished up dinner and we were talking about how in the last 27 hours we spent 10 hours at the lake so far this weekend. Whew...we all feel a little 'sunned' It has been really nice though. Friday night we had our small group from church out to the lake and got them all out there in shifts over 4 hours. Everyone had a good time and spent some time in the water...either swimming or in the tube. While not on the boat we had everyone over to our place for a BBQ and smores. It was a nice time with friends. Our friends from Hawaii (Kent & Erin & family) are in town and we had a chance to hang out with them as well. It is always great to meet up with friends we haven't seen in a while. We went with them out to white fence farm the night before and checked out the animals and let the kids hang out for a while. Good times.

From 2009-07-18

Saturday we were back up at the lake with some friends that live up in Loveland. We had a good time relaxing, doing some wakeboarding (getting some nice jumps in :-)...nice Matt) and hanging out. It was a beautiful day and HOT. Being in the water felt great (77 degrees right now..warm).

From 2009-07-18

We've been really enjoying having Rachel here with us this summer and have got to do a lot of fun things together. We had a fun 4th of July with all of us watching fireworks at City Park by our house. It was really a good show. We made it down to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and had fun looking around and checking it out...we've been out doing some hiking and then of course the trips to the lake. She's pretty good at the wakeboard...she can make it almost all the way around the lake without falling. Pretty impressive. Anyway, it's great having her and Blake really enjoys having his aunt around.

From 2009-07-18

Blake is making pretty amazing progress on his walking. He can get around pretty well now. He still prefers to crawl if there's somewhere he wants to get to really quickly, but he can make it across the room on two feet and will be running before we know it i'm sure. He's a lot of fun. We are enjoying watching him learn new things and get more and more interested in what we're doing.

From 2009-07-18

Havasupai

2009-07-01T22:09:00.004-06:00

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

Wow...all i can really say is wow. What a beautiful place. We drove down from Denver in one straight shot with only a few stops for gas and food on Friday...14 hours total to get there. It was a really beautiful drive through the rockies (green with rivers running high) to Moab (got to see slick rock and some of Arches NP) to Flagstaff (really a nice place...a lot of trees for AZ) and over to Seligman where we stayed the night before heading down to the trail. After looking at a map i think we may have passed through Seligman on our bike trip 10 years ago...it didn't look familiar, but based on the maps i saw i think we probably went through there...going to have to review some old journals and pictures and find out.

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

5:30 Sat we headed out for the trail..1.5 hour drive from Seligman (edge of civilization) to the trailhead (there is NOTHING out there). We were all pretty excited to get out there and get going. Most all the guys (of the 21 of us that went) sent their gear down on mules. I think there were 5 of us that packed our gear down the canyon. I haven't really done official back packing before (off the bike) with a pack, so i thought it would be fun to pack the stuff and see what its like. It worked out well although 10 miles proved to be a pretty long way with 35lbs on the back. The hike down was good but we were all good and ready to rest by the time we got to the bottom.

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

The campground is on a stretch of river with a waterfall above the campground (Havasupai falls) and a waterfall below the campground (Mooney falls). Both were pretty spectacular and a great place to hang out and stay cool during the scorching heat. It was well over 100 the whole time we were there except at night.

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

The next day we went up to a new set of falls that was created during a 50 year flood that came through at the end of last season and carved out an entire new canyon and 2 new waterfalls. Pretty incredible that a river will do that during a flood. The falls were about 35-40 and made for great jumping. A number of us did some cliff jumping from there. Pretty sweet.

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

On day two we did the 7 mile round-trip hike to Beaver falls below the campground. It was pretty amazing to see the oasis and beauty along the river all the way down. The combination of the water and heat makes for pretty ideal growing for the plants down there. Beautiful. The falls were different than the others in that they weren't a giant waterfall off a cliff, but rather a series of falls into pools that went one right into the next about 6 or 7 times. It was a hot and difficult hike that required using ropes to get up cliffs a few times and a lot of rock hopping AND the only snakes we saw on the trip turned up on this hike...a rattler and a kingsnake. Pretty great hike.

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

The hike out wasn't too bad...we got an early start and made it to the top just before it got REALLY hot. It was still a pretty good haul for the 10 miles out though and the switchbacks in the last two miles were tough, but definitely worth it. I decided to the let the mules do the work of hauling my stuff out since i hadn't done the hike before and i'm glad i did...it would have pretty near killed me i think. There were a few guys who did it and did just fine...amazing.

From 2009-07-01 - Havasupai

Overall...great time. Good bunch of guys, got to know them better...beautiful place....more sodium than i need to eat for the next year (we did freeze-dried MREs while we were down there...not bad really...i was surprised...but pretty much a heart attack in a bag :), and good relaxation (outside of the cumulative 40 miles of hiking we did while there). We all agreed that 14 hours is a LONG time in the car in one shot. If you ever have the chance to make the trip there you should...definitely a unique place with water that looks like it belongs in the tropics. The limestone coats the river bottom and gives it the crazy blue color.

Family Visit

2009-07-01T21:59:00.003-06:00

June was a busy month for us...so busy i noticed i didn't even blog. Oh well, back to it i suppose. The first couple weeks the weather was REALLY crazy...like tornadoes, thunderstorm, weird rain storms crazy. Generally June is the extreme weather month and we expect some of this but it was excessive this year that's for sure. We had a period of about a week and a half where every afternoon we had either a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado watches/warnings with funnel cloud sightings almost every day. Too close to home for me, i'm glad that season has passed now and we're into the more consistently good weather.

From 2009-06-25

Second week of June, Mom and Rachel came to town and spent a week with us. It was a lot of fun and they had a really great time playing with Blake. He's been a lot of good entertainment lately as he is on the verge of walking now and pretty interactive.

From 2009-06-25

The rest of the family joined us at the end of the week and we're here for a long weekend. We had a nice time together relaxing, hiking, spending some time at the lake and visiting with some friends that we hadn't seen in about 10 years. Good times. Everyone headed out on Tuesday then it was a busy week of work and packing for the Grand Canyon. I was headed off for the Havasupai hike with 21 guys from church while Abby was headed off to Utah to spend time with her grandparents, mom and cousin.

From 2009-06-25

Birthday

2009-05-30T21:44:00.002-06:00

From Memorial Day Weekend

So far this weekend has been a lot of fun. We cut out of work early yesterday and headed up to the lake to do a little fishing for Jasen's birthday. Blake fell asleep almost right after we got there (which makes boating/fishing a little easier). He is mobile enough that with the life jacket on he kind of falls all over the place on the boat and gets pretty upset about it, so it can be a little challenging...but still a good time. The fishing experience worked out good for my birthday...caught a whopper...check this out...5 lb walleye. Nice! I hadn't caught a walleye before so i wasn't really sure about what it was, but it was big...that's all the really matters. Actually it was pretty huge...good thing we had a net with us. It was a little tough to manage, the way it had been hooked, and it had teeth which makes the whole process a little tricky...i don't want to get bit by a fish :-) It worked out though...got some pictures, weighed in at 5 lbs and put up a good fight.

