Veteran's Day Observed

This past week wasn't terribly exciting, but still busy. Ryan did have Monday off in observance of Veteran's day.

Monday was a very non-typical day off for Ryan and more of a day off for me. It is usually more fun for Ryan. We had a lazy morning. Sometimes when we can't "find" Soren (meaning he isn't in Keira's room or the upstairs bathroom and we haven't heard him in a while), he is here:

He likes to look out the window in our room. The view really isn't much right now since all the plants are pretty much done, but the glass comes all the way to the floor so it is perfect for little people to look out. At one point, Keira, Soren, and Ryan were all in the curtain looking out. This picture doesn't fully capture what I wanted to show, because usually it is brighter outside and you see his outline as a shadow on the curtain, but it was too dark and didn't show up without the flash, and with the flash, it just looked like a bump.

Ryan went for a bike ride while I took Keira and Soren to the library for Storytime.



Once we got back from storytime, I was able to go get my hair cut and colored for the first time since last Christmas. That took up most of the afternoon, and then I went to coach GOTR. It was a bummer that I didn't get a day off of that today because we had family pictures in the evening (I posted those pictures already). That was pretty much our whole day.

Tuesday things were back to normal and Keira went to school. However, the church building was closed for re-carpeting. We were able to go to Maybury as a family. Keira and Soren LOVE the leaves.




Wednesday was a pretty full day. We started off at the gym, then hit the library.

After a quick stop at home for lunch, we went to meet Valerie, Katie, and Luke at Laurel Park to see the new play area there. It is pretty small, but empty, so it was plenty big for the 4 children to play.






On Thursday, I was starting to drag a bit. Here are Keira's school projects for the week:



Keira's school picture proofs came back, and they turned out really nice.

I did some work for Primary (but not nearly enough it seems) while Keira was at school, and then had everyone nap in the afternoon. It had rained today, so going to Maybury wasn't really an option in the evening. Instead, we decided to hit up Parmenters for one last time before they close this Sunday.
Soren is rocking Keira's sunglasses. He loves wearing sunglasses.

On Friday, we slept in a little bit, and went to the gym. Since we didn't have anything going on really today, I was able to get in a longer workout than usual. Soren was being cute and snuggling with Keira and saying, "ahh".
That evening, we went to REI and costco. We watched the Star Trek movie that evening, and then I really started to feel yucky. I was up very late coughing, and found myself at CVS at 1:30am purchasing cold medicine to finally go to sleep.

On Saturday, I woke up barely in time to make it to a Primary Stake meeting. While I was there, Ryan attended a meeting with his Wolverine friends about taking over the positions of ride leaders for next year. Ryan, Kent, and David will all be ride leaders for next year, and be able to wear special jerseys provided to them by the club. After that, the OSU/UM game was on. Ryan watched it, while I slept through most of it. Keira and Soren love playing with my witch hat, which we FINALLY put away from Halloween.


The OSU victory made me feel a little better. Afterwards, Ryan went on a ride at Maybury, and I just tagged along to watch Keira and Soren at the playground. That is actually a lot easier than trying to watch them here because they love to be outside and it is a shorter time alone with them. Soren got to do the slide with minimal spotting. He was pretty slow to go down on his own, so here is the full play by play, starting with him trying to climb up it first.








Sunday was the huge day of service for me. I still wasn't feeling the greatest, but good enough to just push through all my obligations. Today was the day of my Girls on the Run 5K. All of my girls completed the race, and the weather wasn't terrible for it.

I couldn't stay too long after the race, though, because I had to dash home to get ready for church. I did have time to crank out some pumpkin bread. It was from a mix, but it was fabulous! I think the fact I substitued Parmenter's Apple Cider for the water was a KEY improvement. It had mentioned using juice instead, but the cider really kicked it up a notch! Keira had a rough day today. She fell asleep in the car on the way to church, and then slept on Ryan during Sacrament meeting. We should have known from that act that she didn't feel well, but we put her into nursery anyway. About halfway through nursery, Soren wandered into Keira's nursery, and she was just laying down on the floor. At that point, Ryan took Keira and Soren home since I had driven separately because I had to stay late for a quarterly meeting with the Bishop. I had a brief dinner at home that Ryan graciously prepared, and then had to dash off again to a Priesthood Preview meeting. What a crazy day! Hopefully I can use better planning next time around and try to not have so many things all in one day.

