Angry Birds Party

My boys have become OBSESSED with the game Angry Birds, so Isaac decided to have an Angry Birds party for his 6th birthday.  As soon as he mentioned that, I scoured the internet for ideas.  I was surprised at how many great ideas there were, from the easy do-it-yourself, to the gigantic extravagant buy-it-all method.  I went for the do-it-yourself.  Starting with the invites.

For the invites, I made Yellow Zoom birds, pretty easy, mostly geometric shapes that I cut out with my Slice.  We added googlie eyes and hand cut the feather for the top.  I pasted the invite on the back, and it read:

The Evil

 Pig Army has

stolen 6 Golden Eggs,

And Isaac is ANGRY!

Come join our forces!

At Our House  On

Friday August 26^th from 3-5

wear: Red, blue, black or yellow

so we will know you are on our side!

Please Report to:  #

We will not be defeated !!

 I love this picture, it's Isaac with his best bud Camden and Camden's little bro, and they are all making their best Angry Birds faces :)  I took one of them just together, and then they made me take one with their Angry faces :0)

I was stoked once we had the adorable invites complete, but we didn't stop there.  I also made a King Pig pinata, and a small army of Angry Birds.  I had my own little army help with some of the decorations. 

This year, Isaac's bday was just 3 days after school started.  We invited a few friends from church, and then he tried his hardest to make some new friends in class.  He made one good friend, so we chased him and his parents all the way to the car, to deliver the invite, to the party that would be starting in 2 hours!  His friend's parents were really sweet, and we look forward to playdates, but he was unable to come. 

We invited another friend the morning of the party, and he was able to make it.  After he told me that I hadn't made the Zoom Birds for the invitation correctly.  Yes, OBSESSED! 

The first activity, while we waited for the others to arrive, was coloring our goodie bags.  Some of the kids were quite dilligent about getting everything just right and doing their very best coloring jobs.  Others were just anxious to get the festivities rolling!

After the goodie bags, we had a golden egg search.  I just dug out all the yellow Easter eggs I could find.  Since we kept the party quite small, the kids each got about 4-5 eggs. 

Then, I attempted snacks.  I had bowls set out with blueberries, strawberries and banannas, for each of the featured Angry Birds.  Then, a last minute idea (brilliant you could say), was to fill sandwhich bags with popcorn, tie them off and tape the white bird faces.  They turned out pretty cute and were the biggest hit with the kids.  Literally.  They decided to throw the popcorn White Birds at the Pigs decorating the back yard.  Oh well.  I'm trying to let my boys be boys.  A big step for me!

After snacks, we played a live Angry Birds game.  I had made Pigs and taped them to water bottles.  I lined the water bottles up, and then the kids threw water balloons at the Pigs.  Originally, they were supposed to slingshot the water balloons, but my sling shot was too small.  The kids LOVED it and were pretty good at taking turns.  At one point though, I think I may have had a part in this, we all decided that Ben was the KING PIG, and so we started throwing balloons at him.  He ended up in the corner of the yard with no ammo, just getting pelted :P  The best (worst?) part:  he had spent 2 hours that morning filling all those water balloons!  Sweet irony. 

Then it was time for what we all (me mostly) had been waiting for....  The pinata!!  I had been working on it the whole week, painstaking layer by layer, hoping it would dry enough each time.  And, I didn't have a back up.  I was pretty pleased as I brought it out to oohs and ahhs from the young and old alike :0)  I might have fished for these compliments, but the crowd was very willing to indulge me :)

The kids lined up, and it was time to test this thing out.  Isaac was the first, and then we went by height.  We got about halfway through the line up, and Zane Andrew busted it clean off the rope.  It held up to a few dents and cracked in one place, it was actually the rigging that failed first. 

After the mad dash for too much sugar, it was time for cake.  Yay, more sugar!  I'm not known for my baking, so it was cupcakes from a box with icing from a can.  But, I did make more Pigs as cup cake toppers.  Something was lacking there, but the kids liked them, so I guess we'll count it as another success.

