it's been awhile

i haven't written for a really long time! i keep meaning to update but then i hadn't downloaded the photos and kept waiting until i got them downloaded. then- we download them to our new desktop computer and now i've been too lazy to actually sit up at night and post/upload. doing it from my couch or bed on the laptop just seemed to be sooo much easier.

anyway - we have had a great summer. we had our big trip out west which was fantastic. of course i'm not on the computer now that has those photos, so i'll post photo updates later this week. for reals.

we spent 5 days in san fran with my cousin, her husband james and baby jaden. awesome time. we did quite a bit. fireworks on the 4th from the boat, camping, golden gate park, muir woods, sonoma wine tasting, trolley and cable cars, fisherman's wharf area, berkeley, haight-ashbury area and lots of good wine, food and company.

from sf, we went to boise to visit my grandma. she's in a nursing home and hasn't been feeling good...but she had a pretty good few days when we were out there and we managed to go out to dinner with my grandma, my aunt, uncle and cousins. great to see the family and catch up with everyone. we pretty much spent all of our time in boise seeing family and having griffin catch up on all of his sleep he missed while partying it up in sf.

from boise we flew to spokane and hooked up with friends guy and dawn. we stayed with them and had a great time. saw the sights of spokane (isn't a whole lot to see), and caught up.
under normal circumstances i'm sure g would have been at the end of his rope by the time we got to spokane...but the bonus is that guy/dawn live on the top of a canyon that overlooks...TRAIN TRACKS. trains went by about every 20 minutes and he nearly exploded from excitement each and every time one went by.

we managed to do lots of fun stuff and griffin got to do something train related every single day of our 10 day adventure. he still talks about all of the trains from our trip and it feels good to know we are creating such fun memories for him.

coming back we were all pretty crabby for about 2 weeks. it was SUPER hard to adjust back to reality and the time zone. and griffin was used to eating whatever he wanted, staying up really late and basically being the center of everything. so - getting back to reality was tough!

in other news....we have a new niece! Aliyah Grace Lawrence. Matt, Wendy, Alex, Andrew and Addi have welcomed their baby girl. and we are excited to meet her too!




other things we've been up to: had a visit with my parents, my dad had back surgery, went to WI for grandpa bruce's b-day celebration and hung out with dave, cindy, aidan and reese, had some fun wedding-related activities for dyle, taken long bike rides, spending time with the krugers now that they are back in minne, dan had a guys cabin trip, g and i had a girls cabin night, g and i went back to WI for my hometown festival and i caught up with some great hs friends, hanging with jes before she leaves to australia for a 5-month adventure, gone to the beach, have done a lot of babysitting for friends, and dan ran another half marathon. i DO actually have pictures of that...
he did great once again. he had some knee/leg injury...so his training for this event was a little slower than the previous one...but he still was fabulous.

here is griffin trying to give daddy a high five. it took about 5 attempts to actually do it.






and finally - a family photo.


it's been a good summer. it's gone by waaaay too fast, of course. but we have been enjoying every minute of it.

this weekend brings grandma lynne (he calls her grandma precious) to town. we are also going to celebrate dyles wedding on saturday and then sunday dan does the minneapolis duathalon!!

pictures of our trip to come.

dan's run!!

i forgot one of the most important updates! i thought i had already written about this...it already seems so long ago.

anyway, dan completed his half marathon (13.1 miles) in awesome time. he was shooting for an 8 minute mile and he ran it in 7:44 per mile.
his overall time was 1 hour and 41 minutes.
AND the most impressive thing...he was 158th place out of 2271 runners.


have a looksie.
he wouldn't let me post the photos of him in all of his shirtless glory...so this will have to do.

also - our friends dina and jessica ran this too and did amazing. they both finished in amazing times and looked hot. (and not in just a sweaty kind of way)

where does time go?

i was so set on keeping this up more regularly when i first started and now it's already mid-june and i haven't updated since the end of may.

we've been busy and having fun.

early june brought the krugers back into town. it's been awesome having them here.

this past weekend:
friday night was spent celebrating melissa's birthday. a great time had...as well as way too many drinks.
saturday, once i finally felt semi-human - we found a cool new park in bloomington that g loved. it's called "chutes and ladders". it was totally like that board game. windy slides, lots of climbing and he really was being adventurous, so that was good to see.
we followed that up with dinner at a place on the light rail line...and of course g sat there in amazement the whole time watching the trains.

sunday dan and i celebrated our 6 year anniversary. laura, lee and mallory were kind enough to take griffin with them to the zoo and keep him for the afternoon, so dan and i spent the day canoeing, hiking, picnicking and even hit the local swimming pool. a really great day to just enjoy each others company and remember what life what like before having a child (i think we spent time talking about him, of course...but nice to have times like that)


of course the train obsession continues. we got griffin's room all together and he's loving it. we have pictures on his walls of train things that we've taken through the last year or two. we also got one of those big yellow RR signs as well as the white crossbucks that say railroad crossing.
the first night he slept in there with the photos on the wall he said goodnight to each and every train photo.
"good night trolley"
"good night osceola train"
"good night jackson street round house"

pretty cute.