I have cancelled all plans for tomorrow because of Keira's illness (she had a low fever we noticed once we got home). Hopefully we can rest up these next couple of days so that we can have a healthy Thanksgiving in Ohio.

Christmas Photos (I know, this is early this year)

Today we had our family Christmas photos taken. We had to do it early this year due to our upcoming trip to Germany. We weren't overly excited about any of the photos of Keira and Soren together, but we got some great individual photos as well as a nice family one. These were taken at the Ford Road JCP in Canton.

Jury Duty

This week was a fairly standard week, except for the fact that I had been summoned to Jury Duty on Monday. That though a few bumps into the plans, but overall, it was a decent week. We had warm temperatures and were able to get outside a bit too.

On Monday, I spent ALL DAY in Pontiac for my jury duty service. I did not get selected to be on a case, but I spent the whole day just waiting. I was called to enter a courtroom, but was not called into the jury box. It got close, they had excused person after person for various reasons, some of which we had no clue why. One thing that was interesting to me was that I had requested a postponement months ago due to the fact that I was nursing Soren, and this was as far as I could get it pushed. There was another woman there who was also nursing, and had requested a postponement as well, and this was as long as they would give her, and she was instructed to bring along her baby and a sitter. I think everyone there was astonished that she was not excused, and was actually selected to be a juror! I couldn't believe it. The judges were pretty nasty when it came to being excused for work or family issues, I was amazed that one of the lawyers didn't excuse her just to be nice and not suffer interruptions. Keira and Soren spent all day with Linda, and I should have some pictures to post later of their fun. They went to McClumpha and made hairbows for Keira.



On Tuesday we had a really busy day. Keira had a field trip where she was able to ride a school bus! She was so excited about being able to ride the bus. They just went up the road to see "The Music Lady" with the other preschool class from the district. Keira really enjoyed it. I had a presidency meeting while she was at school. At the meeting, I learned that my pediatrician's office had swine flu vaccines! Haley has the same Dr as us, and she received a heads up from her husband who is also a Dr in the same system, so I was able to get appoints for Keira and Soren to receive their first doses this afternoon! We were very well prepared for it to take forever again, because had to hit McDonald's on the way from Keira's school to the Dr, and of course, my order was wrong, so we actually had an extra sandwich in case we needed to be there for dinner as well as lunch. It went much better than Friday's visit, only taking about a half hour instead of 2 hours. Soren was able to grab a quick nap at home before I had to leave to attend a GOTR run and reception at running fit. I got in a slow 3 mile run with my girls around the Novi Town Center with Keira and Soren in the stroller. Keira really enjoyed running with the girls.


Keira didn't have a project at school today, but here are a couple projects from last month that I forgot to post.


On Wednesday, it was Miss Diane's last day for the library storytime. We will miss her, and wish her good luck in Cincinnati.

On Thursday, Keira had picture day! I should have her school pictures to post in another week or so. Hopefully she wore the hairbow for the picture because it made its way to her backpack at some point during the morning. While Keira was at school, Soren and I did some much needed errands. We hadn't been grocery shopping in what felt like ages because I really like to only take 1 child, and just hadn't had the opportunity between church meetings, days off, and such. We also went to Maybury in the evening for a run and ride. It is getting so dark so early, and I don't think Keira or Soren were big fans of it getting dark, neither was very happy on the run.
This is Keira's art project from today. It makes a great fall decoration for our kitchen.

Here are some pictures of them enjoying the sun in front of our place.






Keira conked out once inside. I thought it was really cute that she had tucked her dolls into her bed on top of her pillow at the head, and then was curled up on the foot of it, doll in hand, in a pile of stuffed animals.

