Day at the Pumpkin Patch

The sun was shining, the kids were healthy, Jeremy had the day off work, and we didn't have anywhere else to be, so we finally made it to the pumpkin patch!  Kelton was in pumpkin heaven.  "I want this pumpkin!"  

"I want to take this pumpkin home!"  

"This pumpkin is mine!"  

"Can we buy this pumpkin?"  

The kid went from pumpkin to pumpkin claiming them as his own, and there were a lot of pumpkins to claim!  

This dude like the excursion too, just because he got to be outside in the sunshine.

Cambrie was on a hunt for the strangest looking pumpkin she could find.  We ran into a lot of squishy pumpkins that were strangely shaped, but she eventually found one that looked like it was melting and that's what she decided to go with.  

McKenzie looked at nearly every pumpkin in the patch, but none of them met her level of expectations.  She wanted a tall pumpkin, and none of them were tall enough.  When we had literally wandered from one side of the pumpkin patch to the other we helped her settle on one that was pretty tall.  

Amid the pumpkins with my pumpkins!

After everyone had chosen their pumpkins, we started to drive out of the pumpkin patch, but as we passed a field of corn Jeremy had an impulse to run through the corn.  Each of the kids wanted to join him in his race.  Ready, set, go!  

It took me about three seconds after they disappeared into the corn to realize that this might not be the best idea.  No one told the kids how far to go or when to stop.  As soon as I lost sight of Kelton in the corn I started getting a little worried.  Jeremy came running back out of the corn...alone.  Ah!  Jeremy, your kids are still in there!  He went back in and I could hear him calling Kelton's name, but with the wind blowing the stalks I knew there was no way that Kelton could hear Jeremy.  The girls came out, and I kept waiting.  Finally I saw the orange of Kelton's shirt peaking through the rows of corn.  What a relief! 

 I went in a ways to see what it was like, and I have to admit, it was pretty peaceful in there.  

Once we had everyone accounted for we headed to the slides and bounce houses.  Daxton held on to Kelton's lollipop while Kelton was jumping and he was in ecstasy.  I tried taking it from him and I had to pry his fingers away from the lollipop while listening to him scream in defiance.  It was not pretty.  

No bounce house monitors meant that Jeremy and I could slide down too!

The hay bale maze was actually a maze this year.  We all took turns challenging each other to races through the maze-with our eyes closed.  

My knees were covered in straw by the time we were done.  One more year at the pumpkin patch, check!

Ice Blocking

Not only was it Ironman weekend, it was also ice-blocking weekend.  Bruce and Leesa loaded up all five kids and drove them to Utah so that they could go ice-blocking with their cousins.  They made a quick stop at the Kings' house first to play with the dogs, and help make some food.  

Then they were off to their favorite sledding hill.  Up and down.  Up and down.  Those kids never grew tired.  

They liked going by themselves.  

They likes going in a train.  

Mostly they just had fun with their cousins.  

Uncle La Mar showed the boys how the faucet worked.  It didn't take long for them to be stripped down to their underwear because they were so wet.  

The kids all came home from their adventure raving about how much fun it was.

Life back home

Bruce and Leesa came out to watch the kids while we were in Maryland.  As an added bonus they brought Stockton along for the fun.  Mostly they just had a good time hanging out at home, 

taking the girls to school, 

working on Haunted Hollow, 

and even going to Cambrie's soccer tournament.  

We are so lucky that the kids' grandparents are part of their lives.  We love having visitors!

Ironman Maryland

Jeremy's race in Maryland could not have come at a more perfect time.  We both desperately needed a get-away with the two of us, and a race-cation fit the bill.  Jeremy has been really excited about this race.  He has had an amazing season and has just been getting faster and faster.  He also couldn't wait to have a race where he could race all 140.6 miles.  Texas and Florida were both shortened due to weather conditions, and we were crossing our fingers that this weekend would be better.  But as we pulled up to athlete check-in we started having our doubts.  The water was rough, and it was windy. 

We still had one more day until race days and we hoped that mother nature would calm down in time.  

We had plenty of time to relax the day before the race so we found a great breakfast spot at the Bartlett Pear Inn.  Jeremy feasted while I enjoyed the quaint atmosphere.  

After gear drop-off we went to visit the Harriett Tubman museum for Cambrie.  Blue Tooth came along for the ride too.  

We still had time to drive the course.  The run course was pretty with mushrooms everywhere.  Cinnamon Roll, Blue Tooth and I had a little tea party on the toadstools. 

 Jeremy found some of the biggest ones along the course. 

 We had heard rumors that part of the bike course might be flooded because of the storm, but we didn't think it would be too bad.  We were pulled up to the flooded part of the course we realized that this was no joke.  Some of the puddles were only one-to-two inches deep, but the largest puddles stretched for 1.5 miles and was anywhere from 3-7 inches deep.  It was so deep that our car started having some issues.  We really didn't want to be stranded in the middle of the reserve.  Luckily our car made it out, but it sounded goofy the rest of the trip.  Now Jeremy was a little nervous about the bike, but we knew we would just have to be flexible.  

Race morning came bright and early.  Jeremy set up his transition area, put his wetsuit on, and waited with the rest of the athletes for the signal to go.  When the announcement came five minutes after the race was supposed to begin that they needed to delay the start due to the water conditions, we were bummed, we knew that water wasn't going to get any better in the next 30 minutes.  Sure enough, Ironman had to cancel the swim, the water was just too rough.  Some of the athletes didn't take the news too well and were really disappointed.  Jeremy was bummed too because he missed the 140.6 again!

  Ironman changed the start to a time trial start.  This meant that they would start rolling the athletes out of the bike chute based on their bib number.  Because of Jeremy's All World Athlete status his bib number was 358 and he was really close to the start.  I had signed up to volunteer along the bike chute and cheered him on as he took off.  It took almost an hour and a half to get all the athletes on the course, but they made it.  Ironman also decided to change the bike course that morning to avoid the flooded section.  So while most athletes were relieved not to be riding through a lake, 100 miles is sad when they were hoping for 112.  

I didn't see Jeremy again until the run.  His splits weren't popping up for the bike so I had no idea how he was doing, but when he came through my aid station for the first time he was all smiles.  I was on run aid station 5 which meant that I was able to see Jeremy run past me six times during the marathon.  The first two or three times he was just shy of bouncing up and down with excitement because he felt so good.  Dan kept sending me messages to relay to Jer, basically "SLOW DOWN!  Don't cook it too much."  Ultimately Jeremy did a great job holding his pace.  

When he passed my aid station for the last time I had to race him to the finish line.  I was surprised to see a huge puddle on Water Street that the athletes had to run back and forth through.  

Jeremy didn't mind the water, but he was disappointed to learn that the finish line wasn't at the end of it.  He sprinted too early and almost didn't have enough kick left when it was time to really finish.  

He was definitely tired and beat, but he was so happy with his performance.  Bike 4:36.34, Run 3:48.22, Final 8:29.08.  Those splits are super close to a sub 10 hour full race.  That's awesome!  

He ended up taking 14th in his age group!  Man, I am so proud of this Ironman!

Our little cheerleaders 

The day after we went to the roll down ceremony to see how things would play out.  There was almost no roll down at all, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  We still had a couple hours to wait until it was time to head back to the airport, so we made ourselves comfortable at Sailwinds Park and listened to conference on the beach.  It was beautiful and I was so glad we were able to have a weekend away.