The Elenbaas Family

Winter Project

2012-02-09T21:10:00.002-05:00

Our winter project for the year was to give two of our bathrooms a face lift. Erin loves the wood floor look, but wood floors are a bad mix with bathrooms. Erin dislikes the cold feeling of tile and generally doesn't like laminate. What to do?

Well Erin found some vinyl flooring with a rubber base (no moisture issues) that looks a lot like hardwood and isn't cold. It also was very economical.

The bathrooms look much better!

In addition to the new floors, I painted the upstairs bathroom, repainted the trim in both bathrooms, and we added new towel hooks to the kids bathroom.

The towel hooks are from Ikea and surprisingly the official name for the hook is very PG-13 rated. You may be able to guess. Printed right on the receipt!

Erin designed and created a really cool picture that we'll soon hang in the kids bathroom. The owls, birds, and leaves are cut out of different fabric and the green back ground is a painted canvas frame. So crafty.

Winter Weekend 2012

2012-01-31T20:06:00.002-05:00

This year's winter weekend included cutting down a dying tree. We picked what should have been the coldest weekend of the year so that we could use the ice to assist in tree cutting. Unfortunately the mild winter thwarted that plan and we still had to do all the cutting while suspending in the tree. Jason went in up to his waist, but that was the extent of the damage.

We didn't take care of the whole tree, but cut out a lot of branches and made a big bonfire.

Photo Stats 2011

2012-01-14T16:50:00.002-05:00

Organization is one of my strong suits. Photography is one of Erin's. So I take the responsibility for organizing and maintaining our many family/vacation/random pictures. I use Picasa and am a big fan, particularly because it is so easy to organize and categorize. Via Picasa, here are our family photography stats for the year.

Stored photos since 2004: 27,019
Total photos saved 2011: 4,405
Photos tagged "favorites" 2011: 654
"Favorites" with Evelyn in them: 296
"Favorites" with William in them: 309
"Favorites" with Jack in them: 299
"Favorites" with Randy in them: 129
"Favorites" with Erin in them: 87

We must be very fair parents! Each child was in almost the exact same number of favorite pictures.

2011 Results and 2012 Goals

2012-01-05T20:49:00.002-05:00

Annual review time.

2011 Results

Lift weights consistently - I don't consider chronic cardio to be healthy anymore but do consider weight training healthy. To be successful, I need to do at least one weight lifting workout during 50 of the 52 calendar weeks this year. SUCCESS! I lifted exactly 1 time a week for 50 of the 52 weeks. My lifting sessions were short and sweet but I definitely gained/maintained strength while remaining injury free and didn't have to invest much time.
Complete a long run barefoot - By long run I mean 10+ miles. Right now I'm planning on the riverbank. If my feet can't handle that distance my back-up goal will be doing a long run with my five-finger Vibrams. SUCCESS! I completed the riverbank in my five-finger Vibrams. I did very light training and the Vibrams definitely were harder, but it was a good experience. I also did a 5k completely barefoot, with a reasonable time of about 29:00.
Maintain sanity with 3 kids under 3. SUCCESS! Wow, what a tough year. The 3 kids have been far more work than I could have imagined. William in particular pushed us to our limits but thankfully we always held it together.

2012 Goals: OK, 2011 was a weak year in terms of goals. I am challenging myself this year.

Lift weights consistently - repeat of last year because this goal was very good for me. This year I want to pick up the intensity somewhat, but I won't quantify it.
Floss at least once a week all year.
Weigh less than 190 lbs by 2/20/12 (currently 198). It is always hard to lose weight, but I've achieved 190 several times in the last few years.
Weigh less than 180 lbs by 5/12/12. This will be very tough. I haven't been this low since 5th grade.
Give up pop for the entire year - this may be the hardest goal. I love diet pop and drink it often. For clarification, by "pop" I mean non-alcoholic carbonated beverages.

Twins are 1 year old

2011-12-28T16:43:00.006-05:00

We did it! We survived the first year of twins. Looking back, it was pretty awful for 3 months and has gradually gotten easier since. Erin is a tremendous mother and carried a huge load very well.

Sadly, as 2nd and 3rd children their 1st birthday did not get much fanfare. We squeezed in birthday parties at other family gatherings and the boys missed most of the parties because they were napping or really crabby. On their actual birthday Erin worked all day and had a commitment at night, Jack was constipated, and we didn't do anything to celebrate.

We did make a train cake for their main party.

The boys were a crabby disaster all morning and slept through dinner, so their entire meal was birthday cake and ice cream. No complaints from them, though.

This is what happens when we try to have a photo session with them. Here was an attempt at 1 year old pictures.

First, mild compliance but not much time because they walk away almost instantly.
Next, distraction keeps them calm for another 10-20 seconds.
Then, the enforcer holds them down but things start getting out of control.
Finally, chaos.
And then the good child :)

Christmas Season

2011-12-22T20:26:00.003-05:00

Having a 3 year old really adds fun to the Christmas season.

Zeeland had several Christmas events last week including a photo session with Santa. Evie did very well with Santa, but the boys were terrified. Take a look at the 0.1 seconds they lasted with Chris Kringle.

http://photos.marc-photography.net/p1071675699/h8C7EE1D#h8b1859

Last weekend was Elenbaas Christmas weekend. We hosted for the 2nd year in a row. 15 people in one house for the weekend was a lot of fun, but also resulted in some crabby moments. The 2 and 3 year-olds had a blast. The 1 year-olds were basically a mess. Oh well, Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights 2011

2011-12-10T10:30:00.004-05:00

This post is a little late as my lights have been up for 7 weeks already. We had some really nice weather the weekend of October 22 so I put most of them up then and was finished by October 26. I didn't turn them on, though, until November 7.

My improvements this year were subtle but very important:

Added semi-permanent clips to the house so putting up the lights in all future years will be easier.
Replaced may of my old lights with LED.

The boys just liked being outside, but Evie was actually somewhat helpful.

So from the street, my light display didn't change much from last year but I improved my infrastructure for future expansions. I have certainly made a lot of gains since I started 6 Christmases ago.

2005

2011

The Ultimate Christmas Tradition

2011-12-04T15:08:00.002-05:00

I have lots of traditions, and the Christmas season is filled with them. I think I have a new favorite. Erin and I made our own family Advent Tree. The tree and pouches are the handiwork of Erin's sewing and creativity skills, and every day of December leading up to Christmas has a Christmas themed family activity.

I hope our kids enjoy it as much as us.
DAY 1: Oops, Advent tree went up too late, we have to make this one up.

DAY 2: Make Christmas cookies together - Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies this time.

DAY 3: Have a sleepover in front of the Christmas tree. Will and Jack missed out this year and I have a feeling Erin will opt for her bed every year. Their loss! Evie and I had a blast.

DAY 4: Go through house and donate unnecessary items to Goodwill.

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-20T20:51:00.005-05:00

Flash back to fall of 2008 and poor little Evelyn was subject to one of Erin's creative ideas.

In the end, Evelyn did not like being a pumpkin at all.

Three years later (last month) Evelyn had nothing to worry about and she happily picked her pumpkin at Papa and Nana's house.

This year William and Jack were subject to Erin's creativity. They actually didn't mind being stuck inside a pumpkin. It may look like they were trying to eat their way out, but really they just liked the taste of fresh pumpkin.

Arizona Trip: Part 3

2011-11-13T11:08:00.005-05:00

One night we went to an outdoor mall that had a big screen and dance area. They were playing music videos and the kids went nuts dancing around. It was great. I think Jack had the most fun of everyone.

After 2 months without swimming, Evelyn made up for lost time in Arizona.

One of the highlights of the week was watching Evelyn and Kaylee become great friends. The two girls were side-by-side virtually all week and played extremely well together.

This was at the playground the first morning. Little did we know it was the closest we'd get to a group photo all week.
We spent an hour searching for this (hardly) famous sculpture.

There were plenty of these moments...
Overall it was a terrific week with family and friends!

Arizona Trip: Part 2

2011-11-10T20:55:00.005-05:00

For the most part, we all hung out at the condo and let the kids play. However, one day we visited Arizona Air Park - a trampoline gym. I had never been to one before but I love trampolines. The air park was even better than I imagined! I figured there would be tons of rules and annoyances. Instead, we had the entire place to ourselves and there were virtually no rules. Also, we only had to pay for Evie. $7 for 2 hours for 5 people is quite a bargain.

The foam pit was great. Even Erin "sky-ed" into the foam pit.

Evie was a crazy girl. By the end, she would run in circles trying to gather speed in preparation for jumping into the foam pit. I timed her last one; she ran around and around for 90 seconds before jumping.
The basketball hoop was my favorite. I always loved dunking on 7' rims. Here I could dunk on regulation rims, and with awesome hang time.

I don't remember when or how I started, but I've been doing flips for a long time. I can confidently flip into water in almost any circumstance and I easily do front flips on trampolines. Evie made me so proud. After seeing me do a few flips, she waltzed up to the edge of the foam pit and did one herself.
Later that afternoon Evie was swimming and casually asked "daddy, want me do a fwip?" I grinned and said sure! She climbed out, walked to the edge and....!!!

That's my girl!

Trip to Arizona: Part 1

2011-11-02T22:40:00.004-04:00

We ventured to Scottsdale, AZ for our first time flying as a family of 5. As expected, it wasn't always fun but we made it!

