Tidbits

I have to share a story about today. I had Milk Duds for the kids for General Conference. I make them go to the Sunday Morning Session at the building. It is not very fun and I never get as much out of it, but by golly, we are going to go to church on Sunday! Anyway, they were not well enough behaved to even bother trying to bribe them with the treat, so I waited till they were in the car buckling up to head home before busting them out. Delaney managed to drop one of hers on the floor. As I was pulling the van out of the parking lot, I asked what happened to it. Joshua said he had stepped on it. I asked him to make sure the milk dud did not get left in the car. He said, "Too late, Marian ate it." I said "Eeeewwwww!"

Marian, in a perfectly reasonable voice said, "Why did you say eeewww? It was a MILK DUD!" Like it was perfectly reasonable to eat it because it was a milk dud, no matter where it had been! So funny!

And to randomly skip topics, Savannah went home on Thursday. It worked nicely because Uncle Dan came into town on Thursday. The kids were happy to see him.

Yep, very happy to see Uncle Dan!

I think Uncle Dan may have been thinking he was safer at home. He was a good sport and let them play jungle gym with him for a while. Perhaps I should keep him.

Uncle Dan was also useful in other ways! Callie's bike had a ripped tire and popped tube. I got the necessary replacement tire and tube, but had no clue how to replace them. Uncle Dan to the rescue! And he was good enough to let Callie be his assistant. She is now racing her bike all over the neighborhood again, and complaining that it is a boys bike.

And today, Delaney left her apple on the table. Rylee was thrilled to snatch it away.

She was so pleased with herself and her new gnoshing technique.

I was thoroughly amused by this. But it became less amusing as she forgot that she needed to swallow before biting off more. Apple eating ended after the gagging began.

You've had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

We have a busy September in our family and just this past week, we got to celebrate THREE birthdays! It was fabulous. I do love cake, you know!

First was Rylee's 1st birthday. I know, I can't believe she turned one either! I can't believe I survived it. Whew! Here are the kids all waiting for cake. I went with an angel food cake with strawberry and whip cream frosting. Yummy!

Rylee agreed that it was tasty cake. She only got small pieces so there wasn't much chance for a huge mess.

Callie gave it a thumbs up and asked for seconds.

And the loot... ah, the loot! Rylee loved the attention, and her big brother and sisters were all to happy to help her figure out what to do with the gifts.

She had a good time and it was a fun first birthday.

Dan also had a birthday! He got his favorite- Jello Poke Cake. It was also quite scrumptious.

Someone desecrated it by adding ice cream though. Bleh! Marian said it was tasty and asked for a picture. Perhaps I should have said no.

I think Dan enjoyed his birthday. I know I did, and I know I enjoyed the cake!

Aunt Miranda also got to celebrate a birthday while she was here! Yay! I had hoped for chocolate cake (which is why Rylee did not have a chocolate cake), but Miranda asked for Fruit Pizza Pie. I thought I would have more time to make it, and we were rushed, so the strawberry layer was added as it was served. It was amazingly delicious though!!

And we had to get her some fun presents! heh heh heh!

This is my personal favorite! We gave Miranda something to help her feel better next time she has a bad hair day!

(hee hee hee! I think I am SO funny!)

So the astonishing thing is that with 3 birthdays, we managed to not have any chocolate cake! I may have to make one tonight, just to make myself feel better.

Cousin Camden

We have enjoyed baby Camden visiting! The kids are thoroughly enamored with their little cousin. He bears their close perusal with good grace. He is fascinated by them for a while. Then he is a bit overwhelmed. I'm sure you can understand! Check out how much fun the kids are having with Cousin Camden.

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And now for something different. Rylee is a hoot and has learned that she can scoot the step stool across the kitchen floor. Here she is doing it with great gusto, if you watch the video.

The Face of Agony

I could have titled this blog "I have the best Family" since Savannah and Miranda pretty much spent the entire day watching my children for me. They were awesome! And the kids were alive and well and happy when I was all done.

Why the title, you ask? Why did my children need to be babysat, you ask? Well, I will tell you the story, but it will be a very lengthy one.

Today was Dan's Ragnar Relay. (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/dc/course_maps) That is a 201 mile relay that ends in the DC area. Usually it is composed of 12 man teams and they each run 3 legs of the race. Dan, feeling the need to prove that he is, indeed, superhuman, joined an Ultra Team. That is composed of 6 people, doing back-to-back legs. So they ran twice as far for each leg. Dan's 3 legs were 8.2, 13.6 and then 13.2 miles long.

