Melissa, Ryan, Keira and Soren

Pajama Day and lots of Ballet!

2012-02-19T17:26:00.000-08:00

This is the week leading up to our vacation. Needless to say, there was a lot of laundry done this week. Also, I we had to do our prep for Valentine's Day early, since we will be on vacation for the actual holiday.

On Monday, we had our usual day with Keira going to school and then having ballet in the evening. I had baked cookies Sunday night, and hoped to let the kids ice them today, but we really get to it. They still got to eat one, but didn't get to ice and sprinkle a bunch like they usually get to do.

On Tuesday, while Keira was at school, I took Soren to the Pottery Barn storytime. He really likes the bench in Von Maur, and I have been able to get some really adorable pictures of him on it.

We were able to ice the rest of the cookies today, finally!

On Wednesday, Keira was very excited because her class had earned a pajama day. I'm not exactly sure how to earn one, but she was very excited about it.

We had just enough snow overnight to cover the ground with a thin blanket of snow. It looked really pretty, but did not last once the sun came up.

Also, while she was at school, she was able to select a birthday book to be donated to the library in her name. They took her picture today, and she will get to be the first to check it out once it is ready to go.

On Thursday, Keira was excited to bring home her book, "Ten Little Caterpillars".

She also had a make up ballet class this evening for the one she will miss while we are gone. The girls were a little older, and she looked so tiny, but she had a good time.

Both Keira and Soren had a fun time playing with dominos today. The pizza chain was having a fundraiser for her school, so we ordered pizza from there for dinner, and we got out the game once we finished eating.

On Friday, we a little bit snow. Soren ran around and tried to catch them on his tongue. I took Soren to a playdate in the late morning before Keira came home from school. Keira and Soren both had a blast playing with a large sheet of paper used to package a peice of wall art for our basement. They colored on it and made a tent out of it. I got everything the kids needed for the trip laid out today, which I think is a record for me.

Saturday was a busy day. I had a long run planned with a new friend, Erin. We were running in memory of a woman, Sherry, who had been abducted from MN while on her morning run. It was cold, and we had a bit of ice to contend with. It was the first really cold run this year for me, and Erin's first in the snow ever. It was nice to have her to run with, and I look forward to running with her again after vacation. I miss Cristina and Valerie.

That afternoon, I took Keira to a Valentine's Day doll tea party at Pottery Barn Kids. Keira really enjoyed it. They had Cheryl's cookies and did crafts. Keira was happy to be able to do something with just the two of us.

Once we got back, Ryan got a haircut and did errands before we all went to Gustavo's for dinner. I made some valentine's treats for her teachers and people helping us out getting to the airport.

Sunday was a full day. We went to church in the morning as usual. We also packed up as much as we could, and realized that we need another suitcase. The second carry on size suitcase we had used previously didn't belong to us so when we looked for it, it wasn't here! Looks like I will be running out tomorrow to get one. I also had a meeting for Primary this evening.

Happy Groundhog day and 6 more weeks of Winter?

2012-02-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

This week was insanely nice for several days. It completely did not feel like winter at all. On Groundhog day, it was 57 degrees and sunny. Oh, for 6 more weeks of weather like that! It didn't last, and by the weekend, was back to cold and rainy.

On Monday, we had our typical Monday, with Keira going to school and Soren and I going to the gym. Keira had ballet in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, it was our first day of the nice weather. It was pretty nice, and I had a hard time running inside on the treadmill while Keira was at school. However, I had a very set workout that I wanted to do today and it would have been very hard with the stroller. It also put us in St Matthews to be able to attend the storytime at the mall.

On Wednesday, I was able to get the jogging stroller out and take Soren for a quick run before my swim. Soren did OK for his first ride, but did a fair amount of complaining. He seemed pretty tired all week. He did chose to ride in the stroller this morning, but it was still a bit chilly since it was early. It would have been nicer to wait until the afternoon.

On Thursday, we had a busy day. It was Groundhog day, and beautiful outside. Keira was excited about it. Soren and I started off with an 8 mile run on Commerce Parkway. He did a bit better today, but got bored since it was a longer run. We finished up with our run and went to a playgroup at Emily's, my primary president, house.

Soren had a good time, and I enjoyed chatting with some of the other moms from church. That afternoon, it was beautiful. The kids pretty much did everything they could outside. We started with sidewalk chalk. Sammy came over to drawn, and our sidewalk and driveway were covered. Soren was very excited because he figured out that he could draw a sun. He pretty much makes circles and lines when he draws, so this was a combination of the two things he can do.

We also got out the bikes.

As we were finishing up, Colton got out his power wheels 4 wheeler, and the kids took turns on it. They had a blast.

We finished up the day with dinner at Chick Fil A. Ryan had a boss in town from MI who took his team out for dinner. Since we were on our own and it was kids night, I took the kids there. I had to pack Keira a dinner, which drew a bit of attention because the employees there thought she had food allergies. Unfortunately, the dinner ended in a meltdown from Keira because we couldn't play. It had just gotten too late and everyone was tired.

Friday was another nice day. I took Soren to the library storytime.

The kids received a Valentine's day package from Nana and Papa in the mail today, and were very excited about it. We also learned that my parents will be coming to Utah to ski too, so we will have quite the crew out there. The plans are shaping up nicely. It was another nice day, but being the end of the week, the kids were pretty tired, and just played outside a little bit.

Saturday was a big training day for Ryan and me. I woke up early to do a group run at VO2 Multisport, in the rain. I am glad I had the group to run with. They did 1 lap, and I did 2 to get in my mileage. It was a nice loop, and big enough to run through a variety of scenery. There was a race in the park this morning, so there were lot of soggy runners out there, although some were happier than others. I got so wet that I really didn't notice the rain anymore. After I got home and warmed up, Ryan did a trainer ride, and then we went out for an early dinner at Smashburger.

Sunday was a relaxing day. My class went well at church, and Soren and I took a decent nap afterwards. I am really glad he did that. Both kids have been really tired, and we needed a day to rest. We did a quick webcam with Kris and Linda, and I got some cookies baked. The kids will decorate them tomorrow.

Happy 9th Anniversary!

2012-01-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

This week Ryan and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. We had a pretty busy week aside from that too. We got our ski trip booked too!

Monday was a pretty usual day. Keira went to school and I took Soren to the gym.

Keira had ballet, and we were actually ready in plenty of time for her to play around in her ballet clothes beforehand.

On Tuesday, I got Keira off to school, and then headed to the gym. We got there in plenty of time today to not be rushed to storytime. Soren was happy that there was not a storm today.

When we got home, Soren built a very long train track that extended from the playroom to his room.

They also played with the electric tea lights while I worked on trying to figure out our ski trip plans. I spent a lot of time on the computer and on the phone getting costs together for going to West Virginia, and then started comparing the costs to going to Utah. We didn't book to Utah today, but thought on it a night. I was a bit worried, since we were looking at flights exactly 3 weeks from today, and wondered if things would change once they got "less than 3 weeks out". However, there were still a lot of pieces to put together before we could make such a dramatic change. It is not typical for us to decide in a matter of hours to fly to Utah.

On Wednesday, it was our 9th wedding anniversary. It was also Keira's 100th day of school. Keira wanted to wear a party dress to school and it was an early release day. As a result, there wasn't really time for Soren and I to meet up with Ryan for lunch if we waited until the restauarants to actually serve lunch. I took Soren to the gym, and then when we got back, we went over to a friends' house from both school and ballet. Keira was excited to play with Kaylie, and Soren had her younger brother, Jacob, to play with. I also enjoyed being able to get to know Ginger a bit better. Once we got home, I talked with Ryan some more about the tickets. We were going to go for it. Ryan had a lot of trouble getting it booked at work. The prices kept changing as he was trying to book. Evenutally, he just came home so we could go out to dinner as a family to Smash Burger.

After dinner, we finally got it booked! We had to play with the days a bit. Keira will miss an extra day of school, and we will have one day less with Kris and Linda. Soren has not been to Utah ever, so it should be a really fun time for everyone.

On Thursday, I had my long run at the gym, and then got some lunch. We didn't do much else, as Soren has been pretty worn out all week. We were out a bit later than usual for dinner last night, so both kids were pretty tired.

On Friday, Soren woke up pretty much when Keira got on the bus. It worked out well, though, because I was able to take Soren to the storytime at the La Grange library. We missed it 2 weeks ago, and didn't even try last week. We have to be at the gym pretty much by 9 for me to get in my workout, shower, and make it on time. Soren hadn't been to a library storytime in a while, so he was used to them being really short like at the mall. He was anxious to play and craft the whole time, but he did great. He was really excited about this craft.

No trip to La Grange is complete without checking out the train.

I have now decided that large burritos count as "carbo loading" due to the rice and tortilla. They also have protein from the beans and chicken, so we went to Moe's for dinner.

Saturday was a busy day for Ryan and I, and rather lazy for Keira and Soren. They were both really tired. I ran 16 miles, and Ryan did two sufferfest DVDs. That took a good portion of the day. We had Brianna come over to babysit, and Ryan got pizza for the them so we could go to Mitchell's Fish Market for dinner. We were starving after our workouts. We had a great dinner and then went to see Sherlock Holmes. It was a fun movie.

The kids had a rough night on Saturday night. Soren woke up twice, and after the second time, came into our room. Keira came into our room (because Soren left the door open) a bit before the alarm was supposed to go off, and woke everyone up. We made it to church and stayed after for a linger longer. We completely forgot about it, so we felt bad we didn't have a dish, but were encouraged to stay anyway. I am glad we did. As it turns out, our ward plans to have them the 4th Sunday of every month.

Ryan went home teaching and then we had our home teachers come over. It was a good Sunday.

Tornados and other January Excitement

2012-01-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

This week really wore me out, and it was a surprise because Keira only had 4 days of school. We didn't do a ton, but did have some interesting things happen.

