I know, I know

The question on everyone's mind is "DID she end up drowning in the filth?!"

Well, it was close. Luckily a Christmas away in Utah to get rejuvenated, and then almost two weeks following with no other responsibilities allowed me to dominate the filth and win! (For probably a week. Sneaky household. I swear there are elves who create dirty laundry while I'm sleeping at night.)

Anyway - time to get going again. Here are some pics from an outing Thanksgiving weekend that we highly enjoyed. Now you can enjoy.

First Triathlon

What a fun day we had today! Up early for Mike's first triathlon. He smoked 'em in the water. Nice form, Mr. Michael.

Then he was off on his bike. The kids and I had a ton of fun moving all around to different locations to cheer him on. The boys shouted out "Clone helmet!" every time they saw someone ride past wearing one of those funky looking sideways-teardrop-shaped helmets. Reminded me of shouting "Slug bug!" when I was younger. Pardon the half captured image. It was always interesting to all of a sudden spot him and then frantically turn on the camera and shoot as fast as I could. I actually erased a number of pictures that were of total strangers.

Workin' it.

He finished!
700 meter swim
27 km (btwn 16 and 17 mile) bike ride
5k run
1 hour and 47 minutes
Not too shabby for his first time!

Afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream, while Mike enjoyed the free massages offered. Ahhh....

While waiting for Mike to be able to get his bike, the kids found their own entertainment. Climbing large dirt hills and camping out under a few giant toadstools.
Andrew is showing you the crystal he found, and yes, I make Amelia's hair cute in the morning, but it has a mind of it's own.

Then we threw in some delicious burgers and a 50 cent movie at a newly discovered discount theatre to make for the perfect day. We finally got to see the movie UP! and we LOVED it!

Happy Labor Day and gooooOOOOOOO MIKE!

**oops! I forgot that Mike also did a triathlon at both Utah State and BYU. But they were much shorter. So let's say this is his first Bigger Triathlon. (:

Jacob is 8

Happy Birthday, Jake the Snake! Oh wait, Captain Rex, sir! Here is the post you have been looking for, buddy boy. I'm slow, but my brain's fried on kids. Behold the sweet, blue masterpiece. Ok - decent for a 10 minute time slot allowed for frosting the cake before people start arriving for the party.

Chipmunk boy extinguishes the flames.

Jacob is obsessed with all things Lego and Star Wars. Many kind family members and friends fed his appetite. I thought this picture did his reactions to the evening justice. BEYOND thrilled.

Two of his youngest uncles team up with he and Andy Roo to race against each other in building identical droid bombers Jake received. (I already know that "droid bomber" is SO not what these are called. As soon as Jake reads this he will inform me of their real name which is probably something like Droid Battleship 4TP originating from the Galactic Region which was overseen by Lord So and So....)

Fittingly for the birthday boy, his team (okay- Kris) won by a close margin with Sterling moments behind.

We had tons of fun this night with lots of family and some friends over. Barbequed (Mike made some awesome grilled pineapple), and played some Bocci.

Dashing thru the snow,

or at least through the 20 degree weather! Not sure where it came from, but I wouldn't mind a little snow if it's going to get that cold!

Anyway, we went CAROLING last night and delivered zucchini bread to lots of families. It was so much fun! We had a big box full of gaily wrapped bread situated between the front seats and it reminded me of doing the same with all my cousins many years ago in my grandparent's big green van.

All the families loved it and a few had never been caroled to before! I'm very happy that a number of our friends have expressed interest in joining us in the future, so that we have more voices to, uh, BLEND with, ahem.

Oh- and whenever the boys would hand the bread over they would exclaim, "It's zucchini bread!" (one of their favorite treats ever.) The looks on a number of faces - especially those of the children- were classic. (Revolting! Vegetable bread?!?) I finally told the boys to stop telling people what it was, so that it would be a sweet surprise.

So that's that. Had to remember this. Such a great night. And Amelia was decked out in the CUTEST little Christmas outfit with boots and hat. Adorable. Brought the camera, but I guess it wanted to stay warm in the van....

It's Saturday!

Just a couple of photos from today. This morning started out with Amelia squished into the sink, doing her hair, admiring herself, and babbling into the faucet handle (microphone fashion).

We worked a ton today cleaning out the garage, arranging furniture that still did not have a place, doing yardwork, and organizing closets AGAIN! The boys pitched in most of the day as well, and we all just took a much needed break. We read a couple more chapters from the book we are reading as a family (Laura Ingalls Wilder: Farmer Boy), and had plain doughnuts and eggnog to go with it. Almanzo loves these things and the boys have been wanting to try them. Surprisingly they both loved the eggnog.

Fall is here! Beautiful colors, falling leaves, a welcome bite to the air, and even some frosty mornings. Apple pies to be baked tomorrow. Mmmmm.......

Kite Festival!

"Now this is what I call a Party!" exclaimed Andrew as we approached this...





Today we went to the 80th annual Zilker Kite festival. It was kicked off in 1929 and then moved to the park we were at in 1936. So cool! I am a nut for all things historical, and as we walked through the throngs of people I was imagining the same crowds wearing very different clothing and flying very different kites. It's always neat to have traditions and I think this one will be a new one for our family.

Shame on me for not bringing a camera! Still not a habit yet. The kites were INCREDIBLE! We saw sharks, flying ships, dragons, box kites, squids, and one shaped like a little boy that we thought was hysterical. As "he" tried to take off he looked like he was somersaulting, then falling flat on his face, then finally flapping into the air. (The pictures above are from 3 years ago -but give you an idea).

There were hundreds and hundreds of kites. We weren't sure what to expect, so we didn't know if we could bring our little rinky dink kites. We could've! Anyone who wanted to fly anything was welcome to. As we were watching all the amazing kites, a family walked up and offered us two of their kites. We were so grateful. The boys really had so much fun trying to keep them in the air. It was incredibly windy and kites were dive-bombing everybody. There were probably a couple thousand people there and it was just fun to be in the warm outdoors, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and to be flying kites with tons of other families.