Keir's sayings

There is that saying: Kids say the darnest things. Well here is one from Keir.

I was driving Keir back from swimming and a mail truck pull up beside us at the lights. Keir said:

"All mail truck go to Alaska"

Not sure where that came from, but I had to record it :-)

Ewan

Keir being Keir

A little video fun (courtesy of Jen's Ipod Nano)
The kids were enjoying some cookies we had just decorate



Ewan

Happy Birthday Jenny

December 11th is a very special person's birthday

Happy Birthday Jenny

Love
Ewan

Xmas Tree

It was the the annual "Go cut the Xmas Tree Trip" today. It was a little weird as we don't have any snow on the ground yet (and it is December 6th). Reviewing the pictures it looks like there is something wrong with the pics with no snow on the ground.
We go to a tree farm 10mins away, it is really good, they have tractor rides, hot chocolate and cookies. This year there was also horse pulled rides. Isla and Jen went for a ride with the horse while the "men" brought the tree back.
Here they are setting off on their ride:


Walking down the rows of trees to try and find the perfect tree:


Isla lost in the trees:


More Isla in the trees


We have found the tree, time to cut:

Watching patiently:


Keir pretending to be a Lumberjack:


I am happy to report the tree is up in the house, but not yet decorated. We will do that on Friday the 11th (Jen's birthday)

That is all for now

Take care
Ewan

Keir's birthday is coming up on the 16th, but we had his birthday party this Saturday. We booked a place called Srping Action for the party. It is all trampolines and jumping things, perfect for energy laden boys.
As the "birthday boy" Keir got the special treatment and got to up in the harness and really fly.

There was lots of pizza and cake and presents.
Will post more on Keir's real birhtday
Ewan

Halloween 09

Halloween was yesterday, Keir and Isla went trick or treating with a group of friends around the neighbourhood. Isla is the monkey and Keir is the white boned skeleton.
Here is Keir, the Skeleton (mask didn't fit too well as you can tell by the one eye)


Here is Isla the Monkey brushing her teeth


And finally, here is our pumpkin, we got lots of compliments on it throughout the night, I am glad kids still know about the ultimate bad guy:

-Absentee Blogger-

Well, I have certainly been slacking in the posting department. I will be better, I promise :-)
This is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada, so that means a long weekend for me and an extra long weekend for Keir.
I took the Kids out to a near by park, because Jen was doing some baking for Thanksgiving Supper. It was an nice day when we went out so I brought the camera:
Here is Isla looking pretty cute, managed to keep her still for 1 minute.

Here is the photo of two seconds after the above photo, she doesn't sit still for long :-)


Keir and Isla together:


We had a great supper at my parents on Sunday, with Jen's parents and Grandmother all coming up for one big supper. Jen made an _AMAZING_ carrot cake that everyone loved.
On monday I ran off the carrot cake in a local 5km. I haven't ran a 5km in over 5 years, and I know why.... they HURT a lot. Anyways I had a good run ran 17:44 which is about 4min faster than my last 5km.

That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

-Back to School-

Keir has started back to school, he is in Grade 1. So some big changes, he has gone from a half day (in senior kindergarten) to a full day of school (8:15 to 2:45 is as close to a full day for a 5yr old)
Most of the kids in Keir's class last year are in his class this year, so it was nice for Keir to have all his friends in his new class. Her is Keir on the first day.

Look who is Two

It was Isla's 2nd birthday on Saturday. We had a small family gathering at the cottage to celebrate her birthday. IT was a beautiful day, the rain held off! And everyone had a great time. Here is Isla's cake, C is for Cookie and Cake!

