Family Reunion

On Saturday, Grammy and Grampy hosted a huge gathering party at their place, to celebrate Mike, Kelly, Felix and Theo's visit from Arizona.  We enjoyed seeing familiar faces, as well as those we haven't seen since our wedding or even longer!!  It was great to watch Lee catch up with his cousins and watch the girls hang out with the second generation of cousins.  As always, the time was too short, but it was a wonderful visit nonetheless.

Tractor rides with Grampy. 

Catching up. 

Fishing with Grampy. 

Emily refuses to get too close to the fish. 

Who wants to go for a boat ride? 

Felix and Emily 

The temperature on the deck (in the shade) before Lee started cooking on the grill..... 

Uncle Al supervises (key word) grill master Lee.

Theo 

Emily stays cool (and away from the crowd) inside, putting a puzzle together. 

Xavier and Emily 

Alec and his grandfather (Uncle Al to us) 

Kim, swimming with Felix and Xavier. 

Alec and Kim 

Michael with Xavier and Theo. 

Uncle David with Theo 

Elizabeth helps Felix with his life jacket.

Cheryl took this great family shot using the tripod - amazing!

On The Floor - Odds and Ends

A few other random photos from the recital:

With their favorite dancer, Miss Emily.

On The Floor - Finale

The finale is fast becoming my favorite part of the recitals.  I love to watch Jen figure out how to get all of the various levels of dancers on the stage and choreographed.  This year did not disappoint!

Emily led the little kids from the left side of the stage - she did a great job - no nerves at all!! 

Elizabeth was on the right side, in the middle of the pack. 

Emily loved being front and center!! 

On the Floor

On The Floor - Elizabeth

Elizabeth also dance in the recital, her sixth year doing so!!  It is amazing to see how far she has come!

Jazz 

Music Sounds Better With You

Tap

Party Rock

Ballet 

My Little Girl

On The Floor - Emily

A few weekends ago, the girls were part of The Dancer's Image 14th annual dance recital.  This was Emily's fourth (can you believe it!!) dancing and her first year dancing in two shows and the finale.  She did really great and truly loves dancing and the recital.

Ballet 

"In My Daughter's Eyes"

Jazz 

Get the Party Started

Tap

Itty Bitty Pretty - we had some camera issues so we only got part of this one.

Totaling Pro

On June 30th, Lee competed in the Battle of the Champions, a powerlifting competition sponsored by the Revolution Powerlifting Syndicate and held in Hartford, Connecticut.  This was his first competition in over six months and it was huge - more than 80 lifters overall, including some of the biggest names around.  Lee did not have the day he wanted to have - aside from trying to win his division, he enters every competition with certain goals in mind.  Despite the fact that he had what he considered to be a medicore day, he put up some great numbers - 525 lb. squat, 380 lb. bench press, and 575 lb. dead lift, for a total of 1480.  He not only set RPS state and world records in each lift (and his total) and won his division, but he also took home the award for best lifter in the amateur division.  Perhaps the biggest thing that happened that day was that his full power total was good enough to catapult him from amateur to professional status in the RPS federation.*  The Refuge is one of the strongest gyms in the region and with Lee's new status, they now have four lifters that have attained the elusive pro status.  We are extremely proud of Lee's accomplishment, especially considering that it happened on a "bad day".

Squatting 525 lbs. 

 Waiting for benching to begin.

On deck... 

Benching 375 lbs. 

The foam roller is the 30-something athlete's best friend; keeping his back loose while waiting for dead lifting to begin. 

Dead lifting 575 lbs. 

I took almost 500 photos at the meet on Saturday - this one is, by far, my favorite.  Whether he has a good day or a bad day, the girls give him unconditional love...

*Not all powerlifting federations distinguish between amatuer and professional lifters, although some of the larger ones do.  This was Lee's first effort to attain pro status.

Battle of the Champions

On June 30th, Lee and several members of The Refuge participated in the Connecticut State "Battle of the Champions" Powerlifting Champsionship meet, which was held as part of the EUROPA Expo at the Hartford Convention Center.  More on how Lee did in another post, but overall, The Refuge dominated the meet like I've never seen before.  Every lifter but one took first place in his division; the only that didn't took second place to a Refuge teammate.  Lee took best overall raw lifter; Nick took best overall gear lifter; and Adam was the best bencher of the day.  Between them, the eight lifters from The Refuge compiled 19 RPS Connecticut State Records and 12 RPS World Records.  Not a bad day.

June Odds and Ends

Here are some things that did not make the blog during June:

Baxter likes to run.  I mean really likes to run.  So we put in a run in our backyard because we can't let him off of the leash.  This is photo evidence of him laying down for about thirty seconds, the only time he has ever stopped moving while on the run.

2nd grade field trip to the Old State House.  That's Elizabeth, up front (far right). 

Elizabeth's last day of school.

Elizabeth is a wonderful reading teacher for Emily!

Emily's last day of kindergarten and last day at her school.

First day of Vacation Bible School.

Parish Picnic

Last weekend, we went to our parish picnic and the girls had an absolute blast.  There were three different bounce houses, arts and crafts, food and an awesome tug 'o war battle!

Making a frisbee! 

Craft table - both girls made cross necklaces, which they wore to bible camp the next week. 

Love the bounce houses!! 

Who doesn't love a sno cone on a hot day?? 

Preparing for tug 'o war.... 

I couldn't believe that Elizabeth was right up front in the tug 'o war. 

The post-tug 'o war mayhem!!