Life, as of late ...

Life has been marching sprinting by at an impressive pace over the past month.  It has already been over six weeks since I started my new job, working four days a week. We have been fortunate to be able to rely on Mylo's mom (Grandma Wendy) to watch the boys for the additional day of daycare we needed.  It is such a relief to have our kids with family when we are working.  Speaking of work, it has been going very well and the boys have adjusted to a little less mama time without issue.  The thing with working more is, that the weekends feel infinitely shorter.  We have been jam packing our weekends with all kinds of activities.   I feel like I need a weekend to recover from my weekends. Hmmm.  

We took the fellas up to Mt. Baker for me to a do a practice run for my hike up the slopes for Ski to Sea.  The boys all played in the snow while I strapped on my skis and hit the slopes.  It was a gorgeous day and I was glad I did a pre-race practice run so I would know what to expect for the actual race the following weekend. 

We had a couple beautifully sunny weeks in May and we took full advantage of the sun to take some time to work and play in our yard.  Our summer yard projects are coming along slowly, but we are looking forward to making more progress in the yard this summer, once Mylo is out of school.  We got some kiddie pools (one for Ollie and one for Henry) that will hopefully survive the neighborhood raccoons, who punctured our inflatable pool last summer.  It took Ollie all of 3.5 seconds to get the slide in the pool and start launching his body into the tiny pool at alarmingly high speeds.  It was a little painful to watch, but he seemed to enjoy himself.  Henry is getting increasingly mobile on uneven surfaces (i.e. grass) and is now into everything.  It is physically exhausting to keep up with that kid.  Ollie, being 3 1/2 is emotionally exhausting with his constant emotional ups and downs.  Fun times! 

Memorial weekend is Ski to Sea weekend in Bellingham.  It is a sight to behold.  500 eight-person teams descend on Bellingham to take part in the festivities.  I came out of Ski to Sea retirement this year to to the downhill ski leg (really a hike up the slopes in your ski boots, while carrying your skis) for Extremely Rad Chicks, a team organized by my co-worker.  The local newspaper even did a Racer Profile on me, the rookie of my team.  The article is equal parts mortifying and hilarious.   Collectively, we had something like 55 years of Ski to Sea experience amongst the eight women on the team.  I had a blast and might just have to do it again next year!

Classic post-race picture with everyone looking at different cameras. 

We have also been hitting up our fair share of social events - barbeques, dinners, and birthday parties.  On top of all that, Mylo and I have been playing in our weekly Ultimate Frisbee spring league, which culminates this weekend with a mini-tournament.  Mylo has been playing basketball at work one day a week and I have been squeaking in a ladies bike ride once a week.  The nice thing about my new job is that I can get to the gym or go running during at least two of my lunches during the week, which is fabulous! I don't know how I would get it all in otherwise.

Ollie and Fisher riding their strider bikes at Eliot's 5th Birthday Bash. 

Ollie and Mylo made Ollie his very own garden spot, where he can dig and play with his trucks without tearing up our actual, food producing veggie garden.  We had an existing bed that was full of overgrown plants.  We decided to let Ollie have it this summer since we plan to level  it out and turn it into grass next summer when we replace our ancient sewer line and redo this whole portion of our backyard.  Ollie picked out some marigolds, which he planted.  He was so proud of himself and it was pretty adorable to watch him and daddy working together in the yard. Maybe next year we will actually get around to making a sandbox.  Or we could just continue to let them dig in the dirt.  I suppose it would be a lot less work and money.

Ollie has also started to transition to a big boy pedal bike.  He jams on his strider bike (no pedals) so I picked him up a used (but nice) 12" bike on Craigslist for only $25.  He did a great job pedaling, but didn't want us to let go of him yet.  In classic Ollie style, I think he will take a little while to warm up to it. Pretty exciting stuff!