Way to go, Mom and Dad

On Saturday morning I got an excited call from my parents. They had just run their first ever 5k race! It was a last minute decision since they had gone to their downtown area to watch a hot air balloon festival but saw the signups for the race and joined in - even in their street clothes.

My mom walked it and only came in last place because she encouraged the other gal so well that the other gal beat Mom. My dad ran/walked it in an amazing time considering he stopped at his car to empty his pockets, stopped again to tie his shoe, and stopped yet another time to stretch a tight muscle. All those stops and he still finished in a time just a few minutes slower than I ran my first 5k.

I'm just so impressed that they did it at all. My dad was already planning on running the Bryce Canyon 5k with Caleb and I(Trevor will be running the Bryce half marathon). And now my mom is thinking of walking that 5k too while pushing my girls in the stroller.

You're awesome, Mom and Dad!

Father's Day Surprise

Caleb made an "I love Dad" playdough card for Trevor.

The kids surprised both Trevor and I by bringing Trevor breakfast in bed. They were inventive enough to use cookie sheets as trays. After they brought Trevor his food they brought up a tray for me and then one for each of them. I didn't dare post the picture of us in bed but here's one of the girls eating on Gabriella's new bed (yes, she's 2 1/2 and we're just now moving her from her crib into a bed). I was still so tired from my relay race that I didn't even care they were eating cereal WITH MILK in their room.

Wasatch Back Relay

This weekend 11 teammates and I ran 188 miles in a relay race. We had sun, rain, and sleet but fortunately NO car trouble or injuries like we did last year. This year the race was 7 miles longer but we finished 45 minutes faster than last year.

The three different legs I ran were at 3pm, 3am, and 3:30pm. The picture below was taken at about 5:30am so that's the sunRISE. The picture doesn't look as pretty as it did in real life - or maybe it was so pretty because after being up ALL night I don't think I've ever been so happy to see daylight again.

This is a shot of horses that I thought my girls would like. At the time, I was pretty nervous about my upcoming run. It was only 4 miles but it's a 7.9% uphill grade. Not to mention that it was raining and my route was on a dirt road. But I made it through and was only 2 minutes slower than my goal time.

Multi-tasking

This is the result of trying to do too much at once. I'm trying to clean the house to make it presentable enough for the pre-race dinner I'm hosting tonight, not to mention a list of a thousand other little things that kept me from remembering the eggs I was boiling. If nothing else, I'll call this science class for today. Now my kids know what exploded eggs look like.

New background - New attitude

This blog needed a new background as bad as I need a new attitude. Ever since we returned from our trip to Carlsbad I've been a bit of a pain in the neck. I think it stems from the WEEK OFF of doing chores and making dinners (did I mention that my mom was staying with us so she took over the motherly chores so I took advantage and let her do it all) then to return to the reality that the kids are home from school now and our whole daily schedule has been thrown out of whack.

I could go on and on about all my frustrations but I'm sure that all you moms out there know what I'm talking about - no need for all the details.

Let's just say I need to chill out because "Life's a beach"!

Track Meet

Caleb and Michelle had their second city rec league track meet this morning. It was surprising chilly and windy which we were not prepared for. The kids took turns sitting in the car, out of the wind, while the other one did their event.

Caleb participated in the javelin throw, the standing long jump, the 100 meter dash and the 4x100 meter relay which his team won a silver medal for.

Michelle participated in the 4x100 meter relay (4th place ribbon), the javelin throw (gold medal), the standing long jump (4th place ribbon), and the 50 meter dash. There were few girls in Michelle's age group so that improved her odds of winning (for example, Michelle was the only girl her age to throw the javelin, hence the gold medal).

Caleb is the oldest child, not to mention the only boy in our family, so he's not too used to losing. Today was a good day to teach him about sportsmanship.

I need to point out that we don't give a flying fig about what medals the kids do or don't win, just as long as they tried their best. Caleb is really tired of us telling him that though.

Great job!

In case some of you out there don't read my photo blog, I'm posting this entry on this blog too, because I'm a proud mom.

