What's Cookin', Chase?

Chase helped me make stew in the crock pot last week, and I love this picture so much that I wanted to share it. 

Here's what I love about it:
1.  I love his facial expression.  He is just delighted for three reasons: 
     A.  He likes to help me.
     B.  He likes to pour things into big containers.
     C.  He gets to stand on the chair.
2.  I love that he looks like he's making a toast with the Worcestershire sauce.  Cheers!
3.  I love that he's holding the directions like he knows how to read them.
4.  I love the big handprint on the dish washer.  (Normally this isn't something that I love, but it's a fact of life in our house and I love that it's captured perfectly in this picture.)

5.  I love Chase Ryan Boyd!

Pumpkin Carving

Here are some pictures from our pumpkin carving extravaganza!

Let the carving begin!

We enjoyed our traditional treats of caramel apples and hot chocolate while creating our masterpieces.

Cole carved his own designs this year with a little carving tool that he thought was the coolest thing in the world.  I was pretty impressed with his designs, one had a traditional face, and one with the word "boo".  (He carved my pumpkin too.)  Chase had a supervisory role in his pumpkin's face, he drew the shapes he wanted and Chad cut them out.  Caden sort of gave up on his pumpkin, which was fine because Chad didn't buy a pumpkin for himself this year out of protest for not winning one at the sling shots, so he made do with Caden's cast away.  Look at this little boy's face, he's clearly resigned from the project.  (Notice Cole's rough draft in the back.  You gotta practice before you committ.)

Here are the finished products!

Leavenworth Anniversary Weekend

Chaddy and I celebrated 8 years of holy matrimony on September 21st, but we weren't able to make a real date of it because of his crazy work schedule until October 23rd.  We dropped the kids off at Grampa and Gramma's house (thank you, Grandparents, for watching our babies for us!), and headed east for an entire weekend.  I absolutely love Leavenworth, and I was so excited to see how beautiful it would be in Autumn...it did not disappoint.

We stayed at this cute little cabin in Plain, called Eagle's Nest.  It was located high up in the hills, which required a drive on a crazy non-road (I believe it was actually titled "primitive road" on the driving directions, this should have been a red flag), which Chad just loved in the Adventure Dodge, but I found to be scary.  It's obvious that Chad must really love me for my adventurous nature.  I guess if you're going to perch high in the hills with the eagles, you're going to have to traverse some rocky conditions.

This was our view.  Totally worth the scary drive.

We spent our weekend wandering around Leavenworth and Wenatchee, and eating delicious food that I didn't have to make or clean up....which is my just about my favorite thing ever.

It's really hard to believe that we've been married for 8 years already!  (It's even crazier to think that we've known each other for 24 years!  How am I old enough to know anyone for that long besides my parents and my sister?)  Chad is my very favorite person in the world.  He makes me laugh every day (this has always been my favorite thing about him - for 24 years now - and if you know him, you know how funny he is), he is a wonderful husband and friend to me and the best daddy to my boys, and I love him!

Happy 8th anniversary, Chaddy!

My Bookclub Girls Really Love Me

You know how I know?  Because they gave me this, a professionally crafted piece of art, that they used real money to pay for, and it is nothing less than spectacular.

Although not one of these girls shares my love for all things Twilight (I know you're wondering how that's possible, but it's true), they still love me enough to indulge my whimsies like this.  And if you're thinking that my hair looks particularly beautiful in this picture, you are not alone.  I was really ranting and raving about what a fantastic hair day I was having, it was almost as exciting as the picture itself, when one of the girls gently informed me that the hair is not my own, but the crafty work of Photoshop.  I should've known.

Thank you to my wonderful sea monsters for a lovely picture and great friendships!  You love me, you really, really love me!

Pumpkin Patch

This year we headed to Spooner Farms early in the season; the second day it was open!   We knew we had a super busy October ahead of us, and I definitely didn't want our annual trip to the pumpkin patch to get lost in the shuffle (it is one of my favorite family traditions!), so on October 3rd, we grabbed our rubber boots...

And headed for the Patch!

I took 9303907 pictures, and it's always so hard to narrow them down, but here are a few of my favorites...

I love the stair step effect as the boys wait to ride horses.

And they're off!

Duck races...always a favorite of the Boyd boys.

We did not win a pumpkin at the sling shot this year (our first loss in Boyd history of pumpkin patch sling shotting, or is it shooting??), perhaps because Chad used up a little muscle pushing these big boys around.  It's getting heavier every year!

We concluded our visit with the traditional hot chocolate and caramel apples treats.  And for documentation purposes, I was also there!

Look at my pumpkins.  I love them so much!   Once again, the cutest little pumpkins at the patch!

