Tag Archives: video

Photo, Sarah, Video

First Triathlon

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Sarah rocked her first triathlon! She’s been training up for the past few months for the Minneapolis YWCA Women’s Triathlon. The event took place this morning — a blazing hot one — by Lake Nokomis. The whole family (including Jeff and Pam) was there cheering her on from start to finish. As Sarah posted on Facebook earlier:

It still hasn’t totally sunk in that I just completed my first triathlon, but I did! 500 yard swim, 15.5 mile bike, 3.1 mile run, finished in 1 hour, 41 mins and 31 secs. I am super happy with my time, and so thankful for this body of mine. Also thankful for my friend, Keely @keschallock who I got to finish with unexpectedly, and @noquitfitoutdoorfitness who have sparked a love for outdoor fitness and have been immensely supportive and positive through all my training! What an amazing event!

Dawn before the race.
Sarah’s swim wave prepares to start.
After the race with a top cheerleader.
Sarah and Keely.
Oliver was a spirited supporter too!
The results speak for themselves!
Oliver, Photo

Walking

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Knee x-ray, annotated to indicate the fracture site.

Tibia, similarly annotated.

On the last day of our wonderful December trip to Bethesda to visit Andrew’s family, Oliver tumbled down the stairs and broke his left tibia. This was obviously traumatic on many levels, and we (parents) felt pretty terrible. Although Oliver rapidly adapted to his new cast, it was frustrating because he had just been learning how to walk. Crawling had remained his preferred mode of rapid transport, but he had been taking more and more bipedal steps every day. Now, he was saddled with a cast that he couldn’t even hobble on.

The cast finally came off on January 31, and Oliver spent the first few weeks developing strength in his left leg and relearning the mechanics of standing and walking. A few weeks later, and he rampages around on two feet most of the time.

 

Oliver

Oliver’s 2017

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Last year in early January, I discovered a new app called One Second Everyday (1SE). I did my best to capture Oliver’s development from that moment on, and here is the final product! I wish I’d known about it right when he was born, but this is still pretty cool. Enjoy!

Maggie

Maggie’s Birthday Bike

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Maggie started showing interest in her balance bike at the end of February, and by the time her birthday loomed near at the beginning of April, it was clear she would probably be ready for a bike with pedals this summer! She’s much smaller than Griffin was when he started on a pedal bike, so I hunted down a smaller version and we gave it to her on Sunday for her birthday. She was beyond excited to try it! However, it was raining pretty hard all day that day, and even into the morning on Monday. She begged me to let her try it, but knowing there would inevitably be some spills, I told her we needed to wait until it stopped raining.

Well, Monday afternoon it stopped raining, and she was raring to go! I wasn’t sure how it would go for her, but low and behold, on one of her first tries, she took off! I pulled my phone out and grabbed some video. We spent the rest of the day touring the neighborhood with her practicing her new pedal bike. She’s hooked and asks to ride it at every opportunity now! It’s pretty amazing, and such a testament to the balance bike.

I hope you enjoy these short videos of her first rides!

https://youtu.be/VHzvlUPWVV0

https://youtu.be/F5PubCaf5CA

Griffin

Circus Boy!

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We are very lucky to have a variety of activities for our kids here in the Twin Cities, and one of them is an amazing circus school, Circus Juventas. Now that Griffin is a little older, we thought he might enjoy a structured physical activity that would emphasize gross motor control, teamwork, and wasn’t too competitive. Having heard amazing things about the circus program, we thought it would be worth a try this winter. Turns out he loved it, and he loves performing!

Griffin's Bridge Pose

We were truly not prepared for how these kids would blow us away this weekend! The school is ages 3-18, and every single one of the kids we saw at the performance strutted their stuff and showed off their hard work. I can’t tell you the number of times I uttered, “WOW!” during the nearly three hour performance!

Griffin & Gabe on the German Wheel

Here are some video highlights from Griffin’s performance. The first is his dress rehearsal. The second is a highlight from the actual performance on Saturday as he and his friend, Gabe, performed on the German Wheel.

I’ve also included a clip from the unicycles act, just to give you a taste of the older kids, as well as several still shots of the many other acts we witnessed! Enjoy!

Globes
Bungee Trapeze
Bungee Trapeze
Triple Trapeze
Straps
Straps
Mexican Cloud Swing

Photo

Andrew on Ice

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First lap, in reach of the wall.
First lap, in reach of the wall.

I’ve had a lingering paranoia since moving to Minnesota: what if I can’t skate? I skated as a kid, sure, but that was long ago. Now I’m older and stiffer and more fragile. I’ll probably fall immediately and break my wrist or my head. Today I banished this demon by slowly working my way around my school’s ice rink with the 8th graders zipping past. They were a supportive crowd.

Now I can’t wait to finally buy a pair of skates that fits. (There is only one pair at school, and I had to share them with a large-footed student.) I’m hopeful that Griffin will get comfortable on his skates this winter too, so this will be another winter activity we can enjoy together.

The video is hardly worth watching, but I was so ridiculously proud of myself that I thought I should preserve the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qSFM08Dr8k

Photo

The Eels & Steve Perry

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Eels @ the Fitz Mind-boggling Eels concert at the Fitzgerald Theater tonight. Mark Oliver Everett and the band were in top form. As I giddily posted to facebook afterwards, “Eels were SO good. I’d rank this in my top five lifetime shows. Stunning performance. We got Grace Kelly Blues AND Last Stop This Town. (Two favorite songs.) Along with a lot of great numbers from the latest album. Joy. Rapture.”

But that was only the beginning. After the second encore, Everett invites none other than Steve Perry (Journey!) on stage for his first public performance in 20 years. Unbelievable. A few pictures borrowed from the internet (my phone didn’t hold up) followed by a video of the Steve Perry encore:

E on Piano
E on Piano

 

E with Guitar
E with Guitar