It is hard to be original in writing these each year and it is not like we have a lot of things changing in our life like as when we were younger.  This afternoon we received the Christmas card from our son, John.  He had used Shutterfly to make the cards, that included some photos.  Great I thought, and in less than 20 minutes I had ordered our Christmas cards.  Hope they come before Christmas so we can mail them out.  For the truly lazy people they will even do the mailing for you if yo upload a contact list.  But I am not yet that lazy.

The front of the card looks like this.

Want to see the inside?  Well, you will just have to wait until you get the card.

Our schedule to visit Sara and family was around Andrew’s Baptism. After turning eight years old, he was ready to be baptized. Mike’s dad, and sister and family also flew to Washington for the event. On Saturday morning we drove over to the church to get some pictures.  I don’t mean just a couple of pictures but many many pictures.  Here is just one of them.

The must have coordinated what they were wearing because all the women were wearing blue and white.

It was a wonderful baptism.  Anne and Mike’s Dad, Al, gave talks.  Mike performed the baptism of Andrew.

That afternoon we all headed to Bainbridge Island for dinner.  There are two ways to get there and we choose to go the round about way over some bridges.  We all had a great dinner.

We decided to go back a different way, using a ferry that takes you to Seattle.  I checked on my iPhone and found the ferry schedule and we saw we had about 20 minutes to the next one.  We wanted a bit more time so we drove over to the ferry and after paying, parked on one of the lanes to the side.  We waited for all the cars to board that ferry and then moved into the lanes so we would be the first ones for the next ferry, whcih was scheduled one hour later.  We left the cards locked and headed on foot back to look around.  We found a park where the kids could play.

We could not wait too long because our cars were in the lane to board the next ferry.  We were headed back and could see we need to move quickly.

The drivers of the cars had to start to run and we got to our cars less than a minute before we had to start driving them onto the ferry.  The others walked on board and we found each other on the passenger deck.

It was a great view of Seattle as we approached.

Then it was back by freeway to Sara’s house.  It was a wonderful day.

Last year when Franz reached the milestone age of 60, we had a big bike club ride where over 50 people showed up. But after 60, things start to go in reverse so 61 is really 16. That meant we should ride 61 miles, but do the reverse direction we did last year. Franz likes to do a bike ride on his birthday that is exactly the number of miles he is in years. Guess when that is no longer possible we have reached middle age.

We were up early, as usual. No reason to sleep in an waste precious time. Anne fixed a nice breakfast and we were waiting for the temperatures to warm up. The sky was clear but the air was still cold from the storm that had come through the day before. Before 11 am, we decided it was time to get going so we got on the tandem and headed north, toward Morgan Hill. It was a stiff headwind so we could only go about 12 mph for the 12 miles to reach Dunne Ave.

After turning right we headed for our first climb, up Thomas Grade. Franz was determined to set a new best time climbing on the tandem. We did that by putting all out for 8:15 minutes. Then it was some recovery during the descent down to Anderson Reservoir where we stopped at Wood Chopper to take a picture and get ready for a race up the hill.

Franz and Anne before climb up Henry Coe

We decided to time ourselves on the same 6.75 mile course used by the San Jose Bicycle Club race up Henry Coe.  Our best time, set last fall was 52:58 so we were not sure we could beat that time since it is still early in the year.  But hey, things are in reverse and we are getting younger, right?  We started out fast and tried to keep up the pace.  Franz kept asking Anne what her heart rate was so we were not overdoing it.  Towards the middle of the climb, Franz could sense that we were slowing down, maybe we did start out too fast.  But the heart rate was not dropping, so maybe fatigue was setting in.  Having climbed this hill many times, Franz knew where to get a bit of recovery and where to keep pushing.  When we were about 2/3 of the way up, we knew we had a shot at setting a new best time and we we finally were near the top and the very steep, but short climb, we could see the end in sight.  We crossed the finish line about 1.5 minutes FASTER than last year.  At the ranger station at the top, we stopped to get a bit of rest and eat some food.  It was rather cool and the wind made it feel much colder than it was.  Ann was still smiling, even after that record pace.

Anne at the top of Henry Coe

Anne and Franz at top of Henry Coe

Wow, it was now past 2 pm and we had not eaten lunch yet, so we kept our stop short and headed down, hopefully to some warmer weather.  It was a beautiful descent because this time of the year the grass is green and Anderson Lake is full.

