my world traveler...

ryan was in NORWAY all last week for business. although we were sad to be without him all week, we were excited for his little adventure and leah and i fared okay (we're pretty independent gals).

here are some of his pictures...he is the quintessential tourist. just stands in front of whatever he wants a picture of. makes me laugh. i'll make him get some more exciting shots in china...like the one of him in the viking museum. niiice horns, ry. and yes, he was a good husband and daddy. he brought me back a sweet norwegian beanie with chocolate and GUMMIES. and he brought leah a stuffed bear, whom we have affectionately named Karl (with an accent, of course).

please note: the top right picture is one of ryan's favorites because the people in the boat are wearing viking hats.

*addendum from ryan: "a little explanation of the picture on the lower left corner. that's a wood carving we saw in the folk museum. based on the dude's bulging eyes, this must be his first time hugging a girl (at least my coworkers and i are roughly 90% sure that is a girl). nice work on the hand placement my friend!"

and this was his homecoming. we're glad you're back!!

and i've decided...i'm STILL a runner

ryan and i went with our friends lars and dyan (and our kiddos nora and leah) to san francisco to bike through the city. it was a lot of fun! after finding a parking spot (harder than you'd think), we buckled the girls into their "chariot"...quite a smooth ride if you ask me...where they commenced stealing each others' binkies, blankets and toys, and we hopped on our bikes and were off.

after (okay, in the middle of) the first hill, ryan gave me a lesson on the gears on a bike and i was good to go. ha! we rode through part of the city, across the golden gate bridge and then down into sausalito. we boarded a ferry back to the city and rode back to our cars.

all in all a great day...perfect weather since it was 100+ when we left our houses and we needed jackets up there! i ran 12 miles that morning in preparation for this saturday's race...and i decided i'm still a runner. although the biking was fun, it was at times scary and my bum hurt!!

here are some shots my photographer of a husband snapped. he's got a good eye, i think...

a fun, visual-person tag...

...and since i'm camera-less this week, here goes!

my first job:

my goal for the next year (yes, it's a baby WALKING):

my favorite place:

my favorite food:

the city i live in:

my favorite color:

a nickname i have:

a place i'd like to visit:

how old i'll be on my next birthday (how appropriate, it's even on a PIE!):

i tag whoever wants to be tagged...just do a google image search for your answers.

thanks for the idea, alyse!

i'm a bad blogger

this morning ryan said, "when are you ever going to post something new on our blog?" hmmm...i guess that was a subltle hint that i've not been the best at blogging as of late, so here goes...

may has been busy!

we celebrated our moms...compare this with last year...

we went swimming...twice. leah is a fish. we think she doesn't walk or crawl because she just wants to swim. for a great post about one our our pool parties, click here. (blog credit: cheryl) leah's hair dries curly...i love it! and at the aforementioned pool party, she discovered strawberries. mmm...

we ran a race (a crazy hilly 10k)...climbing about 850 feet TWICE in 6.2 miles. for a complete recap, click here. (blog credit: lindsey) ryan got 2nd place in his age division (defending his 3rd place title from last year)!!

we ate dirt. well, leah did. usually when we go get the mail, i let her play with the junk mail. but, one day we got no junk mail and i got a great letter from my mom that took me awhile to read, so leah decided to eat the dirt/rocks/flowers instead. oops! it's just protein, right?

we played with jack.

we had dad do our hair.

we tried to take our clothes off because it's been so blasted HOT here lately (100+ degrees) and we don't have air conditioning.

we tried on mommy's hat.

we grew 3 more teeth (5 total)...no pictures...sorry!

we discovered our shadows...

spinning class

leah has some sweet new skills that are making my life much easier...she no longer screams just because she has thrown a toy behind her...and it means we are one step closer to complete mobility! yay leah!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

five years in the making

happy FIFTH anniversary to my wonderful ryan. it's flown by.

i love you more and more each day!