Monday, Monday

Just dropped my Dad off at the airport a few hours ago, and I have to say that it's nice to slip back into our normal routine. We did have a nice, low-key visit though. We ate out a few times, went to a birthday party, hosted a birthday party, and watched alot of the Olympics. The boys love playing with their Grandpa Dick, and he is quite patient with them. Literally, as Brandon got a doctor's kit for his birthday (thanks Grandma Gale!), and Parker and Brandon took turns playing doctor with Dad as the patient. That was actually quite amusing. We had the usual "Dad-isms", like how he brings up the show "the Closer" multiple times a day and tells the same stories every time he visits, but there are worse things! All in all, he's a very easy house guest.

Brandon's party went really well - our usual backyard shindig with our favorite families over to celebrate with pizza and cupcakes. I really love our friends, and it's nice to host a party where everyone can just relax and talk, with the kids pretty much entertaining themselves. Once again we had beautiful weather - a bit hot - but still great that we could be outside. Dad took us out for Brandon's favorite, Thai food, for his birthday dinner and the waitress even brought him some ice cream with a candle in it. I think Brandon had a great day. I just cannot believe that it's been four years since he was born!

I tried out my new wetsuit yesterday, too. It was amazing!! It gave me so much buoyancy! I was working alot less to go alot faster just because it gave me so much support. Usually I'm kicking fairly hard just to keep my legs floating up with the rest of my body, so this made a huge difference to have the wetsuit lifting them. I'm very excited. Now, I just need for the water temperatures at next weekend's race to be below 78 degrees so that I can actually wear the suit.

That's it for now. I'm going to download birthday photos sometime in the next day or two, so I'll try to post some soon.