Thanksgiving was Spectacular!

 The sunsets were amazing!

 The company was fine!

The hikes were breathtaking. All in all, SO MUCH to be thankful for.
Then, when we got home on Saturday, Matt caught his ride to school, Drew got ready to paint the storage room floor, and Sarah and I packed for our day trip to Syracuse on Sunday to watch the Dobbs football team play in the Carrier Dome for the New York State (Class C) Championship. They won, 39 - 0. Grant, Sarah's senior classmates, and the rest of the team were on Cloud 9. Our 4 coach buses were escorted into Dobbs from 40 minutes away with a police escort. Quite amazing.
Now, we are entering December.....

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

Thanksgiving reflections

Mom and I had a very different celebration of Thanksgiving this year.  We enjoyed the newness of it but missed being with family.  However, we have many wonderful and happy memories of family Thanksgivings over many years.  Celebrations at my home when we all gathered followed by years with Gummis and Honey.  We watched the families grow in numbers and size year by year We recall walks around the circle and 'through the woods,' and shoveling a foot of snow from the early dumping that blocked the driveway.  Photos in our many albums trace the development over these years. Incidentally, Mom and I ended thanksgiving going thru old albums trying to find photos of our trip to New mexico some years ago but found lots of other interesting pictures! There are some great moments from more recent celebrations of Thanksgiving - turkey on the barbie and hot tub soaks in Noose and the remarkable appearance of a turkey with all the accompaniments on Block Island in what seemed like an hour after arrival at the Blue Dory.  Memories that remain warm and vivid.

We combined a few of these ingredients this year.  We decided to travel - a usual Thanksgiving event - but not to family but to natural wonders.  We drove 630 miles through some spectacular Colorado scenery spending the first night in an inexpensive but welcoming motel in Fort Garland.  We had a delicious Mexican dinner at what looked like a road side joint but turned out a great place and a fun experience. oOher guests were in bluejeans and cowboy hats - looked as tho they should have arrived on horses, a family of five at the next table was speaking Vietnamese(we think that was the language but it may have been Navajo!), and waiters with wide, beaming and welcoming smiles that remained in place throughout dinner.  We saw the town's restored 1858 fort, Fort Garland, the next morning - adobe and such a contrast to the NE 1750s frontier wood stockades. Then we headed for a highlight - the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The dunes are over 750 feet high at their peak but start on the western side as low ones similar to what we had seen in New Mexico - the White Sands.  The shapes, texture, and shadows kept changing and Mom said she could spend an age there just painting the different impressions.  We spent about four hours, enough to realize the changes, and viewed the dunes from several angles.  We had lunch looking at dunes in one direction and 14,000 foot peaks covered in snow in the other direction while we sat at a table in the warm sun.  Delightful!

We drove on to Salida - on a straight highway through South Park with only an occasional car or pickup traveling on the busiest travel day of the year.  Once we had a traffic jam of three cars so had to slow down from our 70 mph average speed.  In Salida we checked into a rather new Hampton. It was as nice a motel/hotel as we've stayed in.  Very helpful desk workers who guided us to an excellent rather new restaurant started by a retired chef who had a reputation somewhere in the East.  He retired to Salida, got bored, and started the restaurant. It was the extensive historic district which is full of restaurants and cutesy shops (fortunately they were all closed that night and on Thanksgiving morning when we explored the area along the Arkansas River before leaving town - if they had been open we'd never have made it home that day.).  An hour after we arrived,  we headed to the Hot Springs for a new experience - a private room/tub with 104 degree water.  We really relaxed.  We made it to the restaurant in a rather limp condition but regained some backbone with a beautifully cooked dinner and an excellent bottle of wine.

Thanksgiving morning we enjoyed a hotel breakfast with many choices including a southwestern omelet.  I then swam and we strolled the river walk, saw a Christmwas tree display - each tree a memorial to an individual or family or - less attractive - an ad for a business.  A dentist had a tree decorated with large, fake white teeth, cleaning picks, and the tooth fairy on top!

 The drive home was beautiful. Along the Arkansas River we saw a herd of ten big horn sheep.We had just been taling about them and wishing we would see some - amazing.  We had a picnic after a long climb up a mountain pass when the road leveled and ran through  rolling hills dotted with Pinon Pines.There were wonderful clouds The land made Mom feel 'at home.'  We got to Boulder in time to feed the Kellogg's 'pets" and and to cook some Turkey thighs, a surprise for Mom.  It was a plesant dinner in part inspired by Julie's Block Island quick meal and Elli's turkey on the grill.  We thought of you all in your various celebrations.  We enjoyed getting texts and messages along the way but were unable to answer in part because of no reception in canyon areas and in part because the phone was not at hand. So ends our 2011 Thankasgiving Saga - another memory to add to the collection.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ONE AND ALL!!!!

