February

February in photos:

This picture was just too cute. I found this in Ben's room. It's his little Baby Bear on a little bed he made for it on the floor. So stinkin' cute!

 We are a fort making family and this is one A&B made. So proud of them!

 In February we celebrate Daddy's birthday. I made a yummy caramel cheesecake that turned out awesome! Cheesecake is Drew's favorite. We had a lot of fun with him going to dinner one night, celebrating with his family another, and my side another. We like to stretch out birthdays as much as we can!

 Aria's artwork. I absolutely LOVE how she draws and what she draws! She has such an imagination and is so clever!

Me, Aria and My Mom went to go see Beauty and the Beast at our local high school. It was so much fun! Aria was fascinated by it. She loves princess things, Belle and music. It was perfect. It was just a little too long for a 3 year old, but she made a friend that she played with during. At the end she got to meet the girl who was Belle in the play. She was very excited, but nervous. :D

 This little handsome man!     

 And this little sweet angel!

 More fun times with Daddy!

 Lots and lots of snow days. We played in it a lot. Aria wanted to run out and catch snowflakes quick!

  And these two little sweethearts on Valentines!

 I've got this weird lung issue so I've had to take some time away from running and exercising. I was sad to miss my favorite race, but got to go watch my running buddy/motivator/brother-in-law Lance run it! Got some great shots of him!

 

Strawberry Days 2012

Or as Aria likes to say it: Swazzy Days!

First -the 5k - Me, Lance and my sister Janet. It was so awesome having Janet run it with us! She's been working out and running tons and this was her first one. Bucket list item for her checked off - though I know this wont be her last one either. My rad friend Cecilia ran it too. She crossed the finish line, ran back until she saw us and then crossed again with us! Lance finished 8 min before us!

With the fires burning across the lake, the air was a little smokey and our lungs burned pretty bad. We still did okay though. Aria woke early that morning before I left with a fever, so Drew and the kiddos stayed home. When I got home from the race they were all still asleep! Aria slept until 9:30! She is usually up 2 hours before that. Obviously sick. Poor girl!

Carnival time:

Aria had a blast on everything. I love the daredevil in her! I'm not, so I do what I can to foster it in her so she isn't a chicken like me. :) Ben was a lot more timid that I anticipated, but he's still a bit young. I think he'll like it all better next year.

 

 

And of course we got our strawberries and cream!

Y is for Yes, I Am That Crazy

And so are about 25 bajillion others! Me, Lance, Cecilia and Julian decided on last day of sign up to run the Color Me Rad 5k at my old University! Go team Adrenaline Shot! My SIL Rachelle and her Sister ran it too - but with that many people there, we didn't ever see them. :(

It was a blast. It wasn't so much of a run though - at many parts we didn't have a choice and had to walk because of so many people. It was still fun. We were colored from head to toe. Litterally, because the color sprays went through clothes and colored our skin. Luckily the powdered stuff came off fine because my skin was raw from scrubbing the spray off! Totally worth it.

Before. Clothes sparking white.

Running along.

 Finish Line color blast

The kids don't come to too many of my races since they are in the early morning, but they know what to expect. Not this time. Aria was weirded out when she saw me. Ben was/is still pretty sick, so he didn't really show emotion one way or another.

 This is how to run through the color stations without a lung full of colored cornstarch!

 Even still... our faces got pretty dirty.

With the race sunglasses on, sprays still got in my eyes!

 After! My stomach, bum and feet got soaked through my clothes! 

 Finish area color throw at the end.

 There was a haze in the air all over. Everyone who didn't run even had a dusting over them.

Near us there is a Hari Krishna Temple (Hindu) that celebrates Holi with a huge fundraiser/festival where color bombs are thrown similar to this and is a blast too!

Halloween Time

Halloween was so much more fun this year. Fun times 2 for everything! Our kiddos enjoyed it all!

Here are some of the Halloweeny things (I totally heard my mom's voice in my head saying that as I typed it!) that we did this year.

Saturday the 29th Lance and I ran our 4th 5k! Just one more to go! We made a goal to run 5 5k's this year. It's been fun, but also a lot of work and $$. After our next one (which will be Thanksgiving morning) which is our last, I'll probably only run them on rare occasion. Oh... but the Dirty Dash... I want to do that one.
Family things/Family Night:

Ward Halloween Party and trunk-or-treat:

Stringtown Nightmare Express Train ride. Aria has become fascinated with things like Airplanes, Helicopters and trains. She was about to jump out of her skin in excitement.
BAD NEWS: The Stringtown trains will not be running for Christmas. It's gotten too big and they can't handle the crowds so they are changing how often they do this! Possibly next year they will do Christmas only, and then switch for the next year. Not sure yet. Darn! I LOVED this ride as I know many of you did it with your kids too! So so glad we went.
My little cuties!

Strawberry Days 5k

Saturday we ran in the Strawberry days 5k! It was our first run as a family! Drew and I took turns pushing Aria in the stroller. We crossed the start line about 30-40 seconds after it started, so our time was a little over 34 min! We were surprised we did it as quick as we did with the stroller, but the course was easier than some of the others I've done. Lance was about 2 min+ faster than us - we kept trying to catch up to him, and he kept getting further away!

It was fun! Definitely a lot of fun running as a family. Alecia ran in the kids 1/2 mile and did awesome! I was surprised how quickly she was back. Out of all the kids who ran, she was 13th! Congrats Alecia!

The runners:
We had a lot of support too! My mom, Peggy, Kyle, Cory, Aria's Birth Mom and Birth Grandmas! Plus, we saw lots of people we knew running too! I have a couple more photos, but I can only upload a small amount now. Temporary fix by deleting old images making room for new.

Today is National Running Day!

So... guess where I spent it? At the gym!

Running/working out has gotten addicting.

Currently, my abs and thighs hate me the most.

Next race: Strawberry Day's 5k
Saturday, June 18th

Register here: http://www.runnercard.com/e/runner.Main?meet=3193

Who's in? So far I know of Me, Drew, Lance, Steve, Rachelle, Alex and Danielle.
Millie, you want to run this one?

This time I was the tortoise...

Yesterday I ran in the GroveCrest Elementary 5k. When I woke up, it was snowing and there were 3" of snow on the ground. It was sooooo cold. When we got to the school, they took forever to start and standing around without moving enough made it even worse!

 

 Lance got 2 stress fractures in his leg a few weeks ago and was planning on taking this race a lot easier than originally planned. I assumed I would be leaving him behind and seeing him eventually at the finish line. Turns out that wasn't the case.

 

 About 1/2 way through the race my knees started having tendonitis issues. This only rarely happens to me. (We've been running more on the ellipticals lately because they work you more, and I think my knee got loose.) I had to run for a few, walk for a few. Eventually I had to mostly walk. I was pretty upset. I wanted to beat my last time, and instead did 4 min worse.

Lance did really well. He was able to run a lot of it without trouble from his leg. He passed me at about mile 2, and I didn't see him again until the finish line.

 

Here's me crossing the finish line. Drew filmed it. My Mom, Aria, Peggy, Kyle, Cory and Alecia all came to cheer us on - and as you can see, I got distracted right at the finish line by Aria's cute frozen face that I cut short! Oops! Took me a minute to realize they were all telling me I had to run through and turn in my number for my time. lol! When I see this, I notice my run is a little off because of my knees killing me.