It is RARE for William to fall asleep outside of his crib. The early morning flight and long lay over finally forced him into sleep in the Chicago airport.

Evelyn was happy to share her seat with William (and buckle him in). That arrangement lasted for about 3 seconds...
Jack had a crash of his own. The 3 hour flight from Chicago to Phoenix was long and frustrating. Both boys slept for over an hour, but also fidgeted, fought, whined, and squirmed for the remaining 2 hours.
The trip has definitely focused on the kids. There are 6 adults and 6 kids. The kids' ages are 4,3,2,0.9, 0.9, and 0.5.

We did a very short hike up (part of) the side of a mountain.
Monday was Halloween. It was a unique Halloween for us:

Temperature was 70+ so we walked around barefoot and with no coats
Several neighbors set up tables so they could sit outside to hand out candy
The neighborhood we are staying in is way upscale. The quality of candy was amazing.
Evelyn is old enough to enjoy and understand the experience. She had a blast.

RBD Tour Season 7

2011-10-20T07:21:00.005-04:00

Derek, Ben, and I enjoyed our 7th annual Michigan football road game. This year we stayed close to home by visiting MSU.

Our challenge for the weekend was inspired by Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest - 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs and buns as you can.

Our expectations were high before we started. I think of myself as a very big eater, capable of putting up a big number. Derek was similarly optimistic. Ben downplayed himself from the beginning because he knew he didn't have a chance.

We cooked up 24 dogs and had 16 more waiting in case we finished that many.

The results? Pathetic! It was WAY harder to pound down hot dogs than I thought. The speed aspect was the killer. By 3 hot dogs we were all feeling sick. The first one alone (on an empty stomach) took a full minute to eat. Sadly, the final results were:

Derek: 7

Randy: 5.5

Ben: 3.5

It was a noon football game so we didn't spend much time walking around.
Ben's knee injury allowed us to bump up our seats to the handicap section.
The game itself was fun and close into the 4th quarter but Michigan ended up losing 28-14. Our 7 year record is now 4-3.
Go BLUE!

Family Hike

2011-10-09T15:49:00.003-04:00

The hike was very pleasant.

The photo session started off well,
...then Jack wanted to eat rocks,
...and then it went downhill fast

Growing in double time

2011-09-26T21:04:00.003-04:00

At a combined 40 lbs, a trip out with the boys is no easy task.

Erin has done a terrific job photographing their ages. It is amazing how fast they grow, yet how similar they look to their early photos.

Mixed Camping Weekend

2011-09-18T16:07:00.006-04:00

We did it! We camped in 2011. We have an unofficial goal to get the pop-up out for at least one camping trip every year. Knowing this year would be a challenge we waited as long as possible, but survived.

The trip had its ups and downs.

UP: Sunset #1

UP: Nice stroll through Pentwater on Friday night

DOWN: 2 very fussy and whiny babies. 1 naughty 3 year old.

DOWN DOWN DOWN: Sleeping. We intended to camp Friday and Saturday nights, but only survived Friday.

8:00 pm - 90 minutes of screaming babies until lights off and everyone quiet
10:30 pm - we go to bed
11:45 pm - William wakes up hysterical. Holding him with a pacifier does no good. Takes a full bottle and goes back to sleep.
12:30 am - finally back in bed after the William debacle
12:45 am - Jack wakes up. Stands up, giggles, and bounces around for at least 15 minutes. Mercifully doesn't start crying.
2:45 am - William wakes up hysterical. Holding him with a pacifier does no good. Takes a full bottle. This time Jack wakes up and starts jumping around while laughing. Decide to give him a bottle as well.
3:30 am - finally back in bed. Swear to each other that we are not staying a 2nd night.
7:30 am - everyone wakes up. Considering how poorly the first half of the night went, we were pretty happy with the 2nd half.

UP: Lewis farm. The animal farm nearby was the highlight, especially the camel.

We thought we'd give William a little scare by putting some food in front of him and letting the camel get real close.
Instead of crying, he latched on to the camel's nostril.
UP: Charles Maers State Park. Saturday afternoon was beautiful.
Happy at times.

UP: Evelyn and Esther goofing off together
UP: Hike up "old baldy"

UP: Sunset #2

Overall it was a good trip, but there was a lot of crying and a lot of work. Hopefully next year will be better.

School Days

2011-09-15T21:07:00.004-04:00

We started a new era this week - SCHOOL. Evie started 3-school on Tuesday. Day 1 went well and I have no doubt Evelyn will enjoy school, especially the early years.

It took all summer and 1 weekend into the fall, but we finally made it to Holland State Park for a sunset. A bit chilly but a great scene.

Lots of birds to scare.

End of Summer

2011-09-07T21:36:00.002-04:00

And just like that, summer is gone. It was a great one.

We had torrential rain for about 15 minutes on Saturday. It rained hard enough to wash a significant amount of the beach into the lake.

Will and Jack hung out with their future cottage buddy Ethan. At half their age he's already bigger than them. I'm sure the trio will make many cottage memories.

Washing the boat.
Meal Time
The boys are standing and almost walking. Erin and I can just feel the destruction that is coming.
Princess Evelyn reminds us daily who really runs the house.
Did I mention that we can feel the destruction coming? I'm sure it has only just begun.

August Cottage Week

2011-08-27T21:38:00.004-04:00

We had a great summer week at the cottage. All 5 grand kids kept Grandpa and Grandma plenty busy.

Turtle spotting

Grandpa's water sport adventure of the year.
Swinging and walks kept the boys happy all week.

Trips to the candy store.

Summer Photos

2011-08-15T18:37:00.002-04:00

Erin's crafty and artistic side.

Like it or not, they will learn to share.

Camping and Cottaging

2011-08-06T14:43:00.004-04:00

In July we had the luxury of joining the Veldhofs at a cottage at the conference grounds for a week, immediately followed by a week at the Elenbaas cottage.

The conference grounds was very enjoyable. Evie became a great bicycle rider over the course of the week and got her first taste of school by going to Bible school every morning.

This grandson threesome will be trouble. Soon.

The Elenbaas cottage week was stifling hot. The best activity was just lounging in the lake. During this week Evie's swimming progressed exponentially. At first she just played in the shallow end and had to be held in the deeper water. By the end of the week she was motoring all around, going underwater, and jumping off the raft.

Princess Evelyn

2011-07-17T11:31:00.004-04:00

Evelyn had the ultimate honor last week, to be a flower girl for my cousin(s) Luke (and now Stacy).

Evie and I drove to Chicago first thing in the morning so she could practice her walk and to get her hair done. She never lets us put anything in her hair so we had to bribe and threaten her to make sure her fancy hair stayed that way. Bribe #1: don't touch you hair. Reward #1: sucker.

I often call Evie "Evarrelli," joking that she's a princess just like Cindarelli. With her white dress on she looked like a princess and got along great with Stacy.

Bribe #2: Smile and look at the camera during pictures. Reward #2...and 3...and 4: Sucker(s)

Evie and Max practiced many times to walk together, slowly, down the aisle.
Bribe #3: Walk properly down the aisle. Reward #5: another sucker
Well when it came time to perform they pulled an audible. Evie decided to hold Max's hand instead of throw flowers. It was still really cute and they did well. They walked slowly and stayed together. They both veered right almost forcing Evie into the pews and they didn't quite make it to the front. But it was great!
After the wedding Evie enjoyed bubbles, dancing, and pop. It was an awesome day for her, one that she'll remember for a long time.

June Happenings

2011-07-10T16:26:00.007-04:00

The boys' mobility is increasing by the day. Jack had his first mischievous moment. We turned our heads for a few minutes while the boys were playing only to return to Jack decorating himself with desitin.

Evie enjoyed swimming lessons and now bravely puts her face underwater.
Their combined weight is over 70 lbs, but daddy can still pull off "3 kids." Picking up all 3 by myself is a little dicey...but Evie loves it.
I spent a day at Sleeping Bear dunes for my cousin Luke's bachelor party. The dune we climbed was huge.

Then we did some sand jumping, which is a great rush.

Pickerel Lake Triathlon 2011

2011-07-03T15:37:00.011-04:00

It was the 7th annual Pickerel Lake Triathlon this weekend, and it was another great success. Warm, dry, (humid) weather. Strong turnout. No bicycle mishaps. Great Race.

The 2005 winner Dan Rupke made his first appearance since the inaugural year. He couldn't defend is previous title but finished with a similar time, good for 2nd. Also, our first non-cottage participant joined. Chris from down the road heard about out group and asked to join. He didn't have the benefit of preparation and had to borrow a woman's mountain bike but still had an impressive race and finished 3rd.
The swim was a bit of a challenge. There was a little wind chop for the middle part of the race that threw me out of rhythm for a few minutes. The high school swimmers once again dominated.

The biking conditions were ideal. We had a ton of rain in the previous week so the dirt roads were firm. About 1 mile of the pavement was redone since last year so it was quite smooth.

I felt awesome on the bike. I overtook the fast swimmers and was in first by about 1 minute coming off the bike. Before I stopped biking I knew I had no chance for a good run. My energy was sapped, but I pushed hard to make sure I had the best overall bike time.

The run was brutal. I had a weird queezy/completely spent feeling that made me almost stop and purge a few times. I was easily passed by Paul, Dan, and Chris during the run and finished 4th.

