Half Marathon

Have I ever told you how much I look up to my kids?  They may be shorter than me for now but WOW! they really amaze me!

 

Ever since last August when Miss K ran a 10K with Anthony she has been dying to do a half marathon. 

Dying… WHO BEGS TO DO A HALF MARATHON?  SERIOUSLY?

Well, since Anthony was going to train her up for one, little A wanted to do it as well.  Yes, I have crazy kids.  At first Anthony thought it would be best to have A do the 10K while he ran with K for the half… Great plan, IF you have someone to run the 10K with the other child.  He tried to convince me to do it. 

PSHHHH!  See how well that worked out for him?  Ha ha! 

So, he had no choice but to train her up for the half as well, which is what she really wanted so she wasn’t at all sad about that.  :)

I admit I was nervous.  I even asked their pediatrician if it was ok for them to run such a distance at their young, tender ages.  He said it was fine so long as they listen to their bodies.  As long as they can talk while running they are fine. 

I was still nervous.

During the training runs Little A had all the energy in the world which is nothing new to us.  She’s always been a little firecracker.  When it comes to anything athletic she just seems to have a natural ability to do… whatever.  K has to work harder for it but I think she appreciates it more for all the hard work she puts in to it.  Little A would run circles around K (all this according to Anthony, of course… I wasn’t there ;)) and still have energy to spare when they got home. 

CHILD!… you do realize you just ran 8 miles, right?  Sheesh! 

And Miss K surprises me every day!  She just really loved every exhausting training run they did.  The jealous bug bit her in the butt for only a short time until she came to me one day and said, “I’ve decided it’s a lot more fun to be happy for somebody than to be jealous.”

Proud momma moment right there! 

Her runs were even better after that epiphany, too. 

The night before the race, Little A was so nervous.  She came out of bed to us sobbing.  She was scared and couldn’t sleep.  We assured her that this run was absolutely not a mandatory thing.  She was welcome to back out at any point.  A little lavender on the feet and hug later she was feeling much better. 

I had been told the night before to be at the park where the race ended at 9:30.  That way I would be sure to see the girls and Anthony cross around 10:00 am. 

Well, that only works if your children cooperate and VOW to not cross the finish line until at least 9:45. 

There I am, 9:32, parking… right then!!  And my sister calls to let me know that she just watched Little A cross from a distance.  She hadn’t made it to the finish yet either.  UGH! 

So, I have no pictures of her crossing the finish line.  :(  And I just knew I had missed Anthony and Miss K. 

Once I found A at the finish (and apologized for not being there just 5 minutes earlier) she told me that it was just her.  Anthony had run her across the line and gone back for K.  A had finished in 2 hrs. 21 min.  About a half hour later Miss K came along.   2 hrs. 50-ish min. 

WOW!  13.1 miles… CHECK!  They inspire me.  So much so that I even went and got me some running clothes.  Not so much because I really want to run.  I still think it’s devilish.  But for the sheer fact that I would like to see my husband once in a while!  I figure I have to run to hang out with him.  Tuesday night was our first run.  It was the devil!  But I finished a 5K.  Go me! 

But back to my girls… they are amazing!  So inspiring that complete strangers asked to have their pictures taken with them.  They got 1st and 2nd in their division.  (I think they were the only ones in their division to be honest but who the heck cares!)  Still #1 in my book! 

 

Orangesicles!

Miss K has wanted to make popsicles all summer long.  The other day she got her chance!  She found a recipe on Pinterest that she wanted to try.  It was extremely simple and ever so tasty!  Mmm! 

All you do is mix the following ingredients together, pour into your molds, freeze, and enjoy. 

• 6 oz thawed orange juice concentrate
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Source:  A Night Owl Blog

Our Pathetic Garden

Gardening has never come naturally to me.  Growing up my mom and dad grew tomatoes.  Maybe they grew other things as well… I remember tomatoes.  I was never really part of the process.  Plants grew, it was brought inside (from either the garden or maybe the grocery store?), food was prepared, and I ate it.  That’s what I know. 

