MERRY CHRISTMAS

Lack of updates I know, but it's been a busy fall....
Now it's December and three days before Christmas! As I sit here with Marlo on my lap as always with ants in her pants, Miss jabber jaw, miss independent, stuborn, with her "Me Help", "Narno do it" attitude. (She calls herself Narno)
We went through some photos and video to post for the holidays.

Eleni is doing great in Kindergarten and loving it. She's a smart cookie, but too many cookies and she's bouncing off the walls.

We dusted some snow off the pond for a little skating action in the backyard. Eleni's first time on skates and she did very well.

Showing off her new skills

Marlo getting in on the action.

The tree decorating committee, doing what they do best!



We are slow on getting out our Christmas Cards, so maybe we'll do
New Year cards instead?
Until then... Here's some Christmas Cheer
from the girls.




Have a Merry Christmas!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY ELENI!

Eleni Turns 6 Today!

Recap of some Fall Events-Eleni starts School!

8/9/09 Friends Jason & Kristin got married up on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Beautiful ceremony right on the beach, good times for sure.



Nicole and I camped out at Split Rock light house the night prior and had a pretty sweet site with a large "split rock" of all things right in our site.

Had time for a short ride the morning prior to the wedding, Rode to the top of day hill which had a great view.

The next weekend was the Border Battle bike race in River Falls, WI. MN vs. WI series.
MN Put up a good battle, but WI took the cup again this year. Made it a solo trip and camped out nice relaxing getaway with lots of time to think.

Eleni broke her collar bone on August 17th. She was running with her cousins and got tripped up and fell just right. 2.5 hr wait in the "waiting room" in the ER for x-rays told us what we already knew.. Yep -Broken!

Friends Zach & Susie got married August 29th the girls had a great time dancing. Nicole & Eleni rocked the Hokey-Pokey sticking the RIGHT arm in, but Eleni stuck her left since the right one was on the injured reserve list.

Beach time at the reception.

The first year of our garden was a learning experience. Tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers, lettuce, herbs and a few cucumbers. Lots of tomatoes waiting to turn red.


Labor Day, Maplelag weekend of bike racing. Time trial Saturday morning and Short Track in the afternoon. Two new events for me, need to be in better shape for those sprint type races. Sunday was the XC event, paced myself and rode well..always good times.

Short Track Race -Photo courtesy of www.skinnyski.com

ELENI STARTS KINDERGARTEN!
First day of school with her pile of school supplies to stock up her share of the class. Missing a freshly lost front tooth with a nervous look on her face and don't forget the big box of tissues.

Sept 12th, Happy Birthday to me, along with the Dick Beardsley 1/2 marathon which Nicole and her sister Katie did the relay in. I pulled the girls in the Burley and leap frogged the event cheering for all the runners. Record turn out this year and Nicole and Katie did great, Congrats Ladies and well done!

Nicole looking strong at the end of her leg.

A few friends came over for a bonfire that night with a lot of kids running through the woods in the dark with flashlights screaming looking for big foot. Unfortunately forgot to take the camera out of my pocket that night to capture the chaos.

A nice day on the water today. Wish we would have had some days like this earlier in the summer! Lake like glass, kids got to go tubing again FINALLY.

Marlo and Cousin Ella getting a lesson for next year (maybe?)

Finally Added Photos;

Added Photos to previous post.

Sorry for the Lack of Updates!

I've been slacking on updates, I get intentions and then fail.
We've been busy to say the least. A short recap of the "Summer that Never Was"......
-June 19th-21st: Glendalough Canoe Trip with the Westrums.

Evan, Marin & Eleni doodlin' by headlamps.
-June 27th: Karl Family Reunion in Park Rapids

Marlo on the Rod Karl Tribute Tractor
-July 4th: Floyd Lake Boat Parade (actually felt like Summer!)

A lot of tired Chicks after the chicken dance.


-July 11th: McFarren Family Reunion in Park Rapids

-July 22nd-25th: 10,000 Lakes Festival

Front row for Gomez. Awesome Show!

Eleni taking in Tea Leaf Green
-July 24th: Nicole's Birthday!

Nicole scoring a Loki Sweatshirt w/mittens and balaclava built in!
-August 1st-3rd: Our Friends Jessie & Scott from Colorado were here.

Marlo showing off her stitches w/Lachlan.

Eleni & Brodie

And coming up this weekend, Nicole and I are off to the North Shore for our friends Jason & Kristin's Wedding. We'll be camping at Split Rock Lighthouse S.P. on Saturday and then at Superior Shores Resort for the wedding on Sunday. Looking forward to just "the two of us" getting away. Thanks goes out to my parents for taking the girls this weekend!

Duluth-Bike Race

Saturday June 13th Nicole, Eleni, Marlo and I headed up to Duluth for stop #3 of the MNSCS mtb races. After a stop at our favorite eatery, the Fitzger's Brew House for lunch we headed to the race event location at Mont Du Lac to set up camp. After camp was set up and the rain shower passed I got in a pre-ride lap of the race course. Huge climb to start it out but with that out of the way sweet flowey singletrack followed, sweet course! Back to camp for some dinner and met a few of the other riders and their families.

