Well, Michael and I survived our first bike race! We finished 34 miles in 2 hours and 28 minutes. We were hoping for a little faster time, but the course was pretty hilly. One hill in particular, 85% of the people around us got off and pushed their bikes. We managed to stay on our bikes, but had to rest at the top of that one! It was a great experience. The first 2 miles were pretty much straight uphill and I was worried, but then we settled into a pretty good pace. Around mile 5, we hit one particularly steep hill going downhill. I'm not particularly fond of going extremely fast on a bike with wheels the size of my finger, but Michael loves it. I was holding my brakes as much as possible without wrecking and got up to 41 mph. Michael hit 48! I'm accident prone enough to worry about wrecking going that fast! Shew, luckily the wind was blowing towards us on the other steep downhill, so it wasn't as fast!
Some pics from the race (I took some of these while riding, so they aren't the best!):
Michael on the left:
Start/Finish line:
One of the rest stops along the route. Port-a-potties, water, and energy bars!
There were something like 5000 cyclists at the event (there were 100, 62, 34, 25, and 7 mile routes):
See how skinny the tires are?
This was right after we finished, which is why we're not looking our best:
We're already looking for another race! The atmosphere was fun and having the police help and so many volunteers cheering you on was great! It also helped with the traffic aspect, which is what we like least about our road bikes. There are plenty of bike lanes around here, but it's not so fun to be riding with cars flying beside you.
Which brings me to mountain biking!
There are some great mountain bike trails about 5 miles from our house. The ride to get to them is steep and hard, but it's worth it! One day last week we were on a ride, when we passed another cyclist who told us there was a "big snake" up ahead. I am not a fan of snakes. The worst part is we weren't even on the mountain bike trail yet, this was on the sidewalk right in front of a high school! When we saw it, we realized it was actually 2 snakes wrapped around each other. I happened to have my little camera in my pocket(this is zoomed way in, I didn't get anywhere near them!):
Nice.
The mountain bike trails have great scenery (No, I'm not talking about Michael!):
Plus, it's fun!
Wow, a whole post without a picture of Olivia! That's a first, ha! She stayed with our friends Steve and Yarelys. She loves their little boy, Caden. They claim she was very good for them!
Olivia had her first dentist appointment yesterday and I was so proud of her! She did GREAT. We have been talking about the dentist for over a week, about getting her teeth cleaned and counting them. Her hygienist has a little boy close to her age, so she was awesome and let her hold all the instruments before using them. The TV above her head helped, too! This is right before we left, she insisted on bringing her dolly with us:
Checking things out:
Holding her bag with a new toothbrush and stickers:
We also made it to the pool this week. We've had a pretty mild spring (unlike some of you!) and this week has actually stayed pretty warm. It took her some time to get used to the pool again. She wanted to sit by me for a little bit first:
A little closer:
Finally, happy in the water!
And, as in years past, she showed a particular interest in her snacks:
Her little friend Caden was there by chance and they had a blast, splashing around in the shallow end. She loves the pool and has asked every day to go back, so I for see lots of pool days this summer!
Much to my dismay, she has taken much more interest in her clothes lately. She went through a stage last weekend where she would only wear the color pink. We've finally hit on a compromise, where I bring 2 or 3 outfits for her to pick from in the mornings and that seems to help. Sigh.
This was the outfit she picked out during one of her pink days:
Our bike race is Sunday! I'm just hoping I finish, ha! (Michael will have no problems, I'm the one that's worried!)
Michael and I have been planning a Vegas trip since we moved here almost 4 years ago. The plane tickets are pretty inexpensive, as are the hotel rooms. We left last Wednesday at 7:00pm and got home Saturday around noon. It was awesome! There is so much to do there and always lots going on. And Olivia? No worries, between the mall:
Chuck E. Cheese:
The Wildlife Experience:
Gymnastics:
and a variety of other kid-friendly activities, I don't think she even noticed we were gone, ha! Thanks so much Mom and Lilo for taking such good care of our girl!
We stayed at the Flamingo:
Our room is somewhere in this tower:
Not the nicest place in Vegas (which we couldn't afford, anyway!), but the location is great! It is right across from Caesar's Palace and Bellagio. Wednesday night, we wandered around close to our hotel and watched the fountains at The Bellagio:
We're cracking up in that picture, because a friend of the man that took our picture kept pretending that he was going to get in it with us. He actually managed to get in one!
Thursday, we headed to the Northern part of the strip, basically stopping and checking out the other hotels/casinos. They are unbelievable. Gondolas in the Venetian:
This is the walkway from our hotel to Bally's (with the Eiffel Tower in the background). Vegas has many walkways over roads to cut down on pedestrian traffic.
