Wordless Wednesday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT BROOKE!!!

Ohhhh a new camera

Not that this is really the best time to be stimulating the economy but I have been dying for a new manual digital camera for the past year.

Introducing my new digital Canon Rebel SLR - yahoo!!! I picked it up today and had the chance to play around with the girls this afternoon. I am just learning so these are not edited at all. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I will post some of my edited landscape shots too

SNORES

This afternoon my college friend Kristine came up for a while. We grilled out for dinner and we made S'mores for dessert. Aly kept calling them Snores. She would ask if you knew how to make a snore and then explain how it is a marshmallow sandwich.

Brianna - she never ate that marshmallow - she just carried it around until it was time to go in. She licked it but never ate it.

Aly loves Gwen - because she is 7, and we are really lucky that Gwen enjoys playing with Aly. After S'mores, the girls hit the hot tub to clean off - Aly and Gwen swam for quite a while, getting the diving sticks off the bottom of the pool. I think that we will use the hot tub as our little kiddie pool this summer.

New Additions at Our House

We have a couple of new additions to our house. First is the horse that Aly made at school. She has been riding it all over the house. It is a newspaper roll with a horse head on the top. She says that he runs really fast and can do really high jumps to China. If only traveling was that easy.

Here are our next guests. Two birds making nests at our house. Ryan is adamant that we get rid of them before they finish but I think it would be neat to see them there with thier babies this Spring. Of course that may mean that I am responsible for the poop that will ultimately land all over our front porch.

And finally, meet our star Brianna - who is pure TROUBLE. Into everthing, extroverted, charming and 100% devilish. Not a fear in the world.

St. Anthony Triathlon Race Report

Our triathlon was a success, well partially. For the first time in 26 years, the swim got cancelled. Yes, I really only completed a duathlon. There were 3 foot waves and over 400 novice triathletes.

Soooo, I must do another one. June 15, in Shelton, CT, I will make my second attempt to complete an Olympic distance triathlon.

The girls did great, they loved being at Nonna and Bumpas - they had such a fabulous time.



I will post more pics later this week.

Training in Florida

It is really weird not to be posting about my kids, but since they are in NH having an absolute blast I guess I am okay with it. I did talk to Aly briefly this afternoon but she informed me that she was busy eating a donut - hmmm.

We have had a couple of training swims and rides since we arrived yesterday afternoon. The swims have both been very different. The first one the water was calm and it was really warm. This morning we woke up to really choppy water - 2 foot waves and a much different bay scenario. Tomorrow calls for 89 and who knows what the water will be like.

We biked the run course this afternoon and it was flat - there is nothing this flat in CT. It is a pretty residential run by the water with a little shade. Considering I am planning to be running around 11:30 shade is an important thing.

We are up at 4 am tomorrow to set up our transitions - I am so excited. The Team in Training program has been exceptional.

A few thoughts....

It has been a crazy week here. Between getting ready for Florida and the girls not feeling great - I am ready for SPRING.

Tomorrow I run my last 5 mile run in preparation for St. Anthony Triathlon. I keep thinking in my head it will be amazing to cross the finish line on Sunday. I am truly proud of this accomplishment and excited that I was able to do it for a great cause.

Tonight was Aly's last swimming lesson, she loved her teacher Ms. Kait. I am hoping that the next session does not fill and we can in when I return next week.

This week the weather has been rainy all week. This afternoon Aly came with me to get the mail, rain gear and all.

Writing Our Name

In anticipation of the rain, we spent the day inside waiting patiently for it.. So far it has not come. We did however, spend a lot of time coloring and writing our name. Brianna likes to write and simultaneously say CHEESE.

Here is Aly's name that we have been working on for a couple of weeks.

A Garden Will Grow

Today was beautiful. I took Aly to Home Depot this morning and we got a bunch of seeds and flowers to start our Spring planting. She was so excited to plant peas, since she remembers picking them in Iowa last summer.

Brianna decided that she was going to celebrate Winter a little longer as evidenced by the hat.

Aly loved planting the pansies, I think because they were purple. She got to pick out the colors this year.

We started our seeds in the tray, hopefully we will have some pea sprouts in a couple of weeks.

Trying to figure out html

So I am working on updating our blog and I am terrible at html. I can't figure out how to center my pictures, but hopefully I can get through some of the tutorials and make it all work

Blogger Slacker

I know that it has been a while but things have been CRAZY to say the least. A bunch of pictures to follow.

We travelled to the beach right before Derek and Shelby left. It was chilly to say the least but the girls liked picking up the shells and walking on the sand.

We have been enjoying the warmer weather this past week. We have spent the last couple of days outside almost ALL day. I think the long winter took a toll on us and we are ready for spring.

I completed my last ride this weekend - I loved the Team in Training group and I am really excited to be in Florida in less than a week and complete my first triathlon - YAHOO.

This is Aly's friend Evan - they play soo well together. They all ended up playing on the deck on Friday, we used the hot tub as a pool to float boats and fill cups. Everyone ended up in underwear or diapers = they had doo much fun.