On Tuesday, I got up early and got Soren to the gym with plenty of time to avoid rushing. As I was gathering him from the childcare, my friend Molly said that her TV said that there was a tornado warning. I had thought it was just for IN, but as I was getting ready to head to the mall, Ryan called and said that the storms were on their way (and if I was home, to bring the things from our porch in). We estimated that I had enough time to make it to the mall safely. I figured it would be better to be stuck there than at the gym. The playroom at the gym with the toys is along the front glass windows, and I figured there were lots of interior spaces at the mall, as well as food for lunch if we had to stay a really long time. The mall is VERY close to the gym, just on the other side of the freeway overpass from where we were, so we ran out to the car, speed to the mall, and as we opened the car door, the sirens were going off. It was pretty erie, and we went to the storytime area. In another couple minutes, they made an announcement over the PA system to head to interior spaces. This for us was the Von Maur shoe room. We stayed here for a little bit, but then moved over to one of the dressing rooms in the children's department where there were more kids. They let me bring an train in from the train table. I feel like I didn't have a good concept of how bad it was, since we were in the shelter area. They had closed the gates to all the stores and everyone was pretty shut in. They had the radios on, and we were finally released. We drove home and stopped at Costco, which was pretty much desserted. That was really creepy, and we saw where 2 semis had blown over off the freeway just past the exit for Costco. One of our neighbors lost a large section of their fence, and a shed was blown onto a row of cars near the train tracks by our house. The Summit also had some damage and trees blown down. I was thankful to receive an email from Keira's school principal stating what a great job the children did at following the weather drill. Keira's teacher also sent an email, and a note came home in her backpack. They didn't go into the details of the storms at school, so when Keira came home, she thought it was funny that the boys were in the girls' bathroom from her class, and another class had girls in the boys' bathroom. We are thankful we are all safe.

Wednesday was not nearly as exciting. However, everyone was super exhausted. Keira was off to school. Soren got up early to help me with the trash. Then, we hurried to go to the gym before checking out a second preschool. This one was in Pewee Valley. Soren was not so excited about the whole idea, and I felt like he didn't have as good of an experience because of his attitude going in. We made a stop at the caboose, and that cheered him up a bit.

Once Keira got home from school, she was very excited about her sand painting that she made:

I also insisted that everyone lay down for a bit. After a lot of crying, yelling, and banging, Soren finally fell asleep after I crawled in bed with him. He woke up again later in the afternoon, and then crashed again on the couch and went back to sleep. He was just so tired!

Soren also had interest in writing this evening, and made lots of Os and 1s. He would count the number of 1s he was writing to make numbers. It reminded me of binary and Roman numerals.

On Thursday, we had a much lower key day. Keira got to school with no issues, and then Soren and I vacuumed about half the house before heading to the gym. It was cold, and I had to scrape the car for the first time! We got a later start than usual, and stopped at Chick Fil A for our Thursday lunch out.

Since we took so long in the morning, we didn't have time to go to Meijer without Keira. We took her to Meijer, which wasn't as bad as I feared. The kids were good and they rode the horse. Soren's picture didn't turn out right on my phone.

They also went to play over at Sammy and Hannah's house once we got back, which gavee me some time to clean out the garage and get my car inside. No more morning scraping for me!

On Friday, it seemed like everyone was pretty worn out. Keira was grumpy on her way to school. Soren kept complaining he was cold. I was worried he had a fever, but every time I felt him, he felt cold! He doesn't like wearing socks, but wears slippers, so we got him bundled and put him in front of the fireplace.

We stayed in this evening because the kids just seemed a mess and I was exhausted from dealing with everything. I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 8:30 pm. Ryan had put in Inception, which is a great movie. It just happens to be about dreams (sleep). I was out.
Saturday was a bit more productive. I slept in until 8:30, getting about 12 hours of sleep. I guess I was just really tired! I missed the group runs that I was thinking about for the morning, but when out on my own and did 10. It was quick and felt easy, as it should considering it was a step back week and all the sleep I had. Ryan did two Sufferfest DVDs, and then we got some lunch at 5 Guys. We stopped into VO2 in St Matthews and chatted with the guys there and picked up some tires for Ryan to use on the trainer. I was still hungry, so we stopped at Phlenes Bakery for some cookies. That store has been around forever, since the 1920s! This is the first time Ryan has been there. The kids had been there twice before Christmas. We enjoyed our cookies and then headed home. We spent some more time relaxing. I need to do a better job of figuring out what is going on around the area, because we missed a train expo downtown this weekend that I didn't find out about until today.

Sunday was a nice day for our family. It seemed like everyone was rested, and we had a good day at church. My class was pretty good, and we had enough material to fill the class. Soren learned about Daniel and the Lion's Den, and Amy made these adorable masks for each child. They were so cute! This is why Amy is such a great sunbeam teacher!

Keira wanted a mask too, so we traced it and she made one, and Soren made another too.

Ryan had meeting after church, and later we had a nice missionary experience with our neighbor, Jen, from down the street. She came over to receive a blessing of comfort. It was nice to have her over, since she had never been inside. It also helped up to keep today very Christ centered. Hopefully we can do more with her and her family as our friendships grow.

The weather is about to get bad again, so that is all I have for now. Thankfully, even though the weather is supposed to hit "late at night", it is actually more "early in the morning" for Ryan. He will likely be getting up and getting ready to work by the time it hits, unless there is a drastic speed change in it. Hopefully it does not pour on Keira as she gets on the bus.

Snow in Kentucky and Martin Luther King Jr Day

2012-01-16T17:59:00.000-08:00

This week was fairly low key. It is nice to have a bit less going on these days. We had our first winter weather, which wasn't a lot and didn't last long, but it did provide for a fun afternoon. I also officially joined the Louisville Landsharks Tri club.

On Monday, we did the usual routine of getting Keira off to school and heading to the gym.

Keira had ballet in the evening, and was excited to wear her tutu from Christmas to her class. Soren played outside with bubbles while Keira was in class.

The kids enjoyed watching Ryan play some Angry Birds when he got home from work.

On Tuesday, we made it to storytime while Keira was at school. I am feeling more chatting with the the other moms there, and we did the usual, storytime followed by train table today.

Once Keira was home from school, Soren shocked me. He asked me to vacuum the floor (he had made "tracks" in the carpet with a train and wanted them to be gone), and then HELPED ME! Wow! It is awesome that he is not afraid of the vacuum cleaner anymore!

On Wednesday, we went to Chick Fil A, deviating from our usual Thursday outing.

Thursday was a really big day. Keira went to school, and it was a rainy morning. Soren and I went to the gym prompty, because we had an appointment to tour a prospective pre school for next year. Soren was hesitant, but he did seem to enjoy it. I have one more place to check out for next week before I will need to make my decision.

As we left the preschool, it turned from rain to snow. We got maybe an inch of snow? It caused all sorts of excitment. Keira and Soren had a blast playing in the snow; making snow angels, snowballs, and even a small snowman!

It caused a bit of change for our evening plans, as I had planned to attend a running kick off meeting this evening with the kids that was the same time as the Louisville Landshark kick off, that wasn't really kid friendly. The running event got cancelled, so I scrambled and found a sitter so that Ryan and I could go downtown for the kick off meeting. It was really fun. We hung out with our neighbors, Jen and Chris, as well as several other friends that Ryan and I had met at various rides and runs. Keira and Soren also really enjoyed having their first babysitter in KY.

On Friday, Ryan didn't have to work terribly late. It was great to have him around early for the long MLK weekend. We went out to Q'doba for dinner.

Saturday was my long run day, and Ryan did a ride indoors. We had a rather relaxing day and didn't do much. We went to Smashburger for dinner, and then to Barnes and Noble. I wish I had brought my camera into the store. Keira and Soren had a blast in the children's area. They played with trains, legos, and put on a little show in the storytime area.

Sunday was another restful relaxing day. I taught my class, and they are good group of kids. We hung out around the house, and I took a good nap. I am starting to come down with a cold.

Monday was Martin Luther King Day. The kids were pretty crabby today. I started with Soren popping a balloon outside, and neither wanted to go to the gym with me. Ryan rode at home while I had a very good swim, considering how I felt. We went to Hometown Pizza for lunch, and they had a buffet, which was very economical. An errand to Target produced more problems with the kids, and we spent the rest of the day at home, reading, relaxing, and playing with the kids.

Warm weather for the first week in January!

2012-01-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

This week seemed a bit crazy. It was the first week back to school for Keira after a 2 week break, Ryan still had Monday off, and everyone was just trying to get back into the swing of things. We had some unseasonably warm weather too, which meant the kids played outside quite a bit. Soren and I went to the gym every weekday this week, which felt good to be back in the normal routine. Soren argues a lot less when we go everyday, and he has made a new friend, Carter. Carter's mom is also trying to go everyday too.

On Monday, I woke up and got Keira up and off to school. Keira wanted Ryan to come to the bus stop, so he did, and then we went back to sleep for a bit, waiting for Soren to get up. I took him to the gym with me so Ryan could get in a trainer ride at home, and then we went to Chick Fil A for lunch (since Keira is not a fan). Ryan enjoyed watching some football in the afternoon, and Keira had ballet.

On Tuesday, it was a pretty basic day. Keira had school, and I took Soren to storytime after going to the gym. The kids didn't do a ton after school today. Keira has been enjoying making paper dolls. I cut them out and she decorates them. There was more football on, and I rode the trainer once the kids were in bed.

On Wednesday, after school we had Gracie come over. Soren was pretty wild, and didn't play the best with the girls, so it was rather tiring.

On Thursday, we had great weather.

The kids played outside today. Soren had a blast on his bike, and Keira just had fun enjoying the sun and not needing to wear a coat.

On Friday, it was another beautiful day.

Soren and I tried to go to storytime in LaGrange, but I had my times wrong and we missed it. Once Keira got home, we played outside with Colton and Hannah. Soren is doing great on his balance bike.

Colton didn't stay long, but Hannah was happy to play all afternoon. She is so quiet, and Soren played a lot better with her, and things were pretty quiet.

Ryan worked a half day on Saturday, so the kids and I had a relaxing morning. We read the books from the library. The highlight was Knuffle Bunny, which has photographs from Brooklyn in it with the characters from the book drawn onto them. The kids enjoyed being able to find the Laundromat in the book and the houses on Google Maps. Keira also made more paper dolls. This time around, she made them up to be my bike relay team, Team Tutu, with Me, Cristina, Kristel, and Michelle.