From 2009-05-29

When talking to the neighbors about it we found out we should have brought it home so they could have eaten it. They were pretty dissapointed that we turned it loose. We don't really like fish, so we didn't want it...but they did. Next time we know.

From 2009-05-29

We got to go to dinner for my birthday while some friends watched Blake for us. It was fun and nice to have some time just the two of us.

From 2009-05-29

Blake is doing really well...getting bigger fast. He is about to start walking...i give him two weeks. He took a step forward yesterday morning and Abby and I were so excited that we didn't catch him when he fell. Pretty crazy how fast they learn that stuff. Otherwise he is saying dada and mama although we don't think he has really made the connections as to what he is saying just yet. We think he might be understanding some sign language that we are doing with him for food stuff, but he doesn't do any of them to us right now. We're really enjoying him a lot. He keeps us on our toes...he's a fast crawler and there is something about the dog bowls that he just can't resist.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-30T21:35:00.003-06:00

Memorial Day was nice this last week although a little rainy. We had a few storms roll through that kind of put a damper on the late afternoon BBQ'ing plans (literally). But, it was still a nice relaxing weekend. We spent a little time on the lake early in the weekend before the storm rolled in...Blake likes to drive the boat.

From Memorial Day Weekend

We did a little yardwork on Saturday and fixed up some trees that badly needed trimming. Between trimming trees and putting in a new brick ring around the front tree it turned into a pretty full day experience. We had a fun time doing it. It has been a while since we spent a lot of time working in the yard on projects around the house. Blake seems to really like the dirt. Guess that makes sense since he is a boy :-) He got good and dirty.

From Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day taking a bike ride and stopping at a local Memorial that was recently built by the city...actually really nice and a good tribute to those who serve and have served. Then we went up to some friends house up near Loveland, did some fishing...and caught a nice 3 lb bass and then did some BBQ'ing (in the rain) and relaxed. It was a really fun time. Overall...successful holiday weekend. Got some relaxing in, got some boating in, got some BBQ'ing in and had a good time doing it all. Can't complain about that :-)

From Memorial Day Weekend

Cancun 2009 - Swine Flu Survivors

2009-05-10T20:30:00.003-06:00

Wow, i've been slacking on blog posts...i just looked as i was getting ready to post and saw i haven't posted since last month...oh well...things get busy i suppose.

From Cancun

We just got back from a much needed trip to Cancun. We almost didn't go with the swine flu scare, but the closer we got to leaving the more we felt that the whole thing was WAY over hyped by the media and we decided to go anyway. We talked to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) twice the week prior as well as our pediatrician and did our homework and kept an eye on the facts of the whole thing and after all was said and done we went anyway.

From Cancun

We stayed at the GR Solaris on the Hotel strip and it was pretty sweet. The hotel had really good reviews online and our experience there was great. With the swine flu scare a lot of people canceled their trips, so some of the resorts closed and combined to keep the ones that were open busy. Fortunately it worked out well for us. The resort was probably at about half capacity and it made it easy for us to get chairs at the pool :-) The food was good, the beach was warm, the pool was nice and the drunk people hilarious. We'll just say some people have no gauge on their drinking nor do they care and they sure are funny to watch try to compete in pool games when they can't hardly stand up. It's kind of sad i suppose, that some people go on vacation just to see how sloshed they can get and stay for an entire week.

From Cancun

We enjoyed the sun and the entertainment. Blake loved the pool and the ocean and we think he is going to be a water kid. He had one day where he was teething and it was a bit of a difficult day that day, but he woke up the next day feeling fine and the rest of the week was great. We had a REALLY fun time with him and it was good to get out and travel and see how he would do in a different environment and he did great. He made lots of friends at the resort (including a lot of the great entertainment staff) and many of the other vacationers. They deemed him the cutest baby to visit the resort that they could remember :-) What could we do, but agree?

From Cancun

Check out some more pictures from the trip here...

Easter Surprise!

2009-04-19T21:48:00.004-06:00

From 2009-04-16

So last Friday night we were going for a family walk after work and were talking about what our plans were for Easter weekend and concluded that we really had no plans for the weekend at all. We were kind of bummed since it is nice to do 'something' on a weekend that everyone else has plans with family. We thought about how it would be fun if we were able to spend it with family, but given that we were thinking about this on Friday night of Easter weekend this probably wasn't really a possibility. We had prayed about it and if God wanted it to work out then we would go, if not, then we'd stay home. Well, we decided to check and just 'see' what the plane tickets would cost to do it just out of curiosity. They were pretty expensive (~$450/each), so disappointed we thought we would start figuring out other plans. As we gave up we thought we would check and see if there might be any tickets available using our miles (usually booking these require months of advance planning to actually get them to work). There were TONS of flights available on miles. Crazy! So, we called up Grammy and Grampy and asked what they were up to for Easter and if they had any extra room for a few more at the Easter table. We'll just say they were excited :-) So, booked the flight, booked the rental car and went to bed to leave in 6 hours. Kind of a spontaneous trip, but worked out well. Blake was a great traveler on the the plane and aside from the airline busting a wheel off one of our bags it was a pretty smooth trip.

From 2009-04-16

It was great to see family and enjoy a few days with them. Definitely worth doing even though it was a bit last minute planning packing and going, but was really fun to make plans that quickly and just do it. Blake was excited to see everyone and he got a cool new hat from Auntie M. Thanks Auntie M!

From 2009-04-16

And we got to make a trip to an important place while we visited as well...see if you can tell where from the picture :-)

From 2009-04-16

AND did I mention Blake has two teeth now? He does, on the bottom. We'll let you see if you can find a picture that shows them (clue: swing pictures)

Concert with Small Group

2009-04-19T21:37:00.002-06:00

A couple weeks ago we got to go check out the Rock and Worship road show tour (http://www.therockandworshiproadshow.com/) It was a lot of fun and a great show. If you have the chance to check it out when it comes through your area you should.

From 2009-04-09

Blake didn't get to go to the show. Too loud for him :-) Maybe next time...

We did however make a trip out for lunch to the Spicy Pickle and Blake got to eat his own version of eating out food....sweet potatoes :-) He like them...can you tell?

From 2009-04-09

He likes those potatoes and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. We also discovered that he has learned that whenever he sees the red light from the camera that is his cue to smile. Pretty funny. Doesn't work everytime, but if he's in a good mood he seems to do it every time.

