Running with the ladies

This past weekend was the Maymont X-Country Meet here in Richmond at our favorite park, Maymont. Cole ran the one miler Friday night, and I ran the half marathon (my 1st!) Sat. morning. We had no idea where to park (there's 3 entrances) so we made it in late and the boys had already started running 2 minutes prior. I was so frustrated (with myself)!! So I asked them if he could run with the girls and they kind of just shrugged their shoulders, "well, okay". I was shaking so hard from the adrenaline of trying to get him (and Dayne and June) there on time that I couldn't even pin his number on or tie the little pacer thingamabob on his shoelace. Thinking about it later, I realize I was shaking so hard because I was extremely nervous about MY run the next day.
He was totally cool about running with the girls. Some people commented on the gender confused boy speeding by (he's fast!), but he didn't seem to mind. He did awesome! Came in the top 3rd of the group for sure (and there were lots of older girls).

Geof. was gone river rafting for the weekend so I had to get the kids up really early (for us) Sat. morning-around 5:45, and take them to different people in the ward to be watched. And then my friend Erin and I headed over to Maymont for the race. We were both shaking like crazy with nerves but ended up loving it and wanting more!! Erin's much faster than me and came in 9 minutes ahead, but we both did it in under 2 hours (I believe my time was around 1 hr. 56 minutes). It was soo fun! The only hard part was around mile 10, trying to go up these stairs that went across a bridge. You'd think we were all 90 trying to get up those things! That night my knees hurt so bad, I felt like I'd been praying for 20 hours straight on hard concrete! But by the next day I felt fine..just tired, and hungry.

-This post was rushed. Don't mind the spelling errors!

Dayne's world

I got out Cole's most treasured magnet rocks for Dayne so I could get the never-ending job of cleaning the kitchen done. She quickly transformed them into works of art. (;

A necklace, earings, and one crown later, Dayne had turned herself into Princess Dayne. She walked around with her hands clasped together, in an almost 'holy' manner, and was so polite! I couldn't believe it. We should play princess more often. "Please mother, can I have my crown back?" after insisting that I wear it. And then, "Oh thank you for giving me my crown back, mom". So formal!! She asked me a good 10 times if I would be her "prince" and dance with her. I finally gave in, turned the music on, and watched Dayne turn positively GIDDY at waltzing around the room with her mom (no less) a few times. Our dinner 'date' is planned for later on this evening. I took some pics of her, she took some pics of me...I posted them in the wrong order, of course.

Major Dayne update

~before I start my LONG post about Dayne, I'll explain the music change. I'm training for a half marathon. Alright, not really "training", just running more than I'd like to (I don't have the time!) and last Sat. while doing my long run, I found Billy Joel on my iPod. Wow! I didn't realize what a great artist he was! So many great songs. It made me happy.

Dayne wants to be in school. Ever since Cole started, she can't stop talking about her "first day of school". She's very into picking out her outfit for each new day (and mine.., and June's) and talks incessantly about Kindergarten. She doesn't seem to understand that one year is a very long time from now. I'm planning on starting a preschool co-op with some girls from my ward in the next few weeks, so that should help, but I really feel that Dayne would benefit BIG TIME (oh, and I'll benefit as well..) from going to an actual classroom setting and interacting with a group of kids. You see, out east Kindergarten is all day, everyday. That would be a HUGE transition from what we're doing right now. Which is a whole lot of NOTHING. I tried doing letters and sounds with Dayne today, which she happily responded too, but I'll be honest, I'm the lazy one. Yes, me.

She picked this extremely cute outfit out yesterday and since it's so hard to get a pic of Dayne with hair done and matching clothes, I snapped away.

She didn't understand my request to "pose" so she started dancing, instead. Hey, that works.

2 days ago, I thought it'd be a fun outing to take the girls on the bus to Dayne's urology appt. downtown (that and I didn't have a car to get there). Dayne picked out the outfits (the only matching outfits I've ever bought) and they got a huge amount of attention from the downtown crowd.

Yes, June knocked over that bike. I did run over right away and fix it. Darn picture taker that I am...not properly watching my kids.

June loved it and talked non-stop.

I think Dayne was feeling similar to her mom-a bit carsick.

Hm...I don't know why my pics and text turned out the way they did, but oh well. Most of the text comes AFTER the pics..just keep scrolling down, don't worry about it. Ha!

I'm a little burnt. Just got back yesterday later-afternoonish from a fun weekend of camping in VA beach with some girlfriends. Lucky me! It was good, very good. The first night we went out for pizza (I know, I know...turns out we never once cooked a dinner) and it was pure heaven just sitting and talking, and talking, and talking...and not worrying about running home to the kids or paying a babysitter. Sooo happy.

