The Story of the Day I Finished a Half Marathon

Yes, that's right. I did it!

Me!

The girl who has never liked to run. The girl who thinks if you look up 'crazy' in the dictionary, you will find a picture of people running. THAT girl finished a half marathon! And she is just a little bit proud of herself.

This is probably going to be a pretty long post but I want to use it as a 'journal' of sorts about my experience so I want to record all the details. So hopefully you enjoy it and it's not long and boring.

Just a little family genealogy so you know who the people are that I refer to: Kurt's sister, April, is married to Rick and they have a son, Kaulana, who married Michelle, and therefore, is my niece. And another of Kurt's sisters, Margo, is married to Greg and they have a daughter Brittany, another of my nieces.

Our story actually begins back at the beginning of the year. A friend of mine, Nikki, started up her running group again. I had tried to join her group in 2011, just after T was born but that ended up being a bad idea but I was determined to join it this time. I didn't have the new baby excuse anymore. Nikki lives in Woodland, which is about 45 minutes from our house, and she had a meeting one morning to kick-off the group. Since Michelle lives in Woodland I called her up to see if she wanted to join me and she did so off to Nikki's we went. The group was going to be training for a half marathon in October and I said "no way" but Nikki has her ways of convincing you to do things. Driving home from Nikki's that morning, Michelle and I were discussing the half and we both concluded that "if you do it, I'll do it" and so we did it. We registered. Yikes!

But have no fear! We had until October to train. This would be a piece of cake, right?

My training started off really good but after about 4 weeks, it died. It was the "off" week of training (the take a break week) and it was enough to break my routine and training. It just took a back seat to all the summer activities and distractions like: kids, playing, family visiting, T's broken arm, traveling, etc. Then all of the sudden, about 6 weeks before the half marathon, I realized "I only have 6 weeks until the half marathon!" Duh!

Now, have you ever noticed that when you want to do something that there tends to be an "Opposing Force"? Something that just causes trouble along the way? Let's call it "OF". Well, looking back I see that this is OF's first attempt to derail my goal. "Ha, I'll get her so busy this summer she won't be able to train and then she will quit! Ha ha ha!" (said with an evil laugh). I am sure that is what OF was thinking and it almost worked!

But 6 weeks before the half, I started training again. It is not easy to do while pushing a stroller but I persevered and continued on. Then OF got crafty. Oh, yes.

After about 3 weeks of training I heard about a girl who was abducted from a bike trail (not in our area). Now, it would not take a big man to take me down and carry me off and here I was out on bike trails with just me and little T. Doubt started creeping in but not enough to make me stop, just enough to make me much more vigilant while I was out.

So OF had to step it up. Next there was ANOTHER bear sighting in our area. Are you kidding me? Seriously? Ok, that was it. I wasn't going to go out and have to watch out for bad guys AND a bear. I stopped training. OF won that battle, but hadn't won the war.

As those last 3 weeks passed, the stress and pressure and doubt about what I was going to have to do (go 13.1 miles) started to seriously increase. I didn't even want to think about the half. I refused to acknowledge it was getting closer. OF was gaining some serious ground but I still wasn't willing to quit and back out. Michelle was doing this with me and I couldn't bail on her. That was what kept me in - not bailing on Michelle.

The week before the half, my kids asked me
"Mom, aren't you going to start training again?"
"Nope, if I go out now I will be really sore and I don't want to start off sore. I will just do my best and do what I can do.  I plan on not being able to walk the week after the race."

That was my plan. Go in totally unprepared and hope for the best. Not necessarily the best plan but it was what I had.

Well, Tuesday turned into Wednesday and Wednesday turned into Thursday and then all of the sudden it was Friday, the day before the half. I was scared. I was nervous. I was trying to think of ways to bail without being a quitter - there aren't any ways to do that, by the way. But there was this part of me, way deep down inside of me, that wouldn't let me quit. Every time OF convinced me to drop out, that part of me yelled "NO! I am going to do this!" and so I carried on as if I would go to the race.

Well, OF panicked and got really, really crafty. Friday afternoon I was driving to Folsom to pick up our race packets and I got a text from Michelle. She was dropping out. My heart sank. She had broken a toe a few weeks before and was hoping that it would heal in time but she had done a trial run the night before and was worried about what 13.1 miles would do to her toe. I totally understood but was devastated. I went to get our packets and picked up Michelle's too so that she would at least get her t-shirt.

