just to look back and luagh

The Triathlon came and went, then Super Saturday.  Those were the things looming on the horizon for me.  I thought life would calm down after they passed.  I am just laughing at how it doesn't seem to be the case. This probably won't interest anyone else, but I'm putting it down so I can laugh in a few years either at how busy we were or if the trend continues, how we thought we were so busy. Short sample of the last few days.

Wednesday:
get up early to run 10
school, school, school.
Piano Lessons x 3
4:30 Jess tags along as I take Makenna and 3 friends to dance.
6:00 rush home with all the friends.  unload the dancers from the truck, load up Matt, Isaac, Cameron and all their football gear for their practice.
Host 5 girls for dinner and some noisy playtime. Run 2 girls home at 8.  Boys come home at 9. Clean.

Thursday: school, school, school.
Isaac's Shakespeare class at 12:45-2:45
Gather Jess' soccer stuff, pack Isaac's gear for camp, load car.
4:00 be at church for primary program
5:00 Jess soccer
6:00 take Jess back to church to join post practice pizza party
After kids eat, go to Walmart for a few things, then Costco for ice, take all food and gear to scout leader's house for drop off.  Start kids on showers, then leave to pick up a burrito for Matt and I to share when he gets back at 8:30 from the stake meeting that I was supposed to also go to.

Friday:
get up early to run 12
school
Christmas play auditions at 11:00
school
lunch
leave to go visiting teaching
tie off loose school ends
Get Isaac's last few things in a backpack, hit u-swirl, drop him off for camp
come home to make dinner and have a nice evening at home.  Girls watched a movie downstairs, and Matt and I watched Robin Hood.  ahhh.

Saturday
wake up early to feed the girls breakfast before we go paint at the service project.
Clean the girls up to go swim with friends.  Run to Costco for Ice.
Matt leaves to go drive up the mountain and pick up Isaac
I stay home to make bread for the Relief Society broadcast
Go pick up girls, change their clothes.
When Matt and Isaac are home, trade the girls for Cameron and go to the pre-game.
We get to the field and don't have Isaac's jersey.  Cathy kindly breaks into our house on her way to the game with her and our girls.  It's hot, but our team wins.  Both our boys did very well.
Get home at 6:30 start washing paint clothes and smokey clothes.

Service Project

Our ward got to help with a community service project Saturday morning.  Isaac didn't get to come because he was up Mt Charleston with the other 11 year old scouts.  We met at a big drainage conduit and were supplied with paint, gloves and rollers.  We were painting over graffiti.  The girls thought it was great fun.  It is certainly the best way to paint.  Drips on the ground are okay, you get to paint huge areas with your friends and run around in the open air.  Jess had more paint than skin showing by the end, but luckily, the paint came off quite easy.  We picked her clothes carefully knowing they would be completely ruined.  And they were.  Matt got the clean award.  I had a hard time carrying the buckets without bumping against my legs sometimes, and the buckets were very messy inside and out.

Isaac's First Real Campout

We weren't sure for several weeks if Isaac was going to be able to attend the Stake 11 year old campout due to football complications.  But, long story short, he did go.  Matt picked him up at lunch Saturday (just a couple hours early) so he could also go to his first game, and they won!

Leading up to Friday, Matt had a lot of fun teasing Isaac about what to expect--the lack of showers, cold nights, bugs, the wonderful food we would be eating without him while he had burnt/cold hotdogs, how the girls were planning a campout of their own in his big bed. . . .  Isaac is just too fun to tease.  But it spite of the sanitary conditions, he was really looking forward to it.  His one complaint after he came home was that it was a very cold night.  He doubled up on all his pajamas with a hat and gloves huddled in his sleeping bag, but didn't sleep well because he was cold.  (Funny that a few hours later we are all sweating in 100 degree weather at his game.) But mostly we have heard how fun it was.  He passed off loads of requirements and was especially expert at starting fires with flint and steel.  His tent mates were nice.  I am grateful for good leaders who communicate well and go the extra mile for the boys.

Isaac would not let me take a decent picture of him on the way out.  grrr.  This is what I got.  

 On the way to drop him off, we stopped at U-Swirl to pay a school debt I owed the kids.  

 

Science Experiments

Isaac and Makenna both had fun science experiments this week.  Isaac's was compelling enough that the girls wanted to get in on the fun.  He was testing different methods of reducing erosion from sand dunes due to wind.  He had a model city and dune and used a hairdryer for the wind.  He he had to set it up to test 6 different scenarios including nothing, small and large vegetation, wind straws, fences and oil.  The fences worked the best in our model.

Always wear your safety goggles.

Tall vegetation

Measuring displaced sand

Straw Pole Simulation

Makenna's was less involved, but she really liked it.  She is learning about vertebrates right now.  We did fish, amphibians, reptiles and then BIRDS!  She collected examples from the bottom of our birds' cage for her science journal of contour and down feathers.  But the experiment was to demonstrate what a bird's gizzard does.  She put some gravel in a baggie with some cherrios, raspberries, and bird seed.  Then squeezed the bag a few times to see how the stones helped speed up the process.

Lake Las Vegas 2010

My friend Lorna and I just finished our 10th race together.

2 1/2 marathons
2 10K
3 sprint Triathlons
3 Olympic Triathlons

Not bad.  Someday I'll drag her along on a marathon.  This was our 3rd Lake Las Vegas Race.  We are certainly more seasoned than the funny clueless girls from 2 years ago, but we are still far from hard core.  We have also been joined by more friends.  This year there were 4 from our group doing the sprint and 4 the full olympic, but someone (or two) is always missing in every group shot.