Next photo is Isla hard at work blowing out her candles:

Then enjoying the fruits of her labour (note the blue tongue!):


And last but certainly nto least here is a picture of Keir (Keir is sitting beside me and was asking where the pictures of him were):


Isla's party was great my brother and Nancy came down from Montreal,and my parents all stayed out at the cottage overnight, we had a great breakfast in the morning, hopefully we will get to do this more often, if we just knew someone related to us that had just acquired a cottage....Neal :-)
That is all for now
stay tuned Keir starts Grade one in 1 week!!
Ewan

Flying Keir

Spent the long Weekend up at the cottage.
The weather was pretty good, only rained one day. We spent a lot of time in the water.
Keir was getting some frequent flyer miles:

another plane trip

the crash landing:


Isla was also "Swimming" with her floaties on her arms.
she got really good at motoring around:

Sleeping Beauty??

This isn't something we see everyday, Keir fell asleep reading his book:

Positively Isla

I think this picture epitomizes Isla, absolute Cutie, Band-aids, and playing with her brothers toys:

STRWABERRIES!!!!!!!!!!

On Sunday we went and picked strawberries at a near by pick your own berry farm. We went early in the morning to avoid the heat and crowds (although it was pretty busy when we got there). The kids were great doing a fair bit of picking. We had a competition Boys vs Girls, and behalf of all men everywhere I am proud to say the boys won (even if we had some secret help from Isla putting berries in our basket by mistake).

I think we will be back to pick more berries (to make some jam)

Ewan

Late Breaking News

(please read this in your best TV News Anchorman voice)
This just in...Late Breaking News from the Hardie house:
Isla, the cute, adorable, talkative 22month old has used her potty! Reports indicate that the little one asked for her potty while eating her supper, she then proceeded to go and get the potty out of the washroom, bring it into the kitchen and then use the device!
Back to your regular scheduled programming.

:-)


Ewan

Cottage Country

This past weekend we spent at Jen's family's cottage. While the weather wasn't the greatest (it was very weird, sunny one moment cloudy the next and the raining later) I think we all enjoyed the cottage. I enjoy the cottage for the peace and quiet, no phones, no computers, ok there is a TV but there is no cable!
I had taken friday off work, with the plan to go up to the cottage early on friday. For that to happen Keir was going to have to miss his friday afternoon, but Keir didn't want to miss school on friday because it was "PJ Day". So we ended up going up after Keir's school finished.
Here are some of the better pictures from the weekend.
Cuty pie Isla enjoying an Ice Cream cone

Keir really enjoying his ice cream cone

When you are at the cottage you have to have Smores

This picture makes me laugh, Isla trying to blow up her floaty

This pic also makes me laugh, I think Keir saw a fish in the water so he is jumping out

That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan

Bob the Builder

For the past week they have been digging up our street to put in the sewers in our neighbourhood. As you can imagine it involves some big heavy machinery, which Isla and Keir are fascinated by such interesting equipment.
Here is the excavator as it came in front of our house:
The kids were so interested that we would eat meals at the window to watch the action:

They actually worked pretty quick and only took a couple of days to cover the area in front and beside our house. We were only unable to park in our driveway one night:


It is actually pretty funny: you would think a 5year old boy would be totally captivatied by Bob the Builder being in front of his house, and Keir is but he eventually looses interest in watching and goes and plays, but Isla is absolutely enthralled and you have to pry her away from the window and watching the machines.

That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

No Pics

No Pics this week, but a update none the less. Last week was really busy for me: I was away from home (for work) for three days. I missed Jen and the kids a whole bunch, but I was very busy so the time away went by real fast.
Isla seems to be doubling her vocabulary every day, her latest phrase is "See you later"
Keir is really getting into reading and spelling words, obviously he gets this from his mother :-)
We had a nice weekend, it was my dads 65th birthday on Saturday and we had a nice celebration with a small group of friends and Neal and Nancy. Keir and Isla stay up till past 10pm, which was great because that means they slept in to 8am on Sunday!
On Sunday, we were up to the cottage, actually Jen drove up and I biked up, it was a great ride and my longest ride so far this year 83km. It did start to rain for the last 30min of the ride but it was not to bad. It pretty much rained the rest of the day but it was just nice to be up at the cottage.
That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

Mr Consistency

You will note that this is three weeks and three blog posts, Mr Consistency! Actually I am trying to get in the habit of doing a weekly wrap up of the Hardies life.

