Lots of red dirt and climbing!

As part of our Ironman training I convinced Jeremy to run the Moab 1/2 marathon with me this year.  I have run this race twice and have failed miserably each time.  I was determined to have a successful race this year.  We arrived in Moab late the night before the race and barely had time to dash into the expo to pick up our bib numbers.  Afterwards we checked into our hotel and I was immediately disappointed we were there so late.  It was a nice room with a nice breakfast.  The kids were just happy to ride in the luggage cart and "help" us unpack.  

Cute little clean kiddos.  

Early the next morning my mom, Jake, and Camille arrived.  Camille was running the race with me and Jeremy, and the others were on kid-watching duty.  While Camille, Jeremy and I hoped on the school bus shuttles, rode them up the canyon, and perched on chilly red rocks while we waited for the start, it looks like the kids had fun at the park.  Jake is probably a fabulous monkey bar buddy. 

 

Up at the starting line the three of us were shivering and waiting for the gun to go off.  Then finally we counted down from five and we were off.  Camille ran with us for the first mile or so, then dropped back to maintain a more comfortable pace for her.  Jeremy and I tried to run a quick, smart race.  He has never run a race before and the crows of people were making him excited.  He kept wanting to dash ahead and pass the people in front of us.  I've done that before and have paid the price later in the race so I held him back.  It's a beautiful course down the red rock canyon next to the river.  It wasn't too hot this year and I was finally feeling strong.  It was awesome to run so long with Jeremy.  Both of us felt like the miles were just flying by.  At mile 11 Jeremy passed a group of runners ahead of us and I was stuck behind them for for a few strides.  During that short time though Jeremy decided he was going to really push it the last two miles.  We were on track for a fabulous time and I couldn't blame him.  I tried to keep up, but it was all I could do to keep up my new faster pace.  I didn't have the kick I wanted at the end, but I still finished strong.  I also finished with a new PR! 1:40:48.   I have not PR'd since my very first half marathon in Pennsylvania.  Jeremy finished in 1:40:12.  He's bummed he didn't break that 1:40 mark, but really he was thrilled with a time that strong for his first race.  We both limped back along the course to find Camille.  When we found her I ran with her that last mile and Jeremy wandered off to find our cheering squad.   

Camille finished nicely and was really proud of her performance.  Even though we didn't run the whole race together it was still fun to do it together.  

We hung around the finish line for awhile until we remembered we needed to dash back to the hotel to check out.  After quick showers the camping crew showed us where they set up camp.  It was right along the race course next to the river.  It was a great little spot.  That first night we played cards, played frisbee, and played in the dirt.  

The girls looked a lot like Toothless drawing in the dirt with their large sticks.

Kelton couldn't believe his luck that we let him play in the dirt all night long.  And wow, was he DIRTY!  He wanted to play peek-a-book and chase at the same time.  His grubby little fingers covered his grubby little face and he chased Jeremy around the campground.  So sweet!

The kids slept great that night and we caught a quick visit to Sacrament meeting in the morning before driving off to Arches.  My goal this trip was to hike Delicate Arch with my kids.  They were amazing hikers.  Even Kelton hiked half of it on his own.  

Up at the top I was awed by the beauty of the arch.  I was also terrified out of my mind because it is not a child-safe arch.  Kelton wanted to climb everywhere, even off the cliffs.  I was having a series of mini-heart attacks during our entire picnic lunch.  I was relieved to get that little climber down onto a safer ground near the bottom of the hill. 

McKenzie and I as we walked underneath.  She wanted to show me how brave she was.

 That night Camille and Jake headed home, but we weren't done having fun.  We headed back into the park the next morning for some more hikes.  We hit the Window Arches and Turret Arch first.  Kelton was really mad I wouldn't let him climb to his death off the cliff.

  Our last stop before leaving for Sand Dune Arch.  It was a little chilly that day, but the sand still felt good between our toes.  At first Kelton wasn't sure what he thought about it, but soon was wiggling his toes with the rest of us.  

Jeremy and my mom climbed up to the top of the arch.  If you're trying to remember if my mom is still in a sling because of her broken collar bone, you are remembering correctly.  She climbed up that arch with one arm.  I couldn't believe it.  

McKenzie was intent on showing the rest of us how brave she was and climbed to the top too.  What a little daredevil. 

 Part of me was relieved when it was time to go home.  I just couldn't keep Kelton off all of the rocks.  Despite that stress, it was a great little trip.  I hope my kids had as much fun as I did.

Potsy McKnobb

Our leprechaun was especially tricky this year.  He moved our living room into our dining room and our dining room into our living room!  The girls thought that was pretty awesome, but not as awesome at the letter Cambrie received from him.  Unknown to me, she wrote a letter to our resident leprechaun and he responded!  Not only did we learn his name is Potsy McKnobb, we also learned he has a pet ladybug and he left her a picture!  What a lucky girl!  

Potsy had left gold coins throughout the house, and Kelton was so intent on eating his muffin that he didn't even notice he was about to swallow one of them.  I had to fish that shiny coin out of his mouth before he could crack his little teeth on it.  

After all of the excitement of that morning the girls dressed up in their green and headed to school for more leprechaun fun. It was an exciting morning!

Nine years and night out

Jeremy and I celebrated our ninth anniversary yesterday! I went for a swim in the morning and came home to find yummy strawberry crepes for breakfast!  He also gave me a really sweet card.  I can't share what was in there with YOU!  So don't even ask ;)  Suffice it so say...I love my husband!  During the day we took care of the kids and ran errands, but I was really excited for our date that night.  Jeremy had booked us a slot at the Denver Escape Room.  

