Happy Half-Birthday, Mikey!

Marshmallow Boy!

This is what happens when an 19 month old gets into the pantry when you aren't paying attention. We love celebrating and the half-birthday is no different. Michael turned one and a half last month but we didn't mark it in any way until we celebrated yesterday with cupcakes and friends.

The big girls even put on a birthday puppet show for Mikey and the others!

It was cute watching Michael try to figure out how the puppets worked.

Race Report

The weather was perfect for last weekend's triathlon. Not too sunny, but no rain either. I decided to do the sprint this year because of my lack of training, so unfortunately I don't have a time from last year to compare to.

Body Marking Here I am in the transition area before the start of the race.


Funny story (now it is, anyway); just as I was about to head down to the water for the pre-race meeting, a girl came in late and asked if she could rack her bike in between mine and the gal's next to me. As you can see from the above photo, there wasn't much room, and as I mentioned previously, there wasn't much time. The other girl agreed, but warned her that there wasn't going to be much room to set up her transition gear. Just as the late gal placed her bike on the rack, the entire rack BROKE! I grabbed my end of the rack and someone else grabbed the other. It was too late for all of us to find homes for our bikes and gear just before the race was to begin. Thankfully a race volunteer showed up with duct tape and saved the day. That stuff really does fix anything!

1/4 mile swim: 8:41.9

T-1: 1:26.5

Bike, T-2, Run 1:12:40 (the timing chip combined all three events together, so I don't have my splits)

Finish: 1:21:22.8

My support team on the home front

Old photo, but here I am with my new Felt S32 the night my dear husband purchased it for me at the auction last year. The bike is actually much better, faster, and more impressive than the biker.

This weekend was the first time I have raced with it.

More on the Anniversary

We had a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary. We went to the beach and enjoyed the low tide and a simple lunch on our special day.

This is my attempt to recreate the above wedding pose. Yes, twelve years had definitely aged us. It's okay though. We love each other more deeply than ever before. We are still having fun and lovin' life.

We went out for a date on the motorcycle. It was a kickin' good time. We had a scrumptious Greek meal, saw a movie, enjoyed coffee and dessert and topped it off with a lengthy ride on the bike.

God Made Dirt and it Don't Hurt

It was one of those summer evenings where the sun was still out and the children were playing so nicely. I knew they needed to come in and get ready for bed, but they were having so much fun.Digging in the earth and looking for bugs under rocks, they were dirty and content.


In the spring (and summer) at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

~ Margaret Atwood

Cousin Fun

Auntie Angie and Cousin Karsten came over for a play date today. It was fun watching Mikey and Karsten drool and fight over the same toys. They especially loved playing with the collection of small balls.



The two cousins are only about 5 months apart. For now the differences seem so big, but I'm sure that before long, we won't be able to tell at all.

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

July 20, 1996. We were married in the chapel where my husband grew up attending church. I had just graduated from college. We were so young. So in love. This is my favorite of all the wedding photos.


Every time I look at this photo, I am bothered that we didn't think to light the candles in the background. Silly, I know, but 12 years later, it still bugs me.

We had several photos taken at the local marina. The boat behind us on the right was Ken's grandfather's boat. I am glad that made it in the background.

I am so thankful to the Lord for my husband and our beautiful children. We are truly blessed and I do not take that for granted. It has been a good twelve years. I am looking forward to the wonderful surprises and blessings that the next fifty will hold for us.

Can I Have S'more?

My husband has done such a wonderful job making our yard a great place to spend time together. In addition to all of the other cool amenities, he has added a fire pit for family fun.This particular camp out/in was actually a couple weeks ago, but I'm only just now getting around to writing about it. We roasted marshmallows and made some pretty tasty s'mores...
and some sweet music, too!

Dad surprised the boys with a sleep-over in the fort. The boys LOVED it. But they probably will not be doing it again soon. Dad still needs to recover from the back pain it caused. My guess is that he would say that making the memory was worth it, though.

Cooling Off

I love these innocent days of summer when the children run through the sprinkler in the yard and cool off with home-made popsicles. I hope they hold on to these simple memories as they grow up. I know I will continue to cherish them.

Mikey's still learning about popsicle sticks.

Jack always finds a way to get popsicles from his siblings. Usually he gobbles his down right away and then smothers the others until they give him bites or the rest of their own. With the cold grip Mikey had on his popsicle, he was all too happy to give it away to his cousin.

Visiting Cousins

It usually only happens once a year; Cousin Lexy's visit. She is two years older than Kennedy and lives on the other side of the mountains. But when the two little girls get together, they always have a great time.

They call this trick, "The Spider."

Little Red Riding Hood and Betty Boop

I had to post this because it's just too cute. Mikey is visiting us this week, too. This was his first experience at the beach in the summer. At first he was very trepidatious about the wet sand and shallow water. So you can imagine what he is thinking here when he let his ball roll into the waves.

Fabulous 4th

We had a fantastic day celebrating our nation's independence. One of our local parks has a huge brou-ha-ha complete with live bands, inflatables, food and craft booths, and even a pie-eating contest.

Each of our children made a patriotic craft at one of the child-friendly booths.

The boys were thrilled to get there early and be the first ones to try out the inflatables.

The weather was kind of goofy today; cloudy and cool then bursts of sun and warmth. But that didn't stop our children from playing in the lake. Kennedy shouted out, "Hey mom! We are swimming in alphabetical order!" Who says school has to end in the summer?Kennedy entered the pie-eating contest for her age group.

Though she liked the apple pie, she said she wouldn't want to do the contest again unless she could use a fork.

She brought her own money, and was very excited to spend it on getting her face painted. Really, the boys deserve a big star for this because they waited in line with her for more than an hour for the sparkly blue paw print and purple balloon.

We ended the night with some red, white, and blue desert and watched the fireworks on television and from our front porch.