Just popped my mince and pumpkin pies in the oven...Ken will cook the turkey, potatoes, and zucchini on the BBQ later...must be Thanksgiving!! Giving thanks for my wonderful family.  Hope you all have a safe and happy "turkey day", wherever you are. Love you and miss you all,  Elli

Loved It!

Goodnight ipad is definitely a classic updated re-tell! We're not that bad...yet.  I just had to run upstairs to tell the boys to turn off the lights and stop reading Harry Potter, so we are still good old-fashioned ink on paper fans, too.

We're all looking forward to the Week o' Gratitude break and doing some eating, some visiting of the cousins in Durango and some skiing and biking in the same break. Boden has started his first season of YMCA basketball and it's pretty cute to watch. Reid is beginning his 4th year with the same Y team and great coaches, and it's cool to see the increase in level of play each season.

I'll try to assemble a bit of a visual feast for your turkey-day entertainment:

This is the video of Reid's birthday present from Jenny- a seaplane ride around Great Pond. You may have clicked the link on it on the blog before.

Here is some recent Valmont Bike Park action. Reid is starting to go for the 'Large' features in the Slopestyle section of the park, and while I'm glad I have good health insurance, I'd still rather have him doing that than playing football.

And here's our new sectional that I'm sitting on right now, anticipating some relaxing times during the upcoming chilly holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Goodnight Moon revisited

A very special book for everyone in our family has just been re-released in an updated format.  Goodnight Ipad is available in hardcover or ebook, but you can watch and listen to it being read to you if you visit:

 

http://www.davidmilgrim.com/DMDC/anndroyd.com.html

A must-see for all Kelloggs!!

Hope all is well on the other side of the planet...President Obama arrives here this afternoon for a 2-day visit! 

Seasonal Confusion

This seems to be a seasonal oxymoron, impossibility, I'm not sure what, exactly. Our fruit tree is in blossom and sporting its fall foliage at the same time. It's 11/15/11 - weird!

Orange!

ORANGE!

Emily's Camp Photos

Here are some Year 10 Outdoor Ed camp photos courtesy of Emily.  The kids hiked a total of about 17 kilometres over 4 days along the northern NSW coast near Grafton.  They slept in tepees (first night), a communal shelter (second night), and then in a shelter of their own making during the third night's solo.  As you can see the weather wasn't great!!  But according to Billy Connelly, "There's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing."  Not sure Emily would agree...

a picture is worth a thousand words...

Lcohie and Emily loving the beach in the rain

the view from inside the tepee

things are looking brighter...



there was plenty of wildlife!

Emily's solo night campsite

grateful for a bit of solitude

It's been great to hear from everyone!  XO

 

FOUR DAYS IN MARYLAND WITH MY SISTERS

     It was a cold morning at 4:30am on October 27 when my taxi came to pick me up, with 8 inches of frozen snow on the ground. But Chestertown, MD was a different story, as you can see. Aside from the two photos of us at the docks, the other four show Chestertown sidewalk art, constructed around parking meters. These were in honor of both Hallowe'en and Open Studio Weekend. And with the tall ships in, the joint was really jumping! I'm giving you a background on these photos up front, as I have no idea in what format they will appear, or how to rotate them so they are right side up. Much learning for me in this area ahead---
   Friday was beautiful, and we strolled around the docks admiring the few ships that were in, and seeing the arty sights in town. We went out for dinner that evening, and as we were gathered around our table reading our menus, a familiar voice said "May I take your order?" It was Prue Potter, dining at a nearby table with Joel, Paige, her husband John, and their two beautiful children Lily and Grafton. Well, THAT was a surprise--Paige had recognized me, and was in ecstasies over seeing the MOTHER of  their favorite baby-sitter JULIE! We took a couple minutes for a fast catch-up---they live in the next-door town of Worton, and had come in to see the ships illuminated and to hear a talk on the book "Longitude" by Dava Sobel, which was fascinating. History and science mixed with adventure.
   Saturday, alas, was a washout, as the home-leaving storm arrived with driving rain and gale-force winds,and all the sails were cancelled. Our reservations were for that day, the only one possible, as travel home was set for Sunday. So we hung around Martha's fireplace in our pajamas, ate leftovers for lunch, and ordered in pizzas for supper.
   Sunday, of course, was sunny again, and we had an easy  trip to the airport (a little over an hour away). I was delighted to see that we still had white on our mountains as we dropped into Denver. Such a treat (the weekend), such good friends, and growing better by the year!
   Love and hugs,  Mom/Yia-Yia
   PS Our next storm arrives tonight  10 inches??