Dance recital 2012

It is hard to believe that Addison just completed her 3rd year of dance and performed in her 3rd dance recital. This was the first year that we let Addison take 2 dance classes...jazz and cheer. Jazz was by far her favorite over the cheer class but I think it had more to do with her amazing instructor and the great kids in the class. This year was also different because she performed in both the 1pm show and the 7pm show which made for a very very long day. Between the finale performances, she was on stage 5 times and she loved it. She loved every minute of the day and really enjoyed watching all the performances.

My jazz dancer!

Thanks Mom for sharing in the day with us.



Addison with some of her jazz friends.

Then it was time for her cheer performance. She insisted on this pose.

Me and my girl! 

Great job Addison. I already can't wait till September to start another year of dance!

Goodbye Preschool!

Lucas graduated from preschool last Friday. It is so hard to believe. It seemed like not so long ago that he started preschool and now he is done and moving on to kindergarten in just a few months. He loved preschool, especially the free time to just play and have fun with his friends. He seemed really well liked, got in trouble from time to time (what can I say...he is not perfect) and just really enjoyed school. We will miss the 4 great teachers and the great kids and parents we got to know (only 2 of his classmates will be moving on to our elementary school).

The Hillside Preschool class (the front row are the 3-4 year olds).

Lucas is in the 2nd row in the middle.

My preschool graduate. :)



Me and my boy.



I can't wait to see what kindergarten brings for my boy next year!!!

Addison's kindergarten celebration

It is so hard to believe that Addison's first year of elementary school is almost over. She loved kindergarten and can't wait to move on to first grade. She made some great friends, loved her teacher and of course learned so much. I can't wait for her to continue on at Kellison Elementary and for Lucas to start in the fall and for our family to really get involved. We attended the school family picnic last weekend which was so much fun and today was her kindergarten celebration.

Here is Addison's class (she is in the middle row on the right).

They sang a few really cute songs. I held myself together but almost cried. It was so cute.

We then went back to her classroom for cake and lots and lots of pictures by everyone.



Thank you Mrs. K for a great year and teaching my baby girl so much. 

Next up....Lucas graduates from preschool tomorrow. I will surely cry!!!

An amazing mother's day.

Mother's day was so great this year. Not only did Bob get me flowers and some nice gifts but we spent the day doing something really fun...just the 4 of us. We went to The Katy Trail which is an amazing trail in St. Louis. I love that we keep exploring and finding new and fun things to do in the city. Well, we went ahead and rented some bikes and the kids road in a bike trailer which they LOVED. After a few miles we stopped at Sugar Creek Winery for some food and a bottle of wine. We didn't go crazy and share a bottle that fast.....so we brought the rest of the bottle with us which was fun! :)

Here I am posing with the bottle of wine. He he.

They loved chilling in the trailer while Bob did all the work.



Bob's turn for a drink.



A few miles later we stopped and explored at this great spot.

Then the kids got a hold of the camera again and took a few random pictures. 

Before we turned to head back we made one more stop at Augusta Brewery which we will have to visit again. 

It was a great day and we could not have asked for better weather (low-mid 70s and sunny). I think we are going to have to make this an annual mother's day event!!!

Puddle jumping and bike riding.

Last Friday was Lucas' preschool family picnic. The day started off great. Lots of playing on the playground, soccer and throwing the football around.

Storms looked like they were rolling in so the teachers got lunch started really early under the pavilion. Thank god for that pavilion.

Here is a cute picture of me and my preschool boy....soon to be kindergarten boy.

My parents came along too.

Shortly after starting our lunch it started POURING!!!! It was crazy. Luckily it only last about 20 minutes.



The kids had a great time after the rain was about done.

Here is Lucas with one of his great friends Peyton. They were getting close to a very very big puddle. Putting their feet in just a little and kind of testing the parents to see just how wet we would let them get.

As you can see below....I decided (along with many other parents) to let him go for it and run and jump like crazy in the big rain puddles. It will be a picnic we will never forget. He had a great time and I had a great time watching him!  To be a kid again!

This is something I have been meaning to share for awhile....Addison is riding her bike without training wheels. She is 6 1/2....not exactly anything to brag about but considering her lack of interest, we are very proud of her. We have been practicing off and on for a few months but the training wheels haven't been put back on in weeks. She still wants us to stay close by and doesn't have a ton of confidence yet, but I know she will get there.



Lucas wanted his picture taken on his bike as well. We have worked with him a little but didn't have the patience to help Addison AND Lucas at the same time. Unlike Addison, he LOVES to ride his bike. I have a feeling he will be training wheel free by the summer time!

25K Chubb Trail Race

Bob and I completed a pretty cool and really intense race a few weeks ago. It was the 25K Chubb Trail Race put on by the St. Louis Ultrarunners Group. I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the race. Bob was doing it and I was anxious to do something different instead of running a huge race on the city streets of St. Louis. I had run a 6 mile trail race a few years ago and it was hard, so you would have thought I would have given this more thought.

Now these trails are not paved and flat and easy to run. I am talking about many climbs, ups and downs, tons and tons of rocks, tree roots, single track most of the way...it is intense. Your heart rate spikes so fast from the hills (or at least mine done). It is MUCH different than running on the street or sidewalk. It is HARD. Bob was much more of a natural with trail running and it was a big challenge for me. I barely got through my training and I wanted to give up and not even run the race but I stuck with it. Luckily I had a friend (Bridget) running the race too and my great running buddies Lara and Brad kindly came along and got us started with our training.

The conditions of the trails were not perfect (it had rained for days before) but the temperature was great. The mud in some areas was almost comical and I fell in it once which was actually pretty funny. I wish I had pictures to share of the actual trails but the trails are too narrow for someone to really get up there and take pictures. The pictures below were from the flat parts of the race.

Lucky us.... we started the race off on a BIG hill. You can't tell from the picture but it was not an easy way to start a race!

Here is Bob starting off strong!

These pictures were on a flat part after completing about 3 miles of intense trails. The flat parts felt so good!

And here I am....

We basically ran from one end of a trail to the other end and back...about 15.5 miles. The hardest part of the race (I think) came at about mile 12. At mile 12 started a 300 ft. (30 stories) .75 mile climb. Bob ran it so well (only walked about 15 seconds of that crazy climb). Bridget and I weren't as skilled as Bob and had to walk some of that hill. We both broke down around that part and felt like we could barely even lift our legs. It was hard. After we got up the hill, the last few miles went much better. The finish line even came sooner than we were thinking (we never ran the last part before in our training).

Here is Bob finishing. He finished in an impressive 14th place with a time of 2:12 (8:32 min. pace). 

Bridget and I finishing...in 47th and 48th place (out of 73 runners) at a time of 2:57 (11:26 min. pace). I know...a lot slower than I do in a regular race but again, I am not a natural at this. I gave it my best though and I am happy with how I finished!

Now, can you believe that there was also a 50K event for this race!!!  Doing that twice....no way!!!