These 3 pictures pretty much summarize Kevin’s 3rd birthday party. Two weeks ago, we invited a small group of friends over to celebrate Kevin’s birthday. The big surprise was a clown riding a unicycle up the street. The kids were amazed!!! The video clip below captures the highlights from the party and especially the reaction of the kids to the mystery clown guy riding up our street!  Kevin and his friends had an excellent time.

My friend Jennie came out to visit from North Carolina with her 2 year-old daughter Celia. It had been one year since we saw each other last, so the kids had sure changed.

Celia’s love language is touch. Kevin’s is…well, not touch. Celia wanted to hug Kevin and hold his hand. All Kevin could say is, “I don’t need to hold your hand!” How sad. Dave and I hope he becomes more charming with age.

We did lots of different activities. We spent one day at the Children’s Discovery Museum. Kevin and Celia made pretend pizzas, played in the water, and painted with their fingers. We spent several hours at a nearby park where Kevin and Celia competed in the local parcourse.

We had a make-your-own-pizza night and Jennie captured their hearts with books.

We spent a lot of time down at the tracks. Kevin corrupted angelic Celia by teaching her how to throw rocks in puddles. They had a great time and came home dirty, tired, and happy.

Finally, on the last day of Celia’s visit, Kevin asked to hold her hand. He doesn’t look happy about it in this picture, but he was concentrating really hard to do it just right. Can’t wait for the next visit!

Over Memorial Day weekend we flew back to Pennsylvania to visit my family.  There were a lot of family members anxious to see him.  It had been almost a year since we last visited and Kevin had changed a bit since then!! Above is a picture of Kevin in our driveway ready to head to the San Francisco airport. He hauled Mom’s suitcase most of the trip. He entertained quite a few folks at baggage claim.

When we stay in PA we stay with my sister and her family because they have a big house with plenty of extra room for all of us.  My nieces had a great time getting to know their cousin again.  They put him to work out in the big backyard helping them water the plants (below)

One of the first things on the itinerary for our trip was a little triathlon in Mt Gretna on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Friday I spent the day putting my bike together and then taking a drive on the bike course with my Dad and Uncle Jim.  Uncle Jim always likes to point out places where I can cheat and cut corners.   We also fit in a visit to see my Dad at work at the volunteers’ office of the Good Samaritan hospital. He loves showing his grandson off to all the ladies in the office.

Saturday was the race and the entire family made their way out to Mt. Gretna early in the morning to spectate. I think everyone had fun watching me suffer.   I had a good time and it was a well organized event.  The bike course was pretty hilly but the run was on a railroad bed trail that Heather and I had run on in the past.  I really enjoyed that part of the race.  The results of the race are on my website.

After the race we spent lots of time with family and visiting friends.  Nanny took Kevin to visit Marshall, her horse.  The picture on the left is from our 2008 visit, the one on the right is from this year.

By far Kevin’s favorite part of the visit to the farm was playing with the pitchfork in the hay…yes we’re horrible parents for letting him play with a pitchfork…but it did make for some great pictures and he had a blast as can be seen below.

Finally we packed up and started the trip home.  We were a bit worried on the 6 hour flight home as Kevin was super hyper and very loud. We were not making many friends around us.  He had learned to “sing” at my sister’s house while playing Guitar Hero and was practicing his best Adam Lambert whiny/screeching singing voice for the first hour of the flight! Finally he lost energy and fell asleep on Heather’s lap.  I  had loaded episodes of Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street on my iPhone and that helped put him to sleep. He would sit on Heather’s lap watching, fighting to stay away, but eventually his eyelids got REALLY heavy until he fell asleep.

After a peaceful (for everyone) 2 hour nap Kevin was awake, had a snack and seemed to be enjoying himself.  20 minutes before landing in San Francisco he was sitting on my lap when all of a sudden he started vomiting like a volcano.  He was completely covered and I started feeling a wet, warm feeling soaking into my lap.  Two minutes later he was sitting in his diaper in his own seat giggling like nothing had happened. Meanwhile I’m sitting in a pile of puke and smelling wonderful.  I must officially be a Dad now because I wasn’t even phased by this…I mean, what can you do? 

Aside from the final vomit event, it was an excellent trip and Kevin was a real trooper. He adjusted well to east coast time and to the new surroundings and thoroughly entertained the family.

This year, we had an extra treat to stay with Josh and Jen at their family’s beach house, which is located right at the top of hill above the starting line. Wow, was that convenient! Josh and Jen have a 5 month old, so Jen and I talked babies all weekend, and Josh and Dave talked triathlon. Josh and Dave drove the bike course, Jen and I went for a walk, and we had a nice dinner the night before the race. In typical anal fashion, Dave showed up at the race 75 minutes before the start, without much to do. He got a great transition spot (an “end spot”) about halfway down the transition area. The weather was pretty chilly – overcast and misty, but not quite raining. The roads were all wet, but had a chance to dry out just before the start.

The racers walked about ¼ mile down the beach, on the other side of the old boat, for the start. The gun went off at 8am and the racers were on their way for a ½ mile swim. Dave’s swim went very well – he was the 4^th yellow cap out of the water (yellow caps were reserved for those between ages 35 and 49). He beat Dale, a friend from our masters swim team out of the water, which was not usual! Dave’s T1 was its usual speedy frenzy and he was off for the 15 mile bike ride. The bike ride is hilly and has plenty of sharp turns, which presented its challenges.

My parents and niece, Sarah, came down that morning to cheer Josh and Dave on. Sarah had a great time – playing in the water, playing in the sand, and cheering the racers on.

The Sandman race is famous for its  “sand sculpture” awards. Some local beach guy makes pretty fancy forms, covered with sand and shells for the top 3 finishers in each age group. If you aren’t a lucky winner of a sand sculpture, you can actually fork over some money to take one home anyway.

Dave’s T2 was fast, as usual. Sarah and I started a chant while he was changing into a his run shoes, “Win us a sand sculpture!” “Win us a sand sculpture!” He heard us, but, focused as he is, decided not to look up and laugh. No pressure, he thought.

The Sandman run is pretty tough. You start and finish the run on the sand. Yuck. You have to run up a huge set of steps to get to the top of the cliffs. Yuck. There are some pleasant sections of the run, around the Seacliff campgrounds before heading downhill and back to the finish line. Dave was tracking those in his age group, hoping to get himself on the podium. He went back and forth with another 40-44 year old named Metrik. In the last mile or so of the run, Dave worked like a dog to catch Metrik and hung with him, neck in neck. On the final stretch, Metrik had just one more gear that Dave didn’t, so he took the win by 2 seconds.

Josh had a good swim and bike ride. He was hoping to beat his time from the previous year, but just missed it. His run felt the best, and he was happy with his performance overall.

We did the usual post-race milling around until they posted the results. Dave got 9^th overall and 2^nd in his age group. So, we knew that Dave won us a sand sculpture! Josh placed in the top 20 of his age group. We waited and waited and waited for the awards to start. I finally complained to the race director to get moving so that Dave could get his sand sculpture before I went into labor! Anyway, it was well worth waiting for.

Even cooler than the sand sculpture was the show the dolphins put on for everyone after the race. I think they were smart enough to know there were a lot of people watching so they decided to show off. We had a great time watching them flipping high out of the water and then darting up and down the coastline. It was almost like a post race fireworks display

Jen fixed everyone an excellent brunch back at the beach house and we all ate a ton of food! We had a nice visit and headed back to the bay area. We were tired, but rallied later that afternoon to go see Bourne Ultimatum. Everyone keeps telling us to go see all the movies we can fit in, while we still can! It was great, but exhausting to watch – we were on the edge of our seats the entire 2 hours!

Midlife crisis?? Maybe, but we are all a little jealous. Our friend Leo has quit his job, sold all his belongings and is heading off on a 1 year trip around the world! We all got together this past weekend and surprised him with a going away party.

What better way to do that, than cook an entire cow on the grill!!

Leo brought his appetite, he had just gotten finished running 32 miles. He sold his car earlier in the week, so he’s been running everywhere. That’s one way to stay in shape!!

We are definitely going to miss him over the next year. We are also anxious to see what a 1 year “break” from training does for his marathon performance. Last time he took a month long break he came back and ran a marathon PR when he was “out of shape”

Have fun Leo, we’ll see you when you get back!