Memorial Day

We wanted to remember all the soldiers out there:

Avery can army crawl better than we can. This girl is BUSY! Ya always gotta keep one eye on her. Is it bad for her to suck on cords... just kidding, we are working on the baby proofing.

Memorial Weekend Checklist:

• 3 BBQ's- check
• Double scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins- check
• Waking up early on Saturday morning to play soccer- check
• Sleeping in a tent in the Oman's backyard- check (well kind of, they only lasted till 3 in the morning, I lasted till 4 in the morning and Trav made it till 5:30 in the morning)
• Taking a moment to talk about the soldiers and the military- check
• Weekend chores- Oops

I feel like the Summer has been officially kicked off. Gotta work on the tan a bit though. Happy Summer!

A half a year

Avery had her first unbirthday. She got 3 shots. I will save you all the jibber jabber saying how we can't believe how fast its gone, and how much we love our baby... although it has, and we do.

She weighed 14 lbs 12 ounces at her visit and was 26 inches long. So she is in the 50TH percent for height and 30TH for weight.

She is eating cereal and veggies right now. This was the first time we fed her carrots

Here are her six month pictures taken by the one and only Matt McFarland; flew all the way from Utah for this ham.

Feast

Sometimes blogging is feast or famine. There is usually not too much going on and I have to really think hard about what to post. Warm weather brings many festivities and I'm having a hard time picking and choosing what to write about. Well, I'm just going to do one ginormous post about them all. I justify not journaling by making a book out of this blog every year, so that means I have to include all important things so that my posterity will know that we lived fairly decent and exciting lives. That was your warning.

Travis's "rotation"

I guess this is what you do on your "medical rotations" these days. Trav was lucky enough to rotate with a doctor who is lucky enough to afford a small airplane. He took Travis and the other med student up one day. I prayed really hard that they wouldn't die. Apparently a couple of months ago, the doctor forgot to land with his landing gear and landed with just the belly of the plane. Hmmm.... made me a little nervous, but he remembered this time and they didn't die and Travis had fun.

The Doctor

The View

It makes me think that one day after all the whopping student loans are paid off, and all the other bills, that we could possibly afford a small plane? I think I'd rather have a nice house boat in Lake Powell with a sweet speed boat. Maybe we should just focus on getting past being poor for now.

Cinco de Mustache

Since we are clearly Hispanic, we decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Hey, I really am a quarter Puerto Rican, but I guess that has nothing to do with Mexico. I'm sure some Mexicans celebrate the 4Th of July so I can justify celebrating their holiday. Oh how we long for Cafe Rio out in these parts. For those of you who don't know what Cafe Rio is, it is kind of like a Chipotle but 100, that's right 100 times better. My friend Krista got her hands on some of their recipes. So we attempted to make Cafe Rio pork and rice and all that other good stuff. I feel we did Cafe Rio and for that matter, Mexico, justice that day as the food was amazing! Along with the great food, we had a mustache shaping contest. No I did not participate, but Travis did. The boys grew out their 'staches for a week or so. I couldn't wait till the day came because I felt like I was living in a neighborhood full of molesters. The contest included two categories; best shaped mustache and best attempt. Guess who won?

Trent (guy in blue) won for best shape, and poor Chris (guy with yarn mustache) won for best attempt.

Family Photo

This man is the love of my life?

Starting Young

It was the most beautiful day, so Travis came home from his "rotation" (see above) and declared it a Royals night. No, not red carpet or black tie affair, the Kansas City Royals baseball game. I was a little skeptical to go because Avery goes to sleep at 7 pm and the game started at 7 pm and the gal loves her sleep and will bark at you if she isn't getting it. We went anyway, with Chris our yarn mustache wearing neighbor (again see above). She was actually an angel. Fortunately she took a snooze in the fifth inning and I think that saved us. And the Royals actually won... even killed the Mariners. It was a really fun action packed game.

I had to put a bow on her so people didn't think she was a boy.

Nap Time

Thanks for making me go Trav. I never wanted to be the type of person to stop doing fun things just because I had kids. That is a lot easier said than done. I wasn't that thrilled to go to the game. But it was fun and worth it and made me remember my goal of "being cool" even after kids (was I cool before kids?)

Inaugural Mother's Day

What a glorious day? Who invented it? I told Trav all I wanted for Mother's day was a clean house. Instead he got me a bike! Actually, Avery got me the bike. OK he won, I think I was just being a martyr about the clean house thing. I was thrilled and shocked. I kind of just started biking and now I'm excited to really get into it. He even got me biking gloves, a bike speedometer and a water bottle holder. What the heck is he going to do for next year... even worse what the heck am I going to do for Father's day? I loved my first mother's day. I got breakfast and dinner made for me, special treatment, nice text messages and of course the best gift is just having my healthy baby girl, not to mention her cute and thoughtful dadda. Sorry, this is getting cheesy. Here is the bike.

