Tinley Triathlon

A few months ago Ryan's mom proposed that she and Ryan enter the Tinley Triathlon October 4th and that we make a family weekend out of it. Ryan gave himself 5 weeks to train and get ready. And of course he was pretty diligent.

He realized that he didn't really know how to swim as he felt like he was drowning after a few laps when he first started. He found a great exercise on the internet that gave me a good laugh (I wasn't allowed to take a picture for the blog) where he sat with a large bowl of water on a tv tray at the couch, with goggles on and practiced breathing into the bowl. By race day he had figured it out.

He had started to panic a little with the realization that his mom's previous times were really good and there was no way he was going to let her beat him :). It was really cool for he and his mom to get all into this event.

Unfortunately it rained their entire race and I couldn't attend with the girls. But being the competitor he is, I wasn't totally surprised when he called to say HE WON! It was really exciting. Ryan won his age category and Julie got third! Here are some pictures. Good job guys!

Pismo Beach

In the beginning of October we met up with Ryan's mom, sister and her husband in Pismo Beach. It was a packed trip. I went to Natalie Barker's baby shower and Ryan and his mom competed in Ryan's first Triathalon.
We got to meet Aly's husband Eddie for the first time. He was so great with the girls. They took to him immediately. Welcome to the fam Uncle Eddie!
It was so great to get some time with Aly and Eddie. They live up North so we don't get to see them very often. We hope to get more time with you two again soon!

Here's Noelle and Grandma Julie (above) and Grandma and the girls (below.

Dance Class!

Noelle started dance class a month or so ago. Last week was observation week where we could actually watch from inside the studio and not through the window. Sooo cute. The class is great because they're are only a few other girls and all pretty much the same age.

From day 1 she marched right in there and worked hard at learning what the teacher was doing. She has always shown signs of being a little independent. I saw it starting dance and I see it in little ways in lots of things we do. I saw it when she was a baby and didn't want to be held but wanted down to play/go or when we're with other kids and she's not so interested in what they're doing and is fine doing her own thing.

She's a funny girl. Her little demeanor has always been really sweet, mostly sensitive, sometimes stubborn and now in the midst of being '2', very up and down as tantrums are a much more frequent occurance. She's so bright and remembers all sorts of things that surprise us. She still is a little sponge, picking up on everything. Tonight Ryan said, "what are you doing Noelle?" as she walked up to where we were sitting and she said, "Just hanging out." :) She always makes us smile!

September

I am lacking creativity at the moment so I am posting some pictures of September without any comments or organization. Still cute pics though :).

A day in the life...

I keep taking video clips with the thought that I'll post it but I never get exactly what they had just been doing and so I end up not posting it. I caught this one of Natalie that I wanted to post and so I'll throw these two up of Noelle just so that you out of towners can see her in action.

Last night I'm in the kitchen and I hear a belly laugh from Natalie and then one from Ryan. It brought such a smile to my heart as I headed back to see what the laughter was about. She laughed even harder the first few times. Pardon the leopard sheets, our normal ones are in the wash and so the bargain sheets from college go on. Think what you want :)



Somehow we found this song and we put some dance moves to it. It's so funny when she sings this song. I must've said something about what number it was on the CD because she was trying to tell me a number instead of the name. Enjoy.