Then I had the thought "oh, I can totally back out now because I won't be bailing on Michelle. Woo Hoo!" I was actually excited about that for a few seconds until . . .

"NOOOOOO!" came this voice from not so far deep down. Oh that stinkin' OF, he is so crafty! He almost had me but I was determined to do this! Ok, so Michelle won't be there with me but I can come up with plan B. So my next plan was to buy 2 talks on CD from a church speaker that I really, really enjoy and had just discovered on Tuesday. His name is Hank Smith and he is amazing! "I will get the next 2 talks that I want and download them onto my phone and listen to those as I go," I thought. Perfect.

I didn't have time to run to the church store in Roseville so I found the store in Folsom and ran in there. Wouldn't you know it - they only had 1 of the talks in stock. Really? Ok, not too big of a deal. I will have one talk and I will download some more music. No problem.

(Just a little side note: Kurt was up with the boy scouts who were camping for the night. Kurt wasn't staying the night because of the race in the morning but he went up to spend the evening with them.)

I rush back to Roseville, picked up the kids from the party they were at, took Hailey to another party, took Evan to soccer practice (which had been cancelled and I didn't know) and then took Kayla, Evan, and T out to dinner. At dinner I had a great idea - I was going to get one of those arm bands to put your phone in so that you don't have to hold it. Great idea! Except that I was exhausted and wanted to get to bed on time and didn't want to take all the kids shopping but I came up with a plan. I picked Hailey up from her party, took all the kids home and then ran to the mall by myself to get the band. I walked into the crowded Apple Store and straight to the wall of gadgets. Searching . . . searching . . . searching. . .

They didn't have it. They didn't have the one that fit MY phone. They had a bazillion other ones but not the one that I wanted. Man, you little OF. You are so tricky!

Honestly, at this point I was pretty deflated. I was exhausted, plan after plan seemed to be failing, Kurt wasn't there to encourage me to continue. It was hard. So I went home to download my new CD and music onto my phone only to find out (and remember when I couldn't find my computer) that Kurt had taken my computer up with him so the boys could listen to the first CD we had purchased. Now I couldn't even download things onto my phone. I was beat up.

I wrestled all the kids into bed by myself and went to bed at 9. My mind was racing. How was I going to be able to do this? I have no buddy to go with me. I have no talk to listen to. My mind just wouldn't stop with all the thinking so I decided to read because that always distracts me and helps me sleep. Since I had to get up at 5:30, I REALLY wanted a good nights sleep. Well, by 9:30 my eye lids were so heavy I turned off the light and went to sleep pretty quickly.

I was jolted awake at 10 by the phone ringing. Kurt was traveling from about an hour away and he doesn't drive good at night so it always makes me nervous when he travels by himself at night and this night he was pulling a trailer so I immediately thought "something has happened" and grabbed the phone.

"Hello," I say half asleep.
"Hey Jenn. It's Rick. What'cha doing?"
"Sleeping"
"Oh, sorry. Is Kurt asleep too?"
"No, he is up with the boy scouts."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot. Sorry to wake you."
"No problem." I was so relieved that Kurt was ok.
"So you and Michelle are going to do the race tomorrow, uh?"
"No, Michelle backed out because of her toe."

Then he said the BEST words that I will NEVER forget:

"She changed her mind. She is going to do it with you."
"WHAT?"
"She changed her mind. She is going to do the race with you."
"ARE? YOU? SERIOUS?!"
"Yes."

I was soooooo happy! Apparently she had tried to text me but I had left my phone downstairs so after we got off the phone I ran downstairs and grabbed my phone and immediately text her back saying how happy I was that she was going to do this with me. We text back and forth until about 10:30 about how nervous we were, how excited we were and what our plan was going to be. Our plan was this: have fun and finish before they closed the course. That was it. They were giving us 3 hours 30 minutes to finish and then they close the course. We weren't sure what that meant but we didn't want to find out.

Now I should say that Michelle is an avid workout girl. She works out every day and is in great shape. With her hurt toe (and my lack of training) we decided to walk the half and run if we felt like it. I figured her hurt toe was the only way that I would be able to keep up with her.

So I settled back down around 10:45 and tried to go back to sleep.

