Thanks!!!!

So, I decided I am not going to wait until I have something brilliant to say or something amazing happens before I write something else on here! As if I wait to say something brilliant in real life before I say it! Since it was Thanksgiving yesterday, I thought I would at least share some of the things I am grateful for. I am grateful for:

• My wonderful husband. Lamon is so positive and fun, and does goofy things all the time on purpose to make people laugh. I am so thankful to Lamon for making me feel loved, comfortable and safe. One of my friends teased me the other day telling me that Lamon was my favorite subject, and it is probably true. I never get sick of telling people, and Lamon, how much I love and appreciate him. He is such a great father to our children, and makes me so happy. I don't think I could ever get sick of being around him. He is such a hard worker. He does so much for our family. He is a great provider and he is a great leader. And okay, lets be honest . . . He is pretty much hot. Not that that is important! He is funny, and tender, and just has good character. I wonder a lot of times how I was lucky enough to get him! I'd rather spend my time with him than anyone else on Earth!
• Drew. I am so grateful for Drew. Drew is so creative and imaginative. He brings so much life to our household. I don't think there is ever a boring day with Drew. It is so easy to stay in touch with the child within with Drew around. I am so grateful for this fun age where I get to play with him. He lets me put on a cape and be batgirl, run around the house and play hide and seek, and share and read stories with me. I am thankful for the hard days when I have to discipline Drew for doing something he shouldn't do, because I love watching him see and realize the things he does wrong, and for those gospel teaching moments we have. Drew is very inquisitive and bright and can be so sensitive and loving. I just love him. He also teaches me by the way he is so passionate about things. If he is doing something he wants to do, nothing can detour him from it until he has finished it to his liking. And he is very confident in his work which makes me so happy!
  
• Hayden. I am thankful for Hayden. It's hard not to want to just grab him up and squeeze him a zillion times a day. He is so darn cute. His little voice coupled with the funny things he says and the adorable faces he makes while he says it . . . makes it impossible not to just love that kid. He is so fun. He's got his nursery teacher wrapped around his little finger. She has told me that her and her daughters keep eachother entertained often with "Haydenisms." They love quoting things that they have heard him say to eachother. On my birthday Hayden said something off the wall funny and gave me a funny smile, and I said, "Hayden . . . I love you! You are so cute!" Then Hayden smiled and said, "Mom . . . I love you! . . . You're a good camper!" That same day in Nursery they were taking about fish, and Sister Hahn was talking about small fish and big fish and Hayden blurted out, "Oh . . . Oh! I know! Like Free Willy! Free Willy has two wheels." She couldn't stop laughing about that. He just says all of these things with such an all knowing serious face.
• Ada. I am grateful for my little girl! She is so different from my boys. She is so . . . girly! Which I am grateful for. I think that is an area I struggle with sometimes. Ada has been helping me learn to be "girly" again. I painted her toenails the other day and curled her hair in little ringlets . . . and it was surprisingly very fun! Ada has such a strong personality. I think that she will be a girl who knows what she wants! She certainly knows what she wants on many occasions and she loves to point at what she wants and say, "Uuuuh." I will be grateful for the day she will know how to communicate what she wants so I don't have to point at everything in the house saying, "This Ada? This? ?????" ! I am especially grateful for her sweet and tender spirit. She is such a cuddler. Sometimes when she is so fussy during the day, all she wants for me to do is to come and let her sit on my lap and be with her. She will sit in my lap and listen to me read books. My boys didn't do that until a lot later. I love it. She loves the boys and wants to do whatever they do. Lately at night she has climbed in bed with them after prayers and pulled up the covers looking up at us like, "Okay, this is where I belong Mom." And she will whine when I take her to her room.
  

Wow I'm long winded! I need to go to bed and I just got through my little family! I had better continue my thankful list throughout the week!!