Caleb earned a certficate and some treats for getting the highest score in the second grade on the reading comprehension portion of the state proficiency test.

Carlsbad Vacation Recap

Our much anticipated trip to my hometown of Carlsbad, California went pretty well. We were pretty worried about how the kids would do on the 1600 mile roundtrip drive. Let's just say the DVD player was a lifesaver, at least for the kids. For Trevor and I the desert trip was just as boring as we remember it from our childhoods - at least nowadays we have air conditioning!

The day after we got there we took our first day trip to see the seals down in La Jolla.
The next day we made the trip to the beach. It was the first time any of our kids had seen the ocean (technically, Caleb came to Carlsbad beach when he was 13 months old). Initially, the kids were worried about sharks and crabs (the big red ones that pinch you like in the cartoons) but they soon realized there was very little danger in these waters. The water was very cold and there was a cool wind blowing so we only lasted less than 2 hours, but that was just long enough for Caleb to master the boogie board.

On Tuesday we went to Legoland. This Darth Vader is made up of thousands of legos (except the cape) - even the light sabers and R2-D2 are legos. The older 3 had lots of fun on rides that are geared toward their age groups. Gabriella could ride several rides too but didn't like having to sit next to me (instead of on my lap) and the metal bar seatbelt thing across her lap.

Fortunately we scheduled a breather day on Wednesday. Because on Thursday we went to Sea World. The one big roller coaster we did go on cured me from going on another roller coaster for a long time. My first mistake was saying I'd go on this ride that we were told there was only a 20% chance of you getting wet (mind you the temperature that day was only mid 60's and overcast and I did not want to walk around in wet clothes). I knew that percentage was wrong when I approached the boat we rode in and ALL of the seats were wet. The second mistake was my sitting next to Megan who cried on the first descent and couldn't cry on the second descent because it was too fast and swirly. Then we had an interesting experience. We were one boat away from unloading when the ride broke down. The seatbelt bars wouldn't release even though we were right there at the unloading platform. We sat there for 10 minutes while they tried to get the ride going again. Finally they let us off. We were very happy to be in the position we were when it broke down. I don't even want to think about if we'd have been stuck in the elevator portion of the ride where you're in complete darkness and the boat in tilted to the right or left. If that would have been the case Megan and Michelle would have never ridden another roller coaster for the rest of their lives.

But I did get to finally see Shamu. Even though I lived 30 minutes north of Sea World - this was the first time I'd ever seen Shamu.

On Friday we started our drive home. We left around 3 pm which was just in time to hit traffic in 3 different metro areas along I-15. We stopped for the night in Mesquite then finished the drive on Saturday.

Now the fun of unpacking and doing tons of laundry!

Good to be HOME

This afternoon we returned from a week long trip to Carlsbad, California. More details and photos will come later.

All is Well....Eventually

So far, Michelle has remained the lucky one and has not gotten sick. Trevor has had it the worst but I think it's a combo of the flu and seasonal allergies. Megan is feeling much better and back to her old tricks again. Just yesterday in a 6 hour period she poured a cup's worth of yeast into my bread mix when I momentarily left the kitchen to get the phone, while I was trying to salvage the yeast out of the flour mix she went up to my bathroom. Lest she get into anything there I sent her to her room. Unbeknownest to me she snuck (or is it sneaked?) back into my bathroom, grabbed a new bottle of conditioner to use as finger paint on her closet doors, which left great globs of goo on the carpet too. Then while we were waiting in the car for Michelle to finish dance class, Megan found a marker and colored all over the backs of the seats in the middle row of the van. It took some work but in time everything for all of these incidents has been cleaned up.

Only 3 months until she starts kindergarten. Hopefully they'll be able to channel her great curiosity and creativity into something useful.

Flu Continues

Turns out that over the weekend Trevor and I developed a mild case of the flu. Gabriella got it in reverse. She had the runny/stuffy nose first, followed by a fever and achiness. I'm crossing my fingers that somehow Caleb and Michelle will be able to avoid this round of illness.

