Mud Run

This past weekend we drove down to South Carolina for a mud run put on by the Marine base in Columbia. We really didn't know what to expect, but I think Sam and I would agree that it was even more fun than we had anticipated. The "race" (it's wasn't so much a race as much as it was an "experience") was a 4.2 mile course through a forested area including 32 different military obstacles that we had to complete with our teams of four. Since we were both racing we don't have any pictures of the obstacles but they included things like climbing over a 10 foot wall, crawling under and over logs through mud, swimming through muddy water, climbing up steep hills of dirt and swinging on a rope across muddy pools of water. It really was so much fun.

Sam and I completed the race separately with team members from our ward.
We started out so clean...




Sam's team finished 30 minutes before us so Sam was able to run back and take a few pictures towards the end of the race. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any pictures of Sam racing.


We may not look too great, but we felt great. We were pretty proud to have been able to complete all the obstacles as a team.


Sam loved the race so much he wishes we could have a course like that in our back yard just for fun.


They also had a small mud run for the kids which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. At first I was surprised at how "clean" they were staying, but when they ran the muddier course the second time around they certainly made up for it.







Here they are after their second run. Max lost a shoe and Reed turned into a mud mummy.


Ruby still wasn't feeling perfect on Saturday so I was a little worried about leaving her while I ran. She must have known I was feeling uneasy because when it was time for me to go she did just what she was supposed to.


There were 15,000 participants in the mud run so there were dirty people everywhere. When we first got there I saw a large crowd waiting in line for the shower and thought, "There is no way I am waiting in that line. I'm sure I'll find a way to clean off well enough without it". However after I completed the course I was so covered in mud (including in my nose and ears) that I was singing a different tune and happily waited in line twice to try to get clean. Even with multiple showers we all brought home plenty to remember the day by.

Here is just a small portion of the dirty crowd waiting for a shower.


Despite the long dirty drive home and achy muscles that followed it was totally worth it and we are already planning for next year.

9 months

I'm a little behind on this, but before 10 months is in sight I wanted to note a few things about this past month. At nine months...

1. Ruby met two sets of great-grandparents. Not everyone has the chance to ever meet their great- grandparents, but Ruby totally scored recently by meeting both my dad's parents during a quick trip to Bakersfield and Sam's granddad and his wife Marge while they were visiting in San Clemente. I know she won't remember the visit, but I'm still glad she had the opportunity.

Ruby felt right a home in my Grandma's arms.





Ruby with Granddad and Marge.


2. She had her first trip to California. I still consider myself a California girl so it's always a little weird for me to think that I have Carolina kids. Maybe someday they will know what it's like to be more than just a visitor. Ruby enjoyed a quick trip with us to California for Ingrid's wedding and was especially a fan of exploring all of the airports along the way.



3. She loves to stand and play. She is no longer happy to play seated, and is always working her way over to something to pull up on. She thinks she one of the "big kids" now.



4. She has some "favorite things" to play with. I think babies this age are a little funny in that they will really play with anything. A plastic lid, a wrapper, a crumb...nothing is off limits. Ruby will play with anything, but she definitely has some favorites. One of those favorites is crayons. I'm not sure if it's because she always sees the boys with them or what, but she loves to pick them up, look at them, feel them, drop them, pick them up again, pass them from one hand to the other, and lick them (they are non-toxic, right?). She doesn't really try to eat them, but she will play with them longer than just about any other "toy". A future artist perhaps?


5. Well, if she is not a future artist then she is a future librarian for sure. Another one of her favorite activities is to "reorganize" our book shelves.


6. She's a major pincher. Hair, skin, lips..she does it all. She's cute, but she can also be painful. And when we've neglected trimming her nails she's like a little cactus.


7. She loves to give zerberts (is that really a word?). I so wish I had a picture documenting this, but it is just about the cutest thing. She'll just do it randomly on my arm or neck while I am holding her and then laughs at herself. I think she is pretty funny too.


8. She has teeth. I tried and tried, but I couldn't get a picture where you could see her two cute bottom teeth, but she has them.


9. She's becoming a climber. It's not enough to be next to the dishwasher anymore...she has to be in the dishwasher.


10. She's learning how to "play back" with her brothers. Max loves to tease Ruby and now she's figuring out how to return the favor.


Each day I get to know Ruby and her cute personality a little better and find even more reasons to love her. Can't wait for next month.

The Croup

I'm not sure why it's called 'the croup', but I do know that it is the worst--especially when your three children get it back to back sequentially three weeks in a row. I think September 2010 will go down as the month of sick kids for our family. This week it's poor little Ruby's turn, and, while I think she has the most mild case, her bout has definitely been the most difficult for other reasons--namely her age. Sick babies make me so sad. They just seem so helpless--and Ruby certainly falls into that category.

The one good thing (and I'm pretty sure there is only one) about having your children get the same illness back to back three weeks in a row is that you can easily compare their "sick styles". I don't necessarily want to remember the lack of sleep I've experienced recently, but seeing how they react to this trial is worth remembering to me.

Reed was the first to get sick and after last month (the month of travel) it was almost nice to be stuck home for a few days. When Reed is sick he has ZERO energy. He loses his desire to do or eat anything and even his personality goes missing. He pretty much turns into an expressionless zombie that hibernates on the couch and bed until the illness has passed. Reading is pretty much the most active thing he did the week he was out. After a few days of resting I thought he was well enough to go back to school since he hadn't had a fever for a day, but I was wrong. An hour into school they called to tell me that Reed seemed "totally out of it and wasn't thinking". I, of course, felt like a terrible mother and rushed to pick him up. When I got him I asked if he wanted to go straight home or swing by the library to pick up some new books. He chose the library and said he wanted to get books about the body so he could figure out how to stop coughing. We were able to find a few books on why we get sick, but when he got home and read them he was terribly disappointed. "It didn't say anything about how to get better!".