Nana and Great-Grandma and Grandpa Visit

2009-03-31T20:45:00.004-06:00

From 2009-03-29

This last week we had the first visitors we have had in a while and Blake was excited! Since he is able to crawl around pretty well now and likes to do a lot of smiling and laughing he can be quite the center of attention. Blake hadn't seen Nana or Great G & G since Thanksgiving so he had quite a few new things he had learned since then to show them.

From 2009-03-29

The girls, and Blake, spent a good part of the days hanging out, shopping and enjoying time together. Then Thursday (when great grandpa was supposed to arrive) we got the biggest snow storm (blizzard) of the season. check out some of these pictures. It was fun! We got to shovel a little snow together, enjoy the 2 feet of snow and then watch it melt...it's almost completely gone now (about 5 days later). It was nice to have a good snow storm since we haven't had any this year.

From 2009-03-29

Great Grandpa arrived Saturday morning and then we all met up at Keystone and did a little skiing/snowboarding. Blake was jealous, but had a good time hanging out with everybody at the lodge.

From 2009-03-29

Blake also got his first experience in a pool. We went over to the hotel one evening and did a little swimming. He really seemed to like it a lot. Makes us excited that he will hopefully really like the water as he gets a little older.

Getting Around

2009-03-25T07:55:00.002-06:00

Getting Bigger

2009-03-23T20:44:00.003-06:00

From 2009-03-20

It's been a few weeks since I have had a chance to post...things have been pretty busy lately and Blake's been learning how to crawl, so we've been a little busier keeping an eye on where he is off to. It's been pretty amazing to see how quickly he has gone from just barely being able to move to spotting something on the other side of the room and getting there.

Blake made a trip to Costco this week and got to take his first ride in the 'school bus'. Grammy Bankson gave Blake this cool shopping cart protectors that keeps him from sucking on the dirty carts...it worked great! He is really excited and proud to cruise around the store in his bus. He makes for a pretty good looking bus driver too :-)

From 2009-03-20

it's been fun to see him get more interested in some of his toys too. He is starting to play with things a lot more.

From 2009-03-20

Learning to Crawl

2009-03-04T22:36:00.003-07:00

iLove iChat

2009-03-04T21:09:00.002-07:00

With a lot of our family out in CA we try to do 'video visits' with them as often as we can. Blake gets excited about seeing his grandparents on the screen and is starting to reach for the computer when he's close enough to it....gotta keep an eye on this guy...he's adventurous

We got out and did some hiking this weekend with some friends..the weather has been really nice, so we've been enjoying the outdoors. Blake has moved from the front pack to the backpack and so far he seems to really like it. The only time he didn't like it so much was when we went snowshoeing with him in the back and he was so wrapped up he couldn't move. Every time since he has really liked it...he looks around, kicks me in the back and screams in my ears...glad he enjoys it :-)

From 2009-03-04

More Pictures: 2009-03-04

Ski Loveland

2009-03-04T20:54:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we had a chance to go boarding with some friends from Abby's work. It was a lot of fun for all of us...including Blake. We headed up to Loveland (hadn't been there before) and it was great! Conditions were good and the mountain was a lot of fun. Our friends have a little boy that is about the same age as Blake so the boys came along and we traded off watching them in the lodge. It worked out really well. We all got some boarding in, we all got some relaxing in and the two boys got to hang out and try to roll over...who could ask for more :-)

From 2009-02-21

Blake has been working on his sitting up and has been making attempts to get up on all four try some crawling...probably won't be long and he's going to be on the move...

More Pictures: 2009-02-21

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-17T20:28:00.005-07:00

Blakes first valentines day was fun...we went out to dinner as a family to the Walnut Brewery in Boulder on Friday night (avoided the crowds :-) ) and then had a nice relaxing weekend together around the house. It was kind of nice to just take it easy. We had some friends over from and watched Fireproof...if you haven't seen it it's worth a watch. It was really good. We'd heard a lot about it, but hadn't had a chance to see it yet.

From 2009-02-16

Then on Sunday Abby went to a baby shower for some friends and the boys went down to the Denver Aquarium. Blake was really intrigued by the fish...I wouldn't have thought he would even be interested, but he thought they were really cool. Check out the little video clip below...

More Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/20090216

Grammy and Grampy visit

2009-02-01T17:03:00.002-07:00

We had a nice visit this weekend with grammy and grampy Bankson. Blake had a really good time and thought it was fun to get all the attention. Kona, on the other hand, felt a little left out...but we made it up to her in treats :-) Blake got to show off all his newly learned tricks...rolling over, smiling, laughing and playing with his toys. He does good job of entertaining himself when we give him his toys and let him play. It's pretty fun to see him figure them out.

Auntie M sent along some new duds for Blake and another pretty awesome hat...she has a way of finding those...check out this cute kid!

We also decided to start giving him some real food...starting with the rice cereal....yumm. He was pretty excited and was definitely interested in the food. We think he has been paying pretty close attention because he seemed to eat it like a champ. He woofed it right down and made a huge mess of himself, but it was fun to see him like it so much.

More Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/20090201

Go Mustangs!

2009-01-28T20:43:00.001-07:00

So there's a story behind this hat that goes back almost a year ago now. While I was out in San Luis Obispo on a business trip about a year ago we had just found out that we were going to be having a baby, but we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl. I was instructed to get something nice for the baby while in SLO....so I did. This hat. Well, when I got home and showed off the hat that I was so proud of myself for finding the first thing Abby said was, "what if we have a girl?" I just said it would look cute on her too :-) Well, fortunately for me we had a boy and I never had to make a case for that (although it would have looked just fine on a little girl). Needless to say Blake is a Cal Poly fan and looks good in Green and Gold. Don't you think so?

More Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/20090127

Snowboarding '09

2009-01-28T20:38:00.001-07:00

This last weekend we had a chance to get up and do a little snowboarding...just the two of us. We had some friends that watched Blake for us for the day so that we could go. We had a really good time. It was nice to get up there. This was our first time this season...we haven't been up quite as much this year since Blake's snowboard won't fit him until next year ;-)

It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains. It wasn't really cold, the snow was fresh the wind wasn't blowing and the scenery was fantastic. Sometimes it's nice to just sit at the top of the mountain and take in the beauty.

A couple more snowboarding pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/20090116

That's Hilarious!

2009-01-16T21:28:00.004-07:00

We found out that maybe Kona doesn't think Blake is the best thing to ever come along, but Blake thinks Kona is :-) We were telling Kona to speak and every time she would bark Blake would think it was just hilarious. Then he just started laughing at anything and everything...so we finally got it on video. We think he's maybe a little delirious since he skipped his afternoon and evening naps today, but either way he was pretty funny.

Ice Fishing 2009!

