Wabash River Ride 2009

Yesterday, Anja, Isabel and myself, together with many of our friends, rode in the Wabash River Ride, the annual century ride hosted by our local cycling club, the Wabash River Cycle Club.

We had a very slow start which was not altogether unexpected given the number of young adults/children we had on the ride. Initially we had intended only doing the 32 mile round trip. The older kids were on bikes whilst Kevin had Anna in their trailer (that required two new tubes) and I had our two girls in our trailer. We managed our first 15 mile in this fashion, out to the first SAG stop. At this point Lorraine and Lisa graciously agreed (thanks once again to you both) to take some of the tired kids back home which then allowed Randy Cody and myself to continue on with an unplanned extended ride. We set out and completed the metric century ride, covering 67 miles total for the day. This was Cody's longest ever ride and he was very pleased with his feat and rightly so!

We all had a great day which was matched only by the wonderful meal that Kaisa had cooked for us very hungry riders at the end of the day!

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Lazy Saturday Morning

After the hectic travels of last week, we are taking advantage this morning of a lazy Saturday. Aside from the usual weekend chores, all we have done today is visit with some neighbours, sit around drink tea/coffee and take some pictures.

Shown below are few. A couple of shots of a flower on the front porch (me trying desperately to be artistic), a snap of the girls playing with the multitude of dolls/babies that are strewn around our house and a picture of the weekly produce from our veggie garden. Tomatoes, peppers, chillies, tomatillos, beans and some ground cherries.

Hope you're all having an equally relaxed Saturday. I believe it may even get more relaxed later. The girls are staying with Randy and Lorraine tonight so Lynne and I are planning a visit to our local Thai restaurant :)

Isabel's Second Second Birthday Party

When we were visiting my parents in Ireland, my Mum, Eilish and others organized a big birthday celebration for Isabel's second birthday. There were lots and lots of children, neighbours, family and friends. The weather left a lot to be desired but with the bouncy castles that were ordered, the food, games and other refreshments that were laid on, a fun day, evening (and night) was had by all. Many thanks once again to all who gave cards and presents to Isabel, much appreciated!

I took lots of pictures as usual, far too many to show without the help of a slideshow which can hopefully be viewed below and all pictures viewed here.

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Family Photo

One would think that with a wedding in the family one could expect to get a reasonably decent family photo! Well this was the best shot that I got on my camera. On the day of the wedding itself, Jonathan did manage to take some family photos, some where he was also part of thanks to Triona. I'm sure we'll get to see these in time but for now this was the best I had.

From the left is my Mother, Clive, Davey, myself, Eilish, Aiden and Dad. The second, a similar shot, this time with Jonathan, obviously captured under different circumstances but unfortunately Dad was nowhere to be found (I think he had gone to bed :)!

Clive and Tracey's Wedding

Last week we were in Ireland for my brother Clive and Tracey’s wedding. We arrived at my parents house to much fanfare on Saturday morning. We were a little late getting there as I messed up the car rental details. I’m not going into that at this point other than to say that having over an hour delay in getting a car when it’s in the middle of the night after a very long flight is not good.

My Mum and Eilish had organized a birthday party for Isabel on Sunday which I’ll blog about later in the week.

We travelled to Clive and Tracey’s house on Tuesday and the wedding festivities essentially started. Did I mention that the actual wedding was on Thursday, well it was and it was a rather long day. Started early in the morning as expected and finished, well let’s just say it was late in the morning.

The festivities continued the next day, the day after and the day after but we had to bail out on Saturday morning and travel back to the US. It was a very very long trip. All were exhausted before we even left on our 8 hour trans Atlantic coupled with a 2.5 hour car journey. All told it was almost 16 hours and the girls didn’t get much sleep!

I think we have all finally recovered, almost a week later. The girls had a great time throughout the trip, thanks in large part to Lynne who was very gracious in allowing me on several occasions to take the kids off to bed and allowing me to play grown up with my family. Thank you Love!

A few pictures of the actual day are shown below in addition to the slide show! Enjoy!

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Dress Up with Daisy

Before the kids arrived, Daisy was our baby. She had a full year of exclusivity before Anja arrived and boy was she spoiled. One could argue that she's still spoiled but, lets just say not as much as the kids are. We literally have hundreds of pictures of Daisy as a pup, ahh, that first year!

Anyhow, the picture below captures the scene that I arrived too one evening recently when I returned home from work. Both girls were dressing Daisy, essentially playing dress up as they often do but in this case Daisy was the doll. As you can see Daisy was licking her lips!! I found it quite entertaining indeed and upon reflection an excellent example of how far down the ladder poor old Daisy has truly fallen.

Tonight I have been sorting pictures again. I have some pictures from Clive and Tracey's wedding uploaded to facebook which I will post here tomorrow night!

