La Hermanita

I've decided to start a blog about my little sister Demri and her mission in Santiago, Chile (here she is before she left, with my bro Ian). I'll include any photos she sends, with stories from her mission experiences. I've already got a lot to share (that I think she'll approve of), so I'll be getting to work on it soon. Here's the blog address: www.lahermanitanueva.blogspot.com. There's a link on the right of this page as well. Check it out!

Race Day

Eric's dad signed up for a duathlon a couple weeks ago, and we decided to join him. Eric and I decided to do it as a team, with me doing the runs, and he the bike.
We traded off watching the little one, which was tricky but possible. Grandma helped out, too. Here's Aspen with her daddy while mommy runs her first 5k.
After my first run I passed off the timing chip to Eric and he took off on his road bike (that's him, the first guy on the left). 11 miles to go honey!
Eek! Someone get this girl a haircut!!
Here's Pete during his transition. He did the whole event himself.
Playing with Grandma. Let me just say in my defense, that I'm waiting ever so patiently for this child's bangs to grow out. It's a painful process, but I think we're almost there!
Eric and I in transition. I'm on the last part of the race, just 3 miles to go. By this time, I was pretty exhausted. I had run the first leg pretty hard, just to see how fast I could do it. However, both times I beat my personal best time. I was shocked! I think it was the whole wheat pancakes for breakfast that did the trick.
At the end, our pretty little baby was waiting for us. It was a great race, and so fun to do it with Eric. To top off the morning, we took third place! The location was great, the time of year was perfect; this is a race I'll definitely do again.

A little about Aspen

She's my baby. And yet she's huge. Super huge, and I'm not sure how to handle it.
She likes to say things like "monkey dance", "applesauce," and "I said no." (I wonder where she got that last one....)
Evidently she thinks acorns are delicious, but I don't let her eat them. I promise.
What a poser.
She looks stinkin' cute in red, but red clothes are so hard to find for a little one her size. The injustice!
She likes to dance, especially to ring tones. Especially when she hears them in a store. And the phone belongs to a stranger. And she loves monkeys.
She calls every single child a baby, and she thinks they're adorable. Even if they're eight!
She does not like being told what to do! But she's great at giving orders to her parents.
She blows great bubbles in the bathtub. And she loves to finger paint with chocolate pudding. And she's stinking cute, and I could go on and on. But I won't. At least, not today....

I've never seen a fall out here in Boise. I hope they have pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and lots of caramel covered apples. I hope there's lots of markets with fresh cider, pies and quick bread. I hope there are enough maple and aspen trees out here to change the color of the landscape. I hope to see lots of wreaths on people's front doors. I hope I don't miss New England too much!

Of course, the winters there were really long and cold, so I guess I could sacrifice a little of a New England fall for the comforts of a more mild Boise winter!

Haven't done enough of this.....

I've only gone biking twice this summer, shame on me. I've been feeling pretty guilty about it. Eric built me a frankenstein bike from parts of other bikes, and I've hardly used it the last couple months. The truth is, I'd rather go running! The foothills are full of climbs and descents, and I'll admit that I hate climbing on my bike! Eric wants me to get a nicer bike, but I just can't justify buying a bike when I've only gone a couple times this summer. More than anything it's the bonding time spent with Eric that I miss. We've replaced our bike outings with walks in the evenings, though, which I have to admit isn't a bad trade-off! Although it's much less of a rush.

First I was "mommy." Later I was called "Chelsi." Now she just calls me "Chels" and it's so stinking cute I have to answer to it!