Top 8 reasons summer is my favorite season (I was going to do 5, but I just really love summer!):
8. Traveling and having visitors. It's so fun to be able to spend time with friends and family!
7. No snow/ice = I'm not afraid to drive.
6: Cheap, fresh produce: I'm a sucker for fresh produce, especially fruit. It's just about my favorite thing in the world to eat, and my family seems to feel the same way! Watermelon, strawberries, and peaches are particular favorites of mine. And in the summer, you can get it for next to nothing, which means we eat a LOT of it. Yum.
5: Plaid shorts on my boys. Enough said.
4: The days are so long. True, it's harder to get the kids to go to bed on time, but I love that it stays light for so long. And the fact that I can wake up at 5:30 AM to go work out and it's already light out? Love that. It makes it a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning!
3: The sunshine makes me feel happy. And I love the warmth!
2: I feel more relaxed. I'm not sure what it is, but I am not nearly as uptight about keeping the house clean and keeping everyone on schedule in the summer. It's kind of nice.
1: There is so much to do! While I am constantly searching for indoor activities to keep the boys (and myself) busy in the winter, staying occupied during the summer seems so effortless! Between going on walks and bike rides, playing at the many parks in Parker, frequenting the neighborhood pool, or just playing backyard baseball, it seems our days are full and we never get bored!
Hooray for summer! We are loving our lives around here!
Today Adam completed his first ever triathlon--the Lake to Lake Triathlon in Loveland. It was an Olympic distance tri (1 mile swim, 30 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). He was awesome!
We spent the night last night in Loveland, which was a complete disaster, honestly. McKay really struggles with sleeping anyplace other than his own bed. He didn't fall asleep until after 11, and then woke up when Adam got up at 5 AM. He was a real challenge for me today!
But when all was said and done, it was a good experience for Adam, and the boys even got to cross the finish line with him. Ty loved that! Since we had to park quite a distance from the race finish, Ty ran nearly a mile of the race today, and he was bound and determined he was going to cross the finish line with his dad. In fact, he told me that I couldn't run today because in his words, "This is mine and Daddy's race."
Here he is modeling Daddy's wetsuit
And this is directly after Adam's finish
The big finish:
Adam is now officially a triathlete! I am so proud of him! He rocked it today!
Six years ago, on a beautiful Friday morning much like today, I entered the Salt Lake Temple and was sealed to the most amazing man I have ever met.
In the last six years, we have:
Both graduated from BYU--me with a Bachelors and Adam a Masters Degree
Lived in four different apartments
Owned one home
Lived in two states
Owned four cars
Traveled all over the place together (Florida 2xs, California 3xs, Washington DC, Omaha, Cozumel, Oregon, and soon to be Hawaii!)
Endured one major surgery
Survived two pregnancies
Are parenting two wonderful boys
And have had more fun together than many people do in an entire lifetime!
As the years have passed, I have realized more than I ever could have on the day I married him how uniquely amazing Adam is. Happy sixth anniversary to my best friend! I reaffirm that marrying you was the most important and BEST decision I ever made!
Despite the initial difficulties in getting to Utah, once we arrived, we had a great trip! We were able to celebrate Ty's birthday with both sets of grandparents. The boy was in heaven!
And McKay was, ya know, McKay
He apparently thought he needed to clean himself up after birthday cake at Grammie and Tooge's house, because he jumped into the tub fully dressed and started the water for himself!
One of the boys' very favorite activities we did while in Utah was going to BYU campus to feed the ducks at the duck pond.
We were leaving right at noon, and the bell tower started playing. The boys were mesmerized.
And then began doing what Ty called, "The lunchtime dance!"
It was awesome.
Thankfully, the drive home (just the boys and me--Adam flew back earlier) was almost perfect. The boys were angels, and we had no car troubles. Whew!
Now we are home, and we are waiting for our car to get fixed. Hopefully it won't be too many more days!
We left Colorado yesterday morning to make the trek to Utah so I could run the Utah Valley Half Marathon again with my mom today. We were feeling good, enjoying our drive through the mountains when our car started making the most awful noises imaginable--like the engine was going to fall out on the road. Yes, this was our good car, not our clunker college car. We pulled off at the Georgetown exit (about an hour and a half into our journey), and found a mechanic. He was entirely unhelpful; wouldn't even look at the car. By that time the car wouldn't even turn on. We had to get towed a couple more miles up the canyon to a different mechanic, only to have him tell us that the problem was with our transmission and we wouldn't be back on the road that day. I was trying so hard to be stoic, but my heart had dropped to my shoes. Besides the obvious financial shock of having our transmission go out (not a cheap fix!) it was becoming increasingly clear that I was going to miss my race. I signed up for this race in October, and I have run over 400 miles in training over the past 5 months in preparation for this. I thought of all that work, now seemingly for naught. Our little family piled into the tow truck (which I have to admit, the boys were thrilled about), and $350 and an hour and a half later, we were back in Parker where we started. I was devastated.
