As usual, I'm way behind on my posts! Here are some of the fun things we've done over the last few months.

While Nana, Pop and Auntie were visiting for Ben's birthday we went to the Bayou Wildlife Park south of Houston. They have all sorts of animals (mostly) roaming free and you ride around in a tram and get to feed them. Some of the animals are very agressive and others are rather shy. The ostriches and emus were down-right rude! They'd just stick their head right into the tram and try to steal the whole bucket of food! Ben and Jakob had fun, but were a little scared of the big birds!

We've also gone out a couple times on PawPaw's boat. The first time we went with PawPaw and Uncle Jamie to Lake Houston on Easter. This was the boys' first boat ride and they both loved it!

Eeyore loved it too!

Lake Houston isn't the cleanest lake, but it's ok if you don't go in the water (Uncle Jamie went in the water and we suspect he contracted a staph infection). So the next time we took the boat out, we drove northwest of Houston to Lake Somerville. This time Jed, Tray and Destinee came with us too and we brought the big tube! Ben didn't want anything to do with the tube when PawPaw was airing it up, but as soon as he saw his cousins getting on it, there was no keeping him or Jakob off of it! PawPaw drove the boat super slow for them and they had a great ride!

We didn't do anything special for Easter this year (besides take the boat out), because Shane's mom was working. The week before Easter we went to a free egg hunt at Shane's mom's church. There were TONS of eggs and the boys had fun, but it just wasn't the same as our annual Playgroup egg hunt back in Ft Collins! Sorry, no pictures of the egg hunt. We also had fun coloring eggs (or rather the boys had fun and I felt like I was conducting a three-ring circus! This was the first year they've both colored eggs.)

Notice the outfits. Ben still refuses to wear anything but his "purple" monster truck pajama shirt. Jakob is really into copying big brother and decided on this day that he wanted to wear a "purple" monster truck pajama shirt too. (It's really blue, but he thinks it's purple and that's why it's his favorite!)

Grandma bought the boys fishing poles for Easter. Ben was SO excited and couldn't wait to go fishing for the first time!!! While Jakob was napping one day, Daddy took Ben to Wal-Mart to get hooks and bait etc and they went over to yucky Lake Houston to see if they could catch anything. No luck, but they had a lot of fun.

"When do we catch a fish, Daddy?"

The following weekend we went with Grandma, PawPaw and the cousins down to Galveston to do some real fishing. We went to the bay side to the exact spot where Shane and I swam for the triathlon. This was the first time I've been fishing since I was a kid and I wouldn't really call what I did as a kid real fishing. I even baited my own hook! That's only because we were using shrimp instead of worms. Couldn't have handled the worms!!!

Ben and Jakob got tired of waiting to catch a fish, but had a ball playing in the water and scaring all the fish away for everyone else.

Once the boys got out of the water and it started getting darker everyone started catching fish left and right. Except me. So much for beginners luck! Shirley even caught a sting ray! Shane caught a little cat fish. The boys were very excited each time someone got something.

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Just when it was dark, the bait was all gone and it was time to go I FINALLY caught something! I was so dark by then though, the picture didn't turn out too well.

Everyone was very focused on the fishing at hand, but we all had to take a few minutes to watch the incredible sunest that night. WOW! As my grandmother used to say every night, "That's the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen!'.

I can't believe it, but Benjamin turned 4 on March 30th!!! What a big boy he is getting to be!!!

Nana, Pop and Auntie came for their first visit TX to help him celebrate. Grandma and PawPaw joined us for a small family dinner on his birthday. We had pork chops because that's what Shane cooked for dinner the night my water broke, and an ice cream cake with one of his toy whales place on top for decoration.

Poor Ben had to wait until his party on Sunday to open any presents though. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends all came to our house for hamburgers and hotdogs, more cakes and loads of gifts!

His cousins (Jed, Tray and Destinee) did a great job helping him open his presents. He got a LOT of great stuff, including several monster trucks, train track and books. The gifts that got the best reactions were a plastic sperm whale and a dollar bill!

