2 years.

Two years ago today Robert and I were married. :) I can't believe how much has changed in two years! We obviously have a beautiful new baby girl - Miss Elena! But we have grown so much in the past two years and our bond has become even stronger. I love him every bit as much as I did then and am so thankful that he is in my life. For my friends and family who weren't present at our wedding, I though I would post some of my favorite pictures from our wedding day.

 

 

Almost all of these were taken by our photographer, Brandi Coldwell, who owns Captured Expressions Photography. She did a great job and I would highly reccomend her to anyone looking for a photographer -- http://www.capturedexpressionsphotography.com/ -- she also did our engagement, maternity and new baby pics too!

Happy Anniversary babe! I love you and am looking forward to many more years and adventures to come!

Alumni Game.

The Newman University 2009 alumni softball game was this Saturday night. Yes, after the duathlon -- man was I tired! But we had a great turn-out and it was so good to see everyone! Of course, just like old times, we started out with a short rain delay.

Here we are all waiting for the rain to stop:

Great chance for a photo op with my old roomie Rowe:

Once the rain ended we got started and Coach Harsh did a great job pitching for both teams!! Though he did give up 3 homeruns! ;)

Just like old times:

Group shot of everyone with Coach Harshberger:

After the game we headed to the alumni room in the new Dugan Library for pizza and drinks. We also all shared our funny memories from the past- good times! The alumni room is absolutely amazing and thanks to Ann and Harsh for everything!! Here is a picture of part of the best class ever - 2004! Woo - Woo!

Looking forward to next year's game!

Duathlon.

We did it! Marie and I finished out 1st duathlon. For those of you wondering, it is a triathlon minus the swimming, a 4 mile run followed by a 12 mile bike on trails. We have been training for about 2 months for this race. It was so exciting!! But it was very, very hard and challenging! We headed up to Lawrence on Friday night to check out the trail because we had never been on it. It was at the Lawrence River Trails -- very cool area and I will definitely go back to ride them again! After we did a short practice run on the trail we decided to have a carbtastic dinner! We hit up a recommended Italian restaurant called Paisano's.

It was so yummy! I would reccomend it if you are in Lawrence - 25th and Iowa is the intersection that it is on.

We both had fettucine alfredo with mushrooms - wonderful! And the breadsticks were even better than Olive Garden! (and I really love those!)

The race was Saturday morning at 10:00 we got there early to get ready to go. It was very interesting to do something neither one of us had ever done before!

Here are the trusty bikes:

Look at all these people!

Lots and lots of bikes.

And we're off! 1st was the 4 mile trail run...

These next pictures were taken by the people from the race:

Into the woods:

Let me tell you that 4 miles is extremely hard going up and down the trails - and it was so humid in the woods! It totally kicked our butts!

Next we went back into the trail on the bikes.

Here is Marie:

And here I am:

I finished in 1 hour and 57 minutes and Marie finished in 1 hour and 50 minutes! We were exhausted but it felt really good to finish!

This picture is after the race - happy to be done!

These are our T-shirts and us showing how we each did in our respective classes. I got 3rd in my class and Marie got 8th in hers. (Too bad there were only 3 in my class and 8 in hers!!!) :)

All in all it was a very challenging but rewarding expecience and we have already decided we are going to do it again!

Our good friend Scotty who lives nearby also came to support us and took us out to eat after. Thank you so much Scotty!

Beautiful day.

What a beautiful day! The temperature reached 85 degrees today! It was a perfect day for the park. We decided to go to Sedgwick County Park today with Sabrina, Lunden, Tonya and Skylyn. Elena has never been in the sand before and she was fascinated by it! Here are a couple pics of her checking out this new thing:

The three kiddos were so cute playing together!

And of course we had to hit the swings -- Elena absolutely loves them and she giggles like crazy! This was definitely her favorite part!

Who doesn't love swinging though? -- It was always my favorite!

Mr. Lunden really likes the swings too!

What a great day!

We are looking foward to more great days at the park this summer!

Stand up.

So Elena's new favorite thing is standing up and trying to pull herself up on everything. She can't quite do it all by herself yet but she is getting very close! Doesn't she look like such a big girl in these pics?

It is so crazy that she will be doing this on her own soon! I will walk in to her room and she will be standing there going "Mom! Get me out of here!"

And she absolutely lights up when she sees our dog Cooper! She giggles and laughs out loud. It is the sweetest thing! This picture is too cute!

Happy Birthday XMT!

So this past weekend was one of my best friends birthdays - Marie! We spent a lot of time hanging out and celebrating with her. We went over to another friend of ours house on Saturday night to start celebrating.

The Birthday Girl:

Here is a picture of Marie with the other April birthdays. Yes the little guy in front, Henry, is an April birthday too! So cute!

What a cute picture of Henry and Marie!

Marie, Me and Robert:

And my mini me was there too! -- This is little Molly:

She is about 4 months older than Elena and they had fun playing with each other! This one is an action shot:

Elena entertained everyone by boucing around all over in her jumper -- her favorite toy!

The girlies are dressed and ready for bed!

This one is so funny!!!

And of course we couldn't have a birthday celebration without a little blow pong! -- My cheeks are still hurting!! For those who have not played this with us you try to blow a ping pong ball in between the other player's "goal" - it may not look it but it is quite fun and funny! Last time we played we had a few injuries, but no worries - there were no casualties this time!! :)

And here is a picture of Robert and I:

After we recovered from Saturday's festivities we got together with Rowe and took Marie to Il Vicino for lunch -- it was super yummy! For those of you that haven't been you should check it out! It's on the corner of Douglas and Oliver -- and they are putting a new one in Bradley Fair - sweet!

We got a group of people together to pitch in for Marie's present and we decided to give her money to put towads the new iPod touch that she wanted. This way she could get a 32GB instead of a 16GB. Of course she loved it! I am honestly a little surprised she didn't go get it that same day! Notice my beautiful iPod representation for her present - ;)

Some of Rowe's family got to stop by also, it was great to see them! Here is Marie, Rowe, Elena, Little Sarah and me. Elena is really into yelling now if you can't tell from the picture!

Happy Birthday Marie -- We love you!