House before and after pictures

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Joe's 5.6 miler

Joe completed his first ever timed race last weekend, and he kicked 'A'! It was a 5.6 mile course, and he finished in 40 minutes 7 seconds (second in his age group). He wants me to note in regard to the first picture that he did defeat the elderly bald man and two of the three high school girls.

Father's Day Weekend Hike

For the real Father's Day, we took the boys on a little hike just south of Anchorage. We had a great time getting outside for fresh air and exercise. Henry and Nathan learned the word 'root'.

Use it in a sentence like so: "If I don't watch where I'm going, I will trip on a root."

Henry betrays his binobo roots by clinging onto Joe:

Where does Nathan get his shifty eyes?

A walk in the woods:


Henry:

Slave labor

The first thing Joe wanted for Father's Day was some peace and relaxation. Since that was never going to happen, the second thing he wanted was to get some chores done around the house. That's where the twins come in. So we put them to work. It's about time they started contributing to the household and becoming productive members of society. Joe's mom made an infamous statement to him and his brothers when they were young, and now we have adopted it as our own. Henry and Nathan may hear either of us say:

"You are my slaves. That's why I had you."

Run for Women

I am happy to report that I completed my final race for the summer, the Run for Women. It is an annual event that raises money for breast cancer research. I think they raised over $100,000 this year. It was a rainy, cool morning, but Joe and the boys came out to support me anyway. My time for the 5 mile run was 40 minutes 55 seconds. Now that the races are over, I can finally let myself go. Joe, however, has been inspired to sign up for a 5 mile race on Saturday. Go, Joe, go!

Usurper

Exhibit A:

Henry 'horns in' on Nathan by sitting in front of him on the Pooh Bear car.

Exhibit B:

Henry really wants the John Deere tractor that Nathan is playing with. Can you feel his pain?

Fortress of Solitude

As anyone who has recently driven down LaTouche near 36th would notice, we have a new fence in the backyard. This was a necessary home improvement project because a stiff wind could have knocked over our old fence. One might say that it was 'tired'.

The new fence is strong and TALL. Well, it seems normal height from inside the backyard. From the street side, where the ground and sidewalk slope away from the house, it looks gigantic.

Hence the new name for our backyard and house:

The Fortress of Solitude.

Now that we are used to seeing the fence everyday, it looks normal. Having a couple extra feet of height made a huge difference for us in that our backyard seems much more private now. And we get good use out of the fence since we go in and out of the man-gate multiple times per day on the way to and from work. Most importantly, our increasingly strong and mobile babies will be safely contained!!

Before:

After:
After:

Eagle River Triathlon

I completed my second triathlon on Sunday, June 8. It was a cool and cloudy day which made for pretty good conditions. The bike and run distances in this race were a bit different from the Gold Nugget: a couple more hilly miles on the bike and about a mile shorter on the run. Overall, I am happy with my time of 1:28:43. My main area for improvement will be on the bike segment. Even though I have a rad new bike, my legs are not built up for it yet. But they will be. Oh, yes. They will be. ..

Here is a picture of me at the end of the Gold Nugget Triathlon in May:

Nathan & Henry are cool. They can hang.

Music lovers

The boys listened intently to Joe's iPod. Who knows what they were listening to, and hopefully their baby ear drums are still intact! Suzy will be glad to know that their ears are able to hold earbuds (she knows what I'm talking about). :)

Elton John

I admit that it is a blurry photo, but it's the only proof I have that Joe and I saw Elton John in concert last Friday night. "Elton John came to Alaska?", you may ask. Yes, I believe it was selected as a stop on his "I'm going where I've never gone before" concert tour. Anyway, he did a great job and we had a lot of fun. Steve and Katrina Chmielowski came into town (without kids) for the concert as an early 11th wedding anniversary celebration getaway. (The shiny white/purple dot is Elton, and the picture on the left is him enlarged on a screen for the faraway people to see.)

Memorial Day Weekend

We drove up to the homestead at Sourdough for Memorial Day weekend. It was mayhem with lots of kids and dogs, and the babies loved it. The weather was sunny but cool without too many mosquitos. Here are some photos from the weekend.

Nate and Henry looking across the lake (note their cute 'outdoorsy' outfits):
N&H eating grahm crackers by the camp fire:
Nathan in the swing (it took him a while to warm up to the idea):
Jessie tickling Henry with kisses:
N&H hanging around the cabin and getting into trouble:
Henry tests out an old snowmachine: H&N play on the snowmachine:

Joe and Nathan walk in the woods:

Nathan exploring the forest:

LeMond

So I'm way behind on posts and I'll try to catch up. First thing to mention is that I bought a new road bike a couple weeks ago. It is called a LeMond Alpe D'Huez. My friend Katie generously let me use her road bike during the Gold Nugget Triathlon, but I thought it would be fun to get one of my own. I have tested it out a few times and will get to use it in the Eagle River Triathlon this Sunday. Woo hoo!