My time was very similar to last year but clearly not at the same level as my 3 winning years.

Paul was by far the most trained person again this year. His burning desire to beat my record time pushed him to new training levels. Sadly (for him), he came up short again. My record will stand for at least one more year.

The rest of the weekend was filled with amazing summer weather, sparklers, children, family, and fun.

Evie was already a pyro, so the sparklers were right up her ally. She liked them so much that she voluntarily smiled for the camera.

Grandpa enjoyed his new rocking chair and his youngest grandsons.
The boys enjoyed themselves most of the weekend.

Cottage Time

2011-06-06T16:02:00.002-04:00

I am currently watching my 3 kids and my nephew (ages 3, 1, 5 months, and 5 months) and amazingly have all 4 napping simultaneously.

Cottage season has started! Memorial Day weekend was a bit cold and rainy so we took several family walks.

Jack and Will participated in the timeless tradition of bathing in the kitchen sink.

This past weekend we busted out the Jumbo Dog. Fun as always.

For a brief moment Saturday morning, Evie promised to smile for the camera if I let her do "3 kids" on the chair.

William and Jack Baptism

2011-05-23T22:17:00.003-04:00

On Sunday we shared an important and very special event with family and friends. We were part of William and Jack's baptism.

For several reasons we decided to have the baptism at our church's evening service. It turned out really nice. We had a casual meal at our house before church and the weather was fantastic.
The boys did very well during the baptism. Both were awake and wide-eyed and didn't mind the water on their forehead.

The pastor attempted the double-hold to pray for both of them. Unfortunately William started squirming, so the prayer was cut a little short.

Riverbank Run 2011

2011-05-15T07:45:00.003-04:00

I completed one of my 2011 goals yesterday, running the Riverbank without shoes. I didn't accomplish the pure barefoot goal, but ran the whole race using five-finger Vibrams.

This year my training consisted of running 3-4 miles once a week through March, and then weekend runs of 6, 7, 10, 12, and 6 miles in April and May. Minimal training and the results showed.

I was able to run a consistent race and didn't walk until the final 1.5 miles. Jason and I ran together most of the race, which was a very nice distraction.

Mile 1 - 11:00

Mile 2 - 11:00

Mile 3 - 10:21

Mile 4 - 10:29

Mile 5 - 10:34

Mile 6 - 10:22

Mile 7 - 10:45

Mile 8 - 10:33

Mile 9 - 10:44

Mile 10 - 11:08

Mile 11 - 10:18
Mile 12 - 10:48

Mile 13 - 10:18

Mile 14 - 11:00

Mile 15 - 13:50

FINAL: 2:48:26

This was my 7th consecutive Riverbank. I plan to keep the streak alive going forward, but hope I can train just a little bit more.

Evelyn Turns 3

2011-04-30T15:16:00.002-04:00

Our little girl turned 3 earlier this month. We scattered 3 birthday parties over the course of the month with the final one Easter weekend.

All 5 Elenbaas grand kids.

Easter egg painting with Grandma Gail and momma.

My cake this year.

Evelyn wasn't being cooperative, so we took an 80% family picture.

Florida 2011 - The Trip Home

2011-04-23T07:12:00.003-04:00

On the drive home we were on our own. Two adults, a 3-year-old, two newborns, and 1300 miles. Daunting...but it went amazingly well.

We woke up at 4:00 when the boys were hungry and were on the road by 4:30 am.

I drove every mile and we pulled into our driveway 20.5 hours later at 1:00 am. We were so efficient that the 3 kids never even left the van. Our stops were either gas or drive-thru. Twice we drove almost 6 hours on a single tank of gas and only pulled off when our gas light had been on for over 30 miles and I was getting quite nervous.

2 weeks of fun tired Evie enough to take 2 naps on the way home.

During our short breaks we would "play" in the car. Evelyn loved to have the babies and "99" sit in her seat while she sat in our seat and buckled up.
Evelyn once again did great. She was annoying at times but with good reason and never pitched a fit. Our headphones are too big for her so Erin had to do some creative engineering to get them to stay on.

Veldhof Florida 2011

2011-04-15T13:13:00.004-04:00

Erin and I are very fortunate to have such great families, and we really took advantage in March. After a great week with the Sopers, we packed up the van and drove...1 hour south for ANOTHER great week in Florida!

The Veldhof family spent the week on Anna Maria Island. The weather wasn't as good, but it was still an excellent week. The photos should give you a taste.

Good opportunity for family pictures.
Erin personally made the twins' onesies and Evie's dress. Impressive!
The house we rented was on a canal so we did some canoeing and fishing. I'm not much of a fisherman but I really enjoyed it. Live shrimp work great as bait.
Big tubby.
Technology department.
All 5 grand kids in Erin/Lindsay-made clothing.

All 3 kids on one lap.
Ahhhhhhh

Soper Florida 2011

2011-04-07T20:12:00.004-04:00

We had the "last one ever" Soper Florida trips the last 3 times we went, but then we'd go again...and again...and again. So this year we didn't even pretend that it might be the last.

With the help of Derek, Erin and I braved the drive down with 3 little kids. The kids did great even though Evie somehow only slept for 2 hours overnight. She was just too excited.

The week was fantastic. Here are some highlights:

Barefoot 99% of the week
Barefoot running on the beach
AWESOME weather. 80 and sunny every day
Lots of hanging out with my family. I happily took nappy time in the condo

The boys loved the warm weather, probably because they never had to wear pants

Being spoiled by Grandma Gail

Sharing a condo with Grandpa and Grandma Great. Evie's funniest quote of the week was when she saw Grandpa Great taking a snooze on the porch and ran to tell my dad "Grandpa! Him dead!"

John's pass for some souvenir shopping as always

Ice cream EVERY day, twice most days

Lots of time with Grandparents. "Grandpa Doug Elenbaas" (exactly how Evie addresses my dad) had his fill!

Pokagon

2011-03-02T21:27:00.003-05:00

We spent a Veldhof family weekend at Pokagon State Park in Indiana a few weeks back. It was a quick but fun trip.

Erin and I got out for some brief cross country skiing. I found out I'm terrible at it.

We all enjoyed a fantastic breakfast buffet. Notice, Evie's favorites are polar opposite of mine.

Evie: pancakes, OJ, French toast, cinnamon roll, cereal.

Me: diet coke, eggs, bacon, sausage

Erin has skills. Here she is feeding both babies at once by letting Jack feed himself.

Two Months

2011-02-24T19:25:00.003-05:00

Two months old already. Since Jack's 2 day stint in the hospital the boys have been doing great. At 2 months they were a healthy 11 and 11.7 lbs.

Will (left above) is more finicky but his projectile urping has improved tremendously. Will has a high pitch squeal when he gets really upset. It is hard not to laugh when he busts out the squeal.

Jack (right above, pic below) is a tank, eating a lot and just SOLID (heavy) overall. Jack rolled over at 1 month but hasn't repeated the trick since.

Both boys are smiling more and more and starting to show personality.

Evie continues to be a bundle of energy, joy, and ...work. She's hilarious one moment and pitching an end-of-the world fit the next. She definitely keeps us on our toes but that is how we like it.

Every day when I leave for work she asks me why, so I tell her "to get more monies." Then she'll ask "you monies all gone?" When Erin went back to work she pretended to talk to her on the phone and said "Momma, you go to work to buy more monies?"

Like Father like Son

2011-02-09T21:54:00.002-05:00

We've had a scary week so far. Over the weekend our top notch eater Jack seemed to lose his appetite. On Monday he struggled to breath and cried in pain every time we tried to feed him. So on Tuesday the doctor sent us to the hospital.

Little Jack was suffering from a nasty respiratory virus (RSV). The virus is common but can be very dangerous to children under 1 (and Jack isn't even 2 months).

Jack has acted congested his whole life and Erin and I suspect he'll have asthma just like me. In the hospital he was given breathing treatments; medicine that I've used may times myself - albuterol, nebulizer...

The little guy perked up after getting fluid via an IV and really seemed content most of the time at the hospital.

He was there overnight and thankfully is now back home. Get better JACK!

Snowstorm 2011

2011-02-06T16:17:00.003-05:00

Everyone has a story about the massive snowstorm we had last week. For the most part we had an uneventful week. My 5 minute drive to work took 8 on Wednesday.

I personally enjoyed the creative nicknames for the storm:

Snowtorious B.I.G.
Blizzard of Oz
Snowmageddon
Snowzapalooza
Kaiser Snowze
Mass Snowsteria
SNOWPOCALYPSE
SNOW-normous

This weekend we had some fun in the snow piles.

Erin built 3 comfortable chairs in our snow bank.
I built a passable tunnel.

The January 7

2011-01-30T19:52:00.003-05:00

In no particular order, here are 7 pictures from the month of January. Life is never boring!