A Final Look at Davey and Sam's Site

Back in July 2007, in a first post, I encouraged you all to take an initial look at my brothers blog but warned you that it was going to get active. He, together with his then girlfriend Sam, were just about to sell their UK house and hit off on a world tour. It took then a little while to get going, they never sold their house but they took off nevertheless.

Well, they are now back. We have all followed their trip with excitement every week, the places and people that they visited were simply amazing. They kept a phenomenal blog throughout the journey.

They recently posted a last entry to their blog regarding the trip, The End, which summarizes their journey in many ways. I encourage you to take a look!

By the way, Sam is no longer his girlfriend, they were engaged on a beach in Thailand!


Picture blatenly stolen from www.daveyandsam.com

Isabel's 2nd Birthday

Two weeks ago, we celebrated Isabel’s second birthday (for the first time but more on that later). It was a wonderfully hot day and we had a very nice afternoon. All our friends attended, those with small children anyhow and I think everybody involved had a great time. The ice-cream and cake disappeared anyhow!
Many thanks as always to everybody who brought gifts, much appreciated!

 

 

 

 

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Long Overdue Update

This is a long overdue update and there is much to tell. We have had a party in West Lafayette, being to Ireland and had another party there, attended a wedding and had a first day at school. So, I’m going to try and get a post every evening this week. Let’s see how I do!

 

 

Recovering from Trip to Bangalore

Arrived home safely on Saturday evening, a little tired but glad to be home. The girls had an exciting day cycling in Indianapolis with Lynne, Randy and Lorraine and were off to sleep in no time.

I bought some dresses in India which the girls were thrilled about, I'll post pictures at a later date.

Yesterday we caught up with Steff, Ginette and Marissa. It had been quite some time since we had last seen them, I couldn't believe how mobile and big Marissa had become. They too will soon be having a new baby, mid October, just six weeks prior to us.

I did manage to take a few photos in India but they were not very good. We literally got no time to look around the city, literally none. I liked the picture of the kids, happy as could be, walking to school barefoot. The second was a shot of a taxi rank in Chennai!

 

 

Bangalore

Arrived safely yesterday in Bangalore, India. The trip was uneventful, just long. Weather here is beautiful, 80 degrees F with little or no humidity. Certainly not what one would expect for India in July. I understand that Bangalore is unique in this respect since it sits on a plateau of approximately 1000m high which gives it a unique micro climate. I'll be off to Chennai (Madras) tomorrow which will be different.

Jet lag is usual, was up this morning at 4am wide awake. I’ll be adjusted just in time for my return trip. I will try taking some pictures and post tomorrow.

A couple of Items

I picked up a new nifty little camera today. A Canon SD1200 IS that I got mostly for its size. It can easily slip in my pocket and having now taken a few shots, I like it. I used it to take the picture below.

I'm off to India on Sunday afternoon (hence the little camera will be handy for quick photos and video capture. Will be visiting Bangalore and Chennai (formerly Madras).

Got upgraded from limited basic cable TV to basic....why....this allows me to start watching highlights of the Tour de France. There was a pretty exciting stage today for those of you half interested.

I'm finished with Microsoft Explorer....forever. I recently updated to IE8 and now the default search is bing which I do not like at all. I keep changing the default back to Google but every time I boot its changed back again. I'm done....done, done done....Google Chrome and Firefox from now on (except at work of course where we will never move from Microsoft products).

Tomorrow we are having Lynne's entire research group over for an afternoon of grilled food and forced socialising. Weather is supposed to be good, so should be fun. I think the plan is to have about 15 people here!! I'm wondering how many will be brazen enough to have a beer? :)

Hope your weekend goes well.

 

Trip to Ohio

We had a very enjoyable trip to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to visit with Chris, Karen, Bobby and Morris. It had been two years since we met them but other than the kids being a little older, they have not changed a bit. It was great to see them and their wonderful little hippy, artist leaning village/town. For anybody who has ever heard or visited Yellow Springs, you will certainly understand my comment. We liked it a lot.

Generally we took it easy over the weekend, managed a visit a local dairy farm and ate their homemade ice-cream, took a walk in the local parks (got stung by a bee), played in parks, ate good food, drank some of Chris's homebrew, chilled out round his campfire....you get the picture.

Karen, Chris, thanks a million for your hospitality!
I've posted a few pictures here.

 

Going to Ohio

We'll be out of town for a few days, we're off to Yellow Springs, Ohio. This is a small town just outside Dayton, where Chris and Karen live. Recall that Chris went to college with Lynne and they visited almost two years ago (I know we should have had a return visit prior to this). Anyhow, this is how we'll be spending our short 4th of July holiday.

