Ran in the Garden of the Gods 5K today. It wasn't any easier this year even though I feel like I'm in better running shape. The course is all up or down and there is hardly any flat. I placed 3rd for women and 14th overall men and women combined. I ran the course this year in 22:20.  It was fun to see so many friends from my group there running. Kelsey came in a little ahead of me. I’m so grateful for Mike and the girls who came to support me in this "training" race. What a great place to run!

Both the boys went camping with the boy scouts to Mt. Herman and had a great time.  This was the first campout that both Andrew and Peter got to go on together as Boy Scouts. 

The springtime in Colorado Springs brings lots of crazy weather.  Our afternoons are usually filled with thunder, lightening and rain.  Today I could see a storm in the distance and it looked kind of cool. 

Abby is definitely entertainment in our house.  She is always either doing something funny or wearing something outrageous.  Today she came downstairs with funny dress up glasses and read her book to us.  She is a hoot.

 We try to do a good job about having Family Home Evening every week.  Some weeks are definitely better than others.  Today we all sang (including the boys) and then Peter gave us a lesson.  He did such a great job!

Even though the weather is unpredictable these days, I still try to get out and ride my bike in preparation for my upcoming Xterra triathlon.  Today was a particularly muddy day but I still had fun biking around the Section 16 trail in Black Forest. 

We get quite a few hailstorms during the month of May.  Today’s hailstorm was CRAZY.  Up near our house we got a good covering of hail but down south where Mike works the hail was so deep that some of the roads ended up closing. 

It was a crazy afternoon with the most hail I had ever seen. I'm so grateful the weather heading north was good enough so we could spend the evening in the temple with our boys. It was Pete's first time and it was glorious. We have such good boys.

I love watching my kids play together.  Even though Peter is in Middle School now he still takes the time to play with his younger sisters.  I loved watching how sweet he was playing Sylvania Family with Abby. 

We have had some little thieves in our neighborhood who have stolen the Bison Ridge and Kettle Creek sign letters.  After a year or two of replacing those I think the HOA finally wised up and decided to redo the sign to something more permanent.  We were so excited by the new sign until three of the stones fell off.  Hopefully they will get that fixed soon.

With all the rain we have been having the lower field at the elementary school completely flooded.  It actually looked like a lake had always existed there.  Emma and Peter really wanted to go and see it. 

In third grade the kids learn how to play the recorder during music time.  Every time they passed off a level they got a different colored yarn to tie onto their recorder.  Emma was so excited to learn all the songs and get to the highest level, which was black.   During the concert the kids only played the songs that corresponded to the highest level they achieved.  Emma was one of the few kids who played all the songs because she had made it to the highest level.  I’m so proud of her. 

It’s finally that time of year when we start seeing more rain, warmer temperatures, and greener lawns.  Luckily, the grass seems to recover quickly from the winter.  Even though it wasn't the warmest of days Abby was so excited to help Mike mow the lawn in her polka dot pajamas.  

Mike and I headed up to Denver for a one-night getaway and stayed at the Ritz Carlton.  With our new American Express platinum card we got a $60 gift certificate to breakfast and a $100 certificate towards dinner.  Yippee!! We toured around the city and walked by the Capital building before eating at a really awesome restaurant called Elways.  After filling our bellies with happiness we headed up to our room to watch movies and stay up late.  We enjoyed sleeping in and eating breakfast in our room.  Before heading back home we went shopping at the Japanese grocery store down the road and then headed over to REI to look around.  It was the perfect little getaway!

Peter came downstairs with his hair all slicked just to be funny.  The funniest part about it was that he looked exactly like Alfalfa because a tiny piece was sticking up in the back.  We all thought that was hilarious. 

For Emma’s End of the Year Party I made Survivor flags for our Survivor themed party.  They turned out so well!!!

Today we attended Andrew’s 8th grade graduation, which took place at the Pine Creek HS gym.  It was so fun to see Andrew walk down the aisle and graduate from this part of his school life.  It was a really proud moment for us.  After some of the speakers Andrew played a special musical number with the rest of the 8th grade band.  Andrew was extremely excited to finally graduate from Middle School. 

For Emma’s class end of the year party my friend Jen and I put together quite a party.  Our theme was Survivor and we made different colored flags for the different groups.  We had different challenges for the groups to complete.  The first outdoor challenge was the hula-hoop race.  Each group had to hold hands in a circle and pass the hula-hoop around the circle.  There were lots of laughs with this one.  Then we came back inside and had a trivia challenge with questions all about their teacher, Mrs. Pedersen.  Each team had an adult representative who wrote their answers on small white boards.  The kids knew many of the answers about their teacher but some were surprised by some of the answers.  The next challenge was the food challenge.  A few volunteers in the group were given a cup with a particular flavor of baby food and had to eat it before the next person in the group could eat theirs.  The team to eat all the baby food won.  There were some hilarious faces during this challenge.  Then we moved on to the big puzzle challenge.  Each team got a giant puzzle and had to put it together the fastest.  Afterwards we headed back outside to do the marble in a tube race.  Two team members held the ends of a PVC pipe without covering the ends and placed a marble inside.  They had to race to the end of the grassy area and back without dropping the marble.  If they dropped the marble they had to start over.  This challenge was definitely harder than we anticipated.  Then the kids headed over to the big field to play a capture the flag type of game.  Every kid on each team got a number.  The teams sat across from each other and a flag was thrown in the middle between the teams.  Then we called out a number and the kids from each team with those numbers ran to the middle to try and grab the flag.  Then they had to run it to their end zone.  The kids were so hilarious and very competitive.  Finally, we had a push up challenge.  Emma was so determined to win this won.  I couldn’t believe how long she lasted.  It was only her and another boy at the end.  Eventually her little arms gave out but everyone cheered for her because of how many “real” push-ups she did.  After all the challenges were over we came back inside the classroom for a wonderful lunch spread of croissant sandwiches, jello cups, gold fish, yogurt covered pretzels, fruit kabobs, and Izzy soda drinks.  It was the coolest class party ever.