So cute! I put the dolls in my camelback to take my "flat" teammates with me on my 13 mile run once Ryan got home. He biked after work, and then I went out in the mid afternoon. It was very warm, so it made it easy to be out there. It was tough running in the afternoon, but I did it all last winter. My stomach felt off for a lot of it. I don't think I ate enough, erring on eating too little instead of too much since I would have limited bathroom stops. I also ran on a new road that was very steep. Thankfully, I encountered 2 ladies from our ward, and ran with them for a little while. It really cheered me up and helped break up the run.

Sunday was a restful day. Getting done with church by lunchtime is nice. My lesson went well, and the kids enjoyed theirs. Soren is a cute Sunbeam. Keira is doing well in her class too. The kids played nicely after church too.

and a Happy New Year! Welcome 2012!

2012-01-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

Last week was crazy busy. I am really glad we postponed the trip to MI to Monday from Sunday.

We got up and on the road fairly early, and made it to MI without any issues. Kris and Linda had plans to take Bailey to see Wicked as their present to her, so we wanted to get up there in the early afternoon before they needed to leave. Keira and Soren opened their presents from Nana and Papa, and were happy to be in MI.

For dinner, we met up with Kent and Valerie at REI and then Noodles, which are two mandatory stops practically for a trip to MI. It was great to visit with them. Kent had won a mountain bike and was pickiing it up from REI. Since I am in my third week of official Boston Marathon training, I did a quick treadmill run once we got back. It was not the easiest to run at night on a full stomach, but I had my new CDs I received from Santa loaded on my ipod, and I only had a short distance to run anyway. For this week, I knew I had to take advantage of any time I could run and use it wisely.

On Tuesday, we woke up to a light snowfall. I was happy the kids got to see a little bit of real snow. We got another early start with Kris and Linda and met up with Greg and Ellyn, their children, and friends Rob and Becca to go to the Edsel and Elenor Ford house, in Grosse Pointe. It is quite the impressive home. Keira and Soren were excited to go there because we had been reading, "The Night Henry Ford Met Santa", and it is about Edsel as a child. I am glad they were able to piece that together. It is pretty funny when Keira learns about how parts of stories are real or not. She is learning the difference between fiction and non-fiction at school. The home is amazing. Our tour guide was great too since we had so many children with us, at getting them interested. She gave them tasks to count the fireplaces and stairs along the tour. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, and we were amazed that some of the items, such as the wood paneling in the office, were from the 1500s and brought over from England. There are also very valuable paintings, although some of the originals have been placed in the DIA. After the home tour, we walked around the grounds a bit, but the snow had started to turn to rain, so it was rather wet. We did go into the playhouse for Josephine and the gatehouse/garage. There were activities for the kids in part of the gatehouse. The playhouse was a home built at 2/3 scale with working kitchen and plumbing. Josephine did not use the house a lot, but her children and grandchildren did.

We had lunch and then headed back to Canton. Ryan and I ran a quick errand to IKEA, and then the family had dentist appointments. It was Soren's first time in the chair. He didn't get a cleaning, but he did let the hygenist count his teeth, as well as show them to Dr Gradolph.

Big toothy smiles post dentist!

We went back to Kris and Linda's, and then had dinner there. Once the kids were in bed, I hit the treadmill once again. I used to run at night a lot, but usually I had more time between dinner and running, and didn't eat as many treats until after my run. I got it done, but I did not feel the best.

On Wednesday, we had a bit more running around to do. Linda cooked us a big breakfast of ebelskiver. Soren and Keira ate a ton of them, which was great since they are so picky and I knew today would be a long day. Then we headed to Dearborn so Ryan could clean out his desk there. He dropped me and the kids off at Fairlane, and I was able to pick up some toiletries that we had run out of at home, and take advantage of a Bath and Body Works sale. The kids were good and enjoyed being out with me at the mall. After that, Ryan picked us up and we headed to get Ryan's haircut. I wish I had talked to Brittany before getting Soren's hair cut last week. At least his hair was not so scrappy for all of the pictures taken of him opening presents. Keira got her bangs trimmed too, and then we stopped at REI in Ann Arbor, to do some returns that we didn't do Monday, as well as browse and purchase a couple deals. I also needed to stock up on Gu. From there, we went to Greg and Ellyn's for our big family dinner with everyone. We had prime rib and chocolate fondue for dessert. The kids had a blast playing together. Soren loved the ride ons, and it was pretty funny the way Soren and Lleyton interacted with each other. Here they are up to no good eating tons of chocolate graham crackers they got out themselves. It was after dinner, so it wasn't the worst thing they could do.

Keira had fun too, playing with Bryn, Avery, and Bailey.

Once we were home and put the kids to bed, Ryan and I went out to see Mission Impossible. It was a fun movie, and it was nice to be out with just Ryan for a change. It did make for a late night considering my Thursday morning plans.....

I woke up bright and early (in the pitch black) to attend Cristina's 6am spin class she was teaching. I was really glad that I was able to meet up with her on this trip, so getting up this early was not as hard for me as it usually is. I enjoyed her class and spent a bit of time catching up before heading back to get cleaned up and on the road to my parents house in Ohio. We got into Westerville just after lunch, and the kids were eager to open their presents from my parents and David.

We visited with David, who is in town for a short time between graduating from NYU and then moving to CA. He had NYE plans back in NYC, so he was getting up bright and early to catch a ride back with some friends. Sarah is working a salaried position, and worked today, but she was home for a dinner with the family. After dinner, she gave the kids their presents.

We also did a family picture using our new tripod, hood, and UV filter for our camera.
My mom had her camera set up too, and the hood really made a huge difference in the exposure quality. Here is our best photo.

Here is the funniest. Since I conked out in the car ride, I did not have a chance to read up on the self timer. Our camera takes 10 rapid fire shots on the timer, so you just can hopefully get a good one of the 10. My mom set it off while only some of us were waiting. Upon realizingthe timing of the shots, Sarah started posing, and I jumped.

Here are a couple of just the kids with the small camera:

We said our goodbyes to Sarah and David tonight, since they were going to be up and out early tomorrow.

On Friday, we got up at a relaxed pace, and my mom made egg nog pancakes shaped like snowmen. The kids loved them.

I did a short run outside in a light rain. I was able to try out my new running tights as well as get in my final miles of my midweek goal of 12 miles. We got cleaned up and packed up, and then headed to El Vaquero for lunch before getting on the road.

We got home not terribly late, so it was nice to be able to unpack everything and be home again. It was a whirlwind week, and it wasn't even over yet.

On Saturday, New Year's Eve, we worked on cleaning up the house because we were expecting a short visit from Greg and Ellyn, and co, who were visiting Ellyn's sister in Lexington. I went on an 8 mile run. It was at a pretty quick pace, but seemed a bit hard, likely due to my eating and running schedule this week. They arrived shortly after I finished getting myself cleaned up, and we had fun showing them our new home. The kids had a blast playing with them too. They did not stay terribly long, since they needed to get back. We needed to run out and pick up food for both chocolate fondue for tonight and lunched for Keira for Monday, and lunch for ourselves. Once we got back from our errands, Ryan got our new Kinnect set up, and we spent some time playing the dancing games. Keira really enjoyed them. Soren had fun for a little while, but was getting tired and hungry. It really is a workout. I felt really exhausted when I stopped considering I had run long in the morning too!

We ordered pizza for dinner, and put the kids in bed around the usual time for weekend. Keira could not find her new Jessie doll before going to bed, and Ryan and I could not find it! We looked everywhere, even putting on head lamps and going into the kids rooms. It was really bothering us. We were pretty sure it was not left in Ohio, and eventually stopped looking. I said a prayer that we would find it before we needed to put the recycling out. I did not want a real life Toy Story 3 event! Ryan and I made up the chocolate fondue (the kids really just like the dippers, so we gave them those before bed), and enjoyed that while we waited for the ball drop (and did more searching).

Sunday was the switch to early church, at 9am. It seemed extra early this morning. Keira was able to find her Jessie when she woke up, and it was in a place where Ryan and I had both looked already! I went to church not really sure what would happen with Primary. I had missed the email containing the new assignments because it went out to everyone under different subject than I had expected. I had been given a tentative assignment, but no lesson to teach. I picked up my lesson right before Sacrament meeting, and thankfully, it was on the same topic as my talk that I just gave, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. That was a huge relief, because at least I knew the material. I do have another teacher with me, and I had wondered if she had planned the lesson. We had a good sacrament meeting, but the wind kept making the power flicker on and off. It was off when we ended sacrament, but we continued on. The power did come back on shortly. I found my class and started to get to know them a bit. It is a big class. They were very well behaved, but maybe that is just because of their ages. I am not really sure that we need 2 teachers, but we hope to do a bit of traveling coming up, so this will at least help me out with being able to rotate the lesson schedule instead of finding subs. The primary has some holes, so I was surprised they have 2 of us there, but I will take it and enjoy it for now. Soren became a Sunbeam today. Ryan sat in the back of the sharing time room since Soren was a bit uneasy at first. They called up the Sunbeams and welcomed them to Primary, which is where he got his sign. His teacher, Amy (who I was teaching with), gave him his own personalized Book of Mormon, and he was very excited about that too.

Keira got a CTR ring, and it goes well with this year's theme of Choose the Right. I felt bad that I wasn't more prepared for my class today!

We had a relaxing day at home after church. It is amazing how much more time it seems with early church. I caught up on the blog and worked a bit on organizing the playroom. It was a disaster before the cousins came, and I spent some time helping the kids sort out their sets and find places for the new toys. It is not done yet, and there are toys that I am ready to part with that Keira is not. She has been bad at leaving lights on upstairs, so every time I catch a light on upstairs, we might need to get rid of something.

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit late. We were pretty busy, and while I did have some downtime on Christmas Eve (amazingly), I did not want to separate it from Christmas Day, nor did I want to be up super late blogging on Christmas Day. We had a really busy week, especially since Keira was out of school. It was a big training week, and we had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa.

