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!

It has been a while

Appologies for not posting much the past couple of months, no real excuse for not posting. It is just very easy to fall out of a routine, but always more difficult to get back into the routine!

Anyway here are a couple of pics from the past two months.

Isla kissing the cat

Isla in her Party Tutu

Scottish Kids??

Here are the kids deck out in their Scottish attire. They were dressed up for a Xmas party that we attended on Saturday night.
Isla looked very cute in her tartan dress, and Keir looked very grown up in his Scottish Rugby jersey.

Ewan

Happy Birthday Jenny

It was Jenny's birthday on the 11th and above is the cake we made for her. Yes those are finger marks on the right hand side of it, Isla thought the icing was pretty tasty!

Xmas tree done

As promised here is the some pics of the final product (at least getting there...)
Keir and Isla putting the ornaments:



Keir really enjoyed decorating this year and seems to be really grasping Xmas spirit. Today we were shoveling the driveway and he said "Dad, I love you and Merry Xmas."
Here is Keir decorating well into the night...


And here is the final product:


One other picture is our Gingerbread house, decorated by Keir and I!!!

Hardie Family Xmas Tree 2008

This Sunday we went out to a tree farm to get our Xmas tree. We were a bit worried about the weather and Isla, but everything turned out OK. Just as we were leaving the wind started to pick up so I guess we timed it very well.
Here are the pics from the family outing.

We started off with a tractor ride out to the field. Then it was time to find the "Hardie Family Xmas Tree". Here is Keir with his two choices (the ones that just happened to be the closest!)


Isla was bundled up and on my back, she is peering over making sure we choose the best tree.


Here is Jenny narrowing down our choices....



Jenny has found it, it is the one over Jen's right shoulder:


Once the tree is found the cutting commences:


"Helpful Keir":


Isla smiling in the backpack:


The final few saw strokes:




We will post some pics of the final product once it is up.

That is all for now

Take care

Ewan

5 Years Old!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Keir.
Keir turned 5 years old this past sunday (16th).
We tired to keep things simple and small (with moderate success). The party started with his cousins coming over early so that Jen and I could take Keir's cousin and Keir(of course) to a movie before the party started. We went and saw Madagascar 2 (which was pretty funny... not as good as the first but funny none the less)
After that it was back to our house where guests were waiting for the Birthday boy. Pizza and cake and presents and then it was time to go home.
Here are some pics from the day.


The R2-D2 birthday cake!














Blowing out the candles











His favourite present A super deluxe lightsaber









A picture taken by the birthday boy himself











I still can't believe that Keir is 5 years old, but then again it does feel like I have known him forever :-)
That is all for now

Take care
Ewan

A new look

I should have called this post Apartment5b v1.2.1.1.3 :-) Ok so that is a bit of a geeky joke about software version but it made me laugh! You might notice a new look to the site. The picture in the header ...that is the top of the web page mum ;-)... is curtosey of our family's newest photographer...Keir. And just in case you think he is a photographer extraordinaire I have included a typical photo below...

Halloween

Ok so I am back, I "misplaced" the camera-computer download wire for our Camera. So the pictures were stuck on the camera for a while.
Here are some pictures from Halloween.... we had a visit from our Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman...








There was also a dragon sighting in on our street that night....




Here are some more picture from Halloween...

Quarantined!!!!

Like the title says, we have been Quarantined for the last week or so. It two fridays ago when we noticed something on Keir's forehead. I jokingly said to Jen "haha that looks like chickenpoxs!" It turns out my joke was the correct diagnosis. and by then end of the weekend Keir was covered head to toe in "Chicken pops"(as Keir called them). Keir missed a whole week of school being quarantined.
It is kinda tricky to get an almost 5yr old to stop itching but it is even harder to get a 1yr old to stop itching.... that is right Isla burst out in chicken "pops" a couple of days after Keir did. Isla didn't seem to get the coverage on her body like Keir did, how ever she did manage to get a chickenpox on the inside of her eye lid. This made a whole bunch of swelling and puss!! That required at trip to a walk-in clinic for a prescription of eye drops. The eye drops have helped tremendously and the swelling has started to go down.
The quarantine is officially over and Keir should be back at school this week.
Oh yeah, guess what Keir has on tuesday? That is right School Pictures, perfect for someone who is just getting over "chicken pops" ;-)

Take care

Ewan