2009-01-13T18:45:00.003-07:00

Well, this weekend a bunch of the guys headed up into the hills to do what men like to do....fish. Not just any kind of fishing...middle of winter, freezing cold, can't feel your fingers for two days, drill holes through the 2 foot thick ice kind of fishing. It was a good time. There were 15 of us that went and we stayed in huge cabin right along side the lake...well, frozen lake. It was cold. Quite a few fish found their way to the surface on the end of a line and it sure is daunting when they just sit down there and rub up against your line for half the day taunting you. The good news, none of us got skunked...everybody caught fish and most everybody had at least a handful to brag about. Not too shabby. There were reports of moose sightings in the area in the few days before we got there, but we didn't get lucky enough to see one this trip. It was like a winter wonderland up there with at least a few feet of snow on the ground. It's really fun to go enjoy it for a couple days and then head back down to the warmer city :-) For those of you out there that think this looks fun, we try to go every year, so if you are interested in going next year, let me know...

More Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/IceFishing2009

Getting Bigger

2009-01-13T18:31:00.002-07:00

It's pretty amazing to see how quickly kids grow at this age...we took Blake in for his check up a week or two ago and now he is about 14-15 lbs. Growing fast! We thought it is funny how he always sleeps like the picture above and had to get a picture of it. he looks pretty comfortable...nice way to spend 15 hours a day ;-) New development this week Blake has been rolling over from his back onto his stomach. It's kind of funny because he does it and then gets frustrated because he is on his stomach. Funny that he hasn't figured out how to roll back over yet :-) He also started holding his own bottle sometimes while he is eating.

Since the new year we've kind of been laying low around the house for a few weeks. It's been nice to just relax a little as this year gets kicked off. Here are a few more pictures of us all just from around the house...

More Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/20090112

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T18:48:00.001-07:00

Well, so begins 2009! We had a chance to go up into the mountains for the day and do a little snowshoing. This was Blake first real experience with snow (other than the little bit that we've had at our house this year). It was a little windy which made it a little tricky because it makes it feel pretty cold, so even though we had Blake bundled up in his little snow suit he didn't like it much. We had Kona (our dog) with us and Daisy (our friend's dog), so we had our hands full :-) We hiked at St. Mary's Glacier and hiked for about 45 minutes up and then headed back so that Blake wouldn't get too cold.

That was the excitement of our New Years this year. Otherwise we just relaxed at home and got to bed early for a couple nights which was nice since Blake has been waking up in the middle of the night thinking it is time to play lately. And then we had a wind storm last week like one I have never experienced before. We had 70-80 MPG gusts during the night...so that pretty much kept us awake most all night. It also blew down part of our fences (about 8 posts worth) and made for a 'fun' New Years fix-it project :-) Oh well, guess that's how it is sometimes...wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't been 23 degrees on the day i was trying to wrap that project up. All i can say is brrrrr.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/20090101

Blake's First Christmas

2008-12-27T17:29:00.003-07:00

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T16:31:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-17T20:40:00.001-07:00

It's that time of the year...time for Christmas pictures. We went to a studio in Louisville and got a bunch taken. It was pretty cool...we did the photo shoot for about 30 minutes, reviewed the pictures and they printed all of them for us right then and sent them home with us along with a CD of them...nice! Gotta love digital photography...maybe all the studios do it this way, but we haven't been in to have pictures taken for us in a long time...it was pretty sweet.

Here are a couple teaser photos to check out. The rest with be 'released' after Christmas...we won't say why, but you might expect to see a few around then :-)

More Christmas pics, but not all of them :-)...we'll just say Blake takes pretty good pictures...wait until you see the rest..
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/ChristmasPictures

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-17T20:33:00.003-07:00

Well, we made it home from our trip and are enjoying being back at home for a while. We have had a few small snow storms and some REALLY cold weather in the last week or so. We had an 'arctic blast' which is exactly what it sounds like...freezing. It was about 5 degrees for the high for a couple days. Brrrr. At night it was -34 with wind chill. Fortunately this is really unusual weather for here and we're mostly back to the more normal 40 degree December weather.

We went out and got our Christmas tree and Blake had a nice time helping us pick it out. It was funny because we went through the normal 'get really picky about finding the perfect tree' routine at the nursery and looked at probably 100 different ones trying to find the one we wanted. We finally 'settled' on one that we thought was acceptable and would do the job and brought it home. Ironically I think it may be the best Christmas tree we have had...that worked out nice. Blake did a good job choosing. What do you think? Kona really likes it too :-)

We put the Christmas lights up and are ready for Christmas...with it not being too far off now we are excited.

CA Trip - Salt Lake City, UT

2008-12-17T20:13:00.004-07:00

After all the traveling we did for the 3 weeks on the road we pulled into Salt Lake City, UT to finish up our trip with Abby's extended family and to enjoy Thanksgiving with everyone. It was a good way to finish the trip off with the weather feeling much more like the fall/winter weather that we are used to in Colorado. The food on Thanksgiving was great and we had a full house of people. It was a relaxing and full time.

Friday the girls went and did some shopping while the boys went and hiked some in the canyon. This was the first snow that we had seen this season. There had been a storm a few days earlier and there was still some snow on the ground while we went hiking. Kind of a good way to ease back into the snowy season as we headed home.

Thus ended our trip around the western half of the country over the past few weeks. It was time to head home...

Pics from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/CATrip

CA Trip - Santa Rosa, CA

2008-12-17T20:01:00.003-07:00

Off we went from there to Santa Rosa to visit Abby's family. We had a really nice time visiting with all of them and had our third and final open house of the trip. A bunch of Abby's high school friends were able to make it and it was fun to catch up with them. A lot of them had kids too...

We had a nice time celebrating Sean's birthday with the family at Checkers and Jasen and Sean went and did some float tube fishing at the lake....didn't catch much that day, but that's why it's called fishing and not...well you know...

It was good to spend time with all of them and Brandi was a proud aunt for Blake.

We enjoyed getting see Abby grandparents, uncles and great grandma while we were there. We also made it by the Banksons in Santa Rosa to say hi. It sure was nice to see everyone...it had been a while.

Off to Thanksgiving in Salt Lake...

CA Trip - SLO, CA

2008-11-30T21:13:00.003-07:00

San Luis Obispo, CA...what a great place. This was the vacation part of the trip and also the work part of the trip. We stayed at the Spyglass Inn on the cliffs of Shell Beach where we could take in the ocean a little each day. We could see a couple of the old surf spots we used to go to when we were in school at Cal Poly. No swell the days we were there though...it was pretty flat. But, the view was beautiful nontheless.

