The end of summer, a birthday, and yet more running...

Summer came and went much too fast! The kitchen has been finished (thank goodness) and it came out really well. We are so glad to have that over with! I have thoroughly been enjoying using the new oven. It's amazing to be able to set the temperature to what the recipe calls for (with the old oven I had to turn it at least 25 degrees lower!)

With August came Armen's first birthday. Man, and we thought summer went by fast. This last year with Armen has been amazing. There have been hard times (crying all night, nursing round the clock, etc) and exciting times (watching him smile for the first time, hearing him laugh, seeing him run!) We had a wonderful party and so many friends and family came to help us celebrate our wonderful little boy. The best part of the party was looking around at all the people who had come, and feeling just how loved our son is. To me, that was so incredible. I'm pretty sure his favorite part was devouring almost his entire birthday cake!


Josh started back to work the week before Armen's birthday, and life has seemed hectic ever since. He is again coaching cross country which takes up a lot of time. He is also training (like it ever ends) for his next marathon. Josh will be running the Fresno marathon November 9. He's going to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. To do so he needs a finish time of 3:10, which is 7 minutes less than his finishing time from his last marathon almost 2 years ago. Armen and I have started joining Josh during his long runs on the weekends for a few miles. I either rollerblade alongside with Armen in the jog stroller, or Armen and I bike. Every now and then while we are out with him I like to shout out "Boston '09!" to get him pumped up. If you happen to see Josh running around town some time, feel free to roll down your window and shout "Boston '09!" at him. I'm sure he'll appreciate the encouragement :)

I am loving this cooler weather and am anxious to see what fall has in store for our little family. Here's a couple of our new family portraits from this past weekend. You know I've already got my Christmas cards designed! ;)

swim. bike. run.

We just got back from Oxnard, CA where Josh competed in the Strawberry Fields Multi-sport Festival. This was his third triathlon (the first was last July, the second was the subject of a previous blog) and he did absolutely amazing! There were different distances but of course Josh did the Olympic distance because you have to go big or go home. The Olympic distance consists of a 1 mile swim, a 23 mile bike ride, and a 6 mile run. Honestly, I don't know how people do these things!

We drove down on Saturday so Josh could pick up his race packet, had dinner and went to bed knowing that we all had to be up really early. Josh and my Dad left at 5 am to go down to the race and the rest of us headed down there about 6:15. The weather was overcast but the temperature was just right. We found Josh in the transition area getting into his wet suit, wished him luck, and then we all walked down to the beach to watch the start of the race. The beach was gorgeous, really clean and well taken care of. The swells were quite big and I couldn't believe Josh was about to swim in them. We got our cameras out and waited for the race to start.

There were too many people to be able to pick him out, but we watched as the horn blew and all these crazy people ran down the beach and dove in the water. After a while we were able to pick out Josh by his swim stroke and we waited for him to hit the beach. He swam in, smiled at us as we cheered him on, and ran off to the transition area to start the bike ride. We gathered all of our stuff and headed over to the transition area, but he was so quick he was gone by the time we got there.

We headed out to the road to watch him ride by. We almost missed him but then we saw him fly by and we went back to the transition area to watch him come in. As I was in the middle of changing Armen's diaper (nice timing on Armen's part) he came riding in, so Sheila took over and I ran over to take some pictures. Then he put his shoes on and was off for the run. We weren't sure which way the course for the run went so we stayed by the finish line and waited. It wasn't long before Josh was rounding the corner to the finish line. The amazing thing was he didn't even look tired! He crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 23 minutes.

Josh did a cool down jog and had some food, and then we left back to the hotel, not even thinking that Josh might have placed. We came back to the beach later in the afternoon to hang out, and checked the postings while we were there. Little did we know, Josh had placed 3rd in his age group! Here's the break down of how he placed.

Overall - 75 out of 264
1 mile swim - 73 out of 264
23 mile bike - 120 out of 264
6 mile run - 36 out of 264
3rd place in 25-29 age group

Obviously, he's a runner at heart.

Summer time and a torn up kitchen

Since the last triathlon debacle Josh has been training hard for his next one down in Oxnard this coming weekend. This one has an ocean swim which will be quite different for him, but he's been able to swim a lot in preparation for this one in comparison to the last one. Almost everyone is going to cheer him on- Armen and I, my Dad, Virgina and brother, and Josh's Mom, Dad and sister. I hope I'm able to get some good photos! The first one he did last summer I didn't take my camera, imagine that!

