Steamboat 2012

We finally made it to Steamboat last month for one of the last open days on Howelson Hill. It was sunny, nearing 50 degrees, and pretty darn comfy when the wind wasn't blowing. Nice corn. A perfect day for this.



Yeah, I'm going to get all picture indulgent on this one, so click for more...

Tracking

So.. that track back there is a good metaphor (and was Jimmy and Ray's way of amusing themselves while not getting to watch the Daytona 500), but it is also a sickness.

It began at my parent's house over Christmas.

My mother was very tolerant about having her living room look like this for two days...
Of course mine has looked this way for the better part of the last month.

It does keep people entertained, though!

Can you see the fascination?

I can. :)

LJ Thanksgiving 2011

Many Thanksgiving traditions were observed this year.
For example: the cheesy dinnertime photo.

See also: lacking at least one pilot.
[Edited to add: STEVE! I just noticed. Bad Steve. (but funny)]
And then: Baby Nine Ball.

It got a little more cut throat this year.


And a lot less random. I had to put an end to TELLING the baby which balls to move.

Good thing one of the family was willing to let E work out the tension!

Family

As I mentioned, much of the Baumgartner clan got together for Steve and Missy's anniversary (Mike, you were missed!). Getting my family together is always good camera fodder, even beyond my nephew's photobombing skills. Speaking of, Ray has some of his own:

The rest of the family cleans up pretty well...



Some are better behaved than others. No comment on my own.

It was nice to see (almost) everyone in one place! Steve and Missy, I'm working on a book and a CD. Soon.

Many Celebrations

My brother and sister-in-law had a special celebration at the church to celebrate their 20th anniversary. I'll skip the details here, as I feel like those are theirs, but I know several people are waiting for me to get pictures together. So.. guys. I got the pictures edited. Here are a few glimpses of the ceremony.





Congratulations on 20 years and best wishes for many, many more!

La Junta Xmas 2010

So. This is late. And a little self-indulgent, or at least family-indulgent. But there were so many funny highlights in the album, well, it's my blog, and if you don't have five minutes to spare... spread it out over the week or something.

Watch for cue ball obsession, **evil wooden puzzles**, baby nine ball (and the baby nine ball commissioner), cheetah pants, fetch, and diner dairy product catapults.

(You might want to give it time to load or play it without watching - weird pixellated transitions mean it hasn't fully loaded.)

Baumgartner Christmas 09

Despite Ray's schedule, we did get to do one family Christmas- and, fortunately, even overlapped with my brother Steve's family. With this many pilots around, that's decent.

I'll warn you now, there are a lot of photos- most of them hiding behind this link.

Americana, Steamboat Style

Apparently, Steamboat is overflowing with Americana.

I knew about the cowboy image. We had to stop by F.M. Light and Sons after I've driven by the highway signs for years. The boys had fun with the cowboy hats...

(Woody, is that you?)

There are a lot of fun statues in Steamboat, and one is right outside F.M. Light- and fits the cowboy image.

Some are bit more... fantastical.

(Crowns are tasty... but sharp!)

Others are of Colorado's standard bronze sculpture category. There are a lot of these around town, but this set is probably the most relaxing.

How you doin', Abe?

In another "classic" category: the Sinclair dinosaur, but with a Steamboat twist.

Finally, there's one that reminded all of the kids of their grandpa.

The boys

My nephews seemed to have a lot of fun with Eamon. Most notably, they invented the sport of baby foosball, of which no good pictures were taken because they all look like fuzzy groups of quick-moving boys.

They also shared their video games with Eamon.

(They couldn't convince him that the controller worked better with fingers, not tongue. I think he crashed a lot.)

They hung out. A lot. These just make me smile.

Eamon thinks his cousins are pretty darn fun. He's been sleeping off all of that excitement for the last two days!

(Kaya had to work, but she did get to go downtown with us.. more on that tomorrow..)