Faith-building flip-flops

These are Maddie's new flip-flops that I got at The Children's Place along with a pair for Ian for $5. Nice and cheap, just how I like it. So, here's the story. Basically the same day I got them one of them disappeared. I needed to be cleaning up anyway and I was pretty sure that once I got everything put into its proper place the lost flip-flop would turn up. That was Tuesday. I put everything away a bunch of times over the week and still no flip-flop. Well, yesterday, I got serious about it and this time I recruited Madeleine to help with the search. She initiated a game of 'I-Spy' to see if we could find it by looking for anything that was pink and black. No luck. I assumed it would finally turn up once I started going through our stuff as we prepare to move. (Oh yeah. We're moving to Arizona in August for Spencer to attend ASU for his MBA.) Madeleine was not ready to give up. She said, "Maybe we can say a prayer and tell Heavenly Father if He can help us find my shoe." Great idea! Spencer said a prayer with her and then they set out to look again. About a minute later they found it. Then they said a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for helping them find it. I am so grateful for Madeleine's faith and her example to me! What a precious experience that was!

Memorial Day Camping

For Memorial Day weekend, we went camping with the Rands and the Roberts at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego county. It was quite an interesting weekend. Let me just give a bit of a timeline for you.

Friday night: We drive through rain and fog with windshield wipers that were hardly up to their job and finally made it to camp around 9pm. At least I think it was around then. The whole night is a blur, much like our windshield on the way there. It is still raining when we get there. We are freezing, but we are thankful it isn't snow. It feels that cold to our SoCal blood. Curtis and his family had arrived earlier so he was able to help Spencer set up our tent. After much toiling in the rain with screaming kids on all sides, we are finally ready to go to sleep around 11pm.

This must have been the worst night of sleep I have gotten in a long time. For one thing, we were dreadfully unprepared for how cold it was, so I was not even close to warm enough to fall asleep. I laid there wishing I could sleep and trying to think of a way to cut the trip short. I knew I couldn't handle another night like that. Also, it's worth noting that even if I had been warm enough to sleep, I probably would have been kept awake by the extremely loud lovers' quarrel going on at the campsite near our's. When Chris was ready to go to sleep and yelled, "GOODNIGHT, ANGRY COUPLE!" I thought they would get the point and pipe down. No such luck. At some point, despite the odds, I fell asleep. It was probably after I got Ian from his pack 'n play and made him sleep in my sleeping bag with me.

Saturday: The kids woke up before 6am. One of the joys of camping is rising with the sun in 40 degree weather, right? Don't worry, this is where things start to look up. It wasn't raining anymore. We had a delicious breakfast of dutch oven German pancakes and made our plans to find a store to buy some wool socks and long johns. Amy and Coral headed back to SD for a youth temple trip and they promised to bring extra blankets back to share. That was a major lifesaver. The Roberts and our family went to the outlets in Viejas to see what we could find. Extra socks and pj's for the kids, gloves for me and Spencer, hats for all of us, and the best thing of all---RAINBOOTS for me and Julie for $2.97 a pair. I would say that's easily the best $2.97 we've ever spent. Those boots were heaven-sent. My feet were warm and dry all weekend after that. Oh yeah, and I got to take a nap in the car with Ian while Spencer and Madeleine shopped with the Roberts.

The other highlight of Saturday would have to be the amazing dinner Spencer cooked up for us. Pork back ribs, corn on the cob and baked beans. So warm and so yummy! And Chris made some of the best apple crisp I've ever had. I love how when we are camping the husbands do the cooking. That's so awesome.

Sunday: With the extra blankets Amy brought, and Madeleine sleeping in my sleeping bag the night before, we actually slept pretty well and we slept in until about 8:00am. I felt so good! Unfortunately, that feeling was short-lived. Madeleine and I headed straight for the showers but we were not fast enough. Our shower was FREEZING!! Poor Madeleine screamed the whole time I cleaned her up and when it was my turn, it was all I could do not to scream too. But we were going to church to escape the cold for the next three hours and we couldn't go as dirty as we were. We survived the icy shower and enjoyed being indoors for a little while.

