Preston has been here a week and we’ve been busy.  We climbed Midland hill with the dogs.  If you look closely above the mountains, you can see one the tanker helicopters loading up to fight the fires.

Preston wanted to climb this rock, but had a hard time getting down.

Resting on the summit.

Izzy needed a dip to cool down – check out the guy in the canoe going through the rapids.

Mike and Tina came in for a visit.  We did a quick climb on the 4th of July and then went to meet CW for a resupply.

When we got back we walked downtown.  The park had an art fair going on.  They also had they bubbles that little kids get in and bounce off each other in the water.

Preston is a giant.

We still played Frisbee, but Preston managed to get it stuck high in the tree.

This morning I took Mike and Tina up Midland hill.  Tina snapped a shot of Izzy posing.

CW treated us to rafting on Monday.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are a couple action shots

I thought I’d add some random stuff…  the picture below is on top of Midland hill.  I’m brave enough to let the dogs off leash on this trail since there really isn’t any place they can go.  Unfortunately, about 1 minute after I took this picture, Izzy found a bird’s nest and of course Darby pounced.  It took me a couple minutes to get the birds out of their mouths.

Tracy had to head back to Austin today but yesterday we went to Leadville.  We started climbing Mt Sherman, but the weather was not good so we turned back about a mile in.  However, we did watch some of our friends finish the Leadville marathon.  D and Mike both won entries into next years Leadville 100.

I also got a text from my friend Dave in Michigan.  When I was there this winter he showed me all the bee hive stuff he’d bought.  In just a month, check out how well the hive is doing.  Also, his garden is booming probably because of the bees.

April has been beautiful in Austin.  This weekend Tracy had the Texas rowing championship.  I ran down and met her on Saturday and on Sunday we all met at a restaurant for brunch.

Tracy is in the bow of the boat.

Izzy and Darby have been getting a lot of exercise.  The problem with spring is all the animals are out which makes the dogs crazy.  They can’t get over their instincts to terrorize little creatures.  Izzy still checks this spot for turtles.  All the exercise means that the dogs hurt themselves.  Izzy can be seen below with a wrapped paw due to a swelling between her toes.  Darby also has a mouth issue – it looks like she bit her lip so hard that she almost put a full hole in her cheek.

Tracy took her sister to Mexico last week to celebrate Jenn’s birthday.  The dogs and I spent a lot of time together and did some grilling.  Izzy loves to eat anything and it’s pretty funny to watch her nibble on scraps of corn on the cob.

I put in 50 miles last week in an effort to get back in shape for the spring races.  I’ve got a 30k, trail marathon, and the Jemez 52 miler coming up in the next 6 weeks.  On Sunday morning, I did a long run to the pool and back and had to cross the creek at “stoner falls”.   The moon was setting above the trees.

Mom passed away on the 14th.  We’d known the day was coming and I’m so thankful that all of us got to spend time with her before she got bad.  Per her wish, we spread her ashes in the flower garden of the pet cemetery where her dogs, Teddy and Freddy, are buried.  Here’s a picture of Barb’s resting place.

Here’s a link to Barb’s obituary: http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?n=barbara-skelding&pid=188473286&fhid=5484

At her service, we played a video all the kids made for her 80th birthday and her favorite song by Kid Rock.  Here’s a link to both:

The first weekend in January was the annual Bandera race.  I was shooting for 14 hours, but missed by 26 minutes.  I consider it a wash since the course was 2 miles longer than previous years.  I finished in the top third overall and 3rd in my age group.

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A few days later, I went to visit my mom.  It was freezing in Michigan but I spent most of my time visiting with mom and watching Downton Abbey.

This last week, I was back in Austin for the big freeze.  Once again, the frost weed was out and I took some great pictures.

Just like the rest of the nation, it’s cold here.  One cool thing we saw while walking the trail yesterday was the occurrence of “frost weed”.  I took a few pictures and looked up the information: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=vevi3

We had Christmas at Tracy’s sister house.

Tracy’s siblings in their yearly picture with the Joy pillow.

When we got home, we “dog sat” the neighbor’s dogs.  Rossi fell asleep on her toy monkey.