Restful Week, finally

This week was a really restful week for us. Partially because we didn't have much planned purposely, and partially because of a short lived stomach bug that kept us home for a couple of days. After all the company and my race, it was much needed.

On Monday, we kept things really low key. Keira started the day letting me braid her hair, which was fun for me.


We did go outside to push strollers. Soren is taking after his cousin, Chase, and loves pushing a stroller around too. I am glad we have two of them.



I skipped GOTR today because of Keira being sick yesterday. I did take her to my dentist appointment with me in the evening, and she was excited to go. She wasn't sure about Dr Gradolph, but was very excited about the fuss that everyone made over her. She just sat and colored while I had my cleaning and exam. She received lots of goodies, including a new Cinderella toothbrush, floss, ghost toy, pencil, and ring.

Little Soren threw up while I was gone. It was a good thing we didn't do much today. He was in good spirits, though. He enjoyed trying on Ryan's hat.

On Tuesday, I woke up feeling less than stellar, and both kids woke up with crazy hair.


Soren wasn't quite 100%, and neither was I, so we slept the whole time Keira was at school. That was a lifesaver for me, because I felt a lot better in the afternoon, and everyone else seemed to be fine too. This was a pretty quick little bug that we had. Keira made spider artwork at school today.


When Ryan got home, we headed to Maybury and I did a little walk/jog, since I was still pretty stiff and sore from my race. We caught Ryan on our walk, and got another really poor photograph of him.

Both Keira and Soren enjoyed the swings tonight.


I also made a really bad attempt at cutting Soren's hair. The back and sides look decent, however, I should have left the front alone. The good news is that it should look fine in a few weeks I am sure.
Keira tucked her dolls in to bed with her tonight.

On Wednesday, it was wet in the morning, so we did a bit of shopping at the mall. I had an exchange to do and we were nearly out of hand soap. I avoided the play area since we had just gotten over being sick, but then caved in the food court and let Keira and Soren play there. I think this is probably the first time Soren has played in the food court since we haven't been to the mall in a while.



When we got back, it was nice outside, so we did a bit of strolling around the neighborhood before GOTR.
Soren seemed to enjoy watching his shadow.

After GOTR, we rushed over to Ann Arbor so Ryan could get a real haircut, and had dinner at Chipotle. We haven't eaten there in such a long time!

On Thursday, I had my first presidency meeting while Keira was at school. It worked out really well to use that time and we were very effective with the only children being Soren and Haley's baby Garrett present. Keira made this adorable bat hat at school. We stopped at Costco on our way home to get her, and she wore it the whole time we were there. I am glad I took this picture of her there, because of course, as soon as we got in the house, she wouldn't put it back on.


She also made this bat out of her hand prints. Her hands seem so much smaller than all the other kids.

Soren also really enjoyed our neighbor's very large pumpkins. I really like this picture of Soren, and entered it into the babyGap casting call contest, bad haircut and all.

On Friday, we got back into our busy routine. The weather was horrible too, it poured all day practically. We started the morning with a special Halloween Kindermusik that was thankfully very close to our house and had a later start time than usual. This allowed me enough time to get both Keira and Soren all set with their costumes and get Keira's Cinderella hair done. They had a great time at the storytime, especially since we haven't been able to make the Kindermusik's lately due to Keira's school schedule.








After stopping into Trader Joe and then home, we ran up to the mall to meet up with Valerie, Katie, and Luke, who didn't make it to the music class. This time, we did go to the play area. Soren wasn't content to play in the play area, only to push the stroller around it, so we didn't stay long.


After Ryan got home we did a few errands as a family. We picked up the movie, Transformers II, and watched it after the kids were in bed. It was a fun movie.

Saturday was a busy day for me. With the weather being still blah, I chose to run with Valerie and Barb first thing in the morning since Ryan wouldn't be riding. We lucked out and I only had a drizzle during my run to meet up with them, and our run together was fairly dry. I didn't have a ton of time this morning, but I was able to get in 6.5 miles. After the run, I got cleaned up for the day (another plus for running first thing), and took Keira to a baptism at the church. I was to give the welcome as Primary President. Keira had a killer meltdown over her outfit choices before we left, so we were a few minutes late. She was cute once we got there. She kept asked if it was her turn yet. She was also one of the first in line for the cake, and managed to get it way ahead of me with the assistance of her partner in crime (the first to the cake), Lizzie. She dashed off ahead of me and I joked with a friend, I bet she has cake already, and sure enough, she did.
Ryan had the worst day in football, because UM and BYU both lost, and OSU won. I also spent a bit of time attempting to organize Keira and Soren's room, since part of her eralier meltdown was caused by a misplaced article of clothing that had gotten mixed in with summer clothes accidentally. Keira and Soren had a blast playing with her camper that until today, she hated the sounds it made, and it was always off. Both of them enjoyed dancing and "freezing" to the music on it.



