Field Trip, Singing Recital and Colin's BDay

Tatum's Kindergarten class went to the Zoo as you can tell. Kirsten was in charge of Tatum and her friend Emma.

Tatum also had her singing recital at COCA. She took lessons every Tuesday for a semester. The photo is Tate and a friend singing the the main song from the Broadway show Annie.

You know the song, I just can't think of the title. The sun is gonna come out.

The last pictures are from Colin's Bday.

I added one more from the trip to Walt's house.

Cheers

Grandpa Wyman's House and Lori's wedding and Mother's Day

We went to visit Grandpa Wyman a few weeks ago. The girls had a good time as you can tell. The pups are getting big and are really good looking dog's for having such a weird pedigree.

We also atttended my childhood friend Lori Reinbold's wedding. She looked great and it was really nice seeing some old friends. I wish I could keep in better touch with some of them, but you all know how that goes.

The others are of Mother's Day at Todd's house.

Later

Uncle Todd's Birthday

Sorry it has been so long. Here are some shots from Todd's 30th Birthday Party.

We went to Shogun steakhouse for Todd's. It was a great time as the food was excellent and the entertainment at Shogun's had the girls laughing.

A/C, Furnace and Bicycle Racing

This was a busy week. It all started last Sunday when the temps got up into the 80's. I was dreading turning on our air conditioner, but did it anyhow. It was on the blink at the end of the summer last year. It was having trouble starting up then. Well, when I cranked it up, it wouldn't turn on at all. Nothing! Done! It is a 1982 model therefor has served its purpose. Luckily it wasn't too hot the rest of the week, so we were able to leave the windows open at night so Reese and I could be cool. I then started calling heating and cooling companies to get some bids on a new furnace and a/c. I got about 5 bids and finally got a decent one from a guy down near my school. His kids went through Antonia and was a nice guy. It should be in by next Tuesday. Looks like the highs will be in the 70s this week.

I also had my first race of the year this last weekend. I didn't get a good jump on my training for this season as the weather was cold and wet almost all of March. I gained 10lbs over the winter, so the late start in training has put me in worse shape than the start of last season. I have been training a lot the last three weeks. I was on the bike 11 out of the last 16 days trying to get ready for the Tour of St. Louis. I was able to race this past Tuesday Night to gage where I was at. I came in around 15 to 2oth place, so then decided to give things ago for the weekend.
The Carondolet Park race by my house started out slow with everyone getting a feel for things. It soon picked up creating one massive wreck on the downhill turn. I was near the front, so missed out on that one. I heard it and it sounded bad. My team last three guys on that one, sending two of them to the emergency room. One guy broke his handlebars and cracked his helmet in half. He is OK and even raced again the next day. The race went on with most of the guys getting on after the free lap. Then with two laps to go, their was a pile up on the far part of the course. It was to my left, but somehow everyone got pushed over and I got caught up in it. Luckily I was able to only scrape the curb, stay on my bike and catch back up with the peleton. The race then came down to a sprint, where I finished in 11th place. My sprint was interrupted when I got cut off and had to hit my brakes. I still reached 33mph and was able to finish strong. If I had a better place leading up to the sprint, I may have had a chance at a top 5. Average speed was 24.9mph covering 19 miles.

The Sunday race at Forest Park was expected to be a much safer race and was. No wrecks,but the pace was much faster with quite a bit larger field. It again came down to sprint at the end. I was not as close to the front as I would have liked, but not at the back either. I again had really good legs and had a great sprint finishing in 13th place. I started my sprint late, passing tons of guys topping out at 37mph. The average was 25.4mph covering 19.7 miles. My teammate Dan Young had two second places in the crits and a 3rd in the time trial to win the overall.
With my strong finishes and strong sprints, perhaps this summer will be good racing after all. I had my doubts because of the lack of training over the winter, but perhaps the running up and down on the basketball court and the mountain biking kept me in better shape than I thought.

Cheers

Earth Day at Forest Park

We went to Forest Park last Sunday to celebrate Earth Day. We have been going to the festival at the Muny for 10 years now. It has gotten bigger and bigger each year. It was such a beautiful day that it seemed as if everyone in the city was at the park. We had to park a mile away and walk. That wasn't bad as the weather was in the 70's and the sun was shining. The girls made some crafts and played a few games. We then came home and I grilled up some pork steaks and then we ate out on the back porch. Here are some photos from that day.

Tatum at baseball practice

Tatum started playing organized baseball this year. I signed her up for the coach pitch league down at the Antonia Ballfields. I thought it would be better for her to play with kids in her school district. She has about 6 girls from her class on her team. Surprisingly she does very well. Not to brag, but she is the best hitter, fielder and thrower on the team. The coaches have her batting clean up and call her Pujols! Perhaps all the batting practice and catch we play after school in the back yard is paying off. I am not making her play and practice. She is the one always asking me to play with her. She can't wait for practice every week. I can't believe she has such an interest in sports. It makes me very happy.

Cardinal Game with Grandma Nita

Mom took both girls to the Cardinal games last Saturday afternoon. She is much braver than myself! In anycase, they had a great time and the Cardinals won. This also enabled me to go out for a 50 mile training ride with some BigShark guys to get ready for the Tour of St. Louis. More about the race weekend in the next few posts or so.

Not much shakin!

Really not much has been going on around here. The weather has been miserable so the training has not been happening. I really had planned to ride all last week and this weekend, but it either was raining or I was running kids around to something. I had planned on riding tomorrow, but today I was putting on some used Dura Ace brakes I bought last year and somehow managed to really screw something up. I now have to make a trip over to BigShark after school on Monday instead of riding! Hopefully then can get it fixed right then and there or have it the next day when I have to make a trip over to UCity for Tatum's singing class.

