November 19, 2011:
The Mamababy Haiti 5k "
Give Thanks and Run", the weekend before Thanksgiving! My midwife put together this race, which is an awesome fundraiser for her non-profit birth center and health clinic. Brent had to work, unfortunately, so I gathered up all my kids and coerced them into running the 5k with me. Now since I was "running" with a 6 and a 9 year old, we'll use that term loosely. :)
For the most part, they did great! Except
{somebody} had to go
{poop} in the middle of the race, and of course there was nowhere to go. I really don't remember how we survived that little challenge. At the end, Joshua was really glad that he did it...but Toby wants to run the 1 mile kids run next year instead. I was secretly grateful to have the kids run with me since I was ~8 weeks pregnant and needed an excuse to not go as fast as I normally do.
It was fun to get out there in the nice weather and see some great people!
here we are all pumped up to run the boys' first 5k!
here we are after the race...Joshua happy, Toby not so much. And we got awesome t-shirts that say "I ran for their lives" on the back. Except Toby refuses to wear it because it says "mama" on it.
We will for sure come back and do it again next year!
It's a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday.
Overall, I'm one proud mama!
November 12, 2011
We took a little drive, which entailed a bit of off road driving to get there. It was quite complex, and we had a little "almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere" adventure. But it was an AMAZING waterfall...
Too bad Oliver fell asleep in the car by the time we got there. I stayed in the car with Ollie while the big guys took the short hike to the falls. But Joshua fell and scraped his knee just a bit into the hike, so he came back and sat in the car with me.
I'm hoping we can drive back out there (preferably in the summer) with a full tank of gas...sometime.
But here are pictures:
check out that cool basalt!
As I mentioned earlier, we had an "almost ran out of gas" adventure. On our way back out of the hills, our tank went to "zero miles left". And after a prayer, we drive on zero for over 20 miles until we got to the small town of Silverton to refill our tank. We all felt a miracle in our lives that day! And were very glad that our "adventure" did not include being stranded in the middle of nowhere without gas.
November 10, 2011
Cape Kiwanda State Park is a great beach to go and play at during the fall/winter/spring (when it's not raining) because there is so much to do there besides playing in the water! Most notably, Cape Kiwanda has a HUGE sand dune on the south end of the beach, which takes an hour to climb up and mere seconds to run/jump/roll down. And there is SO MUCH sand to play with. We had a lovely time.
drawing in the sand
exploring the beach, we found some washed up jellyfish
(Brent thought they maybe looked like something else...)
Ollie enjoyed driving his truck in Brent's hair
After taking in the glorious views, it's time to climb the DUNE:
Ollie was trying hard to crawl up to the top, but it was getting SO STEEP that he was sliding backward. And he ate a sand sandwich.
almost...to...the...top...
made it!! Now it's time for a rest.
taking in more views...
feeling small in a big place
time for baby to play!
and time for a good roll down the sand hill!
A sunset romp on the beach...
watching the colors change and finally fade away...
11.6.11
The primary in our church (the children's group) planned a trip to visit the temple grounds and walk around. We all went together as a family, as we realized that we had never taken our children to the Portland Temple grounds before. The temple is such a special place to our family (and all families in our church) because when Brent and I were married there, we were sealed together for all eternity. I've always thought that was great because he's my best friend and I don't want to be separated from him after we die. And then when you add kids to the mix, you want them to be a part of your family forever as well. And then it REALLY hits home when someone in your family actually dies, and it brings long-term comfort and reassurance that you will be with that person again. Honestly after Elsa died, that is what kept me from wanting to die too. I am very thankful for the ordinances we have participated in the temple, which will keep our family together forever. I don't know where I'd be without that. It was a pleasure to visit there with our kids and to talk about that with them. They are also very comforted by the idea that Elsa will be a part of our family forever!
the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children
And that makes me SO happy, because I love my family more than anything.
On a lighter note, my kids loved my outfit so much that day because they thought I looked like a Jedi!
