Today we took the kids to our annual 4th of July parade in the park by our house. We have gone every year with our good friends whose daughter, Kaia is Spencer's buddy. It's so much fun watching Spencer and Kaia grow up together and these annual events show just how much they have grown.
Spencer (who turns 5 in September) now rides his bike without training wheels. This year Shoshi joined Spencer on her tricycle in the parade. Spencer then took his bike with our other neighbor and their kids all around the park (about a 2 mile loop)...his farthest venture yet.
Here is a picture of the three kiddos.
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| Here's Spency and Kaia in 2008. It's crazy how time flies! |
Shoshi is almost 2-1/2 and has an amazing vocabulary and a strong sense of independence (not sure where she got those from...ha!). She is in the oldest toddler class at school and has started swim lessons and gymnastics during the day. We are so excited that she also starts her first round of dance lessons. We bought her a tutu that I just can't wait to give her (shhh....it's a surprise!). Shoshi loves her big brother and does every little thing that Spencer does. He jumps, she jumps...he says something, she repeats...etc.
We just got back from a very fun few days in Pierre, SD visiting Jon's family. The kids went boating, swimming and hung around with their grandparents and Jon's brothers Chris & Charlie and Chris' wife Cathy and their aunt Ruth Ann. Charlie took Spencer fishing which he loved. Jon and I had a rare few outings together sans kiddos - we went golfing with Charlie and Jon's stepdad Don which was super fun. Jon and I went on a six mile run around Pierre together. Jon's mom took the ladies out for a lunch on the town and Jon and I went out one night with Chris and Cathy for some good midwestern steak - awesome company and a beautiful view of the Missouri River. It was fun for us to hang with the kids on the long car ride there and back, although our return trip took almost 11 hours...yikes!
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| Charlie, Chris, Jon and Spencer. |
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Here's Spency fishing with his Uncle Charlie     |
We've had a really fun spring/summer so far. We had a few weekends in the mountains - I ran the Steamboat half marathon (an annual tradition) and Jon competed in the Tough Mudder - an awesomely difficult 12 mile race up and down a mountain where every mile or so there are obstacles like jumping over walls, swimming in ice baths, jumping in mud, getting zapped by dangling electirc wires, etc. He participated as a team with some fellow crossfit buddies and they did great. His race was in Beaver Creek which was fun for us to have an excuse to head out there. During Jon's race I got a babysitter and hit the spa...not a bad afternoon all around! We met up with Jon and our buddies at the finish and it was really fun for me to support Jon in his race since he's always so supportive of my running. I posted a few pictures below but more are on facebook...feel free to friend either of us if you haven't done so. There are just way too many places to take and post pics therese days.
My plan this year is to run the Santa Barbara Marathon in November. I'm going with the girls that I run with - there's about six of us so far. Our official training kicked off a few weeks ago although I haven't really increased my miles too much yet. I decided to add a few more strength sessions to my workout week and drop one run to hopefully prevent getting injured - while still improving my marathon time a bit. I would love to break the four hour mark so we'll see how this plan works out!
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| Here's me at the finish line of the Steamboat 1/2 marathon. The race goes through beautiful country but the last mile and a half or so is on the highway back into town and it's always pretty hot. I'm smiling but at this point I don't really mean it! |
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| I ran with my friend Rachel while Jon hung out with Rachel's husband David and their twin girls and two boys. The kids all had fun hanging out together.
Here are a few more random pics from the last few months. The first few are from Spencer's class. I hung out with them one morning when they released butterflies that they raised. The last two are from preschool graduation. We are holding Spencer back from kindergarten - he's right on the cutoff and we love his preschool teachers and think he'll benefit from another year with them. The last picture is one we call Shoshi's "oh no mr. bill" face...she tends to make it shen she's excited!
     I am amazingly impressed if you are still faithfully checking my blog for updates and actually made it to the end of this post. If you got here, feel free to drop me a note...I would love to know who's still out there. |
