Look Mom, No Hands!

Yes, the most important rule in soccer-- NO HANDS--Kate has been practicing at home, because today she started a little "Kids Love Soccer" league. She along with 19 other kids go run off a bit of energy and learn how to dribble the ball all at the same time! Kate, was most excited about her pink hearts on her soccer cleats and her "funny socks" that she gets to wear.

Learning to stand on the orange line and listen to Coach Bob and Coach Katie

Go Katie Pie!

You're biggest fan, cheering you on!

True Triathletes???

A long, long, time ago, when I was a sophomore in college, I checked out a book from the library about how to prepare for an Olympic distance triathlon. When I realized all of the gear you would need, I decided running shoes were easier, so I went that route...but I never got the idea out of my mind. When we were in North Carolina, our friends came up with a great idea to rent a beach house in Emerald Isle and we'd spend the weekend and do a sprint triathlon. It was the best! We had such a fun time.

Well, one morning way back in February, while Joe was getting ready for work, I woke up to him saying in shock, "My jeans are tight!" I hadn't been exercising either...I decided we needed to do something drastic. I did a little research and happened upon the Pacific Grove Olympic Distance triathlon. We decided to go for it and the training began. After months of juggling our schedules and the kids to fit workouts in and listening to Kate and Jake giggle and fight in our bike carriage, it was September 11th, and we had dropped the kids off at my sister's house (Thanks so much, Jen!) and were sitting in our hotel room getting our transition bags ready. We crawled in bed that night and didn't sleep a wink. Yes, I'm sure that means we are not true triathletes :) When our alarms went off at 5AM, Joe and I were already awake. He ate... I couldn't. I was so nervous I was nauseous...another clue I'd never be a professional :) Thankfully, we talked our friends Mike and Carrie Thompson (who had talked us into the sprint triathon a couple of years ago) into doing the race with us. I was so relieved!!!!
Here are Mike and Joe getting dressed, pumped and mentally prepared. They would start the race at 7:30AM and Carrie and I would begin at 9AM. Notice the weather isn't that great? It was cold!!!

Do you see that water behind us? We were told we'd be doing our mile "kelp crawl" in 57 degree water. Those orange buoys out there are what we would be swimming around. Why did this sound fun?? I can't remember.

The four brave souls

Joe and Mike are down there among all of those green caps...

And they are off!!!!

Joe after the swim and getting ready to hop on the bike for 25 miles along the coast.

At this point, Joe and Mike had finished the race and was now documenting Carrie and me as we did the bike and the run.

Way to Go, Mike! Nicholas is proud of his dad, but a little confused as to why he had to wake up so early!

Carrie was flying on the 6 mile run

Love you, Joe!

WE DID IT! And the amazing thing? We all finished within 7 minutes of eachother! Despite the shockingly cold water, it was fun and we felt like we had accomplished something great.

Joe beat me by about 30 seconds... does that mean we'll have to do another one??? SOOO happy we got to do this together.

Berryhills Minus Kids

The Berryhill Clan...It's not often that we get a picture without all of the little ones, but we were up at the LDS Oakland Temple to do some of Uncle Larry's genealogy work and Mike needed a picture of his kids and their spouses for his website as he gets his campaign going...The only person we are missing is David, who is on a mission up in Washington...Personally, I think he should have used the one below :)

Wonderful being with all of you, celebrating Larry's life.

Celebrating Uncle Larry's Life

It came as quite a shock. The day that Joe's dad announced he would be running for Congress, we got a phone call. We were awaiting a call to hear how the party had gone, but the news we got was not expected. Joe's uncle, his dad's only brother, had unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack when he was down in Argentina. The famous Uncle Larry--the amazing cook, the collegiate pole vaulting coach, the hunter, the story teller, the genealogist, the Alaskan lodge-owner, the fisherman...the man who got in a growling match with a bear... the list could go on and on. He wasn't married and didn't have any children, so he treated his nieces and nephews like they were his own. I had the chance to witness first hand his kindess, generosity, and adventurous spirit many times, but my most memorable time spent with Larry was when we went up to Alaska to his lodge and went halibut fishing. That was his territory and he felt just as comfortable up there with the moose and bears as he did with his parents. We will miss you, Uncle Larry!

Happy 4th Birthday, Katie Pie!

I can't believe she's 4 years old. I love her so much. Just the other day when I was helping her get her arm out of her shirt, she looked up at me and said, "Thanks mom. You're the best mama I found." She's the best daughter imaginable...there is never a dull second in our family with this little girl's comments, dance moves and endless energy. When I asked Kate what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she replied instantly, "Paghetti!" She requested to have it at Gracie's house so we could swim, and she wanted a princess cake. Her wishes were granted :) Momo made Nana's special sauce and we had a delicious dinner. Thank you so much, Mom! You always know how to make everything taste, look and smell so good! The crew... yes that's my brother... I'd be happy to give you his number :) Jake loved dinner

The Princess Cake

The Princess :)

The princess celebrating that she's 4 years old!

Nice moves :)

Does anyone notice the little finger mark in the frosting? I wonder who that was???

Kate and BG

Dad loves you so much!

Jen and Matt surprised Kate with the most exciting present. They set up their projector outside and put blankets and chairs on their court and we got to watch a movie in the backyard! She was so pumped! Popcorn, fruit snacks, drinks...She picked "Bedtime Stories." She and Gracie had glow in the dark necklaces which were half the fun. The best part was when the movie was over, all of the kids were asleep--it was almost 11:30PM--the credits started to come up and all of the sudden I saw Kate's head pop up and she exclaimed, "What's the next movie we're going to watch!" The only one awake. It didn't surprise me. I think she had a good day.

Ohana

Ohana means Family in Hawaiian. That's the first thing I think of when I think of the islands. We got to return to Kauai and Oahu with all of the Patterson clan in August. Oh the fun we had and the memories that were made.

I have over a thousand pictures of the trip... it's a little overwhelming to even go through them-it's disgusting actually, that we take so many photos--but they are so fun to look at! I'll put together a slide show of just some of them if you want to see more of our trip!

Our favorite beach on Oahu...Major's Beach

Favorite person on that favorite beach :)

Love my family with all of my heart!

The girls

The.....Men?

Jake couldn't get enough of the beach... he'd bolt right for the water as soon as his feet touched the sand!

He couldn't get enough of the ice cream either :)

Jen and Chris... Sister and Brother...Best Friends

Love this one!

How can you not love the little guy?

Ready to Get Dirty!

Thankfully after our litte lock-out experience, everything else went smoothly (except for traffic) and we made it up to the cabin. Matt & Belinda, Sam & Krista, Maryanne & Dave, Alisa and all of the kids were there to greet us! It was my first experience being at the cabin-- I was excited to finally be able to truly understand her rustic nature :)

The kids all put mattresses out on the porch and slept outside. I was a little worried if Kate would do ok-- but she insisted after snuggling with Lili and David, that she wanted to sleep with Aunt Alisa. She talked poor Alisa's ear off until almost 1AM. I think she was excited for this new experience with one of her favorite aunts! Thank you Alisa for putting up with the chatter! I'm not sure how you did it!

Cousins "cooking" out by the firepit

Tough Boys

Someday Jake...how about sticking to your toy trucks for now! Thanks everyone, we had so much fun being up there with you!