Flu

My poor little Megan is sick. Last night she developed a fever, chills, and body aches, and this morning she vomited. Then all of a sudden this morning the thought crossed my mind about Swine Flu. So of course I jumped on the CDC's website to read about symptoms of Swine Flu. Turns out those symptoms are not very different from regular flu. But of course, who cares what strain of flu it might or might not be. All I know is my sweet lil' Megsy is sick.

Even when sick she is such a sweetheart. This morning she woke up before Trevor or I (technically I was awake but just laying there not wanting to face the day). I heard her walk up to me and give me a kiss on my back. Then she walked around the bed to Trevor's side and kissed him on the back. Later, she told me she kissed us because she forgot to give us kisses before bed last night. I hope she gets well soon, and that we can prevent this from spreading to the rest of us.

Journals

When I was 7, I remember writing in my Charlie's Angels spiral notebook. Not that I really wanted to but my parents insisted that each Sunday afternoon us kids (at least those old enough to write) would write about 3 days during the previous week. I did this with a lot of grumbling. It wasn't until a couple of years later that it turned into a habit, but not because I chose to but because of sheer competition. The deal was sealed the day my older brother came home and told me he'd been writing in his journal every day for the past 2 years. Determination got the better of me and I wrote in my journal every day from the time I was about 10 until the winter after I turned 21. That winter was a very depressing time and I remember thinking "Why do I write in the silly journal? No one will care to ever read this."

So just like that I stopped. For years. Unfortunately, those were the years that I bought my first car, graduated college, sent a and returned brother from a mission, got married, built a home, started a business with my husband, and had 3.5 kids. As you can tell it's only been the last couple of years that I picked up the habit again. But I tend to go in spurts. A really busy time will make for a lot of journal writing so I get behind and then have to play catch-up, but I'm desperately trying to at least hit the highlights.

Days like today though will keep up my enthusiasm for journal keeping. This afternoon I dug through my old journals to find the race results from when I was on a track team when I was 10 and 11 years old. Back then I could run 200 meters in 31.6 seconds, a 400 meter in 1 minute 18 seconds and jump 10' 6" in the long jump. At that time, I wasn't that fast. I usually got 2nd place or worse. But now that I'm running longer distances I converted that 400 meter time to a 5:33 minute mile. That's a fast mile!

Of course, my competitiveness is getting the better of me and I'm sure that I'll have to run an all out 400 meter in the next week just to see how fast I can do it now.

The Loss of a Tooth

Michelle lost her second front tooth tonight.

When she came home from school she kept playing with her tooth but I can't stand the feel of pulling a tooth out. And since I have an expert tooth-puller for a husband, I told her to wait until her dad came home. Unfortunately, she had track practice followed by a birthday party so it wouldn't be until bedtime that she'd see her dad. But loose teeth aren't that patient.

The birthday party was for Michelle's neighbor friend. When my neighbor brought Michelle home she was carrying a small packet of paper towel so I knew there was a story coming. It turns out that like me, my neighbor can't stand pulling teeth on her own children, let alone someone else's. But what could she do? The tooth was dangling after Michelle took a bite of pizza. My neighbor begged her husband to pull the tooth but he didn't want Michelle to get upset with him. So much to her chagrin, my neighbor pulled the tooth, with absolutely no crying or fanfare from Michelle (shock of all shocks!).

Thanks Maggie! Good to know we now have 3 dentists in the cul-de-sac.

Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Trevor's birthday started out with a breakfast made by Caleb. He knows all his Dad's favorite breakfast foods: cold cereal, milk, and real orange juice. Trevor spent half the morning volunteering at the school for Caleb's class Greek Olympics. Caleb won the gold medal in shot put.

Trevor was patient enough to wait until after the kids got home from school (fortunately they get out at noon on Fridays) to open his presents. He also didn't mind that I used old shoeboxes as wrapping paper (so, no, he didn't get that many pairs of new shoes).

Trevor couldn't figure out why he kept having to re-light the candles. Soon we saw why. When Trevor had his back turned to put the match in the sink, Gabriella would blow out the candles.