On Friday, I got a really late start going to the gym. Once I got there, I swam a mile! I was so excited with that accomplishment. I really never thought I would have wanted to do this, because I hated swimming growing up, so this was really huge for me. While it didn't feel easy, it wasn't bad while I was doing it. I did feel pretty wiped out the rest of the day, though. We also had a major kitchen crash. No one was injured, but 2 glasses and one of our ceramic canisters broke as our cake dome crashed from the top of the refrigerator onto the canisters and into the sink. It was not very funny when it happened, but was really funny to repeat the next day. We had dinner out at Baha Fresh, and the Ryan and I FINALLY watched Twilight. I enjoyed it. I wish I had watched it before seeing Vampire Diaries on TV because I wasn't sure it lived up to all the hype (especially since I was/am a huge Anne Rice fan back in the day), but it was a fun movie and I will likely read the books and see the next movie. Soren has really started to enjoy the little table and chair set. Hopefully it won't cause any more crashes (he didn't have anything to do with the one today). He is able to "build an intricate ladder" as Bill Cosby would say to reach the counter now by standing on the chair. Fortunately, he can get down by himself. It has caused a bit of contention between Keira and Soren, because they always want to sit in the chair the other one is in, and they will pull the table at each other instead of being able to scoot the chair in.


Saturday was a fun day. Ryan started the morning with a ride at the tree farm and I took Keira and Soren to a Fancy Nancy story time at Borders. Keira ate up the whole thing. She got all decked out in her official Fancy Nancy tutu and t-shirt, and donned her wings and wand. The lady read the Christmas Fancy Nancy book and they wrote letters to Santa, made a card and an ornament, and then finished up with a parade around the store. Soren wasn't really excited about it, but that was probably a good thing! He didn't like the crowd or needing to be in the stroller. He read his "manly" ABC book and played with the bead toy in the picture.

Keira was so attentive to the story.
She is holding her ornament.
This is the parade through the store.

That afternoon, I got in a nice 10K with Valerie and Barb in the neighborhood, and then I had to get cleaned up for a baptism. I spent some time on my hair, making it look like Cat Deeley's from this week's So You Think You Can Dance. I thought it turned out really well.


After the baptism, we had dinner at Chili's and then Ryan and I watched Up. This was a really cute movie. Keira and Soren really liked it too.

Sunday was a crazy day. We have been working a lot the plans for our vacation to Germany, and got a few more things squared away this morning. Everyone was really worn out by today, and Soren wouldn't take a nap before we left. Keira was tired all morning but wouldn't nap, so we ended up being late to church. I had several people out sick from Primary, so things there were a bit stressful. Ryan was able to get Soren to take a nap by doing a few laps around the block in the truck, so I think Keira was pretty much the only one that had a semi normal church experience today. Here is Soren with the witch hat on before church.

Up for next week, we have family pictures and I finish up with the GOTR. It has been fun, but a lot of work, and I likely will not do it again. We will also continue our vacation plans.

Library Storytimes

This week we spent a lot of time doing library storytimes. We also got accustomed to the time change and I spent some time using my new gym membership.

On Monday, the children woke up pretty early, which was good for me. I was able to get Keira and Soren ready easily in time for me to go to the gym and get in a good half mile swim, get cleaned up, and get them to the library by 10:15. After the library, they were pretty ready to go home and eat and sleep.





On Tuesday, there was no school due to election day. We took the Mazda in for some last minute warranty work that got approved before it expired. It was quite the ordeal, considering they decided at the last minute to decline my rental car so I had to do a lot of car seat moving today. I moved Keira and Soren from the shuttle to the porch in their seats, just to keep them from running around in the street.



As a result of no rental, we were pretty much stuck at home today. At least it was a decent day to be stuck since I didn't have to drive to school or coach today. It was also really nice out, and our last chance to play in the leaves before they got cleaned up for good. Ryan took me to get the car at the end of the day to avoid more car seat moving once he got home from work, and I was able to get in a quick run around the neighborhood.

After dinner, I took Keira and Soren to the library for special star light story time.



On Wednesday, Keira and Soren woke up a tad later, but I was still able to get them out the door in time for a swim before hitting the library. Keira is really enjoying the gym childcare, and Soren did great today too. We learned today that Miss Diane, Keira's favorite, will be moving and has only 1 week to go. We knew this was coming, but not so soon. We are happy that our friend Kathryn from church is her replacement.
We spent the rest of the morning just playing around the house.


My girls on the run girls did their mock 5K today, and they all finished it, so I was pleased.

On Thursday, Keira and Soren were back to their regular schedule, and woke up late for school. We were running around hurrying to get to school, and then had to go to a presidency meeting. We had a productive meeting, and then went to get Keira from school. Today's theme was Where the Wild Things Are, and she made a crown like Max's.

