Denver McDormans

Another snowshoe outing, this time in Clear Creek county south of the Urad mine. Pie at Jenny’s afterwards — always a treat!

Here’s a video of Keelan playing the latest song that he’s learned along with his drum instructor Kevin. This song was an exercise for practicing double-bass technique and it’s actually a difficult rhythm if you listen and watch his feet.

We had to put down Hops this past weekend. She was our first family pet, coming even before we got married. She was older than the kids, so they never knew life without her.  This picture is how we like to remember her.

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At the end of August, I climbed Maroon Peak and Snowmass Mountain, my last two 14ers. Starting with Long’s Peak in 1993, this goal took me 17 years to reach, but it was so worth it! My climbing travels took me to many parts of the state, seeing cute mountain towns that most people don’t visit. Some people have asked me what I’ll do now that I’ve finished these. My response is, “Whatever I want!”

In July we went to Crescent City, California to get together with Ryk’s family in honor of his mother, Dee, who died earlier this year. Foremost, we had a fantastic time visiting with everyone. Ryk’s nephew Scott is now grown & has his own family. Our Aunt Connie & her husband Jim joined us; Ryk hadn’t seen her in 28 years!!

We enjoyed a lot of beach time, hiked in the gorgeous Redwood forest and spread some of Dee’s ashes in the ocean, as was her wish. Though we spent over 5 days there, it ended all too soon. On the way back to Portland we stayed overnight in Eugene to visit Ryk’s high school friends Peggy and Tim, then spent a day in Portland just exploring. We had a great, great time!

On July 11th, I spent a beautiful day on a gorgeous climb up Mt. Lindsey in the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado. The peak itself was nice, though not exceptional.  But the views, wildflowers and wildlife I saw added up to the most outstanding 14er climb that I’ve ever done.

On New Year’s Day, we all participated in the Boulder Polar Plunge, wading (or diving!) into the ice-cold water of Boulder Reservoir, where they cut a large hole out of the ice.  Leanne’s friend, Rebecca, had this on her bucket list and she encouraged Leanne to join her. The rest of us joined them both for moral support, plus, it’s for a great cause, benefiting the local Alzheimer’s Association. It was something quite different and fun to do as a family!

View the slideshow here, or click on a picture to go to the Picasa photo album where you can see the captions.

Warren Greene, an old friend of mine who I ran cross country with in high school, wanted to know if I wanted to climb some 14ers late in the season.  We were going to climb Blanca, Ellingwood & Little Bear, but there was too much snow to climb anything but Blanca. We had a good time though and it was good to visit with Warren after all these years.

Here are some photos from our Labor Day weekend at Grand Lake. We had fun on the lake, in town and Ryk climbed Mt. Craig finally.

Karen Kenney, the wonderful art teacher at Bradley Elementary School, recently created her own small site for the school’s art program. She included this picture that Keelan actually did in 4th grade.