We paid homage again this year to one of the so-called places to climb in Texas. And by homage, I mean we climbed less this year than last year (i.e. not at all). That’s ok. Jeana is six months pregnant and the pregnant belly may not be conducive to agile climbing.

We learned some funny things about the Wayes on this outing, which I have no problem blogging about since they’re moving away from us soon. I will miss them. First, Becca has issues with some funny things: sand in her nails, fish, and eating meat off bones (although this is dwindling with the advent of Texas BBQ). Second, Scot told us a funny story about him running full speed into a chain parking lot barrier and falling face-first into the pavement. Thanks for the laugh. And, thanks for bringing Bernie to entertain our children. Oh, and thanks again because now they want a pet dog!

Ocean was so thoughtful of Jeana by offering her a piece of licorice. Jeana declined the offer, but Ocean insisted on keeping track of a certain piece of licorice in case Jeana changed her mind. Jeana sat at the campfire watching Ocean caress the licorice in her hands and thread it through her toes. Ocean asked for another piece, to which Adam replied that she already had one. Ocean told Adam that piece belonged to Jeana. When Jeana said she didn’t want it, Ocean caressed and threaded more, and finally took a bite.

While in Utah at my parents’ house this summer, my dad carved some walking sticks for Audrey and Kate. Yesterday we finally took a hike for the girls to use the sticks for their intended purpose (rather than just play with them around the house with some sort of princess theme) up to the top of “Enchanted Rock”. Kate surprised me and made it up a good portion of the hike - she was a good little hiker.

Poor Audrey. Audrey had school pictures on Friday so she dressed up a bit. Jeana packed her camping gear for her so that we could just pick Audrey up from school and drive straight to our destination. I paid our entrance fee after arriving, and when I returned to the car, Jeana told me we had a problem. Jeana had grabbed two right shoes for Audrey. You see, Audrey and Kate have the same shoes, except that Kate’s are smaller. Oh well, what can you do? Scot asked me at the campfire, “So what’s the deal with Audrey’s shoes?” As if she had some “condition” - just kidding. Despite the two right feet, Audrey hiked all the way to the top and most of the way back down before complaining. In fact, she and Jackson were racing to the top of the hike! I found it easy to take pity on her and carry her on my shoulders part of the way down.

Danielle and I decided to have a girls trip and meet up in Chicago for the weekend (last weekend).  It was so much fun despite the 44° every morning while waiting for the train.

We rode on a trolley around to all the different sites and saw Navy Pier, went on an architectural boat tour, went to the Field Muesem (home of Sue - the world’s largest and most famous T. rex),

went to the Planetarium (got chosen to be astronauts on the next shuttle to the moon), had lunch at a table looking out over Lake Michigan,

went to the Hancock building, and my personal favorite - went to Wicked.

It was such a blast.  Oh, we also had some Chicago style pizza at Gino’s East.  We had to wait in line forever and then when we were finally seated and ordered, we were told that it was going to take 45 minutes.  I was starving so we got a family style salad and snarfed so much of it that when the pizza came, we could each only put down one slice.

It was really good pizza and we didn’t want it to go to waste, so I decided to find a homeless person to give it to.  So, after a lot of walking, I finally found a guy to offer it to. I said, “You wouldn’t want some pizza, would you?”
What I thought he said was, “Think again.”
So, I said, “You want it?”
Then, he more clearly said, “Thick or thin?”
A little surprised I paused and then said, “Oh, thick.”
To which he replied, “Nope.  Too much dough.”
After that I ended up throwing it away.  I couldn’t take the rejection again.

This is what I had waiting for me when I got home.  What sweetie hearts!

Kate and I grabbed my guitar this morning to do a little jamming. Last night I thought of some songs by the BoDeans so I felt the urge to play the guitar. I really wasn’t paying attention to anything besides remembering the right words to sing. Then, I noticed Kate standing up and lifting her toes up and down - tapping her toes. Nothing exciting for most people I know, but for me it means a lot.

These are for my Grandma in Idaho.

