Toobabalooza

I ran my first race today with friends, Celeste Knight, Robyn Jenks, Michelle Easton, and Lori Hardman. It was called Toobabalooza and our team was "The Mudders". It was an adventure race consisting of an inflatable obstacle course, a trip up and down the river, running, toob obstacle course, mud obstacle course, more running, swimming in the lake, and finally more running. The catch was that each team member had a toob which you had to hold on to the entire time and all the toobs had to be tied together. Like I said, it was my first race so I didn't know what to expect. I learned one very important lesson: it turns out that I might be mildly, ever-so-slightly, competitive. We had a great time together and luckily Celeste's husband showed up to take pics during the race. The only unfortunate part was that he couldn't get pics where we went through all the fun mud obstacles. Those were our favorite and where our team really shined.

Check out those guns. Oh yeah!

We finished at 1:18:53 and were 4th in our division

I had a great day getting wet and muddy with my fellow "mudders"! Thanks guys!

Mother/ Daughter Camp Out: Take 3

Lillie and I went to our stake's Mother/ Daughter camp out for the 3rd time and had a great time as always. The weather was fabulous and the company was even better. I love you Lillie!

Here is Lillie with a minnow that she caught

At the river going down the "rapids"

With all the girls from our ward that we camped with

Lillie also caught a butterfly. It seemed pretty happy in it's cookie box cage.

First Day of School 2011

Here is Samuel on his first day of Kinder and Lillie on her first day of 2nd grade. They were both really excited for school to start and having been loving it so far. They both have friends in their class that they knew previously so that was really nice for them. I'm so proud of them and I cannot believe that Samuel is already in Kinder!

We're so proud of you baby girl! We know you'll have an awesome year in 2nd grade!
I did a really good job (emotion wise) getting Samuel ready for Kinder and didn't think I'd have a hard time leaving him. There were no tears in me (or so I thought). When I hugged him goodbye an embarrassing amount of emotion welled up and I had to keep hugging him so people wouldn't see me crying. Luckily he didn't notice and he finally pushed me away so he could go play with play-doh. Have a great first year buddy!

The Last 2 Weeks of Summer

Get ready for a very.... long.... post.

So our last 2 weeks of summer were fun fill and jam packed. We started off with British soccer camp for Samuel. They have coaches from Great Britain come and teach the kids some new skills. Samuel loves soccer and had a blast. Here he is in his challenger uniform:

The kids with Coach Damian. It was really funny to watch them in the beginning because the kids couldn't understand what he was saying. He had a pretty thick accent. He would get all excited and give the kids directions and then say "alright, let's go!" Then the kids would just blankly stare at him with "what?!?" expressions on their faces. So funny! After the first day they started understanding him much better though. Samuel had a great time and ended up learning a lot.

In the midst of soccer camp Dianne came to visit/watch the kiddos while Tim and I went camping to celebrate our 8th anniversary. We went away to this place called Inks Lake. It was great to spend time together without having our conversations constantly interrupted!

So here are pics of our camp site:

This was our private entrance to the lake

And this our view from our tent. It was great to sit down by the water at night. There was lots of wildlife: frogs, ducks, blue herons, and something we couldn't identify that would make their calls just after the sun set as they settled down in the marsh. And all day you could see little turtle heads poking up out of the water.

In the mornings when it was cooler we took advantage of the park's great hiking trails. They were pretty rocky which is our favorite kind of hike. There was lots of great scenery, particularly cactus which was just getting ready to bloom. I was fascinated by this stuff and plucked a couple of fruits to dissect back at camp. I've heard you can eat them cooked but had no idea how to prepare them so I tried it raw... I wouldn't recommend it. I'll have to try it prepared correctly one day though.

The other great thing about the hikes was that we never saw anyone else. Love the seclusion.

We spent an afternoon swimming at Devil's Waterhole and jumping from the cliff you see in the background. The picture does not do it justice. The jump is 38 feet down and then into maybe 20 feet of water.

Here is our friend Lucy the Squirrel. We came back after a hike and found that we had mistakenly left a box of muffin bars on the table. Her and her friends helped themselves to 3 of them.

This park has the most friendly squirrels I have ever witnessed. Lucy, and others, would walk right up to our table and wait like a dog. So, we fed her. She would take her loot a foot farther away then sprawl out and nibble it up. After she was full of grapes and cheetos she started burying everything and that was fun to watch too so we threw her a lot of stuff. Then on the way out of the park that day we noticed the DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE - FINE $500 sign. Sorry Lucy. I hope that you do not die from Cheeto preservatives.

On the road between the park and a little town that we frequented there was a fish hatchery. Neither Tim or I have ever visited one so we thought we'd give it a try.

Here's Tim:

"So, what happens at a fish hatchery? Who works here? Where's a guide? A pamphlet? A Sign?"

So we helped ourselves to a self-guided tour. Here is what we found. Half filled ponds, empty holding tanks, and a display with one catfish. Now, I'm sure that this fish hatchery enjoys much hatching, growing, and distributing. But still, I like to enjoy my theory that this is a wonderful government conspiracy to funnel our tax dollars into something else.

On to more sights. One mile down the road from the hatchery is Longhorn Cavern State Park. It was built by the CCC that Pres. Roosevelt started. They built some cool buildings, blazed some awesome trails, and cleared out a pretty great cave. We know, we took the tour. And our guide, Will, or Phil, or maybe it was Bill gave us the low down: deepest cave in TX, formed by an underground river (which is a more rare type of cave), haunted, and movie stars like to party here. Some of his information was questionable. But still, lots of fun and the cave really was a cool place to spend 2 hours on a hot TX afternoon.

One night we took a moonlight paddling canoe tour which was very peaceful. Our guide was nice, but very close to nature. Tim found her a little hard to take and had a hard time keeping a straight face. Good thing it got dark!

On our way home we came across Lakefest 2011... which were speedboat races. They were white trashy and fun. I think ESPN 8 "The Ocho" might even have been there.

And here's Grandma with the kids. They all had a really great time and Tim and I very much appreciate her willingness to come out and take care of them.

We love you Grandma!

Grant pooped after a long day at the pool. This sort of defines our summer. We were pool goers and nappers.

I had a fun girls nite a couple of days ago. We went to this little club and listened to great music from an Austin Blue's band called the Lisa Marshall band. My friend Julie (on the far Left) and her husband are really into the San Antonio swing dancing scene. She introduced us to some of her swing buddies who taught us some steps so we had a lot of fun dancing and listening to great music.

Inks lake was so fun that we decided to take the kids up there yesterday for a last blast of the summer. The same as the beginning of summer we went up there with a bunch of friends from our ward and had a great time.

Lillie and Samuel have always wanted to fish and on this day they got their chance. One of the rangers gave them some lessons then we rented poles for the day. Lillie was pretty good but Samuel turned out to be an expert caster and the ranger was quite impressed. He didn't like the waiting around part so he spend most of his fishing time just casting and reeling in. He was happy!

Lillie kayaked for the first time and was amazing! She paddled all around with no problem.

Almost the entire group

Cliff jumping:

So we're back at Devil's Waterhole. The kids wanted to jump so Tim made them try the little ledge first. This is where Samuel stayed the entire time. I was so proud of him as he has been terrified of water his whole life. Each summer he gets more and more brave but this was just a crazy huge step! Good job buddy!

After the little jump Lillie insisted that she still wanted to jump from the high spot. So Tim hiked her up there, counted to 3.... and she jumped! No problem. She went back and forth between the low and high jump all afternoon with no problems. There were a lot of people on the cove and they were all clapping and yelling for her and for Samuel too. They were the youngest people jumping by far and no one could believe that a 7 and a 5 year old would jump from it. I was a little surprised myself. I spent the time paddling around with Grant, and switching my emotions from terrified to totally proud. I was fine with them jumping I was just scared out of my mind that they would slip off the rock and hit their head, then fall into the water. Thankfully everyone is safe and whole!

We have had such a fun TX summer. We've survived about 3/4's of the heat so far. Now we just have to get through September and October and we can enjoy some really nice weather for a few months! We had a great time with all who came to visit us and with those we went and visited. School starts tomorrow so I'm going to go to bed now and do something that I've been dreading for the past 10 weeks... set my alarm clock.

Happy 7th Birthday Lillie!

Lillie has been waiting for what feels like forever to get her ears pierced. We promised her that she could get them done when she was 7 and she had been talking of nothing else for the past few weeks. She was only a tad nervous going to get them done. The guy doing it was a real slow mover and I was scared she would get one done and then not want to do the other, but she was super brave. Tim later told me that Lillie said to him: "mom said she was really brave and didn't cry when she got her ears pierced and I wanted to be brave like her. So even though it hurt I didn't say anything." So sweet and made me realize even more the influence that we have over our children without even realizing it.

So, without further ado, here are the ears:

Ok, on with the rest of the celebration.
Lillie's 7th birthday was FaBuLoUs!!!! She wanted a diva salon party with pink, black, and white as the theme colors. We made all the decorations together and had a great crafty time. The first pic is some of our handy work: tissue paper pom poms.

And here are Lillie's good morning and happy birthday to you kitchen decorations. It's sort of turned in to a "thing" where we decorate the kitchen the night before a birthday and the b-day kid wakes up to a personalized kitchen. I didn't realize how important this had become to our kiddos until I heard Lillie and Samuel talking about it the night before his b-day and being all excited. I love that they love it!

And here's Lillie party. I had my mom and sister Allison, and my friend/ visiting teacher Brittany over to help Lillie and 9 of her girlies with hair, nail, makeup, and a flip flop craft. Thank goodness I had them!

