April 2, 2010
Saturday was a typical day with classes in the morning and then laundry, time in town and wood chopping in the afternoon. After a delicious dinner of barbequed chicken and homemade ice cream sa
ndwiches for dessert, we headed into Leadville to the 6th Street Gym to compete for the HMI 2010 Dodgeball championship. Andrew and Maddy had divided the all of the students into four teams: The Average Joes, Globo Gym, the Girl Scouts, and the Lumber Jacks. Each team was decked out in their respective colors, so the atmosphere was very festive. After pre-game warm ups, and a rules discussion between the captains, te competition beg
an. At one point, poor Crandall had nearly everyone on the other team throwing balls at him while he deftly avoided being hit. Karl, otherwise known as "Patches O'Hoolihan," was both the primary weapon for his team, knocking out countless competitors, and the primary target as everyone wanted to get him out. After the Lumber Jacks beat the Average Joes in the finals, we mixed up the teams to play a little more: Cabins 2 and 3 played against Cabins 1 and 4. By the end of the night, everyone agreed that it had been one of the best Saturday night activities yet.
On Sunday, a few of us went on a trip to Blue Range Ranch (www.bluerangeranch.
com), a cattle ranch where math teacher Sam Critchlow's girlfriend, Amber, works. After a two-hour drive that almost took us to the New Mexico border, the thirteen of us found ourselves in a (snow-free!) valley just south of Leadville where cows, bulls, and horses roamed in seemingly endless fields of grass. The owners of the ranch, George and Julie, along with Amber, taught us the importance of sustainable agriculture and explained to us how they kept both their cattle and their land happy and healthy. We also saw bulls, steer, calves, and even got to feed a herd of pregnant mothers!
After a couple of hours, it came time to head on to our next destination: lunch at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. When we arrive
d, all of us were psyched to take off our shoes and climb the enormous mountain of sand. While some of us ascended all the way up to the summit, the rest stayed back half way up and did back flips off a sand pile.
But soon enough, we had to move on to our next and final pit stop at the Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort, where we all basked in the sun and enjoyed the warmth of the resort's river and pools. Then, after an hour of swimming and hanging out, we ran through the chilly winter air back to our van and drov
e home to HMI, happy to be greeted by our friends' smiling faces.
As Parents' Weekend and spring break rapidly approaches, students at HMI are enduring loads of work in all of our classes before we depart for college visits, reunite with friends back home, or simply enjoy relaxation. In English class, students are preparing for the weekend by writing Parents' Weekend poems for our parents describing our experience here. In history class, each student must study a historical figure from their unit and present what they have learned to their parents. In French, students have been busy practicing a poem to recite for their parents. Advanced Spanish students had an intense debate over what they believe should be done to
handle the immigration issues our country faces. Teachers have been organizing activities in other classes that will involve parents, and let them demonstrate their abilities, and how they compare to their children's. Overall, we are frantically finishing up this week's work, and simultaneously preparing for our parents arrival.
It has been a big week in terms of morning exercise (AMX). On Wednesday, we conquered our first six-mile run. Many of us started at 6:30 so we could catch our breath before an 8 o'clock breakfast. Our run extended from HMI's campus, around the 6-mile loop, passing the Outward Bound Base and the Fish Hatchery en route. Luckily, we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise, and the temperature was a full 20 degrees. In the future, we will continue to run these six-mile runs in preparation for the 10-mile Fun Run toward the 
end of the semester.
As we mentioned, since this was the week leading up to Parent's Weekend, it was a bit hectic with work, but we still managed to make it great with various activities. This Monday students enjoyed things like soccer, knitting, cooking, pickleball, and rock climbing. All of these activities were awesome and fun, as they always are. Some of us tried knitting, something several of us never thought we'd do, and we loved it! Now we're all busy making hats. On Wednesday, students walked dogs and played guitar. Today, people walked dogs and made flower arrangements for Parents Weekend. Dog walking is always a really rewarding and fun experience - especially since there are adorable puppies at the shelter!
Along with these activities, it was also Spirit Week! Monday w
e all dressed up as "Gangstas," there were a variety of costumes, including street gangs, high class mobsters, white-collar criminals, and the oldest kind of outlaw, cowboys. Tuesday was cross-dressing day and a few of the boys modeled dresses while the girls wore clothes that looked kind of normal on them. Wednesday was dress up as faculty/students day, and Karl takes the cake for most students dressed up as him. He was also an excellent Spina. Thursday was Superhero day, and there were some of the weirdest heroes' ever seen, including educators and narwhals, and the classics, Batman and Superman. Friday was formal day, although some of us rebelled and wore sweatpants and t-shirts.
Overall, it has been a full week, and we're all really excited to see our parents Friday night!
By: Andrew Spina, Laura Rozier, Van MacDonald, & Maeve O'Connor Bethune