The squirrels are so brave, and Soren loves them!


When Ryan got home, we went to Maybury for a quick ride and run. I really bundled the kids, probably a little much, but they seemed to do OK. With the time change, it gets cold quick once the sun goes down, which is much earlier now. Neither likes the weather shield. Ryan needs his headlamp to complete a ride.







On Friday, I was able to take Keira and Soren to a free Kindermusik. We had been missing these for a while due to Keira's school schedule. Once that was done, I met with a personal trainer for my orientation session. I got in a great workout.



Here is Keira's "wild thing" from her class yesterday.

That afternoon, we went to the Dr's office for flu shots and a growth check for Keira. We had a horrible wait in the office, but were able to finally get everything taken care of after the 2 hours of being there. Keira grew about 1 inch since her birthday, which is great. She is still not on the chart for height, but tracking along her own curve nicely. We got back from the Dr's office, and all three of us took a nice long nap while Ryan rode at Maybury.

As if we didn't have enough of the library yet this week, we went in for Kiddie Crafts. Keira and Soren worked on turkeys. Soren colored his, and Keira made hers with the stickers and not with her hand. They had fun, which is what matters.

It was such a beautiful day, Keira and Soren enjoyed playing outside for a bit after we got back.



Ryan rode, and I went on an 8 mile run with Valerie and Barb in the neighborhood. It was such a beautiful day! I wore my running skirt and should have had short sleeves instead of long ones. That evening, we tested our patience again with Keira and Soren by going to dinner at Champps. Our wait time was double what they told us, but at that point, leaving would have just taken more time to eat. We enjoyed our food. It is annoying to pay a ton of money for Kraft mac and cheese for the kids, but at least they eat it when out.

On Sunday, we went to church. Things are crazy on Sundays as the Primary President. There is always something it seems. Soren is so busy, it is a challenge to keep him entertained. Needless to say, after the last couple of days, it was quite the chore. I think Champps was actually the easiest place to watch him since it was the loudest.


We came over to Kris and Linda's tonight to stay. I am to report for Jury Duty in Pontiac tomorrow, and Linda is helping out with the kids. I need to be there so early that it will hopefully be easier to just have everyone here in the morning than to have to drive them down and back in the morning.

As for next week, we aren't really sure what it will hold with my Jury Duty. I am hoping to be dismissed early, pulling my "nursing mother" card. Keira has a field trip scheduled for Tuesday, so I really do not want her to miss it because I can't get her to school. Hopefully we can still have some fun this week.

Halloween Week!

This was was very full, and I have way to many pictures. I have made a couple slide shows just to try to simplify the uploading, but I still have a ton. There were so many activities for Halloween, and so many treats. We had very full days almost all week.

Monday was our only day that wasn't jam packed. I did a few errands with the kids, but we spent a lot of time at home.

Linda brought over cookie supplies for Keira while I coached, and she enjoyed decorating them with her.



Cristina came with me to GOTR today since my assistant, Carla, was out of town. It was fun to have her workout with the girls, and they really liked her. They are just a little older than her boys, so I felt like she did a better job with them than me. That evening, I started my Halloween treat making, that seemed to last all week. Ryan also worked on Bobby Flay's chili recipe for the ward party on Tuesday

On Tuesday, the Halloween and Fall excitement was in full swing. After Keira came home from school, we had a great time playing in some leaves that I raked up for the sole purpose of playing. Since the condo provides yard service, they could just spread them out as much as they wanted.

We also hit Maybury in the evening. It was so beautiful, I wish we had gone a little earlier so that I could have taken some pictures of the trees with more light. The colors were just so beautiful. Then went to the church Trunk or Treat. Keira had a great time, and there were some great costumes. We were disappointed that our chili didn't win, but we really liked it. When I came back, I did a bit more treat work, including making cookie dough for cookies for Keira's school party.
Avery, Asheley, and Keira
Bishop Scissorhands
Octomom


On Wednesday, we had a more low key day, but our evening was pretty packed. I finished up my Halloween pops that I had been working on the past few evenings so that I could take them with a meal to a friend's home and Ryan took them home teaching. I had a brief but nice visit with Rebecca when I brought her dinner, and Ryan and I were finally able to eat our dinner once the kids were in bed. Then I had to make the cookies.


