What a great weekend!

What an amazing weekend we had. The weather couldn't have been better! It really did the body and soul good to have some lovely sunny weather for a while. I was able to air the house out, finish up planting the pots in the front yard, and even found and planted some peonies in the front yard. My favorite flower ever! I now have 6 of them, and a couple of them already have buds on them! There are 2 light pink, 2 hot pink and 2 white ones. They will make some gorgeous cut flower bouquets. Can't wait! I'll post pictures of the front yard tomorrow, left the camera at home this morning.

Sunday was such a great day. Highs in the UPPER 70's with not a cloud in the sky. I puttered in the kitchen in the morning cutting up meat & marinating it for steak K-bobs for dinner last night, made some Rice Krispie Treats and made a killer chicken salad to pack for lunch for the day at the track. Then we loaded up early and headed out to Molalla for the day of racing. There were lots of people there and all our BMX friends. What a great day that was. It was fun to just hang out with everyone. Let the kids play with their friends and ride, the parents got to relax and socialize with everyone. It was just a great day. Nick had a bigger class of 5 people and also decided to race without his clip pedals so it was a new challenge for him. He has been struggling with his pedals recently so we made the switch back to the standard pedals and he actually raced better than he has in a while! Ended up with a 3rd place finish which was great for him. Gabi also got 3rd but she was in a "total points" race and only had 3 people in her class. She had a better time hanging out with her friends and socializing than she did racing I think. 

Today we are hoping for highs in the mid 80's. I told Bryan he should take the motorcycle out for a ride today so we'll see if he actually does it or not. He thought it was a great idea though. Our good weather is supposed to last most of the week so I have planned lots of BBQ dinners. One of my favorite time of the year!

Zoo Trip

Last week was Spring Break and I took Friday off work so the kids and I could go to the Zoo. The weather was supposed to be nice and sunny, but it didn't quite turn out that way. At least it didn't really rain on us, misted a little, but the good news was the animals were very active when we were there so we got some good pictures.

 

Nick and his friend Riley with the bears at the gift shop.

The baby elephant Samudra. He's 7 months old now. He's with his Mom (on the left) and aunt.

A very hairy warthog.

The polar bears were very active. This one was playing with her ball right in front of the window. She's huge!

Ahh... a back scratch feels so good!

This is the male. He was having a ball playing in the water too.

This Cougar looked so uncomfortable in the tree, until you look close and see he's actually falling asleep there!

We can never seem to get enough of the zoo. There is a lot of construction going on there right now as they finish up the new African exhibit that will bring Cheetahs and Lions to the zoo for the first time! We are excited for that to open up this Summer. Also they are rebuilding the Orangutan exhibit and including an outside area for the first time ever. It's going to be beautiful when it is finished. Then of course they are updating the Tiger exhibit, making the walls higher and the people farther away from them since they realized after the San Francisco  event our Tigers exhibit is unsafe. Our tigers are pretty lazy and sleep ALL the time, but still, safety first! We love going and spending a few hours at the zoo whenever we get the chance. Can't wait for the summer season to start so the weather will be warmer!

On The Road Again...

It's Race time again! We are starting to have some racing withdrawals so we are heading to Eugene tomorrow for some racing action! The kids will be racing at the indoor track in Eugene at the fairgrounds. Registration starts at 11 so the racing action should begin somewhere around noon or a little after that. Then I think I'll sign them up for the clinic right after racing which is from 2-4. That leaves me time to play for a couple of hours!

The kids did very well last year with their racing. Nick was 79th in the district. Gabi ended up 11th. Can't wait for another great year of racing! Way to go kids!

Wii're going to get in shape this year!

I bought the Wii Fit yesterday. I figured it's time to get in shape and thought not only would this fit into my schedule better than anything else, but exercising might be a little more fun if I can play games while I do it. Plus the kids and I can compete with high scores which should be another motivator.

I must say after trying it out last night and this morning it is actually fun to play, and the strength training and yoga exercises are actually quite a challenge for this out of shape body! My goal is to get up every morning when Bryan leaves for work and exercise for an hour or some before I have to take my shower. I figure I'm usually awake anyway since I can't go back to sleep after is alarm goes off so I should just take advantage of the time. 

Maybe this will at the very least help me become more active and sleep better. Plus the activities seem to really work on your balance and posture which could always use a little help. The kids are pretty excited about it too. Tonight I'm going to help them set up their mii characters so they can start their own exercise routine too. It should help with their coordination and balance which should really help their racing out for this year.

Something needs to be done with this "fluffy" body and this is a good start. Now if only I could get Bryan to give it a try...

Baking time!

We are going to be baking cookies today. We are making Rice Krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, fudge, and candy cane cookies. We have a friend coming over to help too so it should be fun!

Then tomorrow the temperature is supposed to drop dramatically and we actually are supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow! Then arctic temperatures all next week. We're hoping for the snow... as long as it doesn't stick around too long!

On another note, my brother made it up yesterday on his treck to the wild northern country above us. It's always a pleasure to see him, and I'm so thankful to have him around and willing to create a relationship with his niece and nephew. It brings back happy memories to watch him pummel the kids when they come at him, similar to how Jeff used to pummel us when we were younger. They so look forward to his visits, and playing scrabble with him, it's fun to see. Makes the heart happy. He's off again today and then will be back again on Monday for another round. Maybe he'll be able to beat Nick then...