Jump!

There's nothing better than a refreshing jump in the ocean on a hot summer's day!  These were taken at the bridge near Rye Harbor.  Great day with friends!!

Kathleen and Peter, taking the plunge! 

Happy Graduation!

My niece Meghan graduated from high school a few weeks ago and to celebrate, her parents threw a party at their house for family and her friends.  A few photos from the afternoon:

Beautiful Night!

Tonight was a beautiful night for a boat ride on Lake Massabesic.  Riley loved it!!

Sprint Tri

On June 8th, Kathleen and some of her friends competed in the Greater Nashua Sprint Triathlon.  For the third year in a row, it was the first triathlon of the season for Kathleen and she did great.  She ran down some of the women that passed her during the bike and ended up third in her age group.  It was a blazing hot day, so she really rocked it!!

Getting screamed at by teammates near the finish = kicking it up a notch.  Check out that back!! 

Kathleen wondered why none of the photographers were interested in taking her photo when she got her award....apparently Scott Brown, who won his age group, was a great attraction!!

The Tri crew.

O'Connor Family Christmas

The O'Connor side of the family celebrated Christmas last week and it was a great time!

Joe's awesome tree! 

Sisters 

Cousins 

Sole Sisters running ornament.

Cousins

 Mom and Maureen (with Michael photo-bombing in the background).

Kathleen and the nieces.

Family

Nieces 

Sisters

Quechee

What better way to recover from a Half IronMan than hanging out with friends and hiking in beautiful Quechee, Vermont?

70.3

Last weekend, Kathleen competed in her first Half IronMan Triathlon and she did so awesome! For those of you that don't know, a Half IronMan is made up of three legs - a 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles on the bike, followed by 13.1 miles of running (a half marathon).  Kathleen finished first (!!) in her age group and 94th overall, with a kick-ass time of 6:43:34.5!  I wish that I could give a further break down of each leg, but Back40Timing had an epic fail at Mascomaman and her overall time is the best I can do.  Below are some pictures of her amazing day!

Boston Strong

As most of you know, Kathleen ran the Boston Marathon a few weeks ago.  She pushed through the grueling course and finished with the perfect time - 3:57:42 - a qualifier for 2014.  And then, just as she was receiving her medal, the first explosion went off.  I can't imagine what she went through - but if it was anything like our family went through during those few, frantic moments when we couldn't reach her, it was sheer hell.
A few days after the marathon, the Boston Globe linked to this really great blog post, written by a runner from New Hampshire.  He detailed his marathon experience, the emotions related to the bombing, and talking to his son about what had happened.  It was very moving.  About a week later, my sister forwarded the same blog to me - she knows the writer, they are part of the same running club, and the person he wrote about arriving at the Four Seasons, crying and fearful, was here.  You can read the blog here.
A few weeks ago, Kathleen returned to Boston to pay her respects to the victims and obtain some closure for herself.

Growing Up!

He's becoming a big boy!!