Monday, April 27, 2009

Grandma and Grandpa's house

After visiting with the sheep we made it to my parents' house.


Grandpa blew some bubbles.  I caught Maddie above in mid pop.










They had purchased a new patio set and Jackson helped Grandpa put it together.

Fun with sheep

This past weekend's weather was absolutely stunning.  Chris spent Saturday and Sunday morning with us but in the afternoon/evening he was helping a family member paint their kitchen.
On Saturday I was going to make my way to my parents' house to hang out after nap time.  When I got to the highway it was like a parking lot for some unknown reason.  I decided to take back roads which led me by Brooksby Farm.  I figured since we were just killing time we could go see the animals.  The farm wasn't open for business but the sheep were there and they had food for the kids to feed them.  I can't believe we were the only ones there!















Saturday, April 25, 2009

Play date/high school reunion

Susan that lives in Chicago was in town last week for the first time since having her son in October.  We were all so excited to meet him!  Shari offered her house (which was PERFECT) for all of us to trash, I mean hang out at.  There were five of us moms that were able to make it and it was really great to see each other again.  The kids all got along really well too.






























As usual, Susan's trip was too short. We probably won't see her again until this summer
for girls' weekend.

When I took the kids home Nana was waiting for them to take them to the cape to
visit Great Nana Fitz. They left Wednesday and just got back this morning (Saturday)!
Of course I missed them but I had a FABULOUS much needed two days to myself!

Marathon 2009

For those that don't know, I'm one of the photographers for the John Hancock Elite Athlete Hosting Program.  It's a volunteer position that I was much more involved in before the kids were born.  Now I only do race day photography.


Our volunteers are there on race day to assist the elite runners in our program.  We have special credentials that get us to the start line and finish line.  It's my job to photograph the process of the volunteers assisting the athletes in order to train future volunteers.
3 busses take all the volunteers and athletes from the Elite Athlete Village in Boston to the start in Hopkinton.  Once all of the athletes are at the start line we all run back to the bus that drives us back to Boston.  
This year for the first time I was able to get a shot of the actual start line.
Once we're back in Boston we usually have about 45 minutes before the first of our athletes cross the finish line.


I was there to get this shot of the female wheel chair winner waving at me.



This year was a very close female finish.  The winner is behind the guy holding the banner.  In past years I've gotten really great finish shots but the last two years there have been so many people in my way.


This is the third place male who is American!!


This is the male winner at the finish line waiting for the medal ceremony


This is the female winner getting her photo taken by all of the official media people who are allowed to go a bit closer to the finish line than I am.  I'm sure they all got great shots of her right there but none of them got my perspective which I think is pretty cool.




This is our fellow volunteer who runs the marathon every year.  This is just after he crossed the finish line 14 minutes FASTER than he had hoped for.

I ate this person

I just randomly found this video on my computer. From the thumbnail I thought it might be my very skinny friend Brenda. When I opened it I realized it was me... I know those pants are a size 6 and I also know I thought I was fat then. Little did I know.
Even though I've lost 12 pounds since starting to swim in January I still look like I ATE the person in the video.

On a side note I haven't swung a club since October of 2006. I can't wait until the kids are old enough to go to the driving range without needing a leash.

Bubbles with Grandma

Last Monday after I came home from working at the marathon I went to my mom's to pick up the kids.  They cried and cried when it was time to go.













Last weekend

Last Sunday we went to Gloucester to visit.  We hadn't been in a very long time.  Cousin Dana found some toys for the kids to play with.  We don't have anything like this (mostly because I don't want the pieces all over the place) so they were loving it!


Madison did her usual gathering






Dana told them these were flowers (fowfow) so I told Madison to smell it.



Friday, April 24, 2009

More pictures from the 17th

SOOOO far behind.  I wanted to share some more pictures I took at their monthly birthday shoot.  It was hard to choose my favorite.








Their favorite thing to do outside is push around the umbrella strollers




I was raking up another part of the yard that day so they were helping me dig.  Jackson was throwing the rocks he found.  He completely ignored me when I told him to stop.  So I told him that the rocks go "right here" pointing to a spot on the ground.  From then on he piled the rocks up in that spot.


Then Chris came home for lunch and he had the top down on the jeep for the first time this year.  They had so much fun playing in there.















The next two photos are horribly out of focus but their smiles are just so sincere that I couldn't delete them.