State Games of the West 2008

Alan and I have volunteered to be the State Games(Badminton) commissioners for 6 yrs in a row(maybe only 5 yrs for me). We even got an award for it this year! Woo hoo! Although it usually involves lots of work, it's usually fun. Besides, it's our commitment to keep badminton alive in Colorado.

This year, the badminton event took place in Colorado Springs. We drove down on Saturday after a quick stop off at Lily's house for some fantastic Malaysian food. We met up with a bunch of volunteers at the gym to lay down some court lines for the tournament.

As we were laying down the lines, Tyler, the nosy parker, decided to get involved as well. He was crawling all over the gym watching what everybody was doing, holding rulers for the volunteers, and checking out posts to make sure it's good. It was quite a funny sight.

Jim explaining how it all works..

Tyler figuring out the sticky side of tape

Let me hold the ruler for you.. please??

I think that court is definitely crooked..

After that was done, we headed to our hotel for a short rest before going to my favorite Korean restaurant San Chang for some awesome Kalbi and my usual smelly soup(Doen Jiang Chi Gae). Nobody else was brave enough to try it. :)

Alan and his Kalbi

On Sunday, the tournament went smoothly although near the end of the tournament our tournament scheduling software decided to take a dive. We had to do the draws manually which definitely made it a little more complicated. But with the help of our great volunteers(Damith and Sabrina), it went off without a hitch(slow, but hitchless).

There were a few kids at the tournament that took a liking to Tyler. They were great babysitters and kept Tyler entertained while Alan and I busied ourselves with Commissioner duties.

Jordan, Megan and Alina gave Tyler a car. They even drew pedals, steering wheel and windows on the box! How cute..

Alan and I also participated in the tournament and both of us ended with Silver in all our events!

Women's Doubles winners

After the tournament, guess where we went for dinner?? San Chang again! Yes, it's that good.. :)

My err.. I meant Tyler's new toy!

I think not very deep down i'm a still a kid. I see a toy, i want it! But i'm luckier than a kid because i can go get the toy myself or even better, have a mother in law crazy enough to go bid on ebay for me! ha! Life is so much better when you like your husband's mom!!

SO, what did i want this time?? It's a Pirate Pip Pool!!

Pirate Pip Pool turned Ball Pit

I first saw this on someone's blog and thought that was the coolest thing ever! I did a long research and finally found one on ebay in UK. When MIL heard about my latest whim, she diligently and methodically bidded and won it!

I nearly took off early from work when Alan told me it had arrived and I immediately pumped it all up upon reaching home. Poor Tyler did not like the sound of the noisy pump at all. So, when i put him in his coolest new toy, i didn't exactly get the reaction i was hoping for!

What???!!!

Daddy tried to convince him how cool it was.

After much coaxing and stupid antics from mommy, Tyler is a little more willing to give it a chance.

To give him some slack, he was sick that day. He liked it much better when he was feeling less crummy and when there were actual balls in the boat.

Oh, this is quite fun

Oooh.. check it out .. more balls..

Yeap, keep them coming, Daddy..

Hmm... OK, i think we have enough balls now..

Nearly end of July excuse.

Ok Ok, i know blogging has been pathetic this month. But I promise, it will come. But at least my excuse is new - TOO BUSY! Didn't even fall sick once since the last blog, Tyler is another story!

Anyways, it's been a crazy crazy month with lots of activities.. maybe I'll start now, how about it?

OK..

Green Mountain Hike

On Sunday, we had another early start. Steffen and I were the only 2 members left in the MLC gang going for a hike. I let him choose a trail he liked and he said Green Mountain is nice and shady. I've done Green Mountain a few years ago but have not gone up this route, so I said OK.

So, it was shady, but my goodness it was steep(and HOT). I fell for Steffen's innocent "Oh, it's only 5 minutes away" claims a few times and did eventually make it to the top.


Tyler and I having a feeding break

Steffen was doing the mule duty for the day. Partly to slow him down for me and mostly because I can't carry Tyler. Tyler didn't really mind and napped for most part of the hike.


Steffen had no problems carrying Tyler

We met up with Alan for lunch at Radda's after the hike. He had just made it back from his trip. We had some nice authentic Italian for lunch.

