STP

Seattle to Portland: A LONGGG bike (pedal-bike) ride...202 miles! Kelly did it this summer! He wanted to do it last summer, but had an unfortunate Achilles Tendon puncture wound he was healing up from. So he planned to do it in 2010...In February he broke his ankle playing basketball at the gym. That was a weird call to get, since he was supposed to be at Yoga class (he said there was a pick-up game after Yoga). Anyway, due to injuries we thought that STP would have to be put off until 2011...Well, five (yes, FIVE!) days before the race Kelly thought he was in good enough shape to give it a go.

I think I've mentioned our affinity for Craigslist here before, but once again, Craig came through! Kelly found some local people who signed up, but couldn't compete and bought an entrance for STP. He was pretty-much obsessed with it for the next five days: getting his bike in ship-shape, doing research on the course, buying a new Garmin to track his ride, snacks, butt cream (that's a long time to sit on a bike seat!), etc.

So, July 16th comes around and Jeremy is nice enough to drive Kelly up to Seattle where they stay at his Auntie Linda's house. (I was getting ready to embark on my own 4962 mile road-trip on the 18th, so I had quite the packing job ahead of me. More on that sure to come.) Thanks Jer!

I think they had to be up to the University of Washington by 6am. So, Jeremy takes Kelly and sees him off at the starting line, and calls and says he's on his way home. After that, Kelly's on his own. We wait and see what his phone updates bring. He called at the 40 mile mark and said he felt good, called at the 100 mile mark (which was his goal for the day. STP goes for two days, you can choose to ride in one day or split it up in two) and said he wanted to keep going. I was all for that! So he called in Rainier, which is about 30 miles from our home and said to make him a couple PB & J's, grab some ice water, and towels and meet him on the route.

We are at Skinny's with Jeremy and Rochelle waiting to cheer Kelly on, and all the other riders that passed us. We thought we could spare some cheers for them too. Then we see who Jeremy has dubbed "The Brown Blur, aka, Kelly! We are so excited and cheering him on, and you can see on his face how excited he is to see us...Then, the momentous challenge of getting up on the sidewalk...then CRASH!! His life flashes before MY eyes, especially after the injuries of the past year and a half. He's just laying there on his side and doesn't move for a few seconds. Later, I asked what was going through his mind, his answer? "Are you effing kidding me?! I make it 165 miles and this is where it ends?!" Believe me, I sooo wish I would've had my camera to capture it.


Luckily, he was able to get up and brush himself off. The only thing that was majorly injured was his pride. I was happy that he got some new gloves, as they were shredded and it would've been his hands. He was able to scarf down his sandwiches, wipe himself down with the wet towels, drink his water, and he was off! And, so were we! We ran home to try and squeeze a little more packing in and drove into Portland to watch him cross the finish line. As we passed him on Highway 30 we honked our horn and hoped it didn't scare him into another crash (he's going to be SO happy that I'm telling his crash story in Bloggerland).

It was awesome to be at the finish line and cheer on all these crazy people that think it is fun to ride a bike for 202 continuous miles. I actually got a little teary eyed from the pride welling up inside of me for my husband. His finish time was 12 hours 32 minutes. Until next year, happy riding! Hopefully you'll have some buddies to ride with next time and there won't be ANY injuries during the off-season!

A Little Post to Catch Us Up on Logan:

This is a picture of her with our Pediatrician, Dr. Alexander. I could do a whole other post on why we love our Dr....Suffice it to say he is a Hawaiian lovin' fool. He plays the ukulele (Kelly even bought one from him), almost always writes a "prescription" for new albums or concerts we should go to, and has once or twice had cd's that he's made for us.

Anyway, this is him wrapping Logan's arm in a cast. She was playing "Capture the Flag" in PE class. She was running really fast and stopped herself with her arms up against the wall, which bent her wrist back and broke her forearm. She ended up with a nice florescent pink cast. We were really glad when she had it removed. You can't imaging the funk coming from that thing!

We were really happy that the break happened after her volleyball season ended. We were able to go to Oregon State for the final tournament. It was a lot of fun watching her and her team improve over the season. The games were so exciting to watch. The volleyball was a club thing, so the season was from October to April...long, but fun. During this time she participated in track through the school. Let's just say volleyball games=fun for this mom to watch VS. track meets=BORING for this mom to watch. I had no clue how long track meets last, and how you have to wait for events...I think she wasn't that into it either, so it was even worse. Logan just recently turned 12. For us that is a big deal. In church that means she goes from a little kid to a young woman. Kelly and I had to speak in church on Mother's Day. It is a tradition for the primary kids to sing songs about and to all the moms in the congregation. Kelly and I were up on the stand behind the throng of kids, and there is Logan towering over most of them in her last Primary Mother's Day performance. Kelly and I both got choked up:) Kelly also teaches in the Senior Primary, and since it was Logan's last Sunday there, they let her pick her favorite song and lead it. She chose "Love is Spoken Here" which makes Kelly cry each time, and then to see Logan up there leading it made him lose it, which made the chorister lose it, and round and round it went:) I was told a few times during the week how sweet it was to see. We asked Logan if she was sad that she won't be able to do any more Primary Programs. She quickly said, "No!" and then said, "Well, I'm a little sad I won't be able to sing for dad at Father's Day."

We are in the last full week of school. I can't believe Logan will be in middle school next year. It seems so long ago that I gave her the, "When you're 12 you can get a cell phone," or "when you go to 7th grade you can wear mascara." Time goes by too fast and now she has a cell phone...she hasn't asked about the mascara again, so I won't be reminding her. Logan has done awesome in school this year. She received rewards each semester and we just got a letter in the mail telling us that she was receiving another reward on the last day of school. It's a secret and I haven't updated my blog for so long that hopefully she won't find out about it.

