Michelle's 5K

Okay. So I have always wanted to run in a 5K, but every time I have started I just quit because a) I really don't like running and b) I really don't like running. It's really boring to me. But when Bryan started training for his triathlon he needed someone to run with him in the morning, so he asked me to. I figured that if I was getting up and running, I might as well have a goal. So that's how it happened.

There was a Santa Clara Swiss Days 5K that I decided would be good to run. It was the week after Bryan's triathlon, so we would still be running and it wouldn't be too bad because I could run the course a few times to get used to it. So I signed up. I also convinced my Uncle Don to sign up too and he then convinced his daughter, Kristina, that she needed to come out from California and run it too. I was pretty excited but told them that, since I'm slow, they should feel free to leave me behind.

I ran the course (at least what I thought was the course) every Saturday for a month to get used to it and I was pretty excited. But I was still nervous because it's a long way and I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of my family (yes, it's a pride issue).

Friday morning Courtney got sick and began throwing up. I kept her home from school by after a few hours she was bouncing off the walls. Then on Friday night (after Ethan sang for Swiss Days) he got sick and began throwing up. I will NEVER eat a certain type of pizza ever again! So we were up a lot during the night, but Bryan took most of the shifts to let me sleep. When I woke up on Saturday morning I wasn't feeling all that great (a bit nauseous) but I was excited to be running.

I drove to Snow Canyon High School where they had shuttles set up for the runners and then I met up with Kristina, Mark, my parents and Kathy. Don was sick (they think it was from the flu shot) and so he didn't run with us. Kristina and I had pictures taken (which I'll post later when they email them to me) and then we went to warm up with the other runners.

Now, I have never run a race before so I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew enough to realize how weird it was that they had an aerobics instructor warming us up. Yup, right in the middle of Santa Clara drive were about 500 runners doing aerobics. I about died. It was so odd!

Anyway, then we lined up, waited forever, the gun went off and we were gone. Kristina runs pretty fast so she lost me after about 3/4 of a mile, but I did okay. I was really tired from being up and I didn't feel all that great, but I kept going. The route was different from what I had been running so that threw me off a bit, but it was okay. I finished in 34:35, which isn't bad for my age group, although I am slow. But I finished and it was fun. I felt sad that my family was home sick in bed and didn't get to see me run, but my parents, Kathy and Mark were there and Kristina finished 2 minutes ahead of me, so she was there when I finished too. It was fun. I'm going to sign up for another 5K next month and see how it goes.

I'll put more pictures on when I get them for proof!

My proof:

Ethan and the Cougar Choir

Ethan is in the choir at school and he loves it. The elementary school is in Santa Clara so for the Santa Clara Swiss Days, the choir was asked to sing at the opening ceremonies. We went to dinner with my parents, Don & Kathy, and Kristina & Mark beforehand and then went down so Ethan could sing. They did a great job and he was so happy to be up there. They have 90 kids in the choir and one awesome choir director!!

Ethan is in the middle row, second from the left.

Cute Carter

Lisa (Bryan's sister) and her little boy Carter have been here for a few days. Lisa is in St. George at some training meetings so I get to watch Carter during the day. It's been fun. Ethan and Courtney LOVE him so they help out a lot. Carter even helped them practice the piano the first day he was here. (No, Courtney isn't in piano lessons, she just likes to pretend.) It's been fun having them here.

Here's the Hole!

Ethan wanted me to post a picture of his smile now. I think it's super cute but he is having a rough time saying the "f" sound because of the hole. I told him to just hang on a little while and it will fill in. But the tooth on the other side is loose, so we'll see what happens.

Cute kid!

Cute Ethan

Last night Ethan started messing with one his teeth that is loose and it was really bugging him. He really wanted to pull it out and got a tissue and started tugging. There was blood and everything, but the tooth just wasn't coming out. I told him to keep wiggling and it would loosen it enough that it would come out on its own.

(Personally, it really grosses me out when people are trying to pull their own teeth, but this is what Ethan has always done with loose teeth. It's like running their fingers down a chalkboard!)

Anyway, he never got the tooth out and he was a bit upset about it. But he decided to just keep playing with it and see if it would come out on its own.

About 12:30 today I got a phone call.

Me: Hello?
Ethan: Hi Ethan...um, hi Mom this is Ethan.
Me: Hey kiddo, are you okay?
Ethan: Yeah, my tooth fell out.
Me: Wow! How did it happen?
Ethan: I was playing with it and it fell out.
Me: Did you save it? (One of his teeth was lost on the playground in Kindergarten so this is an important question.)
Ethan: Yeah, teacher put it in a baggie.
Me: Are you okay? Do you need anything? Do you need me to come up or something?
Ethan: No, teacher just let me call you to tell you. Love you. Bye.
Me: Love you too. Bye.