After cupcakes Isaac opened his presents, and then it was time to PLAY! 

Oh, one real FAIL, but great idea....  I MADE Angry Birds bouncy balls.  I saw that idea somewhere, so highly talented lady had PAINTED Angry Bird faces onto dollar store bouncy balls, and they were a huge hit.  Well, that is not really my style, you'll notice I don't deal with paints, or outside the gemetric shapes.  So, I found some templates for Angry Birds balloons:  http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/Downloads/Angry_Birds_Balloon_Templates.pdf

So, I printed those out, and Mod Podged them onto the balls.  They looked great, and I set them aside to dry..... accept they never really did.  For some reason, they stayed really tacky.  But I didn't need 10 bouncy balls, so I gave them to the boys anyway.  They played with them and had a blast, even if the balls did pick up the grass and dirt, and look a little "hairy " as one of the boys said.  Oh well.

It really was a successful party, and a lot of fun.  But after all that work, I think we'll go to HI for the boys birthdays next year :P  I can dream, can't I?

Lately

Aaron has been talking for a while. Non-stop. But lately he has had some really funny things to say.

Like "actually". I asked if he wanted something, and he replied "Yes. Actually, no."

Also, he likes to say "serious". Like "It was an accident! Serus!" That's how he says it.

The other day I asked if he loved mommy, he said "I love bofofyou". Yah, it took me a minute... "I love both of you."

We went out to visit Adrian and the family last weekend, and on the way home, Aaron started yelling something about "Compikayden" at me. This one was extra frustrating, because we were in the car going 80 mph, with the dvd player in the way back, it was hard to hear english, let alone Aaron-ese. But I finally figured out he was saying he wanted me to turn the song back to "Complicated". He was asking for the song "You Lie" by The Band Perry. The first line is: It ain't complicated....

I complain that he never STOPS talking, but he also never ceases to amaze me. He is so full of life and spunk and determination. The other day at the pool, he had me throwing him in the air and over my head, and rolling him in the water. My other boys hate getting their faces wet, and he just couldn't get enough of it!!

I'm greatful for each of my boys and that I am able to stay home with them. Life is great.

Too blessed?

I don't have a problem counting my blessings. I know how blessed we are, and am reminded every single day. I have 3 beautiful healthy boys, a wonderful loving husband who is gainfully employed, and an amazing family that is so integral to it all.

The thing is, sometimes I feel guilty. And not just guilty, but anxious. Like things are TOO good, and my world is just going to come crashing down on me any minute.

While on our roadtrip last week, we got a call that Adrian had been in a motorcycle accident. Someone had run a red light and plowed straight into him. He has been in a drug induced coma and on ventilators for the better part of the week. We are so grateful that he was wearing a helmet and that his head and spine have are fine. The whole right side of his body is a different story. He is progressing toward health each day, and I told Nichole that he is strong and doing it all for his family. And I truly believe it.

After we got the news of Adrian's accident, I told Ben that "I just can't worry enough". I was worried about our 3 carloads traveling safely. I was terrified that I was going to have to watch my parents in the Blazer roll over or see Brooke in the truck behind us go off the road. Nonsense worries, but they consumed me none the less.

Then, just this morning, my dad called to tell me that Joy had been laid off. My sweet sister Joy has been through hell and back these last few years. She did her best to make an unhappy marriage work. Even then the jerk decided to go make a baby with someone else and tear their family apart. Joy moved two thousand miles away from the family to make her then husband and his family happy. Now she is stuck there. Alone. My heart breaks for her almost on a daily basis. She does the best she can, and is a much stronger person than I. But she faces more frustration and sadness than I can even comprehend.

