Melissa, Ryan, Keira and Soren: Happy Hunting Day & Family Pictures

This week was fairly low key. Ryan had Monday off in observance of Veteran's day (it coincides with the opening of deer hunting here, a holiday negotiated by the UAW and Ford).

On Monday, Ryan had the day off. Keira had school, and Ryan wanted to finish up a bathroom project that was long overdue: the removal of the track from shower doors and recaulk. We had been needing to recaulk for several years now, and it has been recent that we took down the shower doors. The track remained, as we would need to caulk holes from where it was attached to the walls, and didn't want to do multiple caulking projects. With only one full bath, we had to make sure it got done in a day, and today was a good enough day as any. I took Keira to school and took Soren to the gym and other errands to keep him occupied while Ryan worked. It was a tough job. Ryan took a break to go for a ride at Lakeshore, and the kids and I had another fun day in the leaves. It was brown day at school, so they were dressed in really cute fall clothes, so the pictures were even cuter this time around. I am thinking some of these will be used in our scrapbook pages for the year!

I also made a pan of health bars. They smelled really good, and had good flavor, but I think I overdried them in the oven. They are very dense, and can be used as a diet tool because they will really fill you up. Ryan was not a fan, nor the kids.

On Tuesday, I had wanted to keep thing low key because I had planned to run in the Hines Drive lightfest this evening. Rain was forecasted for the evening, but the day seemed really nice, so I had a positive outlook on it. I spent the day finishing up cleaning up the bathroom. Ryan was up late the night before getting it ready to be able to take a shower, but the walls needed another once over, and it had just gotten very untidy and out of control. I was really surprised that we only had one major mess made in the house during my cleaning, and this was really tame considering what Soren has done in less time.

Here are some pics of the finished bathroom:

That evening, despite the rain, which came right around the time I needed to be getting ready to leave, we went to the Lightfest. I needed this race to be eligible for a final bonus incentive from Team Marathon, and Cristina was still in (she also needed it). We all piled in the car, and Ryan dropped the kids and I off at the start and then drove to the finish (after hitting Arby's) to wait for us. The kids were all bundled up and covered in the stroller, so they stayed nice and dry for the race. Cristina and I got soaked, but we had a good time enjoying the lights, and Keira and Soren enjoyed them too. We took a few pictures while running, as well as some to submit to Marathon. Keira and Soren both melted down immediately following the race because they were tried, hungry, and were no longer being entertained by a light show.

On Wednesday, I took Soren to the library during Keira's school. This is the last storytime until after Thanksgiving.

After picking Keira up from school, we went to McDonalds by the mall for visiting teaching. It was a bit crazy keeping an eye on everyone and finding room for everyone in McDonalds. It was a good idea, but a bit difficult to execute. Everyone had a good time, though.

On Thursday, we had our family pictures! I had put a lot of time and effort into making sure that we had everything that we needed, with everything laid out. I even took a few pictures of the outfits laid out to make sure that they would look OK in a pictures. I scrubbed the soles of Soren's shoes, to get all the crab-apples out in case they would be visable in any pictures. I was worried that with all the effort I had put in, it wouldn't matter because Keira and/or Soren would freak out and be upset. Thankfully, my preparations did not go to waste, and we got probably the best and FASTest photo shoot from JC Penney's in Canton in a long time. Soren actually wanted his picture taken, and we got several of them both together that we liked. We hadn't been able to get a great picture of them together since Soren was mobile.

Keira and Soren relaxing at home:

On Friday, we didn't do much after school. We did get all the trains out. Even with two complete train sets, Keira and Soren both wanted to play on the same set with the same trains. The pieces are interchangeable, but neither child was excited about me creating the "mega train track" (think "mega desk") by connecting all the pieces.

We finished the evening by doing some shopping at REI, which is always a bit hard. Keira and Soren just like to run around in the store, and putting them in a cart doesn't really help the situation. The were fairly well behaved this time, but I did get a head start over to Noodles for dinner while Ryan finished up. We had taken 2 cars because I met up with Ryan after his ride at Maybury.

On Saturday, Ryan started the morning with a 40 mile ride. It was actually a lot warmer than expected, so it made for a better ride than he thought. Once Ryan got home, I headed over to Kensington to do a lap. It had been a really long time since I ran a lap by myself that started and finished at Kensington. It was longer than I remembered! My garmin had 8.5 miles, and the other times I had run around I had always started at Island lake or added Turle Head to my loop to get 10+ miles. It pretty much wore me out, and I thought it was just that I was pushing my pace a bit, since I didn't have the stroller. I averaged 8:33, which is pretty good for a training run. When we got back, Ryan suggested going to Parmenters, since it would be the last time we would go as a family. We had thought about getting a pie to bring down for Thanksgiving, but I would get that on my own. When we got there, we were super glad we made it, because THIS was the last weekend they would be open. Getting a pie was out, so we will do Grand Traverse instead. We enjoyed our last cider and donuts for the year from Parmenters. Thankfully, we will still have 3 Cedars until Christmas as another option.

On Sunday, I just could not get up. I did make chocolate croisants for Soren for breakfast and pancakes for Keira, but then went back to bed. I had gotten 11 hours of sleep last night, but just still was worn out and had a headache and stomach ache. I skipped Stake Conference, and Ryan took the kids and sat with Linda, so he was not on his own with both of them for 2 hours. I ended up going back to bed for another 3 hours, waking up just in time to get dressed and drive over to Kris and Linda's for lunch. I took Soren home for a nap and got a few minutes more of rest, until Ryan brough Keira home so he could go home teaching. Keira and I vegged on the couch while Ryan was gone and until Soren work up.