Karen Rocks!

Karen recently competed in her second annual mini triathlon at the Caldwell YMCA. She has been training hard for several months in preparation. She came down with flu-like symptoms the day before her big race and I was convinced she wouldn't be up to it. The following morning she gulped down a handful of Advil and headed out while I watched the kids.

Karen improved her time in all three events compared to last year. She improved her swimming time by a staggering 4 minutes for the 400 meter event. While I wasn't able to take pictures of her race, I imagine her swim looked something like this.

That's right, she didn't even need goggles. Here she is riding her bike. Note that she goes so fast she doesn't need arm or leg warmers on this sub-freezing January morning.

 

And finally, she gave some love to her peeps at the finish line.

The race actually takes place in the pool, then a stationary bike followed by a treadmill. The start times are staggered, so there is no way to know how you did until everyone finishes. After Karen was done, she skipped the awards ceremony and headed home. The next time she went to the YMCA, one of her friends told her that she needed to pick up her prize. She got second place in the womens category! That's second place overall, not just her age group. Way to go Karen!



Merry Christmas!

I have been remiss in posting our Christmas experience. I have been waiting on some pictures, and, well, haven't felt like blogging lately.

Anyway, this was a really fun Christmas for us. Elena is old enough to understand the concept of Santa, giving and receiving gifts, etc. She helped me wrap gifts, but hasn't quite conquered the idea of keeping secrets. I think she told Oma (Karen's mom) what her gift was about three times. I handed her the gift from under the tree to give to Mary, and she said, "Here are the pans we got you."

Prior to Xmas, Karen and I took the kids and their cousins to see the lights in Caldwell. You can say what you want about the city of Caldwell, but their lights kick ass.

 

 

 

We were experiencing a deep freeze at the time, so we basically sprinted through the lights and headed for a Chinese restaurant nearby.

Elena has been dying to make her first snowman this year. It has been so cold that the snow wouldn't cooperate until lately. Here is our Christmas snowman.

  

We had Christmas dinner at my parents' house. It was a great dinner and the kids enjoyed opening presents together. As you can see, they really got into the sharing spirit this year. 

 

All of the cousins got new PJs for Christmas. Afterward, we suffered through hours of Christmas Jammies lyrics.

We attempted to get a good picture of all of the cousins together. I say we attempted because it is impossible to get four small bodies to simultaneously hold still and look at the camera.