SECRET TRAINING VIDEO

Last Fall we bought Gilbert a Strider bike. But he still had his four wheel bike around, which often won out when it came to riding because he was familiar with it. But a few weeks ago the four wheel bike went into the garage to "dry". Since then Gilbert has really been taking off on the Strider balance bike and within a week's time he was cruising the parking lot of our building. There is a new little girl that moved into the building and she has a slightly larger version. A few nights ago three of the kids, Gilbert included were cruising in a pack on their bikes through the lot. Too cute! It is crazy to think that he could be on a real pedal bike by next Fall at the age of three. I don't think I let go of training wheels until I was six. But with the Strider bike kids don't need the training wheels. Here is a sneak peak at our secret training video.

Winter beach visit

We had a weekend off and the weather was cooperating. The visits pre cursor was the search for "squeaky cheese". Tillamook cheese cooperative, one of the larges in the NW has a huge processing located in the namesake town. Gilbert got his first glimpse of a cheese factory that we all looked at during Sesame street back in our own childhood.


After our shorter than normal "tour" we were at the free samples. As you munch on the curd it squeaks, hence the name. As we made our rounds of all the wonderful snacks and treats we could not forget our favorite NW candy. Salmon candy....yes that's right sweet smoked salmon with some brown sugar glaze.




Oh kids...step right up for your own special treat. After everyone went running we finally settled for the creamery's ice cream before heading out.



Once parked it's a 1/4 mile hike in the dunes to the sea. Attached are some great photos of the day. We got our run in towards the jetty and were able to recon what we noticed on the way there. It was the single set for turtle like tracks leading towards the dunes ended up being........ a seal. Yep, in the wild and 10 feet away. What a great day!

It's official !!! 1 year of running every day.

Jessica Louise Gallagher has ran 365 consecutive days 1 Jan 09 - 1 Jan 10. Day in and day out I have been humbled by the display that went on each day. Weather with Gilbert in a stroller, or on a treadmill, solo and with friends Jessica has done it. It's a small post, but worth more accolades than I've ever achieved in my athletic career.

Job well done...on to year #2.

CX 2009 result of the year

Photo: Pat Malach/OregonCyclingAction.com

Additional photos are of our set up onsite.

A crash, a gap and a win: From Velonews.com
In the Senior Men’s A race, Cameron joined series leader Sean Babcock (Team S&M) and Michael Gallagher (C3 Athletes) at the front of the race, where they wasted little time opening a gap on the rest of the field. The trio shared the work, steadily building their lead until first Gallagher fell off the lead pace, followed by Babcock. Alone at the front, Cameron continued to apply the pressure and started building a solid lead when Babcock went down in the deep mud. “It was definitely a different style of racing today,” Babcock said. “It was flat, and it was pretty slippery. “Molly accelerated on the flat sections and just slowly opened things up.” Babcock, who came into the day with a solid series lead, began to whittle away Cameron’s advantage as the race drew to a close, but the crash wrote finis to that. Cameron “really got a gap on us; pretty smart racing,” said Babcock. Cameron hung onto the lead and cruised in for a comfortable win. Babcock dropped Gallagher from the chase and finished second. Gallagher held on for third, ahead of Capitol Subaru Cycling’s Brett Luelling and Gentle Lovers’ Mark Blackwelder. “I’m really stoked,” Cameron said after the win. “I’m really happy to be winning races. I’ve been working so hard. It’s fun. I was stoked when it was the three of us off the front because it’s fun to have a good battle. (Babcock’s) riding really strong, and I’m riding really strong. So we’ll see.”

Haircut and Delicious deserts

If you are not already aware hair cut time is a tag team event. Jessica is up first with the shears and Michael follows up with clippers. Gilbert is entertained while the other does their part leading to a pretty good haircut.

Baking: Jessica has reached a new level!

OK there's Carrot cake then there's double layer speciality cake that you might buy every so often for a special treat. Well the cake that Jessica is holding even surpassed that. At the Thanksgiving dinner we attended people were distraught that they had eaten so much before the desert. It was sinful.

Rewind: November

So it's the Halloween weekend with Cyclocross season still in full swing. G-force headed out to Astoria,OR for the double race weekend. This is us happy to be warm and dry after the first day's festivities. We are looking at the bridge right out our window. The location was great and really cozy. Gilbert really enjoyed the second day; costume day. His favorite saying is "ride dat bike". Jessica was a version of Star Trek and Michael a grey haired old man. The results were high and low, but one thing for sure is that the weather could not have been better!

ENTERING THE TERRIBLE TWOS

I would like to first state that today Gilbert turned two and it was the worst (half) day I have yet to experience with him. He was either whining, crying, pouting, and simply putting on his best display of being two. But after he woke up from his nap he was doing better and I felt that I could make it through the family festivities scheduled for the remainder of the day.


It was a good thing that we are not yet doing birthday parties for him, since one at a time all of us have come down with a little flu. Being that the media has everyone so freaked out about the flu right now, I'm sure no parent would have wanted their child to be around Gilbert. Perhaps next year we will start having kid birthday parties for him with the golden rule of inviting the number of kids in correlation to the age of the birthday boy.


So what did we do? I love traditions, so we came up with the first one of always carving pumpkins on his birthday with one of the pumpkins being a carving of his age. Simple, but perfect for now. When he gets older we can elaborate on it. So we ordered pizza, had the traditional pumpkin spice cupcakes from the local bakery, carved pumpkins, and opened presents. I know he still doesn't really get it, but I could tell that he had an idea that it was something special and about him....especially when the presents came around.


What are his major milestones? He jumps in puddles, will give you knuckles, requests chopsticks for eating, asks to drive the car, hikes mountains, feeds the pets, brings dishes into the kitchen, says thank you and please, weighs 29 lbs, loves to play with worms from the garden, asks to see the moon every night, rides his balance bike, loves the bike trailer and jogger. Oh and we estimate he has about 600 words, is starting to speak in sentences, and repeats EVERYTHING you say, so be careful as to what you say.


Yes, he also insists on wearing his boots every day. Very Portland, actually very cyclocross of him!