Back to School

The boys (and Josey) started school after Labor Day.  Jordan is in 2nd grade this year and came home the first day and said, "I love 2nd grade.  It is awesome!"  I'm so glad to hear this.  He has a great teacher who will make 2nd grade fun.  Jarrett was a little apprehensive about starting kindergarten, which is all day here.  On back-to-school night he wouldn't even look at or talk to his teacher, who is super nice.  I asked him if he could be brave and on the first day of school he had no problems.  He rode the bus with Jordan and then I met him at the school just to show him where his backpack went and make sure he made it to his class.  He did great and seems to be enjoying school.  Jarrett is really smart (of course I would say so because I am his mom, but he is seriously a really good thinker and is curious about everything; he gets that from Josey), but he's not quite as social as Jordan.    I'm so excited for him to be able to learn so much because he LOVES to learn.  He is really excited to be able to read.

I admit that I was a little worried having just one kid at home, but so far Jaycie and I have been very happy with no big brothers to bother her.  It is fun for me to spend time with her and for her to be able to do things without getting bugged.  The other day she performed a cute song and dance number for me while she stood on a stool and twirled her baton.  It really made me laugh.  But as soon as the boys got home from school and she tried the same performance, they immediately got out the pillows and tried knocking her off the stool.  It is no wonder we are enjoying a little peace!  It is very quiet, but we can definitely handle that for a few hours. :)

Josey got a new classroom this year because the high school is being remodeled.  He is excited about a classroom with windows and a new lab.  The start of the school year is always a good change for me because I seem to thrive on more organization and a stricter schedule.  I have been getting up early to run and even have a running partner so that is fun for me.  Getting up at 5:00 a.m. just works so much better for me than getting up whenever I want to during the summer.  And Jaycie still takes a good nap every day, so if I do start to crash I can get a little rejuvenating rest (or blogging, or reading) for awhile.  I do feel a little spoiled (blessed) right now, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.      

Yellowstone

Our last big adventure of the summer was taking our kids camping in Yellowstone with Lyle, Jan, & Jesse.  They loved it!  The boys are very much into geology (thanks to their dad) and were very fascinated by everything.  They were troopers and didn't complain about all the walking we did.  Even Jaycie hiked up about 200 stairs and called herself a "tough guy" for doing it.  It was such a fun and relaxing weekend.  The weather was great.  The only thing that we would have changed was to not have Josey get sick.  He caught a  stomach bug from the kiddos and then passed it on to his whole family.  I think they have come to expect getting sick after spending any time with us.

I really wanted to see a bear or a wolf, but we didn't see either.  Just some elk, buffalo, and coyotes.  The buffalo were way too close for my comfort.  One was standing right outside my window pawing the ground and making noises and Josey said that meant it was going to attack.  I admit that I was very panicked because we had just had our car repaired from hitting a deer on our last trip up to Montana.  I did not think his joking around about it was very funny, but luckily the buffalo decided to move on.

Best. Uncle. Ever.  

Taking a break at Norris Geyser Basin

I have never really been afraid of heights, but my heart was pounding on this walk down 385 stairs.

See, I said it was close!  And very scary!

 

Catching Crawdads

Despite my lack of blogging (and picture-taking, shame on me), we really have done some fun stuff this summer.  Our latest adventure was catching crawdads in the Hams Fork river.  I think they look really gross (and may have let out a few screams when they came near me), but the boys LOVE doing this and now beg us to keep taking them.  Don't worry, we don't eat the crawdads, though there are some people who do.  Gross!

Jaycie got a little worried when the crawdads would get too close to her, but she loved watching them in the bucket and walking in the water.

The best crawdad catcher.  The boys held them too, but I had put the camera away by then.

Two VERY happy boys.  Who couldn't stop asking when we could go again.  The simplest things in  life really do bring them the greatest joy.

Bear Lake Marathon Recap

FYI:  This recap is mainly to help me remember my first marathon experience; things I did right and wrong that might help me if I decide to run another one.  It will probably be boring to whoever is reading this.

