HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARLO!

Our little Marlo turns 3 today!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

It's a BOY!

Introducing!
Ryder James Schmitz
Feb 10th, 2011 1:59 pm
8lbs, 11oz & 20 inches long

Everbody is enjoying him and doing well.
Content little guy who is eating a pooping well already!

"Can you believe it?....A Boy?" Nicole


Big Sister Eleni, Glowing with Pride


Big Sister Marlo Super Proud!

Announcement outside of Jonathan's!

Here he is.... ONE FULL DAY OLD!!

Due Date Today.....No Baby Yet!

Today is Nicole's Due Date and also a Happy 40th Anniversary to my parents today!

No baby yet. Would have been fun to have the baby on my parents 40th, but it wasn't ment to be I guess?

Yesterday Eleni and I cruised up to Maplelag for a morning ski with Nicole's Sister Kari's Family who were staying there for the weekend.

A slight panic attack and blood pressure flair up is all that has happened on the baby front this weekend. Nicole has a Doctors Appointment tomorrow AM so we'll see what happens after that.

Stay tuned for updates.... Follow Via Twitter (over on the right side column) for frequent updates when things start to happen....Baby will soon be coming.

Eleni stridin' up hill....She was wore out!

Postcard Shot of how to enjoy winter!

Eleni, Ava, Uncle Brent, Ella (on Brent's Back) and Auntie Kari Enjoying
the wonderful conditions at Maplelag!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 1/1/11

Kicking off the 2011 with a Nice Winter Storm! Changing up the plans staying around the home front cranking out loaves of fresh bread and taking down the Christmas Tree and packing up the Christmas Decor for the season.

Christmas was a riot with the Girls really getting into the season this year with Marlo understanding it a little more and the two of them playing together nicely keeps it entertaining.

From Christmas 2010

One of their evening dress up sessions. Marlo said they were "Trick or Treating" Eleni said, "We are dressing up as Carolers." ..... Great Imaginations for sure!

There has been requests for Belly Pictures of Nicole, so Here are the girls joining in as well.

From Christmas 2010

Show Me your Belly!

From Christmas 2010

Six weeks to go from this photo (tentatively?) Due Date Feb 6th

From Christmas 2010

Eleni Scoring a new pair of Skis. She was Excited!

From Christmas 2010

Marlo with her new Eating and Pooping Baby Alive.

From Christmas 2010

Eleni wearing a sweater dress that my Dad bought my Mom in Athens, Greece circa 1970

Didn't get enough skiing in over the Holidays, but Eleni and I did get out a for a couple of short pokes, enough to keep her begging for more which is good. We have MN Youth Ski League starting next Sunday so will be fun getting her out with some other kids as I'll be helping coach this year too so looking forward to that. One more day left on the weekend to finish shoveling out the driveway and hopefully sneaking in a ski......HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From Ski Reports

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

From Drop Box

Mountain Man?

The DL Tribune ran a front page article graced with my presence in the paper over the weekend.
They stumbled across me in action working on the new Mountain Bike Singletrack out at Mountain View Rec Area east of town and labeled the photo "Mountain Man". Let's just say I've been getting hassled by others over the deal...All good!

Photo by Brian Basham-DL Online
I'm about a 1/2 mile into it so far, with plans to complete around a mile ride-able loop this fall.
Hoping to round up some other Volunteers this weekend to knock out a good chunk.
I was out there last night and blew out the trail as majority of the leaves have fallen out there.
Photos after last night blow out with my new leaf blower I got for my Birthday!

From Drop Box

Rock Garden Section

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Nicole's Stuffed Green Peppers with Squash-Potatoes & Salad for dinner chased down with an IPA......=Perfect!

From Drop Box

Labor Day / Laddies Loppet

One of the most looked forward to Weekends of the Summer came and went too quickly as our Friends Jessie and Scott and their two boys Brodie and Lachlan from Colorado came to visit and to join us up at Maplelag for the weekend for the Annual Laddies Loppet Mountain Bike Stage Race Weekend. For those of you who attended our wedding there know the Food is incredible, toss in 300 Mountain bikers and their families and the outstanding hospitality put forward by the Richards Family it's a fun time that's hard to beat!

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

The Racing was tough as usual. Saturday morning, Scott and I did the Time Trial which was one fast loop on the Citizen Course. Followed by the Short Track Race in the afternoon which is Awesome to watch but one that buries me to the ground as the full 12 minutes of pure hammer time is not my cup of tea. I prefer chilling with Beer, but gave it a go and felt like I was going to tip over as I gimped myself to the finish line.

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

Eleni and Marlo had a great time with Brodie and Lachlan on the Pump Track playing with the big kids.

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

With all the Kids taking part in the Kids Race Sunday afternoon, all with smiles on their faces!

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

Lachlan and Jessie From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

Also a High School Friend and Classmate Lynn Schnathorst (Tews) and her Husband Garrett also stayed and raced the weekend events!
Good to see them and good luck to them Riding at Chequamegon this weekend!

From LADDIES LOPPET / Maplelag

Watching the Lakeside Drops section during the Elite and Pro Races.
Jessie, Nicole, Lynn and Garrett.

