Mulberry Street

Wow.  I'm not sure where June went, let alone May.  We have had a very busy month.  I got to see my friend Sylvia and her beautiful children who were in town, all the way from Rabat, Morocco.  It is great to have friends live in far away places, because then I can live vicariously through them.  I do miss Sylvia and Kurt.  They are some fun "free thinkers."  I also miss stopping in on them with a pizza and watching Seinfeld together.  Okay, maybe that only happened once?  But it is a good memory.  I hope they enjoy their next post, more than the last... (Pictured - Wendy, Blake, Alisha, Emory, Audrey, Gavin, Sylvia, Erin and Bailey) The kids and I ventured over to a construction site to explore the big machines.  Emory wanted to climb up and sit on the machines SOOO badly, but I wouldn't let him.  I already felt like we were trespassing on the site and didn't want to get caught trespassing on the giant equipme...

Let's see.  I guess I'll start in the beginning and lay out the trip chronologically, because that's how I like to organize things... Thursday we flew to UT (and I should note how fantastic the kids were during our flight).  We spent the remainder of the day getting our gear and food together for the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay.  Audrey made us a fabulous lasagne dinner and we tried to go to bed early. Friday and Saturday Eric and I ran the Wasatch Back.  I really do love running with him and sharing in these experiences together.  Saturday was our eleventh wedding anniversary.  We shared a kiss and some good chocolate in the van.  Good times.  (In hindsight, perhaps we should have visited with family first, then ran the relay.  Starting our trip with a major sleep deficit was a bad idea.) Sunday we recovered.  We spent Father's Day with Grandpa Barry, Uncle Jared, Eric and Uncle Rod.  We were lucky to s...

We had a blast on our trip west.  We played hard and maximized every last minute of our time.  Now, we are all suffering from the subsequent hangover associated with travel. I recorded the above thoughts Sunday night.  We'd been home less than 24 hours.  It is now Tuesday night and I still feel hungover.  We all do.  Only, we should be recovered by now, right?!  In reality, I feel empty because Eric is back to work and I can't find the motivation to get things done.  Our trip was a success because Eric is such a great man.  I would bore you, not to mention run out of space, with all the reasons he helped make this trip such a fabulous one.  The best thing I can say is, "Thanks Hon.  We miss you already." I did make a bit of progress today.  I got the kids back on EST, I exercised (for a mere 20 minutes), and I began the process of sorting through all the pictures from our trip.  What I should have...

After rocking Emory for a few minutes, I stood up to put him into his crib for nap time.  In his whiny quiet voice he said, "Say Good Night sister."  I explained to him that he had, in fact, already said good night to sister.  He then tried telling me that he was poopy.  Only he wasn't.  That kid is getting more and more creative in his stall tactics. When Genevieve was getting ready for her swim lesson today, she launched into an anatomy lesson.  Emory was her pupil.  She explained why her bathing suit looked different than his, because of their, ahem, different parts.  My little know-it-all needs to learn some boundaries on sharing this type of information.  Here I thought she would come home from her first bus ride full of truths I wasn't ready for her to hear, but perhaps she'll be the culprit, rather than the victim...

I am so grateful the kids were well behaved on our recent flights to and from the west.  Eric and I figure, as long as our kids aren't the loudest on the flight, we're golden.  And, both Genevieve and Emory barely muttered a sound.  Whew.  Here are some pictures I took with Instagram during our two flights...

The kids were very lucky to celebrate their birthdays a few different times this year.  We have adopted the rule that you have a family party one year and a friend party the next, then rotate.  This year, we were on for a family only party.  Little did we know what a party that could be!  Both our extended families treated our kids to very special birthdays.  Thanks to all you! My sister makes and sells amazing fondant cakes.  She is very talented and Genevieve was looking forward to her own special cake.  Using Peter Pan as her inspiration, Genevieve designed a three tier "Tick-Tock Aligator Cake" with mermaids.  Audrey let Genevieve help with the cake preps and the finally assembly of all the pieces.  Genevieve fully enjoyed herself!    Since Emory isn't too opinionated...yet, we ordered him a tractor cake.  My sister is smart to incorporate a few things the kids can k...

Eric and I had the opportunity to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay in Utah this year.  I didn't realize that running the original Ragnar was on my bucket list, but it was.  When Ali asked if I might join her team, I jumped at the chance to fly west and try my legs out at elevation.  I think it's safe to say, however, that I can't run at an elevation higher than 2,000 feet without feeling the effects.  My first leg went great, but, my second and third legs were hard and I walked.  I admit it.  I walked during a running race.  I had to - Wasatch Back with it's dry-cotton-mouth-air, altitude and mountain passes broke me.  I am officially a sea-level resident and I'm okay with that. We had a great time running on team Wii Not Fit and made some great new friends.  It's amazing what spending hours together in a van can do for a relationship, gratefully we suffered the positive side effects.  We finished running the ...