Fred is fast... I mean really, really fast. His times at his first track meet last week beat several state records. We've always known he was an amazing athlete... but this is the first season that we've actually seen him compete (he had a knee injury last year). It's pretty amazing. The bet of the season was whether or not he was going to beat Dan's long jump record from High School. He beat it in his third jump of the season and made sure to call Dan right away. It was pretty funny.

Here are some shots of him at a meet on Friday.

Have I mentioned before that Dan makes everything into a game? If he wants something done in a hurry he'll start to count: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1." By 4 the guys have caught on and whatever chore he is counting for starts to get done. I don't how the chore is more fun if it's a competition... but it is. Tonight the debate was over who was going to unload the dishwasher and who was going to load. Dan picked a couple stuffed rings out of Carter's toy box and gave each of the guys 7 tries to catch the ring while he threw over their head with their back turned. Whoever won got to choose if they loaded or unloaded. It's harder than it looks. Fred won.


Here is Carter this evening. He tries everything possible to keep up.

My (Dan) Evening Time Away Last Week

8 hours of Night Classes
3.45 hours of Parent Teacher Conferences
2.5 hour Board of Education Meeting
2 hours of homework
1.5 hour Faculty Meeting
1 diaper change

Alyssa = Priceless

Last week can only be described as amazing. A week at the beach with two of our favorite people in the world.

Happy Easter

An evening at the park...

Last night we picked up our favorite pizza and headed to Forest Park for dinner and some time outside enjoying our amazing weather. I thought the guys would end up playing ball in the field next to the playground... but instead we all stayed on the playground. It was so much fun.

I think taking pictures with high schoolers is just as difficult as taking pictures with toddlers.



My husband (who somehow turns everything into a game) started riding his long board down the slides. Thankfully no one got hurt!
Carter was up way past his bedtime.



I think last night was the first time in months that everyone was in bed on time.

Here are some shots of Carter playing ball this afternoon. He actually almost took out the lens on my camera. I've really been working hard the last month to avoid using my flash. It's hard at night... but it's felt good to put a little more time into my photos again.

Sweet yesterday...

Our time with Daddy always goes by too quickly. I think it's especially hard now since he's started classes up again. We did have a great day yesterday... when Carter finally woke up from his nap. He's been taking 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hour naps every day. I do have to say that I think the long naps have something to do with our two guys starting sports up again last week (that and the fact that his Daddy loves to sleep). They now stay after school for baseball and track instead of coming home with all of that high school energy. I don't think it was a coincidence that Carter would wake up around the time that they got home every day. Those naps are great on the weekdays but hard on the weekends when we love to get out.

We ended up walking down to our library after Carter woke up yesterday. We are so spoiled by our location. The library is about 7 doors down from our house (right next door to the high school and middle school). Don't ask me why we haven't actually been inside the library for several months. I will tell you that it's pretty awesome. It has a fireplace and the basement has fun toys and puzzles.


Lastly, here is a picture of a cake Fred and I made from scratch last night. We spent 2 1/2 hours on it and it turned out awful. We made everyone try a piece of it... but most of it ended up in the trash. Does anyone have a good cake recipe that doesn't require beating the eggs in a bowl sitting in a pan of hot water?