I was on the phone with her this morning, trying to help her deal with the layoff. Dad has told her to take a month to herself. To do the things that she doesn't have time for when she is working and being the main caregiver to the girls. I told her that I agreed with dad and that all we want (the whole family) is for her to be happy. We both cried, because we know that she has not truly been happy for a long time. Yes, we enjoyed our vacation together, and she loves her girls, but she deserves true, burning happiness. And she has been denied it for way too long.

I had to go after that, because we were both too overcome by emotions to talk. But things didn't end there, that was when I really started to wonder how Ben and I had been so protected from such heartache... and what is in store for us down the road?

Seadoos, of course!

What do we do when family comes to town? Seadoos, of course!

Tuesday we packed up and headed down to Mission Bay, and Jillian got to come too!

The cousins had a great time splashing in the water, digging canals, building castles, dumping water on grandma, and going for rides. It was another perfect day. (oh, except that the Seadoo trailer broke on the way down.... but that was the mensfolks problem)

At one point, just before we were leaving, Isaac wanted one last ride. One of the seadoos wasn't working, so Joy, Isaac and I all went together on the one that was left. It worked well, Joy was cautious, and I was an extra set of eyes, it was all good. Then she took us to a little inlet that is protected, where you could do donuts. I didn't even know that was there! We waited for the other 2 jetskis to leave so that we could have the place to ourselves. We did a few donuts, and then hit a wake wrong. Joy stopped, and the Seadoo started to tip to the right. I tried to "high side", but my efforts weren't enough, and we all were dumped.

The key was tethered to Joy's vest, so the Seadoo stopped dead in the water. Joy scooped Isaac up right away, and we all had vests on, so we were fine. Isaac was shaken and looked at me and said "Whoa, I have never done THAT before". I laughed and said, "Neither have I!" He remained cool under pressure though, because he had scooped up Joy's sunglasses from the water before they sank. What a hero!

We talked about the safety precautions that we take, in case something like that happens, and how everything turned out just fine. Then I told him how I had thrown his dad off at least once before :)

Joy let me drive the rest of the way to shore, and I just chuckled the whole time about how funny it was, and how cute Isaac's reaction was.

More Cousins!!

Sighris and Adriana left on Thursday, and our favorite Texans came on Monday. They arrived at about 1130, and my dad brought them straight to my house :) We tried to get the little ones to nap, but it just turned into some adorable photo ops. Roman and Daisy immediately attached at the hips and played with Roman's electrical circuits while the little ones "napped".

Visit from Sighris and Adriana

The boys are getting to the age where they remember and enjoy their cousins. And we just don't get out to AZ enough, so we worked out a week that we could have Sighris and Adriana stay at our house with us. (Martin was welcome to, but I don't quite know how to entertain a teenager, and he probably feared he would get stuck babysitting.)

Nichole dropped them off Sunday morning, and they went to church with us. Then Monday, it was off to the zoo. Me and 5 kids. Brave, I know. They were all really good and I think they all had a good time.

We started at the Reptile House, where Roman and Sighris read all the names and descriptions to the little ones. I even had a lady stop me and say that they were doing a great job reading, and she should know, because she is a teacher :) Yes, I live for those kind of aknowledgements.

Tuesday I think we took it pretty easy. I had Jillian, so that was me against SIX kids, but they really are a good group. The boys played board games and legos, and Jillian was in heaven because Adriana imported her own girl toys :)

Jillian loved Adriana, and didn't want to leave when her mom came, until we promised that Adriana would be there tomorrow.

Wednesday we tackled an art project, stained glass candle holders. The kids had a blast. After the craft, they decided to play outside, it was the best! I fed them lunch prison-style, opening the sliding glass door just wide enough to slide the food through :) They played and played until nap time. And they ALL took naps. Sighris and Adriana had been up until 930 or later each night, chit chatting about missing their mom and dad and all the fun things we were doing.

That night, Ben came home early and we went down to the Doubletree for an evening swim.

We played some pretty intense Monkey in the Middle and my boys practiced floating around with their water wings on. We took showers at the Doubletree, and then it was home for bed.