28x2

On Sunday it was me and Liz's 28th Birthday. I feel so young, and yet I am getting so old! Not really, but time does certainly fly. I feel like I just turned 21. I don't really keep track anyways. I haven't for awhile. It usually takes me a second to figure out how old I am when someone asks.
I remember once when I was working in the Library at BYU a girl named Dixie Millet asked me, "How old are you Mary?" I told her, "I'm 22." She was like, "No you're not! Because we went to school together and I am only 20 . . . " Or something to that effect. For a minute I wasn't really sure if I really was 22. I had to calculate and make sure in my mind. And then I said assuredly, "Yes . . . I am 22, my birthday was in November . . . etc. etc." So then that same night another co-worker came in and asked me the same question. "How old are you Mary?" I turned to her and said, "23." I was completely serious. Dixie was like, "Mary! You are not 23!" Typical Mary moment . . .
Anyway, I am pretty sure I turned 28 on Sunday.
P.S. This is an old picture of me and Liz. We are certainly hot in this picture, but we are even hotter now!! :) Just kidding. (but not really)

My favorite Birthday gift yet!!!!!/

Drew was so excited to give me an early birthday present last night. He made a card for me, and it just melted my heart! He is so cute. He is trying to figure out all of the sounds, and he wrote this message all by himself, if you couldn't tell. In case you were wondering what momIlikyo Bkooz your NIs means . He meant, "Mom, I like you because you're nice."
How cute! I am excited for all the cards in the future. And I secrectly hope I get a few more that look just like this!! Is it bad to hope Drew won't learn how to spell perfectly too soon? Just kidding. But I sure think it's adorable.

It has finally happened . . . Drew can ride a bike!!

Each time our family has gone for a bike ride this summer, I have continually told Lamon, "I think it is time for Drew to learn how to ride a bike!" It just looked a little funny to me seeing our big 5 year old cruising around on training wheels. But for some reason it never happened.
So this week after we got our school work done I said, "Drew, do you want to learn how to ride your blue bike?" And he said excitedly, "Yes!!" So I took him out in the middle of the street and held on to his shirt and ran alongside him and let go, and it was so awesome. Not only did he keep riding, but he started going really fast! I couldn't keep up with him! I was like, "Whoa Drew, don't go too fast . . . you need to practice first!" And boy has he been practicing! He has wanted to be riding that bike as much as possible. And he has done great. It has been so fun to watch him. Just to see that pride in his face is the funnest thing for me to watch. He keeps saying, "I am so good at riding bikes!" Yes you are Drew! I love your gutz, you cute thing.
Anyway, Today we had a family dinner at Great Grandma Mack's house in Holladay. We were getting the kids in the car, and after getting Ada and Hayden in I was looking around for Drew and he was in the garage with his helmet on and guiding his bike outside. I said, "Drew? What are you doing?" He looked up at me confidently and said, "Well . . . I'll see you guys in an hour!" It was so hilarious. He was so serious. He was going to ride his bike and meet us there! Oh, if I could only have captured his face and his cute little voice when he said that . . . My kids are so fun, they always keep us entertained.

Family Pictures

These are not professional pictures or anything. But for setting the timer button and running, they turned out pretty cute.
We went camping a couple weeks ago, and it was a lot of fun. Lamon had Monday and Tuesday off so we decided to go camping. We borrowed Lamon's parents tent trailer and headed up to Granite Flats camp ground up past Tibble Fork. It was so beautiful. Our friends the Vandenburgs came up and sat around the campfire and ate cobbler with us. It was fun. It was a little chilly, let's be honest . . . but we still all had a blast. And having a tent trailer was nice. We had the heater running until about midnight and then it stopped. We all slept good, but when the kids woke up they were all complaining about their feet being icecubes . . . and so we put them in the car with the heater on while we packed up the trailer. Okay fine . . . so I'm lying . . . I was in the car with the heater on most of the time too . . . while Lamon packed the trailer. Someone had to keep an eye on the kids! J/K
I barely made it home in time the next day to teach History at Jills. But we made it. We are way too spontaneous! But we sure do have fun. I love it.

We are alive!!

Oh my cow! I have been terrible at updating this blog. There are so many fun things to put on here, and I guess I will just have to poke at it a little at a time eh?

I will try and write about two things tonight . . . and maybe if I don't flap my jaw to much like I usually do I can do it without making this too long.

