Eventful week

I finished my latest paint by number tonight! I like it.

We had a super fun luau ward activity on Friday night  good food, good performances. They finished with a fire dancer. He was great. They invited kids up to learn and Chloe went up. She was so cute. 

We finally made it to Lagoon Friday night! This was the third time we scheduled to go. Chloe threw up the first day. Aaron did the second. Friday we made it happen. It was tons of fun. Bill and Spencer went on every crazy roller coaster they could. Genevieve went on a bunch too and I went on a few. We convinced Aaron and Chloe to go on a couple but they spent most of the night in the kids section and loved it. 

We’ve been on a friendship bracelet making kick for a while. Chloe found a watermelon pattern she loved and I made one for her and for Aaron in colors he picked. 

Spencer had quite the week. He was rough housing with a friend at lunch and got his legs tangled, fell down, and cracked his head on the floor. His glasses broke on the corner and cut next to his eyebrow and he got a mild concussion. It was quite the day! I'd rather not do that again. Thankfully he was fine after the first afternoon. His glasses were under warranty, so we were able to get them replaced same day. We took him to instacare and they glued the cut closed. He didn’t feel good for a few hours, but then he perked up. We kept him home for a day, and he was fine after that. 

Dancing and bracelets and lemonade

 Genevieve has a loft bed and Chloe has a bookshelf headboard bed I built a few months ago. They’re perpendicular to each other. Genevieve usually hops off onto the end of Chloe’s bed to get down. Or she steps on the windowsill. But the other day, as she got down, she tripped and fell full weight down on Chloe’s bed. I love how her headboard turned out, but I haven’t loved the footboard and side rails. But I didn’t expect them to fail quite so epically! The side rail split and the side of the bed crashed to the carpet. Surprisingly the footboard is fine. Just the side rail is busted and the hardware that attached it to the headboard pulled out a bit. Thankfully Genevieve was fine! Chloe was quite distraught about her bed, but I was able to organize a great solution for her.

We bought a pair of new mattresses to replace some foam ones but kept the old ones for sleepovers. They were just under Aaron and Chloe’s beds. But Aaron’s covered his vent, so we spun it so it stuck out. I found that annoying, but the kids didn’t so I didn’t worry about it. But with this situation I took both of those mattresses and stacked Chloe’s on top of ir. I turned her bed 90 degrees but left the headboard as it was, so now she has a side board, which is actually really awesome. I don’t even know if I’ll fix the side rails! This works really well. She loves it. And there’s more room for Genevieve to get up and down now. Plus, the Lego table isn’t in the middle of the room anymore, which I also like. Success! Making lemonade out of lemons! 

I’ve been on a bracelet making kick since girls camp. The girls ask me to try new patterns and it’s fun. I just bought a batch of new thread. This is my latest. I think the pattern is so cool. 

Bill and I got to go to a country hoe down themed birthday party for a friend and we had the best time! It included an hour of real life square dancing, with a caller and everything. I haven’t been to one of those since I was about 12 and at my grandparents house in the summers. They lived in a tiny town and hosted square dances in their barn. There were significantly less ruffles at this party, but it was still just as fun. Great memories mixed with a really good time. 

Revel Half Marathon and Rock Climbing

 In no particular order, a bunch of my half marathon photos. It was a great race! The temps were good. I ran with my running friend Diane. She was fantastic! We've run a lot of trail runs together but never raced and turns out she's an awesome race partner. We stayed together until mile ten, when I pulled a bit ahead. We finished within two minutes of each other. It was perfect. She trained on hills, so she's fine today and I'm still hobbling around, haha! I put the miles in, but not on downhill courses. 

There were a few of us that rode up on the bus together. Always fun to have friends at the start. 

And we met up at the end as well. This race was so well put on. I really have no complaints. It was really fun. And I got a five-minute PR! So cool. I realized as I was running it, that I've never run a canyon half marathon in Utah. I ran a few downhill marathons back in the 2000s, but I ran my first half in South Carolina, so I've never run one of these super fast, downhill courses that Utah is somewhat famous for in the running community. It's going to take a bit for my quads and hip flexors and hamstrings to work normal again, but wow, flying down the mountain is pretty amazing. 

On Labor Day earlier this week we went rock climbing with Bill's business partner and family. We are becoming super good friends with them! Bill and I used to rock climb together before we had kids, but we've not done it in years. We still have some gear, but it's been long enough that we actually are replacing harnesses and rope because they've aged out of their useful life. Turns out my kids LOVE rock climbing! We went to Maple Canyon and ended up staying until dark. We got home at like 10:30 on a school night, haha! We'll definitely be doing more of this. 

Got a couple family shots before our friends arrived. 

Happy 11th Birthday, Genevieve!

This cutie turned 11 this week. She was so happy that we got her an iPad and pen to draw with. She’s been wanting to branch into digital drawing and art and didn’t have the tools to do it we got her a few generation’s old iPad as an entrance into it, and she is thrilled beyond belief. 

We let her light her own cake candles. With a torch, lol. It melted the candles a bit if she strayed too low. I made what turned out to be a delicious burnt sugar cake, but the frosting was pretty soft to start so I just let it run over the cake and drizzle down the sides. Not the most beautiful presentation, but so delicious. Genevieve still loves pandas and that’s what she picked for her cake topper. 

Of course she had to try out the distortion tools in the picture app. Who hasn’t done that?? 😂

Bill put his face as the desktop picture as a joke. I caught her reaction when she logged in. 😍 Perfection. 

She made her own Harry Potter letter and snagged Chloe’s Halloween costume witch hat for the occasion. 

And this is now how she’s to be found most of the time. Drawing on her iPad. 

Last Saturday I took Chloe to a cute little play place at Gardener Village. We had a free pass to it on our get out pass. It’s way too small for our kids and would have been a serious ripoff if we’d paid to go in, but it was fun for like five minutes and then she and I window shopped at Gardener Village for awhile longer. The park was good for toddlers. Just not seven year olds or older. 

I finished my fall quilt I made earlier this year and a Christmas runner. 

I really love doing the machine quilting and really love that my mother in law has a long arm quilter and let’s me use it. ❤️❤️❤️

We had a bbq last night at Bill’s parents’ house. I caught this shot of Chloe in the hammock, snacking on some corn on the cob. 

Oh and last but not least, I bought Spencer some new dress shoes yesterday after he told me his were too small. He’s jumped right into men’s sizes this year! These are size 8! His feet are officially bigger than mine. 

And don’t worry, after we bought these, we headed next door and bought him some new pants too that aren’t a few inches too short. He’s growing! Maybe someday he’ll even wear matching socks, lololol.