Anthony grew up with the master gardener himself… his dad.  He grew everything.  Anthony remembers rows and rows and rows of corn, lots of potatoes, tomatoes, squash, peppers and much more.  He helped to till the dirt many times over the years.  However, he doesn’t seem to have picked up the green thumb gene.  It must skip a generation.  It’s the only logical explanation. 

I personally have only heard stories up until now about this infamous garden my FIL grew each year.  My in laws moved from their home around the same time Anthony and I got married.  They had lived in rentals until a couple years ago.  This is the first year since then that they’ve had a garden to speak of.  I’m jealous!

Since moving into our home over 7 years ago we have tried to grow a garden 5 times.  Each time we got nothing!  Actually that’s not exactly true…

Garden #1 – The plants grew and actually produced but we weren’t diligent enough to keep up with the weeds.  Then we kind of forgot about the vegetables.  Yep, we’re awesome!

Garden #2 – Tried a new thing (supposedly weedless) … Square Foot Gardening.  We followed directions to a T!  Went to the nursery for transplants, planted, things were growing well for a couple of weeks then we had a late freeze which stunted the growth of the plants.  They all lived the duration of the respective plant’s life span and even got a few flowers but never produced anything.  The plants were too small. 

Garden #3 – SFG again… nothing grew.  All were transplants again but didn’t grow.

Garden #4 – (last year) – same as the year before.

Garden #5 – (this year) – Tried a traditional garden again.

Well, it kind of worked.  This time we did it all from seed.  We started them inside where they all took off like champs! 

But I knew better than to get my hopes up.  All we knew was that we were desperate for something… ANYTHING… to grow.  Which is why we grew radishes.  (Yuck!)

HECK!  We would have planted SPAM seeds if we thought they might grow!!!  Seriously.

Anyway, I was right in not expecting much of my seedlings.  Once I got them outside they all shriveled up and died.  All but one…

BIG MAX!  He’s so big I can’t even get him all in the picture.  {That’s a lie… I just don’t want to step back far enough for you to see that we never got our grass put in.  Shh!}

He is the winner!  A pumpkin plant.  The bees like him, too.  

So, we may not get anything to actually eat from our garden but by golly, we’ll definitely have something to carve this Halloween!

But I did plant seeds again.  This time I just planted directly into the ground.  Most of it didn’t grow.  They didn’t like my black thumb.  But we did get a few things. 

Corn…

(What is this?  Is it flowering already and we won’t get corn?  Anthony says it’s normal… I’m skeptical.)

Lettuce… (Italian Blend.  Way too strong tasting for us.)  See all that extra space around the lettuces?  That’s where other plants were planted but didn’t grow. 

Radishes… (no pics because they’ve already been harvested.  We got a total of 4!  I think I planted at least 15. :))

Another variety of pumpkin… (Little Max)

These ones are in the SFG box.  Growing slowly and slightly yellow.

Garden Beans… (no beans yet)

Oh, and look what Big Max is doing!  Hooray!

But look what else he’s doing… Boo!  :(  Maybe it’s normal?  {Please tell me it’s normal!}

**Things that were planted but never grew… tomatoes, carrots, peppers, spinach.  Cucumber and Cantaloupe were also planted and actually started growing but didn’t stand a chance against whatever pest decided to come and eat them while they were still too young and innocent to defend themselves.  Stupid bugs!**

Did you plant a garden this year? 

 

The PERFECT Burger!

I don’t know about your neck of the woods but here in mine… IT HAS BEEN HOT! 

I’ve always said that I much prefer the cold to the heat.  I’m pretty much a bear in reverse.  Hibernation happens during the summer months for me.  Otherwise I turn into the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Seriously…

Don’t ask Anthony about the Lagoon incident.  It was reeeaaaally hot that day.  The end.

So anyway, the nights have been nice lately.  A little thunderstorm rolls in, cools things off a bit, don’t have to worry about watering the lawn or the pathetic garden.  And then it’s hot again. 

But I really didn’t mean for this post to be about the weather.  Let’s talk burgers!

Anthony has perfected the art of burger grilling.  He is the burger master!  The king!  It all started when we kept seeing pins on Pinterest with these delectable burgers.  We’d look at the recipe and think… hmmm, we should try that someday. 

