baby Girl

I have been busy getting things ready for our little girl. I have the room painted, and stenciled with sheep, we have a crib for her and Neil is working on a changing table and some shelfs. Her room looks really cute I can't wait till its completely done. We have 6 weeks until she comes and both Neil and I are alittle nervous, but we more excited to meet her. Neil has been doing some riding, hoping to get in shape before Mt. Bike season and I have been staying active by going to the gym 3 times a week and either walking, ellipticle, and body pump classes.




Keenan has been getting everywhere and getting into everything now that he is walking. He also has been saying more words, and understanding what I'm saying to him.

Mountain biking and Cars

Last weekend my dad and I headed out to Detroit for the North American Auto Show for work. I figured if we are driving that far east we might as well hit up Ray's for some mid winter riding. I talked to Darren at Mongoose and he hooked me up with a Nugget to ride. I think Ray's is the best example of "you build it and they will come" I have seen. It is in the biggest abandoned warehouse Cleveland has to offer, and by the looks of things the entire neighborhood still hasn't found work since it closed. I didn't see any signs and we drove through a few parking lots and alleys until we came across a car with a bike rack, we drove toward it and then more cars parked with an open door down on a loading dock. As soon as you walk in you forget it is snowy and cold outside! Ray did an amazing job using every last inch of his portion of the warehouse.

It took some time to get used to riding with flat pedals and getting used to not having any earth under my tires. But after a few runs the jumps were getting smoother and easier to clear.
The pump track was something else I was not used to it took a lot more upper body than I was expecting and was a great work out in it's own way. We were only there for about 4 hours, enough time to develop 5 blisters on my hands, but not enough time to manage any really good crashes - mission accomplished!

From there we jumped back in the rental car and headed to Detroit to see what or if there were going to be any new cars for the coming years. I have been to Chicago for the past few years and this was similar but bigger and more concept cars. The American car companies were showing off their muscle cars and trucks while the over sea's companies were showing off their small cars and hybrids...and for some reason we keep asking ourselves why the American auto makers just can't seem to sell any cars. In all though I was glad to see the number of diesel cars that were being introduced or were going to be coming in the next year or so. Hybrids are coming along, some are done good and some are just putting an electric motor next to the engine in order to fill get a car in that market. The Audi R8 is still the best looking car on the market. This VW is a production concept, we should see it in a couple years - and yes it is a TDI.


Unfortunately Cathy wasn't able to go so instead she started on a project that could quickly spiral out of control into a full addiction - quilting. My mom gave her some material for Christmas and is showing her how to get it all cut and sewed together. They got about half of it done over the weekend and she is going to try to work on it again this weekend. I will get some pictures of the progress up here soon.

Really Cold

This morning was probably the coldest commute I have ever done. My tires were as hard as bricks, despite only having 15psi in them and my brakes felt like they had grease instead of oil in the lines.
Reports from co-workers about -40 air temp just west of town makes -18 not sound as bad, but still cold.

Next week temps are supposed to get above 0 and even into the 30's! I may resume riding outside for fun rather than to just commute.

Christmas/New Year Pics

Here are some pics from the holidays. Enjoy!

It was a nice sunny day on Christmas so we played in the snow for awhile.

He didn't mind being out in the snow. The snow suit he is wearing was Neil's when he was little.

Keenan loves hammering on things so he got a hammer and some pegs to hammer on.

We are going to MN this weekend to have Christmas with Cathy's family and I'm sure Keenan will get more toys to play with.

Happy New Year!!

I hope all of you made it through the holidays with plenty of time to relax and see friends and family. We had a really good holidays, my brother and his wife were in town so we just hung out a lot with them and my parents. New years was pretty uneventful we just stayed home and had a couple days to ourselves.
So it has been a while since we posted last, and life hasn't slowed down. Keenan is walking everywhere all the time! It is really fun watching him explore the house and experiance so many new things. Our little girl is healthy and is growing like crazy. Cathy is tracking right on schedule for the middle of March - which is coming way faster than I thought.
The new year brought some time off of our busy work life and I was able to sneak in some riding. The weather wasn't too cold (actually it kind of was too cold) so with the motivation of not riding it really felt good to get out and stretch out the legs.
Well that is all for now we will get some more pictures of the family up in days to come.

Badger Time

Sorry for for not Keeping you up with the Swanson's lately we have been really busy, with some family things that came up the last few weeks, but Neil, Keenan and I are doing fine. Unfortunately we had to give Mercedes to another home. The home is really nice and the people she went to are great and will give her the love and attention she needs. So we are trying to move on day by day and its getting easier each and every day.

This past weekend my friends from MN came down. They have been wanting to check out a Badger Football game, so I found some tickets on Craigslist Friday afternoon for the Badger Vs. Marshall game for Saturday afternoon. They were pretty good seats lower deck on the 40 yard line. It was a good game to watch, they made me a little nervous in the 1st quarter, but they came back full force at the end 2nd quarter and kept on rolling.

The next morning we slept in and around noon headed up the the Ironman to watch the transition from the bike to the run. WOW! Those people are incredible to complete the triathlon. We got some lunch on State Street and then headed back to the finish area to watch the top people finish. We were beat from just the day out I can't imagine swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles with in one day. As you can see Keenan is just ecstatic with enthusiasm for all the triathletes.

Busy Weekend and Week

This Picture is for all the Gopher Fans, I thought you would like this.

Last weekend was kind of a busy one for us. We had family come in to town last Friday. Saturday morning we headed up to the Capital Square for the Farmers Market, then the guys went Mt. Biking at Quarry Ridge for a while and then the ladies went to some quilt shops. Keenan did so well even though his nap schedule was out of whack. Neil did some more Mt. Biking on Sunday and then we relaxed.

Tuesday I went for a road ride with the MadForcs ladies and I felt pretty good it was kind of a windy day so it made for a harder ride then I thought it was going to be. Wednesday was a busy day. I had a doctor's appointment because I have not been feeling well and come to find out that we are expecting another baby. We new we were pregant acouple weeks ago but thought we had miscarried, but what had happened is that I had been developing for twins so we either lost a baby or it had never formed. So we have one baby on the way due in mid March, YEAH!!! It will be a busy household, but we can't wait.