Tea at the Teahouse in Boulder

The Dushanbe Tea House is a Boulder landmark. It was a gift from Boulder's sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan and is a glory of art, colour and beauty.
As we sipped iced tea, the hustle and bustle of Boulder seemed very far away!

Cocktail hour at the Bambers!

Linda and Tess indulging in mojitos made by Tess....yum yum!!!!
We are so gorgeous we shouldn't be allowed out!!!!!!

Tess and Maja go skating

Tess has come to stay with us for a couple of weeks to get the all American experience. Sadly, we haven't quite worked out what that is yet but we did think going skating on a huge ice rink with just a couple other losers was a good start.

Winters Last gasp!

We have a super sleet storm going on right now...Jonathan says the university may be closing..conditions are truly horrible! Predictions of warm sunshine next week are keeping me going!

Seven become three again!

The Squire family have just left for the long journey back to the UK. They have been fantastic company and the boys have been really good to Maja.
Highlights of their trip were skiing, a road trip clocking up nearly 1000 miles, hikes, snow shoeing and copious hot tubs. We had some great meals together and many glasses of wine! We will miss them. The photos show the kids messing around in the garden, making some "garden art".

Friday eve

Just having a lazy chill with Maja (watching a sort of Barbie movie...mmmmmm.... when 5 or 6 deer appeared in the garden...amazing. Hope they eat the weeds.

Alex enjoying a lite American lunch!!!

Daniel's Poem

Daniel has written a poem...I love it so I thought I would put it on the blog as a reminder of our holiday.

I Can…

I can fly up in the sky,
I can ride my bike with no handlebars,
I can see through the back of my head,
I can donate both of my kidneys,
I can boogie better than John Travolta,
I can win the Olympics for somewhere like Andorra,
I can feed the world; I can dance the can-can,
I can have my cake and eat it,
I can roll uphill – backwards,
I can rewind live sports matches, and not just on TV,
I can speak any language except German,
I can climb the crags of Kilimanjaro and I can swim the seven salty seas,
I can do anything blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back,
I can put two and two together,
I can make it rain in Spain, though mainly on the plain,
I can scare bears because I barely care for their welfare,
I can run faster than a cheetah,
I can play Michael Jordan at his own game,
I can pull a better poker face than Gordon Brown,
I can beat the system, keep the faith, live the life, save the day, seize the moment,
I can break a mirror; I can walk under a ladder,
I can force a hand, shake a hand, lend a hand,
I can blow your mind, read your mind, change your mind – as long as you don’t mind,
I can sort out all the things wrong with this world because…

I can imagine!

Three become seven!

The Squire family from Bristol (Simon, Ruth, Daniel, 15 and Alex, 12) have joined us for two weeks of Boulder magic!! They arrived on Thursday to bright warm sun and have so far experienced sun, rain and a big dump of snow and thats in less than 40 hours!!! The house is now full of big boys, which means big shoes and big noise!! (actually mostly Maja!) So far the highlights have included hot tub, air guitar (don't ask...but it involved Queen on the i-pod) a bit of shopping and a snowball fight. This morning Jonathan has taken them for a hike while Maja and I enjoy some chilled out girl time. The Squires are coping well with jet lag and altitude and I'm sure we will have lots of fun over the two weeks they are here.

Winter returns to Boulder!

At present there is a snow blizzard going on! Maja and I got caught in it on the way home from school!!I could hardly see where I was going. It's coming down at a terrific rate so we should have lots of snow tomorrow!

R and R in Los Alamos

The journey to Los Alamos was memorable for a few things: Long, long drags of road through Native American Reservations....trailer parks......casinos (advertising loose slots!!???) It got more beautiful as we approached Santa Fe and Los Alamos.
We arrived in a snowy Los Alamos early evening, to a cosy fire, glass of wine and yummy dinner. That set the tone for the weekend! We had a wonderfully chilled out weekend with Aimee, Steve and Maya (nearly 4)
The two Maya's had been friends in Bristol when Steve was a colleague of Jonathans and they were more than delighted to be reunited!!!
They played, sang, danced, dressed up and hiked furiously all weekend and exausted themselves completely. The adults enjoyed good food and conversation (not to mention a couple of cool hikes)
We all hope to meet up in Boulder before we return to England.

Time for some exercise!

After spending so long in the car we leapt up next morning ready for a hike. We decided to do Bright Angel Trail which snakes round into the canyon. it is a challenging walk in the sense that it is a little precipitous in places and what goes down....!!!
Maja managed really well. We hiked for about 4 hours with plenty of stops to let mules past and to refuel. The sky was clear and afforded utterly amazing views. It snowed a little, which added to our adventure, as we were ascending. Maja enjoyed lots of praise from other hikers who kept praising her for being "such a great little hiker"
We had a relaxing hot tub back at the hotel,then tracked down some spaghetti and tomato sauce at a cafe for Maja who by now was so shattered she was on the verge of a massive meltdown!
We all crashed out very early and I woke at 5pm to see Jonathan getting ready to check out sunset at the Canyon! He followed this with an 18 mile run into the canyon!!!!
Maja and I slept late, breakfasted late and generally lazed about until Jonathan got back then we said goodbye to Grand Canyon, resolving to return one day and continued our road trip to New Mexico.

