Abby had her adenoid surgery a couple weeks ago, and it went off without a hitch. Above is a picture of her just after the procedure, still asleep from anesthesia. She slept on and off for about two hours, and as you can see from the pictures below, by the time we left the hospital she was back to her old fun self!
Stiv was "stuck" in this position for 90 minutes holding the sleeping Abster.
This is one utterly cool makeshift balloon!!! Medical school really came in handy here.
Who is ready to leave the hospital?
We began Thanksgiving Day with the Atlanta Half Marathon. Later in the day, the Shores had us over for Thanksgiving dinner where we made up for all the calories burned in the run earlier. The kids had a blast running around and making a mess of the place. Abby and Ariel had fun taking a tub together at the end of the night.
Jackson and Dad spent the Sunday after Thanksgiving setting up our Christmas tree. Jackson was a big help this year, but enjoyed climbing the ladder the most. The directions claim that the process should only take 15 mins... we are not sure why Stiv and Jackson were at it for 1.5 hrs.
The kids enjoyed the Christmas Festival in downtown Tucker... Highlights were roasting (and eating) marshmallows and getting their picture taken with Santa.
Jax and Catie with a present...
Oak Grove CDC hosted a "Night in Bethlehem." There were several "village shops" open for business as well as craftsmen and food merchants. There were even tax collectors strolling through the nativity scene asking for taxes or tokens. Joseph and Mary cared for baby Jesus in a stable, surrounded by shepherds, angels and live animals. The live animals were a big hit with all.
"The Bag Lady"... another one of Catie's great outfits that she selected all on her own.
Jackson and "The Gobbler"... check out the video below.
"I should have been Jewish!" Jackson enjoyed playing the dreidel game and cleaned house!
Catie is taking her spice making very seriously...
The girls love their new shark swim caps. They wore them around the house pretending to be sharks, only they were both roaring like lions????
Abby and Catie had their Christmas Program at Oak Grove. Abby and her class "sang" Ring Those Bells. Abby seemed a bit confused, but did figure out how to shake the bells by the end of the song.
Jackson was in the middle of a big game of skeet ball. If there is another way to loose money faster, we would like to know what it is... Gotta love Chuck E. Cheese!
The kids spent most of the weekend misbehaving and doing a poor job of listening, so we sent them to bed early with no "midnight" snack. They obviously were sending us a message that they did not like the turn of events because the next morning we found a "dead" horse in our bed!
Coast to Coast in 48 hours. We went from our Florida trip and the beaches of the Atlantic to surfing the waves of the Pacific in just 48 hours last week. Steve surprised Ann with a trip to San Diego to fulfill her dream of learning to surf. Grandmas Moe and Schwartz were nice enough to come down to Atlanta and watch the kids the four days we were gone. Hopefully, their time with the children was more fun than our trip and they will make it a semi-annual event.... wishful thinking of course!
Our first morning in San Diego we went for an 4 AM run TOGETHER, had a nice BIG breakfast and headed over to Mission Beach for our surfing lesson. 
The seas were angry the morning of our lesson, but we headed out to conquer the surf regardless. The weather was strange this morning, and it looked like the early stages of a major hurricane! We had so much fun with the surf lessons... we were laughing the entire first hour.
"The natural" riding in the tail end of her wave... not bad for an old bag.
During the lesson, they teach you to relax and work with the wave... don't fight it. Based on Stiv's face, I don't think he was listening. Intensity in ten cities!
If you enjoy the picture of Stiv's wipeout, please contact us as we have many more that are just as good.
We spent part of our second day in La Jolla, enjoying great food, shopping and scenery. Above, Ann is posing with the sea lions in the background.
We capped our first full day off with a beautiful hike through Torrey Pines State Reserve. 
Kayaking through the seven caves of La Jolla was another highlight of the trip. Our guide was making fun of people who actually bring their camera out in the boat protected only by a ziplock bag. Don't worry, ours was a heavy duty freezer ziplock.....
One of the Caves in La Jolla. 
We took stairs down to one of the caves... it turned into kind of a tight fit for Steve.
On our final evening, we headed over to Coronado for dinner with our friend Mary. Here is Ann, in front of the historic Hotel Del.
Stiv met a new friend at lunch!!