1. Playing with daddy. Will and Jack rarely get quality daddy time. If it looks fun, Evie joins in.

2. Playing with mommy. Will and Jack sometimes get quality mommy time, but only if Evie isn't around. If she is...
3. A BIRD in our house! That's right. One evening we were just sitting down to dinner and I was already in a foul mood for some reason. Before I could eat my first bite the doorbell rang. It was our neighbor, but more importantly, there happened to be a bird nesting in our wreath. The door opened and in flew the bird!!! Obviously that didn't help my mood even though Erin found it rather humorous. I chased the bird into the garage with a tennis racket and let it suffer overnight before opening the garage door the following morning.
4. U of M basketball. We ventured to Canton for a weekend and while there Evie and I went to a Michigan basketball game. We had a good time despite the loss.
5. Lots of visitors including Evie's "best friend" cousin Chase.
6. Evie's favorite hide and go seek spot became a fun play spot one day.
7. The twins' future friends.

Family of Five

2011-01-12T20:17:00.001-05:00

Amazingly, it has already been one month since William and Jack were born. Here are some traits that are coming out:

William is the spit-up king. Often and impressive. Once all over Jack's face from 2 feet away. Twice in the last 2 days on Evie.
Jack likes to pee/poo while being changed.
Both are gaining weight fast, and close to 8 lbs now.
Jack is often congested and wheezes.
Both are overall really good babies; pretty much only cry when they are hungry.
Will takes a pacifier more often
Will gets cold easier and sometimes needs an extra layer
Evie loves her brothers, but loves attention even more

2010 Results and 2011 Goals

2011-01-03T15:14:00.005-05:00

Here are the results of my 2010 goals. The year turned out drastically different than I ever could have predicted but here are my results none-the-less.

Run the Riverbank in under 2:00:00. This will forever be a goal until I get it. FAIL...and this actually won't forever be a goal for me. While 2:00:00 would be awesome, my diet and exercise change in 2010 totally changed my life. I have very little desire to run long distances fast anymore so I don't know if I'll ever feel the urge to train to run the riverbank in under 2 hours again. But... (see 2011 goals below).
Read at least 6 books. Oops...until starting to write this blog I actually thought my goal was 5. So FAIL. I only read 5 books.
*Ridiculous Randy Goal - Eat NO candy for the entire year. This will be challenging both because of temptations and simply from forgetting and "accidentally"eating a piece. For clarification, gum is OK, as is candy in baked goods. Candy bars, hard candy, M&M's (ouch), isolated chocolate (chocolate chips, chocolate bars) and all other obviously "candy" items are illegal. Bars, cookies, ice cream, cake, fudge, or other sweets are acceptable. I can't even guess how many candy calories I ate last year. I'm sure I'll replace them with something else, but it'll have to be at least a little healthier. Since 1 and 2 were fails I'm going to call this one a SUCCESS**. On January 7, 2010 Erin and I took a short flight across Chile while in South America. The airline had an orange flavored hard candy sitting on our trays. I popped it in my mouth without thinking about it. I didn't realize that I had eaten the candy until about a week later. Also, since August I've been eating a significant amount of 85% cocoa. I think it tastes great, but it is very bitter to the average person. Probably considered candy, but since it has more saturated fat than sugar I'm fine with it. Aside from the single piece of hard candy and the 85% cocoa I didn't eat any candy and almost no gum as well. My baked goods consumption was far below any previous year and even though it has now been 2011 for 3 days I haven't had the urge to start eating candy. That is why I consider my 2010 candy challenge a success!

2011 Goals

Lift weights consistently - I don't consider chronic cardio to be healthy anymore but do consider weight training healthy. To be successful, I need to do at least one weight lifting workout during 50 of the 52 calendar weeks this year.
Complete a long run barefoot - By long run I mean 10+ miles. Right now I'm planning on the riverbank. If my feet can't handle that distance my back-up goal will be doing a long run with my five-finger Vibrams.
Maintain sanity with 3 kids under 3.

Twins at the hospital

2010-12-18T15:40:00.005-05:00

After an awesome delivery and a few hours of tending to the boys, we were carted to the postpartum floor for the rest of our hospital stay.

Erin enjoyed some cuddle time with the boys. They weren't interested in feeding for the first 16 hours but have been doing great since then.

We wanted to make sure the first visitor would be big sister Evelyn. She came clomping down the hallway looking for those 2 babies everyone was talking about. When Evelyn arrived they were in the nursery so I help her up to look through the glass. Evelyn also noticed all the other babies. When we went back to the room with William and Jack Evie wasn't very interested - "Daddy, I want to see more babies" and a few minutes later (sadly), "Daddy, I want babies to be all gone."
As you can imagine it was a little hard on Evie. But her next visit was much better. She happily talked about William and Jack and ran around the postpartum floor with glee.
Of course both sets of grandparents came to see us.

William and Jack also met most of their aunts and uncles, some friends, and some great grandparents.

On Thursday morning we brought them home. Leaving the hospital with them wasn't nearly as strange of a feeling as with Evie. But in a very similar way, our lives will never be the same, we're looking forward to it!
(Jack in focus below)
(William in focus below)

Elenbaas Twins

2010-12-14T10:42:00.007-05:00

After 36 weeks of pregnancy and 2 months of strict bedrest, Erin was given the OK to start walking around again. Turns out it was a good thing she was on bedrest that whole time, because 24 hours after going off bedrest she went into labor.

Monday was kind of a strange day. Erin called me from her appointment and said "do you want to have some babies tonight?" She was measuring 5cm and the doctor said if she kept contracting to just check into the hospital. So she drove home and we spent the afternoon just hanging out at our house. We did some chores, watched a movie, and then went in to the hospital around 5:30.
Erin's work connections kicked in again. We walked into the hospital, skipped triage, and were admitted into a corner room.

From 6 to 8 not much happened. We hung out with the other nurses and walked around hoping for Erin's contractions to pick up. She progressed slightly, got an epidural, and then the doctor broke her water around 10:30. We put on a movie (The Holiday) but Erin progressed quickly and by 11:30 it was time to prep for labor so we moved into the OR (in case they needed to do a crash C-section).

The OR was almost comical. There were 2 doctors, a nurse practitioner, and SIX nurses to "assist" and we pumped the Christmas music. Once everything was set, Erin pushed a total of 3 contractions for baby A and he came right out. The doctor held the baby up and we were both surprised to see it was a boy! The baby cried and I cut the cord. About 3 minutes later the doctors told Erin to push for baby B. This time it only took 1 contraction. The doctor held up baby B and we were even more surprised...another BOY! Twin boys, WOW!

The nurses and doctors did their thing while Erin and I spent our first few moments with our two sons. We named them William Lloyd and Jack Douglas. William was 5 lbs 14 oz and 19.5" long. Jack was 6 lbs 3 oz and 19" long. They were born at 12:30 and 12:34 a.m.

Once again Erin is my absolute hero. She was rightfully nervous all day, but did such an amazing job. I am so proud to be her husband.

Jack had low blood sugar initially and both were struggling with deep breathing. After some consultation we decided to keep them with us and keep an eye on them. Within a few hours they were breathing well and all other tests were normal.
Our fabulous team of nurses made our experience great.

The Countdown

2010-12-01T22:20:00.003-05:00

The real countdown has begun. At week 20 and 28 we were pretty sure the babies would come very early. Erin has now reached 34.5 weeks and is feeling relatively well. We have a scheduled induction on December 19. Getting close!

Erin at 31 Weeks

Erin at 34 Weeks

A couple nights ago we packed our hospital bags. We didn't want to break it to Evie that she wouldn't be staying with us at the hospital so we let her pack her own bag. She made 10-20 very urgent trips between our bedroom and her toys. Don't worry, she has all the essentials including "Guess Who", a Rubik's cube, a naked doll, silverware, and one pair of jammies.

Since Erin's real bed rest started 4 weeks ago she has only gone upstairs once per day (our room is on the main floor). She'll come up to put Evie to bed but not to peek at Evie before we go to bed. So I've been taking pictures of Evie every night for Erin to see. Saving those memories has been great. We tuck Evelyn into bed in the standard sleeping position, but she seems more comfortable moving around.

Christmas Lights 2010

2010-11-28T22:14:00.004-05:00

This post is a little late. I put up my Christmas lights on time as always, October 31. It was an excellent afternoon to put up the lights and I had some help from Derek.

This year I basically maxed out my outdoor 15-amp circuit. I have about 35 strings of lights on one outlet. So to upgrade next year I'll have to begin adding LED lights (80% more efficient) and eliminating standard lights.

The indoor decorations came a week later. Evelyn was slightly less helpful than Derek, but full of Christmas cheer.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

My improvements this year were:

white and red trim around more of the roof line
some extra red and multi lights on the trees
lights around the railing of our back deck (not pictured)

Cholesterol Results

2010-11-22T21:15:00.004-05:00

So my cholesterol results are in. Here they are:

At first glance you will notice the significant jump in total cholesterol. It is due largely to increased LDL. Should I be worried? I'm not.

LDL isn't as simple as being the "bad cholesterol." There are two main types of LDL, and one of the types is thought of as neutral while the other is considered a sign of heart disease. Those following the paleo diet have increased LDL but it is mainly the neutral version. I'm confident my LDL health has improved, even though the number is way higher. I may have my LDL tested directly (standard testing only calculates LDL, doesn't measure) and analyzed for type.
My VLDL and Triglycerides are rock bottom.
My TOTAL/HDL and LDL/HDL ratios are better than "optimal." Several studies have shown these ratios are much more important than HDL and LDL numbers individually.
My HDL improved by 13%. This is amazing considering that my weekly exercise was dramatically lower than all previous tests. Exercise is shown to increase HDL levels considerably, and the paleo diet more than made up for that.

