Diversification Training!

Chris felt in shape after her marathon and decided to try a Triathlon and talked Todd into joining her. Along with Launa, they looked like prisoners with numbers all over and an ankle bracelet with a tracking chip!






Watching anxiously for the first swimmers to jump in. Of course, we had to make our own ruckus with a lot of people and child confusion. The Hickson's rarely go unnoticed!



Todd wanted to reconsider his registration when he found out vacuum sealed clothes were the norm. He was going to wear his boarding shorts and mom would have none of that (good thing too, out of 490 participants, only ONE man had swim trunks on!). He didn't want to come out of the bathroom from trying on his new outfit - "I just lost my dignity!" That humility didn't linger long. We went to exchange the shirt and he couldn't resist getting this one! Our very own Chippendale!

They went from the swim to this Transition Area and now off to the bike! Poor Chris and Todd had 2 of only a handful of mountain bikes - most were seriously equipped!

Our Chippendale returns! He and Chris said the bikes were a whipping!

Two "tri-umphant" athletes on their first Tri along with the traveling and proud cheerleaders!





Tanner came dressed in theme being the smallest shamrock there.


Whew! Big day cheering on my daddy!

these dance moves haven't hit the states yet...

i cant believe i forgot to share this video... this was in rome.  we were walking down a street and saw this cute band, but i think this crazy lady was responsible for drawing a crowd.  luckily, tom caught it on camera.  i am not sure if she is part of the band, or just got caught up in the moment...

alexia and i had some girl friends over tonight for a post-italy party.  we - (and by "we" i mean alexia... i got home from work at 8:15 for our 8:00 dinner party - alexia, being the great wife that she is, had dinner ready, table set, and even made a slideshow of italy pictures!) - we had the heart shaped pasta that mom sent for valentine's day (thanks mom, it was a hit) and chit-chatted about all the funny things we did on our little vacation.  it was really fun, and we enjoyed re-hashing it all...  don't worry, we can do it all again when i come home soon!

Where's Mom?

For FHE the girls went to a quick Core class @ Lifetime & the guys agreed to babysit for the 30 minutes and finish up the Quesadilla Bar. They were anxiously waiting at the door w/ children in tow. When asked if dinner was ready, they responded "We had the kids!"

Another Sunny Day!

The weather is the best here! Living in most places that have a winter season, you burn out on the snow, but not in Texas! It's back to beautiful blue skies, no snow and dry roads! Crazy the difference a day makes! Our poor sno-mo looks like a sad old man with the bends!

SNOW DAY in Texas! Yippee!!!

After a few hours of pouring rain and sleet, we scored big with huge snowflakes. It was a spectacular afternoon, and of course, big kids have to play! (Click on this pic to see how big the flakes were - silver dollars at least!)

The boys hooked the sled up to the 4wheeler and rode along the curb of the circle so the board stayed on the snowy grass. Worked great until they whipped over the curb and into the 5" of slush! Happy we have a fireplace!

Haley enjoyed eating the bubblegum rather than make buttons.

You know it's close to Todd's Bday when you see the daffodils bloom! Strong symbol .. bold, courageous, determined ... now gets to share with Haley Mae.




Tanner is a happy little soul these days - no restrictions and discovering the joys of being a baby! Life is good!

Field Trip Report

It was great to sneak in a ski day at The Canyons. We kept shedding clothes as it was a beautiful 60 degrees! This was only Bobby's 3rd X boarding and he is getting the hang of it.

In our downtime, Ash perfects doing circles around us. Such a fun day!

Candy is recovering well from surgery and getting stronger every day! She even gets to go for short walks now (to the kitchen)! xo

Meet the two new puppies, Gunner and Gracie, that will force motivate her to be up and around in the next few weeks. xo

Ashley and Bobby are settled in their first place and have even pounded in a few nails! Home sweet home!

Our Little 'Licky Lizard'

I thought I would put a few updated pics up since Tanner now has all of his stitches out. His current nickname is "Licky Lizard" because he has EVERYTHING is his mouth lately. He is always biting, licking, or sucking on something. His new favorite though... an empty plastic water bottle. We have a million lying around the house just for his amusement!

ciao mondo bello

just a few pictures... the trip report is too long to type out, but these are some of my favorite pictures.  sorry for the lack of order - i tried.  apparently blogger does not like to do what i say.

clayton and alexia and i on a bridge in florence... alexia and clayton just had the most amazing sandwiches they have ever eaten... you can just see the satisfaction in their eyes.

this is laocoon and his sons - a really old marble statue that is now housed in the vatican museum.  i was really excited to stumble upon this because i was always liked it when studying art in school.  (this might have been my favorite part of the vatican... i was underwhelmed by the sistine chapel, but excited to see this!)

on our way to florence, we stopped for a few hours in assisi.  i loved it.  assisi was exactly what italy was in my head - small town with cute old italians in tiny little shops.  quiet, stone streets with narrow roads and tiny little cars.  and pretty views of countryside.  

florence was lovely.  this was a bridge that the shops are built outside the bridge, hanging over the water.  also seemed classic italian - and made the top 25 in our florence travel book... 

i was VERY excited to see the pantheon.  everyone told me i would be disappointed, but i was not.  this was one of my favorite studies in art history, and it was exactly how i imagined it.  (i took about 25 pictures in front of this, and was totally the embarrassing tourist.  i think if they made a foam hat pantheon... i would have bought one.)

this was in the roman forum.  i know, it is not an ancient column, but i thought it was a pretty rose bush.  tom was a pretty good sport and didnt complain about my need to take a picture in front of everything.... (though he doesnt look thrilled this time).  who knows, this could have been a very pivotal rose bush in ancient rome.

clayton and i at the roman forum.  this is the more classic picture...  i was amazed at how many columns there were, just sort of lying around!

the boys and i in front of the colosseum.  this was a trip highlight - i felt prepped by modern marvels (thanks todd) and was impressed to be there.  this would have been amazing to see in real time.  tom is hoping for some sort of an eternal tivo that we can just review the tapes in heaven... we will probably need to watch this one a couple of times.

just a pretty shot of rome.  we did a lot of walking, and a lot of searching for the perfect roman background...

while waiting for the train from florence to rome... i made everyone tell me (again) how small my backpack was and what a great packer i was.  just for proof, we took a picture.  i knew mom and dad would be proud.  (i know, i have a backpack now... i am so granola.)

this was day one in rome... we were so excited to be there!  no one slept on the plane...!  (jet lag set in half-way through dinner... tom and clayton fell asleep! turns out alexia and i are captivating company.)

this was one of the silliest things i have ever seen or been a part of.  we were at these gardens in rome, and saw people biking around on these little carts.  we thought it looked fun, but really it was just hard.  it was hardest on tom and clayton because alexia and i got laughter weakness and could not pedal.  i really was trying, but it felt as ridiculous as it looks.  AND, my steering wheel was fake.  i kept forgetting though, and was trying to drive.  i think everyone considers this a high and low of the trip... there was laughing and yelling.

assisi was so beautiful.  we took a bus to the top of the hill (mostly) and walked the rest.  by the time we got here, we were exhausted (and grateful we were light packers).  we asked some strangers to take our picture, and were so happy with how this turned out.  we might have finally asked the only italian that could take a well positioned picture.  

also in assisi - all of the buildings were so pretty.  i like this picture because clayton's arms look like eagle wings swooping over alexia and i's humps.