This is why I refuse to ski.

The seven time F1 champion Michael Schumacher suffered a severe brain injury while skiing Sunday.  He was wearing a helmet, but took a direct hit to his head.  Had he not been wearing a helmet, he would be dead.  He's still not in the clear, doctors performed another surgery last night to relieve more swelling on his brain.  Everyone please have a good thought and wish for a full recovery.

He's pretty much my only sports idol(thanks Lance).  I followed his career since 1992 when he drove for Bennetton.

"Mommy, Daddy, Niner, Niner, Niner."

That is what he said as he laid out his ginger bread cookies the other day. :)

The best dog!

I have the flu.  It's awful!  I haven't been this sick in ten years.  Fortunately, I have Maizey dog to keep me company.  She's been at my side for 24 hours now.  How do animals know when we are not well?

It's like a sandbox inside!

The tricky velocipede.

Spotted in this months Cycle World. :)

Sensory overload!

Skyler had an awesome Christmas!!  He's still trying to absorb all of yesterday's festivities and excitement.  Big thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for spoiling him (and the rest of us) so well.

I built up a 29er for Altair.  Salsa Mamasita to be exact.  It's a clone to the one I built in July for me.

Skyler got a Thomas all around Sodor train.  And the combine.  And the JD action figure firefighter.

Grandpa got a red nose gag gift and Skyler thought it was great!

Auntie Karen got him the ultimate Caillou gift pack.

Opening a present...

A backhoe from Grandma & Grandpa!!

A whirr of motion opening another!

Sitting on a present from Karen.

Opening another.  You can see the JD riding mower toy from Grandpa on the floor behind him.

I think this contained the ultimate Caillou gift collection.

Merry Christmas.

All trains, all day yesterday.

We played with his wooden railway all day yesterday.  He was up early, didn't take a nap, and only wanted to play train.  My knees hurt from all the kneeling today.  Already he's asked "play train daddy?"

He gets down low to watch the train pass.

Pushing cars around one of the loops.

This would happen every hour.  Start over and build a new track.

The lumberjack photo.

3 generations wearing red plaid flannel. :)

Snow!

We've had tremendous amounts of snow the past week.  Skyler has been thrilled and had a great time pulling mommy on a sled Friday.

City lights.

We rode the bus on rails (the light rail train) downtown last night to see the city lights.  I think Skyler was even more excited to see the Christmas lights than he was riding the train.

Red popper!

Maizey dog got a new toy, a popping red rubber disk, a red popper if you will.  All day every day, this is all she wants to do.

Keep your pencil sharp !

Skyler found the pencil sharpener at Grandpa's.  He pushes a ladder over, climbs up, and starts cranking!  Poor Grandpa,  all his pencils will now be much shorter!

Hawk!

This is where a pigeon or mourning dove met its match in our yard.

Dear Santa...

This is all I want for Christmas this year!

It looks factory made with the matching JD yellow blower attached!

It's a John Deere 7500 forage harvester converted to a snowblower!  513 ponies!  Normally this is used to cut and chop either hay or corn for ensilage used to feed ruminants.  AKA, silage or cow feed.  In typical farmer form, they engineered it to become a snowblower.  Not a small task since the main purpose of the entire unit is to take the 513 horses and use them to turn 10 rows of corn into chopped bits.  Imagine sitting up in that spacious climate controlled sound proof cab and blowing snow 12 feet wide as deep as the blower?  I can! :)

WOW!!!

And to compare what this looked like when it left the factory in Germany, here's a photo.

From my JD brochure collection that I've been collecting for 35 years. :)

"I can see the top!"

"Riding my Yellow and Green!"

We're going riding in the snow today!

Ride your bike!

Altair got a spin bike for one of her birthday presents this week.  A bonus is that I can ride it too!  Skyler REALLY wishes he could ride it after seeing us both take a turn using it yesterday! :)

Skyler sings "Happy Birthday."

We took Mommy out to lunch yesterday and afterwards, we surprised her on a conference call in an alleged meeting.  Her coworkers arranged the entire thing without her knowledge.  I knew about it since Wednesday.  We sang the birthday song on the phone and everyone just about melted when Skyler sang into the phone for Mommy.  I didn't capture it at the time, (we were in my truck using the magic iPhone that would have captured it) but here's Skyler singing last night right before we enjoyed quite possibly the most delicious cake I've ever had!  (My Mom made the cake.  Thanks Mom!)

Happy Birthday Altair!!!!

Today is my lovely wife Altair's birthday.  Somehow I got lucky enough to be married to such a wonderful woman.  She works insane hours at work to provide for us and to allow me to stay home with Skyler.  She's a marathon runner, a triathlete, a mountain biker, and a fitness freak.  She always has to be busy and it seems  that there's always a project or an event under construction.  And perhaps the most important part of it all, she is a mother.  Without her, we wouldn't have our perfect little guy in our life.  I don't say it enough, but Altair, I LOVE YOU!!!!!  I love you more than words on a silly card or any presents can show.  Thank you for being in my life for nearly 12 years now.  Happy Birthday!!!!

My favorite time of the week, our Sunday morning walks along the canal.

The winter sun.

It's been insanely cold here for a week now.  Like 15 for the high.  I saw -1 for a low.  It's rarely this cold here in Utah especially for this length of time.  The cat and dog must be solar powered.  Every day the sun comes out, this is where they are to be found.  Good thing the solstice is only 10 days away, then the days will start to get longer! Woo! Hoo!

In "Niner's" room.

Not to be outdone, this was what the sky looked like last night!

Gorgeous!

"Santa is coming!"

That is what Skyler has been saying since last week when we got our Christmas tree.  Here he is inspecting my parents' tree...

Fat bikes work great to pull a sled!

That's exactly what happened yesterday afternoon!  I pulled Skyler around the yard using the Fat Bike.  It's WAY more work to ride in the snow, let alone pull a 35 pound toddler in a sled.  We did it though!  I don't know how many laps I did packing a trail.  All I do know is how tired I was afterwards!  I think Fat Biking is measured in work, not distance.  Blazing a trail in a foot of powder is no small task!

His little sled is getting too small!

"Whee!"

Dragging his hand in all the fresh powder.

I don't think he cares what pulls his sled, as long as he gets pulled is all that matters.  :)

Bundled up like Ralphie from the Christmas Story movie.

Even Mommy got to ride.  Note the small child tasting snow in the picture.

Snow day!!

This is why today's post is late.

We got about a foot of fresh snow overnight!  Skyler got to go out with me the second time and we roaded the tractor down to see grandma & grandpa.  Skyler then stayed at their house.  He wanted to have Sunday breakfast with " mamma and papa!"

A bit of a repeat...

I've posted this before, but this is what I'll be doing today and possibly tomorrow!

My sister sent me this earlier in the week.  I think it deserves sharing.

On another note, everyone seems to be feeling MUCH better here today.  Skyler looks like his normal self and I feel good again.  Mommy is still a little sniffley though...

The lil' thinker.