Next day.. a feast of landscapes!

With Maja in the back listening to the 13 chapters of Alice in Wonderland on an mp3 player, we made our way to Grand Canyon. It was a long drive (7 hours) Once there, we couldn't wait to get to a viewpoint to see what all the fuss was about and we weren't disappointed. The sight from the viewing tower was breathtaking and just went on and on. Maja was excited to be so high up and after a couple of little strolls to other vantage points and the obligatory ice cream for Maja and coffee for us we headed off to find our hotel.

First night.....Motel in Moab

Some pics from our journey to Arches. Maja travelled in nightwear...why not?! We went straight to the motel to change and off to spend some time looking at the incredible rock formations at Arches. Maja really seemed to enjoy herself and later, after bathing and stories, we all sat on the bed munching takeout pizza.

Spring Break Adventure!

We've been on a road trip! It truly is the only way to get a feel for the scale and changing landscapes of this vast place! We had a sat nav and at one point it just had one solitary line on it and said "turn in 365 miles"
Jonathan drove 1,700 miles in 6 days, we visited Utah, Arizona and finished in New Mexico before returning to Colorado. The trip was, to use local lingo, awesome! We saw amazing sights in Arches National Park in Utah, the Grand Canyon has to be "one of those sights to see before you die" and we enjoyed a relaxing and fun time with the Price family, Aimee, Steve and Maya in Los Alamos.
We took a very scenic route home, taking in Sanddune National Park....crossing the Rockies. It was really beautiful. We are back home now getting excited because our friends from Bristol are arriving Thursday!

Pyjama day at Columbine

Maja was very excited because just before Spring Break the school had a pyjama day! All the kids (and staff!) wore jammies and the day was dedicated to reading. All the kids were presented with a free book and a great time was had by all.

Cute Girl on Bike

Maja's new bike

Maja wants to cycle to school so Jonathan has bought her a bike and she is practising! Her new bike is very pink and girlie. We went for a little cycle today along one of the bike paths. The weather is glorious warm and sunny, but it was cold yesterday!
Jonathan is off to Copenhagen today for a week so Maja and I will be experiencing life here by ourselves!

Spring in Boulder

Spring seems to have arrived! There are signs of life in the garden...the weather is pretty consistently nice and spring break (a weeks holiday from school) is not far off.
Jonathan has finally got through the layers of beaurocracy and is getting moe work done. Maja has had her first report from school! Happily she seems to be doing ok although they haven't fully realised that she is a genius yet! She has had a playdate with Cy and has started swimming and piano lessons. Her life is quite full but her favourite thing to do is hang out with the neighbourhood children at the park (this happens every day that the weather is nice)
I have discovered a fabulous running route thanks to my running partner Jen. It is Wonderland Lake, a gorgeous lake nestling in the foothills. Jen has assured me that if I run there alone I am not likely to be eaten by a mountain lion. Apparently they are a lot more prevalent in South Boulder. Anyway I know what to do if I see one. You have to make yourself big and fierce!!!!!! Some people here say lions are around and about and come into town...others say that they have lived in Boulder for years and never seen one!

The Family Routine

I haven't blogged yet this week. A good sign perhaps of life getting a little fuller. It is certainly more structured since Maja has been in school. My days have slipped into a pleasing rhythm of cycling Maja to school, some stuff in between and collecting her again.
I will talk about Maja first! We were all tired last weekend but we managed to get to a shul called Bonai Shalom. We were welcomed and well fed (which is par for the course at a shul!)
Later, we spent some time in the afternoon chilling in the hot tub. With snow in the garden it really was glorious! Maja had goggles on and managed to spend most of the time under water.
Monday was Presidents Day, so no school and Maja had two exciting events.She was invited to a birthday party in the afternoon and straight after had her first Boulder swimming lesson! The party was out of town in a sort of bouncy castle style inflatable assault course...designed for maximum excitement and exhaustion!
With swimming immediately after, Maja slept well that night.
She continues to enjoy school, coming home singing in Spanish and she has maths homework once a week. I notice that over here the Kindergarten curriculum seems to be very maths based whereas we concentrate a little more on literacy skills.
Monkey bars are still a great pleasure for Maja. We have them in the little play park in our neighbourhood and in the Kindergarten playground. She is practising hard and getting really good!
Jonathan is settling into a work routine but seems to have a better work life balance. He went skiing on Tuesday with some collegues and the dept have an away day on Friday....which involves skiing, pizza and beer!!
Oh, and I have found a running partner and a race to train for! I am also taking a couple of classes a week. One in Torah study, the other in Kabballah.... no daytime telly for me!
I am volunteering in Maja's class tomorrow so that will give me some insight into what she is doing at school.

The Kindergarten playground

This is where the Kindergarten pupils play! They have recess here and play here in the morning until the bell rings.

