Garrett's Great Triathalon

From Garrett: When the day started I was feeling very nervous. I was nervous all over. I was nervous that I wouldn't do good. I had a shake and a banana for breakfast so I wouldn't get a side ache. I asked everybody to pray for me so that I could do good on the triathlon. When we first got there we checked in and I got a lot of fun stuff in my bag. On the back of my legs they wrote an "8" and an "R" because I was eight years old and in the red group. After that I went to set up my transition from my swim to my bike. Before the triathlon I practiced my transition. I didn't want to wear a shirt because it would take longer to get on my bike if I wore a shirt. My fastest practice transition time without a shirt was 30 seconds. After we set up my transition, I went down to see the older group start the race in the water. It looked like there would be a lot of bumping around and splashing. We stayed down there until my race started, and while we were waiting I saw my friend from my soccer team. I felt weird that I would have to race against my friend in the triathlon. When I swam I bumped into him a lot because he was right next to me the whole swim time. Two groups went before I swam because we only went seven at a time. I got out of the water second almost third because my friend almost passed me a lot. Then I got out of the water, went up the stairs and went to my transition. My feet hurt because I had to walk on rocks. It took me pretty long to get my shoes and socks on, but not too long. Then I walked my bike a little then I got on my bike and tried to ride off. But because of all the rocks on the road my tires were spinning and didn't go very far. I pushed myself and I finally went. It took a long time for me to finish the bike. I had to go around in circles three times. The first time I went around was the funnest. But the two other rounds it wasn't that fun. I went to the pathway to get off my bike and start my run. I ran around 2 times and then I started to notice that my side hurt but I didn't stop. I ran my last lap and went to the finish line. The finish line was the fun part. I ran through the finish line paper but I didn't rip it, they just let go of it when I hit it. Then I went to get my free lunch. I felt pretty good when I finished. I was tuckered out. Right after I got through the finish line I told my Dad that I want to do the triathlon next year.

From Mom: I was so proud of Garrett! He did great. I almost cried watching him run because I knew how hard the run was for him and he ran the best I had ever seen him run. Dad and I raced between the transition spots so that there was always someone to cheer him on. Dalyn and Aubrey were great cheerleaders and were such good sports. Aubrey said she wanted to take her training wheels off so that she could do the triathalon next year. We would love to watch her in the race! It was a fun family memory and we all enjoyed the morning!

Dalyn's Pirate 4th Birthday

This was the first year Dalyn has asked for a Birthday Party. He started asking about 6 months ago when his friend Jacob had his Pirate Birthday. Up until this point he never realized he needed one (nice for mom). So this year we decided to give him a big pirate shin-dig complete with costumes, treasure hunt (set up by Garrett), a pirate ship cake, walking the plank and loads of pirate treasure (gifts from friends). What made it more fun was having Grandma and Grandpa there to share in the festivities. Grandpa was the official photographer and took some great shots. Scott did a great job running all the games and had the kids running about and completely entertained the whole time. My job was the cake, a seemingly small taks until I started frosting! Ugh! I was cursing in pirate tongue by the end of it. We were joking that my boat looked as if it were on it's last excursion and had taken one too many blows with warring cannon balls. But alas, it tasted good and Dalyn exclaimed, "Mommy, this is the best cake I ever saw!!" Who needs more payment than that? Two of my favorite memories were Garrett leading all the kids through the yard on the treasure hunt he made and protecting Dalyn's right to get to the next clue first, as is the birthday boys right and Aubrey helping all the "little" kids across the plank so that they didn't fall to the aligators! It was a great afternoon

That's Our Aubrey

Aubrey is absolutely enchanted by anything that moves, crawls, or breathes. She is constantly looking for bugs and can look for hours at animals in the pet store or in books. Every time we are out driving about she asks, "Can we go to the Pet Store and look at the animals?" The one time I said yes she got so excited she exclaimed, "you are the best mommy in the whole world". With that kind of praise you'd think I'd go more often. Unfortunately for Aubrey her Mommy is about the least animal loving person around. I wish I could understand her enthusiasm (and her Dad's animal enthusiasm for that matter) but I just don't get it. So I try to get really excited when she finds a new bug or shows me her latest stuffed animal that she has locked up in a cage or tied up in some way, but when she asks on a daily basis for the new pet of the day I just have to shake my head, no. So here is a typical day.