Shown below are a couple of photos taken last weekend of the girls playing in the living room. Speaking of photos, for those of you out there that know my extended family members, check out the excellent photos on Jonathan's Facebook page of Mum's surprise 60th birthday in June (apologies but you need a Facebook account I believe). They are fantastic, Jonathan has a real talent behind the lens.

I've also got some relatively good news from my work. I tend not to post anything work related (for obvious reasons) but I can report that I have just being promoted again (second time this year). Technically it's a new job since the position was advertised internally, I applied, interviewed and was successful. It's a very similar job but with more responsibility. On August 1st, I'll get to call myself a Senior Director.

Anyhow, enjoy the weekend everybody!!

 

 

Florida Vacation

We have returned from Florida, all having had a wonderful week, particularly the girls. There were lots to see and do in Fort Myers, with the beautiful Islands of Sanibel and Captiva close. In the end, however, the pool by our condo was a clear winner…every day. We spent 3-4 hours each day basking away in the pool, it was a hands down favourite.

We did manage a few day trips, most notably a trip to Fort Myers beach, picking shells on the beaches of Sanibel Island, a walk in the local nature reserve and more. In truth it was probably a little too hot to do much other than swimming, each day was in the mid 90’s.

The girls were extremely well behaved (most of the time), they ate well, slept well, were generally in good humor which made it easy on us. It was very relaxing and we’d love to go back.

I have taken a few photos and posted them to our web album here.

 

Arrived Safely in Florida

I brought my computer with me this week (for a necessary reason that I may be able to disclose in a week or so) so I'll be able to give a short running commentary on how our week on the beach is going. Sorry no pictures though, not able to get them onto my work laptop.

Arrived safely yesterday, the girls did great on the flight (how long does it take to fly to Florida from Indy? - exactly the length of the movie "Little Mermaid II).

We are in this beautiful and pretty big condo, which looks out across the gulf of Mexico. There is a white sandy beach literally 2 mins walk and a swimming pool between us and there.

Managed to go shopping yesterday, we are going to self cater for the most part. This morning, with the girls ready to go at 7.00am (no room for hangovers) we were on the beach and in the sea by 8.30am. Roll forward to 11.30am having transitioned to the pool, the girls were exhausted. They are now both in bed for naps...hence my chance to read the papers and do this. Lynne has stowed away with a book and popcorn.

That's it for now....later

Happy Birthday!!

Short post to wish Clive (my youngest brother) a very Happy Birthday tomorrow (June 13th). Enjoy the day brother, not often it falls on a Saturday!!

We are all off to Fort Myers Florida tomorrow morning so there will be no updates for at least a week. I have just finished packing...swim stuff, shorts and t-shirts...Enjoy the week everybody, we'll be on the beach!!

 

Did You Know?

I don't normally veer off family updates and similar items but I happened across this interesting video clip today. Made me think a little (no comments please). I was stunned to recognize how quickly the world of technology and other technical developments are moving along and that's from somebody who is clearly not up to date with all the latest developments. I do have a Facebook and MySpace page, I have blogged since 2005, I have a twitter account but have not yet embraced it, tried Google Chrome and many other items....and yet I feel like we are on a roller coaster. How long can I keep up interest in these developments and what happens if I throw my hands in the air and say no more?

Then there is geopolitical, educational, workforce, medical and many other developments. We truly are living in exponential times...what does it all mean?

Were Going to Have Another Baby!!

Yes yes...we must be mad but nothing we can do about it now. We are all very excited here in West Lafayette with the news that we will be having another baby, due the first week of December (hopefully not on my birthday :)).

Lynne is feeling well now, after a very tired and nauseous first trimester. Her energy levels are much better at this point and the nausea has subsided (mostly).

We obviously still don't know the sex but will be eager to see if we can get a sneak preview.

Anyhow that's our news...enough for one day I'd say. I trust everyone's week is going well.

 

Weekend Update

This weekend we chilled out quite a bit as normal, hung out and did a few things, plodded through the weekend, generally took it easy. Lynne and Pat managed to dive into new territory and made a few sausages on Saturday afternoon. They tasted pretty good (I was the chief taster) but with room for improvement. This was all prior to Pat returning home on Saturday afternoon. I think she had a very enjoyable three weeks although understandably she's always very emotional when she leaves.

We all manged our usual exercise regimen. I ran 5 miles, Lynne biked 30 on Saturday and this morning we all went out for a family bike ride. Weather was perfect, took a little picnic, did a 20 mile loop on the back roads of Indiana and managed to get everyone home exhausted.

Anja and I took in our second trip to the movies to see Pixar's new adventure - UP. It is very good. I truly enjoyed it....not sure about Anja :))

I'm also pretty excited, we just booked a summer vacation. A week on the beach in Fort Myers in Florida. Leaving in two weeks....yippee!! Check out our accommodations and an image of the Fort Myers Beach.

Hope you all have a great week!