Happy birthday kiddo. The kids and I love you and we hope you have a fun, yet relaxing, day. +1

Over the past few weeks, Juli (and I stress Juli) has been doing some painting around the house and getting the walls coated with something other than the cheap paint the builders threw on.

The first mission was the basement. Down the stairs, in the tv room, and down the hall. The whole process took over a week, but man does it look nice. The color down there is a warm yellow that adds some much needed life. The color goes really well with the floor and furniture. All we need now are some lamps, art on the wall and a nice flat-screen tv.

The second mission was the master bedroom. This little project (although still in progress) is coming along nicely. We (again, I mean Juli) coated the walls with a deep brown that has a surprising resemblance to coffee. The room has a warm tone now and feels nice to walk into.

In addition to the painting this past weekend, Juli also spent some time cutting peonies from the front garden and hot pokers from the side garden. Both look awesome in the house. New plants were added to the front of the house, so I imagine in about a week or so we’ll have some nice colorful flowers to look at. That’s about all the excitement we’ve had around here lately.

Hopefully before the end of the summer we’ll also have a nice large patio in the backyard. Keep your fingers crossed.

Last Sunday marked Juli’s second triumphant 1/2 marathon finish. This time in Dallas, the 13.1 mile course ran from City Hall, up and around to Southern Methodist University and back down and around to Fair Park.

Juli was shooting for a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes but actually finished with a time of 2 hours and 7 minutes, a full 8 minutes ahead of schedule!

You can view additional photos of Juli’s marathon run, as well as the rest of our trip, on Facebook.

Last Friday marked the beginning of our annual trip to Monarch, CO for three full days of excellent snowboarding at Monarch Mountain and incredible hospitality from Waunita Hot Springs Ranch.

Kicking-off the trip, Friday morning was spent shopping for food and supplies to feed 35 people for the next 3 days. After dropping a bundle of cash at Sam’s Club, I headed home to organize and pack everything up. It took 15 cases of drinks, over 200 sandwiches and countless snacks to ensure we had a well fed group. Departing from Wichita at 4:30 that evening, the bus drove all night, ensuring our arrival at Waunita’s around 4am Saturday morning. After some room assignments and a short nap, the group was set to go.

The next three days (Saturday – Monday) were spent eating, swimming, relaxing and, of course, snowboarding in an incredible amount of powdery goodness. To everyone’s delight, there were no serious injuries, just minor aches and pains. Everyone seemed to have an great time and I know Juli, Mikayla and I are already looking forward to next year.

Above are some photos of the trip. Enjoy!
Want to see more photos, check out the photos from Amy’s Monarch Ski Trip 2010 set on Flickr.

Just days after the San Antonio marathon was over, Juli started contemplating the Dallas Rock N’ Roll marathon on March 14, 2010. With some friendly pushing from her running buddies and a thumbs-up from me, her mind was made up. As of last night Juli has officially registered for the Dallas half-marathon.

Joining her on her trip to Dallas will be a handful of her running buddies and myself (no, I’m not running the marathon…or the half-marathon…but will be having a good time cheering her on from the sidelines). Our plan is to drive down, hang out and have a good time. More info and details will come as the race draws nearer.

Any volunteers who would like to hang out with three precious children for a few days in mid March?