Thursday we went to the park, but first stopped at mcDonald's. My mom had bought us McDonald's the week before, when our power was out and I didn't have anything for lunch. They totally messed up her order, and said that they were noting that she would be back in the future and they would replace the entire order. Not just the 3 things they messed up.

So, that morning, I loaded up my six kids, and we headed to McDonald's "to talk to the manager and see if we could get some lunch". I felt like I was going there to beg, but the kids didn't pick up on what I had said.

So, I parked in the only spot left not taken up by construction crews or customers, and dragged my traveling circus in to talk to the manager. She went back to look at THE BOOK, and couldn't find my mom's name anywhere. But she said that since I was there and still had my receipt, that she would go ahead and replace the WHOLE order for me.

So the 7 of us had free lunch!

As we were leaving McDonald's with our bags of free lunch, some people remarked that the parade was leaving. Circus, get it right :P

The kids played and played at the park, another beautiful day with great kids. Then, it was time to load everyone back up to meet their grandma for the hand off. Nichole's mom lives in Lake Elsinore, or somewhere north, so she met us half way for the exchange.

I gave the kiddos big old hugs and helped load them up. Those two give the BEST hugs. We waved to them as they drove away, and almost immediately Roman started to cry. He is such a sweet heart, and I know he had a great time with his cousins. When Aaron woke up later, he cried for Adriana and Sighris too.

Hiking Boys

Isaac made one really good friend in school last year. He had other friends, but they all seemed to think that you could only have one friend at a time, and Camden was it for the better part of the year.

As the school year was ending, Camden's mom, Julie, and I talked about our families hiking together.

We finally picked a date and decided to hike around Lake Hodges. The lake is usually more of a forest, with lots of trees and almost no water. But this year we have been blessed with an abundance of rain that has filled the lake and even gotten us out of our drought. I love to see the water levels so high.

Camden's family had done the hike before, but not when the water was so high. And I don't think that they made it the whole way last time.

We met up bright and early to try to beat the sun, the kids all had their camelpaks and smiles on. There wasn't much shade, and we didn't beat the sun, but the kids were great sports. There were 5 boys between us, and it was fun to watch them get excited about birds and animal tracks (dogs). The older boys liked to explain things to the little guys.

We paused underneath the freeway over pass, enjoying the shade, when we noticed hundreds of birds. They were swallows, and as we looked closer, they were flying back and forth bringing food or supplies to their mudnests on the underside of the freeway. I love those opportunities to teach the boys little things about nature.

We finished our short hike at a parking lot across from the North County Fair. It was pretty disappointing, as the only slightly natural thing there was a big old puddle. But then Evan, Camden's little brother, said he saw a fish in the puddle. Yah, yah, whatever. But his dad looked closer, and there were fish, and then he noticed that the "puddle" was overflow from the lake, and it was an entire ecosystem all it's own. We saw giant tadpoles, frogs, tiny fish and crayfish. It was really pretty cool.

I'm thankful for a beautiful world and the opportunity I have to teach my children about all of God's creations.

The best vacation ever.......- Roman

Just last weekend, we went out to Az to visit the WHOLE family. Papi was visiting from Chicago for the week, so we were all together for the first time since Adrian's wedding... almost 8 years ago.

The boys are at a great age, where they remember their cousins and get excited to see them. The timing was rough though, because all the kids were in school. But, we decided to let the kids miss school on Friday, and we went out Thursday straight from school.

We stayed with Adrian and Nichole and family, who are always so good to us. Poor Martin got kicked out of his room, again. Which I think he is used to by now, he's such a sweet "kid", if I can call him that any more!!

We arrived at about 830 at night, and the kids were exhausted and begging for bed. I guess they weren't too tired though, because they were up before SIX the next morning, watching cartoons with Sighris. I blame that AZ sun! I swear it came up at 5 am.

