December Pics

Sorry we haven't blogged in awhile. December is always soo busy. We started out the month redoing our floors in the kitchen and Livingroom. Neil and his Dad put in the tile while I took the kids to my parents in MN for a week.

Before:This was the old laminate flooring we had in the kitchen, very boring and plain and was starting to look very warn.

After: This is the new Tile, so warm and beautiful and has a neat pattern. It looks wonderul in the kitchen.

Before: This is the old carpet by the front door soo ugly. (this picture was taken this past spring, Keenan testing out the durability of the bouncy seat for her Sister)
After: I hated the carpet by the front door. I don't understand why people would put carpet by an outside door. So we brought the tile from the kitchen into the front door/livingroom, so we actually have an entry way.

When we got home Neil had already got the Christmas tree and Georgia is sitting on the new carpet all wrapped up with lights ready to decorate the tree.

A few days later we had a huge snow storm that dumped about 18inches of snow. The snow was up to Keenan's waist, he had so much fun playing in the snow.

Then we took our Christmas card pictures. Which out of all the pictures we took this is about the only one that everyone was looking and smiling. I will add some more pics. later from Christmas.

Keenan's Birthday

Keenan's Birthday was Wednesday the 18th he loved blowing out the Candle!

We went to the Holiday Inn to their waterpark, He had a great time.

Saturday we had birthday party with a baseball cake.

Him and his friend enjoying opening presents.

California Trip

We went to California last week to visit Neil's brother, his wife, and their new baby. My parents came down and stayed with the kids for 6 days. We left early Thursday morning for Santa Barbara. We have not been away from the kids that long so I was a little nervous.
Thursday - We got to CA around 12, got some authentic Mexican food which was amazing then Jenny and I got our toes and nails done, it was so nice to get pampered. That evening we took the scooter down to the beach and watched the sun set.

Friday - we all went to the Valley to some Vineyards, that was a lot of fun. They were so pretty and the wine was amazing.
Saturday - Neil and I went woke up early and took "scoots" out to get some coffee at one of the local coffee houses. Once Chris and Jenny got up and ready we loaded Asher in the car and went down to the Harbor. We walked through the prier and saw some HUGE boats, we walked around the park, and walked on the beach. It was beautiful! After lunch Jenny and I went to a cupcake shop in Monticeto called Whodidily, it was soo cute, it was very girly and so delicious.
Sunday - After church we went to the beach and Neil tried his luck at skim boarding. Skim boarding is like skate boarding on the sand after the wave goes out, there is a thin layer of water that you can skim across. Anyway, you run as fast as you can drop the board and jump on - think full run across a parking lot dropping a skate board and then jumping on with both feet = VERY BAD IDEA. He crashed a few times...pretty hard...but got the hang of it quick enough that Jenny and Chris were both impressed. Asher loved hanging out at the beach he is such a good baby.
Monday - The last day of our vacation, Neil and Chris went for a bike ride on the beach and on some mt.bike trails in the morning. We had decided to make a Thanksgiving meal with them that night we did all the fixings turkey, potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, some friends of theirs brought sweet potatoes, and green beans and of course pumpkin pie. It was very good!! I'm looking forward to another Turkey dinner.
Tuesday - We left in the morning and arrived home around 7:00pm. When we got home Keenan was still up and his reaction wasn't what we were expecting. We were expecting him to scream with excitement and run to both of us for hugs and kisses, instead he said "hi" and then got his ball and wanted to play - oh well I guess boys grow up faster than we thought! Georgia had just been put to bed so I walked in her room looked over at her in her crib and said "Hi Georgia" she got this big smile and giggled it was soo cute.
The trip was a lot of fun, the kids did great at home, and my parents had a lot of fun watching and bonding with them.

HALLOWEEN

Last night we had our second annual Halloween party. We had about 12 adults and about the same kids. All the kids are about the same age so they played really good together and had a lot of fun.

Creighton definately took home the best costume award with his Land Shark.

Keenan went as a UW basket ball player - which seemed seemed appropriate.