Sunday was a pretty typical Sunday. Ryan let me sleep in a little bit, and we enjoyed Parmenters donuts and cider that he picked up last night, plus chicken sausage for breakfast.


Here we are styling before/after church.


Before bed, Keira worked on her "head flip". It is a somersault.

Up for next week, we have lots of Halloween festivities planned. We have our church Trunk or Treat and Chili Cookoff on Tuesday. Keira has her "Black and Orange Party" on Thursday, and then we have Trick or Treating in Northville on Saturday night. I am glad we had a light week this week!

Tyler, Minde, Chase and Riley visit and Detroit Half Marathon

This week was another insanely busy week for us. The good thing about it being the final week before my half marathon was that I didn't need to do much running, so that made time for other activities. We really enjoyed meeting our niece Riley for the first time and all the activities we did as a family. I was also getting pretty involved with everything in Primary.

On Monday, I took Soren to his storytime at the library. We slept in as usual, so that was the main thing we did in the morning. This is the last week of storytimes for a few weeks, so we tried to take advantage of them.


After the libray, we made a quick stop at Parmenters with Valerie, Jared and Kate. I could not believe that they had never been there before, and wanted to join them for their first experience.
Kate and Jared
Keira and Kate

The ducks were crazy, and came so close this time. They made Keira a little bit nervous, but she still enjoyed feeding them. Soren had to watch from the stroller.


That afternoon, my GOTR girls were scheduled to do a 35 minute long run, so I was able to get in an acceptable slow run with them. Usually I have to hand out lap counters or some other game piece each lap, so I don't tend to run with them for a sustained period. It was nice to do a slow run with them. Many of them were able to get in a full 5K during the workout.

On Tuesday, Keira was star of the week at preschool. The star of the week gets to bring an item for show and tell each day and bring a guest (me) to read a book of our choice. I helped Keira choose the pop up version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and the kids in her class really enjoyed it. She brought her Bitty Baby today to show; she didn't really tell anything about the doll. She was given a crown to wear and also able to be the line leader for the week. Then afterwards, I had a lunch with my old Primary Presidency and Natalie, from the new presidency, was able to attend as well. It was a bit crazy having that many children at Panera and trying to do any sort of wrap up, but it was fun.

While Ryan was at scouts, we went to the library for a special starlight storytime. Keira was excited because her classmate Charlotte was there.


On Wednesday, I took Keira to her storytime, a mere 15 hours later than our previous storytime. The library is such a good resource for free children's activities, especially since the weather turned really cold this week, we couldn't pass it up. Soren has been making this funny scrunched up face and sniffing. I had a video of it, but it was hard to tell Soren's sniffing from Keira's. She joined in on it too.



My GOTR girls froze today, and I was glad the workout portion was scheduled to be short and we had a lot of games to do for the day's lesson. They are all planned out for me, so it was nice it worked out this way.

On Thursday, Keira finished up being the Star of the Week. She chose to bring a McDonald's toy to show and tell today- quite the contrast from Tuesday's toy. Since I was not reading a story today, I was not present to know if she shared anything about it. It was a "good" McDonald's toy, the Madame Alexander Witch from the Wizard of Oz, and she plays with often enough that it manages to survive the McDonald's toy purges.


Here is her artwork from the week:

I did a short run as a final pre-race workout, and then we headed to REI. Soren was so funny. He pushed a large shopping cart around the store the entire time we were there. He was so particular about where we went with it too, he avoided the front door/checkout area and would not push it off the concrete "path" onto the carpet. Needless to say, I didn't get much browsing done because I had to steer it for him.

Friday was the start of one of the busiest weekends that we have had in a while. The morning began with Elise's birthday party, and it was a tea party theme. Keira had a great time with Elise, Lizzie, and Ava. They started the party by making princess crowns, then dressing up in princess dresses, and finally having a teaparty. We brought 2 of our chairs to the party, and it was so funny how concerned Keira was that we were bringing our chairs, and then how concerned that Lizzie was when I loaded them into our car since she didn't realize we had brought them. Those little girls pick up on everything! Keira is making her crown
Keira, Elise, Lizzie, and Ava in their crowns
Keira is all dressed up in her princess attire.
The 4 Princesses, Keira, Elise, Lizzie, and Ava.
Soren is getting his groove on dancing with the girls.


