duuuuuuuuuuuude

My husband is hot!

the extreme barfing sickness

Poor poor Payton. She has had the extreme barfing sickness for two days now. Luckily the barfing part finally subsided after taking her to Urgent Care for nearly 5 hours last night (yes, you heard me correctly!). They even made her wear a mask. Poor kiddo.

I hope she feels better soon.

pete's first race

Today we went to watch Mike at his usual Sunday race. It's become Payton and my routine to follow him around the course and be his biggest fans - ringing our cowbells all along the way. And it's become his routine to perform in such a tremendous way that even he's amazed. It's so fun to watch him gaining speed and momentum and learning new things. And even when he falls down, he somehow gets up and comes back to catch the competition. It's very cool.

I accidentally took this picture as he was falling, for example, but he caught himself just in time to not actually fall down the stairs. Ouch!








Here's Payton cheering him on from a tree on the course.








Another fun thing about today's race was the fact that it was Payton's first race. Instead of being nervous - she was brave. And quite frankly, pretty amped. She rode the one lap with all of the other kiddos and when she got done, with a big grin on her face, she asked if she could move up a level next week. That's definitely Payton for ya - I wonder where she gets it!

party time

It's that time of year again... Halloween parties!

Both of the girls had parties they were invited to tonight. So we spent a couple of hours getting their costumes finalized and them all gussied up today. Payton was a clown and Mackenzie was, well... herself in a tutu.

I love this time of year!

at first i was afraid

I was petrified. I saw that sign that said face and body armor was recommended, and felt totally unprepared. But instead of turning back, we carried on...








Last Saturday Mike and I went and rocked the I-5 colonnade mountain bike park. I can't tell you how cool this place is. Of course we tooled around in the beginner side, doing new jump after new jump to really get it down so that some day we can move onto the crazy side of it! I hope this becomes a regular thing of ours to do. And if you live in the area, you should at least go look at it. I saw some people doing things in the advanced area that was like watching the X games.

http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:I-5_Colonnade

Happy riding!

my dog is weird

Just look at her

too cool to explain

I have this friend who is too cool to explain. I could tell a million stories, but no matter how well I told them, it wouldn't do her justice. You just have to know her to know.

For example, I had this one favorite moment with my favorite friend in mention, when unsuspectingly the UPS man came to drop off a package. She signed her name and when asked how to spell her last name (a routine question by all the men in brown) she went ahead and spelled it for him. S-P-E-A-R-S. And assured him that it was Spears, in case he didn't notice. The funny thing is this is not her last name, but a silent tribute to Britney.

Or the time she spelled it T-I-M-B-E-R-L-A-K-E. Due to the fact that she would soon be married to this much loved superstar.

Did I mention the time that she picked me up, both of us late for where we were going, and spun out on a freshly manicured lawn in an upscale neighborhood in order to pass a garbage truck?

I think I remember a time that involved a cheese stick.

Or receiving a penis pokey book.

Then there was the time when she wore dark pants due to some unusual anal leakage.

As well as the time that she came over to just watch tv with my family in our jammies.

And I can't ever forget the times that she has been there for me. Just to giggle, listen, or hear me cry. To be a great friend to me... and to my family.

This blog is to you, ______. Thank you for being such a special friend. I hope you're feeling better today.

ps - the only reason I'm not saying your name is because of the anal leakage comment. But you know who you are. :)












Oops - I hope the picture doesn't give it away!

and he's done it again folks!

Check out this hunka hunka burnin' love - working over the Cyclocross course in South Seattle today. It was a huge turnout for what seemed to be a very difficult course. Go Mikey!!

(just a hint - if you click on the picture you can get a better view)








Mike with his #1 fans after the race. (That includes the fan who's taking the picture!)








Payton brought the cowbell!

i <3 the corn maze

Today we did our annual family trip to the corn maze. I love this tradition that we have. We've been doing it for almost as many years as we've lived here and it's always been a big hit with both our kids and us old folks.

