Here's what we saw early Monday morning on our way home. This was one of the best sunrises we have ever seen.
Here's another shot taken about 2 miunutes later.
We spent Thursday night with Nick and Jess at their place, and then on Friday, we all headed on to Steamboat Springs (3 hours into the mountains) for two days to fly fish, dig and tri. Very fun!
While Jess was working night shift last Thursday evening, Nick and Lloyd tackled some tiling in Nick and Jess' kitchen.
Fly fishing the next day at the Yampa river near Steamboat Springs. We all caught a few, mostly trout.
We practiced fly fishing technique on dry ground first. Lots of thinking at first, but it does get intuitive.
And then we went for the fish in the water. Most of us snagged a tree behind us at least once.
On our second day in Steamboat, Nick and Jess did at triathlon in what should have been a clear mountain lake. However, due to recent weather variations, the lake was full of seaweed. Nick and Jess said they could feel sea-weed for the entire swim. Yuck! We drove Nick and Jess to the start of the tri, and then headed on to “DigThis” www.digthis.info which was about 15 miles further west.
It was 42 degrees at 6:30 AM or so, when we dropped Nick and Jess off at the trasition area. Brrr.....
Last September, Lloyd received a half-day gift certificate for DigThis, in honor of his graudation from UST. It took almost a year for us to find the best opportunity for him to use his gift certificate. Today was the day. He's standing by his excavator here, just before Gary, his guide, began the machine orientation.
Orientation took place in a yurt with miniature machines in a sandbox.
In proper attire, about to head for the dirt. Gary and Lloyd were able to communicate by walkie-talkie for the whole 2 1/2 hours that Lloyd spent in the dirt.
Ready to go
The first challenge and accomplishment was to dig a trench with a flat bottom.
The trench that Lloyd dug (Somehow, the sound of that reminded me of "The House that Biff Built"). Graduating from a wheel barrel to an excavator is a pretty big deal! Lloyd's next activity was to practice moving boulders. After that, he learned how to operate the excavator on an incline.
His final accomplishment was to do a full "twirl" while on the incline, so that he could dump the dirt behind him. It took alot of concentration.
A dream realized for Lloyd. His graduation certificate says he really Dug It at Dig This, and that's true! He had such a great time.
I was hoping to post a video of Lloyd doing a full twirl with the excavator but apparently the file is too big to post. Also, I wanted to post a brief video of Nick in working in the garage on their concrete kitchen counter-tops with an electric sander. Oh, well, you’ll just have to imagine.
awesome pics! i love the ones of dad in the digger. colorado was so full of new adventures for you guys!!
That is awesome… Good pictures.. Paul wants to live in a Yurt… and fly fish so you did some of the things he loves… He will be jealous to hear..