Kicking Tires on Machinery Hill

Ohh, this is a nice ride....
How much, Dad?
Can I do it in installments?
Whoah! Never mind..out of my league.
Ahh, it's more fine to ride with great-grandma anyway!
I've got the hat, can I ride along?

A full day

The fair posts will be continuing, but I offer a short interlude because we managed a full day yesterday.

We convinced Alli and Jana to hike with us again, along with Angela. Alli convinced me to give up the trail I was thinking of (3 mile round trip, 500 foot net gain) for Gregory canyon/Saddle Rock trails (one section is 1200 foot loss in 0.8 miles - scrambling). We found a used kelty pack, so this was a pretty substantial trial. Turns out, that's a *lot* of exercise. Alli took E for a lot of the trip up, Ray got him for the trip down. I wussed out after about a mile of up).

Eamon, Alli, and Jana

After we got some burritos and a shower (both much needed), we headed down to Denver to meet Ann, Mike, and Ava for the Rockies vs. Diamondbacks. While Ann and I enjoyed lots of game food, the boys and kids seemed to enjoy the game.

Apparently we didn't feed Ray enough, as he is licking E's head...

Maybe they know what the score is...

Eamon and Ava did appear to enjoy watching.

I had to chuckle when I was trying find appropriate fanwear for Eamon - Jen made the rock, paper, scissors onesies for the three kids and gave Eamon "rock" because he was taking it back to Colorado. It seemed particularly fitting for the game. Well chosen, Jen!

All in all, a good day!

State Fair 09-Traditions

Ray and his family have been going to the fair for a long time, so there are some traditional photos and things to do (ew, pronto pup). The big one has to be the tire, but there were a few we tried to replicate from our trip in 2005.

The motorcycle tents, 2005:

2009:

The John Deere tire, 2005:

Sadly, this year they chained off the really big tractor. So Ray made do (although, in retrospect, he actually got the same size again). 2009:


And we just didn't make it to the Oink Booth this year. This may be a quest for next time. 2005: