Birthday Celebration Weekend

Hannah and Madison don't turn 10 until this coming Tuesday, but this weekend was the time for celebration with family and friends. Dinner on Friday night with mom and dads friends Matt and Brandi (congrats on the engagement). Saturday morning was soccer for Maddie and then their party at Glazed Expressions in the afternoon. They invited 10 of their classmates to paint their hearts out in a semi-controlled environment. After that, it was church, and then dinner. They picked Wok-n-Motion (sushi grubbin' fools). The sushi chef even made them a special platter with a candle in the wasabi (I'll have to find the picture later). Not much else for the weekend. Tom took the weekend off the bike and worked around the house. Holly just plain worked in what little spare time that existed.
Glazed Expressions had a party room set up for them.

Crazy green cake on the outside, yummy marble cake on the inside.

The birthday gang (minus a few)!

They might look quiet, but it wasn't. This was in the middle of the painting session.

Well, I think that was fun....

If I remember correctly, this picture was taken around mile 55 and I was actually feeling pretty good (it doesn't look like it).
108 miles, 12 hours outside, 9 hours in the saddle, the difference was lunch, dinner and rest stops. Had planned an all gravel century ride around DSM, but hit a lot of blacktop. That had us riding in on the shoulder in order to honor the "spirit" of the challenge. On a good section it looked like this. The bad sections were only about 3" wide. The hardest part of the ride was seeing the pavement 12" away and realizing that jumping onto it would be the easy way out.
I had forgotten my helmet (I know....stupid Tom), so I got a new hairdo on the ride. My riding partner, Steve, was tired of the shoulders by this shot nearing mile 100, I was just glad to be close to home.
April down, 8 months more to go. Boys moutain biking trip to Moab, Utah and Fruita, Colorado with Moike (from college) in two weeks. At least I should have the fitness this time.

New Bikes for the Girls

An early birthday present for the girls from Mom and Dad. New Specialized mountain bikes. Tom pushed them into the adult sized wheels, but spent the extra money to get them the women's version. Better sizing, smaller reach for the brakes and other items specific for women/girls. They are very proud of them and I am excited to get them into the world of biking.
Hannah and Madison modeling the new bikes on a new trail near our house.

Hannah concentrating hard and battling the wind.

Maddie loving it.....for my cycling friends, this is a 13" frame on 26" wheels, it looks like she is riding a 29er. I had taken them on individual rides earlier in the week. This one was about 4 miles with the two of them. No wrecks, no flats....must be a success!

Back to bike commuting

I am back to working downtown again, which means that I now have the option of biking to work again. This was my 3rd time biking downtown this year and thought that I'd share a view of what the path that I ride on looks like. It's very pretty and a nice meandering trail that is next to a small stream. In the fall it gets even better. It is around 13 miles into work and takes around 50 minutes. I come home a slightly different way and it adds another 2 miles for a grand total of 28. Coming home is around 1hour or slightly more. No real hills, but the wind can provide challenges on many of the days.

Easter Sunday

A little late on this posting, but we had a great Easter Sunday. The girls slept in a little (for a holiday) and woke us at 7:30. They scrambled downstairs to find their Easter baskets. The Easter Bunny had left them a new stuffed animal and plenty of chocolate. Maddie had left a note for him/her to write back, but all she got back was a little scribble. As Hannah said "That's sad that the Easter Bunny can't write." Holly reminder them that he/she doesn't have fingers and probably never learned.
This picture is pretty funny. Part of our tradition includes two "golden" eggs that have been hidden. They always have a larger amount of money in them. This year Hannah had opened hers and found $5. As you can see in the picture, she is very happy. If you look closely, I also caught Maddie throwing her second "dud" egg (the yellow streak). Apparently the bunny left some "duds" this year. No money, no chocolate, just empty plastic eggs.

Maddie finally opens her "golden" egg and is happy again.

They both had to count how much money and chocolate that they had found in the eggs. Maddie thinks it is easier if you organize the chocolates into piles first.

We finished the morning by attending service. It was our first time back in several months and the church is now moved into the new part of the building. I think I heard that it can seat 3000, but I bet they had closer to 4000 in the building for Easter. Parking was a mess. We decided to get back into the habit of attending church, but will now opt for the less busy and more casual Saturday evening service.

Spring Break 2008

We did a short spring break trip to the Northeastern part of Iowa. We left on Saturday morning and drove 3 hours to Dubuque, IA which is on the Mississippi river. Once there, we went night skiing at Sundown Mtn. It is a cool little area with a good selection of beginner and intermediate runs. The snow was soft as it was close to 45 degrees outside. We had a great time and did see the sun going down over the horizon.
We actually based ourselves at Galena, IL which is another 15miles to the east. Galena is a very historic town with a lot of old homes. President Grant lived here and the town takes pride in the architecture. Here is a picture of the girls on main street. We had a good lunch (ask Holly about her $7 grilled cheese) and then went skiing at Mount Chestnut which is 10miles from Galena.
This picture of Hannah in the terrain park is actually from Saturday night at Sundown Mtn. Both mountains have some good terrain parks. No real big jumps, but a lot of rails and boxes. This was in the beginner park.

At Mount Chestnut, Maddie wanted to ski the black diamond named Warpath. She did a really good job and didn't get scared at all. It was really much steeper and longer than it appears in the photo. It was probably similar in steepness to skiing down the bowl near the top of chair 1 at the Big Mtn (Toni Matt?). Of course, it wasn't near as long. She sure was proud of her accomplishment.

On Monday, we went to the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque. It was very interesting and we probably spent a good 4 hours there. Of course, the girls played in the swimming pool at least once (or twice) a day. Dad was even a good sport and joined in the fun. Holly seems to always forget her swimsuit on these vacations.....

Testing, testing, 1,2,3

Finally getting started on a possible way to share thoughts and pics with family.