This week Keir started soccer for the summer. He is the Orange team, which they decided on the name "Orange Dragons", very scary :-) There is a couple of Keir's classmates on his team (including the twins Peter and Charlie, who are probably Keir's best friends) so he is very excited to go to soccer and play with his friends. Keirs soccer is every monday night, which works well because our weekends won't be tied up, leaving us the opportunity to get up to the cottage a lot more this summer.

Monday night was also Jen's last class (this year Jen took her college and University level Chemistry courses, she needs them to get into the nursing program) Monday was here final exam, which was pretty stressfull but Jen got it done and finished up with a 74% in a very tough course.

Isla is a real talker now and is starting to string words together. We have also found out that she is a scratcher. This time of the year is bug season, and poor little Isla seems like a buffet for the bugs (where as Keir has virtually now bug bites at all). Once bitten Isla proceeds to scratch herself to the point of bleeding, so we have resorted to covering her bites with band-aids. She literally has band-aids up and down her arms and legs!

Her are couple of photos forom the past week:

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

That is all for now
Take care and see you next week :-)

Ewan

NCM 2009

I ran in the 35^th Running of the National Capital Marathon (NCM) in Ottawa on Sunday May 24, 2009. Here is my recap of the day.

Preamble : This would be my 6^th marathon and 4^th NCM. Previous best was 3:08.58 two years ago. Last year didn’t go well at all, I ended up walking the last 12km. This year’s goal was to break 3hrs. Training leading up to the marathon had gone very well

Race Day:

Woke up to pouring rain! Weird the weatherman didn’t say anything about rain! As I drove in from Manotick I could see the sun breaking through over Ottawa, hopefully a sign of things to come. I parked at World Exchange and made my way over to Confederation Park. As I was stretching, Lioudmila Kortchaguina (the days 2^nd place female came to the bench next to me for some stretching as well. I knew elite marathoners were “small” but I felt like I was standing next to my 5yr old son!

20min to go before the start and I was a bit nervous but everything went well during my warm up, 5min of running with drills, and I felt ready to go.

Right before the start they had an ex winner of the race (whose name escapes me, hey it was right before the marathon!) address the crowd, which I thought was a cool idea. The main piece of information I retained from his speech was “Race smart, race hard!”

At the start felt calm with everyone around, but there was no 3hr pace bunny (Rick Hellard where were you J), I guess I would be on my own for pacing!

National Anthem, starting gun and we are off!

1km 4:04 a little fast HR was a little high, but I made a decision before hand to ignore HR. 2km 4:01 oops still too fast, but that is to be expected with the adrenaline of the start and the downhill of Wellington.

The goal for the next 3km was to settle into race pace, which I did.

Through Hull (5-9km) I felt great and seemed to have found my “groove”. I was feeling very strong and kept reminding myself of that.

I hit the 10km mark at 42:09, right on track: my target goal was between 41-43min.

For 10-15km the goal was to start fueling up for the back half of the marathon. I was also mindful to keep on the fluid intake (because of the heat). My nutrition plan was simple (a gel before I started) two gels on the run, one at 15 and one at 30km, I also took a flask of maltodextrin mix of about 350cals it also had a couple of electrolyte capsules in there.

At the new section along the Rockcliffe parkway, I got an idea of the how the wind was going to be for the rest of the day.

Through New Edinbrugh, I had a couple of quick km’s but I was feeling great so I just put those into the “bank”.

Back to the halfway point at 1:28.50, on track for my goal!

