Augest 14-27 2005

Two Saturday’s ago Hannah and our friend Tim went on a bike ride at Buffalo Creek. I had wanted to explore the area south of us, so I choose a ride just off CO 85. It wasn’t until we were loaded up and on the road that Hannah realized that the road we needed to take was in fact CO 285……big difference. It’s not South it’s west, and a ways off. After informing me that I’m always missing little details like that, we drove to CO 285 and began the hour and a half drive to the trail head. The beginning of the tail was flat and extremely muddy. As we started to climb it dried out and was quite fun. On one section of the climb there is a dead fall tree that has fallen over the trail, and you have to duck to get under it…..Hannah didn’t duck enough and bonked her head. It was yet another experience confirming that helmets are a good thing.

We went on two other rides last week, but didn’t take many pictures. The one we went on last Thursday, Indian Creek, had the best down hill that I’ve found since I’ve been here. It’s single track, with steep hills and tight turns. The only problem is that you start out and the top. I always like to get the reward after the work out. The good time is diminished a little knowing that you still have to come back up.

Yesterday I went to a Bio Med conference at Pine Hills golf course. There was a best ball tournament in the morning followed by a trade show. This was the first event like this that we had done, and it turned out quite well. We met lots of people, and we were the only ones that repair the kinds of instruments that we repair. No competition is always good in those kinds of situations.

I’ve been golfing for about three years, and not very good. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but as it turned out, I carried the team…that’s not good. I’m not sure were we placed, but I didn’t talk to anyone that had a higher score than us. My boss’ team on the other hand had the best score, and I didn’t hear the end of it. I think that experience with give him enough ammunition to fire at me for quite some time.

I got to the course before my boss, so I walked around the grounds for a while. I noticed a squirrel playing around some trees, so I stopped and watched him for a while. All of a sudden he made a mad dash for something on the ground. He was moving so fast that when he got to the object he had to skid to a stop. He picked up what looked like a stick and started going crazy. I looked closer and noticed that it was a rib bone with a little bit of meat still on it…I had discovered a vicious meat eating squirrel….crazy. He was really going down on that thing.
Unfortunately you can't see the squirrel very well in the picture...but I swear he was gnawing on a bone with meat on it.

Today I was asked to sub for the seven year olds in primary. I don’t think that the lesson went well, but they seemed to have a good time. The best part of the hour was the activity, which was a puzzle that said “love one another.” When they were done they were extremely proud, as you can see from the picture.

(Hannah now…) I started my new job as the Sales Manager for Bristol Botanics. They are the second largest interior plant company in the Denver area. I am getting to know the other employees and will present my first presentation tomorrow. But to be honest with everyone, I really do not like the job. I have never quit a job because I was unhappy, so this may be a first. It has been a long hard two weeks. I realize how blessed I have been in the past, and hopefully will have more gratitude in the future. Other than that life is good.

Primary is going well and I will be singing in a special music program in Relief Society in a week or so. I have stopped eating candy and have lost 2 pounds. This may not sound like much, but it is a miracle that I have abstained from sugar this long. They even have a big basket of candy bars in our office that tempt me every time I walk by. The candy cut off almost killed me the first week, but I am feeling better than ever. I still let myself have a big dessert on Sunday’s. Eric is cutting out sugar as well and is eating better. He has lost about 10 lbs. I am very proud of him. He looks better and can ride his bike faster. He still can’t keep up with me on the uphill but beats me every time on the down hill.

And now your moment of ZEN....

We love and miss you all.

Love,

Eric and Hannah

August 7 – 13

It’s Sunday evening and Hannah is at the “It’s great to be eight” fireside. She is giving a talk that she titled “The age of account ability.” She didn’t tell me all that was going to be in it, but she did mention that she planed to tell them about her baptism. I know that she will do great. Some of her best testimonies have been about her baptism. I find this interesting that it is still so strong a memory for her. I believe that she was truly converted by that time if not before – which is wonderful.