I also wanted to mention my cute mom. She is the nicest and sweetest person. She will always have a good conversation with any one and ask the most random questions. She thinks everything is "interesting." She loves to learn. She loves being a grandma. She just graduated this last week from the University of Utah in Psychology. She had a 3.9 GPA and was the teacher's pet. We give her a hard time a lot because she studies like a loon, but she really worked hard and we are so proud of you. Love you mom.

And I wanted to mention what a great mother-in-law I have. Kathryn is such a good grandma. She is always the first to volunteer to watch all 6 grand kids, all at the same time. Scary! She is always wanting to be with her grand kids. She is an amazing cook and gives really great advice!

Whew... that was long but now my great-great grand kids will know that their great great grandpa can grow a sweet mustache. Things have been really fun lately. This is the best time to live in Missouri right now, minus the crazy tornados, but as long as your not in their way life is good right now.

Had to try it

Travis thinks I'm a masochist,

(def. gratification gained from pain, deprivation, degradation, etc., inflicted or imposed on oneself, either as a result of one's own actions or the actions of others, esp. the tendency to seek this form of gratification)

and after doing this sprint triathlon I may agree with him.

It was bloody hard!

Given, I didn't really follow a training schedule but I figured, hey I work out, I can handle 4 laps in the pool, a 13 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run.

That is called precockulation,

(one who is cocky before attempting a feat they have never ventured. ex) starting a softball game with the notion of striking out every batter, strutting to the mound like you own it, when all of a sudden you have thrown the first pitch and the ball lands over the center field fence... Mandy?)

Okay, it wasn't torture, but I was bright pink and out of breath when I finished.

The race was at the Ft. Leavenworth army base. It was fun. I have never really been on a base before. The not fun thing about it was that it was crawling with hills. They say Kansas is a very flat state, but not this part of Kansas.

To sum it up in a nutshell, Travis, Avery, my neighbor Rachael and I left at 6:20am for the fort. We got there kind of late, but made it just in time. Actually we had a lot of time to burn because we signed up late and therefore we had to start the race last. They space everyone out 15 seconds to start the swim. I was number 261, so had to wait about an hour to start the race. My heart was pounding because I really didn't know what to expect. I knew my worse event would be the swim, but it wasn't too bad. It was really quick. Getting out of the pool is a very unique experience because you feel really woozy, you have to run to your bike practically naked, then you have to get all your stuff on. Putting on more clothes made me feel a lot better! I felt great on the bike. Probably because I borrowed one of the nicest bikes ever. I covet that machine! It actually did all the work. I had a great time on the bike... even with all those crappy hills. So going into the run I was totally pumped! Running is my forte. I was so going to kill everyone. That is when the precockulation occurred. As soon as I got off my bike, I could have sworn my legs were made of green jello. I couldn't believe how weak I felt. Suffice it to say, I manned up and finished the 3.1 miles, but it wasn't delightful at all! The thing about these sprint triathlons is that it literally is a sprint. With a marathon, you can pace it because you know that you will be running the whole time, but with this race, I felt that there were 3 short events so I didn't really pace myself. I was breathing pretty hard for most of it.

Now here is my acceptance speech: I would just like to thank the Washburn's for letting me borrow the most kick A bike, my butt will be sore for weeks because the seat is as narrow as a toothpick. I would also like to thank Rachael for beating me by 50 seconds... She beat me in the swim and run and I nailed her in the biking... but it came down to the transition times and that girl can change her clothes and put on her shoes faster than me! I would also like to thank Amy Elmore for just being Amy Elmore. It was so fun to have my running buddy back even though she started an hour before I did, I could feel her presence. I would also like to thank the YMCA for allowing me to work out and feel a little bit ready for this race, oh and for watching Avery while I do it. They have the best child watch! I would also like to thank my pink Saucony running shoes. I fear that your time is running out (pun intended). There have been many miles of tears, laughter and pure joy. I will never forget you. And last but not least I have to thank Travis and Avery. The most rewarding part of the whole thing was knowing that Travis and Avery were there rooting me on. Trav was going to do the race but he forgot to train at all so opted not to do it. But he was still there the whole time taking pictures and watching our little girl. I loved crossing the finish line and seeing him and her there. Next year babe!

I really had a great time!

Me and Rach before the race

I was saying hi to Avery

Finishing the bike

Rach, Amy and me after the race... I match my shirt