Kurt got home at 11. I had not fallen asleep yet so I waited for him to come in. By the time he got everything unloaded and put away, it was 11:30. I told him all about my night and how Michelle was back in and he told me about his night and how the boys loved the talk. By the time we resettled back down it was midnight. Kurt was out as soon as we stopped talking. Me? My brain was still thinking. Then it thought "where's my computer? Did he leave it in his truck? Is his truck locked?" so I got up and locked his truck and went back to bed. Then I thought "did I put the bagels (that I had purchased from Noah's) in baggies so they don't dry out?" I didn't think I had so I got up and bagged up the bagels and went back to bed. Then I thought "did we set the house alarm?" We hadn't so I got back up and set the alarm. I finally settle back down at 12:30.

Remember the 5:30 wake up time? Ya, well OF wasn't done with me yet.

Since T potty trained 3 weeks ago, he has only had 1 night time accident. This, of course, was night #2. At 1:30 Trevor wakes up crying. I go in and he had wet his bed. So at 1:30 I am changing sheets. I kid you not! I was actually laughing as this point and thinking "Go ahead OF. Bring it on. I AM DOING THIS RACE TOMORROW!" So after I changed T, changed the bed and got him settled, it was almost 2 am. Awesome!

I woke up at 5:30 excited, although nervous, and ate breakfast. Michelle came over and then Kurt dropped us off for the race. Here we are pre-race:

We had no idea what time to get there. It started at 8 and we ended up being there at 7:15 so we had time to chat. We both talked about how running just wasn't our thing and we both agreed that our bodies just didn't like to run. We chatted about Brittany and how much she loves it! Brittany has run several FULL marathons and has told us that it is addicting. She is amazing. We thought maybe this might be what it would take to get us addicted to it but we seriously doubted it.

It was finally time. They were counting down: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 -1 BOOM! The {fake} gun goes off and we were off!

Now let me tell you on how this half started. I am not sure how others go but this is what happened here: they group you by your estimated finish time. We went straight to the slowest group - Corral 5. The 1's (the super fast people) are right at the starting line, the 2's behind them and so on. We were waaaay in the back. Now you have to all file thought the starting area which was more narrow than the bridge we were on so it took just a little time for us 5's to get there but here's the thing - when every one reaches the starting line, they take off running. It's kind of like a stampeding herd. They just all start running so we had to run or risk getting run over so off we ran. We actually ran for a little bit but not too far and then we started walking. Now, I have to give us credit, we were fast walking. No leasurely pace. We were moving.

Mile 1 - we missed the mile marker. No idea where it was. We were too busy chit-chatting.

Mile 2 - we got on the bike path. Still chit-chatting.

Mile 3 - our first aid station. Water and gatorade and cheering people. Love them! (You never skip an aid station!) More chit-chatting.

Miles 4, 5, 6, 7 - chit-chatted the whole way.

Mile 7.5 - Kaulana called to see how we were doing. It was 10 am. We tried to do some mental math and realized that we were going to be cutting it close to finish before the 3:30 time limit. We realized we couldn't let our pace slip even a little bit.

Mile 8 - started to feel some pain. Random pain. "Oh, my hip hurts." "Oh, my knee hurts." "Now, my ankle." Just random pains.

Mile 9 - ok, let me just say that we were told that it was mostly down hill with a little uphill at the end. Mile 9 started with hills. This was not the end! This was still the middle! Anyways, we started to feel the pain. Things were hurting but still, we didn't slow our pace. Also at mile 9 we realized that from 9 to 13 sounded really far but saying only 4 miles left sounded a lot better so we started saying 4 miles. Only 4 more miles. We got this. 4 miles.

Mile 10 - more pain but still we were tough. And we were in the double digits! Only 3 miles to go. We decided that we couldn't wait to see the mile marker #12 . "Just think about it - only 1 mile left is going to sound so heavenly!" 3 miles. Only 3 miles to go. We got this!

Mile 11 - at this point the pain was no longer pinpointable. Everything from our hips down hurt. We couldn't WAIT to see mile marker #12. Only 2 miles left. 2 miles. We totally got this! We walked and walked and walked and finally decided that they must have forgotten to put out mile marker #12 because we had gone so far with no mile marker. Even another lady that we passed made a comment about the missing mile marker #12 so we started looking for mile marker #13. The path was curvy with up hills and down hills so you couldn't see too far ahead. We came around the corner and up ahead there was the next mile marker.

