Happy New Year!

Wow... time flies!  Oh wait, that's what I wrote on the last post.  Oh well, ditto!  It seems like we are on pace to only updated our web site about every six months.... such is life.  Getting our kids out the door to school, ourselves to work each day and home in time for basketball or soccer or boy scouts nearly every night, well let's just say the weeks fly by!  Here's a snapshot of our 2011 holiday card below and as you can see, Clark (will be 8 on 1/29/12) and Scarlett (will be 6 on 6/16/12) are growing up fast.  Scarlett is in full day kindergarten and Clark is mastering 2nd grade.  They are about the two most wonderful and well rounded children we could ask for, and we count our blessings every day. 

Best to you and your loved ones in 2012!

Roe 2011 Holiday Postcard

Scarlett and Gates on Camelback Mountain
in Scottsdale, AZ

Clark at the Very Large Array in Socorro, NM

Clark and Scarlett in Moab, UT

Time flies...

A canvas montage of the Roes photographed

and designed by Jessica's sister,

Erin Zahradka (http://www.z-pics.com/)

Wow how time can fly!

Clark and Scarlett are in their summer break and in the fall, both will be at the same school together, preschool went by so fast.  They are both growing up so quickly and after swim lessons every week for the past five months, they are now swimming daily between their summer camp during the week and time at the pool on the weekends.  They just love the water - you'd think we live on the beach!


Meteorologist Jennifer Broome



The summer is our favorite time of year, and we kicked it off right with Jessica getting to have Memorial Day off (not a given by any means as a journalist, and yet in her new role, let's just say OOOaaahhh!) She had the opportunity to travel up to her family's favorite place in the world, http://www.lostvalleyranch.com/, and show a friend around, Meteorologist Jennifer Broome.  Jennifer is working on a segment for an upcoming edition of Jennifer's Explore Colorado - www.kdvr.com/news/explorecolorado - and for her travel show that airs around the U.S. - www.sweptawaywithjenniferbroome.com/. It may sound cliche, but she could not have ordered up more beautiful weather for the two days of taping. What a great time! We got a taste of spring sprinkles and how peaceful it can be in the foggy valley, and a taste of nearly 80 degree sunshine on horseback as we loped and videotaped through the Hayman burn area. There are three new horses just born within the last few months - the first is the white one in the picture to the side - it was delivered a day before we vacationed there over Easter weekend. The other two have arrived since then, and at least two more moms are expecting. So fun to watch them play in the meadow. They let us come quite close to get some great pictures.



Some of the 2011 newborns at Lost Valley Ranch



Right up until Memorial Day weekend and the end of school, the kids kept us quite busy!

Scarlett the Ballerina!

Scarlett just completed a season of ballet and finished an adorable performance but mom's videotaping was not so great as she was trying to watch and hmm, we may just have to buy that DVD from the dance school after all!  She was the little "ringleader" for both her ballet and tap performances and it was adorable to see her next to her classmates - or should we say in the "middle" of her classmates... because as the tallest she ended up center stage for both performances.  She wouldn't tell us anything about the songs or the dances ahead of time so it was just a blast to show up with her mentor neighbors, Joey and Rachael, as well as her long-time preschool teacher and childcare providers, Lori and Randy, who she had just said goodbye to the day before when she graduated from pre-k.  It's now off to kindergarten for our little ballerina-turned-fish!  This summer we celebrate with our extended relatives Scarlett's 5th birthday and the 95th birthday of her great-great-aunt Verla, who along with an escort, is coming from her adult-living facility in Illinois, and meeting Scarlett for the first time as we throw them a joint birthday for two special girls who share a special day!  Verla does not have any kids or grandkids of her own, so she has taken Scarlett under her wing as a special little great-great-grand-niece who was born on Verla's 90th birthday!

We can barely keep track of Clark who keeps quite busy on his bicycle, in the pool lap lanes, on the basketball court, or sitting in bed reading or playing Soduku games.  Hmm, mom and dad don't even know how to do that.  His teacher in the fall will not give him a lecture on letting his brain go mushy over the summer as he's constantly pushing himself (no thanks to the parents --- it's self instilled!)


Our biggest blessing came in March when a day after Gates' birthday, while on a spring break road trip visiting his sister Simley's family in Arizona, a driver plowed into him while he was roadbiking through Paradise Valley.  What, you say?  How can that be a good thing?  Well he could have DIED!  We are ever so thankful that he is 6'6" and somehow - miraculously - even after leaving a body imprint on the driver's front shield window and flying through the air, he is alive.  Thankfully - and yet sadly - all of the witnesses say the driver was at fault, Gates had the right-of-way, and the police ticketed her for numerous violations.  After an ambulance trip to the hospital and some follow up monitoring to make sure he didn't end up with a brain bleed after he was discharged, we count our blessings! 

