Merry Christmas!

See you April 17th

26.2...let the training begin!

Brads Wedding

Last weekend I made it out to CA to see Brad's wedding. Great times and a fun guys weekend. Hit up all my favorite eating spots ( I heart TK), got dressed up to surf but had to turn around (thanks Ocean for being high tide and shore break that morning), stayed up late nights catching up with friends and crashed at Adam's house for the weekend. All in all a good time but more important so stoked to see Brad get married. Congrats little brother...you caught yourself a good one.

First Snow storm of the Year....sorta

Our first snow fall was around the first week of October but it didn't amount to much. The storm I am referring to happened a few days before Halloween on the 28th. About 16 inches fell over two days. The pics below are from just the first morning. We didn't really get any photos after the second day because I had to fly out to UT for work the next morning....yes that's right about scared me to death. Especially since the next morning was a full on blizzard and I had to take a puddle jumper type plane....thanks Frontier. Rachel loved the snow though and we got her an outfit to play in. She loved the snowman we made together the first day and now anytime she sees snow she screams "SNOWMAN!" We also bought her a sled. She was a little unsure the first couple times down the small hill in our front yard but after about two times down she started saying "seat daddy, seat, push" Even with a runny nose and being cold she wanted to continue to be pushed down that hill over and over again.

Halloween 2009

Great weather and times this year for Halloween. A few weeks prior we went to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpikns. Due to a recent snow storm a few days earlier the pumpikns froze and weren't in the greatest of conditions. But we made lemonade our of lemons found a few pumpkins that looked half way decent, checked out the petting farm and enjoyed some pumpkin bread. The night of Halloween Rachel dressed up as a dog that doubled as a head warmer. We weren't sure if Rachel would understand what Halloween was all about, lets just say that notion was gone before we even showed up to the first house. Needless to say she had it down pat and racked in all the good stuff for Mom and Dad and yes herself. Enjoy the pics:

Baby Ania's Blessing Weekend

The second weekend of October we flew out to Utah to attend Baby Ania's blessing. We had an awesome time from seeing Becs score her first goal, Rachel playing Golf for the first time and playing football with the boys. The highlight of course was being able to finally meet Ania. She is such a beautiful baby and definitely worth the wait. Her spirit was so strong and we are so grateful she is a part of the family. Lets be honest though, we are bummed that the following week Jon, Liz and Ania moved to Poland. Yes that's right, Poland. I guess our relationship for now will have to flurish on Skype. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Stars, Lots of Stars and the Hawaiian Moon!

A few weeks ago Teresa and I went on a trip to Kauai. A few of our friends from Colorado joined as well and we had a great time. Our itinerary was jammed packed with stuff and I think we are still trying to recoup and catch up on sleep. From an 18 mile sea kayak trip around the Napali coast (Rated #2 of Top 100 things to do in the US by National Geographic), to an 8 mile round trip hike to a 350 foot waterfall, to a 25 foot waterfall with cliff jumping and a rope swing, to a luau, to seeing Waimea Canyon (called the Grand Canyon of Hawaii), to snorkeling, to Queens Bath, to all the shaved ice we could eat (thank you Wishing Well for all the goodness you could offer!) we had the time of our lives...and yes I did manager to throw in 4-6 hours of surfing in each day, my shoulders are now shot. All in all it was a fun time but we are sure glad to be back with Ra-Ra(She stayed with my parents.) Here is a slide show with some pics from our trip...enjoy!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

After the race (see below) we joined up with Rachel's Uncle Josh and Aunt T to go walk around the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, or for me limp around. We have always heard about this place but never had the opportunity to visit. Let me just say it was awesome and worth a visit. Not overwhelming like a large city Zoo but just big enough to keep Rachel's attention. Plus for some reason we caught all the animals being very interactive. In fact you can even feed the giraffes, which Rachel loved. The Zoo sits up on Cheyenne Mountain which overlooks Colorado Springs (for you military buffs, Cheyenne Mountain is also home to N.O.R.A.D.). The views are fantastic and the Zoo is well laid out and full of cool animals. Rachel loved the monkeys, giraffes and monkeys the most...did I mention she loved the monkeys the most! The weather was perfect and all in all a great day!

Sub 2 Hours!!!!

The scarlet letter of running a half marathon over 2 hours has officaly been stripped from my chest. Those that know me know that I am very competitive and after finishing my first Half Marathon in August at 2:03:09 I had mixed emotions. Excited because I ran my first half marathon but upset because I missed sub-2 hours by only 3 min and 10 seconds. So of course I had to run one more...luckly there was one more non-sunday race left in CO and it was the ADT half marathon in Colorado Springs on Labor Day. I felt good on this race and ran very strong. I finished at 1:57:41!!!!. (8:58 per mile pace.) With the majority of the race season now over (one last 5K in Nov) it is on to thinking about next season. 2010 is the year of the Marathon!

Summer 2009 #6: Rachel Rachel and more Rachel

The summer isn't over yet...and we still have a few more activites planned. Until then here are some "rachel being cute" photos that we took over the past couple months....enjoy!