That night we went to a Hypnotist/Comedy show that was really good.
Friday, we headed to the south end of the strip.
New York New York:
The lion habitat in the MGM Grand. The trainers were playing with the lions while we were there:
The view up the strip:
Vegas equals lots of walking! Everything looks close together, but it's not. The resorts are huge, so just walking from one to another can take 15-20 minutes. There is a bus that goes up and down the strip and downtown. It's $7 for 24 hours, so after we had been in most of the casinos on the south end, we hopped on the bus to check out downtown. We had heard that the slot machines downtown were "looser" and since we hadn't had any luck so far, we decided to check it out. Downtown Vegas has been revamped recently with the Fremont Street experience. The entire street is covered with a canopy. It looks like this during the day:
And this at night:
Very neat. Every hour or so, the casinos turn out all their lights for a light show on the canopy:
We were downtown for quite some time. We started off playing a few slot machines, but had no luck. We had just thrown in the hat on gambling, when we spotted a $5 craps table. Michael had played craps before, but I hadn't. We watched for a little bit, then decided to try it. We put in $30. 6 hours later, we had won back everything we lost on the trip! There was a couple beside us that had been helping us and they kept telling us to not think it's always like this, it's easy to lose money, too! We just picked a hot table and everyone was winning. We kept putting money back a little at a time in a "don't touch this" pile. It kept growing. We skipped dinner and another show, but it's so much fun when you're winning! Definitely made us feel better about the vacation, ha! We rode the bus back to our hotel and crashed. Our flight left at 7:30am, so we had to get up pretty early!
Our room:
The mirror in the bathroom had a TV built into it:
The view from our room:
I wish we had one more day to explore, there's so much to see! Just gives us another reason for a return trip, I guess! Here's a short video of the fountains at The Bellagio. Very cool:
Lindsay and I decided last week to start saying the Pledge of Allegiance with the daycare kids. We have a preschool program that we do every morning with the calendar and weather, so it seemed like something that would fit in with the rest of our activities. We started saying it once a day last Wednesday. Last night after her bath, I asked Olivia if she remembered any of the words, hoping maybe she had picked up the first line or so. Here's what I got:
I was floored. She memorized the entire thing after saying it 5 times. I haven't gone over it with her at all! She has a little trouble with "indivisible," but I don't know many 2 year olds that wouldn't! More proof that young kids are sponges. :)
Avry came to play one day last week. These 2 are peas in a pod:
Avry was determined to wear Olivia's bee costume from Halloween. That costume is 18-24 months and Avry is a solid 3t, but we finally managed to squeeze her in it! They have so much fun together and I had some flashbacks of them eating together:
We had a gorgeous Mother's Day weekend and decided to take advantage of a Cinco de Mayo festival downtown. We don't travel downtown too often, so we decided to take the Light Rail on this trip. There's a pick up point just a few miles from our house, so we left the car and rode the "train" downtown. Olivia was thrilled (it was her first time riding, although she's seen it several times).
On the train:
Sure beats trying to find a parking place and then paying $20+ for it! The festival was at Civic Center park, which is literally right downtown:
As soon as we got there, Olivia spotted the ponies. $5 for a 2 minute pony ride- her first time!
Waiting in line:
Her pony:
We also hit the petting zoo that was right beside the ponies. There were lots of baby goats, a bunny, a turtle, an albino blind pony, and some llamas. Mainly goats that came after your cup of carrots like it was their last meal. We didn't last too long!
We had a little picnic in the shade:
And a funnel cake:
We even saw Navy Seals parachuting into the park:
We had a good time, until she started getting tired. We headed down 16th street mall (16th street mall is an outdoor mall right in the middle of downtown. What should be 16th street is blocked off to cars. Pretty neat):
I've wanted to take some pictures of her downtown for awhile, so I snuck a few in. This was the only one that turned out decent. Maybe next time!
We caught the train and headed home.
We also made a park trip this weekend, including the dogs. We recently discovered a dog park with a playground right beside it (we've only lived here almost 4 years and just found this park 1.5 miles from our house!). Poor dogs, they haven't been to the park in awhile. They ran full throttle for 10 minutes, then collapsed in the shade. This was my view walking into the park:
Olivia insisted on wearing 2 tutu's to the park. What fashion sense!
This park also has a sandbox, which was a huge hit:
The dogs were so exhausted from the park, they could barely make it to the car. They were moving so slow, we let Olivia hold Rambler's leash. She thought she was hot stuff:
