Happy 2nd Birthday Soren!

This week was a big week. Soren turned 2 on Wednesday, Keira had a field trip Thursday, and we had Soren's party with family on Saturday. It was General Conference weekend, and I also ran the Brooksie Way Half Marathon.

Monday started off slow, which was good since this week was going to be so busy. Keira went to school with 3 huge flowers in her hair. I am not sure how long they stayed there, but all of them were safely inside her backpack when I picked her up.

Last week, I purchased a smaller volume of Gatorade bottles from Costco, thinking it would be better to have more bottles with a few fewer ounces each so we would have more servings. This proved to cause a problem because they won't fit in the refrigerator standing up on any shelf except the tallest where the really tall things go. Soren and Keira have spent all week arranging them in the kitchen in all sorts of configurations.

We hit Maybury quickly as a family so I could do a quick run and Ryan got in a quick ride. We didn't do any playing as it was slightly drizzly. Not enough to really prevent us from working out, but enough to not want to play on wet playground equipment.

On Tuesday, we had planned to go to Parmenters with Linda, Ellyn, Bryn, and Lleyton, but woke up to rain. Since Keira had heard me discussing the plans, she still wanted to get donuts, but that was all we could do. No playing outside. When we arrived, we saw that a large tree had fallen onto their wooden train during last nights storms! Everyone was pretty sad. I am not sure the status of the train at this point in time.


We did a little playing at the mall instead:



On Wednesday, it was Soren's 2nd Birthday! He has enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday to Me"

We went to the library for storytime while Keira was at school.




After picking up Keira, we headed to McDonald's for lunch. Keira attended Avery's Fancy Nancy birthday party with Nana this afternoon while Soren napped.

After I picked up Keira, we had a quick dinner, and then Soren was able to have his cake and presents.







On Thursday we had a fun day of playing with toys at home. I also had a dentist appointment to pick up my mouth guard to help with my jaw pain. It is like a huge retainer.


That evening, I had my TIA dinner at Aleko's to celebrate the end of the season. Ryan was able to come, and we had a great time hanging out with everyone. The breadsticks are amazing. They gave out door prizes, and I received a free entry into the T-Rex, and everyone else received a baggy of cheetos. They also gave out some fun awards, similar to the Dundy's from "The Office". Colleen and I received the "Dynamic Duo" award for how well we pushed each other during the summer's tris. I also received the "most chiseled calves" award.



On Friday, Keira had a field trip to Plymouth Orchard and Cider Mill. We had a great time. Her class started off in the Red Barn so that the children could have a presentation. After that, they had a wagon ride out to pick an apple. We returned to the front for cider and donuts. Finally, we went outside again to play. They had fun looking at the animals and especially playing on a small bridge.


Saturday was the day of Soren's party. It was a wet day, so Ryan didn't ride. Thankfully, it wasn't raining when was time to head to Three Cedars Farm for the party. It was rather nice that it wasn't the best day, because there weren't many people there. It made it easy to set up our party in the donut hut. My mom made a train cake for Soren that was on a turntable so it spun. It was a hit. Soren also loved the train outside, as well as the animals. He got lots of train gifts and was very excited about all of his presents. Soren was also very excited that we got stopped by an actual train on our way home.

My parents did not stay the night, and Ryan attended the Priesthood session of General Conference. I had an early night due to my race tomorrow.

On Sunday, I woke up super early to go run the Brooksie Way Half Marathon with three fellow ladies from TIA; Mary, Rita, and Colleen. We all had great races. I had a PR with a time of 1:42:08. I didn't think I would be able to do this well, especially because this course was HILLY! Mary had raced it before, and said to really take advantage of the downhills to make up for time on the uphills. Well, the first 5 miles of the course were all downhill, and I went pretty fast on the first section. There was a bit of cinder trail and dirt road that forced me to slow down a bit due to my ankle not being 100%. It didn't hurt, but it felt weak, and I just wanted to be really careful to make sure that I didn't twist it. There were several big hills that slowed me down quite a bit, but I think my plan to start fast worked, just because those hills were tough, and I am not sure if I would have slowed down any less had I been going slower to start, it may have been worse! I was 5th place in my age group, so I was also very pleased with that.
Mary, Rita, Colleen and I pre race:

Post Race:

After the race, we enjoyed a session of General Conference at home before heading over to Kris and Linda's to enjoy an afternoon meal and the final session of General Conference.


This was such a busy week. I am looking forward to having less on my plate this week.