On Monday, we went to the gym and I squeezed in a swim and a run today. I don't usually run on Mondays, but with Christmas Eve being on a Saturday, I initially was not supposed to run on that day. Things changed, and I did, but it was great to get this done. We also worked on making oreo truffles for the families that Ryan visits for home teaching.

On Tuesday, we got up early and I was able to finish my midweek long run before driving to Cincinnati to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa. They were coming to visit before Christmas so we could spend more time together, and we chose to meet in Ohio because I had received 4 free passes to the Cincinnati Museum's Holiday Express exhibit from a neighbor who couldn't use them. We also needed to go to IKEA and use my parents' vehicle to pick our our gift from them to us, a new dining room table. Keira and Soren really enjoyed the train exhibits at the museum.

We had a quick lunch at IKEA when we picked up our table, and got back home in the early evening to meet up with Ryan after work.

On Wednesday, I ran outside at home before we headed to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory Tour. They were also doing a special Christmas Exhibit of the Charlie Brown Christmas. This was the last year that it would be here in Louisville, so I was glad we were able to see it. They only allowed pictures in the Slugger portion of the museum, not in the factory or Peanuts exhibit. Soren did not like the tour at all due to the noise, but enjoyed the rest.

My parents headed home after that. Also, that afternoon, Soren smashed our laptop screen with a toy. It was rather upsetting to everyone. We were going to head out to look at phones, and I just wanted to send a quick email first. When I opened up the laptop, the screen was destroyed. Rather than going out and getting new phones, I spent the rest of the evening on the phone trying to set up the repairs.

On Thursday, I did a swim workout. On our way home, Ryan called with a local place to potentially take the laptop. I stopped by on our way home, and it was almost $200 cheaper than Dell, and they could fix it while we waited! I dashed home to cancel our Dell repair order, pick up the computer, and hurry back. This helped cheer us up a bit, and I was able to get it fixed there. I was less than excited about watching Keira and Soren in the small store that was wall to wall screens with a Christmas tree in the center, so I took the kids next door and got Soren's haircut while we waited. It felt good to have that fixed.

Once Ryan got home, we went to Meijer to get the food that we needed for our Christmas Eve dinner. It also felt good to have this done, especially given how much time I had spent working on the laptop. I cranked out our gingerbread train. We probably should have made it earlier, and I debated returning the kit because I probably should have used my time better doing something else, like laundry or more present wrapping.

On Friday, we another busy day. I had a nice swim workout, and then picked up our breads for the weekend from a great bakery called Plehnes. It was a madhouse. I guess that means I was in the right spot, though! I had planned to let the kids eat a cookie at their cafe area, but when we got there, the area was closed off and packed with trays and trays of items for sale or pick up. I did let them select a cookie, but we needed to take them on the road with us. That gave us a little break at home before our next stop, though. They made a car out of chairs in Soren's room, and had a lot of fun with that.

Ryan got off work shortly after lunch, and met us at the Ford dealership for a 9.99 oil change. We went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a couple kitchen gadgets to help prepare our Christmas Eve dinner while we waited for the truck to finish. Once that was complete, we had dinner at Smashburger again. We really like that place. I made the dessert, chocolate mousse, for tomorrow before going to bed.

Saturday was a busy day at home. It was Christmas Eve. I went out for an 11 mile run, and while I was out I saw two ladies from church as well as a neighbor. It was a beautiful morning for a run. Ryan rode the trainer once I got back, and then we had a light lunch and then got to work preparing our Christmas Eve dinner.

We opened up Christmas Crackers, and the kids liked wearing their crowns.

We had a steak roulade with cheesy potatoes, green beans, and rolls. The kids ate noodles, rolls, and beans. Everyone enjoyed the mousse.

We read the scriptures that tell the story of Christmas.

Nana and Papa had given the kids one box to open on Christmas Eve which contained pjs

Sunday was Christmas Day. We planned to go to church at 11, and initially hoped to drive to MI afterwards. Keira and Soren slept in later than we expected, and we got the kids up to be able to open their presents in time for church.

They really enjoyed their gifts, and we decided that it would be better to wait until Monday to drive, since we didn't have much time at all for them to play before we needed to leave for church. We were also not packed yet, and would have gotten in very late.

We enjoyed going to church, which was one service combine with La Grange ward, and then had a very relaxing day at home, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Christmas Party Week

2011-12-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

This was Keira's last week of school before Winter Break. The big events of this week were attending Keira's "winter party" at school and our Church Christmas Party. It also marked the start of my official Boston Marathon training plan. It is in 18 weeks!

On Monday, as part of my Boston training, I redeemed a free personal training session once I got Keira off to school. It was a fun and challenging workout.

Keira also had her last ballet class until the new year. Parents were allowed to view this class.

On Tuesday, I got Keira off to school, and then took Soren to the gym, and then Storytime.

He did not want to leave the gym today, because he became quite attached to a very old F350 toy truck that had apparently been there as long as everyone could remember. He did enjoy the Christmas storytime.

On Wednesday, while Keira was at school, we went to the gym again. Now that I am in my official plan, we will pretty much be going everyday for something. I took Soren's picture with his favorite truck. It is at least making it easier for him to go since he can look forward to playing with it.

Keira came home from school wearing this cute wreath with "candles" on her head. They are learning about how Christmas (and other holidays) around the world are being celebrated. I think this is Swedish?

On Thursday, I was able to attend Keira's "winter" party while my VT Cara, watched Soren. She had an appointment at 11, so I left a few minutes early. It also meant I could get to the gym by 11. Keira insisted that she wear a "party" dress since it was a party, and wore her sparkly dress that she wore on rock star day. I was amazed when I got to school and several girls had on either sequined or glittered dresses. She was not alone with the request to wear a party dress to school apparently! Her school has a policy where they do not allow food to be part of any celebrations, so they did lots of crafts. Keira made a cute frame of her class picture as well as an ornament. They played several games, including hot potato with a snowman and BINGO. She had a great time, I was really glad that I was able to attend.

Soren had fun at the gym, and I took him to Chick Fil A afterwards so that we could have a fun activity together too today.

On Friday, I got Keira to school and Soren ready for the day.

I needed to make cheesy potatoes during the day for the ward Christmas party. I got them in the oven in the nick of time, and then everyone got changed for the party. There would be an ugly sweater contest, and I happen to love Nordic sweaters. Ryan does not share my affinity for them, so I wore my busiest sweater, but not really a "bad" sweater. The kids wore typical children's Christmas sweaters, and Ryan wore a nice sweater. None of us planned to enter the contest, and the winners were really awful! It was a really fun party, with good musical entertainment. Keira and Soren were so excited when two of the youth sang one of the songs from Polar Express. We also had lots of our own cheesy potatoes to bring home too as leftovers!

Saturday was a rather typical Saturday for Ryan and I. I started the day with a long run, and when I got back, Ryan did a training DVD in the "pain cave".

The kids enjoyed relaxing around the house a bit, and we did some errands. Ryan and I are considering new phones, so we shopped around for those. We also ate dinner at Smashburger, which is a great burger place. They are a sponsor for cycling, which makes us like them more, and they have chicken and veggie burgers, as well as sweet potato fries. It was great. Once the kids were in bed, Ryan and I worked on wrapping presents.

On Sunday, the kids woke up and were so excited about all the wrapped presents. They were also very excited about the new playmobil set that our elf set up for them.

We had a decent day at church.

Soren brought home this ornament, where is very grumpy! It was such a well made ornament, with a high quality photo, it was a bummer that he made such a strange face.

We also had a visit from our home teachers. It was a busy day!

ChristKindle Market in Chicago

2011-12-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

This week was sort of crazy. We had a lot going on, primarily for the weekend. The week was calm, as usual, but Keira had a lot of friends over. With Ryan being in a "build" at work, he has been working later, so keeping the kids occupied has been easier with friends over.

On Monday, we had our usual groggy wakeup from Keira. She got to school fine, and it is finally starting to feel pretty cold outside. The kids have also really enjoyed finding our elf, Buddy.

On Tuesday, I got Keira up and off to school. Soren and I went to the gym (which we did every day this week, due to the busy weekend planned). We also went to storytime, and then did some errands.

On Wednesday, it was pretty cold. Keira headed out to school. There was a little tiny bit of snow, and Soren was thrilled. It did not stick, and amazingly, it did not cause any traffic problems getting to the gym.

When we got back, we received a Cheryl's cookie package from my aunt. Soren was so confused that I was able to open a present that came, and he was not. Thankfully, he was pacified by a cookie.

Keira got hot, and wanted to practice some ballet at home.

On Thursday, I got Keira to school, and then took Soren to the gym. I did a swim, and about halfway through, I completely lost the ability to do a flip turn. I must have just been tired, and then practiced them again at the end. We got home, and Keira had a friend come over. Soren was a bit crazy, terrorizing the girls, but everyone had fun. I baked some cookies for the Festival of Nativities that our church was hosting tomorrow and Saturday.

On Friday, while Keira was at school, I did my long run at the gym, so that I could get it done before the weekend. We had a busy afternoon, Keira had a friend from church over, and her mom and siblings ended up staying and playing for a bit. The kids had fun. Once Ryan got home, we attended the Festival of Nativities. It was really beautiful, and there were a lot of cool nativities set up. We did not volunteer any of ours this year, since we knew we would be gone when it was time to collect them.

Soren slept in really really late today!

The Festival of Nativities was really fun.

On Saturday, we woke up early and drove to Chicago. We got in during the early afternoon, checked our luggage at the hotel, and then walked the "Magnificent Mile". There was this cool silver bean that we walked around and took some pictures. We stopped into a few stores, and Keira really enjoyed the American Girl Store. Soren like the Lego store. We were able to take Keira and Soren's picture with Santa in the Water Tower Place, and it was free! They didn't have an official photographer, so you took your pictures yourselves.

We did a bit more walking, and then headed back to the hotel to warm up. We got the kids some hot chocolate, put on their snow pants, and then headed to the Christkindlmarket. This was our main reason for the trip. Ryan was impressed by the market. It was pretty large, and had a lot of fun booths. We wanted a licht haus, and found a cute train station. We also got a ski lodge smoker, and more candles. The food there was great. Keira and Soren split a brat, and ate more than I expected. It seemed very authentic. We also had some great pretzels. Soren and Keira had cinnamon, I had a pumpkin cheesecake, and Ryan had a traditional. They were all tasty. It was pretty cold, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a day.