Mile 12 - You've got to be kidding us! We are only at 12? We totally thought 13 was right here. We were discouraged. Oh man, were we discouraged. These were some of the things we said: "This was the worst idea we have ever had." "Brittany is crazy to enjoy this." "We are never doing this again." "We just need to finish this and get it over with." But then I said "Remember we were going to be excited about 12? Remember how saying "only 1 mile" was going to sound heavenly?" So we changed our attitudes. Only 1.1 miles left. We got this. Now let me tell you something else I learned doing this. Miles at the end are twice as long as the miles at the beginning. I don't know how that happens but it does. Miles 11 and 12 were soooo much longer than any of the other miles. They felt like they went on forever!

Mile 13 - we were hurting. And then we saw it: the last marker:

Only 1 mile to go. It did sound good but it also sounded really far knowing how long miles 11 and 12 were. Our calves were SOOOOO tight. It seriously felt like the muscle was going to jump off our legs. I think I actually said to Michelle "I think my calves are going to just detach from my legs any second." In our attempt to not feel pain in our calves, we discovered that running actually released the pressure in our calves and felt good. Yes, I just said that, running felt good. And so we would run a little, walk a little, run a little, walk a little. We started to see people who had finished and had turned around and were going back down the path. They would say "Good job." "Keep going." "You're almost there!" We would ask "but how close is 'almost'?" Here is something else I learned: when Michelle is tired and hurting, she goes faster! Yes, faster. She just wants to get it over with and so she pushes harder to get it done. My approach is usually the opposite but I hung tough and kept up with her (mostly). I think we chanted "Only 1 mile. We got this. We totally got this. One. More. Mile." the whole last mile.

And then we heard it. The sounds of people. The announcer on the microphone. WE. WERE. SO. CLOSE! We ran, not fast but we ran. Around the hair-pin right hand turn and there it was. The finish line. Up a hill of course but there it was. We ran and ran and crossed the line! We did it!

WE FINISHED A HALF MARATHON!

We were so excited and relieved and tired! We finished in 3 hours 21 minutes and 4 seconds. 9 minutes to spare, baby! They handed us our medals and congratulated us.

We were official half marathon runners. We were so proud of ourselves. It was an incredible feeling. It was hard but we had done it. And now I get to get what I was after all along. I get to get one of those stickers for the back of the car that says 13.1. Oh, ya! Can't wait to get that!

I don't know what I would have done without Michelle. It was great having her with me and we were able to encourage each other when we each needed it. We had a great time chatting, having girl time and pushing ourselves and each other. I couldn't have done it without her.

I was sore that afternoon and on Sunday. Monday morning seemed to be the worst but by Monday afternoon it seemed like a switch was turned off and the soreness was almost completely gone.

Here is something else: Saturday night I had a thought. A crazy, crazy thought.

"I think I might want to do that again."

Crazy, right? Sunday morning I felt it even more and it changed to "I want to do that again." Then I got a text from Michelle Sunday afternoon. She said: "Even though it was hard I kinda want to do it again." I responded: "I want to do it again too! Kinda crazy. Maybe we did get addicted."

Sunday night we went to friend's house for dinner. This friend, Christine, is an avid FULL marathon runner. She runs every day of the week except Sundays and will run half marathons on Saturday mornings just for the fun of it (this coming Saturday she is running 20 miles, you know, just because). She told me of a marathon she is doing in December and that they have a half option. I text Michelle and told her about it. "You in?" I asked. "Yep" she responded. And just like that we are doing another one. We started training today. This time I will not back out of my training (thanks to the gym which doesn't have bears but does have daycare). OF will not discourage me this time.

Here we go again . . .

How I Accidentally Potty Trained Trevor

I had no intention of potty training Trevor until next summer when he was 3. After our major fail in April, I really wasn't holding out any hope of him potty training anytime soon but I guess I am not in charge of the timing of these things.

So here's how it went down:

Last April, Trevor teased me with a little potty training trick. If it was his idea, he was all for it. If it was mine, he battled me. After about a week (or maybe it was 10 days) I gave up. It wasn't worth it. So for the last few months if he wanted to use the potty, I encouraged him and rewarded him with a treat but I never suggested it. He would randomly go - it kind of went in waves from using the potty a lot to not touching it for weeks. I just let him call the shots.

Somehow I got into the routine of letting him run around naked after we shower in the mornings. I am not sure how that happened but it did. Then last Thursday he was playing by himself in the toy room while I was doing my hair in the bathroom and he came running in saying "Potty! Potty!" and proceeded to go in the potty. It got me thinking . . . "when was the last time he had an accident on the carpet?" I came to the conclusion that it had been quite awhile. A long, long while. Hmmm . . .

Then I thought: he does great when he is naked but as soon as I put undies on him, he has an accident. The feeling of having something on felt like a diaper and he would go. I was talking to Karen, my dad's wife, on Thursday and asked her what I should do about that because, obviously, I can't let him run around naked all day and he needs to get used to wearing clothes. She suggested putting undies on him right when we get out of the shower when he is used to being naked and using the potty and seeing if that helped. I also thought that maybe I just need to let him have a few accidents in the undies and keep putting new undies on him and letting him try again.

Friday I decided to try a little experiment. After our shower I put him in undies and explained to him that he needed to use the potty. I think about 10 minutes later he had an accident. So I cleaned him up and put new undies on him and told him to try again and to remember to use the potty. A little while later he started to go but then realized that he was wearing undies and stopped. We got him on the potty and he went - CANDY time!

After that he basically had it. He stayed dry the rest of the day (even during nap time) and used the potty! Woo Hoo! Friday night I put him in a diaper for bed but he was dry Saturday morning. Awesome!

Saturday morning I decided to continue the experiment just to see what would happen and he did great! About 10 am we had to go to a soccer game. I wasn't ready to trust his abilities yet so I put him in a diaper but at the game he told me he had to potty so we ran for the portapotty. I wasn't about to let him sit on that nasty seat so I tried to hold him up but he couldn't go. He tried so hard but it just didn't work. He said he had to go again when we were at the car leaving so I let him try to go on a tree. That was more fun and he was successful. We went home, put him back in undies, ate lunch and he took a nap and woke up dry. He stayed home with Hailey while I went to Kayla's soccer game late that afternoon and was dry the whole time I was gone and used the potty.

It was when I returned home and realized how well he had done that I realized I had just accidentally potty trained him. My experiment was apparently a success. I was in no way prepared to tackle this project right now but there was NO WAY I could put him back in diapers. That would just totally confuse the poor kid so, oops, we were potty training! I was committed.

Saturday night I put him in a diaper again. He woke up at 1:30 am, said he had to go potty, went potty in the toilet, went right back to sleep and then woke up dry! Sunday he did AMAZING again and I knew we had it. Sunday night he didn't want a diaper and slept in undies and was dry.

Since then he has done awesome! He did have a few accidents today with the babysitter but he has done good since I got home so I am not sure what happened there.

It's totally crazy. 4 days of no diapers. 4 days of lots of running to the potty. 4 days of giving him 1 m&m and me eating a handful every time he was a successful. 4 days of NO DIAPERS! Did I mention that? NO DIAPERS! I can't believe it.

I wish I could say that it was all me and I had some magical trick but honestly, it was all him. He was ready. He worked hard. HE did it.

WAY TO GO TREVOR!

BEST. DATE. NIGHT. EVER!!!

What a morning.

It is nice and cool outside after a night-time rain, Trevor is playing quietly (until I typed that line and now he is yelling at me - sheesh!), the big kids are either still sleeping (it's 8 am) or playing on their iPads (since they don't get them during the week, I let them play on them Saturday morning), Kurt is at an appointment, we don't have to be to a soccer field until 9:30 . . .

Ahhh, I am just enjoying the morning and I thought, hey, I should blog! So here I am.

I have so much to catch up on but I thought I would start with the funnest date night that we have had in a long time. 

Last night we went out to dinner with 5 other couples. We had a nice, grown up, adult dinner and then we went and let our wild sides out with a little laser tag! OH MY GOSH - SO MUCH FUN!

First we had a little (ok, a lot) of trouble understanding the different games/plans/packages and couldn't figure out what we were doing. The teenagers that worked there thought we were crazy, I am sure, but once we got past paying for the games, we were ready to go!

Now they "randomly" make the teams but we found it "odd" that the couples were all split up. Not a single husband was on the same team as their wife. Hmmm . . . how "random" is that?

Anyways, the red team was: me, Amanda, Marty, Doug, Debbie and Jenna.

The blue team was: Kurt, Erik, Lorraine, Rebecca, Debbie's husband (yikes, I can't remember his name  - so sorry!) and Jared.

Now you might notice that the teams were not evenly male and female. (Oh ya, there were 2 teenage boys that were playing in our game too, poor kids.) The red team had 4 girls, 3 boys and the blue team had 2 girls, 5 boys. One would naturally think that the team that was mostly boys might cream the team that was mostly girls but oh no, the girls threw down! The red team totally dominated it! GIRL POWER! Also, it might have had something to do with the fact that Marty loves to hunt, knew the secret to scoring lots of points and had played there before but those are just minor details, right? GO GIRLS! =-)

We played 2 sessions. This is where we got all confused about the games and playing so let me explain so you don't look like goobers like us trying to figure it out. Each session is made up of 4 quarters (I don't remember how long each quarter is) and there is a little break for a "half time." In the first session, the red team completely dominated and creamed the blue team and won all 4 quarters and therefore the session.

Now being the old fogeys that we are that don't get out of our houses much, we didn't know we had paid for 2 sessions so we came out of the first session hot, tired, exhausted, sweaty and totally exhilarated and were told that we got to do it all over again! Woo Hoo!

Unfortunately, 2 couples (plus the teenage boys) had to go so it left just 4 couples to play and since the spouses had all been separated, it left the teams 4 and 4 with 2 girls and 2 boys on each team. Let the battle begin!

Once again, the red team beat the blue team for the first 2 quarters and we were thinking it would be a shut-out but something happened at "half time" and the blue team came back out fighting. Erik (blue team) found a great spot that he could protect his sensors so the red team couldn't shoot him and he could hit our "base." Blue team kicked butt for the last 2 quarters - way to go blue team! So we called the last session a tie.

Holy cow - can I just say how much fun it was. It was a BLAST! I think what made it extra fun was that we were the only ones in there so we knew everybody. That makes it extra fun!

Here is {part of} our laser tag posse:

 Erik, Amanda, Me, Kurt, Lorraine, Marty, Rebecca and Doug

One more time - SO MUCH FUN! I think we may all be addicted - already planning our next battle! You should come join us!

A Little Weekend Home Improvement Project

When we moved into our house, the fireplace just had one 12" x 12" tile on each side all the way around. A few years after we moved in, we built a mantel and tv cabinet along that wall. The wood work covered some of the tiles but left most exposed. I have always thought it looked a little funny because you could see some but not all of the tiles. Whatever, we lived with it.

A couple of months ago, Kurt brought home a stone sample that he had been showing to a client for an outdoor BBQ. We both really liked it and thought we should put it around the fireplace but that was as far as we got. The sample then sat in the office on the floor for months collecting dust and dog hair.

When T broke the fireplace glass awhile ago we thought "hey, we should put that stone on now that it is all taken apart." But it didn't happen then either.

Then about 2 weeks ago Kurt was down in Sac near the stone place and called me and said "are you serious about that stone?"

"Yep," I replied.

So he picked it up on his way home. That weekend we FINALLY got to working on it!

Here are the before pics:

And here are the afters:

We are very happy with the way that it turned out. 

Yeah for a completed project!

(Because you know - sometimes these projects can drag on and on).

Hey, Remember Us?

Holy Moly, life has been crazy. 

I am not sure what else to say.

Life has just been absolutely crazy.

I feel like I just bounce from one thing to the next without even having a chance to look up or catch my breath. Whew!

My grandma passed away Aug. 7th. It was hard to say goodbye but she is in a much better place now. She was 93 years old and was sick with cancer and was ready to go.

School started. Wow. Kind of a shock to our system this year. We are all having a hard time adjusting to the homework and the schedule but it is gradually getting better. 

It didn't help that we got a bad flu bug the first week of school. I had it the worst. I am not going to lie, it was horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. It got all 6 of us but the boys, BY FAR, had it the best. They didn't throw up at all (well, T did have one tiny incident, but that was all). Me and the girls were sick a lot. Did I mention it was horrible?

Soccer started. Kayla and Evan both signed up again this year so we had practice on Monday (Kayla), Tuesday (Evan), Wednesday (Kayla) and Friday (Evan). Then some friends of ours called and they were short a few players on their team and asked if Hailey wanted to join. She said yes and guess when their practices were - Monday's and Thursdays. So now we have practice every. single. night. of. the. week. How dinner and homework are suppose to get done, I have no idea.

So, soccer, school and the flu all hit us at the same time. No wonder we are going nuts. Crazy. Just crazy.

Anyways, here's what's been going on around here the last month or so. And these are totally out of order but I didn't have the time, or the energy, to put them in the right order. Sorry.

