Jul 12, 2008 — Eight-year-old Lily DeMuth saw tremendous potential in an oversized bubble gum machine that had been abandoned in her mom’s office.

With a classmate whose mother was being treated for breast cancer, DeMuth wanted to use that machine to raise money for breast cancer awareness. The problem was, she wasn’t making too much money with the machine,...

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Jul 1, 2008 — If you have kids, the Vail Nature Center is the place to be Wednesday nights throughout July as the Vail Recreation District kicks off its Family Fun Night program July 2.

The Wednesday evening programs will feature educational, interactive and entertaining guest speakers from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at an affordable price of $10 for adults, $5 for kids and just $30...

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Jun 10, 2008 — When I looked up, my nephew was thirty feet in the air, moving like a pint-sized Spiderman toward the top of the kid’s climbing wall. By the time I took another bite of his birthday cake-flavored ice cream (which I was happily holding for him), he was down again, running toward me, and pulling me toward the kid’s kayaking pool.

I’ve been to...

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Jun 1, 2008 — My ignominious career as a mountain bike racer ended with a whimper more than a decade ago when I came to the stark realization that full suspension was not in my near future.

A tennis-shoe racer who never quite graduated to clip-ins, I just couldn’t justify paying more for my bike than my car. But guys I was burying on the climbs in the local race...

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Apr 30, 2008 — My family pulled off an interesting duathlon on Memorial Day last year, running in the Bolder Boulder that morning then catching a 1 p.m. Rockies game at Coors Field.

Based on the number of "Run to Live" T-shirts at the ballpark, we weren't the only ones who had the idea. But I daresay we had some of the youngest participants in what turned out to be a very...

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Feb 21, 2008 — There’s a run in Vail’s Game Creek Bowl named Lost Boy after a 14-year-old who in the 1980s mistakenly skied into the bowl before it was part of the ski area and wound up spending the night in a snow cave before being rescued the next day.

That accidental backcountry adventure had a happy ending, but it’s a great reminder of how...

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Dec 18, 2007 — Now that I’ve got little ones in my (extended) family I’m exploring Beaver Creek’s beginner terrain all over again. Zooming around near the base makes for a nice, easy day for me and my little nieces and nephews, especially because it’s a cinch to pop into a base-area restaurant for hot chocolate with marshmallows.

It can be cold out there for...

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Nov 28, 2007 — Any good hunter will tell you they’re in it for the thrill of the chase, and so it is with my family’s annual pursuit of the perfect Christmas tree.

We eschew faultless lot trees grown on farms in the Pacific Northwest the way a hunter disdains steroid-infused beef. Only wild trees will do, and only wild tales of search and survival...

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Nov 27, 2007 — It’s a classic case of nature versus nurture.

Because it’s inherently insane to stand on the side of steep, icy mountain to watch and cheer on ski racers, forcing your kids to do it with you must be a matter of “nurturing” them to become ski-racing fans. No way are they naturally born with such a predilection for perilous...

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