4th of July and The Difference Being In Shape Makes

At the parade

 On Tuesday afternoon I finally thought to myself, "I should see if there are any community things we can attend on the 4th... after all, we should do something, right?" So I hopped online and, among other things, noticed there was going to be a 5k held downtown.  "Hmmm.  I have been jogging further and further at my (admittedly unregular) gym visits, and last time I even made it 3 miles.  So, I'm probably o.k. to take on another 5k short notice, right?"  To you runners out there, this may sound trivial, but let me assure you, this is a huge deal for me.  Shall I rehash last time?  The short version is, we signed up, we "trained" for about 6 weeks, then due to sickness, we fell off the wagon for the 6 weeks leading up to the race.  Day of, I pushed myself MUCH harder than I should of, and still did the race in 43 minutes.  It was so much for me, not only did I throw up immediately after crossing the finish line, but I also got a horrible fever with the worst body-aches and sore muscles I've ever experienced in my life.  I couldn't even move.  It felt like I'd pulled every muscle in my body at the same time! So it was pretty clear that if I was ever going to do another 5k I would need to prepare myself much, MUCH better.

So there I sat Tuesday deciding that I would do a 5k the NEXT DAY.  Brian declined to join me (he remembered the consequences of last time more clearly I guess), but I didn't want to do it alone.  So, like any selfish Mother I convinced Brennan that since he (literally) ran circles around me on our 2k last March, he shouldn't find the 5k too hard.  So Brennan agreed and we signed up.  Yeah, we're crazy like that.

So yesterday, we started off the 4th of July with our race.  Brennan complained frequently about being tired.  He walked a lot which caused me to walk more than I otherwise would have.  And we came in I think dead-last among the running group.  And yet, even still I shaved 2 whole minutes off my time from last time!  I hardly pushed myself at all!  When I stopped to walk with Brennan it was knowing that I had enough in me to keep jogging if I'd wanted to.  And when I crossed that finish line, although tired, I knew I could have gone further if required.  And I didn't need to throw up at all! ;-)  Wow, what a difference it makes to exercise somewhat regularly for 8 months versus 6 weeks.

And despite Brennan's complaints during the race, he said only an hour later that he would be willing to do it again some time.  So I say a win for both of us!

Finishing in 41 minutes, number 56, BRENNAN STEVENSON...

After our leisurely morning jog, we met Brian with Asher and Hollyn to watch the parade.  And I use that term loosely.  It was basically a crowd of kids and parents walking and biking (the "anyone can be in the parade" part), followed by the Democrat and Republican trailers, some lamas, old cars, and a firetruck.  They didn't even block off the streets officially.  Police cars parked sideways to stop traffic from crossing for the 10-15 minutes the parade lasted, then got out of the way again to let traffic continue.  Still, the kids gathered lots of candy and had a great time.

Father and Daughter, watching some parade

After all that I sat outside to get some sun.  But I stayed out longer than I thought.  I am horribly sunburned on my knees and shins with stark lines showing exactly which direction the sun was from me.  Oh man, I have been in SO much pain.

Lastly, we have an awesome barbeque feast, and as it got dark the boys and I walked to the edge of our neighborhood to watch some neighbor friends light off their fireworks.  Good enough for me!

Sitting comfy for the neighbor's fireworks show

The way Brennan watches fireworks

Double protected with headphones and hands

I hope everyone had a great holiday as well!

Scardey-Cow

She's got strong Idahoan ancestry, and like a true Idahoan, this girl loves potatoes!  And like a true daughter of myself, she loves mashed potatoes especially.

She got these mashed potatoes ALL over herself.  She wasn't even this messy with her birthday cake the week before!

The one day of Sun in weeks!

Cousin Sunshine was there too, but I couldn't get a shot of the girls together because they wouldn't both stand still for the same 2 seconds. :-)

The other day friend Wyatt was here and all the kids were playing upstairs.  When Hollyn started crying frantically I blamed Brennan for probably being too rough or something.  But we soon discovered the reason for her distress - she is absolutely terrified of this cow costume hood we have.  She was even wary of it if someone just held it in their hands.  But wearing it?  Oh my.  I wish I had been able to capture her best jumps.  She has seen her brothers wearing transformer masks and other scary things without caring a bit, but for some reason the cow hood really terrifies her.  (She reacts the same way to dogs.  Something about the size maybe?)  The video starts with shots of her as the boys played peekaboo with her.  I love when they interact with her.

Well, I haven't given a real update on Hollyn's personality in a while, so here's some more about her...

Although scared of them in real life, she loves dogs in general.  We have a book from the library right now with pictures of dogs.  One night to distract her during a diaper change I handed her the book and showed her the picture and said, "doggie, ruff ruff."  She started imitating me "eh eh" with the same intonations and timing.  Since then she loves to say it and even got the book out herself today when I mentioned doggies.  Hollyn also says what we believe is "up" ("uh!") at the appropriate times.  She says dada but I don't think in connection with Dad, and doesn't say Mama yet.  We know what her priorities are :-)  Let's see, what else...

Hollyn doesn't love hanging out in her high chair any longer than she has to, UNLESS she gets to use a spoon.  And better yet, add a bowl to the scene and she is one happy baby.  She's definitely starting to try and act as grown-up as her brothers.

The age of difficult Sundays has begun!  Oh brother.  My calling is in the library at church (which I highly recommend.  It's the best calling EVER!) and Hollyn usually hangs out with me in there.  But she's way over it.  The novelty wore off long ago and she wants OUT!  Last Sunday during class time, as I had nothing else to do, I let her wander around the halls staying close to the library.  Pretty soon another Mom and toddler joined me.  Then another and another.  Soon there were about 6 of us Moms with our 15-12 month old babies standing there watching our younglings going up and down and up and down and stairs. (Our building has a stretch of classrooms about a half-floor higher than the rest of the building.)  Anyway, we were lamenting that there should be a pre-nursery for babies once they've learned to walk.  As the bishop approached one person joked that we should just take our kids and drop them off in the bishop's office with a couple toys and say, "Here you go, bishop.  Have fun." :-)  Ahhh, this too shall pass.  It's an awesome age, except on Sundays.

2 Months Later...

...I'm ready to post some pictures and video of Hollyn's First Birthday!

Hollyn turned 1 in April, but it was a super busy time with family visiting, Brennan's birthday in the same week, and Easter just before that.  To top it all off she and the rest of us all took turns being sick for several weeks.  Consequently, I threw away the birthday cake I'd almost finished decorating because it ended up sitting on the counter too long. :-(  Without the actual birthday approaching I wasn't feeling particularly motivated to make another cake on any given day so it kept getting put off.

But then a couple weeks ago I made a cake for Devon's babyshower and Brian was in L♥VE with it!  But he only got some scraps and the boys got none at all, so I made another one.  Then I figured I might as well dub it Hollyn's birthday cake (even though it wasn't the cute rubber duckie themed cake I'd planned on) and voila!  Hollyn finally got to celebrate her first birthday with cake at almost 14 months old. :-)

These pictures are from her actual birthday.  Wow, what a difference 2 months makes.  Although her hair was curly back in April, some days it laid pretty flat - and her birthday was one of those days.  But 2 months later the curls have settled into some regularity and added some umph.

 

 

Just some old pics

May 2012

Ah, learning to walk can be so hard!  This week had been particularly bad with two overlapping black eyes and a gouged nose. :-(