Georgia dressed up as a Lion

Speaking of Georgia, she is crawling around like crazy! She got it figured out and now there is no stopping her, she can't keep up with Keenan yet but that doesn't keep her from trying. It is really fun watching her go from laying and rolling over to becoming mobile.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

With this past week being cold and rainy every day this weekend turned out GREAT. The sun came out at times, and it was really nice. On Saturday afternoon we loaded up and headed out to the Epplegaarden again, this time to pick pumpkins. We got a wagon and headed out to the field to find the perfect pumpkin. Keenan just couldn't get over all the pumpkins and just kept yelling "BALL - BALL" and wanted to run over to everyone and try to pick it up.

I didn't know if Georgia was going to be able to sit on the pumpkin, but Keenan was a good big brother and held her hand.
We were planning on getting family pictures shot this weekend, who would have thought that a pumpkin patch would be a great place for family fall pictures.
We loaded up the wagon and headed back to the barn to state our claim. It only took 10ft. and one good bump before one of the wagon wheels fell off. Fortunately a worker with a ATV was out in the field, we loaded the pumpkins up on him and he took them back to the barn for us. Both kids had a great time and just loved playing with the pumpkins.

Last WORS Race in 2009

This weekend started on friday with the Saris Gala. Everyone had a really good time and it was fun getting to talk bikes all night.
Saturday we were planning on heading up to Sheboygan to pre-ride but after dropping the kids off at my parents place we decided to do some much needed carpet shopping. We found a SUPER good deal but as it turned out the roll was 1ft. too narrow BUMMER. After that I took Cathy to the mall for a mini shopping spree. It was really fun to just hang out. Sunday came early and cold. We hit the road at a crisp 5 am. We got to Sheboygan and helped set up the venue. Cathy got warmed up for her race and off. She had a really good race, the course was in perfect shape and Cathy got into a good groove after the first lap. She finished just as I was lining up. We took off with the usual Sheboygan speed. The first two laps weren't too bad but somewhere on lap 3 I realized that I need to ride more than a couple hours/week. I started to come around on the 4th lap and had a decent enough 5th lap to hold off a few hard charging riders.
Well now the season is over, the weather is getting colder, and it is now cross season. This weekend is the Badger Prairie 'Cross race. We have a really good course put together and I think if the weather holds off it is going to be really fun...however if the weather turns south then it will be fun for the spectators! Either way someone is going to enjoy it.

Nice weekend

It might not have been weather wise a nice weekend, but it was nice in the sence the kids did really good up at the WORS race. We left Saturday afternoon for Bear Claw Adventure Resort hoping that the kids would sleep for 3 hours of the 4 hour trip, well that didn't work as planned, Georgia slept pretty good but Keenan only slept for about 15 minutes. The last 30 minutes was pretty crazy, Georgia has this high pitch baby scream and Keenan thinks it is game and tries to out scream her in both pitch and volume!! We finally rolled in and checked into our room. It was a 4-plex cabin with each room about the size of a single hotel room. It required some reorganization of the furnature to get all the pack-and-plays to fit but eventually we got it. Because the kids didn't take much a of a nap they went to bed early and because the room was really small Cathy and I ended up on the porch...45 degrees wasn't the most appealing temp to sit on the porch but we grabbed a few blankets and were able to relax.
Sunday Neil got up and went to help racers get their bikes ready at the Park Tool repair area. The kids got up and I bundled them up for a long day outside. We played for a while through the morning and then put the kids down for a nap. Neil got ready for his race and I packed a few things. We got out to the course just in time to see Neil on his first lap to hand him a water bottle. It was raining on and off but not hard enough to get us wet.
Neil had had better races but due to the fact that not many people were there it was easier for him to get some much needed points. His race was pretty muddy and hard but he made it through and rolled in just behind his team mate in 17th place.
We loaded up and headed home, surprisingly the kids did better on the way home so that was a HUGE releaf. In all it was a very nice weekend and was fun to get away with the whole fam. This weekend is the final race of the year already. If the weather holds out I think I am going to give the Sport class another shot.

Apple Orchard

On Saturday we went to the Eple Garden with the kids. We had a great time. Keenan was a great helper picking them...

...and loved eating them!

Georgia wanted to eat the apples but you need some teeth to chew it up - SORRY! She did really like looking at all the trees and bright red apples.

