Weekend of the 24th

On Friday, July 22nd Seth I headed down to Main Street very early in the morning to save a spot for the parade that evening.  When Seth got home from work we loaded up our wagon and walked down to wait for the parade to start.  Collette met us there with her kids and with Max and Ben.  

The kids loved all of the freebies...including these T-shirts.

We packed a picnic dinner of chicken salad sandwiches, mangoes, grapes, chips and Popsicles.

The kids were like little beggars lined up for candy to be thrown.

Here is Phin part way through the parade with all of his loot.  He was so exhausted he had to take a little break.

I think their favorite thing was the otter pops that were thrown out at the end.

The next morning I woke up very early for the Handcart Half Marathon.  I was pretty nervous...I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked.  The most I had run was 4 miles.  I have been having a hard time getting to the gym...but consistently do cardio and weight workouts at home.  They had an option of starting the Half Marathon a half hour before the crowd and I jumped at the chance.  I was afraid I would take a long time...and I didn't want to run in the heat.  It was the best decision I could have made.  There was less of a crowd starting that early...and I was pretty fast compared to most of them...so it built my confidence up a little bit.  I was at the front of the pack until mile 7 when the elite runners started catching up...and passing me.  The race started at our Rec Center in Bountiful headed up to Pages Lane then to Legacy Parkway then to Glover Lane in Farmington to Main Street and back to the Rec Center.  I ran really well the first 7 miles and got to that point in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The second part of the race was much harder for me.  They hadn't blocked off roads so I was running on the shoulder of the road which really messed up my hips.  I was hurting but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other...whether those feet were walking or running.  I crossed the finish line in 2:19:44. I was pretty sore for the next few days but grateful that I had pushed myself.  I grabbed the free breakfast that was waiting at the finish line and then met up with my cute little family for some of the activities in the park.

Seth loved showing Phin all of the Pioneer games.

We also got to explore the teepee.

Me with the two little people that provided  most of my running motivation.

Sunday night we broke out our fireworks again.

Monday, July 25th we headed to a BBQ for Jeff and Kim at Nona and Papa's.  Jeff spoiled all of the nieces and nephews with a double slip and slide.

Jeff also picked up lots of sidewalk chalk and the kids drew away.

After the kids threw all of the self-tying balloons...Seth pulled out some of our old school ones.  He honestly couldn't tie them fast enough for this crowd.  He gave up tying and had them just hold them closed.

How grateful we are for a weekend to celebrate our heritage...to think about our ancestors and to gather with family for parades, food and fun.  I am grateful that I had the opportunity to push myself and to prove to myself that I can do hard things...just like all of those that came before me. 

Chidren's Museum and Splash Pad

We headed to the  Discover Gateway Children's Museum on July 22nd.  They had some great deals on annual memberships...so we ended up buying one with some Christmas and Birthday money that we had saved up.  We can take 4 other visitors with us for free...and we get discounts for entrance beyond that...so if any of you readers want to go just give me a shout out.  It is so much fun to see Millie starting to play.

After the museum we headed up to the splash pad for lunch and to play. 

 

10 MONTHS

Millie hit the 10 month mark in July.  This little girl is loving her mobility.  She is a fast crawler and gets quite frustrated when she is crawling after me in the house.  When I am putting laundry away or cleaning I often move from room to room very quickly...as I pass her she let's me know that she would like for me to stay in one place. 

Her mobility is making it pretty hard to get her monthly pictures.  She doesn't like to be on her back and she is quick to turn over.

She is still wearing size 2 diapers and is wearing more and more of her 12 month clothing items.  She is long and lean and just perfect.

Here are her monthly pictures for the month.  She looks like she has a perfect pixie cut.  Her hair is a beautiful color...I think she takes after my Nana in that area.  I remember my Nana taking a box out of the top of a closet and opening a tin...she pulled out a braid of her hair from when she was a little girl and it is very much like Millie's coloring now.

Millie loves to work right next to me.  The day after we got home from Colorado she woke up early...so I thought we would go out and pull some weeds in the cool morning hours.  She wanted to weed as well...she got right in the dirt...and might have eaten a little too.

She is becoming more independent and is willing to venture off my lap when we go to Seth's frisbee games.

She is starting to wave and give good smiles.

We went to a softball game for Seth one night.  Millie doesn't love to crawl on the concrete and grass...most of the time she does a bear crawl to keep her knees up.

Here she is with Papa and Harvey.  

We have been on the go so much this summer that naps in the crib haven't happened consistently...so she has gotten pretty good at falling asleep wherever she is.

Phin used to fall asleep in the very same spot.

She is eating more solids...but she is a messy eater.  I usually strip her down to her diaper for dinner.  We also have started to just wash her off right in the sink.  She loves yogurt and puffs...she isn't super excited about anything else.  I think she would prefer to just eat what we are eating...but she still has no teeth.

She continues to be very flexible.  She has no problems bending in half.

She is a pro at climbing up onto things.  She would much rather be standing than crawling...or sitting.

She loves the walker at Nona's house and has figured out how to cruise all around the sewing room.

We went to the Farmer's Market and got a yummy mango Polynesian drink...Millie preferred to be down on the grass with Phin.

 

It is no surprise wants to always be going...she has Phin to look for as an example of course.

 

Phin update: One day we were at church and during sacrament Phin shouted "Don't shoot me."  He was reading a book with Seth about Samuel the Lamanite and when they got to that page he shouted it.  It made me chuckle a little.  Another week he climbed up on my lap and gave me an eskimo kiss and then said "we kiss noses."  We were assigned to clean our ward building one Saturday morning.  As we were heading over Phin was asking why we were going.  We told him the church was dirty and we needed to clean it...his reply "our house is dirty too."

One day Phin seemed to have an upset stomach.  He ended up having an accident before we could make it to the bathroom.  He was so sad that he had had an accident and was apologizing to me.  I told him it wasn't his fault he had the runny poos.  He looked at me and said "I don't want my poop to have running powers."  When Seth came home after work he told Seth "It was a monster poo...him in my bum...him make me messy."  Poop seems to be the topic of conversation frequently around our house.  One day I was encouraging Phin to sit down and try to poop...his reply "I did it yesterday."

Phin is obsessed with rings lately.  He often comes up to touch my wedding ring and says "Daddy give them to you."

 He continues to love to color...

 to cut...

and to do anything that is new to him.

He loves riding the scooter with Seth.  One day he and Seth caught up to me while I was out at a few Saturday morning garage sales...it was fun to look back and see this.

 He is also obsessed with his Dad.   One day when we were eating lunch he looked at Seth and said "you are the best Daddy."  Another day he pushed his straw into his juice box and asked me to get it out.  I told him I couldn't to which he replied "Daddy can do it."

When Phin gets involved with something has had great concentration.  He loves when I get down the Playdough or stamps.  We sure love our Phinner!