Catching Up On California

In all the chaos of the last weeks of summer, I haven't found a second to write about our trip to California. At the beginning of August we piled into our very packed car and journeyed south with my entire family. The drive, although long, went much better than I expected with 3 kids. . . minus the ear-splitting screams from my dear Lola anytime she didn't get what she needed!

We spent the first 2 days in Anaheim visiting the very magical Disneyland. Miles was so excited to go. He was in HEAVEN at Disneyland with his little smile never leaving his face. At one point he said to me, "Mom, Disneyland SOOOO awesome!" Lola was horrified of every single ride there but was such a good sport to cling to me monkey style during them without crying. The kids held up great and we ended up staying there until they closed at 12:30 am. The next day Jacks and Nate went with the rest of the guys to the Angels/Yankees game. Jacks had fun being with the boys and eating hot dogs through his very first professional baseball game.

After Disneyland, we headed down to San Diego and spent the rest of the week there. We spent one day at La Jolla Beach and visited Coronado Beach twice. We had so much fun relaxing on the beach. Jacks loved figuring out the body boards and got pretty good at riding them. He was so brave about the ocean. . . scaring his mom to death by going out as deep as his neck to "tackle" the waves. Lola loved swimming in the ocean and running around on the sand. Miles loved the beach, staying out of the water most of the time, but having tons of fun playing in the sand.

We had so much fun with my family, playing games in the condo, sitting in the hot tub, watching many late-night hours of Olympics, eating good food, shopping and being together.

Firsts

Monday was Miles first day of preschool. He keeps asking me, 'fall-time yet?' because he knows that's when he starts. He's confused about the fact that the leaves are still on the trees and green as ever. He was ready and waiting on Monday morning when the bus pulled up in front of our house. Things were so much different from 8 months ago when I had to drag him up the bus steps, pry him off my leg and hope that he'd survive his first day, as I wiped the tears off my own cheeks at the thoughts of sending my barely 3 year old off on a school bus! He's grown so much in that time, added so many words to his repertoire, and become independent and ready to face the preschool world alone.





Jackson finally started Kindergarten today. He has been so excited and ready all summer long. After many minutes of clothing preparation he was in the car and ready to go. We headed up to the school, where he led the way straight to his classroom, hung his backpack on his reserved hook, and walked in without so much as a backwards glance. I was so proud of his confidence and so glad to know that he felt prepared to make this BIG step.

Upon returning home, he told me that he would NOT be wearing flip flops tomorrow because he was the ONLY boy wearing them. "Only the girls wear flip flops to kindergarten, mom!" Seriously? The things that kid notices.

Race Day

Yesterday I ran the Top Of Utah Half Marathon. It was a perfect day. . . it stayed nice and cool through the whole race. The course was beautiful, taking us down Blacksmith Fork Canyon (in Hyrum), winding along a quaint little road and finishing at a park right by our house. After 10 weeks of training and over 195 miles logged, I was so ready for the day to arrive. I really wanted to finish under 2 hours and met my goal by only 7 seconds. . . finishing at 1 hour 59 minutes and 53 seconds!

I'm so grateful for Chel and Marcus being my fantastically fun running mates, for my kids enduring the gym's kids club more times than they've liked, for Nate giving up a few golf tournaments for my big Saturday runs, for Sam being such a fabulous training partner, and for Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" on my ipod, always giving me an extra boost when things got tough.

It was so great to get close to the finish line and see ALL my awesome cheerleaders whose smiling faces meant the world to me and gave me the strength to finish strong. Thanks Nate, Jacks, Miles, Lola, Tierra, Elise, Sam, Megan, Steve and Betty!

Tagged

I was tagged by Jennie Lynn about 12 years ago and here I am, finally getting around to actually doing it.

List 10 books you've read recently that you'd recommend to others. (One stipulation--you CAN'T list any of the Twilight series books.)

**A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - Along with the author's other book, The Kiterunner, this is a book that makes me so grateful to be a woman living where I live and when I live. This book hooked me bad on the very first page and kept me there until it was through.

**The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack - I swear no parent should try parenting without reading this book at some point. I go back through it all the time with my highlighter in hand!

**Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - This is one of my all time favorite books. I loved learning about the Chinese culture and the rich traditions that are so much a part of their lives.

**The Host by Stephenie Meyer - I was a little reluctant to start this one. I'm not a fan of Sci-Fi and hate books that cause me to jump on the bandwagon, but. . . I ended up really enjoying it once I got into it.

**Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - I love the way this book is written and the beautiful language in it.

**A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel - Such a fun little book about growing up in a small Indiana town. I loved the simplicity of this book and the way it caused me to think back upon my own childhood and the memories that I hold. I have been dying to start writing my own stories after reading it.

**The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale - This book is a fairy tale . . . a happy story that I found refreshing after the somewhat depressing books I find myself drawn to.

**Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza - Although hard to read at times, another book that made me feel so blessed to live where I live. The author is an amazing example of having a positive attitude, even as everything that means anything to her is taken away.

**The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards - Okay, so I haven't really decided if I would recommend this book or not. I definitely liked aspects of it. . . I'm still thinking about this one!

**The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom - Another example of an amazing woman living through the Holocaust, losing everything and yet possessing an incredible amount of faith in God through it all.

I'm tagging Tierra, Christina, Jacque and Jamie

Uhhh. . .

Today I took the boys to the pool. As we're standing in line waiting to go down the water slide, Miles suddenly noticed the extremely overweight teen-aged boy standing in line directly in front of us. I could see the wheels turning, unable to stop them before he blurts out, "that fat man!" I try to quietly whisper in his ear that saying things like that might hurt that nice boys feelings, but FAILED. Again, "that fat man, mommy!" Three times he states the obvious, me trying desperately by this point to distract him. I finally succeed in distracting him by asking him to try and find his cousins down in the pool below, hoping that the poor boy didn't hear, or understand, my 3 year olds lovely comments.

Has anyone else found yourself in a situation like this with your overly honest kids?

Just the Highlights

Just wanted to share a few highlights from my week with Miles:

• Walking into Lola's room to the extreme smell of mint lotion and seeing the contents of a very full bottle being exploded all over. Lola and Miles were dancing gleefully through their meadow of greasy lotion. How do you even clean something like that up???
• Finding an empty bottle of childrens Motrin that Miles had somehow removed the lid from. Next glance found sugary orange stains on all surrounding carpet.
• A complete meltdown at a very crowded Sports Academy pool. And when I say meltdown. . . I mean that every human being's eyes were on me and my screaming, kicking, throwing 3 year old. These are the moments when I wonder why I even bring the little guy into public.
  
• Watching him fill water bottles up at Bear Lake, place them strategically between his knees and announce to fellow beachgoers that he is peeing.
  
• Fielding requests to watch "The Spiderwick Chronicles" at least 47 dozen times. Giving in to the requests a few more times than I'd like to admit.
  
• Hearing him tell me, in his still stunted but growing vocabulary, that he "loves mommy" for the very first time.

A Few of my Favorite Things. . .

Sometimes it seems like the days pass so quickly. . . blending in with one another and I wonder where time has gone. I find it so easy to get caught up in the "getting it done" part of life, forgetting to enjoy the little things along the way.
Here are a few things that have made me smile this week:

The first ripe tomatoes in the garden. . . .



My very busy 3 year old completely entertained by the hose. . .



Summer flowers. . .



The newly finished and fantastically awesome shelves in my cold storage. . .



My 3 bambinos who, no matter how much stress they may cause me, always make me smile . . .