On June 9 I ran my first marathon, the Bear Lake Marathon.  I've been running consistently for about 5 years now (since Jarrett was a baby) and finally had the desire to run a marathon (26.2 miles; yes, I may have a little pet peeve with people who ask how long my marathon was).  I was going to run one in the fall so I could train through the summer with Josey home, but I decided I really wanted to do a spring marathon. I hired a babysitter on Fridays to do my long runs since Josey would be at track meets most Saturdays, and started my training sometime in March.  I thought I would dread the training since I would always be running alone, but I have found some good podcasts that keep me entertained and I mostly looked forward to my long runs.  My biggest obstacle was the weather.  I ran one 18-miler in hail, snow, and high winds, so I figured I was ready for any weather come race day.

I chose the Bear Lake Marathon because it was only 45 minutes from home and we have a place we can stay over there.  Plus, it looked like a smaller race so Josey would be able to handle the kids with less hassle and still help me out when I needed him.  We went over on Friday afternoon, checked out the course, and then let the kids swim in the pool for awhile.  We had grilled burgers and chips for dinner.  I'm not sure if this was the best pre-race dinner, but it seemed to work fine.  I tried to get to bed at a reasonable time since I needed to be up at 4:00 am to get to the bus on time, and I had a bit of trouble falling asleep, but was able to by about 10:30.

After driving over the course, I was a little bit worried.  The website had described the course as both flat and hilly (?) so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Basically the first 15 miles were hilly and the last 11 were pretty flat.  Because I train in Kemmerer, I am definitely used to hills so during the race these weren't as bad as I had anticipated, especially since they were at the beginning of the race.

I woke up at 4 a.m., got dressed, and had a breakfast of two boiled eggs, some Cheerios, and a banana.  I stuck with what works for me.  I got on the bus at 5:30 and then headed to the east side of the lake where the race would start.

My plan going into the race was to get a Boston Marathon qualifying time, which meant I had to run it in 3:35, or about an 8:12 minute per mile pace.  I wanted to stick with this pace from the beginning and not go out too fast.  I knew from my training that I could meet this goal, but it was going to be close, especially since this was my first marathon and there were many unknowns.  I didn't know if my fueling strategy would work or how my legs would be feeling after 20 miles.  I started right on pace for 3 miles and then I started going a little faster, which probably wasn't such a great idea, but a new marathoner's mistake.  I did feel really good until about mile 22.  That's when things started to get really hard.  My legs felt dead and I really wanted to stop.  The last 2 miles were especially hard.  I wanted to walk, but I knew by looking at my watch that if I walked I would not make my time goal and I was really close.  I even stopped about 100 yards before the finish line, somewhat confused by the cones in the road, thinking that I had crossed the finish line.  Then I realized I still had a little ways to go and managed to finish in 3:34:15, barely making my time goal and qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  (If I had stopped to go to the bathroom, which I needed to since about mile 6, or had to stop at more water stops, which I didn't because I carried water, gatorade, and gels - I would not have made my time goal.)  Meeting my goal was very exciting for me, more so than realizing that I was the overall female winner.  I know that in any other marathon, I never would have won with that time, but because it was a small race (about 150 marathoners, 70 female) I was able to take 1st place.  Not many people can say they won their first marathon. :)  And I got a big rock to show for it.

Overall, my first marathon was a great experience.  My training went well and I felt well-prepared for the race.  At two weeks out from the race, I still can't say if I want to run another one.  I'm toying with the idea of running one in the fall to try to get a better time, but those feelings from the last few miles are still lingering. Right now I guess I am still in recovery mode, spending a little more time lifting weights than running and doing all my runs at a very easy pace and still not feeling that great about them.  Hopefully in another couple of weeks I'll consider myself fully recovered.  Until then, I will just enjoy running in the cool summer mornings and try to get back to that feeling of looking forward to my runs.  I'm sure eventually my drive will come back and I will feel like pushing myself again to get faster, but I'm definitely not feeling that yet.  (As a sidenote, Josey has started running a little bit so maybe I will get to run some short summer races with him.  That would be fun.)

Last weekend I turned 30 and I got to enjoy my birthday at the Wyoming state track meet with Josey, who is the head track coach here.  My parents were nice enough to take my kids for 3 days, so it was a great little break and a lot of fun.  The kids got to enjoy Richmond's famous Black & White days and I got to enjoy some relaxing fun times with my husband.  A win-win for everyone, even my parents, who were exhausted by the end of the weekend, but had a lot of fun with my darling kiddos. :)  The Kemmerer boys managed to take home a 4th place trophy, which is the first time they've earned a trophy in about 20 years.

