Volleyball Layne

On January 22-24, Heath hosted a rather large and impressive coaching clinic here at the Olympic Training Center. This year, Layne was involved in some of the demo and drills. Please check out the link to see her in action.

http://www.usavolleyball.org/multimedia/photo_gallery/448

What we have been up to.........

Our wonderful friends at The Volleyball Shack (great place where we all play leagues, Layne has camps and helps coach little ones) have finally found a new location (and new name Big House Sports--remember that, I may be talking about it more). They closed up the Shack last year and were able to move into a new location a few weeks ago. We are so excited!! They previously had 4 courts and now will have 6 with room to grow. they will offer other great sports and basketball. Anyway, we were able to help them lay courts, move boxes, unpack and clean a few Saturdays ago. I was really so proud of Layne and her hard work. I know it is because she loves the place and is ready for it to be open. She helped moved boxes all day, then unpacked the storage room and finally did some pounding.

What Heath did was totally unnecessary and scared the %#*@ out of me. The ceiling is very tall and he and another gentleman went up in the lift thingy to check out the lights. They were so high that the lift kinda swayed--I just couldn't watch, but I did take a picture.

I was so sore from all our hard work at Big House and Heath somehow talked me into a hike the following Sunday. He said it would help my legs--it did not. Anyway, it was beautiful because it was so warm (it was in the 60's and even some 70 days almost all of January) but there was still snow in places. When we started the hike it was very sunny and no snow.

We turned a corned on the trail that was shaded--lots of snow and it felt 20 degrees colder. You must always dress in layers here.

We sat at this point and had a lovely lunch. Very enjoyable except for all the phone calls Heath was receiving. I have told him that he will have to leave that stupid thing in the car next time.

I am coaching Layne's club team again this season and we have an amazing group of girls. I am really enjoying them. They had their first tournament this past Sunday and did great. It was the first for a few of them and we worked out our bugs and will be ready for tournament #2. I have a set of twins on the team and they may be the funniest 13 year olds I know. Very enjoyable. You will see much more of them in blogs to come.

I really do feel bad about my lack of blogging--honestly, we are just busy. And, really haven't been doing anything exciting that seems worthy of a blog entry. So, we are all still here--doing great and very busy. Take care and enjoy your day.

Birthday Bowling

My 30 something birthday was last Friday and I will chalk it up to another birthday. Heath tries really hard and I somehow ruin it all. He is really so wonderful, I just don't know how to enjoy my birthday. Now, the day after my birthday--let's party. We did have a very nice dinner at home and they got me the tea kettle I wanted. I think it is just hard to celebrate anything so close to the holidays.

My wonderful friends at work planned a dinner and bowling on Saturday. It was also my co-worker, Barbara's big day last week. It is really nice, we all try to do something for each other on birthdays. We had many at dinner but only a few of us made it to the bowling alley--there are actually tons of people that go bowling.

I did have to beat everyone--what can I say, I know how to bowl!! :) I also had some lovely neon shoes and I think that helped!!

Another year has past and I think we all stop and think about what we have and haven't done. We think about what the new year will bring and what we want to accomplish. I am deep in the middle of all of that. I really want to make some changes in my life and I will certainly keep you posted on any and all progress I make.

Back In Colorado

Friday (1/2/09) was our first day back in Colorado Springs and it didn't disappoint. The temperature was 60 degrees!! We had our back door open most of the day--just wonderful. Usually, when it gets that warm, it is following by some kind of storm and that is what moved in on Saturday evening. We got a few inches and then a little more Sunday morning.

On Sunday we went on a nice little drive in the mountains. It was really beautiful out--the tress were covered and so pretty. Below is our hardy new SUV and other pictures from the drive.

We came across about 12-15 deer during our short drive.

What is so great about the climate here is that all of this was gone by Tuesday. Today (1/8/09) it was 60 again and there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow--yep, it is my birthday. No, I am not acknowledging it!!

I think I have you all up-to-date. I wish you all a wonderful Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Fun In Nebraska

There is really no good way to drive from Colorado to Iowa. You can take I-70 through Kansas or I-80 through Nebraska. Both routes are super boring, so anything slightly interesting would make the Hoke Blog. In a matter of 15 minutes--the best part of the trip happened.

