trip to Boston

Lisa and I had to go to Boston for a conference and dragged Amalia along for the trip. It was good and Amalia had a good time. Both Lisa and I gave talks that went well and Amalia had a great time in the hotel swimming pool and on the escalators. But she especially liked her trips to the Children's Museum and the Aquarium. The trip back was horrible. We made it Charlotte and then our plane broke. We sat around the airport for 3hrs before they got us a van to drive the 3 hours to Roanoke and then back to Blacksburg in our car. The van drivers were crazy, speeding and tailgating in the snow and wind. I will never do that again. But overall a good trip.

Playing with Sean Thomas at the aquarium:

Riding a sea turtle:
Future antarctic ornithologist?
or intertidal marine biologist?
The Children's museum had lots of cool displays like this one showing the equipment used in the big dig:
A couple of ways to generate electricity. I like the idea of harnessing her energy to power our house!
They had this amazing structure that is 3 stories tall. Its a variety of shaped platforms surrounded by metal netting. Its very cool and kids love climbing around in it. I think Lisa was scared but Amalia loved it and it was tough to get her out of it. Is was kind of a 3 dimensional maze.

christmas for Amalia

Amalia was really excited for Christmas the year. The packages have been coming in and today she got to open them. Upon opening each one she would say 'thats so cute'. She was really excited. We then went on a hike to the cascades. It was cold but sunny and Amalia got to wear her new 'ski' outfit. We did about 2 miles and she hiked ~1.5miles. This afternoon and evening she got to video/talk with her family on skype and had a good time seeing them all. She had a great day.

You didn't know angels wore crowns made of campagnolo track chainrings???

Trying on her knew fancy socks from Grandparents Belden:
Test driving her new turtle puzzle from Grandparents Belden:
Opening her present of kid's cookbooks from Uncle David:
Learning about spiders from books from Grandparents Moore:
Playing with her Diego puppet from the Koepke's:
Test driving her new Dora sleeping bag from the Koepke's:
It was cold on the hike but Amalia enjoyed it:
Mostly she hiked on her own but I carried her for a bit:
Enjoying a banana bread snack:
All bundled up:
But then she insisted she was too warm so removed her coat:

Christmas music

A couple of classics:

Run DMC


Family guy:

Amalia's first mile race

Today was the Frosty 5K and 1 mile fun run. I have been telling Amalia all week that she was going to race so she was really excited. She likes to say that she is 'really, really, REALLY fast!'So we went to the race. We decided to stick with the 1 mile race and she was in the 12 and under group... way under in her case as a 2 year old. There were 3 other kids, a brother and sister around 6 and 8 and another little girl who was 3. Lisa came along and took pics. Overall Amalia did great! She ran the first 0.6 miles almost without stopping. This included running by a playground (I thought we were going to have to stop and play on the slide). I had to carry her a bit on the uphill on the way back. As you can see she sprinted through the finish for a strong 3rd place and a ribbon! I think our time was 11:46. Outstanding performance.

Stretching it out before the start:

Warming up:

Its go time!

Starting slow to finish fast:

The 3 year old starts to fade and hears Amalia's footsteps:

Sprinting through the finish!

trip to PHX

Got back from our pre-Thanksgiving trip to Phoenix to visit my family. All went well, even flying with a 2 year old (thanks to Steve Jobs and the video ipod!). Here are a few pics from the trip:

Amalia running through the botanical garden:

Looking at birds with me:
Sitting on a bench with mom and grandma:
Using Grandaddy's binoculars:
Riding the carousel (riding the elephant) at the zoo with mom and grandma:
Riding the camel at the zoo with mom (Lisa says they aren't very comfortable):
Studying (or is it stalking) birds up close:
Another trip on the carousel, this time on the cheetah:
In the backyard learning about flowers and bees from Tio David:
Sitting on the couch with prima Anacelia.
Back to the zoo to visit with the goats:
Anacelia likes the goats too:
The primas taking a goat for a walk:
Too tired to walk:
Reading a book with Tio Gabe:

cyclocross

Yesterday and today were the Tech Cross races, those were the cyclocross races on our very own VT campus. Good stuff. Since we ride on the course every week, there is a bit of a home court advantage. I officiated the wheel/spare bike pit when I wasn't racing. That is, I sat around and made sure that no one cheated. For my races I did the 35+ category. I got 3rd on both days. The winner and second place were the same. The winner was just too strong and John McKenna (2nd both days) were faster than him but not stronger. In any case, we raced hard and had fun. I only crashed once, in warm-ups. I was trying to figure out how to ride the corner of death and figured out what line NOT to take. Nothing hurt, just my pride when my friends laughed at me.

Here is a cool video of the fast guys racing, notice the cool move over the logs at ~2:00 mark.

Some more pics will appear here.

Even more pics here and here. 

Here are some pics taken by Ryan Harne.

I was actually leading the race at this point:

Mud on my side from my crash:
Finishing alone in third:

halloween

Yesterday was halloween, Amalia's first real one. They dressed up at daycare and paraded around. Then Lisa picked her up early and they carved up a pumpkin. Then we took her downtown where the merchants gave out candy, cookies, etc. They also had a costume contest at the theatre and a giant slide set up where the farmer's market usually is. Amalia was dressed up a cheetah and had a great time. When the trick-or-treaters started to show up, Amalia insisted on handing out the candy. She liked giving away candy more than getting candy!!! Her great-grandmother Moore would be proud as she always said its better to give than to receive.

Amalia with her pumpkin:
Amalia at the theatre looking at other kids in their costumes and enjoying some candy.

Amalia on the slide. You might notice that she is catching some serious air. The slide was meant for bigger kids but she insisted on doing it, twice!This picture obviously isn't in focus but I like it because it captures the glow on her face. She was fascinated with the candle.