more in June

Dang! I’ve fallen way behind again!  The problem with that is losing the details. 

Good news: we have a yard! We did hydoseeding to get the lawn in.  The best is when we’ve been gone for a few days and the change is more obvious.  The girls always attribute it to the fairies. 

I ran a half marathon.  Sort of.  I have not been training regularly but since the race entry was free, figured it would make me get at least one good long run in before my next Ragnar.  So I talked by bf into going with me.  We ran the first half of it and mostly walked the second half.  But since she started a new job and I never get to see her anymore, the best part was just getting the chance to catch up.

We had an AMAZING girls weekend.  It’s become and annual tradition and certainly worthy of its own post, I just waited too long and fear forgetting details.

The girls and I arrived Sunday evening to the condo (rented through my sister’s timeshare) and were amazed how big and luxurious it was.  It took awhile for everyone to trickle in that night but then we spent three days swimming, watching movies, doing crafts and more.  The kids loved making bead bracelets and painting suncatchers.  We brought a few toys like dolls and dress ups and ponies.  We rented the movie theatre to watch Baymax with marshmallows and cotton candy.  We went shopping and played at the park.  We had our etiquette lesson and fancy dinner at a restaurant.  And we ate a ton of good food and delicious desserts.  It was all the women from my side of the family, from Grammy down to the babies (which works well since most of the grandkids are girls) and we had a fantastic time together.

The one terrible moment was when E got her hand smashed in the car door.  No one saw it happened but I raced over to open the door and scoop her up, horrified to see how bad it looked.  I climbed right back into the car holding her in my lap while Grammy took the drivers seat.  In a last second decision, we took a sobbing L with us, just to reassure her that sister would be ok.  Husband met us at the hospital ER where they had to do a digital blocker twice to get her numb enough for a closer look.  With a tourniquet and irrigation, the damage wasn’t as bad as we feared.  The bone was intact and while there wasn’t enough left to stitch it back together, the skin was able to heal back together.  A week later we followed up with a hand specialist who confirmed there’s no damage to its ability but the nail germination matrix suffered the brunt of the impact.  The nail has fallen out and it could be a year or even more before we know if it will recover properly.  but, at least she still has a finger.

Grammy celebrated her 60^th birthday.  But since her and Papa were about to leave on a two week cruise, we celebrated before they left with a surprise family dinner party at Olive Garden.  For a gift, we put together a basket of 60ish presents, every family contributing fun little things.  There was a lot of purple, mickey-themed, pampering, treats and more.

We spent a few days up north with family.  We started at Grammy’s house to “help” them pack for their trip.  (Mostly play and be in the way.)  We spent the night at I snuck in an appointment to Grammy’s stylist for a Brazillian blowout hair treatment (love!!!!!!!!)  Then after we sent Grammy and Papa off on their trip, the drove to the next valley over to my brother’s house.  We found them trying to get ready for a home inspection (for doing a refinance), while 8 months pregnant and four small children underfoot.  So we put ourselves to work, helping to clean and organize as best we could.  We spent the night and then took the kids out of the house for the day (mostly to keep in intact before the inspection, and partly to go shopping).  We played at the park and had a great time with cousins.  And then since my sister in law was having regular contractions, we spent the night again, hoping my new nephew would arrive.  We even broke four wishbones, but each time the top snapped off and flew away, apparently telling us no.

I ventured into the world of permanent cosmetics, encouraged in part by allergies and in part by getting tired of sweating my make up off.  I LOVE my new eyeliner.  Yes it hurt.  (not as much as you’d imagine) And it was totally worth it.

I ran the Dirty Dash! It was a last minute decision; I bought the bib off a friend the night before, showed up and ran with them.  It was girls I knew from an online running community but didn’t actually know well in person.  We had a great time together, tackling the obstacles and getting very, very muddy.  So incredibly muddy in fact, that the girls wouldn’t come near me until after I showered.  We did the 10K challenge and because of the many obstacles, it took us over two hours.

We celebrated an incredible milestone with husband’s company: the official opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at the new production facility.  They gave tours of the plant and invited guests from the state, county and from their various projects.  For me, it was so much fun to see friends and be apart of the excitement, knowing what a great step this is.

I ran the Ragnar Wasatch Back race.  Two years ago, this was my first race.  This year it was my tenth ragnar (and I’ve ran 6 half marathons).  I joined a new team, one I’d never met but found on an online forum.  We had a team dinner on Thursday night at the captains house.  And then on Friday, I dropped the girls off to my sister’s house and waited for my van to pick me up.  I was runner 7, a challenge that I had eagerly wanted.  My first run was long but strong, in the fading heat.  My midnight run was short but tough with my stomach acting up.  And my third leg was Ragnar Hill, 10.5 miles up 2500 of elevation.  Fortunately, two other friends on different teams ran the hill before I did and sent me texts, warning and prepping me for the experience.  So I felt really good about the run, finishing in my anticipated time of 2.5 hours.  Meanwhile, my team went out for pizza.  But since by then, they knew me well and it had become a running joke that they had to stop and feed me every three hours, so they saved me some!  I didn’t linger at the finish line party though.  Actually I got home as soon as I could because I had invited friends from my usual Ragnar team over to BBQ.  This team has raced together many times but since most of us are from the area, we split up for the Wasatch Back, often running with teams from work or with teams that will let us run for free.  So we got together for dinner and enjoyed the evening together, comparing our race stories and future race plans.

The girls are loving their busy summer.  We've gone swimming a few times at a neighborhood play group.  We attended the library's superhero party for games, bouncehouse and face painting.  We've had friends come over for play dates and spent lots of time riding bikes, doing chalk drawings and eating popsicles outside.  They attended a day camp to make surprises for Father's Day and filled out fantastic questionnaires about their daddy.  (there was a strong theme of fixing stuff and making popcorn).  And they attended a weeklong dance camp.  L attended "Jump Start", required for next year's competition team while A and E went to "Snow Queen camp" while dancing, crafts, storytelling and puppet theatre.

And then, as we settled into the last few days of chaos before our trip, my sister in law had her baby.  We immediately pushed off all packing, laundry and cleaning to race north before he arrived.  I went to the house to relieve my other sister in law who was on sibling duty and spent the night there.  We had a rough night as the kids were very wound up.  The next day, we went to the hospital where I got to hold my new nephew for a few minutes and soak in his sweet newborn perfection.