Fun .

OMG this takes a long time to upload. More will come at another time when I'm more patient...

Routines

Days/weeks/years have become a bit of a blur. Monday through Friday everyone is up and to work/daycare by 8ish and back home by 5:30ish. Wednesday mornings from 10:30 to 11:30 I take Kaelin to parent-tot ice skating (one of the highlights of my week) followed by lunch at Valentino's. Kaelin knows this as Pizza Planet via the name of the pizza restraunt in Toy Story. During January/Feburary Thursdays from 10:45 to 11:30 was soccer at Soccerworld. Some days in the mornings is a coffee run with Mike. Some days over lunch I run/jog a 5K on the nearby trails. Thursday nights are DnD. Monday nights is Heroes, Wednesday nights is Lost with Carey. Weekends are spent traveling, with Sunday mornings Kaelin going to Sunday school. Throughout all this is scattered gobs of work and a bit of Warcraft and other things. Work is challenging and has ups and downs like any work does. I'm enjoying the blur. I feel like I spend a fair amount of time with the family, friends and doing things I like.

Birthday Weekend Fun

The weekend of my birthday we went to the Cities for some fun and 'relaxation' with the Eichenlaubs. We went to the waterpark, Childrens museum, Wild game (Carey and Jeff).

Dayne building

Kaelin playing in the bubbles

Kaelin getting ready for his job at Walmart ...or as a bus driver

Or following in Grandpa (both) footsteps with cooking Dayne and Jeff using engineering skills



The hockey game (they lost but it was fun)

The waterpark Carol and Gabe

Papa Ken giving the boys a ride

Pics I couldn't get rid of

Holiday Fun

Over Christmas, we went skating while in New Ulm. Here are some of the pics.

Max and Cameo

Chris and Murray Chris, Cameo, Max and Murray

Carey and Kaelin

Jeff and Kaelin also went skating outdoors in Rochester one weekend. Dayne joined and had absolutely no fear walking across the ice in his tennis shoes! We're in trouble with that one.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Dayne as the Mr. Blueberry in his snowsuit!

So, today is actually a some-what warm day out...I think the thermostat read 24 on my way home. Much nicer than the frigid arctic cold that we felt over the weekend. But over the last month, we've been able to spend a bit of time outside and play. Come see our adventures

This is the Holiday Train that went through Rochester. Kaelin and Carey went and froze their fingers taking pictures. But Kaelin loved it.!

Sonoma helping Kaelin and Carey down
the front lawn

Dayne's first trip down the snowhill with Jeff.

Manual labor of a 3 year old

He loves to shovel!!!

Halloween Madness....

No more costumes or pictures are wanted by the kids!

Kaelin and Macguire at the nursing home

Dayne and kaelin at IBM

The frog (Dayne) has fallen and can't get up

The wacky Scooby Doo!!!

Another night of Halloween madness has passed. We went trick-or-treating 3 times, attended 2 Halloween parties and have WAY too much candy around our house.

It all started with trying on Halloween costumes. They changed twice...Kaelin was no longer Scooby Doo...look for the big brown dog next year. Then came along the Dragon/Dinosaur, depending on the day you asked him. Dayne was a happy Frog (nicknamed Frogman by the neighbors)

Halloween consisted of showing off kids at IBM and the nursing facility (the resident's passed out candy to 50+ kids). Friday itself brought Carey going out with Kaelin and hauling Dayne in the wagon. Kaelin went with his friend Macguire from next door. Jeff handed out candy (we have some left...anyone want any?) After the kids went to bed, I headed off to a work Halloween party and loaded up on Jello Shots. yumm.

Our Halloween party was a success...sorry to those who weren't able to make it. Apples were eaten after being fished out of a bucket by teeth, beer was swallowed by many parents and kids loaded up on Chocolate cupcakes. And a few people showed up in costumes. Look forward to showing off your best side next year!!!

My New Hobbie

Since my knee objects to me playing soccer and volleyball I decided to pickup a new hobby and goal earlier this year. Jogging. I sometimes say running but I really don't go fast enough to justify that label. My goal is to sometime before I turn 35 to finish a marathon. This summer I finally got the first step done, I ran in my first race, a 5K on August 16th. It was an interesting experience. There's a real friendly atmosphere among the runners. I didn't walk at all and was planning on taking it easy but still got caught up in everything and ended going much faster, causing me to be quite tired at the end. Carey, Kaelin and Dayne were waiting at the finish line and I managed to get a gasp of a hi as I went past. But it was great to have followers.

Two Sundays ago I noticed there was going to be an 8K in Rochester and I signed up for it on a whim. Things had gotten crazy at work again and I hadn't run as much as I had planned but I figured this would be a good next step. It was a night run in pretty cold temps on a section of trail I had never run on in Rochester. But I exceeded my expectations by not walking again, so I was pretty happy. My fans were also there at the finish line again. After they had all the pizza and cookies you could eat, which was a good reward... The next step is a 10K and a half marathon next summer sometime.

-Jeff