This weekend, past, Chris and his friends participated in the Tough Mudder. A long, wet, muddy obstacle race! They loved it! It is like a little boys, ahem, I mean big boys dream.
These first two shots are shortly after they had gone through the starting obstacles....wet freezing cold giant mud puddles.
The kids were all so excited to see everything they could and to cheer on the daddies. Good thing my friend, the other mom, was thinking and brought them things to make signs with, because shortly after this shot we saw them coming....
...filthy dirty from head to toe, in ears and across teeth, and everywhere else imaginable. Bumped, bruised and bleeding! They say their feet have never been softer after running with shoes full of wet sand all day.
At the finish of the race they were given a beer and a headband to prove that they had done it. Delilah is modeling it quite nicely, and no we might have shared the headband with her but their is no Dos Equis for dos babies.
And the clothes, well they really will never be the same.
Hooray Chris, you did it. Months of planning and training are over. We are so proud of you, tough mudder!!!
Hi everybody, this is Chris, Leslie's husband. Since I don't have a blog of my own, I'm borrowing Leslie's. While Leslie does a great job taking care of us and making sure we've got dinner on the table, weekend breakfasts are my domain. I try to make breakfast for everybody at least once a weekend or on days that I don't have to be at work. Sometimes it's pancakes, sometimes it's waffles, sometimes it's cheesy eggs and breakfast sausage, but this time it's something much better.
You might ask yourself what could be better than bacon and pancakes. Well, it's bacon in pancakes. I saw a post over on GeekDad this week about the Great Bacon Odyssey, and I was inspired. How is it possible that I never thought of this on my own??
We have a magic word around this house, and it isn't please or thank you. It's bacon. Sometimes our kids can be fussy eaters, but include bacon and it's like magic. The consensus from the two short people??
Well, the plates were clear, and there weren't any bacon pancakes left at the end, so that should answer that. Will we make these again? Absolutely, but not often. I'm don't even want to know how bad these are for me.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging...
Well, see what was in store for the little man this week!!
He went from this....above
to this!!!! the neighbors don't even recognize him!!
He has had a big boy haircut before but nothing like this one. He was so hot and sweaty that i just felt bad. The wet hair in the first pictures is sweat not water. He should not suffer because i did not want to part with his hair! So daddy barber took over and we got a new kid in a matter of minutes. Now they look more alike than ever. Pay no mind to the crazy eyes on the boy...good pictures are impossible.
Super wordy...so sorry...but there is no other way to tell this other than the long version. i am finding that my big night out was so amazing that it is hard to tell the story here...simply because you can not hear me SCREAMING with delight or see me JUMPING up and down because i was and am so excited!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!! Every part of it. Ask my sister(if you know her)...the story is pretty animated...so try to imagine. She pointed out that there should be some caps and exclamation points!!!! As part of my Christmas presents Chris bought us tickets to see the Swell Season. Some might know who i am talking about you, some maybe not....but if you fall into that second group you really should go have a listen. They are amazing...and see the film Once, they are in that too!
We headed into the city, thank you Kate for watching the kids when i know that you would rather have been where we were!!! Cause it was AWESOME!!! sorry...back to the story. It is nice to go to the city with the kids but so great to go without....no wrangling busy children....i did not have to carry any bags because the husbands pockets worked just fine. We had a nice dinner within throwing distance of Radio City. While we were eating Chris wondered aloud if i thought they would busking on the street(background..Glen Hansard the lead musician started as a street busker and that is the premise of the movie). I said "surely not, not when they have a venue like radio city to play in".
SO after dinner we decided to walk around before the show and enjoy the city. As we were walking it occurred to me...lets see where these shoes take me!!! Certainly you have heard of Rockefeller Center...the shoes and i stood right on the very spot that the tree stood. I pretended i was a tree. :o) Chris thought it would be fun to get a shot of the shoe with Radio City in the background. I laughed. He said "get your foot up in the air"...i said, "my foot does not go in the air". But i hugged a tree and stuck it up there!!! He knelt in the street to get the shot. I am sure everyone around was grumbling about the ridiculous tourists!! oh well. Then as we walked around the block there was this crowd and then i heard this music and all the cameras in the air, i smacked chris (lovingly of course) and said, "NO! no way!!"... cause yup that is them, playing on the street right outside the concert hall.
