Winding Down

Tonight was our last choir practice and Weds "church night". Whew - it was a long haul but well worth it. Our church provides dinner every Weds night and we have a program called Christ's Kids that my kids go to AND choir practice - it's a busy night. This spring the choir director, Dorothy Elder, decided to put on a musical for the congregation called Jonah and the Whale (1st - 5th graders). So they've been practicing every Weds night for the last 3 months. The performance is on Sunday.

I love our Weds nights at church but by the time we get home, the kids are wired and I am tired! It's the one weeknight that I drink a beer and enjoy every drop of it! Our church has been having some problems so I've gotten more involved and like any organization undergoing lots of change, it's a bit stressful at times. But I like the people and feel committed to staying.

Soccer is almost done and we have one more month of school - woo hoo! Both kids practice on Tues and Thurs nights and games are on Saturdays. I really enjoy watching them practice and their games. Katerina is more into it than Evan is and she has become quite the star player on their team. Evan is more into individual sports, like swimming and cycling (hmmm....future triathlete???)

I started this blog so that it could be a diary for my kids so I want to record a few things that I'd like them to know someday....Evan, you looked SO cute in your new shorts today. They fit you well (for once) and your sweet smile just made my day. Thank you so much for all the darling love notes that you've been writing me (he'll kill me for writing this someday!). He is THE sweetest little boy in the world!

I went on the most awesome bike ride today...it was 77 degrees and the roads were calling my name. Kurt had the day off so I felt safe riding alone (cause I can call him if I flat). It was soooo nice...everything is so green right now and the flowers and crabapple trees are in full bloom....and there's still some snow on the mountains in the distance - so beautiful.

I took O Street out to Kodak and back. Had a nice tailwind on the way out there but holey-moley was it hard to pedal on the way back! But I didn't care, I just rode at a moderately-hard pace and enjoyed the time alone.

More soon.

YouTube Material?

A few weeks ago the kids were talking about skiing the black slopes for the first time and I happened to have my camera near me so I thought, what the heck, I'd "interview" them about this experience. It was too funny not to upload (but no, I won't put it on YouTube!).

And btw, I have decided to delete my other blog (or put it on hold) and write more in here. I really want a diary for the kids to read when they grow up and this seems to be the easiest way to do it. Plus, anyone in our family can read it too (although I don't think anyone does). So, stay tuned for more episodes of "life at the Dallow ranch"!

Ketchup

OK, it's been awhile since I've posted and there's a lot to write about. First, we went to Ogden, Utah, in early March to watch Kurt compete in the Xterra World Championship Winter Quadrathlon (seriously). It was an amazing event that includes mountain biking in snow, snow-shoeing, x-c skiing (UP a ski slope) and running on snow.

I've never seen Kurt so exhausted in all of our 15 yrs of marriage! It took him over 4 hrs to finish (partly due to going off-course - more on that later) and he was going all-out pretty much the entire time. I'm really impressed that he did it.

We stayed with our really good friends, the Hansen's: Julie (my long-time close friend) and her husband, Rod, and kids, Ruselle and Isaac. Julie is a dietitian from Kansas, just like me, and we've been friends for a long time. She used to live in Ft. Collins and Rod got his PhD in nutrition the same time I did so we have a lot in common.

We had a really good time staying at their house. Julie is a really good runner but this time we didn't get to run together because she just had surgery to remove a benign cyst. But I got in a couple of really good long runs while I was there and we got to go shopping together (Julie is THE best person to shop with!). We hope to go see them at least once a year.

Kurt took the kids skiing on Saturday and then he did the race on Sunday (see pic's below). Julie and Rod came up to watch with me. Fortunately, it was a relatively warm, sunny day because we waited for Kurt to finish for a REALLY long time (like 90 mins or so). We had timed it so that we would get there about the time he would finish but little did we know, he had gone off course. At a key turning point, there wasn't a race marshall there and he missed the turn. So he had to re-do a section of the course and that took an extra half hour. But he finished anyway and was happy that he did it.

I do have to mention how he came across the finish line because I've never seen this happen before....he ski'ed down the hill toward the finish line, just like everyone else, but as he slowed himself to a stop, he just fell and layed there...he didn't get up! We all ran over to him and he just layed there. A medical person came running over too but as soon as I saw a smile on his face, I waved the official off. He was that tired; he just couldn't get up. Later, at the awards ceremony, he was literally laying his head on Katerina's shoulder and groaning. I have never seen him this wiped out before!

But all in all, it was a good trip. Even the drive there and back (8 hrs, with stop for lunch), the kids did really well (thank God for DVD players!). We played the alphabet game for the first time, read books, sang, and had our first taste of a road trip with the kids. Hope to go on more in the future.