Montana-Family Reunion-Triathlon

Busy BUSY month of August as the Summer winds down fast....Starting off the month we were off to Montana for the 1st Annual Klingsporn Family Reunion. DL, Bismarck, Missoula...
We made it!
Camping out in Nicole's cousin Michelle's yard the first two night in Missoula
before heading up to Bigfork where we had a sweet vacation home for the week with the whole Klingsporn gang.

We spent the week hanging at the Cougar Trail Ranch
with some day trips biking, fly fishing, Glacier National Park,
and a fun day boating on Swan Lake.

The Ranch

Eleni slack lining.

Marlo rocking Glacier

The "Klingsporn" Gang!
All went well until the day we were leaving the ranch to head back to Missoula
for "Adult's Night Out" and Brewery Tour....

Meggan, Tony, Nicole & Michelle @ The Kettle House
Nicole getting some N/A orange drink (remember..she's pregnant)

...and our Transmission goes out on
our Yukon...... After gimping it the 130 miles we hooked up with Transoulutions-Tranny shop in Missoula who worked their magic and getting a full rebuild installed.
Unfortunately, plans had to change and Nicole and Marlo rode home with her sister Kari's Family and Eleni and I stayed a few extra days feeling sorry for ourselves by getting in some extra biking, some white water rafting, an afternoon at Splash Montana, watching Nicole's sister's husband "Weats" who's a smoke-jumper do a practice jump which was super cool and just hanging and having fun!!!!


Silas, Eleni & Weats after Successful Landing

A Great Trip, A Great Time, Great Memories!

I competed in the Young Life Triathlon August 21st with some co-workers doing
the relay. John did the swim, I did the biking and Jeff did the running.
We ended up 1st in the Men's Relay division, finishing the
1.5k Swim, 40k bike and 10k Run in 2:27:13, a great time for sure.

John McDonald, Jeff Staley, Tony Schmitz
Team: Bring Back Detroit Mountain!

Summer Swinging... doing the "Spider"

September's Here! Labor Day- Laddies Loppet and Back to School.
Catching up on the Blog, that info coming soon.

Announcement!

Eleni & Marlo

Would Like To Announce....

Yep, a new addition to our family will arrive sometime in February!
Nicole is doing and feeling good. More details to follow!

In other news we had a great time last weekend with our friends Blair and Kelly and their daughters, Evan and Marin up on Cass Lake camping.
We brought our boat and spent all day Saturday on the water.
A good time for sure.

boat snacks!

The birds were up and chirping!

This weekend is the Water Carnival in Detroit Lakes.
so some festivities to take in for that and then I'm off to Elk River early
Sunday morning for MNMBS Race #6.

Dirt Spanker- Duluth

Last weekend we made the trip up to Duluth for the MNMBS stop #3, the Dirt Spanker. We left Saturday morning to arrive in time to meet our Friends Jane, Ryan and Andi for Lunch at the Fitger's BrewHouse. Pretty much our standard stop in Duluth for good eats!

Then we were off to Mont Du Lac to meet Wade, Julie, Gabby & Carter to set up camp and for Wade and I to hopefully get in a pre-ride. When we arrived we found the lot for camping was flooded from the rain all week prior. We then found some high ground and got camp set as the rain started to come down. No pre-riding to be had, we hung out and let the kids play in the mud.
There was a Ultimate Frisbee Tournament in Duluth that weekend and Mont Du Lac hosted a party that evening with live music by the Boomchucks and Charlie Parr along with Beer Sponsor SURLY! So a night of sweet tunes and Surly Furious was on Tap..Pun intended!

Saturday morning was forecast-ed with sun, but with fog and no sun to be found the race course was due to be a mud slinger, with a few riders doing an early morning pre-ride coming out muddy, but then it only got worse.

I was racing Sport and with a 11am start and still a pile of Citizen Racers still on course it was for sure going to be an interesting race. I started in the Second Wave and with the BIG climb to start I went into the single track in 2nd from my wave and in front of a bunch of first wave riders. The first hill found everyone off their bikes and pushing them which continued to be the trend the rest of the race. I tried to be on my bike as much as I could but found it hard with all the lap traffic, but not being much of a runner I found myself running with my bike trying to stay ahead of those in my wave. Towards the end of the lap was the roller coaster section and slightly drier which was nice to ride those sections and running into Jay Richards snapping photos was perfect timing as I was thinking just prior how this is the type of Mudder he always writes about being his favorite kind of race. So with the last climb/walk to the top and a slalom like downhill to the finish I rolled across 1st in my age division and 8th overall out of 91 riders.


There were a lot of angry and frustrated riders on course with bikes locked up with mud and broken derailleurs, it was nice being able to finish and not majorly damaging my bike which is now tore apart in the garage for a serious cleaning top to bottom.

Photo by Dana Schoppe Photagraphy
Eggbeaters doing their job in the mud with no issues clipping in.

Eleni and Marlo both were signed up for the Shimano Kids Race.
5 and Under were called up with Marlo being the youngest racer at age 2.
She put forth a good effort with a smile and stopped mid race to tell me, "Daddy, she has a bike like ME!"
Kids Photos by Grizzly-Adam
Eleni Did her two laps in the 6 and up division. Good times for them which made them feel apart of the festivities.
Making the most out of a fun weekend for Sure!

CHEERS TO 3 YEARS!

Happy Anniversary Nicole, I Love You!