The Shine Family

The Shine Family
GO PAC GO!!!!

Monday, May 25, 2009

My Wife is Amazing


The Triumphant Mom!

For many reasons, being an amazing mother, wife, friend. But this blog isn't about that. It's about how my wife could kick my butt... running that is. Yesterday was the day that Leah had been training for five months, The Coeur D'Alene half Marathon. Yep! My amazing wife ran the CDA half marathon yesterday and did amazing.
We went down to Post Falls and stayed with our good friends Houng, Chevy and Alyx Mathews (Houng is a friend of Leah's from High School). First thing bright and early we all headed over to the starting line. Leah had modified her race number as well, Leah dedicated her race to a very good friend who went home to Jesus last year, Lisa Kemp and thought of her and her family all day yesterday.
Houng went bandit yesterday and ran with Leah for a while and then met me at the finish line where we all waited for the grand arrival of my awesome wife. A funny side note, Chevy & Alyx and Jael & I were waiting for the girls and we went to Starbucks so I could wake up fully and the most peculiar/hysterical thing happened. We were all Standing outside and then Chevy and I looked around and noticed the absence of something very noticeable... MOMS! There were about 7-10 Dads on daddy duty with all the kids sitting outside on a nice day with all of us chasing down the Kids. We all looked at each other and then all started laughing, annnyyyway back to my awesome wife. Houng came back early but not before Chevy had to go to work. So that meant that I was pulling double daddy duty with both Jael(in the pack) and Alyx(in the Stroller) BTW.. it's hard to navigate with 2 kids a Camera out just in case Leah crossed and lots of people finishing a race. The longer I'm a dad the more I marvel at the capability of Mothers (Hats off to the most amazing group in existence)

Sure enough 2 hours and 30 minutes later my awesome wife crossed the line smiling and loving every minute of the fruit of all of her training. Words can't describe how proud I am of Leah and the dedication and perseverance she showed through this entire process. I'm Proud of you Baby. Enjoy the Pics!


Saturday, May 23, 2009

No Safe Place (at least for a almost 2 yr old)

As Ja`el gets older, I find that I am learning that there are many more potential dangers in this world than I thought. Take this morning, for instance. While Jon was outside burning things (think Beavice and Butthead--"hehe. fire, fire.") I decided to take a shower and get ready for the day. I set Ja`el up with some toys, etc in the bathroom and we were good to go. After I got out, I let her go in and stomp around in the puddles while I continued to get myself put together. Mind you, I took special precaution to put all the dangerous items out of reach and thought we were covered until, a few moments later, I heard Ja`el say "stuck". She then followed it with a more panicked "FINGERS! STUCK!!" I ran to the shower and, sure enough, she had stuck one of her fingers into the drain holes and couldnt get it out. Thankfully it wasnt so bad as she sounded and after a little more water and a slight tug, we got the stuck finger unstuck. She cut it pretty good and howled even better, but alas, we now know not to stick our fingers into shower drain holes...or any drain hole for that matter.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Swimming lessons


I have a fish for a daughter. I had a small inkling that swimming would be her thing when she would yell "BATHTIME!!" every time we crossed the long bridge and completely bypass all the toys at the park and head for the lake when we are at city beach. She is a water baby. I kept trying to describe swim lessons to her this morning and afternoon, but I dont think she really got the full picture until we were at at the gym, looking at the Olympic sized pool, full of "friends" swimming and splashing. She was literally squealing with excitement. There were about 9 other parent/child pairs in the group for our first swim lesson tonight, but none happier than my daughter and myself. Daddy came and joined us for a little while before starting his own workout and was able to capture some of the excitement. Although she didnt cry when we got out of the pool like I was expecting, she talked about it the whole way home. We cannot wait until our next lesson on Thursday!