So I'm pretty sure I've been genetically blessed with excellent cholesterol, at least at this point in my life. However, look at my trends over the last 5 years. HDL was flat. LDL, VLDL, and triglycerides were all increasing at a steady and scary rate. Aging?

Anyone would say that 3 out of the 4 standard categories have improved significantly. The debate is over LDL. More on that later.

RBD Tour Season 6

2010-11-16T19:03:00.003-05:00

Derek, Ben and I continued our tradition of traveling to an away big ten game. This year we enjoyed a Michigan win at Purdue. It was a very ugly game, but nice to see a win after two losses in a row. Our traveling record is now 4-2.

We conveniently stayed overnight in West Lafayette at my friend's parents and started tailgating at 8:00 am. Our task this year was to consume large quantities of eggs and bacon. Sadly, we only downed 24 eggs and 3 lbs of bacon (2/3 of picture below).

Ross-Ade stadium was NOT at capacity and of the people that were there at least 50% were Michigan fans.

The rain was tolerable and the game's result was worth it. Go BLUE!

Diet at 6 months

2010-11-08T18:49:00.003-05:00

Due to higher priorities, I decided to stop my detailed diet tracking at the end of this week. I've reached the 6 month mark and have been diligent in my tracking. My spreadsheet is well past 3,000 rows. I'll publish all the data soon enough and you statisticians can crunch some numbers for me.

I'll get my 6 month blood work done this week to close the loop on this phase.

Here has been one of my favorite "Paleo" meals: MEATZA (pizza with a ground beef crust). Email me for the recipe.

Curtain Day

2010-11-04T07:41:00.002-04:00

Erin searched high and low for the perfect curtains to go in our family room. She couldn't find them. So she used her designer intuition and picked out the fabric she wanted and came up with a design.

She then used her persuasive powers to convince her sister and mom to help her make it. Little did they know it was an 8 hour job!

As usual, Evelyn "helped" all day.

In the end the curtains look awesome.

Great job team!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T21:00:00.005-04:00

This Halloween was filled with candy, pumpkins, and fun for Evelyn. She certainly loved it!

Evelyn wanted to be a princess at Jason and Melissa's house last weekend and savored her sucker.

(tin man on the left is ours)
On Halloween at home Erin and Evie carved a really scary face before trick-or-treating.

I could see the wheels turning in Evie's mind when I told her we'd go to other people's houses and they would give her candy. I could see it didn't make sense to her...but she certainly wanted to try. We dressed her as a bee. I really don't think she cared what we dressed her as, as long as there was candy involved.

Evie did great. She moved pretty slow with all the distractions (other kids dressed funny) but made it 45 minutes. Halfway through someone gave her a sucker and she was ecstatic. She insisted on holding it separate the rest of the way.
Erin's lack of mobility didn't keep her from participating :)
Happy Halloween!

Pregnancy, 28 Weeks

2010-10-21T20:58:00.003-04:00

Well the babies are growing by the day! We have been busy preparing but Erin's days of working on the house quickly ended. She is now in full resting mode. After a few busy days Erin could feel her body telling her to slow WAY down. Within a week she went from almost normal activity to needing to rest as much as possible.

While not officially on bed rest we're cautiously keeping Erin's activity to a minimum. At 28 weeks Erin is measuring 37 weeks. The babies are each about 2.5 lbs, which is slightly bigger than average for singletons.

Evie often says she has an "owie tummy" like mommy. Erin's tummy doesn't actually hurt, we just tell Evie that so she knows to be gentle.

Week 23

Baby A in 3D

Week 28

October Projects

2010-10-10T08:02:00.004-04:00

In preparation for the twins we've dedicated October to working on the house. We planned to be home every weekend and try to get something accomplished almost every day. So far so good.

Evelyn really gets excited about helping with "projects." As expected, her involvement is usually counterproductive, but fun for all of us. Typically after I explain the project and get started she drifts into her own play world and turns the project area into her play house. By the end, most of her animals and books have migrated to the work area.

Evelyn can be genuinely helpful if I need something. She will happily run upstairs or downstairs to get whatever is needed for the "project."

Our accomplishments so far include:

Side table for entryway

Big girl bed for Evelyn
Custom duvet for Evie's bed (Erin's sewing skills)

Painted the nursery
Primed the basement
Living room drapes
Lots of shopping
Lots of organizing
Painting an outside door frame

Tiger's Game

2010-10-03T15:28:00.004-04:00

A week ago I had the great pleasure of watching my uncle Marv throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Tigers game.

The night was a blast. The whole family went to the game and Comerica treated us to a terrific suite. We are pretty sure that it was the single most fun night of Evelyn's life.

Marv's pitch was solid!

The game was high scoring and went into extra innings (Tigers won 11-10 in 13) so Evie didn't get into bed until midnight but she was still going strong.

We walked around the stadium during the game to show Evie the big Tiger. She wanted to pet it.
When Evie stood still long enough to talk she would cheer the tigers on. Her cheer was "One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, GO TIGERS!!" Yes, she skipped six each time and she had to count all the way to ten before she could say 'go tigers.' She said the cheer at least 50 times.
The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around Canton and Dearborn, including a visit to the local apple orchard.

Measuring Ahead

2010-09-19T21:18:00.006-04:00

Okay, it is probably obvious by now if you haven't heard directly. Erin is pregnant! But...with double the fun. Twins!

The official due date is January 9 but the latest the doctors will let Erin go is December 19. So within 3 months we will have 3 kids under 3. It'll be awesome!

Overall Erin is doing very well. The pregnancy is certainly a lot different than Evelyn. Erin is measuring about 10 weeks ahead (compared to a single baby pregnancy) and has to limit her physical activity. Erin worked until the day before Evie was born, but with the twins she had to stop work at 20 weeks.

Our twins have separate placentas, which means they are most likely fraternal.

Some fun twin facts:

The average length of pregnancy is 39-40 weeks for a singleton; 36 weeks for twins
The average birth weight for a singleton is 7lbs 7oz, and for a twin is 5lbs 5oz
About 35% of twins are left-handed, double the rate of the general population
1 in 50 people is a fraternal twin in the USA, and 1 in 150 is an identical twin. 1/3 of all twins born in the US are identical, but in Japan the figure is 2/3.
If you are a fraternal twin, you have a 1 in 17 chance of having twins. If you are identical, it doesn't affect your chances, and they remain from 1 in anywhere from 38 - 90, depending on if fertility drugs are used or not. If your mother is a fraternal twin, you may have a higher than average chance of twins. If you father is a twin, it doesn't affect your chances, as fraternal twinning is apparently carried down the maternal line.

Crane's Apple Orchard

2010-09-15T22:33:00.001-04:00

Erin and Evelyn enjoyed a beautiful day at the apple orchard.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-08T20:59:00.003-04:00

Labor Day weekend is always bitter sweet. The weather was extremely crummy at the cottage but I have no complaints about this summer. We successfully did something away from home every single weekend and for the most part the weather was fantastic.

We ended up spending a lot of time indoors with the cold weather this weekend, but it certainly wasn't boring.
Evie and Esther.
Evie and the Brink twins.
Picture of the weekend: On Sunday night we put Evie to bed around 9:00. Two hours later Erin headed up for bed but quickly turned around to show me what Evie had done. Lately Evie farts around quite a bit when we put her in bed. Sometimes she takes her jammies off in the process. On Sunday night she took her jammies off and put them on sparkles (her pink dog), took her diaper off, and then fell sound asleep.

Camping Weekend

2010-09-02T21:54:00.004-04:00

We had an interesting weekend camping at Hungry House campground a few weeks ago. Erin left at 2:30 am Saturday with a very upset stomach. It also rained hard from about that time until noon at Saturday which was a drag.

But...the rest of the weekend was great. The sun came out Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday and we enjoyed some great pool and playground time.

On Sunday morning we cooked just about everything. Options included eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and freshly made donuts. Evie really liked her donut.

Cottage Week

2010-08-26T21:25:00.005-04:00

What a great week it was at the cottage. Evelyn and Erin especially lucked out with 7 full days of it. I had to work most of the week but at least spent almost every evening up there. Here are some of the good memories:

It was warm out and Evelyn decided she shouldn't wear a shirt most of the time. We decided she could win that battle.

We caught some turtles but Evie would not pet them.
Great family dinners on the deck.
My annual birthday cake for Erin. I actually ate a piece.
Awesome skiing and tubing aside from a burst eardrum.
A very rare family picture with everyone present.

Taking a boat ride to go get dessert. Evelyn volunteered to drive.

The Soper Wedding

2010-08-22T20:27:00.005-04:00

We enjoyed another fun wedding last weekend. Evie was invited so I was looking forward to some good father daughter dancing. Evie had other ideas.

The wedding was at a beautiful golf course so we snagged some family pictures.

Evie was itching to dance. After patiently waiting with Sam through the bride and groom dances she burst out onto the floor and was a crazy girl.
She danced nicely with Max, Lydia, Sam, Elizabeth, and Grandma. Finally it was my time so I went out there and tried to dance with her. She ran away from me twice but I thought that was just part of her dancing. Finally when I tried to dance with her a third time she walked me over to a chair on the side of the dance floor, pointed, and said "daddy sit." Wow, that was some cruel rejection. Barely 2 and she's already turning me down :(

The Vyn Wedding

2010-08-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

I was a groomsman for the 4th time last weekend. My good college friend Reuben tied the knot in Lacrosse Wisconsin.