I added cats to my Halloween pop assortment this year. They were very tasty since they were covered in real chocolate instead of candy melts.
Here is the finished product, wrapped and ready to go.

Thursday contained more Halloween fun. It started with Keira's "Black and Orange Party". Costumes were not allowed so that the children were not afraid of each other. They sang Halloween Songs before breaking into their "centers", where they decorated the cookies I brought, counted pumpkin seeds into bags, and glued paper pumpkins to sticks for a poem. Keira is pictured with Charlotte in all of these photos. They are really becoming good friends.




Once we got home, Keira decorated the remainder of the cookies, which was a lot less than I thought.

I also got a couple pictures of them clowning around in the kitchen.


We went to Maybury in the evening, and the kids enjoyed the leaves. I was happy to finally take an evening off of treat making.


Friday was a fun morning at home. I watched Kate (Valerie and I have quite the nice child swap worked out, although I feel like I have the easier end with Kate playing so well so far), and managed to keep all three kids entertained for the morning in our kitchen with the help of lots of toys.
Soren had a little mishap with the largest bin. He was unhurt, so it is OK to laugh.


While the kids played, I baked skull cupcakes to take to a party in the evening. I got this idea from cupcakes I saw at our trunk or treat. I had initially planned to take the Halloween pops, but we had given away and eaten too many to bring what we had left at this point, and we were also nearly out of cookies already as well.


The party this evening was a combination birthday and costume party. It was Ella's first birthday. The kids had a great time, and Keira won the best costume for the children. Here is the birthday girl, Ella.

Soren had a fun time trying on the cat ears. He put them on his head his self for this shot.

Saturday was yet another big day. I started the morning with an 8 mile run with Valerie and Barb in the neighborhood, and then got signed up for a gym membership at a new local gym. Ryan went for a ride at Novi Tree Farm. While Ryan was gone, I was able to get our pumpkin carved. I was really pleased with how it turned out.
Here we are in our skull tees before changing into costumes.

Then, we had to hurry to get ready for trick or treating. We went to downtown Northville again this year, and Kris and Linda met up with us. We started at the fire station where we got our Parmenter's cider and donuts. Keira had the drill down this year, although was frightened by a few homes. Soren, on the other hand, did not want to be carried, nor did he want to walk from house to house. He just wanted to run around the streets (which were fortunately closed off) and play in the leaves. Eventually, we got sick of dragging him around and put him in the stroller for a while, and then once we took him out, he let us carry him. After about an hour and a half, they were "done" so we headed home so each could have one treat before bed. We also got on our skeleton pjs.

Sunday was the time change, and of course, the kids didn't sleep in at all. Today was also my first time doing the "Sharing Time" portion of primary all by myself. I was just a little nervous about it, and had a rather stressful start when more teachers were missing today than expected, but it went fairly well once the initally start up issues were resolved. We had a great dinner and dessert at Kris and Linda's right after church. It was great. Keira and Soren both really enjoyed playing with the rocking chair, and I got some cute pictures.

Keira and Soren both squeezed into the chair together. Soren preferred to sit and stand on it alone.
He was very pleased to be able to get in and out by himself.

Up for next week, I am hoping to get into a good schedule with my gym membership, especially after all the treat making and eating. We will also need to adjust our Maybury trips with the time change causing it to get dark even earlier than before. We are looking forward to a less busy week for sure.

Restful Week, finally

This week was a really restful week for us. Partially because we didn't have much planned purposely, and partially because of a short lived stomach bug that kept us home for a couple of days. After all the company and my race, it was much needed.

On Monday, we kept things really low key. Keira started the day letting me braid her hair, which was fun for me.


We did go outside to push strollers. Soren is taking after his cousin, Chase, and loves pushing a stroller around too. I am glad we have two of them.



I skipped GOTR today because of Keira being sick yesterday. I did take her to my dentist appointment with me in the evening, and she was excited to go. She wasn't sure about Dr Gradolph, but was very excited about the fuss that everyone made over her. She just sat and colored while I had my cleaning and exam. She received lots of goodies, including a new Cinderella toothbrush, floss, ghost toy, pencil, and ring.

