Lake San Cristobal 10K

A couple of friends of mine and myself decided to sign up for the Lake San Cristobal run.  I signed up for the 10K and my friends for the 5K.  One friend wasn't able to make it since she was sick, but Kandace Booth and I and our families made the race into a camping trip as well.  If I wasn't running, I'm not sure we would have gone camping!  The weather forecast was for thunderstorms on Friday, Friday night, and Saturday.

As soon as we got to Lake City on Friday, it was pouring!  Just pouring!  Not a good time to set up a tent.  Luckily we drove around a few campgrounds and then went back in to town to wait for our friends to hook up with them.  By that time, the rain had stopped and so we were able to set up camp without getting soaked.

 We had a lovely camp-site right next to the Booths.  The kids are always excited about camping and had fun inside and outside of the tent.

 Boys and fire.  Miles had just put on some dry pine needles and made Kolter and Jonas come to watch it fire up.

 After dinner there were s'mores of course.

 We lucked out for the evening - no rain!  We were able to cook, eat, and visit without it raining.  A blessing indeed!  Emmy kept begging and begging to go to bed, so we finally got all ready in our tent and had a pretty good night.  The kids were out all night.  Ben said he actually slept really well, too.  I woke up a bunch, but was able to get right back to sleep.  It rained all night.  I took Lucy to the bathroom in the morning and saw lovely blue sky . . . but it was not to last.

Kandace's husband drove me and Kandace down to the registration point and then we got shuttled up to the starting point.  It was pouring rain the entire time!  But the rain did let up for our run and it was just a cool drizzle.

 Haha, what a funny picture.  Ben grabbed this shot of me as they passed me on my run.

 I love this picture!  One of my favorites ever.  :)  There's Lucy, my littlest biggest fan cheering me on as I come to the finish.

 There I am at the finish line - all done, yay!

And here is Kandace and I.  We had a fun camp-out and a fun and wet run.  We stayed afterwards for a bit - it was so cold, though.  Emmy and Lucy pretty much stayed in the car.  We got some lunch and then headed home.  It would have been nice to have stayed and fished and hiked, but not in that weather.  We'll just have to go back to Lake City . . . it's so beautiful!

I think this will be a new tradition for us and the Booths and whoever else wants to come:  camping and then the race.  Two fun things!

P.S.  It's a pretty small race - I think there was around 70 of us that did either the 5K walk, 5K run, or the 10K run.

The Flip-flop Club

One Sunday morning Emmy started a club.  She called it the Flip-flop club - it was just she and Lucy.  It was a "service club" Emmy said.  Her first service was helping Lucy write thank-you letters to Lucy's preschool teachers (i.e., moms).  It was so sweet and Lucy was able to hand out these letters at our little end-of-year preschool party.  The notes were thoughtful - Emmy had Lucy think of something fun that each mom did and was thanked for it.

Then Emmy decided the next thing the Flip-flop club was going to do was buy toys for "the poor people."  So that night she started asking for donations.  Luckily we had the bishopric over for dinner and so the club got a few donations that night.  Over the next couple of weeks the girls would ask people.  They ended up with close to $20 (unfortunately Lucy blew about $1.50 at our boys' lemonade/cookie stand they did last week . . . much to Emmy's frustration!).

Today I took Emmy to a local store on Main Street and we choose a few gifts - 2 for a girl and 2 for a boy.  There is a home in town that helps kids and families that are in abusive homes and gives them a place to stay.  I think we'll try and drop them off there - hopefully sometime on Thursday.

 Here was my letter from Lucy (written by Emmy).  Love!

 Here are the gifts we got.  For a girl:  an adorable stuffed turtle (you can't see how cute it is, but it's so cute I almost want to keep it :) and a little koala jewelry box.  For a boy:  sand and a sock-monkey that slings/flings.

 She wanted me to take a picture of the inside of the koala box.  A cute necklace.

The other member of the Flip-flop club.  She wanted a picture of her, too.  Even though she inappropriately used the clubs' funds, she was not kicked out.

It was a little hard for Emmy.  She had all this money (more money than she probably has ever had!) and wanted to buy something for herself at times.  But I reminded her that this money was donated to her club - knowing it would go to buy toys for "the poor people."  She handled it well.

What a sweet and thoughtful girl Emmy can be!

Summer Pics, including our newest Biker Rider!

Well another week of summer has gone by.  I lost it this afternoon on Miles.  Then all the others.  Sigh.  Summer is good, yet hard in many ways, too.  But here are some of the *good* moments of summer so far.

 Many of our days have look like this:  friends over, on the tramp.  Or they are all playing on the sidewalk out front, going back and forth between houses.  It's great having neighborhood kids, but it has also caused some challenges.  But it is super fun for the kids so I am happy for them.