Ben requested a whale on his cake this year. I had baked two cakes, so Shane and I each decorated one for him. What a lucky boy!

DISCLAIMER: This is a terribly long entry! Please feel free to skim or just look at the pictures!!!

I can't believe it was five years ago this March that I had my leg amputated! I know most people thought I was completely crazy when I made the decision to have it done, but I have never regretted my decision.

Before the amputation, I said I wanted to ski and run, but because of back-to-back pregnancies so soon after the surgery, those things were put on the back burner for a while. Last year I wasn't pregnant or breastfeeding and was finally able to ski for the first time. I was very rusty, but it was tremendous fun!

Unlike skiing, running isn't what I'd call "tremendous fun"! It's hard work! I started running late last winter with the intention of running a 5K with my friend Connie. I didn't get very far very fast, and I stopped running in April when Shane moved to TX, because I didn't have anyone to watch the kids and they were just too hard to push in the double, non-jogging, winnebago stroller. I slowly picked up the running again after we moved to TX. Shane bought me a gym membership, and I hopped on the treadmill every once in a while. (I still haven't done a 5K, but Connie has done three half-marathons!!!)

This past January, I decided I should do something special to commemorate the five year anniversary of the amputation, so I started thinking about the 5K again. 5K for 5 years. Connie and I tried to find a race to do together, but it was very difficult since we now live so far away from each other. Logistically it didn't seem feasible. Then I saw an episode of Rebuilt on the Discovery Health Channel, read an event ad in a magazine, and got a bigger idea in my head! A 5K was a decent goal, but wouldn't it be even better to do more than just run? So I signed up to do a sprint distance triathlon: 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Shane signed up to do it with me, in case I needed help along the way during the race.

We trained together a few times, but usually one of us would do our workout while the other watched the kids (or slept) and then we'd switch. Our training wasn't very structured. We didn't follow any specific training schedule. Basically we woke up in the morning and did whatever we felt like doing that day.

When we first started training, we did it at the gym in the pool or on the treadmill or stationary bike. The swim segment seemed the easiest for me. I could easily swim for hours (breaststroke rather than freestyle though). Swimming was Shane's least favorite discipline. We hadn't practiced in open water before the race and didn't know how that would affect our swim. When we heard the water temp was a rather chilly 65 degrees, we made a mad dash to find a place to rent wetsuits. We didn't know how these would affect our swim either.

After training on the stationary bike at the gym, we figured it would be an easy 35 minute ride. Finally one day I decided to ride my ancient mountain bike with its non-functioning derailleur around the neighborhood to see how it felt. Boy was our estimate off!!! It wasn't easy and it took 70 minutes rather than 35 minutes!!! Shane thought I must have measured the distance wrong or something. He varified the distance and did the same ride a few days later with roughly the same results. Uh oh! There was no way I could run 3 miles after that bike ride!!!

Running was the most difficult disciple for both of us, not only because of my leg and Shane's knee, but because running is just down right hard! Like the stationary bike, treadmill training also proved easier than running outside. The treadmill kept me going and the air in the gym was never too hot or too thick and heavy. I had managed to build up to 3.5 miles on the treadmill, but when I finally headed outside, I found I could barely make it half a mile! Another challenge for me was sweat on my residual limb, which would cause my prosthetic to slide right off. This happened in the gym too, but more often the hotter it was outside. All I could do was stop, drain the sweat, dry my leg and liner, put the prosthetic back on and start running again. Finally I was able to build up to 3 miles outside, stopping every half mile to mile for the sweat depending on the temperature.

Shane and I practiced the biking and running segments back-to-back only twice before the race. The first time we tried it, we ended up walking one of the three miles. I was disappointed, but Shane said we'd done better than he expected. The second time we tried it, we made it the whole way without walking! This made me confident that we could do it during the race, if it wasn't too windy for the bike and the swim wasn't too draining.