Little Soren threw up while I was gone. It was a good thing we didn't do much today. He was in good spirits, though. He enjoyed trying on Ryan's hat.

On Tuesday, I woke up feeling less than stellar, and both kids woke up with crazy hair.


Soren wasn't quite 100%, and neither was I, so we slept the whole time Keira was at school. That was a lifesaver for me, because I felt a lot better in the afternoon, and everyone else seemed to be fine too. This was a pretty quick little bug that we had. Keira made spider artwork at school today.


When Ryan got home, we headed to Maybury and I did a little walk/jog, since I was still pretty stiff and sore from my race. We caught Ryan on our walk, and got another really poor photograph of him.

Both Keira and Soren enjoyed the swings tonight.


I also made a really bad attempt at cutting Soren's hair. The back and sides look decent, however, I should have left the front alone. The good news is that it should look fine in a few weeks I am sure.
Keira tucked her dolls in to bed with her tonight.

On Wednesday, it was wet in the morning, so we did a bit of shopping at the mall. I had an exchange to do and we were nearly out of hand soap. I avoided the play area since we had just gotten over being sick, but then caved in the food court and let Keira and Soren play there. I think this is probably the first time Soren has played in the food court since we haven't been to the mall in a while.



When we got back, it was nice outside, so we did a bit of strolling around the neighborhood before GOTR.
Soren seemed to enjoy watching his shadow.

After GOTR, we rushed over to Ann Arbor so Ryan could get a real haircut, and had dinner at Chipotle. We haven't eaten there in such a long time!

On Thursday, I had my first presidency meeting while Keira was at school. It worked out really well to use that time and we were very effective with the only children being Soren and Haley's baby Garrett present. Keira made this adorable bat hat at school. We stopped at Costco on our way home to get her, and she wore it the whole time we were there. I am glad I took this picture of her there, because of course, as soon as we got in the house, she wouldn't put it back on.


She also made this bat out of her hand prints. Her hands seem so much smaller than all the other kids.

Soren also really enjoyed our neighbor's very large pumpkins. I really like this picture of Soren, and entered it into the babyGap casting call contest, bad haircut and all.

On Friday, we got back into our busy routine. The weather was horrible too, it poured all day practically. We started the morning with a special Halloween Kindermusik that was thankfully very close to our house and had a later start time than usual. This allowed me enough time to get both Keira and Soren all set with their costumes and get Keira's Cinderella hair done. They had a great time at the storytime, especially since we haven't been able to make the Kindermusik's lately due to Keira's school schedule.








After stopping into Trader Joe and then home, we ran up to the mall to meet up with Valerie, Katie, and Luke, who didn't make it to the music class. This time, we did go to the play area. Soren wasn't content to play in the play area, only to push the stroller around it, so we didn't stay long.


After Ryan got home we did a few errands as a family. We picked up the movie, Transformers II, and watched it after the kids were in bed. It was a fun movie.

Saturday was a busy day for me. With the weather being still blah, I chose to run with Valerie and Barb first thing in the morning since Ryan wouldn't be riding. We lucked out and I only had a drizzle during my run to meet up with them, and our run together was fairly dry. I didn't have a ton of time this morning, but I was able to get in 6.5 miles. After the run, I got cleaned up for the day (another plus for running first thing), and took Keira to a baptism at the church. I was to give the welcome as Primary President. Keira had a killer meltdown over her outfit choices before we left, so we were a few minutes late. She was cute once we got there. She kept asked if it was her turn yet. She was also one of the first in line for the cake, and managed to get it way ahead of me with the assistance of her partner in crime (the first to the cake), Lizzie. She dashed off ahead of me and I joked with a friend, I bet she has cake already, and sure enough, she did.
Ryan had the worst day in football, because UM and BYU both lost, and OSU won. I also spent a bit of time attempting to organize Keira and Soren's room, since part of her eralier meltdown was caused by a misplaced article of clothing that had gotten mixed in with summer clothes accidentally. Keira and Soren had a blast playing with her camper that until today, she hated the sounds it made, and it was always off. Both of them enjoyed dancing and "freezing" to the music on it.



Sunday was a pretty typical Sunday. Ryan let me sleep in a little bit, and we enjoyed Parmenters donuts and cider that he picked up last night, plus chicken sausage for breakfast.