So for the last few weeks we have been having some fun family exercising bonding time each week. My sister Sue is doing the P90X program and she has been bringing her Plyometrics video every Tuesday to do with us. And may I just say that we have been having some riotous fun? My sisters Sue and Liz and Lamon's twin sisters have been coming to do it with us. Lamon sat on the couch the first time and just watched and critiqued us. We got him to do it with us the next week and now he can't miss it! So we move all of the furniture and 6 of us sweat it out on Tuesday evenings. It has been awesome.
So yesterday I was babysitting one of my friends kids and I hadn't heard them for awhile . . . and that usually means trouble. So I went and peeked downstairs and there was Drew doing P90X. He looked so cute. He was saying to his friends, "Come on guys. Come and do this exercise. It will make you super!" So Hayden joined in. It was so funny. And Drew kept doing it and saying, "Hayden . . . do you need some water? You can go and get some water if you want." Drew turned on that video about 3 times yesterday. He cracks me up. I am going to have some buff children.

I did it!

I am so behind in my blogging it is quite pathetic! But I thought that I had better at least put my marathon pictures on here!
What an amazing experience!
All through my training I had problems off and on with my hip flexor. About a week and a half before the race I was hurting pretty bad. I could barely walk at one point. But luckily I have a brother in law who is an athletic trainer who stretched me out and on a few different occasions pulled on my leg and popped something that made the pain dye down. I didn't run the entire week before the race so that there wouldn't be a chance of injuring myself.
The night before the marathon I was going to go to sleep really early to prepare to wake up at 2:00 in the morning, but I could not go to sleep! I was so nervous and excited I was laying in bed but could not get myself to go to sleep. So at 2:00 I got up without having had a wink of sleep and we headed to Rice Eccles Stadium where I got on the bus at 3:15 in the morning. On the bus ride up there were these two guys behind me talking about the steepness of the course and they were saying, "Ya . . . they say that when some people come out of the canyon they can't even walk . . ." I started to get a little nervous, because I had read and heard from a few people that Deseret Morning News was hard on the body because of the steep downhill. Anyway, I didn't really think too much about it until I hit about mile 10 and started cramping pretty bad in my hamstrings and quads. It was pretty brutal. My feet were on fire and the cramping hurt pretty bad. But it just made the whole experience that much more worthwhile. I had to run through pain, and it was pretty hard. I could never put into words what it was like to finish that race. It was the experience I hoped it would be. It didn't turn out like I "planned." I am someone who always wants a perfect "plan" or "recipe" with a guaranteed perfect outcome, and I am always grateful to God for ruining my "plan" sometimes and giving me what I really need. What I wanted? I wanted to finish it in close to 4 hours but knew that being my first marathon and with my hip flexor it might be closer to 4 and a half. What happened? I didn't have one ounce of pain from my hip flexor, but I had to run through the pain of cramps and charlie horses starting at mile 10. I finished the race in 4 hours and 34 minutes. I learned a lot about life and the atonement. I highly recommend it! I will probably do more in like 30 years when my kids are gone. After all . . . both me and Lamon agree that we need to redeem ourselves!

Hayden . . . Did you throw up?

So a few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night to Hayden screaming. I was so tired and I was thinking, "Oh great!" I had to wake up early and did not want to get up. But I got up and went into his room and was confronted with a terrible sight. Throw up! Pools of it on his bed! Lovely! Hayden was just crying and I said, "Oh no Hayden, You threw up? I'm sorry. Come here, let's get your clothes off and change the sheets. LUckily his pillow didn't get any throw up on it and his clothes were okay. So I just folded in the corners of the comforter and took it off the bed. I changed the sheets and told Hayden to stay there while I went to stick the comforter in the wash. So I took it downstairs and started the washer and as I was putting it in I was just waiting to see the mess . . . but um . . . I never did. I didn't see any throw up on the entire blanket. I walked upstairs and knelt down by Hayden and said, "Hayden . . . you didn't throw up did you." He looked up at me and just shook his head and said, "no". So there you go! A whole hour of sleep lost due to my brain! I promise I don't do drugs. I swear I saw throw up! Anyway, it was pretty funny!