We stayed in a great campground that sits on the sound side of Va beach (did I say that right Elissa and Lindsay?). It only took us 2 hours, yes, 2 hours (thanks to Elissa's persistance) to get the fire started the first night. The 2nd night took much less, only 45! (;










Look at that beach! The first day at the beach was pretty cloudy and windy, but by the afternoon, the sun was out and it was perfect. Day 2 was all sun, not enough sunscreen, and I'm still paying the price with my burnt back.

We took some fun black and whites. "Don't worry about it, we're models".
random video of June that I taped last night. Um...she's so adorable I could spit.

We stayed in a great campground that sits on the sound side of Va beach (did I say that right Elissa and Lindsay?). It only took us 2 hours, yes, 2 hours (thanks to Elissa's persistance) to get the fire started the first night. The 2nd night took much less, only 45! (;

Lindsay was way comfortable with any of the dead sea creatures washing up on shore. I had to get this pic to show Cole. Crazy!

See the helicopter? Va Beach has a Navy (?) base..wait, is the word base? Okay, a Navy ? closeby, and day one was loud helicopters flying by non-stop, and day 2 was even louder fighter jets (cool to watch!) flying by in 5-10 minute intervals. Pretty annoying (so loud we'd have to stop talking), but cool to watch.

Okay, rewind backwards. Brent (Elissa's husband) came with Elissa to drop her off. He was so sad to see his wife go. And Geof.? Not so much..., apparently!!

My hot husband.

The sailing pic was taken Wed. night. Elissa's brother bought a sailboat and I asked if Geof. could tag along one day. He was so happy. I didn't realize until pretty recently (within the last year or so) that sailing is a passion for Geof. He wants us to retire, sell our home, and sail around the world. I'm fine with that..

Darla and co. camping

I just sent Darla off camping for the weekend with two of her girlfriends, and thought I'd make a list of the things I saw packed away for the 2 night 3 day outing.

1. one computer with several episodes of project runway downloaded.
2. two power inverters.
3. three digital cameras.
4. three coolers
5. two tents
6. six (that's right) six sleeping bags
7. three bags of clothing perhaps better suited for a weeks excursion
8. A beach umbrella and I believe they did bring a boogie board.
9. I think that's all they brought other than the stove and other miscellaneous essentials i.e. kitchen sink.

I hope they're not wanting. Luckily the camp site is near a town and if they start to become emaciated they can go to Denny's.

9-1-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkWc_EKLs4E&feature=player_embedded

We went to one of our favorite parks last Sunday to take family pics. They're all posted on facebook, but these are my favorites. Oh, how I love taking family pics...NOT. Can you get one shot of everyone looking at the camera and smiling? No, I think not. And of course, the smiles from the parents aren't completely genuine because honestly, behind those smiles are gritted teeth and angry tongues trying not to lash out at our uncoorporating kids. They did as well as I could of hoped for. And I do love the pics. Thanks you again, Aimee! (:
yOU CAN CLICK ON EACH PIC FOR A BETTER VIEW (THAT'S FOR YOU, mOM AND dAD).

The engagement shot...

I'm pretty sure this was a moment I wasn't aware of the camera capturing. I KNOW Cole isn't willingly holding my hand, and I'm also positive that I'm not whispering sweet praises in his ear.

....oh, how I wish I was!!

Good grief, Geof. is good looking!

We'll bribe Cole with this one when he's older..

I think this is my favorite.

Love the light behind Dayne.

June ate at least 4 slices of watermelon..if not more. By the end, her dress wasn't so pretty..

School starts tomorrow for Cole. We (Geof. and I) are excited. It's time. School started 2 weeks ago for me. I'm taking a math class and an intro. to Child Development something or other (online). I might drop the online course, but I LOVE the math class. Great teacher. We had a relaxing Labor Day weekend. Our kids appreciate our evening bike rides and it's a good way to end the night. We went to the temple last weekend with the babies. We traded off babysitting and they were very good. They loved being there. We spent the rest of the day in D.C. and they kept asking us to go back to the temple. Beautiful.

Cole asking about the angel Moroni.

These pics aren't clear. What's up? I shouldn't have to buy a $600 camera to get decent pics, right?
Oh Dayne. What more can I say? She wants to be 15. So scary. She's very interested in clothes-especially the kind that I don't want her wearing-EVER! Why??

She's soo so so so so, so cute, and knows it. June's talking like crazy now and gets excited over everything..so if we're ever in any place where we need to control our voices, Junie's out (theatres, church, etc.) in the foyer.