The wagon got pretty full but Keenan was a tough guy and was able to pull it all the way back to the car. He loved running around on the paths through the trees.

House Project

This past weekend we did some house projects. I went for coffee in the morning while Neil stayed home with the kids. When I got back Craig and Diane were over, the front door was laying in the yard and a lady was carrying our table and chairs out the garage!

Our goal for this fall was to get a new exterior door before winter because the one we had was really bad the little latch would get all frosty inside on really cold days. Neil and his Dad took out the old door frame and installed the new one. Once the door was hung I started painting...I was pretty nervious about the color but went for it anyway and hoped for the best. While I was painting Neil and his Dad moved onto the tree project to get rid of some low hanging limbs on our tree out front.

Neil started to climb the tree and cut down some branches, before I knew it the yard was filled with branches, it took 2 trailer loads and a pick up load to haul everything away. By this point it was dark and time for supper. We ate and put the kids down then Neil took off to Steinhafels to get a table we had picked out a couple day prior. It was in the clearance area so no returns, while he was loading it up one of the legs literally fell off. Fortunately the manager returned it, the bad part we still didn't have a table. That night we spent some time on Craigslist and after a little searching found what ended up to be a really nice table and chair set.

1 weekend = new front door + trimmed tree + sold and purchased new table

12 hours of Pitch Black Single Track

Friday evening was the first of hopefully more night races. The WEMS Series put on a different type of 12 hour race running through the night rather than through the day. I took off from work a bit early, through a bunch of food, supplies, water, ect. together and headed over to Rock dale for the 12 hours of Pitch Black Single Track.

I got my pit area all set up, registered for the 12 hour solo race, and got ready. I had to run up to the car about 15 minutes before the race and all of the sudden my crank arm got really loose and then just fell off! I looked at it and my retaining bolt had sheared. Fortunately Kenny Ramm who was racing the 3 hour race had an extra bike. All I had time to do was put on my lights and pedals, no seat adjust, handlebar, shock pressure, didn't check the tires, or anything! We took off with a typical run, I was sitting in second (behind Ron who was doing a 6 hour solo) as we got on the bikes and took off. I sat on his wheel for a while and then took a pull which resulted in me getting a gap. Then my light started acting up...in acting up I mean quit working. Ron came around me and I sat on his wheel for the rest of the lap using his light to get through the trails. Back in the pits at the end of lap 1 I swapped out my head light and battery, then took off again. A bunch of people went by and I didn't know if any 12 hour solo guys got by me. I went on the attack - yes I said attack after all we were 35 minutes into a 12 hour race. As I was picking off what ended up being all 3 hour racers, my battery bounced out of the holder and fell off the bike. Because I was in such a rush to get going at the beginning of the race I didn't have a chance to put on my back up light, so now I was stuck in the middle of the woods in the dark. I felt around for a bit and somehow found the battery. I stuck it in the holder again and took off. About 1/2 lap later the same thing happened, again I was able to find it but this time put it in my jersey pocket. By the end of the lap I had gotten around Ron again. I made a quick stop for my back up light and for some food and then took off. Lap 3 I lost touch with the rest of the field and was out on my own, the next time I would see anyone was when I started to lap them. At 11pm the trails got a little quieter as the 3 hour racers finished, then at 2am they got really quite when all the 6 hour guys pulled off. Between 2-4am I was hurting bad, I had lapped everyone but the second place guy and although I was putting about 5-8 minutes on him every lap I was not feeling good at all. I kept just spinning and kept trying to find something that would taste good and get me out of the bonk I was dealing with. Finally at about 4am I came up on the second place rider and put him a lap down - Mission Accomplished! That was all it took to get me out of my funk and I started feeling better, now I just had to keep things smooth, not get a flat or crash and I figured I could pull off the win. Once the sun came up things got a lot easier, the laps started getting faster again and I was again having fun riding my bike. At 7am the second place guy didn't have enough time to make up the 2 laps he needed to get ahead of me so we both called it quits.

I was pretty sore but felt a lot better than I should have considering how hard I was going. I took the win in the 12 hour solo mens, and completed the second most laps, only being topped by the winning 12 hour 4-man team!

