Sawyer's Half Marathon

 Yesterday, I ran the Jordan River half marathon, and it was perhaps the hardest one for me to do. The trail run itself was very mild. At about mile 4 (and then equivalently at about mile 8 or 9) there was a big hill. But the rest of the run was very flat, and the hills were small and rolling. 

It was an "out-and-back" run along the Jordan River, and the weather was perfect. Cool, with maybe a little bit too much wind. I slept really badly the night before, due to some unfortunate incidents, and I think it really showed at the end of the race. At the beginning, for the first 3 miles, I had energy and I adopted and drew from the excitement of all the racers. I got into a comfortable rhythm miles 4 through 7, picked up my pace until mile 9, when it started to get hard, and I still had 4 miles left. 

The last 3 are always the hardest. My left hip was seizing up and my knees were starting to hurt. I stopped for water at mile 11 and stretched my calves for half a minute before going. But I ran the whole thing; I didn't walk any of it! I was so tempted to at the end. But there's nothing better than trying and working so hard, and then rounding the bend and seeing the finish line. I got chills at that moment. 

I ended up finishing 87 out of 185 (haha, I'm not fast). My average mile was 10:30 minutes, and my overall time was 2 hours 15 minutes and 37 seconds -- which shaves 3 minutes from my best time!!

And this is the only picture I took:

Blurry picture of the sunrise. It was beautiful. 

It was hard. But I did it. And training for it was actually a lot of fun. I didn't feel as prepared for it as I would've liked. And I don't honestly know if I'll do any more. It was hard on my body this time; I think I'm getting old. 😂😅

This one was for Sawyer. 

 We've gotten to that point in life where we're just busy a lot of the time. Some people take pride in their busyness, and "wear it as a badge of honor" (as one of our church leaders once said ... I think it was Elder Uchtdorf). I've never been one of those people. I loved my simple, slightly boring life when I only had 2 kids and life was slow. 

Those days are over. Daniel and I were sitting down and planning out the next several weekends, and I was like, "When is life going to calm down again?" And he said something like, "Babe, I don't think it's going to. I think we've reached that time in life when we're just busy."

*sigh*

I love my life. But I don't want to be one of those people that's always "busy" or "too busy". 🤷🏽‍♀️🙄

This week, for family home evening, we played hide-and-go-seek and sardines for activity, and it was so fun! I hid in the basement, not very well hidden, and the kids walked past me a couple of times and didn't see me. They were looking all over the house for me, and it was so funny. We all laughed when they finally found me and realized they'd completely missed me. The kids loved doing sardines, too! It was a good time. 

We had soccer practices on Tuesday, the day when I'm driving back and forth between practice fields and home. And we went grocery shopping before that as well. 

I had a Relief Society activity that night when we got back from practices, all about learning to put together charcuterie boards. And it was fun! 

Wednesday night, Gina Smith hosted a barbecue as a goodbye party for some of our friends that are moving out of the ward, Elise Pearson and Dani Swinyard. We are and talked, and the kids played. The Smiths really do have the perfect backyard for parties, with a swingset, trampoline, climbing dome, and a cement patios for eating. The kids and I had a great time. 

Thursday evening Brooke had her first soccer game (at least the first one she played in... we missed a couple while we were gone). It was fun and adorable to watch those little girls running around on a field. And I think Brooke learned a lot about soccer. She didn't play very aggressively, but I think she still had fun. 

I packed a dinner for us to eat while she played, so that we could still be sure to get kids to bed on time when we got home. 

Today, for homeschooling, the girls went one at a time to do an oral presentation for the rest of us about ancient Egypt. Camille just got up and started saying some of her favorite facts about ancient Egypt in general, and Brooke prepared a sheet with talking points about the Nile River. They both did well, and it was adorable to observe. 

After school, we ran a few errands, and then went to Cornbelly's for the rest of the day. We'd gotten a discount code from our friends, and Lily Perkins also had a dance performance there that we got to watch. We had a good time. Daniel met up with us there when we were getting food. Sawyer was hard to manage, because he just wanted to go places on his own and not be in the stroller the whole time. And Brooke is getting too old for certain things, which makes me sad. I kept asking the kids if they wanted to do specific things, and Brooke kept saying things like, "No, I don't really want to do that." The corn pit was definitely everyone's favorite. That was the first thing they wanted to do, after pictures in the tractors. 

We also went to the park one day this week, and Brooke didn't want to play on the playground that much. 😭 She's growing up! She doesn't want to do little kids things anymore. 

Homeschool was good this week. We're still figuring things out. We have good days and bad days. I've found that Brooke struggles with getting distracted from her work very frequently; she watches me when I'm working with Jack or Camille and makes comments, and I'm constantly having to remind her to do her own work. Camille struggles with getting frustrated with some of the work she has to do, and it's sometimes hard to motivate her to get her work done. Or she'll only put in a half-hearted effort. 