Here's Lillie getting a new "do"

Lillie after her makeover with her "pinata". Here is why pinata is in quotes. Lillie and I found this beautiful topiary pinata online and wanted to recreate it. We made the pinata and formed about 150 tissue paper roses to cover it. When I settled down with my glue gun, the 150 roses only covered about a quater of it. I'm sure you could feel my pain if you already knew the time I had put into this thing. I was committed. 300 more paper roses + one night staying up until 3am later the pinata was completed. I calcualted that it took 12 hours of my life from start to finish to create. I gave Lillie the choice of whether or not to bash it in and you could not imagine my delight when she said she would rather keep it! So we hung it up from our swing frame and put filled goody bags inside for the girls to take home. It now hangs proudly in her bedroom.

Fabulous flower clips that Lillie and I made for each of the girls to wear

All the girls minus Lillie's friend Aydia after their makeovers

Brunch Time! Can I say how nice it is to throw parties for older kids? The girls were all so well behaved and self reliant. It was great!

Make a Wish!

Lillie with her present from Tim and I... a new MP3 player. Also, thank you to Grandma and Grandpa and the Barnes' for the money that you sent. She went to Target yesterday and bought a Hannah Montana CD that she's been wanting and put it on her ipod. She's in rockstar heaven.

Grandma and Grandpa: you guys sent the perfect present for Lillie. She has been having a blast making bracelets and paper dolls. Here are her first creations:

We did these together so she wanted me to be in the picture too.

Lillie I had such a fun time planning this birhtday party with you. You are my best friend and I love to hang out with you. You are constantly teaching me how to be a better person. I love to watch you grow and learn and I feel so blessed that I get to be your mom. Happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful year being 7. Good luck in 2nd grade!

Lillie at 7:

Favorites -

Books:

Junie B. Jones series, Meet the Faries Series, Tales from Wayside School, and Charlotte's Web. Lillie really loves to read and often stays up late into the night reading. She was the best reader in her class in 1st grade and she read the 2nd most books in her class last school year. One of her favorite things to do is scout out cheap books and garage sales (that's my girl!) and go to the library. She also loves listening to audio books. When she gets a new one from the library she is listening to it constantly.

Food:

Lillie is great at trying new types of food and likes most of what she tries. Her favorite dinner for me to make is Chicken Pot Pie. If she has her choice of restaurants she'll choose, Pei Wei, Panda Express, Chili's, or a local fav Ding How. And she loves to go to Spoon It! for dessert a froyo place where you choose your own toppings.

Toys:

Stuffed Animals! She has a huge collection on her bed. I used to make her go through them and throw them away. But now that I've realized how much she really loves them I've allowed her to keep them all. One of her favorites is this little white kitty that Grandma and Grandpa gave to her onle a few months after she was born when they visited us and the Barnes' in UT.Other than that, Lillie is not really in to toys.

Activities:

Arts and Crafts, big time. Singing at the top of her lungs in her bedroom and pretending she's a rockstar, make believe games where she is in charge and has the best part. She was always telling me about these elaborate games that she would make up for the kids to play at recess time. Climbing on things. This girl is a monkey and climbs anything and everything. She loves to me active and has been waiting to turn 7 so she can join me in my workout classes at the gym. She also LOVES to swim and like Samuel her favorite place to go is the Great Northwest pool. She has taught herself to swim and now happily jumps into 8 feet and goes like a little fish. She is currently working on mastering underwater flips and hand stands. She also loves her dates with mom and dad and her favorite place to go is ice skating.

Movies and Shows:

Lillie is not really a TV kid but if she happens to sit down in front of the tube she like Hannah Montana or any other girly Disney tweenager show.

Places: Northwoods Ice Skating, Spoon It, Witte Musuem, Becca and Ruth's house, Spending the night at Grammy and Grandad's, UT, CA, School, the pool

BFF's:

Samuel, Grant (she is such a good mini mommy to him), Becca and Ruth Holland, Leilani, Alexis, and Ezekiel (from 1st grade Mrs. Chasteen's class), and any dog she finds.

Dislikes:

Being told what to do. (But she's still really goos about doing it) Cleaning her room, raw carrots

***Special things about Lillie:

Lillie is such a special little girl. She is good at being friends with everyone and trying to make sure no one is left out. She loves adults and is always trying to help her teachers out. She has a special place in her heart for all animals but especially for dogs. Everywhere we go that there's a dog she is always trying to cart it around and give it all the love it could possible need. She's been a cuddler since birth and cuddling with mom or dad and night is always really important to her. She is really good at keeping secrets! She is also good at taking charge and gets in moods often where she takes care of everyone and likes to do everything herself.

We love you so much Lillie. Our family is so blessed to have you in it. Happy 7th Birthday!