He Won

Of course he did. He came, he rode, he conquered. That's Lance. Levi came in third, also a great showing. The sleepy town of 3K, had about 15-20 thousand spectators. My parents had a great time and I'm so excited that he might have raced his last ever race in the US in my hometown. Who knows, though...how many times did Jordan retire? He might just be back again.

If you can handle the terrible sound quality, this video was taken on the motorcycle alongside the riders in the race, and also shows how what a beautiful town NC is.

Here comes Lance!

I'm not sure everyone knows this, but I’ve been watching the tour de France for...well a long time. It probably started when I spent a summer in France when I was 12, and saw the tour as it passed thru. I even got Jen hooked and now she watches every year. Cycling has all the good drama of a soap opera. Drugs, people changing teams, countries that hate a certain American rider, insane fans that run in the streets and bloody crashes etc. No one in cycling ever generates as much interest as Lance, love him or hate him I think everyone would agree that he is cycling.
In my small hometown the oldest bike race in the history of California occurs every Fathers Day. It's called the Nevada City Classic. In the past Greg Lemond in the 80’s, Lance in 1990, and Levi even in 1998 among others have participated but generally it's a low key event with only die hard cycling fans making any special trips. Not this year friends because Lance himself, along with Levi (who I adore) and Chris Horner...all amazing American riders announced yesterday that they will be riding in it! Lance tweeted it actually, and of course I follow him because I'm psycho. This is probably the most exciting thing to happen to Nevada City since a Hallmark Christmas movie was filmed a few years ago. My parents are already staking out their seats and I’m forcing my mom to make a sign for me. I can’t believe I’m going to miss this one...for budget reasons I cannot hop a flight to CA this weekend. To quote Levi “This is one party to come watch".

Almost Time!!

I had to post the link to Rob and Allison's maternity photo shoot because it is so freaking adorable. I'm sure they will kill me for this but you all know and love them so I figured you would want to see it as well. A)It's totally not fair how tiny she still is at 36 weeks in these pics, and B) look at those dogs! I love the baby room of course. 4.5 weeks to go until baby H. Chris and I are so excited we already have shirts to wear to the hospital when we get the call. Mine reads Aunt Sassy, his reads Uncle Cap.

Heinrich is German but really I’m Irish

I’m a pretty even split of the two, but if you ask the men in our lives we have Irish tempers for sure, and half of us have red hair and freckles. My brother and I have always wanted to go to Ireland so what did my parents do? They planned a trip to go with their friends for 3 weeks, and are sending daily updates to rub it in. Nice.
They don’t really drink, never have, but they are with their best friends of 29 years the Gubitz’s who are shall we say...a little more into the adult beverage. So far my parents have been to the Jameson’s’ tasting room 2x and the Guinness factory, not to mention a different pub every night. I’m beginning to worry if along with the red hair and sassy personality my mom will be bringing back a new found fondness for the booze.
The last few nights they have been at Leslie Castle, the castle where Paul McCartney married that god awful woman. Apparently there is a huge wedding happening this weekend and my mom sent us an email “are there any big celebs that are engaged, I think they’re getting married here this weekend” to which my aunt responded, “oh yes didn’t you hear its George Clooney and Angelina”. See my smart ass tendencies come via genetics.

Amanda

I know I’m not old, but occasionally things happen and I think “wow I remember when...” This past weekend was one of those moments. I have a small family, and cousins were few and far between. When I turned 18 my cousin Amanda was born and she quickly became the special one. You see, I was beyond babying as I was an adult, and my grandparents were over the moon for her. I was able to live close by and picked her up from pre-school some days, and my mom will still drive 3+ hours for one of her basketball games. To me she will never grow up, but this past weekend I had to face that isn’t the case in reality. She graduated from 8th grade! What?!? I can’t believe it, and am sad I missed it. My parents who are off traipsing around Ireland for weeks forgot to tell me. Hopefully with a nice gift all will be forgiven. I’m so proud and she is so beautiful and smart. Luckily for me she will be moving to Texas in a few weeks and I can harass her in person more often. I’m sure she is counting the min for that.


Katie, my other baby...I mean cousin is just as beautiful and special so I added a pic of her last day of 5th grade.