Up next was 21-30km along Colonel By (this is really where I ran into to trouble last year), but I went through this section feeling strong all the way along Colonel By. We did seem to be running into a head wind, so I tried to tuck in behind the group I was running with but being 6’4” I can’t hide from the wind a well as the vertically challenged can J

30-35km: the plan was to pick up the pace if I was feeling good (which I was) so I did, but I made a decision to back of on the on the bridge. We were running straight into a strong head uphill, so that was a 4:41 km and looking back on it I think it took a bit out of me.

Once I made the turn onto Prince of Whales I was very happy because I felt like this was the home stretch with 7km to go. At the turn there was a water station and I was moving in to get a cup of Gatorade and water when in the hustle and bustle of the station someone cut in front of me. I had to shorten my stride so as not to trip up him (and myself), as soon as that awkward step happened I felt my hamstring tighten/cramp up. I didn’t panic I just decided to slow down (a lot) but I didn’t want to walk, I figured that would be worse. So the next couple of KM’s were well above the desired pace at 4:30per km, but I was still moving forward.

The downhill towards Dow’s Lake didn’t help the hamstring but I managed to make it down in one piece.  I tried to pick up the pace on the flats through 37,38,39km’s but never got back to the desired race pace. With this I thought that my sub 3hrs was gone but I wasn’t going to give up without a fight!

Went through the 40km at 2:51, quick math: I still had a shot at <3hrs, style="mso-spacerun:yes"> ahead of me. I made my “move” and pulled up to them.  I didn’t have much of a final kick left (I guess fighting the hamstring had taken a lot out of me over the last 5km) but I was giving it everything I had. With about 500m to go the hamstring acted up again and I had to throttle down. Crossed the line 3:00.53, so close!

 

Thoughts on my race:

Pro’s:

Given the conditions (wind and heat) I am happy with my time, even if I didn’t break 3hrs, times seemed slower overall than last year.

I was very happy with my mental game, I never gave up and was able to focus pretty well.

I was also very happy with the way I fought through the hamstring problems.

I “Raced Smart”.

Con’s:

I think I made a bit of a mistake in not bringing more electrolytes with me (I hade some in my flask mixture) but I didn’t bring a back up batch for the rough spots.

I probably could have used another flask for  just 32-35km given the heat and conditions.

 Ewan

Long Time no Post!

Yes it has been a while, but that is because things have been busy in the Hardie House!

Jen is at night school two nights a week doing her university level Chemistry course. And when she isn't at school she is studying. Good news is she is down to her last two classes, an sumative lab and the final exam! It has been a lot of hard work but she has been doing extremely well!

I have been training for another marathon (the NCM in Ottawa) and that envolves running a LOT. If I can just stay healthy (no colds etc, which is easier said than done with a 5yr old and 1.75yr old in the house) leading up to the race, I should have a pretty good race as I have put the more mileage in during this years build up compared to previous years.

Keir is doing great, he is really enjoying school and has made lots of new friends. He will have a busy summer, with soccer and swimming lessons but that will mean he will just sleep better a night :-)

Here is a picture of Keir at his "graduation" ceremony from Senior Kindergarten:

Isla is doing great as well, she is really developing her personality. She is turning into a real clown, she loves making people laugh. She also loves her big bother and follows him everywhere he goes (much to his chagrin sometimes). Here she is trying to make us laugh by putting on as many clothes as possible (including winter mitts 2 sizes to small, and her summer hat from last year!)

That is all for now

Take care 

Ewan

Spring has Sprung (hopefully)

The weather is starting to warm up here and I tried to take advantage of that on Saturday by taking Isla out for a run. It was almost ten degrees and I was running in shorts!

Here is Isla getting ready:

Ready and waiting in the Chariot

My new sneakers :-)

Isla was asleep by the first(and olny) set of lights

Out on the sunny road

The river is flowing fast

Back home and awake!

It was a great run and the weather was great all weekend.

I am off for 3 days this week for March break, so it will be nice to spend some time witht the kids and Jen.

Ewan

I had to post this up. Keir and I at Scotia Bank Place in the Sens Tunnel!