so a couple of break-throughs this week:
miss yvonne has been reporting that griffin has been trying fruits lately. i half didn't believe her because we try ALL.THE.TIME. to get him to eat fruits and veggies.
so, last night we gave him watermelon and he exclaimed that it tasted just like candy! and he proceeded to eat the whole dish.
and apparently he had the same sentiment about kiwi too.

the other thing is he spent all evening playing with the neighbor kid last night. this is a big deal because typically he doesn't want to play with many other kids...he just wants to hang out with mom and dad (which of course we love...but we try to encourage playing with other kids too). now granted - they had an electric train setup in the basement and apparently he spent the whole time laying on the floor watching it go around and around...but griffin asked if he could go over there and play and he was there about an hour and a half!

dan and i didn't know what to do with ourselves...we sat outside for awhile waiting for him to come out at any moment...but after awhile, we decided to go do our own thing and managed to get our exercise and dishes done. this socializing thing could be a whole new world for us!

the neighbor reported that griffin sang them the entire song of "folsom prison" by johnny cash. even the "i shot a man in reno, just to watch him die" part. ooops.
i think the train at the beginning of the song is what turned him onto it.

so, that pretty much sums it up.

dan's good - taking a bit of a running break until he gets his knee looked at. still signed up for some half marathons though. work is still at 80% for him - but they are hopeful it'll come around after summer (fridays off aren't too bad...it's just getting used to the reduced pay that still needs to be worked out)

my job is busy and stable and i continue to love it. and i still don't love running.

may updates in photos

it's been awhile. we've been keeping busy. as the following picts will show...we've done a LOT of train things. this boy is really into it..so it's fun.
in all of the pictures, he's pretty much hanging out the window!

anyway, a good few weeks.

we took a trip to chicago to see our nieces dance recital. aidan and reese were super cute and it was so awesome to see g interacting with his cousins.



we hit his favorite chicago restaurant...the choo choo restaurant.

a train pulls the food out to the customers. i don't think g could get any closer:


but the highlight of the trip was taking the el train around town. he is still talking about it...and how you have to "stay behind the blue line".


he and aidan waved goodbye to the el:


we've been working on griffin's new room. dan's been busy sanding, scraping, painting and getting everything put together. it shouldn't be too much longer. g even picked the accent wall color. (he says blue is his favorite color).


griffin and i went to cheer our friend dina on at her duathalon. she rocked.



this past weekend was a great long holiday weekend. dan and i went to a twins/brewers baseball game which was a lot of fun. then went to pie's surprise 40th.

on sunday we met the friedrichs in taylors falls and did a boat ride.



the weather couldn't have been better. the kids were great and we decided to go 10 miles to osceola, wi and go on a train ride. g loved it.
he and jimmy are super buds:


we followed up the day going to their house for an impromptu bbq and enjoying the weather.

a great couple of weeks - it's crazy how time flys and we are already starting the summer!!

dan runs his 1/2 marathon on sunday. he's going to be awesome. looking forward to cheering him on!!

yay for may

i'm thrilled the weather is nicer. but it sux because with the changes of weather has come another COLD! i feel that i've pretty much had a cold for the last 6-8 months. sure, i have a week or two of feeling fine...but then it comes back.
this time around i feel ok...just a sinus headache and a persistent cough that annoys the household in the middle of the night. i think i'm banished to the basement this weekend.

anyway - despite that - we are doing well.

last weekend..what did we do...oh, we took the light rail downtown to see a "thomas the train" performance at the target center. the light rail ride was the best part.
of course griffin liked it...but OH MY...was this cheeeeze e. grown adults romping around on stage. i told dan we should have played a drinking game on how many times sir topham hatt said "your a really "useful" engine". (or mostly he told them they were NOT useful engines. what a dick.)
anyway - our sweet boy liked it well enough, so of course it was worth enduring the pain. a $5 soft pretzel with $1 cheese sauce didn't hurt either.
i do have to say though---griffin lit up the most on the light rail.

sunday brought great weather and g and i went to the powderhorn park mayday festival/parade. it was nice to just walk around the park. the parade was a bit of a bust for us...we were at the very end of the route and the parade-participants kinda gave up by that point and half of them just veered off the course before passing us. griffin liked running up and down a hill over and over though. wore me out, but it was good fun.

dan's been busy painting and doing house projects. we are switching griffin to a new room (train themed room, of course). dan's been sanding, priming and painting a lot and it's looking great. our goal is to have the man sleeping in there by memorial day. we still have a lot to do, but it's coming together.