LOOK how close we were...i was standing around to the right in this picture about 2 to 3 rows back from them...2-3 rows. i was star struck!!! That is Glen with the guitar and Marketa Irglova standing beside him. There were people walking up and asking what was going on...i met this nice lady who turned said to me that this was the perfect NY moment. i agreed wholeheartedly. it was really amazing. After they played a few songs they turned and started walking in the direction we all had to go. SO what did we do, we followed. It was like a impromptu parade. The Sousa phone was tooting and the guitar was playing and we kept following.
There were people climbing light poles to get a better view. it was amazing. As we were walking/marching away with our swell season parade, i walked right over the spot where they had been standing. I had to take a moment. Star struck i tell you....then told chris to QUICK take a picture!!! take one of these shoes standing on the very spot Glen Hansard stood (click for a quick article on one aspect of tuesday's concert). Here they are.... standing where he played and sang and was amazing.....(see me swooning!)
As we were heading in i squealed with total joy...."I don't even have to go to the concert now"...i told chris, "that was enough for me". i stood 10 feet away. This was shaping up to be a amazing night. The picture does not do our seats justice. it was better than it looks....the i phone was all we had for picture taking. The concert itself was awesome, amazing, enthralling, outstanding, moving. It was a emotional experience. I was getting a little teary...i know i am a dork but i can not help it. A couple times the music was so amazing i caught myself closing my eyes and really loving it and then i was like "dummy open your eyes...you can do that at home...this guy is right in front of you for real!"
The concert started at 8 and ended around 11:30. It just went on and on. in a good way of course. He was funny and told stories and wanted the crowd to sing along. it was amazing. have i mentioned that already. There were multiple encores because we could not get enough. I was said when it was over. I had such a great time. Dinner and a concert in the city with my hubby...brand new shoes that went to amazing places...how could it have been bad?
Someone was sleepy on the way home...it was late....and he had to get up very early the next morning so he took a wee nap on the train!!! Super cute, wonderful husband. Thank you thank you thank you for taking me out and having a great date night with me. I love you!!! Here is one of the songs from the concert...i was there..in that room...singing along....amazing!
This is one of my favorite pictures from today...Chris got to make a trip to the 5th avenue Apple store. He was more than thrilled. This is a picture of him gazing up from the depths of the store. It is very cool...from above ground it just looks like a big glass box, then you go down a winding staircase and you are in the store, where geeks and nerds abound!!! They all have their silly saying shirts, in red of course for Christmas. He did manage to get a Christmas present out of the trip...he picked it but i am still insisting that we wrap it and it go under the tree with everything else. As a side note....isn't he is just too cute???!!! I love him!
ps..i do have a few fun crafty and sewing things to share but i am afraid if i shared them now that there would be no surprise for Christmas...since i am certain they are reading this...so i promise that i will have a few things to share soon.
Birthday's are not a big deal to my husband...to him it is just another day. I used to try to make a bigger deal out of it, but i have learned that i should just go with what he wants. It is easier that way. This year he surprised me with an idea for something he would like to do. He wanted to go and visit the Orange County Choppers showroom nearby. Isn't he cute? We surprisingly enjoyed ourselves. We brought along friends and all of our kids and aside from reminding the kids, constantly, not to touch the motorcycles, we had fun. Things went well.
Mitchell was working out his tough face...he was thrilled about the firefighter motorcycle. The tribute wall to 9-11 was really cool...covered in patches from various fire stations around the country, and surrounded by several fire helmets.
