Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. First of all, Blake is here with us, and that makes things so much more fun. Second, we have so much to be thankful for. Third, the weather is finally beautiful. And last, but not least, we had a wonderful day at Roger & Sharon's house! We arrived around 1 pm (after relaxing at home, biking, running, etc.), ate "dinner" at 2 pm, went boating and fishing, ate pie, and then enjoyed a huge bonefire with both of their neighbor families. We couldn't have had a better day... unless of course all of our family members where there :)

Blake Playing the Stratocaster

One of Roger's co-workers, Josh, lent Blake one of his many guitars while he's here for Thanksgiving... thanks Josh!!! Blake's choice was a very nice Fender Stratocaster, which you can see him playing below. He's pretty good for only having played for a few years!

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Spiders Can Be Beautiful Too

I read that there are over 700 species of spiders in Florida. Wow! We see lots of them, but none as pretty & interesting as this Spiny Orb Weaver (which is related to the Golden Orb, aka Banana Spider) which hitched a ride on the front of Roger's jeep. Cool, huh?

Chili Cookoff

Some friends of ours decided to host a Chili Cookoff party last weekend to celebrate family, friends & fall. About 8 families met at Lakeside Park in downtown Celebration with what they hoped was prize-winning homemade chili. Unfortunely, my recipe for Sweet Italian Chili didn't take home any awards. Tim won for spiciest, Melissa won for most unique (with my white chicken chili recipe!) and Scott won for best tasting. I have never eaten so much chili in my life! Luckily Jeff made some homemade beer to wash the chili down, which was very tasty. Most of the kids didn't care about eating chili, but the had a great time tearing around the park, riding bikes, digging in the sand, etc. All in all a good time was had by all!

Yeah, It's Fall

Well, it's fall Florida-style, that is. The weather has cooled to the mid-70s to low 80s during the day and 50s and 60s at night. We have enjoyed spending more time outside, at the park, riding bikes, etc. Here's a shot of Justin & Chase with their friends Ava & Jake playing in the leaves in the front yard.

Carly's Crawling

Here's a quick little video montage of Carly's crawling capabilities. Pretty darn good for 5 1/2 months!

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Halloween

Forgot to post the few pictures we have from Halloween. Justin wore a few costumes... a scary monster (at Roger's work party), Batman (at school) and a crazy snowboarder (for trick-or-treating), while Chase was a skeleton and Carly was a Tootsie Roll.

We had a great day with Halloween parades at school, an always-fun annual Halloween party at the Sweeney's house and then trick-or-treating. The boys have a great time collecting candy, but have almost more fun staying on the porch to greet other trick-or-treaters and hand out sugary treats.

Chase with Walker & Grant at the Montessori Halloween parade

Justin the crazy snowboarder at the Sweeney's Halloween party

Carly the Tootsie Roll at Roger's office Halloween party

Carly at 5 months

Here are a few of the latest pictures of Carly at 5 - 5 1/2 months old...

In the jumper

Driving naked at Terri's house

With Dad & Justin

With Nami

One raised brow

More Panama City Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our time at the beach while we were in Panama City Beach for the Ironman Florida competition...

Roger's First Ironman!!!

A big congratulations to Roger for finishing his first (and not last!) Ironman competition in Panama City Beach, Florida! He completed the race in an hour less than he expected and he looked great when he finished. We are so proud of him!!!

Here are his stats...
Swim Time (2.4 miles) - 1:10:38
Bike Time (112 miles) - 6:02:01
Run Time (26.2 miles)- 5:26:49
Total Time - 12:55:35




And here is a slide show with more pictures from our time at the beach, race registration, race preparations, rooting Roger on from the sidelines and the finish line...

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I am encouraging Roger to post his story of the Ironman experience on our blog, so look for that coming soon!