Visiting distant relatives

From Cooper goes to the zoo

When I was little, Sarah used to make me cry by telling me I was adopted from the monkey family and then promptly calling me "Jo Jo the Monkey-O!" repeatedly. She may or may not have been kidding, but I've come to grips with it either way. After a grueling week and busy start to Friday, we decided to get out and enjoy the glorious November weather. Sarah wanted to go to the zoo, and Jill and I are always willing to go to the zoo so off we went.

I wasn't sure how much interest Cooper would show, thought he may still be a bit young to enjoy it much, but the rest of us would enjoy it regardless. Didn't take long once inside to see that Coop was going to have a big day. His eyes got huge and he just stared in amazement at all the animals. First up were some lions, cheetahs, mountain goats and then bears. Cooper also really loved the big elephants playing in the yard.

From Cooper goes to the zoo

From Cooper goes to the zoo

From Cooper goes to the zoo

Every time he would lock on to a set of animals, he would point and clap. Then when it was time to go to the next exhibit, he'd cry and throw a bit of a fit until he would spot the next exhibit and sprint towards the exhibit and start yelling out "Baloooo!" at every animal he could see.


Reeses Pieces wasn't quite as impressed

From Cooper goes to the zoo

The grizzlies were really active, playing in the water and running around before posing

From Cooper goes to the zoo

Sarah took lots of videos and pics, check them out on her blog here...

Get it while you can

From Heil Valley Ranch Ride

Last week's 18" snow piles are an easy reminder to those of us in the Rockies that mother nature can be fickle. So as to not squander the opportunity of dry trails and 70 degree temps, The Punisher and I set out to get in a dirt ride despite what we knew would be huge crowds at the open space parks.

After some discussions on our way, we settled at the newly rerouted Heil Valley Ranch. Heil is a ride I've done many times in the past, but never really loved it as the trail was a loose, rocky double track for a large percentage of the way. Boulder County has done a lot of work to the trail though, and I had heard it was much better so we decided to check out Heil version 2.0.

From Heil Valley Ranch Ride

When we hit the trail head is was just as we expected, packed. No matter, we unloaded and sauntered our way up the trail at a leisurely pace. The Punisher knows everyone, so about once a mile we found someone he knew and stopped to talk. The trail itself was remarkably improved, gone were the loose rocks on doubletrack and in its place was a nice singletrack trail with lots of chunky rock.

We did a pretty standard loop, up Wapitit to Wild Turkey and back around. I always forget how good the Wild Turkey trail is, really should ride that one more often. The "new" Heil itself feels like a different trail entirely. Still not in the same league as Hall by any stretch, but definitely improved enough to get more rides there in the rotation given its ease and proximity.

From Heil Valley Ranch Ride

Halloween

I've never been a fan of Halloween. I don't really care for candy that much, and frankly the scary costumes scared me as a kid. OK, they still scare me a little. For the last several years, we've avoided the day entirely by just heading out to dinner and then keeping the lights off when we were at home.

This year was completely different. Cooper wasn't really ready to do full on trick or treating, but Martha and Sarah got Cooper the cutest costume so we stocked up on candy and turned the porch light on. We got Cooper dressed up, and he looked incredibly cute, and I think he knew it. He was really happy in his costume, never trying to take it off or anything like that.

From Cooper's Halloween

We sat out on the porch with him and he smiled, yelled, laughed and clapped for all the kids coming up to the porch. He was incredibly good and just stayed up on the porch with Jill and I as the trick or treaters collected their booty. After 30 minutes or so, we turned the light off temporarily so Cooper could walk up and down the sidewalks and visit some of the neighbors we know. He was a huge hit around the neighborhood, and Jill and I had a blast walking around with him.

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

We made it back to the house, turned the light back on and handed out the rest of our candy before letting Cooper roam the sidewalks a little more before calling it a night.

I would have thought you were crazy if you would have told me two years ago that OState would be getting throttled on Halloween and I'd be having such a great time that I hardly noticed. Yeah I'm the sappy proud parent for sure, but our whole family had such a great time and Cooper enjoyed it so much that I'll play the sappy card happily this time.

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

From Cooper's Halloween

More backyard shots

Here are the rest of the pics from our play day in the backyard before the big storm hit. These are some of my favorite shots of Super Cooper, and they'll remain my favorites till I take some more photos of him.

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

From Cooper in Backyard

The calm before the storm.

I don't typically get too worked up when the weather folks around here start their four days of lead up on how terrible the impending snow storm is, frankly because they aren't typically correct. Usually when they call for 2 feet, we end up with a trace so this latest round didn't really register much with me. Today was supposed to be the last nice day, and while it took a bit to get there we ended up with a bit of nice weather.

Cooper just absolutely loves playing outside, so when the weather is poor we end up with a cranky little boy who stands at the backdoor and yells at us. He doesn't understand why the dogs get to go outside and he doesn't. So today we bundled him up a bit and headed out to play. I brought out the camera, as always, and shot lots of pics. I really loved a lot of the shots we got today. In an order to get away from my iMac though, I decided to just start with 5 photos tonight and I'll be adding the rest in the next couple days.

From Day before the storm

From Day before the storm

From Day before the storm

From Day before the storm

From Day before the storm

As we played outside, the sunny, snow capped peaks in the background started quickly disappearing. I kept an anxious eye to the sky, but then ultimately decided at 2:30 that the time was now. I bundled up and headed West to find some dry dirt before the storm. Pondering my options, I ended up at Hall Ranch. I really love Hall, but people call it "AssHall's Ranch" for a reason. Typically overrun with CU frat boys that can't bring themselves to yield to uphill riders as to not harsh their flow, but on a weekday at 3pm its likely empty and the descent is hard to beat.

Drove over to Lyons, grabbed a parking spot in town and then off I started pedaling. Took the quicker option and climbed up the Antelope trail, did a quick loop and then the descent through the rock garden back to town. Stopped up on the loop for a quick call with my Mom, snapped a pic or two and then headed down.

From Day before the storm

As I hit the bottom parking lot, the skies started to open up. I would have preferred snow, but it was rain mostly, with some slushy stuff mixed in too. Not a problem for me with only a mile of downhill on the road back to the car, but wondered about the people I passed heading up in SHORTS! Wow, they must have been frozen when they got back.

Back to the car and loaded up, Betty the Yeti was pleased to have gotten out. And so was I.

From Day before the storm