Sydney Fuller

Snowy Shoes

I talked everyone in to a snowshoe outing at Turquoise Lake. Didn’t have much expectation given the variety of ages. If we all actually get geared up and walk a 1/2 mile, its a win. Ready?

Heading out. Wyatt taking a break already!

Had the road all to ourselves on the way to Matchless. Not much tracked so far in the new snow.

Kim brought up the rear. Reagan was melting down already. These shoes are heavy on my feet, she said.

Not Sydney, she is the adventurer!

Something got up Wyatt’s ass after we turned back and he started running. Sydney saw this as a challenge and the two of them ran about 1/2 mile back to the car together. Was really cute. Wyatt is getting old and doesn’t do this that often but he was having fun today.

We got back home and the kids were hungry. So I grabbed this sucker off the house and told them to lick away. Kayla wasn’t sure why this sucker was bigger than she was.

Leadville Ice Skating

On Sunday, the kids decided they wanted to go ice skating. This time Kayla and Kim joined us. Previously, they were in the middle of nap time and didn’t join our snowy adventure on the sledding hill. Leadville has a nice ice skating park at the west end of 5th street. Its a couple bucks and you can rent skates. Everybody got out and was on the ice and having fun. Kayla and I sat on the sidelines for a bit but then she got bored and we decided to join the others. We figured out how to involve her in the skating too!

Sydney loves the ice skating. I think she believes its like dancing of sorts. However, she fell more than anyone out there but she pops right back up and keeps on going!

Live action!

Leadville Sledding

Back in Leadville for the long holiday weekend. I gave the kids their choice of about a dozen snowy activities for Saturday. The winner was SLEDDING! So we grabbed our two sleds and headed over to Dutch Henry Hill about 1.5 miles from home. This hill is the start of the Leadville 50 mile trail run that I did in 2008. The weather was nice and there weren’t too many people there. The hill is free to sledding and its open from dusk to dawn. You can also rent snow sledding tubes for $5 and hour.

The tough part of sledding in Leadville: You have to drag your tube up this hill at 10,000 feet. I was getting a workout but the kids never complained. I expected Reagan to give up but she kept going up and down the hill. I guess the payoff was worth it.

Either a break or a snow angel…or both.

A view towards town.

Ready to ride!

Let’s go. Push us!

There is plenty of snow to snack on out here.

Reagan liked this tube so much that I ordered one to save myself the hassle of renting by the hour. Hope to have it by next time.

Your host.

Some video of the runs!

A great day of sledding. The runs seemed like they needed more snow but the packed down stuff was fast! We went back a few days later during a snowstorm and the sledding wasn’t good. Too much powder. The kids couldn’t even get 1/2 way down the hill. Surely, the locals will get it packed down over the next few days so we can get back at it!

The Cabin Rocks

This past weekend, we made our first 2011 visit back to Leadville. The title of this post reflects what I saw written at the top of Sydney’s notebook/journal for her weekend in Leadville. Glad everyone is enjoying it so far. Its been a lot of work but Kim and I are trying to cram as much in each weekend as we can so that its ready to roll and feel like home ASAP. Pretty much there now but still could spend many weekends working on random things. But I have tried not to lose sight of why we go there….to relax and have some fun! So how about a bit on that.

Honey, I don’t think that’s what that device is for. But I suppose I would be the target if she used it properly. Keep eating!

Let’s go break some trail!

Sydney is always the trooper and loves whatever adventure/sport you throw at her!

But then it always turns silly.

Hey, Snow Sisters!

Something lurks inside the fort!

Checking in with Grandma.

Check out my bed with new quilt from Nana.

Back again soon!

2nd Grade Spelling Bee

Sydney came home one day before the holiday break and handed us a paper. It said that she was selected as 1 of 2 students in her class to represent 2nd grade at the school spelling bee! There are two 2nd grade classes so 2 more kids from that class. 4 kids total. They would go head to head to determine the winner. The top 2 kids would go on to the district spelling bee in February. Sydney’s BFF was also chosen to spell…awkward.

I was never any good at spelling. Today, I mostly rely on my spell check and can’t even spell out simple works anymore. My brain spends its cycles on other things. Anyway, they gave us the list of words. It was 6 pages of 4 columns per page. Broken into easy, medium, and hard. We didn’t get practicing until too late and the holidays made us forget that we had this only after 2 days once school resumed.

Luckily, the training got more serious as the time approached. I would read off words to Sydney and she would spell them out. Words that were right got a dot and words that were wrong got underlined. I would send her to bed with the list to read the words and really try and memorized the underlined ones. The next day, I would randomly call out the underlined words to her to see if she had it mastered. While she continued to do pretty well for a 2nd grader, I would feel like some nights were a failure when a couple of words were wrong. “Is this my kid?”, I would think. “She is dumb. Everybody knows its ‘I before E’” or whatever the case maybe. I tend to forget that she is only at the start of her education and will surely be teaching me things that I have long forgotten a few years from now.

Being the coach, I knew one thing about the spelling bee — its about the process as much as the spelling. You have to spell your word. There is no rush. But whatever comes out of your mouth is your answer. So we practiced that…a lot. I would say the word, she would repeat it, or she would ask me to repeat it. I got her to ask me to use it in a sentence when necessary (or even not necessary). I got her to understand that you have tons of time so slow down and say it when you are ready. We drilled this down. It got to the point when she would mess it up, she would just consider herself “out”. All that was missing was the crowd.

Fast forward. The day was here. I hoped nerves wouldn’t get to her. You had to stand in front of the whole school. Yikes! Kim and I were able to attend. Kim sat right up front with the video camera. I was on Kayla duty. Kayla was noisy from the start so I took her out in the hallway to watch. This allowed me to still follow along yet babysit so Kim could enjoy. Plus, I got to express more emotion as the competition got underway.

More to come on the story….but since we have the video, I will let you watch. Hope you are on the edge of your seat like we were!