Camping!

We took the T-bird and the bug up to Rocky Mountain National Park at the beginning of the month, for Tucker's first camping trip and major hike. The camping itself went remarkably smoothly; both children slept like logs and enjoyed sharing a tent with us very much. The hike up to Bierstadt Lake ran into a few snags, though.

This is the year of the slowest snowpack melt on record. As of June 1, the Peak-to-Peak Highway was not yet open because there was still over 13 ft. of snow on the road. So about 1.7 mi into our 2-mile mountain hike, we ran into a snow field, as shown. What you can't tell from the photo is that the snow was at least Tucker-waist deep in many spots, even though it was probably close to 60 degrees outside. So we decided to turn back a bit short of the lake, judging it preferable to losing our son somewhere along the path in a snowbank.

On the way back down, we ran into a couple of other hikers, even more inappropriately dressed and less intrepid than we were, who kindly got the shot below of our entire family.See, we actually do all exist in the same place at the same time occasionally!

We did several shorter low-land hikes over the following two days, flat ones around lakes and streams, saw elk, visited visitors' centers, and generally had a wonderful few days of family time before the summer workload began to hit. I think the kids had the most fun on the rocks quite near to our campsite, which Tuck promptly proclaimed "my fire truck!" and let his sister come along for the ride. Here they are, and someone has borrowed his daddy's hat:

June. Opera. Busy. But...

A lot going on in and around the homestead since Mother's Day, and since we're almost to Father's Day, I better catch up. Matt wandered afield to Boston and Chicago for various conferences in the past month, so with one hand for each child that left me no fingers free to type. But now he's home until our grand road odyssey begins in August.

My sister's family came out to visit around Memorial Day, and much fun was had by all, especially the cousins. My eldest nephew walked the Bolder Boulder with his dad and another aunt and uncle, and then most of the family came out for the big finale of the professional race, flyover with skydivers, and Memorial Day ceremony. It was really beautiful.

I ran the race myself earlier that morning, and finished in 50:13. I liked the new course although running it with 54,000 of my closest friends meant that some of the turns were a little more crowded than I would have liked.

CU's opera summer program is still running--our performances are next week, and I go into tech rehearsals on Monday. Things are running a LOT more smoothly in our second year, so far, knock wood. This year's world premieres are excerpts from Kirke Mechem's "Pride and Prejudice" and Herschel Garfein's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." Both literary works I like a lot, which aids me in general enthusiasm for the musical projects. :) The students and faculty are working immensely hard, and our designers are going to make them look good. Very good.

I may eventually post some photos, but would rather post than hunt for the camera cord right now.