Christmas #2

Santa has delivered his second load of the year!

 

 The kids waiting by their bags--"Hurry up MOM!"

 A photo before the ripping begins...(they did not want to wait another second, so they were very annoyed when I tried to take this picture)!

 Best friend cousins!

 James reading the note that Santa left behind.

 Finally-time to dig in!

 An exhausted Brennen after an early morning and lots of hard work opening gifts!

A Typical Day in Arizona!

Wake up, eat, swim with the cousins...

 Oh yeah--the boys need to enjoy their stogies!

 Take a little movie break in the middle of the day...

 Then back to the pool for a little sunset swim!

Christmas #1

We are leaving for Arizona today to spend Christmas with the Dean side:)  But of course, we have to have our own little Christmas before we go!  Santa has made his first drop of the year!

 

 They are so excited that Santa came and are anxiously awaiting opening their stocking!  But, they were forced into a family photo first:)

 Yes! I got my wish....

 Brennen has a flair for funny photos!

 Happiness is is the ripping of the paper.

 Time for the big one!  James gets what it is right away...

 Now Brennen and Kellen get it-an X-box!

 Time for the package from our Swedes!

 Everyone was very happy with their gifts!

 Kellen loved his Viking shirt so much, he didn't take it off for the next three days!

It was a very fun morning.  Now we are off to Arizona!

It' s Beginning to Look A lot like Christmas!

The tree is up-let the holiday fun begin! It's so good to have your family be your best friends:)

 

Looking forward to Santa's upcoming arrival!

Thanksgiving week!

As usual, we spent the whole week down in Nashville with my family.  I did not get as many pictures as I should have-bad me!  We did a lot of fun stuff-zoo, hockey game, board games and so on, but it just didn't get documented!  One day we went for a hike around Radnor Lake.  It is such a perfect hike for the little people-about and hour and not too hilly!  Liz and Conor are checking out the turtles

  

while Trefor, Brennen and Lotta watch the birds.

 We even saw deer!!

 And of course, we have the annual turkey trotters!  Yes-even the little people ran (5 MILES is a long way!)!

Girls Weekend in New York City

Last weekend, the boys were all together in Las Vegas for the Big Smoke, so Marilyn decided that all of the girls needed a weekend away also!  We did a lot of shopping and site seeing and we had a great time together.  I hope that this can become an annual tradition!

  

 I did not realized how huge the 911 memorial was or how much I would be affected by it.  It was haunting.

It's go time!

I have been training for many, many months for my half ironman-1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile swim.  It is finally time to race!  I did well, completing the race in 5 hours and 36 min. and finishing 3rd in my age group.  It was harder than I thought and more fun than I thought!  We'll see-there just might be another one in my future!