Flashback Friday

August 16, 2008

Kai and I visiting my friend and her twins in Salt Lake City. What a fun, memorable trip. Good memories and bad... the twins came down with hand, foot and mouth disease the night we got there. Oh, and we stayed with them, too. You know what that means...

Flashback Friday

August 14, 2011

 Bridge Pedal 2011, gearing up for Bridge Pedal 2012 this weekend! 

Flashback Friday

August 1, 2009

This picture was taken at the H0lt family picnic in 2009. We haven't made it to the picnic for the past couple years, but we are looking forward to going to it tomorrow. We are excited that Kai's good buddy Jake and his parents will be there also this year. This may be the first year that he really "gets" why all the children and families are gathered. It's supposed to be a scorcher here, so I hope they have the pool open this year!

400!!

Wow! Blogger tells me this is post #400! Life is pretty much different in every aspect since I started this blog 5 years ago. If you're really bored one of these days you should read back to the start... back when I actually had TIME to blog! Although life is totally different now, it is totally wonderful and I wouldn't change it for the world. Our Korean miracle has brought so much joy into our lives that we never thought possible. This journey has been so very rewarding, many times frustrating, but beautiful in every way. This amazing little boy we've been blessed with is full of brains, spunk, personality, energy and best of all... ideas. Lots and lots of ideas. I remind myself daily that these are all qualities which will benefit him as a teenager and adult...

In action last week at Track and Field Camp. 

Flashback Friday

July 27, 2010

First swimming lessons. We've struggled a bit getting our little dare-devil to love, umm.... like, swimming. We've been through a few sessions of lessons and he's done just fine but still is hesitant to come away from the edge and put his head under. No swimming lessons this summer (2012), but we've got cousins and friends that have pools this year and we've done a good amount of swimming with them. He's gaining confidence and learning to paddle and float with the help of his floatation devices. Slowly but surely... one of these summers we probably will not be able to keep him out of the water!

Flashback Friday

July 21, 2009

The day Kai discovered his shadow!

Friday the 13th

Let me tell you, the way my week started, I was dreading this day. Early in the week I was going through the full-on crash. I finally pushed my aching feet so far that I had to stop, mid-run on Tuesday and hobble home. I decided I should listen to my body and take a much needed running break. I am feeling recharged and refocused to work on increasing my overall strength and become a more well rounded athlete (did I really just use that word to describe myself?) I will post more on this later, but first... what a super fun 13th the little boy and I had!
I started my day with my re-introduction to lap swimming. I haven't done this for over 5 years, since I belonged to a gym and had regular access to a lap pool. My goal was to go non-stop for at least 20 minutes. At 20, I was loving it and wanted to do more, so I went for 30 minutes! The first few lengths were rough, remembering my breathing patterns and such, but by the end I was cruising and even increasing my speed for some of the lengths. This week my awesome running partner said she would love to do some swimming too, so hopefully we'll be able to work this into our weekly routines.
I came home, hung out with the boy, we did some chores. Then... blueberry picking! What an awesome picking partner I have. To me, there are few things more wonderful than fresh picked blueberries. The bushes were dripping with green berries, so we will definitely be making another trip out next week. An hour of picking and we went home with about 3 pounds, not a lot, but enough to satisfy my cravings and it's still early in their season. Most U-picks around here just opened this week.

Post Biking Rest Break

We got home, grabbed some lunch, and headed out to a friend's for some swimming. Due to my lack of running, I decided we should bike to Jake's house. 9 miles each way. Let me just say, my boy is a biking rock star! We logged nearly 20 miles yesterday and he did A-Mazing! There was some tired whining along the way, but we did it. He was so tired when we got home he literally slid off his bike and onto the driveway. We decided we had earned a cool refreshment. So, after dinner we visited our favorite local ice creamery and did just that. Galaxy ice cream for the boys and Marionberry sorbet for me... yum-mo!

Flashback Friday

July 12, 2008

Kai's first taste of "fizzy drink" (Sparkling Apple Cider) at Cousin Ashley's wedding, 

with Grandpa Tom.