School

Maja and her friend

Home from home

We have snow! We woke up to find we were in a magical fairyland. Maja was so excited! She got dressed really quickly and ran out to play in the garden. with blue sky and sun, the walk to school was glorious (it was a bit icy for the bike) Maja is enjoying school a lot. Mainly because all the English speaking children have Spanish lessons, so she is thrilled and practising on us like mad! I think we should build on that when we come home. Valentines Day is a really big thing here and she is supposed to bring a card for everyone in her class...let's not ever get into that in the UK! They have a party on Friday at school with red foods..should be fun.

Maja starts school US, style

Maja has started school. Columbine Elementary has around 360 pupils -75% are Hispanic. We are told that all the Spanish speaking kids in Boulder attend Columbine and some classes are purely taught in Spanish, some are bi-lingual and some are English with Spanish lessons. Maja is in a class that is English speaking, but we do hope she will pick up some Spanish too. The school is undergoing what they describe as "re-visioning" ...we might describe it as being in special measures or notice to improve. As a result of this, funding from Boulder valley School District means small classes (14 in Majas) and a lot of classroom support in terms of human resources.
So, Maja will have the full American experience! I wonder whether she will get an American accent? Will I be Mom instead of Mama or Mimlet as she usually calls me?
The house has seemed very quiet today (apart from the wind outside...it's blowing a whistler!)and I can't wait to pick her up and see how it all went!

Skiing, sleeping and Dead Iceman Day

Well there is no snow in Boulder so we piled into the car and made a little expedition to Eldora- the nearest ski resort...a motley crew..half asleep, but eager to see some snow and get the low down on classes. Everyone in Boulder skis...downhill, cross country. If that doesn't appeal you can go snow shoeing. for those of you in blissful ignornce, this involves putting a contraption that looks like the offspring of a crampon and a tennis raquet on each boot and walking or running on snowy trails...strangely this actually probably appeals to me more than skiing so I might give it a go sometime...watch this space!
Thanks to the early start we got there in time to book Maja into a full days ski school. She joined a little group of tiddlers (she was obviously the tiddliest of all!)

They were all beginners and were quickly divided into 2 even smaller groups with an eager high fiving camp- counsellor type instructor! Maja needed those high fives at first, but made progress as the day progressed.

So what are parents doing while child is skiing? Well most go off and ski, but some wait around in a large cafe, where for 6 bucks you can access wi fi and use your laptop to your hearts content....and drink coffee...and eat....and eat.
Jonathan spent most of the day on the ski school sidelines encouraging and helping. I am not known for my love of cold so I spent most of the time in the cafe chatting to other parents. At one point I fell fast asleep (I am becoming quite adept at sleeping in odd and public places) and slept for an hour or so. I really hope I wasn't snoring!
Which brings me to the last subject for this blog...dead iceman day. in the course of conversation with a friendly couple on the same lunch table as us, Jonathan enquired about a funny little town called Nederland that we had driven through on the way to Eldora.
Apparently nothing much happens there but they have this day of celebration called...Dead Iceman Day. the story goes that a Swedish guy living in Nederland died and there was some kind of beaurocratic nightmare involved in sending his body back to Sweden to be buried....so his son packed him in ice while the wrangling continued and continued to pack him in ice ,I think in a sort of igloo. Two years passed (with, one assumes, Old Dad preserved in the ice) and eventually it was all agreed and he was sent off to Sweden to be buried. Since then, the anniversary is celebrated as...you guessed it..Dead Iceman Day. I wonder what they do? All suggestions posted please! (Apologies for any inaccuacies in this story. I'm relaying it as I remember it....)

A long day in Boulder

When you have jet lag, the days are long..that's just an observation. Today began at 4.30am and at 7.15pm it's still on the go. the advantage is that you can have a lot of experiences in one day. I will share 2 experiences!
Firstly, I cycled today without whinging and actually enjoyed it (thanks to really well thought through cycle paths) We cycled to a pool and took Maja for a swim and I am practising cycling with Maja on the bike seat (don't tell my mother though...she doesn't have much faith in my common sense or cycling ability!)
Later when Maja and another little girl got themselves locked in a tennis court...... I managed to pick the lock and release them, so I can see another career ahead when I come home in August!
I am withdrawing from regular TV watching.... the TV here is truly dire! I am reading a lot so will post some book reviews on here if anyone is interested. Life for me is beginning to slow down to an extremely pleasing pace stress is a thing of the past and I am almost transformed into a reasonable person!

Arrival

Well,we've arrived. Journey was OK and we missed the snow in the UK by a day, which was great for avoiding all the delays but there's no snow here, so we're a bit disappointed too. It's pretty mild at the minute and very sunny. We brought far too many cold weather clothes so we'll have to spend a few weeks in the mountains to feel it was worth it. Here's a photo of Maja in the tree house, which she loves.

In the beginning

This is the blog for the Bamber family on their six month trip to Boulder, Colorado. We want to use this to keep friends, family and Maja's school up to date on what we've been up to and how it's all going. We leave on 1st February and will be staying in the US until August. Stories and photos of our experiences and adventures will appear on a regular basis. Right now, we're deperately trying to squeeze six months stuff for three into a handful of suitcases.