Go Buffs!

It has been awhile since we've posted to the blog so we're playing a bit of catch up...

...a couple of weekends ago we experienced our first University of Colorado Football game ever. It seemed that since it is the 6th football season for which I've been a student at CU (I know it should be U of C, but everyone says "CU".....I don't like it either) it was time we took in a game.

Upon walking into the stadium Becky said to me, "This is it?" She was referring to how small the stadium is. The CU football stadium holds about 55,000 fans, but the only college football game she had ever been to was at the Big House, so in comparison this place looked like kind of a joke. Our football stadium isn't the biggest, but I'm guessing it has one of the best views of any stadium in the country.

At the beginning of both halves they run Ralphie the buffalo around the stadium. This is quite intense and is amazing to see live. The runners have been seriously injured in the past when everything did not go exactly as planned.

It was a beautiful day for a game and CU had a come-from-behind 34-27 win. Perhaps we should officially become CU Buffalo fans since my team (Syracuse) and Becky's team (Michigan) probably won't do much of interest this season.


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A 5-Star Weekend

This past Sunday Becky and I had the amazing opportunity to spend a night at the Broadmoor, a 5-Star resort in Colorado Springs. We would normally not be able to afford such luxurious accommodations but our good friends PJ and Kersta invited us to join them for a drastically reduced rate. It was the first time we had been there and it was very impressive.

Some of you may have seen this AP photo from a few weeks ago when the US Senior Open was held at the Broadmoor. We did not encounter any bears while we were there.


Becky and I posing in front of the lake. Becky is wearing what I called her "rich lady" hat ($5 at Old Navy).

The view from our room.

We spent much of our time on Sunday and Monday at the pool.

We had a great time hanging out with all of the 5-year-olds at the pool taking turns going down one of two very cool slides.

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NYC and Radiohead

This past week I (Bryant) had the incredible opportunity to visit New York City and then head up to Boston for my first-ever Radiohead show. I did all of this with my good friend Tim, who I've known since I was in fourth grade.

I flew in on Tuesday and that evening we ate at a very cool Italian restaurant a few blocks off of the main strip of Times Square. I hadn't been to the city since I was about eight so it was just awesome to be there again.

The next day we drove up to Boston for the show. I've been a big Radiohead fan since I first heard OK Computer (which is considered by many to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time) when I was a junior in high school. More than 10 years and 4 Radiohead albums later I finally got my chance to see them live. The show definitely lived up to my high expectations and was one of the best performances I've ever seen.

Tim and I at the show.

Radiohead.

And for those Radiohead fans who are reading this I've uploaded a few short video clips of the show...

The National Anthem.

House of Cards.

Paranoid Android.

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Zoe: "Being a mountain dog is harder than it looks."

Hi, my name is Zoe, and I'm a dog. I just want to make one thing clear for any of you who might be jealous of my life in Colorado: being a mountain dog is harder than it looks. Sure, I get to chase rabbits every morning on my walk, and I get to swim in lakes and streams all the time. I get to explore the Flatirons of Boulder and the Rocky Mountains off-leash almost every weekend. But this life is not for everyone. For example, I am currently on the 5-day Disabled List with a torn carpal pad, which I received during a hike this past Saturday up to the Royal Arch in Boulder...and my dad (Bryant) didn't even give me any beef jerky like he usually does when we go hiking. And did you know that sometimes he makes me wear a pack to carry stuff? (please refer to earlier posts for photographic evidence). Well, I would like to write more but I can only type with one paw right now as the other is bandaged. Have a nice day.

Heart,

Zoe

P.S. People in Boulder actually converse with their dogs as if they are people.

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UCYC: Part 1

I spent all of last week at UCYC (United Christian Youth Camp) in Prescott, AZ with about 80 middle school students from our church. Unfortunately, Becky was not able to go due to limitations in vacation time, but she was very cool about me leaving her for a week to hang out with our students.