Tyler was acting a little strange and started having a fever after we got home. A few days later, we found out he probably had the Roseola virus which was going around.. poor baby!

While Daddy was away

Alan had to go on a business trip for a few days. Tyler and I partied like it was 1999!

On Friday, Tyler had a puking incident which required me to go get him from the daycare. So, we spent the rest of the day resting. Mateo came by for short while to say hello.

After a few hours of rest, Tyler and I dressed in our best dancing outfit and headed into Boulder for some live Salsa music by my favorite band Quemando. We picked up Steffen on the way and were all excited to dance in the courtyard of St Julien's Hotel.

So, you can imagine our dismay when we were told it was a 18 and above only event and we had to leave because Tyler wasn't allowed to be there! We left in disbelief and went over to Bacaro's to sooth our foul mood. Damith and Sabrina met up with us and invited us back to their house for some awesome Sri Lankan food. Good food can make up for a lot of things!

The next morning, we woke up very bright and early to join Mateo for a morning swim class. It was a very nice pool near their house. Veronica and I had a nice time catching up and Adam even made us some good brunch when we got back to the house. Tyler showed Mateo how to walk with a box while Mateo showed Tyler how good he was with his little fingers at picking up food. Very impressive!!


Tyler by the pool..


Veronica and the boys after the swim

After a few hours of rest at home, we then headed to my monthly Asian Women's Party for a few hours and then met up with Armen, Addy, Rohit and Ayako for some traditional Japanese food. We ordered A LOT of food but by the time we were done, we felt a little hungry still. They were Japanese portions - TINY!


Picture with Ayako and Armen..

We took some fun pictures at the restaurant as Tyler was getting a tat restless.


Tyler enjoying a little swing about


Can you tell who are all in the pic?

By the end of the night, Tyler and I collapsed in exhaustion from partying and missing Daddy..

Where was Tyler?

After coming home from Aspen, Tyler had developed some sort of infection on his finger which required us to take him to the doctors, where we found out that he has lost more weight. That threw me into a terrible guilt trip and I swore to try harder and put Tyler's health at an elevated priority.


Tyler wore a sock over his hand to try to prevent him from yanking his bandage off.

So, when Alan said that he wanted to bring Tyler on the 14'er trip, I put my foot down and hired a babysitter. So, while we were killing ourselves on the 14'er, Tyler was home with our pretty babysitter from Panama.

She was really good with him. She fed, bathed and even took him to the park! And the only grief he gave her was when she was trying to feed him.

And without Tyler on the hike with us, I was also able to concentrate on my hike much better and i think that was both beneficial for me and for Tyler.

And in the next week, after a crazy feeding session, our doctor visit finally had some good news! Tyler had put on an incredible 8 oz!!!

Our First 14'er

What's a 14'er? Well, in Colorado it usually refers to a mountain that is taller that 14,000 ft. There are more than 50 of them here in this state. Alan has big plans for us to conquer a few of these during this summer and thought it's time for us to do a practice run on an easy one - Mt Bierstadt - 14060 ft

In order to avoid afternoon thunderstorms, we got an early start. We met up at 6:30 am, drove to Georgetown and probably took our first steps on the trail at about 8: 15 am.


Beautiful spring flowers along the way..

We made good time in the first part of the hike because it was downhill! And then the climbing starts. The trail was actually really beautiful as it is nicely maintained and was overflowing with spring flowers. Although it was tempting to stop and take tons of pictures, most of us resisted and plowed on.


Trails lush with greens and dotted with flowers and Damith&Sabrina

We made it up to our first ridge and looked back and was fairly impressed at how far we've come and we can see our destination ahead!! We wound our way across a slightly uphilly meadow and finally came to the final climb to ridge. It was a good workout making it up for Uyen and I because of the increasing altitude. And due to time constraints we were not wasting much time resting.


Uphill going towards the last ridge

By this time Steffen had dissappeared onto the ridge while Damith and Sabrina who were always trailing just a little behind us were no where to be seen. Soon we reached our last bit to the top, which required a little big of rock scrambling.


One last push to the top

And with whatever determination left, rock by rock, we finally made it to the top! Woo hoo!! It was a zoo up there. It was almost difficult to feel too proud of your achievement when the place is packed with people, even old people!!!


