The Amazing Race

Mia came home with a flier about a race that was being held on the Saturday (which is uncommon here) before Halloween. I was needing some motivation, so I signed up for the 10K. I also noticed that they were having a 1K Kid Fun Run too. Mia runs everywhere. If we are on a walk, she has to run the entire way. So I asked Mia if she wanted to run in a race with me. She was excited.

We went on a practice run one time before the race. I wanted to show her the distance she would be running. I had to take the little ones with me. Mia did not enjoy running and complained. I wondered if she was going back out of the race or if she was just not having a good day.

The day of the race came. I drove myself because my race was first and Ben was going to meet me there towards the end of my race. My race was great, I think mostly due to the part that I ran with someone the entire way! Her and I were going the same pace and I thought about passing her, but I didn't want to wear myself out, especially at the beginning of the race. I just started chatting with her and we ended up talking and running the whole time.

She was a great motivator and I finished with a time of 57 minutes. I was happy because my goal was to finish in a hour. Forgive the cheesy smile. Why I smiled like that, I don't know. I invited my new friend, Vanessa to come and play indoor soccer with me next week at the church.

I had about an hour before Mia's race. This race, costumes were encouraged. Mia dressed up as a ballerina and my friend Emily, made me a tutu to wear. She made it to match my shoes. Thank you Emily!

Mia was so excited to run she kept asking me when it was time. The person who was supposed to blow the horn was having problems. I think Ben started the race. He yelled "Go" and everyone took off.

I ran with Mia to help motivate her. She was awesome. She ran so fast and had to stop a couple of times and then just sprinted off. There was only one boy and his Mom in front of us. I told her, don't let anyone pass you!

Mia was the first girl to pass the finish line and received a trophy for first place for ages 6-12. She was so excited. When we were waiting in line for the lunch they served us after, Mia said, "Is this a dream? I can't believe this is real." People kept taking pictures of her and one lady told Mia that she was going to make Mia famous with the picture she had just taken. Mia was on cloud nine and kept talking about how everyone was congratulating her.

I was so proud of Mia and that she did her best. When we got home, I was so touched that her big sister CJ wasn't jealous but proud of her little sister. I overheard her bragging to a friend who was visiting, that her sister got first place in a race.

Halloween Celebrations!

This weekend, our friends had a Halloween party. We were so excited to go! We had originally planned on doing a party this year, but with digging up our yard and Ben making decorations, we didn't feel like we could this time. I'm so glad the Michaels invited us to theirs!

We all dressed up, which is always fun to do. Ben was bummed that he hasn't had time to make himself a costume and had to resort to his Captain Jack costume again. Our friends here have never seen it so it was great.

We ate yummy food, carved pumpkins, ate smores and visited. The kid's played pin the spider on the web. Ben made brain jello which was pretty realistic and gross looking that we had a ton left over. Check out my other blog this week, if you want to make your own!

I learned while talking with the Michael's friend, Laura, that I taught school with her mom! What a small world.

The kids had fun dressing up for the second time already. Last week was the school's Fall Festival and it was so much fun. The games were great and CJ even won a cake from the cake walk.

We still have a ward Halloween party, Halloween itself, and Pixar's after Halloween trick or treating. I hope I survive!

Xander's Field Trip

I got to go with Xander on his field trip to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm. We had so much fun together learning about the life cycle of the pumpkin. We also got to see many different types of pumpkins. Xander learned that cows have 4 stomachs and got to practice milking a pretend cow. He also got to grind corn into cornmeal.

One thing I learned about Xander that I didn't know was that he is not afraid to participate in large groups. As a child, I never raised my hand unless I knew for sure my answer was correct and even then, I was afraid I might have the wrong answer. Not Xander, he raised his hand for EVERY question and gave an answer. One time as he was answering a question, he burped the answer out. Everyone laughed.

Xander and I got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. I thought it was amazing that he knew exactly which one he wanted. It was one of the smallest ones and when I tried to get him to look at other ones, he told me he already found the perfect one.

The kids were sitting and waiting for their snack. Unfortunately, whoever was supposed to bring the snack had forgotten. Luckily, a parent had some juice boxes in her van and gave them to the kids. They were totally fine.

We played in the "Playland" which had a tunnel of straw, giant tic tac toe, giant pools of lima beans to climb and play in.

I'm so glad I got to go and spend time with Xander. We're buddies!

General Conference Notes

I usually make General Conference packets for the kids, but today I decided to teach them how to take notes. They did a great job and I was so impressed with them. They each were able to take notes on their individual levels.

Xander drew a picture of Jesus, Heavenly Father, and him. After drawing this, he spent the rest of the time creating his own game of bowling and practiced some soccer moves.

Mia took notes upon notes upon notes of notes! Ben kept feeding her more paper and Mia would fill up it with things that she heard and saw. The middle picture is of an "elf", I don't know when she heard that!

CJ did an awesome job organizing her notes. We talked about the theme of each talk and how to identify it. I loved how CJ recognized Bible stories that were shared because of what she has learned in Primary.

It was a great Conference and since Zoey slept for part of it, I was able to listen to most of it! It has been a great Sunday so far. During the break we are getting our Halloween decorations out and our kids are thrilled to pieces! I wonder where they get that from?

Hidden little "Treasures"

We have begun a huge DIY project of installing a sprinkler system. When we bought the house, we thought it already had a working sprinkler system. It looked like it did, but when we turned it on, nothing happened.

After awhile, we noticed that in the backyard, their were PVC pipes just sticking out of the ground. Whoever installed the sprinkler system, did a horrible job.

So. . . here we are now.

Digging up the old sprinkler system, hoping we can somehow use some of it and install a working sprinkler system.



I've just begun digging yesterday and have already found, what Mia calls, "treasures". We know all about these "treasures" because while prepping our garden we found many of them. Treasures like glasses, plastic bags, broken glass. . .

Pretty much what you would call, garbage.

Now, this is a time where my Dad's saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure" doesn't apply. Whoever's junk we have been finding, is not a treasure, but simply, garbage!

Garbage. Garbage. Garbage.

Is our house built on what used to be the Concord Landfill? That is what it seems.

As I am excavating the pipes, I have found these so far:

I haven't saved everything that I have found, but decided to start, just for pure entertainment.

Wouldn't it be great to find a real buried treasure, say gold or something in that category? I only hope that I am not going to stumble across a dead carcass of any kind!