What a sweet kid. He was so excited that his teacher let him call me. I certainly hope the Tooth Fairy is close by and remembers before 3 days pass like last time! Slacker Tooth Fairy. ;)

Ethan's Touchdown!

Last night was Ethan's 2nd flag football game. He is loving it! And he is doing pretty well too. I think he is at the age when he is able to understand the game better and he gets the strategy part, which helps. He has quite a good arm and was able to play quarterback a little bit, but he likes running the best. I don't think he likes being the one in charge, but he likes being the one to do the "action."

The best thing of the night was that he made a TOUCHDOWN!! He was so excited.

Here's a photo of the hand off before his touchdown:

Lion's Rodeo Parade

It was a BUSY Saturday. Saturday afternoon Courtney had a parade for the Lion's Rodeo. It was a huge parade with almost 100 entries. It is the place to see and be seen. Courtney's dance group, Pizazz, had an entry in the parade and so she got to be in it. They had an option of either riding their bike decorated or riding in the truck. She was a bit nervous that she wouldn't be able to ride the entire route on her own, so she rode in the truck. She had a great time waving at everyone and doing the Pizazz cheer! But her favorite thing was the make-up. I have a real hang up about putting make-up on my 5 year old, but they asked for it to be done. Courtney was in little girl heaven. She only had blush, lipstick and mascara, but it was enough to see that she is a really "girly-girl." And I also discovered that she has really long eyelashes. I put mascara on her and then put her glasses on. When she blinked, there were little trails on mascara down her lenses of her glasses. She said, "They always brush, it's no big deal." Funny girl.

After Courtney's group passed by, I walked down to the finish of the parade and grabbed her and took her back to where my parents and aunt and uncle were watching. She got to catch candy (there were some vicious candy grabbing kids around us but she held her own!) and wave at everyone. It was a fun day! Bryan and Ethan missed it because they were at the Scout Celebration, so it was a girl's date. ;)

Cute girl!

She's on the truck (her name is right over her so you can find her):

Scout Centennial Celebration

Bryan and Ethan went Saturday night to the Scout Centennial Celebration. Ethan was super excited because they were going to learn to make swords, shield, catapults, and how to sword fight and all kinds of other stuff. They didn't have enough leaders (we have a LOT of boy scouts) so Bryan was asked to go along.

They had a great time. While they were waiting to get into the celebration, they had a contest stacking rocks. They were divided into groups and then went and made a shield. Next, they learned strategy. Then they made their swords. When they were finished making their swords, they had dinner.

They had a raffle which, in order to enter, you had have accomplished 100 acts of service. Ethan worked hard to get this done (many were helping out with Courtney). Ethan actually won something! He won a skim board. He was pretty excited.

Then all the scouts had a sword battle (Ethan calls it a "war") where they used their swords, shields and battle strategy. He had a lot of fun with that. After the battle they had a huge program with singing and a video message from President Monson. Then there was a huge firework display.

They got home about 10 p.m. last night and they were pretty tired, but had had fun!

(Bryan bought me a couple of CDs from an a capella group that performed! Yeah!)

Triathlon Man!

Bryan is awesome! I just have to say that and I'm not bias or anything just because he is my husband, he really is awesome. He wanted to do a triathlon ever since our Stake did one in the Spring that he participated in (that, and the fact that both of his sisters have done one, kind of motivated him too). He found out that the Kokopeli Triathlon would be held at Sand Hollow Reservoir and signed up for it. He has been super excited to see how he would do. His goal: to finish.

Well, the best laid plans are always interrupted somehow, aren't they?! Friday Bryan went into work early to get some things done to close a deal that had to be done that day. He was planning on getting the deal finished, leaving in the early afternoon to get his race packet, come home and then relax with us and a huge spaghetti dinner. Around 2 p.m. he called me to say that they hadn't gotten the deal going yet. Then he called around 4 p.m. to tell me he wouldn't be home until around 8 p.m. He called at 7:15 p.m. to tell me that he was taking a break to run out and pick up his race packet. Then he called at 8 p.m. to say he would be home around 10:30. Meanwhile, we bagged the spaghetti dinner in favor of chicken nuggets and the kids and I watched a Red Box and ate popcorn.

