Pan American Championships

The last weekend in August saw Aaron and his paddling partner, Bryant Grigbsy, competing in the Pan American Championships and U.S. Nationals. Aaron and Bryant competed in the men's C-2 (slalom canoe) and took 3rd in the Pan American race. They were 5th at Nationals, mainly due to some trouble on their first run of the day. Click here for complete results.

Other big news: Aaron and Bryant now have their own website dedicated to their paddling. Click here or the permanent link located in the top right of this page.

Here are some photos of Aaron (in front wearing the number) and Bryant warming up before the race. The race was held on the Kern river whitewater course, located near Bakersfield in Southern California.










Aurora and Martin went down to the site on Wednesday with Aaron and Bryant and had a great time camping, talking with all of the people and watching the boats on the river. (Oh, and playing in the dirt!)




"Photographer's Rock" Karli and I drove down on Friday night in time to catch the races on Saturday and Sunday. Karli was our team videographer and Martin took all of the paddling photos below while Aurora and I cheered from the side of the river.


Here's Charlie Albright and Ed Gordon making their way up through one of the gates.


Aaron and Bryant racing down the river.








Aurora takes a turn in the boat.


Bryant, Aaron and Aurora on the podium accepting their third place medals.


Aaron and Bryant are collecting photos of their paddling so if you were at the race and have some good shots please email them to us!

Don't forget,check out their new website www.SlalomCanoe.com for all the latest information on their training, racing and sponsorship opportunities.

Discovery Museum

Grandma Hodges came out in the middle of August for a fun-filled visit. One of the things we did was visit the Bay Area Discovery Museum, our local children's museum.



Ribbit Ribbit! Playing on the waterbed lilly pads. (A consistent favorite on our return visits.)


While we were there we got to hear a concert by The Sippy Cups, which was actually a lot of fun for both the kids and the parents. If you have small children and have an opportunity to see them play I would recommend going.


One of Aurora's favorite areas was the water-play stream.


Carrying her catch over the bridge.


After this visit I decided to get a yearly membership and we've been back a couple times already. If anyone wants to come along on a visit let me know. :)

The three cousins

The three cousins, Ciel, Aurora and Theo. What a cute trio!

Backyard play

We spent our last afternoon in Minnesota playing in my parent's backyard. There are a lot of photos (thanks to my shutterbug sister) so here they are, sans comments. :)































Then it was off to the airport and back to San Francisco!

Trip to Como Zoo with Grandma & Grandpa Sarver

After watching the 'new' shoe adventure, Gerry and Hugh (Grandma and Grandpa Sarver) took us to Como Zoo to look at the animals.


We saw lots of animals (but the photos didn't turn out very well). The giraffes were Aaron's favorite - but you'll have to ask him why. ;p

First Hard-Soled Shoes

Here is the first of my "catch-up" posts. I've gotten a little behind in putting up photos so I'm going to try and catch up today (if Aurora let's me :p). Turning back the clock a little......

Aurora started really walking on July 5th so while we were in Minnesota at the end of July we decided (at my mom's urging) to get Aurora her first pair of hard-soled shoes.

Measuring Aurora's feet. Would you believe this is the same woman who used to fit my sister and I for our shoes when we were little? She works at the Stride-Rite in Rosedale, they've got a great selection of shoes. Will we find some Aurora likes?


So many to choose from! (And such cute little boxes.) Which ones should we pick?


Not happy! I want my Robeez back! Turns out, Aurora didn't like ANY of the shoes originally. The woman at the store said that this is very common with kids who are used to wearing the nice soft-soled Robeez.


Finally somewhat accepting the new shoes.


It took about a week for her to fully transition into wearing the new shoes. Now she loves them (usually because putting them on means a walk in the park!)