Oops-A-Daisy

I was busy in another room when I heard Darren laughing and yelling Oops-A-Daisy and then crashing. I came into the kitchen and found him having a great time throwing all of our "kid" dishes on the floor. That is the first time I have heard him use the phrase oops-a-daisy. It was just way too cute. It was one of the few times it wasn't hard to not get mad at one of the many messes he chooses to make in a day. I tried to get my video camera because it was just so darn cute but of course the batteries were not charged. I am going to charge them right now.

I was runnin

People have been wanting to know why in my last post I was running three times in a day. Well........ I have joined an awesome running group that is made up of mostly women in my ward and then some friends from other places. I started running with them last July. We were running three days a week in the morning at 5am. At first we were just running for exercise, fun and a chance to socialize. After we did our first 1/2 marathon we decided to compile a team of 12 runners and to sign up for the Ragnar Relay. We have been training for it ever since. Our group has morphed into a fabulous running team. We love it. We now run four days a week together. We have been doing hill training, speed work, long runs (up to 18 miles) trail running amd even running up to three times in one day. Some of us even got in some high altitude training. Our big race is this weekend. It starts on my birthday. The race is a relay race that starts in Prescott, AZ and ends in Mesa, AZ. It is 200 miles long and we have about 24 hours to complete it. We are each running three different legs that very in distance and difficulty. It will start in a decent elevation and run along highways, through neighborhoods, dirt trails and end in a nearby park. It has been kind of a logistical nightmare to plan for and get ready for all of this. We each took on two jobs from coaching to decorating the vehicles to gathering night bike riders that will ride next to us while it is dark and so on. We have all worked really hard and everyone is super excited. Alan can't wait for it to be over so my trainging will go down significantly. It really has gotten in the way of family stuff quite a few times. My 18 miler not only took three hours to run but when I finished I felt like I had the flu and couldn't do much the rest of the day. All of this running has consumed a lot of my time and concentration. I will be relieved to have it over but I will not stop running all together. Most of the girls want to do a marathon in the next couple of months as well. I don't know If I want to do that. I am happy with 1/2 marathons and 10K's. I just don't feel like that is something I have to do. I think that I enjoy running now more so than I even did in highschool. It is all the fun of a team without all of the pressure to perform. The only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself. I tend to be a little competitive so I do push myself pretty hard and I love it. Sometimes during a race I wonder why but I always feel so good afterwards.

Anyways, wish us luck and come join us anytime if you would like. After this race we are actually thinking of switching it up a little and doing that P90X (or whatever it is called).

My Sweethearts

Will you be my Valentine?

We had such a fun evening as a family last night. I'm sure you were expecting me to say as a couple but I decided to involve all of my Valentine's in the celebration this year. Alan and I have had some really romantic trips in the last few months and we have left the kids with babysitters a lot as well. While running at 6:30am yesterday morning my friend Lori gave me a great idea. I went straight home and worked the rest of the day to pull it all off. I only took off time to go running one more time. I cheated and didn't do my third run in order to finish it all.

We had a Valentine night out but we stayed in. We started out going to "Petersens" a fabulous resturaunt complete with menu's and a several course meal. I even let them decide whether or not to have salad and vegetables. That was not easy but I did it. I was the server but had to change my title to"Matre De" so Eleanor would let me sit down and eat with them. We got out all of our china (which isn't much) and had a fancy dinner. I went a little crazy and made lots of really great food. The kids loved every bite. Earlier in the day Mark said he wasn't going to like anything I made. I told him I would pay him $10 if he didn't like it. He tried to say it wasn't good during the meal between bites that he was scarfing down and enjoying every bite. There was no money exchanged. We started out with a green salad, garlic cheesey bread and shrimp cocktail. For drinks we had strawberry daquiris and pina coladas. For our main course we had a fabulous marinated flank steak that was so tender and delicious with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. For dessert we had a yummy homemade cherry pie and ice cream and chocolate dipped strawberries. The entire meal was exciting and so fun. It was great to have the kids feel "fancy" and to choose their meals. Each item was given a different love themed name and they had to order using those names instead of the name of the food.

After dinner Alan had heated the hot tub and lit the fire in the pool area. This was only the second time we had heated it and the first time the kids got in. It was great to spend this day showing my love for my family. I am so grateful for all of my Valentine's. (Alan and I even got some great romantic alone time after the kids went to bed.)

