Halloween

Halloween isn't high up on my list of favorite holidays, but the kids are still into it so we do what we need to do so that we can get through it.  I will have to admit that this year was pretty fun with mild temperatures and some pretty funny costumes.  Above, you can see Gavin in his "Pickle Rick" costumes which is basically a giant dill pickle.  I wasn't familiar with this character, but it is from some sort of comic strip that is geared towards older teens and young adults.  I am not actually sure what Gage was for this year, but it was also some sort of pre-fab bought costume.  What is changing as we get older is how little the kids want to stay with us and walk around (which I guess is understandable as they are now young teenagers).  We see them for a few minutes and then they are just happy to peace out with their friends for a few hours.

Vail IT Offsite

Every year my IT department holds an offsite leadership meeting.  It has recently been rotating between Vail, downtown Denver, and Devil's Thumb Ranch near Winterpark.  The invite lists also varies at different levels (e.g. mangers and up, senior managers and up, directors and up, etc.) but I was happy that this year was all manager layers.  We stayed at the Arrabelle near Vail Square.  My room, pictured above, was just amazing.  Super nice, high-quality fixtures everywhere, a fireplace, and an exquisite bathroom to match.  Tara was quite jealous of the pictures being sent back her way!

This was the view out of my room, and during one of the afternoon downtime periods I snuck away for a run up a trail that went right up beneath the lift line.

The other impressive piece was this rooftop pool that overlooked the hotel in one direction and the mountain in the other direction.  The pool was heated and though the air temperature was not so bad, there were no other takers, so I had it all to myself.  It was a two and a half day offsite, with some great strategy sessions, recovery time, and great food!

Arizona Trip

I originally had registered to compete in Ironman Tempe 70.3, however with the addition of the 70.3 World Championships race to the schedule a month earlier, I decided not to race.  We had already booked all the travel accommodations and decided to go for more of a vacation trip rather than a race trip.  This works out well because we love the food and the scenery in the area and Tara's dad lives in close by in Scottsdale.  As soon as we got to the hotel, the kids were immediately drawn to the community pool.

We ventured out to some nearby soccer fields to stretch the legs a bit and found this amazing lounging tree that provided shade and some great support to hang out with a view.  There happened to be a few games going on, though we were quite happy we weren't playing in them with the heat.

Later in the day, we drove up north to Marie Christine's place in Cave Creek.  Craig was out with a buddy of his that was also in town, but we got to tour their new property.  They have this large horse barn in the back and several medium sized line trees, in addition to all the cactus around the area.  It's a pretty cool property.

Here is Tara with Marie Christine and her daughter, Estelle.  Her other son, Daniel, was also running around but didn't quite make the picture.  We only were able to stay for an hour or two, but it was great to see her place and visit.  What isn't pictured here is the Mexican restaurant we went to afterwards that had an enormous tarantula jaunting through the middle of the restaurant casually!  I think we were too busy climbing on seats to get a picture of that sight.

Legacy Soccer Nights

After practice, we were able to sneak the whole team over to watch Legacy play at the local stadium.  Here is Gage in the back row (next to Alexander) with the crew and their coach, Liam.

It's hard to find a better venue than a warm, sunset game for fall soccer at the stadium.

 The boys quickly departed for some seats a bit lower where they could sprawl out and cheer and yell a bit farther away.  Gage's team has been fun to watch, and they definitely have great chemistry together with many of them playing for years together.