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7:30am kids wake-up
11:00am Miles leaves to run 5k, while I finish getting the kids ready to see Daddy at the finish line.
12:30pm Watch Miles finish 5k. He did great! He placed 2nd in his age category.
2:00pm Arrive at Christmas Cookie Decorating Party
5:45pm Arrive at Sunday School Christmas Party
8:00pm Arrive at Kate's surprise Birthday Party
11:00pm Arrive home to put two VERY sleepy kids in bed and blog before the stroke of mid-night.
Whew! What a day... good fun, good friends, good food, and on that note... good-night!
Whew! It has been a long day that started at 4:00am in Pleasant View, UT. My kids are great, the best traveling kids in the world. I had several people on the plane tell me that they have never seen kids do so well on flights. Their champerific!!!
I had SOOOOOOOO much fun out west, and saw A LOT of my favorite people. Daddy O, Granny, Brie, Baylee, Blaze, Granny Gran, Great-Grandpa Olds, Grandma, Grandpa, the different Grandma, Great-Grandpa Brooks, Carl, Carla, Darren, Katie, Ben, Jess, Ellie, Matthew, Brooke, Rylie, Mason, Bracken, Dale, Julie, JT, Christie, and the list goes on and on.
But as much fun as we had, we were ready to come home, we missed Miles.
Here are pictures from my birthday party. Miles worked very hard to keep the theme (Latin Fiesta) a secret, and everyone brought a dish inspired by Latin America. We had some AWESOME food. Miles made grilled Caribbean Jerk Chicken and we had all sorts of amazing side dishes. Cory and the Patten's topped it all off with three different kinds of cupcakes (Cory) and blueberry cheesecake ice cream (Pattens). It was fabulous! The kids, as you can see in the pictures, had a lot of fun with the piñata. Jack tried his hand at the piñata, Halleigh was scared to death of it, and wouldn't even let me hit it. Anna Rose was the big winner, breaking the piñata open on her first swing. Halleigh gave Simon his first kiss... you can see a cute picture of them here on Erin's blog.
A big thanks goes out to everyone who brought and participated in my birthday celebration; I really felt celebrated. You guys are great friends and family and I thank God that he brought you all into our lives. Living in Durham has been at times challenging, but you all really have made Durham feel like home for our family.
(If you click on the pictures, it will open a new window with larger pictures.) Enjoy!
We had a very eventful Memorial Day weekend, and if you would like to read all about it, I would like to draw you attention to my friend Amanda's blog for a detailed run down of all that we did. click here There are also some great pictures of us picking the berries on her blog too!
After picking the berries, Sara came over and we made Strawberry Jam!
Since being back from Virginia, I have been too preoccupied with my ear to put up pictures from our weekend in Virginia. Feeling better today has been WONDERFUL! Very little pain, and only mild cloggy feeling. Relief, finally!
So, since I was feeling better, I thought I wouldn't deprive you all of the great pictures from this past weekend. We went up there, as many of you know, so that Miles could meet with his professors and get some face time with these people before he takes his orals. He met with 4 out of 5 and I think that he feels pretty good about the direction he is headed.
We stayed with our good friends, the Hunts in Remington, VA. We had a really good time, and Halleigh LOVED being around other kids for days on end. Here are a few of the pictures that we took while we were up there. Enjoy!
Pictures:
1. Left to Right: Halleigh, Trey, Sharon, Zach and Brody
2. Trey, the youngest Hunt brother.
3. Halleigh and Brody (the middle brother)
4. Zach, the original Hunt child
5. Halleigh wearing Zach's safety goggles.
6. Halleigh, Brody, Zach and Jesse playing on their trampoline
A great time was had by all and we are hoping to lure the Hunts south, for a visit sometime this summer!
Brooke Geary, my very dear friend, has joined the blogging phenomenon. It is going to be so great! Check out her blog here and also on my blog roll, "The Gearys"
So the last couple weeks, I have been walking with Kristy Kent on her lunch break. BCBS has a walking trail around its campus that we walk around twice (about 2 miles). It has been such a huge blessing to have someone who is taking this seriously and wanting to walk several times a week. I have really enjoyed the motivation and also the friendship that I have in Kristy.
Yesterday, though, we got our wires crossed and as fate would have it, Kristy and I were not able to walk together, and so I went and walked by myself. I didn't have very much fun, Halleigh fell asleep about 10 minutes in and so I was left to dwell on how far I had gone and still had to go on each lap, all alone. I realized then, how much I really need Kristy.. to fill the time with conversation.
Today, I was not looking forward to going, since I had yesterday's after-taste left over. But as soon as we got going, laughing and talking, I was so glad again to be doing this.
I was accidentally without the jogging stroller and so had to improvise and carry Halleigh in the Baby Bjorn, even though that thing says that it is for babies up to 28lbs I would not recommend it. Just carrying the 23lbs of Halleigh was incredibly tiring. She is REALLY heavy, but it was just extra weight to help burn calories so I shouldn't complain too much. One funny thing about it was that when we got back to the car I took Halleigh out of the carrier and my legs felt really light. As I walked around to the other side to get in it dawned on me after about five steps that my legs felt so light because I had just lost 23lbs by putting Halleigh down. (Further motivation to lose another 23 of my OWN lbs)
