We Three Riewerts

It took me 31 years, but I finally have gotten myself in shape enough to run. I have been addicted to running ever since Jan...don't ask me how and don't ask me why, as it's still puzzling to me because I HATED running prior to that. Today was my first race, a 10K at the BolderBOULDER. I won't lie, I had a hard time sleeping the night before and I was nervous coming to the starting line but with my brother Josh by my side and and a goal in my mind I was set to go.
In Feb when I signed up my goal was to just finish the race, by April I wanted to be under an hour and as of last week I wanted to beat 55 minutes (I may have thrown out there 50 minutes but that was the Big Hairy Audacious Goal). The run went well, started very fast but kept an 8:30-8:50 pace for the whole race, of course there were some slow periods like the "cattle herding" going on as you enter the stadium but with all that, I finished at 54:31.65 (8:47 Pace). I was so stoked and it looks like we have started a new memorial day tradition as the rest of our family felt the bug and committed to running next year. Here are some pics to of the days events:











...next stop, Aug 8th 2009, Idaho Springs Half Marathon

Last week I was gone on a couple business trips. First stop was in Chicago for a client briefing at our distribution facilities. Of course, while I was there I couldn't miss the opportunity to catch a Chicago Cubs Game at Wrigley. Figuring it would be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity I spared no expense and we sat 6 rows behind home plate. By far one of the top 3 baseball experiences of my life. Such an amazing place and so full of history it is hard not to be nostalgic.







The last stop of my trip brought me to UT. This time around though, thanks to Frontier botching a flight of mine about a month ago, we had a free ticket and Teresa and Rachel joined me on Friday and we stayed at Teresa's sister's house until Sunday evening. Good times had by all and Rachel was overly spoiled by her gracious cousins. Even Grandma Jagard showed up and surprised us. So with all her cousins, both sets of Aunts and Uncles and her Grandma she was showered with attention and she partied late nights like a rock star.










Thanks for a fun time everyone, we can't wait to do it again!

With life being so busy, I have to resort to these recaps. It actually snowed about 6 inches last night and has lingered today so that gives us plenty of time for indoor activities...to include updating our blog.
So here we go:


First off in the family visits was Teresa's brother Denny. He was in town for a gig and Rachel had a fun time playing with him.


A couple weeks after that, Teresa's brother Jon and his sweet wife Liz came into town for a wedding and spent a few extra days with us. It was great having them here and Rachel loved all the attention. Hopefully they loved Colorado enough to one day move out here.








A couple weeks after that Teresa's mom flew out for a week and was so surprised by Rachel's growth and growing personality. Rachel really has been so much fun as of late and keeps us well entertained throughout the day.



She LOVES to read, and gets any chance she can get to pick up a book and either read it to her self or bring it to mom and dad to read. Some of the shorter simple books we have memorized..."I know what I want to be when I grow up, an Astronaut" (from her fav, Big Birds letter "A" book)

Even though we had some rough weather these past few days, this winter has been very mild, almost half the days where 60 deg or better...sometimes even reaching in the high 70's. That gave Rachel some opportunities to play outside and venture to the park almost any day it was warm.





She also found Joy in feeding herself at any occasion, though we have noticed that she has the "hide the food" trick down as she stuffs her unwanted veggies down at the crease of her seat.




She learned the sign for "baths" and gives it to us 4-5 times per day, of course we disappoint until the evening when she can finally have her chance to splash and play in the water.




For Easter we went to Nana and Pop's place (Eric's Mom and Dad's). Rachel loved the time with her grandparents and their dog Cassie. She also got to play with Uncle Josh and Aunt T. We were unsure if she would get the concept of the egg hunt but she learned fast and after only a couple minutes was running all over the yard finding eggs and placing them in her basket.

On Jan 30th Rachel turned 1! Amazing how fast time has flown. She is this little person now complete with a cute personality and lots of love. Well, if you hadn't see from previous posts she absolutley LOVES dogs. So of course we had to have a dog themed birthday. She had a bunch of her friends come over....some just a little older than her, but they all treat her so well, and she loves playing with her friends no matter what age. She had her first true "sweet" with her giant cup cake, and would point and laugh everytime she saw the many dog pictures strewn around our house. Happy First Birthday Ra-Ra.


The Treats!

Little cupcake puppies...

Welcoming her friends to the party

Rachel diggin' into the icing...no that isn't black ink

Opening her presents

Finishing the night with "Ride-a-horse" with Nana. She couldn't get enough.

Last week we had our First Family Photo shoot or FFPS as I like to call it. Kelli did a great job and Rachel even hung in there....well until she ate a handful of railroad track dirt...yummy! Too bad we didn't get a picture of that. Thanks Kelli for doing a great job!

Good-on-ya Riewerts...two new blog posts in the past week. Anyone left reading this thing should consider themselves lucky.

A few weeks ago Rachel had her first haircut. She loved it, and looks like we have a princess in the making. Randi did a great job and will have a repeat customer from here on out. Meanwhile...Dad has been adding up the cost of product in his head ever since she sat in that chair and smiled....

I know I know...I have been horrible about updating our blog. Life has just been very busy as of late and the free time I do get I try to spend with Rachel and Teresa and catching up on my favorite shows. Maybe I should ask for a "bailout" of my time...

So this year for Christmas break we went to SoCal to be with the Jagards. First time in three years. We were there for about a week but the time flew by so fast. We had something going on almost everyday so it was one of those "we did a lot" vacations..opposed to "we did a lot of nothing".

On Tuesday we went to the Jay Leno show. We showed up a little late, I had to run 3 miles because "I" forgot my ticket in the car and there is no parking at the studio, and we were the last ones picked but we ended up sitting in the front row and even got to be on TV when he came out and we shook his hand. We had a friend record it and put it on DVD for us but have yet to get the goods. Here is the monologue from that night...if you listen carefully enough you can hear us laughing in the background.



If any of you ever get an opportunity, it is a great free and fun thing to do. Afterwards we went to the Originial Bob's Big Boy. I remember going to these restaraunts as a kid when I was growing up in DC but I guess they have all shut down except for this one.



On Wednesday Teresa's mom threw a fantastic Christmas dinner party complete with White Elephant exchange and amazing food. There were about 20 people there and of course Rachel was the Belle of the Ball.



Christmas morning was great...we got to sleep in. Of course always in the back of our minds is the fact that in 2 or 3 more years those mornings will be the opposite as we will have to chase our children down the stairs at the crack of dawn. Rachel loved all the gifts she got. Her favorites were the sing-a-long thing she got from Aunt Heather and Uncle Denny and the dalmation dog Aunt Sarah got for her....well that and the $1 dog I got her at the grocery store for her stocking...she loves dogs as you can tell.







On Friday we went to the Ronald Reagan Library. Teresa's sister works there and she gave us the VIP tour...well essentialy we didn't have to wait in the line for the Air Force one exhibit...and she gave us a lot of the "inside" information. Okay okay we'll admit, we did feel special. My dad loved to work for Reagan so it was really cool to see the whole life of this great President. The library/museum was put together very well...and a must see if you find yourself in North Los Angeles.



On Saturday we took Rachel to a restaraunt that does open mic Kareoke....Sarah, Teresa's sister, loves to go and Rachel even went up with her Dad and sang ABC's. When everyone in the audience started to sing along she was having the time of her life and clapping and laughing....too bad we didn't get video of it.

Sunday jumped back on a plane and after an almost 3 hour delay we finally made it home at 2:30am. We won't go into anymore details regarding that adventure as our goal is to portray our daughter as a perfect angel.

THE END!