Spring Piano 2014

As requested by his grandmas, FFM's Spring Recital performance.

He was thrilled to lead off the performance, and this year's recital was the best one yet. At the beginning of the year his teacher decided to leave the school where she had been teaching and a few students followed her for private instruction. Because we've done both group and solo lessons with Kelly for 2.5 years now we knew almost every other student at the recital. It's way more fun to listen to kids you know than strangers! The kids all did very well, and it was obvious they are all enjoying their music. No two kids repeated songs (unlike days of old), and the evening went by in a flash.

I missed the introduction, but here's Amazing Grace and Star Wars Main Title.
(a side note, Ms. Kelly's piano is a couple hundred years old and has a unique sound. Because a lot of these kids listen carefully when they play several of them fumbled around for a note that sounded different on her concert piano than on her practice one or the one they have at home. Normally I don't hear any of these kids stumble during a performance, it's good practice to play on all kinds of pianos!)

Spring DIY

Spring DIY is all about yard work. We've been remodeling our landscaping since the summer of 2010 and we're taking a year off of massive earthmoving. No spring would be complete without shoveling a few rocks, though, and this year was no exception.

After taking out a massive spruce tree that was threatening to take over our house we had a naked spot on the corner of our house. It's a southwest corner, so the shade from the tree was nice in the summer but made it very dark in the winter. "Plant something deciduous!" said FFM, so we did.

Planting our new magnolia took a little rock and earth moving, less than an afternoon. It looks a little ragged in the final photo, we had some good precipitation last night and everything is soggy this morning.

One of our goals for this summer was to have room for more tomato plants. We had tomatoes in our garden plot last year, but everyone's favorites were the ones that we had in pots right of the edge of our deck. The kids and Travis would grab a handful and munch every time they walked past. Travis got busy and built a large planter specifically for tomatoes so we could have all our plants within easy reach of the deck this year.

We also started a lot of seeds this year. We have in years past, but have been hampered in our effort by various circumstances like travel, surgery, and not enough lights. This year we were home and healthy and all our seedlings thrived. So much that they started taking over our basement and had to be moved outside where they could get enough light (they got too tall for our grow lights). Being Colorado it's still chilly at night, which tomato and pepper plants really don't like. I had a quiet day at work one day and drew up some plans for a quick and easy greenhouse. On the way home I swung by Home Depot and by the time Travis came home mid afternoon I'd built the whole thing less the plastic covering.

The plants are very happy and I can lift up the trap doors on the top to let in full strength sunlight when it's warm enough. It's chilly this morning so I've covered up the vent gap in the middle with a towel until it warms up.

We started radishes, lettuce, and carrots in our garden plot, but recent reports are that there is a hole in the fence and rabbits have munched all our sprouts. If the weather cooperates we'll replant again this weekend, patch the holes, and hope for better luck.

Addiction

It was just a matter of time.
FFM has become addicted to books. He hauls one around most places we go and finds a cozy corner to read everywhere. The coup  de gras came a couple of nights ago when we caught him waaaay after bedtime with a flashlight under the covers. My mother will appreciate the parenting irony, many a night I snuck a flashlight or insisted my closet light stay on do I could read late into the night. We compromised with a set amount of time to read in bed (with flashlight or book light) before final lights out. Last night I set his timer incorrectly and promptly forgot about it. A little after 9pm Travis walked by F's room and he was still reading away, struggling to keep his head up and his eyes open. We are one little guy,  I totally understand!

Ski the Alps

We left Geneva on a Saturday morning for the three hour drive to our ski resort, Tignes. Tignes is part of a gargantuan ski area that is actually two together, Tignes and Val d'Isere. Longer ago than I'd like to admit my family skiied both of these areas, before they were connected, and I have fond memories of both. Of course NOTHING in town looked the same after being away for decades, but the Alps and the Grand Motte Glacier still took my breath away.

View from our balcony

FFM riding his favorite kind of lift - POMA aka surface lift. 

The beginning of the week was snowy, up past F's knees in a lot of places! 

Twilight walk to dinner with pal Haaken.

Sunny morning, Travis getting ready to pop on his skis.
We had to walk a few yards uphill to get to the ski run.

View down the mountain to the village of Tignes.

Lunch on mountain, totally different affair than in the US!

Enjoying long, quiet, beautiful ski runs.

FFM loved all the different kinds of lifts, this was a massive 30 person gondola.

Having fun in the powder after my big crash!

Eric and FFM walking to one of the funiculars.

Patiently waiting for our turn on the "mountain subway"

Family ski day!

Life sure is good!

One evening we decided to go out to dinner with my Mom and Eric. I randomly picked a restaurant that turned out to be a local delight. After searching for our location, literally at the end of the road, we walked into a cozy stone building that had a row of flaming metal boxes out front. New to us, we used sign language (only place my rusty French didn't work well with totally non-English speaking staff) to inquire about the flaming boxes. Turns out it was for dinner, so we ordered enough for the table. Yum! Tucked under a big copper chimney we grilled various strips of meat, dipped in an assortment of sauces, and followed it up with a giant dish of potatos au gratin. Declared a gastronomic success!

Storm rolling in again, must be about time to head home.

Geneva - Switzerland

Part two of our trip took us to Geneva, Switzerland via a high speed TGV train. Our ski resort was in France, but Geneva is the closest major city. We met up with some friends and family there for a few days of Swiss sight seeing.

I would like to say that I would happily travel by high speed train anytime. It was so smooth, so quiet, and SO FAST! Lovely way to go.

Leaving Paris on our way to Geneva

Living large!

 The train served us a snack on our three hour trip, brie, prosciutto, fruit, and a mini baguette. No lame bags of pretzels when flying across France! Grown ups could, of course, also have a glass of wine with their snack.

 Day 1 in Geneva was stunning, we went for a walk around part of the lake and watched the famous Jet d'Eau.

 FFM is a big fan of alternative modes of transportation,
 a trip on the free water taxi was a must.

Souvenir shopping in Geneva included buying a fair bit of chocolate and nearly coming home with a cuckoo clock. We also did housekeeping things like laundry; Travis gallantly took a couple of bags to the closest laundromat which happened to be located in the red light district. Walking around waiting for the spin cycle to finish he got to view all kinds of ladies strutting their stuff in nearby shop windows. Meanwhile FFM and I had a fun filled afternoon catching up on homework.

Next day we rented a tiny car 

and headed up the nearby mountains to the town of Gruyere.

 Guess what they make in Gruyere? Yup, delicious cheese! After watching the cheese maker start a batch of cheese we checked out the cheese flipping robot. The curing cheeses get flipped and rinsed with a brine until they are all done.

The whole place smelled a bit cheesy...nevertheless FFM thought we should bring one of these with us. Whole wheels weigh in at 35kg, so Travis vetoed him.