Sunday, March 28, 2010

Easter Bunny Visit


The most exciting this this week was a trip to visit the Easter Bunny. We also did a bunch of the usual things. Keira is really in between needing a nap and being able to make it without one, so she has been falling asleep randomly this week.

On Monday, we had to get up early to register Keira for next year's preschool class. It took about an hour to wait in line, but we got the class we wanted with several of her friends from her current class. Then, we hit the library storytime. We have one more week after this before it closes for 2 months, so we have really been trying to take full advantage of the programs. Soren and Keira both really love Eric Carle's "Very Hungry Caterpillar".

We went to the gym after the library, which had us home a bit later than usual. Keira conked out on the couch when we got home. She looked pretty funny since I think she may have tipped into this position.

My wetsuit also arrived, and Ryan was able to help me try it on.

Soren also looked really cute in his little jedi robe towel.

On Tuesday, Keira made a cloud that looked like a bear at school.

I also got a recipe from a friend for whoopie pies. She advised me to half the recipe, which I did not do, and it maxed our my mixer! They turned out extremely rich and tasty. I was unable to eat a whole one.


It ended up being a pretty busy day. We played both inside and I ran outside. That evening, we went to watch Ryan's scouts compete in the Pinewood Derby. Keira and Soren really enjoyed it.



On Wednesday, we made our attempt to visit the Easter Bunny. Keira was very apprehensive, and Soren was terrified. He wanted nothing to do with it. I was able to get a few pictures of them outside the exhibit.




We also met up with Valerie, Katie, and Luke to play after the failed photo shoot. It was a "nice day for a mow", and we enjoyed playing outside after Keira was done with school. Ryan was also able to link up with a group of Wednesday night Wolverines for an easy paced ride.


On Thursday, Keira made a large flower at school.


I ran outside again today. We also were able to meet up with Patrick as he passed through Detroit on his way back to Germany. We ate at the Legendary Bagger Dave's and had a nice evening.


On Friday, I was able to get a much needed haircut while Keira and Soren played with Nana. This picture was taken of myself, so I feel like the picture looks a little funny, but you can get a good view of the hair cut.



Ryan spent some time swapping out his studded mountain bike tires for his tubeless tires. This is not an easy thing to do with a floor pump, and a trip to the bike shop was required. An air compressor may be in our future. Unfortunately, this took up too much time for Ryan to get in a ride before dark.

On Saturday, Ryan started the morning with a 52 mile ride out to Brighton and back. It was his first long ride with his new bike, and it was great. He also received many compliments on it, and is feeling ready for his first official ride as leader next week. I actually didn't do anything exciting while Ryan was gone, which is a bit unusual.


Once Ryan got back, I went on a 10 mile run with Valerie B to prep for our upcoming half marathon. It wasn't a stellar run for either of us, but it was still great to be outside enjoying the sun and each other's company. Once we were done and cleaned up, we had dinner at Chili's and then picked up a Yakima Skybox with our dividend from REI.

On Sunday, due to conference being next weekend, we had our Easter Program. Keira was supposed to sing two songs with the Primary, and got really scared and cried, so I had to bring her back to our seat. I had thought having us sitting up front and positioning her with her two closest friends from her class would get her up there, but it didn't. I had a meeting after church, so it was a long day for me.


Up for next week, we are excited for the upcoming arrival of Greg, Ellyn, and family from Germany and Easter.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

New Bike, plus one INSANE weekend


We had a really fun week, hanging out in the nice weather. We had excellent weather for most of the week, and spent a ton of time outside. We had the arrival of Ryan's new bike, and a CRAZY weekend that left us all exhausted!

On Monday, we got up rather late. We ended up going to storytime before the gym. It really threw Keira off by that, but since we got up so late, I figured that everyone would be fine to push lunch back enough for a workout.


It warmed up really nice. It wasn't really warm enough for shorts in the afternoon, but Keira didn't complain.

Ryan took his old road bike out for a ride, and while he did that, we headed down to Kris and Linda's to meet up for some dinner.


On Tuesday, Keira had a field trip to the ITC center where the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum had set up "experiment" stations. They had stations for playing with magnets, filling small boats with weights, huge foam sandwiches, fishing, mixing colors, measuring object with other objects, a balloon "zipline", matching objects in clear shakers with the same object in an opaque shaker, and a cornstarch and water mix that they called Ubbelch. I was able to go to this field trip with her, thanks to Valerie B for watching Soren on super short notice. Ironically, I got assigned to the messiest station. I worked the Ubblech station, and it has such an interesting consistency. It settles and is very thick and almost solid towards the bottom, and runny at the top. Many of the children really enjoyed it, and so did I. I was told that it can be therapeutic for children under stress. Keira couldn't stand it. It actually triggered her gag reflex, which no one had ever seen that before. There were several children that weren't thrilled with it, and a couple that didn't want to touch it, but Keira had the worst reaction by far. I was really glad I was there to let her know it was OK. Here are a few pictures. Keira's favorite station was the sandwich making, but it was one of the furthest away from me, and I had to be really careful to not leave my station unattended.