Nichole and Adrian went to work, and the boys went to school, and it was just us. Papi was half an hour away at Julie's house. I tried to get Ben to call his dad earlier that week and let him know that we were coming out TO SEE HIM and that we would be there ON FRIDAY. But Ben was working so much to get ready for the long weekend, that plans never got made.

So we had some breakfast and lounged around a little bit. Then we decided to get some lunch and then put the boys down for a nap and go to Julie's after Martin and Sighris got home from school.

So there we were, at 430 in the afternoon, heading to Julie's. Ben could have worked a full day Thursday, the kids could have gone to school Friday morning, and we could have STILL gotten to Julie's at the same time as we did. I've said it, I'm not going to dwell on it.

We got to Julie's and tried to make plans of where we were going to go and what we were going to do. I had mentioned Golf Land to Ben, who mentioned it to Adrian, who said that Fiddlesticks was closer. I was thinking we could do something like that with Papi while the other kids were in school. But we decided to do it as a big old group on Friday night. We hemmed and hawed for an hour
about where to go, when we found a good coupon to Amazing Jakes. An indoor family fun center.

Amazing Jake's was pretty awesome, but not cheap. They had go-karts, and fair rides, and laser tag (the older kids loved that, my boys didn't do it), mini-golf, bowling, and a pizza and salad buffet. The boys had a BLAST. The hard part was that Aaron couldn't do too much, but by the end he got to go on a few rides and things ended on a good note. Speaking of "ending"... we totally closed that place down!! We were there until TEN THIRTY at night!! Then we had to drive 45 mins to Maricopa! We got home about 1115, and moved the kids beds into our room, so that Papi could have Sighris's room. By time Roman got into bed, he had a 2nd wind. He started talking about how this was the best vacation ever, and he wanted to know if it was midnight yet.

The next morning, the boys slept past 8! Is that all it takes?? We had a nice breakfast, and then started making plans for the family bbq that afternoon. Nichole and I went to WalMart to get the supplies, and came home with a little extra something for the boys... Squirt guns :) I had brought some water balloons, so we filled those, and the kids had a little water fight. The kids all got into it, and I ended up in the crosshairs somehow. Fortunately, every one dried off pretty quickly, thanks to that good old AZ dry heat.

The bbq was fun. The cousins all played really well together. Isaac and Adrianna were thick as theives, it was so cute. The food was good. Ben got to do the grilling, because poor Adrian had some kind of stomach flu and din't want to contaminate the rest of us! The food was good, Roman had about 12 helpings of soda, what can I say? We were on vacation :P

I told Nichole that if she made Aaron a pink cake, that she would be his favorite forever. She did even better than that, she let him help! He LOVES to help in the kitchen, and I don't let him do it nearly enough. They made the cake Saturday night, after the bbq, but the boys all went to bed before it was cooled and frosted.

Sunday morning, the first thing Aaron asked was where his birfday cake was. I told him, but also informed him he couldn't have any until after lunch. He went down stairs and ate some lucky charms for breakfast, and then asked if he could have some cake now. He still doesn't differentiate between breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Nichole let him frost it while she made another delicious breakfast, and then she found 4 packs of sprinkles and let Aaron, Adrianna and Sighris decorate the cake. Aaron didn't really get it, and just dumpled his sprinkles all in one spot. It was adorable, and scary :) Then Nichole wrote on the cake with pink icing (because Martin would not let her get strawberry frosting!).

We went to Sacrament meeting, and then came home for some lunch before hitting the road. And of course cake. One of the best boxed cakes I have had in a long time.

We made it home without stopping for food, and Aaron got a much needed 3 hour nap. I had made dentist appts for the boys for Monday, so when they were asleep at 745, I decided to just let them sleep in and go to school after their appts. THAT is the way to end a vacation!! Usually we get home and just jump into the rush. It was nice to just sleep in :)

Ragnar

200.9 miles from Huntington beach to Corondado. 12 people, 2 vans, 2 days. That is the SoCal Ragnar, and I had the pleasure of participating this year, with 4 days notice!

