Las Vegas!

We just got back from 8 great days of family fun in Las Vegas:

Day 1: Fly - Explore our Hotel: South Point Resort Hotel - Arcade - Visit Strip - Ride New York New York Roller Coaster - M&M and Coca Cola store - Night Swimming

Day 2: Swim - Multiple Arcades - Movie Night at Theater in Hotel: 'Brave'

Day 3: Swim - Soccer Shop - Visit 'Pawn Stars' Store - Stratosphere with Rides

Day 4: Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon (pictures coming soon)

Day 5: Swim - Shopping at Outlets - Explore Caesars Palace with some Shopping

Day 6: 4th of July - Swim - Adventuredome at Circus Circus - Fireworks

Day 7: Swim - Arcades - Movies in Rooms (three oldest kids had their own hotel room - a first for us!)

Day 8: Early Flight Home...which we almost missed :)

Our Favorite Things:

Genevieve: Brave Movie and Swimming

Willem: Everything and NY NY Roller Coaster

Gabrielle: Shopping and Grand Canyon

Cade: Pawn Stars Store and Roller Coasters

Me: Relaxing in the sun, hours of reading my books (in sun and in the evenings) and the Grand Canyon

Chad: Relaxing in the Evenings, the Buffets and the Grand Canyon

Ready to fly out

Nev's first airplane ride (I think)

First day at the Strip...everyone's expressions crack me up :)

Nev thought we were in Disneyland with all the characters we saw on the streets; she wanted to visit with them all

The boys had to have a classic Coca Cola in bottles at the Coca Cola store!

Elle got to hold this little monkey (for $5 of-course!)

My view from my lawn chair as I read my book. Oh the life! ~ Nev was so sweet when I got on the floatie next to her

  Cade and Willem loved the 'Gold & Silver Store' from the show 'Pawn Stars'!

The Stratosphere

The rides which were 1050 feet in the air were scary to me (I did do them once) but Willem and Cade rode them numerous times

Nev at the big Nike store in Caesars Palace

 

I had so much fun with Nev on the rides in Adventuredome in Circus Circus; it makes me want to take her to Disneyland!

Nev loved the 4D movie at Adventuredome

4th of July!

Relaxing in our hotel room!

ODP 2011/2012

Back in the fall of 2011 Cade tried out and made the local regional ODP team consisting of the best players born in 1999 in the Eugene, Corvallis, Salem and Roseburg areas. The team trained together every other week until the March ODP inter-regional tournament where his team played the other local ODP teams from Portland, Vancouver, Medford and Bend. After that tourney, despite injuries to his knees and back, Cade made the State ODP team of the top 38 boys in the state born in 1999. This team trained five weekends until the Friendship Cup tournament over Memorial Day weekend. Cade was very happy to have made the 'A' team (top 18) for that tourney and was looking forward to making the top 18 that get to go to the Regional camp with the top boys from 13 western states. But, his hurt knees and reinjured back got the better of him and he couldn't practice the last couple sessions before the Regional camp players were announced. Cade was very disappointed to not go to Regional camp but it was actually good for him to have a full week of rest; his back has finally healed and his knees continue to improve with physical therapy. His goal is to be healthy next year and fight for a spot at Regional camp 2013! ODP is now sponsored by the Portland Timbers and it was fun seeing Cade in full Timbers gear.

 The 2012 state team for 99's

Father's Day

We spent much of Father's Day at a tournament in Portland but when we got home, we got to spoil Chad a little. I love that our kids get into Father's Day and were excited to spoil their dad even if their attention spans aren't too long ;) They are lucky to have such a great Daddy.

Love this! 

Nev wanted a pic with Daddy and his new sunglasses! 

Nev with her Grandpa

OMSI Overnighter

In early June I joined Gabrielle and her class for an overnight field trip to OMSI. I have never been a huge field trip fan (even as a kid) but I had fun with Elle and her friends and was really glad I got to go with her. I am just lucky to have such a kind, smart and beautiful girl! I also enjoyed hanging out with my friend and fellow mom, Julie, as well as the other parents. I could have done without sleeping on our air mattress with 50 others in the exhibit hall but that actually wasn't as bad as I feared either :)

Me and my girl!

Fun in the Chemistry Lab!

Me and Julie

Elle, Kirah, Jorja and Sara

Afternoon with the Girls!

I get to workout most mornings with these great gals and we finally got together outside of the gym for a pedicure, shopping and lunch. It was heavenly! I am very lucky to have these great girlfriends!

Lindsey, Rachel, Me and Cheryl

One Direction by Genevieve

Nev's current favorite song is 'What Makes You Beautiful' by One Direction and I finally caught her on video (on my iphone of-course) singing to it as she so often does (I wish I would have captured it on our video camera but when I took it out later later she wasn't in the mood to perform :)...

Northwest CrossFit Regionals

Over Memorial Day weekend I got to compete with the Eugene CrossFit team at the Northwest CrossFit Regionals. It was a great weekend especially because Gabrielle joined me and we got to spend a ton of time together. Our team of 3 guys and 3 gals plus 1 guy alternate and 1 girl alternate was really a great group of people too and I had a lot of fun just hanging out with them. We went out to dinner each night together and a group of 6 of us drove up to to the competition (near Seattle) together. It was also tons of fun watching and cheering on my amazing friend and, Cheryl, who won the women's competition and my other amazing friend, Kendall, who's team (from a CrossFit Intensify in Springfield) won the team competition. They both get to advance to the World CrossFit Games at the Home Depot Center in LA in July.

Our team had a great Day 1 doing better than we expected in the handstand push-up/deadlift workout and the row/pistol/hang clean workout. Day 2, however, was disappointing for us as we didn't advance passed the third workout. The strongest woman from our team was not able to compete with us because of a work commitment so I had to take her place as the 2nd strongest gal (by a very slim margin) and attempt a workout where I had a snatch a 70 lb dumbbell with one arm 30 times. I had made that weight just once in training (with 2 days rest before and only with my left arm as my right shoulder has been injured) and I hoped with the adrenaline from competing I'd be able to do it. But I just couldn't. It was a long 10 minutes trying! I know I did all I could to prepare and have no regreats but it was still disappointing. We all look forward to next year and hope to come back a little stronger (and with our full team :)!

The car ride to and from the competition was lots of fun girl time (our coach Daren was the driver)

Loved having Elle there with me!

Checking the standings together on my iPad

That's me doing pistols (one legged squats) in WOD 2

Happy to be done with WOD 2!

Attempting the 70 lb dumbbell snatch

Giving it my all!

Drew, Chantelle and Lindsey getting high fives after their WOD

Sam, Chantelle, me and Joe

Kendall, Christina and me at the ice baths

So dang cold!

Sam, me, Cheryl, Lindsey and Jason

Kendall and me

Most of our team with some spouses after dinner (missing Drew and Joe)

Kendall

With the infamous "Fitness Lonnie" a celebrity amongst CrossFitters :)

A few shots of Cheryl...

Go Cheryl!

Great job to Kendall and her team!