A fun weekend...

Brent earned mega "Good Husband" points for this one!! The Sunday before last was our six year anniversary, and he pulled off quite a surprise for me. He knew that I was really excited to get away and feeling comfortable with leaving Gavin at home for a night, and in his anniversary card he wrote: "I knew that the best gift I could give you was my time." And he was right! So, Saturday afternoon he told me to get in the car--after several hours of sneakiness, might I add--because we were going on a field trip. I was in shorts and flip flops, by the way, and had nothing else "on my person." (You've gotta love that phrase!) We dropped Gavin off at Grandma and Grandpa Topping's house in Niwot, and he was having so much fun with his toys when we left that he hardly noticed our departure. It felt SO strange to drive away without our son or his car seat in the back of the car, which is so amazing considering that it was totally normal 9 1/2 months ago! (Brent had secretly removed the car seat from our car and put it in his mom's car while I nursed Gavin.) So as we drove away I got filled in on the plan: We were going to my dad's river house (a place that my dad has been trying to sell for longer than he'd like to remember), which is between Loveland and Estes Park. It's a great place in the canyon right along the Big Thompson River, and Brent had found a hike near the house that we could do on Saturday afternoon because he knew that I would love that. We hiked and talked and enjoyed the sunshine, and my husband had remembered to bring me a sports bra, hiking shorts, hiking boots and socks, a hat and even photo equipment to capture the above picture of us. Impressive!
Every time I asked him, "Now, you wouldn't have happened to remember...., would you have?" he'd shock me. (Mind you, there are specific things--like a breast pump--that one must remember in this scenario, and he had ALL his bases covered. I was impressed!) After our hike we came back to the house and cooked dinner. Brent had even brought a thermos of water from home since he can't stand the skunky sulfur water at the river house. We really had a nice time together, and it was very special to me that he had been so thoughtful in his planning of our get-away. (He had left a list of typed instructions for his parents too!) It was such a nice feeling to get in the car and learn that everything I needed was already there, unbeknownst to me. What a sweet and sneaky husband!
This is how we found Gavin upon our return, vegging out in a lounge chair after a tough game of baseball....OK, maybe not. I put him in our neighbor's chair to see how he'd like it during our block bbq , and he was unexpectedly calm and collect for a few minutes there. I think we may need to invest in one of these! We worried a little that Gavincito might have been angry with us for leaving him for a night, but he crawled right into Mama's arms with a smile big enough to cause his binky to fall out when we showed up in his room on Sunday morning. What a blessing!
This is Gavin's office space in the kitchen. He gets a lot of work done here, so it's a good thing that he's paid by the item. (I think this may actually be more helpful to us someday when he learns to put each piece of tupperware back in its haphazard spot in the nightmarish tupperware cabinet, but for now it gives him something fun,messy and safe to do in the kitchen while I'm trying to get something done in there too.) He looks so proud of himself in this picture, doesn't he?

Father's Day Festivities...

Can you see the family resemblance here? We were just commenting that Gavin and Brent have similar eyes and earlobes :) but Brent was saying that the shape of his ears is like mine. (I will add that it also seems like Gavin's face is more like mine since ours are more round than Brent's, but other than that I don't really see a lot of me in my son yet.)
These pictures were all taken up at my dad's place outside of Loveland on Father's Day. "Grampa T" was game to hold his grandson until the little guy got too squirmy, and then it was right back to Mommy. Gavin loved the sight and sounds of the fast-flowing river that runs behind my dad's house.
This place was a crawling haven for our son! He loved the open spaces of grass, the gardens full of flowers, the fountains dripping water and the rabbits in the yard. Brent put him down in the grass to chase after a bunny at one point, and Gavin seemed so confused when the bunny darted off in the opposite direction. Go figure! I guess the rabbit might not have wanted Gavin to put his fingers in his mouth or up his nose and pull on his fur.

Brent's slowly getting better at racing...

As most of you know, I started bike racing this year and overall it has been fairly good so far. I haven't crashed...although I have seen at least half a dozen people directly next to me and around me hit the pavement pretty hard. Hopefully I am not next! I think so far I have competed in 8 races (4 Criterium races, 3 hillclimbs and 1 Road race) and in most of them I have finished anywhere from 12th to 39th which is about the top 15% to top 50%. For my first year of racing, this has been pretty encouraging, but there have been signs in most of those races where I thought I could do a bit better even though I am still new to the racing scene.

Finally, last night I had a break through. I was able to finish 4th in a criterium in Golden, CO and earn my first few upgrade points (you need a certain amount of upgrade points to jump up to the next category and they are only earned by placing in the top 10 in a race). In several of the other criterium races, I have felt strong but tried some different strategies that have taught me a lot, yet not yielded great results. This time I was more patient, stayed towards the front of the pack for most of the race, and then I moved up on the last lap to lead out the sprint. Two other guys got about a 5-10 meter gap in front of me after I led out, and then 1 guy got me at the line as well, but all in all it was a great finish and exciting to experience what it's like to be in contention for the win. Sorry, there are no pictures to show from this as my wife was having a good time with Gavin at dinner at our good friends Chris and Megan's place and our team photographer was on vacation or something. Anyways, just wanted to share the good news. Hopefully soon we can have some update on how Gavin and Tara are both doing.