It was an excellent few days and I was surprised by the scenery in western Wisconsin.

The rehearsal dinner was a river cruise.

The groomsmen played 9 holes on the morning of the wedding.
The wedding went off without incident...

and the after party was a blast! Eric, Rob, and I enjoyed midnight runs to Perkins every night to get our fill of eggs and bacon.

Calvin reunion.

Welcome to the gang Amanda!

Erin turns 30!

2010-08-03T19:05:00.004-04:00

About 4 months ago Erin told me for her 30th birthday she wanted a surprise party and to go to Mexico. I knew her request was partially a joke, but I know there is some truth in all of Erin's jokes. So I started planning.

We decided to spend Erin's birthday weekend in Chicago. My surprise was to have 4 of Erin's Calvin friends meet us in Chicago and hang out with us for the weekend. As far as I know it was a complete surprise to Erin and she was very pleased.

We had a short, but great time downtown for the weekend. On Saturday night we dressed up and went to the Broadway show Billy Elliot, which was really good.

It felt like we spent most of the rest of our weekend in restaurants. We went to P.F. Chang's, Rock Bottom, a Mexican breakfast restaurant, and The Cheesecake Factory within a 20 hour span.

Erin received a very fitting Chinese word in her fortune cookie.

P.F. Chang's

It was a beautiful and warm Sunday to walk the Magnificent Mile. On the other side of the canal in the picture below they were filming scenes from Transformers 3.

I also fulfilled one of Erin's biggest birthday wishes...shopping at H&M. I was really glad Sarah and Berniz were there to shop with Erin.

The Cheesecake Factory!

So I think I made Erin's transition to 30 a pleasant one. Happy Birthday Erin!

Diet Month 2

2010-07-26T22:10:00.003-04:00

I apologize for my lack of updates this summer. I just came out of a 4 week stretch where my daily schedule was:

Wake up at 6:00 - eat, exercise (some days), go to work
Work 8-5:00
Family time from 5-9:00
Work from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am.
Repeat

Thank goodness I was on this carbohydrate restricted diet, otherwise I would have died from exhaustion.

Anyway, here are the stats from my first 70 days of restricting carbs and keeping track of everything. In week 5 I loosened the reigns of my severe carb restriction and added peanuts and veggies back into my diet. I've become addicted to dry roasted peanuts which is where the majority of my carbs are coming from.

The observant among you will notice my continuous calorie increase since week 3. This is consistent with every other diet I've been on. The willpower to resist eating only lasts a couple of weeks (a month if I'm really motivated). But this time I didn't care. I let my body and mind tell me how much to eat. An insightful friend commented that maybe the urge to eat is my body telling me it doesn't want to lose any more weight. I never thought of it that way before.

The graph below is amazing. My body weight is not rising at all with all the food I'm eating. In fact, my body fat is continuing to go down. I've been lifting weights 2-3 days a week and getting noticeably stronger. I'm sure I've added a pound or two of muscle mass in the last 5 weeks while my overall weight has stayed the same.

So far everything I believed going into the diet has been validated. I think the most obvious point I've demonstrated is that the nutrition establishment is wrong in their mantra "calorie in = calories out." The TYPE of calorie matters. If the establishment was right, I would have gained 12 pounds since week 3. Time will tell if my other health assessments (aside from weight loss) are positive from this diet.

2010 Pickerel Lake Triathlon

2010-07-17T16:28:00.006-04:00

It was another fantastic triathlon at Pickerel Lake over the 4th of July weekend. The common theme this year was lack of training. Well, lack of training for almost everyone.

When I started my carbohydrate restricted diet in May I decided to stop doing long cardio exercise and I didn't run or bike for the 8 weeks preceding the the triathlon. Many others admitted they hadn't trained a lick either. Paul admitted he'd been training specifically for this race for the previous 8 months. (I've got to at least jab a Paul a little here since it is kind of a tradition now) Paul also admitted to buying a wetsuit, getting a gym membership for winter training, and taking a swimming lesson!

We had absolutely gorgeous weather and a very good turnout. The swim went without incident and the PLT record was CRUSHED by a high schooler without a wetsuit.

I had a good swim of 10:31 and an awesome transition. I enjoyed first place for about 1/2 mile on the bike before getting passed by Paul and later Jason.

Paul, Jason, and I were within 30 seconds at the start of the run but Paul quickly took over and put us away. I was amazed how good I felt despite no carbs and no training.

Paul posted a great time and got the victory he wanted, but he didn't beat my 2008 or 2009 times so my record stands for another year.

Place	Name	Overall	Swim	Bike	Run	Bike Pace (mph)	Run Pace (min/mi)
1	Paul Soper	1:22:42	0:09:52	0:35:00	0:37:50	16.29	0:07:17
2	Matt Christians	1:27:32	0:09:53	0:37:42	0:39:57	15.12	0:07:41
3	Randy Elenbaas	1:28:10	0:10:31	0:34:37	0:43:02	16.47	0:08:17
4	Jason Schaaf	1:31:25	0:10:26	0:34:28	0:46:31	16.54	0:08:57
5	Evan Steensma	1:33:40	0:12:41	0:37:13	0:43:46	15.32	0:08:25
6	Jenny Scott	1:37:33	0:12:14	0:38:21	0:46:58	14.86	0:09:02
7	Eric Plantinga	1:38:31	0:12:00	0:39:58	0:46:33	14.26	0:08:57
8	Kyleigh Klaussen	1:38:33	0:13:05	0:43:01	0:42:27	13.25	0:08:10
9	Matt VanHarn	1:39:13	0:08:31	0:42:26	0:48:16	13.43	0:09:17
10	Mark VanHarn	1:39:45	0:12:27	0:39:22	0:47:56	14.48	0:09:13
11	Steve Elenbaas	1:41:37	0:13:04	0:38:02	0:50:31	14.99	0:09:43
12	Abby VanHarn	1:43:56	0:09:23	0:48:57	0:45:36	11.64	0:08:46
13	Elizabeth Soper	1:44:00	0:14:47	0:47:25	0:41:48	12.02	0:08:02
14	Darren Schaaf	1:45:17	0:14:37	0:37:49	0:52:51	15.07	0:10:10
15	Marv Elenbaas	1:51:47	0:14:50	0:43:45	0:53:12	13.03	0:10:14
t16	Derek Elenbaas	1:52:23	0:19:39	0:42:58	0:49:46	13.27	0:09:34
t16	Ben Elenbaas	1:52:31	0:17:41	0:43:55	0:50:55	12:98	0:09:48
18	Mike Johnson	1:58:26	0:12:07	0:50:05	0:56:14	11.38	0:10:49
19	Lydia Soper	2:05:00	0:17:07	0:59:09	0:48:44	9.64	0:09:22
20	Claire Steensma	2:07:57	0:16:20	0:51:45	0:59:52	11.01	0:11:31
21	Grace Elenbaas	2:20:44	0:16:52	0:59:22	1:04:30	9.60	0:12:24
Relay	Roger/Jan	1:55:55	0:14:40	0:41:31	0:59:44	13.73	0:11:29
relay	Kathy/Ken/Claude	2:05:54	0:21:30	0:45:00	0:59:24	12.67	0:11:25
Relay	Sarah/Maria	2:11:28	0:17:10	0:49:43	1:04:35	11.46	0:12:25

Diet: Phase 1

2010-06-17T21:50:00.003-04:00

Phase 1 is complete and went extremely well. I lost 13 pounds with very little effort, no restriction of calories, and no perceivable negative side affects.

I track calories IN very accurately. Calories OUT is an approximation. I use the estimated resting calories burned for a person my height and weight with an office job, which is about 2,000 calories a day. I add any exercise I get like biking to work, lifting weights, softball, and basketball. So you can see I've been burning about 500 calories a day through exercise.

I estimate about 7 lbs of my weight loss is simply water weight (the weight dropped in the first week). But there is a discrepancy in the remaining 6 lbs. According to my calorie counting I should have lost 1.1 lbs. Where did the other 5 lbs go? Either I'm more active than I'm giving myself credit for, or the type of food I'm eating is raising my basal metabolic rate (BMR).

If you starve yourself or eat a very low calorie diet your body will naturally reduce your BMR very quickly. I don't believe my body is doing that.

I will say that tracking every calorie has made me aware of how much I ate previously. Many times in the first month I wanted to eat more but I was aware of how much I had already eaten so I decided to skip the snack I was contemplating. Also, my limited food selection prevented me from overeating. One other observation I've had is that since fats are more calorie dense than carbs or protein the volume of food I'm eating has dropped dramatically.

The Jumbo Dog

2010-06-14T05:36:00.004-04:00

It was a terrific weekend with the Smiths and Hollemans at the cottage. We had great weather and life is always easier when the kids are having a great time.
Evelyn loves 3 things about the cottage above all others. 1) The boat, 2) The beach, and 3) The Steensma's big blow-up alligator. She got plenty of boat time this weekend and never got sick of it. Her favorite part of riding is counting off "1, 2, 3, JUMP" when someone has to get into the water to go skiing.