And then one day we did.  There was no looking back from there. 

So, although I couldn’t even begin to tell you which one was ‘the one’ that we actually went for (they were all so similar), I can tell you that Anthony has got this down to a science.  No true measurements or anything just one of those “to taste” recipes, really.  And of course his secret ingredient… BACON! 

And so, for your viewing (and tasting) pleasure, I present to you…. THE PERFECT BURGER!!

And some Sun Chips but really, you could switch that out for whatever… totally optional. ;)

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Ground Beef (he likes to use 85/15)
• Mozzarella and/or Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
• Seasoning salt
• BBQ Sauce (Anthony swears it has to be Jack Daniels Original No. 7)
• Bacon, cooked 3/4 of the way and chopped
• Bacon Grease

Make sure the grill isn’t too hot.  These need to cook fairly slow so that the inside is done at the same time as the outside.  You don’t want these babies to burn!  Nothing worse than having the outside charcoaled and the inside still red. 

Cook bacon about 3/4 of the way.  Not to the point of crispy.  Chop into small pieces.  OH and save the GREASE!  Anthony swears by this!

For every pound of ground beef you’ll add approximately 1/4 to 1/2 lb. bacon, 4-8 oz. cheese (whichever kind you prefer), 1 or 2 Tablespoons Seasoning Salt, and 1/2 to 3/4 of a bottle of BBQ sauce.  Then get your hands in there and just mix it all up!  It’s a messy process. 

Form into patties.  One pound makes exactly 7 burgers for us.  This is just the right amount for my family.  The burgers are thick!  Form a deep well in the middle, this is important! 

Once burgers are on the grill pour bacon grease into the well. 

Flip when that side is done (after a few minutes) and continue cooking on the other side.  Obviously, right?  (You never know… there are people that sue McDonald’s for having hot coffee… don’t most people prefer it that way?  Just sayin’.)

These burgers are so tender they literally fall apart in your mouth!  I think it’s the slow cooking that does it.  OH MAN!  They are GOOOOOD! 

Seriously, go make them.  Enjoy!

Homeschool Through the Summer (Even if you don’t homeschool!)

{{In case you are wondering… YES!  They are all this excited about summer school!  ;)}}

As a kid I remember always looking forward to Summer because it meant no more homework and no more teachers!  It meant playing all day long with friends from sun up to sun down, ice cream trucks and popsicles, mud pies and bike rides.

By the time school would start again in the fall I had forgotten so much!  I distinctly remember one particular incident where I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to do a subtraction problem where the top number was smaller than the bottom number.  If I remember correctly, it was the beginning of second grade.  We had learned, the year before, how to borrow from the neighbor to the left but… I hadn’t borrowed from a neighbor for nearly 3 months! 

I sat on the couch with my first homework assignment of the year (math) and I remember laughing out loud when the question was 35 – 8 = …

Because 5 – 8 = 0… THREE TIMES!! 

How was that even possible?  I laughed as I walked my homework over to my mom who reminded me to ‘borrow’. 

Good times, good times.

My kids aren’t so lucky.  They don’t take an entire 3 month hiatus.  We school year round because we take breaks whenever we feel a burn out coming on.  Sometimes one kid is breaking while the others are still chugging along.  Or we break on some subjects but not others.  That’s the beauty of homeschooling!

This summer is going to be so much fun!  I had a friend in my ward call up and ask if we would be interested in forming a small group of kids for a book club. 

HECK YEAH!! 

Three of us and our kids met up to discuss the details and set it all up.  We decided ages 8-12 would be perfect!  However, there is another mom that has a 6 year old that wanted to do it as well, and one of the moms at the meeting also has a 6 year old so it was decided that we could do two separate book clubs.  The two little ones along with H because even though H will be eight next month, she is still not quite ready for the bigger books on the docket for the older kids. 

A schedule was made with a list of all activities planned.  Two moms are in charge of the activities each Thursday throughout the summer (the moms that don’t have little ones at home) while myself and another mom are in charge of the book clubs on Tuesdays each week.  We will rotate having the little ones and the older ones. 

