jon and i have been trying out his new bow and arrow set. it's just like cowboys and indians, check out his arrow holder belt.

he's really good, he is so good that he pulled off a "robin hood". that's when the arrow goes straight up the end of the last arrow you shot. it was kinda cool that he did it, but now he is out 2 carbon fiber arrows, and only has 4 left.

a close up of the robin hoodness.

after jon shot a bit it was my turn. i accidentally let the thing fly when i was drawing it back. good news is it is still out there somewhere, bad news is i can't find it and now we are down to 3 arrows. oops.

when i was looking for my arrow i found this old skool indian arrowhead. to try to make the mood more upbeat i told jon to imagine what the future people and or aliens are going to think when they find my carbon fiber arrow someday in 2099. they are going to freak out because all they have ever known are laser beams.

today my mom and i had a girls day while jon and my dad went down to s. texas. (that's our next stop on our big tour, and we will head down there tomorrow)

first we went looking at baby furniture. there are so many choices.
went to hobby lobby to buy some silly string, a zipper for jon's leg warmers, and a puzzle.
next up was costco, and at the costco in houston there are a lot of sampler station., seriously, there were so many that it was hard to get around the place.
then the sprint store where i switched all my numbers over to a new phone (long story, maybe i'll blog about it later, but apparently you shouldn't keep your razr in your back pocket and sit on it all night, or i'm getting real fat)
saw the movie juno after that which was really good. i don't need to run out and buy the movie when it comes out on dvd like i did little miss sunshine, but kinda like that movie.
then finally to kirin sushi for some sushi.

it was a full day.

blogging will slow down for the rest of the week due to spotty wireless mobile verizon reception in s. texas.

griffin quote of the day to jon and me after we gave him this old school rail twirler from our youth.

"i did not want this, but thank you anyway."

merry christmas everyone!

last night jon and i met up with some of my cy creek (go cougars) h.s. friends downtown at the mccormacks new diggs.

jon with maple throwin' a "crusty" face.

griffith, kayla wayla, and maple checking out mr. griffith.

after dinner we started a marshmallow roast. it was really cold last night, like 40's, which is cold for houston.

everyone enjoying the smoke with their marshmallows.

sparky get's creative with her new jesus figurine. she may go to hell for this post though... i sure hope not.

suburban riding at its finest. we had a lot of stop signs, got a lot of stares, but still managed to get in an hour ride weaving thru the cement streets.

we made the 16 hour trip to houston in 2 days. everything was easy until the last 20 miles when we hit the woodlands/conroe at 5 p.m. on a friday night. then it was 2 hours of back road madness.

this morning we got out for coffee and hit the streets early to avoid all the dang people.

we stopped here. (t-shirts are a big seller)

chewy balls serves every kind of bobas tea you can think of. here's the fam enjoying the bobas fun.

then we got the car washed. people that wash my car continuously let me down. i guess i just have to do it myself if i want it done right.

now, jon and i (in a blurry picture) are sitting around googling ourselves.

looks like i need a new camera cause this one won't focus unless i am taking the picture. good thing my birthday comes right after xmas. i may have broken it on the millionth time that i dropped it.

baby's first photo... sometime in early july our lives are going to change significantly. jon and i are thrilled!

to answer a few questions so you don't need to ask...
1. no-i don't have morning sickness. my mom didn't either...thanks mom!
2. yes-i will continue to ride my bike after and during this pregnancy.
3. no-we don't know the sex of the baby.
4. no-we don't know what we will name the baby.
5. yes-our families are ecstatic about the growing grandchild.
6. yes-i stopped drinking diet cokes, raw sushi, feta, yerba mate, mercury ridden fish, and so many other things i can't even count.

happy holidays everyone.

someone's going to the cyclocross world championships. (click on the photo to read the story)

sorry no blogging, i have just been really busy getting ready for xmas and stuff. we should have an exciting month coming up.

stay tuned...

another day of telemarketing for jon and me. good times, i really like this new sport on skis.

waiting for sara to run by during her big beaver creek snowshoe race. the participants did 6.2 miles and about 1500 ft of climbing all over the side of the mountain, it looked brutal, and all with those dumb things strapped to their feet.

she ended up 4th in the women and top 20 overall. it was impressive.

thankfully amy is okay, but this picture of her riding her bike backwards and on the chainring looks brutal.

she pulled off another under 23 national cross championship. very nice, i bet it was all of that skate ski training we did last week.
Photos ©: Kurt Jambretz/www.actionimages.cc

today was the tarkington family christmas celebration.

we begin the day with a hearty breakfast of eggs and candy cane bread that the madre brought up. jon was in charge of the eggs, and they were delish.

the candy cane bread was a hit. it was so good it blew up a plate and began to spark. don't worry though, all was fine after we put out the small fire and ran all the vents.

the madre in her stripes and sara in her cotton candy camo wait for the gift exchange to begin.

the fiber optic tree was a hit.

oh, and look at how the lights change colors. this $19.99 walmart special really is magical.

the white elephant gift exchange begins.

jon and i then went for a skate ski, the madre went for a snowshoe, yoga, and then hot tub. the padre went for hike, and sara and doug ran in the condo's gym. we sure are an active bunch.

tomorrow sara has a 10k snowshoe race that starts right outside the condo. the good news is we can cheer her on from the comfort of the condo balcony.

jon and i got up early to hit the slopes. i could tell jon was very excited about telemarking. jon is really nice when he is excited about something. here is an example: he carried my skis up the hill for me.

today was my first attempt at telemarketing, i mean telemarking. turns out i really like it. however my legs are still shaking, it is hard work!

jon who is really good at telemarking, and my teacher for the day. (note: i listened to him and did not hit him with my pole one time. then again, i didn't use poles most of the day.)

and poor telemark form fisk.

since there's no bike riding in this slushy white stuff we've been doing a heck of a lot of skate skiing at north boulder park.

i got one of those phishing scam letters from someone trying to be an ebay customer. this cracked me up. i love the all caps, a lot of exclamation points, and the fbi? come on...

	HELLO, I WANT MY TRACKING NUMBER TODAY !!! OR I WILL REPORT YOU TO EBAY AND FBI !! THANK YOU!
	- lake (oh, nice name too)

jon and i met up with brandon for yaki maki sushi on walnut. it was surprisingly good considering the dumb name. brandon, or b-do as we like to call him, was back in boulder for a couple of days visiting from the d.c. area.

after lunch we went to powell's candy store for some delicious treats. gross little tid-bit of info, b-do didn't buy that candy bar he is biting, he just put it back.

b-do travels real light. it is just him and his sonicare, oral hygiene is a number 1 priority on his list.

this really bummed me out.

(i forgot the mention this) last week jon crashed at wednesday worlds cross practice and done got himself a torn ligament in his thumb. that ended his season, luckily there was only one race left and he can stop wearing it in 2 weeks.

the women's open state cyclocross race yesterday was cold and snowy. the high yesterday was 19 degrees. these girls are tough.

anne leading it at the start.

if oprah can get americans to start reading again, she can do pretty much anything. i'm interested to see how this "oprah effect" pans out.