Dan left Thursday to drive to the start point and he spent the night up there. His team kicked off at 9:30 Friday morning. Dan called me Friday night, sounding dreadful He was miserable sick and had been puking his guts out. His first run had been rough, since it was a lot of rolling hills, but that wasn't the problem. Something happened a few hours after he finished his run and his tummy was not happy, and violently ejected all contents. He was so miserable and he sounded so awful, I was really worried about him. We prayed that he would be better and healthier and able to finish. Dan called me Saturday morning and he sounded normal!

Dan had run his first leg around 5pm Friday. The team lost a runner after the guy ran his second leg Saturday morning; A guy who lacked Dan's intestinal fortitude decided to quit because he felt pukey. When an Ultra team loses a man, the options are to quit or have the rest of the runners pick up the slack. Dan's team decided they would persevere. And Dan was not feeling 100%. He was only able to eat a banana and swig a ginger ale before his race as his tummy was still a little grumpy. Yet, he did, indeed, persevere!

We (Marian and I) had a plan to meet Dan and ride bikes and cheer him on for his third and final leg. Dan had hoped we could meet by 9am. Unfortunately, he team lost a second man halfway through his final leg to a badly pulled muscle. So they had to redistribute those miles to the remaining 4 men. Marian and I drove out to get ready to meet Dan, but the team was moving so slowly, it was 94 degrees, morale was low, and they debated calling it quits. Marian and I ended up roaming the Pentagon City Mall and then going home.

Dan's team did not quit! They continued on, and I still really wanted to support Dan, so after checking on the kids and feeding Rylee, I drove back out. I parked at the Pentagon. I got on the metro (with my bike!) and had to transfer metro lines to get to Bethesda. I had to dash about 3 blocks to get to Dan's meet-up point. Unfortunately, it took me too long to get there, and I missed Dan by about 30 minutes. So I was hoofing it like crazy to catch up to him. I have never ridden my bike so fast! I was zooming along the trail and doing pretty well till Dan called me. Then I nearly crashed my bike and messed up my rear brake (it locked on and wouldn't release. Eeep!) but I discovered Dan wasn't too far ahead. I managed to rendezvous with him and I cheered him on and biked with him to the end of his leg. He ran 13 miles for his last leg! I was so beyond impressed that he RAN it! He ran a total of 35 miles in 2 days with no sleep.

He was even thoughtful enough to leave with me, rather than his team van. We walked to the metro and squeezed the bike on and headed to the car. Dan did what Miranda describes as "he pulled a King Lamoni." That translates into- he passed out on me. Had the train been less crowded, he would have gone down. However, we were squeezed in the train and Dan was squashed between the wall and me, so he just draped over me. That sure freaked out the other passengers, not to mention me! It was brief and he was okay, and we were quite fortunately 2 minutes from our stop! And the other passengers were very helpful. Dan decided to skip meeting up with his team at the finish point. So we just went home. Dan was in bed within an hour. His team had really hoped to finish the race in 26-27 hours, but it took them about 35, we think. (We came home when Dan's part was all over,and there were 13 miles left to run.)

Here are some pictures of my absolutely Amazing man, crossing the bridge less than a mile from his finish point, so he has been running 14 miles just now, and 34 already in the last 2 days. He is so incredible!

Pictures and my Favorite Quotes

My sister Miranda and my sister in law, Savannah are here to visit! We have been having a very good time. It is Savannah's first visit to DC and I feel like she must see everything! So it has been a bit crazy as we try to do stuff while juggling my 5 children and Miranda's super-cute 5 month old baby, Camden. We have done a lot in the last few days and boy, am I tired!!

We walked to the White House so Savannah could check that off her must-see list. My girls were unimpressed.

Camden enjoyed the Korean Memorial more than Delaney who was hot and grumpy. It was a pretty stinkin' long, hot (VERY hot!) day.

The Lincoln Memorial has cool AC in the lower exhibit part. Here Savannah and Delaney are taking a break and cooling off.

Rylee got reeeealy tired of sitting in the hot stroller. Did I mention it was 96 degrees out there? I let Rylee out to run around, and she kept running the wrong way. It greatly impeded our progress, but she felt better. That's the WW2 Memorial in the background.

Delaney had fun posing for lots of pictures.

And here are Camden and Rylee at the 911 Pentagon Memorial. They were properly somber.

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I must share my 2 favorite things that my children have said this week. They are such interesting little people and I love the way their minds work.

Joshua was talking about his friend who said he had better things to do on Sunday than to go to church. Joshua said to me, "What excuse could possibly be more important than church?!" I love my boy!

Marian was talking to Aunt Savannah and told her "My greatest wish in life is to kill somebody with my bare hands. That would be fun." I love my girl, but I am a little disturbed by that, and also strangely amused.