These last two weeks of school seem to get really busy.  Jarrett graduated from preschool and started his first year of T-ball and Jordan has advanced to the minor leagues.  Jordan has yet to hit the ball in a game (it is pitched by a machine), but we are confident that by the end of the season he will be able to get a hit.  :)  His fielding has already improved, and spending our entire evenings at the baseball fields has become a regular part of our week.  A couple of pictures of Jarrett in action:

We took the kids swimming last night and I realized we have a third little swimmer in the making.  She wanted to swim all by herself and when she saw kids going off the diving boards she said, "me try" and then hopped out of the pool and tried to sneak over to the diving boards.  Even though she was shivering (me too!) because the pool is really cold, she swam for almost an hour.  She really is a little daredevil and will try to copy everything her brothers do.

My marathon is in two weeks!  I just finished my last 20-miler yesterday in high winds and rain, and am just a little sore and really tired today.  I keep going back and forth on my goal for this race.  Because this is my first marathon, part of me just wants to "enjoy" it as much as that is possible for a marathon, and part of me wants to try for a Boston-qualifying time of 3:35.  I know I can do it, based on the times of my training runs, but I'm not sure I want to push myself that hard in my first marathon.  I guess we'll just see how I feel on June 9 and decide from there.  Regardless of what happens, I can say I ran my first marathon.

He's at it again...

I found my boys way up in the trees again.  Jordan started this when he was about 3 years old, I think.  I'm not too concerned about it now that he's 7, even though he looks like he's really high and those branches could break off at any moment.  Crazy kids.  Jarrett had a little trouble during his climb that I probably shouldn't share, but I will anyway; just be warned that it may gross you out so you might want to stop reading now.  He was high up in the tree when he realized he had to go pee RIGHT NOW.  (He has a problem with waiting until the last minute and then is often sprinting to the bathroom.)  He realized he would not be able to climb down fast enough so while he is up in the tree, he decides to pull down his pants and just go.  Well, pulling down your pants and underwear while balancing in a tree is not as easy as it looks and he managed to pee all over himself.  Poor guy felt really bad, but I'm hoping he learns his lesson to go to the bathroom before you climb tall trees.

And why did I post a picture of this scraggly-haired little face?  Just to show you how much she loves her sweets.  I'm not sure who she gets that from, but I'm constantly being followed around and asked for a "treat".  Don't worry, I usually don't give in.  But on this day, I did indulge her.  It's not like she actually gets much in her mouth anyway, right?

My Boys

When I found this art project in Jordan's backpack, I couldn't help but smile.  He wrote words on the rainbow that described himself.  What did he come up with?

• Fun, Nice, Good
• I love my sister.
• I like to share.

So why did I smile?  Well, let's just say these might not be the exact words I would use to describe my oldest son.  "Humble" probably wouldn't be one of them either.  Really, I am glad he sees those good things in himself.  It's always better to look at the positive, right?  And he is, in general, a really good boy.  He does love his sister and is always willing to help me entertain her or play with her.  Not to mention he is ALWAYS trying to kiss her and she is a stinker about it.  He wants to do the right thing and has a much greater tendency towards obedience than his younger brother.  And, in case you are wondering, I did decide to comb his hair before he went to school. :)

And what has Jarrett been up to?  This boy loves to touch and feel things, especially messy things.  (Much different from Jordan, who often refuses to play with Jarrett if it will involve getting messy.)  He will spend hours playing with playdoh, in the sandbox with water, and with various mixtures we concoct.  His current favorite is cornstarch with water.  I took this picture because I was amazed at how easily he is entertained.  We did a little science experiment which involved putting some pepper in a bowl of water and then touching the water with a toothpick coated in dish soap and watching the pepper disperse (a lesson in surface tension, which I should have Josey teach the kids.  I just do the experiments and let him teach them what they actually mean).  Anyways, after doing this, he sat there for over an hour just playing with the water/soap/pepper bowl, adding some toys to make it more interesting.  He does this very often, and can I just say, he has by far been the easiest of my children to entertain.  I love that about him!  (Just a note: Josey does not like me posting pictures that include our messy house in the background, but I'm usually oblivious to it until I see the picture.  When I live with an almost 2-year old tornado, there's not a lot I can do about it.)

I'm not giving up yet...

