Two more 5k's

I ran two more 5k's this month. The first one was the Race for the Cure (breast cancer). It was an interesting race, as there were thousands of people participating. Crazy. It took me 3 minutes to get from my starting position (in the middlish of the pack) to the starting line after they blew the horn. And then I spent about 10 minutes weaving in and out of the walkers before I had a clearer road in front of me. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in one place. After the race they had a big vendor's area set up. They opened it up to the public as soon as the race started, so Mike and the kids had the place practically to themselves, while I was running. The seemed to have had a great time and obtained several free items: smoothies, ice cream sandwiches, burritos, reusable totes, and other misc stuff. It was alot of fun.

 The other race was a week later on Daylin's birthday. The course ran through parts of TTU campus.

 I pretty much got the exact same time for both races, and my best time yet: 30:54!

Other projects

 I got to do another cake... well this one was actually a brownie. But I layered one hunk and decorated it and covered the other chunk in fondant.

I also reupholstered a chair I got for free. The kids love it because it rocks and swivels around.

Daylin's Birthday

Well Daylin had a birthday a little over a week ago, and the little stinky head turned 3. It was pretty low key. That morning I had a race, but after that we just played and opened presents. Thank you to everyone who sent her gifts. She has had quite a bit of fun with everything. Her main gift was a largish doll that talks and comes with her own tricycle, chair, table, bed and food.

 

A tutu from Melia, and previously mentioned doll chair.

 Scarfs from Aunt Jessica

 Fairy dress up clothes from Grandma T

And because Everett has to try everything on first in this house :)

(He is such a good sport... I hope it lasts)

 And I got her some tights... again Everett being a good sport. Kinda blurry but too funny not to share.

 

I also made a cake. I have enjoyed cake decorating lately and had a lot of fun making Daylin her castle cake. And we had some friends over to help us celebrate.

Happy Birthday Daylin! We love you! 

Here are a few crazy and loveable things about Daylin:

• She loves to read, and has a knack for memorizing books. She can “read” all the little critter books for you if she is in the mood for it.
• She is a proficient conversationalist. She is easy to understand and communicates really well. She is also a bit of a parrot. If it has been said even just once, it is fair game to be repeated at any point. She even uses words that I don’t ever remember saying. :) (Not bad ones… geesh)
• She is very good at going potty in the toilet and has made potty training a breeze.She rarely needs to be asked, goes on her own, washes her hands and returns to play. But she does seem to love waiting until we are out shopping before she tells me she has to go. Grrr!
• I mentioned it earlier, but she has an amazing memory and recalls things at the perfect time. In fact I will sometimes tell her “Daylin, we are out of such and such…., and when we go to the store can you remind me?” And she will… all the time :) It’s an awesome little tool. She also pulls up old memories and refers to how they relate to the present. It never ceases to amaze me, when she does stuff like that.
• She loves to dance and has wicked good hip shaking moves.

Ft. Worth

Mike had his annual AAMFT conference a couple of weeks ago and this year it was in Ft. Worth, Texas. Since he would already be driving and staying in a hotel, we decided to come along for the ride. We stayed in an Extended Stay hotel which is the only way to go with kids since it had a separate bedroom behind a door. Yeah!! Naps and bedtime were much easier. Here are the things we did while Mike was at a boring conference:

Explored the water gardens... pretty cool and some parts were kinda dangerous if you ask me.

 The best spot to be... with her feet in the water.

Rode on a miniature train... lots of fun!!!

Played at a local park.

Rode a carousel at the Parks in Arlington... and played at the playground there.

And the last night we were there, Mike was able to visit the botanical gardens with us. Very beautiful!!!

And here are the kids doing a fantastic job enduring the 10+ hours in the car

 That is yogurt by the way :)

Walking

I still have a ton of other things to post that happened during September, but I wanted to squeak this in so in didn't get pushed back a month. Everett decided that walking is a more efficient way to go. He's doing so well and at 10 1/2 months, has his sister beat in this milestone by about a month. Go Everett!

And this is what Daylin does all day. She just can't seem to leave the poor little guy alone.

Vacation (Utah)

Shesh, this is taking me forever to update. After our stay in Etna, the three of us, plus my sister, Jannalee PACKED ourselves like sardines into Janna's (tiny) new car and made the 12 hour journey to Utah.  The journey was mostly uneventful as the kids endured the trip pretty well. We stayed in a  hotel midway through and that ended up being the biggest nightmare of the trip. For some reason Daylin thinks that if you are in the same bed as her, it is her job to kick you relentlessly. And she has been going through this phase, I don't know... since she was born, where she doesn't listen... EVER. So that was a fun and tiring night. Here are some highlights of the trip...

American Fork has this man made pond that has an area sectioned off for swimming. Needless to say the kids had a blast. Particularly Everett. He sat in the water for over an hour just splashing around.

Grandma O made a "hot tub" for the kids. The sun was hot enough that it warmed the still water and made it quite warm for the kids.

Another major highlight was playing at the cousin's house. They have quite the setup in their backyard. The kids were entertained for more hours that I can count.

 

Daylin once again enjoying a trampoline.

 

And the playground.

 Daylin and Leigh snuck away with the cameras and took pictures of each other. Not bad, eh?

 Wagon ride

Grandma and Grandpa O

 Can you already imagine what is going to happen here?

Thank you Olsen family for letting us visit you and making such an effort to entertain us. We had a great time. 

A big thanks goes out to Aunt Rosemary for putting on a Thackeray family get together while we were there. So many cousins to see, it was awesome. (Thanks also Rosemary for taking the pictures and allowing me to steel them from facebook.) I love my family.

We also got to hang out with my siblings a bit more. We stayed the last night with my sister Jessica. It was awesome staying up late and watching a movie with 2 of my best friends. Something I never get to do anymore. Thanks sisters!

The plane trip home was great, the kids did really well for me.

One other last item of note is that I got to see an old friend. While I keep up on her blog it was fun seeing in person how her family has grown, she looks great, and her children are beautiful. While I don't often get attached to people and rarely keep contact, there are definately some people I miss being around and find myself wishing I could be her neighbor.