Here we are styling before/after church.


Before bed, Keira worked on her "head flip". It is a somersault.

Up for next week, we have lots of Halloween festivities planned. We have our church Trunk or Treat and Chili Cookoff on Tuesday. Keira has her "Black and Orange Party" on Thursday, and then we have Trick or Treating in Northville on Saturday night. I am glad we had a light week this week!

Tyler, Minde, Chase and Riley visit and Detroit Half Marathon

This week was another insanely busy week for us. The good thing about it being the final week before my half marathon was that I didn't need to do much running, so that made time for other activities. We really enjoyed meeting our niece Riley for the first time and all the activities we did as a family. I was also getting pretty involved with everything in Primary.

On Monday, I took Soren to his storytime at the library. We slept in as usual, so that was the main thing we did in the morning. This is the last week of storytimes for a few weeks, so we tried to take advantage of them.


After the libray, we made a quick stop at Parmenters with Valerie, Jared and Kate. I could not believe that they had never been there before, and wanted to join them for their first experience.
Kate and Jared
Keira and Kate

The ducks were crazy, and came so close this time. They made Keira a little bit nervous, but she still enjoyed feeding them. Soren had to watch from the stroller.


That afternoon, my GOTR girls were scheduled to do a 35 minute long run, so I was able to get in an acceptable slow run with them. Usually I have to hand out lap counters or some other game piece each lap, so I don't tend to run with them for a sustained period. It was nice to do a slow run with them. Many of them were able to get in a full 5K during the workout.

On Tuesday, Keira was star of the week at preschool. The star of the week gets to bring an item for show and tell each day and bring a guest (me) to read a book of our choice. I helped Keira choose the pop up version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and the kids in her class really enjoyed it. She brought her Bitty Baby today to show; she didn't really tell anything about the doll. She was given a crown to wear and also able to be the line leader for the week. Then afterwards, I had a lunch with my old Primary Presidency and Natalie, from the new presidency, was able to attend as well. It was a bit crazy having that many children at Panera and trying to do any sort of wrap up, but it was fun.

While Ryan was at scouts, we went to the library for a special starlight storytime. Keira was excited because her classmate Charlotte was there.


On Wednesday, I took Keira to her storytime, a mere 15 hours later than our previous storytime. The library is such a good resource for free children's activities, especially since the weather turned really cold this week, we couldn't pass it up. Soren has been making this funny scrunched up face and sniffing. I had a video of it, but it was hard to tell Soren's sniffing from Keira's. She joined in on it too.



My GOTR girls froze today, and I was glad the workout portion was scheduled to be short and we had a lot of games to do for the day's lesson. They are all planned out for me, so it was nice it worked out this way.

On Thursday, Keira finished up being the Star of the Week. She chose to bring a McDonald's toy to show and tell today- quite the contrast from Tuesday's toy. Since I was not reading a story today, I was not present to know if she shared anything about it. It was a "good" McDonald's toy, the Madame Alexander Witch from the Wizard of Oz, and she plays with often enough that it manages to survive the McDonald's toy purges.


Here is her artwork from the week:

I did a short run as a final pre-race workout, and then we headed to REI. Soren was so funny. He pushed a large shopping cart around the store the entire time we were there. He was so particular about where we went with it too, he avoided the front door/checkout area and would not push it off the concrete "path" onto the carpet. Needless to say, I didn't get much browsing done because I had to steer it for him.

Friday was the start of one of the busiest weekends that we have had in a while. The morning began with Elise's birthday party, and it was a tea party theme. Keira had a great time with Elise, Lizzie, and Ava. They started the party by making princess crowns, then dressing up in princess dresses, and finally having a teaparty. We brought 2 of our chairs to the party, and it was so funny how concerned Keira was that we were bringing our chairs, and then how concerned that Lizzie was when I loaded them into our car since she didn't realize we had brought them. Those little girls pick up on everything! Keira is making her crown
Keira, Elise, Lizzie, and Ava in their crowns
Keira is all dressed up in her princess attire.
The 4 Princesses, Keira, Elise, Lizzie, and Ava.
Soren is getting his groove on dancing with the girls.


The princesses are sitting down for their tea party.