While in town we went to lunch with some clients and got to see several friends that we hadn't seen for a while. Had a tri-tip sandwich at Firestones (i highly recommend you have one sometime if you never have) and enjoyed an evening at Farmer's Market. We made it over to Cal Poly and got to tour the campus some and see everything that has changed since we graduated. And the weather was beautiful. Sure was nice to visit.

More pics from our CA trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/CATrip

CA Trip - L.A. & Ventura

2008-11-30T20:33:00.002-07:00

We headed down to L.A. to visit some more family down there and have another open house where we got to catch up with some family there that we hadn't seen in quite a while. It was great to see everyone and we really enjoyed seeing and catching up with everybody. Aunt Mollie (in the picture above) is Blake's Great Aunt. Doesn't she look great for being 92? Wow, hope we got some of those genes :-)

After the couple days we were in L.A. we headed up the coast to Ventura. On the way there we stopped in Santa Monica and a couple beaches up the coast to visit the ocean. That's one thing that we don't see much of in CO. We had a nice time walking around, feeling the sea breeze and smelling the salty air. The weather was good (no marine layer) and it was warm. It was great. We had lunch at our old workplace (while we were living in Kona, HI), Bubba Gumps. It was good...reminiscent...

In Ventura we caught up to some friends from college and got to meet their little girl. We hadn't seen them in quite a while...it was fun to hear how things are going and what they are up to these days.

On to SLO, CA...tri-tip sandwich here we come...

For more pictures from the trip go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/CATrip

CA Trip - Hesperia, CA

2008-11-23T00:41:00.003-07:00

Next we made a stop to see the Bankson family in the desert and Blake had a chance to see grammy and grampy, Auntie M and Auntie Rae, Uncle Kasey and his great grandparents. It was great. Sure was nice to see everybody and we had a great time visiting.

We had an open house and had a bunch of friends over, some that we hadn't seen for quite a while, and it was great to catch up with everyone. Thanks to everyone that came we really enjoyed seeing and hearing how all of you are doing.

Kona (Rhodesian Ridgeback) and Pearl (Puggle) had a great time playing together. Check out this great pictures we got of them playing :-) This really was friendly. They had a great time playing together and it was funny to watch since Pearl could run under Kona. It made it really hard for Kona to catch Pearl.

CA Trip Pics...
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/CATrip

CA Trip - St. George, Utah

2008-11-23T00:06:00.007-07:00

Well, the trip started with our first stop in St. George, UT visiting Abby's grandparents. We had a nice time visiting with them and Abby's aunt, cousin and their new baby boy. The two babies seemed to like each other a lot and would look at each other and smile. I think they liked seeing another baby that was the same size :-)

While in Utah we had a chance to make a trip up to Zion National Park for a day and do a little exploring and hiking. What a beautiful place. Sure was fun to get to see that.

We had a really nice time visiting them and look forward to seeing them again soon, later in the trip.

CA trip pictures...
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/CATrip

More Smiles

2008-11-22T23:56:00.005-07:00

Blake is slowly starting to perfect the art of smiling and continues to get cuter every day as he learns. He seems to be the most smiley when we change his diaper (not sure why that is, but he sure is happy). Just this last week he started trying to copy us too...so if we make a noise at him then he tries to copy it sometimes and then will giggle and smile when he can do it. Pretty funny to watch.

We also discovered that if we hold him up to a mirror that he'll look at himself and if he starts smiling he can entertain himself by smiling and seeing it in the mirror. It was hilarious.

Check out some new pics...

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/11012008

Smiles for Mom & Dad

2008-10-28T18:30:00.001-06:00

We've crossed a new bridge...this week Blake started to smile at us. It's pretty fun...the first couple times we didn't think he knew what he was doing, but it has been getting more and more consistent now where he seems to realize that he can smile. We've been trying to get pictures of him smiling and it has been a challenge, but we're starting to get a few. See if he isn't one of the cutest kids around :-)

We spent the weekend up in Vail with a client at the Lodge at Vail. It's not snow season there yet (in fact they don't have hardly any), but it was beautiful nonetheless. The Lodge was AWESOME! Our stay was paid for and we got a sweet suite :-) It had a nice view of the slopes and was huge...It was great.

Check out these pics of the lodge...
http://lodgeatvail.rockresorts.com/gallery.asp

We are getting ready for Halloween this week and had a few friends over to carve some pumpkins with us while we watched some football and ate some Little Caesers (it's been years since we had crazy bread and decided it was time...it was just as good as i remember it). The pumpkins turned out great. Some of us are more artistically inclined than others, as you can see from the picture, but we had a great time.

Happy Halloween!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/Blake8Weeks

Fall Arrives

2008-10-20T19:25:00.000-06:00

The last couple weeks we've been getting things ready for the cooler weather. It's actually been really beautiful (70s and 80s) and we've been enjoying the fall weather. I raked leaves in the backyard the other day for the first time i think since i was like 6 years old :-) In the desert we never had to rake leaves and i don't know why, but we haven't raked them here for the last 4 years. I think we just let them fall and desingrate :-) Well, this year i felt inspired to rake some leaves. It was alright...i decided i like the smell of fall...not sure exactly what it is...maybe just reminds me of fall as a kid.

We got the boat shut down and put away for the season. it was a great season this year. We had a lot of fun (well Abby doesn't feel quite the same b/c she didn't do any of the sports this year...but really enjoyed the sun). We sure had a fun with everyone that made it out with us this year. It's nice to be able to hang out with friends and enjoy time out on the lake. Here's a nice shot that some friends got of me taking a jump...sweet!

Blake is doing good and went on another hike with us yesterday. This was our first attempt at a longer hike with him and together in a while. It went really good. Everybody though Blake was really cute and Kona was jealous...well, not really, but if she could speak she would have been complaining about the lack of attention :-) We tried turning him around so that he was facing out for a change and he really liked it. He looked around a lot and really checked things out.

New pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/Blake7Weeks

Bankson Clan visits

2008-10-07T22:03:00.000-06:00

Well, we had the whole crew out this time. We have really been looking forward to having everyone out to visit. We haven't had everyone out all together for quite a while and were excited to see and spend time with everybody. It was a really great time. We spent some time relaxing, watching football and playing with Kona. We spent some time out hiking, enjoying nice fall weather, and went walking around downtown Denver for a little while.

Grammy and Grampy were pretty excited to get to see Blake again and kept saying how he had grown and already was getting bigger. Crazy. Blake got to meet his auntie M, auntie Ray and uncle kasey for the first time. Everyone got a chance to hang out with Blake and he misses everyone already and it's only been a day :-) Guess they'll just have to come back again soon.

Blake got his halloween suit this weekend (thanks auntie M!)...look at this cute little monster. I think he is going to get a lot of candy...at least i hope he does ;-)

All-in-all it was a really great time and we enjoyed the time spent with family and relaxing. We're looking forward to the next visit.

New Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BanksonsVisit

Boating Season is ending...

2008-10-07T21:46:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been a great season at the lake and Blake has been able to make it out with us for 3 or 4 times this month. Pretty good for less than a month old ;-) Got to make sure he is comfortable on a boat at a young age. During the last week of the lake season we were able to make it out 3 late afternoon trips and enjoy some beautiful late summer weather and outstanding sunsets. Blake seemed to enjoy it...by sleeping.

So far things have been going good with us and Blake and adjusting to life with a little less sleep. He has been sleeping pretty well, but still gets up about every 4 hours to feed. He is putting on some weight and getting bigger fast. Friends who hadn't seen him in about 2 weeks said they could see the difference as he is growing. We don't really notice too much being around him all the time.

We had a two week break between family being here where we were on our own for the first time. It really went pretty good. With Abby being off work for a while and able to sleep in some, after some sleepless nights, and to be able to take care of Blake and some things around the house. It's been going really good.

The rest of the Bankson family is coming to town the first weekend in Oct. Should be fun, we're really looking forward to them being in town.

First trip to the lake

2008-09-20T09:31:00.000-06:00

Well, Blake isn't quite ready to wakeboard just yet, but the life jacket fits pretty well. We made our first trip to the lake with him the other day and he did quite well. The weather was good and it wasn't too hot, so it was a good time for him to make his first trip. We did a little wakeboarding (probably the last of the season) and then just enjoyed being on the water for the last couple times this year.

Blake: http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

While we were hanging out i decided to break out the fishing pole and just throw it in the water some to see if anything was hungry. Seems like when you go out to fish you don't catch much or anything and when you throw it out there to see if there are any fish at all you hook up the big one...well, this was the time i didn't expect to catch anything and hooked up a monster....well for me it was a monster...not bad...probably the biggest fish i've caught since fishing in Alaska 5 years ago. We couldn't weigh it but i bet it weighed about 10 lbs. Pretty fun fish. It was a Wiper (http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/Fishing/Fish-ID-Gallery/WIPER) and put up a good fight...under the boat a couple times before it finally tired out and I was able to pull it in. Supposedly they are pretty common in the lake and we should catch them reasonably often. Gonna have to try to do that. (Time to get a net :-) )

Grammy and Grampy visit

2008-09-13T22:21:00.000-06:00

We had our first couple nights completely on our own in between visitors this last week and got to experience life with Blake on our own. It was fun and really went just fine. He's a pretty good kid. He sleeps about 5 hours at a time at night, so really we've been doing pretty well rest-wise.

On Friday Blake had his 2 week check up and everything went great. He weighed in at 6lb 14oz, so he gained back all the weight he lost right after he was born (5oz) and then put on another 8oz. So, all is well and he is good and healthy. The doc had nothing but good things to say about him. We feel blessed to have such a good kid and that is so healthy thus far.

Also on Friday, mom and dad Bankson came to town VERY excited to meet their new grandson (and first grandchild). We've been doing video conference and trying to take as many pictures as we can to hold them over until they got here and they are very excited and proud. We've had a nice time with them so far and ventured out a little on a walk today to enjoy the nice weather and we saw a few trees changing colors. We're glad to be able to spend some time with them and they are enjoying the time with their new grandson.

Next time you see my dad (Mike) ask him how the Utah Utes are doing :-) You can ask him to explain after you ask him.

We enjoy having visitors and everyone seems to enjoy meeting Blake. The only thing that we're finding is, meeting a newborn is dangerous...almost in every case people that have kids can't remember them ever being that small and then start wanting another one.

Here's a picture of the nursery. It was a bit of work, but thanks to the help of a couple friends we were able to take down the old wallpaper, paint and put up some chair rail and it came together pretty nicely (if i do say so myself)...

In the pictures below there are a couple other pictures of the nursery. Grammy B made a beautiful turtle blanket that is hanging on the other wall alongside the crib. It turned out great and goes really nicely with the colors and decor of the room.

Pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

This is the life...

2008-09-13T21:38:00.000-06:00

Well, one day this week I kept an eye on Blake for a few hours while i was working and Abby and her family went to spend some time mini-golfing. He was pretty easy going and pretty much slept the entire time (good b/c i was trying to get a few things done for work)...at one point i looked over to make sure he was doing alright and he had got himself into this comfortable situation...hat down over his eyes, arms down his sleeves. Pretty funny. I had to take a picture 'cause i just thought it looked like the good life. Make yourself comfortable, wrapped up in a blanket, not too shabby. There's another pic like this in the album if you take a look.

This week was nice. We had Abby's family here part of the week and had a really nice time with them. We got out and did some fishing (and Brandi pretty much crushed us...caught like 6 fish while i only caught 1)...that was a nice relaxing afternoon. We ventured out to breakfast one morning and attempted taking Blake out. All went well and he enjoyed the change in scenery. Otherwise we got some good relaxing it and have a good time hanging out with all of them.

Check out this picture of this proud grandma (nanna) and grandpa (papa)...

More Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

Bonding

2008-09-07T21:48:00.000-06:00

It's been a nice relaxing weekend with the Burns family in town. We've been enjoying time with family and just taking it easy. We got a little fishing in, although Blake didn't get to go this time :-) Kona seems to be taking a new interest in Blake, especially today, as she is starting to realize he's probably going to be around for a while. She snuggled up next to him tonight and fell asleep on his lap.

Otherwise Blake has been doing well. He sleeps about 4 hours at a time at night, which is pretty managable, and we were able to take him out a few times this weekend to a soccer game and then for a couple walks. He's pretty easy to take out...he usually just sleeps. Everybody says to enjoy that because it won't be long and he won't want to sleep anymore...well i still like to sleep, so maybe we'll get lucky and he'll have my genes and be a sleeper. Guess we'll find out.

a few more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

A few days after...

2008-09-03T20:57:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a couple days now and things are going well. He is still waking up about 4 times a night to eat, but otherwise he is pretty easy going. A lot of sleeping, eating and pooping. It sure is fun to just watch though and wonder what he is thinking sometimes as they look around and take in the new surroundings.

We took him on his first walk around the neighborhood yesterday and he seemed to like it a lot...he slept the whole time :-) Guess we'll keep that in mind when we can't get him to fall asleep.

We posted a few more pictures for you to check out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

Going Home!

2008-08-31T22:09:00.000-06:00

Today we headed home from the hospital. It was a good stay and we got good treatment and A LOT of advice from the hospital staff. It was a good experience overall. But, we were ready to head home and have a little more space. We got discharged about noon and they sent us home with a frozen lasagna dinner...how nice of them...i wonder how much it cost our insurance for that meal ;-)

We headed home and were curious to see how Kona would react to the Blake, but she actually was really excited and we're not sure if she's realizes that he's here to stay yet, but she thought he was very interesting. She welcome him with a nice lick on the hands, so we're pretty sure she is ok with having him around. She's been around a lot of our friends kids and has been really nice and likes them, so hopefully she'll feel the same about Black (after he keeps her up half the night).

