The Kriz Family

The Flying Pig Marathon – 2012

jim — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:33:38 +0000

I’d been training this year, with grand plans to run the Flying Pig full marathon, but due to inconsistency early on, I wasn’t at all ready for 26.2 miles. I decided to run the half – a wise choice according to Heidi, something about me getting too old to just go out and run a marathon, or somesuchnonsense…

Anyway, it’s always a fun weekend, and this year, Lukas got to run in one of the Piglet fun runs too. He was pretty excited about it, though you wouldn’t know it looking at some of the pictures I got. So we went down on Saturday to get me signed up, and the headed over to Yeatman’s Cove to get Lukas signed up for his run. It was a 50-yard sprint, and he was pretty fast – maybe we’ll sign him up for the half marathon next year. After his race, we hung out in the park for a while, climbing on the Serpentine Wall and playing at the playground. I think he was pretty tired by the end of the day (he had soccer in the morning too). It was a fun outing for dad and son.

On Sunday morning, I was up before the sun to head downtown for the half marathon. I was a little nervous waiting for the start. I was pretty well-prepared for the race, but it was a lot warmer than most of my training, and it also has a pretty big elevation climb from mile 5 or so all the way to mile 9. But the nerves were pretty quickly calmed once the race started, and then I just enjoyed the run. And Heidi and the kids managed to find me about a half mile before the finish, so that’s always a fun surprise (THANK YOU!) I knew they were coming down, but didn’t know where they would be – I almost missed them coming around the corner, I was looking on the wrong side of the street!

I was shooting for 1:45 or 1:50 (works out to about an 8 or 8:25 minute mile), and I ended up finishing just under 1:50. I was pretty happy with that, especially considering the temperature and the wicked climb from downtown into Eden Park.

I have to say, this race is one of the best I’ve ever been in, and it seems like it gets better every year. Its very well organized, there is a TON of entertainment and support along the way, well-placed water stops – it all just keeps you coming back for more! I’m already thinking about next year…

Pre-race mug shot

Post-race, with the medal (yes, this was about the best shot I could get of him…)

Obligatory shot on the Serpentine Wall

Another run at Sawyer Point

Heidi and Lukas and Elsa spotted me with about 1/2 mile to go!

Me and the kids after the race

After running 13.1 miles, I got to carry Lukas across the Purple People bridge

Welcome back, old friend

jim — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:10:47 +0000

I was heading out tonight for a run and almost tripped over an old friend having dinner on our sidewalk. Mr. Turtle, who we first discovered by our house last spring, has come around again. I have no idea where he’s been, we would see him around every once in a while last Summer, but then he seemed to disappear. We’re going to be here for a long time (hopefully…), and I’ll bet this guy will be around long after we’re gone I’m going to have to take Lukas out to look for him tomorrow.

We’ve missed you, Mr. Turtle!

Soccer Action

jim — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 02:24:37 +0000

#23 Lukas scored his first GOOOOAAAALLLLL tonight! He was pretty pumped up about it, he was jumping up and down on the field, throwing high-fives to anyone who would give one back Been trying to take pics, but these action shots are tough, especially at a distance. I’m playing around with camera settings, hopefully we’ll have some good ones by the end of this season…

Anyway, here are a couple shots that I doctored up a bit since they were not quite right. I think they look kind of cool. We need some with him coming at us instead of always running from us.

Spring Soccer at the Y

jim — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:34:36 +0000

We signed Lukas up for soccer this spring. It is the second organized sports team he’s been on (T-Ball last fall was the first). So far, this is a much bigger hit with Lukas, and seems to be with the rest of the kids as well. There’s a lot more activity and less downtime. I guess I see why soccer is so popular now – never quite understood before. Hopefully Lukas will turn out to be more coordinated and athletic than his old man, maybe he’ll get some of that from Uncle Derrick

I’ll try to post more pics as we get them, but here are some from the first game.

Elsa is practicing – I guess she’ll be doing this in a year or so

She’ll find anything to amuse herself…

A little practice dribbling before the game

Goalkeeper, ready for anything that comes his way

Loading up for the goal kick

One of many saves in this game – the goalie was en fuego!

Easter 2012

jim — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:18:47 +0000

I’m a little late with this (ok, several weeks late), but better late than never, right? Easter this year started with brunch and an egg hunt at Heidi’s parents on Palm Sunday, then we decorated eggs at our house on Holy Saturday, then we went to church and had another egg hunt on Easter Sunday. Elsa was big enough to enjoy the egg hunts and coloring the eggs this year. It was a lot of fun for Lukas too, since he got to be the big brother and help her out. These kids are growing up too fast!

