Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day this year was PERFECT!



The day started with a bubbly bath followed by some reading of the book, "I am a Mother."
It made me feel great to be a mother.
While I was upstairs relaxing Jake and the kids were downstairs cooking up breakfast, making cards, and wrapping gifts.
Susie gave me a flower bouquet she made in preschool, with chocolates,
and Jake gave me several maternity shirts, a pair of capris and a bowl.
They were exactly what I wanted.
Jake is becoming a great gift giver.



After church we went to my mom's to visit and bring her a gift.
Kirsten also gave her a letter. It was adorable. I will try to post it later.
After arriving home I lounged around while Jake made me a Texas Sheet Cake (w/walnuts!), then we headed to some friends' home for a steak dinner.

What a super day!

Half a Day at the Lake

I made a crucial discovery the day we went to the lake with the Siddoways. I'd always thought the east entrance to Lake Pleasant was the main county entrance and the west entrance was an obscure, infrequently used, back entrance. To my dismay I learned the east entrance is a private boat ramp, with a non-refundable entrance fee (no exceptions). The west entrance, which we typically use, is one of two docks provided by the county (I realized I'd never even been to the 2nd boat ramp). This discovery has cleared up some major confusion for me. Unfortunately, the Siddoways had to trail along as I made this discovery. So embarrassing!

Canoeing

Leslie has wanted to go canoeing (yep, that's how it's spelled) on Lake Pleasant for about a year. (That's how long her parents' canoe has been sitting, collecting rainwater, in our backyard.) She tried to get us up there on a couple date nights, but I wasn't that excited about using a date night to drive all the way up there, get wet for a few minutes, then turn around and come home.

On the last day of Spring Break we finally went, with all the kids in tow. The Siddoways and their kids came along too and we had a great time roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on the shoreline. Besides some fishing, we took the canoe out a few times:





While we roasted our marshmallows / made s'mores, the "supermoon" rose above the horizon!



It was a little sad on the way up: we passed a fatal car accident in north Peoria.

I had a great time and definitely regret not doing this on some date night. (Unfortunately we returned the canoe to Lel's parents on the way home.)

Your mom goes to college too

I (Leslie) got a late start training for the Ragnar. I wasn't sure I even wanted to run this year, but I figured training for it was good for my body, so I decided to give it a go.

Running with Katie was fun--it's always nice to have a running partner to help time go by. Our Saturday morning runs were different than Jake's since we didn't have to entertain kids after we ran. We just grabbed them and headed for home.

The first few times it was pretty cold, and we'd grab the crying babies from the boys and carry them down the trail as their crying echoed throughout South Mountain Park. It was fun to warm up with hot chocolate once we got home!

In the end I decided not to run the race.

Even though I was feeling sick on the race weekend I still had a blast. I had my younger sisters, Kara and Kensie, over for a slumber party. The kids went to the babysitting co-op across the street, while my sisters and I ate pizza and Paradise Bakery cookies, and watched one of our very favorite movies... North & South.

Here's the North & South trailer, it is soooo good! (And no, Jake, it's not about the Civil War.)



Ladies, let me know if you ever want to have a girls night and watch it!

Your mom goes to college

We ran our third Ragnar Relay this past weekend. And by "we ran" I mean I ran it. (Leslie wanted to but couldn't.)

Last Fall, our good friends the Winns invited us to run it with them. Although Lel had to back out in the end, we had a great time training together at South Mountain Park. A few times the kids even came along.

We would hike up at sunrise, then Steve and I would watch the kids while Lel and Katie ran. Then they'd take the kids home while we ran. Steve was great at coming up with things for the kids to do.

One time, when the freezing temperature made venturing out to look at cacti seem less than appealing for the kids, we brought up this classic on my iPhone:


Anyway, back to the race, the weather was perfect and my van-mates were a blast.

We saw some great scenery along the way. Here's a panorama I took south of Wickenburg (click to enlarge):


Here's a shot of Four Peaks during our third leg:


The full team:


I always wish I were in better shape by the end of these races, but I think doing a round of P90X last year made a difference this time. My pace for the three legs was 8:20 (5.6 miles), 9:33 (4.7 miles), and 10:23 (8.8 miles). That puts my overall pace at 9:35. I hope to get in better shape so next time I can average more like 8:30.

Thanks to the Winns for letting me run with them!