Mid July - Trevor got a marker out of the cabinet and marked on the cupboard door. I asked him to go get a wipe and clean it up. He promptly obeyed . . . by licking it clean - but notice, he does have the wipe!

Good times with big sissies!

End of July - This wasn't so fun. Somehow that little boy threw a glass stone thing at the fireplace hard enough with his LEFT hand to break the glass. We lived for several weeks with the glass missing but it is all fixed now thanks to my handy hubby.

Beginning of August - One of the activities Kurt did with the young men from our ward was to build cardboard boats. They had so much fun that he decided to build them with our kids too.

Kurt found all these HUGE boxes and brought them home and they lived in our family room for a few weeks until he actually had time to build the boats. They were castles, forts, houses, schools and hours and hours of entertainment for the kids. They just weren't the best decorating items we have ever had.

And of course, I don't have the finished product pictures because those are on Kurt's phone. Maybe one day I will get those and get them on here. We took them to the lake and the kids set sail. The kids had a BLAST and the boats actually worked. It was a lot of fun!

Late July - Trevor discovered the joy of playing dress up.

Now we frequently have a lion or spider man running around here. (Luckily all the girls princess dress ups were passed down long ago or he may have suffered the same fate as Evan. . .)

Last week - T got a hair cut. Oh how it hurts me to cut off the curls! But his hair was getting to be clown crazy all the time so it was time for a trim.

He is adorable now too but I miss the curls.

August 13 - I have been a bad, bad mommy in regards to birthday parties. Just don't get them organized and pulled off lately. Kayla wanted to have a get together for her friends before school started and so we decided to have a pool party at Papa's house. Hailey invited a few friends and Kayla invited a few friends and a party broke out!

I let the girls pick their decorations. They did a good job!

Hailey and her friends.

Kayla and her friends.

August 8 - 11 We went to San Diego for a White family reunion. Long drive. Long, long, long drive. It took us 13 hours to get down there thanks to hitting LA at 3:30ish in the afternoon. Driving all day + hitting traffic at the end of the trip = long trip. But we made it and had a great time.

Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Beautiful! These . . . uh, gorillas? or monkey things (ya, not coming up with the right word so on we go) were right at the glass. It was pretty cool to see them so close.

Ah! Orangutans! That's what they were! I knew it would come to me!

This bear was really active. That was fun to see!

He was walking all around and sniffing the air and pacing back and forth.

He even got up on this tree limb that stuck up in the air and that was really cool. To bad I wasn't fast enough with the camera!

The kiddo's riding a lion. Hailey is still at that age where she bounces back and forth between being one of the kids and being too mature for things. Apparently she isn't too mature for jumping on the back of a lion with all the kids!

And here is Margo. She got to ride this super cool scooter around and Hailey and Evan just would not stay off of it. Margo was such a trooper! Margo's family had just moved into their new house the previous week, she had surgery on her foot and here she was hosting a family reunion and cruising all over the zoo. 

Trevor learned to trust his floaties while in San Diego. Since he broke his arm this summer, he hasn't had much water time and despite the fact that he is a total dare devil, pools are the one place he is scared and he does not want to leave the step. Kayla and him ended up being the only ones in the pool one afternoon and she got him to trust her to leave the step and eventually for her to let go of him. 

Now? He is a total maniac in the pool and swims all over. Guess he conquered that fear.

July 24 - Ah, yes. So when T broke his arm and I took him to his primary, the dr. said 4-6 weeks with a cast. When I took him to get the cast, that dr. said 3 weeks. I questioned the difference in durations and the cast dr. said "ok, we'll do 4 weeks." Urgh! I was just asking and if 3 would do it, lets do 3 but he scheduled the removal date for 4 weeks out.

Well at 3 weeks exactly I thought he was getting a sore under the cast and wanted the dr. to look at it. I took him in and since he was at the 3 week mark they x-rayed him and deemed him healed enough to take the cast off! YES! I was so happy. Casts are no fun and it was really cramping our summer plans so I was beyond thrilled to get that stinkin' (literally) cast off.

He did so good and laid so still!

Man as soon as that cast was off his arm went straight and he just laid there with his arm straight in the air for a long time. It was so funny. It was like he was shocked that it could straighten. It had to have felt sooooooo good!

And boy was he one happy boy when he got home. The dr. said it usually takes a few days for them to adjust back to being able to use their arm again. Nope, not T. He was right back on his bike.

