Love Blooms Here: April 2013

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Junior Prom!

In the midst of all this birthday celebrating, we also got to share in a big first in Skyler's life. His first dance! He took his lovely girlfriend Monica bowling during the day. Who knew Monica was a semi-professional bowler?! Skyler's ego took a little hit when she beat him. After getting all dressed up, they made the rounds to all the parents and grandparents for photo-ops (including us!). Then they enjoyed dinner at The Olive Garden. And finally Prom!

Aren't they cute?! Love them!!

Kent's BIG pre-40 Birthday!

Kent turned 39 this week! Wahoo! One year from 40! Eeeek. If you've read my blog in the past, you probably know that we celebrate birthdays in a big way at our house. It only comes once a year, right?!

We started with a birthday dinner at Johnny Rocket's with my mom and dad on Friday night. The food was yummy, and their shakes are irresistable, so we ended up with double dessert, as we had a birthday cake waiting for us afterwards. You can never have too much dessert, right?

Taylee had her heart set on a princess cake. After much discussion, I talked her into getting daddy something a bit more manly. This is what she picked...

Super manly, right?!

Me and my baby girl. Or Little Mama. Or chicken legs. Or Funny Honey. Or Little Butt. Depends on who you ask. :0)

Kent was pretty proud of that cake, and the fab candle placement by Taylee!

Little Cake Face!

Saturday provided another great opportunity to celebrate, so I surprised Kent with a trip to iFly. We have never done indoor skydiving before, and we weren't sure what to think. It turned out to be a blast! Since they gave us some coupons, I think we will be trying it out again soon. Maybe next time we will do a little better...

When we got home from indoor skydiving, Kent was greeted with my biggest and best surprise! This was supposed to be for his fortieth birthday, but that wasn't in the cards. He got it a year early...

2013 Ford F150. I know, huh? Best wife EVER!
Mark and I have been working on this for 3 months. What a tough secret to keep!
Thank you Mark & Amber and Nana & Poppi for helping make this happen.

After all the excitement on Saturday, Kent's actual birthday was probably a bit of a letdown. Especially since Taylee caught strep throat and was only just recovering on his birthday. This was her first bout with strep throat, and it took me a couple of days to figure out what was going on, get her cultured, and get her some antibiotics! Poor kid. She had a rough couple of days.

Kent is such a good guy, he decided he wanted to take Taylee to Discovery Gateway and have a fun family day for his birthday. Taylee had perked up just enough by then to have a pretty darn good time! She played hard and slept hard. She slept til 8:20 the next morning. Her all-time record!

We got to enjoy a nice lunch at PeiWei, which was the first meal Taylee ate in 3 days. Yay! Who knew she likes lettuce wraps (minus the lettuce, of course!)

Kent is enthralled by the ball maze!

Hard at work!

Taylee feels like I do about gas prices!

But I sure like to drive!

Taylee Brooke - future LifeFlight nurse! Or pilot, I suppose. :0)

We finished off our day with another fabulous cake designed by Taylee. Yummy!

Happy Birthday Kent! We love you!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Happy Easter!

Easter came a little early this year, falling in March, but we were blessed to have great weather! Mid-sixties and sunshine. Helped to add to our festive springtime holiday celebration!

Taylee was told she couldn't get up until the sun was out (this after getting up at 6:05 on Saturday for the community egg hunt... at 9.)

She was up with the very first rays of light, at 6:50. Still, it was 45 minutes more sleep than Saturday!! We immediately got on the horn to nana and poppi and they headed over for the Easter morning celebration. Taylee did a great job with her egg hunt, even if she was very determined to get outside to hunt some eggs! She cleaned up with a HUGE sticker book, a Doc McStuffins doll, sidewalk chalk, a new babydoll, and a bike from nana and poppi!!! Wheweee!

Taylee with her new baby that really cries! (oh boy!)

This Egg Hunting business is pretty intense!

We call this the Toddler X-Games. Sliding with Easter Basket in hand!