This past week was the last week that we will be having cub scouts at our house…..hallelujah! They’re great kids, but tend to be a little rowdy. Not too surprising, but we will be glad to meet at the elementary school from now on. For those of you that don’t know, I’m over the bear cubs. I’ve never been a Den leader before, and I’m really enjoying it. Our activity was “Sports, Sports, Sports.” We started off by talking about the benefits to physical fitness, and then did sever activities: push-ups, sit-ups, standing long jump and a 30 yard sprint. It was fun to see the act tough and show off to each other. One boy was particularly proud that he could do one handed push-ups and wanted to show me. He assumed the position, and proceeded to move his body up and down, but his arm never bent. When he got up his face was beat red. I held my tongue and told him that he did a great job : )

Saturday morning Hannah and I took our friend Tim on a bike ride up Waterton canyon. I got up at 6 am, looked out side, and was disappointed to see it raining. Luckily the rain stopped and we were able to go. The cool overcast weather made for a great ride. Unfortunately the battery on my camera died, so I only got the one picture. The trail goes up through the trees along a series of switch backs. On the way down, I got a little excited and didn’t make one of the switch back, and took a header off the trail into the brush. I’m not sure exactly what happened but I banged up my shoulder, and hit my head. It was good that I was wearing my helmet. I have to admit that I haven’t’ always wore a helmet. I don’t like them, but I can assure that from now on I will always have one on. Stoney if your reading this…….

After our bike ride we went over to Tim and Holly’s house for their son Farris’ 5^th birthday party. Hannah made his piñata, which as you can see is a fish (Farris’ nick name) and she was quite proud of her self. One of the activities at the birthday party was all the kids got to through whip cream at Tim. Because I found this highly amusing they gave me a shot.

For a present Hannah and I got Farris his first skate board. When he opened it up, all the other kids said that their parents wouldn’t let them have one. At first we felt bad, but then we justified our actions by telling our selves that it’s good for kids to have scraped knees and elbows….just make sure he wares a helmet, and don’t call me if he has to go to the emergency room. We told Tim and Holly we were sorry if they didn’t want him to have one yet, but Holly said that Tim had been trying to get him one for a long time…..whew!...we didn’t want to be the only bad influences in Farris’ life.

In closing......your moment of zen (It's a daily show thing)

That’s all for now. We hope your all well.

Love,

Eric and Hannah

My Fist Shot At The Blog

Hey Everyone,

I've always wanted to create some sort of web site that we could all communicate through. During my research I came across blogger, and thought I'd give it a try. This isn't perfect, but it's better than email......and it doesn't cost anything. It's also really easy to use. Feel free to post your comments...in fact please post your comments. I'd like to hear what you think. Also, if you ever want me to post something: Links , pictures or announcements, let me know and I'll post them.

For starters I'll post some pictures and other miscellaneous items that I might have already sent you via email, but I needed something to start out with, so bare with me.

When got lied off, Hannah and I had about two months to hang out together. With the exception of our missions this was the longest either of us had ever gone without working. Because our spending was to be kept at a minimum, we couldn't do any of the home improvements that we wanted to do so we spent our time biking, hiking, and lounging around....it was glorious. We also took a little time job hunting. It was then that we decided that we wanted to move straight to retirement, but not having the recourses we continued to look for work.

During this time, my friend Tim got a job in Colorado, and he and his family stayed with us for a few days.

He and his wife Holly have three kids (Above: Their son Farris) and it was great to have them. When they moved into their home our house felt empty, and we missed them. Shortly after they left, Hannah's sisters Sunny, Jenny and her husband Jarred came for a visit.

While they were here we went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. We spent the day looking at the exhibits.

The museum is huge. The nature section has these incredible taxidermied animals with interesting commentary and other props. The deer display had foam rubber deer ears that were hollow. The idea being that if you put them on you should be able to hear like a deer....Sunny loved this as you can see from the picture.

After the Museum closed, we relaxed on the lawn for an hour, and then saw the IMAX movie
"Mysterys of the Nile."

If you've never been to an IMAX, I highly recommend it. The cinematography is fantastic, and the stories are usually pretty good. After everyone left, the house was once again empty and we were forced to find other ways to entertain ourselves.

I've always enjoyed hiking peaks, and Colorado has more 14,000 foot peaks than any other state. We decided a great way to become better acquainted with the area would be to climb some of them. The first one we chose was Mt. Bierstadt. We didn't make it all the way to the top, due to an incoming thunder storm, but the hike was great none the less.

We've also been on some great bike rides. One of our favorites was ride in the Elk meadow open space area just outside of Evergreen. The trail was easy, but really fun. There was just enough uphill to make your legs burn and just enough down hill to get your adrenaline pumping.

Well that's about all I have to say for now. Remember to let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Eric