We love Logan very much. She is a HUGE help to me! She loves her family and it shows, most of the time:) She's happy to have a cell phone and be able to text her cousins and friends. One day she was helping her younger cousin with math homework. It was so cute to watch, because she was talking with her hands and I had to remind her that Zion couldn't see her.

Maybe this post will get me back in the groove of blogging and I will catch-up or stay current with other things...only time will tell.

Funny Faces

Faces have been changing around here for my girls...

The first face that changed was Logan's. She had to get glasses. Doesn't she look cute? Her eyes aren't too bad, but I think she enjoys seeing everything a little more clearly.

The second face to change was Maika's. She had to get braces for her extra jacked-up teeth! This is the start of many years of ortho care for her. The first phase is to widen her jaw, and to correct her over bite and cross bite. She is learning how to eat with her huge bite plate on the bottom (you can't see it, because it's clear), and to take extra good care with brushing. Who wants to see left over PB and J after lunch?

It's probably my fault that Logan needs glasses and Maika has extra jacked-up teeth. I was as blind as a bat before Lasik changed by life, and I spent many hours on the road to Cortez and Durango for ortho care. Just hearing a Def Leopard song takes me right back to my grey Astro Van and Highway 666 (yes, that's the real number!).

The third face to change was Nalani's. She lost her first tooth yesterday. She kind of freaked out for a minute and had some tears. But a few hours later she,

lost her second tooth! I guess she wasn't too scarred:) The Tooth Fairy was extra nice and brought her $10 since she lost her first and second teeth on the same day! Nalani is the earliest loser out of our family so far. Logan and Maika were both well into their Kindergarten year.

This afternoon I took Nalani on a little date to Fred Meyer so she could spend the money that was burning a hole in her pocket. She chose a sparkly purple "Hooptie Loo" (hula hoop) and three packages of bubble gum, which were devoured by the neighborhood as soon as she got home, and she didn't even care:)

So there you have it! The faces may have changed, but they are still cute!

Crazy Hair Day!

In celebrating Dr. Seuss Week, Maika's school started it out with Crazy Hair Day. This is what we came up with...Don't you think she could pass for a Who?

We created this fabulous look by sticking empty Gatorade bottles in her piggy tails. She was so nervous waiting for the bus to get here, and didn't want to go out until Taylor, Hayden, and Autumn were outside too :) It was so funny to see her run across the road and see all the kids' reactions.

On a side note, this look completely freaked Bronson out! He kept crying and telling me to take the bottles out of Maika's head:)

Vampires

This picture has nothing whatsoever to do with this post, except that I think it's funny. Logan and Maika got a hold of him the other day and dressed him up in Nalani's dress...I love having blackmail material for the years to come:)

Yesterday morning, Bronson woke up whining for a Band-aid.

Me: You don't need a Band-aid, you just woke up.

Bronson: Yes! Mom! I NEED a Band-aid!

Me: What happened?

Bronson: (Very serious, frowny face) A vampire bit my elbow!

Me: (inspecting the scratch on his elbow) Where was the vampire?

Bronson: In a castle, with me and Nalani and Maika and Logan.

Me: Where was I? Where was Daddy?

Bronson: At the store...

I think what really happened was he fell off the bed last night (because he did fall off the bed) during a nightmare about being chased through a castle with his sisters. Dreams are so crazy and sometimes so scary. But, Bronson is truly convinced that he was bitten by a vampire...I think they could've found a juicier place to bite than his elbow...Maybe the Cullens have moved from Forks?

Faith...

This woman, Natalie Norton, whom I don't even know, is the strongest example of faith. To me. She's living through my (and most mother's) worst nightmare. She has the most beautiful, heartbreaking way of expressing herself. Go read her blog...start sometime in December and work your way forward to today. Have a box of Kleenex handy! I found her through my cousin, Jenni, who lives in Hawaii. Natalie is a photographer and took Jenni's family pictures...

Looking Back, It's Pretty Funny!

Last Sunday Kelly wasn't able to make it to church, so I had to brave the kids (Bronson) by myself. Surprisingly he was so mellow and good. He even fell asleep while I was holding him the first hour...then I felt something warm spreading over my lap and soaking into my tights (and he'd already gone pee TWICE since we'd been there!). So, I lean over to Logan and tell her to keep an eye on the girls while we run home to change.

So we're back to church in clean clothes and I'm teaching Kelly's lesson...it all goes pretty well. I leave his class in the hands of others and head to teach my Young Women lesson. About twenty minutes before class is over Maika's teacher brings her to me and says she's not feeling good. There are tears in Maika's eyes, so I believe her:) I have her sit with us while I finish up my lesson. Done. During the closing prayer I hear curious noises and open my eyes to find Maika throwing up. Crap! I cut the prayer off and tell my 16 year old girls to leave (I don't know how teenage girls will react to throw-up and don't want a Barf-O-Rama started). Another teacher brings me stacks of paper towels and the garbage can. We strip Maika down and Rochelle lets her wear the extra shirt she's wearing. After we get things cleaned up, I leave to go find the other kids and get the car to drive to the other side of the building where Maika is waiting so we can make a sneak get-away.

Needless, to say I had had Bodily Fluids Overload. I was happy to be home where Maika could continue to throw-up in the toilets:)

Logan was another story. Her words when I finally found her crouching in my closet playing her DS? "What?! I'm deathly afraid of throw-up! I don't want to be anywhere around Maika!" Me? "Get out of my freaking closet!"

Like the title says, it's pretty funny now.