On Sunday, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel before heading out.

We had an uneventful drive, and the kids played at home. We got out our new items, and lit our smokers, as well as our pyramids. The kids love them! They always get so excited, and are one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Perhaps next year we can display the large one at the Festival of Nativities.

Up for next week, we have Keira's last week of school before the winter break!

Winter Wonderland

2011-12-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

This was a tough week for the kids, getting used to getting up early again. We kept things pretty low key during the week, but had a huge Saturday and attended the Winter Wonderland at Keira's school while Ryan drove to Ohio to IKEA. I also got pictures taken of the outside decorations, and we finished up decorating the inside.

On Monday, Keira did not want to wake up to go to school! She said she was still tired. I did get her up and off to school, but was a little worried they might call me if she couldn't stay awake. She was fine. Soren slept in a bit, so the morning wasn't as hard on me as it could have been. We went to the gym while Keira was at school, and did several errands. Keira had ballet in the evening, so the day went by quickly.

On Tuesday, Keira was still very tired in the morning. She got up and got to school without any problems. Soren and I went to the gym for a quick run before storytime. We got delayed a bit by an accident. We were delayed here yesterday too! I was pretty rushed, but got in a decent workout before taking Soren to storytime.

Keira played at Gracie's house. Soren has been a bit afraid of their dog, so he didn't stay long. I ended up getting Keira with the car because it was raining, and took this picture of the house on our way back.

On Wednesday, Keira woke up a bit easier. I was able to cram in both a run and short swim workout today at the gym, because it was raining pretty hard in the morning. It did end up clearing up and turning into a nice day, but it was nice to have the workouts done early. Soren was tired and just wanted to go home afterwards. Keira got super stripey after school since she was hot in her sweater dress.

We added our LED candles to the mantle:

Keira was able to get up pretty easily this morning and got off to school fairly easily.

Soren, on the other hand, had a bit of a rough morning. He pulled a stocking holder down on himself while I was upstairs, and it landed on his foot. It took him a long time to calm down, and an even longer time to walk on it. It pretty much got to the point where if he didn't walk, we were going to Dr/ER. I finally got him to walk, and felt a bit like a bad mom for taking him to the gym, but I figured he might do better playing with other kids, and if he was just going to sit around on the couch in front of the TV, he could do that there too. It ended up being a good call because he didn't sit hardly at all and spent the time playing with some other boys his age, and wasn't limping at all when I picked him up.

We went to Chick Fil A, and had a good lunch. Soren ate all his food today, and then played a bit. He also put his face in the hole:

He crashed once in the car, and napped in the car a bit.

On Friday, we didn't do much. I felt pretty tired, and new we had a big day for Saturday. Keira woke up on her own this morning. Soren woke up shortly after, though. I spent the morning calling around on brake prices, and took my car in for an inspection. The verdict was pretty dismal, so I spent the afternoon calling around some more. I need tires too, so I was hoping to find a place with the best price on both, but that was proving to be elusive.

Ryan came from home from work, and we went over to Costco to do some quick shopping and return a defective window candle, and then ate dinner at Moe's. It is a burrito fast casual place similar to Chipotle and Q'doba. We were able to hang our star tonight. We tried putting up our old tree in our landing, but it cast too much light on the star. It wasn't really visible from the road, and wasn't lighting properly, so we took it down. It was a good idea, but it just didn't work out right.

Saturday was our big day. We all got ready, and while I took the kids over to Keira's school for Winter Wonderland, Ryan drove to IKEA in Cinncinnati to get a new kitchen table and chairs for it and the dining room. It was all that he could fit in the escape. The kids had a great time at Winter Wonderland, and got to see Santa. They did some crafts too.

Also, while we waited for Ryan to return, I was able to get my brakes fixed, at a much reduced rate. Hopefully the car is set on brakes until we replace the whole thing! Ryan returned, and I got in a run. It was strange to be able to run in a tank and skirt the same day as the kids went to Winter Wonderland. When I got back, Ryan went on a mountain bike ride at Waverly. Once he returned, we met up at 5 Guys for dinner. It was such a full day. The kids also made this movie in their snowman shirts.

That evening, Ryan and I got the table and chairs put together. I thought I had a picture, but I will have to put one up later.
Sunday was a typical church day. We did go in early today because Ryan received a new calling. He is now serving as the Young Men's 1st Counselor.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

2011-11-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

This week was a short work week, but long fun week. Keira only had school on Monday and Tuesday, and then we headed up to Ohio for Thankgiving on Wednesday. We spent Thanksgiving day and Friday there, and returned to Kentucky Saturday morning to decorate the house for Christmas.

On Monday, it was a busy day. We started off at Keira's school for her "T is for Turkey" Thanksgiving play. It was very cute and Keira did a great job.

Then, I went to the gym for a free personal training session which left me pretty much exhausted, but I swam quickly after anyway. We grabbed a quick lunch out because I needed to do some last minute grocery shopping after my swim while Keira was at school. I got a call from Ryan while we were out that he was having trouble with Best Buy's website during their Siliver Premier early Black Friday event. I rushed home and tried my best, but was only able to get one item after trying online and being on hold for over an hour. Keira had ballet that evening, so it seemed like the day flew by!

On Tuesday, we had another full day. I woke up and our drying rack had colapsed, and I hadn't even started to wash my clothes yet for the trip. I took Soren to the gym again while Keira was at school. It was raining too hard for me to want to run outside with Soren. We went to Pottery Barn storytime, where Elf on a Shelf was read (and purchased).

We stopped at Target on the way back to get a new rack, and Channel 11 news was there conducting interviews on Black Friday shopping. With our failed attempt at purchasing online items, I was able to tell the interviewer our tentative plan for being at Best Buy before midnight on Thanksgiving night. I don't know if it aired or not, though. I did take a photo of the newscasters doing ab work on the balls outside, like on the Target commercials with my friend Mary's crazy lookalike.

Keira played with Gracie that evening, for a little bit, and then after the kids went to bed, I got my pies made.

On Wednesday, I took both kids to the gym so that they could play together and hopefully Soren would be happier. Then, we pretty much got packed up and hung out at home waiting for Ryan to get home so we could get on the road.

We stopped at IKEA so that we could check out table and chair sets, for both our kitchen and dining room. Our kitchen table is no longer practical, with the grout in between the tile, and we don't have enough dining room chairs and trying to match chairs with our antique set will be a nightmare. The dining room table will be relocated to the basement as a sofa table that we can use for entertaining. We got into my parents' house a bit late for the kids, but they were OK. My mom and I stayed up and did a bit of early Black Friday shopping online before heading to bed.

We woke up early on Thursday (but not as early as my dad who had to put the bird in the oven) to head to the Columbus Turkey Trot. Keira and Soren were running in the Tot Trot, and I was doing the 5 miler. I met up with my friend Amanda and her daughter Maddie, who were also running. The kids did great, and were very excited to get their medals!

My race went pretty well, all things considered. I had a PR, barely, but it has been YEARS since I ran a 5 mile race, so I actually thought I would have had a bigger PR. Checking my past results, it wasn't that huge, but since I had a personal training session on Monday that left me in some major pain, as well as just finished a month of insane half marathoning, I was happy with it. I was mostly happy with how excited the kids were about the whole thing.

We came home and got cleaned up and then waited for Kris and Linda to arrive, and snacked.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving meal. It was hard to stop eating, even though I was so full! We had so much food. We had desserts, and then went to see Happy Feet 2 with everyone. It was OK, but the kids enjoyed it. We were also able to get some more of our Black Friday shopping completed online, and so we no longer needed to head to Best Buy this evening. That was great, because people had actually been camped out for days outside there.

We had a really fun Friday. We went to Inniswood Gardens to walk around and enjoy the nice weather. We took tons of pictures.

We went to the Columbus Zoo after lunch at Local Roots and really enjoyed the Polar Bear exhibit. They were very playful, and a lot of the animals were very active. There were so many pictures! Again, here are just a few:

Kris and Linda were driving back that evening, so we stayed at the Zoo through the first of the light shows. It was pretty fun, and it was so nice that it wasn't freezing this time around.

We headed back to my parents house, and then got the kids fed and put to bed, and then headed out just the two of us. We did stop at Best Buy to try to find the last remaining items, and they actually had all but one thing still. Then we headed to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1. It has been such a long time since Ryan and I had gone out without the kids, it was nice for the break.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and got packed up. We had a very quick drive home with hardly any traffic, and Ryan was able to watch the UM vs OSU game. It was an exciting game, and UM won for the first time in a long time.

I went for a run during the game, and then worked on getting the fall decorations put away so we could get out the Christmas decorations. We spent the rest of the evening working on the decorations, and got just about everything finished up. The one main thing we aren't sure how to hang is our Annaberg Star. I think we need a scissor lift to hang it wear we want! We had so many boxes to bring up!

Soren was thrilled that the tree looked just like the picture.

We also brough out our "elf on a shelf". Keira completely bought into it. Soren on the other hand said, "that elf isn't real!". Hopefully he doesn't ruin Christmas for Keira before she is ready one of these years.

On Sunday, we had a nice breakfast, and Soren went ahead and picked out his own clothes and got dressed on his own. Ryan also got the xbox hooked up and made avatars for all of us, and the kids played around with it a bit while we got cleaned up for church. Church was pretty rough today. The elf pretty much had the opposite effect with Soren than it was intended. We had to run home during sacrament meeting because he had an accident when I put him on time out for making too much noise while the sacrament prayer was being said. I am not really sure if it was really an accident or more of an "on purpose". Thankfully, we live super close. His nursery teachers also informed us that he was having trouble being obedient. I am not sure of what that entails, but my sunbeam class was also in rare form today. Ryan had home teaching in the afternoon, and the kids continued to struggle with their behavior, and finally Ryan came home and things got a bit better, but we had several time outs while he was gone. We also had a visit from our home teachers, so it was a busy night. The kids did straighten out for our home teachers, but it was a tough day!