My kids are excited to be doing this with some of their friends and I am excited that we have a plan!  Mind you, these other families do not homeschool.  They do, however, have a vested interest in their children’s educations.  I look at all of these families and think, they would make AWESOME homeschoolers!  But I realize that it’s not for everyone.  And in their own way, they ARE homeschooling!  I love that they have a plan for summer as well! 

In case you are interested here is a list of the activities planned. 

• June 13 – Make bread
• June 20 – Picnic at the lake
• June 27 – Learn about and make kites
• July 4 – No activity planned
• July 11 – Fly kites at The Great Salt Lake
• July 18 – Learn about indexing
• July 25 – take Trax downtown
• August 1 – Make baby burritos (not sure what that is)
• August 8 – Family History Class
• August 15 – Go on a hike 

 

As for the book club, here is a list of the books we plan to read and discuss over the summer for the big kids.  

• June 11 – Bring your favorite book (novel) to tell the others about. 
• June 18 – The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• June 25 – The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt
• July 2 – Bring your favorite childhood picture book to discuss
• July 9 – Choose a Childhood of Famous Americans book to read and discuss.  Dress as that person.
• July 16 – SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting
• July 23 – The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and Yoko Tanaka
• July 30 – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• August 6 – The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• August 13 – Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan

 

Obviously, this is just a guideline.  We have a total of six kids in the older group.  Some of them are not readers.  They just don’t like it.  This is the case for the mom’s son who approached us about this group idea.  She just wants him to start reading and enjoy it.  And then there are the 8 and 9 year olds in the group.  They aren’t going to read as quickly as K or her friend who are both bookworms and could read Harry Potter within a couple of days. 

If we start to see that things are just going way too quickly for some, we will simply slow it down.  Discuss one book for two weeks if we have to.  That might mean that we aren’t able to get through them all and that’s ok. 

For the younger group we are simply going to read and discuss a picture book each week, one with a message.  Or a short chapter book that moms can read to them during the week without losing their attention. 

What about you?  Do you school your kids during the summer months?  Are your kids in year-round school?  What do you have planned? 

 

 

Building A Nest

I don’t do nearly enough homeschooling posts. 

On that note, we tried building a nest this week.  A nest.

For birds.

Not as easy as you might think!  My girls learned quickly that they would not make great birds.  They can’t build a brilliant nest.

{That… and they can’t fly… weird!}

Their science book suggested the project and so they thought they’d give it a go.  They had just learned about all the different types of nests that birds make.

Ingredients were gathered.

Mud…

Sticks and twigs…

Weeds…

And with that they set to work.

 

They even tried soaking the twigs in hopes of making them more ‘bendy’.  The dry ones kept snapping.

In the end, they came up with a great little basket thing (or maybe a potholder?)

And C made some delicious pies!  (He was so proud!)

H was determined to build a nest.  This is what she came up with. 

She even put it up in the tree because she thinks a bird might use it.  I don’t have the heart to tell her otherwise.  It could happen!

 

Sunday Walk

So much to catch up on… Let’s see, Baby B has a tooth as of April 8th (much to the detriment of his nursing mother… he’s a biter!), he also started sitting up all by himself a couple days later, and at his appointment at exactly 5 months old he weighed 18 pounds 11.5 oz.  The kid is HUGE! 

Anthony ran the Salt Lake Marathon with his sister at which they remembered the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing last week.  This was the first big city marathon in the U.S. since all that happened.  Anthony said the security was CRAZY!  Bomb sniffing dogs at the Trax drop off, helicopters flying overhead, and more than usual police officers on hand at every turn.  He said it was pretty neat but a little eerie.  {What a weird word… eerie.  No?  Just looks so wrong.}

Meanwhile, I was unable to be at the finish line due to a conflict with K.  She had a clogging competition she was doing.  It wasn’t required as she is not yet on a team but she wanted to give it a go.  I worried about Anthony not making it to see her perform her two solos but he made it!  He ran the marathon quicker than he’s ever run that particular one.  And he did it in the rain!   

Miss K got a 1st place on her first solo and a 2nd place on her second one.  Not bad considering she learned it in a week and messed up quite noticeably on one part.  We were just proud of her for trying!  I love that she’s so willing to try new things and it hardly seems to phase her at all.  No apparent nervousness or anything. 