I met Hovis at Johnny's Friday for some wings and then went by O'Malley's for a pint O Guiness. We watched the Cards game and ran into Brian Klaus. Not much else after that.

Kirsten went out with some co-workers to celebrate a birthday which meant I was in charge of the girls from 9am til 2am or so. We didn't do a durn thang. We watched TV, played board games and with some playdough. They were out by 830, so the rest of the night was free to just me. This never happens, so I rented a couple of films. If you get a chance watch The Kite Runner. It was a great film! It has some history and a storyline that really makes you think about how fragile and interesting life is. The other was one I rented for Kirsten on Friday night. It was called Dan In Real Life. It has Steve Carrell and Juliette Binoche in it. It is something that I never would have watched normally, but nothing else was on, so I threw it in. It is really worth the rental.

See you all later.

Wyman

Running the bases and flying kites!

These are of Tatum running the bases at Busch III and Reese, Kirsten and myself flying her kite over at Carondolet Park.

I was also able to put in 40 miles Sunday morning through south St. Louis and Forest Park. The weather was the best so far this year with the temps reaching into the 70s. I got in 30 miles today after school. Unfortunately they are calling for rain pretty much the rest of the week.

Tatum and Grandma Nita at the Cards Game

Mom took Tatum to the Cards game on Sunday this weekend. After the game was kids run the bases. Tatum has gotten to do something this 35 yr has wanted to do his whole life! They had a great time as well.

Reese and Grandma Nita at Cards Game

Mom took Reese to the Cardinal game this past Saturday for one of the weekend kid's day at the park. They had a great time as you can tell.

Kirsten's Birthday

Colin and I have the same hairline!

She claims to only be 30, but everyone knows that I married an older woman. I will turn 35 in July, so you do the math.

We went to Kries' Steakhouse in Frontenac a couple of Sunday's ago to celebrate my lovely wife's birthday. Kirsten and Mom had the fillet, while Todd and I had the queen cut prime rib which is what they are really know about town for. It was fantastic. Cut like butter and disapeared in minutes. Liz had a hamburger while the girls had toasted ravioli and chicken strips. Thanks Mom.

Easter in Ste. Genevieve, Mo

Luckily the past two weeks I have been able to get back on the bike in a pretty serious manner. I have ridden 9 of 14 days, but now have been off because of family commitments and lousy Misery weather. This week I had to take Tatum to singing lesson at COCA on Tuesday, toured the Antonia Firehouse with the Girl Scouts on Wednesday evening, baseball practice with Tatum on Thursday night and then Friday spent watching the girls because Kirsten has bunko. I am not complaining, but as you can tell, the cycling training has taken a back seat this week. When time did permit right after school on Wed and Thur, it decided to come some major storms. I was just getting into better cycling shape and now a little setback. Kirsten turned 35 on Wednesday and managed to celebrate with some co-workers. I hope we all get to see her on Saturday evening when she gets off work.

Easter weekend was spent at my Mom's house in Ste. Genevieve. I was able to put in thirty miles around the county and town Sat. afternoon and then I took the girls to the community center to swim for a couple of hours. It was quite nice as we were the only one there for the entire time. The girls had a good time and are getting much better at swimming.

Mom had our whole family over for Easter and as usual ate like kings. The girls got tons of goodies as the Easter Bunny is starting to make Santa look bad.

When will Spring get here? It is only going to be in the low 40's on Friday with Saturday being the only dry day of the week. Sat is the only day of the week I can't ride do to wife's work schedule . Good luck to my buddies racing at Hillsboro-Roubaix.

Wyman

A visit to Grandpa Wyman's House

Tatum and I were on Spring Break last Thursday and Friday, so we decidedt to take one day and go visit Great- Grampa Wyman and Great-Grandma Barb on Friday. My Mom and Reese went along as well. We had to drive all the way to Sikeston and down Hwy 60 to get to his house do to the the recent flooding. We had to drive through some water on the road just near his old house and farm near my Aunt Marceda's house. All the ditches were flooded with just about all the fields looking like lakes. Even the Castor River was out its banks near Bird's Corner and Cline's Island. If you know where that is, you are a geography genius!

Grandpa's dog, Skip, recently had puppies and the girls just had to go see them. Their are two yaller ones, one whitun and a small blackun as well. Who knows what kind of dogs they are? Skip looks like half Schnauzer, half Dachsund while my Grandfather claims the father was some sort of Chow/Lab mix! You can quit laughing now, but it is all quite true.

We had a great dinner fixed by Barb. She fixed my favorite of white beans and cornbread with ham, local sweet corn a delicious black forest cake! For those of you who know, you can't beat some proper beans and cornbread! Every time I eat them, I think of spending the few weeks every summer with my Grandpa working in the fields and then driving to Gray Ridge for dinner at Loita's. That old lady cook really cook some beans and cornbread! She would have a cig in one hand with an inch long ash on it and be cooking some beans in the other. What a place?

These are photos from that excursion.

I will have more very soon.

Wyman

Tatum singing at Antonia Elementary Talent Show

This is the video of Tatum singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star " at the Antonia Elementary School Talent Show. She was the only kindergartner to perform. She did a great job!! We are so proud of her. It took a lot of guts for someone of her age to get up there and sing. It reminded me of the time John Mountford and I sang "I Aint Got a Barrel of Money" in our 6th grade talent show. I remember being really dissapointed that we didn't win. I thought we were awesome, when I am sure it wasn't really that great.