But seriously...
The Temple: it's what keeps everything you work so hard on during your life from falling apart after you die.
Check it out! It ROCKS!
10.31.11
Halloween!
{I know I'm running behind on this one, but after I'm done with October I'm so much closer to being caught up since I don't have many adventures from November and December to post! So excited to be caught up, and then hopefully print a book for the year!}
Ever since Toby got a Star Wars video game for his birthday in June, the boys have wanted to have a Jedi Halloween
{until they saw Voltron on Netflix and decided they wanted that, but I insisted against it...}. Jedi was very easy for me since I already made the cloaks for Joshua's birthday party several years back
{it was so many years back that it was on my old blog...unbelievable! That should have been my first warning sign. Actually click here if you want to find that birthday part. It's really cute!}. I just had to sew a couple of pants and a sash. Looking back, I really could've done a better job on their costumes, but oh well. I had too much fun working on MY costume. At the last minute, on the night of the trunk or treat, I decided to throw costumes together for Brent and I in the Star Wars theme as well.
STAR WARS
We were wishing you a Happy Halloween {at the time}
from Luke, Ewok, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Obi Wan Kanobi
I had a bunch of problems with the big boys' costumes. First of all, the cloaks {which I made for Joshua's 6TH birthday party, and I thought would still fit} were way too small. Sad. Also, I didn't measure for their pants, and those ended up way too big. And I couldn't find Joshua a white long sleeve shirt to wrap himself up with and tie a sash around. Coulda done WAY better. Oh well.
Ollie on the other hand, wore his little friend (who is 11 months older than him) costume from last year, which we had been planning on doing for many months. Only it was too small too because Oliver is such a TALL boy! He was busting out of the costume.
Then there was Brent's Han Solo costume. I had less than 30 minutes til we had to leave, and I looked at a picture of Han Solo and got major inspiration. It's a good thing he was being a good sport because I handed him my jeans to wear...yep that's right, he's wearing MY pants! Han wears tight pants, Brent does not. I have not laughed as hard all year, as I did when I handed Brent my pants. They were a perfect fit. We must be the exact same size...go figure! Then he wore his black galoshes, and a funky blazer over an oxford shirt. But the other funny part, which I WISH you could see in the picture, was that I made him a belt. It consisted of a child safety seat strap and buckle wrapped up in aluminum foil. PERFECT! Such a great Han Solo for 30 minutes of prep time.
Finally, on to the costume of which I am most happy:
Leia!
I had 3 yards of white stretchy fabric laying around, so I folded it in half and pinned the fabric in a T-shape...where I wanted the seams for the body and the sleeves. I sewed that and cut off the excess. Then I cut a slit in the top for my head, and sewed on a strip of fabric folded in half for the mock-turtle neck...to give it a more defined look, like the real Leia dress. Then I took a wide elastic band and fit it around my waist...and decorated it with cut out cardboard shapes covered with aluminum foil. Then there was the hair. The HAIR! I do NOT have enough hair for those big buns, so I made a head piece with a coat hanger, cardboard and brown yarn (which I already had at my house). I wish I had taken pictures of the step-by-step process of making that, because it really came together so well! I was most pleased with the outcome. Just think, earmuffs with yarn wound up and glued with a hot glue gun on the cardboard, which had a hanger punctured through and twisted up. For a nice finishing touch, I wound yarn around the hanger so you couldn't see it. Then I put pigtails in my hair, positioned the muffs over the pigtails, and wrapped my long pigtails around the yarn earmuffs. That way it looked more like my real hair! I threw this all together in about 2 hours.
After the trunk or treat, we had a little soiree at our friends' house. We made skeleton face mini-pizzas, and had other spooky treats.
cutest little ewok, no?
But Ollie's favorite event was bobbing for apples!
{one of his favorite foods!}
It was so much fun to watch Oliver getting so in to the festivities this year!
The only question left in my mind is what would Elsa have been if she could be here celebrating with us? Yoda?
