Tree Farm Relay and lots of Family

This past week was a very busy week for us. Today was spent as a typical Sunday, with one exception. My mom was in town just for the past night/morning because she dropped off my dad in Spring Harbor for the start of the West Shore Line Bike Tour. It was her second time this week in Michigan, but she did not stay long either time. She brought us treats to share with Kris and Linda from Sugardaddy's. The owners of the store had competed with Bobby Flay on his show and won with their Tahiti Blond Sweetie Blondie. Kris and Linda had taped this show from the Food Network and were excited to see that the store was so close to my parents' house. We shared some with her on Saturday evening, and brought a box over to Kris and Linda's to share again today. They were delicious!

Saturday was a fun filled day of excitement for all of us, as Ryan rode in the Tree Farm Relay at Lakeshore Park. It was a 4 person relay, and he had not been able to put a team together to preregister, but instead, showed up day of and was able to form a team with other riders that had not formed teams either. They spanned 4 decades, with a rider in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, and neither had met each other before that day. The team, Come Lately's, finished second in the overall Male Open Sport division, and missed being first by about a minute, and beat the third place team by about 12m. Quite impressive for a makeshift team! They used a LeMans style start.
Staging the bikes for the start above. Ryan had the lead off leg, which worked well for Keira and I to see him. Note the man in the viking helmet. This reminded me of my DWD costume from last year. Ryan had to run down the hill below to get on his bike to start the race. There were more participants than visible in the picture, they extend out of the frame of the photo.
It was Chase and Minde's last day in Michigan, and we were unfortunately unable to link up with them to say goodbye. Ryan's division started an hour later than we had thought, and we were already there once we realized this, so Keira and I stayed at the race during Ryan's leg, went home for naps, and then came back for the award presentation.
Andrew, Dan, Tony, and Ryan, showing off their awards. The action shots of Ryan didn't turn out great, because he was too fast for the camera to focus on him as he approached the exchange area.

Friday was a fun filled day for us. We started the day with Kindermusik, and Katie (and Luke) joined us. They have added several new free classes for August, so we may be able to go to the free classes 5 or 6 times this month, and 2 of them are significantly closer to our home. Hopefully they will keep one of these new ones, but they are added just for August, since there are no classes going on for people to demo this month.

After nap time, we met up with Minde, Linda, and Chase to hit the mall. Minde had a friends and family Gap coupon, and I had a gift card from my aunt that I had been saving especially for that coupon, and was able to get some cute things for Keira for fall. After the mall, Keira and I picked up Ryan and went to Kris and Linda's for some excellent dinner and let Keira and Chase play with some borrowed water toys.

As usual for Keira, she wasn't super excited about all of the water spraying around, but she enjoyed filling her cup up, as did Chase. The giraffe wasn't super stable, and after it tipped over on Keira and thoroughly sprayed her, and she didn't die from it, she was able to enjoy the spray from the other toys. She really loves the water.
We finally turned the water off, and Chase joined Keira in the pool. Keira would have stayed in all night had we let her, even though she was freezing and shaking by the end.

On Thursday, we attended Linda's Montessori school in Plymouth for a special musical guest. Keira had a good time during the class, as well as exploring the day care room and playground. She did not want to leave each area, even though the next area we went to was just as fun.
Afterwards, we went to McDonald's, and Chase and Keira played in the play area there. This is something that we won't be doing for a while. Keira isn't quite big enough to navigate the area herself, and with my belly, I was too big to navigate. So, until Keira is big enough or I have someone else to go with me, it will be drive through for us for now on. Linda took both Keira and Chase up to the top and slid down with them. On Wednesday, my aunt Patty and uncle Dennis who live in Italy came to visit with my parents. it was a short trip, because their trips to the States are always jam packed trying to visit as many of their family and friends as possible. It was great to see them, because we hadn't seen them in about a year and a half. Keira played in the morning outside.
We went to downtown Northville for lunch and did some shopping for some American Spoon salsas and jams for Patty and Dennis to take back to Italy. We also went to the mall because it was pretty hot to be outside in the sun. I showed Patty some shoes that I had wanted to get for Keira with my gift card, but needed the coupon first. Keira enjoyed swinging with her grandpa while we were waiting for everyone to meet back up. We had gotten separated at the mall because my mom found her 35th anniversary present, and Keira was ready to leave before the transaction was complete.
Keira wasn't too sure about sitting on the couch with Patty and Dennis, and didn't really want to sit on it with me either. Once Ryan got home from work, we enjoyed dinner together before they had to head back to Columbus.

On Tuesday, we went to McClumpha Park with Lisa, Dominic, Linda, and Chase. Chase was a bit more exploratory of the spray areas. Keira was pretty content to sit and chill in her little chair. Dominic also enjoyed the little chairs. We actually had way more chairs that children at the park, which was good because it alleviated any sharing issues.
She was also a huge fan of playing with her buckets. The other children at the park also enjoyed her buckets, because it was pretty hard to find them all once we were ready to leave.
Later in the day, she wanted to play with her buckets again outside. This has been a great way to entertain Keira outside.
Monday was photo shoot day, and unfortunately, the online images are not ready yet. I will hopefully put them together in a slide show and either add them to this post or just put them in as a new one. Keira did great, but Chase was not as excited to have his picture taken. It was really difficult to get the two of them to stand or pose together.

On Sunday, which feels so long ago as I write this, we brought Keira over after church to Kris and Linda's to play with Chase. They had a great time with the little playhouse. This is something that I would love to have if we had our own yard. Hopefully we will have a yard before Keira is too old for something like this.
The slide is always a big hit with both of them.
This was Keira's first experience with the alligator pool with Chase. Becky's granddaughters were visiting, so we went next door to play with the toys and meet them. Keira ended up sopping wet, but it was fine since it was the end of the day and we were just going home and to bed.
In addion to all of this, we spent most of our evenings at Maybury, so that Ryan could ride and train for his race this weekend, as well as for the upcoming Maybury XC. Keira rode in both the stroller and the bike trailer this week. I think she has developed a preference for the bike trailer for 2 reasons: getting to go fast and no bug spray. This next week will probably be mostly business, since this week was full of fun.