More Drake Relays - 8K

At 6 am we all pulled ourselves out of bed for the Drake Relays 8 K Road Race. Blake and Adam were swallowed up in a heard of about 2000+ runners as Amy and Kim climbed the hill in hopes to get a quick glimpes of them as they ran past.


It was a beautiful day after a hard night of rain. They both came in together at 45:05.

4th Grade Chorus Concert

Hunter's 4th Grade Class held their annual Choral Concert on Thursday. They did a show about the taking care of Earth. Hunter played the fish and the recorder.

Kidstrong Victory Lap/Grand Blue Mile

Iowa started a program called Kidstrong designed to promote youth healthy living. Kidstriders is a running club in this program. Crossroads (Blake and Hunter's school) participated in the program in a big way. They had 130 kids participate by running 30 minutes after school on Tues and before school on Fridays when weather permitted. All kids that accumulated 26 miles by March were invited to run in a celebratory 1/4 mile to finish their marathon. They ran last night with two Olympic Gold Medalists in town for the Drake Relays. Here are they are with their school (Blake circled in black and Hunter circled in red). There were 700 kids that participated in this celebration.

After the kids run. Adam participated in one of a series of mile runs. He ran a 7 minute mile.

Earth Day 2010

Today is Earth Day so that means we spend time outside enjoying the beautiful outdoors and of course RUN!!
Blake and Adam chose the 5k and Hunter chose the 1/4 mile sprint. Uncle Adam beat Blake by 30 seconds with a time of 23:45.
Blake came in just behind him looking like he was on an Earth Day stroll, but dressed like a professional runner. Blake still came in 4th in the 13year old and under group. He was clearly the youngest kid to finish when he crossed the line.
Hunter did the kids run. He really gave it his all as you see here. He came in 4th overall.After the runs we all got a free tomato plant for Earth Day and had lunch outside on the Gateway Marketplace patio. It was a great morning!

Baseball is Back!

Season openers for The Extreme and The Rattlers were this weekend.

Blake's Extreme played the Norwalk Rush. Blake started his season pitching the first inning for his team with no score and only four batters they went into the second inning. During the second inning Blake hit the team's first home run of the season. They ended the game winning 14-2!

Hunter's Rattlers played the Pirates. Hunter started and finished the game pitching all 5 innings. He hit a long one out to left field, but it was caught. He pitched a terrific game, but steals and errors got them in the end. They lost their game 4-8.

Here are some fashion shots of the boys in this year's fancy new uniforms. Dave is coaching for both teams.

Adam and Kim, pregnant together

Adam and Kim here, having fun in our weekly birthing classes. This week the instructor brought in an empathy belly, I jumped to the opportunity to try it out. It was heavy (the t-shirt nicely hides it) and there was a strap to restrict your breathing as if a baby were pushing against your lungs. It was a bit much after 10 minutes of walking around, sitting down, picking things up, I had enough. Here's a picture of me and Kim comparing bellies. I'm glad to say I have a new respect for what Kim is going through.

Easter Visit to Alex

Sorry for the delay but Kim and Adam are here to report on our visit to Alexandria over Easter weekend. After a brief baby room shopping trip in the cities we made our way up to visit Grandma Bev at Clearwater Suites for small dinner on Saturday night and a short visit in her room.

The next day started off with a wonderful 8:30 Easter service at Shalom. After church we headed to the Arrowwood Resort for Easter Brunch. There many people came up to say hi to Grandma Bev and introduce themselves to the two of us. There was also a surprise sighting of the Sonstagard family enjoying the Arrowwood meal. After brunch we returned to Clearwater and chatted with Bev until it was time to return to Iowa.



Here's a picture of Kim, Adam, Bev and pastor Aaseng while having cookies between services at Shalom. Unfortunately this is the best picture, I have an issue with camera flashes. The whole visit was wonderful and was enjoyed by all.

Sea Pleasures

Becky here from Venice Beach in Florida.
Spring breaks happen for the four or five weeks of March and the first of April. We locals have to get in line--or just stay home until the tourists leave. The streets are filled with cars, restaurant wait lines long, and beach real estate hard to come by. I ventured out yesterday at 11 a.m. and lucked into a parking spot (Venice Beach parking was PACKED so I went to Sharky's beach). I set up my chair and umbrella windbreak and sat there to watch everyone play. A happy day for everyone. But I missed my kids...

My Beach House for the Day

Pretty Colors in the Wind

Waiting For the Big Wave



Shark's Tooth Hunter