Short work week and Family Photos

2011-11-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

November is a fun month because it has lots of holidays. Ryan had Monday off for Veteran's Day, and Keira had school. The days of the week were themed for her, I think as part of an anti drug campaign.

On Monday, Keira got up and off to school, while everyone else was able to sleep in.

I took Soren to the gym for a swim, and Ryan worked on getting our Yakima skybox in the sky. We purchased a hoist system to hang it from the ceiling of the garage. Ryan took a break from working and we went to Chick Fil-A for lunch. Keira does not like chicken, so it was nice to go with Soren and not hear her complain. We got the box hung up finally! Keira had ballet that evening.

On Tuesday, it was dress like a rock star day. We had a little trouble with it, finally deciding on a sparkly dress.

I took Soren to the pottery barn storytime, and Elf on a Shelf was read. I think we will have an elf visit our new home.

After the kids came home from school, they went and played at Gracie's house for a little bit.

While the kids were playing, I learned that Three Cedars Farm, one of our favorite fall and early winter MI destinations for cider and donuts, was being forced to shut down. We were extremely saddened by this, and I spent quite a bit of time on the computer trying to figure out what was going on. Please check out Save Three Cedars Farm! on facebook for more information and to sign the petition. We had Soren's birthday party there last year, and went there twice this year, as well has had our family picture taken with Santa the past two years. It is really sad what is happening.

Wednesday didn't have a theme. Keira was excited that she could wear whatever she wanted to school today.

I took Soren to the gym, and I learned how to do a flip turn! I didn't learn it until after my workout, so I didn't get to use it while actually lap swimming.

On Thursday, Keira was to wear her favorite sports team. She selected UM, for Ryan. She also was able to match her doll, so she was pretty excited about that. No one else had on UM clothes. She said there were lots of UK fans.

I took Soren to the gym and had my first run since my races. It felt pretty hard.

Keira made an indian headband at school today.

On Friday, it was school spirit day.

We had a busy day. I took Soren to the gym while Keira was at school. I was able to add flip turns into my workout, fairly well I would think. I probably did about half of them OK, a quarter of them really poor/failed, and another quarter decent. It made the workout go by a lot faster, both from a mental standpoint and a time standpoint. Probably all those really messed up one where I didn't actually make it to the wall made my swim a bit shorter! After the gym, we did a few errands, and then headed home for a fast lunch. I had my parent teacher conference with Keira's teacher at school. She is doing very well, so that made me pleased. Also, I saw this on the bullentin board outside her class. It melted my heart! (Keira is thankful for Soren)

I was able to bring Keira home from school, and she was excited to be a "car rider". Then, we worked to get ready for our family pictures in the evening. Once Ryan got home from work, we headed over to the JCP in St Matthews. We were very pleased with the way they turned out. We had dinner at Red Robin, but it was a late night for the kids.

On Saturday, we had a slow moving morning. We got some trip planned figured out for December, and Ryan watched some football. I went for a run, and when I got back, I took the kids biking.

When the game ended, we had planned to go with Ryan mountain biking, but Soren crashed out on the couch. He asked Ryan if he could lay down on a certain spot, and then went to sleep. He slept for a couple hours, while Ryan rode.

He finally woke up, and we headed to the Summit to do some browsing and pick up some candles from Yankee Candle to make the house smell like a real Christmas tree. Soren is pretty funny in that store. I have brought him in several times, and he LOVES smelling all the candles. A couple of the employees there have seen him before, and know he is pretty good with them, but he really stressed out one of the ladies. The other customers got a big kick out of him. He was running around shouting, "f'mell this one!" and holding up different candles. His cheeks smelled like candles when we left the store. We also walked around the shopping area, because they had it lit for Christmas already. It was weird to not really need coats and walk around with Christmas decorations out. We also had dinner at Qdoba. It was really good. It is similar, but not exactly the same as Chipotle. It was another late night for the kids.

On Sunday, we had a full day. Everyone slept in a bit, so there wasn't as much time to get ready before church. We also had breakfast and brunch. The kids were starving when the woke up, so they had cereal, but then we had chocolate croissants, bacon, and eggs a bit later in the morning, but skipped lunch. I had a lot of visual aids to make for my lesson, and the time went by really quickly. Keira conked out during church, and slept until after Sacrament meeting was over.

Soren decorated a pumpkin at church too. I warned his instructors that he had colored both his hands entirely blue with marker just this morning, when he coloring with Keira. He seemed to do OK with them at church. He was very attached to it. There was a slight mix up with which one was his when Ryan got him, but thankfully, it got sorted out and he got to have "his" pumpkin.

That evening, we attended an Interfaith Thanksgiving Program that was held at our stake center. We knew that the Primary would be performing, and on the program, there was one bullet point with two children's choirs. We accidently sent Keira up too soon. She did great with it, though. She did OK, but was relieved to be united with her primary. We had some quick refreshments and the headed home.

Up for next week, we be celebrating Thanksgiving!

Louisville Sports Commission Half Marathon

2011-11-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

These week was another one of those low key weeks with a busy weekend. We had a lot of excitement with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, a climbing trip with scouts for Ryan, ANOTHER half marathon for me, and the Primary Program for Keira.

On Monday, we had our usual day. Keira went to school in the morning, and I took Soren to the gym for a short swim. It was very irritating today, because I went to the gym around 11, thinking I would have plenty of time for a 20 minute swim and then shower before the childcare closed at 12. I ended up having to wait 35 minutes for a turn in the pool. I am actually glad I didn't get there a half hour earlier like I had initially planned because then I would have waited for over an hour, because they were all gone right around 10:15. I got the key with just enough time for 800m, a super fast shower, then then was 5 minutes late getting Soren. He was fine, but I felt sort of bad for the ladies working there. However, if they didn't have the policy they have as far as allowing people to check out pool key while they were not actually using the pool, then I would not have needed to wait so long. The pool was entirely empty when I got my key. Very annoying.

Keira had ballet this afternoon as usual.

On Tuesday, Keira had off for voting day. We went to the gym, even though I had a light workout planned. It was fun for Keira to go and play with Soren. Soren has a much better time when Keira goes. We went to storytime next. We were a tad late, and then Keira and Soren got into a huge fight over Keira's snack, so I think this was the shortest storytime ever!

We went to trader Joe's afterwards. It just opened near the gym. The kids had a blast pushing their own carts around, but yet again, another meltdown. This time was Keira's turn, she was mad she didn't get to push her cart all the way to the car. Our final stop before heading home was voting. We had no issues on the ballot or any non partisan section, so it was very quick. The kids played with friends during the afternoon.

On Wednesday, things were back to normal somewhat. Keira went to school, and then it was a bit wet outside so Soren and I kept a watch on the weather to get in a dry short run outside. I got cleaned up and then we headed to costco. I was really excited to get things from the new coupon book, but as it turned out, it didn't start until Thursday. We still found a lot of things to buy, though.

While Ryan was at scouts, the kids and I had a blast dancing to the music channels on our cable. We had a mini dance party and Keira was actually asking to go to sleep since she was worn out.

On Thursday, I took Soren downtown to packet pick up for my race this weekend. It really wasn't an expo, just a room to get my shirt and a gu. Nothing fancy. We parked exactly where we needed to be, so it didn't take long at all. The shirt was a really nice shirt though.

On Friday, we didn't really do much. It was nice to have a restful day the day before a race. Soren and I pretty much hung out all day, just waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive.

They got in a little after Keira got home from school, and then Ryan arrived. He had to get the car loaded up to go to the Red River Gorge to go camping and climbing with the boy scouts at church. Once he left, my parents, the kids, and I went to the Olive Garden for some carbo loading. The kids were really good at dinner, and ate well.

On Saturday, Soren woke up very early, and had to be put back to bed several times. I was able to go back to sleep the first time he woke up, but I needed to get ready for the race when he got up the next 2 times. My dad came down to the race with me, and we parked really close to the start. We found Rhonda right away, and then found more of the Landsharks. I had pretty low time expectations, since it was my third half marathon in less than a month and my second in a week. I started what I thought was conservative, but once I hit the hills, I wished I hadn't started quite as fast. The last 4 miles were pretty tough, even though it was pretty flat at that point. I was able to finish just under 1:45, which was what I had hoped for. My dad and I had a rather long walk back to the car, since the finish wasn't as close to the start as I thought.

We got home and my parents watch the game with the kids. We did a bit of shopping after it ended, and then got dinner. Ryan returned while we were out. He set up 2 routes for his scouts and spent the day belaying them. Everyone was pretty worn out from the long day and it was an early night.

On Sunday, my parents came to church with us for Sacrament Meeting because it was the Primary Program. Keira did great, and my class did pretty well. We had a few issues with children not saying their parts, but aside from that, not terrible. We said good bye to Grandma and Grandpa at church, before heading to our classes.

Once home from church, we made some fall cupcakes that I had initially planned to make for Halloween. We just had so many treats for Halloween and with my new race plans, I just didn't want to make anymore. Now that the race plans are done, I figured I could indulge a bit while I recover and prepare for Boston training, which starts in a little less than a month.

Happy Halloween (for real) a race, and a birthday party!

2011-11-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

This week was very busy. With Halloween on a Monday, and a packed weekend, we tried to keep the week relaxing, but that only worked so much.

Monday was Halloween. I got in a short run today, moving all my workouts up a bit to allow for 2 days rest before Saturday's race. Keira had ballet, and it was good to keep the kids occupied for the time after school but before trick or treating. It was a lightly attended class, though. We had a quick dinner and then got ready to trick or treat. I had mixed feeling on the time change, because it seemed strange to be so light out for trick or treating, but I don't know if we would have gotten Soren out at all in the dark. He made it a few courts before becoming so afraid of the other trick or treaters that he needed to be brought home. Thankfully, we linked up with a few of Keira's classmates so she could stay out while I ran him home to Ryan. He had gotten enough candy for his liking. Keira hit about every house in our neighborhood, and then got really afraid of one house, so we had to go a really long way around on our way home. We did make it home by 7:30 or so, and the kids stayed up about an hour or so extra.

We met up with Gracie and Sammy for a little bit, in our yard.

Tainey, Elle, Keira, and Nick

This is the house Keira refused to walk by. The decorations extended out of the picture to the right. She did not like the zombie that removed its head on the right edge of the picture.

