Summer 2012 Part 2!

Sam, his brother Jon, and friend Vanessa completed the 204 mile bike ride from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR. What studs!

Here they are on the first day before the race began. None of them knew what they were getting into!

The girls anxiously waiting at the finish line for the arrival of their daddy

And while Sam was hard at work pedaling his way from one state to another, the girls and I got to play at Great Wolf Lodge.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures inside the giant water park. I guess we will have to go back to make some more memories. :)

Summer 2012 Part 1!

Where do I start? Maybe with the fact that we spent more days in hotels than in our own beds during the month of July. That's just how much we have traveled this month. But I have to say, I have enjoyed every minute of it! Well except for that one early early morning at the hotel in Seattle. That wasn't fun, bowing to the porcelain throne while stripped down to my skivies, with Sam in his bike attire waiting patiently outside the door for me to take him to the starting line of a race he has been training months for, and then to have the fire alarm go off, forcing us to evacuate. Yeah, I didn't enjoy that day, but the rest of the month made up for the stomach flu experience.

We did our annual trip to Lake Chelan with my family and as always, came home with a lot less energy, sunburned, and excited to plan next year's trip!

We spent a day at the water park

 

 

 

 

 

And some time on the beautiful lake

Yia Yia and her youngest grand-daughters

And what's better than Yoga on the Lake during your vacation? Pretty good form wouldn't you say? ;)

May till present

It seems as if I have gotten a little behind. So, the following will be a long story made short (I'll try).

The first week of May, Sam and I ran Bloomsday, a 12K, in Spokane. We both knocked off a couple minutes from our time last year so we were both pleased. We enjoyed our time as usual staying with our friends Ruth and Josh. We may have convinced them to run it with us next year!

 In the middle of May, Sam and his brother participated in "Reach the Beach" where they rode their bikes from Portland, OR to Pacific City, OR. Nothing too difficult just a measly 100 miles. Actually, this is pretty insignificant considering that in just 4 short weeks, they will be cycling from Seattle to Portland, a whoppin' 200 miles!

At the end of May, Jocelyn graduated from Preschool. That means she starts Kindergarten this year. I am not okay with this being that she is my baby. :( That also means that we won't be spending any more time at Mt. Olive Preschool. We have been very pleased with our time there and would recommend it to anyone! She is still the shy little girl she was when she started 2 years ago, but her teacher swears to us that she is only shy until the second we leave her and then again when we return. Little stinker!

Genevieve finished up her Kindergarten year at St. John's Orthodox School. She thoroughly enjoyed being at a school with big kids and especially loved her teacher Mrs. Dekker! Next year she starts going all day long. What am I going to do with both girls gone all day?!

 Our calendar this summer is far from open and flexible, which is both good and bad. The good news, obviously, is that there will be lots of fun had at Lake Chelan, Great Wolf Lodge, California family reunions, camping, and more! The bad news is that it makes me panic to think it will all be over before I know it!

And in the midst of our already crazy scheduled summer, I added in my first ever Sprint Triathlon in August! :) The race consists of events and distances that I am completely capable of (1/4 mile swim, 10.2 mile bike, 3 mile run) but the hard part will be putting them all together! So, the training has begun. :) I hadn't swam laps in 10+ years, so being back in the pool has been a challenge, but I am actually loving every minute of it!

There you have it!

Jenna's update

*The following was supposed to be attached to the previous blog about Genevieve, but for some reason Blogger is not being very friendly. So here it is:
At the age of 6, not only is Jenna doing well at math, spelling, reading, etc, but she has accomplished many things.
*She has almost completed Kindergarten.
*She has lost 5 teeth and is working on her 6th.
*She can ride her bike without training wheels, on the main roads, like an adult.
*She can score soccer goals like a champ thanks to her awesome coach! :)
*She can eat every bit of food on her plate no matter what color or scent it has! And she will even ask for seconds!
*She can put her hair that resembles Rapunzel in a pony tail all by herself. And it even looks acceptable!
*She is getting better at picking out clothes that match. ;)

About a year ago, we noticed that she was walking "weird." We mentioned it to her Dr recently who then referred her to a physical therapist. Her PT took initial pictures, videos, and measurements. Apparently, her hip bones are placed in her hip joint incorrectly. They are turned inward forcing her knees and feet inward. Although there is nothing you can do to reposition the hips, through stretching and exercises, you can help the hips to be able to flex outward more. It is all quite interesting to me. When watching her walk/run in super slow motion, you can see the imperfections which I think are quite cute!
She has been doing daily (or in our case, every other day) exercises and has been going to therapy every week for 6 weeks now. They have noticed a 20% change in the flexibility of her hips! He says that in 6 more months, we should notice a huge difference. She is also in orthotics now which helps the arch of her foot and keeps her feet in line.
PT has been super fun for her and the therapists have done an amazing job! They have her hula-hooping, hop-scotching, and doing leg presses, wall squats, running on the treadmill forward, backward, and sideways, and much more. She is constantly complimented by the staff and other people there which I think has really helped her self confidence!
My little Jenna Bean begged me to go on a run with me the other day. I took her for a mile, of which she ran the whole thing!

I am extremely blessed to be this little girl's mom!

The Best of Genevieve

Genevieve's 6th Birthday party

Cake in a Cone. How cool is that?

This is how old she is now!

Birthday Buddies 4-25-12

Birthday Buddies 4-25-06

 

 

 

All I can do is laugh

This video is a small glimpse for all of you into our world! :)
I still cannot for the life of me figure out what Jenna is doing? Flicking her eyes? And doing it while in complete calmness while Jocelyn acts like she has had nothing to eat but cotton candy and Pepsi for the last 24 hours!
I mean, really, WHOSE KIDS ARE THESE?!?!

OCD

OCD. I wish that it stood for Obedient, Compassionate, Delightful since I am referring to Genevieve when I say that, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
Well, I take that back. She can be all of those things, and quite frequently is. But she can also show signs of the technical meaning. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
1 example: It's time for bed. She has on her robe and slippers takes them off before climbing into her bed. She hangs her robe up and places her slippers directly under the robe, side by side, toe next to toe, heel next to heel. Do you see where I am going with this?
Somehow, one of her slippers got bumped. The right slipper was now 7/8 of an inch lower than the left slipper. And this caught her eye from the top bunk! And she was insistent that she get down and fix it. Almost panicky.
And this is just one example.
But gosh dang it, she is so cute, that all I can do is laugh about it.