Go Cougars!

This happened today while watching the BYU game as a family (well at least the last few minutes). We're so proud of Aiden, not the best moment for Kelsey. Gotta love siblings.

Tal's Triathlon

Tal competed in the Jordanelle Triathlon in the Olympic distance on August 21, 2010. He did great, only he was wishing he'd signed up for the sprint while on the last leg, the run. It was a HOT day and he did not have time to train much for the run.

Kelsey LOVED the bus ride from the parking lot to the finish line

We got to cheer him on about 30 minutes before he finished, he says he was dying but he looked great!

We got some good people-watching in while we waited

There he is, coming down the home stretch

He picked up Kelsey and carried her through the finish. It was a definite crowd-pleaser and little girl pleaser. She was so happy, even if she didn't fully understand what was going on. I'm surprised he could carry her after all that!

Here's the guy I thought was Tally - TWICE - when he passed by us. I had thought Tal was wearing red shorts with a black top but figured I was mistaken because of course I know what my husband looks like - HA! He doesn't look like Tal in the face but similar body type...Tal was pretty proud that I thought that was him, that guy is ripped!

Tal with his buddy Dan, who also competed. 

The whole crew - we're so proud of you!

Kelsey got some of daddy's treat at dinner - Loco Lizard, mom's favorite!

Though the triathlon days are over for awhile with Tal in school AND working, it was fun while it lasted. Any girls up for triathlon training with me? I'm toying with the idea for next year.

Happy 29th, Tal!

On Friday,  Tally turned 29. That means this is his last "good" year, haha. 

We had a party with family and friends, which was great. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. I forgot candles and to take a picture of LOTS of things, but these are the few I managed to snap.

I love Camie's face here

Our friends we met in Switzerland, the Mascaros

Our neighbors just behind us - the kids LOVE to play together! YAY!

Friends & Cousins

Our friends Racie & Ratha

If you were there and not pictured, I'm sorry. It's because I can't do more than 16 things at a time ;)

Something I want to remember about this last year with Tally is how much he ACCOMPLISHED! 

Went canyoning in Interlaken

Did a guys trip to Italy

He did his first triathlon

Became a father of TWO, his first son

Visited Austria

Climbed Kilimanjaro (climbkili.com)

Was diagnosed with skin cancer, got a huge chunk of his arm removed, and then told it wasn't cancer

Moved internationally

Bought his first home

Am I missing anything?

I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished. When he sets his mind and body to something, he doesn't stop. I love his determination...well, most of the time. 

So his first full day of being 29, he started off with a bang. He rode 75 miles for the MS ride in Logan with the Goldman Sachs team. Though it was hard waking up at 4:45 today to drive up, he was really glad he did it on the way back. The kids and I went up there with him and went swimming with Jodi & Brody while the guys rode. Tal and I are hoping to do it together next year. It's such a great cause and, according to Tal, a beautiful, fun ride. 

As I write this, he's playing golf with his brother. Then tonight we're supposed to go on a hot date - if he's not too tired. Just dinner and a movie. But we don't do that enough so I'm excited. Here are the pics from today (can you believe I'm posting same day!?). 

7am

Team Goldman Sachs, I like their jerseys

Tal's name is circled below

Clipping in

Ready to go

Weltklasse Zurich 2009

Letzigrund Stadium

photo courtesy of myswitzerland.com

On Friday night, my boss invited me to the Weltklasse Zurich track and field event at Letzigrund Stadium (and my angelic wife was kind enough to let me go). It was amazing to see Ussain Bolt run in person (he's like a man among boys - but those 'boys' are world class sprinters) and I also witnessed a new world record in pole vault broken by Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva.

Fast as a lightning BOLT

photo courtesy of swissinfo.ch

The thrill of knowing you're number ONE

photos courtesy of swissinfo.ch & google images

I had never been to a professional track and field event before and I was shocked by how much the athletes interacted with and fed off of the crowd. The US athletes represented well and I got to be a bit obnoxious every time they won an event, but Ussain stole the show in the final leg of the 4x100 meter relay when he caught the Americans from behind and just turned his head and laughed as he flew past him just before the finish line. On a side note, the Swiss relay team placed 6th in that race while setting a new Swiss record, I've never seen a group of athletes and fans so excited for a 6th place visit - but when your a small country, I guess that's a great feat.

The Swiss relay team

photo courtesy of swissinfo.ch

The Swiss regard this as the best track and field event in the world, and although I'm not sure I would go that far, the atmosphere was electric. For more info on the event, click here.