The highlight of the weekend was Erin's recent purchase of the JUMBO DOG. The jumbo dog is an impressive 11 feet long and holds up to 5. My cousins had a 2 person version (the TORPEDO) when I was young and I remember loving it. The jumbo dog did not disappoint. It was fun for all.

Pure Michigan

2010-06-07T20:59:00.005-04:00

Ahhhh, summertime.

Like the glassy water surface at 7:15 on a Friday...

Like the soft sounds of a paddle boat gracing over the calm during another stunning sunset...

Like the grunting of 12 men lifting an awkward shore station into place...

Life just feels better at the cottage in a Michigan summer.

Your trip begins at Indian Trails....Pure Michigan

It was one of the warmest Memorial Day weekends ever and we enjoyed it greatly. I'm hoping it is a MUCH warmer summer than last year. So far so good!

Diet: Week 1

2010-05-31T21:58:00.003-04:00

Week 1 was pretty dramatic.

My observations include:

First three days were tough as my body adjusted to ketosis - burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydradtes. I felt fatigued and hungry often.
The body retains a lot more water weight on high carb diets so most of the weight loss was water
In days 4-7 I experienced no hunger or fatigue
I'm targeting ~150 g/day of protein. Too much protein is hard on the kidney and can get converted into other things. Suggested protein ranges vary, but for athletic and active males my size I do not believe 150 g/day is excessive.
I'm learning a lot about the make-up of foods as I go. Sometimes I don't look up the nutrition information prior to eating. I ate broccoli on day 1 only to be surprised later by the amount of carbs it contained. I ate quite a bit of chicken on day 7 and was surprised by the amount of protein.
I had a full physical on day 8 and blood drawn on day 9. Results to follow.
By the end of the first week my cravings for sweets dropped dramatically. I can attribute some of that to the fact that my mind knows I'm in this for a full year.

Randy's Dietary Experiment

2010-05-22T22:15:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned earlier, I decided to make an exercise and diet lifestyle change. The origin of my transformation was exactly one year ago when a good friend told me about the book he was reading on nutrition. He presented the basic concept that dietary carbohydrates are quite bad and he was trying to cut way back. Then, in November that same friend decided to really commit to this lifestyle change and the results were pretty impressive. Finally, this past March we discussed it more and I decided to do more research.

The bulk of my research has been:

The book Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. The book provides a very detailed history on the evolution of nutrition and challenges some widely accepted ideas. The book was eye-opening and very convincing. The biggest point of the book is that carbohydrates, not fat, are the ultimate dietary evil. The book reads like a textbook so it is hard to swallow, but I highly recommend it.
PaNu - a website written by Dr. Kurt Harris with a rather simple set of rules for the proper diet. He provides medical answers to a lot of common questions.
Mark's Daily Apple - a website written by Mark Sisson a fitness and nutrition expert. He has many different opinions than PaNu, but the same main points.

I have struggled with weight my entire life. I was very heavy until 17, and after losing 50 lbs in a summer I have fluctuated +/- 15 lbs since then. I've had the discipline to lose weight the conventional way (low calorie, low fat diets) many times but my diets never gave me long term success.

Reading the book Good Calories Bad Calories completely changed my perspective on nutrition. Like most people, I was taught to avoid fat, eat fewer calories, increase fiber, reduce sodium, and try to eat whole grains, fruits, and veggies. Now I believe that the human body was designed to operate burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates and that carbohydrates in basically any form are detrimental to my health.

I understand this is a major change in philosophy and defies countless nutrition "experts" out there. But the evidence is there. If you actually look, I believe the research points to improved health when carbohydrates are removed.

So what is my plan? For one year (I started May 17), I will meticulously record every calorie I eat, my weight, my waistline, and my exercise.

Phase 1: Minimize carbs, shooting for less than 20g per day. Duration: 1 month
Phase 2: Less than 100g carbs per day (probably less than 50g). Duration: until I reach my desired weight (which I haven't decided yet, but likely less than 180)
Phase 3: Experiment - adjust carbs, calories, exercise, etc. as I see fit. Duration: remainder of year.

I will also compare my blood tests from May 2009, May 2010, and May 2011.

I will provide updates on this blog weekly (roughly) and try to answer questions as I learn more. Notice I don't plan to restrict calories at all. For exercise I am eliminating long cardio workouts like running. Instead, I will lift weights and play basketball a couple times a week aside from my normal levels of activity.

Indianapolis Class

2010-05-19T22:17:00.007-04:00

Last week the three of us spent 3 days in Indianapolis while I attended a training class for work. One of the perks was going to the Indianapolis Indians AAA baseball game. The stadium was virtually empty and Evie continuously ran from our row to the row behind us until the usher told us to keep her in her seat. Obviously that wasn't going to happen...so we left (6th inning).

Before leaving Evie was terrified by the the scary Indians' mascot.
We also walked the excellent downtown canal one evening and had a terrific dinner at Alcatraz with the best fried food I can remember.

During my class one day Erin and Evie went to the Indianapolis zoo. One of the best parts of Indianapolis is that there is so much to do within walking distance if you stay downtown. Countless restaurants (all of them chain restaurants), the canal walk, a huge mall, the zoo, three professional stadiums, and a major university.

Evie loved the friendly walrus.

Riverbank Run 2010

2010-05-12T12:37:00.004-04:00

The 2010 Riverbank run was my 6th consecutive year, but it was a much different experience. My goal at the beginning of training was to break the 2 hour mark, but my plans changed.

The early stages of my training went as expected. I started slow, built endurance and speed, and muscled through the bitterly cold months of January and February. However, my training went downhill fast in March. All of my running suddenly felt very labored and my legs felt tight and weak. Each run was worse than the one before and by early April I knew I was doomed.

So decided not to worry about my speed and just enjoy the race. And enjoy it I did.

With no specific time goal Derek and I just lined up and ran whatever speed felt good. We cruised at 8:50-9:00 miles for most of the race and chatted with each other to pass time. At mile 13 we started to agonize but I got our minds off running by giving Derek a riddle to solve, which took him 2 miles. The funny part was that Derek never solved the riddle, the guy running next to Derek blurted out the answer before Derek got it. After that it was just a short sprint to the finish line.
My 2010 time was the worst of my 6 years, but I was happy that my average pace stayed below 9 min/mile. Derek outdid me at the end a can now claim his first legitimate road race victory over me (he beat me in the 2006 Detroit 1/2 marathon but I had run a full marathon 7 days before).

Final Times:
Randy - 2:18:57
Derek - 2:18:46
Jason - 2:46:47
Darren - 2:33:33
Marv - 2:33:31

I have decided that for the indefinite future, I am going to stop doing endurance sports. I've done a fair amount of research this year on diet and nutrition and now I want to test my theories on my own body. My new dietary approach is not compatible with distance running so I will get exercise in other ways.

I will soon fill this blog with lots of information on my new diet because I plan to take it very seriously and I will document it very scientifically, presenting my results on this blog. For now, I'm enjoying a week of glutinous eating before I cut out some major foods from my diet. Unless I've discussed this with you in the last few months you'll be surprised what I plan to eat and what I plan to eliminate.

Part of me is sad that my running career is done but I also feel a tremendous amount of relief, and I am excited to begin this next phase in my life.

High Speed

2010-05-02T14:41:00.006-04:00

Life goes by so fast. This spring has been really busy which reminds me of that fact more than usual. So I try to stop and enjoy the few slow moments I have.

It is also fun to look back at old pictures (or blog posts) and realize that even though time has passed, it was not time wasted.

The agreement with our wedding photographer was that we could have all the originals after 5 years. She had to reformat a couple thousand pictures which took 9 months, so we just got them all back.

Florida 2010

2010-04-19T22:01:00.008-04:00

The tradition lives on! I've now been to Florida over 'spring break' approximately 23 out of my 28 years of life, and Evie is 2 for 2.

This was our first trip with the Veldhof family and we stayed in a different part of Tampa than I'm used to - but close enough.

The drive wasn't too bad. We drove through the night on the way down and I had some good brotherly(in-law) bonding while we drove the 9pm to 9am shift. Thankfully the girls tolerated the drives as well. Evie was delighted to watch Barney 3 times in one day.

Our basic routine for the week was:

Wake up when Evie started running through the house
Putz around until 9 or 10
Go to the beach until lunch
Have lunch and put Evie down for a nap
Play by the pool for the rest of the afternoon
Cook dinner
Go back to the beach for the sunset
Put Evie to bed and lounge around for the rest of the night

It was a both an exhausting (chasing Evie around) and relaxing (nap time and "sleeping in") vacation. Evie LOVED Florida. She especially loved the beach and the pool.

We had a week full of terrific sunsets. Evie was a crazy girl during the sunset. She never stopped running and usually ended up in the water.

Our beach excitement included catching a shark and feeding the seagulls.

Evie is crazy for pop. We treated her to more sips of our pop than normal so she began expecting to drink it whenever she wanted. We are still dealing with her addiction this week...

On the walk to the beach one of the houses had a "goggie" sign on their mailbox. Evie had to say hi, bye, and give the doggie a kiss every time we walked by. Depending how close to bedtime it was the kisses goodbye could be very long.

By the end of the week all the excitement had worn Evie down and she wasn't allowed to watch the final sunset, so Erin and I finally enjoyed a quiet moment. Ahhhh...Florida.

