Road Trip/Sanity Saver

My mom by far wins best Mom and Yia Yia of the year. She voluntarily drove 10 hrs FROM Arizona TO Atascadero on a Sunday night and woke up Monday morning and drove BACK 10hrs WITH the girls!!! THEN she kept them until the following Sunday when she drove all the way back, spent the night and turned around and drove back the next day. Holy toledo. A lot of driving with 2 little girls, who she says did amazing in the car.


Off they go!

Enjoying the ride!

Playing make-up in Yia Yia's bathroom.

Carousel

Sister love!

Lunch with their Great Grandpa Thomas.

All in all, they say it was a great trip. My mom said she wants to do it every summer. I won't argue with that!

Mom, you are the greatest! I had a very relaxing week alone. It was much needed!

Kailee's B-day surprise

Kailee turns 6 July 31. I can't believe it! To celebrate, we went to see the live production of High School Musical 2 that Cal Poly put on. We were in the middle of the 3rd row. The girls were quite impressed. Kailee knew it wan't the "real" Troy, but still wanted to take a picture with "Troy" AND we got all of their autographs.
Gabriella

Troy

Ryan and Sharpay

CUTIES!

Fourth of July

My fave holiday! We decorated bikes and paraded around the neighborhood, ate delicious food with great friends, swam, and topped the night off at our neighbor's vineyard, right behind Meridian. Meridian puts on a fabulous firework show that we were able to enjoy! Thank the Lord for our soliders and our freedom!

Lots more to update on....

In this episode... Kailee cut her hair (well, Amber @ Great Clips cut her hair) so she has the same cut as Momma =)

Kailee learned to ride her bike without training wheels in May at almost 6 years old, Addie did just last Thursday @ 3 1/2 years old.

Yia Yia and Pa took the girls and I to McPhees for a nice dinner. The girls sat and talked and it was actually enjoyable!!!

Oh yes, and Sarah the guinea pig wanted some love in the blog.

ALL ABOUT ME!!!

Getting marked for the tri. See below for the story....

Enough about the rest of the fam. This one is all about ME! The only bad news is I am blog illiterate and can't get the pics to move into the right order. SOooooo. the story will be in order, but not the pics. Ya'll will just have to deal with it. Here is the story....

A long time ago, on a campground not far way, there was a girl... ok, I'll tell it regular. We camped at Lake San Antonio last April, as in April 2008. It happened to be the same weekend of the Wildflower triathlon. I was inspired. My neighbor did it and I decided I wanted to. So, in September, I signed up for the moutain bike course. Then, in March when I turned 29, I decided it would be even better to set a goal for myself... to do 3 triathlons by my 30th b-day. Now with Mike gone, training has been a lifesaver for my sanity. It has forced me to get away and have mom time.

Tri #1 came May 2. I was a stud, if I do say so myself. I got 10th in my division, out of 112 girls. I finished in 1hr 20 min. It was a 1/4 mile swim, 9.6 mi bike, and 2 mile run. Yeehaw! I had a complete blast. See pics below.

My BFF Beth is runner extraordinaire and decidede one Friday that it would be great to do a 10k.... the next day. Her mom and a friend had already signed up and were going to flake, so it would be free fun! Running is NOT my fave part, but it was going to be her first race and I thought if I could get her into racing maybe, just maybe, I might eventually get her to do a tri with me! So we ran from Morro Rock to the Cayucus Pier... See pics. She made our ipod mix and we ran in synch the whole way. Not really, but we had fun!

THEN, I signed up for the SLO triathlon. I coerced my other BFF Jill to compete as well. That race is in 2 weeks... 1/2 mi swim, 15 mi ride, and 3 mi run. mmm.... I cannot wait.

Just Saturday, as part of my training/plan to get Beth to do a tri, we did the same 10k again and shaved a minute off our time. A side note, Beth has since purchased a bike. Because she wants to feel the wind in her hair. Or is she secretly planning on joining me in my addiction???



10k #1

Dancing =)

Done with Wildflower!

Pregame love from the girls.

Packet pick-up. It was raining and yucky. Race day was perfect!

AND THEN!!!

We took a trip to Angels Camp to help Nana and Papa move out of their house...

Love Bendaroos!

We did VBS with Atascadero Bible Church. The kids were supposed to be "head to toe" in their class color... green for the final performance.

Kailee and Dawson with their green hair.

The little sisters got in on the greenness also.

Do not be fooled by the sweet innocent looks.

They are crazed green monsters!

For our Fourth of July Friday off we took a trip to the beach with our "Mc's" as Kailee call our best friends the McDermotts. While the kids played contentedly (is that a word??) Beth and I sunned ourselves and solved most of the worlds problems.

Kailee and Dawsie...

The little girls burying Kailee in the sand...

FUN FUN!!! We love summer... stay tuned for more.

What else has happened???

Mike's brother, Travis, got married to a great girl, with a great name I might add, Cari. Now there are 2 Kari/Cari Hamiltons. So people don't get confused and so we don't get the not so favorite, #1/#2, Big/Little, First/Second, The OTHER, etc., we have asked to be Kari Anne and Cari Jo. We will not be answering to anything else =)

They actually got married in Cancun in April and had the reception at their ranch. Here are the pics of the cutest girls around. Yes, Yia Yia made their dresses. BEEEUTTEEFUL!!

Kindergarten Graduation

I know it's already been a month... here are the pics from Kindergarten graduation. Very bitter sweet. My baby is going to be in first grade! I could not be more thankful for sucha precious kindergarten experience! Kathy Romera is, bar none, the best kindergarten teacher! With all the changes our family went through this year, mom going to work full time, Dad "moving out", etc. It was great for Kailee to have such a rock in her classroom. We thank you Mrs. Romera!!


Sweet Mrs. Romera and Kailee

Getting ready to sing... Mimi, Calvin, and Kailee

Kailee in action

CHEESE!

Catch up: Mike

Cadet Hamilton has been quite busy the last few months. He has gotten "OC" sprayed (that's pepper spray to normal folk), tear gassed, and tazered. Fun huh? We are greatful for all of it (really he is!) because that means he is still there! His class has dwindled from 240 cadets to 188. There are 4 weeks left until graduation and all of the big hurdles are complete!! He is going to be an officer in the Monterey office (in Salinas). We are thrilled he is so close! He will be renting a room from a friend so he can stay up there during his shift. He will be gone 2-3 nights a week. A big improvement from the 6 he is gone now! He will have 3 days off every week and 4 every other. We won't know what to do with him around so much! We'll be like a real family =) I could not be prouder of my little Cadet! He has worked his little butt off and is about ready to reap the rewards. Graduation practice... he is the tall guy between the flags.

Classroom time... He is front row 4th from the left.

Post pepper spray. Doesn't he look a little too cheery?

That's it for the Mike update. We will be going to Disneyland for the first time with the kids the week after he graduates. They have 10 days off before their first shift. We will be fitting in as much fun as possible!