Last night Blake wanted to do quite a bit of feeding and that was tiring, but it wasn't too bad and being able to sleep in was nice. Hopefully we can get him on some sort of regular schedule sooner than later, but for now I guess the benefit is we get to see what it's like to be up at all hours of the night for the first time since the college days. (maybe we'll call Rachel if we're lonely since she was the only one that responded to the text i sent at 1am on Thursday morning when we went in to the hospital ;-) )

We posted a few more pictures...same link as before:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

Day 2 - Visitors

2008-08-30T21:41:00.000-06:00

Well, day 2 Blake got his first fishing pole (thanks great-grandpa Houser!) and caught his first fish...well, kind of a whale if you look close. Things went well and so far he is excited to be in the world. We took it a little easier today and had quite a few visitors come by and say hi. It was nice to have everybody come by.

We did a video conference with Grandma and Grandpa Bankson this morning for in the hospital room. That was pretty fun and it was exciting to be able to introduce Blake to them. All the hospital staff were pretty fascinated by the video conference call...i guess not many people have done it here :-) It was fun and nice to be able to do that with them.

Rumor has it that the second night can be more difficult because they have had enough time to rest and are ready to FEED...all night. Well, i suppose we'll find out and hopefully he will sleep some ;-)

He had his 24 hour tests today and they checked out his hearing and everything checked out good. All in all he seems to be a pretty healthy good little guy. We're looking forward to taking him home and watching him grow. We sent a hat home yesterday for Kona to check out and get familiar with, so hopefully she will be as excited about him as we are. She has been pretty good about other people's kids and has been around them since she was a puppy, so we think she should adapt just fine.

We posted a few more pictures of Blake that we took today. You can see them at the same link as before:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson/BlakeMichael

Blake Michael Bankson

2008-08-29T18:00:00.000-06:00

Announcing the newest addition to the family: Blake Michael Bankson!!
He was born on August 29th and is 6lbs 6oz and 20 1/4 inches long

Well, it was a bit of a mid-night adventure with Abby's water breaking at 12:45am, but it was all worth it. I woke up to go use the bathroom at 12:45 and as i got out bed Abby said, 'Jaaaassseeennnn....i think my water just broke!' (imagine a nervous, wake up from a deep-sleep tone :-) ) That sprang us into action...we got her out of bed and then she started doubting whether it was really her water that broke or not and I was like, are you kidding? (it was like someone had dumped a bucket of water on the bed). Then she says, well, i'll call the hospital and see if they want us to come in...I said, ok, sounds good...i'll go load the bags into the car (knowing we're going in and this is the real deal)

So, we let Abby's grandparents know we were headed in (they have been with us since the c-section false alarm last week) and that sparked plenty of excitement. We took off to the hospital honking the horn to let the neighbors know we were on our way (at the request of some of the neighbors...they said the middle of the night trips were the best).

We got settled in at the hospital (which BTW is great...it's like a hotel...no real hurry to get out of here) and things started to get going. It started out pretty slow, so we both tried to get a little sleep while things weren't too intense. Not much happened for about the next 11.5 hours...just contractions and slow progress. He was 'sunny side up' (facing the front instead of the back) so Abby had a lot of back labor for a while, but then after she moved around a little he turned into the right position and from there it was a pretty quick process...about 30 minutes until he arrived. Things went smooth and into the world came Blake Michael Bankson. It's quite the experience seeing a baby born and realizing the miracle of it, it's tough to explain the excitement and things you feel when you become a parent. (i'm sure other parents out there can relate).

Here are some more pictures from the first couple hours of his life...
http://picasaweb.google.com/jasen.bankson

We'll be trying to blog more regularly and there should be more pictures to come soon, so check back.

Jasen

Florida Vacation

2008-05-25T17:45:00.000-06:00

We thought we would post some pictures from our vacation in Florida last week. Sure was a great time. We needed the break and some time at the beach. We started the week off with the annual first sunburn of the year...not really intentionally, but seems like every year we think we can head out into the sun (even with sunscreen) and not burn...and almost always do. Well, this year was no exception and we peeled off an entire layer of skin. But we had a great time. We explored West Palm Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and then headed over for a day in Orlando at Disneyworld.

Here are some more pics you can check out...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8152352@N03/

Dad Visits

2008-03-15T19:29:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pics from when my dad came out and visited a few weeks ago. We had a great time skiing, hiking, relaxing and eating good food. Check out some of the crazy skiing we did on this trip up...Pretty intense. Some of the best snow ever though and a great couple days in the mountains.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8152352@N03/sets/72157604128644599/

Ice Fishing

2008-01-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend myself and a couple buddies went and did the ultimate winter sport...Ice fishing. This is my third attempt at ice fishing and the last two time resulted in no catch. Ice fishing gets a little difficult when you can't feel your hands or feet and you aren't catching fish :-) This time we went to a lake that took us 3 hours to get to, but resulted in a rewarding ice fishing experience. Between the 5 of us we each caught nearly 40 fish in the day and a half we were there. Not too shabby. We nearly got stuck in a snow storm that dumped about a foot of snow on us overnight while we were up there. The park rangers told us they expected about 1 inch of snow....apparently they use different rulers than we do. It was a great time though. It's pretty sweet have a fish come flying out of a little 6 inch round hole in the ice. Things started out a little slow, but then once we started hooking them up they were flying out of the ice all over the place. It was a great time. Come visit us in Colorado sometime and maybe we can plan a trip out on the ice :-)

The early morning after the storm the skies were clear and it was beautiful.

Check out some of these other pictures from the trip...

http://flickr.com/photos/8152352@N03/sets/72157603661799276/show/

Christmas in California...

2008-01-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

not exactly a white Christmas :-) We got to go visit family in CA for Christmas this year and had a really nice time. It was a nice get away. We went and checked out Universal Studios the first day we got there..and of course made a required stop at the must-have In-n-out Burger. It was nice to have a day when the two of us could just hang out. We caught with a couple of our college roomates for dinner at Tony Romas. It was nice to catch up with them.

A highlight of the trip was going to a dedication service with our cousins and our new God-child. We are honored to have been asked to be God-parents for our cousins daughter. It was nice getting to see a lot of family that we hadn't seen for maybe a year or so on this trip...especially our Texas cousins.

