Thursday, February 25, 2010

Nomination Reception with Betsy Markey


One of Alex's goals has been to attend the Air Force Academy, going back a couple years. Now in her Senior year of high school she is going through the very involved process to make that dream come true.

A while back she had interviewed with several panels for her Congresswoman, Betsy Marky, and both Colorado Senators. We recently found out that Alex received a nomination to the Air Force Academy, from Betsy Markey.

This past weekend, Betsy Markey held a reception to recognize all the students she nominated for the various military academies. The reception took place at the Kress Theater in Greeley. Several of the the board members attended the reception as did the Congresswoman herself.

Additionally, the Greeley Tribune sent a reporter to the occasion to interview all the recent nominees. Alex was interview and even quoted in the article published in the paper. The full article can be found here.

The process has been a long road, but she is nearing the end. She is now waiting to hear from the Air Force Academy to see if she has been accepted. We're very proud and are crossing our fingers for our cadet hopeful.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Science Expo

Sidney's 6th grade science class at Newton Middle School recently had a major science assignment that they each got to present at the annual Science Expo.

Sidney conducted an experiment on potatoes. She wanted to figure out if different potatoes affected how much current would pass through each of them. The experiment required her to come up with a hypothesis, collect the materials, conduct testing, and report her conclusion.

Angie took Sidney to get all the materials, which she took to her dad's for the weekend where they got to complete the experiments. Sidney then took her findings and completed her project, including a poster board outlining everything she did and her findings. Each kid had to present it to the science class as a report.

After all that was completed, the school had the Science Expo, where each student had their assignment presented. Parents and visitors went to the school gym where everything was set up and were able to go around looking at each experiment and ask the kids questions. Sidney did a fabulous job on hers as did many of the other kids. We could tell she was nervous, but once she settled down I think she had a great time doing the project and showing it off.

In other amazing news, Sidney made the Newton Knights basketball team. We're very pleased that she enjoys getting involved in extracurricular activities. They keep her busy and she gets to meet so many new friends.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Senior Night



The time has come for Alex's last home game of her high school career. I can't believe how fast time flies. This year, more than ever, that has become evident. Seems like just yesterday she was being born. I know it sounds cliche, but it still holds true.

Angie, Sidney, Nancy, and I met at my office after work, stopped for dinner, then headed to Northridge High School for the festivities. Alex was amongst 5 seniors on her basketball team, all of which started the game for the Grizzlies. Prior to the game there was a short ceremony celebrating each of them.

The game was very one sided as you can see from the final score of 66-12 in favor of the home team and everyone had a great time.

As if this event didn't make for a big enough day for Alex, she learned that she had received a nomination to one of the military academies, most likely the Air Force. She has worked very hard to earn this and is very deserving. There is more to the process, but its starting to look like Alex will be in the Air Force cadet class of 2014.

I'm not usually the emotional type as nearly everyone will tell you, but on this day, I couldn't hide the tears in my eyes or my beaming pride. Even now, I get teary eyed everytime I think about it.

Way to go Alex!!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Volunteering Rewards



Sunday Angie and I volunteered for the Salvation Army at the Pepsi Center placing "Go Avs" signs on all the seats. In return we were given 2 tickets to the evening's game versus the New York Rangers. There were so many volunteers it really took us about a half hour. Initially we figured we were only getting 2 tickets, so Sid was going to go with me, but as it turned out we each received 2 tickets for our efforts.

With our new found bounty of tickets, which were incidentally very good seats, the 3 of us invited my sister Nancy to join us. Nancy is relatively new to hockey, but was excited to go anyway. Our seats were near center ice and only 17 rows behind the Rangers bench. We all had a great time even though the game was a bit disappointing with the Rangers winning 3-1 because of a hat trick by Marian Gaborik.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Neal's Surprise 40th


With the big Four O coming, there was no doubt in my mind that Angie had something up her sleeve, but I really had no idea what she could possibly have planned.

Friday night, we had plans to go to dinner with our great friends DJ and Danielle to the Cherry Cricket, you may have seen it on the Travel Channel. We were very excited for their famous burgers. Earlier in the day, my friend Bryan, we'll call him the co-conspirator, told me his band the Raygunomics were playing later that night and that I should drop by. Angie has not been a big fan of Bryan, so I was skeptical that she would want to go, but it turned out she did. I suppose this should have raised a red flag, but it didn't. I figured I had at least another week until I needed to be prepared.

Anyway, we had a fabulous dinner and then headed over to Lucky Strike in Belmar for Bryan's show. Much to my surprise, a bunch of our closest friends were there to surprise me and Bryan had been in on it all along. We had a fabulous night out and thoroughly enjoyed my birthday bash. It was most likely the car bombs that even got me to dance.

Thank you to everyone's birthday wishes. Oh, and Angie....WELL PLAYED!