1/2 Marathon!

Well, after 3 months of training, the big day finally came last Saturday.  Some friends and I were able to complete our 1/2 marathon, and it was great.  I had done one 5 years ago, and didn't know if I ever wanted to do one again.  About 3 months ago my friends Tiffany and Alice had talked about doing one, and I needed a goal to keep me running, so I said yes, and I'm so glad I did.  Running is not really enjoyable to me, but I love how it makes me feel.  I love the results I get from running, therefore I run. :)

Here we are after the race.  (Thanks Tiffany for the photo which I stole off your blog. :)  The last two miles were uphill, and it about killed me, but I finished in 2 hours 14 minutes and 37 seconds.  My goal was to beat my time from 5 years ago, which was 2 hours and 15 minutes, and man did I barely do that!  (I'm five years older, and have had 2 more kids since then, so I guess that's not bad....)  It was hard, but I'm so glad I did it!  Thanks girls for pushing me, and running with me.  I really wouldn't have done it by myself!  You are all amazing!

Now to anyone reading this thinking that they could never do this, I used to be the same way.  I've always hated running, and when I started I could barely run for 5 minutes.  But you just take it one day at a time.  Start with running for 5 minutes, then the next time do 6.  Keep going, and then one day you realize you just ran 13 miles!!   

California Trip-Pumpkin Patch

Another fun day in California was spent at the pumpkin patch.  We've gone to this pumpkin patch for many years.  It is a family farm with lots of cool animals to see.  You can go pick strawberries, raspberries, and lots of other yummy stuff all year long.

They have a corn maze there, and every year we try to get through it, but seem to never find the end.  There is a giant hay stack you try and find right at the end of the maze.  Every year we give up, and just go back through the exit to get to the hay stack.  This year I was determined to get to the hay stack from the entrance.  After lots of wrong turns, and a couple of wandering little ones, we gave up and sure enough found the hay stack through the exit.  Oh well, maybe next year....
Jared, Jessica, Kelsey, and Dylan having fun on the hay stack.

Kyle, Tyler, and Ashley were excited to climb to the top.  This is where I had to stand and call out Ashley's name for about 5 minutes because she was lost in the maze.  She finally found us.  (Going through the exit, of course.  Why do they make those corn mazes so hard????)
This is my wonderful sister Tammy and her cute boy Dylan.  When she heard I was coming to visit, she decided to drive out from Northern California to spend time with us.  It was great seeing her!  I sure wish they lived closer!
We went on a tractor-pulled hay ride, and the kids thought that was pretty cool.  It took you all around the farm where we got to see walnut trees, sunflowers, strawberry patches, and lots of other fun stuff.  
Going to the pumpkin patch is one of my favorite things to do this time of year.  The kids were a little disappointed we didn't get to take a pumpkin home, since I didn't want to worry about driving them home.  But we did go to Sprouts last night and picked up some, so hopefully we'll get to carve those before Halloween!  

California Trip-Magic Mountain

Well, it's been a while since I posted, and that's because we spent our Fall Break in California at my parents house.  We had a great time, and as always the time went by way to fast.  I think I'll break my posts down into outings we did while we were there.  There are too many pictures for just one post, so here goes.....

We started our vacation with a fun day at Magic Mountain.  I hadn't been there in about 10 years, and the kids had never been, so we thought it would be fun.  Luckily it was a great day to go, and the park was EMPTY!  It was perfect!  Grandma came along to sit with the little ones while the bigger kids rode the big coasters.  They have some pretty cool roller coasters!  If you like scary, big rides this is the place to go!