Mother's Day

Well I haven't blogged about Mother's Day yet either, so I had better do it along with Father's Day!! Because just like I have an amazing Father, I have quite the amazing Mother as well. I couldn't begin to explain all of the things my Mother has taught me. My mom taught me the importance of work, and she taught me how to be frugal. Mom has always been a great money manager, and I am grateful for that! Mom has taught me how to serve. If the whole world could only have a glimpse of the sacrifices my mother has made for all of her children throughout our lives they would see a women full of love and service. I have wonderful memories of my mother. My Dad is fun to play games with . . . but if we can get Mom to play too it is a riotous night of fun! She is so funny. I love to sit and chat with my Mom. That is one of my favorite things to do. I could talk to her for hours . . . and I do when I go home. And one of my favorite things to do with Mom is garage sale. I cherish all of the Saturday morning memories! I will garage sale until the day I die, and hopefully there will be many more years to garage sale with Mom. I don't know what I would do without her! If there is was ever a serious problem, or if I was feeling really down growing up, I would go to my Mom and always find comfort! She is amazing! I love you Mom!!!

Father's Day

I pretty much have like a billion things that I need to post about, and I keep postponing it because it is such a daunting task! If I could only post my pictures without creating a whole story to go along with it! . . . But I can't. Sorry. What fun are pictures unless you explain them?
So to go along with my Father's Day pics I'd just like to say that I have the most amazing Father! And it's true. I love my Dad. My Dad makes life fun. I am so grateful for all of the games he's played with us throughout our lives . . . Hide and Seek in the early days, Rook, spades, hearts, :) Balderdash, Croquet, Bocci Ball, Frisbee Golf and of course his own creation . . . Budiki which will be passed down to future generations. Some of my favorite memories with my Dad are: making banana shakes, skipping, many a hikes up Rock Canyon, reading to me in the hospital, all of his wonderful stories (he is an amazing story teller) and watching him study the Gospel and listening to him share it with us. Out of all of the things I love about my Dad that is the greatest. I am grateful for him for teaching me the Gospel and helping me gain a testimony of my Savior and his plan! Thank you Dad!

Training

In case anyone wasn't aware I have been training for a marathon. And unless something incredibly life threatening happens to me between now and the middle of July, I will be running in the Deseret Morning News Marathon on July 24th. You are all invited to come watch. The funeral services will be held directly following . . . Just kidding. I am actually super excited. I am not going to finish it in any record time, but that's okay, I am planning on finishing and trying not to die in the process. It should be great.
I thought that I would share a picture of the end result of my 16 mile run last Saturday. It was quite the crazy run. I started up past the Timpanogos Temple and ran home. About 5 miles into the run my mp3 player died, and I was running with the wind and rain in my face which was not at all pleasant. I don't mind the rain, but the wind was pretty bad. Once I got to 800 North in Orem I realized that I still had 6 miles left to run, so I went to the gym and ran four miles and then ran home. It was quite the crazy run. But I'm guessing after a run like that, this weeks long run should be cake! :) And please pretend like you don't notice my deformed pinky toe. Hey . . . we all have our defects okay? . . . I have a sweet spirit . . .

Catch-up: Salem Tri

Lamon and Brock did the Salem Tri this year, andI actually got to go watch. It was a lot of fun. They both did awesome. Lamon didn't really train a lot for the swim, but he pretty much did better than he has ever done in the swim before. It was sweet. He came out of the water right behind Broc and finished the swim in 12 minutes. I think that he finished the triathalon with his best time yet, and he managed to look really hot doing it too. Way to go Lamon! And of course everytime I watch Lamon do a triathalon it makes me want to train for one! So after the next baby I'm going to do one! . . . I'll have to actually bite the bullet and learn how to swim though.