Chris tried on some new gear, and settled on none but he had fun...this was what he wanted for his birthday, so we made it happen. The show on TLC is a little much sometimes but the motorcycles were really fun to see. I love Avery's serious face while wearing Chris' motorcycle jacket.
So, sweet husband...it has been 10 years together this week(we met days after his 23rd birthday). Like you said tonight...can you believe that in a blink of an eye 10 years have passed? They have been a great 10 years. I love you more with every passing day. You are a wonderful husband and partner. You are truly the best. You do more for me and the kids than i could ever ask for. There is no one more perfect than you. Happy Birthday, love. Here is to another wonderful 10 years
Every day since Mitch went fishing for the first time he has asked to go again. well, yesterday Mitch got a surprise afternoon with Daddy. Chris felt like leaving early...so he met us at home and surprised Mitch with a fishing trip for the afternoon. The boy bounced and screamed! Just saying he was excited was a understatement.
This time the boys rented a row boat and headed out to the middle of the pond, got real worms to fish with this time and had a great afternoon. Chris said that as soon as the line hit the water they were biting....immediately. This shot above is the first fish Mitchell caught, a bluegill.
I am told he was not that thrilled about touching or holding them. Mitch said they were slimy. I guess at one point the fish was flopping around in the bottom of the boat and then jumped up onto Mitchell seat, and Mitchell promptly jumped right off it, he was a little scared. But he soon got used to these "feisty", that is his word, fish.
When he got home and told me all about how cool it was, i swear that the kid had gained a swagger. He was so pumped full of testosterone and excitement. What a super daddy!
Before i get into our vacation photos....because vacation was awesome....i wanted to tell you how great this daddy is. He is so great to our kids, and me. We just love him a whole bunch. He is a great provider, a fun dad and and all around wonderful. He plays games with the kids, skips down the street with them, and lets them get in bed with us when they have a bad dream. He gives these kids opportunities and experiences that lots never get, or only dream of. He fixes all our technical problems and kills all our bugs!! He is wonderful. Our DADDY rocks!!! Happy Father's Day...because this week i know what day it is. :o)
So I've recently been learning how to write applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It's part of a cadet project that I'll be leading next academic year. In an effort to learn in other ways than on my own, I found the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. That's where I am now. I've been here all week, and have really been enjoying myself and learning a lot with just over 5000 other nerds. The one thing I've got to say is that Apple doesn't scrimp when it comes to putting on an event. Of course it wasn't cheap to be here, but Apple definitely made it worth it. Since I'm here as an instructor at West Point, I get to use government rates for everything, so I had the privilege to stay in a very nice hotel. Below, you can see the view from my room.
On the last night of the conference (Thursday) they had a big bash at the Yuerba Buena Gardens, right across the street from the conference center. This being my first time at the conference, I wasn't sure what to expect from the bash. I had planned to get some free dinner, have a drink or two, and then go back to my hotel and catch a movie or something. But then they announced who the entertainment for the evening was. This being a big nerd conference, I was a little doubtful as to the quality of the entertainment.
Then Cake walked out on stage and started playing. Cake, really? I didn't know that I was going to get a free Cake concert out of the whole deal. (I'm sorry to those of you who don't know Cake, so you should check them out.) If you look to the left of the band in the picture above, you'll see a bunch of people hanging over a railing beside the stage. Well, that's where I found myself in short order to try to get some better pictures.
All in all, it's been quite an enjoyable week. It's definitely an interesting mix of people. In fact, I snapped the picture below while I was sitting here writing this blog. As much fun as it's been, I do miss home, and am looking forward to getting there. It's going to be a long night on an airplane, but I'll be home tomorrow, and then we have a nice week of vacation next week.
My name is Leslie. I live in Virginia. I am a wife to Chris, a super husband/great daddy/army officer/PhD candidate. I am a mother to three very exciting kids, Avery and Mitchell, ages 13 and 10 and "baby" Delilah who is 5. I am a little crafty. I love fabric, quilting and I love my friends and family. I hope here I can keep up with all of you that are so very far away.
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