So...I really don't want to neglect this whole blog thing, but it's beginning to seem like I've done that.  I'm not quite willing to let that happen yet, so I'm going to give it another try.  Since the last post, we've had way too many things happen that I should have blogged about...

• Thanksgiving - we got to have all of Josey's family visit our house this year and it was so fun to have them.  I'm so glad they were willing to spend a holiday in Kemmerer, which I know isn't the most fun place in the world.  
• Christmas - we enjoyed staying home, and Jesse came to visit us and spoiled the boys with way too many cool presents.  We visited temple square with my family.
• The boys both had birthdays, and we now have a 7-year old and a 5-year old.  Precious boys who fill our home with noise, laughter, and more noise.  Both had birthday parties, which I don't think I will be doing again for a few years...too crazy!  
• We made it through basketball season with Josey as the head girl's coach, but then he made the decision to resign from that position because he was losing a little balance in his life.  He felt his teaching had taken a back seat and wants to improve that.  He is still the head track coach and we are in the midst of track season now.  I can't deny that I'm looking forward to spending some more time with him from November to March. :)
• Jordan participated in bantam basketball and indoor soccer.  I got to be his soccer coach, which was a little fun and a little stressful.  He loves to play sports and run around around, but he still needs a little work on listening and paying attention!  Jarrett got to participate in pee-wee wrestling.  This was not an easy thing for him, as he has a really hard time stepping out of his comfort zone.  But he wrestled in a couple of meets, and he did not give up, even when I could tell he wanted to burst into tears.  He was very proud of his medals, and I was very proud of him.
• We took a short family vacation with my parents to St. George after the basketball season.  We enjoyed a few days of sunshine and warmth, golf, swimming, hiking, and playing.  It's always nice to have a little break.
• We have been enjoying unusually mild spring weather here.  It has been such a blessing!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue.  
• Jaycie has continued to grow rapidly as toddlers do.  She says way too many words for me to count and has started putting together sentences.  Her brothers are in love with her, but they have to be careful depending on what mood she is in.  Yes, she's a girl...a bossy, loud, whiny (at times), dramatic one.  She is very loved and makes us smile and laugh (and want to pull our hair out) every day.
• We visited Lyle & Jan in Montana over spring break.  We haven't been there for quite a long time, and we had fun visiting the auction, the fish hatchery, golfing, running, visiting uncle Russ's ranch, playing, and relaxing.  My kids LOVE visiting their grandparents.
• I'm training for my first marathon, which will be on June 9th.  I've been running consistently now since Jarrett was born, but until now I have had no desire to run a marathon (I've done several half marathons).  For some reason, now seemed like the time, and I finally had the desire to run one.  I worked things out so that I could fit my training runs in and I'm excited and a little nervous about doing it.  

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2011

Jarrett made the front page!  He actually won this match.

Visiting the fish hatchery in Lewistown, MT

Having fun in St. George

My kids have done and said way too many funny things to remember, things that I wish I had recorded or taken pictures of.  Some things I did write down or shared on facebook; other things will probably be forgotten.  It is for that reason that I don't want to give up on this blog yet.  I'm going to make a tentative goal of at least updating it on Sunday, even if nothing noteworthy has happened.  This may also give me motivation to take more pictures.  I may also include some of my running/fitness updates, just so I can look back if I want to and see how my training was going at certain points.

Halloween 2011

What better time to start updating my blog again than Halloween?  It seems like we have been celebrating Halloween for about a week straight (Kemmerer's Fall Festival, Trunk-or-Treat, school parties), and my kids already had so much candy before actually trick-or-treating that Jarrett couldn't even carry his own bag.  I guess at least now they have a stash for a couple of months...unless I get my hands on it, which, really, I'm trying not to. 

The boys had some really cool light sabers that their uncle Jesse gave them last Christmas so they decided to be Jedi.  And Jaycie was a cute little bumblebee.  Jarrett asked where her stinger was and Josey said she didn't have one; she was a nice bee.  I'm not so sure about that...  (FYI - she's a feisty little stinker whose redeeming qualities at this stage of her life are that she's REALLY cute and she takes long naps.)

I guess this is the way Jedi pose?

The only way I could even get her to look at the camera was to give her candy.