Catch-up: 6th Anniversary

Wow, it's been six years. Time goes by so fast! For our Anniversary this year we had quite a fun little outing. Since it was our anniversary we thought we would splurge and really fine dine it at . . . Hogi Yogi. It was quite yummy! We then decided to do a hike up Grove Creek Canyon. I had never been on that hike before and I loved it. It was a short two hour hike, and it was so beautiful! There were some beautiful waterfalls and you could hear the water the entire time! I love to hear water flowing in rivers when I hike. Anyways it was fun. And I realized that I am out of shape. I have been running so much and I am really out of hiking shape! Of course Lamon was walking pretty fast and I was carrying the backpack. I was wondering how that happened? I was like, "So why did you give me the backpack on the way up the hike?" He often has me carry kids up on hikes too. He then tried to convince me that he was trying to do me a favor because it's harder to carry a backpack on the way down after you've used so much energy climbing to the top. Now . . . I know I'm not all there some of the time . . . but carrying a backpack full of empty water bottles down the mountain does not seem like it would be harder than hefting a backpack full of waterbottles up the mountain . . .but Lamon was adamant. Please tell me that someone sees it my way! I think that he just secretly knows that I'm tougher than he is . . .just kidding. It was fun to go hiking just the two of us though. At one point in the hike Lamon did something that he does quite well . . . he let some wind loose . . . and I was behind him. At hearing my complaints he said, "Ah . . . six years of bliss eh?. . ." It was funny. I'd have to say that even with suffering with all of his gassiness for 6 years it has been quite blissful. I love Lamon!!

Catch-up: Drew's 5th B-day

One of the most eventful things to happen during my blogging slump period was Drew's 5th birthday. It was eventful because this is something quite monumental in Drew's world. At three he would claim to be 5 after completing every meal. He would say, "I ate my food all gone . . . I'm big . . . I'm 5 . . . " It took us awhile to convince him that eating food wouldn't make him older. He finally caught on though. For most of his fourth year when anyone asked him how old he was he would assure them that he was almost 5. So this was a big one. We decided that we had better make it a good one. So I took Drew to the party store and let him pick the theme for his party and he decided on batman. He is pretty much obsessed with batman right now. In fact he "is" batman most of the day dressed in costume and everything.
I asked Drew the Sunday before his birthday who he wanted to come to his party and he thought for a moment and then told me he wanted to invite: Bro. Backman (his primary teacher), Pres. Monson, Avery, Avery's mommy . . . this was really going to turn out to be quite the party!! It was pretty funny.
Liz who knew how important this day was made cute little invitations for Drew to hand out . . . heaven knows (and so does Liz) that I'm not the first one to think of doing things like that!
Anyhow, with the theme chosen Lamon got to work on the cake. Lamon is the cake decorator in our house. So he decided on the batmobile and it turned out pretty cool. We had a seperate party for friends that Saturday, and Lamon made another cake this time a "T-ball" theme. Drew has a pretty cool daddy.
All in all it was a wonderful week of celebration, and Drew likes to tell anybody and everybody at random moments that he is 5. When the dentist asked Drew if he was feeling weird after the laughing gas the other day Drew shook his head with a macho look on his face, he flexed his muscles and said, "No . . . I'm 5." Need he say anything more?

You must excuse my brain!!! (This one's long. You don't have to read, but watch the videos)

