Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Joy to you.


2012 was a special year for us.

Highlights include:
Paul's trip to Guyana
Christine's second season of Lacrosse coaching
Paul's success on his road bike
Paul's trip to Russia
Christine committed to, trained, and ran a full marathon
Then said goodbye to her Murray home and ski boat (after a last Lake Powell hurrah)
Together we braved Hurricane Sandy and then helped clean up after her
Paul's cyclcross season ending win
And mostly, a happy marriage and life in New Jersey

To end the year we are spending time with family in Chicago.

We feel blessed and loved and we wish you all the joy in the world. 

Monday, December 17, 2012

Paul is a Winner.

Let me take a moment to brag about Paul.
He WON his cyclocross race on Saturday. I was doing Helping Hands so I wasn't there to see it, but today we found out some guy in the race had a go-pro camera on his bike and posted it online. The good news is he was behind Paul for the first whole lap that he filmed, basically just being Paul's personal videographer. If your curious what it looks like to be in a cyclocross race, check it out here.

As a bonus, one of Paul's Rutgers teammates just finished a documentary on some bike trails that are near our home. Paul is the bike model (showing off both his commuter bike in downtown New Brunswick, and his mountain bike on the trails at Six Mile Run). You can watch that (very well done film) here. This video also has some cyclocross at the end for the people who wonder what the heck it looks like (from the viewer perspective this time).

After overcoming injury and not being able to race most of his season, I'm so happy he was able to finish with a bang at his last race of 2012. Good job PB!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Things I like on a dreary Monday:


Having a zip code that starts with 0

Patterned socks and new shoes

Amy Grant's "Home for Christmas" album

Paneer Tikka Masala.

ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas

Electric Blankets

New windshield wipers

Leftovers

Playing Tuba in a band again

2 weeks until Christmas




Thursday, November 29, 2012

Independence Cross

Paul's cyclocross hopes and dreams were cut a bit short this year with a shoulder injury (re-injury of the shoulder he had surgery on for AC joint seperation). But, a few weeks post-crash he raced Indpendence Cross in South Jersey and I took pictures.

Before the race we had some time to explore the Cohanzick Zoo (New Jersey's first Zoo), best part it is free AND right next to the race course. 

We were one of the few people there and the zookeeper was kind enough to tell us he was about to feed the porcupine and that we should come see her. I loved this thing, it looked so sweet and I think her name was Dolly.

There were peacocks walking around all over the place (And warning signs that said that during mating season they might attack your car if it's shiny and they see their reflection). 

 

It was really nice just walking through the zoo on a warm Fall morning and holding hands with this guy. I feel like we don't get those moments that often so I really enjoyed it. 

The very best part of this zoo was the white Bengal tiger. I literally watched it for an hour while Paul warmed up for his race. It started stalking me and definitely wanted to eat me. But I loved it so much so it was a slightly complicated relationship we formed in that hour. 




 Bears too! This guy was super lazy and not at all intimidating like the tiger.

This monkey was the tiniest (smaller than my hand) and had a few friends and they were mischievous and awesome. 


Race time finally came (2 hours late) and Paul was ready to go. 


The course was beautiful and fall colored and Paul did great! Top 10 in his new category!





 It was a fun fall day to be a cycling fan!
Hurricane Sandy came a few days later and our weekends haven't been the same since. :)