Today was Columbus day/teacher inservice so Audrey had the day off.  We had such a fun day.  We started with a half mile jog around the block.  Audrey is doing this thing called Marathon Kids.  She’s supposed to run a little bit each week so that by the end of February she will have run a total of 26.2 miles.  After our half mile I needed a little bit more of a run so Audrey got on her bike (which she can now ride without training wheels, btw) and I loaded Kate into the jog stroller with her bike across the top.  We ran/rode over to a street where there aren’t any houses yet and let Audrey and Kate ride all around.  Audrey used to stop by crashing, but she was doing really good today to slow down and put her feet down.

After that we made a quick trip to the library, and then headed over to the Arboretum for a picnic, some good cow fun, and some letter boxing.

Our neighbor Jim gave them some green kid sized HEB bags and they carried them every where today.  Somebody put bubbles in the fountains today so there were suds flying all over the place.  Audrey and Kate really wanted to play in the bubbles, but I wouldn’t let them because I saw a bunch of dead flies and disgusting-ness stuck in the suds.

I don’t quite get the Arboretum cows.  What’s their story?  All I know is they are a big hit with the kids.

Okay, so the letter boxing:  Jodi introduced us to letter boxing at the family reunion.  You look on this website and find where a box is hidden near you.  It gives you directions on how to get to your letter box like this:

“From the black cow, go 20 steps to the right towards the largest tree in the plaza with a big hollow trunk. The letterbox is hidden in the hollow of the trunk.”

It’s kind of like geocaching, but for kids.  There is a stamp in the box you find and you use it to stamp your own little notebook.  Then leave your own personal stamp along with your stamper nickname in a notebook in the box.  I’m not explaining this well, so if you’re truly interested, look at the website.

Anyway, we followed all the steps and the box wasn’t there.  We were sad but determined to stamp something, so we just stamped our own stamps in our notebooks anyway.  Kate kept saying to us, “Okay guys, here’s what we have to do.  We have to follow the clues to find the treasure.”  For some reason it just wasn’t sinking in for her that we weren’t going to find it.  Since we’ve only done it once, they really weren’t too disappointed about it not being there. I asked them what their favorite part of the day was and Audrey said that stamping their books was.  Kate said that looking for the treasure was her favorite.

My personal favorite part of the day was when Scott asked them what they did today and they were so excited that they were talking over each other telling him about our adventures.  He turned to me and said, “See what a fun mom you are?”  I needed that.

This isn’t going to make me look good as a mom, but it’s just too cute not to share.  Last night, Kate was having a hard time going to bed.  She kept getting out of bed and coming out to complain to us every few minutes.  I was at the end of my rope and was in the middle of giving Kate a good talking to when Audrey interrupted me and told me to give Kate one more chance.  So, then Audrey got a little bit of my wrath too.  I got Kate back into bed and was sitting on the floor outside their room making sure no one escaped when I heard this conversation.

Kate: Audrey, Mom is talking so mad at me.

Audrey: I think Mommy’s mad because she wants you to go to bed and get some sleep.  I think she’s kind of mad at me too.

Kate: But I don’t like it when she talks mad at me.  I just want her to talk nice to me.  I cleared the dishes and she just talks mad at me.

Audrey: I know Kate.  I know how you feel.

Kate: Can I sleep with you Audge?

Audrey: You can just lay by me.

Kate: Okay.  I ‘ll go get my pillow.

I went in to find Kate camped out on the floor.  Unfortunately that wasn’t the end of my intervention for the night.

First, welcome Michelle to the craze of blogging. I must say it’s about time you joined us.

On Michelle’s blog she posted a picture of me when I was younger. Michelle is 10 years my senior, and I have another sister 3 years older than me. This picture opened my eyes to the potential that my unborn boy will soon become a toy as Audrey and Kate will inevitably tream him like a doll.

For the uniformed reader, I used to have long, flowing, red har when I was in high school. Granted, it wasn’t as long as this wig, and now I have nothing up there. Oh well, such is life, and my hair maintenance is minimal and cheap.

I’m borrowing this picture from Michelle’s post with no permission, but I don’t think she’ll have a problem with it. I also found another picture around the same time to post of myself.

Last Saturday, we took the family down to San Marcos to run in the Country Roads 10k. Jeana did this last year and I was jealous. The race had less than 150 runners in it and it was just a fun, low-key atmosphere. I got to run this year because Jeana is 20 weeks pregnant (well, now she is 21).