Where Is The Time Going?

We've had so much fun this month, and there are so many things that I want to blog about, but I'm finding my new life as a mom to a first grader way busier than before.  (Notice I said "mom" and not "mommy", because in first grade we're like too cool to say "mommy" anymore.)   You would think with one less kid around for 6 hours a day that I'd have more time on my hands, but NO.  This is so NOT the case.  AT ALL.  Not even a little.

Here is a little sample of our Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedules and why I'm finding myself too busy for blogging and pretty much anything else these days.  (I miss my blog...there's so much I want to write about!  I have that yucky, nagging, I'm getting too far behind feeling...I hate that feeling.)

We get up around 6:30, eat breakfast, get dressed, pack a school lunch, practice our spelling words for the week, and get Cole out the door by 9:00.  After this, I usually run upstairs to get myself ready for the day, and then come down to clean up whatever mayhem Caden has inflicted upon our living spaces while he was briefly out of my sight.  This usually puts us at around 9:45 in the morning.  Next we quickly run our errands, and try to get back by 11:15-ish for Chase to have lunch and get off to preschool by 12:15.  When I get home from dropping him off at 12:45, I put Caden down for a nap.  This should theoretically give me two hours to myself.  Theoretically.  But Caden doesn't fall asleep the moment I put him down, which means that I don't get the full two hours -- ever.  I use whatever time is left to eat lunch, work-out if there's enough time to shower afterwards (Caden must remain sleeping during all of this, otherwise my house is likely to be egg'd, flooded, painted on, burned to the ground, etc), and then we're back at the preschool by 2:50 so I can quickly grab Chase right at 3:00 when preschool gets out in order to be at Cole's school by 3:20.  Sheesh! We get home at about 3:45.  That gives me about an hour with the boys before I start dinner.  Chad is home by 6:00, we eat, then Cole goes up to bathe.  I clean the kitchen, then run upstairs to supervise Cole's final stages of the cleaning process (making sure all the little nooks and crannies get proper attention, otherwise he'd just sit in the water and never use the soap).  After he's dressed, we hit the books in his room until about 8:30; doing homework, practicing spelling, and reading.  Phew.  By the time it's all over, all I want to do is camp out on the couch.   In between all of this, all the regular stuff has to happen too (or at least is should...theoretically), like laundry and cleaning.  Stupid laundry and cleaning, I hate you.

All of this to say that I guess I do know where the time is going.  Before first graded started, Chad would put all three of the boys to bed, which would give me some wonderful time to do other things.  But with Cole being gone all day, I miss him!  I want to hang out with him.  Sometimes while he's at school, I'll stop in his room for a few minutes just to feel a little closer to him.  I'm really cherishing our evenings together, even if it means that I'm falling behind on my personal fun stuff.  And I know that it won't be long until Chase joins him in "real" school, and soon to follow will be my baby.  (My baby is about to turn 3...don't even get me started on that.)

So, I have a few blog posts to author, and I will get to them eventually.  But in the meantime, if you're wondering where I am, you can find me either in the kitchen, the car, buried underneath a huge pile of laundry, Target, Fred Meyer, Costco, maybe in the car again, or, if it's after 8:30 at night, camped out on my couch.

0K, 5K, Sprint Duathalon, 8K, 5K, Olympic Duathalon (By Chad E. Boyd)

Flash back to February of this year and I decided to start running with some people at work.  Our first "runs" where measured not in miles or meters.  Not even in feet or yards, but in minutes and seconds.  The first "workout" was 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking, three times.  A humble beginning to say the least, but I can assure you that I always did my best to be the lead rhino in our 60 second marathons!  I'm calling these first workouts my 0K.

That's me in the back....


After awhile we started measuring the runs with distances like 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile and finally full miles.  In March, I laced up the tennies and completed my first official run at the Saint Patrick's Day Dash in Seattle.
Here I am mid race..at the time I was trying to determine if the Leprechauns I was seeing were real or simply a result of the lack of O2 to my brain.  I'm still not sure.

Next stop was the Cino de Mayo 5K race at my work.  It went a little better than Mr. Patrick's race and for the record I did beat Holly.  I don't have a picture, I think Holly destroyed all evidence of her loss.

Now while running, as I have blogged in the past, I got the idea of doing a sprint triathlon.  This is a very miniaturized version of a real triathlon. 
It goes like this:

• Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on the bike, 26 mile run)
• Half Ironman (1.2 / 56 / 13)
• Olympic length (1 / 25 / 6)
• Sprint Tri (.5 / 12 / 3)

I found however that it was hard to get to a pool to train so I settled on a sprint duathlon (bike/run).