Bryan finally got home after closing the deal but was wound up and couldn't get to sleep until around midnight. Then at about 4:30 a.m. Ethan came in our room saying that his bed was all messed up and asked me to fix it. He came back in at 4:45 to say that he had "too much energy" and just couldn't sleep. I put him back to bed. He came in at 5 a.m. asking if he could watch infomercials if he turned the sound down. I put him back to bed. He came back in at 5:15 to say that he just couldn't sleep and wanted to get up. I put him back to bed....and this time he stayed there. But Bryan had been awake since 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.

Bryan finally got up around 6:30 a.m. to get stuff ready, eat oatmeal and take off for Sand Hollow Reservoir. He got all packed and off. Then my mom came over to watch Courtney (who had a whole slew of things to do today so we left her home) at 8 a.m. and Ethan, my dad and I went over to watch Bryan.

When we got to Sand Hollow we had to park a llllooonnnggg ways from the water and walk. They had a shuttle but it was always going the other way. We made it with about 20 minutes to spare, found Bryan, took some pictures and then went to stake our claim at the water's edge. It was a lot less crowded than the Ironman had been (obviously) and it was fun to watch all the swimmers.

Anyway, he did awesome at the swim and went pretty fast. He transitioned to biking well (he didn't take time to put on socks, but it all worked for him). His biking time was good and he felt like he was strongest in the bike and second on the swim. Then the run began and he was exhausted. He was worn out but he did well. His final time was 1:48:36 (I think). I was proud of him.

We met him after he finished and congratulated him while he ate some fruit and drank a ton of water. Then he had a BBQ lunch the organizers had for the athletes. We then packed up and went home.

(He only had time to shower and stretch before he had to leave with Ethan to go to the Scout Centennial Celebration that goes from 3 until 10 p.m. What a tired guy he will be tomorrow!)

Now he begins training for his next one to better his time! ;)

His number:

At the end of the swim:

At the end of the bike:

At the end of the run, giving the thumbs up:

He's done!

Ethan's First Football Game

Ethan had his first flag football game tonight. Courtney had soccer practice at the exact same time, so Bryan took Ethan and I took Courtney. Bryan took some great photos. Their team lost (the other team had a really fast girl on their team!) but they had a great time playing. Ethan was a bit nervous that the mouth guard would gag him but he figured it out and all went well.

Ethan is #2. He's pretty tall so you can't miss him. ;)

Reading the play.

There he goes...

Still going....

...until he is tripped and falls.


But he seemed to have had fun, so that's the important thing!

The Purple Butterflies

Courtney had her first soccer game of the season this morning and she did awesome. Her team name is the Purple Butterflies (her idea) and she is so excited. One of the moms made hair ties for each of the girls so they would match and they loved it!

Courtney was on a break-away during the first half and took the ball all the way to the end and made a goal!! She was so excited and, of course, I didn't have the camera out, but that's okay because we know she did it. She came back and said, "I surprised myself. I didn't think I would make a goal." And she figured turning out a bit too.

It was so much fun!!


Celebrating her goal!

The break-away:

Soccer Girl!

What did you do on Labor Day?

Labor Day holiday has always been a work day for me. When I was a kid, I thought Labor Day was a "day of labor." Go figure!

Bryan has been planning the storage for the garage for a long time and Monday he put it all together. It took all day long and he was awesome to get it all done. We put things back but we still need to organize the tools and get a cabinet, but it's going well! We have so much room now and I love it!!

Homework?!?!

Homework?!? What is that? Yes, Ethan is in 3rd grade and has never had homework before. He has always had teachers who believed that if the kids worked hard during the day, that they shouldn't have to go home and work hard at night. I, personally, haven't minded because it meant that he was doing well and he was working hard at school. His reading level is high and so we haven't been worried about the lack of homework...until now...

He now has homework and has no idea what to do with it. His teacher will send home a packet on Monday with assignments to do each day in math and spelling. He has to do the assignment each night and turn the completed packet in on Friday. Last week was hard. He seems to consider homework to be punishment and something really hard to do. We also found out at SEPs last night that he has a very high reading score but an average math score. Which means that he doesn't like doing math because he struggles with it a bit and it isn't as easy as reading and he hasn't had to struggle with anything before.

I didn't like the fights and the drama around homework so I decided to try something. I made him a homework center. I went to the dollar store and bought a board which I cut into a shape to fit around his desk. I glued some clips on it and put it on his desk. It has clips for his spelling words, to do assignments, done assignments, calendar and note cards. I even bought him some new pencils and erasers. We put the office chair (which was sitting empty downstairs) at his desk and I put a desk light there. He was impressed. Hopefully this will help. We'll see.