Our days alternate between good days and not as good days. Wednesday was particularly nice and fun. I think getting outside on our bikes and going to the park went a long way in helping everyone's moods. I'm hoping to get into a routine where we get outside or go somewhere every day. 

Sawyer has started walking with help. Brooke and I often take his hands and he walks along holding onto our hands. Brooke loves helping him walk. He's getting so big! He says a few words and he's starting to walk. This week, he started answering yes and no questions. "Do you want your milk?" "Yes." "Shall we go upstairs?" "No!" Or he'll shake his head and say, "no, no, no, no, no" when we do something he doesn't like. It's adorable. 

Alaska

 We went to Alaska on the 11th, the day after Daniel's birthday. I'm afraid Daniel's birthday was a little odd because of that. The kids and I decorated like normal, and Brooke made him breakfast in bed (she's the cutest, sweetest thing ever). Daniel's new mountain bike came ready on his birthday, and we went to pick it up while the girls were at Callie's birthday party. So cool that it came in his birthday! We went out to dinner, and then had cake at home. After we put the kids to bed, he and I stayed up getting ready for Alaska. 

There's too much about Alaska. I'm going to put together a book of our trip. But I'll just mention a few things here. 

We stayed with Cody and Liisia, and they were so kind and gracious, feeding us so well and letting us stay with them and taking us to so many fun places. It was such a pleasure being there with them. And our kids had fun playing with their little boys. 

The highlight of the trip for the kids was the baby rabbits that Cody and Liisia had. And also fishing on the Funny River. 

The highlight of the trip for me was driving down the Kenai peninsula. It was such a stunning drive, through the mountains, passing lakes and along rivers. We stayed in tiny cabins for the night, roasted hotdogs for dinner and played games. 

The next morning, we went to the river to fish. We all got a little lesson from Cody, and Daniel and I even got to put on some waders and go into the river to fish. It was serene and peaceful and beautiful. I liked it more than I thought I would. I basically did it to be able to say that I had gone fishing in Alaska. But I really enjoyed myself! 

We didn't catch anything.... Welll, actually, Daniel caught a fish that was already dead. 😳🤣 It was the end of fishing season, so the fish were all dying. There were a lot of dead fish on the banks of the river and floating down the river. It was a little weird.

Our trip was amazing! I'm so glad we got to go, even if it was later than planned. 

An actual conversation between Camille and her friend, June, on the way to soccer practice yesterday: 

• June: what are everyone's names? 
• Camille proceeds to list everyone in the car: I'm Camille, that's Jack, that's Sawyer. Brooke is at her soccer practice. And then my mom. 
• June: what's your mom's real name? 
• Camille: Leslie. But we just call her Mom. She and my dad have 2 names. Daniel and dad, Leslie and mom. 

Today I caught Sawyer covering his mouth when he giggled. I just about died from the cuteness of it. 😍😍😵💀

Brooke painted this for a coloring book she made for Camille yesterday, because Camille was having a bad day. She and Camille started taking watercolor painting lessons with Tenille Roylance in our ward. They came back from their first lesson on Friday totally jazzed about painting and loving the supplies that Tenille gave them. It's the cutest thing ever. I love this little painting so much, it fills my heart with joy and delight, and I find it very adorable. Also, the fact that Brooke did this to cheer her sister up. 😍😍😭😭

Camille has been losing all kinds of teeth lately. Every other week, it seems, she's lost another tooth. The tooth fairy keeps forgetting to come the night she loses a tooth. 😬😬 But she has all these holes in her mouth, and she's talking all funny and putting her tongue in the hole and I just find it so cute and charming. She's adorable, with her little bangs and her missing teeth. It's fun just to watch and listen to her talk right now. 

 We took Gramma to Silver Lake yesterday. Last Sunday, we went to visit her at her house, and she really wanted us to take her then. But it was already 530pm and we were worried about getting kids to bed at a reasonable hour. We all went to a park near her house so she could get outside and watch the kids play. But we told her we'd take her to Silver Lake the next weekend. 

Yesterday, after a day of running 10 miles (me), mountain biking (Daniel), cleaning up the house (me and Daniel) and shopping (Daniel), we picked Gramma up in the late afternoon. We stopped for food at Wendy's and took it up the mountain with us to eat once we got there. We didn't stay too long. The sun was already on its way down, and it started getting kind of chilly. But it was beautiful and so nice to be outside. I think Gramma enjoyed it as well. 

Tonight we went on a mini bike ride as a family. It was a beautiful evening. We put Sawyer to bed, and left him (😬) and took the other kids biking around the neighborhood and to the little park. We had our scripture study and prayer at the park before we headed home. It was so fun and made me look forward to the times when we'll be able to do that more frequently, and as a whole family.