Here I am at my first duathlon and I think its clear I'm looking for an escape route!

2 miles running, 13 miles on the bike and then another 2 miles running and it was done.

As the training continued the next race was set for the 8K (5 miles) at Seafair.  Holly and I again ran together in a race, but this time as would be expected she beat me.  This time I destroyed all photographic evidence so it can never be proven.  Well I guess the official race results are public record......curses!

Aside from my wife beating me by 3 seconds, my spirits were high.  A short time later the second "fun" run happened at work.  This time they ran a 7K course and I posted my first sub 9 minute mile average.  That effort got me the coveted "most improved" metal.  Did I say coveted?  Wait...the "most improved" metal is the one they give to the lame kid.  Oh well, I still wore it around at work and then home.  The other metal I'm wearing was for first place in the volleyball tournament at the company picnic....big day, big day.


Now my neck heavy with hardware ala Michael Phelps, I set my sites for an olympic length duathalon in Black Diamond, WA.  That's 25 miles on the bike and then a 6 mile run.  Now I had covered both of these distances without dying in training, but never had I attempted them back-to-back.  So two weeks ago on a rainy Sunday morning it was put up or shut up time.

The goal for this race was make it to this spot and cross it without the aid of safety personnel or oxygen bottles.

I jumped on the mighty Fuji and pedaled and pedaled and pedaled (1 hour, 22 minutes).  Here is a shot from the race photo company.

After the hour and twenty minutes of bike fun, I arrived back to the transition area.  It's a unique feeling to "jump" off a bike after that amount of time and try and run.  I imagine it looked a lot like that scene from Forest Gump when he's running in his leg braces.  Anyway, two and half minutes later the bike is in the rack and the running shoes are on and I begin the second and last leg of the race.  The last mile of the 6 mile section is in a word - sucky.  However, as with anything tough it feels good to conquer it!  So with an official race time of 2 hours, 31 minutes and 57 seconds I crossed under those big banners.  I even won my division. I was the fastest guy that was 39 or under and weighed 198 pounds or more (Clydesdale division) that ran the duathalon that day.  The field was stacked with a total of 2 guys (including me).  How you like them apples, Jeremiah Nonis (my fellow Clydesdale competitor)!

Here is my cheering squad  waiting for me at the finish line.

Next stop is the Seattle Marathon, Nov 28.  I will be running in the half marathon.  Wish me luck...I will need it.

***A IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM HOLLY:  THE REASON THAT SOMEBODY (CHAD) BEAT SOMEBODY ELSE (ME) AT THE INTEL RACE WAS BECAUSE SOMEBODY (ME AGAIN) DROPPED HER CHAPSTICK AND WENT BACK FOR IT.  CONVENIENTLY, SOMEBODY OMITTED THIS FACT FROM HIS STORY, BUT I FELT IT WAS AN IMPORTANT FACT WORTHY OF MENTIONING. (Especially since Chad is now running sub 9 minute miles...I'll never see another victory.)  I'M SO PROUD OF ALL YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS!   LOVE YOU, CHADDY!***  



Boyds Will Be Boyds - In Picture

We had our summer family photo session back in July, and I'm about to share a few of my favorite pictures with you. Why, might you be asking, has it taken me so long to share our pictures?  Because it's taken me that long to choose them! You've probably noticed in some of my blog posts over the past 9 months that I have paint splotches all over my walls - for over 9 months now - because I can sometimes, every once in awhile, be a teeny bit indecisive.  So naturally, it took me a looooong time to choose 35 photos out of 135.  And then to narrow those down for blogging purposes, well, that was another time consuming endeavor.  But alas, here they are, pictures of Team Boyd at the lake by my parents' house, and some are from their backyard.  Thank you to my friend, Summer Dawn, for the lovely photos!

Apolog(l)ee

I recently posted THIS about the wonders and joys of a little show called Glee.   I encouraged (even begged) my readers to watch it.  Now, while I still whole heartedly and deeply love Glee, I realize that I posted that blog entry on the very day that Britney Spears appeared as a special guest star on the world's best show.  What does this mean?  It means that my normally very cute and heart touching show was Britney-i-fied (aka risque and inappropriate to put it mildly) on the very day that I pleaded with all 20 of you to watch...INCLUDING MY MOM.  So if you watched it in horror, and then began to question my sense of judgment and taste, I want to apologize to you.  It is NORMALLY a happy, appropriate, and extremely hilarious show.  Please don't judge me.  Or Glee.  Just try it again.  Perhaps when Brit Brit's not on.  You'll like it.  I promise.  Except for maybe you, Mom.  Please don't put me up for adoption.