Happy Birthday Madeleine!

This is catch up week for the blog. Madeleine turned 3 on 4th of July. We celebrated a week before her birthday with a small party at Drace Park. Madeleine was very excited for her princess birthday party and had a great time. It was a classic 4th of July birthday party with lots of heat and humidity. Afterwards we went camping in our new pop up camper (that will be another post). Then on Friday before her birthday she brought crown cookies into school to celebrate with her friends there. There have been quite a few birthdays in her class and she had been eagerly anticipating her friends singing Happy Birthday to her. For her actual birthday, we celebrated at the Lake with Mike, Laurel, Michael and Jack. Laurel spruced up the party with some fun party favors. Jim added a surprise by buying trick candles accidently. She was getting a little concerned about why they weren't going out but Jack stepped in to blow them all out over and over again. All in all she had a great birthday and is very excited to be 3... although after finding out you have to be 4 to ride the go karts at the lake she was already talking about turning 4!

The Birthday Girl with her princess cake

Hadley attacking her watermelon
Madeleine handing off her wrapping paper
Playing on the playground
Madeleine getting concerned about her candles that kept relightingThe glamorous birthday girl
New sunglasses!
The new ride!

Austin Weekend

As usual, we are way behind in our blog posts and what follows is a weak attempt at catching up...

Me and the girls headed to Austin in early June for cousin Pete's wedding. We made it a long weekend so we could visit with Uncle Dave and hang out with family and friends. It was a full weekend and is amazing to think how much we crammed in: the non-rehearsal rehearsal dinner, a visit with the Marrs family, creek time, Rudy's, the wedding, a hike, Rudy's, park time, and a super fun day at Mike and Laurel's. We had so much fun Madeleine didn't want to leave Texas. Shoot, even the 4 flights to get there and back went well!

I think I took 500+ pics that weekend. Trying to pick out just a few was a pain, but here you go...

Erin & Hadley at the Non-Rehearsal Rehearsal Dinner:



Madeleine & Georgia:



Breakfast at Uncle Dave's. Maybe someday he will have a table to eat on that is intended for something other than coffee (or Natty Lights):



Partaking in Uncle Dave's favorite activity - playing in one of the creeks near his place:



Rocks!:



Pete & Kejda:



Making silly faces with Uncle Dave:



Dancing with Dad:



Madeleine & Dad:



The spectators at Mike and Laurel's:



Owen's first time on skis!:



Mike & Laurel's new place:



Conditions don't get much better than this:



Not even 3 years old and tubing with Dad:



Dad trying to remember how to wakeboard:



Believe it or not, Hadley climbed right on and tried to fire it up!:



Of course, Madeleine had to follow:



Apres (water)ski at Pancho & Lefty's:



This lovely ride was in the parking lot. Replace the Keystone Light with Natty Light and paint it white and it could have been Dave's:



Family pics:



More family pics:



G marking her turf:



Rockstar Madeleine:

Catching Up

I am going to try and post some updates tonight and tomorrow night of our recent good times. I'll start tonight with a few things leading up to this past weekend and save the recent weekend's adventures for tomorrow night.

A couple weekends ago I had a dumpster delivered and ripped the deck and poorly built retaining wall off the back of our house. The deck came down suprisingly quick, thanks in part to my Dad's help shuttling loads to the dumpster. Two Husqvarna chainsaws and 4 chains helped out the process quite a bit too. I ended up using a vacation day on the Monday after just to tidy things up.

I used another vacation day that Wednesday. But this day was for me, not housework, and had me meeting Paul, Bob, and Scott at the 141/44 lot early in the morning (and Kevin at the trailhead) for a full day trip to Council Bluff Lake to ride the Middlefork section of the Ozark Trail. I'm embarassed to admit it, but this was my first trip to the Middlefork. This section of the OT has been receiving a lot of attention from the local mtb scene recently, and while I can't say I have ridden the OT extensively, I can say that I have ridden an extensive number of mountain bike trails throughout the country. That said, the Middlefork was awesome! We left from the boat tramp and accessed the MF via the connector, riding an out-back for a total of 35 miles and over 3000 feet of climbing. Unlike some of the other nearby trails, I couldn't believe the overall condition (great!) of the MF and its lack of rocks. Smooth and fast describe this trail. No doubt I am headed back. Of course, the trail itself was only part of the fun. Taking a vacation day mid-week and spending it with friends was pretty good too. Work has been busy recently, but I think I need more days like this. My college used to have "Wonderful Wednesdays," which originally (pre-me) meant no classes and essentially lots of drinking, but during my time still generally meant music and beer. I'd be fine with having these type of Wednesdays more often, keeping the beer but sub'ing the music for bike riding.

While the Middlefork was great, it wasn't the only riding that week. On Saturday, Erin and I rode from our house over to Grant's Trail, then all the way to the end and back home for just over 20 miles. This was good pre-triathlon training for her, and with 2 kids in a trailer, a pretty good workout for me too. Then on Sunday I followed up the mtb and trailer rides with a road ride, heading west to Wildwood's hills and back for 65 miles. Coincidentally (?), each ride this week was my longest year-to-date for each bike: 35 on the Superfly on Wednesday, 20 on the Karate Monkey with trailer on Saturday, and 65 on the Giant on Sunday. Hopefully these rides will keep me from blowing up at the next mtb race...

Deck before:



Deck during:



Deck after:



Middlefork before... Geezer showing Bob the love:



Middlefork during... break time:



More Middlefork during... Kevin in the burnt out section near the end:



Middlefork after... "Now how do I fit this here?":



Grant's Trail before... well, at the beginning of the trail:



Grant's Trail during... at least they're awake now:



Grant's Trail after... after at least the first half (10+ miles):

This Weekend

I'm enjoying a few minutes downtime while Hadley naps and Madeleine "rests". Summer has definitely arrived and the girls and I have been enjoying it while Jim works on our backyard project. We met my friend and her daughter at the Botanical Gardens yesterday morning. All the girls enjoyed the Children's Garden. Today, we went to the zoo with my mom. Per Madeleine's request we checked out the zebras and giraffes first. Next we rode the train and the carousel. It was a fun morning.

At the Children's Garden... sporting her gold medal from Field Day on Wednesday
All the kiddos... couldn't get everyone looking
Still can't get Hadley to look at me!
On the train at the Zoo
Madeleine petting the "Sea Lions" - we rented a sea lion movie from the library and she was excited to see them.

April Update

April has flown by. We have really enjoyed the mostly nice weather. Madeleine and Hadley are really starting to play together. One of their favorite activities is to walk around the house carrying purses. Madeleine pretends she is going shopping, to kindergarten or a meeting. And Hadley follows her saying "Bye, Bye." Madeleine has also learned how to pedal her tricycle. She can really get it going... not good in our very short driveway! It has been a fun month. Here are some recent pictures.

Easter

Hadley proudly sporting the Jackson Hole " I Love Big Dumps" Onesie
"Bye Bye"
Playing together
Making cupcakes... what Madeleine wanted to do on a rainy Sunday
I finally gave up on putting them back up on the shelf in height order