Houston Trip/ Texas Ironman 2012

 Finally the big day! We got up around 3:30ish am I believe and got ready to head to the race. Kevin and Kelci has miss placed their keys so after searching for a while, Kevin came with us. Luckily, Kelci found the keys! ;)

Headed off to get ready!

 His fans!

 She loves him so!! 

 There were SO many people there! This was where he got his number put on him and got ready for the swim!

 She was over pictures at 5:30 in the morning!

 Luckily, they were both troopers!

 Daddy and Ben!

 Kev's biggest fan! ;)

 The competitors getting ready to go in to the lake.

 Sweet Ben! I just love him! He did pretty good during the race too!

 I'm just gonna guess that he's somewhere in there!  There were around 2400 competitors I believe, so tons of people! We stood up on a bridge watching them take off!

 Off he goes!

 This was the first transition where they got their bikes!

 Kelci and I kept looking for him and I kept looking for him based off his skin color and Kelci was going off his stroke I believe! Somehow we were able to find him! He's the green cap in the back.

 Grabbing his biking gear and seeing his fans for the first time!

 This is the canal they swam up. He had to swim 2.something miles.

 During the bike part, we had about 6 hours of a break. Luckily they had some splash pads, so Lyla got to play in the water a few times! We also got to do shopping and hung out with my cousins that live in Houston. Unfortunately, I never got one picture of us together!!

The ironman symbol made up of all the competitors names.

 Can you find his?

 

Finishing the bike ride and starting the run next! I took way to many pictures to put them all in the same post! ;)

Cohen ::10 months::

How is my baby 10 months already? How do I ONLY have 2 months until he's one? This makes me heart sad!

Nonetheless, Cohen Finn, you are such a joy to our lives. You make us SO happy and we all are just smitten with you! 

 - You weigh around 15 1/2 lbs and around 27 inches tall.

- You are wearing 3-6 month and a few 9 month clothes. 

- You wear size 1/2 shoes.

 

- You are in size 3 diapers.

-You no longer nurse and haven't for 1 month. But you do just fine with the bottle. You eat around every 4 hours and take 8 oz at a time.

- You still hate food. You love fruits and will only eat jarred veggies. You have a texture problem and won't eat anything with chunks besides for bananas.  You love all fruits, yogurt, sweet potatoes and squash! You hate green beans and peas and won't even those out of the jar!

 

 - You will finally start to self feed, but mostly just puffs. You don't like your hands to be sticky!

- You have 5 teeth now with 2 more trying to come through!

- Still not a fan of the sippy cup!

 - You sleep around 11-12 hours at night and take 2 naps a day.

- Your morning nap is normally around 1 hour and your afternoon is anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.

- You will only fall asleep in your crib or car seat when in the car. You like to stay awake for everything!

 - You are a mover for sure and like to stay super busy! You are crawling on your hands and knees, bear crawling (hands and feet, butt in the air) pulling up to stand and lowering yourself back down, walking hold on to the walker or our fingers and cruising furniture. Nothing is safe if you get a hold of it! ;)

- You are not very verbal and have yet to dabble into mama, dada, baba sounds. You like to point and say eh over and over. You also like to scream which you do quite loudly!

- You can also clap, dance, give hi fives and wave hi/bye.

- You generally are quite happy and loveable little boy! If you are tired or hungry, then watch out. You can be quite whiny! 

- Your nick name right now is Co Finn and if we call you anything but that your sister likes to correct us!

- You love to laugh and have a cute little machine gun laugh!

- You had your first trip out of state and also to the lake!

Happy 10 months sweet boy! We love you SO much!

Houston Trip/ Texas Ironman Part 2

 Friday we left mid-morning to head to Houston.  We did eat at a Jack In The Box for the first time as I've heard many things about them, but I wouldn't say it was anything that great! Good, not great.

 

When we got to Houston, we some how got a smoking room (blah) and got everything into our room. While we were unpacking the car and had a little trauma. My mom was getting Cohen out of his seat and Lyla was near her, playing with the door. Well (see where this is going?), Mom went to close the door and Lyla had her fingers in there and got them slammed in a shut door. Luckily, nothing was broke, no open wounds. She was a lucky girl.  Lots of crying later (mostly because she didn't want ice on her fingers) and she was fine!