Funky and Chunky

Determined to make this blog truly reflect my life, and not just the happy, smiley moments, I will warn you, this post may get a little down and dirty.
The title of this post best describes how I've been feeling the past couple months. Toward the end of training for my recent half marathon, which I ran in mid-May, I came down with a sinus infection and bronchitis. This left my runs filled with coughing and often gasping for air. With the help of an inhaler, and some decent antibiotics I was able to complete my half in decent time and not wheezing at the finish line. The sinus infection has been lingering ever since and recently had a flare up which put me back on antibiotics, stronger ones this time. During this same period of time, I've been dealing with a pesky pain in my right foot and a troubling, unexplainable weight gain of nearly 20 pounds (presumably connected to our chosen method of birth control). Somehow, I've been keeping up my running and workout schedule and still logging around 20 miles per week on the road. For the first time in my life I'm feeling an almost complete with lack of motivation and fatigue. I'm so used to being very active and keeping up with my normal activities, my husband, my son, my house, my yard and my job. Needless to say, I'm in a funk.
Remember this post? My New Years goals from 2010? Well, I met that weight control goal, and then some. I was feeling great, my running was greatly benefiting from my new, leaner frame and my energy levels were seemingly unending. I have changed absolutely nothing with my eating or exercise regimes and still I've gained nearly all of this back in the last  3 months or so. My energy is sapped.  I've seen my doctor and am waiting on some labs (thyroid) to see if this explains anything. And no, I'm not pregnant (although I look it)... we've tested that about 4 times! If the labs come back normal, I'm going to blame it on hormonal imbalance from the birth control (which has been abandoned) and wait it out for my hormones to rebalance themselves.
I ran our town's annual 4th of July race earlier this week. I finished 2 minutes slower than last year and got myself into a mental funk by the end of the race. Didn't help that I went home and proceeded to drop a 26 oz (full) Camelback bottle in my sore foot. I am so ready to feel like myself again and get back into my normal groove.
Meanwhile, I may be living in stretchy pants for a while...

Flashback Friday

July 4, 2009

 (And co-incidentally, our first visit to the afore mentioned Community Flatbread Oven.)

Vacation!

We just got back from spending 5 days at SunRiver, a mountain resort town in the beautiful Cascade mountain range. The weather could have been better, but we really only got rained on one day, but it was only warm enough for this cold blooded Mama to get into the pool once. Left lots of time for hiking, biking, exploring, mini-golfing, puzzling, and learning to play Plants vs. Zombies (taught to me by my 5 year old son).  Best of all, we got lots of R&R and lots of good family time.

Biking around the resort

Hike around the top of Lava Butte

Hiking in Lava Lands

 S'mores night at the lodge

Lava Castle at the summit of the old McKenzie Pass

(slow but very scenic route)

Best of all; our traditional stop at the Community Flatbread Oven.

It's a win-win-win, kids make their own pizza, 

super yummy, meaty choices for Joe and 

vegan/gluten free options for me! 

Joe made one of his fabulous video montages of our trip, but of course I can't get it to upload to blogger. Hopefully soon I'll be able to share it!

Flashback Friday

June 27, 2010

More blogging besides flashbacks coming soon. We've been on vacation, so everything is a little backed up right now!

Flashback Friday

June 27, 2009

Sporting his Thomas and Friends threads, made by Grandma Nancy.

100 years ago...

... my Grandma was born! She is truly a remarkably strong woman who has pretty much seen it all in her lifetime. Amazing! Last Friday she celebrated her 100th birthday and my parents threw her a big bash on Saturday. I left the party feeling so humbled and blessed at all the wonderful friends and family who came to help her celebrate her first 100 years. Of course, there was a little last minute drama (as there is with any good party) on Friday when she was admitted to the hospital. They were kind enough to let us use the cafeteria so we brought the party to her. Saturday morning was a flurry of activity around my parents house as we called people and posted messages all over FB. My Dad even visited the house of one of her former neighbors to deliver the message of the venue change.
Through it all, it was a fabulous party and we crammed over 80 people into the little corner of the cafeteria they alloted us. I could tell Grandma was on cloud nine, as she hugged each and every one of those 80 people. If you know my Grandma, you know you cannot even look her way without getting a hug!

100 Years Young

The expert hugger in action...

Grandma and my Mom

Grandma with her Great Granddaughter and 

Great Great Granddaughter

Grandma with my Dad and Aunt

The flowers were beautiful!

Joe was the photographer of the event and took nearly 200 pictures... don't worry, I won't bore you with all of them, but these were some of my favorites!

Flashback Friday

June 13, 2010

Seoul Brothers

This is Kai and his buddy Jake. When Kai started at his current preschool almost 2 years ago, Jake was in his class. They have so much in common, it's kinda scary. As you can tell, they're both Korean, they're both adoptees. They're both H0lt babies, and they were born 10 days apart from each other. I think it's comforting for us as parents to think maybe they even crossed paths at Holt Korea before they joined our families. They most definitely share a special bond that they probably don't even understand yet, but someday they will. 

We're so thankful for the friendship we've found in Jake and his parents. Not only do the boys genuinely like playing together, but we parents enjoy each other's company as well. Over the past year we've gotten to know this special family quite well and look forward to many years of kid and family outings together.

