hood to coast

after saying each year he would not participate again, this marked andy's third hood-to-coast. for those of you who may not know, hood-to-coast is the largest relay race in north america and is known as "the mother of all relays." the race starts at on mt. hood and goes all the way to seaside. there are 1000 teams of 12 runners, as well as a large number of additional teams participating the the walking relay portland-to-coast. andy runs on his work's elite team and was the second fastest runner on his team this year! pretty good for a guy who does not consider himself to be a runner and only trains for a few months leading up to the race. ;)

with the musical done the preceeding weekend, this year we were able to meet andy in seaside. after driving around looking for a spot to park my behemoth van, we found a corn dog for lunch before finally reaching the beach. the kids had fun playing in the sand and walking through all the sponsors' tents while we were waiting for andy's team to finish and his van to arrive. the band on the main stage played "billy jean," making jeremiah very happy. eventually we found more snacks and strawberry lemonade, finally leaving for home as it began to get dark.

with all the masses of people who were in seaside, the road home was a slow one. for the second night in a row, i carried in sleeping kids...washing sand/dirt off of them with a washcloth once they were in their beds.

a day at the beach

mom and dad were in oregon, so we went to the coast. after a mandatory stop at camp 18 for a late breakfast, we drove the last 30-40 minutes to short sands...our normal beach of choice. despite the wind, it was a very nice day.

a family chronology

after we had kirby, my siblings gifted us with a family photography session. during those photos, andy came up with the idea for us to lay on each others' shoulders (like we used to do to have long talks when we were dating). then, he mused, we could add each new kid to the picture and have a growing family chronology. from that time, this photo has become our tradition. first capturing our expanding family, but now a yearly reminder of how each person is changing.