Aubrey: "Mom, when can we get a barn with a horse"

Mom: "Probably never"

Aubrey: "Mom, when can we get a dog"

Mom: "When you are a teenager and can take care of it all by yourself"

Aubrey: "Mom, can we have a lizard?"

Mom: "Probably not"

Aubrey: "Mom can we have a guinnea pig?"

Mom: "Aubrey you have a cat, she'll eat the guinnea pig"

Aubrey: "Mom, can we sell Sunny (the cat) and get a chinchilla?"

Mom (exasperated at this point): "Aubrey, let's be thankful for what we have!"

And so it continues. This note was taped to the door of our room the other day. It is so classic Aubrey I had to take a picture. The other afternoon, a very tired Aubrey had a major meltdown before going to the park because we couldn't take Sunny (the cat) on a leash. Then yesterday, walking through the kitchen I stepped on grashopper (that was supposed to be in the bug catcher OUTSIDE) that had been loved to death. It was missing a leg and an antenea. She is often heard speaking terms of endearment to her latest beetle or cricket. My favorite story is of Aubrey at about age 3, never very interested in dolls, but she found a caterpiller and named it Shoe. I walked in her room one day and found her rocking the caterpiller in the tiny cradle of her doll house. She still talks about Shoe, the caterpiller she found in our home in Charlotte, NC. She can't name any friends or remember the house at all, but Shoe the caterpiller is always in her heart.

One of the Things I Love About Garrett

Garrett is a wonderfully compassionate son and brother. He is kind and aware of other people's needs and concerns. For example, flying home from our 10 day trip to Utah I had the stomach flu. Don't know what it is about Utah, but every time we visit someone in the family gets the flu bug. Not only that, the last time I was pregnant and flying home from Utah I ended up throwing up the entire trip home. No worse place to get the stomach flu than on an airplane, so far I've had it twice! Ugh. Anyway, short digression. I was feeling awful and hardly able to keep my head up. Garrett sat next to me and rubbed my arm and gave me little hugs. Then after I got sick instead of getting grossed out he says "Mom, I know it's hard but your doing great, just get all the bad stuff out." He continued to give me words of encouragement and little smiles the rest of the way home. Then when we had our layover the other kids with Dad as chaperone ran over to the video games. Instead of going with them, he chose to sit with me while I layed pathetically on the floor of the airport. You have to understand, video games are one of his most favorite things to do, so it was a huge sacrifice for him to stay with his ailing mama, which of course made it even more endearing. Then when we finally made it home to Spokane, Scott ran to get the car while I sat with the kids waiting for the baggage. Just because I wanted to get home ASAP I decided to take all the baggage out to the curb instead of wait for Scott to come in and get the suitcases (it drives Scott crazy sometimes that I just try to do things by myself without waiting for him, but that's another story). Garrett loaded up his arms with as many bags as he could carry and when I told him to give me some (he looked as if he was going to fall over) he said, "no, Mom I really want to help you." My heart melted yet again. What a sweet boy I have. My mother's heart is just bursting with pride.

I love Summer

Summer started off on the right foot with a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the kids while I was at Girl's Camp for the week. Can I just say how wonderful it is to know my kids are taken care of while I am off playing with the young women. It was wonderful to be able to focus on the task at hand without worrying about my kids! I feel so blessed to have the greatest parents in the world! They work so hard at being the best grandparents around. And I think all the grandkids would agree, they succeed! They spoiled the kids with a trip to Jade's Farm (Aubrey's idea of heaven) tennis lessons, swimming, decorating stepping stones, painting clay animals, losts of WII, pancakes almost everyday, not just any ordinary pancakes, Grandpa's masterpieces and best of all, time with Grandma and Grandpa. What fun for them.

My Crazy Kids!

These are the times I love! Kids being silly and me taking the time to join in the fun! I am so glad I have children that remind me how to play and keep things light. I am a better person because I am a mother.

A New Beginning

So here goes the blog. I have put off the whole blogging thing for so long and I have finally seen the light and realized the good behind the whole blog thing. We were discussing blogging at book group last night and Jessica showed me her book of blogs that documented a year in the life of her family. Now that was inspiring, a whole book with quotable quotes from her kids, memories galore and of course pictures documenting the whole thing. My neighbor, Nicole has also been telling me the joys benefits of the whole blogging world, between the two and their great ideas I am sold. So here goes the first post! Now to keep up with it is the challenge. My goal, to post my thoughts, kids quotes, etc at least a few times per week! So here's to a new challenge and to the documentation my wonderful family's history! If I don't then who will? And as Nicole says, if not now when?