SO tired!

I DID IT! Yesterday I ran a half marathon...ok, technically I didn't run the whole time, but the vast majority was spent running, and hey, it is 13+ miles, so walking for short distances is acceptable. Anyway--it was awesome. I have never had any desire to run....anywhere...for any reason. I used to do anything to get out of running in PE. Up until now pretty much all of my running has been for things involving my kids (saving their lives, removing dangers, etc.). I have to toot my own horn a little--I got over my dislike for running and have already done both a 10K and a half marathon this summer. Maybe it is the fact that I am turning 30 soon, but I am feeling like I kind of need to prove myself. Well--I am sore, I am tired, and I am happy! I think that I will be slowing down at this point. After all, my old bones can't take too much more, right? I will run the 5K next weekend, then perhaps I will be done for a while.

Yeah--the look on my face is that of sheer disbelief--what am I doing here?

Really--if you are gonna run for 13+ miles, this is the way to do it. It was so beautiful!

HALLE-FREAKIN-LUJAH! Finished!

I only had my cell phone to take pics with, so you will have to be content with that for now. Luckily Trav had the camera at the finish line, so those pics will come soon!

My Little Man

Ok people...I know that I had two girls first, but I really am doing all I can that is BOY for this little guy. There are some things that he was just born with, and apparently the desire for accessories did not skip this boy!

Yes, he wanted a third shoe on each foot...he cried when I stopped at two pair. See?

He stole Lily's headband and put it on all by himself...correctly!

Isn't he pretty?

Father's Day!

I am so blessed by the wonderful fathers in my life. I don't have great pictures of all of them, but I wanted to give a shout out to my each of them. First of all to my wonderful Dad. The man who raised me, and is SO much a part of who I am today. He is the reason I married a man with a painfully corny sense of humor. He is the reason I have a decent lawn and garden. He is the reason I lecture my kids the way I was lectured for so many years. He is the reason behind so many things in my life. He feeds us all every Sunday, and still loves us after those 2-3 long hours of chaos! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DAD!

I have a wonderful father in law who has shown so much love to me and my family since the first time we met (even though he intimidated the ever loving daylights out of me!). He is a great example to me of patience, and calm. He adores his grandbabies! He raised a son who is now an incredible father to my children.

My wonderful husband, and the very best daddy I could ever hope for to raise our children. He is SO aware of me, of my emotions, me needs, my wants, my EVERYTHING! He absolutely loves our children, and loves the time he gets to spend with them. Not only that, but he takes advantage of every opportunity he is given to spend quality time with them. He wrestles them, plays games with them, takes the to the zoo, reads them stories, makes their meals, and generally adores them! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY ALL!

So here is how we celebrated.
1-Liz and Tor were up at 6 AM and wanted to make breakfast, so I gave in and we made bacon, eggs, sausage, hasbrowns, and sticky buns for Daddy--then we wrote him a very special song to sing to him while he ate


2-PRESENTS! Ignore the Christmas paper, that's all I had that wasn't pink, ok? Shorts, outdoor games, a chair massager (no, it doesn't massage the chair, smarty pants!), and a new board game (complete with expansion). He was pretty stoked!


3-Play with the wrapping and leave a huge mess right before...

4-Church

5-Water the garden

6-Chicken wings at Nana and Papa's with big old build your own sundaes!

A great day for some truly amazing men!

Yum!

This is what my little strawberry patch has done in the last 24 hours! We pick the berries every day, and we usually have a pretty full cereal bowl of strawberries. YUM!

(This is a salad bowl, not a cereal bowl, by the way.)

For those of you wondering how we keep harvest any strawberries with all these little thieves in the neighborhood (squirrels, birds, etc.). Here is our solution.

One more reason I love my hubby! He made this contraption to let us in, but no critters!

Monday

You gotta love it when:

1-your 16 month old is screaming and pounding at the door to get up from nap time...yeah--he was put down in a CRIB!

2-"Mommy's Special Restaurant" (aka leftover night) turns into "Mommy's Nakey Restaurant" to accommodate its guests

3-your almost 3 year old--knowing that it is unacceptable to pee in the tub--chooses to pee in the trash can next to the unoccuppied toilet

A twister!

During our wonderful Relief Society lesson about preparedness (THANK YOU MINDY!!), we started to hear rain fall and tornado sirens. Being from Colorado, we mostly ignored them...until the hail hit. Then we were all shuffled into bathrooms. I tried frantically to find my family. Tom had Liz and O, and I finally found Tori. We hung out in the bathrooms singing primary songs for a while, then we were herded into the chapel and cultural hall, where we waited for these to disappear...

FYI--All photos were stolen from other people...hope you don't mind! Thanks for being braver than I am!

Yeah--it was an interesting day at church. That's for sure. Luckily there was no damage to our house, and only slight hail damage to our garden (GOLF BALL sized hail! YIKES!). Smacks you in the face with what's really important, doesn't it?

Vermillion

Last week my sister, Mandi, and I took our kids on a road trip to Vermillion, SD. That's where she has been living while her hubby attended law school. Now that he is studying for the bar in CO, we decided to go see more about their life in the middle of nowhere. We left Friday afternoon and had a LONG drive, then a PAINFUL night in a hotel with the seven of us. We finished our trip Saturday, played, and went to bed...not too painful. Next was church on Sunday...MORTIFYING! I had to take EVERY child out at least once. Lizzie never made it back in to finish sacrament meeting. Needless to say, we left after that! The rest of the week was a roller coaster, but overall the kids had a good time, and occasionally, so did the moms. It was a lot of work, and a lot of screaming (mostly from the kids), but I think that all seven of us really enjoyed the experience. Well...most of the experience.


On Monday we went to Yankton to visit the duck pond, playground, aquarium, fish hatchery...and then lunch and ICE CREAM! It was a REALLY fun day! The kids LOVED it!



Tuesday we...I can't remember.


Wednesday we ventured to a new park that is really more like 4 parks put together. It was so fun. The kids had a blast!

Thursday we took the kids to downtown Vermillion and took some pictures. SO many of them turned out SO great. I simply couldn't choose, so here are just SOME of the ones that Mandi got.

Thursday afternoon we went to the pool! How adorable is my little man? He looked so cute in the whole ensemble from Grammy, but he will never wear the shoes again. His feet are WAY too fat!

Thursday night/Friday morning (all through the night and wee hours of the morning) Marlee and I were awake dealing with a stomach bug. We decided it would be best to head home and pray that nobody else came down with it. We quickly packed up the car, and made it as far as Kearney, NE where we gave in to cranky kids, and puking bellies. We stayed in a hotel again, despite the HUGE FAILURE of an attempt the first time. Lucky for us, this time was COMPLETELY different! SO MUCH BETTER! THANK YOU MOM! I don't have pics yet, and they are KILLER! They will come soon! The kids went to the indoor water park, slept, ate, and behaved...mostly! It was a good end!

Then they were tired for the ride home! The babies were anyway--the "big girls" were too busy singing "the bad guy song" from Anastasia to fall asleep! It was hilarious!

Thanks for a fun week Earls!