Eli and Tyson Tear it up at St. Francis Park

The first video shows Eli winning his race at St. Francis park today.  It's a little closer today than yesterday's race.  You can see him on the right side of the screen.  The second video shows Tyson winning his race.  That's a little surprising since he hasn't been doing any racing this year.  Both of them did extremely well and I'm very proud that they braved the heat today.  Way to go, boys!!

Eli is SMOKIN' !!!

The ever-stylish Eli, posing for a pre-race photo.  He's only 7 years old, but his kids class at the Gateway Cup is 7-8.  He absolutely smoked the race, having at least a 50 yard gap at the finish line.  His jersey was unzipped because it was 99 degrees at race time.  He zipped it up for his race. Very proud of him carrying on the tradition of Hanna and Tyson.

And speaking of Hanna...I guess you know that she can't resist a good photo bomb?

Cape Girardeau Mountain Bike Race

This was the fifth year for the Cape Girardeau race at the "new" location.  Prior to 2009, it was in another location inside the city of Cape.  That one was a sweaty mess, and apparently Mother Nature didn't like it and consistently sent her wrath on race day with 101% humidity to go along with the dense foliage.  The change to this venue was literally like a breath of fresh air.  It's a very open design, with roller-coaster like action and non-stop fun.  The first photo is from the first lap on "the hill", where countless buffoons spend the entire race trying to get the racers attention.  I am seen emerging from a massive smoke bomb, one of the more annoying and acrid way of showcasing the race.

Late in the race, Sam Moore and Brad Brown join me in wondering how a 16 year old kid could mash our souls so badly and so quickly.  Anyway, I ended up 4th.  Great weather, great course, and even a thunderstorm after the race was over couldn't turn this into a bad day. 

Thanks to Zach Young for taking great photos at the race!!!!

CX Bike

Almost ready.  I'm going to experiment with more tire sizes this year.  These are 40c's, about 13c's smaller than the smallest tires I races last year.  It weighs 19 pounds on the nose.

Kids love the Apple Store

 The Apple store is one of those places that the kids will never, ever avoid going.  There is always something to do there.  The beautiful Mrs K had trouble with the iPad and had to have it switched out...free of charge, thanks very much.

Eli found a few of the devices with Minecraft installed on them.  Naturally, he didn't look up for about half an hour.

Proud Dad with Mountain Biking Kids

Last Sunday, Deanna and I took Eli to Cliff Cave for some mountain biking fun.  He did great.  Yesterday, I had a golden opportunity to take all of them.

Tyson is already a great bike rider and has done a few of the kids mountain bike races.  Of course, he did very well.  Hanna has always done well in the kids road races at the various criteriums around town, but has never taken well to riding in the dirt.

Sunday was awesome.  Tyson led Hanna for a long lap through almost all of the trails there while I led Eli.  It was really a great combination.  I took Tyson alone with me on a hot lap, in which he did exceptionally well, and then I took a lap by myself.  No falls, no complaining, just a lot of fun.  I am so proud of them for getting along and having fun, even though they are at very different levels.  We even stopped at QT on the way home for snacks.

A few eagle eyed readers will notice some of the familiar hardware in the photo.  Hanna is aboard the red Homegrown, Tyson is riding the blue Homegrown (with clipless shoes and pedals!), and Eli is straddling Hanna's old 24" Trek FX.  We believe in hand-me-downs here at the Kakouris residence!

Rex is an Amalgamation

 When I walked into our bedroom the other night, I shook my head and laughed.  Yes, that is an expensive comforter that has been gutted.  And it's very, very obvious what happened.  But, I was reminded of the photo below.

This was Rosco in 1999.  He, too, had a habit of pulling the stuffing out of anything that had it.  Stuffed animals, pillows, blankets, you name it.  The photo with Rosco is a little more dramatic...small, dark haired dog sitting in the middle of a pile of stuffing.  But Rex is no slouch.  He has found stuffing where I did not know it existed.  And when I found Rex, he was sleeping hard, as if disemboweling the comforter took up his day's worth of power.

That's one of the funny things about Rex.  He possesses traits from all of our previous dogs.  He is unimaginably frustrating, unimaginably destructive, incredibly loud, such a bull in a glass store.  And we love him.