 Well, well, well.  Lucy learned to ride a 2-wheel bike today.  She went straight from her pedal-less bike to this bike.  It took her about . . . . 2 seconds to figure it out.  I'm sure this is all do to her year-plus of cruising around on her pedal-less bike.  It's definitely the way to go.  I hate training-wheels!

 I love this picture - Lucy riding with Emmy in front.  So cute.  Everyone gets excited for Lucy.  :)

 Getting her to ride a bike was easy-breezy.  Teaching her to start by herself . . . AIYIYI.  She was a lunatic.  Screaming, crying, stomping her feet.  Then she would do it and start riding and was happy . . . like she didn't just throw a crazy tantrum.  This happened many times this morning.  She just now asked if I would go and help her ride.  I told her I didn't have the patience for it at this moment.  Maybe after dinner . . . ????

Jonas mowed most of our front yard this morning.  He likes it.  I have no idea how those skinny legs of his can push a mower, but I think his angle helped him a bit.  :)

A little video of Lucy riding her bike.

Into the Wild Wednesdays

My friend and I started up a little "outdoors" group last year and so we did it again this year.  I started up a group Facebook page and we post where we will be going each week.  Whoever wants to come, can come!

This past Wednesday was our first outing.  We went to the Colorado National Monumnet and hiked to Devil's Kitchen.  It was a great little hike that had a perfect spot for the kids to run around and climb up rocks.  It was fun.  We got back and ate lunch at the picnic spot there at the trailhead.  Then all the kids starting running up the rocks there and had invented some game that was "just so cool!"  As told me by not only my kids but the others as well.  They played for another hour there and just had a great time.  It was definitely fun!

 Cute girls.

 This was a fun spot for the kids to climb up to.

 They even had to wait in line!  :)

 Cute boys.

 This kind of shows where we hiked to - we were in between some big rocks, etc.

 Miles found this and thence we named it "Frog Rock."  Awesome.  (Can you see why?)

 14 of the 17 kids.  Lucy fell off and then cried.  It wasn't a big fall or anything, but I thought it was kind of fun that I captured her fall.

 Cute and silly Emmy.

A little cave on the way out.

There were 5 of us moms that went - 5 moms and 17 kids.  Just a little outnumbered.  :)

A trip to Memory Lane . . . and more

So I don't think I've mentioned this on my blog, but my parents have been called on another mission for our church.  This time they are going to Frankfurt, Germany!  Awesome.  My dad's mission as a young man was in Germany, so this is extra neat.  Although my dad hasn't spoken German in like 50 years, he thinks he'll be able to pick some stuff up.  :)  My mom is a hard and diligent worker, so I am sure she will learn some German as well.  They leave on June 12th for 18 months.  Crazy.

So, we decided we needed to head over to Midway and see them in person before they head out.

 So Memorial weekend, we headed over.  Don't let this totally fool you that Ben and I have totally gone to the dark side.  :)  We still listened to 4+ hours of books on CDs before the kids were able to finally watch a movie.  Just one.  They only get one movie - and that's only when we are on long car drives.  It was super fun for them (and adorable) and super quiet for Ben and myself.  (Again, on the way back and after 4 hours of books on CDs, they got another movie.)

We got to my parents' home by dinner-time on Friday.  We had a great dinner and then my dad took my kids out for a spin in his "machine."  Ben and I took my mom out for a spin in our new car.  :)

For Saturday, since we didn't have any real set plans and we weren't sure of the weather, I decided to go to Sandy and do some "memory lane" stuff.

 So our first stop was at my elementary school - Quail Hollow.  The kids played on the playground and had a good time.

 Then we walked to my home on Cheshire Drive - what a cute home.  I still love it.  It was fun to be back in my old neighborhood.

 Then we went to my favorite bagel place (favorite, as in I ate a bagel there every day for lunch my senior year), Rich's Bagels.  Yum.  The kids must have been starving b/c they all got more bagels!  It looked just the same and my honey whole-wheat bagel tasted just like I remember:  delicious!

 Then we left memory lane and drove to Scheel's.  It's some huge sporting goods store - like Cabelas, but more athletic gear and less hunting.  But I had heard about the huge Ferris Wheel inside and so we decided to go ride it.  Holy Moly it was pretty frightening!  I think Lucy was the least scared of all of us!  I hated (as well as most everyone else) the loading part.  We had to just sit there, swaying/rocking, at the very top as the bottom seats were loaded.  Not cool.  But once it started going around and around, I was fine.  I don't even think Ben liked that part.  :)  But it was still a "fun" thing to do!  I don't know how that works.  :)

It rained while we were in Scheels.  Then we drove home, ate dinner in Midway, then relaxed that evening.  Sunday was church, a cool hike/walk with Ben and Miles and Wilson, yummy dinner, watching clips from some PBS show (showing the capture of Saigon) that my Dad wanted to especially show my boys (it showed the types of helicopters he flew; plus, he was actually there at that time), etc., etc.  A nice Sunday.