Sunday (race day) was sunny and hot. I was racing in the sport division and which started at 11:00. Nicole got up early and went for a run with Marlo in the jogger and then we whipped up some pancakes with fruit for breakfast. At race time Nicole, Eleni and Marlo hiked to the top of the hill to watch and for water feed after the first of two laps. My goal was to just ride comfortably, set a nice pace and just see where I fall. Finishing 8th in my age group and 55th out of 112 races gives me a nice room for improvement. Feeling I had more left in my tank afterward and wishing I wouldn't have hung on a guys wheel so long leaves me looking forward to the next race itching for more. FUN TIME!

Right after the perfect bottle hand off from Eleni, off for lap #2.

photo courtesy of Dana Schoppe Photography
Eleni Raced in the Shimano Kids race right after I was done. A great event to include the kids and she had fun and finished 1st!



Another Weekend of camping and canoeing coming up with our friends the Westrums.

Summer Kick Off....weather pending?

Marlo rocking her pony-hair is growing!

Memorial Day usually means the kick off for Summer, but with recent temps one wouldn't know it.
(Frost warnings tonight-June 5th!!!)
Memorial Day weekend was actually pretty nice for the most part. We got the boat in for a quick ride along with a pontoon cruise with Nicole's Sisters and Cousin's who were in town. Bonfires and cheers with beers were had.

Marlo testing the water (no fear!)
This past weekend we had some friends get married at Maplelag. We joined Amber and Chris for the weekend which was nice being it was 2 years since we were married there. Good times were had for sure and I got in a ride Friday and a super fun one with Chad Jansen on Saturday before our "wedding helper" duties kicked in.

Nicole(Matron of Honor) with Mr & Mrs Carr

Cousin Clara & Eleni at the reception

Waving the Maplelag colors.
This afternoon I headed back up to Maplelag to ride again to get the lungs and legs ready for next weekends MNSCS race up in Duluth. Ran into a couple of guys (Dave Simmons & Grant) from Fargo and checked out the new singletrack Jay and Jake started on last fall. Ran into Jake out on the trail fine tuning a section.
That's going to be some fun stuff! Then we did a loop of the already famous single track and lakeside drops (wished my new brake pads would have shown up)
a few close calls into the lake were almost had. Fun Ride!

photo courtesy of Jay Richards & Maplelag

2 YEARS TODAY!

Happy Anniversary Nicole!
I LOVE YOU! -Tony

Eleni's Tonsil-less!

Eleni had her tonsils and adenoids out a week ago (Tuesday May 5th). Everything went smooth and we were out of there in 4 hours! Laser technology at it's finest I guess? The hardest part was getting her to let us take out her earrings.
She recovered pretty well but the Codeine finally got to her and she lost her appetite and didn't drink much and ended up getting dehydrated with some puking. We quit the codeine and got her dialed back in with some electrolytes and she was back to skipping around and yelling in no time! Pretty amazing actually after hearing some of the horror stories from others. If it wasn't for those down and out dehydrated sessions one would have never known she had the surgery, other than that her voice is slightly higher now with a little softer pitch.

Eleni - Checking the levels.


Bye Mommy & Daddy, off to surgery :(

Smiling in the Step Down after Surgery :)

Marlo is... BUSY! She pretty much likes everything she shouldn't have and thinks telling her no no is funny. Keeps you on your toes that's for sure. She loves exploring outside and gets really mad when it's time to come in.

Easter Egg Hunt

Marlo checking out the new paint job in the entry.

"Bike"

Marlo Turns ONE!

It's hard to believe our little baby girl just turned one!

We had a few people over for her Birthday on Sunday April 5th! Nicole made her a carrot cake which she really liked, but Eleni knowing after watching Nicole shred the carrots asked if somebody could pick out the carrots for her, little miss picky lately... Eleni also kidnapped a Cabbage Patch Kid that Marlo got saying, "This can be both of ours right since Marlo has two?" With a question for an answer back, "When you get a Barbie on your next birthday it will be both of yours right? Of course her answer was "NO!"

Marlo's ONE!

Marlo has pretty much mastered the walking, and her vocabulary is getting bigger too! She's getting pretty good at repeating words, growing up too fast.

Eleni is itching for Summer. She found her summer wardrobe box and I think has pretty much tried it all on by the looks of her room!

MAPLE SYRUP!

I was reading the new Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine which had an article about making your own maple syrup. With a few sugar maples in our yard I decided to tap a few trees and see if I could attempt to make my own. It really started to run the middle of last week and this past weekend I boiled down around 10 gallons or so and ended up with more than I thought I would have since the ratio on average is 40:1. The finished project ended right during Marlo's Party, so our guests got to sample the warm syrup on ice-cream. Turned out pretty good. Next year I may attempt it a a larger scale.

Tapping one of two trees.

Boiling down the Sap.

Finished product in a nice amber color.