Peter and Tayler accepted to Student Council

Peter is in the 9th grade and Tayler is in the third grade and both boys are in separate schools. We are very happy to announce that they both have made the student council in their respective schools!

Peter is looking forward to meeting other students and participating in school events. He's very involved these days, a complete 180-degree turn from when we first moved to Colorado in 2003.

Tayler, on the other hand, wants to help other kids. He found out that Student Council members helped others and he was all for it.

Now we just have to manage our time to make sure the boys get to where they need to be...and on time.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Jessica's aka Da Momma was today. The morning was spent in Colorado Springs with Gene since they were there for his gig at SODO the night before. The drive back home was nice and they had some quality husband and wife time. Lunch was...Taco Bell, really. That's what she wanted and that's what she got. Yum.

We picked up the kiddos from the Hornaday's house and then went straight home to relax. It was close to eight o'clock when we decided to get up and get some dinner. The location was a secret to all except dad and nobody had a clue. We ended up at Micky's Top Sirloin, a locally owned mom and pop steakhouse that has been there for almost forty five years. The meal was great and Da Momma had her juicy T-Bone steak.

Happy Birthday!

Peter's First Day as a Freshman

Peter started high school today at Jefferson Academy. It's hard to believe that he's in the 9th grade now! We still remember the days of dropping him off to day care at Pago Bay and then moving on to Price Elementary school then came San Vicente.

Four more years and he'll be graduating, where has time gone? My advice to all you parents: Don't wait too to spend time with your children because time goes by quickly...

Gene's National Position at the FPD just got upgraded

Well, sort of...

Gene has been visiting other Federal Defender Offices doing I.T. assessments and making sure they are doing their jobs according to the 'book'. It's been a great honor to be regarded so highly by the Administrative Office's Defender Services Division and given the opportunity.

Today, he was selected as a mentor for the Microsoft Server Migration project. He will be getting MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) training and then assisting other Federal Defender offices. This is a three year project that will require some traveling to training centers and other offices.

His job title is still says, Computer Systems Administrator for Colorado and Wyoming, but now he wears two additional hats that is at the national level.

Congratulations!

Let's Go Home!

It's been a week and half of on the road driving, sleeping, eating and just being out of our element. We now head back home on a ten hour trek from Wichita, KS to Thornton, CO. This road trip is coming to an end and it has been a great adventure.

Gene catches a flight out to L.A. for work on Monday and will be there for a week. His traveling adventure isn't over just yet...

That's It

Today was the big day and we started it with breakfast at McDonald's again. The game started at 11am at the same place. We had a great start and it was close at the half, then we fell apart. In the end we lost by a good margin and we were done. The boys were disappointed but it was a great learning experience and they saw what the competition is outside of Colorado. Maybe next year we will do better.

Some of the other families were going to leave, but our hotel room was paid for until Sunday so we decided to stay. We headed back to the hotel and then to a nearby mall to walk around and watch the new G.I. Joe movie.

We head back to Colorado tomorrow, another long drive but at least we're heading home.

Lose One, Win One

Woke up and grabbed breakfast at McDonald's. The first game was at 10am at a court 45 minutes away, so we had to get going. During the entire game they gave Peter only 15 minutes of play. There were times where he went in for a minute and they took him out again. We saw no reason for him to be sitting out so much even after we drove 26 hours to get here! After that game we left with the intention of packing our bags and just going home. But, Peter wanted to play and didn't want to ditch his teammates, so we headed back.

When we arrived at the court before the second game the coach pulled us to the corner. He realized that we were upset and he explained that there was no reason for our son to sit out so much. He continued by saying that it was a coaching error of not keeping tab of who was subbing in and out. We accepted his apology and Peter did play more during the second game sinking eight baskets for the team.

We lost one of those games so we still have a chance. The games tomorrow are single elimination, so if we lose, we're done.