Scott's visit

Over Thanksgiving my brother and his kids came to visit. We had a good time catching up and the kids had a blast wrestling around.

Cinderella

Megan and Gabriella were watching tv while I was on the stationary bike this morning. Megan, in her usual self, got a pillow and blankie for Gabriella, but then I had to laugh to myself as Megan then said "Lay down Gabriella and I'll tell you a story."

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl named Cinderella. She wanted to go to a ball but no one letted her unless she had a beautiful dress. She was heartbroken. The End."

Road Trip

This past weekend Trevor and I along with 7 other members of his family drove to Sacramento for his nephew's wedding. We rented a 15 passenger van to accomodate everyone. It's the best road trip I've taken since having kids.

Trevor and I by the Sacramento temple.


The Reno temple. I was born in Reno so this had some sentimental value.

Halloween

Yes those are our homegrown pumpkins. The largest one weighed 35 pounds. There was no way Trevor and I wanted to scrape the guts out of those humdingers so we painted them which worked wonderfully (no knives, slime or worrying about lighting candles).

Painting

Caleb's room was so hard to paint it took us over a month to recuperate enough to even think about painting again. Michelle's room (or one wall) was MUCH easier. Each coat (one primer and 2 color) took 20 mintues to paint so that turned out to be the easy part. Washing bright blue out of paint brushes proved to be the more difficult task.

I think it looks fabulous and Michelle is ecstatic (especially the part that we decided to let her continue having her own room instead of moving Megan in with her).

This experience with painting was so easy we decided to paint one wall in Megan and Gabriella's room next. Any ideas on color choices?

Decor

It took awhile but I finally got up some Halloween decorations. Much to the kids' dismay I refuse to use scary nasty things as decorations; hence the reason no spiders, mummies, etc. We do have several cute skeletons on the windows and one even glows in the dark.

Mo Tab

We found out that Caleb's school teacher sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir so I took Caleb and Michelle up to Temple Square for the broadcast of "Music and the Spoken Word." I'd forgotten how wonderful the acoustics are in the tabernacle. The singing and the symphony were wonderful. My only regret was that the kids have to at least 8 years old (we fudged with Michelle) due to the live broadcast-it would've been even a better morning if we could have enjoyed it as a family.

Flag Football

Caleb wanted to play football. I thought that flag football would be a nice introduction into playing the game without him getting squashed. What I didn't know is that the rules are different enough from tackle football that it made things more confusing. I personally had a hard time watching the game since I kept wondering why the play stopped even though the opponent was still standing- - it's called they pulled his flag so the play is dead - those are the drawbacks from watching my brothers play TACKLE football. Next year he wants to try tackle football - I don't know if me or my wallet is ready for that.

Canoe trip

We decided to take the kids canoeing so we joined Trevor's sister's family for an afternoon down at Mona Lake. Strapping the rented canoe up on top of the van proved to be a monumental task, rowing the canoe was yet another wonder especially since Gabriella insisted on holding onto my paddle. We made a small tour of the lake with all of us in the canoe, then Trevor and I went out, followed by Trevor and Michelle. Yet the total time the canoe was in the water was maybe 40 minutes. It turns out it's a lot more work to paddle that thing then we had thought. The kids had more fun playing and rowing their cousins' kayaks. We made sure plenty of pictures were taken though since this will be the last time we plan on ever renting a canoe again.

Caleb's 9th birthday

Caleb really is 9 not 6 - he was just a little impatient and didn't want to wait for me to find more candles. I can't believe he's already 9. It seems like yesterday he was turning 8. But it's been so nice to have him get older and more self sufficient. He wakes up by himself and is dressed and eating breakfast by the time I get back from running.

Happy Birthday, Caleb boy!

Birthday

This is actually the day after my birthday - we just never got around to taking pictures yesterday so I had Megan take this for me. I love my new haircut and I have never worn a t-shirt with more pride than my marathon t-shirt. I'm so happy to have completed the marathon that I have no problems with turning 37 years old. I actually feel healthier than I have my whole life and I love my weight loss so much I stand on the scale all the time just to see those numbers. In fact a few months ago my mom was concerned about me and said that I looked too thin. I laughed and told her she'd just given me the best compliment I'd ever heard!
Anyway, on with the birthday. Trevor made me breakfast and the kids could hardly wait to give me their homemade gifts. For lunch, Mignonne, Jennifer and Maggie took me to lunch - they even provided a babysitter for my 2 youngest. Thank you so much ladies it was the break I needed so badly.

Snakes and Turtles

Caleb had his last Pack meeting as a Wolf. My parents were in town so my dad was able to come watch Caleb receive 7 beltloops, 1 pin, and 2 silver arrows. My dad found this garter snake skin and gave it to Caleb.

Before my parents left to go back home they came by to give Caleb and I our birthday gifts. They also brought a turtle that they'd found walking across the street. Caleb was ecstatic! He named him Tubby before I even said if we were going to keep it or not.

I did a lot of research on turtles and tortoises. We took it to the pet store and confirmed my suspicions. We would not be keeping Tubby. First of all the setup for his home, etc would be upwards of $300. Second, tortoises are not the best pet for young kids since they tend to bite and carry all kinds of parasites and worms. Third, we already have one pet and I really didn't want a second. The kids of course cried but have since almost forgotten all about him.

Marathon!

I know it's not the best photo but when we drove down Main Street in Logan and saw this sign I got chills down my back. I think that's when it finally hit me that I was running a marathon less than 12 hours from that time.
Trevor and I drove to Logan on Friday and had a peaceful relaxing day.
On Saturday we awoke at 4 am which actually wasn't too early for us, just an hour earlier than normal. Trevor was unsure about how his ankle would hold up but was confident the cortisone shot he'd received would do the trick. Unfortunately, his ankle gave out at mile 9 and he walked(rather limped) to the aid station at mile 11. He was pretty bummed - but hey he still went 11 miles. I saw him at mile 9.5. He begged for me to go on running and finish. I got choked up and had a really hard time leaving my ailing husband to fend for himself.
For me the marathon went a lot better than I was expecting. The miles seemed to go by really quickly which I was not expecting. I also thought that by the time I got to the finish line I'd be so tired I'd collapse, but my mom says of all the races she's seen me finish I looked the best after the marathon. Don't get me wrong IT WAS HARD just not as hard as my overacting imagination thought it would be.
The day was bittersweet. I was so happy that I accomplished my goal and felt good about my efforts, but I was sad that Trevor and I couldn't enjoy it together.

Service

Last Monday night I challenged to kids to do a secret service for someone in the family. Obviously I needed to better describe service because Caleb reported his service was keeping his room clean and Michelle's service was doing her homework. However, Megan didn't realize it but she actually had done service. Without my asking her to she picked up all the the books and toys that Gabriella had scattered around their room.
This is the before (taken a week or so ago).

This is the after - not perfect I know, but better than it was.

Bikes

Trevor and I finally bought ourselves a bike. The very night we bought it Caleb begged Trevor to go on a ride with him. We don't exactly have any roads around here that are anywhere near flat so it was a bit of a challenge for Caleb; nevertheless, he was able to earn his Bicycling beltloop for Cub Scouts.

Take a good look at Trevor's right foot and you'll see that he was a good sport and even rode the bike wearing a boot brace.