Armen is 11 months now! Josh and I can't believe how fast time flies. I feel like I am missing it even though I am with him every day! He started walking right before he turned 10 months and it's amazing how much better he's gotten at it with each passing week. Sometimes he gets to just about running, but he usually ends up getting ahead of himself and falling. He's finally gotten some teeth! He cut his two bottom teeth and has been using them to bite his cheerios in half. Not to mention he also tries to use them to bite Mom and Dad, but we are working on that! We are planning for his party which will be a Yo Gabba Gabba theme! I can't believe we are planning his first birthday, it's unreal.

So far our summer has been pretty laid back (well, other than Armen learning to walk and get into more stuff!). We took a trip to my Mom's in Atascadero and visited with them. We took Armen to the beach one day and went to the outlets where my Mom bought Armen some super cute clothes. Of course Mom and Dave feed us ridiculously well and I think I came back 5 lbs heavier. Here's some photos from the trip. This is my first roll of color film in the Holga, I think they came out quite nice!


Meanwhile we are in the midst of remodeling the kitchen. It's torn apart right now and probably will be for a while. We are getting new tile installed, a new sink and a new stove. My Dad bought me a new dishwasher for my birthday that's already been put in. It's been so nice to be able to run the dishwasher and still be able to have a conversation and actually HEAR the other person. Our old dishwasher was so loud you'd have to crank the tv to hear it while it was running. After all this is done then I begin the arduous task of sanding and painting the cabinets. I was hoping to be able to have the kitchen completed before Josh went back to school, but it's looking unlikely that that will happen. Oh well, we will trudge on.

Broken chains and dissapointments

Last weekend Josh competed in his second triathlon. It was up at Millerton Lake. Armen and I stayed home since it would have been a nightmare trying to get out of the house with him that early in the morning. My Dad and Josh headed up there around 5:30 am and the race started at 8. My Dad called me around 8:20 to tell me Josh had finished the swim and was in the top 10 out of the water, and he had just left on the bike. I waited over an hour to hear back from him (Josh should have been done by then) before I finally called to see what was going on. Josh answered and gave me the bad news that he hadn't finished the race. Halfway through the bike ride the chain broke. He had to coast his way to the halfway point and wait with the volunteer till everyone else had come and turned back around. The volunteer took Josh and the bike back to the start. Needless to say Josh was terribly disappointed, but what can you do about a bike chain breaking? It was just one of those random, freak things that sometimes happen. That's the thing about sports that require equipment other than your own body. Things break, things fail. You can prepare as much as possible and things can still go wrong. I told him to chalk it up as an experience, and that he'd kick butt next time. He's planning on doing the Sacramento one that he did last year when I was 7 1/2 months pregnant. This time we'll have an 11 month old to take with us! I love watching Josh compete, I feel so proud every time I watch him cross the finish line. I hope that as Armen grows up he enjoys watching Daddy race as much as I do. Josh's commitment, dedication and endurance in the sports he chooses to do never fails to amaze me.

The beach

President's Day weekend we took a trip to my parent's house in Atascadero. We wanted to go to Pismo to take Armen to the beach (or maybe it was mostly because I wanted to eat at Moe's) so he could check it out and I could take some pictures with the Holga. It was sunny but chilly so we didn't stay on the beach long, but he got to feel the sand. It's so neat to watch them experience things for the first time.


Speaking of first times, Josh tried on a wet suit for the first time. I really should have gotten a picture of that! He bought one at this triathlon store in Atascadero to use for the upcoming triathlons he wants to do. He tried it out in his parents' pool this past weekend. The water temp was in the 50's I believe. My husband is crazy.

Learning the Holga

For Christmas I got a new camera! It's a Holga, a toy camera basically, that takes 120 film, which I have never used before. Josh also bought me a book on how to use the camera so I am working on teaching myself to use it. So, first roll of film (which is only 12 frames) came out half decent. By half decent I mean that like 5 pictures came out, and of the 5 really only 2 are pretty good. It was my first attempt so I can't complain. I can't even remember the last time I used film! Here's a few photos from the roll and I'm sure I'll post more as I take them. Two of them are from a bike ride our little family took one day, and the other is Armen in his bear suit. He loves that suit!

Let's blog...

So we checked out the Phelanpham blog and thought, "what the heck, let's give this thing a try". 2007 was an amazing year for us because Armen Christopher was born. The new year is bound to hold even more amazing moments for us as we watch our son grow and start doing new things. He just turned 5 months and is so much fun, except when he wakes us up in the middle of the night :) He just started rice cereal last week... he's serious about eating, can't you tell?