Wow, can I just say slacker? I haven't blogged in ages. So for all two of you family members who check out our blog . . . I am so sorry!! I guess that I will play a little catch up here, and the best place to start is with . . . my brain issues.
Yes, I have brain issues. Everyone who knows me knows that I can be a little spacey sometimes . . . okay well a lot spacey sometimes, and usually I just sort of chuckle at myself and move on . . . but every once in awhile my memory and my limited brain capacity kind of freaks me out!!
A few weeks ago the homeschool year was coming to an end and we were having a year end performance where the kids would perform songs that they learned throughout the year, recite quotes they had memorized, share reports they had written and artwork they had created etc. with family and friends. Drew and Hayden were given parts to memorize for the performance and they did such a great job memorizing them. I was so excited to watch them recite their parts in front of everyone. Well, the day of the performance came and it was quite the busy day. We went to school from 11:45 until 2:00 where we practiced for the performance that would be at 6:30 that evening. Right after school I had to take Drew and Hayden to the Dentist. So I had Jeanine take Ada and me and the boys went to the dentist. As soon as we got done with the dentist at about 4:00 I had to rush Drew to a primary activity . . . so I dropped him off at the church and went to go pick up Ada from Jeanine's house. After I got Ada I went back to pick up Drew from the activity and went home. It was about 5:00 and Lamon was home. I realized that I had committed to give blood that evening at the STake center so I asked Lamon if he could get the kids ready and make some cookies while I rushed over to give blood. I don't know what I was thinking at this point. I obviously thought that I would have enough time to do it. But anyhow, I got to the stake center and filled out the papers and got in line and was having fun chatting with a neighbor down the street while I waited to give blood. The whole process was taking a while, and I would glance up at the clock often to see what time it was . . . but the only thing that I was thinking about as I contemplated the time was that Lamon had scouts at 7:00 and he might be mad at me if I made him late. I finally got up on the chair ready for them to stick me and I looked at the clock. "Oh no, it's 6:45. They better hurry . . . Lamon might be late . . . " And then it hit me all of a sudden. "6:45 . . . the performance . . .! " I hadn't given a thought to the performance the entire time I was there. I had completely forgot about it like it wasn't even happening. My whole body started to shake . . . and a few minutes later Lamon walked in with a plate of cookies in his hand, a puzzled look on his face, with the boys following behind him dressed up looking so adorable. I tried my best not to break down balling in front of everyone there. The boys had practiced their parts for weeks and I ruined it! As soon as the bag was full of blood we went home and I started crying . . . a lot! . . . Spencer called me in the middle of my crying episode wondering where we were, and I assured him that I have brain issues and told him what happened. Everyone was still there and they were nice enough to listen to the boys perform their parts over the speakerphone, but I still hung up and had a good cry out. There's nothing like a good cry where you can really just feel sorry for yourself . . . okay so not really. But I was feeling sorry for myself for a moment there. It would be one thing if this was just and isolated event, things like this happen to me quite often. I had read about my brain tumor and similar stories plenty of times, and had read about how memory loss and memory related problems can happen with a colloid cyst . . . and I had never really felt sorry for myself too much until that night. It just sort of clicked suddenly in my head though that . . . this was something that really does stink . . . but it isn't going to go away. I needed to find a way to live with it, and make life work despite it. I knew that Heavenly Father would bless me in this too. And he has. I have since thought of a few ways to help me with my brain problems and so far they have been working quite well. Heavenly Father has also helped me to recall the feelings I had after my brain surgeries when I realized the great blessing of having a brain, and having the ability to think and study. I was grateful that I still had that ability. I feel like this experience was given to me to humble me and help me to renew that desire to take advantage of every opportunity to learn and use such a wonderful gift. And I feel that more than anything the cure to my brain problems is simply to use it more!!!
So since I missed the performance I thought I would post a video of the boys performing their parts. Hayden sort of is singing his though . . . funny kid.

Full of Mischief

My little boy Drew is full of mischief!
Drew was on a roll today. The incidents were indeed mischievous but had a hint of innocence that made me think they were more funny than maddening.
Drew has a bit of an obsession with my hair. He is always wanting to play with it. It drives me crazy sometimes. What really drives me crazy though is sometimes when he is just filled with rambunctious energy he grabs my hair and bites it. Ooh, it drives me crazy. Well . . . today he did that. He was being silly and he grabbed my hair and bit it . . . He stopped being crazy immediately and quite worriedly said, "Uh oh Mommy . . . my gum got in your hair." Yes . . . he wasn't thinking about the fact that he had gum in his mouth at the time! Luckily for us both I didn't have to chop my hair off and we got it all out.
Then later in the day Drew came running downstairs and Lamon said, "Oh great Mary, Look at Drew. He has your mousse in his hair." I looked at him and his entire head was white. I was like, "Holy Cow Drew, how much of that did you put in your hair?" He said, "Come see Mom . . ." He ran upstairs and brought down the Cetaphil cream bottle to show me. His hair was completely saturated with Cetaphil cream. What an expensive hair do! Crazy kid. I sure do love him though. He makes life fun even though at times we want to shake the craziness out of him!

California Adventure

I thought I was so clever in the way I was going to post these but it didn't work. You will have to start with Death Valley and go up to have them in the right order.

Geocaching

One of the other fun things we did, or I should say that our husbands did, was take the boys geocaching. They had a lot of fun, and I can't lie . . . we enjoyed their outing probably more than they did! Betty and I had fun chatting while they were gone. In fact we were quite sad when they came back and our girl talk had to end! :)



What a fun trip! We didn't want to leave! Thanks Todd and Betty!!!