Exhausted from all the egg hunting!!

Don't mind the Easter bedhead, just note the adorable bike!!

After all this excitement, Taylee played with all her new stuff while mommy made Easter dinner to relieve Grandma Judson, who just had her knee replaced. Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! We were also grateful to finally have Skyler come around to be part of our Easter celebration. The dinner was great, but the egg hunt was even better. Grandma always has TONS of eggs full of candy for the grandkids to hunt! Taylee held her own this year, collecting lots of eggs, and Skyler, well, Skyler was at a disadvantage, because we tied his legs together and made him hop to find his eggs. Haha! Sucks to be the oldest grandkid at the egg hunt! Don't worry, he still got plenty of eggs and candy.

All bound up and ready to race!

Cute cousins, Taylee and Hunter

And finally, Skyler made it home to retrieve his Easter basket!

Egg-cellent Fun!

Taylee was up bright and early Saturday morning for the Clinton City Egg hung. It's a large event that lasts approximately 40 seconds. Even though they provide hundreds upon hundreds of eggs, they are swallowed up very quickly by the hundreds of children. Taylee was thrilled to be part of the madness and was able to grab her fair share. Fortunately, they divide the kids by age group. Unfortunately, my daughter is a bit of a spaz, and ran past dozens of eggs to get to the other eggs in the middle of the field. Hmmmm. We never did figure out her rationale. Three year old thinking I guess!

Taylee and Daddy

Taylee and mommy. "Twinners" she says!

After the excitement of the egg hunt it was time to decorate some Easter Eggs! We got a kit with stickers, so Taylee could combine her favorite activity (stickers!!) with egg decorating. It was a hit!

When we asked Taylee to wear a bib to protect her clothes, she decided naked would be better. Once again, three year old rationale!!

Happy Easter!!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Back to Running!

It seems like I have been a runner for most of my adult life. I have even claimed to be a marathoner (I really was!) in the past. But it has recently occurred to me that I have let that part of my life, and my claim to the title, lapse. :0( I have never posted even one blog post related to my running. I guess that's because I started blogging after I became a mommy, which is when my running hit the skids. I do still run semi-regularly, but I haven't raced in FIVE years!! Well, on March 16th, I got back in the game!!
Kent and I travelled with Clare and Darren to Moab for the Canyonlands Half-Marathon. We arrived Friday evening, and enjoyed a fab dinner at our favorite carb-loading restaurant, Pasta Jay's. We snagged our race packets and finished our race prep in our condo, making it an early night.
Saturday came early, and we caught a quick trip over to the bus pick-up in the back of a friend of a friend's truck. We were on the bus before 8 am, much to my chagrin, as I HATE sitting at the start line for 2 HOURS!!! Anyhow, 2 hours and 4 bathroom trips later, we were ready to race!! (I overthink the "final pee" a little, and end up cycling through the port-a-potty line repeatedly. Silly, I know!)
Clare and I started the race together, but true to form, I was unable to stick with a running buddy, and I took off on my own before mile 2. I felt pretty decent throughout the race, and really hit my stride around mile 10. I kicked it into gear those last three miles and came in under 2 hours, which was my goal. For reference, my half-marathon time in the old days was 1:45. I was still (relatively) pleased with my final time of 1:55 this year.
Kent and Darren ran the 5 mile race, and Kent finished with a time of 44:23, which is 30 seconds faster than his previous race time. Way to go Kent!!

Pre-race Kent

Me and Clare-Bear

Me and my love, glad to be done!

Clare and Darren

The boys

Me, Clare, Teri, Tom, Rhiannon, and Brandie

We finished the race in the beer garden, and after relaxing in our condo for a few, we headed to downtown Moab for a bit of shopping and some margaritas in the Fiesta Mexicana. It was a great, relaxing afternoon. We finished our day with dinner at the Moab Brewery.
We had a nice, quiet drive home on Sunday to be reunited with our little Taylee bug. Thanks nana, for spending your whole weekend entertaining the little miss! She had a great time!