And thank goodness for Spring!!  We have missed our traditional Sunday walks.  This past winter just seemed to drag on forever so when the opportunity to get outside presented itself, we jumped on it.  Thank you, sunshine!

But before we could go on a walk, we had to do the whole church thing.  I wasn’t so sure that I was going to make it since my mastitis decided to flare up again Saturday night.  That and the fact that a couple of the kids were starting to get coughs and sore throats.  But we woke up feeling much better.  A good night’s sleep can do wonders! 

Poor Anthony had a rough morning.  No, not the sore muscles from running.  More like a major brain fart! 

He got up at 6:30 and got ready for his High Council meeting…. the one they had changed to NEXT week.

Also, he was supposed to speak in another ward in our stake.  He decided to go a little early.  Got to the church about 40 minutes early and decided to go into a quiet room to go over his talk.  The ward started at 9:00 am.  At 8:55 he walked into the chapel to go take his seat on the stand when he realized there was already a High Councilman there. 

HE WAS AT THE WRONG BUILDING!! 

I laugh, because it’s seriously funny.  Made it to the RIGHT building with 2 minutes to spare.  The bishopric couldn’t have been more delighted to see him.  And his poor speaking partner was beginning to think he was going to have to take up the whole meeting. 

I’m still laughing about it.  Poor Mr. Head!  {Yes, that’s what I call him.  Always have… and no, I don’t know why.  I also call him Afony Jameson.  Jameson is NOT our last name.  I’m just awesome.  That’s all I have to say about that…}

Here are some pics from Sunday.

Sitting up all by himself.  H’s hand really doesn’t need to be supporting him but she thought it necessary to be there just in case. 

Oh how I love chubby baby hands and feet!! 

But now let’s talk about walking.  On Sundays.  I love Sunday walks!  I welcome them back to my life.  At least until next winter.

The destination:  Duck feeding area. 

Mode of transportation for B:  tricycle… 

…until he realized that was far too slow.  Then he was off and running.

C, however, made it all the way on his training wheels.  And yes, normally we make him sport a helmet.  Not sure how he got away with not wearing it.  Parents of the year right here!  ;)

Look how cute they are.  Yeah, this position lasted about half a second.  Then the boys realized they had been sitting still for a fourth of a second too long. 

The ducks were boring.  None of them wanted the bread.  The kids enjoyed ‘nature’ on the way home.  Even dandelions. 

Demolition Men

We moved into this house about 7 years ago. 

In the winter.

Little did we know that the backyard was not covered in luscious, green grass come spring and summer.  Oh no, it was covered in lovely weeds. 

Anthony tried his hardest to keep the ‘lawn’ mowed and looking nice.  Well, as nice as trimmed weeds can look.  I mean, there’s only so much you can do. 

The plan was to put grass in ‘next summer’.  That was the plan….. every summer!

Um, yeah.  Next summer never came.  We just kept trying to keep it looking… reasonable.  But it wasn’t.  It just became a giant potty pad for the dog.  Landmines… everywhere.  Until now. 

I’M SO EXCITED!! 

One day, very soon, my kids will have a real yard to play in.  They might actually prefer the backyard to the front. 

A couple weeks ago we rented a tractor.  Is it a tractor?  A contraption of some sort anyway. 

Good thing I wasn’t in charge of it.  I don’t even know what it is.  All I know is that 1) Anthony gutted the entire yard, 2) the boys thought they were in some sort of heaven with that thing here, and 3) we have been waiting for an opportunity to get rid of that stupid shed for YEARS.  We never used it, it was full of the previous owner’s garbage, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a dead cat or two in there.  Plus the roof may as well have not been there at all.  The hole in it was about the size of a giant beach ball.  A highly effective piece of tin that shed was.

Doesn’t my Afony look hot from behind?  {Mom, don’t read this!} He looks good from the front, too but seriously…

This is how the kids watched much of the action.

Even Moe got excited about his new play area.  {Have I ever introduced you to Moe?  I think not.}  Blogland, this is Moe. 

