The end of summer

I haven't been too diligent with the camera since the last post, but I did take a few pictures the past few days.



Saturday was a busy day; Nora got a phone call right away in the morning. She loves to put the phone to her ear and say 'hi, hi, hi, hi' so much so, that Jeff's old phone is hers to play with.



We are trying to teach her not to text while driving!

After a nap, we went to visit the Berg family. While Sawyer had fun slam dunking the basketball, Nora preferred to play with a necklace...girls.

We checked out a new playground by their house.

Nora found this hat in Sawyer's room and put it on herself.

Sunday we spent some time at the pool; Nora still loves it. Now that she can walk, we go in the baby pool and walk around with her in there.

Yesterday we stopped at the park on the way home from daycare and I snapped this photo to email Auntie Claire who was missing Nora.

She kidnapped this baby and stroller from the neighbor girls and loved pushing it around.

And this picture...I just love it. Nora and Finn-the happy couple.

Last evening we got the unfortunate news that Jeff's Grandpa Ed passed away. So, it's another unplanned trip to Green Bay for us this week, then we're going to Minneapolis so Nora can meet and hang out with her cousin Croix. I'm sure there will be some pictures from that!

The Race is On

The majority of this post is not about Nora, but rather her Dad. But, we'll start with some Nora news.


Two weekends ago, I took her to the park one morning. She loved crawling through this tunnel!

And she walked back and forth over this bridge twenty, thirty times.

It's amazing how big she is getting, even if she hasn't grown into these shoes yet! She understands things, wants things, and lets her opinions be known. Every afternoon after being picked up from daycare, Nora hears the neighbor kids outside. She grabs my finger, pulls me to the front door and reaches for the door handle. She has figured out how to open the gate in our side yard and tries to put her own shoes on her feet. It's like you can see the wheels turning in her head sometimes!

In preparation for Daddy's bike race, Nora enjoyed wearing her bike helmet around the house.

After six months and countless hours of training, race day was finally here. Jeff was ready, it was 5:30 a.m. in Leadville, CO (elevation 10,400 ft) and it was about 36 degrees!

The sea of bikes and racers, about 1400 in all started the race.

Scott, Terry and I were Jeff's 'crew' meeting him at designated places with water, sports drink and energy gels. At aid station number one, we had Jeff's spare socks hanging from a stick to help him find us in the crowd of spectators.

Each aid station had many crew members and spectators cheering on the racers, such a fun environment! Cowbells and all, it was like the Tour de France!

Nora spent the day with our friend Megan (a lifesaver), both came to cheer Jeff on at the finish. Nora excitedly awaits his arrival.

104 miles, 12,000 ft of climbing and 9 hours 30 min later, Jeff rode to the finish. 1400 cyclists started, 1000 finished and Jeff was the 223rd to do so. Awesome!

Nora was a little too antsy to pose with an exhausted Dad!

Sunday morning we had to sit through 2+ hours of this:

In order for Jeff to do this (walk across the front 'stage'):

To claim this (the coveted Leadville 100 belt buckle):

The entire weekend left all of us exhausted. Nora slept in this morning, and this was her at 7:30.

Summer Fun

Here's a quick update on all the summer outdoor fun we've been having!


Two weekends ago, on Jeff's birthday, we went for a hike.
And then played in the yard.

Last weekend Nora was almost running up and down the sidewalk, and had fun playing in the yard.

On Sunday Nora and I took a bikeride to a new playground.

Sunday afternoon we went to visit friends in Denver. Of course, Nora loved the dog. She was giving Oliver hugs, but I missed the moment by just a few seconds.

Nora seems to be following in her father's footsteps with her love of climbing. I failed to mention that she got banned from the daycare crib several weeks ago after crawling out of it! Here, she has decided that her music table is more fun to climb on than play with.

Emily pointed out that I haven't shown any pictures of Nora playing in her new playroom in the basement. Here she is, riding a giraffe and singing.

And playing with Daddy.

She likes to play on her chair; she's laughing, not crying. And every once in a while she is quite.
This is the picture from the last post that I accidentally deleted.
So, we've just been enjoying the summer weather and hanging out. One more weekend before Jeff's big race in Leadville! Nora can hardly wait.