Luckily for me, I have a husband and a father who were both very determined to get me to Provo in time for the race to start. Driving our second car wasn't really an option; we probably would have ended up with both cars in the shop if we attempted that. But Dad and Adam called airlines and rental car companies, trying to figure out a solution for me. Finally, by 12:30 PM, 5 hours after we left the house for the first time, we were back on the road, this time in a rental car. So the trip that should have taken 9 hours took us 14 instead--but we made it!!
I hardly slept at all last night. McKay, overly exhausted, was having a difficult time sleeping and ended up in bed with us. He moaned and cried, thrashed and kicked all night. Then I was up again at 3:30 this morning with my mom to catch a bus that would shuttle us to the start line.
The race started well for me. I ran a quick pace down the canyon--I was on track to finish far faster than my time from last year. Just after mile 9, though, my body just quit on me. It was probably a combination of a 14-hour car ride, no sleep, and terrible nutrition the day before the race. My mind was telling my body to keep going, but my body had just had enough. I had to walk. The hardest, most emotional part of the race for me was watching the 2-hour pacer run by. I knew I had to finish ahead of him if I wanted to beat my time from last year. I also knew if he passed me, I would never be able to catch him again. And yet, I simply couldn't keep the pace.
My mom caught up to me just before mile 11, and we finished it out together at a slow jog. We came in at 2 hours and 8 minutes, 8 minutes slower than my time from last year, and a full 10 minutes slower than my goal time.
Am I disappointed? Yes. Definitely. It's frustrating to spend so much time training and working toward a goal only to have my body fail on race day. And yet, under the circumstances, I still feel I did the absolute best I could. Shortly after my race was over, I puked--I definitely pushed myself to the limit!
Now I am alternating between thoughts of running another half this summer (REDEMPTION!!), or taking a long, long break from racing. I'll have to keep you posted on that.
Mom and Me, Mile 12
Post-race
It's always a joy to see my boys at the finish line!
My sister was a volunteer at the race again this year
As often as McKay favors us with his sweet singing of primary songs, he also entertains us with his made-up silly songs. (A Kaiser House Idol champion in the making? I think so.) Here are some of our favorite "Made by McKay" songs as of late:
"Happy Birthday to Nobody" (He actually sings Happy Birthday to every inanimate object imaginable, but Ty particularly enjoyed the Nobody version.)
"Give Said the Popsicle" (Give Said the Little Stream)
"The Ditzy Ditzy Mommy" (The Itsy Bitsy Spider)
"Clean Up Snowman Medley" (The Clean-Up Song & Once There Was a Snowman.)
The list grows daily. He sure is a precocious little thing.
A couple days ago, I heard McKay singing the same song over and over and entered Ty's room to find this:
Not actually an uncommon sight at our house. He does this daily.
And I really don't mind a bit. I LOVE that my boys enjoying books so much. But on this day, the song that he was singing on automatic repeat was I Love to See the Temple. He had found a book about temples somewhere in that mess, and his way of "reading" it was to sing one of his favorite primary songs. Oh, so cute! The miracle was that after I made my presence known and asked him to sing it for the camera, he actually did it. Generally speaking, as soon as he sees the camera he turns into a major goof and sings in a funny voice. But not this time. Here is a little glimpse of the sweet side of my McKay.
As priceless as this video is to me now, I can just imagine how I am going to melt watching it 20 years down the road. I adore this kid!
We had a birthday party for Ty at the park today, Cars themed, of course. All of his very favorite friends showed up for the fun!
We had cake,
And Ty opened presents from his friends.
He was obviously overjoyed by the "All Things McQueen" theme! There was only one present that didn't have something to do with Cars. Do his friends know him well, or what?! (And the present that wasn't Cars related was a basketball hoop--which he was thrilled about, too!)
He had to try out the car launcher right away!
A group shot of all the boys!
I was grateful that our morning went so well--nothing essential got left at home and there were no major injuries at the park (yes, I specifically prayed for that last night!). And most importantly, Ty and his friends seemed to have a really fun time! Happy (almost) fourth birthday to Ty Guy!
That's exactly what we did last Saturday night while Spence and Michelle were in town. And surprisingly enough, we caught a great game--a rare win for the Rockies! As fun as it was, I told Adam I am not willing to take the boys again until they are about 12 and 10. Between McKay crawling all over everyone and Ty asking every three seconds whether we could go home yet, it was a little more eventful than I would have preferred. :)
