On this particular morning, snow didn't stop us from fully enjoying the views, in fact it made it more memorable.
One of the hardest parts of winter is the short days. On this Thursday night we all put on headlamps and created memories despite the available light.
While this shot is from a solo mountain bike ride in the morning, I just had to share because it's such a cool place to ride, in the day or night. Getting up and riding before sunrise allows me to have quiet time and to have the trails all to myself.
A few weeks ago, I asked my wife to take some time away to re-energize while I watched the boys. In most cases, I take these opportunities to put in a movie for the boys to watch while I take care of things around the house but I felt that we needed to do something together. The boys will call these days "Boys Days" since it's just us guys. We decided to pack up all of the bikes and head down to the Pueblo White Water Park. In a month or so my wife and I will spend time in the park surfing on our stand up paddle boards but this day was a fun walk/ride down to the end of the park and back to the car. Thanks to my good friend who owns numerous bike shops in Utah, the boys ride in style on their Cannondale bikes just like their parents.
The wave in the back is the third feature in the park, one of our favorites for surfing. What a cool looking crew!
So as you can see, it is possible to get outside with kids. Believe me, many days I want to take the path of least resistance and stay at home but the memories we make outside will stick with our boys for years to come.
Finally, I want to include a few product reviews because there have been two products over the past month that have been absolutely fantastic, even life-changing (I feel like I'm in an infomercial). First, around Valentine's Day my wife and I both purchased new watches. I decided on a Garmin Vivoactive watch. What I like about this watch is that it's a daily fitness tracker which just means it tracks your steps taken and calories burned throughout the day and can be worn when you sleep to track how well you are sleeping. This part is cool but my old Fitbit could do the same thing. What takes this watch to the next level of coolness is that it also has a GPS tracker so I can set it to the bike function, it picks up a signal in seconds, then I'm off on my ride. It will track current speed and distance and give averages and total distance when done. When I'm done riding, the GPS turns off and it turns back into a regular fitness watch. It's a watch that I can wear all day everyday no matter what I am doing. You can even use it for indoor workouts, running on a treadmill, on a stationary bike and in an indoor lap pool. Because it has an accelerometer it will track steps taken while running on a treadmill and it counts laps in a pool. The battery life is impressive, lasting anywhere from 4-7 days depending upon how much GPS I use. One last cool function is that it connects to your phone so you can get messages and read them right on your watch. If you want something that you can use to track your daily fitness and use when working out then this is the watch for you.
The watch faces can be customized depending on your mood that day or what you like to see. This one's my favorite because it makes me feel hardcore.
Final product review, about a month ago I was given a cool opportunity to try out some new skis from a new-to-America company Dupraz. They make snowboards and skis and have been around for a while in Europe and just starting to grow in the US. Their skis are definitely unique. They are asymmetric, which means you can switch the skis between feet for long or short radius turns depending upon powder or groomed runs. I've used them on multiple days but this last week was the first day when I was able to use them in deep powder. They performed absolutely perfect. I just floated through turn after turn loving every minute of it. They have a good flex to them both also no issues with chatter when skiing through groomed or icy areas. I used the N series skis which are a mix between off and on-piste, not the fattest skis they have but not the skinniest. They really are the perfect all around ski. I'm a huge believer. Checkout their website if you have a minute: Dupraz USA
They look like water skis but perform like they are made to fly through the powder.
We had the best powder day we've ever had at Monarch Mountain this last week. Almost 12 inches in 48 hours meant endless powder runs. The oldest two boys came with us and they loved every run. Even though Sunday was the first day of spring, it doesn't seem like winter wants to let go. Which is fine with us, we'll enjoy every last run we can get this season.
The crew at our favorite mountain.
That's what we've been up to for the past month. Even though our lives are busy I wouldn't change a thing. I know that we bring a lot of the business on ourselves as we choose to hike and ski but we feel that it creates memories which the boys will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