Monday morning I went running and Ben rode my mom's bike next to me.  Then we took the kids swimming (we had taken them Saturday morning, too).  Then we just packed up.  My parents are trying to get rid of lots of food since they will be gone for 18 months, so we got lots of "extras."  It was a great weekend!

Auf Wiedersehen!

2014-2015 Class Pictures

Emmy's 1st grade class with Mrs. Brummitt.

 Jonas' 3rd grade class with Mrs. Reich.

Miles' 5th grade class with Mrs. Pearson.

It's an End-of-School-Year Wrap

 Jonas has been a part of an after-school guitar program offered by our district's music teacher.  On Tuesday evening they had a little sing-a-long.  It was cute and fun.

 Jonas had a fun time at the sing-a-long, but he didn't love the guitar lessons.  Sigh, we need to find something this kid is passionate about . . .

 We got got a hand-me-down tramp a couple of months ago and Ben and I surprised our kids with it this morning (their last day of school).  So fun!  It's been fun and a hassle today!  We're hopefully ironing out the kinks.  If we make it through the day with no broken bones - it will be a success!  (We've had our 4 kids on it, plus 5 friends/neighbors.  Not all at once thankfully!)

 Crack the egg . . .

 Half of my morning was spent at the assemblies at school.  Emmy got a science award.  She also got an award in her classroom - "knowledge of words."

 Jonas got a science award as well.

I didn't grab a picture of Miles - but he earned some award from the P.E. teacher (maybe something like, "Safety first.")  I'll try not to go in to a hugely long story about Miles' "perfect attendance" award.  He should have been awarded it at the assembly, but wasn't even given an "outstanding attendance" (missed 2 or less days) award until after the fact.  He told his teacher and she passed it on to the principal who then announced it and had Miles stand.  Still, it wasn't right and so I emailed the secretary and principal and explained a whole bunch of stuff (like how Miles wouldn't go skiing, wouldn't let us drive home on a Monday, etc., etc. because he wanted to earn this award).  I asked the secretary to double-check his attendance record.  She did and he had not missed any days of school.  (He had checked out 4 times - only one of those times were before noon.  And, Miles made us check with the school to make sure he wouldn't be counted as absent if he checked out early.  We were told he wouldn't.)  He got his certificate right before school was let out.  (Sorry, that was a bit longer.  But it could have been longer!)

It was silly, but this really affected me for many reasons.  I was sad for my child who had worked hard for something and wasn't appropriately recognized.  I was worried about being an annoying parent, but instead the secretary told me to never be sorry for advocating for my child.  I was grateful for her support.  I was frustrated at Miles' teacher who seemed to just want to brush this off and didn't encourage Miles to talk to the office about his attendance (I would have, but I didn't get a chance to speak with him before they left the gym.)  Okay, that's enough.

Anyways, I think I came up with a new tradition for my kids' last day of school:  a Candy-gram.  It was fun and the kids liked it.  Especially eating the candy.

It's been a crazy afternoon with lots of highs and lots of lows.  The ice cream man came and Ben gave Jonas $10 to buy all 8 kids some ice cream.  Does that sound like a summer day or what?!

Miles graduates

Well, well, well.  Miles graduated from Northside Elementary school this evening.  He's got a diploma to prove it.  It's been a full and fun 6 years at this school - he will miss it.  I think the school will miss him, too.  He added a little something quirky to it.  :)

 The graduation started off with the 5th grade music program.  We have a very talented music teacher and she gets all the kids involved.

 He got to play the recorder (along with a dozen plus other students) during one song.

 Yep, even though he is graduating from elementary school, we can still catch him sucking on his arm.  (Okay, it's not really sucking.  I think he describes it more like brushing his arm hair on his lips.  Awesome.)

 There was a slideshow presentation of pictures that were taken throughout the year.  Then it was on to handing out the diplomas.  Here Miles is, accepting a hug and diploma from his teacher.  Ms. Clark, in the background, is the principal.  (sorry about the blurriness!)

 Aw, Miles and Mrs. Pearson.

Such a handsome kid!  (We may or may not have cut it very close to being late due to a father not quite remembering how to do up a bow-tie . . .)

This was Miles' first day of kindergarten (the sign and bear are no longer there, or we would have taken a picture here!).  Looking back at that post, when asked what his favorite thing about his first day was, he replied, "Everything,"

I am sure that's what he'll miss the most, too - Everything.

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 . . . )