The Bauer Family

Merry Christmas everyone!  I guess I am a few days late on this.  As usual we have been very busy.  Doesn't feel like we have had a chance to relax since Thanksgiving?  The temps have been below normal almost everyday since Thanksgiving. We had a couple breaks in the cold but then right back.  We have also had more snow in the last month than we have had in the past two winters.  I have used the snow thrower twice this week alone. Plans were up in the air for Christmas until last weekend when we watched the forecast.  We decided that given the forecast we would celebrate Christmas with my mom and dad on Christmas Eve and Michelle's family on Christmas Day.  This turned out to be an excellent plan as we got a few inches of snow on Christmas Eve night. Michelle and I started prep for Christmas over the weekend and stayed up late on the 23rd.  We got an early start on Christmas Eve.  We cleaned, cooked and prepared for my!   ...

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We are now full on into the Christmas rush.  So let me bring you up to date. The forecast for Thanksgiving was for some snow.  So I went and got mom and dad for the celebration and it did snow.  We had the entire family over and it was a full house.  We all enjoyed a delicious meal and the Lion's even won! The men are relaxing. Mom's hitting the bottle!   Everyone cleared out around 9pm or so.  Michelle and I then went through the Black Friday adds in preparation of our shopping trip.     We were up early and made it to the Family Chirstian Book Store around 6:15am.  We then went to Sam's and Walmart.  We stopped and ate to fuel up for the next round.  Well the next round did not happen and we went home for a nap.  I woke up after a short nap and unloaded most of the goodies.We then started working around the house in preperation of setting up the Christmas Tree. ...

It had rained most of the prior day leading up to the race and the forecast was for more rain on race day.  However, a check of the radar and forecast in the morning showed we may get rain?  We got everyone up and fed and headed for Timber Ridge, which is the start and finish venue for the Slush Cup and finish for the full Iceman.  We wanted to be there early as in years past there would be a lineup to get into Timber Ridge as they would not open the gate till 8pm.  To our surprise we arrived and there was no line to get in.  The gate was open and they were directing traffic into the campground.  They must have listened to the feedback from prior years.  Things went ok while getting ready for the race, everyone was just a little stressed out.  I ran into Don Miller by the porta potties and we got caught up quickly. He had changed his mind at the last moment and transferred his entry to the Slush Cup.  He felt he was not ready for the Iceman...

This year we were not sure if we would even make Iceman.  Michelle's Grandfather passed away on Tuesday.  We didn't tell her mother our weekend plans because we did not want that to play into the planning of the funeral.  If things worked out they would work out.  We learned late Wednesday that the funeral would be on Friday (more on that later).  So we decided to go ahead with Iceman. By the time we got home, got the van loaded, picked up JJ's girlfriend, got gas, got food and got on the road it was after 5pm.  We didn't stop till we got to Grayling and then drove straight to Traverse City to the Expo.  It was shortly after 8pm when we reached the expo.  We got inside and picked up our race packets. After that we did a short walk of the expo to see what was there.  Brendan was in search of a free water bottle. This year my focus was looking at taking photos of as many Fatbikes as I could.  Here is a sampling of what I saw.  The...

Part of my birthday present from Michelle was to take a couple nights away by ourselves.  We planned out the date and when we spoke to Michelle's mom about taking the boys she bought into this being a 4 night getaway.  Plans were made and on Thursday we headed for Crystal Mountain in Northern Michigan.    We arrived around 7pm and got checked in and to our room.  We ordered pizza and stayed in for the evening. On our way up we encountered snow on the ground and the fall colors were incredible.   The weather was going to be cold and possibly wet the entire time.  But we were not going to let that stop us.  We got up Friday morning and had some breakfast.  Then we headed out for a mountain bike ride on the mountains trails. Ready to ride! Colors were awesome on the trail.   We got back from our ride and had left over pizza and salad for lunch.  We then got cleaned up and headed for Frankfort. We ...

Summer came and went before we knew it.  We are now staring winter in the face.  JJ was in marching band again this fall and Brendan played soccer with me coaching the team.  He is in his last season of U8.  I may also be coaching U19 in the spring.  I will have to go to school to get the advanced coaching certification.  But then I will be at the highest level and not have to go any farther and be able to coach Brendan all the way through. Michelle and I are currently at Crystal Mountain Celebrating our Birthdays and early Anniversary! We can not believe how beautiful the colors are.  I will post some photos in the next couple of days.  Iceman is next Saturday, hard to believe.  Not ready for it.  Just hope Brendan and I can podium again?   JJ and Tyler at Homecoming Game.   JJ in Homecoming Half Time Show.   Birch Run U8 Boys Team 2   Game 1 vs Clio     We also had the an...

Time really got away from me since Ore to Shore so it is time to catch up.  Today I will show you JJ's bike!       JJ's Sette Razzo MTB Bike Specs: 18" Sette Razzo Frame w/custom paint Rock Shox Reba SL 29er fork Race Face Carbon Bars Sette Seat Post 27.s WTB Saddle Sram X7 3x9 Shifters Avid FR5 Brake Levers Avid BB7 Brakes Sram X9 Derailleurs Shimano Deore Crank The frame was originally given to me by Michelle and the boys as a Christmas present.  When I bought my carbon bike this past year I passed this on to JJ as he outgrew his first MTB.  You can't beat these Sette Frames for the money. WTB Wheelset 

So I thought I would post the bikes we rode in the Ore 2 Shore race.  I will post mine first.  I rode a single speed so that I would not get over zealous and out run JJ.  My goal was to ride with him and get him on the podium.  It was successful. But I don't deserve the credit here, he did it! Gary Fisher Superfly Single Speed   These bikes were first built as a prototype and avialable only to a few selcect team members who had great success on them. They were shown briefly to the public.  Everyone thought they were incredible.  The next year a limited number were produced and sold only to shop employees.  This is one of those bikes!  I came across it last year on eBay.  I had wanted one of these when they came out but the cost was out of my reach.  I put an offer on it and got it.  This is the bike I rode to Third Place at Barry-Roubaix!   This bike is incredibly light.  The build is as follows:  ...

Today started out as any other day.  The first one out of bed and a little quiet time.  Except I turned 50 today.  Hard to believe it.  Michelle got up and I helped her around the house and got a start on things for the family party.  Around 11:30am I set out on a short bike ride of pavement and gravel.  I put 13 miles in for a nice 47 minute workout.  Just enough to clear my head for the rest of the day. I did some more work around the house and then the family started showing up around 3pm.  Everyone made it this year, my mom and dad, Michelle's parents and Micah and Dawn's family.  We ran out of propane for the grill so Reuben and I went out and picked up a fresh tank and the grilling began.  Burgers, hot dogs and foot long hot dogs.  Then all the fixins to go along with them.  Baked beans, macaroni and cheese, fruit and so on.  Deserts also, cup cakes, german chocolate cake and ice cream.  I will need to ride ...