Thankful

The view from my ride last weekend- another reason I love living in Boulder

We just got back from our annual trek to Durango to spend Thanksgiving week with Wendy and her family, and it made me reflect on the many things that I'm thankful for. Mom and Dad's post about their travels over the break make me thankful that I have parents who are so adventurous and self-reliant and creative and independent (and I think I could I could come up with another dozen positive adjectives pretty quickly).

Alden dressed all her cousin's stuffies in doll clothes

I'm also thankful that my kids have the chance to be close to their cousins and they love them enough that they'll think nothing of driving 16 hours over their break week to get to hang out with them. I'm also very grateful for in-laws that I love to spend time with, and who don't mind putting up with our family descending upon them twice a year.

I'm thankful that my parents live right up the street and they are a big part of my kids' lives, and that they have a chance to interact more than a couple of times a year.  I'm very thankful for all the efforts they make to find and make fun, interesting and special events for their grandkids.

I'm extremely grateful for my kind and patient wife and all that she does to help our family get along, function, take part in all our varied adventures, both day-to-day and large-scale, and to help our kids to thrive.  And she puts up with all of us, which is WAY above the call of duty.

I'm so thankful to live where I do. I can do something I love (ride a bike) to get to work every day, AND I can do it in an especially beautiful place, and I end up at a workplace where I really like all my colleagues and my students. But that's next week- this past week, I mountain biked (a lot!), fished, skied and did fun things like create a mockumentary about shaleboarding with my kids and my niece and nephew. It was a blast and I hope you will all do what you can to help it go viral! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1coc0PgsPo