On Sunday Jarrett asked me "Is it Sunday today?"  "Yes," I replied, waiting for the usual pouty face and "Nooooo" that typically follows.  He surprised me by saying "Yay!"  I told him it made me really happy to hear him say that, but before I could even finish telling him that he added, "That means tomorrow is Halloween!" 

And this morning, on the day after Halloween, I let Jordan have a little leftover Halloween root beer with his breakfast just because that's the type of (bad) mom I am.  But when he wanted another treat, I put my foot down.  Then I got the "I wish you weren't the mom" response, which made me smile, because he really doesn't know how lucky he is.  Someday he'll appreciate me, I'm sure of it.  And until then, I guess I'll just have to keep eating all of his Halloween candy so he thinks I'm a mean mom. 

Goodbye Summer

When I look at my blog posts for 2011 compared to past years, I am mad at myself for being such a slacker.  I want to keep this updated so I can look back and remember what we've had going on.  So this will be a quick recap of our summer, just so I can remember what we did.

In June, we headed up to Glacier National Park for a family reunion.  It was beautiful and a lot of fun to be with Josey's Allen relatives.  We stayed in a hotel right on the shore of Lake McDonald and enjoyed a beautiful view each morning.  We hung out with family, went on a little hike, and had a small boat ride on the lake.  There was still a lot of snow so the Going to the Sun road was closed and we didn't actually explore much of the park, although we did get to see a bear.

When the weekend was over, we left our kids with Lyle & Jan and Josey & I got to be a ma and pa for our stake pioneer trek.  It was a great experience, and I was so glad to be able to go to Martin's Cove and Rock Creek Hollow.  The spirit was very strong and while our main goal was to help the youth have a spiritual experience, I felt my testimony strenghtened also.  I felt particulary impressed that I would make sure that the terrible suffering these pioneers went through and experienced would not be for nothing.  If they could be as strong as they were, I can be a strong influence in my home and family.  I can keep evil influences out of my home and not give in to the pressures of today's world.  I will teach my children how to make good choices.  I will not glide through life hoping they will learn these things at church or in other places, but I will take an active role every day in teaching them correct principles.  I feel strongly impressed that this is of utmost importance; not that I do the best job at it, but it's something I will continue to work on.

When we returned from the trek, Josey had to travel to eastern Idaho/Yellowstone/Jackson Hole to do a field studies course for his master's degree.  This would be his final course.  He had a busy week and a half and then he returned to get to work on his final project, which was putting together a field studies course for the area around where we live.  He stressed about it and sat in front of the computer for about a week and half straight, but all went well, as he scored a 96% on his final paper, when he thought he would barely pass.  To be honest, it was about the most boring paper I have ever had to proofread, but if you ever want to know anything about the geology of western Wyoming, you should probably ask him.  He now has a master's degree in Geosciences, but is still not quite as smart as me.  I'm so proud of him for accomplishing this.  He has been really busy these past three years, working on his degree and coaching in addition to teaching.  It is a huge relief.

With those big things underway, we could finally start enjoying our summer...oh wait, first I had to get through Fossilfest, our town's celebration of which I am the treasurer and on the committee.  It is a lot of work for both me and Josey (he being left with the kids a lot for those 3 days and also being worn out from playing in the basketball, volleyball, & golf tournaments this year), but all went very smoothly this year and as soon as it was over I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt like the fun could finally begin. 

The boys had swimming lessons, we played at the park and went swimming a lot, took day trips to places around Kemmerer, went to Bear Lake, Josey improved his golf game quite a bit, and I ran a few races. 



Skipping rocks at Viva Naughton reservoir; it was kind of gross (leeches), but the kids loved it.




Check out Jarrett's tan line; like I said, we went swimming a lot.

 I forgot to mention that I didn't run at all in the month of June due to an injury that I thought was a stress fracture.  It turned out to be tendonitis, thank goodness, so I started running again at the beginning of July.  I decided to run the Fossilfest 5K at the last minute and felt awful.  It was a combination of exhaustion and having not run for a month.  It was probably my worst race ever.  Then I ran a half-marathon in Kemmerer at the end of July.  I hadn't trained for it at all (as in, no speed work, and one 10-miler since May) and I think it was my worst half ever - slowest time, but I felt much better than I had during the 5K (1:46:46 - about 10 minutes slower than my PR).  It was the hardest half course I think I've done and I was basically using it as a workout and just did it because it was in my hometown.  Still, I got 2nd place female...oh, but I guess I should mention there were only 4 total female runners and only 7 runners overall in the half.  The next week we were in Bear Lake for Raspberry Days and I ran the 5K in 22:15 and took 2nd place female.