And we even let him do the dishes that night. Finally he got to play in water again.

Life is good!

So that is a little snippet of what's been going on around here. Next Saturday (the 7th) soccer games start. 3 kids with 3 different soccer games at 3 different locations but usually all at about the exact same time. Uh, funny how that works. Looks like our Saturday's are going to be just as crazy as the rest of the week. I guess we better get ready to HANG ON!

Fun with Cousins

We had the wonderful pleasure of having Kurt's cousin, Roger, and his family come stay with us. We were so excited when they called and asked if they could come visit us - we couldn't wait for the time to come for them to get here.

They arrived Wednesday, July 3rd, the day after I spent running Trevor around getting x-rays and getting his cast on. Since I unexpectedly spent that day running around, I wasn't as ready as I wanted to be when they got here but some things just can't be helped. Luckily it wasn't a big deal.

They arrived at the end of a major heat wave we were having here. The day they arrived it was 110. They live in Washington state where, I think, they said their high is normal around 80. Welcome to California! Hot, sweaty California! 

Thursday

We went to a church breakfast at a park. The kids got to decorate their scooters or bikes for a kid parade. Unfortunately, humidity was added to the heat that morning. It was quite uncomfortable, bearable but uncomfortable. They asked if our weather was always like that. No, definitely not. 

Little T folding his arms for prayer.

Such a sweet boy!

This is Charlotte. She is Roger and Veronique's youngest at 4. Isn't she a cutie?

Getting ready for the parade.

After the breakfast we went home and collapsed in the air conditioned house and relaxed for a little bit. Then the Mickelsen's invited us over to go swimming and we couldn't resist. Then it seems like we did something after that but I can't remember so . . . on to Friday!

Friday

We had planned on going on the boat but with Trevor's cast I thought that was out but Kurt came up with the idea to get a babysitter to stay with T. Luckily we were able to find one last minute so off to the lake we went.

Roger and Charlotte

We went up the north fork to the 5 mile an hour zone and let the kids play and swim. The water was wonderful! The heat wave had warmed the lake up to a perfect temp. I even got in the water - that is saying something!

This is Jacob.

After we had lunch and enjoyed the water, we got to playing . . .

First we started off with some slow tubing with Evan and Eliza.

Then Roger and Jacob got in the tube and fun really began:

After they were done tubing, Jacob wanted to try knee boarding. He had never tried it before and he got up on his second try. He did a GREAT job! He was like a pro!

Then Veronique water skied. She also did a GREAT job and looked like a pro!

Jacob got to drive heading back in.

Saturday

After spending Thursday and Friday in the sun, we were all wiped out. We couldn't decide what to do on Saturday so we made a list and voted. And then the parents kind of over ruled the results because we didn't have the energy to go to a local water park (i.e. be in the heat and sun all day) or go on a hike (i.e. be in the heat and sun all day). So we decided to go pick blackberries near our house.

There is a creek and we walked down the creek (in the shade and cool water) and picked blackberries.

The kids ended up swimming. They just couldn't resist.

The only way to keep T and his cast out of the water.

Miss Cutie Charlotte

All going for the same clump of blackberries.

Roger and Veronique.

The adults went out on a double date that night while Kayla babysat. We got to have real adult conversations. Amazing!

Sunday

We went to church and then after dinner we decided to take dessert to the Sacramento Temple. It was beautiful. I think it was Sunday (or maybe it was Saturday) that the weather returned to normal. Cool mornings, hot during the day and then wonderful cool evenings. Ahhh! Back to normal.

And T definitely wanted in the water.

Eliza and Hailey

Evan in a tree.

All the kids in the tree.

What cuties. Eliza, Charlotte and T.

Our whole group.

These are random photos from the week:

Evan and Charlotte were little buddies:

Their very own fort!

T tried to convince us he didn't have a broken arm and could do everything he wanted to do (and that the big kids were doing) like riding bikes and scooters.

The boys' fort.

Notice the disco ball? Yes, the baby shape sorter is their disco ball. Take one baby shape sorter, put a flash light inside, hang from your fort and spin it really fast and you have yourself a disco ball!

The girls' fort

Comfy and cozy.

One tired little boy.

Oh, look at that face! So precious!

What a fun week. We really, REALLY wish we were closer to our cousins.  It would be so fun to see them more often. Thank you Roger and Veronique for coming down to visit us. We had a great time and miss you guys!