Baby Emma Hoyle - May 16

Our good friends Jon & Laura had their baby girl, Emma, on May 16. She weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. and was 19.5 in long. She and mama are doing well and we were so blessed to get to meet her! I can't believe she is already 4 weeks old! Here are some pictures from when she was less than 24 hours old - 3 days old. She was so tiny compared to Eli! Once they get a little older though the distance in their ages will barely be noticeable! We are excited to have another friend with a baby close to Eli's age!

Emma and I at the hospital. She's gnawing on her covered hands, so cute!

Jon and his sweet baby girl.

Laura burping Emma, look at all that hair!!!

Ranger Gwinn and Emma.

Daddy and Emma, post diaper change. :)

Isn't her expression and hand so cute here?

The Gwinns with Emma. :)

Day Trips

We have taken a few day trips recently. One was to REI to get the backpack and on the way home we stopped at Latta Plantation to picnic and try it out. We have also taken two "day trips" to Lake Norman State Park. We hiked part of the Lake Shore Trail and then picnicked near the shore. We also went to the swim beach one day where Andrea laid out and I took out a kayak. All the trips have been a lot of fun and Eli enjoys being outdoors!!

Picnic at Latta Plantation.

Eli's first ride.

Picnicking at LANO with Dada.

Picnicking at LANO with mama.

We took Doc on the hike with us too.

Eli gnawing on an apple.

Playing in the sand.

He got a little dirty.

Eli loved the water and never flinched.
I hope he continues to like hiking and the water!!!

Wyatt turns three!

On May 12, Wyatt turned three! It worked out that I was off on that Tuesday and Wednesday so we went to Fuquay-Varina to celebrate. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing all the Renfrows and Andrea's mom. We got Wyatt part of a train set from IKEA, and he loved it. It was a fun couple of days.

Claire and Eli chomping on toys.

Sisters

Wyatt showing off his new Cars bib,
mommy looks excited too!

Eli in his monkey PJ's.

A snapshot of the craziness.

Wyatt was so excited about the rug
that had a town and roads on it!

Wyatt playing with his new IKEA train set.

I love this pic.

Wyatt was so careful moving in and out of the tracks,
so he did not mess them up, it was very cute.

Even the older kids had fun with the trains,
I especially liked designing the tracks!

Fun flicks from Fuquay

These videos are from our trip to Fuquay for Wyatt's 3rd birthday. We took them the day after, on May 13.

Wyatt is so smart and cute. He got a train set for his birthday and already knew what the smoke stacks were, but Uncle J had to teach him the truth about chocolate milk!!



This video is of Eli watching McQueen drive around. He loved watching the car zoom around. Initially Claire was laughing too!

White Lake Tri weekend

A bunch of us did the White Lake Triathlon again this year. Andrea, Eli and I made a weekend of it by visiting some friends in Lumberton on Friday and Saturday before going to White Lake for Saturday night and the Tri on Sunday.

We had a blast with the Brookses (we looked up the grammar for pluralizing a last name that ends with an "s") in Lumberton; it was my first time meeting Summer and Jackson. We all played around the house and went to Lumber River State Park. While playing at the house we found a Squirrel Treefrog in a watering can, and at Lumber River we found a Spring Peeper (frog), and a ton of caterpillars.

Summer, Eli, and Jackson playing.

The Lumber River (Bald Cyprus are one of my favorite trees!!!).

Two of three Gwinns and the Brookses.

I didn't train much at all for the Tri this year and my times showed it. I actually improved on the swim but fell a few minutes on the bike and completely bombed the run! Below are this years times and last years.

Swim 20:27 (2008 - 22:52)

Bike (including both transitions due to a timing error) 52:56 (2008 - 45:00 With Transitions - 49:51)

Run 32:31 (2008 - 26:57)

Total 1:45:53 (2008 - 1:39:37)

My lack of training truely showed itself in the run, but hey it was a fun weekend!

Walter, Alan and me pre-race (Alan killed the course!!
Walt unfortunately blew a tire and could not finish.)

There were a ton of us this year, this is the crew just after our prayer.

Part of the cheerleaders (Triathletes must be a fertile bunch).

So, my chain fell off like 400 yards into the bike and I hit my brakes hard, which almost sent me over the handlebars. As I realized I was going over the handlebars I threw my weight to the side, but could not get both feet unclipped and it hurt! I got the chain back on pretty quickly and heard one of the spectators say "Nice recovery man!" (a tad bit embarassing)