Race day finally arrived last Saturday, April 1st. Shane, Bridget (my sister) and I went down to Galveston on Friday night to get checked in, pick up or race packets and rack our bikes at the race site. We stayed at a budget hotel that boasted online of a recent renovation and all new furniture. The furniture was ok, but the renovation still isn't finished and some things still have glitches. This we learned at 5:45 a.m. when we were awakened by the blaring of a faulty fire alarm that they couldn't shut off! I guess we needed to get up anyways!

We arrived at Galveston Island State Park at 7:20 a.m. Everyone's bike had been racked overnight at transition area 2 (T2). All racers met at T2 before the race for a brief meeting, to be body-marked with our race numbers and to get our timing chips. Before the start of the race, we were sent out according to our start wave to transition area 1 (T1) to re-rack our bikes and start the race with the swimming segment. Shane and I were in one of the last waves to start, so we had to wait a while to start. 

Here we are at T2 waiting to ride the 1+ mile to T1 to get ready for the swim.

Here we are finally riding over to T1.

Once at T1, we racked our bikes and put on our wetsuits. I couldn't put the wetsuit on over my prosthetic, so I used crutches to get from the bike racks to the water's edge.

Here we are ready and waiting to get into the water.

They finally called our wave to the water. We had to wait for a few minutes in knee deep water, and then we walked out and waited in shoulder deep water. Shane and I were feeling very glad we had rented the wetsuits! The other people in our wave were shivering as we waited in the water.

Finally the horn blew and we started the race! The wetsuits had kept us warm while we waited, but during the swim they proved to be much more of a hindrance than a help! They made us so bouyant, and since we'd never trained with them on, we didn't know how to swim in them. What seemed so easy in the pool was now a major struggle! The breaststroke is the only stroke I'm good at and it seemed impossible, because I couldn't bob in and out of the water like I usually do. I tried freestyle and the backstroke and even the doggie paddle, but nothing seemed to move us through the water very quickly. I still don't know how long it actually took us to do the swim segment, but it seemed to take forever!

We eventually reached the bouy marking the end of the swim. From there we had to walk through the water to the shore, then along the shore a ways back to where the swim had started, and then back to the bike racks. It was probably about 400 yards or so (200 yards to shore and 200 yards from the shore to the bike racks). I didn't have my leg on and couldn't walk through the water, so Shane pulled me through the water until I could touch the bottom with my hands. Then I scooted to shore on my hands while Shane went ahead to get my crutches from my sister, who was waiting on the shore. I hopped back the rest of the way on the crutches.

I haven't used my crutches in ages and was pretty worn out by the time we made it back to the bike racks. We quickly peeled off the wetsuits, put on our bike gear and headed out of the transition area for the bike leg.

The bike course was flat and took us out (south) and back (north) along the main road. The road was fairly busy, but it had a very wide shoulder and there were police at all the major intersections. It was slightly windy, but we mantained a steady speed. We figured tons of people would be wizzing by us on their fancy road bikes, so we were very pleased that we actually passed a lot more people than passed us. I had forgotten to reset the odometer on my bike, so I didn't know how far we'd traveled. This made the "out" part of the bike ride seem never ending, because I didn't know how much further we had to go. My back started aching after only a few miles and I developed an intense headache. I was relieved when we finally made it to the half way mark. The "back" part seemed easier, because then I had markers to let me know we were getting closer to the finish.

Shane's family, my parents and the boys traveled down to Galveston that morning to watch us race. Because of the early start and long drive, no one had made it down in time to see us swim (except Bridget who I mentioned had come down with me and Shane the night before to carry my crutches for the swim). We saw all our family as we were re-entering the park at the end of the bike segment. It was so cool to see them there and hear them cheering us on! We finished the bike leg at T2 (where we had originally started out earlier that morning), racked our bikes and headed out for the final leg of the race, the dreaded run.