After the birthday party, Tyler, Minde, Chase, and Riley were just arriving so we met up with them for a quick lunch with Kris and Linda. After lunch, we went back to Kris and Linda's to let the kids play a bit. Ryan was at a bowling fundraiser for Juvenile Diabetes in the afternoon, so he was able to head over to meet up with us earlier than usual. Soren wouldn't take a nap over there, so I opted to bring him with me to Detroit to pick up my race packet. He took a decent nap in the car on the way to Detroit. Cristina and I rode down together, and due to the fact that the race is international, each person must pick up their own packet and show a passport. While we were downtown, everyone else did a few errands and then went to Three Cedars Farm. They enjoyed cider and donuts, and there was a nice place for the kids to play. I met up with them as it was getting dark, and got a few pictures. All of Soren's naps today took place here.
Linda got a birthday cake for Chase, since it was earlier in the week. Both he and Keira enjoyed sampling the frosting with Nana's OK.
Ryan and Keira in an old telephone booth at 3 Cedars
The best of my group shot attempts: Soren, Chase, Riley, and Keira

Ryan is helping Keira to feed the goats.
Soren loved the goats.
Keira, Chase, and Tyler feeding the goats.


Saturday was another busy day. We headed over to Kris and Linda's fairly early with a ton of baby gear because the adults were going to the Michigan/Delaware State while 2 babysitters came over. Soren wouldn't go to sleep on his own, but eventually conked out while being held. Keira seemed to have a good time, although she wanted to come with us. Ryan and I really enjoyed being able to go to a football game together. I hadn't been to any football games in a really long time, and although it wasn't an OSU game, it was still really fun. UM was able to play 5 quarterbacks in the same game, which was pretty incredible. I caught the tail end of the OSU game at tailgate that we walked by on the way to the car and was bummed to have it end with a facemask for a loss to Purdue. This is the view from our seats.

Minde, Linda, Tyler, Kris, Me, and Ryan.

Sunday was the big day for my race. I met up with Cristina and her friend Monica to follow them down to Detroit. They both ran the full marathon so riding in one car wasn't an option. It was a typical chaotic start for me and a Detroit race- we were at gear check when the race actually started because we hung out inside COBO hall for too long avoiding the cold outside and the porto johns. I was able to dash over and get in the very back of my wave, but Cristina and Monica's waves were already gone since they are so fast. I had a great run, it was a PR of 1:49:25. Cristina and Monica eventually passed me after about mile 11, since they had started so much later. That is the great thing about chip timed events- if you are a little late, it isn't the end of the world. It was a pretty cool day, and I was very pleased with my time. I felt pretty decent afterwards. I was able to get "easily" on the freeway afterwards, after ending up in the middle of a barricaded street going the wrong way on the way out of the parking garage. Oops! It was a very fast way to the freeway, though, and I had no trouble with crossing through runners because they had already gone through. Due to the international nature of the race, they have very strict cut off times for the course so that they don't have the border traffic restricted all day. We cross over the Ambassador Bridge, which is a 4% grade, and have the only underwater mile as you cross through the tunnel. The tunnel is closed completely from vehicle traffic for the runners for a certain length of time and the bridge traffic is reduced to half the lanes. Since it is such a hassle as a spectator, Ryan and I had decided that he would not come down for the finish, and it was just as well since Keira woke up sick this morning. She has a low fever and threw up once, but has been able to keep food down later on in the day. This is a post race shot of me at home. I was a St. Jude Hero this year.
Once I got home, I had to prepare a few last minute things and get cleaned up for my first day conducting Primary. I brought Soren with me, just to keep him away from Keira for a bit. Things went fairly smoothly, although I must admit where there was one moment that all of us just stared at each other not sure who was supposed to be doing something. I also though it was pretty funny when I called on one of the boys in Primary by name, and he exclaimed, "Wow, I can't believe you know my name already". I always joked that the children never really knew who I was as secretary, and this just confirmed it. I was in charge of taking attendance for all the classes for the past two years and know them all for the most part, only occasionally mixing up siblings. Soren really kept me busy during the whole block of church, so my fatigue was really setting in. We enjoyed a relaxing evening at home.

Up for next week, we will be doing some relaxing I am sure. With Keira sick today, that means we won't do much, and I will enjoy some rest. We will need a restful week with Halloween coming up!