this week has been fairly uneventful. of course my excuse for my lack of exercise is this cold...but that can only last so long..since i apparently have a chronic cold. (and a side note: i have made a dr. appointment. big step..since i do a lot of complaining but never actually GO to the doctor)

we had a small incident at daycare this week that we are feeling a bit sad about (a couple kids ganging up on the sweet little bird). he is such a sweet, sensitive kid that wants to please people and of course as a parent i worry that people will take advantage of that down the road. i'm looking forward to the krugers moving here...maybe chloe can show griffin how to be a bit more sassy and assertive!!

anyway, we are helping him through and he is thriving in so many ways. i feel so lucky to have such a sweet, caring and thoughtful child. he will definitely do good things and i can only hope he touches others the way he has us and makes his sweet little mark on this world.

photo updates

finally uploading some photos:
easter morning...on the egg hunt


some of the kids he hunted eggs with


sweater vest for easter (not sure how long i'll get away with dressing him in sv's)


chillin' at the breakfast table


at the zoo with cousins. (uncle matt, auntie wendy, alex, andrew and addi came to visit for a couple of days. we had a great time with them and griffin loved being with his cousins). they are expecting a baby girl this fall!)


g and dan in front of the monorail at the zoo


griff holding his ticket for the jackson street roundhouse (train museum) - he didn't want to let go of it...he was super excited!


at the helm


the boy loves his trains

update

i realized it's been quite awhile since i've updated. i hate letting too much time pass, since i use this to reference what we've been up to, and like to keep a journal of what is new.

dan and i had a date night a couple weeks ago. it was good...except we were home and in bed by 8:30 or so! we had an OVERNIGHT babysitter lined up (thanks to a sweet babysitting exchange we do with our friends beth and jason).
anyway, we drop g off and head to dinner. we decide to go to this burger and fries joint that people have been raving about. except dan and i really haven't eaten fried stuff for so long. so, we start the meal out with cheese curds (which were horrible) and then proceeded to get our burger and fries (and dan got tots).
neither of us finished our meal because we were basically doubled over in pain from eating so much grease. the cheese curds totally ruined it. the burgers were good. of course that didn't stop us from going and getting ice cream cones from DQ. of course not. if you already feel like shit, you may as well stick a bit more fat in your body.
so, our wild night sans child turned into us in bed at 8:30...both complaining about how bad our stomaches hurt. we did manage to watch slumdog millionaire, so at least we achieved something good.
i will say though...the morning was fantastic! rather than wake up and watch cartoons, we both got up and ran (dan 12 miles...me a measly 2), then i still managed to go to target and grocery shop...all before picking the man up at 10 a.m.
he had a great time with his friends, but of course it was awesome to see him.

that night we babysat for jake and sam over at their house. griffin liked playing with his cousins, and i love spending time with them, and teaching them funny dances and words to say to their parents..

then easter was on that sunday. griffin was doing a bit of a croup cough for some reason that a.m., so he got up super early and we had to do the steam and go outside trick. bleh. after a few hours he seemed to be doing fine and we had a little easter egg hunt in our neighborhood. he loved it. it was cute to see the little kiddos hunting for their eggs.
we had a nice breakfast and then went to church, where griffin exclaimed loudly during service that his "peeny was a little warm". i think he also asked if he could touch my boobs too somewhere in there. ooops.
it was a great lazy day though just hanging with the fam.
griffin continued this horribly early wake-up on monday and we had to repeat the routine. but again after a few hours he was doing fine and able to go to daycare.

this past weekend griffin and i traveled to wisconsin. dan stayed home and was able to make some headway on griffins room (we are redoing it). he also had a couple concerts to attend. sounds like 1 of them stunk and the other one was awesome. dan also managed to surprise me and had purchased a new piece of furniture for our living room...its a stereo cabinet and it is awesome!!! it was great coming home to a sweet looking living room.
griffin and i had a great time. friday we just hung with my parents. saturday g, grandpa and i went to breakfast then the boys got haircuts. my mom and i hung out while griffin napped and then that night i spent the evening with some good friends. we had a little get-together in honor of my friend julie. it was awesome to see some old friends i haven't seen since high school, and of course catching up with other friends. a good time was had by all and it was lovely to be able to be there.

this week has been busy - i've had training for work a few days and trying to catch up from being gone.

dan has been continuing to do awesome with his running. he's been doing 1 long run per week (about 12 miles) and 4 of the other days he's doing between 3-6 miles. he's amazing and has totally gotten fit.
i'm working at it still...i'm in week 6 of my training program and still hate running...but it is getting a bit easier i guess. i know it's all mental.

griffin continues to amaze us. he knows all of his upper and lower case letters. and when we are driving he'll read the letters on the sign (he doesn't know how to spell it out to see what they say, but still...he knows them!
he still isn't interested in writing or coloring...but mizz yvonne says that is next on her agenda...so that's good. we try and encourage it, but of course since we don't see him that much in a day...we just want to play and love on the boy at night.