we swim we bike we run therefore we tri

Gabe accomplished his goal of beating me and keeping his time sub 2 hours. And I accomplished my goal of not getting a flat. It was a fun race once again and there were new challenges on the re-designed course this year. Gabe finished in 1 hour and 50 minutes, I finished 5 minutes behind him. I've seen Gabe improve a lot in running and swimming over the past year. He has certainly become a stronger athlete which is fun to watch but harder to make beating him a goal.
Here are the distances for the course this year:

swim 800 m (1/2 mile)
bike 16 miles
run 5 k (3.2 miles)

The resort we stayed at is beautiful and our camera made it back with us this time. Whenever we get back from this race we always look for the next triathlon to sign up for. Last night we eased that excitement a little by running the Tempe earth day 5 k. It also gave us an entire new appreciation for our run times in the tri.

Looking...tough? before our swim

Setting up our transition areas

Just finished my swim, I wasn't so cheery after the bike and run I don't think, well maybe the run because there was a slip n' slide and free beer

Welcome Wyatt Reinke Ward

Our newest and only nephew, Wyatt, was born on March 27th in Minnesota. After some trials in the hospital he is home with his happy parents Ryan (my brother) and Jackie. He looks so precious and we really want to meet and hold him. I've finished some things for him that i hope will fit him this summer.

Wyatt - so cute. thanks for the picture amy! :)

Here is the whole package - the shoes are reversible see below for the other side

Here are the details I've added on the onesies. Lots of room for improvement but still cute I think

The shoes soles and other side. It was so fun making these things for Wyatt. I've been told I have an old soul, and that I must be old if I'm sewing. Whatever I am, I enjoy making things for little ones. Lots of love going into our "homegrown fashions"

Happy Easter

It was a wonderful Easter today. It started out with a great homily at church. I got goosebumps when father did his welcome -- "welcome to all of you, no matter your gender. no matter you race. no matter your ethnicity. no matter your religious background. no matter your marital status. no matter your history. no matter your sexual orientation. welcome to all of you because we are one in Christ." he continued into the definition of the pascal mystery and talked about how it is still a mystery - no one here knows what life after this life entails. It was good, i wanted to record it. He is one of our favorite priests as he is a history of religion professor at ASU. His homilies usually reflect this in giving the history of the readings, why Christians believe what we do and bringing into it what others (Hindus, Buddhists, Jews...) believe. Very refreshing to hear this broad perspective.

mini calla lilies for easter. aren't they beautiful?!

We came home and started cooking a yummy meal for a couple of friends we had over. This weekend was kind of a home-makers weekend if you will. We died Easter eggs, made fruit smoothie Popsicles, baked a pie, baked cinnamon rolls (both from scratch!), and I completed some sewing projects. It was a wonderful weekend of "nothing to do" and its hard to believe the triathlon countdown is on! We leave in 5 days! Our easter package from Kathy and Jim -- Look at the box in the back, carefully and lovingly decorated by Jim! :) Thank you! It includes many of our favoritesOur homemade popsicles and berries in the back. We had lots of berries from work and being on sale and yogurt that needed to be used.

Coloring our eggs - we tried using natural dies this year the steaming bowl is red cabbage juice, then berries, and turmeric. We let them sit in the dye bath overnight in the refrigerator.

the berry juice made some cool patterns, cabbage awesome blue and the turmeric was a nice golden yellow. Later i added some of the yellow ones to the cabbage to get the greenish color

Triple berry pie - the top crust is rolled out on the table - de.lic.ous.

There you can see the green eggs -- our baskets the easter bunny hid. Ask gabe how this went for him. I guess the easter bunny hasn't always hid gabe's easter basket...

the power of imagination

This week in Shannon's Seedling class the theme is "Baja Fairy Duster". As usual, Shannon has prepared very creative activities and snacks for this lesson, as well as an equally creative story.

In her story about the fairy duster there are 2 main characters, Blossom(the "fairy duster") and Baja(the plant itself). The premise of the story is that the petals on Baja's flowers are so small that it is hard for the pollinators to see them. Baja, being the ingenious creature that he is, devises a plan to ask Blossom if he can use the old strands from her duster(which is used to "dust" off the flowers of plants in order to keep them looking their best) to "add" to his flowers. Blossom loves the idea of sharing her strands, of course, and happily agrees. So the story continues with Blossom sharing her strands and Baja's flowers growing in beauty and therefore increasing their attractiveness to the pollinators.
In Shannon's Tuesday afternoon class she has sisters, Francesca and Esme. They are very adorable and imaginative. They often wear princess-y dresses to class. I have been able to spend time with them and experience them interacting with Shannon(we all took a camping trip with friends). After story time, Esme and Jackie(her mom) approached Shannon. Shannon, noticing that Esme's eyes appeared red from crying, asked Esme what was wrong. With some gentle prodding from her mom, Esme proceeded to tell Shannon that she was so happy/excited from the story that it made her cry. Pause for effect. Shannon could hardly believe what she was hearing(shan later described the feeling as 'the biggest bear hug on my heart').
This story makes me realize 2 things:
1. Kids imaginations are a very beautiful thing, something that we should try to hold on to as long as we can.
2. My wife has got to be the most amazing person/teacher/wife in the world. I can only imagine the stories that will be told to our little ones.