 We saw Kevin, Kelci, Ben and Kelci's mom after we got there and while they went swimming we headed to The Woodlands and did a little shopping.  The Woodlands was AWESOME! It's a little town on the outskirts of Houston that is surround by woods. It felt totally secluded even though it was like less than a minute off of the busy highway.  I got to go to Home Goods for the first time, so I was in heaven! ;)

 After some shopping and driving around, we headed back to the hotel area and met the Kevin and Kelci for dinner at Texas Roadhouse!  Mr. Cohen is such a busy boy and touches everything in front of him and ended up breaking a plate while we were there!

After dinner we all headed back to the hotel and got ready for the next day, which was the race!  Kevin filled us in on where he would be and where good places to see him were. I'm so blessed because both of the kids slept really well on vacation and even adjusted to our weird wake up schedule! I can honestly say, traveling with the kids went pretty well!!

A good and not so good lake trip

A picture-less recap. I stunk at taking any pictures over Father's day weekend. All I've got are some pictures of Lyla and some friends playing with bubbles. Exciting, yes? To Lyla, sure! Bad mommy/wife for not documenting more! 

Our first lake weekend can be rounded up to a success and a failure.

The successes:

We made it there.

We got set up rather easily and quickly.

We had tons of fun.

No one got burnt.

The failures:

We forget 75% of our food. Yes. We really did that. Everything cold from our steaks to home made mac and cheese and other sides. Our dinner Friday night consisted of driving to Bunker Hill, about 10 minutes away and going to quiznos.

It poured for 5 hours friday night and our boat wasn't covered well which made for a soaking wet boat Saturday morning.

Lyla wouldn't play in the water at all and would rather make sand castles. I consider this a failure because we are water people.

Cohen wouldn't fall asleep on the boat until the final 5 minutes we were on there resulting in a cranky baby who wouldn't play in the water. Lyla was asleep in the first 5 minutes we were on the boat. 

Sunday morning was a MESS. It started with a blown fuse which led us on a fuse chase. We tried a friend, then went to Bunker Hill, then to Alco in Russell, then an auto parts store in Russell, ate lunch a MCD's and made it back to get the camper and drop it off at the storage spot. From the time we took the boat to the storage and got home it was 5 hours. And mind you, the whole time we were driving and waiting, we were in a truck without air conditioning. On a 100 degree day. Kill me now. Trust when I say I whined.

But we were together, and happy and blessed beyond measure in the grand scheme of things. It could have been much, much worse! So while it felt like torture at the time, all is still good. And we now have like a million fuses in the camper, just in case.

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Daddy,

You are the best! Thank you for always playing with me, teaching me sports,  and giving me the fun baths. Thanks for the tickles and giggles and chasing me around. Thanks for always giving me hugs and kisses and loving me to the moon and back! We are so lucky to have you!

Love,

Lyla Lou and Co Finn

(Ly wanted no part in pictures today, so pics of her and daddy!)

Houston trip 2012 - Part 1

Kevin, my brother, competed in his first Full Ironman in May. Of course we wanted to be there to support him, so Thursday morning at 4 am we headed out of Great Bend Kansas, onward to Oklahoma City.  We left that early so we could let the kiddos sleep. They both do pretty great in the car, though Cohen wanted to be out and about after a while.

Mom and I in the wee early morning. We look a little ghostly!

Lyla heard us all getting around and didn't want to miss a thing so she woke up at 330 with us! ;) She was excited!

 The crew in the back!

I knew that with traveling with the kiddos I wanted to be able to stop and see a few things (I had never been to Oklahoma before) and let the kids stretch out.  So our first stop was the OKC bombing memorial! Beautiful place and I'm glad I got to experience it!

The kiddos and me!

We had packed lunches so we headed out to a outlet mall and at lunch in the grass! A little shopping later (and a new coach purse (: ), and we were on the road again.  We drove to Denton, Texas and found a hotel that had an indoor pool so the kids could swim! We also ate at a really good restuarant called the Green house. If you are ever in Denton, you must eat there. It was so good!

Cohen's first time in a pool! Overall, he liked it!

My little fish! At first she threw a big fit about going in the pool but once she was in, she had lots of fun!

This would be her showing off her muscles. Isn't she strong?

Next up, onward to Houston!