Melissa, Ryan, Keira and Soren: Greenfield Village and More fun around the town!

This week was another fun week, full of summer activities. We started the week at another installment of Puppets in the Park and ended going to Greenfield Village, plus our usual activities.

On Monday, we attended storytime at the library. This week's theme was animals, and Keira and Soren had a blast. Keira did get a little self conscious when holding a letter for the song "Bingo". Soren on the other hand, loved it. One side of the paper had a letter and the other side said "clap" to help everyone keep track.

We had a little bit of fun at home too. Keira played with her numerous princess birthday cards, and we refitted Keira's train hat to fit Soren. He loved it.

We also went to Maybury that evening, and I did a light run with the kids while Ryan rode. There was some sort of party going on, so we didn't stay much longer than our workouts.

On Tuesday, we attended Puppets in the Park. We were hoping to meet up with Valerie, Katie, and Luke there, but due to a miscommunication and odd starting time, they missed the actual show. We did see my visiting teachers, Amber and Michelle, with their children at the show. They performed a play, "The Fisherman's Wife", and the kids enjoyed it.

It was pretty hot out, though, so we were anxious to get out of the sun. We did meet up with Valerie later, but for some indoor fun. Ryan took his scouts to Maybury today to do a hike with them, and got in a lap first. We stayed home and hit the pool instead.

On Wednesday, we went to the gym and then did errands. The kids looked so cute playing in the igloo tent at the gym.

After that, we stopped into Costco and Trader Joe. Keira had a rough time. There were no mini shopping carts available when we arrived, so she cried about that. Also, immediately upon returning home, her balloon was popped in the house. I had put them safely in the kitchen, and Soren brought it to her at the front door. Either he let it go or she didn't take it from him (or let it go herself), but it popped and we had more tears.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home, and then I worked out with Cristina and Julie at Island Lake. It was a light workout for everyone due to the upcoming half Ironman that everyone but me was attending this Sat. I probably should have stuck to biking only, but went on a short run afterwords despite some slight swelling in my ankle from last Saturdays race. It didn't feel bad while I was running, but the swelling has still not gone down and I have more pain as I write this.

On Thursday, we went to Greenfield Village with Nana, Ellyn, Bryn, and Lleyton while Bailey and Avery were at drama camp. We had a great time. The highlights of the trip were the carousel and the train ride. The kids loved both of them. Ellyn remembered that this carousel was unique in that it has a frog on it. The operator confirmed that the frog was one of only 5 made by this manufacturer, and this carousel contained all the original animals. Lleyton wasn't super excited about the ride, so Soren took the frog, and Keira and Bryn took horses. Everyone also enjoyed the ride on the train. Soren loves everything to do with trains, and just had a blast. We can't wait to go again!

That night, I had to take the day off of running for my ankle. It was at its worst from walking around in flip flops all day in the heat. I am hoping it won't jeopardize my fall marathon plans, but I will just have to rest, and I'll and wait and see.

On Friday, I had a nice easy swim at the gym, and the got showered off and put on a dry bathing suit so I could take Keira and Soren over to our cub scout's swimming activity. The families of the cubs were invited, so I knew Keira would have friends there to play with. It was at her friend Lizzie's neighborhood pool, and we had a pretty good time. Soren got a bit more water in his face than he would have liked (partially due to me), as well as had a mushy Popsicle taken from him (also by me), so he was pretty unhappy towards the end and ready to go home. I think he was mostly tired, since he looked like he was going to fall asleep in the pool and did fall asleep on the way home.

I was thoroughly amazed that the purple Popsicle drips just rinsed right off Soren's yellow life jacket. Had I realized it would clean up perfectly, I probably wouldn't have taken it away as quickly as I did (shortly after Keira got tired of hers). I am sure the chlorine from the pool helped with the clean up.

On Saturday, I took the kids to the gym so that I could ride the spin bike while Ryan rode. Ryan averaged 20mph for 64 miles, and had a bit more excitement than he wanted. A rider forgot his shoes and decided to meet up with the group en-route. He was about to catch up with them when going through a construction zone and the road was in pretty rough condition. He had a bad crash that resulted in a concussion. EMS was called, and since Kent said "biker" they assumed motorcyclist and not cyclist, so they had quite turnout of emergency vehicles. Fortunately, the man did go to the ER and checked out to be fine. His helmet was in bad shape, so it did its job.

That afternoon, I was able to do some open water swimming that Barb had set up with the Casper's in their neighborhood's private lake. The Casper's neighborhood is pretty insane (as in way nice), so it did feel pretty funny wading into the lake in my wetsuit with goggles and swim cap while people were out for leisurely strolls with their families. Barb spotted us in a kayak, while her husband, Scott, and Jennifer and Will swam with me. We did about a half mile, which went around 2 decorative fountains in the lake, and came back. The air temps were pretty cool (and it had rained just prior to our start), but the water was warm. I really didn't need my wetsuit from a temperature standpoint, but it was nice since our course had us swimming essentially out into the middle and back, and not across with a break, and then along the shore like my other OW swim course. I was a bit nervous about that, and thankful that Barb was out there keeping an eye on us and available if I needed a break, which I didn't.
Once I got back, we went out to dinner at Bagger Dave's. The kids really wanted to go to McDonald's, but were easily convinced that Bagger Dave's would be OK because it had a train inside. Soren was very funny, constantly pointing to the train, never getting tired of watching it go around the ceiling. Amazingly, the kids ate all their food too, even with the distraction of the train.

On Sunday, I had Sharing time at church. This month is going to be a bit tough in terms of staffing, but we will get through it I am sure. It will just be a lot of work for me because I have a new counselor who will only be here 2 weeks, my other counselor is gone all month, and we have no secretary. Thankfully, I have gotten Sunday subs for my counselors, so we should hopefully be OK.

After church, we went to Kris and Linda's house to have dinner with Greg and Ellyn's family. Soren was so cute, he asked if Lleyton would be there while we were on our way. It is so sweet how well they get along together with their cousins.