50,000!

There was one thing I wanted to accomplish on my vacation when I got back home.  I had been close for awhile, and just needed some quality X-Box time to make it.  With precise planning I hit another milestone.  50,000 points.

Driving over the Continental Divide

Today we rented a car to head outside of Denver and check out the Rocky Mountains.  The two recommendations we had were to visit Pike’s Peak or Estes Park.  I decided to go another way entirely, and head out of Denver to the west, and take Highway 40 to Highway 34 through the Rocky Mountain National Forest.  While we were in a car for most of the day it was an awe-inspiring and beautiful drive, especially driving a car on the highest paved road in America (Trail Ridge Road 12,183 feet).  Below are some of the photos from the journey, you can see all of the photos at our Flickr page.

As we head into the mountains, the clouds covering Denver break and we get to see sun.

The Never Summer Mountains

A pack of elk grazing at 12,000 feet.

You know you’re up high when you’re looking down on (and then driving back through) the clouds.

5 down, 25 to go (Denver edition)

Candice and I continue our journey to see a ballgame at every stadium in the Majors.  I had a bigger California trip planned for this year, but never quite got it completed before it was upon us, so we decided to hit up one of the solo cities this year.  So we planned a couple days in Denver to catch a Rockies game.  We left Seattle as a heat wave hit and the days were in the high 90’s and even over 100.  We arrived in Denver and it was 65 and raining…wait what?

We got to the ballpark early to wander around.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, and it looked like we were going to roast in the sun with our seats 21 rows behind home plate.

One of the cool things they have at Coors Field are landscaped bullpens & centerfield area.  As we found out the next day when we did the official tour, they did their best to bring the mountains down to the ballpark.  All of the materials used in the landscaping are from the Rocky Mountains.  On the walkway above the bullpens is the interactive area of Coors Field where they have a couple batting cages for the kids, and they also have a few speed pitch cages for everyone.  I tossed my $3 down on the table and flung my 4 best fastballs at the tarp…58,60,59,61.  At least I’m consistent (and apparently my fastest is still slower than Jamie Moyer’s change-up)

Overall, Coors Field feels a lot (and i mean A LOT) like Safeco, though there is one huge difference…

The view from our seats of the first pitch of the game (Aaron Cook pitching to Randy Winn).

The fear of roasting in the sun, quickly turned to me wondering where the tarp is on the field (tucked in on the 3rd base line), and where lightning would strike the stadium (luckily it never got that bad).  An hour into the game, the rains started to lightly fall, and they turned on the lights.  In the end our streak of home team wins while we visit their parks is still intact with the Rockies winning 4-2.

The smile says angel…the hair however tells the truth…

The smile says angel…the hair however tells the truth…

Houston, new contact confirmed go.

Day 20 of the new contact and we’re in the rhythm. Kate and I are finally starting to feel like old hats at getting the contact in her eye so we’ve moved on to the next phase of our multi-multi-phase but short term project, the return of the eye sticker. While I expect Kate to continue with her contacts indefinitely now, we are trying a short push through August with her wearing an eye sticker again to see if we can make some more improvements in her vision in her left eye before she starts school.

Kate’s Work Day

Today Microsoft celebrated Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, the more politically correct version of the Take Your Daughter to Work Days of yore. Here’s Kate exploring the fountain outside my office building with her gear ready to take on the day.

Kate’s core take aways from the day: “Mommy’s job is kind of boring,” XBOX rules–especially Lego Rock Band, and she wants to be a Developer.

The last one surprised me a little, but not for long. I was trying to explain to Kate what her Dad and I do at work in terms a 6 year old could understand and I was failing miserably. So then I switched over to an analogy I thought she could handle–building a tower of blocks. If a tower of blocks is the product, my job (Program Manager) is to design the tower, Allen’s job (Developer) is to build it, Daddy’s job (Tester) is to break it, and Kimberley’s job (End-User Support) is to help customers who’ve had problems after they’ve bought the tower. Kate piped up right away that she wants to build towers and that Daddy’s really not nice for breaking Allen’s towers. I tried to explain that Daddy only breaks Allen’s towers to try and make them better, but she didn’t buy it. Six year olds are awesome!

Kate tells me she truly enjoyed herself today but I think she just liked getting to hang out with Allen.

North Carolina comes to the Pacific Northwest

Earlier this year I flew out to North Carolina to visit friends, and it just so happens that they had planned a vacation out to the Pacific Northwest to tour the coast and the wine country up here.  I played tour guide for them while they were here.  We started off the weekend with a hike up Mount Si, and I even convinced Candice to come (though it became very clear she won’t be returning).  I remembered it being about 3 miles to the top…when in reality it is 4.  Oops.  Needless to say, it was more than enough work to get there, but the views were great.

Jen & Jill at the top of Mount Si

Pete & Candice at the top of Mount Si

Where Pete ate lunch, staring out at Mount Rainier.

Saturday night we had a well-deserved dinner down at the Purple Cafe in Kirkland.  Sunday morning started out with the brunch at Salty’s on Alki.  We had excellent food, and the wonderful view of the Seattle skyline.  After nearly eating ourselves into a food coma, we headed into downtown to take the Seattle Duck Tour.  After seeing the sights, we hit the Space Needle, then downtown to the Pike Place Market, then down into Pioneer Square for drinks.  With that the whirlwind Seattle tour ended, and I sent them on their way towards the coast for the rest of their vacation.

Making our way into the water, while another Duck makes it’s way out.

View of the Seattle skyline from the Duck Tour

Day 7 of the new contact, rating = cautiously optimistic

And the march of the contact continues. We have been able to get the contact installed in Kate’s eye in less than 15 minutes 6 of the 7 days. We will update you again after her check up with the Eye Doctor on Friday.

New professional portraits — 2009

Each year we take a set of professional portraits of the kids and we just got this year’s set today. It was hard to choose but here are my two favorites from this round.

  

Day 4 of the new contact, rating = good

 

Day 3 (the 4th of July) began as a very dramatic and difficult day with the contact. Kate and I weren’t successful, we were in fact quite disheartened by how bad the morning went after Day 2’s lack of issues, but Auntie Amy came to the rescue in the evening and turned us back around.

We carried that good will into day 4 and had another “relatively” easy time getting the contact in Kate’s eye this morning. My current definition of easy being 10 minutes or less and no melt downs by either Kate or myself. The hardest part to date has been trying to figure out how to get the contact to “let go” of my finger and even Aunt Amy was having the same issue, so at this point we’re just hoping things turn around magically.

The good part to all of this is once Kate is in the contact, she is having no issues at all. So when we’re ready to do the next round of patching therapy we should have a good chance to get the last bit of development we need.

So here is Kate showing off the puzzle we finished this morning that she and Bapa started at the birthday party last night. 200 pieces, all work completed in the contact.

Your continued wishes of good luck are keeping us going, thank you for the support!