Raible Designs

Wednesday November 05, 2008

Happy Birthday Abbie! Today marks the 6th anniversary of Abbie's birthday. Happy Birthday kiddo!

To see how Abbie has grown up over the years, see past Happy Birthday posts: #1, #3 and #4, #5. To celebrate, I'll be getting off early and having lunch with Abbie's class at school. After that, we'll be embarking on a Daddy/Daughter day where she gets to pick everything we do. I did this with Jack on his birthday and had a lot of fun. Posted in General at Nov 05 2008, 06:42:55 AM MST 3 Comments

Thursday September 18, 2008

Abbie gets her first tooth and The Bus looks great! Today was quite the day. First of all, Jack and I took Abbie to A Wild Smile to get a couple front teeth yanked. She has her first adult tooth coming in and her baby teeth weren't getting out of the way. Before and after pictures are below:

This afternoon, I drove to Colorado Springs to see The Bus and speak at the Colorado Open Source User Group. The Bus looked great. Motorworks Restorations has done a lot of very detailed work (i.e. replacing corners, stretching the frame, replacing window and door drains) in the last couple of months.

We talked for a good hour about the possibilities in wheels, transmission, engine, suspension, gauges and interior. My favorite topics were the air bags, 6-cylinder 911 engine and safari windows. Click here to see the full set of pictures I took. Quote of the night: "It's going to be better than it was when it was brand new."

After leaving the bus, I delivered my Web Frameworks of the Future Presentation to a bunch of guys (and gals) at a nearby library. It was a fun presentation because I got to meet a lot of folks I had name recognition for, but had never met. All in all, a very good day.

Tomorrow marks my last day of work before I head out on a week's vacation in Munich for Oktoberfest. I have a feeling the days are going to get a lot better from here on out. Posted in The Bus at Sep 18 2008, 11:49:49 PM MDT 1 Comment

Sunday August 10, 2008

Spontaneous Stuff Weekend This weekend, I didn't have much planned to do with the kids. I had a couple ideas, but nothing set in stone. The good news is the kids were full of ideas and we kept ourselves plenty occupied. On Saturday, we went to Elitch Gardens. We rode the Light Rail and my stomach barely survived the 4-hour journey.

I was pleased to find out they served beer at Elitches, but regretted it shortly after as I was spinning with the kids in the Tea Cups. But that wasn't the worst ride. The worst one was Thunderbolt - that was the one I had to go on back-to-back with each kid (b/c they weren't tall enough to ride alone). Shortly after getting off, I realized I'd left my iPhone on the ride. Luckily, I rushed back to the ride and the operator was able to find my car and grab it from a very happy teenager.

Today we decided it'd be fun to take a hike. We gathered everyone in the car and drove just past Idaho Springs to St. Mary's Glacier. It was a nice 1.5 mile round-trip hike and both the kids and Cookie (the dog) had a great time. I was pretty impressed with the kids' ability to hike, especially over all the big rocks on the trail. Of course, when I told them they did so well, it only took Abbie 2 seconds to process and respond with "does that mean we get toys?"

Posted in General at Aug 10 2008, 05:25:00 PM MDT Add a Comment

Monday July 07, 2008

Raible Road Trip #12 Vacation Report I'm happy to report that the kids and I made it home safely last night after a heckuva Road Trip. We were gone for a total of 8 days and we drove for 4 of those. Here's some stats from Snow White:

• 43 Hours
• 2248.3 Miles
• 150.9 Gallons of Gas
• 14.9 AVG MPG
• 52 AVG MPH

Of course, these stats include day-to-day driving while in Montana.

Driving to Montana
We left early on Saturday morning, waking up at 4:30 and were on the road around 5. This was brutal considering I went to bed 4 hours earlier the night before. My Dad and I took turns driving and tried to listen to an audiobook (Spook Country) along the way. However, whenever one person wasn't driving, they fell asleep so the whole idea somewhat failed.

We arrived in Yellowstone around 5PM and checked into our campground. The ranger told me there were 5 grizzlies in the campsite and that we should pack up our food and put small pets in cars for the night. Of course, I couldn't wait to tell this to Abbie, who is always scared that bears will attack us when camping. I finally calmed her fears by telling her I wrestled a bear once when I was a kid and won pretty easily. After setting up camp, Abbie took a swim in the "freezing cold" Yellowstone Lake and we ate dinner and climbed into our tent shortly after.

On Sunday, we woke up and made it out of our campsite by 7:30. We drove to Old Faithful, enjoyed an eruption and proceeded to have a nice breakfast at The Old Faithful Inn. After checking out some more geysers, we made it out of the park around 11. We stopped briefly in Bozeman to see an old friend, hit Clearwater Junction and Lucky's (for huckleberry milkshakes) around 6, and made it to The Cabin just before dark.

At The Cabin
The few days we spent at The Cabin and in the Swan Valley were a lot of fun. I got to drive the family Excavator with both kids on my lap. Jack was operating the bucket while Abbie was operating the swivel of the cab. I took my mountain bike, so I got to ride some old trails I used to ride all the time as a kid. Not only were there beautiful views on the trails, but I also got to experience quite a wreck that sent me head-first into some rocks and bushes. It was the first time I've wrecked in a while where I thought to myself "that was fast and hard enough to break some bones". Luckily, all I received were a number of scratches and bruises.

