While I was Gone in Moab . . .

The kids had a good time while I was gone.  Lucy got to play at a friend's house on Friday; Jonas and Emmy got to walk home to an empty house after school; and Miles, as usual, rode his bike home.  Ben got home around 4 - probably when Miles got home.

That night the boys went to the library's Star Wars party and had a good time.  Ben dropped off the boys and then took the girls out for ice cream.

Saturday morning was spent doing chores and lots of cleaning.  After lunch they headed out to find a Christmas tree.  (I had to miss out on this last year due to the race . . . such a bummer . . .but it really is the only day to go and so go without me they must!)

It was sunny and warm - like 50 degrees - when they left our home.  They drove for about 25 minutes in to a winter wonderland forest!  They found the tree quickly and had a good time playing.  The kids had a great time, from what they told me.  It was hard and frustrating for Ben - because that is often what life is with kids (hard, frustrating, yet good all mixed together!).

I hoped he would remember the camera this year - and he did!  So here are the pictures:

 Oh it looks so fun!

 Brigham had a fantastic time and didn't mind the snow one bit - as you can obviously see.  :)

 The tree!

 The boys found a cool cave/fort and had fun playing in it.

The handsome lumberjack and his girls.

Winter Sun 10K, 2015

Well it was the 33rd annual Winter Sun 10K; for me it was my 3rd annual.  And, as always, it was wonderful and fun!  It's the perfect little get-away - not too far and not too long.

I picked up two gals on Friday at noon (after a school PAC meeting, watching Wren, dropping Wren off, and dropping Lucy off, oh, plus packing since I didn't have time beforehand . . . it was a busy morning!).  We drove to Moab; did some grocery shopping; played a card game of Monopoly (fun stuff); ate a yummy dinner of spaghetti, salad, fruit, and bread; chatted with friends (the two I came up with, plus the others that were already there); etc.

We got up and ready Saturday for the race.  It was fairly warm and definitely sunny - practically perfect for a run.  I felt super on my race (I was wearing brand-new never-ran-in shoes!) and had a really good time for me:  51:58, according to my watch.   A new personal record for me.  I felt wonderful afterwards as well.  We stayed a bit for the awards and raffle prizes - which my friend Kandace won one of them!  We then grabbed some lunch and then headed home.  I made it back in time to take the kids to the Parade of Lights, while Ben got dinner ready.

It was a great trip and I'll be excited to do it again next year!

A letter from Lucy

Lucy is really in to writing "things" lately.  Sometimes they are really hard to decipher and when she asks me to read what she wrote, I feel badly.  But usually I can figure it out.  :)

Here is one from her tonight:

R FLAMLE IS WLCUE TOO THE DAS

Translated:  "Our family (flamily - ha, that's usually how it's pronounced by my little ones!) is welcome (she gets mixed up with her "e" and "w") to the dance (she wrote it "das").

Lucy has even picked out my clothes for the occasion.

November, 2015

Emmy, my pre-teen, on Thanksgiving

Here is a dandy of a song that Emmy came up with on her own on Thanksgiving:

Ski videos

Thanksgiving break so far . . .

The kids got the entire week off from school (first time ever) and so Ben requested the week, too.  Perfect.

We left Saturday for Littleton - after a few setbacks of 1.  a snowstorm that prevented us from leaving on Friday evening, 2.  Brigham getting sick, and 3.  Emmy having to go to the doc's on Saturday morning for yet another UTI.  But we got off by 10am and had a dandy of a drive - for the most part.

I'm just going to post a bunch of random pictures and will comment from there:

 While Brigham was sick, the kids (girls especially) took good care of him.  :)  He barfed a bunch on Friday.  He still wasn't feeling great on Saturday morning when we first got up - then all of a sudden he was!  Yay.  That wouldn't have been fun traveling with a sick dog . . .

Brigham's normal place in the car (behind the back row seats) was taken up by luggage.  So he struggled to find his new spot.  Jonas didn't mind too much.

Haha.

We had fun that evening at Joe and Britt's home (i.e., the cousin's home).  Then Sunday was a nice day of church, a walk with the whole family (which included both dogs), Ben and I driving out to pick up our cute niece who had a quick one-night stay with us, dinner all together at Joe and Britt's house, birthday cake celebrating Joe's birthday, etc.

Monday we went swimming.  There was this lazy river there and the kids just had a blast.  It was fun!

Then Tuesday we went skiing at Loveland resort.  While not perfect, it was definitely a great ski trip and everyone had a great time - expect when we didn't.  :)

Sisters are good to have around when you don't want to take off your gloves and put on sun-block . . .

 A bunch of cuties for sure!  They are all getting better - but Emmy definitely has the best form!

Ben skied like this for the most part of the day.  It's hard work!  Lucy had chances to ski on her own, but since we sort of skied all together, she was "leashed" a bunch so as to come on the bigger runs with us.  Lucy, too, is getting better.

This was a way-cool cabin at the top of one of the lifts.  It was nice and cozy and warm in there - a perfect place to rest and eat some jerky.

Emmy and I on the ski lift . . . good times.

Then we got to experience Denver traffic . . . blech.  We went 20 miles in 2 hours.  Blech.  We had dinner at the nostalgic-to-Ben-but-not-as-good-as-he-remembers restaurant of Beau Jo's in Idaho Springs.  We made it home by 9pm that day!  Long day, but totally worth it.

Haha, this is what Ben and I returned to after our exercising on the Highline Canal (I run with Brigham and Ben bikes along with us).  Jim and Diana were gone as well so the kids were left home alone.  Emmy was simply just trying to brush her hair.  :)  Ben did an awesome job in getting it out.

Today (Wednesday) we went to the zoo with Joe and Britt's family.  It was colder, but it was super fun and so not-crowded.

 Miles with elephant ears.

Our group - minus the beautiful Brittany who took the picture.

Just some cuties at a "look-out."

And our last picture of the super cool cousins with the coolest hippo around.

Ben and I have spent the evening getting ready for tomorrow:  cranberry salad, check; turkey brining, check; yam casserole; check; 2 1/2 pies, check.

Thanksgiving break . . . so far, so good!

The Kissy Game

as written by Emmy:

Thankfully her teacher alerted me to this.  :)

Stuff

Life is slowing down a bit, I think.  So that's been nice.  Here are just a few pictures from today's preschool at our home:

 Cute pilgrims . . . for the letter P.

 Crazy pilgrims!

P . . . is for painting turkeys.

On The Go October!

So I don't know if it looks like it, but October was so super busy!  In fact, I truly think it was like the busiest month of my life - our lives?  Just crazy busy.  I don't have all the little extra meetings, Ben's appointments, etc., up on the calendar - there just isn't room.  :)  But if you look, you'll notice that the first four weekends of October we were traveling - first to Littleton, then Utah, then camping, then the temple trip.  7-12 hour trips each weekend.  While they were all great and worth it, it just made for a busy, busy month.  I'm ready for it to slow down . . .