Here we are just outside the park in front of the Colossus.  That ride has been there forever and has always been one of my favorites!
This was Jessica, Amber (their cousin from CA) and Ashley about to ride the Scream coaster.  It had 8 loops!  I sat this one out as I had just eaten and didn't want to get sick!
This is the kids in front of De Ja Vu.  It was the coolest!  One of my favorite rides there!  I screamed the whole time, and I'm usually not a screamer.
Do you remember these characters?  Wow, cartoons have sure changed today!
After we rode a bunch of big coasters, we headed to the kiddy land to let the little ones ride a few.  It was so nice because since most of the kids were in school in CA, there was no one there.  We just walked right on everything.  Kyle's favorite part was the Thomas the Train rides.  He loved this little train roller coaster.
Even Kelsey got in on the fun, and flew around in the airplane.  She thought it was pretty cool she got to have her own steering wheel.  (Don't worry, I rode next to her when the ride started. :)  

And I was happy to still see this ride still there.  I remember riding in these bird cages when I was a kid (we grew up going to Magic Mountain a lot!)  And I remember when I started getting to big for them, and I was all disappointed.  It's actually a pretty funny ride if you think about it.  Stuffing children in cages and sending them around and around in circles.  Oh well, the kids liked it.

So, it was a perfect day for Magic Mountain.  The weather was nice, and no long lines.  Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!  I was so proud of all the kids.  They went on everything and were so brave!  I remember going to the park and the Revolution ride was so scary.  That is nothing compared to what they have now!  If you love roller coasters, you have to go to this place!  SO FUN!!!

10 Years and Breaking!

So, our house is 10 years old, and I guess that is the magic number for things to start breaking down.  I know it's all part of owning a house, but boy has this been the year for things to break.  You may remember we had that leak last October in our Master Bath, and a few months ago had the leak in our kitchen.  Well, about a month ago, there was a leak in the garage from the water heater.  (Thankfully my brother-in-law installed a new one for us.  Thanks Ryan.)  Well, today I have the air conditioner guy here because ours is giving us problems.  He's pretty sure he knows what it is and is fixing it, but $350 later, and I'm wondering how much more of our house is going to need fixing!  Dave was out with the pool and the pool equipment isn't working right.  I told him our house is 10 years old, and I guess that's the magic number for things to last, cuz it's all breaking now!  Hopefully we'll fix all these things and we can go 10 more years till something breaks.  (We Wish!!!!)

Kyle Turns 3!

Today is Kyle's third birthday, and he's been waiting for this day for quite a while.  It was also a sad day in that we woke up to a phone call early in the morning informing us our neighbor and good friend in the ward was killed by a drunk driver last night while riding his bike.  It was tragic news, and we have been thinking about this sweet family all day, and still trying to make Kyle's day special.  When tragedy strikes, it sure makes you want to hold your kids a little tighter, kiss your spouse a little longer, and thank Heavenly Father for the many blessings we have in our lives.  I just pray his wife will receive the comfort she needs during this time of great sorrow.  I'm thankful she has such a great supportive family close by to help her through this time.

So, Kyle woke up early this morning and came into our room and of course we were up after just hearing the tragic news, and when he came in, his nose was all runny and he had a fever.  The poor guy was sick on his birthday.  He really wanted to go to nursery, but we had to tell him he couldn't go.  Luckily, with a little Motrin, he was able to go through the day not too miserable.  

He has been looking forward to opening his presents for a while.  He has the last birthday of the year, and after seeing his brother and sisters celebrate their birthdays all year, he was glad it was his turn.
I just made a simple sheet cake, and Ashley insisted we decorate it with some boats.  She wanted to make blue frosting and put water on it for the boats, but Mom didn't want to do the extra work, so Ashley said "Oh, that's ok because we can just have it be brown like it is muddy water."  I thought that was a great idea......  
We were supposed to have Dave's family over for cake and ice cream, but we didn't want anyone to get sick, so we cancelled and just did cake and ice cream with our little family.  Jessica broke out her flute and played Happy Birthday while we sang, it was nice to have her playing while we sang.  It kept us on key, which is a hard thing in our family. :)  

Overall, I think Kyle enjoyed his birthday.  Lots of playing with his brother and sisters, and playing with his new Thomas the Train set.  Since it was Sunday, and we didn't get to go anywhere for his birthday, we told him we'd take him to the train park tomorrow with the family and have a picnic dinner, and ride the train.  He is so excited to ride the train!  He is obsessed with them lately.  When I put him to bed tonight, he couldn't stop talking about it.  So, I'll have to post pictures from that later.  Happy Birthday Kyle!  We love you!

