Self-powered Life: Three day weekend, chock-full

I love weekends like this: staying busy and doing a lot of different things, but never feeling stressed or overwhelmed. And when a minor holiday such as Presidents Day extends the weekend by a day, all the better.

My wife and I had scheduled a date night for Friday, but the time was almost upon us and no plans had been made. I really didn't want to go sit through a movie I have no interest in. But I didn't have any good ideas as to what we should do. A coworker threw out ice skating as an option. I don't know if he was being serious, but I was intrigued. So after a dinner at East Moon - sushi for her, veggie rolls & szechuan eggplant for me - we went to Westminster's Ice Centre at the Promenade.

It was effectively my first time ice skating. Technically, I had gone once before when I was about 10 years old, but that hardly counts for anything. C used to go ice skating when she was a young girl in Michigan but had lost whatever skill she once had. So we were both total beginners, wobbling around the periphery of the rink. But it was so much fun, we decided that it's something we should do more often.

Saturday was to be a busy day, but in a different way. My daughter had dance class at 9am. And C was planning to go to her art space that afternoon, leaving the kids with me. So if I was going to get a workout, it had to happen early. So Saturday morning I was up at 4:30 to go running. (What is the matter with me?) I broke 17 miles for the first time, and returned home exhausted and frosty.

After a frosty morning run

My daughter, F, has been playing a lot of video games lately, some more educational than others, but none that encourage physical activity. So we had been discussing getting a Kinect for our XBox. Saturday, after lunch, I packed the kids up and we went to pick one up. F spent much of the afternoon jumping around the living room playing River Rush and some of the other games that came with it. I think it's going to turn out to be a good addition to our home entertainment setup.

Sunday has been long-awaited, as F and I had tickets to see Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. I found out a few days before that this month's Neat Market - a local vegan pop-up market - was going on that day as well. So we all went downtown, checked out the market, went over to City, O' City for lunch, and then got dropped off at the performing arts center for the show.

F at the opera

F did really well at the opera. Imagine, anyway, the best case scenario in asking a 6-year-old to sit still and be quiet for three hours (without falling asleep). She had lots of questions about what was going on, and she got restless, but she was able to read a little bit of the text on the caption screens. And we both had a really good time.

On Monday, while the rest of the family was sitting at the breakfast table, I headed out to the South Mesa Trail Head for a hike up Shadow Canyon to South Boulder and Bear peaks. Snowshoes were unnecessary, but I was happy to have some traction control strapped to my shoes. It was probably one of the most strenuous hikes I've done, partially owing to the fact that my legs were still a bit sore from Saturday's run. But it was also incredibly rewarding.