We headed up to the banksons in the desert and spent the week up there. It was a really nice time checking out Christmas lights (the most amazing display we've ever seen down in Rancho Cucamonga), playing Wii sports, flying those little remote control helocopters (they are REALLY hard to control, but a lot of fun) and spending time with the whole family. The only unforunate thing was that we did miss the white christmas (actually snowing on christmas day) in denver that only happens about once every 13 years. Oh well...guess that means we need to stick around for a while for the next one.

We had a great time seeing our grandparents and all our aunts, uncles and cousins.

We also got to meet the newest addition to the family....Pearl. She has brought little doggy excitement to K & M's house. She was a lot of fun and liked to play with Molly (our 13 year old cocker spaniel) and about drove her nuts. That's alright though, Molly is pretty spoiled and needed somebody to give her some trouble.

Overall it was great trip and hopefully we can do it again soon. Maybe next year everyone should make a trip to CO...we think that's a good idea ;-)

(In case you are wondering why there aren't many names in the blog postings it is because this is all public and we want to be careful about announcing TOO much info :-) )

For more pictures click on the following link or copy it into your browser

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8152352@N03/sets/72157603665988445

Thanksgiving in Salt Lake

2007-12-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

We headed out to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving this year and had a nice time being out of town for a few days. We got Kona a travel kennel that would fold up a little easier and fit in the car. She seems to like it :-)

Salt Lake was nice. It was pretty cold while we were there and we drove through quite a bit of snow to get there. It was nice to have the all wheel drive in the car though and we got across Colorado and Wyoming.

We took Kona with us and her and Joey had a good time playing together for the weekend. We took them for a walk in the 30 degree weather and they didn't seem to mind.

Thanksgiving day was full of lots of good food and fun with family. We ate, talked and played an exciting game of Guesstures. Made for a fun and relaxing time.

The rest of the weekend was full of baby showers and shopping (for the girls) and shooting and flying (for the boys). Sure was a good time and we enjoyed seeing all the family.

Today we got some of the first snow of the season. It's always exciting when the first storm rolls through. We're hoping to get some snowboarding in this weekend as the resorts have about 2 feet of fresh powder. Should be fun! We're looking forward to seeing more family and friends at Christmas in a few weeks when we head out to California. See a few of you soon!

Fall

2007-11-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

So, I've been a little slow getting the blog post up the last couple weeks. Mostly because we haven't been up to a whole lot and I guess I could write about nothing, but nah.

We took the boat down to the Springs and put it away for the winter...it was sad to see it go, but at least we don't think about going to the lake everytime we walk into the garage now. If you look closely in the picture you can see a Kona appearance...it's always like where's Waldo :-)

We have had snow once so far this season and it wasn't very significant..maybe an inch. The weather has been beautiful (in the 70s) and we've been out hiking and enjoying the fall weather. This weekend we did one of our favorite hikes up Mount Sanitas in Boulder. It was a lot of fun.

This other picture is a shot from my office of a tree outside the window. With fall here the trees have been pretty colorful and this one has made for some nice scenery. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is, but when the leaves changed it had all the colors going at once...green, yellow, orange and red. Not a bad view. Kind of makes me appreciate the seasons some and enjoy fall.

Trip to Detroit to pick up the car

2007-10-21T20:47:00.000-06:00

Well, we made it back from Detroit after a couple long days of driving. Things worked out great with the new car and we're excited about it. The trip to Michigan was pretty brutal. We left Denver at 12:45am on Friday morning, got into Detroit at 5:30am and met up with our guy to get the car at 8. Took care of business and hit the road at about 10. We made the 9 hour drive across Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and found a place to stay in Des Moines, Iowa for the night. We were both surprised at how nice Michigan was. We had always heard about how cold the winters are in Michigan, but that was about it. There were a lot of trees and lakes and it was very green. The trees were changing colors and we got to see some beautiful scenery as we made the drive toward Chicago.

After we made it out of that area and entered the plain states, we decided that the name 'plain' was appropriate. Not much to look at besides dead corn fields. So, we watched a couple movies on the laptop, listened to music and talked the rest of the trip away.

We got a chance to go visit some friends that just had twins recently and they were sporting some very nice blankets courtesy of Abby's grandma. Everybody says twins are a lot of work but we don't believe it...every time we go visit the twins just sleep the whole time. I think that maybe that's all they do.

Some of our other friends have a bouncing new baby boy that arrived this weekend. He is a pretty good looking little guy and also seems to do a lot of sleeping. It was a nice weekend, now back to work!

Relaxing Fall Weekend

2007-10-17T09:34:00.000-06:00

This weekend was nice...we're between boating season and snowboard season and so for a few weekends in the fall and spring we get to relax. We got the boat shut down for the season on Saturday and did all the winterization that we needed to for it and then Saturday night we went to the Colin and Brad show at the Buell Theatre. These are the guys from Whose Line Is It Anyway? It was a good time. We went with Kyle and Melody, had dinner and then laughed for about 4 hours. Good times.

That's about all the excitement for this week. Thursday we head out to Detroit to pick up Abby's new ride...here are a couple pics...

Weekend with Family

2007-10-08T17:45:00.000-06:00

This weekend Megan and Kasey came out to visit and we had a good time exploring some of the sights of Colorado and just visiting since it had been a while. After hearing about all the Vegas hotel adventures (we'll just say it involved fire alarms, bed bugs and the middle of the night)...it's not worth it to find a cheap place to sleep in Vegas :-)

Friday we headed out to White Ranch and did some hiking up the canyon and got to check out some of the cool HUGE houses out there. It turned out to be quite a bit warmer this weekend than anybody had anticipated it was going to be and so we got pretty warm on the hike. Kona looked like she was about to die a few times and acted like she didn't even enjoy the hike (yeah right, we know she did).

That evening we headed downtown to check things out down there and visit a restaurant called Earls that we found on 16th street. It is a great combination of inexpensive, good food and right in the middle of the action on 16th street making it a fun place to hang out for a few hours.

Saturday we had grandiose plans of heading up to the mountains and checking out all the cool Aspens (since it is prime season for it) and see the chaning colors. Well, we had a good time, but it amounted to more of a drive through the hills and a lot of Aspens with no leaves. I guess the snow last weekend pretty well made them drop most of what was left. We saw a few though and had a good time hanging out in Breckenridge for a couple hours. It was nice being up there and being able to walk around in shorts. We don't get up there too often in the summer when it's warm.

Saturday evening we were pretty well worn out, so we cooked up some steaks and relaxed for the evening. We saw the movie 'Next' which had some clever ideas in it and was about this guy that could see into the future, but had kind of a lame ending.

Sunday we went to church, grabbed some breakfast and they were back off to the airport. It was a nice visit. Hopefully we'll be able to do more of these in the future with them visiting us or us heading out there. Maybe one of these days we'll all live in the same area :-)