Well, the 2009 Triathlon season has finally come to a close. We did not participate in as many events as last year, only 4, but our season was actually longer. We started our training in January and finished with our A race, the Augusta Half Ironman last Sunday. This was the inaugural event, and the Ironman folks claim it was the largest 70.3 race ever. Whether that is accurate or not, it was a huge field with over 2,800 participants.
This is a picture of the 1.2 mile swim start. There were 25 swim waves that started on the pier and swam down river to the transition area. This was a fast swim due to a slight current and a great way to start our race. 
Ann crushed the swim but her wetsuit zipper broke and would not open, causing her precious time! Even so, she still had a blazing swim split. 
Steve is heading out of T1 trying to figure out where he is going after his best swim ever. 
Speed racer... passing several men... typical males don't want a woman to pass them, so they speed up and try and pass her again, only to delay the inevitable.
Steve looking calm and confident on the bike..."if only I had aero wheels I would be really destroying this bike course!" We did a great job with our bike training as we both held back on the bike and managed very good times with a controlled effort. It is a great feeling when 56 miles seems like an easy distance. Too bad the impending winter will cause us to lose much of our bike fitness and have to build it back up again in the spring.
The 13.1 mile run snaked through FLAT streets of downtown Augusta. This sounded like a great run at first, flat and fast! Surprisingly, the 1.5 mile stretches through town became a mental grind from the monotony. 
The run is where the race is made. Unfortunately, both Steve and Ann did not perform up to their potential. We had decent times but need to figure out how to nail a run that we are capable. More speed work for Steve and back the drawing board for Ann's race day nutrition in 2010. 
Overall, the race itself was a ton of fun, and we will probably sign up for this event again. The entire Stien Mountain Triathlon Team qualified for the USA Triathlon National Championships next fall! Ann Hattamer, Donovan, Ann and Steve all had PR's (John did a full Ironman two weeks prior so PR was not expected). In fact, Donovan popped off such a fast race that we are waiting for the drug test results to see if it actually counts.
Again, we have to thank Grandma Moe for watching all three kids overnight back in ATL so that we could do the race. I wonder who expended more energy???
Abby had her adenoid surgery a couple weeks ago, and it went off without a hitch. Above is a picture of her just after the procedure, still asleep from anesthesia. She slept on and off for about two hours, and as you can see from the pictures below, by the time we left the hospital she was back to her old fun self!
Stiv was "stuck" in this position for 90 minutes holding the sleeping Abster.
This is one utterly cool makeshift balloon!!! Medical school really came in handy here.
Who is ready to leave the hospital?
We began Thanksgiving Day with the Atlanta Half Marathon. Later in the day, the Shores had us over for Thanksgiving dinner where we made up for all the calories burned in the run earlier. The kids had a blast running around and making a mess of the place. Abby and Ariel had fun taking a tub together at the end of the night.
Jackson and Dad spent the Sunday after Thanksgiving setting up our Christmas tree. Jackson was a big help this year, but enjoyed climbing the ladder the most. The directions claim that the process should only take 15 mins... we are not sure why Stiv and Jackson were at it for 1.5 hrs.
The kids enjoyed the Christmas Festival in downtown Tucker... Highlights were roasting (and eating) marshmallows and getting their picture taken with Santa.
Jax and Catie with a present...
Oak Grove CDC hosted a "Night in Bethlehem." There were several "village shops" open for business as well as craftsmen and food merchants. There were even tax collectors strolling through the nativity scene asking for taxes or tokens. Joseph and Mary cared for baby Jesus in a stable, surrounded by shepherds, angels and live animals. The live animals were a big hit with all.
"The Bag Lady"... another one of Catie's great outfits that she selected all on her own.
Jackson and "The Gobbler"... check out the video below.
"I should have been Jewish!" Jackson enjoyed playing the dreidel game and cleaned house!
Catie is taking her spice making very seriously...
The girls love their new shark swim caps. They wore them around the house pretending to be sharks, only they were both roaring like lions????
Jackson was in the middle of a big game of skeet ball. If there is another way to loose money faster, we would like to know what it is... Gotta love Chuck E. Cheese!
The kids spent most of the weekend misbehaving and doing a poor job of listening, so we sent them to bed early with no "midnight" snack. They obviously were sending us a message that they did not like the turn of events because the next morning we found a "dead" horse in our bed!
