dirty birdy

The Dirty Birdy:

Run, walk, skip, slide, and cavort through our 5Kish course, which winds through the muddy lanes at PIR Motocross track. Expect to encounter copius amounts of mud, obstacles, Slip & Slides, mud pits, and yes, water balloons being launched by spectators.

We ran this Friday night. The kids started off with the kids 1k. Addie wasn't too thrilled about this when she started. If you click to enlarge the first picture - you can see how much fun she had to start off with. But Sam jumped onto the course and went along with them and that helped the mood a little.

Addie still says it was the worse run she has ran (all 2 of them). But she finished and she wasn't crying at the end. Gwen on the other hand - was totally into it. She took off running from the beginning and was a trooper thru the whole thing. And let me tell you -- the course was HARD!! Tons of mud and hills that you just keep sliding down. When I ran it after them -- I couldn't believe they were able to do all of that. My kids are awesome!!

Sad Addie at the beginning of the race............

One of the MANY hills of the course.......
Climb Addie climb!!...............
Sometimes - really the only way to make it up these hills...........
Gwenny crossing the finish line (yes she beat Addie) ..............
Gwenny showing her "battle scars" -- she actually still has some scrapes on her cheek from falling.........................
Addie finishing her "worst run ever" hahaha.....................
Dirty - still not happy - but not crying ...................
Me, Sam, Joel, Mason and Lisa after we finished our 5k. It was the hardest - longest 5k I've ever ran. But very fun. Joel of course beat us all by a lot. Sam and I came in last holding hands thru the finish line (awwwwww) ;) ........................

florence

Last week we got to spend a few days over in Florence. Sam had some work over there - so when he has work - we also fit in a little play. :)

I really love the Oregon coast - it's so beautiful. It was a little cool out - but it was still really nice. And there was not one other person on the beach while we were there.

Jackson's favorite past time - no matter where we are - finding things to pick up and throw......................

Addie posing on the empty beach..........
Another favorite - collect all the shells and rocks you can find.............
cuties.......................................

My baby is 2!!

My baby boy turned 2 today and I can hardly believe it. That went by way too fast! Jackson is awesome! He is such a fun kid. He is boy thru and thru. He loves planes, cars, loves watching any sport on tv, loves-loves video games, loves to hit and LOVES to throw. He actually has an amazing arm. The boy can throw a spiral with a football. He is just like his dad - he loves technology. He has mastered both our iPhones and the iPad. He can unlock it, scroll thru the apps, pick which one he wants, opens it and plays the game. His favorite is a preschool game where he can do matching, counting and put puzzles together and he has mastered all of those. It's pretty crazy to watch. Smart little fella. He is so boy - but at the same time - he is so sweet and gentle. He loves babies. He loves his sisters. He loves his Daddy. And my favorite part -- he LOVES his mama. He will run up to me and hold my face in his hands and give me sweet kisses. He will cuddle with me (when he wants). And I love the way he talks. He always ends it with "mom"...... "watch this mom" - "look mom" - "i like it mom" "catch mom, catch" --- and he says it all in his cute little gruff boy voice.

I love being a mom so much - it's what I have always wanted - and I am incredibly blessed with the children I have been given.

Happy Birthday Mr. Jackson!! I love you!!

The first day we met -- love at first sight..........

Still madly in love :) ......................

Fishing Derby 2010

We went out to Sweet Home this morning for another exciting day at the annual Kid's Fishing Derby.

They start out by going to different booths where they get their papers stamped -- they have to have 4 stamps before they can go get in the forever-long line to fish.

We went early this year to beat the crowds - and still the line wait was forever.

A small portion of the lake is stocked with hundreds of fish -- but today since it was a beautiful sunny day - which was perfect to be out in -- it was not perfect for catching fish. Usually they can catch 2 fish. This year they could only catch 1 and they only had 20 min. to do it in. So if you try for 20 minutes with no fish -- you're out of luck. I was worried. Thankfully they all caught them in time -- although Jackson was the last to catch one and they had given them a warning that they could only cast 3 more times. What do you know...... the next cast Sam thru out -- Jackson got his fish!!