Huge thanks to Kenny for saving me with his bike, for Ray Nelson for helping with charging lights, the family for stopping out at all hours to cheer, the for the CORP who put on a GREAT race!

On the Farm

We went to Neil's cousin's wedding a few weeks ago on his Uncle's farm. Keenan and Neil went everywhere on that farm. He saw the tractors, fed the horses apples, moooed with the cows, look in the airplane, drove on the golf carts, and danced. That night he was sooo tired.

The pictures were taken by Neil's other cousin Sheri Swanson, who has started her own photography business. We love the pics she took. http://kelilinaphotography.com/

Climbing the fence.

He loved driving the Tractor.

Family Portrait.

Galena Trip

For Neil's Birthday present(which was in March) Neil's parents said we could take their Honda S2000 out for a day. Neil and I decided that Sunday is going to be a perfect day for a drive in a convertible. We dropped off the kids at the Craig and Diane's and away we went. We found sooo many curvy, up and down roads, Neil had a blast driving and I was hanging on to dear life going around some of the corners we went on.
We arrived in Galena mid-afternoon, I had never been to Galena so it was fun to go in all the neat stores and look around. Cute town! We walked around for a bit, had lunch and then saved some room for some ice cream. On the way home we found some more curvy roads and a road called "Roller coaster Rd" it lived up to its name. It was fun get away.

Pics of Border Battle

Fast single track.

Fun burm

Border Battle

I wanted to get some pictures up here but have had a hard time finding any of the race last weekend. I saw a lot of people shooting pictures but can't find any of them. If you have some let me know where to look.
So Cathy and I and the kids headed up to Minnesota on Friday for my cousin's wedding. It was out at their farm and was really nice. Keenan tore up the dance floor all night running on a complete adrienne rush for about 4 hours. He crashed pretty hard that night and the next day was pretty mellow as well. Cathy's dad and I headed up to River Falls Sunday morning to start wrenching on bikes. The forecast was calling for heavy rain all day and we drove in rain just about the entire way. About 10 miles out of town it cleared up, the clouds broke up a couple hours later and it turned into a perfect day. After wrenching on at lest 20 bikes over the morning it was time to get warmed up and ready for what I was expecting to be a fast race. Cathy, the kids, and her mom showed up just before the start of the Pro/Cat 1 race. The race got started in regular high speed fashion, we hit the only significant climb of the course right away and that strung things out a bit. The course was packed with incredible single track, which was fun to ride but hard to pass. By lap 3 we were already encountering a lot of lapped traffic which made staying tight with the train VERY important, if everyone didn't get through on the same pass they were gone. The pace was screaming fast the entire race. Lap 5 Seth Lens caught us again and said there was a group of 5 coming hard, my legs were hanging in there although I could feel cramps coming every time I was out of the saddle. I have never worked so hard for a top 30 finish in my life!
Next day I down loaded my power file and realized why I felt cross eyed the entire time - I was. I set my personal records in every category from Peak 5 second power up to peak 120 minute power! Again hardest ride of the year just to hang on to top 30 - man the mid west is a fast group!
Thanks to Cathy's dad for hand ups, he stuck every bottle despite being on one of the fastest sections of the course.

Georgia 4 month pictures

They turned out so well. Our Friend Tina Bazala took her pics. She also has taken Keenan's pictures and our family pictures in the past. These are just a few shots of many.

Race weekend

Friday we went to Blue Mound State Park in the evening I had never been to the top of the mound. It was soo pretty. Keenan loved running around in the big open field. After we got done at Blue Mounds we headed into Mt. Horeb and got some pizza at the Grumpy Troll it was delicious.

Saturday we ran some errands during the day and in the evening went out to Neil's parents house for dinner and to drop the kids off for the night.

Sunday we had a Mt. bike race in Franklin, WI. It was a beautiful day usually whenever we race there its about 100 degrees with humidity, but this year it was a 80 degrees with a nice breeze. I raced the sport class and had a pretty good finish, 3rd in my age and 11th overall. The sport class only had to do 2 laps instead of 3 due to the length of the course, which took me by surprise. Good thing Neil was paying attention to what I was doing.