We met back up with Gracie and Sammy again, later on.

Soren ran out to greet us as we returned.

The house with the combo of flame candles and LED candles.

Keira's Kitty Bat pumpkin and Soren's hanging bat pumpkin:

On Tuesday, Keira had a tough time getting up for school, and Soren slept in a little bit. We did make it to the gym and then storytime with plenty of time to spare. We stayed and played at the mall for a little bit too.

Soren was a bit too tired to pay good attention today.

That afternoon, the Oldham County Main Library in La Grange was showing Cars 2, and since I hadn't seen it and knew the kids would be tired today, I took them there while Ryan rode. They were really tired, but made it through the whole movie and even picked out some books and got their own library cards.

Wednesday was an early release day. I wanted some homeopathic cold medicine (since what I really like to take is a banned substance byt USAT and USATF during races) and I wanted to get used to it before Saturday, so we popped into Whole Foods. I don't think we had ever been into one, and I let Soren pick a treat from the bakery. He selected a giant pretzel, and I had a pretzel roll which really reminded me of the pretzels in Germany. Yum!

Keira wanted to hang out with me all afternoon, turning down invitations to go play with the neighbors. I think she was just worn out. She was very helpful with getting all the Halloween decorations down and put away. We have some decorations for fall that we just moved around to make it look better for Thanksgiving. The block for "In all things Give Thanks" is usually always out, but we just moved it to a more prominent location with the removal of the trick or treaters.

On Thursday, we had planned for a really relaxing day. We had a few goals, like attend a Relief Society meeting, go to Target, and pack. I had wanted to get some rest for this last minute Indy trip. We got Keira up and off to school, and then Soren and I hung out for a bit until the RS meeting time. I went outside to start the car, and it just clicked at me! Oh no! I called our neighbor Amy (who had bailed me out LAST thursday as well), and she was already over there, but came and got me. I wasn't sure if I should go or stay, I was glad I went over there. I was able to call AAA KY, and make a craft with friends while I waited for the truck to come. Amy took me home once they called, and we got the car started in the rain. AAA's verdict was that I needed a new battery, and I was going to have him put on in on the spot. However, I noticed my check engine light on. I needed to take the car somewhere to have that looked at (especially since I was planning to take the car to Indy on Fri), and opted to just have everything done at once. I went inside and called the Mazda dealership, and they were able to look at the car immediately, as well as informed me that it very well could be nothing, and just a result of the battery being completey drained (from a rear dome light left on for who knows how long by one of the kiddos). They took a look at the car, and said it was completely fine! No new battery, and even gave me a deal on the diagnosis (which I asked about in advance, since it was a possibility that nothing was wrong). They had taken time to look at the car, test drove it, and cleared the code. It was worth it for the peace of mind that the car was fine. We got home in time to get Keira, and then went to Target once she got home. Additionally, Ryan realized his wedding band was missing, and we were both unable to find it since his ride after work on Tuesday. It was a rather stressful day, but so far, with the exception of the ring, things were working out.

This tree looked really pretty with the yellow tree behind it when I went to get Keira off the bus.

Soren crashed out in front of the TV while I went to get Keira, while in full princess garb. This drives Ryan crazy, but I think it is funny.

This is the flower clip I made at church:

On Friday, I had a low key morning where I got everything packed up for my short trip to Indianapolis. We debated everyone going or just me a lot, as well as if I should go Friday or Saturday. Our decision was to have me just go on Friday, and I found a very reasonable hotel. The kids, Keira especially, was thrilled to be going over to the neighbors to wait for Ryan to come home so I could leave early enough to make it to the expo. Soren was a bit excited, but not as much as Keira.

Soren put himself in the laundry basket at the "engine" of this train. He was able to crawl under it without knocking the blanket off.

Ryan got out of work early enough to stop by Waverly, where he last saw his ring to look for it. Amazingly, it was there, in the grass! He called me with the good news while I was on my drive to Indy. He came home and took the kids to 5 Guys for dinner. I got into Indianapolis around 5:30, and went to the Expo. I am really glad I did go in the night before, because the exit I planned to use would be closed for the race the next day. I easily made it out of the city and to Noodles for dinner, and then back to my hotel. It was a very nice room for the money. I am really glad I opted for that place, it was not scary at all, and even had an indoor pool, internet, and breakfast. I only used the internet, but had the kids come, it would have been an OK place. I was a little worried when I booked it if we did change our minds and all go that it would have been tough to keep the kids there if I had the car during the race. Now we know a good inexpensive place to stay when we go to check out Indy as a family.

Race morning wasn't terribly early. I woke up right on time, a couple minutes before my 2 alarms. I got to the race start and they were still setting up! That was a bit surprising. There were a few other Aquaphor teammates, and I met up with 2 of them before, and hung out in a tent with Jennifer's friends. It was nice to be shielded from the weather, and we also opted to skip gear check and just leave our things in the tent, so that was nice as well. I was considered to be in the "seeded" section, so I was pretty close to the front. It was a big race, not as big as Detroit, but from the numbers, it was as big as Derby, but it didn't seem that big. The only corrals were for elite and 2 sections of seeded runners, and then everyone else. I ran as hard as I could, but I just couldn't keep the pace I needed to qualify to NYC. I did crazy math towards the end, never giving up, pushing the whole way, but I just couldn't hang on. The course was a little long, so my finish time of 1:41:33 doesn't accurately reflect how much faster I ran than at Detroit. If I adjust it down based on my average pace from my Garmin, it has my adjusted finish time to be 1:39:47. This is still not fast enough, but almost 3 minutes faster than Detroit. I guess to run a super fast half marathon, I need to have trained for a full marathon, which is how I ran so fast in the spring, getting even closer to NYC. I got my finsher's medal and hat, and filled it with food, and then dashed off to the car.

I made it back home and quickly took Keira and Soren over to Sammy and Hannah's 6th and 4th birthday parties. It was a pretty major event, complete with a magician and enormous bouncer! The kids had such a blast. It was so cute, Keria was really impressed by the magician. She told me he did "real" magic, by making a deck of cards appear. He was apparently a lot more impressive than the magician we saw last week at the Yew Dell, who did more comical "tricks". Her face was classic, though, as she told me about it. The rest of the party (and afternoon) were spent playing on the MASSIVE bouncer. I had fun chatting with the neighbors who were invited, and Ryan went mountain biking. I finally pried the kids away after they were fully exhausted and the party was dying down.

We had the time change on Saturday night, but the kids didn't really sleep in much. They don't get it. We had a low key morning, and the kids at a ton before church. I could tell Soren was tired, but we did OK during church. There were a lot of other tired kids at church today too. One of my students was asleep on a bench for the whole program practice, and two others, not in my class, fell asleep on the stand. It will be interesting next week when we have the program. I am worried a bit about my class, since they don't sit well and only a few have attended both practice sessions. Keira did well with her part, so that made me happy. I made pumpkin bread (since my race was over), but I didn't use apple cider. I was bummed at the difference it made. The bread was good, but not nearly as good as using cider! We finished off the night with a webcam session with Kris and Linda.

Up for next week, Keira has Tuesday off for voting day, and I have another half marathon. This one I have mixed feeling about. I initially signed up because several neighbors and ladies from church were training for it. So far, only 1 may actually run it, and it is super hilly so I never planned for it to be an NYC qualifier. I guess I'll see what happens, especially since I gave it my all on Saturday. This will be "just for fun", although my last half I did "just for fun" was my PR time of 1:38:39.

Pre Halloween Week

2011-10-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

This week was getting back into the swing of things after the weeklong break. It was a bit rough for the kids (and me) getting up at the normal time, but we had a lot of fun activties since Halloween is coming up.

On Monday, it was pretty much spent getting back into our groove. I got Keira ready for school, and Soren slept a bit longer. We went to the gym and I made it back into the pool after almost a 2 week break. We also did some errands.

I got the bathroom downstairs put back together after Ryan painted it last week.

Keira had ballet in the evening, and was excited to go. I also rode my bike inside in the new "bike room" once the kids were in bed.

On Tuesday, we went to the gym quickly after getting Keira off to school. We also went to the storytime at the mall. Soren was very excited to make a spiderman mask as the craft.

He also picked out a hat and mitten set that he wants for Christmas.

We did find the wig we needed for Keira's costume:

On Wednesday, it was a bit wet out. Keira went to school, and Soren and I went to the gym to swim. He was really excited about carrying around an umbrella all day long where ever we went.

We went on a run today to, and cut it super close to getting Keira off the bus in time. I am glad that I am pretty consistent with my neighborhood runs. I also made the decision to do another half marathon, in Indy, on Nov 5th. This is to try again to qualify for New York. I feel really good about this decision, and hopefully I can stay healthy and have a good race.

On Thursday, I went to Keira's school for a special Harvest/Halloween Storytime. It was really cute and fun. I saw several ladies from church, as well as from our neighborhood, while I was there. Soren stayed with our neighbor Amy. I am thankful she was able to help out, and on very short notice because there was a bad accident which kept me from being able to go to the place I had arranged the night before.

I also went on a fast run once Ryan got home. It felt good to run fast, and I hope that I can run even faster in my race. I officially entered the race today, and I need to work on my travel arrangements a bit still.

On Friday, I took a rest day after getting Keira ready for school. With the race coming up, I felt like I should take the day off. I also had my visiting teachers come over to visit.

We had Trunk or Treat at church this evening. Keira wasn't feeling the greatest, and it became apparent as we got ready to go. She was a wreck, and ended up going to sleep. I took Soren over and left a bowl of chili for Ryan. Soren and I hung out outside, and it was cold. It was just as well that they missed the whole chili eating part. Keira work up and Ryan brought her over just as the candy was being passed out. Everyone passing out candy had their cars decorated, so we grabbed some items from our home and put them in the truck. It looked pretty good with some LED candles.

On Saturday, I went for a run and then took the kids over to Boo Dell at Yew Dell, a botanical garden. They had trick or treating from local businesses and a magic show. The kids had a good time. We did a straw maze and hayride too.