Walt had been training to be on a Ragnar team with some guys from work. I desperately need to get back into shape, so I was running with him a few days a week in the morning.

Monday April 11th, Maricela called to invite me to be on her team, as one person on her team had been injured and would not be able to run. She was shocked and relieved when I said YES.

Maricela was the number one runner, and I was replacing the number six runner. If I couldn't run, she was going to have to run 2 extra legs!! Yowzer.

The team was made of members of the Stake, but Maricela was the only one from PQ1. It was great to finally get to know people in the Stake!

I was in Van 1, so we headed up early Friday morning to check in and get running.

Being the number 6 runner was hard, everyone kept getting back from their runs, and were relaxing and eating. And my anxiety was just growing with each hour.

By time it was my turn to run, it was 1 pm, 90+ degrees, with 10% relative humidity. My first leg was only 2.7 miles, mostly down hill. I was all pumped from watching everyone else get their first leg over with, so I took off like a rocket! Some how I flew down the hill, despite my normal knee problems.

One weird thing about the Ragnar was that you had to hit the "walk" button to cross the streets. Other events that I have done have been on closed coursed... but they can't close down 200 = miles for 2 whole days!! This time around though, that "walk " button saved me. I came to the bottom of the hill and caught up to a girl that had already hit the button and was waiting to cross. She had a good pace going, so I kept with her until the next light. At that light, there were ar least 4 other people already waiting for the light to turn. As wee crossed the intersection, I quick stepped around them and kept them just behind me. I think that made about 6 "kills" for me in that one leg!

After the smooth downhill and my awesome kills... it was a horrible, flat, hot run along a drainage ditch somewhere near Santa Ana. It could not have been more than 2 miles of flat nothing ness, but it was possibly the longest, hottest 2 miles of my life!! As I mentioned, I was training in the early morning hours. This heat and mid day stuff was a whole new set of marbles, and I wasn't sure that I could make it. Fortunately, ,my ego wouldn't let me stop. I had the shortest, eastiest run of the entire event!! So, I made it to the end, and handed off to Alan, and Van 2. We got a nice group shot, minus Alan, our TEAM CAPTAIN! I have to add, that they always took the group shots AFTER my leg, as it was a major exchange where both vans were togbether. So, if I look like a hot mess in each picture, I WAS!! After our Van was done with our first legs, we got Subway and headed to Tricia's in-laws house for showers and a place to crash. It was HEAVEN!! I was concerned about being in a van for 2 days straight, i don't know if I could have done it without this glorious reprieve! After naps, we got back in the Van and into horrible OC traffic.

The second major exchange was in Lake Elsinore, at some tucked away campsite that was not quite equipped for our kind of traffic. We got all the way to the back of the parking lot, and started thinking about how long it would take us to get back out once Maricela started her "short" 5 mile leg. We decided to get the van out of the parking lot and onto the street BEFORE Maricela left. And it was a good thing, because it took us a good hour to get the car out of there, AND then we got stopped at a DUI checkpoint on our way to the next exchange! If we hadn't moved the car, Maricela would have been left standing waiting for us. but thanks to our good thinking, we made it to watch Maricela come in and hand off to Itzel.

I think Itzel was on her 2nd leg somewhere around 9 pm. So were were all in our reflective vests and flashing lights, it was quite a site. Itzel ran 9 miles, including a mile on a dark not-van-supported horse trail, and handed off to Frank for a eay breezey 3 mile night time run. Fred handed off to Tricia who ran through the mor happening parts of Murrieta. Tricia handed off to Joey, and it was time to get me in place for my second leg.

We parked in the designated lot and I suited up (jacket, vest, headlamp). Fred, aka the navigator, took a last look at my 5.3 mile leg, and noticed that they had changed the course and it was now SEVEN miles!! I freaked out. I hadn't run 7 miles in.... well, YEARS!! But what could I do??? I stretched, fretted, stretched some more, fussed with my rear light... and before I knew it, Joey was there, and I was off. Fortunately, my run was a nice gradual down hill. I just hunkered down and paced myself so that I could make it the whole way.