He’s our doofus.  But we love him.  Except when he gets into the garbage and chews up diapers.  Or when he darts out the front door because the kids left him an opportunity to do so.  Luckily, his bad hips have slowed him down enough in the past several months that K is able to catch up with him so he doesn’t end up running the neighborhood.  Or at the pound.

This is the boys… in Seventh Heaven!  They were devastated when we had to take it back the next day.  Every day since, C has asks when we’re going to buy our own.

I can’t tell you how excited we all are at the thought of an actual yard.  One that we can play in and entertain in.  What will we do with ourselves?  Guess I better add ‘Doody Duty’ to the chore list, eh? ;)

Deck railing coming this summer, too.  Now if only we could afford a new fence between us and the back door neighbor.  He hates us!  (Actually, he hates Moe.)  UGH!

Pictures, Marathon, Friends…WOW!

**WARNING:  High volume of pictures… and a video… but first there’s a whole lot of babbling!  Warned again.

It was one of those weekends!  Jam-packed and so much fun… yet so much drama! 

First off, I took the kids to get their pictures taken.  My mother-in-law had given each grandchild $50 for the new school year.  Since we homeschool and we don’t get the traditional school pics every year I decided to have some taken. 

That was an adventure!!  I was worried about doing it by myself with the boys… Anthony had to work.  When I had first mentioned having pics taken to C he asked if they would give him a shot. 

I opted not to tell him that pictures are sometimes called ‘shots’…

He was satisfied at ‘no’.  So, that morning we gathered up a few personal items to take with us for the shoot.  Each child brought something meaningful to them.  For C I chose to bring Anthony’s cowboy hat and boots since C is always wanting to wear them.  We brought B’s Utah jersey, a football, and Anthony’s UTE helmet because seriously, the kid LOVES football!  And he’s got a pretty great cheer for the Utes! 

The girls brought their own things; American girl dolls for K, gymnastics outfit and doll for A, and a stuffed Goofy for H. 

The photo session went remarkably well!  Boy was I glad for that!  The boys cooperated and thought it was so funny when the lady did her shenanigans to get them to smile. 

Shenanigans… don’t you just love that word?

Anyhow, then of course there was “The Sale”.  UGH!  How I hate that part!  She had to explain to me every stinkin’ package and show me every stinkin’ special effect they could do with the photos.  I told her I was very limited in my funds.  I wanted the $3.99 per sheet deal and I was NOT going to go over $50 total! 

She didn’t care… she still went on and on about how great this package would be and that effect would be.  I didn’t physically roll my eyes but in my mind my eyes were rolling all over the place.  I knew what I wanted already!

Meanwhile, the boys were getting extremely restless so I sent K to the front of the store (Target) to buy a pack of M&M’s for each of them.  But of course the rest of the kids can’t possibly sit patiently next to me and wait… Oh no, they had to go with her. 

She came back… leaving the rest of them at the checkout to ask if the M&M pack was the right size.  Like I care what size!  Just get the M&M’s and get back here!  Silly goose.  They finally come back, eat their M&M’s, lady is still going on and on, and the boys are out of control.  K was kind enough to follow them around for a few minutes and then….

Here she comes, crying… with a fan thing stuck in her hair!  NICE!  It just doesn’t get any better.  C had got this little candy fan stuck in her hair while trying to show it to her.  We had to cut it out.  Never a dull moment!

And the lady STILL went on.

I was finally able to order what I wanted (didn’t go over the $50, hooray!) and we left.  PHEW!  Got that one out of the way.

Can’t wait to pick up my pictures tomorrow.

Now let’s talk friends… and a marathon.

Friday Anthony took the day off because we were going to Logan for a marathon on Saturday.  Lucky for us we have some friends that live there.  Even better is the fact that they live ON the route itself!  The very end of the route which means no driving for me in a town I know next to nothing about. 

It isn’t often that we are invited to stay at someone’s house.  I mean, really… we are a big deal!  And I don’t mean in the sense that we are really cool.  More like we are hard to take on.  We are very rarely even invited to someone’s home for an evening, let alone overnight! 

