A Decade and 3 Children Later...

Wow, 10 years can go by pretty darn quick. With time, things seem to just keep getting better.

My sister, Ashlee, was in town for a couple of days. She was nice enough to let us goof around while she took some pictures. It was a fun way to spend time together on our anniversary.
Later that night we went out to Dinner. Justin had a bouquet of flowers waiting for me at our table. After we enjoyed our wonderful food, we headed to play some mini golf. Because we aren't competitive at all, I won't even mention who won. (I did) I will say that Justin had two hole-in-ones in a row, but I had the first one of the night. :)
I love spending time with Justin. He has a way of making almost anything more fun. I do tend to get embarrassed easily and he is usually the cause, but I wouldn't trade him for the World.
I Love that Man.

Fence Art

This is one of our favorite things to do while playing in the water. It is fun for the kids, but it is also fun for the sprayer...it is almost therapeutic to get to spray your kids with a hose. :) We had fun with it last year, and this time was even better because we got to involve some of our favorite people.
Justee and Ashlyn bail pretty quickly, so their little silhouettes don't work out so well.

Sherri and I decided to try the reverse style with the little ones to see if it would yield better results.

They lasted a little longer, so it worked a little better...they were very excited about it, anyway.

If you look close at Jadyn's silhouette, you can see a few accidental details. He stood in the perfect spot to give it nipples...and it looks like it has a tongue and eyes. hahaha

I want to find a family willing to do this for a family potrait! I think it would be soooo cool!

Hooray for summer and a good old fashion hose!

Two Wheels!

My evening didn't turn out as planned...which turned out to be a good thing.
No one showed up to play volleyball, so I ran and then headed home with the idea that I would teach Char to ride without training wheels.
We (I mostly mean Justin) attempted this one day for a very short time a couple of months ago. Charlee is kind of a little chicken. She gets scared easier than her sisters and didn't like the idea of falling off her bike. The first attempt was a HUGE failure, and Justin thought it would be a long time before she really could do it.

I knew tonight would be different because, well let's face it, Justin is a big softy and I am a little... ummm...more persistent? Yes, that sounds right. Charlee whined and whimpered that we were going too fast...I was only walking...and that I wasn't holding her tight enough. I stopped and gave her a little lecture on how being scared of everything was going to keep her from having fun riding her bike...then I let go and let her fall (softly) to show her that even if she fell, it didn't hurt and she would be ok.

The first time I let her go and she took off, she made whimpering noises the whole 50 yards or so. When I caught and stopped her, and she felt more confident, the whining stopped. After she saw that she was doing it herself, she didn't want me to help her anymore...she kept telling me to let go.

She crashed a couple of times...mostly ran into curbs because she couldn't turn or stop, but she had fun and is excited to try again tomorrow.
Justee putted around on Syd's scooter...

Sydnee even gave her some faster rides.

It ended up being a great night and Char is so proud of herself...She can't wait to show Daddy!

Zoo

We spent a gorgeous day at the zoo last week...the weather could not have been better. The animals, for the most part, were cooperative and let us gawk at them through their protective barriers. The Polar Bear didn't make an appearance and Chuck was very sad about that...she talked about seeing it the whole day.
Sydnee carried a map the whole time and liked to tell us where we were going next.

One of Sydnee's favorite animals to see are the kangaroos.

Renae came along with us. She kept complaining that her purse was too heavy...so she enlisted some help...

The primates usually deliver the best entertainment, but all they did this time was lay around looking depressed. I always wonder what they are thinking about all the ugly, hairless animals that go past them everyday.

Yesterday I finally got some flowers planted. The girls had fun picking them out. Then we bbq-ed and had a fire and made s'mores. I think we could do that every night and not get sick of it.

It sure was a busy enough day to make these guys crash hard.

BolderBOULDER

It seems funny that you can do something like run 6.2 miles and then talk about how fun it was. Let's face it...there are times that definitely are NOT fun, but you keep on truckin and finish with a happy heart. ;)
Here is an overview of our day...
We got up at 5:30 and waited for some of our running crew to follow us to Boulder. Luckily we were parked and at the starting line with plenty of time to visit the port-a-potty 3 times and for Justin to win free pizza for a year at Old Chicago! There was a guy announcing random facts about Old C's an hour earlier and apparently Justin was paying attention, because later the guy asked how many Old C's locations there were in Colorado. Justin yelled out the right answer (27) and won. (We enjoyed our first free pizza on our way home.)
Shortly after his big win, the race began...Justin and I had discussed whether or not we would run together, and decided that neither of us would wait for the other one. We knew that once we got separated, there would be a very small chance of finding each other in the crowd during the race. I passed Justin at the 1 mile marker and left him behind. After the next couple of miles went by without a glimpse of him, I thought I had him beat. Right before mile 6, he hit my butt as he ran by. He ended up beating me by 3 seconds, but that was enough for him to brag about. I was more disappointed that I was 2 mins slower than I was last year than the fact that Justin crossed the line before me. Next year I will have an excuse for why I am slower...I think we will have Sydnee run it....but who knows, she probably can run it as fast as we did. Here are some fun stats:
54,000 people ran it (not everyone finishes)
Overall Justin placed 13,405 and I placed 13,473 (what a difference 3 seconds make)
There were 476 33 year old males and Justin placed 251st
Out of the 724 28 year old females I placed 179th (So I figure I am well above average for my division and Justin is only average...so I beat him in that aspect. ;)
Total # of males running-22,554....Justin placed 9076
Total # of females - 25,851....I placed 4360

If anyone has an interest in running what has been deemed America's Best 10K, come and do it next year! Between all the crazy people running in costume, marshmallows being thrown to runners, slip-n-slides along the way, things like bacon and beer being passed out to runners, (the smells of tater-tots and bacon and other food is not my favorite) bands playing and the huge mass of people, you will have a truly unique experience. There are always fun stories to share at the end of the race when you meet up with your group.

Sherri and I...She and her kids were waiting at the end for us. She didn't get to run this year because she broke her foot in volleyball. :(

The fun people we ran it with (Sherri's fam.) It was so nice having them in bright shirts...they were easy to spot during and after the race.On our way to our separate cars...

After we got home and took a nap, we started a fire in the backyard and made s'mores. It was a very nice Memorial Day. The End

Memorial Weekend

We started our weekend off right with a baseball game Fri. night. It was a beautiful night at Coors Field.

Hot dog and hamburger time...Chuck is a huge fan of cheeseburgers and hot dogs are never her choice. Justee was much more impressed with the peanuts. She ate them all night.Next came the cotton candy...Justee took a couple little tastes and was completely disgusted with the stuff. More for her sisters, I guess.

Justee and Char took turns taking pictures. Justee took these next two.

Charlee took this one...along with several others.

The girls put on their rally hats in the bottom of the ninth...we were hoping for 2 runs for the Rockies, but they couldn't pull it off. As we were walking back to our car Charlee said, "It woulda been funner if the Rockies woulda won."

It has been a while since our last baseball game as a family. The last one was this one while Justin was home on leave. It seems kinda crazy that just last summer Justin was in Afghanistan. It feels like he has been home for a very long time now. It it strange to think back to what is was like with him gone...almost like a dream.

Our weekend continued to be a great one. On Saturday we went to Kirk's baseball game and then to a Ward Softball/BBQ social. Besides the weather turning a little chilly in the evening, it was a good time. On Sun. we prepared for the Bolder Boulder by having a dinner with Sherri and her fam. We made our plans for the morning and went to bed early (well earlier than usual.) The Bolder Boulder was a great time and I will have a separate post for it next.