It was weird running at night with a head lamp and vest. The vest sounded like someone was always coming up behind me, although it was rare that I saw ANYONE at this point. The only people passing me were the crazy fast people who had gotten really late starts. And the only people that I passed were the ones who should have been picked up by medics! So there I was, alone on old Hwy 94, with only my headlamp to light the way. I thought that would be the best part of the Ragnar, but the more I thought about it, I was like "If you want to run at 2 am with a headlamp on a dark back road, do it." There was no team or event feel to it. No one cheering. One lonely water station, a single cooler manned by a single guy. It was weird.

As I came to the 1 mile left marker, I felt that I had a lot of energy left, so I kicked things up a gear. It was kind of cool, because I was passing the #7 runners of the other team who had been handed off to and were headed off on their runs. So, I cheered for them, and they cheered for me. I caught a girl that had a bike pacing her (that was only allowed at nights), and we both began frantically looking for signs of where to go and if we were close to the hand off.

This is one of my main complaints about the Ragnar. The major exchanges were major head aches. The girl and I were dodging cars and walking people trying to get to the gate. And then there was a taped off area that looked like a gate, but was not a gate. It was chaos. But, I finished really strong, and I knew I got to sleep afterwards :)

I handed off to Alan, and we walked out to where Tricia had parked on the street. It was a good thing that she did, because it would have taken us AT LEAST an hour to get out of there!

We drove all the way to the next major exchange, Taylor Golf Course, where we would sleep. Most of the team laid claim to one part of the Van or the other. Maricela and I headed straight over to the golf course to try to get a few winks in. Fortunately, I had brough a tarp, as the grass was wet wet wet. Maricela and I laid out our sleeping bags in the middle of other makeshift campsites and slept for less than 3 hours. We were back up and at them at 5 am, as Maricela prepared for her final leg.

My last leg was straight up the Torrey Pines hill. It was rough, and longer than I thought it was. I plodded ahead, afterall, I trained on hills!! But after a few turns where I thought the hill should have ended, I walked. For 3 steps. But that was it. I knew I could make it up that silly hill, so I got back to it and passed one girl. At this point in the event, the runners were so staggered, that I felt very much alone. There was a weird intersection, and no signs. One of those intersections that is like a triangle. I saw two ladies walking down where the road curved right. I followed them and asked if they were Ragnar runners. They said no, but that they saw some other people who had gone straight where I had turned, so that was probably where I wanted to be. I thanked them and got back on what I hoped was the right path.

As I continued, I was heating up pretty good again. I had hoped that we would be running these legs in the early morning, but we got behind schedule and I was again running in the heat of the day. Someone had ditched a water bottle at a bus stop. It was half full, and I debated pouring it into my mouth, but wasn't quite that desperate. So I poured it all over my head and down my back. Aaaaah. That was good.

I still wasn't sure that I was going the right way, and the last thing that I wanted to do was run 2 miles off course, have to get back on course and still finish!! I saw someone walking and asked if I was heading towards the Glider Port (the next major exchange). He said "yes" and my spirits were lifted.

I was again kind of dragging, still running, but dragging. And I saw the "1 mile to go" sign. I kicked it up a little, not a lot. Then a guy passed me. He wasn't going that fast, so I caught up and decided that I could stay with him. I think we were both glad to be nearing our final exchanges. As we turned down the driveway to the glider ports, traffic into and out was again a nightmare. We were dodging cars and walkers, and didn't know what side of the road to be on. I was yelling for someone to tell us which side, and know one new. So we dodged cars straight down the middle. As we got into the open field of the glider port, my buddy must have seen the gate, because he took off in a sprint, encouraging me to do the same. We sprinted to the end and I felt AMAZING. I was full of pride at my great finish, and I was relieved that I was D.O.N.E!!!!!