Birthday Parties

2010-04-04T21:46:00.004-04:00

Our weekend was booked with friends, family, parties, and gatherings.

On Friday night we hung out with Trevor and Amy at Holland State Park.

On Saturday we celebrated Evie's 2nd birthday along with the twins' first birthday.

For Evie's 2nd birthday I chose a bear cake. Thanks to the Veldhof frosting recipe my decorating was MUCH easier and faster this year. It also looked a lot better than my last 10 cakes.
Evie is going to be a great babysitter soon.
Grandma and Grandpa Elenbaas gave Evie $2 for turning 2. She proudly carried her greenbacks in her pocket all night.

Erin's New Hobby

2010-03-29T21:38:00.004-04:00

Erin dove head first into the world of photography last week when she bought herself a fancy camera. She's been telling me for a long time she wanted to get into photography but I wasn't sure it would happen. Finally, she took the plunge and now owns the necessary equipment.

Evie and I have been her "test subjects" over the last week. It turns out photography is much more than auto focus and a flash. Erin is learning quickly.

On Saturday Evie participated in her first Easter Egg hunt. Like her good ol' dad she loves the candy but is terrified of the big scary bunny.

We aren't taking the nice weather for granted. As soon as it hit 50 degrees with a little sun we've been spending as many evenings walking and finding parks nearby.

Lately Evie has become a huge fan of reading, and not just to stall before bedtime. Erin reads her 30+ books every day and Evie reads her dolls even more. Many nights Evie tells me to "sheesh (sit)" right here (pointing adamantly (always on the ground)) and read to her dolls. She stacks the books up for me and continues to organize the room as I read to miss 9.99, bea (bear), or goggie. Tonight she sat down and read a different book (out loud) as I was reading the book she chose for me. It was fun and turned into a good candid photo shoot for Erin.

Denver Weekend

2010-03-23T22:08:00.003-04:00

To celebrate the end of Reuben's bachelorhood I spent a weekend with Rob, Reuben, and Eric in Denver.

Our first tourist item was the Coors-Miller brewery. I enjoyed the chemical engineer's perspective and we all enjoyed the free samples afterward.

On Sunday we checked out Red Rocks Amphitheater and hiked a nearby trail.

Although I am a novice skier I have always wanted to ski in the Rockies. On Monday I experienced a Colorado skiing experience and I was not disappointed. We had a beautiful, sunny, 40 degree day at Copper Mountain Ski Resort.

The skiing was fantastic but I especially enjoyed the awesome views.

Canton Weekend

2010-03-15T07:40:00.002-04:00

We had a nice weekend in Canton with Gumpa and Grandma.

We went to a farm for Evie to see some animals. The farm wasn't open but a nice worker let us walk around anyway.

Evie has strong motherly instincts. She is helpful in many ways and loves to take care of her baby. On Saturday night she spent a long time reading to her baby.
She also had to show her baby what an elephant looks like. Evie doesn't quite have the impression down but it is great either way.

South America Trip - Lima, Peru

2010-03-07T14:55:00.009-05:00

The final stop of our trip was one day in Lima. During the previous week everyone we talked to about Lima had something bad to say about it. So we were a little nervous about where we went in Lima, but we still wanted to see as much of the city as we could.

We grabbed a cab at the airport and drove to our hostel which was in one of the more popular parts of town. We were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the city, and the weather really lifted our spirits - 80 and sunny!

So we put on our swimming suits and started walking around. We reached the coastline cliffs and walked to a big shopping district on top of the cliffs.

Still in high spirits we decided to go lay out on the beach as a last hurrah. Beach access was tough because few roads descended down the cliffs to the beach. After about 15 minutes of walking we found an access road so down we went. As we were getting close to the beach there were quite a few locals walking back (it was 4:00 pm). The sidewalk was reasonably narrow and we approached a group of 10-15 people, including a group of about 5 teenage guys. When the got close one of them looked at me and said ¨Big Pappi.¨ I recognized the reference but ignored him. Right then he and one of his friends both bumped into my shoulders. Initially I figured the big group just got scrunched for a minute and everyone accidentally bumped into each other. Erin was slightly ahead and had gotten out of the crowd. However, as soon as they bumped into me I felt the friend´s hand going into my right pocket where my camera was. Then the first guy tried to put his hand into my other pocket where my money was. Out of instinct I swiped down toward my pockets and hit their hands away. My camera was big enough that after I hit their hands away I could feel it was still in my pocket and I was pretty sure the other guy didn´t get his hand far enough into my money pocket to grab anything. I jerked myself away from the crowd pretty deliberately and shook the teenagers off. It seemed like they wanted to keep going after me but we were on a busy street and I was firm enough that they didn´t. Suddenly I realized what happened and I was ticked. So I turned back toward them and lurched at them. They were considerably smaller than me and cowered a little. I thought better than going after them and Erin and I quickly walked away. She hadn´t realized what they did until I told her and we both felt really uneasy. We passed several other groups of guys on our way to the beach and stayed as far away as possible. When we got to the beach we decided to just walk down the beach back towards the mall instead of sitting or swimming.

At night we took a bus tour of the city. We stopped at a fountain park that had a few amazing displays.

The bus tour also took us downtown to see some of the old colonial buildings. They were impressive but very spread out. We were glad we hadn't tried to see them on our own.

South America Trip - Machu Picchu

2010-03-01T21:41:00.005-05:00

Machu Picchu was the highlight of our South American trip. It was incredible. The Incas built this city deep in the jungle on the top of a ridge high up in the Andes. The scenery was the most spectacular we saw and the city itself was a masterpiece.

The peak in the background is Huayna Picchu and there is a trail that goes to the top of it. We wanted to climb it but they limit the number of tourists and we would have had to get up at 3:00 am to have a chance. We decided not to ruin our day and just enjoy Machu Picchu instead.

All week we were worried about the weather. Since it is the rainy season we could have had rain all day. We lucked out! We had a couple hours of sunshine in the morning and no rain until mid afternoon when we were ready to leave anyway. 2 weeks later the region had record flooding and the entire area is going to be closed for months.

The Incas built a trail along the backside of the mountain that threads along a cliff. Walking next to a 1000' drop off made our hearts skip a few beats.

The original entrance to Machu Picchu is through the Sun Gate via the Inca trail. We hiked up the Inca trail to get a view of the city from the Sun Gate.
Just as we sat down to enjoy the view the rain moved in telling us it was time to go.
We descended almost straight down 2500 feet to the river below.

Machu Picchu is a place I'll never forget. The Inca really showed their skills in building that city. Lucky for us the Spanish Conquistadors never found it, so it was never compromised.

South America Trip - Cusco and the Sacred Valley

2010-02-21T20:37:00.008-05:00

Cusco was the center of the Inca empire in the 1400s. The Inca culture is still prevalent in the region and many of the modern buildings are constructed on old Inca foundations.

Our first afternoon we took a city tour of some churches and nearby Inca ruins.

The Inca walls were built of perfectly fit rock pieces. They didn't use mortar for their sacred buildings. They also figured out a way to make the mortar-free walls strong enough to withstand major earthquakes. All the walls standing today have survived 5 huge earthquakes in the last 600 years.

The tour was ruined by rain. It poured the entire 5 hours of the tour. Also, we were the only English speaking couple in the group so the tour guide would gloss over the details with us and then give a lengthy explanation to the rest of the group.

We were the only ones in our group to hold out and not buy a poncho. Instead we huddled under the umbrella we brought from home. We got soaked.
When it stopped raining Cusco was a beautiful city. The city center had several impressive churches and the surrounding hills offered excellent views.

A couple hours outside of Cusco were some famous Inca ruins. The ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo were impressive. I can't imagine how much manpower was required to chisel so much rock and move it around that terrain.

The Incas were big into the science of farming. They built these terraces on the hillside as laboratories to test farming techniques. On each terrace they tried something different. The successful experiments were transferred to the large farms on the valley floor.

South America Trip - Arequipa, Peru

2010-02-14T20:28:00.010-05:00

Our first stop in Peru was 2 days in Arequipa. Arequipa's claim to fame is the unique look of all the buildings. The buildings are made of Sillar - white volcanic rock. The rock is softer and whiter than granite and gave a beautiful and unique appearance to the city.

In the middle of Arequipa was a 400 year old Spanish Monestary. The monestary is a city within the city and has only been seen by the public in the last 30 years. It was extremely colorful and filled with unique archetecture.

Arequipa is known for its adventure sports. We decided to raft down the Rio Chili to get our adrenaline fix and we were not disappointed. The river was running a little low, but there were plenty of class 3 rapids.

One of the best parts of the rafting was jumping off some tall rocks into the water.

Winter Weekend 2010

2010-02-07T22:04:00.004-05:00

The pickerel lake gang gathered for another winter weekend. Unlike the last 5 years we actually had sunshine, not very much snow, and mild temperatures. We were hardly 'roughing it.'

On Saturday afternoon we hiked across the lakes and explored some woods trying to find the famed 'old water tower.'

We didn't find the water tower, but did find some good trees along the way.

At night we had our traditional 5 lbs of 73% beef hamburgers (27% fat). They were awesome, and VERY flame broiled.

Of course nighttime brings on games of all kinds. Regular ping pong, around-the-world ping pong, Super Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, and poker were our choices this year.