Happy Birthday Domo.

Hear ye! Hear ye!

The lady who's now 35
Has always been a great wive.
She wears a nice hat,
But looks like she sat
On top of a giant bee hive.














Of course I'm kidding! I just needed to come up with a silly poem that went with this silly photo that I ran across on our iPhoto program. Christina is so beautiful and such a great wife and mother, always thinking of others. She's great at doing the things that need to be done, keeping our lives organized and our family's compass pointing due North. I'm looking forward to celebrating her birthday tonight here with our four beautiful kids, along with Christina's mom and dad. How lucky. The photo below is very cute. We took it in 2009 at the Eagle Center near Red Wing, I think. (Click it to to enlarge, as usual.)

King Roman, the beach, and a playlist

Roman has not been sleeping very well at night, especially on his back in his crib. So naturally, we're doing what we have to do in order to get through the nights. What that has meant a lot of nights has been putting him down - on my pillow - so that he can have a bottle (like every three hours). I don't mind letting him use my pillow for a while, but when ever I try to move him back to his crib - he cries and often wakes up his sister. We've even resorted to letting him sleep in his crib, in his car seat. It works for a while, which makes me think he's got some sort of acid reflux or something. Anyway, two nights ago - Roman (who we sometimes call Romano) fell asleep on my side of the bed. After a few failed attempts to move him, I gave up. Ended up sleeping 2 hours ON THE FLOOR next to my bed. That, in short, makes him king Roman. I was next to his crib, and ended up using one of his blankies for my own legs and feet.

Now onto topic number 2 - we went to Shady Oak Beach with our neighbors on Saturday night to beat the heat. It went well - Ezra got into the water and Levi learned how to get up onto the diving dock (in shallow 3.5 foot water or so) and jumped off on his own. I went off the 15-20 foot high dive - of course I just jumped. It was fun having our neighbors there - they were great helps watching the babies and playing with our kids. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Farmer's Insurance blimp in the sky - headed back to Eden Prairie where it has been docked giving rides all week.

>Click here to see more info on the airship or click here to see some photos of it in the Twin Cities. Below are two of my photos of us at the beach.




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So you've been wondering - what songs does Sam use as inspiration when he runs? Here's my most recent playlist, annotated with why I like to run to the songs.

1. Roll Me Away Bob Seger (Best warm up song ever. "I could go east, I could go west, looking out at the Great Divide.")

2. Big House Audio Adrenaline (a fun, loud rockin' Christian song, to remind me it is God's playground.)

3. Surfin' USA Beach Boys, The (It is a short, summer song)

4. Born to Run Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Name says it all)

5. Rockin' Down the Highway The Doobie Brothers (Good for road racing)

6. Wild, Wild West The Escape Club (I know it dates me, but it is wild)

7. Get Rhythm Joaquin Phoenix (when I start getting tired, I smile and hit a rhythm)

8. Down On The Corner John Fogerty (I sometimes slow down to the beat, and catch myself dancing - but I always smile).

9. Centerfield John Fogerty (An awesome song about getting into the mix of things a little bit. Reminds me of my Dad some. It used to be one of my top 5 favorite songs of all time, but slipped a little when I read that it is the most-played song on George W. Bush's iPod.



10. Break My Stride Matthew Wilder (Jim and Christina got me to like this song - a lot, and it is a good theme for running.)

11. Footloose Kenny Loggins
(Thinking of the Will & Grace episode about this makes me laugh.) Man, they had a lot of great guest stars on that show over the years.

>Click here to see a you-tube clip!

12. Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show Neil Diamond (I honestly don't know what htis about, but I think about my bro Wyatt when I hear this one - he's sort of a traveling salvation show.)
13. Crunchy Granola Suite Neil Diamond (Good beat. I usually think how it would make a great commercial for Nature Valley granola cereal.)

14. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond (So fun. And happy memories of Kari and Brian's wedding.)

15. You can call me Al Paul Simon (Fear of being 'that guy' is the best motivation for a mid-30s or older runner. "Why am I soft in the middle now when the rest of my life is so hard?" I also am pretty sure the song is the narrator saying he's ready to put his trust in God.)

16. Life Is A Highway Rascal Flatts (Cars movie soundtrack has a great beat.)

17. Blessed Be Your Name Tree63 (P.T.L., I like this song - reminds me of the live show we saw at 3Degrees in downtown Minneapolis.)

18. Power Of Love Huey Lewis And The News (Like footloose, another 80s soundtrack throwback gem - from one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. I picture Marty McFly riding on his skateboard in 1985 through the subdivisions in Hill Valley.)

(I don't do cool-down music very often - sometimes I switch over to Christmas carols - something like Vince Gill or Clint Black, or listen to a classical track of something.)

Trains, motorcycles and Sponge Bob

We had a nice birthday party for Ezra. The weather was fantastic all weekend and the company was so fun to have around. Thank you to everyone. Kirb and Isaac did a beautiful job drawing Happy Birthday and playing into our robot theme on the driveway. We had a fun home-made cake again this year too - it was in the shape of a robot with doughnut arms and legs. It didn't cause nearly the suffering as the train cake he had last year. Wow that was difficult.

Ezra really enjoyed his gifts which included two toy motorcycles, some additional pieces to his GeoTrax train set and a Sponge Bob Squarepants youth-sized tennis racket. We played a lot in the pool over the weekend because it's been like 90 degrees. To eat we had spaghetti at his party. We went to Broadway Pizza in Plymouth the night before. Yum.

Jake and Isaac were HUGE helps this week -coming down for two days to help us paint our house. It is about 95 percent complete. We got almost the entire back and north side done now. And then on Sunday Wyatt, Jake, Isaac and I muscled up a small 6 foot by 6 foot garage door on our storage shed so now it is somewhat secure and I can put our riding lawn mower out there - rather than in our main garage.

We tried out my new citrus juicer last night Yummy lemonade. It was a giftcard holdover from my birthday. I've kinda always wanted one of those.

Not much else to say. We're loving summer. Trying to get outside as much as possible. Last Tuesday we went to Como Town, the amusement park attached to the Como Zoo in St. Paul. It was fun - but the tea cups seriously made my stomach queezy for like an hour. Never again. Levi liked the frog jumper ride best or the big swings. Ezra's favorite - no big surprise - was the train.

Babies are doing well. Roman still bigger than Ivy although they are getting to look more and more like twins every day. We're also starting to give up territory in our room (slowly moving things upstairs to our new built-in closet and bedroom (with plywood floors) so we have more things for the babies in our outgoing bedroom.

Summer ... thanks for coming. Stay as long as you want.

Q. Where did you go for summer vacation?
A. Comotown










Now here are some backyard shots...








Here's some home run derby material - Levi's grandpa is pitcher.







We went to Build a Bear with Ezra on his actual bday. His new friend is named "Crackers." He's a black bear.


Then we all went out for pizza.

And came back for 1 cupcake for Ezra.


His real party was on Saturday.




He had a robot cake.

We even caught a priceless photo of Jonathan eating a piece of cake.


Finally, here's how the front of the house is looking this week. Click to enlarge (like all of the blog photos). Notice the house numbers are back up, but we haven't figured out where to hang our flag yet.

Happy 3rd Birthday Bugaboo!