It's time

Is it time for this sweet, almost-one-year-old to stop wearing her 9 month jammies?

 

Ummm, yeah.  Maybe so.

Mr. Mom

Here's what greeted me when I came home from work today...

Just in case you're wondering, yes, he is wearing shorts under that apron!

Corn Queen

What's not to love about sweet corn in the summer?  Maya got the hang of corn on the cob pretty quickly!

Hi!

Maya's favorite word is "hi".  She likes to greet people with a wave and a "hi!" when they come in the door.  And, of course, she likes to say hi over the phone, too.

The view from up here

Our new apartment has a beautiful view of the valley.  Here's a shot Brian got of the sunrise last week

Sandbox fun

I decided to call this post "sandbox fun", though I could have also titled it "Don't worry, Brian's not naked."
You'll see.

This sandbox is on our front porch, thanks to the Dale's who built it when they lived in Sohre.

A few, after all!

I plugged the camera into the computer today and found that we did get a few photos from last weekend, after all! 

Maya and Brian on the floor at Willow Hill

Maya and Great Grandpa Bob at Fisherman's Inn waiting for the start of the Eco Tri

And here is a cute video of Maya and Harvey having a tea party at Laur and Jill's.

Eco Fry and Eco Tri, Oh My!

Just back from a long weekend in Rochester.  We headed over on Thursday morning, stopping at Thursdays on First in downtown Roch for lunch and a stroll through the venders.  After a nap for Maya at Willow Hill, we headed down to Stewartville for dinner with Tony, Tricia, Jon, Mindy, Natalie, and Harvey.  A rain storm foiled our plans for swimming at the pool, but we managed to have fun anyway watching the cousins run/crawl around, playing with the cats, and playing Fruit Ninja on the Kinect. 

Brian spent most of the day on Friday helping his dad install a garage door opener.  The opener is identical to the one he put in at the cabin, but even though it was very familiar, it still took them quite a while.  We finished up the day with dinner at Newt's, the best burger joint in Rochester.

Saturday was the big family Eco Fry at Laur and Jill's house.  Brian's family has a tradition of getting together for fried zucchini, which they eat with tomatoes and cottage cheese.  It might sound a little strange, but trust me, it is delicious!  Here is the entire gang after lunch:

Oh, and I should probably say here that all of the pictures from this weekend are from other people (Laur, Tricia, and Mindy).  We didn't take any pictures for the first part of the weekend and when I finally got the camera out at the Eco Tri, the batteries (and the backup batteries) were dead.  Thank goodness there is no shortage of cameras in this family!

After lunch, the boys headed out to the Eco Tri course to check it out while the girls headed to Kasson where Maya took a nap.  Later we walked over to Kasson's Festival in the Park.

Sunday was the big day...Eco Tri!  This is the third year the boys have competed in this event.  Jon won years one and two, but this year, Brian actually spent time training for it.  We knew it would be a good race because both Brian and Jon had trained and there was a lot of trash talking leading up to the event. 

We definitely had the biggest cheering section out there and, since it was our third year as observers, we knew where to go to get the best/most views.  We saw them as they started the 4.5 mile kayak portion. 

We saw them finish the kayaking and run up to the bike transition.

We saw them three times on the 7 mile mountain bike course.

And we saw them start and finish the 3.1 mile trail run.

Maya hung out with me in the backpack for most of the race and then in the stroller (though she insisted on standing up in the stroller...apparently the race was VERY exciting!)

Throughout the race the boys were only a few minutes apart, with Brian in the lead the entire way.  At the end of the bike portion, Jon had closed the gap to only about 40 seconds.  We were pretty excited as they headed into the hills for the run and we tried to guess what was happening...were they just running together and talking or were they really racing??  Finally, we saw the first Knutson boy come through the clearing...

 

 

 Yep, Brian took home the bragging rights this year!  First place out of the Knutson boys, eighth place overall, second place in his age group, and a time just under two hours (he was in the third heat, so he started the race 10 minutes after the official race clock). 

 

We took a day to recover after the big race and finally headed back home today (Monday).  If you're interested in seeing more photos from the weekend, you should check out the posts by Tricia, Mindy, and Laur.

Bed head

This is what bed head looks like when you hardly have any hair.

The Chase

Eleven Months

Happy August, everyone!  Today is a big day for us.  First, Maya is eleven months old today.  She is very active...walking (with help) and crawling everywhere and getting into everything she can. 

Second, today is Brian's last day as a full time Menards employee.  He will still work a few hours a week as a part timer, but starting tomorrow, he gets to spend his days with this cutie.