Good night.  Go hug your kids, your nieces and nephews, your brothers and sisters, your mom and dad.  Make sure they all know how much you love them.  I know I am going to.

Tagged

So, I was tagged by my SIL to do 6 interesting things about me.  Back in December I did a post similar to this, so I thought I'd better think of six DIFFERENT things.  So here goes.

1.  I am a middle child.  I never felt the middle child syndrome since I was the first girl after three boys.  My parents were so excited to have a girl!

2.  I'm really good at tuning noises out, especially my kids.  Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it's bad.  Dave gives me a bad time when the kids are trying to talk to me when I am in the middle of something and I'm tuning them out.  He often says "Lori, your child is trying to talk to you."  I just get so wrapped up in what I'm doing at the time.

3.  I love to go to the theatre.  I don't get the opportunity as much as I wish, but I try to go to the big ones that come into town.  (Wicked, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera)

4.  I'm pretty frugal when buying clothes.  I don't like to spend more than $10 on an article of clothing.  (Unless it's a dress, or a good pair of jeans)  Dave has gotten me to be better about this, and say it's ok to spend a little more if I really like it.  But it's the other way around with eating out.  I have no problem spending money on a good meal at a restaurant, and Dave would rather save the money and eat at home. 

5.  I love being with family, both my immediate family and my extended family!  I have great parents and great in-laws and feel very blessed in that department!  I love getting together with them!  

6.  I love going on airplanes.  I really haven't been on them a ton, but I love to go on them because it means I'm going somewhere, and I love to go places!!  

I know I'm supposed to tag 6 people to do this, but I'm just going to tag whoever wants to do it.  It's fun read other people's lists, so start making yours!!!!

Oh yea, and I'm supposed to post the rules, but I don't know how to copy and paste on my Mac computer yet.  You all know the rules, just make your list........... 

Grandma Comes to Visit!

Well, we just took grandma to the airport after a fun visit!  We were sad to see her go, but thankful we were able to have her for the five days she was here.  We did lots of fun things and got lots of stuff done.  She is quite the worker, and we were able to get lots of projects done. The first day was spent painting a wall in the garage where our water heater had leaked, while my mom spent the day doing a weeks worth of laundry!!  It was nice to get that done, and Dave was especially grateful it got done so he didn't have to.

The next day we headed over to the new mall and let the kids play at the play place, and walked around a bit.  My mom thought it was funny to put an outdoor mall in a HOT place like here, but she did think it was a great idea they had the misters!  We went to lunch at the Mexican restaurant there, which has the best guacamole EVER!  (If you haven't tried it, you have to!  It is a little pricey, but soooo worth it!)  

The next day we decided to work on another project and headed over to Linens N Things, which is going out of business, and got a great deal on curtains for my bedroom sliding door.  We ended up spending the WHOLE afternoon hanging those things.  Do you ever start a home improvement idea thinking it will be so quick to do, and then everything goes wrong and it ends up taking forever??  Well, that happened to us, and after having the curtains fall completely down on us when we thought they were good, we finally managed to get them up nice and tight.  It was a pain, but they look great and it's nice to have them done.  
The kids loved spending time with Grandma.  Ashley loved the nights she got to read in bed with Grandma, laughing and talking.  And here is Grandma reading a bedtime story to Kelsey.  Grandma sure loves her grand kids!!
Well, after all the hard work during the week, my mom and I spent the day together at the Spa.  We got massages, sat in the steam room, soaked up some sun floating around in the lazy river and the wave pool, and shopped for a while.  I had told my mom I was going to get her a day of pampering for her birthday, so she got it!  We had a great time being together, and I was grateful for the fun memories we were able to make.  
We went to church this morning, then spent the day hanging out together.  The kids loved having Grandma, and so did I.  (Dave also enjoyed it as he didn't have to do any dishes pretty much the whole time.  My mom would do them before we even had a chance to!)  

I'm so grateful for the fun visit from my mom.  Thanks dad for managing at home without her, and we look forward to seeing you in a few months.