First, we had finally gotten a new car (new to us car). It was nice and comfy for the drive.

Anyway, we stopped to get gas in Lincoln and Heath hopped back into the car and said "I bought a car wash." We both thought, great the car is super dirty from the Iowa weather and it was finally warm enough to wash. We pull up to the automatic car wash, put in the secret code and drive in. This was one of the washes with the big brushes and I had just said "OOH, I love these kind of car washes." And at the same moment Heath said a couple of four letter words along with "WE CAN'T DO THIS"!!!! Then we all realized that with a bag thingy on the top of your vehicle--you really shouldn't go through the car wash. Yep, we had driven right into that car wash with the top bag on and no one even thought twice. Heath moved the car forward and was able to get it to stop and have the door open. The last issue was this metal thing that was not very high--I was sure we wouldn't be able to clear it. The sound it made when we went through was kinda scary and I was almost afraid to look. Karma was on our side and there seemed to be no damage--just a funny story. The bag was a little wet but had 9 more hours to dry out.



We had decided to also stop for lunch in Lincoln and thought it would be fun to check out the King Kong place (there are photos of Layne out frong--they have some concrete gorilla statues out front). Their specialty is hamburgers and gyros. So, we went in and words can't describe this crazy place. There were monkeys, gorillas, elephants and tigers hanging all over the place--and did I say they were stuffed animals??

One would think that was enough, but in the front of the restaurant, was some crazy motorized gorilla band. Amazing, just amazing. The food was just OK, it was rather expensive for a burger joint--so, I don't think we will be going back.

Any one who travels through Lincoln, NE and has a better story--please let me know. The rest of the drive was wonderfully uneventful.

OOOPS, Forgot to fill you in on the rest of the holidays......

I will have to apologize--I did a horrible job of keeping you updated during the last half of our Iowa trip. So, here it goes......... Christmas Eve the three of us spent some time opening our gifts for each other. Layne was super hyper but we had lots of fun and lots of laughs.

Christmas morning was unusual for us this year, and when I tell you this--most of you will not believe me. Every Christmas morning since Layne was born, we have had to wake her up before 9:00am. Honestly--I am telling the truth. So, this Christmas morning I woke up early and went outside to feed the dogs. I took my time because I knew there was no hurry and I would wake Layne up when I got back in. To my surprise, she was waiting in our bedroom talking with Heath. It was a wonderful surprise.

We headed to the "sun room" to find what Santa had left. As usual, Layne was spoiled by the big guy.

After our family time, we headed into mom's house to do our Christmas morning breakfast and gifts. With two little ones around again--it is so much fun. Camrin enjoyed almost everything--especially Hayes' toys.

Hayes always delivers with a wonderfully silly face for most pictures. He got some cool Cars Pez dispensers!!

We made a visit to my dad's house and then back to the farm. We did the usual (wonderful) dinner and then gifts. I will admit that I opened the wine and probably had too much. There are others that have some discriminating photos and I may try to get some of those.

The day after Christmas the boys did some ice fishing--no fish were caught!!

We also went to the Smith side of my family on Friday evening for a Christmas celebration--also wonderful to see all of my family there. Once again--no photos, sorry guys.

On Sunday, Layne had her best friend in the world come to stay a few nights. They had a wonderful time together. I particularly love this photo of them playing Rock Band and how they improvised with no mic stand.

This one, we just couldn't resist--we will use this later for some embarrassing event!

I just liked this photo of grandma Joyce and Camrin. She is a very happy baby--when she can't see mom or if mom is holding her.

I tried to get a nice photo of grandma Cheri and the grandkids--it took me several attempts to get Hayes to cooperate. I think it is a good one.

We were able to visit so many of our family and friends on this trip. Even though it was very hectic, I am so happy we made the time. Some people we hadn't seen since we moved. So, thanks to all that made the time to see us. The time in Iowa went way too fast and we even stayed a few more days then we had planned.

New Year's even was rather uneventful--packing, watching the ball drop and then off to bed. We had decided to leave on New Year's Day--so no partying for us.

I hope all of you had an enjoyable, restful holiday.