Hommes Thanksgiving

Well those of us Hommes' that were in town for Thanksgiving decided it would be a great year to participate in the Turkey Trot in Wash Park. The weather was going to be beautiful so we went for it. It was a 4 mile course, we participated in the run/walk event and had a great time. I'm pretty sure Dylan could have run the whole course, and Auntie Mel could have kept up with him but thankfully they stopped occasionally to wait for the rest of us. We didn't break any speed records I finished 7399 out of 7444, but we were really hungry when it came time to eat our turkey dinner. It was truly a lot of fun, and we'll probably have to do it again when the weather cooperates like this year. Sorry about the pictures, we were obviously under a tree and lots of shadows on our faces, but you get the idea. We had lots to be thankful for and hope you had the same.

Quick trip to Cali

Last weekend Sonya and I got to go to California for a long weekend. One of my former youth group students, Andrea Smidt, was getting married and asked me to do the wedding. Sonya and I left the kids behind and headed out on Thursday morning, it was snowing when we left. We had a great weekend in Cali, eating out, spending time with friends, shopping, walking on the beach, and just relaxing. I know the pictures are cheesy, but hey what can we say, we don't get to many Kendal and Sonya pictures these days. We returned home and were greeted by over 20 inches of snow last week. It was great not having to go to work, the kids would have had snow days but they were already off track. It was good to hang out with them after being gone for the weekend.

Baseball was our life.

So I promised I would upload some older photos and give some updates so here goes. This summer the boys played baseball and they both absolutely loved it. Here are some pictures from the season. Dylan played T-ball this year, and did great. The coach pitches 4 pitches and if you don't hit one of those you have to hit off the tee. Dylan was so proud he only had to hit off the tee once. Any time dad couldn't be at his games to tell him to get to the other side of the plate, he would convince the coaches he was a switch hitter and hit lefty. The other coaches thought this was the coolest thing ever, (a switch hitting t-baller) and he hit the ball all but once when he was lefty. Dad wouldn't let him do it, so he loved it when I was away at camp. Dylan was definitely a little bit of a trash talker he'd get to first and start taunting the other team, or he'd be on second and talking to the second baseman, when asked what he was saying, he told us he was telling him he was having a good game. Total lies. Dylan also loved sliding into home, even though I told him not to, and even though you can't get out in t-ball he slid into home every time.

Connor played in the "farm" league this year. It is the coach pitch league, and they let kids pitch the first 3 pitches. In the second inning of the first game the coach told Connor to go pitch and I thought, "alright here we go he's never done this before" he did a great job and got to pitch in almost every game this summer. Connor was on the Dodgers this summer and had a great season. One of our favorite memories was when while playing first base Connor called time out to go over to the second baseman and tell her to make better throws to him at first base. Classic

Halloween 09

Well we had a great Halloween complete with 3 total cuties. One Princess, Indian Jones, and Tony Hawk. Mom and Dad dressed western for the Hoedown Throwdown Fall Festival at church. The kids had a ton of fun and everyone looked great.

Fall Fun at 4 mile historic park

Well, I've realized I haven't been writing on the blog because I'm so far behind on keeping you updated on what's going on with the Hommes family. So I was going to start going back and catching up, but Sonya pointed out I should just start from here, go forward, and if I throw in some older stuff now and then it's all good. So yesterday we went the fall festival at 4 mile historic park. We rode our bikes down the cherry creek bike path and had tons of fun. We built a scarecrow, rode in a horse drawn carriage, saw a blacksmith working, and Connor even entered a pie eating contest where he had to eat a cherry pie with only his face in 2 minutes. It was awesome. Getting our huge scarecrow home on the bikes was a little bit of a challenge. We had to tie him over top of the trailer and it pretty much freaked people out while we were riding home on the bike path. It was a great day with lots of fun on a beautiful fall day.

To see more pictures click here http://picasaweb.google.com/kendalhommes/FallFestival?feat=directlink

It's Over Finally!!!

Well if you've been checking out the blog you'll notice not much has happened since March. That's not true, we've had a ton going on and that is one of the reasons the blog has not had much attention. I'll really try to update soon with what we've been up to. The biggest thing for me though has been training and actually doing Ride The Rockies. It was a lot of time training and riding all spring, okay when I was on sabbatical, but very difficult once I was back to work. Well we accomplished our goal of completing the ride. Fast Eddie, Kyle, and I are pictured here at the finish line after 380 miles in 6 days, 3 mountain passes (Independence Pass over 12,000 feet). We pretty much stayed together the whole time and the only time we were seperated dad crashed (was run over) on the way down Independence pass. His yearly bike accident was less severe than last year, but he was pretty lucky to escape with only a badly scraped up knee. A riding medic who was an ER doc watched him go down and bandaged him up and he rode the rest of the way in. His bike needed a new derailure but the guys at the bike doctor tent (our local shop) gave him a great deal and did the work for free. We also have to mention mom who took the week off of work and drove our own personal SAG vehicle encouraging and feeding us along the way. She also got us hotels every night but Aspen, so we didn't have to be in our tents. YEAH!!! Very sore butts, and hours upon hours in the saddle (6 hours and 53 minutes on Day 2) were some of the rough parts but for the most part it was a lot of fun and it was great seeing Sonya the kids, grandma Hommes, Papa and Grandma VanStelle, and Auntie Dana waiting for us at the finish line. Will we do it again, probably not next year, but when Uncle Kev wants to do it we'll probably have to make another run at it. If you want more details on the ride, I'll post some of the specifics and stats on my other blog. Also stay tuned for what has been keeping the rest of the Hommes family busy this spring and early summer.

Pinewood Derby Fun

Well we've reached that pivotal point in every boys life where it is time to build a pinewood derby race car. All the pioneer boys and girls 1st grade and up build cars at church. It is really cool because 2 weeks before the races they have a craft night where all the woodworking guys from the church bring fancy saws, sanders, and tools to help the kids build the cars they want to build. Unfortunately, we weren't there for craft night and last week Wednesday we were handed a block of wood, and told the race was the following Wednesday. We went to work right away building a "fast, cool" car (these were Connor's only requests). Connor was a little aprehensive about the power tools, but he eventually figured out the palm sander and was doing great with that. He also loved the spray painting, I'm sure our car had the most paint out of every car there. During the building we had a small mishap with brother Dylan, he kept taking sand paper and (I thought) pretending to rub it on his chest and yell "I'm shaving, I'm shaving" Well turns out he wasn't pretending and that night at dinner he is in tears going crazy because he basically sanded all the skin off of his chest. I felt so bad, and wanted to laugh so hard all at the same time. He survived, and I don't think that will be a mistake he makes again.

Well last night at the races they do 3 heats where all the cars get to race once in each heat. That's it, no elimination, no winners or losers except for in the individual races. Connor's car got 2nd place in it's first heat, and 1st place in the next two heats. Each time a heat finished they would say "Connor Hommes has won the race." He was so excited and I have to admit it was a lot easier than trying to get excited about 3rd or 4th place, which is what I was gearing up for. It was tons of fun. Check out the pictures.