Audrey (#190) and I ran the kids run together, and Jeana went with Kate. Audrey did this same race last year but she was slightly sick and had to be carried for some of the race. This year, she sped off from the start line and didn’t stop to walk for a long time. It didn’t take long for her friend, Drew, to pull away from her (just like his dad did with me). Audrey kept asking, “Where’s Drew?” I had to explain that he was a much faster and better trained runner because he has practiced running with his dad. Audrey said she felt like we should practice running now instead of riding bikes. I reminded her that we need to practice running, riding, and swimming so she can be ready for a triathlon.

Audrey’s finish was so awesome. We rounded the last bend and I told her that she was going to run the last stretch by herself. Tons of spectators saw her coming in and started cheering so loud. It was a proud moment for me. After she came through the finish chute and got some water, all the spectators were chatting with her and talking to her about the race, how old she is, and her medal.

Kate (#191) was the youngest runner in the kids race. She did about as good as you can expect a 2 year old to do. I hesitate to say 2 year old because she’ll be 3 in 2 months. Regardless, she falls in the 2 year old date range at present. After I finished with Audrey, I ran up the race route in the reverse direction to find Kate - really I thought I would need to help carry Kate. When I found Kate and Jeana they weren’t far from the end of the race. We chased our shadows and especially Kate’s shadow to get her to run. She finished the race and got her third race medal!

Audrey was lucky and even won a prize drawing after the race. Here prize was a set of paddles for paddle ball. She got a set of them in her race packet, so she gave her prize to Drew. Drew also won a prize of a game set (like checkers, chess, etc).

I got a personal record, 46:56. That means 7 minutes and 33 seconds per mile. I ranked 6th in the 30-39 age group and ranked 24th overall (out of 136). I’ll spare you the play-by-play, except for three things.

First, I started the race with Chris, who said that he would start with an 8 minute mile pace. I was happy with that since I hadn’t trained for this race like I should have. When we reached the first mile marker, my watch read 6:46. I can’t think of a time in my life when I have run a mile that fast. Thanks “Mr. I Keep a Good Pace”.

Second, after I fell back and let Chris run ahead at his light-speed pace, I took comfort in an aged, shirtless gentleman. He ran by my side (through thick and thin), behind me, and in front of me. At one point I swear he was drafting. Finally, he came up by my side again and since I’m a talkative and friendly runner, I looked over at him and said, “It’s sure nice to have company.” To which he replied, um well, nothing. Nada. He just stared straight ahead as if I didn’t exist. I was snubbed. We had stuck together for a couple miles, and now he treated me like I was dross. In the end, he finished 11th overall (right after Chris). He smoked me, so I can’t talk anymore trash than that. I did find a picture of him, and was tempted to post it here, but I’ll respect his privacy and refrain from showing his face to the world.

Third, I finished strong. I wanted to sprint the last stretch just to overcome my misery from the Round Rock 10k in June. For the last mile and a half of that race I kept asking myself, “Why am I doing this? I will never run a race again.” At the 6 mile marker I picked up the pace and as I rounded the last corner to where I could see the finish line I started sprinting. I passed a guy that had just passed me not too much earlier and I was proud of myself because I felt like I had a good burst of speed to finish on. Plus, it kept my time under 47 minutes!

Thanks to Hill Country Rambling for taking the photos.

Yesterday we moved the bunkbeds apart.  I thought it was probably going to be like the first night they shared a room, where they were running around, jumping around and staying up all hours of the night, but I was wrong.  They fell asleep really fast, but this is how we found them.  We’ll probably have to move Kate into her own bed every night for the next little while.

Kate has been horrible at taking naps lately.  We can tell she’s tired, but she just pushes through it and keeps herself awake.  Today at dinner, she finally crashed.  I know most kids have pictures of sleeping in their high chairs, but it has never happened to either of my kids before and Kate is almost 3.  I just couldn’t resist taking pictures as her head nodded back and forth until she eventually found a comfy position.

There is an awesome splash park here that we went to with some friends on Thursday. When I first moved here, Sandra, Lori and I tried going but the sprinklers weren’t working so this was my first time really enjoying it. The one sad part was that Audrey didn’t get to come. Sometimes I feel guilty doing fun things while she’s gone to school. I’m sure I’ll get past that eventually. We had so much fun. We’ll have to go on a Saturday so Scott and Audrey can join us. Kate was a little bit obsessed with sticking her bum in the water.