This year proved to be just as exciting as the rest. We had a beautiful clear autumn day with no rain and a dry maze. We battled with corn, sung into corn microphones, ran around the corn paths and hid from each other, amidst the corn.

It's funny to me, as I look at the pictures from year's past, how big our kids have gotten. How different they are both from the inside and out. Yet, they truly are still just the same li'l kiddos that used to konk out in the car on top of each other afterwards. Only now they're requesting coffee instead of hot chocolate. And hot chocolate instead of a binky.

And then they're konking out on top of each other in the car.

i got a new bike ! ! !

My wonderful
awesome
amazing
thoughtful
beautiful
studly
fabulous husband got me a new bike today! Out of no where! A total surprise!!

My jaw dropped and I wanted to cry. Thank you, baby.

It is so special.

Now let's drop everything and go ride!

i found this little gem on my camera

Looks like Mackenzie was having some fun with the camera. I'm guessing the goal was a new myspace profile
picture. This one was my personal favorite.

congratulations to heather

Last night I went to my friend Heather's bridal shower. It was definitely a great time! It was hosted in a most beautiful house in Madison Park by a most lovely lady. It had a Sex and the City theme, so we sipped pink champagne, made "Matt"inis, and all bought her gifts from Victoria's Secret.

I have to say, it's always so great to get together with my girls from the old salon. They are all such beautiful, charismatic women and I'm just very lucky to know them.

So congratulations, Heather. I'm so so so excited for you!

here a payton, there a payton, everywhere a payton payton

I'm trying to remember a time that I've ever run into another little girl with Payton's name. I've heard people say "oh, I know a younger Payton" or "so and so's such and such's name is Payton" or even "I've met boys named Payton". But I personally, have never met one.

Well that came to an end today at Payton's soccer game. We played a team with 3 Paytons on it. All I heard for an hour straight was:

"Go Payton"
"Kick it Payton"
"Hustle Payton"
"Payton, pass it to Payton"

I can only imagine that my poor daughter's head was spinning. Especially since at one point, all 4 Paytons were on the field at the same time!! So we had to start cheering her nicknames, so she'd know we were talking to her.

It was pretty comical.

polly has a mullet!

there's always a first...

Today was a very exciting day in our house. It's a day we've been looking forward to for some time. It was Mike's first Cyclocross race. He had prepared his bike, gotten his gear, taken classes, researched and practiced for months now. It was hard to believe it was actually time.

We got to the race and the weather was just right for a Seattle race. Drizzly without being miserable. But the course was mucky and quite miserable. I heard a number of people saying it was one of the more technical ones they've seen in a while. It wound through the trees, up and down the hills, with lots of corners and tons of jumps. A crazy one to start with - but I don't think he would have wanted it any other way.

And Mike looked nervous. And I felt excited. And his dad looked giddy. It was great.

I can't really do it justice to talk you through the race. All I can say is that this man amazes me. Just doing this, took unbelievable guts. But then to do it so well, well that just took skill. I'm just so proud.

With that, here's some pictures for you to enjoy.

october

Wow. I cannot believe that it is actually October! Where has the year gone? I feel like it was just a minute ago that we were excited about the days getting longer and the sun coming out. We were trying to fit five events into each day and bbqing every meal we ate... in hopes of not losing a single moment of the beauty that is summer. But now the sun is setting sooner and we're gearing up for the holiday season.

And after do do doing so much all summer long, fall can be so refreshing. It starts out with still giving us enough nice days to not shock our systems and force us indoors altogether. But gradually we'll start to spend more hours snuggling and eating comfort food while playing board games with our kids and having movie nights with hot totties.

It will bring soccer games and parties. School dances and sleepovers. The air will get crisp and the leaves will change. Then the rain will come. The shoes by the door will be dirty, with their existence written all over our hardwood floors. We'll decorate the house and bake smelly things. And then it will bring turkey and snowboarding and moments back home.

And before we know it, it will be full on winter. And then spring. And then summer... and then wow. How time flies. I know I will be doing everything I can to embrace all of these amazing moments in this lovely life of mine.