Cedar Falls Reunion

This past weekend, we met up with 4 of my college girlfriends in Cedar Falls, IA. All of us have kids now and we haven't seen each other in quite some time, so we figured it would be a fun idea to meet up in the place we went to college - which also happens to be the best "middle ground" for all us, since we all live in different cities now.

From top to bottom: Shannon & Landon; Katie & Ava; Ann, MiCayla & Lexi; Kari & Emma; Mia & Ani.

Emma and Ani. Emma will be 2 in October.

The matching family - not by design!

Peek-a-boo, Landon! He is only a month older than Ani. 

Here we are outside the newly renovated Maucker Union - me, Ann, Shannon.

Arguably the best-looking campanile in Iowa.

Taken the day before we left for Cedar Falls. Ani and I went to Lake Nokomis to play, people-watch, and dog-watch. This is my new favorite photo of her. 

3rd Celebration

We have a pretty lucky little girl who has had 3 different birthday celebrations!  One with my family in Iowa, one with our Minnesota friends, and last weekend, one with Monte's parents in Nebraska. 3 different cakes as well - 1) chocolate/yellow marble cake with chocolate frosting, 2) chocolate/white marble cake with white frosting, 3) angel food cake with pink frosting. If she doesn't have a sweet tooth by now, I'd be surprised.

MNSCS #3 - Dirt Spanker

Dirt Spanker Classic in Mt. Du Lac - June 14.

With a 5-mile loop that consisted of leg burning climbs, screaming descents and rolling singletrack, this course challenges every rider! 

Monte's race results:

Sport Men 35-39

4th place in age group 

26th place overall

Time: 1:17:01

A little mishap on the way up a climb going into his second lap.... Monte's chain got caught in between the spokes and the cog of the rear cassette. He had to stop on the hill and remove the rear wheel to fix it, which cost him a couple of minutes. The 3rd place guy in his age group only finished 15 seconds ahead of him, so he was close to being top 3.  

Start of the race - Ani and I watched from the middle of the hill.

Monte's in the green shirt. This was the start of the race.... an uphill climb that, and I quote Monte, "made Whistler seem like child's play!"

Continuing up.

The downhill finish.

Note: We missed MNSCS #2 - Monte was in Canada.

 

Uptown Criterium

Last night, we met up with the Hagen's to watch the Uptown Minneapolis Criterium, part of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. We spotted Floyd "Roid" Landis in the race and somehow I got a close-up shot of him speeding by. 

The criterium is new this year in the Uptown area. Last year it was in Downtown Minneapolis (and we were there with Hagen's and Ani- who was barely 2 weeks old!). Starting and finishing at 31st Street and Hennepin, the 1-kilometer course featured long straightaways and tight turns that provided ridiculous speeds in the high 30-mph range, and the potential for crashes and wipeouts, though we personally did not witness any. 

More info is at www.minnbikefestival.com.

More Ani

Here are a few more pictures of our little girl. The 12-month teddy bear shot, a couple from her birthday party we had last Saturday, and some other random ones. She's walking around like crazy! I have video of it, just need to take the time to download the footage and put it on the blog. She also just discovered her tongue the other night. For awhile, we thought she kept putting "no-no" items in her mouth from the floor, then realized that she was just playing with her tongue!

Happy Birthday, Ani!

Here's the birthday girl enjoying free strawberry ice cream after her lunch. She really enjoyed it (although I admit, I did eat most of it!)

It's Been A Whole Year!

Ani is 1 as of 4:01 pm tomorrow.... where did this year go? I still have a vivid memory of hearing the words "it's a girl!" So exciting. Since Monte was in Canada this past weekend on a fishing trip, Ani and I drove down to my parents in Iowa. My mom baked her a birthday cake that Ani was skeptical about at first (mmm... chocolate!) but ended up stuffing it in her face and loving it.