Neil had a great race he got 4th in his age and 14th overall in the Elite class. He was racing really strong considering for majority of the race he was racing by himself because no one was around him.

WaunaFest

We haven't been to a summer fest yet this year. Today we headed over to Waunakee for their Waunafest days. We got there just in time for the parade.

Keenan really liked that while Georgia was happy to just play in the grass in the shade. Maybe when I was a kid I sat in all the wrong places, but Keenan was getting totally hooked up with candy! Unfortunately for him after collecting it most of it ended up down the street to a couple little girls...I feel bad for their parents tonight.

After the parade we headed down to one of the parks and found the petting zoo. Keenan had fun petting and running around with the animals.

The pony ride started out good...

...but that didn't last long

No pony in the future at least for a year, we will see what happens next year with Georgia.

My two Favorite Girls

Sun Burst Show down

In a last minute lapse of better judgement I decided to try running a set of Stan's Crow tires this weekend. I put them on Friday night and then in the wet conditions of Saturday morning went for a ride. They hooked up pretty well even in the wet grass of Black Hawk Ski hill so I figured I should be fine.
Sunday I headed up to Kewaskum solo, Cathy's best friend of MN came down for the weekend so she stayed home and hung out. Apperantly Kewaskum hasn't recieved any of the rain we got here in the recent days so it was just super dry and dusty. We got started and I made it through the first part of the course ok. As we entered the field section on the second half I quickly learned it was going to be a tricky race. I washed out in the first fast corner, got on and almost dumped it again 3 minutes later. Once I accepted the fact that I had to take the corners slower than I was used to things got better. I ended up dropping my chain acouple times but got back on pretty quick. My legs felt great and every time I was off the bike (7 total) I was able to chase back to the group I was with. Yeah I probably could have finished higher had I not been off the bike, but that is part of racing, all I was really concerned about was that my motor is starting to feel good again.
Lessons learned...again - If you have a set up that works STICK WITH IT!!

Weekend Pics of Kids

The tomato plants are out of control they are taller then Keenan.

AWWW!! They are sooo cute!

Keenan's first popsicle, he loved it and so did his shirt.

Eau Claire Fire Cracker

It is amazing what a couple weeks can do and how much can change. Two weeks ago at Mt.Morris I was suffering in ways that I'd felt for a long time and wasn't going anywhere. This week my only goal was to make it through the race, no crashing, no bonking, just riding fun trails and if I could go fast that would be bonus.
We headed up on Saturday and Cathy went out for a pre-ride while I watched the kids. From the point we got there until we left, about 4 hours later, Keenan did not stop running! We walked through the kids course then said hi to just about every camper and every dog at the venue. Finally we got to the mist tunnel and he just couldn't get enough of that I think he ran through it at least 6 times! We ate some supper and then headed to the hotel for the first overnight stay with all the kids in one room with us. Our room quickly filled up with 2 pack-n-plays for the kids to sleep in, our cloths, 2 bikes, and our cooler for food and water. Both kids slept really good while Cathy and I tossed and turned all night on our piece of granite they called a bed.
Sunday I got up early and headed to the venue to help set up and then get to work wrenching on bikes for the first 3 races. Cathy got all the kids up, fed, and loaded pretty much solo. Her parents came to watch us race and they helped where they could. Once at the course Keenan was again off and running, it was little harder for Cathy to keep up with him as it was significantly more busy Sunday from Saturday.
During the morning I was looking at my bike and the crack that had formed was getting bigger each ride. When I pushed on the bottom bracket the frame would open up along the entire crack and there was only about .75" of tubing still holding the drive side chain stay in place. I talked to one of my WORS team members and he offered his bike to borrow. He was going to race the sport race and hopefully get done in time to give me his bike. Sure enough about 20 minutes before the start he finished and we started wrenching. Seat post, seat, fork air pressure, flipped the stem, adjusted brakes and shifter, handlebar, grips, ect. I lined up just before call ups and I was still adjusting everything on the line. We took off in a cloud of dust, I stayed toward the back to avoid any crashes and not to go out too hard. The first couple runs of single track were a bit slow due to congestion but once everyone got strung out I just put it in cruise mode. I made it through the first of 4 laps and was feeling good so I went for it. I dropped the group of 4-5 that I was riding with and gapped up to Scott Cole. He was riding a perfect pace for me and I knew if I could stick with him he would take me to a good finish. The next 3 laps we really got into a good rhythm and picked off a few riders. We could hear a chase group forming and they got within about 5-8 seconds of us at one point. I knew if they caught us I wasn't going to have enough in the tank to fight them off again so I took the lead in the next set of single track and just drilled it. We opened up a good gap again and then Scott pulled me through the open field. The last lap we really turned up the heat, caught Eric from MN who latched on. He made a move in the last double track putting me 3rd wheel. We all came into the final rock garden wheel on wheel. Scott washed out on a rock and had to run, Eric did the same and was off the bike. With both lines taken I dismounted while I still had momentum and got by Eric on foot. At the line it was Scott, Me, and Eric. This course was so much fun and having good legs was just icing on the cake. I ended up 2nd in the Cat.1 field = WORS bucks, and 14th overall = Cash.
Cathy did an amazing job juggling both kids for the entire day. They were both worn out and slept most of the way home, and then all night and about an hour later than normal in the morning!
I haven't posted pictures in a while so I will get some picture only posts up here throughout the week.

