Riewerts' Review

Stars, Lots of Stars and the Hawaiian Moon!

2009-10-17T21:04:00.002-06:00

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

2009-09-08T10:00:00.004-06:00

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!!!!

2009-09-08T09:45:00.003-06:00

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

2009-08-17T17:59:00.004-06:00

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!

Summer 2009 #5: The Half Marathon

2009-08-17T17:52:00.005-06:00

So I finally did it, I ran my first Half Marathon. The day before my birthday I got to take an item off my bucket list. It was a great time, there were even 6 people from my Ward that ran as well. It was a little harder than I thought. Especially since we started at 8,000 feet. Granted we finished at 7,000 feet so you would think that going downhill would make you fast but the opposite is true. The declines were very steep and there were a whole bunch of up hills...I mean we are in the Rockies. All in all I am glad I finished it, though I didn't get the sub-2hr time I wanted (2:02) That's ok though as I already signed up for another one on Labor Day. What the heck has gotten into me....

Summer 2009 #4: Gramsy Comes to Visit

2009-08-17T17:49:00.004-06:00

My mom came out for a week in August to visit and hang out with Rachel. Rachel had a great time with Gramsy and loved to show her how she rules this house. Here are some family pics that we took.

Summer 2009 #3: Wellington Lake Camping

2009-08-17T17:45:00.002-06:00

We got together with some friends to camp at Wellington Lake in July. I didn't snap too many photos but did get one of Rachel and I hanging out in the lake on my surfboard....I know I know...I just haven't been on my board in 7 months and thought it would be fun to paddle around.

Summer 2009 #2: Our Wedding Anniversary

2009-08-17T17:37:00.003-06:00

This year Teresa and I got away, sans child, to explore Beaver Creek. We landed an insane deal on a hotel suite up there and had a great time. It was overcast the first day but that made for some sweet pics on the way up the lift. We had a nice dinner the first night and even got some dancing in. The following day we hiked up to an alpine lake. We love Colorado!

Summer 2009 #1: The Zoo

2009-08-17T17:28:00.004-06:00

We took Rachel to the Zoo for the first time in June on Teresa's Birthday. She had a ton of fun especially at the Monkey cages. She has a fascination with monkeys and probably would prefer to live in a cage filled with monkeys and dogs. It's a good thing we started with the monkeys because by the half way point she was over it. Maybe in a couple more years when she "gets it" we will buy some season passes and hang out there more often.

Bolder Boulder 2009

2009-05-25T20:12:00.008-06:00

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

Cubs game and UT Trip

2009-05-22T18:05:00.005-06:00

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!

Two month recap...

2009-04-18T16:12:00.013-06:00

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.

OuR 1 yEaR oLd

2009-02-09T20:03:00.005-07:00

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.

Our First Family Photo Shoot

2009-01-28T21:52:00.003-07:00

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!

Rachel's First Haircut

2009-01-28T21:36:00.005-07:00

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....

Christmas 2008

2009-01-21T12:38:00.010-07:00

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!

Steps, Lights, Drums, Dogs and everything Rachel

2008-12-15T18:30:00.016-07:00

So here is the latest from Rachel in no particular order. The weekend before Thansgiving Rachel took her first "official" steps....now she can go across the room like a champ and even has the bumps and bruises to prove it.

For Thanksgiving this year we flew out to Northern California to introduce Rachel to Gramsie Rosenthal (Eric's Natural Mother) and to the rest of the Riewerts family including her other set of Great Grandparents, Great Granny and Great Pop (Eric's grandparents.) As you can see in the pictures below she had a great time hanging out with Gramsie for Thanksgiving and at the Big Trees national park and than a day with her Riewerts relatives.

She had her first kiss with her "boyfriend" Cru...She may have enjoyed it too much and we need to make sure she closes her mouth from here on out...not sure where she got that from...ahemm.

One morning after her dad and Uncle Josh played flag football, Rachel watched as we played Rock Band on the Wii. After Josh left I turned around and saw this (I know, I have a bad baby voice):

So this year we are going to SoCal for Christmas as this will be the frist time in 3 years that we get to experience the "bright lights" of LA at the Jagard home. Due to this we had an early Christmas celebration at my parents house here in Colorado. Rachel seems to love this holiday, she is fasinated with the lights, the Christmas tree and her new toy dog. (I video taped the whole thing but the size doesn't allow me to post on blogger...there is a little video I put at the end that has her playing with it while we are opening presents)

Finally Rachel had a little time to hang out with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kristen (Her birthday buddy)

I think this breaks a record for the longest post on this blog. Teresa said I was getting a lot of flack for not updating the blog with more pictures of Rachel so I gave it to you all at once. Enjoy and see you in 2009!

