So far the beet risotto with goat cheese, is the crowd favorite.

Here were have the 2012 Olympic Champion and World Record holder for the decathlon, Ashton Eaton in action at the shot put.

Trey Hardee, silver medalist at the 2012 Olympic Games and the eventual winner of this shot put event.

This is Brianne Theisen, Canadian heptathlete, London 2012 Olympian and the only girl brave enough to go head to head with the men in the shot put. Here she is being interviewed by 2005 World Champion in the mens shot putt, Adam Nelson.

High-fives for an great competition.

Look who had a ringside seat to all of the shot put action. Although he looks a little concerned at the approaching clouds and possibility of a rain shower.

Local TV stations get a few words from the Olympic Champion.

BFF Derval O’Rourke getting warmed up for the women’s hurdles. Wonder if she’s listening to “Old McDonald” on her iPod???

Lolo Jones, Derval O’Rourke and some of the other ladies competing in the 100m hurdles practice their starts in the warm-up area.

Queen Harrison winner of the first heat of the 100m hurdles and eventual 2nd place finisher in the final.

Derval was a little frustrated with her own performance, so its best if we focus on how cute she was looking rather than the run itself.

Lolo Jones, winner of the 2nd heat and later the winner of the final.

Ashton getting interviewed by our rockstar band The Velveteen Playboys.

This is Nia Ali and Derval in the midst of a very intense training session early this week.

Keane has been working diligently on his walking skills and now feels confident and ready enough to take on a little hurdling of his own.

Three-quaters of our running team, Rachel, Mike and Keane.

The full team.

My little man rocking his real man pink.

Rachel fights to maintain bladder control in the typically long lines for the women’s bathroom.

Killing some time while waiting for Rachel with some camera fun. Me and Keane.

Mike and Keane.

Keane warming up the legs.

Couldn’t resist the cutie little doggy.

Rachel’s back and Keane draws obvious attention to his snap happy mother.

Me and my little man.

Heading off to the start line.

Lots of people wore these pink signs on their back in honor of family and friends they had lost to breast cancer. So sad.

Keane claps along to the national anthem.

Over 100,000 people participated in the run. Unbelievable.

Mike took the stroller for the first half of the run.

Rachel, Mike and Keane are in the racing zone.

So I had to include a photo of this gentleman cos he was so sweet and understanding when Mike almost took him out, accidentally, when he ran our stroller up the back of his legs. Total mortification. After that, I took over the stroller pushing duties.

A quick wave to the crowd.

Me, Keane and Mike headed for the finish.

Crossing the line.

It was a pretty hot morning but nothing like a little iced water to the forehead to cool a baby right down.

Keane and I off on the hunt for more water.

Last week Keane starting standing all by himself and I was so proud for him to be able to show off his newly acquired skills right here.

However, a few hours later those standing skills, transitioned into his very first steps. Thank you to my friend Rachel who quickly thought to grab the camera when she saw what was about to happen. We also got some video footage of the big occasion, but am having difficulty getting it off The Husbands phone and onto my blog. Hopefully we’ll have it figured out and I’ll be able to share it soon.

In stark contrast to my precious trips back to the homeland, this trip was less about catching up with friends over a pint at the local pub, or sipping fancy coffee’s at trendy cafe’s and more about co-ordinating playdates and day trips with visiting cousins and friends with kids. Oh how life has changed for this Irish socializer. Fun is now a day spent at Lullymore Heritage Park where the kids can get a little taste of some old school Irish living with a little animal, playground and train action thrown in for heightened enjoyment.

Contrary to popular belief, Irish people do not still live in cute little thatched cottages, but when we did, this is what it looked like.

Keane is majorly into ducks right now, so you can imagine his joy when the first animal on our little farm stroll was in fact, the duck.

Keane with his big cousin Evan.

Our farm stroll was interrupted briefly when the kids spotted the playground. My good friend Nicola and her little boy, Donnacha joined me and my sister-in-law for our down on the farm day of fun. Nicola has recently been bitten by the photography bug and has just started her own photography business, and knowing how rare it is that I manage to get myself in any photos with Keane, she was awesome enough to capture a bunch of me and my little man.

Keane with is cousin Evan and Nicola’s little fella Donnacha.

Evan spidermanning the ropes circuit.

My niece Emily and her mom Sarah prettied up the day in matching pink outfits.

Multi-tasking mom and photographer. Nicola grabbed these 2 shots of me pulling double duty as I shot Emily on her swing.

Someone is very proud of his successful excursion down the slide.

Climbing over, under and across EVERYTHING these days.

Ready to give the zip line a go.

Happy, happy, happy.

Ah-dorable baby ducks.

Keane could not drag himself away from all of the ducky cuteness.

The pot bellied pigs.

This guy poked his nose through the fence and frightened the bejaysus out of Keane. I know it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

This sign made no sense to Keane or I.

Awesome! Train ride.

A little wave to the crowd.

Hello big eyes.

The train took us out through the bog of Allen. What your looking at in this picture is what we call bog oak

And here is Keane, chipping away at a huge piece of bog oak worth about 2000 Euro, oopsie.

And the devaluing continues.

Our train driver was awesome enough to grab a group shot and I was so tempted to give him a little help and advice on how to capture a better shot, but decided to just shut up and be a tourist instead of a photographer for 5 minutes.

Nicola and little Donnacha.

Happy baba.