In August I ran the Epic relay from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY with some family members.  It was AWESOME and definitely the running highlight of my summer!  9 out of our 12 team members were descendants (or through marriage) of my Grandpa Christensen's brothers/sisters.  It was so fun to get to know everyone and everyone had worked so hard to prepare.  I was actually quite surprised at how well our team did, taking 19th out of 82 teams.  Not too bad.  It took me about a week to recover from the lost sleep and toll on my body, but I finally felt like I recovered.  My last leg was the hardest for me, running over 7 miles up the canyon from Alpine towards Jackson into blasting wind.  I felt like I was hardly even moving.  Even when it was flat or slightly downhill, I felt no relief because the wind was so strong.  I was definitely relieved when I was through running that leg, but I would love to do a relay again.

Our final adventure of the summer was camping in the Big Horn mountains of northern Wyoming with Josey's parents.  Josey didn't really feel like making the 12 hour drive to their house, so luckily they agreed to meet us halfway and were great sports about going camping.  After researching on the internet, Josey chose Meadowlark Lake for our camping and fishing destination.  One thing the internet forgot to mention is that the lake was being drained for a highway project.  When we first drove past the lake and Josey told me that was it, I thought he was kidding.  We couldn't get close enough to the lake to fish or we would sink in the mud.  I had the terrible idea to take a nice little trail run around the lake.  I ran into a problem when the trail ended about halfway around the lake.  Instead of going back, I decided to try to make my way around the shore.  Worst idea ever!  I ended up getting stuck in the mud a few times.  Literally stuck.  I thought I was going to be stranded out there for a few hours until my family decided to come look for me.  I managed to get myself free, but I was out in the middle of this huge muddy lakebed and it was quite the effort to make my way through it.  I ended up going through a few streams and more mud in the process.  What started out as a nice run turned into a huge adventure, but it was actually kind of fun.  We did drive to another lake so the boys could do some fishing.  They had no luck.  Josey waded out to the middle of the lake and there were fish jumping all around him, but he didn't catch any.  I think the boys had fun anyway, especially since grandpa let them take off their underwear and wade out into the lake too.

Now our summer is winding down.  Josey started school last Monday, but Jordan doesn't start until after Labor Day.  A 1st grader, I can hardly believe it.  I really hope he likes 1st grade.  It will be good to be back into a routine, but I will miss the warm weather and always having Josey around as backup.  I will have to start getting up really early to work out, but I guess I will get used to that quickly.  I really love the fall and I'm glad Josey doesn't coach during this time of year and we can enjoy watching football games together.  We've got tickets to one BYU game this season, and I'm looking forward to that.  Jordan is finally to the stage where he is interested in trying to run actual plays.  He can almost tackle me too. 

I know I say this every time I blog, but I love my family.  My kids are so funny and cute.  They make me laugh every single day.  Yes, they get on my nerves sometimes, usually every day, but then they turn around the next minute and say something funny or do something sweet.  Josey asked me the other day about my "job satisfaction" because it was being discussed on the radio show we were listening to.  I can honestly say I would not rather be doing anything else.  I consider myself very lucky and blessed that I feel this way.  I do not feel like I'm giving anything up, and I've never regretted the choice I've made to stay home with my kids for this short and precious time in their lives.  It helps that I have a husband who lets me have time to myself and pursue other interests that I enjoy.  He is so good to me and I love spending time with him.  We just have to avoid talking about certain subjects on certain days. :)  Another bonus about my family?  They're beautiful! 

           

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

We've been busy for the last little while, first taking a trip to Glacier National Park for a little family reunion, and then Josey and I left our kids with their grandparents in Montana and went with the youth in our stake on a pioneer trek to some historic sights (Sixth Crossing, Martin's Cove, Rock Creek Hollow) in Wyoming.  Both trips were awesome, and hopefully I will update more on these later. 