Also -- there are about 60 fish that are tagged. These fish are prize fish!! They have a prize table that you can go chose something from if you are lucky enough to catch a prize fish. Addie caught one last year -- it was VERY exciting. Well this year....... Jackson caught one!! And it was a huge fish -- almost as big as him. :) Next year will be Gwen's year!!

It was a very exciting, very fun morning and I loved being out in the sun (finally!!).

this type of fishing may have been just as fun as the real fishing for the kids -- i should get this for my backyard -- the kids could do it forever............

they got to meet Smokey the Bear himself!! Jackson is not pictured because he would not get any closer to the huge bear................
Addie's action shot..................
Gwen's action shot........... No action shot of Jackson because they split us up -- he was on the other end of the fishing area with Sam - which is really too bad because I was most excited for him this morning because he asks to go fishing all the time............
Gwenny and her fish...........
Addie next to her fish :)..................
I got to Jackson right after he caught it and bagged it. But you can kinda see how big his fish was in the bag. This was the prize fish.......................
Jackson picked a new fishin' pole for his prize -- and he is very possessive over it :) ("mine!! my fishin pole!") .............

old

Last night Lisa and I were out running. We only ran 3 miles. I struggled the whole time. My legs were killing me!! My shins were killing me, my knee hurt and my legs just felt like they did not want to go.

Lisa wasn't feeling the run either and described it as feeling too old for this. And THAT is the perfect description of what I felt like.

I hate bad run days -- but on my good run days -- I LOVE running!! So if my body would just cooperate and stop getting old - I'd appreciate it.

Child Labor

A couple of weeks ago we were in the Rhody Parade again in Florence, OR. Sam really wanted to pull the kids along in a wagon and have me drive the NHance car behind (it's free advertising for our business) -- but the weather did not permit. So we all crammed in the little Scion -- and by "we" - I mean - Me, Sam, Addie, Gwen, Jackson AND my Mom and Dad!! It's a small car -- but we made it work. My parents sat in the back with the girls and the girls were standing leaning out the window the whole time -- so it really wasn't that bad. Then Jackson was either on my lap or on Sam's lap "driving" the car. My dad kept his window up on his side because he is NOT a parade kind of guy -- although Sam tried many times to roll it down for him :)

The kids did a good job -- but they cracked me up because their fake little smiles and pitiful waves never changed for the whole thing -- except to complain that their arms hurt..... see what I mean about child labor?!?!

Anyways -- they did a great job -- we always get lots of "cute kids" and "cute dog" --because I also hang Peasy out the window with me --anything to get the attention off of me.

We treated them to carnival rides and their choice of lunch.... cheap right?

Jackson's highlight was being able to sit in one of these tiny little cars. They were right behind us in the line waiting to start the parade. When you are in a parade you have to wait FOREVER before it begins and then keep waiting while everyone in front of you slowly moves into the parade. It's a looooooong day. But kinda fun.
Good job kids!! :)

little graduate

My little doll face graduated preschool -- now onto kindergarten in the fall. :( She is getting too big too fast. Here's some pictures from her big day. Yay for Gwenny!

My cutie-pa-tutie..................

Her little buddy..................
Her great teachers - Mrs. Bell and Mrs. Burton..............

a True Friend

When we planned our trip to Disneyland -- my requirement was that we had to stop and stay with one of my very best friends ever -- CARLEY. And we had to see her for at least a couple of days. I thought I missed living in California (which I still do miss my beach) -- but really what I miss the most is my Carley. I have had lots of friends over my life -- but I only have a handful of ones that are truly my best ones. Carley is right up there at the top. It's like we must have known each other in heaven and found each other again here. We just get along so great. Sam always teases us that we are lesbians. :) Maybe because when we lived by each other - we basically were together everyday. Or that I've gone down to see her and she's come up to see me. Or that she drove 4 hours just to come up to cheer me on for my marathon last year --- plus we slept in the same bed at the hotel. :) Or it could be that my plan -- IF both our husbands were to die (heaven forbid) - my plan is just to move in with Carley. I don't need to get re-married. I see that as a great wife who would not want another man -- Sam see's it as a little lesbian. hahaha

