Winter Wonderland

Complain all you want about winter, but kids love it.

First Snow!

Well, the first snow of the year came last night. Laura was so excited, she wanted to run right out and hear the crunch! crunch! crunch! of the snow under her feet. She got her wish.


Daddy, give back my toy!


Thanks daddy, I like chewing everything.


Daddy giving Laura "Air tickles". I'm not sure why, but she's just about as ticklish about 6 inches away from her belly as she is actually touching her belly.


Laura in her pigtails.

As many of you may know, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday. It was an amazing and grueling experience. I've never run a full marathon before, but I put in the training hours and I was able to finish in a very respectable time.

The recovery is going well so far, and a feel a lot better today than yesterday. Everyone asks if I will do it again, and as Emily said, it is like someone asking you if you are going to have another kid 1 day after childbirth.



It was amazing to see how many people turn out to cheer the runners along. There were very few sections of the route with breaks of more than a couple of hundred feet between groups of spectators. The race organizers estimated 300,000 people lined up to watch the race, along with the 11,000 or so racers.

If anyone is interested in running a marathon, I would say commit yourself to it and do it. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, there are no shortcuts and no easy ways through the training, but both the race and the training are a good mind-body enema. (Not always pleasant, but cleansing).

It was the most mentally and physically challenging thing I have done. Hats off to everyone who had the courage to line up at the start line. For most, myself included, it was about setting a personal goal and working towards the goal.

I promise to put some cute pictures of the kids up next time!

Have a great trip mommy!

Have a great trip to NYC! I put the kids in their matching I heart NY shirts. Very cute.

Laura's first autograph

Tonight at ECFE Laura worked on an art project. When the teacher told Emily to write Laura's name on it, Laura insisted on 'Doing it herself', so she patiently waited for the crayon and then wrote her name.

Ok,you have to use your imagination, and the U is upside down, but that's ok. In order to help, I added some text to clarify what she was writing. It might also help to click on the picture to show a bigger image.

When your hard drive emails you....

It usually isn't a good thing when your hard disk emails you... But last night I got the email: The right hard drive has failed. (I guess that's better than the WRONG hard drive failing.)

Fortunately, about a year ago I fortified our computer storage (I know...NERD!) so everything is backed up onsite & off.



If anyone is curious, I back everything up to: this, and use mozy for offsite.

I am glad it did its job, but my hard drive is a very terse emailer.

And no Kristen, I am not gloating.

Take me out to the ballgame...

Laura asked me to take her to the ballgame. Only 3 games left at the dome... I better hurry.