Our Darren

Darren is at the most adorable age right now. We have been potty training him for the past two weeks. I thought it would be a nightmare with tons of accidents and lots of washing out underwear. He is only 22 months old so you have to expect it to take several weeks to really take but Darren is doing beautifully. He says in his very cute voice "bafroom, Mom" and then runs in and is ready to do his thing. It is all very exciting. I think he has got it already. We have gone three days with no accidents. He got a new toddler bed yesterday. I figured he needed to be able get out of bed to go to the bathroom at night by himself. I can’t believe he is getting so big. AMAZING!
His language is exploding lately. He has even started simple sentences like "where mom go?" and "mom, milk please" and "mom, look gain gain(train)". He is in love with Thomas the train. He carries around a Thomas computer game that we have and shows everyone the train pictures. He is very good about saying please and "Kank you Mom." It is nice to have at least one polite child for the time being. He is still whispering but not as often as he used to. Anytime he really wants something he just whispers "mom, mom, mom" until I notice and then he asks for it. It is my absolute favorite. It is sweet and polite and so darn cute. When Alan comes home he just stays where he is and whispers, "Dad home, dad home." I will be so sad when he stops doing this all together. I have tried to get it on video but he is not good about performing on command. He only whispers when he feels like it and will not repeat. It is usually when everyone else is being loud. He has learned that it melts my heart every time and I will give him just about anything if he whispers. He loves to say people's name and does a pretty good job. He tackled Eleanor quite early. He calls her Nenenore. He says Ukey for Luke and can say Mark very wll. He does not however ever call Bradley by name. I don't know why but he just calls him Mark too.
Darren is very curious and climbs everywhere and gets into everything. He empties cupboards and opens everything to check it out. He, of course loves the kitchen still and rifles through the drawers and cupboards on a daily basis. I keep all of the plastic kid dishes in a low cupboard that they can all reach so he gets those out and sets the table with all of them. He loves to explore any cupboard. I find my makeup with finger marks in it and spread all over my bathroom. He loves to rummage through the pantry as well. Food is his main motivator. It is his constant pursuit. He loves to eat and snack all day long.
Darren is my buddy. He wants to be where I am and he loves to snuggle. There just isn't much not to adore about my sweet baby. His adorable eyes and smile sure don't hurt either.

Cruisin

Alan and I got to be spoiled rotten in November and go on a cruise. This was the first trip we had left all of the kids and gone somewhere by ourselves in ten years. We loved every minute. We did the seven day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Holland America Line. There were lots of things we loved about that line but one of the best was that it caters to the older crowd. There was a lot of older retired couples and some middle aged couples and even a few families. None of the hard core partiers and crazies. I guess we are most comfortable with that crowd. We had such a relaxing fun time. It was nice to take naps, eat whatever whenever, enjoy sun bathing, reading, being together all the time, the entertainment, getting to know other fun couples, participating in various shipboard competitions and being without kids. It was so nice but hard not to feel a little guilty for leaving our kids and having such a relaxing fabulous time. Every couple should get to do this from time to time. We would really like to get away together much more often than every ten years. It is just so healthy for your relationship. It felt good to just be us and not Mom and Dad. Next time we might like to go with other adult friends or family too.

The ship was beautiful and the food was great. We did have to buy soda for Alan when we got to our first port because Alan refused to pay ship prices for that. The entertainment was so fun. Our favorite was the Elton John impersonator. He was hilarious and a great comedian as well as a great singer and piano player. The piano bar guy was super good too. The ship singing and dancing cast was ok but nothing too special. The magician was so cheesy. He would tell a joke and then turn his head and shake his shoulders up and down and pretend to laugh. His majic was not that impressive either. He did choose me to go up on stage one night though to have my neck pierced with a sword and smoke blown through it. That was fun but I almost punched him when he lit a cigarette and kept bloking smoke in my face. We also loved to go and sit and listen to the string quartet every night. They were excellent. Ship life is quite amazing. It is a floating city that is very compact and totally relaxed. I loved being able to eat all the time. We even ordered free room service at 2 in the morning. I loved running laps around the ship for exercise. That is a little strange with the ship pitching and rolling. My legs were super sore- it was like I was running hills the whole time. I loved having a pool to lay by in the sun and read. I even liked the movement of the ship. You didn't notice it very much except for the first and last nights. The first because it was a new sensation and the last because the sea was rough. We were never nauseaus but it did feel strange to be moving like that. I loved the chance to dress up in formal wear two different nights. Alan didn't love it as much but he didn't complain. We met a really cute older couple that took us polka dancing-much to Alan's chagrin. It was thier 27th cruise and they were adorable. It was great to do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. We took three naps in one day. I don't think there is much better than a day like that.

The ports were lots of fun too. The first port was Puerto Vallarta. Everyone told us not to purchase an excursion on the boat becuase you will pay almost triple for it than if you just get off the boat and haggle for activities with the locals. Since Alan speaks spanish we were completely comfortable with that. We hired a guy to take us to Lover's beach and for snorkeling equipment the first day. It was beautiful. The weather was perfect and the water was warm. The beach had beautiful white fine sand. It was great to lay out and snorkel and explore the beach. One of our favorite activities to do together s probably people watching. There was plenty of that to do that day. We didn't see a ton of fish snorkeling but there was some pretty ones. That beach was nice because there are no hagglers walking the beach trying to sell things to you constantly. When we got back we found a mall that had a great little restuarant with really great food. I loved my fish tacos with fresh salsa and rice. It was "real" mexican food! Our next port was Mazatlan. We didn't want to spend much money that day so we chose to go to a time share presentation to have our food and taxis paid for. It turned out great. They weren't too pushy and they let us go in the exact time they said they would. We had lunch on them and the yummy pina coladas and then went to the beach. We rented body boards and had a great time riding the waves and playing in the water. Then we layed out in the sun under an umbrella and read. It was a great day. I just couldn't stop thinking how great it was to have a break from kids and the stresses of the past 11 years of school. Our last port was Cabo San Lucas. This one we haggled with a guy and got a great price on a Zip Line tour. We drove in an open bus up the mountain for about an hour and then did about 15 different zip lines over the jungle canopy. It was stunningly beautiful and such a thrill to zoom that high up and for such long distances. Our guides were fun and pretty goofy. They film it and make it into a movie since it is made in the place that Arnold Swarzenegger (sp?) filmed some action film. We of course did not buy the film but we had a great time.

I highly recommend a cruise. You can get them for fantastic prices right now if you are willing to book them two or three days in advance.

Thank you Alan for a wonderful trip!