Some awesomeness

Marian had her last Cross Country Meet.  The weather was glorious, the course was nice.

And she was amazing.  She PRed every meet she was in and this was her best yet.  Her time was 24:12. So yeah, she was freaking awesome! 

And she was invited to go to Far East in Misawa as one of the 4 girls selected to attend.

I went to lunch with some friends.  We listened to the recommendation of another friend who is kind of a foodie.  I am NOT a foodie.  I do not particularly enjoy tiny establishments that only have 5 items on the menu and they are all weird.  This is my carrot pumpkin soup and ham, blue cheese, fig sandwich. Both did happen to be quite tasty, but nothing else on the menu was remotely appealing. 

 This is Levi.  He is protecting his bone so no one will take it.  He was napping when I stealthily went to snap the photo, but he was worried I might be after his bone and opened his eyes. 

We had a big box.  And Rylee made me laugh so hard with it. 

I finally had one of those mom moments.  You know, when you thought you had until Halloween night to finish creating a pair of dragon wings and then right at bedtime your kid corrects you that no, she needs them for school in the morning!  Aaack!!  I cut the bone of the wings out of heavy poster board and stitched felt around it for the wings. We managed to get them painted before going to bed. Except that the girls used 90% of the purple paint on one side and I had to figure out how to make the last 10% cover the entire other wing.  Good times.....

In the morning I was working madly to finish them and to get a harness on them.  Apparently Rylee did not realize they would be so big and as I finished them up she confessed that she did not, in fact, want to wear them to school.  Sigh. 

Callie is a nut.  She has a mouthful of food and wanted this selfie.  This is the only photo documentation of her playing in the Pep Band at the Kubasaki Homecoming game.   But she did march in the Homecoming Parade and she did play her trumpet fabulously and she had a marvelous time. She is pretty awesome!

Happenings at the house

Delaney took two t-shirts with different issues and combined them to make this shirt.  She's so clever! 

The girls had waaaayyy too much fun taking photos with a funny filter.  The hysterical giggles were unrelenting. 

We ended up dog-sitting this cutie for a couple days.  She was sweet, but I was unaware that when her owner said she was potty trained, what she meant was that she put pee pads down on her carpet on the dogs favorite places to pee. My carpet was not covered, and I was not pleased. 

More fun with filters. 

Why a bunny filter?  

I'm behind on my baby blankets.  People keep having babies and I'm not prepared!

Pre Halloween

Delaney learned to make hair scrunchies.

So she made 10 Halloween ones for her friends.  They were cute! 

Marian and Callie went to the Church Dance.  Callie is a Greaser from "The Outsiders" and Marian is Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games". 

 And Rylee got dressed up for her schools Fall Festival event. She's the cutest cat!

Giza Banta Cliffs

Super awesome friend here likes to go out and do stuff.  So she has incorporated "Anna'sAdventures" and she tried to do an activity every Thursday.  I try to go on them, but thus far only managed to go snorkeling back in September (no photos because ....water). She planned a cliff hike and I was excited to go do something I would not do on my own.  I carpooled the 45 minutes out with friends and it was rather impressive.

You walked down some stairs, then a short path and then it was coral cliffs.  Steep,but climbable. Except that coral is not smooth.

So I got my selfies from the midway point, before it was all coral. Then I ditched my bag and worked my way down to the water. 

I was too afraid to bring my phone, so all photos were from above, which meant I got zero photos of the waterfall, and missed many great and glorious photo opportunities. 

But I did not fall. I did get wet though, because that was part of the fun.  Some of the ladies hiked and swam through the water all the way to that outcropping in the picture.  I did not want to get that wet and I was worried about maiming myself. So I was not THAT adventurous. 

It was gorgeous.  And the pictures I have do into justice. 

Cuteness

This is Levi's favorite toy.  He loves it.  And he is rather possessive of it. 

He also wants to make sure you know he has it so you can admire it too. He's a good boy.

 And.... totally unrelated.... Check out this rainbow! The best part is that it ended at the High School!  Hee hee hee!

Those Crazy Kids

I have some silly children. 

Who do some silly things. 

My favorite thing was the day Marian and Callie decided to trade clothes!  It was Epic.  The picked out clothes for each other from their own wardrobe and wore the other's clothes.  So awesome. 

But mostly they do stuff like this. 

Which is pretty entertaining. 

They definitely make me laugh!

Their shenanigans are the best. 

The random selfies I find on my phone are also quite amusing.

Poor Levi puts up with a lot, but I'm sure he is laughing too.

 I know these crazy kids keep a smile on my face!

A Birthday, and yes, MORE Cross Country!

 Rylee had her birthday while I was gone, so we celebrated a second time, with loot when I was home.  She was pleased.  I was dreadful about taking pictures, so there is no proof of cake.  But she was happy with the loot.

Her new favorite animal is the ferret.

And this is a "Purrito".  A stuffed cat in a burrito wrapping.

 It really was a nice birthday, I promise!

I even went to lunch at school with her and her friends.  So she felt special. 

And if you think all the Cross Country pictures are annoying, just imagine how Marian feels, having to wake up early so many Saturday mornings to run them!  She's awesome though!

 This was the last race to technically qualify togo to Far East. She was shooting for a sub 25 Knute 5k, but missed it by about 20 seconds.  We were still super proud of her!

Getting back to....Normal?

It was weird to be back home.  I was really grateful for all the friends who took care of Dan and the girls while I was gone.  Several brought dinner over, and many carpooled to YW and church.

This child informed me that I did not need to make her school lunch anymore, she wanted to do it.

Marian had another Cross Country meet for me to attend and I was so proud of her!  She shaved over 4 minus off her time from the first meet I watched her run in!

She had a great sprint to the end and passed two boys.  I was so proud of her.

I finished up my Scuba class.  I had started it before I went to Mountain Home on impulse. This was the only photo.  It documents my first dive in the ocean, even though you can't tell that at all!  But I am now a fully certified Scuba Diver. 

I don't even know why this was on my phone, but I like her! 

I do know why this is on my phone!  I have a silly kid. 

A kid who likes to steal my phone and use odd filters.