The princesses are sitting down for their tea party.

After the birthday party, Tyler, Minde, Chase, and Riley were just arriving so we met up with them for a quick lunch with Kris and Linda. After lunch, we went back to Kris and Linda's to let the kids play a bit. Ryan was at a bowling fundraiser for Juvenile Diabetes in the afternoon, so he was able to head over to meet up with us earlier than usual. Soren wouldn't take a nap over there, so I opted to bring him with me to Detroit to pick up my race packet. He took a decent nap in the car on the way to Detroit. Cristina and I rode down together, and due to the fact that the race is international, each person must pick up their own packet and show a passport. While we were downtown, everyone else did a few errands and then went to Three Cedars Farm. They enjoyed cider and donuts, and there was a nice place for the kids to play. I met up with them as it was getting dark, and got a few pictures. All of Soren's naps today took place here.
Linda got a birthday cake for Chase, since it was earlier in the week. Both he and Keira enjoyed sampling the frosting with Nana's OK.
Ryan and Keira in an old telephone booth at 3 Cedars
The best of my group shot attempts: Soren, Chase, Riley, and Keira

Ryan is helping Keira to feed the goats.
Soren loved the goats.
Keira, Chase, and Tyler feeding the goats.


Saturday was another busy day. We headed over to Kris and Linda's fairly early with a ton of baby gear because the adults were going to the Michigan/Delaware State while 2 babysitters came over. Soren wouldn't go to sleep on his own, but eventually conked out while being held. Keira seemed to have a good time, although she wanted to come with us. Ryan and I really enjoyed being able to go to a football game together. I hadn't been to any football games in a really long time, and although it wasn't an OSU game, it was still really fun. UM was able to play 5 quarterbacks in the same game, which was pretty incredible. I caught the tail end of the OSU game at tailgate that we walked by on the way to the car and was bummed to have it end with a facemask for a loss to Purdue. This is the view from our seats.

Minde, Linda, Tyler, Kris, Me, and Ryan.

Sunday was the big day for my race. I met up with Cristina and her friend Monica to follow them down to Detroit. They both ran the full marathon so riding in one car wasn't an option. It was a typical chaotic start for me and a Detroit race- we were at gear check when the race actually started because we hung out inside COBO hall for too long avoiding the cold outside and the porto johns. I was able to dash over and get in the very back of my wave, but Cristina and Monica's waves were already gone since they are so fast. I had a great run, it was a PR of 1:49:25. Cristina and Monica eventually passed me after about mile 11, since they had started so much later. That is the great thing about chip timed events- if you are a little late, it isn't the end of the world. It was a pretty cool day, and I was very pleased with my time. I felt pretty decent afterwards. I was able to get "easily" on the freeway afterwards, after ending up in the middle of a barricaded street going the wrong way on the way out of the parking garage. Oops! It was a very fast way to the freeway, though, and I had no trouble with crossing through runners because they had already gone through. Due to the international nature of the race, they have very strict cut off times for the course so that they don't have the border traffic restricted all day. We cross over the Ambassador Bridge, which is a 4% grade, and have the only underwater mile as you cross through the tunnel. The tunnel is closed completely from vehicle traffic for the runners for a certain length of time and the bridge traffic is reduced to half the lanes. Since it is such a hassle as a spectator, Ryan and I had decided that he would not come down for the finish, and it was just as well since Keira woke up sick this morning. She has a low fever and threw up once, but has been able to keep food down later on in the day. This is a post race shot of me at home. I was a St. Jude Hero this year.
Once I got home, I had to prepare a few last minute things and get cleaned up for my first day conducting Primary. I brought Soren with me, just to keep him away from Keira for a bit. Things went fairly smoothly, although I must admit where there was one moment that all of us just stared at each other not sure who was supposed to be doing something. I also though it was pretty funny when I called on one of the boys in Primary by name, and he exclaimed, "Wow, I can't believe you know my name already". I always joked that the children never really knew who I was as secretary, and this just confirmed it. I was in charge of taking attendance for all the classes for the past two years and know them all for the most part, only occasionally mixing up siblings. Soren really kept me busy during the whole block of church, so my fatigue was really setting in. We enjoyed a relaxing evening at home.

Up for next week, we will be doing some relaxing I am sure. With Keira sick today, that means we won't do much, and I will enjoy some rest. We will need a restful week with Halloween coming up!