Memorial Day weekend they invited us to join them a their family beach cabin. We all had a great time, especially the boys who played together non-stop for almost 48 hours. They tolerated all the togetherness quite well and only had a few little quarrels. The parents enjoyed some much needed R&R as we visited and vegged (and shopped the outlet mall!).  The boys spent lots of time on this little pull out bed, watching movies, playing games and eating Doritos in bed. Need I say: Kai was in HEAVEN! They had great fun playing in the ocean also. What a fun time! 

Flashback Friday

June 10, 2009

I'll be posting a flashback every Friday, thought it'd be kinda fun. The funny thing about this photo is that this is the way the couch in our family room looks right now! Minus the toys, but piled high with all his blankets from his room, and some of them the same as what you see here. The biggest difference is, now that he's 5, his beloved Kim-Chee stays in his bed... ya-hoo!

After and Before

The highlight of our winter (and year) was the remodel of our kitchen. When we moved to our house 2 years ago, the kitchen was the only thing we didn't love. Luckily, my husband is always one to see potential in things and has a vision for the future. We've known this project was coming since we moved in and now that it's complete I couldn't be happier. I love cooking again! And, it makes entertaining much, much, much easier. I decided to go for reverse order of how you normally see remodel pictures... let's start with the "after" shots! They're much prettier anyways!  Look at all my glorious counter and cabinet space! Our primary goal of the remodel was expanding these two specific areas.

Love, love, love my new sink and garden window! I spend sooo much time looking out this window. Now it's even filled with a small herb garden, my orchids and a few other small plants. It's actually a garden window!

The entire kitchen was gutted! Thanks to asbestos in the walls...

Now for the not-so-pretty before photos. Sorry, but you've gotta see 'em to believe it! This was my entire cabinet and counter space... yes, what you see in this one shot below is ALL of it! I could expand it by pulling out my bread board. 

 We took this wall out and opened it up to the hallway beyond...

For a frame of reference with the after photos, all the appliances are in the same general locations. The stove moved by about 6 inches, but other than that they're all the same.

I love cooking in my new kitchen... anyone wanna come over for dinner???

We couldn't have done it without the fine folks at Rainbow Valley. Simply put... they rock!

Jamboree Time!

Baseball is serious business, as you can see from the picture above. Today was Kai's first baseball (t-ball) game ever and he was so excited. Not only was it one game, they had a jamboree and played three games (well, three very, very, very short games) back to back. All that ball playing got these little Eagles soaring off into baseball season.
Kai's first time up to bat he got a hit and ran his little heart out to first base, but the ball beat him there. He was crushed he got out, but felt better when the next hitter on his team also got an out (good thing they don't keep score!). Luckily, by the end of the third game he got a chance to run all the bases and made a run into home.

Not much time for snacks...

Action shot! Nice slide!

I learned something about myself today watching these games. Baseball's not so bad. I've never found it a very exciting sport to watch, moves way too slow for me. Somehow it's totally different when you're watching your own little superstar. I think we all agree this is going to be a fun, busy, exciting baseball season! 

Libby Jump

The story goes that Joe's Gramma Libby had a special jump all her own. It is affectionately referred to as the "Libby Jump". It's a kind of mid-air forward/ backward split. Here's a little video of Kai showing off his skillz.

Hellll-oooo??

While out on a training run for our recent half marathon, my running partner asked me if I still had my blog. Honestly, up until that moment, I had completely forgotten about it for the past several months. So, if you've been checking for updates, please accept my deepest apologies. I did not intend to be neglectful, I just completely forgot I had this little journal dangling out in cyberspace.
The fall, winter and spring have brought much activity and excitement to our house. We survived our kitchen remodel which occurred over the holidays, and the freak March snow storm which followed and had us living in a hotel for 3 days. We survived Kai's first "real" soccer season, although it appears t-ball will be an entirely different beast... we'll see how we do with that one! We've had a beautiful spring which has allowed for some outside projects already (Joe's just finishing up his shed), and has helped my little veggie garden get off to a good start. Kai is learning so much and is almost finished with his Pre-K program at his preschool, "graduation" is right around the corner! I'll try to do some catching up in the near future, but for now I'll leave you with a few more recent photos.

Sportin' a new summer 'do

 Soccer monster!

Tulips

He insisted on the mohawk, and you can catch a glimpse of the new kitchen in the background. That'll have to be a post all it's own!

Other things keeping me busy have been working, housekeeping, running, and learning new and interesting things to cook or bake that fit my vegan gluten free lifestyle.