Day 4 - Pool day!

Today I had a business lunch that I didn't feel like I should cancel, so I headed downtown in the middle of the day while the girls stayed at my friend Carissa's house enjoying the pool. Her little sister babysat them, and they had a great time. After all that playing in the pool they were tired, so on the way back Bella fell asleep. 

Then, In the late afternoon, we stopped by my friend David's house because he was helping us with Sofia's bike. 

And that was that! The day flew by!

Day 3 - We made it!

After all, we did make it to the butterfly show earlier today. We only caught one, but it stayed with us for a little while.

Day 3 - National Running Day

Today is National Running Day, so I decided it would be appropriate - if not even necessary - to start my day with a good solid run. Last night I set my alarm for 7:30am, but I actually woke up on my own at 7:15 thanks to the fact that, for once, I went to bed at a decent time. 

The girls were still completely out when I got up, so I quietly went downstairs and pushed for a 5 mile run. I did some rolling hills and some speed training, and I was already stretching by the time Bella came down, quickly followed by Sofia.

After taking a shower we had a late breakfast, and since it was more like a brunch I decided to make pancakes for the girls. Since it is a very rainy day, we settled for indoor activities like painting, playing house and restaurant (for the girls) and continuing to declutter the house (for me). That was until we had to leave the house for the girls' cleaning dentist appt, where we are right now. If the weather cooperates we will make a stop by the conservatory to see the butterflies. If not, we will just head back home and leave the outdoor activities for another day. Unlike our regular routine, we actually have plenty of days ahead of us to do fun stuff like this.

Day 2 - All about the bikes

Today I woke up at around 8:40am, which was nice considering that last night I went to bed at 2:00am. I just got busy organizing myself for the summer, and signing up for an online class at UC to learn how to better use my digital camera in preparation for our trip.

One of today's goals was to take our bikes for a tune up, because - after an insanely long time of Lionel and I not touching our bikes - this weekend Sofia, Lionel and I are participating in Ride Cincinnati, a local fundraiser. We are only doing the 8 mile ride because Sofia is coming, but even the 8 mile ride is probably too much Bella, so we will either ask Tios or Abuelitos if she can stay with them.

Unfortunately it turns out that the tune up takes about a week, so I couldn't get that done today since we need the bikes for the weekend. But fortunately they at least put air in our tires, and confirmed they are ok to ride for the event in their current shape. Since we were there, I also bought a cute basket for my bike so we can put our sweaters and other small stuff in there.

 I wish I had also been able to take Sofia's bike with me, since I can tell her tires do not have enough air. I tried to use a pump we have at home, but after trying several times - and sweating like crazy because of the heat - I was unsuccessful ... Which was very frustrating. So either the pump is broken, the tire has an issue, or I was not using the thing correctly. Either way, we will have to figure that one out before Sunday.

I did clean all four bikes - with a little bit of Bella's help - because they were all super dusty. They look so much better now.

This afternoon we are going to pick up our packet for Ride Cincinnati, and the girls have their gymanstics class after that. Dinner time will come next, which is the start of the end of our day.

Day 1 - The beginning

Today was my first day off, and although we took it somewhat easy spending most of the day at the house, we did start our first craft of the summer and visited Creamy Whip, the local ice cream shop. I also cleaned our dinning room, which was by far the easiest room to clean. I don't want to go all out with house projects this summer, but one thing I do want to do is declutter our house, room by room. 

Old times

I found this today while cleaning the house. No date, but I am pretty sure this is from early 1999. I do remember I had gone to see Lionel play soccer somewhere.

Yard work

There are some things in life you can only avoid for so long, so yesterday Lionel and I did yard work all day long. It is always nice to see the results, but it was definitely a lot of hard work. I wish I had taken the "before" pictures, because the yard truly looks that different. To be honest, all those weeds desperately needed to go.