Family Pictures!

Yay my family pictures are in! Mele Larson was our photographer and I think she is amazing! Here is some of my favorites!

 

 

 Ron and I felt a little silly with just us in the pictures. It was like awkward engagement pictures all over again! I'm really glad we did it though. I love this picture because it reminds me of one of our wedding pictures where Ron made me laugh.

Zoo with Grandma!!!!

My zoo pass was expiring soon so we went one last time. (I don't think I will renew it for a while, I think the novelty of the zoo wears off with kids when they get to go ALL the time, I'll probably get another membership in a year or so.) Grandma even joined in on the fun. I decided since it was our last visit we could do all the fun "extras" at the zoo. ("Extras" basically means it costs extra money!)

We rode the carousel first, Callie was funny on this ride. She kept changing her mind about which animal she wanted to ride. Really I think she was just nervous about the ride. Once the ride started she clung for dear life onto Grandma's neck. Poor Grandma was almost strangled as the bird went up and then back down. Too funny.

We got to ride the train around the zoo next, we have never done this before. My kids really enjoyed this, I liked it because I could relax and enjoy the animals.

Next up, feeding the Giraffes! What AMAZES me is how scared Callie was on the carousel and yet when we were with the Giraffes she was FEARLESS! She fed them, and kept waving and saying "Hi Giraffe. Hi Giraffe!" I was shocked!

  Lastly, we got to pet the sting rays. I'm glad we saved this for last because the boys got SOAKING wet!

 SO wet they had to take their shirts off! Such BOYS!!!!!

We had such a wonderful day. I'm very grateful my mom came to enjoy this fun day at the zoo! The highlight of this trip for me, was watching my children's eyes light up as they marveled at some of God's creations.

Thanksgiving visitor!

A few weeks ago I received a text from my good friend Angela in Alaska. She asked me what I thought about running the Turkey Tort with her this year. I nearly screamed for joy, and smiled for days anticipating Thanksgiving.

 Angela and I used to run this race every year when she lived here. Running with Angela takes me back to the good ole days when we where in Hygiene school together and would study WHILE running together! Yes, it's possible with the right kind of flash cards!!! :) The Turkey Trot is a 10k race held on Thanksgiving morning. Our race was very interesting, for the most part we just talked and did intervals of walk/jogging. I was just happy and elated to be with her. 

This was the line for the port-a-potties before the race. And YES we started the race like 10 mins late because of it but we didn't mind. EVERY time we run this race one of us HAS to use the restroom before our run, and EVERY year the line is RIDICULOUSLY long.

During the race I even took some goofy pictures and we came up with ONE goal for the race...

we needed to make sure we beat this OLD MAN! LOL seriously he kept passing us! :) 

 We also planned a zoo trip with her sister that lives in AZ and had fun with all the kiddos.

I just love this girl!

My little climber!

Oops!

Callie tried making her own bowl of Oatmeal today! What a mess!

 With all that brown sugar I'm sure it was yummy!!!

Rugged Maniac!

I'm still reeling from this crazy weekend. Friday I worked until 2, rushed home and got our family ready for Family pictures. My friend Mele took us downtown and snapped pictures of us with brick wall as the background. I can't wait to get the photos back! (I REALLY want just ONE good picture of all of us! I asked Ron if it was bad that I prayed asking for our Family pictures to be successful. He replied "No. I prayed it would go well too, for your sake Shelly." That was sweet! But I guess time will tell!). After pictures we decided to risk it and go out to eat at El Charro as a family. We don't eat out as a family very often if at all. I feel like it's a lot of money to spend on rushing through a meal because the kids are all over the place and litte ticking time bombs. I'm happy to report we had a successful meal, Noah even commented "I just love coming to this place!" All 3 of our kids actually ate the food, and we didn't have to leave the table once! Super fun!
Saturday, I got up early and headed off for my Mud Run. I registered for and have been training with a few friends for the Rugged Maniac, a 5k race filled with 20 obstacles, lots of mud, water, walls to climb, tunnels, slides... etc. I was pretty nervous about breaking a tooth or even some bones! I'm happy to report I didn't break anything but I did get pretty scratched up! We have been training for this race for a couple months now and I was excited to put my hard work to the test! My Dad, sister and friend Tami all came as moral support! Thank you guys! Sadly, because of our boys soccer game schedule changes I missed Mason and Noah's last soccer game (I missed Noah scoring 2 goals!!!!). Of course it was rescheduled to the same day and time of my mud run. Poor Ron braved the games with all 3 kids alone and only lost Callie once. He wanted to come watch my race but... oh well next time! He is so good and supportive of me.

BEFORE:



  STARTING LINE:

 Our Team name was: "Dashing Divas!"

My friend's husband came to took pictures of us all as well. She told me that in every picture I had this huge smile on my face. I really did have THAT much fun on this run and the excitment shows in my dirty face!

 

FINISH LINE:

 

AFTER:

 We did it!