Hello friends. 2008 came pretty fast. The season is Colorado includes calfing and hunting. The second week of January, we attended the 2008 National Cattlemens Show in Denver. Its the premier event for Ranchers and Cowboys. The rodeo was a real show and the bulls won more points than the cowboys in the bullriding event. This is a picture of one of the barrel racers. Although the picture is a little blurry, it illustrates how fast these animals and riders are going! Hank made straight A's his first semester and begins the final session for his Junior year now. I imagine the time will fly as basketball, track and the spring prom will show up on the schedule of events. Hank is playing varsity Basketball in the "down under" position. Near as I can tell that means playing defense down under the basket. He is pretty aggressive and seems to challenge those he is put up against. I've taken some pics but the action is so fast that they are not good enough to share.
Henry's challenges change during this part of the year and the weather is the primary reason. As the temperature drops machinery fails to start and working on things is more difficult. This picture is one I took in Wyoming when I rode up with Henry to deliver a front end loader they were using to move snow. If you look close you can see the snow blowing in the foreground. 
Snowboarding is the winter activity for teens! Hank got a board and equipment for Christmas and has been fairly busy breaking it in. Once you have your own stuff you can hit the slopes for less than $50 a day. I bought a helment and asked him to wear it. It seemed ironic to me that his response was "I'm not good enough to wear a helment." Uhg? The logic seems a bit backwards to me.Hank turned 17 years young! Wow, where did the years go.
We had some friends over for a birthday dinner and played a wild game of spoons afterwards. These crazy Minnesota friends play PIG spoons.
Each time you loose you gain one letter of the work pig. When you loose three times and spell the work out, they take tape and position it on your nose such that you look like a pig - THEN you have to say "oink, oink". It was Denise's idea so she gets her "piggy pic" on the web!
It was a fun way to celebrate Hank's birthday. 
Recently my coworker, Ranay came to Denver for a training class and over the weekend we went to Estes Park. It's a beautiful place as I've reported before and this time, I handed my camera to Ranay and she snapped these pictures. 
Finally, Meet Sparky! He is the newest addition to our household and is Grizzly's first baby boy! My hope is that Mom would like to have him in Alabama, but since she is not a house dog kinda gal, the jury is still out!
Jane
Jane