On Thursday, we took my sister to the train station in Whitefish. We left early enough for my dad and I to get in some golfing at Meadow Lake Golf Course and the kids to hit Big Sky Waterslides. Apparently, they didn't have a height requirement because they were able to go on all the slides.

On the 4th, we finished Abbie's Princess float in the early morning, took a quick sauna and headed down to the Swan Valley Parade. We'd been talking about the parade and Abbie's float for several weeks, so I was kinda nervous that I might mess it up. Not only did everything go great, but there were several hundred folks that clapped when we drove by and commented on what a beautiful princess Abbie was.

After the parade and drinking some good ol' Busch Light from the "Beer Garden", we headed to Holland Lake for a swim and canoeing. We drove back home in time to play a game of horseshoes and get the fireworks setup for the evening. We had a good fireworks show (with yours truly in charge) and enjoyed lots of laughs with old friends.

The Drive Home
As usual, the drive home was the longest portion of the trip. The first day, we left the cabin around 11 and pulled into Billings around 5. The kids (and dog) did pretty good as we only needed to stop once. The shorter first day turned out to be a good idea since the kids like hotels so much. Yesterday, we left Billings around 9:30 and cruised along mightily until we hit the Colorado border. There, traffic came to a standstill and we suffered through stop-and-go the rest of the way home. After 9 hours, we pulled into my driveway, exhausted.

I don't believe we'll be driving next year. The Road Trip to The Cabin is something that should only be done every couple years. Snow White continues to be an awesome car. We towed a sawmill (on a trailer) to The Cabin and didn't even feel the load. With DVD screens in the back of both front-seats, it was an excellent road-trip vehicle for the kids. Also, it's smooth suspension made for an enjoyable experience for everyone (we drove Julie's Honda Odyssey one year and Abbie kept getting sick from the DVD screen bouncing). The more I drive it (esp. skiing, camping and on road trips), the happier I am with the purchase.

For more photos from the trip, please see Raible Road Trip #12 on Flickr. Posted in General at Jul 07 2008, 06:32:43 PM MDT 1 Comment

Sunday June 01, 2008

Fun Weekend with The Munchkins This weekend was action-packed and a lot of fun. On Friday night, Abbie, Jack and I watched The Empire Strikes Back. We watched "the first one" a couple weeks ago; their first "grown up" movie to-date. They're loving the series, especially because they recognize people from the previous movie. They're really looking forward to the next one because Wicket is in it. Believe it or not, I still have a stuffed Wicket from when I was a kid.

On Saturday, we started the day off right at Andrew Swanson's 5th birthday party. Following that, we hit up Pirates Cove and its adjacent petting zoo and train ride.

Today, we woke up, had some blueberry pancakes, drove to the bait shop and then headed to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. The weather was beautiful and Kriley Pond was a nice fishing spot. We didn't catch anything, but both kids are getting a lot better at casting. The highlight was the live worms we bought at the bait shop. Both Abbie and Jack were convinced they were the biting kind.

Next fun trip: An overnight camping trip on Father's Day. Location TBD. Posted in General at Jun 01 2008, 10:33:12 PM MDT Add a Comment

Friday May 23, 2008

Which one do you believe Daddy? Abbie: Which one of these do you believe Daddy?

Abbie: Mommy and I believe the 2nd one is right.
Me: I agree. Posted in General at May 23 2008, 01:05:18 AM MDT 14 Comments

Sunday January 27, 2008

Hike up Green Mountain I can't believe these two actually hiked up to the top of Green Mountain. It must've been the promise of a picnic at the top that motivated them -- or maybe the ice cream afterwards.

Posted in General at Jan 27 2008, 03:39:53 PM MST 1 Comment

Monday November 05, 2007

Happy Birthday Abbie! 5 years sure goes by quick when you're a parent. It's hard to believe that 1) I started blogging over 5 years ago and 2) Abbie turns 5 years old today. It's pretty cool to be able to look back at previous birthdays: the birthday, #1, #3 and #4. I don't know what happened for #2, but I sure feel bad for not blogging the event.

Congratulations kiddo - you've turned into a beautiful (and awfully smart) little girl.

P.S. Don't tell her I called her a "little" girl - she's obviously a "big" girl. Posted in General at Nov 05 2007, 12:37:24 PM MST 3 Comments

Wednesday October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween! Abbie and Jack had great Halloween costumes this year. Abbie was Little Bo Peep (she even had a lost sheep) and Jack was Edward the Train. I emphasize Edward because everyone kept calling him "Thomas" and he kept getting mad and telling folks "I'm Edward, not Thomas!".

Julie's sister, Holly, made Jack's awesome costume. The best part about it was she made the back of it into his candy-holder so whenever folks would hand him candy, he'd spin around and look over his shoulder while they dropped it in. Today we found out the candy was actually coal - he said he needed a lot more to keep Edward chugging along.

Halloween was a blast this year: great costumes, two nights of trick-or-treating, and a parade/party at the kids' school today. Good stuff all around. Posted in General at Oct 31 2007, 10:10:09 PM MDT 3 Comments

Sunday October 21, 2007

Beautiful This has to be cutest picture I've ever captured. It's hard to believe she's going to be 5 next month.

Posted in General at Oct 21 2007, 12:18:25 PM MDT