Weekend Update

So Griselda and I had the chance to go see the finish of the Western States 100 mile Endurance Run. It is a run that starts at Squaw Valley and ends in Auburn. It orginially branched off of a horse race called the Tevis Cup 100 mile horse race / ride when a riders horse went lame before the start. He decided to run the race instead of ride and the race just snow balled from there. Anyway, we arrived at the event, found premier parking, walked to the stadium and were there maybe 10 mins when the record breaking first and second place runners showed up. Here is the pic of the winner from our local paper.
















If you look closely in this cropped image you can make out a handsome balding man wearing sunglasses.........his wife is taking a picture from just out of camera shot so no Griselda cameo today. It was pretty cool to see. They winner ran 100 miles in 15 hours and 7 mins. That is a 9:03 min / mile average. That is taking into account the 18000 feet of climbing and 22000 feet of descent. Amazing. Was pretty cool to be there.

Everyone is doing great. Thank goodness its summer. Griselda has some of the boys doing gymnastics, swim team, tennis, golf, piano, and possible karate. Not as much free time as she thought though.







Dave

Happy, Happy Birthday to You, My Dear...Lathan!

Darling Lathan,

Happy Birthday to my shining star! THE BIG 7!!!!

You are a special breed of boy, you know. You have always been blessed with an thoughtful and empathetic demeanor. You have taught me what patience, kindness, and faithful diligence truly means. You have the capability of bringing joy to those around you by using your uplifting words, gentle love, and charity. I am amazed at your maturity. You are always caring for others' well-being in spite of your struggles. My hope is that you will enjoy childhood as long as possible and not feel the pressures of growing up too quickly. I feel very strongly that you are a very special spirit and that you have a very important work to do here on earth. I am grateful to be able to go on this journey alongside you. I am more blessed than I have words for.

Here is a look back at some of those moments I cherish so much (unfortunately, your pictures from when you were a tiny baby are stuck on a zip drive that I can't access until I find an older computer! But for now, this is what we have to work with).



































Happy Birthday Little Dude!!!!!

Happy Birthday J.J.????

OK. His birthday has long since past. April 13th came and went and J.J. has the misfortune of being the third of three birthdays in two weeks. So there - my excuse for being horrible at posting. Busy = not enough time to blog. Having said that, I promise we didn't forget/miss J.J.'s birthday. We just didn't have enough time to post it. The worst part is that because I have been using my phone for EVERYTHING, all my recent pictures were on there, too; and as Dave mentioned in the last post, it was all LOST when Haefan fried my phone last week. I'm still not up to speed of where I was, but I'm no longer phone-less. So here is my best attempt to recapture what I so regrettably missed two months ago...

J.J., you are my most happy, cuddly, and entertaining boy. You have a light within you that cannot be contained and a spirit that is as sweet as they come. You share your last lick of ice cream, give random hugs, and even can't avoid smiling when your mad. You are the bright light of my day. Being the true comic relief of our household that you are, it does come at some price with spills, messy rooms, stained clothes, missing toys, and sometimes some bumps and bruises. All told, you are my handsome, my sweet, my J-bro, my tough-guy. I love you so very much. Three whole years have gone by (...and then some :) ) and I still think of you as my "baby." I know that you struggle to share my lap, my kisses, and my hugs with your little brother; but I hope you remember that my whole heart goes out to you. You are my buddy, my helper, my reminder of what life is really supposed to be about. Here's to another wonderful year with you...!















Oh, how he LOVES his manta (blanky) even to this day.


He had a temp of over 102 deg here. He was extra cuddly and not-smiley




I love this picture because it shows off his irresistible baby-chic hair.






...road trip.


...road trip again!



















I'm so blessed to have you in my life. Thanks for being you, J.J.!