Finding eggs in the flowers

Our strange children

Elsa and OT

Too cool

"No Elsa, you can’t put a green egg in the orange one!"

Now we can really get down to business

Some of Elsa’s eggs – decorated with help from Mommy

Some of Lukas’ space alien eggs

Finished with decorating

Space alien eggs, arranged just like the picture on the box…

Lukas helping Elsa find some eggs in the log cabin

Counting up the eggs

This is how we eat hollow bunnies around here…

…and this is what we look like when we’re done.

Family portrait – it’s hard to get a good picture with these two

Log Cabin Playhouse!

jim — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:15:24 +0000

Last Friday, one of Heidi’s friends at work asked us if we wanted their old log cabin playhouse. They had it for about ten years, and their kids had grown out of it. It was one of those Little Tikes numbers, and we knew our kids would love it, so we said Sure! The only catch was that we had to transport it from their house, about 3 miles from us. ”No big deal”, I said, “we can probably fit it in the back of the Explorer, and worst case, if we can’t disassemble it enough to get it in, we can just strap it on top. Hah, hah, hah!”. So we drove over, and sure enough, there is NO WAY it is going to fit in the back of the SUV, and there is also no way it is going to disassemble and be able to be reassembled. (If you’ve ever put one of these things together, you know, they are meant to go together, but never come apart.) So we proceeded to “strap it on top” like I previously joked… It worked out pretty well, but I have to say, we got lots of double-takes from passersby as we were driving slowly down the road… Also, thankfully, one of our neighbors stopped by to help unload this thing. That was a huge help.

So all in all, it was a fun little adventure. Thanks to Heidi’s wonderful friends for giving this playhouse to our kids, and for cleaning it up, and for helping load it on the car. It is set up in our woods and I’m sure will provide lots of fun memories!

Why yes, that is a log cabin on top of the SUV…

Another angle…

I didn’t measure, but I think this doubled the height of the vehicle.

Lukas and Elsa, anxiously waiting for us to unload the thing. Instead, I’m taking pictures

Cincinnati Heart Mini Marathon 2012

jim — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:54:13 +0000

Lukas and I ran in the 35th annual Heart Mini Marathon this weekend. He’s a little young to be running 15k, right? Ok, well, I ran the first 8.8 miles, and Lukas ran with me for the last .5 or so. Heidi was waiting for me with Lukas and Elsa, and Lukas jumped in with me for the sprint to the finish. That was just the inspiration I needed to keep me going! :) I wasn’t quite ready for 9 miles, but I finished.

It was really fun to have them waiting for me, and it was a real kick to run with the boy for a half mile too! I can’t wait for him to be old enough to register in some of these kids runs, I think he’ll have a good time. A marathon might be a few years off though…

Here are a few of the official race photos – these were taken by RunPhotos.com, and I am only linking to them for convenience, so please don’t abuse these. You can view all of them from RunPhotos.com if you’d like.

We’ll be ordering some so we can have a photo of Lukas finishing his first race! :)

Bowling!

jim — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 03:26:09 +0000

Lukas had a birthday party for one of his preschool friends today, it was at a bowling alley. This was the first time he’s been bowling, which is shocking, since I grew up near the Bowling Capital of the World**, you’d think I would’ve had him in a pair of bowling shoes as soon as he was walking.

Anyway, he had a great time, really enjoyed bowling (bumper bowling), and apparently REALLY liked the shoes! He’s got the makings of a future PBA champion!

Be the ball, be the ball, na na na na na….

I think this is the 0-step approach

Waiting patiently to pick up that spare. Someone else just nailed their 7-10 split, that’ll be tough to beat

(**Parma, OH – I don’t think it officially holds the “Bowling Capital” title, but all my friends seem to think must. I guess with a bowling alley on every other city block, that is probably not too far off).

Random Weekend Photos

jim — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 03:05:46 +0000

The kids were being pretty cute on Saturday morning, and playing nice together. Usually they are really good in the morning, but it goes downhill in the late afternoon. I decided we needed some pictures of them while they were still in good moods…

This girl is NOT cute at all

Lukas and his "Trio" blocks – these things are pretty cool!

Uh oh, Doggie’s going to jail

Elsa’s Birthday Slideshow

jim — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:26:10 +0000

I forgot to include this in the last post… Here’s a little video slideshow we put together for Elsa’s second birthday. About 20 minutes long, and has some country music, just so you know.