Farewell Little Sisters...

Yasemin has been lucky enough to have played soccer in a great team called the Little Sisters. They are a wonderful group of girls who love the game of soccer. Together they have trained three nights a week, with professional coaches and competed against other teams on Saturday mornings. With this kind of gruelling schedule, it is no wonder the American women took home the gold medal in soccer at this years Olympic games.

It has been a joy to watch these girls improve throughout the year and see Yasemin develop to hold her own.  Yasemin actually scored two goals in her last game. I am sometimes shocked at the exceptional skills these little girls have already developed.

Yasemin has made some wonderful friendships and hopes to continue to communicate with the girls from Australia. Last night, we attended a farewell party with the Little Sisters.

Beloved coach Mike - one of the teams three coaches presented the Girls with new training shirts.

Coach Mike is a wonderful coach and he has been very supportive of Yasemin, she is really going to miss him and the team.

Good bye Little Sisters - thanks for a great year and for making us part of your family!

Four Distinct Seasons...

When people ask me what it is that I really love about living in the US, I have to answer that experiencing four distinct seasons is one of my favorite things. The trees in the front were currently a beautiful shade of red.

Max and Yasemin had hours of fun raking up the leaves in the front yard, creating a huge pile. They would then jump in the pile and throw the leaves all about only to begin again. It was great to see them having some good old fashioned fun.

We were enjoying the wonderful fall colors, watching them change daily, when a few weeks ago we had our first real snowfall - even though it was only a dusting of snow by Colorado standards. Excitement levels were at an all time high as we woke to see our street dusted with fresh snow. The beauty created still takes my breath away.

As the kids were racing to put on any warm clothes they could find, my first thought was about the beautiful red leaves being ruined. The leaves looked somewhat magical covered in snow and ice.

Max was happy to be outside, even at 7am and could think of nothing better than to kick his rugby ball around in the snow. (Pop you must be proud!)

Yasemin was not to be outdone and happily played with her soccer ball.

The house looked like it was from a storybook, complete with Halloween decorations. We are desperately waiting for a really good dump so we can begin the snowman building competition we have been talking about for months. Come on snow - we are ready!

Happy Halloween...

One of the great things about spending a year in another country is being able to share and participate in different cultural celebrations. Halloween is definitely one of these celebrations. Many people we have spoken with have suggested that Halloween is even more popular than Christmas in the US. If the house decorations are anything to go by, I could believe that Halloween is the biggest celebration of the year here. The images below show some of the wonderful displays.

Halloween is much more than just one evening of Trick or Treats. It starts with many Fall Festivals held  throughout the city. We went to the Pumpkin festival held at the Botanic Gardens. We had lots of fun in the massive Corn Maze, but eventually ended up in the Pumpkin Patch. As you can see, Max was determined to select the biggest pumpkin he could actually carry.

Pumpkin carving is quite an art, but it is made easier by the many different pumpkin carving tools sold at local supermarkets. Even though we purchased our pumpkins a few weeks before Halloween, they could not be left out as the Squirrels would eat them and you could not begin carving them to early as they would rot - who knew this was such a tricky business.

I was embracing the spirit of Halloween and even made a Haunted House from gingerbread with the kids - not bad for a first effort!

Of course the highlight is the fun of dressing up in costumes. We had many opportunities to wear costumes, the first was the fall festival at Lincoln Elementary. The kids were very excited and looked fabulous!

Most of the kids were dressed up in amazing costumes. I was proud to have inspired one of my students to dress up as Frida Kahlo.

We were all impressed with the intricate make up on one of the boys. The scars and wounds looked amazing. They really take dressing up seriously here!

One of the highlights of the festival was the Haunted House. I was shocked at how much fun and how scary it was - I actually screamed out loud as I wandered through the exhibit.

But we were really waiting for the chance to Trick or Treat! Max spent weeks counting down the sleeps. After a very big day at school we headed across the road to celebrations at Lunden's house.
The house was filled with children and adults in full costume, full of excitement. Yasemin and Brooklyn had a ball in the yard playing zombies.

I was extremely happy as Frida, and almost overwhelmed when Obama arrived.

Max met up with his little friend Ezra and they put on some moves for the camera.

Even the little kids were in on the act - little Heiko was a divine little dragon!

After a wonderful meal we set off at dusk for a long walk around the neighborhood. We were an impressive posse of more than twenty children and a dozen or so adults. I was impressed with how kind all the households were and shocked at how much candy was accumulated - an offensive amount of candy! Thankfully we can take any unwanted candy to the local dentist, where they will pay us for our donation and then send the candy overseas to the troops.

I can't remember having so much fun with the kids - Halloween was much more fun than any of us expected!

Our Last Trip to Breckenridge...

One of our favorite places in Colorado is the beautiful town of Breckenridge which is  located in Summit County, in north central Colorado. This is the heart of the Rocky Mountains--86 miles west of Denver.

We arrived and set about exploring the town. We went into the Breckenridge Photo Shop so that I could visit with Gary, the other wonderful photographer who was a tutor on the photography workshop I attended in Telluride a few weeks ago.

Gary is a fellow Nikon photographer and I spent most of my time in the workshop listening and learning from him. It was great to walk around his studio and see his work. Below are two of my favorites from his collection.

It was a cold afternoon so we headed up the hill to our accommodation at The Beaver Run Resort. We had a voucher from the resort for one night, not only was our accommodation free, but we were also upgraded to a fantastic apartment. We spent the afternoon enjoying one of the outdoor heated pools and hot tubs. We spent the night as a family watching The Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids loved this because it reminded us of our visit to Disneyland earlier in the year - The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was their favorite.

It was a treat to wake up to such a great view, but at the same time we were missing this beautiful town already.

After a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs we headed back to the pool for a swim before the kids enjoyed playing in the snow.

We headed back into town for a late lunch and a final walk around town.

Goodbye Breckenridge - I hope I can return one day!

John Fielder and a trip to Telluride...

Without a doubt John Fielder is Colorado’s premier landscape photographer.  I have spent many hours in his gallery in Denver this year admiring both his and fellow photographers images.

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of participating in a colorful 3-day fall foliage workshop in the San Juan Mountains around Telluride, where autumn delivers layer upon layer of color. Fresh snow dusts peaks under blue skies, while golden aspens, yellow cottonwoods, orange willows and red sandstone hills add explosions of color to the high country John showed us his favorite backroads as vast ranches stretch out in magnificent valleys.

I took the image below along a magnificent stretch of, "Last Dollar Road". It was a beautiful morning and the sun was lighting up the brilliant fall foliage.

One of John's favourite places is Ralph Lauren's amazing ranch and surrounding land. The following image is a favourite of mine not only because of the wonderful vista - but I couldn't get enough of the Aspen bowl fences!

We spent hours, looking up to capture the towering yellow aspens rising against blue skies, and photographed horses and cows grazing in snow-kissed meadows. This was a wonderful opportunity to discover the heart and soul of nature’s beauty in the Colorado high country. I am still learning and feel that after this workshop I have been able to continue improving my images.

I have included a few images - I shot thousands over the weekend. I entered a number of images below in a Telluride Photography competition recently, and although I think the photograph is interesting, I was surprised when this was the shot that won second prize. Beauty must be in the eye of the beholder!

I submitted three images yesterday for selection, to be hung in John Fielders gallery in Denver in an upcoming exhibition. The panel will select only 18 images to hang - my fingers and toes are crossed. I am hopeful that one of my three will be chosen. This would be a fantastic end to a wonderful year of photography in the US in 2012.