After church, we tried to nap, started a fire, started coals for dinner and mostly just hung out. Since Madeleine's birthday was just a few days before, we brought a pinata for the kids. Spencer had to finish it off though. None of the kids quite had what it took to get the candy out of the butterfly.

Dinner was a bit of a fiasco. We had planned to do a roast and we thought that with the small one we had and the one the Roberts said they were bringing it would be plenty of delicious red meat to warm our bones.. The only problem was that not only had we misunderstood and the Roberts were never planning to bring a roast, we didn't bring our's either. We had plenty of potatoes and carrots and onions, but no roast. Thankfully, the Roberts, always prepared, had brought some turkey burgers that they donated to the cause. Dinner turned out great anyway, especially the chocolate cake.

Monday: All good things must come to an end. But first, Chris and Julie cooked up some fabulous breakfast burritos with machaca and chorizo. Mmm, mmm, mmm! We spent the morning packing up. Here are some more pictures from the trip.Madeleine really gave it all she had!

Please take note of Madeleine's outfit. First of all, we were totally dreaming thinking we would have a need for swimsuits, but Madeleine found her's in our stuff and wanted to wear it the whole time. At one point she was wearing just the swimsuit dancing around in the tent. At least by this time she had clothes underneath it. I had her wearing a little sweat suit over these clothes for extra warmth, but when she heard we were going to be taking pictures , she stripped off the sweats so her "pretty" clothes would show. Really? A neon green swimsuit over a polka dot pj top and red leggings? OK. If you say so.
Ian was a real trooper. Poor kid was in about 6 layers of clothes everyday and his little fingers still felt cold. He was like the little brother in A Christmas Story who couldn't put his arms down when he was all bundled up. He was cheerful enough anyway and had a good time playing with all the kids.

Even though we nearly froze our tails off, it was a great weekend spent with friends and family! Looking forward to doing it again, only in a warmer place next time!

Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

Sweet little Madeleine turned 4 on May 20th. I can't believe it! Where has the time gone? Here are a few pictures of Madeleine over the years. Here she is at about 4 months. Can't you just see her attitude even then?
One year old here. Running around already and keeping us busy, busy, busy. Here she is at 2. Not long after this she fell off the couch and broke her arm. I would have put one up with her in her hot pink cast, but in all the cute ones she was wearing only her diaper.
At 3. I miss that beautiful long hair.
And here's the little lady on her 4th birthday. Pretending to cook up a storm in her new apron and chef's hat. She is one of the smartest and funniest kids I have ever known and she is such a joy! We love you, Maddie, and we are so happy to have you in our family!

P.S. Be on the lookout for another post coming soon about our camping trip over Memorial Day weekend.

Beatin' the heat, etc.

It was well into the 90s today here in Sherman Oaks, so we headed to Santa Monica to cool down a bit at the beach. And let me tell you, it was a perfect beach day! The water, which is often very cold here no matter the season, was really pretty nice. Granted, I only got in up to my knees, but there wasn't much bite when I first got wet. And that is saying something!

Ian played in the water today for the first time. He isn't usually much of a fan, but that was not the case today. He was playing, playing, playing, then all of a sudden totally bookin' it down the shoreline. I'm not sure where he was going, but when I caught up to him he turned to me and said, "Mommy! I payin' in da water!" Such a cutie! Madeleine had fun playing with all her little buddies and mooching snacks off them. Good thing Gabrielle brought such a great stash to share!On a completely different subject, here is a little video of Madeleine that I thought I would share. Even though I may be the only one to really appreciate it. Watch at your own risk. Here's the background on it: When I put the kids to bed or Ian down for a nap, we turn on a CD of primary songs or other church music to help lull them to sleep. Then I turn on the baby monitor. In this video, Madeleine got ahold of the monitor while Ian was laying down for a nap.

Olivia's Graduation

This is my sister, Olivia. Isn't she pretty? This past weekend was her graduation from Montana State University-Billings and we got to go up for the festivities.