There are many things about Japan that we all miss but the food is probably on the top of our list.  Mike found a great website with tutorials on how to make certain Japanese dishes.  The website is called JUST ONE COOKBOOK.  One day we had a Japanese cooking feast.  First, Mike and the girls made mochi ice cream.  The different flavors of ice cream was scooped into a mini muffin pan and frozen longer in the freezer.  Then after the mochi dough was made the girls helped Mike fold the mochi around the ice cream.  It was definitely harder to put together than we thought.  The next dish we tried was pizza man buns.  Mike had purchased a bamboo steamer that we used to steam the buns.  Those turned out so well and were devoured pretty quickly.  The next day for dinner Mike made tempura.  He had finally mastered the correct temperature of the oil to fry the vegetables until they were just perfect.  Mike fried eggplant, squash, sweet potato, onions, mushroom, and shrimp. We have come to realize that Tempura is a great way to get your kids to eat their vegetables. 

​A few days later, while we were still on a Japan high, the girls decided to get dressed up in their yukatas.  They put on quite a show for me, which made me miss Japan even more. 

One of our favorite places to hike near our house is Spruce Mountain. We hiked there earlier this year but only went to the overlook at the top and didn’t go much further along the loop at the top because it was pretty cold. Today the weather was beautiful and the trail was free of ice so we headed to the top, stopped at the Greenland Overlook, and then headed along the Upper Loop trail.  We walked for a little while along this loop until we came to some other fun overlook areas.  We didn’t make the full loop but turned around and headed back the same way we came.  The kids had so much fun climbing on the big rocks and just being silly along the way. 

I went out with some friends today to hike around the Garden of the Gods.  It was a beautiful day.  I led the group around the Palmer trail starting from the main parking area down to where it connected with the Scotsman and Bucksin Charlie trails.  We hiked the Bucksin Charlie trail and crossed the road to get to the Ute Trail.  We took that trail and headed back north along the Bretag Trail until we met back up with the main parking area.  The views from the trail of the main gardens were striking and it made me grateful to live in such a beautiful place.

Spring track season is always interesting here in Colorado Springs.  We get really nice days but we mostly fight against the crazy weather consisting of rain, snow and hail.  There seemed to be lots of canceled practices and a few meets were cancelled and rescheduled.  We were only able to make it to 2 of the meets this year.  The girls ran so well at both of the meets.  I couldn’t be a prouder mom of my little runner girls. 
 
April 20th - Emma and Abby both ran the 400m and the 800m.   Emma ran the 800m in 3:43 and Abby ran the 800m in 4:19. 
 
May 11th  – Emma and Abby both ran the 400m followed by Abby who ran the 800m and Emma who ran the mile.  Emma ran the mile in 7:58. 

It’s not surprising that it snows in May in Colorado Springs but it was kind of a bummer that it snowed on Mother’s Day.  For breakfast Mike made buttermilk pancakes and had chocolate milk and berries to go along with it.  It was totally yummy.  After church we took our traditional photos of me and each of the kids while we were still in our church clothes.  Then I happily changed and took a little nap without anyone bugging me.  That was such a nice treat.  For dinner Mike and the kids made me a special dinner of BBQ baby back ribs, corn, and rolls.  It was absolutely delicious.  For dessert Mike went above and beyond and made a replica of the apple crisp dessert we love from Ted’s Montana Grill.  I was so excited when I tasted it because it tasted exactly like the one from the restaurant.  This Mother's Day couldn't have been any better! 

In October 2012 Andrew got top braces put on for the very first time while we were living in Japan.  After almost a year of having those on he finally got a whole new set put on the upper and lower teeth.  Andrew’s teeth weren’t terribly crooked but his lower jaw definitely needed to be brought forward.  Andrew saw Dr. Ford for the majority of the time he wore braces.  Dr. Ford was great as well as all of his assistants. Andrew struggled with being consistent with flossing so we got him a Waterpik and that seemed to help.  It's not easy living with braces and I would know since I just got mine off 6 years ago.  Andrew took it like a champ even with all the constant lectures about taking good care of his teeth and gums.  After 2 ½ years of braces Andrew finally got them off and I know he was both relieved and happy.