Spiderboys

Jonas began making spiderwebs in their room . . . then Miles joined in . . . then it got out of control.  In a cool way, I guess.  The pictures don't do it justice, but I'll still post them:

Last but not least:  pipe-cleaner spiders to inhabit the web.  (Yes, of course there are more than one spider . . . )

A teenager in the house!

Who could that be?!  Wilson!  He turned 13 yesterday.  Wow, that is pretty old.

He's been a pretty dog great, though, all these years.  Never bitten a child - even though we had wanted him a time or two . . . Sure, he's stolen some food from the table from an unsuspecting person who had to run to the bathroom or something . . . but all in all, he's pretty great.

 We took him out for a "birthday walk" before church.  It was nice and he was tired by the end.  He's getting old . . .

 We really all do love Wilson.

 He got some real stinky bone for his birthday.  I'm glad it's outside!

Here's the cake I made.  I think I've made one like this before.  The missionaries were over for dinner and so they got to sing "Happy Birthday" to Wilson with us.

I think Wilson will be the easiest of the teens that we will have living in this house . . .

The Black Canyon Ascent

Yep, I did this race again.  Please, please remind me next year that I don't like running it!  :)  It's so hard.  It's harder than the half-marathons I've done.  Wow, it's 6 miles all up (okay, there are 2 itty-bitty down-hills, but not even then until the last mile) with a gain of 2,000 feet.  As soon as you start, you are climbing.  I thought in that first mile and a half (the hardest in my opinion):  "I can't do this.  Maybe this will be the year I have to walk some it."  But I didn't.  Slow and steady I once again ran it all.  I finished up with just about the same time as I always do:  1:13.  

 The family passed me at about miles 4 1/2.  I was tired by then!  Miles got this picture of me.  :)

 Emmy met me a little ways back and ran in with me.  Miles met me here and ran with us, too.  That was the most fun part of it all.  :)

Cutie Wren got to spend the first part of the day with us.  Ben was the primary caregiver this time!  He did great.  She did great.  She even put up with watching Emmy's last soccer game in the freezing rain and wind.

The weather for my race was great.  Cool and cloudy.  It could have even had it cooler, but I'll definitely take what I got.  It started raining slightly for the last mile or so.  During awards and raffle prizes, it even started snowing.  Awesome.

I think I have now conquered the "childbirth" race 4 times, so I am done.  Maybe next year some of our family will walk it together . . . that sounds a least partly enjoyable!

Dashing Dolphins

Emmy's soccer team, the Dashing Dolpins, was a great little team.  They won some and they lost some.  There were a few girls that were really amazing.  Emmy did well.  She kind of started to like the defense position because she would just stay on her line with the other two defenders and chat and be silly . . . until the ball came down (usually).  But the second-to-last game I told her to play some offense.  And she loved it.  I mean, she had played it before during the season, but she definitely got in to it much more the last two games.  She even almost scored a goal.

 Her almost-goal.  So close.  Dang it.  :)

 Emmy in action.

Her team.

But spring soccer turned out to be very wet and cold.  I think we need to remember to stick with fall soccer.  :)  But it was still fun - wet and cold and all!

J

This is Jonas and his best-friend and sometimes-Siamese twin Ivan.

What is also great about this photo (besides just the photo itself) is that Jonas and Ivan's teacher took it.  I think that is great because it shows that she (Mrs. Reich) enjoys their silliness.  I mean, not all the time.  But she is just the perfect teacher to put up with these two boys.  Not that they are bad . . . they just like to have fun during class time.

We've been blessed with great teachers.  I can't believe the 2014-2015 school year is coming to an end . . .

Happy Mothers' Day

 Ben and his beautiful mother on our wedding day.

Baby me and my mother in 1979 at Hawaii.

We've been beyond blessed with our mothers and mothers-in-law.  Truly.  We love you Mom (and Dixie) and Mom (and Diana).

Bike bumps video part 2

We went to the bike jumps/bumps last Friday (the kids were out of school).  I told them I would make another video.  It's not nearly as great as the first one, but whatevs.  I can't post the video here, so here is the link:

https://youtu.be/9gGevlFUKig

GOTR 2015

So I really wasn't planning on doing GOTR this year.  I just had a lot going on and didn't think I could do one more thing.  Which, I thought, would mean our elementary school wouldn't be able to do GOTR (you see, there are 2-3 of us on the PAC and so I have experience and knowledge that not many parents step-up to volunteer for things like this . . . unfortunately).  I'd done GOTR for the past 3 years and felt like a break would be good before Emmy was finally in 3rd grade and could officially do it.

Well. . .  fortunately for our school we had 2 staff members agree to do it.  Then I got a call from our district gal asking if I would be willing to do it once a week.  Sure, sure.  I'm glad to do it, it just adds to our already crazy lives.  Also, doing it once a week was a little hard for me.  I just felt I was missing 1/2 of it . . . because I was!  But it worked out just fine.

The 5K race was on May 2nd up in Junction - as always.  We had a decent turn-out for our girls.  I didn't see too many of them finish, but I know each girl did and I hope they had fun!  It ended up that I didn't run with any of the girls from school - a lot of them had a mom to run with.  Or they were in front to go fast - and I couldn't since I had a stroller.  So I was just with my very own two girls.

And it was great.

Emmy ran/walked it with me pushing Lucy.  We ran for 5 minutes, then walked 5, ran 5, etc.  We finished at 40 minutes, which I thought was pretty good for a little girl that did no training.  :)  I can't wait until she is in 3rd grade!  It will be so fun to do with her - if I can keep up with her by then.  :)

 I think this shows most of our girls that showed up for the race!

 Post-race.  She really is too cute and has such long legs - where on earth did she get those?!  What a cutie.

 Even though Lucy didn't do any running, she wanted all the post-race snacks.  Of course.  :)

"Baby" Emmy.  Emmy wanted to be pushed.  Lucy wanted to push.  Isn't it great when life works out like that?

We finished up our "girls day" by . . . going shopping of course!  Ha, this is something we like never ever do.  But I had a bunch of Old Navy reward money and so we had a fun time there.  The girls got some adorable shoes, among a few other things.  We finished it up with some delicious frozen yogurt.  My flavor (a new fav?):  sea salt caramel pretzel.  YUM.

Anyways, we were all happy and had a fun day!  Go Girl Power!  :)

Boys' First Backyard Camp-out of the Season

I Can't Believe April is Over . . .