Monterey Bay Aquarium and Geocaching

The funnest part of our trip was by far the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is kind of pricey but the kids had so much fun! It was perfect. We decided to bring our own lunch, but it wasn't your average brown bag lunch. Betty brought us all spaghetti and meatballs and a yummy salad to go with it! . . . Wow! She is amazing!

Todd and Betty's

Although we had tons of fun driving through Death Valley and up the coast, our trip received a tremendous upgrade once we got to Todd and Betty's. They have got to be the best hosts ever. I pitched the idea to them (and I really do think that it is a good one), that we could sell vacations to their home in Palo Alto (with Betty's Mexican cooking thrown into the deal of course) for a hefty sum on the internet. I think it could be very profitable. We had such a fun time. I was going to be really clever and write this entire trip blog entry like I was a travel agent describing our fabulous adventure and trying to sell it, but it was way too much of an effort for my brain. It was hilarious . . . take my word for it. I am funny okay? Just kidding. I may not be so much funny, but I can do some pretty funny things. I had quite a few embarrassing moments while we were there which were entertaining for us all. I will relate those as I go.
One of the embarrassing things I did happened at Todd and Betty's. The kids were outside playing in this little enclosed park/common area place behind their house, and Todd and Betty had their sliding door open that leads out back. We were sitting there talking and I realized that it had been quite a while since we had checked on the kids, so I decided to run out there. And I did. I started running out there through the sliding door. Only I didn't quite realize that the screen door was not open and I ran full speed right into it, and it projected me backwards into the kitchen like it was a standing trampoline. It was quite hilarious, and we all laughed for awhile. At least it was pretty funny until I realized I broke the screen door in the process. I decided to do a photo reinactment afterwards.

One of the fun things we did while we were in Palo Alto was go to this really cool childrens center where they had all of these fun interactive activities for kids, and a little zoo. While we were looking at the animals I was telling Drew what the animals were and different things about them. We went over to the pond where the ducks and different duck-like birds were and I didn't know what one of them was called. Luckily for me though there was a sign with a picture of the bird on it and it's name. I said, "Drew! Look at that bird! It's called a 'May Bite.'" I was totally serious, and it took me a second to realize how dumb I really am. But seriously, look at the sign and tell me that someone else might not have made the same mistake. The Caution part of the sign is totally washed out! . . . Okay fine, I really am just a little too spacey. It was funny.

The Coast and Motel 6

We didn't really have a plan of where we were going to stay the day we drove through Death Valley. Shocking I know! We just knew that we wanted to drive up the coast on Highway 1 the next day and wanted to stay the night somewhere close. I suggested that we find a city not right on the coast since the farther away most likely the cheaper we could find lodging. We pulled off about 30 miles away from the coast and I don't even remember the city's name. But after driving to a few relatively decent hotels which all wanted well over 100 dollars for a room with two beds, we decided to find the Motel 6. We were sure to lock our car, I pulled the stained bedspreads off the beds, and I bought some sanitary wipes to wipe everything down, just for my peace of mind. I think we slept about the same and as long as we would have at any other hotel, and we saved like $60. I told Lamon the next day that I wanted to take a picture of the Motel 6 sign to remember the experience and how we survived it, and he just said, "Mary you are crazy. I stayed in so many Motel 6's growing up." And you know what? I'm sure we will too. Equipped with Sanitary wipes, and blankets of course.

The next day we drove up the coast on Highway 1, and it was so beautiful! It was spectacular. The road curved a lot, and luckily no one threw up! At least not on that day . . .

We stopped to do a hike at Big Sur, and that was a lot of fun. It was beautiful.

Death Valley

Two weeks ago we set part on a big family adventure. We had never visited Todd and Betty in California so we thought it would be fun to go and visit them. Of course being us, we wanted to make sure to have adventures on the way. We had never been to Death Valley before and so . . . we thought it would be fun to drive through it by golly. And it was pretty cool. There isn't a ton to do there without researching it out, but we played in the sand dunes, and we stopped at this little town where they have these really old man made caves that people lived in a long time ago in order to escape the heat. They were pretty cool. I find stuff like that intriguing. We also got to walk around 256 feet below sea level at the hottest spot in the United States. It felt like summer at 90 degrees when we were there. And the most important thing? We got a magnet for our fridge.