This picture isn't from Reed's recent illness, but aside from sleeping it's just about the only thing he did.


The day Reed was finally well enough to go back to school Max woke up in the night coughing and we started all over again. However one gigantic difference between how Max and Reed respond to illness is that Max refuses to slow down and pushes himself until his body just gives up. I tried to get Max to lay down several times as he watched T.V. or I read him a book, but time and time again he'd be sitting up and playing on the couch when he should have been sleeping. A few times he would be busily playing and all of a sudden he would say "My head hurts," and then he'd lay right down on the floor and fall asleep. Unfortunately, his unwillingness to rest also results in a grumpy and whiny boy, so his week of illness was far from restful for any of us.

I finally did get him to fall asleep by having him lay down in my bed and look at pictures in the Encyclopedia. Worked like a charm.


Ruby is by far the most pathetic of the bunch. She has the saddest little whine that sounds a lot like a desperate cat. Her scratchy little complaint is almost more than I can bear. I hate that there is really nothing I can do to make her feel better. She is incredibly clingy and needy and mostly refuses to be put down. I can tell she wants to be happy and silly again, but just doesn't have the energy to be herself. She is only on day three of her illness (hopefully the worst of it), but already her inability to sleep at night is taking a toll on her (and me). She is a miserable little mess and I can't wait for her to be better.

It's almost mean to take a picture of someone when they look/feel like this.


I think I will read this entry again when I have three healthy kids so I can be more grateful when things are normal because right now normal is looking really good compared to this...

Ninjas

A couple months ago we randomly checked out a Teenage Mutant Turtle book from the library and our lives haven't been the same since. Reed already had an interest in ninjas, but learning about the teenage mutant turtle variety transformed his interest into something that as Reed says, "we are really into" (using air quotes and all--love that boy). We play TMNT (as it is always abbreviated by Reed) and regular ninjas as well. I personally prefer the later, but I am accommodating to both. Thankfully there are just enough main characters for each of us to always have a part. Phew! Reed is Raphael, Max is Leonardo, Sam is Donatello, I am Michelangelo and of course Ruby is Master Splinter. We are often fighting Hun and his foot ninjas, but I think my favorite 'bad guy" has been Lady Gaga. We took care of her.

Here are the boys dressed up as real ninjas. The cutest ninjas I've ever seen.




Ninja play isn't reserved for the home. When Reed reports to me about his day at school it almost always includes doing his own ninja training at recess. I'm not sure exactly what this entails, but I do know that there are different levels including Jr. Ninja, and Super Ninja. Today he told me he can now do a Ninja jump off the side of the slide. He said it was a little scary, but then smiled and said, "I thank my lucky stars that I have hands to catch me." It's so typical of Reed to try out new phrases that he has read in a book. I'm pretty sure Ninjas don't "thank their lucky stars."

Max is also pretty passionate about the whole ninja thing. I woke up early one morning to find him in the living room (we are talking pre-dawn early) drawing, coloring and cutting out the whole TMNT crew to tape up on the bar. It was so cute, I haven't yet had the heart to take it down.




I don't know how long this latest phase will last, but we'll enjoy it while it does. Cowabunga!!!

Lake Cascade

Lake Cascade was beautiful and turned out to be just about the perfect place for my family to enjoy all of the water activities we had planned. It was a little on the cool side the first day, but after that the weather warmed up and it was just right for the rest of the week. One of the best parts was that, as far as we could tell, we had the place to ourselves. We never saw another boat on the lake the whole time we were there and we were able to enjoy ourselves on a nice sandy beach without another soul around. It was great to spend the day with the kids playing on the beach and be able to drive the boat right up to the shore to take turns skiing, wakeboarding and jet skiing.

Is it just me are does the lake have a tropical look in this picture...


Reed went skiing for his first time on "horseshoe" skis. He took a little coaxing, but I was proud of him for being brave enough to give it a try and stick with it. As as watched him from the shore it looked like he was having a great time until the boat looped around and I could hear from quite a distance Reed shouting, "Stoooooooooooop!!" It was pretty cute and funny. He did enjoy the experience--- he just thought that one loop was enough.


The kids spent a good chunk of their day playing in the sand working on a variety of "projects" including a large hole they called a "hot tub." All I know is that it involved a lot of digging, gathering rocks and transporting as much water as possible in bottles, buckets and bags.




Jet Skiing was Reed's absolute favorite. I thought he might be a little hesitant after his skiing experience, but I couldn't have been more wrong. He loved it and was begging for more speed instead of less.


Reed wasn't the only one who enjoyed the jet skis. My sisters and I had the rare opportunity to do something fun together without kids. I was the first to drive because they both said I would be the least timid, but after taking my turn as a passenger, I would say there is nothing timid about either one of them on jet skis.



Yes...that is Sam trying to catch a football while holding Ruby. I don't know, but that seems like a really bad idea. Thankfully the ball was caught and no one was worse for it.


The kids loved learning to skip rocks on the lake.


Matt and Olivia hanging out on the shore.


And what do you need after a long day on the water???....MORE water of course. The hot tub was just about filled to capacity every night. In case the pictures aren't evidence enough, the kids were in heaven.