Lots of Random Stuff!

The summer is way too short and way too fun here for me to be blogging, so this will be a random update with lots more to come... My parents just left after a week with us. We had so much fun! More on that, with photos, later.

GWEN is competing in her very first Triathlon on Saturday! She is quite the contender in the "4 and Under" division : ) Her big race consists of a 25m swim in the Boulder Reservoir (but she can touch the whole time), followed by a 0.3 mile bike and a 0.1 mile run. It should be hilarious. Gwen is taking the whole thing very seriously. One morning at breakfast she was staring off into space. I asked her what she was thinking about and she said, "My race. I really need to practice, like, 100 times before August. Do you think I can wear your bracelet for the race that tells you how far you go and how fast you go?". I was cracking up. Then on the way to preschool one day, she blurted out "MOM! EVERY MINUTE that goes by it gets closer to my race!".
We had to register her online and yesterday she got a big packet in the mail with her official USA Triathlon Youth Membership. How funny is that? Complete with a "Live Strong" type bracelet that says "USA Triathlon. Swim.Bike.Run". We will definitely have photos to share next week! Wish her luck! (oh, and maybe lance too since he is doing a piddly little 1/2 Iron Man on Sunday).


And again about Gwen, she drew this picture yesterday and I just thought it was so cute I had to post it. It is a house with hearts that she drew for everyone in the family. The green thing is a dog. The box on the right side with a person sticking out is a HOT TUB! I thought that was so cute.

And one last thing for now... My dad LOVES hummingbirds and he religiously fills his feeder and watches for the 1 or 2 hummingbirds he gets. The highlight of his hummingbird watching was when one got stuck in our garage and tired itself out. My dad held it in his hand and spoon fed it sugar water. He was in heaven! Anyway, my dad saw a hummingbird in our yard and so he quickly went out and bought us a hummingbird feeder. Within minutes we had about 7 hummingbirds swarming the feeder. Even 2 or 3 different varieties (my dad is probably, as we speak, looking them up to confirm for me). The hum so loud they wake us up in the morning! I snapped these pictures this morning for him...

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!

Lest you think I brag about my kids too much, let me just say that THEY DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!!! The past few weeks, Gwen has been the culprit. At least I was prepared for the terrible two's and felt like they were an age appropriate milestone. No one ever warned me about FOUR!!! What the heck? For all of you with three year olds, thinking you are over the hump, let me just tell you that you are not. Four year olds go backwards - they whine, they complain, they are needy again, they once learned to share, but now they forget, etc. It is ridiculous. Every sentence out of Gwen's mouth starts with Moooooooooooooommmmmmyyyyy. I have to keep reminding her, "Mommy is a SHORT word, you don't need to drag it out for 10 minutes in that whiny voice!". I never thought "Mommy" could make my ears hurt. And now we are to the sassy stage as well. I tell her, "Gwen, you've just lost your TV show for tomorrow b/c you couldn't listen", or whatever, and she replies, "GOOD, I didn't want to watch a show tomorrow anyway!!". Luckily, I have Darcy on my side to help me discipline Gwen. When Darcy gets mad at her, she yells "Don't be mean Gennie!! You get in BIG tubble (trouble). You get a TIME OUT Gennie!".

Lance's Tri - part 2

Lance had his Olympic Distance Tri yesterday. It was over 100 degrees and SUNNY. It was torture just to watch!! The coolest thing (no offense lance) is that this is a huge triathlon, so a lot of the US olympic team was there to participate and practice for Beijing. They made them take off an hour after everyone else so they wouldn't crash into the normal people as they zipped past, and also so that all the participants could watch them finish. It was so amazing!

Here are Lance and our brother-in-law Eric at the start:


And here is our official 9 year anniversary picture. We take one every year.

Happy Anniversary, Lance!!

July 17 is our NINE year anniversary! WOO HOO! I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a wonderful 9 years, and am especially grateful for our last year when we've gotten to start our "big adventure", spend more quality time together than ever before, support each other getting back in shape, pursue new and old hobbies, and add wonderful Beckett to the mix!

I did try to find a picture of just Lance and I to post - I scrolled back and found that the last picture of the 2 of us is from our last anniversary!! I guess things really change when you have kids. Especially your third!

Gwen's Thoughts on Dinosaurs

Ever since we went to the Dinosaur Museum in Fruita, Darcy will sometimes spontaneously yell that she needs to go back to the "dinosaur place" or the "dinosaur house" or "dinosaur hill". Yesterday, this prompted Gwen to ask how all the dinosaurs died. Lance mentioned maybe an Ice Age or maybe a meteor and no one really knew. Gwen said "I think I might know" (this seems to be a trend):

"I think maybe something blocked the sun, like maybe a dinosaur dug a really big hole (we weren't sure how this would block the sun, but we went with it). Then, since the sun couldn't shine, all the plants died. Then the dinosaurs that were plant-eaters couldn't eat the plants so they died. Then the dinosaurs that were dinosaur-eaters died b/c they didn't have anything to eat either."

Lance and I were like, "Uh, are you 4?". It is so much fun when your little baby starts having thoughts that really make sense, or you start to feel like you can explain something in regular words and they get it!

Si-bi-lins

Last week the whole family went down to Denver Children's for some appointments for Darcy. (She is fine, but we had to get an MRI and meet with some folks about her delays). The appointments were going to last quite a while, so in the week or so leading up to the trip we kept prepping Gwen that she would be too bored in the appointments so she had to go to the Play Center for Siblings. When the day finally arrived, I told Gwen "Ok, I went and checked out the play center and got you all signed up." Gwen replied, "Did you tell them you have a si-bi-lin?". Lance and I kind of laughed that she used the word "sibling" and said "Yes we did. Do you know what a sibling is Gwen?". And Gwen said "YES! Sure I do! Its someone whose bored!"

Here are some pics of our cute little Darcy at Children's. It is the most fabulous hospital with wagons instead of wheelchairs and all kinds of stuff to make families comfortable. Plus, it is on FitzSimmons Parkway, so you can't beat that!

** In other news - this is not post-worthy, but yesterday I thought I was safe with Beckett laying right next to me while I checked email. I look down and Darcy's bare toes are in his mouth and he is sucking them like they are his thumb. You can't turn your back for a second!

Lance's Tri

The pictures just came in from Lance's triathlon... Congrats, babe!