Zuri Triathlon (Olympic Distance)

So last month Tally started training for a sprint triathlon, but he postponed registering for it until the last day since it was scheduled one day before my due date. With only one day until the big race, Tally decided to switch from doing the sprint distance (5oom/20km/5km), to the olympic distance (1500m/40km/10km) plus you have to ride your bike up a very long and steep hill three times in the olympic tri but not the sprint. So, before today, he hadn't swam more than 1000 meters, or run more than 7km in any of his training sessions - but he wanted to "stretch himself." Luckily, he didn't drown and ended up finishing better than expected. Here's some pics of my triathlete and other fun stuff from today.

THE SWIM - 1500 meters

Tal was one of the very few who didn't have a wet suit

THE BIKE - 40 kilometers

THE RUN - 10 kilometers

THE FINISH - 3:01:28

THE FINISHER - Tally, we are so proud of you! He didn't stop once the entire time!

THE FINISHER with his biggest fans

THE CREW - these our our friends Maddie & Justin Tomlinson and Daniel Malm who did the tri. Great job, guys! We're so proud of you!

THE WWF WRESTLER - Kelsey had fun tackling Benjamin, jumping and running. She brought this soccer ball inside the castle and had so much fun kicking it around. She then shared with the cute baby that came in. She loves babies. However, she was not in the mood to take a picture with Maddie and she was scared to death of the cartoon lion that came into the kids paradiis.

Eva & I took the kids on the train since we knew there would be no parking. The absence of a lift proved difficult with strollers, but luckily Eva and I are training for next years' sprint tri. ;)

It was fun to watch the guys work so hard and to cheer them on!

GO COUGS!!

UPDATE: It was a hard loss, but it's what Tally feared and predicted. I guess Cougs are number 2 this year! :(

Today is the BIG rivalry between BYU and Utah. Unfortunately it doesn't start until 12pm our time (not stopping Tally, we'll see how long I last). So, we dressed up in our BYU best as we watched the snow fall outside and now - WE CAN'T WAIT!

I felt like we were stuck inside a snowglobe

Cougs are #1

Our Cosmo

These are some pictures from previous game days that led up to tonight's match-up.


What does a Cougar Say?

Our long lost friend, Jared Barlow
Other Partner's Group friends

Zurich Life

We had a particularly clear day last Saturday so we took a family walk up to a local park. Whoever says Zurich is not worth visiting or is not beautiful is crazy!

Another view of beautiful Lake Zurich (a different day)

Swiss Garden Houses

Since most Swiss people live in apartments, they pay to keep a garden somewhere else. When we were in Spain, some people who had visited Switzerland in the winter asked why there were lots of really little houses right by eachother (they were covered in snow). We finally realized they must have seen one of these garden places. There are rows and rows of these, only two can be seen in this photo.

This is how the Swiss do some of their recycling. I say SOME because there is a whole book (in German) on how and when you must do your recycling. This is a spot near our house, in the middle of a neighborhood. Here you can deposit tin, aluminum and glass, but not plastic and milk cartons. You have to go to the grocery store for that (and lucky for me, my grocery store just got redone and I can take my tin and glass there too!! It's the little things...). To recycle cardboard or 'karton,' you must leave it on the sidewalk in front of your house on a certain day every other month. Paper is the same, but it must be bundled with certain string at a certain height. Thus, I don't do paper. Why do I even recycle at all?

Cardboard or Karton recycling day

OH yeah, here's why we recycle. Our special city trash bags cost 4 bucks each. Tally has become our trash compactor. He's a man of many talents, actually.
We have lots of spiders by our house, probably because we live by the lake. Now that it's winter, they're dying off but during the summer we start naming them.

Tally's running club at work led a run through Zurich with tour guides and even a reporter from the city's biggest radio station. I guess they were doing a story on how work places can provide healthy activities. Here is the running club members that went, Tally had to go to a meeting at the last minute and didn't get to join us.
Kelsey loved the hour long run, chilling in her stroller. Everyone was super helpful and careful with her - helping me push her up hills, carry her down stairs, and pushing elevator buttons. The tires on the stroller were a bit flat and I was out of practice which made it a tough workout. It was fun though, and I was glad to see that we could (mostly) keep up.

The runners taking a short break for a picture

A Classic view of Zurich's Grossmuenster and Limmat from the Lindenhof

Another view of the Limmat