Art Car Parade 2012

On Saturday, we met Hope and Jared downtown to watch the Art Car parade.


Before the parade got started, Rachel got to make her own art cars at the kids area.

Owen watched from his stroller.

Rachel really enjoyed doing the craft projects.

We all enjoyed watching the art cars go by - there were almost 300 entries in the parade, including cars, bikes and skaters.

 

 

 

 

Watching from the relative comfort of the shade.

Jared is the most fun ever!

Owen got bored in the stroller so he practiced some standing and walking.

The final birthday celebrations

Once we got home from Austin, Rachel still had a little energy left to celebrate the end of the day.


She painted with YaYa using some of her new paints and paint brushes.

She also had a very fun time running around with her balloons.

She opened some nice gifts that came in the mail.

And she requested that we tie the balloons to her tricycle so she could ride around with them.

So you can fully appreciate all the fun...here is Rachel with her balloons.

Rachel's Third Birthday Party!

After the triathlon, the Austin crew met us at McKinney Falls State Park to celebrate Rachel's third birthday.  She was very excited that GranDave, Mimi, Uncle Travis, the Rays and Steve all came to celebrate.


Here is our picnic spot with lunch cooking and some of the decorations up.

Owen did not last long with the party hat but at least we got a picture of it on him.

 

We all wore our party hats!


Rachel had so much fun with Uncle Travis helping her climb trees.

As requested by Rachel she had a strawberry cake.

Here is the big birthday girl getting ready to blow out her candles.

Yummy cake!

Really - she loves cake.

After we spent some time busting open the pinata, everyone got to gather up the treats.

Uncle Travis was a big help for Rachel again.

Relaxing with Tante YaYa

Time for presents! 
You can see in the background that Josh almost has Owen to sleep.  He was fighting to stay awake because he did not want to miss anything.

Fortunately, he gave in eventually and took a nap.  Rachel could not understand how anyone could sleep at a party.

Relaxing in the shade before it was time to head back home.  Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate Rachel's birthday with us!!!

To Austin for the Rookie Tri

This past weekend, Tante YaYa came to town and we all headed over to Austin on Saturday for our first triathlon on Sunday.

We enjoyed a festival on 6th Street Saturday afternoon.  The spring is definitely over and the summer is here, but we survived the heat.

Rachel had lots of fun with many kids games.

She did a great job of fishing.

Early Sunday morning, Angela and I were ready for the tri!  It was relatively cool and rainy - weather delayed the start.  But, once we got started we had a lot of fun.

Here I am finishing the swim.

Here is Angela!

Angela finishing her transition and heading to the bike ride.

Wes was waiting with Rachel and Owen at the end of the bike ride.

Angela came by a few minutes after I did.

Rachel joined me on the run.

She also helped her Tante YaYa.

Woohoo - the finish line!

Owen was a happy camper all morning.

Angela for her big finish.  We did not plan to have the same finishing pose - it just came naturally.

Rachel congratulated us at the finish line.  We were not the fastest on the course, but we finished and we were not the slowest so we will call it a success.

Kemah Tri and the Rest of April

I am trying to catch up on my posting so here is the rest of what happened in April.


We enjoyed what was left of the spring weather.  Rachel enjoys feeding the birds - and Owen helps too.

Fortunately for Rachel, Owen is easily distracted by the camera.

Once he heads off, she is free to finish her work in peace.

On the last weekend in April, we headed down to Kemah because Wes was doing a triathlon there.

Rachel was most excited the ride the train.  She really liked it.

Wes did a great job on his triathlon.

Here he is finishing after the Olympic distance.

Rachel was quite pleased that he earned her a medal.