Once we got home, we decided that we needed to finish up our St Patrick's day crafts and get them hung up.

It was another beautiful day, so after Soren woke up, we headed outside for a run and fun with sidewalk chalk.


On Wednesday, it was St Patrick's day. Keira was very opposed to wearing a green dress today, and sulked the almost the entire storytime. Soren had no issues with wearing green. I did get a few pictures of them outside together.



After we got back from the gym, we went up to the playground at our neighborhood. Keira rode her bike, so she was happy to change into something else.




Ryan went on another ride tonight with David B, on his old bike. His new bike arrived today, but he wanted to make sure he got his ride before picking up the new bike, since it took a little while to get everything set up right. It also required a trip to REI to get everything to hook up his Garmin to this bike too. Here is Ryan with his fancy new ride leader bike.

On Thursday, I had a presidency meeting to wrap up the final details for this weekends upcoming Talent Show. Keira celebrated St Patrick's Day at school today. I was able to locate another green dress for her that was slightly more acceptable, and she lucked out that it was super warm. Keira and Soren looked like they should have been on a resort today instead of in Michigan in March. We did more biking with Keira and Soren, and I had my fourth day of running in a row. Ryan took his new bike out tonight with David and Kent, and LOVED it. I was so happy that he enjoyed his new purchase, and he can't wait to take it out for a long ride.







On Friday, we had a pretty busy day. The morning was strange. Keira woke up super early, but Soren woke up and then went back to sleep, so we couldn't do much. We finally made it out to the gym for a quick easy workout. I was too tired from a busy week of gym and outdoor workouts. I am glad Soren had slept so much in the morning, because we had planned to meet up with Linda after lunch for some shopping at Laurel park. It was Friends and Family coupon weekend at a ton of stores, and we spent a little while there. It was a beautiful day, so I was glad I got to enjoy it a little bit. I dropped the truck off at the dealership for an oil change and walked home, hoping that Soren would nap while they worked on it. He didn't, but we had to get packed up for the start of our crazy busy weekend. We were heading over to Kris and Linda's to stay the night. Ryan's friend Patrick, was flying into town for business, and arrived a few days early to hang out before heading to Toledo, OH. He arrived in time to go to dinner at Grand Traverse Pie Company. We had a relaxing evening before getting some sleep. These pictures are from Laurel Park, and were taken with my phone. Soren has become obsessed with cell phones lately, and has been screaming "pone! pone!" whenever he sees a phone. I have been letting him play with our old ones so he doesn't mess up my current phone.


Saturday was one of the busiest days that we have had in a while. We started the day with a big breakfast, and then Linda took Keira over to a craft day at her school. Keira made several cute crafts.


While Keira was crafting, Ryan, Patrick, Soren, and I headed over to Ann Arbor. I dropped Ryan and Patrick off at Planet Rock, where they were able to climb for a couple hours. I took Soren with me to Trizomania, a triathlon demo down the street from the climbing gym. Cristina was actually one of the demonstrators. She was one of 6 people (top area athletes) who went through all the transitions of a triathlon, like it was a race, but without actually doing a full event. Each person went one at a time, starting in full wetsuits, goggles, and swim caps at one end of the parking lot, ran to the transition area, transitioned from swim to bike, biked around the lot, dismounted, transitioned to run, ran around the lot, and then it was done. It was interesting to watch everyone do their transitions. It was interesting to hear about the differences in a sprint tri to an Ironman tri. It seemed that being fast in a spring transition was much more important than in a longer distance. There was also a panel discussion, and door prizes. I won a pair of socks, that I needed immediately since I forgot to pack them anyway.

We left Ann Arbor, and we did a quick exchange of people and vehicles. I took Keira and Soren over to her friend Haley's birthday party in Northville. Keira had a great time. There were so many of her sunbeam classmates there.


After the party, I rushed back to Kris and Linda's to drop off Keira and Soren, and head over to the church to get set up for the Talent Show. Thankfully, Soren was able to get a nap during this time. We had a great turnout for the Talent Show. It was really fun, and we had some excellent acts. For my act, we wore glow in the dark strips on our clothes, and danced to the song, "Once I was a Snowman" that was done by a group called Primary Colors. It was a mix of songs redone with snowman lyrics, and the song alone was entertaining all by itself. The pics of us didn't turn out the best. I am waiting for a group shot of all of us in regular light to post. If you enlarge this picture, it looks a lot better, but it is still not great.

The bishopric plus several other men in the ward closed the evening with a rock band performance. They had a great blues song about serving in the ward, and our former stake President rocked the drums playing Wipeout. It was a great way to finish up the event.

On Sunday, we made it to church with Patrick. It was great to hear that everyone was so happy with the Talent show. Then headed back to Kris and Linda's for some much needed relaxation.


Up for next week, I don't know. I am too tired to think that far out!