Spencer stayed home to collect rent, so it was just me and the kids. We were on a flight with another sister and my parents and grandmother, so it wasn't as bad as you might think. This picture was after the commencement ended. My smile may not look the most genuine, but I was thrilled that it was over. Commencement ceremonies are no place for children under 4.
One of my sisters was missing, but here are the rest of us with our cute mom. L-R: Erika, Angela, Mom (Vickie), Olivia, me. Sisters are the best! I am still holding out hope that someday we will all live on the same block. Then our kids could always play and we could all share clothes.

These are all the cousins who were there. L-R: Andrew, Marley, Zachary, Sarah, Great-Grandma (Loretta), Ethan, Ian, Cyrus, Madeleine, Matthew. Only 4 of the 13 grandkids were missing. We missed them and their parents who couldn't be there. Hopefully soon we can ALL get together! Great-Grandma needed to be in the middle of everything. She sure loves her grandkids. The best thing about having all the kids there was that Angela's and Olivia's kids haven't seen each other since my wedding in September 2000. It was great for them to get to hang out. I think they had a really fun time. I know I did! Angela's family brought their Wii, so that provided hours of enjoyment for everyone. I don't know about anyone else, but I was totally sore from boxing.

Now, it's time to get back to normal life.

California Adventure

Ian, Madeleine and I were lucky enough to go to Disney's California Adventure last Monday. For free since my sister, Maggie, and her family got the 2-fer passes when they came out to Disneyland last month even though they knew they couldn't use the second day. Thanks, Stoeckers! Unfortunately, Spencer couldn't come with us since he was very busy that week studying for the GMAT and trying to salvage a deal at work that was about to fall apart. How did I do it by myself with the two kids?, you ask. Thank heavens for my sister, Angela, and her daughter, Sarah, who recently moved to SoCal. They already have annual passes and claimed to be happy to come along. It would not have been anywhere near as fun without them. Madeleine was getting a good view of all the fun she was about to have while waiting for our ride on the Golden Zephyr.
Ian is still a little small for quite a bit of the rides, but he was very good-natured about being in the stroller most of the time. He did love the carousel. Angela took the kids on it once while I went on California Screamin' and we all did it again once I came back from the roller coaster. Evidently, he put his hand in the smiling sea otter's mouth both times.
Madeleine loved almost everything we did! Her favorite was Soaring Over California. It's my fave too. She wasn't too sure about some of the rides. She would say she didn't like them, but when Sarah said she did like them, Madeleine would change her mind and say she wanted to do whatever the ride was again.
A definite highlight was getting to meet Cinderella. To be honest, I didn't even know the princesses came to California Adventure. So, it was a very pleasant surprise that she was there after we finished watching one of the little shows on the back lot. Such a fun day! So glad we were able to go!

As for Spencer, the deal that was about to fall apart seems to be back on track, as of right now. Keep your fingers crossed that there won't be anymore drama with it before it closes! And he took the GMAT this past Saturday and did really well. Now he is busy, busy, busy filling out applications in order to get them in before the deadlines. Most are May 1 but one deadline is April 23. Assuming he gets into one of the schools he applies for (I can't imagine why he wouldn't), life will certainly be different for us come Fall when he is a full time student again. Pretty crazy, but kind of exciting too. Wish us luck!

Cheseboro 1/2 Marathon

This is a map of the Cheseboro 1/2 Marathon I ran today. I have to confess that I was not as diligent in my training as I should have been, but I am pretty sure this course wouldn't have seemed much easier even if I had trained better. The first 2 miles were on streets, the next 8 on a trail (a pretty difficult trail in my humble opinion), then the remaining 3 on streets again. I am so glad I did it! It's such a great accomplishment and I am pleased with my performance.

Anneli ran it too and she did great! She trained better than I did so I don't think she was crippled by soreness afterwards like I was. I can barely move! I'm hoping to be able to walk normal again soon.
Unfortuantely, Spencer and the kids got to their spot to watch us come in about 5 minutes after I finished, so no pic of me running. I was waiting a little ways up from the finish line waiting for Anneli to come in when they saw me and this was the first picture he got.
The kids are not accustomed to not seeing me first thing in the morning so they both needed some extra attention as soon as they saw me. I'm so glad they came to show their support!