Super Jamie

Jamie started the weekend with a 2 mile open water swim at Edgewater Park.

There weren't a whole lot of swimmers.  Probably because the water was really rough.

Jamie getting ready to get in the water.

And finishing under an hour.  Pretty good considering the conditions.  Lots

of swimmers dropped out.

Jamie and Justin enjoying some post race snacks.

Sunday was triathlon day at Fairport Harbor.  Natalie also signed up for this one.

Jamie finishing the swim and heading to her bike.

Natalie was a few minutes behind.

Nate starting the 13 mile bike ride.

And finishing.

Jamie starting the 3.5 mile run.

Jamie finishing.

And Natalie about 5 minutes later.

Jamie ended up finishing fourth in her age group.  Natalie managed to finisd third in her age group after training for only one week.  Good job guys.

This was our first time at Fairport Harbor.  It's only about 40 minutes away and it was by far the best beach we have been to on Lake Erie.  Can't wait to go back.

In other news...

Jamie and the boys discovered a movie theater that has big reclining chairs.  They said they can never go back to a regular theater.

Justin and I redid the brick walkway to the front door.  This is how it looked before we started.

And after.

We also had the garage floor redone with an epoxy coating.  This is the before.

And after.

That's it for now.  See you soon.

Tybee Vacation

The boys and I took a vacation to Tybee Island, Georgia.  Jamie couldn't go.  She had to work.  

We spent a lot of time fishing on the pier.  Matt caught a bunch of these little fish called Spade fish.

So did Ana.  She's going to be a great fisher woman someday.

And we caught a handful of these.  I forget what they were called.

Someone next to us caught this sting ray.  Ana loved it.

Ana and Danny.

We took all of the kids on a deep sea fishing trip.  

We learned to never take a bunch of kids on a deep sea fishing trip.

The weather and the scenery were beautiful the entire time.  We spent at least a couple of hours at the beach every day.  The kids had a blast boogie boarding and playing together.

One day Ana did not want to go to the beach.  She told me that she just wanted to hang out with me.  So of coarse I told her we could do whatever she wanted to do.  I'm pretty sure she just wanted a hamburger and ice cream and she knew I would give it to her and her parents wouldn't.  Haha.

Matt and I found the greatest dive bar ever.  We felt very under dressed without any facial hair or tattoos.  And I'm pretty sure Matt is technically married in Georgia now.  

Thanks for hosting us Matt and Elena.  We had a great time.  

It's Finally Summer

 Summer break officially started for the boys June 2nd.  Everyone was excited to get to the Beachwood pool.

The boys did not have camp the first week so we went on several field trips.  This is Colin in front of  the WWII monument by the Cleveland Public Library.  Uncle Pete gave us a tour of the library.  It's huge.  Thanks Pete.

Here's the boys on the William G. Mather. 

It's an old cargo ship turned into a museum.

The boys loved it.

We went to the Natural History Museum with Grandma and Reagan.

They had a really cool beetle collection.  See if you can find the odd one.

They have a really cool outdoor zoo with lots of birds and coyotes and other stuff.  Afterwards we all went to Mama Santas for pizza.  Then to Presti's for cookies.  Thanks for stopping out guys.

Colin learned that you can't put plastic plates in the toaster oven.

  

Arvindh painted Easter egss and one of them came out looking just like Louis CK.  Haha.

It took four years but we got the boys to smile.

The big news of the summer is Jamie ran her first triathlon.  

She trained for months and it paid off.  She finished 2nd in her age group.  Good job, hon.  We're proud of you.  

Bob and John say "hi".

See ya soon.

Spring is Here

Justin had a birthday party.  Eight or nine of his best friends showed up.  Here they are making play-do or something.

And of course he wanted doughnuts instead of cake.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

After his birthday party with friends, we had all the cousins over to celebrate his birthday.

Aunt Tami and Uncle Nick got this game for Justin.  The loser gets soaked in water.  Thanks guys.

Jamie and the boys went skiing a few more times.

Both of the boys are getting a lot better.  They can usually make it down the hill without falling and they can even ride the lift on their own.

The wrestling season ended recently.  Both boys did really well.  

The coaches said they were going to have a spring/summer season.  Justin is very excited about it.  

Colin won an award for math.  

He and all of these Beachwood studends finished in the top 5 or 10% on this big math test.  Great job Colin.

Colin was also on a rec basketball team.  I was a co-coach with one other parent.  After a rough 0-6 start we managed to win our last three games.  All of the kids worked hard and showed a lot of improvement.  

The Destination Imagination season is over.  The kids worked really hard.  Here they are building a tower during an instant challenge.

The tournament was March 11th at the Beachwood High School.  Their performance went really well.  They said next year they want to win the tournament so they can go to the state tournament.  We'll see.

We finally have a working fireplace.  We could not find any affordable screen doors for our fireplace because of it's large size so I decided to make them myself.  So after a lot of planning, purchasing, cutting, painting and a trip to Joe Hammer for the welding, they are all set.  

We're still doing Konmari.

It's going well but we still have a long way to go.

Pretty sure I saw a peregrine falcon the other day at Shaker Lakes.

See you soon.