Mom has been quite busy in the last six months continuing her passion for journalism, but an opportunity knocked and she recently started a new and (fingers crossed) long term job with the State of Colorado as the Director of Communications for the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies ("DORA"). She's enjoying the great team of folks she works with and is quite excited about the future.

We hope you and your family are well.  We hope to update our family blog a little more frequently than every-six-months in the future, but that seems to be our pattern!  Thankfully life is slowing down so we are excited to spend more time enjoying it and better communicating to all we love.  Best to you!

There's Something About Mary... Miracle Baby... Empty Bra... and THE MINI ROE BAND!

Hello friends and family.  So who is this crazy man staring at you below?  Keep reading to find out!


Harland Williams

 Our year has started off well with lots-o-January birthdays including one recently we got a chance to give a shout out to on TV as my mom celebrated her 61st birthday and that comedian Harland Williams from "There's Something About Mary" doing a preview of his stint at Comedy Works on the show Jessica produced on her mom Mary Clark's birthday and then sticking around to eat some cupcakes as we squeezed on a "shout out" to mom as our KDVR Facebook Friend of the Day and Anchor Team and Harland dove into cupcakes in Mary's honor.  Take a look at the video - and for those wondering - Melody Mendez references his girlfriend who has "stretch marks on her lips" because it was part of his routine he had just done on our show a few minutes prior.  (He jokes she eats so much that she's got them - then again, we think it's imaginary girlfriend!).  Anyway, enjoy the video to the right below that shows my mom and my dad in a picture from a recent cruise they took (ya know, what I hope to get to do someday once I've had that many birthdays!)


CLICK HERE to watch Birthday Tribute
to Jessica's Mom

 The first month for Jess in her new role as a Multi Media Journalist at KDVR Fox 31 in Denver was great - she turned about half a dozen or so Reporter pieces before focusing on really getting a grip on the show she's producing, too, which starts at 7a.m. in the morning. Yup, that means she's doing a split shift sleep thing, and going to bed at about 1pm after work, getting up when Clark gets off the bus at 4:15 p.m., helping him with homework, picking up Scarlett from preschool, cooking dinner, and then going back to bed from about 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., and back to work at 1 a.m.  Sounds crazy, yes, but it's been very rewarding and fun and the people at KDVR are wonderful to work with.  Many more stories and fun moments on TV in the pipeline, and if *you* have a local story idea you'd like to share, please email Jessica at work at jessica.roe@kdvr.com and be sure you put a "!" high importance marker on it - she gets a lot of email each day with viewer tips and such - so make sure it stands out, or also CC her home email at jessica@roefamily.com.  Looking forward to your ideas!



CLICK HERE
to see baby Asley's
story

 Jessica was fortunate to be able to tell the story of the Adairs, a family from Centennial whose adult children, Adam and Eileen, both struggle with Cystic Fibrosis. 

Adam and his wife Amber recently used genetic screening to welcome their son Ashley into the world.  You can click on their story by clicking on the link below their family picture to the left. 

CLICK HERE to see
the story of Sara's ability to
make others smile while she battled
her own challenges and to learn
about the book in her honor,
"101 Uses for an Empty Bra"

Part two of the story the following day focused on Adam and Eileen's mother, Sara, who endured more in a lifetime than most of us can comprehend - surviving a terrible accident with a semi, multiple myeloma, a stem cell transplant, and breast cancer.  It also focused on the healing power of smiles as medicine and using humor when facing cancer and a book called "101 Uses for an Empty Bra", a collection of cartoons her brother sent her after her double mastectomy and that her friend Susie published and is now selling on Amazon.com. 



CLICK HERE to read
more about the book

To watch Sara's story, click on the image of her and her daughter Eileen to the left and then to go to the "Empty Bra" web site, click on the book cover to the right.

Our family is busy enjoying the runny noses of the season and we are spending a lot of time at the new Lifetime Fitness that opened up near our house.  Clark spent his Winter Break in camp there, allowing him to do everything from soccer to basketball and rock wall climbing to swimming!  We go swimming there as a family almost every weekend because the outdoor pool looks like a mini "Water World" with slides and fun stuff so we can't wait until this summer when it opens and we want the kids to be ready to take off on their own so we can work on our tans and let the lifeguards babysit our children.  (KIDDING! Well sort of... ) 

And finally, a warning to other parents: STAY AWAY from the 90% off toy aisle at Target.  Yes, it looked like a good deal at the time when each kiddo was able to spend their allowance and for $2.50 a piece buy an electric mini guitar, but let's just say the parents are now having to invest in earplugs.  Meet the MINI ROE BAND:



The MINI ROE BAND



Thanks for catching up on the Roe Family - shoot us emails if you want to connect and the best to you in 2011!

Jessica & Gates
jessica@roefamily.com
gates@roefamily.com