A lesson learned the hard way (TMI warning)

Now that the weather has cooled off a bit, I'm able to run more and it's been glorious! Usually I am under a time constraint because I go in the morning before Tripp leaves for work. But today, Tripp is off and was able to get outside and run and not have to be home by any certain time, it was heavenly! Well...the first mile was. **Here's my warning, the following may be "TMI" for some folks so proceed with caution.** Then, I felt it. At first I thought it was just my running pants riding up my rear. But once I did the covert removal of running pants from my rear, the feeling was still there. I had to go number 2. Now this has happened before on a run, but typically it goes away and I don't notice it after a while. But this time it WAS NOT going away. I was right behind a Walmart and if I didn't have the dog with me, I would've run in and used the restroom. But that was not an option. The only thing I could do was turn around and head home. So 1.10 miles into my beautiful, fall day, outdoor run, I had to stop running and walk, turn around and head home. But I refused to be defeated! I took care of my business, left the dog at home and headed back out! My training said 3 miles but since I missed Tuesday's run and was under no time constraints, I decided to just go as far as I felt like going, which ended up being 5.45 miles in 52 minutes. It felt amazing! So the lesson here is to always use the bathroom before a run and do your best to get it all out before heading out the door! Lesson learned!

Catching Up - Part 3 (July cont.)

The rest of July was a blast! My dear friend Pam and her sweet daughter Vera came up to the cabin with Emily and I for a girls' weekend! The little girls had so much fun playing dress-up and dolls and kitchen and us big girls had some time to scrapbook!

Emily and Vera in their princess gowns

Pam and I having a snack on the back porch

Watching cartoons

We went on a little adventure down to Clear Creek. We were the only one's there, which I thought was strange because the last time we went it was super crowded! I guess it was because everyone was smarter than us and knew that you don't want to be caught down there when a monsoon rolls in...

Princesses posing on boulders

Me and the dog

Clean girls!

Getting ready to head back down to the Valley

We felt like storm chasers as we drove down into the Verde Valley right into these storms!

Later on in the month, we went up to Anthem where Pam lives and played at the water park up there. The kids LOVE going there and Casey is finally tall enough to ride the big slide!

The boys also jumped off the high dive, here goes Ryan

Then Casey

Here's Casey coming down the big water slide

Here comes Ryan!

I went down it too and didn't even mess up my hair!

Catching Up - Part 2 (July)

After going through pictures from July, I realized how busy a month this was!! It started with Emily's birthday on the 3rd. She was dying to go to the Children's Museum. It's not a cheap place to take a family of 5 so I wanted to take advantage of the Culture Passes our libraries offer. It would get 2 of us in for free. But the Children's Museum passes are always the first to go, people line up outside the library to get these. So I knew I better get there at least an hour before the library opened in order to be first in line to get through the doors when they opened. I am awarding myself "mother of the year" award for this task because not only was it about 113 degrees outside while I waited, I got to hang out with a homeless man who, without sounding judgmental, terrified me! But, it was worth it because I got the passes! So the next day, off we went to the Children's Museum. Here are a few pictures from our adventure:

Emily loved the bathtub with wings!

The kids played on this structure for about an hour!

Happy mom and dad, watching our kids having a blast

Emily painting in the craft room

Casey going through the "car wash"

Ryan and Emily at the car wash

Emily at the ice cream stand

Making pizzas!

Biker Babe!

A few days after her birthday we decided to have a "glorified play date" which actually turned into a birthday party, which was what I was trying to avoid... Oh well. All the party supplies were free thanks to my job with Hallmark!! So here is Emily at her Princess and the Frog "play date"

Tripp was there too, amongst all us moms

Emily and her sweet friend, Vera

On the 12th, the kids and I flew to California (the Bay Area) to visit my dad and step-mom. The plan was that I would fly the kids there, stay a couple days and then Emily and I would fly home while the boys stayed for another week for an adventure with Grandma and Grandpa! I must say, not having flown with kids in a while, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was such a breeze! Now that they are older, it is so much easier! Emily and Casey watched a movie on the laptop while Ryan listened to my iPod and I got to read my People magazine! Thank the Lord for technology!

Grandma and Grandpa have the most beautiful yard I've ever seen! It is amazing! Here is Grandma sitting amongst the flowers

Look at those amazing dahlias behind us!

The first night we had dinner in downtown Clayton at Ed's Mudville Grill, just down the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house

Across from Ed's is their little community park so we walked over and played before the sun set

The next evening we had dinner at Skippolini's which made the town of Clayton famous! We celebrated Emily's birthday, my step-sister Jessica's birthday and my own birthday.

Me, Jess and Dad (Grandpa)

Our princess cake

The birthday girls!

Presents!

THE Princess!

After Emily and I went home, Grandma & Grandpa had some fun adventures in store for the boys! The next week was never dull! They spent the day and overnight in San Francisco. Here they are at the California Academy of Science (I'm super jealous I didn't go!)

Also while in SF they got to ride on an old open air fire truck and tour the city, the only bummer is that it was FREEZING that day! Was it Mark Twain who said, "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"?

The boys got to wear firefighter turnouts to keep warm

And of course, what is a trip to SF without visiting Fisherman's Wharf?

Or riding on BART?

They also visited an Air Museum

And rode the trolly

They had so much fun! Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the heck out of them! This was a trip they will never forget.