Anyways -- onto prove my point that Carley is a true friend -- as my title says. When we arrived at her house -- for some reason my children turned into monster children. I don't know what happened -- maybe it was the hours and hours of driving -- but they were not my children!! First thing right off the bat was -- Gwen fell off the trampoline and jacked her face -- which if you notice in any of the pics of the whole disneyland trip -- Gwenny's face has a big scab right under her nose. That is pretty typical - one getting hurt, so by that point they were still my children -- but one of them just looked jacked up. Then they decided to play playdough in the kitchen while we visited in the living room. This is where they started to get a little out of hand. As we talked I started seeing playdough being flung in every direction across her kitchen. We went in and stopped them and made them clean in it up and told them they were naughty. :)

Then a while later -- they were having a snack in the kitchen -- strawberries. Again we were visiting in the living room. Well - what do you know -- I see half eaten strawberries flying all over the kitchen. ALL of MY children were involved in this. I could not believe they were doing this. So of course -- they received my wrath and the mess was picked up. I kept apologizing to Carley -- but she'd just laugh and say it was fine.

Ok- onto the next morning - it was Sunday so I was in the back room ironing our church clothes when I heard a huge crash. And then I heard a worse sound -- the "OH MY GOSH!!" from both Carley and Sam. And Sam is not one to react to things -- so hearing him scared me. I came running out to find that Gwen had pulled Carley's whole fireplace mantel on top of her. You can see in the picture below that it is up on a hearth about a foot or two off the floor. She hung from the top of the mantel and the WHOLE mantel --- all of the white wood that you see around the fireplace -- she pulled the whole thing down on top of her. Sam said all he could see was this huge thing laying on top of her head -- he couldn't see her body or her face -- only the top of her head - and she wasn't moving. SO glad I was in the back room - so I didn't see this image because he said it was pretty scary. By the time I got out there - they had pulled it off of her and she was moving and crying. She thankfully was okay. Some bumps, scrapes and bruises -- but could have been so much worse. The mantel came apart in one place and the wood split a little in another place. I felt HORRIBLE!! I kept offering to replace it but she kept assuring me it was fine and easy to fix. She also kept telling me it hadn't been secured to the wall - so it came down pretty easy and she'd been warning her husband something like this would happen. Well thanks to Gwen - it did. :)

Then came the day we were suppose to leave. We played at the beach that day and then were heading back to her house to pack up and continue onto Disneyland. Well Addie started getting sick on our way to her house. She ended up throwing up while she was at her house. Luckily in a bowl -- but still gross to have a kid throwing up in your house.

Our last gift of friendship we left with her family --- was the gift of pink eye. Jackson had gotten pink eye 4 days before we even got to Carley's house. The doctor had assured me that as long as he was on antibiotics for 24 hours - he would not be contagious. Well he had been given the drops for 3 days before we saw them. But some how -- he still was contagious. And we didn't give it to just one of them -- we gave it to all 3 kids - plus Carley!!

With all of this -- the only thing Carley would say was -- she would take any of it just so she could see us. Awwwww. I know :)

I of course would take all the bad too -- which hopefully next time my family won't be the cause of. :)

I love you my Carley!! Thanks again for such a wonderful visit --- your turn next!! :)

the fireplace that squashed gwen............

me and Carley almost getting blown away on Avila pier............
All of our children are betrothed to each other whether they like it or not :)

Here's Jackson with his lady Shea.......................
Addie, Gwenny, Cade and Braden.................
No matter how much time goes by without seeing each other -- they are still so comfortable with each other -- it's cute................

The kids at Avila Barn...............