Happy Birthday Ryan!

This week was a great week. It was the last week before school starts, so it was pretty full. We celebrated Ryan's birthday, had college football start, cider mills open, and Labor Day all in one week!

Monday was our typical day, go to the gym, errands, and play for a bit.


That evening, we went to Maybury. It was super hot and humid, really nasty out for working out, so we didn't stay on the playground very long at all.



On Tuesday, it was another super hot day, and we haven't had one like it since. We picked the perfect day to go to Spring Mill Pond with Valerie, Katie, and Luke. We had a great time playing in the water and the sand.










That night, Ryan was able to squeeze in a lap at Lakeshore, in the terrible heat, before scouts. We drove separate because Soren slept so long after getting home from the beach; he didn't wake up in time for us to ride together.



On Wednesday, I attended Keira's preschool orientation for parents only. She will have Miss Jan and Miss Shelley as her teachers, and will be in class with several of her classmates from last year. She will go MWF, from 9-12. From the orientation, it seems a lot more like school this year than last. It will be interesting to see what she thinks. While I was there, Linda watched Keira and Soren at the Novi Sports Park.


That evening, I got in a workout with TIA. The attendance is getting sparse now that the race seasons are coming to a close. This is pretty much my only cycling that I do, so I hope that they continue as long as the weather holds out.

On Thursday, we headed out to Ann Arbor for back to school haircuts. Keira and Soren both got hair cuts from Brittany at her new salon, Salon Fraxure. She is working for herself now, so we wanted to support her in this new direction. Here are a couple before and after shots. We are trying to grow out some of Keira's bangs.




On Friday, it was Ryan's birthday. Soren started out the day by being "dangerous".

We drove into Dearborn to have lunch with him at Buddy's Pizza. After lunch, Keira wanted to make Ryan a cake, so I made one for him. Keira wanted it to be pink, but I talked her into blue. She wanted the whole cake to be blue, not just white with blue writing. I do not know why it won't upload correctly.

We had dinner with Kris and Linda at Claddagh, which was very good. They came over to our place afterwards to enjoy some cake.






Soren really enjoyed the icing.

On Saturday, it was the first day that Parmenter's Northville Cider Mill was open. Yeah! We love their cider and donuts, and had to go get some. After our morning workouts, we headed over. Keira and Soren had a blast playing on the train.









That afternoon, Ryan attended the UM/UCONN game with Greg, and had a great time, especially because Michigan won. We pretty much just hung out and did a few errands.

On Sunday, we attended church. My jaw had been bothering me for the past several days. My ankle has been feeling quite good lately, so I had stopped taking medication for that, which is when I noticed my jaw pain. I went over to Urgent Care to have it looked at. I initially figured I would wait until Tuesday and just see my dentist (which is what the Dr said I should do in about a week if things don't get better), but I just couldn't take it anymore. The good news is that I don't have an ear infection/throat infection, but it also means we don't know what is going on. We went to Kris and Linda's for dinner, and Greg and Ellyn came over too. Keira ended up spending the night with the girls there.

On Monday, we celebrated Labor Day. Ryan did two laps at Lakeshore park, and I took Soren out for a run in the single stroller. It is so much lighter!

After our workouts, we met up with Kris and Linda and the girls at our Stake Labor day picnic. We didn't stay long, and it started to sprinkle as we were ready to leave.






We had dinner at On the Border that night. Keira and Soren were a bit on the crazier side tonight. Perhaps they had too many sweets at the picnic and were overtired. We did see the DePotter's at dinner, although they were finishing up as we arrived.

Next week will be exciting- Keira goes back to school on Wednesday!

The Second to last Week before School Starts

This week was crazy busy, and that is saying a lot, especially when you look at last week. This is the second to last week before school starts, and I feel like although we have done a ton this summer, there are still many things we didn't do yet. This week crammed in a ton of those things. We spent a lot of the week with Linda, Ellyn, and the cousins.

On Monday, we went to the Toledo Zoo with Linda, Ellyn, and the cousins. I wasn't set on going to Toledo, but after passing up an invitation to go to the zoo with Valerie on Friday, I couldn't say no again. Keira and Soren had a great time. There were several highlights of the trip. We saw the baby polar bear, who was quite active. We also did a train ride. Soren loved it, and it also gave us a great view of animals on the African savanna. It was totally worth it. We saw the aquarium. Keira loved the clownfish and Soren called the jellyfish "bubbles".

I also started physical therapy on my ankle today. I was pleased to learn that I did not need to stop running in order to heal. Yeah!

On Tuesday, we went to Rolling Hills water park. Keira and Soren had a blast. It took a little while to get them warmed up, but they really had fun. I was allowed to take them on the large waterslide on a tube with me. Keira screamed the whole way down, but still wanted to do it again. Linda took her a second time, and they went under upon entering the water, so she wouldn't give it a third try. Soren went down with me once, and enjoyed it, but didn't want to do it again either. Instead, they did the children's slide about 30 times. We also enjoyed the lazy river, and a splash pad area within the park.






That evening, we went to Maybury. Ryan didn't have scouts, so it freed up tonight. I was able to get in a decent run with the stroller, which is something I haven't done in a while. Ryan had a good ride. We had a little bit of time at the end to play on the playground.


On Wednesday, we had yet another full day. I swam laps at the pool in the morning, but then went over to beach at Lakeshore Park in Novi. My neighbor had set up a group to meet up today. We couldn't stay long because I had a presidency meeting, but we had fun. I hadn't been invited to do anything with her before, so I really wanted to accept the invitation. The beach was small, but the sand and water were really nice. Soren was more interested in the tunnel that we went through to get here, but did go in.





After the presidency meeting, I was able to ride and run with TIA at Island Lake. I declined the post brick swim, as I just couldn't bear to get wet again today. While I was gone, Ryan took Keira and Soren over to Kris and Linda's house. Linda had invited the girls over for a sleep over. This was Keira's first sleep over without us since Soren was born. Linda has all sorts of fun activities for them planned.

On Thursday, I met back up with Keira, Linda, Ellyn, and the cousins at the Howell outlet malls. We did a bit of back to school shopping. Soren and Lleyton loved this school bus outside of Old Navy.

Keira and Soren played on this little carousel too.

That evening, we played outside while Ryan got in a road ride. This was an extra day off for me this week from working out.


On Friday, after my workout, we had another big day. We went to Heritage Park in Farmington with Valerie, Katie, Luke, and their cousin Ava. It was a bit chilly today, so no one wanted to play too long in the water, but they still had a good time.




We also played a bit on the playground.


When Ryan got home from work, we headed to Heritage Park in Canton for the annual Ford BYU alumni picnic. Kris and Linda came too, and we had a good evening there.





On Saturday, Ryan got up early to do an 80 mile ride out to Chelsea and back. They started an hour earlier today since they were going further. They had a smaller group than usual, and were very fast. They averaged over 20mph for the ride. While he was gone, I took the kids over to Island Lake for a run. I ran from the Kent Lake area in Island Lake to Kensington, around Kensington, and back, for a total of 10.25miles and averaged 8:55min/mile. I brought their suits and Keira and Soren played in the Kent Lake beach area. This is not my favorite beach, but it works.





Once we all got home and cleaned up, we had a late lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger and Ryan got his birthday present, a bike helmet, ordered. We had a relaxing evening at home.

Sunday was a much more low key day than it has been. I finally had a slight break in my Sunday responsibilities by just conducting today. Everyone also took a nap after church, which was nice. I used the Levain copycat recipe to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, which are always so good. Everyone enjoyed them.


Up for next week, we have Ryan's birthday and Labor day weekend coming up for our last week before school starts.