Before we left to Glacier, we had a little birthday party for Jaycie.  I can't believe my baby girl is one year old.  She weighs 17 lbs. 5 oz., which puts her somewhere between the 3rd and 5th percentiles.  She's in about the 10th percentile in height, so she's not very big, but she definitely makes up for it in attitude.  She is bossy and definitely lets us know when she wants something or is upset about something.  She is a really good eater, and about the only food I've found that she won't shovel into her mouth nonstop is carrots.  She's finally mastered going down the stairs with some help from grandpa (she's been climbing up them for a couple of months but couldn't and wouldn't attempt going down).  She's never been a cuddly baby and she won't let me rock her.  She tries to squirm out of my arms every chance she gets.  It was really hard for me to leave her for a week with her grandparents, but I knew she was in great hands and she did just fine. 

She has been such a joy and it has been so fun having a baby girl.  Even though I can hardly believe she's already one, I remember that with my boys I always loved all of the stages between ages 1 and 3.  I'm looking forward to the fun we're going to have watching her continue to grow and learn new skills.  As you can see from the pictures, she enjoyed her birthday cupcake.

She was a little too quick for me and might have actually got her finger in the flame a little before I could stop her.  Then it took her a minute to figure out what she was supposed to do with the cupcake.  But once she got a little taste, she quickly devoured the rest, leaving no leftovers.  Typical Jaycie.

Dare I hope?  I've seen the sun quite a bit these past few days and it makes me very happy.  My kids have been playing outside and summer break is just around the corner.  I really love the nicer weather, and I will make an effort to be grateful for any amount of sunshine and still air (meaning the wind isn't blowing) we can get, because I know they don't always last very long here.  Sometimes a few minutes a day is all I can get outside, but it's still better than nothing.  

This post (like most others) will mostly consist of random thoughts and things that have been happening.  I just do this so I have a record of some of the things that are going on in our lives right now, to help me remember.  Mostly, a lot of my thoughts and actions are consumed with how much I love my family.  How did I get so lucky to find Josey?  Even though he doesn't believe in "soul mates", I still claim he is mine.  And I love our kids so much.  They fill my life with joy.  Not only do they make me laugh, they teach me, they challenge me to push myself, to figure out ways to parent them.  It's not easy, but I'm thankful for the growth I've seen in myself over the past 6 years since I first held Jordan in my arms.

Jaycie has started walking, which means that at 11 months, she's the earliest of our kids to walk. 

Jordan learned how to ride a bike with one short lesson from his dad, which I am very grateful for because that meant I didn't have to teach him.

I raced a 10K (6.2 miles) a couple of weeks ago that I had been training for.  My goal was to beat 45 minutes and I really didn't think I was going to be able to do it.  But I guess when the adrenaline is pumping and you've done all you could to prepare, good things happen.  I finished in 44:35 (7:11/mile), which was good enough for 1st place overall female, which was fun.  It was a small race, but it was still fun to win.  Mostly, I'm glad I met my goal and got a new PR.  (Even though I look happy here, it was really close to the end, I was ready to be done, and that guy ended up beating me to the finish by a couple of seconds.)

One of the main reasons I actually started to write this post was to put some of my thoughts down about my Jarrett boy.  I get to spend a lot of time with him with Jordan in kindergarten all day.  He says some really funny things and challenges me in ways Jordan never has.  I'm glad I still get one more year home with him before he's off to kindergarten too.

The other day I looked out the window and was amazed to see how high he had climbed the tree.  When I told him he should not go any higher, he just told me he wanted me to take a picture.  So here it is.  I wasn't really afraid, but I probably should have been.  When Jordan was younger, he did the same thing, but he got stuck in the tree.  Jarrett was able to figure out how to get down, thank goodness.

I am always trying to get Jarrett to eat anything healthy.  It is a constant battle and a really hard thing to do.  The other night we were having family scripture study and Josey read Mosiah 23:7 - "Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think himself above another..." so we were explaining to the boys how we should never think we are better than someone else.  Jarrett applied this by asking, "even if they don't eat their vegetables?"  Yes, we had to agree.  Even if someone doesn't eat their vegetables, we are not better than them.  I think Jarrett was happy to have this little bit of knowledge to tuck away for future reference.

Maybe one of the reasons I have such a hard time trying to get him to not eat junk food is because I am a poor example.  (This following story is kind of embarrassing, but it made me laugh for an hour or so after he said it, so I'm going to share it anyway.)  One day I was eating some M&M's, minding my own business, when Jarrett tells me, "Mom, you eat way too much chocolate.  That's why you sometimes have major gas, because you eat too much chocolate and candy."  Like I said, a little TMI, but it cracked me up.  Even though he has me confused with his dad it was still funny.  He's always been a good talker and the way he says things often makes me smile.   

