In Case You Missed It...

Here are some pics of Kevin building the Great Big Chocolate Kiss. You can still check out the link to see its progress, though you won't be able to try to spot Kevin anymore.

The World Largest Kiss

Today Kevin is helping build the worlds largest hershey kiss. Here is a link to see it happen on a live webcam. http://www.hersheys.com/kisses/whats-new/kisscam.asp
He will be helping from 11-3 so you can try to find him then- thats PA time which I think is eastern time?

Cranky Kenna

Lately Makenna has pretty strong opinions about...well, everything- esspecially her hair. Everyday she wants it in a ponytail- only one ponytail and not high but low, and in the back. Today while she was distracted by dragon tales, I did a different "do." Of course when she discovered it she had a fit, yelling to me "I dont like my crazy hair!" It made me laugh.

The Big Race

Yes Kevin is quite an achiever these days- first he is the winner of the berry eating contest and this weekend he completes his first 5k race. Despite his somewhat inconsistent and last minute training he did remarkably well, and beat his goal of 25 minutes. Kevins official time was: 24:38 (not bad for a first timer and with no training). Here are some of the highlights.I call this picture: "Pre Race with Smile"

And this picture is a bit like one of those Wheres Waldo ones except, of course, it's
"Where's Kevin?" I found him- can you?

And here is the action shot! Go Kevin G0!

And here is how we found him just past the finish line. If I was to give it a caption it would have to be "Daddy, daddy are you ok?"

I call this picture "Post Race without smile"

And here we have Kevin being funny and at the same time accurately reflecting how he truly felt.

And as the perfect end to my collection of race photos, we have here what I call
"Post Race with Smile"

The rest of the day was spent in recovery. There was some napping (unfortunately only by the adults), a bit of Wii, an open house visit, an oil change, a lot of pool time and a delicious bbq. It was a good day (at least for us non-racers!)

And the winner of the Berry Eating Contest is...

the amazing, incredible, eating machine...KEVIN BRANDVOLD (or as the announcer called him, "Mr. Utah")

Saturday was filled with busyness for us but the highlight of the day was Kevin's big win at the Berry Festival in Lancaster County. He entered the berry eating competition and took first place!!! His competition was fierce but he managed to pull it off with ease. The task was to finish every last strawberry in the bowl- the catch though was that the berries were buried beneath a gargantuous mound of whipping cream and the contestants were unable to use their hands. It was highly entertaining and one of Kevins proudest moments.Picture 1: Here Kevin mentally prepares by laughing it up with his competition- nice guys but I bet you would have expected that middle biker guy to beat Kevin--its ok, admit it. It just makes his win all that more exceptional!
Picture 2: This is mid contest- the other contestants foolishly try to eat through the whip cream while Kevin cleverly uses his nose to push it out of the way. Then, while his opponents chewed and swallowed the berries, Kevin simply inhaled them.
Picture 3: Unfortunately my camera battery was low so the camera shut off just at the great moment when Kevin rose from his seat and raised his hands high in the air declaring his win. This shot was just a few seconds after- as he revels in the praise of the crowd and cleans his face off.

So here are a few other pictures from our berry festival which took place in a little square of shops, right there in the heart of amish country. We enjoyed shopping amid the shops and spent all of Kevins prize money (yes he won a 25 dollar gift certificate) on an array of jams and a smidge of fudge.

Here the kids are dipping strawberries and marshmallows in the chocolate fountain.Here the kids are eating the delicious flavored licorises we bought- who knew the amish made such good licorise- bet you didnt.

I'm not sure of the name of this character but here the kids are with him- Makenna is thrilled as you can tell.And here with his prize in hand is the winner of the berry eating contest!!!

The Old Ball Game

Friday night was a big fun party for us as we headed back down to our beloved Baltimore to meet with our beloved friends, the Bassetts and attend a Baltimore Orioles game. It was a mormom family night of sorts so we got to meet "Guthrie" (sorry I dont know his first name but he's apparently a pitcher, who Kevin even knew from BYU- very cool). It was so so so fun!

Soccer Camp

This last week, I had Brayden enrolled in a soccer camp put on by the local high school soccer team. He really had a lot of fun. In the car on the way home he said to me, "mom can we move here because its got everything we need...hersheypark, soccer camp, and a swimming pool." So apparently he is enjoying his summer-- good to know!