You don't even have to say it. I know . . . we are hot! A few weeks ago we saw a post on a friends blog where they had gone to an "ugly sweater" party. We thought that it was hilarious. Well, our friend Dedra decided to host an ugly sweater party for our block, and was going to give prizes to the winners . . . and for a chance to go to the DI and pick out killer ugly clothes just for the fun of it, we certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity.
When Lamon put on his outfit at the DI we couldn't stop laughing, and then he insisted on wearing it around the store, and all the way home! It reminded me of the days when we were dating and Lamon would show up at my house dressed in shorts and knee high rubber boots hoping to embarrass me. Anyways, when we got to the party we were one of only three couples there; and we were the only ones under the age of 40. It's too bad that more people didn't decided to come. They missed out on seeing us looking so incredible. Honestly. I told Lamon that he should wear those pants more often. He's HOT!

FTF Getaway!!!!

This past weekend Lamon and I had a bit of a getaway.
Okay so maybe most people might not consider leaving our kids with babysitters in order to go run in a 50 mile relay and then come straight home to be a fabulous getaway . . . but it was so awesome.

We had a blast. Thank you to the saintly sisters who babysat the kiddies. And thank you to those who invited us to run in this race a couple weeks ago. I think we did pretty darn good for two weeks of training. We finished the 50 mile relay averaging 8 minute 22 second miles, came in 18th over all and 10th in the coed division. . . . So maybe there were only 38 teams . . . but hey . . . we rock. I was so excited at the banquet when they called out our teams name for 10th place. I yelled out, "Wahoo!" I was the only one in the entire room of people who yelled out, and people were looking at me like, "Ya . . . wow . . . 10th place . . . great job." Hey . . . I was excited. We even won water bottles and these like 10 cent fishing hats.

Meet the Feed The Fire Team

Sue Barksdale

Sue is so awesome. We only gave her one weeks notice for this race. She had never ran in a race before, and we were all thinking that she would be somewhat slow, but no. . . She pretty much rocked.

James Hodges

James was by far the most ready for this race. He recently did a half marathon, and he was awesome. I think that we all agree that the "Washington Dam Hill" Leg of death that we assigned to him was by far the hardest of all the legs, and he did awesome and didn't even try to kill anyone at the end.

Lamon Mack

Lamon was by far the hottest guy in the entire race. And if there was a prize for the best farmers tan he would have won that too. Oh ya . . . and he is super fast. He was passing people like crazy during his legs. And he was also our motivational team leader. He was the driver and stopped all along the way in order to cheer each team member on. Lamon is awesome!!!

Broc White

Broc is pretty much not human. We purposefully signed him up for the hardest legs in the race. When he saw the legs he was running he said, "How come you guys gave me the best legs?" He doesn't feel pain. He was flying up the hill on his first leg, chasing these two guys, and as he passes we heard him say, "I'm out of shape." Or something like that. We are all like, "Ya . . .um . . . right." He did the only leg rated 10 for difficulty and did it averaging 6 something minute miles. I think we would all like to be as out of shape as Broc!

Mary Mack

Mary Mack is pretty much the coolest person on the entire team. There would be more pictures of her but she was so incredibly fast. . . she got to the transistion before her team even knew what was happening.

Okay . . . so not really. It was actually because my leg was all on the trail system.

I would have been even faster if I wouldn't have had a little urinary incontinence episode. There were not a lot of porta potties stationed along the run . . . and well . . . I had to go! I did the pottie dance for a few seconds and then thought, "Oh what the heck!" Hey, it's not my fault . . . Mandy and I discussed our fears about the lack of toilets since we both have small bladders, and Mandy suggested having Bill follow on a bike with a 5 gallon bucket . . . but Mandy got injured and couldn't come . . . and therefore no Bill on a bike with a 5 gallon bucket. Anyway . . .

So I am just proud of the fact that no one passed me and I passed three people in leg four, and one in leg 7. And I am very proud of the fact that I didn't pee my pants in leg 7. Isn't that looking at the glass as half full as opposed to half empty?

This is me reinacting my experience for everyone!

And here is me and Lamon trying to look sexy. I think I'm better at it! :) j/k