A couple of months ago I saw a short segment on an escape room in New York so I had some idea of what to expect.  The idea is that you are given a scenario.  Ours was that our grandfather had just passed away and wanted us to have his pocket watch.  Unfortunately we only had one hour to find it until the demolition crew arrived to bulldoze his apartment.  Inside the room we are given one clue as a starting point and need to find the pocket watch.  As we searched the room we found multiple boxes with combination locks, sets of keys, and a cryptic letter.  Jeremy and I got to work right away and I thought that we had this in the bag.  I mean, we're both smart, intelligent, problem-solvers right?  Wrong!  I kept getting so flustered that I couldn't find the combinations that it was seriously clouding my judgement.  Jeremy on the other hand was a natural.  He knew exactly where to look for clues and how to find what we were looking for.  We were missing just a couple more clues when the timer went off.  Oh it was so disappointing!  We failed!  

The owner came in to talk us through the few we missed so we didn't leave frustrated, but I still wished we could have figured it out in time.  Lessons learned: don't ignore the first clue.  If it has numbers, it's important and not to be tampered with.  The clues can be fairly obvious, so don't go making a mess out of something that you might think is right.  Look over everything your partner looked at so nothing is missed.  And have a good time!  Really, it was an awesome date.  We talked about it during the drive to dinner, at dinner, on the way home from the date, and as we were falling asleep.  There are more rooms there to solve and I would love to have another chance.  I was so grateful to be spending the night with Jeremy.  He has been an amazing husband and I'm a lucky girl to have him.  

The wiggle worm, mountain goat, dirty kid, sweet kid who is Kelton

Kelton, Kelton, Kelton.  I love that kid A LOT!  But true to stereotype, this boy has A LOT of wiggles that sometimes drive me up the wall.  There are also moments, though, when his sweet little personality comes through and I just have to give him A LOT of kisses.  

Here are some of his wiggly moments.

He likes to open drawers and cabinets.  Walking through my kitchen is like testing out my obstacle course skills.

Playing in his Olaf costume.  It's hard to climb up stairs and chairs as a pudgy snowman, but he somehow still manages just that.

Here are some of his dirty moments:

Eating.  Period.  He refuses a bib.  He refuses help.  And a lot of times he refuses silverware.  It's a good thing he lets me wash him off before he runs and plays.  When I rub off his face he sticks out his tongue, so I'm always getting slimy kisses as I scrub.

Playing outside.  My girls went through this stage too.  They just love being outside, rain or snow.  I let him out in the backyard while I brought in the groceries and expected him to play on the slide.  Instead he found a bucket and shovel and played in the dirt.  

Here are some of his personality moments.  Leesa sent some sunglasses for him and when I put them on for a picture, this is the look he gave me.

He loves books.  Jeremy caught him reading a book to Jelly one night before bed.

Another modeling shot.  He is such a copy cat.  The girls tried on the sombrero and he just had to try it on too.

He still isn't talking.  He makes a few sounds that could almost be considered words: hi, ba (ball), bu (book), cks (socks), ca (car), but unless you can put the words into context it's really hard to know what he's talking about.  To help, I've tried teaching him sign language.  I don't know more than a handful of words myself, but I checked out a baby sign encyclopedia from the library and we've been using that a lot.  He picks up on the signs so quickly!  His signing vocabulary includes, cheese, milk, yogurt, cracker, orange, banana, applesauce, water, juice, blankie, all done, more, truck, bubbles, night-night, baby, please, socks, shoes, bath, bug, bear, dog, bird, duck, monkey, fish, help, book, grapes, noodles, bye-bye, mommy, and can point to all his little body parts.  I tried taking pictures of his signs, but they all looked the same on camera.  This one is peek-a-boo!

And then there's the boy that melts my heart.  He is great at giving loves, and squeezes.  Cambrie was so excited that he received one of his hugs at dinner one night.

Then my sleeping boy.  The one who needs to rest up from all the chaos he caused during the day and prep for another round tomorrow.

Another broken collar bone

My mom has had a rather extreme and unfortunate month.  Early this month she fell hard while skiing and ended up in an emergency room that night.  CT scans showed that her kidney was enlarged, displaced, and there was a lot of internal bleeding.  She spent ten days in the hospital as doctors and specialist tried to figure out what was wrong.  Ultimately they decided that she has a cyst on her kidney that causing the malformation and displacement, and once the bleeding from the fall subsided she should be good to go with no complications.  During those two weeks I was really struggling on whether or not I should drive out to help her.  Ultimately I decided to stay home.  Two weeks later she went skiing again and fell on a mogul run.  Her kidneys were fine this time, but she broke her collar bone!  When my family received the text...I should feel bad about this but I almost don't...we laughed!  Alan commented that it was all well and good to get back up on the horse, but maybe it's time to kill the horse.  This time I did drive out to help knowing full well what kind of challenges she was going to have.  I checked Cambrie out of school and took all three kids to Utah for a  long weekend.  

It was strange being on the other end of a collar bone break.  I did what I could to help and winced every time she winced, stood up, sat down, got dressed, or moved just wrong.  An added bonus of going out to help was that I was able to go running with Camille, the girls were able to play with Faye, and I got to meet Sammy for the first time.  I felt really bad when we had to make the drive home.  My mom was healing really quickly, but she was still injured.  Miraculously only two days after I left the doctor gave her the okay to drive again, let her arm out of her sling for short periods of time, and even to work.  I couldn't believe it.  It took me a month to get to that point!  I'm just glad she's doing better.  And I hope the rest of the ski season is a lot less eventful.

Five grandkids!  What?!

Rapunzel hair