It was an incredible week...except for the whole 16-hour bus-ride part. But we made the best of that by making one of our students lie down in the aisle so we would have a table for Euchre ( shown in the first picture below).


While at camp we got to do all of the classic camp activities: rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, paint ball, leap of faith, swimming, and tons of silly games (bumper soccer was my favorite). The best part of the week was the time we as leaders got to spend with our students building relationships and discussing the teachings for each day. It was a very meaningful week in which we got to be a part of our students growing in their faith and choosing to take God's calling to bring justice to the world more seriously. Becky and I are very excited to build on the momentum of this past week as the next school year starts for our students.


In addition to God doing some very cool things in the lives of our students, it was also one of the funniest weeks of my life. I have not laughed as much as I did this past week since college. Middle school students can be quite brilliant and hilarious and they kept all of us leaders laughing so much that several of us lost our voices.

We had one 8th grade student join us for camp who we had never met before. His name is Hal Boelts, which I decided sounded very similar to Steve Holt! from Arrested Development. I got all of our guys saying Hal Boelts! in the same manner as Steve Holt! from the show. You can see all of us in our Hal Boelts! pose in the pictures below. If you have no idea what I am talking about watch this.


Me with chest hair (real) and one of my students Chris with chest hair (fake/drawn on with marker).


One of the leaders Ryan, some of the 8th graders, and myself on feux-hawk Thursday.


The pictures below show some of the 200 middle school students at UCYC during one of the worship services.


Becky and I are so blessed to get to hang out with the students from our church and just be a part of their lives.

Stay tuned for Part 2 which should feature some hilarious videos which likely only I will be amused by.

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Marcus and Sarah's Wedding

On July 12th, my little brother got married! Marcus and Sarah met at Calvin and have been together for about two years now. It was great to be a part of such a happy day. Since we haven't gotten to know Sarah very well living in different states, it was so nice to be able to spend time with her and her family prior to the wedding. I forget that as I have grown-up, Marcus has as well, and he will make such a wonderful, caring husband. We're very happy for both of them, and excited as they begin their life together in Chicago.

Bryant and I before the ceremony

A small group of the Byker family

Mom and Dad on the dance floor

Best Independence Day Ever.

We spent much of the July 4th weekend with our very good friends PJ and Kersta. We got the festivities started a bit early with a Thursday night trip to The Melting Pot for their signature "Goodnight Delight" special (this was our inspiration for Fondue Night 2007 and Fondue Night 2008).


Since we live about 40 minutes away from each other they spent the night at our place and we kicked off our 4th of July with the most patriotic breakfast I've ever had. My brilliant and hilarious wife got the idea to purchase ridiculous amounts of raspberries and blueberries and that we should then use them, along with a cake decorating device filled with home-made whipped cream, to decorate our pancakes in a patriotic fashion.


This is Becky's very impressive American Flag pancake.

PJ's blueberry star pancake.
Bryant's simple yet effective U.S.A. pancake.

Later that day we all headed down to PJ and Kersta's house in Denver. We then formed a bike gang, grabbed some firecrackers, and headed for downtown. We took a short break at Wash Park along the way and listened to a symphonic band play for a bit, and then took a very cool bike path that runs along a creek from Wash Park to downtown Denver.


The plan for the night was to hang out on the rooftop deck at Jackson's, a pub right by the stadium, where we would have a great view of the post-game fireworks, so we made our way to that area sometime during the 7th inning. While we were just hanging around in front of the stadium some random guy walks by and says "hey, you want some free tickets?" Our answer was of course yes. He only gave us three, so we bought another for $10 and all four of us headed into the stadium in time for the top of the 8th inning. They were fantastic seats.


When we walked in the Rockies were down 17-16, which as I'm sure you are aware is a ridiculous score for a baseball game. No runs were scored until the bottom of the 9th when the Rockies scored two to win the game 18-17. It was awesome - the near sellout crowd went crazy. We then had one of the best seats in the house for the best fireworks display in Denver. I hope everyone enjoyed their day off as much as we did.

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