new CODMW2 maps today - sweet!

SHO NUFF!

New York City 1/2 Marathon

I have been working with a very cool non profit organization located in NYC called "The Fresh Air Fund" for almost 2 years now. The Fresh Air Fund helps inner city children get out of the city for a few weeks during the summer to either a host home in the country or a camp in upstate New York.

The New York City 1/2 Marathon offers non profits like "FAF" a number of spots in the race which allows anyone who wants to raise money for the cause participate in this exclusive run. Gretchen, Genevieve, and Courtney are all runners and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for them to participate. They each had to raise $1000 to run in the race. We started raising money for this back in December and were able to meet the $3000 a couple of weeks ago. If you'd like to donate you still can here.

We came into the city on Saturday evening and stayed over at a really nice hotel - the Hotel Indigo in Chelsea. Genevieve was able to get us all rooms at a fantastic discount using points she's accrued from her US Open stays in the city. Luck of the draw, we got a room that had a broken air conditioner...sigh...Needless to say it was about 80 degrees in our room and neither Gretchen nor I slept very well - the kids did not seem bothered.

I didn't really know what to expect from the race and I was actually very impressed with the marathon. It was exciting to be there and cheer on Gretchen and the Fresh Air team. The kids were a bit of a handful moving from place to place, but it all worked out for the best. We ended up missing the finish because the taxi we took got stuck in traffic, circled back, and an 8 minute ride took us 45 minutes to get to the end. We had a great time and I am super proud of Gretchen, Genevieve, and Courtney for doing this. Here are the photos and video:

Over the river and through the woods...

To Grandma's house we go...We all met at Grandmom Shirley's house before our NYC trip to see Heather, Shawn, and the babies. Here are some photos and video:

Time Square

Michael, Mya, Skylar, and Paige

Time Square

Krueger Family in Time Square

Spiderman

Look who we ran into in Time Square.

NYC 1/2 Marathon

The kids made some signs for the big run tomorrow.

thinks Southland might be the best show on TV.

just saved $60 a month on the cable/phone/internet bill by calling Comcast and getting into a promo package - sweet!

Spring is here...the beard is gone

Wrestling season is over. Snowboarding is just about done. It was time to shave the beard...

Last Tournament of the Season

Today was the last tournament of the season for Michael and he took a solid 2nd place. The tournament was held at Neshaminy Maple Point middle school which happens to be right next to where I grew up and where my parents still live. The tournament was the PJW (Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling) Sectional Qualifying Tournament. Any place finishers in the top 3 move on to sectionals. This does not apply to any wrestlers 6 and under which is where Michael was.

Weigh in's were Friday evening at the school and Michael was wrestling in the 6 and under 40lb division. Since this is a more serious tournament we had to make sure that he weighed 40lbs exactly and had to cut out cookies before bed for a few days prior to the tourn. After school on Friday we drove to my folks house to wait for weigh in's. When we got there he was just slightly over 40lbs - but after a quick trip to the bathroom and removing his socks he was 39.9lbs and made weight with ease. Unfortunately they then told me that there were not a lot of 40lb wrestlers and asked if it would be ok if they combined the 40 & 45lb wrestlers together - DOH! I said that was fine.

The first two matches Michael wrestled he won by pins and both opponents were approx his weight. The final match was against a kid who usually weighs above 45lbs and Michael was caught in a headlock and got pinned. Not bad for the season. His 2009-10 record for the season was 23-10 with 12 of his wins by pin. I am very proud of my little wrestler and look forward to many more successful seasons.

Here are the videos from the tourn - disclaimer - all videos this season were shot by me on a tripod -  these videos were shot by my father without one and the only videos where I make an appearance :)

Match 1

Match 2

Championship Match

Mya donates her hair to "Locks of Love"

Well, I wasn't super thrilled about it, but Mya and Gretchen wanted to do it and it was for a good cause. Mya got about 10" of her hair cut off last night to donate to Locks of Love. Locks of Love is a non profit organization that provides hair to disadvantaged children who need it. It is a worthy cause and Mya still looks adorable :)

Family Snowboarding

Here are a few snowboard videos I took at Bear Creek with my sweet little Vado camera over the weekend. As you can see, Michael started getting a little testy when he noticed I was recording him. Both kids are doing amazingly well although they don't last very long on the slopes. It's awesome that they are starting at this age. I wish I did :)

Bear Creek - 2/28/2010:

This one is Gretchen boarding at Blue Mt last week: