Busy Week!

This week felt really busy to us. We had something to do everyday, and by the end of the week, everyone was pretty worn out. The highlights of this week include Ryan completing a century ride (100 miles) on Saturday, and Soren walking for real.

On Monday, Soren got to go to his first Storytime at the library. It was really fun for him, and it was geared for the younger children, 12-24 months in age. Keira was allowed to come, and she made sure she was front and center. Soren does already do some of the hand motions to songs, which is fun to watch. He really likes to shake his sillies out. He really liked the touch and feel books that each child was able to use to read along.

Keira is demonstrating "the mommies on the bus go shh shh shh!"
Soren is shaking his sillies out.



We had fun with chalk once we got home and Soren was asleep. Soren just gets it all over when he is outside with us. Keira gets it all over too, and this is the last of the porch decorations because it never gets washed off.

On Tuesday, Keira had school, and I took Soren over to the civic center because I will be coaching a Girls on the Run team starting next week and needed to meet with the coordinator of the program. When we got back, we played outside a bit. That evening, Keira rode her bike about halfway to Meadowbrook and back.
Here is Keira's artwork from today. She was a bit grumpy in the photo taken by Miss Sheila.



On Wednesday, Keira had her storytime. She had a blast as usual.


After that we met up with Valerie, Katie, and Luke for some playtime at the mall. Soren was making his famous face; he is now usually "talking" when he makes it. Luke is in the background on the lollipop.
Keira and Soren had a great time on the Popsicle.


On Thursday, Keira had school again and Soren had fun playing in piles of blankets and pillows in Keira's room while I remade her bed. He loves soft blankets, pillows, and toys. We are letting him take a blanket to bed now that he is almost a year.

Keira made this at school today. It has glitter on the wings.

Once Keira was home, I got out our Pooh pushcart for Soren, and Keira decided that she needed to play with it. Soren still needed some help with it. I was hoping he would be able to use it to help him walk, but it would get away from him and I didn't want him falling on the sidewalk. He used it mostly up against the porch, when he got a turn.


Once Ryan got home, we went to Maybury and I was able to get in a ride.

On Friday, we had another early morning and got up to go to a Presidency meeting at Michelle's house. Keira and Lizzie got into one of her sister's makeup kits, and the result had Keira with more makeup on than me! She has on glitter lip gloss and eye shadow.
We spent some time swinging at our playground until Ryan got home.
" Cousin It" Oh wait a minute, that is Keira.


Then, we went to Parmenters to get some tasty cider and donuts. Soren got so dirty playing with the rocks. Keira loved the train as usual. She and Soren also enjoyed the small wooden playhouse. Soren took a couple steps, but just wanted to eat the rocks.





We have a cute picture of Keira with her head in here from last year, but she wouldn't let us take her picture. Here is Soren as an apple man.

On Saturday, I was really looking forward to a restful morning and not going anywhere right away. Ryan got up for his PEAC ride at his normal work time, so he was up early to get his 100 mile ride completed. It was the Celebration of Cycling ride, and the goal was to be inclusive of all cyclists and ablities. There were several distances to ride. One of the riders from Ryan's Wolverine group is blind, and is part of a tandem team. He was the one to coordinate the Wolverines for this ride. They averaged 19.9 miles/hour for the ride. This is the Wolverine group that met in the MAGs parking area to ride to the start. Kent is on the far right, and Ryan is next to him. David is crouched in front. Thanks to Eric for taking these photos, and to Kent for posting them.
This is the group from the official start. Ryan, David, and Kent are in the middle.
Kent and Ryan
Kent and Ryan

We finally got up and ready to go run some errands, and heard about the Fall Festival at MSU's Tollbrook Farm that is really close to our house (12 mile and Meadowbrook). I am so glad our neighbors mentioned this to us, because we pushed back our errands to check it out. They had so many crafts set up for children. Keira painted a rock, made a bracelet, colored a pumpkin, made a caterpillar clothespin, sheep from cotton balls, and a pipe cleaner bead worm. We could have done a lot more crafts too. They had several presentations that we skipped, the police and fire department, and snacks. We skipped the hayrides as well, because we were short on time. We had a great afternoon.





Ryan got back from his ride while we were still out finishing up our errands, so he was able to recover for a little bit in peace and quiet and watch some football on TV.
Once the kids were down for their naps, I headed over to Island Lake to do a fabulous run to Kensington and back. I parked where my triathlon club meets and ran from there on the path to Kensington Metropark (about .9 miles), around the trail at Kensington (about 8.5 miles), and back for a total of 10.25 miles. It was a beautiful day for a run and I was able to average 8:36 minutes/mile, and was very pleased. This was my first run at Kensington since Soren was born, and it was felt so nice to be back there. I had to park at Island lake because we haven't had to buy a Metropark pass yet this year, and it is so late to do it for just a few months. I can park even closer to Kensington if I don't want to run quite as far next time.

Overall, the football games were OK. Michigan and OSU won, however, BYU had a bad loss to Florida State.

Sunday was a busy Sunday. We had church, and the children are practicing for their program for next week. After church, we headed over to Kris and Linda's for a quick dinner before rushing home to clean for our home teachers. Our home teacher Kyle, brought his family with him for the visit, and we had a good time sharing stories with each other, especially my conversion story. Also, Soren really took off walking during their visit. Here is a little video from Monday morning:

Up for next week, I start coaching my Girls on the Run team. I will also be taking Keira and Soren to their storytimes and starting to work on getting things ready for Soren's birthday the following week.