We hung with our Van 2 people and reveled in the fact that Van 1 was done!!! We took some pics of our twinsie cars, wished Van 2 the best, and went for Jamba Juice and Chipotle. (And bathrooms that really weren't much better than some of our porta potties!!)

As we were at Chipotle's, Alan called Tricia. He was at his exchange, and his Van wasn't there!! And he didn't have their numbers. So Tricia called Robyn.... and they were at THE WRONG EXCHANGE!! Ahhhh!!! AND, their exchange was in Pacific Beach, midday on a Saturday. Traffic was HORRIBLE. They had a nightmare of a time getting to the right exchange, and I don't even want to think about how long Alan was there waiting.

They finally got there, and Alan handed off to Scott, who took off to try and make up time, because he was the navigator who got Robyn lost. (But please know, we did not give Scott a hard time. We were all worried the whole time whether we were going to the right exchanges at the right time, there was a lot to keep on top of!! We were all glad that that didn't happen to the rest of us!)

Our van debated going home, showering, and then meeting everyone down at the finish line. But I knew that if I went home, I wasn't going to the finish line. So we decided to stay and cheer for Van 2. I'm glad that we did, it was the first time that we really felt like a team. And it was great to be able to cheer for them, without the pressure of a run looming over us.

Poor Scott got lost on his run, and it turns out that someone had taken or moved the direction signs, so EVERYONE got lost on that leg.

I think that Van 2 might have had the harder runs, it seems that all of their last legs were more than 5 miles, up to 9. Robyn had a 9 miler with a killer hill, and she rocked it. Brent had a very uneventful ugly run that seemed to be just north of TJ.

The finish line was in Coronado. We hung out there, eating our noodles and wondering how much of their weight the Biggest Loser alums had gained back. There was some confusion on how long the last 2 legs were. Chris was our last runner, and he was one of our fastest. I think that his last leg was shortened by 1 mile (and Chelsea's before him had been increased by 1 mile). So I was a little frantic about whether we were going to have everyone together when Chris got there so that we could cross the finish line together. Sure enough, when he got there, he was running at a good pace, and we had to snatch him off the course, and we waited for 3-5 mins to get everyone together so we could cross. But it was worth it. It was great to cross as a team, and mostly to be done!!

I was bitter about paying $95 a person for an event that was so horribly organized, and the goodie bags were PATHETIC. The exchanges were a headache, the signage was a nightmare, and the goodie bags were 1 for each van, and they included 2 water bottles, 2 mini power bars and 4 gus. That was pretty much it. Dana and I can score all that for ourselves at a decent expo :P!!! It was also hard because we were over zealous with our 10k pace times, so we fell far behind when we should have ended, and didn't cross the finish line until 8 pm!! (Not to mention the time lost while Alan waited for his van and when Scott ran a mile or so off course!) Also, our Van should have been supporting our runners more. We didn't give anyone water during their legs.

So, when we were done, I felt accomplished, but didn't think I would EVER do a Ragnar again. But my team started talking about doing it again next year, and tackling the same legs to show them who's boss :P We joked about the fun times and the crazy times... and now I am a Ragnar maniac. I can't wait to do it again :)

My Little Man

Aaron likes to take pictures. A lot of our family activities lately have involved a lot of things that are for Roman and Isaac, but Aaron is too small for. So I hand over the camera for a few minutes. these are actually photos he snapped out in front one morning while I cleaned the car.

He got a pretty good shot of Jillian, if it weren't for that pesky finger :P

I like the artisit shadow shot.

The neighbors were pretty good sports about the mini-paparazzi snapping their pic as they walked their dog.

He took at least a dozen of the lemon tree, but most were out of focus.

I took the one of him in his little church outfit. How adorable is he?!? He's growing so fast, in fact that was the last time he could squeeze into that vest.