LOST

2008-11-26T11:26:00.003-07:00

January 21st can't come soon enough

Keppler's Special...in CO

2008-11-23T21:37:00.004-07:00

If any of you have been to breakfast with me in HB, you know there is only one place I will go, The Sugar Shack, and here there is only one thing that I will order, The Keppler's Special. Well, I have missed my sat. morning visits to this downtown eatery, so here in CO at the Riewerts Shack I recreated my favorite breakfast. Ingredients: English Muffin, Tomato, Avocado, Eggs, Bacon, topped with Hollandaise Sauce and WA-LA...you have this culinary masterpiece....thank you Keppler, who ever you are.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-02T09:48:00.003-07:00

Happy Halloween to everyone...Rachel had a blast and loved seeing all the kids come to her house...some costumes had her mesmerized and we think she was more interested in showing off and trying to taste test all the candy we were passing out. Hopefully next year she will get the concept and we can take her out.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-26T21:26:00.004-06:00

So we found this cool pumpkin patch where you actually get to go search the farm and cut your own pumpkins. It has been open for about two weeks now so it has been picked through...yet we still managed to find some good ones...and to top it all off they are only $5 a piece no matter what size! Here are some pics to get you into the Halloween/fall mode. Also....not sure if you can see in the background in some of our pictures but the mts have had some good snow already and there are two resorts already open...with a few more opening here in a couple weeks including Brek! My knee is all healed and I can't wait to get back out there this year.

New announcment!!!

2008-10-20T08:26:00.006-06:00

We had another baby!!!!

okay okay not in the terms that you were thinking but I did "labor" for 3 months on this thing to include the raised stone patio I am standing on and the small bar you can see in one of the pics. No more grill blowing over when there are strong winds...that "baby" ain't goin anywhere. We did get the racks dirty a little bit before the colder weather set in and I am sure that we will cook on it occasionaly throughout the winter, weather permitting of course, but there is just something about having a grill in the summer time. I missed it dearly...

All about Rachel...

2008-09-28T10:56:00.007-06:00

I know...I know I have been neglectful of our blog and posting pics of our daughter. After all, there is only so many times that you can watch Dwight say "murder ball...murder checkers." So with out further adieu, here are ten things new with Rachel:

1- She has been crawling everywhere
2- She loves standing up and even pulls herself up now
3- For some reason she is obsessed with hitting herself in the head with her toys
4- She has her first battle scars from falling and hitting her head against furniture and toys.
5- She makes the funniest face when she is pooping. It is real poop now since she is getting baby food. At first she didn't understand what was going on so she would cry every time she was pushing one out.
6- She loves all the new foods she gets to eat...and she also isn't shy about supporting the company we used for our life Insurance.
7- She says "da-da da-da" all the time...but we aren't counting it since she doesn't do it when I point to myself
8- She loves her Baby Einstein movies...especially the one with the animals. She even sits with her Remote Control like Mom and Dad.
9- She loves to hang out with Dad and watch Football
10- When she gets excited she rubs her feet together...we call it the foot shuffle.

and some recent pics:

Murder Checkers?

2008-08-16T21:24:00.001-06:00

enjoy...

Past couple weeks

2008-08-14T21:53:00.003-06:00

Teresa's mom and sister came into town for a couple weeks. One of the weekends even Teresa's brother Jeff brought his kids and Rebecca out to hang. We tried to do a lot of fun things while they were here. So we went to a Rockies game, took them to Estes Park to see the Stanley and go on a "hike" by the river. Also, while I was at Scoutcamp they went to see the Unsinkable Molly Brown house museum....I am sure it was loads of fun. We went golfing, played Rock band, made cookies and had a great time. Rachel loved being with her cousins and never wanted to go to sleep. She also had rice cereal for the first time...and loved it. Her opinion of the squash was not as favorable as evident of her wearing it on her shirt. She did get her stats at her six month appointment and she is 50% in weight, 95% in height (here we come volleyball) and 75% in head size (now we can really say "Rachel go cry on ya huge pilla...its like an orage on a toothpick) Enjoy the picks...