So when Kevin and Tiffany were generous enough to invite us to stay, along with some other friends of ours (that Kevin and Tiffany don’t even know), we were forever grateful.  They are seriously the coolest people ever!  Unfortunately, I got pictures of all the kids and all the husbands but not a single one of the wives.  WHAT WAS I THINKING??  This is a highly sophisticated one of Kevin.

C and their little boy were instant friends despite the fact that it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen them.  We met at the Brigham City open house before heading to Logan.  C and their little guy held hands for much of the tour.  I had originally planned on staying in the car with the boys thinking they would be asleep by then from the ride.  After all, it WAS nap time.  So, I wasn’t dressed in my Sunday clothes.  The boys were not asleep and they were not happy about staying in the car. 

We all went in… jeans and all.  I’m such a heathen! 

The temple was beautiful and C made sure to introduce himself to every usher we came across.  “I’m C!” 

Some of them were really cute about it and others just wanted to hurry him along.  I was shocked that both he and B did so well.  The last temple open house we tried was a bit chaotic with them.  My little boys are growing up! 

Oh wait… these are the same boys that ran around Target like mad men.

Anyway, after leaving the temple it was off to Logan. 

Tiffany immediately set to work making a spaghetti dinner.  Homemade sauce, breadsticks, salad, the works!  By the time it was ready, our other friends had just arrived.  He was also running the marathon.  They had a babysitter for their little ones.

Kevin and Tiffany insisted on serving us which I felt a little odd about.  So we sat… and as she brought the pot of spaghetti in she ‘TRIPPED’!  **GASP!**  She told A that she had tripped her and the food had spilled all over the table.  A’s face was beet red and I couldn’t help but laugh.  It’s like when someone falls and you immediately laugh but you don’t know yet if they’re hurt… like that. 

Then Tiffany said she might as well finish it off and dumped the rest on the table.  We were all laughing but not really knowing whether we should be.  Then Kevin reached over for the bowl of spaghetti in front of Anthony (minus the meat) and dumped it out, too! 

And then it all made sense… there were forks on the table but no plates.  It was all done on purpose. 

I SO WANNA TRY IT!  Who can I try it on?  I guess if you’re reading this I won’t be trying it on you ;)

We all gathered our portions in front of us and chowed down.  So fun!

The kids had fun playing before and after dinner as well. 

Sleep was much better than the last time we were away from home.

And Saturday was the marathon!  Anthony had taught me how to track him on Endomondo so I would know when to take the kids to the top of the street to watch for him.  That was about mile 24. 

It still weirds me out to think that people run that far… for ‘FUN’!  Really?  Is it really ‘fun’?  To each his own…

That 24 mile mark is also a water station so the K was all about helping any way she could.  That is until Anthony came by.  She planned to run the last couple of miles with him. 

H helped by handing out fruit. 

The other kids just played and waited. 

Then C realized what K was doing and wanted to join in as well.  I am so bummed that the video didn’t capture the cutest part.  Just after it rang (stupid 800 number!) and shut the recording off, a guy grabbed the water from C, thanked him, and C turned around and yelled, “You’re welcome!”  Then he walked up to me and said, “That guy said thank you, Mom!”  It was priceless.

 

The 800 number people couldn’t have waited another 30 seconds… REALLY?  GRR!

There were lots of interesting runners.  Like the barefoot guy and the blue hair guy. 

Finally, Anthony came by.  He surprised C and took a cup of water from him and ran off.  K was off as well. 

And that’s when we had a meltdown.

Apparently C thought he would be able to run with Anthony when he came by also.  Instead we had to head the other way to get to the finish line.  Anthony and K crossed and we were waiting for Nate.

 

That’s when C decided he was hungry.  He ordered a hot dog.  Unfortunately for him I hadn’t brought any cash with me at all.  My purse was at Kevin and Tiffany’s house.  So he just stood there with hunger in his eyes.  The lady finally gave him a pack of Starburst.  Anthony apologized for not having anything to pay with.

 

Nate crossed, we took pics, went to The Pizza Pie Café (gotta try it if you haven’t!), then headed home… TO THE UTAH VS. BYU GAME! 

More about that in another post.  I’m pooped!