Four of who made it up. Steffen was there for more than 1/2 hr before we got up.

So, after some photos and a quick snack. We started our descent. As the pressure of making it up was over, we took some time to take pictures of some nice view from up there and also some of the tundra flowers.


Views of surrounding mountains and tundra flowers..

Again with my bad knees, i was soon left behind by Steffen and Uyen. But after 2 hrs, we got back to our car and went to reward ourselves with food in Georgetown. But it seems like Georgetown is not really known for food.. :(


How I look after the hike. Not too bad, eh?

Anyways, i was happy that i made it all the way to the top because i was one of the weakest hiking member. Sabrina, it turned out was a little affected by the altitude, and had to turn around with Damith.

End of July 4th weekend

On the last day of our long weekend, we made an effort to leave our hotel earlier to get a hike in before starting our journey home.

We did a quick short hike to Cathedral Lake. Although we didn't make it all the way there, we were once again treated with some nice views.


You can't see it, but there is a waterfall behind us..


Nice uphill trails..

Slightly after noon, we started our journey home via Independence Pass with a short picture stop at the Continental Divide.


We kicked Steffen out for a quick picture.

The journey home, although scenic was a LONNNNNNNGGGG trip home. It was a beautiful weekend in the mountains of Colorado!

July 5th - Aspen

We spent Saturday exploring the Maroon Bell National Park trails. As higher elevation trails were still covered in snow, we only managed to hike along the lower altitude trails to Crater Lake.

The Maroon Bells are one of the most photographed mountain scenery in all of North American because of it striking jagged beauty.

Here are some pictures:


The majestic bells in the background


Alan and Steffen and Tinky Tyler


Lunch break at Crater Lake


Tyler let out to stretch...


Our "craziest" shot.. we must not be too crazy after all

Our hike ended at a good time as it started to pour down with rain just as we ended our day.

That night we headed out to downtown in search for more food. However, this was how Steffen felt about his food..


A picture is worth 1000 words.. in this case.. not so nice words..

July 4th - Glenwood Springs

With 1/2 the MLC gang gone, Steffen, Alan, Tyler and I headed to Aspen over the long weekend.

After a late start in the morning, we hit some traffic on I-70, had lunch at Eagle and finally reached Glenwood Springs after 3:00 pm. We took a hike up to Hanging Lake for some beautiful views of the canyon and of course the aqua serene Hanging Lake. I always thought it's what paradise is like(maybe with fewer screaming kids).


Hanging Lake - pictures just don't do it justice


Tyler and Daddy


A good view of the canyon somewhere near the top

It was a good hike for the day as we meandered up(yes, up) the 1-mile path along a creek.


Refreshing creek along the way

After a rather long relaxing time at the lake, we started making our way down. Due to my bad knees, coming down seemed to take so much longer compared to going up!


A good backdrop - Glenwood Canyon

We then drove to Aspen. We got to our condo, took a quick shower and sped off to try to catch the fireworks in downtown Aspen. We got there just in time and Tyler got his first fireworks, though i must say he wasn't too impressed(it was a little wimpy).

After the fireworks, we walked around desperately looking for a place to eat as we were starvingand settled on a Lulu Wilson restaurant which turned out to be really good, except for their kick-ass pickles. After a hearty, delicious meal, we went back to catch a much needed sleep!!

To be continued..

New gated community for Tyler

Tyler has been enjoying his new sense of freedom now that he is mobile. This created big problems for Alan and I, who haven't quite got to "child-proof" the house. My parents didn't have to child proof their house!!!

Anyways, Alan got his act together and bought a few things and invited Steffen over to help. Steffen was disgusted with our wimpy power tools and brought his own the next time!!!


Fixing gates at the stairs

After a few days(!!!), everything was up. We had gates at the top and bottom of the stair case and also an area penned up for Tyler to play safely in. We were beaming with pride that we were responsible parents like the rest. :)

Tyler thought the gates were awesome at first because he could use it to walk back and forth. But didn't take him long to realize that it was only there to cage him in and his enthusiasm quickly turned to loud whining!!!


Tyler trying to put a positive spin to his cage : "Mira Mateo, we can walk using these rails! Cool, huh??"