Anderson Lake

We made our way over to Erik’s Deli in Morgan Hill, our favorite place to stop for lunch on our bike rides.  It was still cool so we ate inside instead of eating on the patio like we usually do.  That lunch tasted great!

Normally after we eat, we make a bee-line back to the house, but not today.  We had to get in 61 miles and we only had 37 so far, so it was around the reservoir, but in the reverse direction we usually do it.  It is funny how we become creatures of habit and always go the same direction.  Doing it in reserve felt so strange.  But when we finally got to Uvas road and headed south we now had a nice tail wind and were traveling fast.  We knew the route well and were doing some calculations on how close to 61 miles we would be.  It was clear we would be about half a mile short.  No problem, we went through a nearby street to get some extra distance and when we pulled up into our driveway, we had reached 61.0 miles, exactly, of course.

Franz was a happy birthday boy.  It was one of the best birthdays ever!

Franz at end of birthday ride

Then it was off to the computer to download our data.  This graph shows our climbs for our two new best climb times. Click to view enlarged.

This table shows all the times we were trying to set a new best time on this climb, both Franz on a single bike and on the tandem.

Each time we went all out on the tandem, we kept improving.

We drove to Fresno to celebrate Logan’s 2nd birthday. Before we went out to dinner we spent some time playing with his toys in his room.

We then headed off to Red Robin for dinner.

Logan seemed to like to eat the Apples the most.  He was not sure about those buttered noodles.  At the end of the dinner the staff came by to sing Happy Birthday to him but he seemed to wonder what all the singing was about.

He did like the ice cream sundae they brought.

When we got home he went straight for the big sack that he had seen on the table earlier, knowing it was his present.

Then he started to open the presents we gave him.

The it was fun with the ballon.

Out came the letter blocks that had a magnetic to put on the fridge door.  Logan would say each letter as he attached it.  We were amazed how he was able to say each letter, turn it right side up, and line it up so neatly on the door.

How smart for a two year old!

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It seems only a week ago that I wrote a blog about the fall in California, where the tree in our backyard was turning to fall colors.  It is quite a different story today at out condo in Utah.  I got up when it was still dark outside but could see from the street lights that we had a fresh covering of snow.  I knew it would be a fun day in the snow with the grand kids.

How about a snowball fight?

The kids decided to go skiing so they took our Tahoe which has four wheel drive.  We stayed behind so we  could build some snowmen with the grand kids.  Andrew started to roll the bottom of the snowman but the snow was so dry it was hard to get it to stick.

Ann found some better snow near the house which made a great big ball.

Soon the snowman started to take shape.

Andrew started on his own snowman.

The new snowman was fascinating to Emma.

But Pete decided to make a snow angel.

Andrew was finishing up his own snowman.

Pete came over to admire Andrew’s snowman.

New adventure was the big pile of snow at the end of the road.

The sun had come out and it was a beautiful day.

It was so sunny that Pete started to chase his shadow.

A great snow day!

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While most of the country feels the effects of winter, it is more like fall in California.  Ann took the above picture of a tree in our backyard, which is just now starting to change colors.

We went cycling today for about 60 miles.  It was cold when we started but by the time we reached the top of the climb up to Henry Coe State Park, the temperature was 70 degrees.  It was delightful.

A couple days later I took a similar picture with my Nikon D300, which I kind of over enhanced in Adobe Lightroom.

Someone special in our family reached a new milestone, birthday wise.  I decided to make a birthday card, instead of buying one.  I wanted to get an image from each of the 60 years of Ann’s life but we don’t have any images of many of the early years.  I know that is something our kids may not understand and certainly something our grandchildren would never comprehend.  But I was able to get an image for a few of the early years and then every year since 1966.  I put them all as thumbnails on a single 11×14 page, which I had printed.  Click this image to see it enlarged.

Ann seemed to like the card and gift.  She can take her new camera on our upcoming cruise.

Later we decided to go for a walk.  Since we are no longer on day light savings time, we did not have much sunlight.  What a good chance for Ann to try out her new camera.  Here are a few of the pictures Ann took with her new camera.

Those are pretty good pictures in low light conditions for a point and shoot type camera, don’t you think?  By the time we were about back home it was getting quite dark. I had brought my Nikon D300 big camera along and took the picture below of Ann with very low light conditions, hand held at 1/30 second without a flash, at ISO 2000.   A flash would have made the background look black.  Yea, my Nikon D300 Digital SLR still has a role!

Jeff was on a business trip so he was able to join in.

Sara and her two daughter’s posed for the last shot.

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