We stayed at the Loew's Hotel again.  The 3 of us who didn't have family sleeping over, split a room.  Nice and cheap.  My family did come down Friday to drop me off, play in the pool for a bit and have dinner with the group.  Then they went home to sleep in their own beds, have breakfast and come back.  We had a massive group dinner with 2 tables of just kids.  Luckily we were outside, but the wait staff was so ready for us to leave halfway through ordering.  We took a quick picture at the end.

Lorna and I in our room before going out to set up our stuff.  We drew tri girls on our arms/back, continuing the tradition I learned from my sister-in-law Jen.  

Here is our first view of the lake.  Pretty, eh? 

Here we are, minus one, before the sprinters start.

Lorna, Lee, Cody and I are in that crowd.  Lots of goosebumps. The water was a little warmer than the air, but we still kept asking, "Why are we doing this again?"

And there is the horn! We are off for what turned out to be a more challenging swim.  It was a full mile this year (a little longer than the 1.5K last year) and the way back was choppy, with water going over our heads constantly.

This was our company in the water.  I tried hard not to think about it.  They are gross and big.  2 feet +.

I don't have any shots of me on my bike, so this is 1/2 of the transition area instead.  The bike course was the same as last year.  25 miles out and back.  Very hilly, but no wind, thank goodness!  Gorgeous weather.  Then the run.  Last year the air temp was over 100 and that drained me.  I walked a few times.  I didn't have that excuse this year, so my manta was "I will not walk, I will not walk," interchanged with, "I love hills, I love hills!"  At the finish line, feeling sweaty and gritty, with family cheering on, I remembered, this is why I do this.

The proud finishers, minus one.  

And here we are post 10 races.  I hope there are another 10 to come! (Can you see my swim/bike/run girls?)

After I showered and took my stuff to the truck.  Our family went back to the pool and beach.  The kids went down the slide and played in the pool.  Isaac checked out a basketball and shot for awhile.  But they spent the most time in the sand.  Makenna ended up staying longer with her friend and came home hours later looking a little pink.  

Jessica was pouting that she couldn't stay longer too.  I couldn't resist documenting her truly amazing outfit. 

Robber's Roost

On Memorial Day we thought we would try a local hike on Mt. Charleston.  We invited Brian and Hilary and let one other family of friends know.  That snowballed into 6 families including 13 girls (8 and under) and 3 boys, ages 12, 11, 3.  Hee hee.  Isaac and Cameron were very glad they had each other.  In fact, they mostly split off from us and got themselves into tight spots.  I don't have many pictures of them.

Background info, Robber's Roost is claimed to be an old hideout for bandits who would rob people along the old Mormon Trail.  It's not a bad hike, but there is no way anyone with any sense would try and take horses up there and what kind of bandit are you without a horse?  The cave was big enough to sleep in and was very blackened from smoke, but completely devoid of creature comforts.  The kids LOVED hiking around and exploring.

A sampling of some of the girls climbing up.

And now at the top.

Makenna wore her "crocodile hunter" outfit for an outdoor adventure.  (There is a notebook for sketches in her backpack with pencils, a monocular, and when not in the cave, her flashlight is there too.)  Jess was going for cute.

Jess and Ellie posed for lots of pictures.

We took more of Brian and Hilary, but this was my favorite.

Here is a rare picture of the boys.

I'm including this one as proof that I do attend these family outings.  I usually have the camera and am never in the pictures, but Matt did snapshot duty while I chased after the girls to make sure they didn't fall off anything too high.  

This is Makenna's special buddy.  She always runs to her when she sees her at home, church, store. . . 

Our family.

Makenna was quite the climber.

Here is a perspective shot.  There were quite a few people repelling with gear above us. 

Here is a shot of 4 adults (and Jess) discussing the upcoming triathlon.  "What's the weather going to be like?"  "Are you ready?"  "I haven't been on my bike enough." We had trained together here and there during the summer, but we had all slacked off a bit since school started.  

I was glad to see proof that Jess did actually drink from her camelback.  She had carefully packed it before we left.  Pictured below are some things I found in it when I unpacked it that night, plus a lot of water. 

She would make a good boy scout.  Always be prepared.  I know she did eat another granola bar.  Look closer at the bandaids. :-)

She labeled them both!

Family Walk

We have been going on Sunday evening walks for the last few weeks. It is high value entertainment. The kids all wear their headlamps. Isaac is terrified of cockroaches (of which there are many at dusk) and spends the whole time leaping over all the sidewalk cracks, fallen leaves, dark colored rocks and real bugs. Watching him quick-step, hop, leap and yell is rather exhausting as an observer. I can't imagine how many calories he's burning. Tonight the girls started a new experiment. Jessica's hypothesis was that cockroaches are deaf. (She learned about the scientific method last week.) So when they came upon a roach, both girls would simultaneously bend down and yell at it. AUUUUUGH! And then see if it stayed still or scurried away. It was hilarious and they showed no signs of stopping. But after 1/2 a mile and 20+ yells, we had them stop in fear that some neighbors would come running out to see who was being attacked.

School Days

With two weeks of school under our belts, I was laughing a little at how unconventional we are.  Many people have asked where we do school.  There isn't an obvious answer.  We do keep 80% of our stuff in one room, but it gets dragged all over.  The kitchen and family rooms are most common, but within those you have table, couch, floor, counter, chair, blanket cave, or desk.  I snapped a couple during one typical late morning.  Jess is doing science/math measuring capacity.  Makenna was finishing some literature and lunch.  Isaac was reading his history and claiming he was chilly.  (The weather did peak in the 80's two days in a row.  Gorgeous!)