I was playing "Simon Says" with him on the trampoline the other day and Jarrett said: "Simon Says do a flip."  So I tried to do a flip.  He watched me and then said: "that was a tumble, but I guess it's okay."  I'm glad that I get the chance to play with him and that he wants to play with me.  Sometimes I have to make him wait a long time while I finish up other things, but he's very patient and forgiving with me.  There are so many things I can learn from my kids, and I'm grateful for this special time I have with them when they're young and sweet and growing and learning.  Some days are definitely very challenging, but I know that someday I will look back on this time with the longing to play with my kids again and kiss them and hug them all I want because they still let me.         

Springtime in Wyoming

Well, after living here for 5 years, I think I'm finally resigning myself to accept the fact that at 7000 ft. elevation, spring really does not come until June.  Our weather has been awful!  I think Josey has had two track meets that have not been canceled due to the weather.  While this is fun for me (I get to see him more), it is not fun for him or his track team.  I keep praying for better weather; meanwhile, Jarrett keeps saying in his prayers that he is thankful for the snow and ice.  I guess I could try to learn something from his attitude because it doesn't look like anything is going to change anytime soon.  

We did get one little dose of sunshine in March when we took a little trip to St. George.  It was perfect there (low 70s) and we made sure to get in as much golf, running, playing in the park, hiking, and swimming as we could in four days.  We went with my parents and an aunt, uncle, & cousins, and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend.  

Other than that, we've just been plugging along with everyday life.  I volunteered to coach Jordan's soccer team this year.  It was his first year playing and I wanted to pull all my hair out at the end of each practice.  I seriously don't know how kindergarten teachers manage to do their jobs.  It was very hard to teach these kids anything, but hopefully they had fun and learned even a little bit along the way.  I had high hopes for Jordan since I was quite the soccer star as a young child :), but he was a lot like the other kids: not paying too much attention to the coach or the game and always wanting to do his own thing.  He is pretty aggressive (he was the only one I had to call pushing on) and he never stops moving, but often his head seems to be up in the clouds.  Maybe with a little more one on one work I can teach him a few more skills.  

Tomorrow Jaycie will be ten months old.  It's crazy how fast this time has gone by.  She's finally decided that it's fun to crawl on her knees instead of doing the army crawl, and she's getting a little braver about once in awhile letting go of the furniture and trying to stand on her own.  We took her swimming today at the indoor pool and she enjoyed that for the first time (she didn't like it in St. George).  She loves following her brothers around and they love her like crazy.  Jarrett helps me out with her a lot by trying to entertain her and play with her when I can't get to her.  The other day they were playing in her crib and Jaycie started crying really loud.  I could tell Jarrett was getting really frustrated when she wouldn't calm down.  He kept saying: "I'm sorry Jaycie.  I didn't mean to hit you in the chin.  Stop crying!"  And she wouldn't stop and he couldn't understand why she just wouldn't listen to him.  I thought it was a cute conversation to listen to.  I love listening to my kids interact.  

And finally, I don't think anybody cares about this, but I've really been enjoying changing up my exercise routine just a little bit.  I started lifting weights a little more than I was before.  I found a book I really like called "The New Rules of Lifting for Abs."  Kind of a dumb title (I'm not aiming for washboard abs, although they might be hidden somewhere there under a layer of flab), but it's really about lifting to strengthen your core, which is what I need as a runner.  Anyways, it basically just gives me a structured program to follow, but I feel really dumb in the weight room sometimes because I'm not just using the machines and sometimes I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.  But I feel like I've already made quite a bit of progress and I feel stronger.  My main goal is to have a stronger core so that I'm less likely to get injured, but it's still a full-body strength workout.  Anyways, with more lifting, I've been running less (around 20-25 miles per week) and I'm training for a 10K at the end of the month.  After that, I'll look for a half marathon to run this summer and then in August I'm running a relay with some family members from Logan to Jackson Hole.  I've heard the relays are really fun so I'm looking forward to that.  I ran 10 miles outside today while getting snowed on, but it was still great to be outside.  I rarely get to run outside until Josey is out of school for the summer, so I'll take any chance I can get.