Mt.Morris = HOT

Last weekend was race #4 of WORS at Mt.Morris. We headed up on Saturday morning so I could help with the learn to ride clinic, get a pre-ride in, and then be ready to race at noon. The learn to ride clinic was fun, I really like helping new riders learn the ropes and watch them explore the trails for the first time. On the pre-ride I quickly learned that this was going to be a hard race. There wasn't any long grinder climbs, all short and punchy, which ended up being my demise. The race started, there was carnage everywhere on the first lap, I managed to get through it pretty good which dropped me in the mid teen's after lap 1. I knew the heat was going to be hard on me so I backed off just a bit for the next couple laps in hopes of getting through all 5 laps. I was feeling pretty good but then on lap 4 my body shut down. I struggled to get through the lap, walking alot and drinking 2 bottles rather than just 1. I could not get my body to turn back on and by the end of the lap the leaders came around putting me a lap down. At that point I knew it was time to pull the plug.
After standing in the sun all day Cathy got lined up and took off. She had a good start and was sitting in 7th or 8th after the first lap. Lap 2 she had picked off a couple more girls putting her in 5th or 6th. She was feeling good but the 4th place girl was quite a way's up the trail so I told her to just keep going and hold her spot. By the finish she had caught and dropped her putting Cathy the 4th girl over the line!! At the awards she got to stand on the top spot in her age group!!
Sunday some clouds were rolling through that gave very nice breaks in the sun. The day started with the Super D. I was second into the woods, got around MacIej for the lead all the way to the bottom. He had a perfect attack that I just couldn't counter, we made it through the last rock garden and sprinted up to the finish. When all the times were tallied I ended up 3rd in Cat. 1 and 8th among the Pros = $$$. That would have been the only time I got on the podium all weekend. The last race was the Short Track. I rode a few laps but the legs were really spent at this point so I was hoping everyone else was feeling the same thing. We got started and things quickly got strung out. Everyone was able to keep their bikes underneith them for the most part. The laps kept ticking off and the time seemed to stand still. I was feeling decent and was able to reel a few people in throughout the race. With 3 laps to go the leaders came around. I jumped on their wheel for a bit but then with 2 to go they took off like a shot.
All in all though the weekend was fun, the trails ruled and although racing was hard it felt good. Not bad for the second race of the year for us. Eau Claire is next on the schedule and hopefully the legs will come around for that one.

Our internet is down at home so no pictures until next week.

So much for racing this weekend.

Neil was planning on racing on Saturday (6 hour at Kettle Morain St. Park), but he had been running a fever the last two days and complained of a sore throat. I made him go to the dr. Friday night he had a 104 temp. OUCH and they think he has the influenza virus. Neil is on meds as well as the kids as a precautionary. It sounds like this is going to last about a week before he starts feeling better so no race this weekend and maybe next weekend. I have sterilized the whole house hoping that none of us get it. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

What do you see in there?

He almost got stuck.

Yeah!!! He made it out!

I just love this stage that Keenan is in. He such a little explorer.