On the move with Soren and Kaia: June 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

One more birthday update

This morning we surprised Soren with breakfast in bed and after that he got to open his gifts and then got a big breakfast that included strawberry pancakes.

A video of Soren opening his gifts:

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Soren's actual birthday was today, so we decided to continue the fun an keep celebrating. We live close to ValleyFair, but never go there. We decided to check it out again today since they've revamped the kids area with a Snoopy theme.

We enjoyed our day much more then we thought we would. Despite a forecast of storms the weather held out and the kids were very well behaved. It was a success!

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Happy 4th Birthday Soren

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Soren's Birthday Party

We decided to try something different this year with Soren's party instead of the annual BBQ. Thank goodness we did because it was raining on Saturday. We had his party at Pump It Up, an inflatable playground type of place. It was fantastic!! Soren and his friends had a blast.

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Camping night!

We got Soren a tent and sleeping bag for his birthday. We decided that the weather looked best for camping on Friday night so we'd give it to him then. Kaia and Soren were thrilled with the idea of sleeping outside.

The kids were so excited that they didn't want to go to sleep. Finally they fell asleep at 10:45 and slept through the night. Marty and I had an air mattress so we thought we'd be set too. However, out air mattress lost it's air at 1:00. We were also sleeping right next to our neighbors (very loud) air conditioner and Marty was snoring. All things considered, I decided that the kids were sleeping well and only one parent was needed to supervise :). I went in to supervise the pups and my cozy bed.

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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Soren's Games

Excuse the fact that I say "bikin'" on here..... Ugh!!!

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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Bike time

We spent a long time riding bike on the sidewalk tonight while Marty mowed the lawn. Soren had claimed kaia's scuut and needed to move outside of the house.... He's too quick to safely ride inside now. He also insisted on wearing his costume outside instead of his clothes....

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Monday, June 20, 2011

Fun with Medals

Th kids love it when we come home with medals and always insist on trying them on. Here they are modeling our medals from Grandma's Marathon.

Grandma's Marathon

Here's Marty's race report that he sent to his team today:

This past weekend Jill and I ran Grandma's Marathon. This was my third time running this race. I ran my first marathon here in 2005 and did great for my first marathon. Ran Grandma's a second time in 2006 and had a rough day and hadn't been back until this year. I knew going in that I had the potential to put a decent time gap on my marathon PR of 3:34 that I achieved at the 2009 TCMarathon. The weather forecast looked good for the day an terms of conditions conducive to good marathon times-- mid to upper 40s and a crosswind/tailwind. Down side was that there was also a good chance of rain, which can make the pre-race wait miserable.

That morning Jill and I along with hundreds of racers waited at a hotel in Duluth to board a bus to Two harbors for the start line. It was pouring rain and cold. As we waited under an overhang all I could think about was the 60-90 minute wait we would be dealing with once we got off the bus 20 miles north of where we were at. No tents-- just a big parking lot with hundreds of port-o-pottys.....Awesome. Finally got on the bus and it rained the whole ride there. By some miracle the rain subsided a minute or two before we unboarded. Met up with my brother and went thru the typical pre-marathon routine.

Once the race got going I settled into a comfortable pace, keeping my HR well below Anaerobic threshold. Miles 1-18 were pretty uneventful. Only issue was the first three miles-- just a lot of runners to get around. At mile 18 or so my quads started to get pretty sore. I had a goal time in my head and new I had developed a 3-4 minute cushion. Did the math in my head and knew I could still achieve it if I could just hang on and work thru the pain that was starting to develop. By mile 23 my quads was pretty rough; Can't honestly remember having to work thru that much pain in a run. Pace had fallen off 20-30 seconds a mile, but still well within the range I needed. Last three miles were tough, but the finish was close enough to make it tolerable. Did everything I could to avoid the temptation to walk. I knew If I let up for more than a few seconds it would be incredibly difficult to get going again. And then I finished-- 3:14:07, besting my previous marathon PR by more than 20 minutes.

Stairs and I aren't friends right now. I hope my legs feel normal soon!

Happy Father's Day!

We celebrated Father's Day by going out to dinner at Bonfire. Since it was Sunday night it was also kids night with the make your own pizzas, sundaes and the balloon guy.

Soren decided he wanted the balloon guy to make him a hat, and also insisted on sitting very close to Marty during dinner… Kaia got a princess hat and a pink poodle made out of balloons.

Marty's thoughts on the hat….Happy Father's DAY!!

Soren loved the hat, but had no clue when people would ask if he was a Vikings fan :)

Kaia's princess hat (you can also see Kaia's cheeks, she's got fifth's disease which isn't a big deal, but looks really bad)

Kaia's really into her Sundae :)

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Twins Baseball!

We had an awesome day today! Grandpa Dan, Grandma Carrot and Uncle Nick came down so we all could go to the baseball game together. Soren had a really hard time understanding that he didn't get to play ball too, but overall they did really well. Kaia feel asleep for a few innings in Grandma's lap and moved into Uncle Nick's lap for a while too.

Checking out the self portrait function on Mom's phone.

The kid next to Soren had his baseball cap on backwards, so Soren decided he needed to do the same.

So sleepy…she feel asleep about the 7th inning. We were hoping for the 4th, but oh well:)

Baseball practice

Soren was in his complete glory yesterday-- both Grandpa Dan and Uncle Nick were giving him their undivided attention for baseball practice-- he LOVED it!!

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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Graduation Day!

Today was graduation day at Mrs. CareySue's house. She wanted Soren to be included in graduation, but since he isn't going to kinderarten next year he graduated from headstart. Marty picked the kids up tonight and I got home a bit later. When I got home, Soren brought me into the house and took me over to his diploma. He was SOOO proud. I've never seen him so excited. He gave me a hug and just kept hugging me. I almost thought he was going to start crying. It was wonderful to see his sense of accomplishment! Mrs. CareySue made it very special too. During the ceremony he wore a cap and gown and then she got him a medal, a class ring, a diploma, medal, and took lots of pictures to send home with him.