Musings

After 3 weeks of indulging in the Tour de France I am at a bit of a loss now that it has ended. The entertainment has not stopped though with Lance Armstrong starting his own team and little digs still going back and forth between he and Alberto Contador. It should make for an exciting Tour next year and the lead up to it.

Today was Brett's first day of preschool. I think he is going to come out of his shell more now. He's been pretty interested to go to Brady's school, and seemed to have a good day today. The big change is how much more active they are there, and he is already crashing on the couch tonight.

We are preparing for our trip to Portland later this week. We have lots of things on our to do list, so I think we'll all have a really good time. We're staying most of the trip in a hotel suite near Nike's world headquarters. We'll spend the last couple of days out on the coast before heading back for the airport.

Grandma's Lake House

Saturday morning we loaded up and drove to the Lake of the Ozarks to spend the weekend with Papa and Grandma Jones. It is always nice to go down for a weekend in the summer to enjoy some swimming, fishing and boat riding. The weather was wonderful all weekend, which contributed to nice long naps also.

Above is the sailfish that hangs in the cabin. The boys talk about the lake house all the time and enjoy every trip down there. Below is one of a few pictures we took of bugs while at the lake. Brady has been talking a lot about bugs at school and Ms. Deja asked him to take some pictures of bugs to bring to school (so he wouldn't bring the real thing back). We also rounded up a turtle to observe until our attention spans dwindled, then he was off to the races when we turned our backs.

Thanks for the wonderful weekend Grandpa and Grandma Jones!!!

Midnight Cave Ride and Milestones

Saturday night I headed off on my bike to meet up with my coworker Ryan at Merriam Farmer's Market for a midnight ride. I debated about which bike to ride, but went with my trusty commuter which can handle lots of weight and is decked out in reflective stickers.

We rode down Merriam Drive to Southwest Boulevard and up 31st Street to caves that serve as offices and storage for some local businesses. I had been down to a photographer in one of these spaces years ago.

Going down the ramp was a little slick for some of the bikes. There were two or three wipe outs, but everyone seemed to survive.

The weather couldn't have been better. We took it pretty slow and easy, which was fine with such a large group. This was actually my first group ride, other than being in the hundreds of people out riding in the KCCC triathlon last month.

In all I think there were about 30 people on the ride. I went a total of 16 miles from my home, through the ride and back home. That actually put me over 800 miles for the year and 1400 miles since I started commuting on my bike last August. Good times!

Colbert Hills

Friday we enjoyed our July 3rd holiday at Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, KS. This is a favorite of mine, being completed shortly after I graduated from K-State. We hit Manhattan for some golf 2-3 times each summer. The forecast did not look great, but the rain stayed away and we made our way around a windy course. It was an inconsistent round, but better than work for sure.

Independence Weekend

We had a good weekend in Lebo. The boys wore themselves out with all of the activities. Saturday we managed to get them down for naps and I headed to the farm with all 4 dogs. The grass was high so we didn't venture too far, but made it to the creek for a swim and back to the truck.