Sunday was a busy day for me. I gave a talk and it was the first day of Primary Program Practice. I was a bit nervous going into it, but everything went OK. Ryan went home teaching, and we just had a relaxing evening at home.

I also did Keira's nails with some fun orange nail polish for Halloween. She was very excited.

Fall Break

2011-10-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend started Keira's fall break. It was great for me that it coincided with the Detroit Free Press Marathon, and I had signed up to do the half. We also had plans to hang out at our favorite fall place in MI a bit before heading home. We spent several days working on the house, and also did a bit of sightseeing in Indiana. Sickness has continued this week, but has just changed people. Ryan is currently sick.

I left off the last post that we were about to head to MI. We stopped at Chipotle for dinner, and got into Kris and Linda's late, but not terrible. We saw a really cool rainbow on the drive, as well as a cool "spooky Halloween moon".

Saturday was a very full day. I woke up feeling worse today, and was pretty bummed about that. I had hoped I would wake up feeling better and be on the upswing for my race on Sunday, but it appeared that it would not be the case. We went to 3 Cedars in the morning for some cider and donuts. It was a bit damp, so not terribly crowded. Soren loved the train, and Keira had fun running all over. She was bummed the corn was wet and could not play in it, but that was OK with us. We bought a cute Halloween sign there. I also saw a little skeleton boy that reminded me of Soren and went with my other trick or treaters from Linda, but we didn't get it today, thinking that there would be other cute stores in the area that might have it cheaper.

Next, we headed back to Kris and Linda's so that Ryan could watch the game and I went to the Expo to get my bib/packet. It was fun, and I saw a few familiar faces. I had a few issues getting down there due to roads being closed already for the race and then forgot to get on 94 to pick up 96 from the lodge, and ended up in Novi, since by the time I figured out I wasn't going to pick up 96 anymore, I had gone too far to make it worth it to turn around. Oops, but at least I made it home before the game ended, like I said I would.

We had dinner with Kris and Linda at Noodles, my favorite pre-race restuarant. I'll have to find something else in KY, though. We also went to REI to get a system to hang our Yakima box from the ceiling in the garage.

On Sunday, I woke up super early to get downtown and get parked. I called Cristina to let her know my plan and where I hoped to find her during the race. I did it with no issue today, and walked over to the Doubletree Hotel to hang out with the Running Fit crew indoors. It was great to hang out by real bathrooms and inside since it was a bit chilly out. I saw a few people I knew from TIA at the start in my corral. I didn't meet up with Cristina and Monica on the course because since I wasn't feeling the best, I was behind, so they thought they thought they missed me and continued on. We did meet up at the finish, and Anna gave me my medal. It was strange to be announced as "from Kentucky" when I crossed. I wasn't terribly pleased with my time, but given everything, it wasn't that bad the more I thought about it. I wasn't feeling well, and my foot was bothering me once I finished and tried to find Kari, who was running the full. We did meet up with Kari, but I couldn't really run with her much, and headed back to the finish to find Jolyn and Shelby. I finally made it back to the car and back to Canton to get ready for church. The kids were very excited to see me and my new medal with a Mustang on it!

We went to church in Northville, and it was great to see our friends. That evening, Greg and Ellyn and the kids came over for dinner. All 6 kids were pretty crazy together. We tried to imagine how crazy it would be if all the cousins were there. Soren and Lleyton were up to no good together and locked themselves in one of the bedrooms and took EVERY toy out. It took a bit of time to get that cleaned back up!

On Monday, Linda came with us to Parmenters to meet up with Ellyn and Lleyton. It was great going on a weekday and not a weekend, and wasn't very crowded. We ate lots of donuts and the kids played on the train.

We then headed out to the Dixboro General Store to look for my little skeleton as well as some country art for our kitchen. We didn't really see what we were looking for, but got some ideas for sayings for in the kitchen. They didn't have my skeleton either, but it was fun to look at the other home decor items. We then went to Sidetrack for lunch. Soren was super excited about all of the train memorabilia and being so close to the tracks.

We also hit Haven, a store in downtown Plymouth. They had a ton of fun Halloween decorations, as well as these very cool tin tiles that had been repurposed as wall hangings. Not all were original tiles, but some were new. We selected one that was new, but made to look like old ones, and Linda gave it to us as a housewarming present.

Our next stop was Maybury, where Ryan did a lap and I took the kids to play on the playground. They had a blast and did not want to leave. Maybury is so beautiful in the fall!

We hit the bike shop and then went over to Kent and Valerie's for dinner. It was fun to catch up with them over some good food. The kids had fun playing too. It was quite the long day for everyone!

Tuesday morning we got loaded up and headed out pretty quickly. We had to stop at the bike shop and pick up Ryan's road bike, which was having a minor repair made to it overnight, and then I ran into 3 Cedars to get my skeleton boy on our way out to Ann Arbor for haircuts.

After the haircuts and a quick lunch at Potbelly's, we were on the road. We made it back to KY in time for dinner. After the kids went to bed, we got our new tile hung! We are really happy with our choice, it fits the space well and the color goes great with our kitchen.

We also put up our new Halloween decorations.

Wednesday was pretty much spent at home. We pretty much needed some rest after our crazy busy long weekend, but still did a lot of work at home. Ryan worked on organizing the unfinished portion of our basement, and getting some of the final boxes unpacked. Ryan worked on painting the downstairs bathroom over today and Thursday. The kids watched a ton of TV today.

On Thursday, the projects at home continued. I took Soren out for a bit in the morning to go to Costco and Home Depot while Ryan worked on painting. We ended up going to Costco a ton over the weekend. I sort of lost track, but we were there a lot. I made some cookies with the kids in the afternoon.

I bought some wreath hangers and white pumpkins at Home Depot to finish up our front porch.

We went to Chick Fil A for kids night, which ended badly with Keira being very upset about not wanting to eat chicken and making a scene. We went back to Costco as a family to do a return of a defective item and looked at the Christmas trees. We almost bought one, except we had the car and both kids, so we knew it wouldn't fit.

On Friday, we finished up a bit more house stuff and then went to the Falls of the Ohio, which is the only obstructed area of the Ohio River. It is a area where lots of fossils have been found as well. We enjoyed the center as well as hiking around on the trails and paths outside. The kids had a blast.

It wasn't that far from our house, and we finished up with plenty of time to look at some trees at Home Depot before getting dinner at the Tumbleweed. Dinner was good, and we headed back to Costco again, this time with the Escape to get the tree. Low and behold, it did not fit in there either, and we had just enough time for Ryan to run us home, unload, and go back to get the tree we already bought before they closed.

Saturday was a low key day. Ryan didn't feel very well; we had thought about driving to Nauvoo, the Red, or Mammoth Cave. Mammoth cave seemed to be the most sensible, but we decided it was just better to stay here and enjoy our last couple days of break. We finished up a bit more around the house and did some errands. Ryan went back to Costco again to get a ladder that needed its own trip while I took the kids to Meijer.

I painted this sconce black to match the hardware on our dresser and lamps.

Halloween sign and fall/winter wreath inside:

LED candles- we have owned this wall hanging for many years but never lit it since the candles were so close to the wall, ceiling, and chair. The LEDs are awesome! The flicker like real candles.

On Sunday, I took the kids to church while Ryan rested. Keira and Soren were very well behaved, and several of the more difficult children were absent from my class, so it actually went very well. We had a visit from our home teachers too.

Sick Week

2011-10-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

This post is late because I wasn't sure where to break the post since the weekend was pretty big, with the start of Keira's fall break and my race. I decided to just post here from M-F (up to when we left), and then will do the whole "Fall Break" as one post. We didn't do a ton during the week, but since Soren was sick, we really didn't do too much. He spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch, and that was very cute.

On Monday, I got Keira off to school and then when Soren woke up, I realized we would not be going to the gym. Soren was worse today than Sunday, so it was a very good idea that we kept him home yesterday. He woke up coughing so hard that he threw up in the kitchen.

We spent the day at home, and then when we got to Keira's ballet, we remembered that it was the parent viewing class. We dashed home and got out the DSL to take some video of her routine. It takes forever to upload, so once I upload it to Youtube, I will post it here. I did take a few still pictures.

Soren fell asleep on the couch, and had to be moved upstairs to bed.

On Tuesday, we decided to take Soren to the Dr. It took a bit of time on the phone with the insurance company to get everything figured out, and we cancelled our playdate for the afternoon since Soren was sick. We did get a stroller run completed.

On our way back from the dr, we took a little drive on Old La Grange Road to check out the scenery and see how far it went for running purposes. It is really pretty, and I am thankful I can run there. It isn't quite as big as Kensington, but it will work for doing long runs. I hope it is plowed during the winter.

Since it was such a nice fall day, I did have the kids pose for some pictures in front of our house and up at the entrance of our sub. I am glad I did it today since it wasn't too bright, and the mums don't look nearly as pretty anymore. Soren was pretty grumpy to start, but had fun by the end.

On Wednesday, we had yet another day at home with Soren still sick. We went for a run in the stroller while Keira was at school. Soren fell asleep on the couch this afternoon, and Keira went over to Gracie's house to play and help keep them apart.

On Thursday, Soren was finally feeling better. We got up and I went for a run, but it felt super hard. My time was not fast, and I just felt like I was working so hard! Looking back, I realize this was the start of me getting sick. Soren was well enough at this point to go play at my visiting teacher's home so that I could go to Keira's school and have lunch with her. This week was National School Lunch week, and today was the day I could eat with her to celebrate it. Thankfully, they were serving breakfast for lunch, so Keira had a whole grain cinnamon roll, but that was about it that she would eat. I ate her sausage, oranges, and my own baked apples, eggs, and cinnamon roll. It was pretty tasty, but a bit heavy for me. I chatted with Debbie a bit when I went to get Soren. He had a blast and didn't want to leave. We stopped in Peewee Valley on the way out to see the caboose to help coax him out.

On Friday, we spent the morning getting ready to get out of town. I got everything packed up and then we went back to see the caboose with Soren in his train outfit. He was doing a ton better. I, on the other hand, did not feel as well as I should 2 days before a race.

Ryan came home from work and we spent some time getting things loaded and ready to head to Michigan to start Keira's fall break.