The run course took us out over a bridge onto the beach, then off the beach over another bridge and through two of the campgroup parking lots, then over another bridge back onto the beach for the finish. Roughly half the run was on the beach, but it was hard-packed sand, so it was actually nice except for all the jellyfish we had to dodge.

I really wanted to finish the race without walking during the run, but I just couldn't do it. I think the swim and having to go on the crutches for such an unexpectedly long distance took a lot more out of me than I had anticipated. In addition, the headache I had developed during the bike was pounding like crazy with every step I took. We ran about a mile, walked a mile with a few spurts of running mixed in, and then ran the last mile.

Our whole big family was cheering us on as we crossed the finish line. Everyone was very proud of us. Several other racers even came up to congratulate me and told me I was an inspiration. What a tremendous feeling it was!!! Shane was very proud of me too even though I had to stop and walk, and I was very thankful to him for all his support and for sticking with me at my snail pace when he could have gone a lot faster!

The triathlon turned out to be a great way to commemorate my amputation. I also found that although I don't particularly enjoy working out, I really like having a specific goal to train for and the way I feel afterward a good training session. (I was high as a kite the day we did the bike/run without walking!) As soon as I started walking during the race, I told Shane we had to do another! We'll start training again on Monday and do another in Sugar Land on June 11th!!!

HOLY COW!!! I've done it again!!! Once again it has been eons since I've posted anything! Here's a recap of the past 6 months!

The rest of the summer passed very quickly, even though Shane was in TX and we missed him terribly. The boys and I kept ourselves occupied by playing in the backyard, doing arts and crafts, and going to the park a lot.

Ben also learned how to ride his bike.

And Jakob continued to be a master mess-maker!

(That's parmesan cheese all over the floor!!!)

In August, the boys and I went to CT. We had a great time swimming and visiting family and friends. We also went to the Children's Museum and an exotic wild animal park. The best part, however, was our trip up to New Hampshire to visit Auntie MarySue and Uncle John. The boys had such a great time picking blueberries, feeding the horses, and weeding. I also got to go up to Burlington VT to visit my friends Judy and Greg. It was a short, but nice visit. Unfortunately, I have some how lost all the photos from our trip. Luckily, I had already had some developed for the boys' scrapbooks.

Shane's mom, Shirley, came with him to CO for Labor Day weekend. The boys love spending time with Grandma and it allowed Shane and I to get away for a day and night of much needed alone time. We went to the Aspen Lodge outside beautiful Estes Park. We enjoyed a relaxing dinner, a beautiful hike and even a horse ride in the mountains! We decided that we couldn't keep the family apart for much longer and that we would officially move the first weekend of November even if the house hadn't sold yet.

We weren't able to see Shane again until mid October, when he came back up to Colorado for his annual hunting trip. We all drove down to Bayfield CO, and the boys and I stayed at Pappy's (Shane's dad) house while he and Shane were in the mountains hunting. Ben and Jakob had a great time collecting leaves and pine cones on our hikes on Pappy's property, but the highlight was watching a tarantula that Jakob spotted.

Shane had a great time hunting, because he killed a really nice 6x5 elk. The rack was too big to fit in my car on the way home, so we had to strap it to the roof. It was fun watching people point at it as we drove home.

Jakob turned 2 while Shane was hunting, so we had a mini celebration with Uncle Cody, Aunt Tandy, cousin Kaylie, and Uncle Stephen. We made him another cake when we got back to Eaton.

When we returned to Eaton after the hunting trip, Shane still had a day or so before he flew back to TX. We took the kids to a farm south of Eaton that had a corn maze and a huge pumpkin patch. We had a fun finding our way through the corn. . . .

. . .  and the boys just love picking out pumpkins!

Ben decided that he wanted to be an orca whale for Halloween this year, so I bought him a costume I found on ebay. I thought it would be cute if he was the orca and Jakob a sea lion, since orcas eat sea lions. Unfortunately, he REFUSED to wear the costume!!! SO . . .

