Orchestra Finale

Grant has his end of school year orchestra concert. Wow, what a difference from the first of the year. Now the violins all use bows and they don’t make constant screeching noises. They are smiling and happy showing off their new talents for family and friends.

The evening is shared with the band’s concert. One group plays and then the other. So cool to see the kids dressed up and looking grown up. The weather is cold so several girls have on pretty dresses and snow boots.

Breckenridge

Breckenridge is 1 1/2 hours away if I-70 isn’t backed up from accidents or being hit by snow. During ski season there’s always something happening on I-70. The question is, what?

Short to medium delays aren’t bad because the trip takes us 3,500 feet up; where the scenery is dramatic. Snow lines both sides of the road and often clouds hang low in the valleys between the mountains.

In Breck snow covers the ground in heaps. At night coats are needed for walking. Hats and gloves are stuffed in pockets all the time because even though the sun is much brighter and warmer in this high altitude it is cold in any shadow.

The town is buzzing with an assortment of people. People with money shopping in boutiques and eating gourmet meals. People on a budget in t-shirt and gift shops checking out the sales racks. People with accents checking it all out.

Going skiing the slopes aren’t crowded. If I scare myself making a parallel turn no one is behind me ready to run me down. The slopes are broad up top and the earth looks endless across the mountain range.

Walking we saw the markers for trails we hiked last summer, but winter hasn’t released them yet. It will be another couple of months before the ground lets go of its greenery.


Coming home I-70 is closed for rock mitigation so we take Hwy 9 to Hwy 285 and see the Continental Divide up close. The sky is a bright periwinkle blue that sets on the snow topped mountains. Swirls of colors appear on the sides of the mountains as the snow melts; lopsided like an ice cream cone.

Spring Break

Last week we had six inches of snow that left before the end of the day. Yesterday I opened the back door to find a ground squirrel staring at me. Mother Nature’s winter fights hard to keep her grip on the foothills.

The Abert Squirrel appeared after months of invisibility. He sat in the tree, ran up and down the trunk and chattered at the dogs. Wonder what he thought of the big yellow dog that was only a small puppy before winter began.

The fox has been cutting through the backyard each afternoon about 4:30 pm. She checks out the compost heap behind our shed and walks around the rocks where she played with her pups last year. Her coat is full; red with tips of black. Soon her coat will thin for the summer and she will have the look of a hungry feral cat.

The elk come in groups of 20 to 25. The mule deer come in groups of 10 to 15. They munch on the small evergreens in our yard and head to our neighbor’s front yard. Our neighbor had a pile of leaves delivered just for the elk and the deer. They run and play in the leaves. Maybe because they are something they don’t see here in the mountains where most of the trees are evergreen. After they play they lay down and watch the cars that pass by.

This week we are looking forward to spring break. It’s been snowing every day for a week at the ski slopes one hour away. Looks like we will have time to make up for the times we didn’t get to go. When we are around home we can hike around the lake and watch the birds returning to the water that was ice a few days ago.

Basketball Awards

Tonight Justin’s basketball team went to a party to celebrate the season and eat pizza. We ate a a local pizza house that gave us a room and waiters.

Everyone on the team started at as newbies. At the very end of the season they started playing as a team. They moved the ball down the court, got rebounds, captured the ball from the other team, kept the other teams from scoring-- all the things they had been taught by coach (and dad) Tad. Their first win was the last game of the season. In the tournament they won two of three games in round one. In the second round they won another game, finishing in fourth place.

Blue Belt

We now have a blue belt in the house. Grant was the first in his class to test for his belt. The kata he learned for this belt had a knife hand move that was cool. He did great.

Testing was last Friday right after school and then the belts were awarded today in class. Out of about thirty kids there are only 5 or 6 that are upper belts. After class the upper belts stood together looking at each other’s belt and talking. When they first started as white belts the group didn’t interact much, they’re too busy learning the moves. The upper belts help teach the beginners during the class, but the relationship is definitely teacher to student, not peer to peer.

The color of the belt the student’s rank. Grant started as a white belt, progressed to yellow, then orange, and now blue.

Now that Grant is an official upper belt we’ll see what the added perk of seniority brings. So far a big smile has appeared.

Karate Tournament 2011

Today we are sitting in the gym at the College of Mines in Golden to watch Grant compete in a Japanese Karate tournament. He will perform his kata and them spar.Grant started classes the second half of second grade. He takes one day a week after school so progressing is quite a bit slower than with the Kenpo Karate classes he took a couple of times a week in Carrollton.

Last year Grant competed in Japanese Karate for the first time. Being a beginner he didn’t score high, but the idea he performed in front of so many people, remembered all of the moves impressed me. In Grant’s group there are 6 boys.

Wado-Kai is the name of the styles of Japanese karate Grant is learning. Wado-Kai is one of the four main styles in Japan and Europe. The name means “way of peace”. A visual used, empty hands, is the same as used in Kenpo.

Grant won’t go home with a metal today, but he will go home with high marks, and a proud family. This year his movements are stronger and crisper than last year.

Spelling Bee

Tad and I sit in the gym waiting for Grant to walk in from his class to join the other kids in front of us that will compete in the spelling bee. Both our boys amaze me with there willingness to try new challenges seemingly without fear.

Most weeks Grant get all of his spelling words so we already know he is a strong speller. We practiced on and off the week before the competition.

Grant is the last student to show up. He takes his sit and I begin to relax. The 25 contestants introduce themselves, tell the name of their teacher and their grade level.

When the rules of the bee are explained we find out it’s just fourth and fifth graders competing with each other. Oophs, we should have been practicing those fifth grade words too.

On the first round several kids go out. They exit to the side wall and sit with a teacher that gives a couple of pats as tears roll down the cheeks of the kids.

Grant goes out in the second round and my heart goes out to him. Its the luck of the draw to quite an extent, you may get words you know or perhaps like Grant, the word you don’t know.

Round seven starts with seven kids. This time they drop one by one until the last boy is standing. Eirik is one of Grant’s friends and he is also I strong speller. Then the work, rodeo. What? Rodeo is kind of a let down.

After the bee parents and kids hug, and everything is good again. I find out Eirik’s parents offered him a bribe. It worked.

P.S. The first winner of a national spelling bee died at the age of 97 on March 23, 2011. Here's the link to the story.