I ended up making two sea lion costumes and wearing the orca costume myself! At first I couldn't get him to put the sea lion costume on either, but once he did, he didn't want to take it off!!!

Once again Halloween weekend was a very busy one! It started out with the Annual Playgroup Halloween party on Friday. The boys had a great time seeing all their friends in costumes. They all looked SO cute!!!

On Sunday we went to "Treatsylvania" at Lee Martinez Farm in Fort Collins. Local businesses set up little "houses" and the kids are able to walk around trick-or-treating. Ben was an old pro from last year and Jakob got the hang of it VERY quickly!

By Halloween night I figured the kids had had enough Halloween fun and that we would just go to a few of the neighbors' houses. They absolutely LOVED trick-or-treating though and we ended up walking around the entire block! They were so pooped afterwards!!!

The first weekend of November was the big move, even though we still hadn't sold our house. Mom and Dad came out to CO to help me pack. We packed and packed and packed all week and still didn't quite have everything completely packed. I would have been in a pickle if they hadn't come to help!!! Shane and some buddies loaded up the truck with my dad directing them.

It took ALL day to load the truck and finish cleaning the house. We set out in the car headed for TX that night, but only made it to Colorado Springs. We were both just to beat to drive any further that night!!! We finally made it to TX late Sunday night/early Monday morning. We stayed with Shane's mom until our trailer was delivered to our rental house and we unloaded it on Friday. Then the fun of unpacking and organizing began!

This is our "new" house in TX. We are renting until our house in CO sells and we decide where we want to buy something down here. It is literally a new house and quite nice inside. Everything was very clean and well . . . new. The yard is tiny and the neighborhood isn't spectacular, but it will work temporarily. The best part is that we are just minutes from Shane's mom's, which has been very convienient.

At the end of November, I took a much needed vacation! I went with my parents to Spain for a week to visit Marta, the exchange student we hosted when I was in high school. We didn't do any sightseeing, but enjoyed a very relaxing week visiting Marta's family and her new baby.

My parents with Marta and her husband, Jose-Luis.

Me with Marta's baby, Gonzalo.  What a cutie!!!!

We spent Christmas is TX this year. Lonnie (Shane's mom's husband), Kelly and Jamie (Shane's brothers) came to our house for dinner. We served a very special dinner of Shrimp Etouffe and Lobster. It was delicious!!! The kids thought the lobsters were really cool, but didn't like eating them.

The kids left cookies and milk for Santa. When Ben came downstairs on Christmas morning, he noticed that the cookies were gone but didn't see any presents. He was very upset until he finally saw all the packages in front of the fireplace rather than under the tree. (The tree was too small.)

Both boys had a great time opening gifts.

Jakob's big gift was a Monster Truck like Ben's. He had a great time testing out his new wheels in the cul-de-sac.

Later on Christmas Day we went over to Shane's mom's for a big feast and to open more presents.

Ben is still really into monster trucks and Jakob is following along in his footsteps. This year we took both of them to the monster truck show the weekend after New Years. Ben LOVED it last year, but this year he was afraid of all the noise at first. I was afraid we were going to have to leave, but once the big trucks came out he liked it.

Jakob had a great time watching all the trucks and stuffing his face with popcorn.

 Houston is taking some getting used to, but it's nice to have the family together again and the boys love seeing their cousins and everyone all the time. With all the unpacking, my trip to Spain and the holidays, we haven't had much time to explore our new environment or meet new people. We did make a trip to the Houston Children's Museum, which is really cool. They have great stuff for kids of all ages, including a real car to drive . . .

. . . and a cow to milk. Jakob actually stuck his head right under the udder and tried to drink the "milk" he was squeezing out.

We have also gone to story time at the library a few times, and of course found a few nice parks (none of which are in our backyard or even within walking distance).

So that's the scoop! In a nutshell, that is what we've been doing for the past 6 months. Stay tuned for the next installment! Will it be another 6 months?!?!?!