Cell Phone Dump

It's always fun to see what pictures I have on my cell phone. I'm trying to keep it out of my kids' hands as much as possible, but they seem to keep getting a hold of it. Here's a few pictures from August and September. I love seeing life through their eyes.

A couple of profile shots:

Duffy's toes. (Toes and feet seem to be a very common photographic subject here.)

Posing with Teddy, the frog. Apparently this was deemed important enough to photograph...

...multiple times.

And of course, a couple of close-ups of someone's face - usually Amelia.

And there you have it, the latest installment of random photos taken by the kids.

Crowded Sleeping Conditions

Duff is a bit of a collector, maybe even a bit of a hoarder. Things are constantly disappearing because she likes to carry all of her little collections with her in various bags or baskets, and then she forgets that that is where she has put them. But her bed is one of her favorite places to store her various collections. Every few days I have to go down and sort through all of the things she keeps in her bed with her - just to keep the mess under control. This was the collection from last night:2 pencils (1 sparkly silver, sharpened, and 1 unsharpened, brown colored pencil)

1 Olivia book (there was definitely a shortage on books - usually there are several)

1 large plastic unicorn (not at all cuddly - can't imagine it's comfortable to sleep with)

1 sparkly, purple, plastic star box (didn't even bother to see what it was filled with, but it was full)

1 pink blanket (this is not her regular pink blanket. That is currently missing because it was carried off somewhere and we haven't located it yet - I'm thinking it might be in the back of the car)

1 pair of snow white dress-up shoes (also not the least bit soft and cuddly)

1 regular size purple unicorn pillow pet

1 mini size purple unicorn pillow pet (at least they are both soft)

1 American girl doll (currently dressed but often I find various articles of doll clothing in the bed as well)

1 pair red, diamond-studded, cat-eye glasses (because who doesn't need a pair of those in their bed to help them sleep?)

2 pieces of paper (1 blank and 1 name writing practice sheet from kindergarten)

1 straw

1 pink silly band

I just realized I forgot to check under her pillow. Generally, I can count on finding coins, chapstick or lipstick, a train and some form of polly pocket item hiding under there as well. I don't know how she sleeps with all this stuff crowded around her. It would make me crazy.

I just have to look at it as a form of entertainment - discovering all of the things she takes to bed with her. (The fact that I find it entertaining probably means I don't get out enough, but what can you do?) Here's hoping that this doesn't lead to a life of hoarding!

Some Days are Busier Than Others

Yesterday was a little crazy, but pretty fun. First, Shawn left bright and early to compete in the xterra triathlon at Snowbasin.

Now that is a nicely laid out transition area. (This is transition 1 - number 2 was in another place altogether.)

The kids and I didn't roll out until about 9:00. (I just couldn't see the value in getting everyone up and out the door by 6:30 on a Saturday.) While we were enjoying the hour long drive, Shawn was busy taking pictures of the start.
There is just something exciting about seeing all of the racers lined up at the start of a race.

There were helicopters all around.

(Apparently, pro races draw a little more attention than the typical triathlon. And I'm sure the fact that Lance Armstrong was there didn't hurt.)

Shawn snapped this photo of Lance putting on his wetsuit in the transition area.

It's a little hard to see on this small picture, but Lance is that front, center orange cap.

These are the pros starting their swim.

And the rest of the racers waiting their turn.

We got there in time to watch the pros come off of the bike and transition to the run. I could have reached over and knocked Lance off of his bike. (Of course, I would never do that, but it was still cool to be close enough that I could have.)

We moved to the finish to watch the pros come across, but my picture of Lance wasn't as successful as the bike one, but it was still plenty close. Then there was a lot of waiting. The kids kept themselves mostly entertained although there were several declarations of, "I'm bored." "I'm hungry." And so on.

Jonas made himself comfortable - at Peter's expense.

The fall colors were beautiful and the weather was perfect.

More entertainment.

Shawn also made his way across the finish line after suffering a bit on the mountain bike. He said it was steep and technical. Plus, he got a flat tire and after stopping to fix it, his back brakes kept seizing up and stopping his bike, so eventually he just disengaged them and made his way in. (One of the pros that came in rode in on only his rim with a completely shredded tire. It looked pretty cool. I guess when you've got sponsors you can afford to do that to your bike. Apparently Shawn needs to get some sponsors.) And at least he didn't end up with a demon thorn in his leg like last time.

At this point the kids were ready to move on to something else.

So we took a quick ride on the gondola to the top of the mountain where we stopped for a little snack.

And then we headed back down. We were in a bit of a time crunch.

Everyone was happy for a few minutes at least.

The gondola provided more spectacular views of the fall colors.

We drove all the way back home, dropped the kids off, changed clothes and headed up to Soldier Hollow for the Dirty Dash. We missed our original start time, but slid in just in time to go with the last wave of runners. It was a blast, and true to it's name, we were dirty at the end of it. It would have been impossible to stay clean in this race. It was so slippery and muddy, but so much fun.


Here we are with some of Shawn's co-workers who also ran the race although they had clearly already gotten cleaned up by the time we found them. (I even had jello in my hair, thanks to Shawn. Not sure why they passed that out at the aid station!)

We were cold and glad that we had forked out a couple extra bucks for the warm showers.

And to top it all off, we saw Moses and Kaylee from the Biggest Loser. Shawn stopped for a picture.
(A banner day for seeing famous people - Shawn also ran into Elder Scott at Cafe Rio later that night.)

Whew! Like I said, a crazy, busy but fun day. We were ready for a day of rest!

Nothing a Little Super Glue Can't Fix...

My 2 year old loves to take a shower. I heard him singing and dancing in there for a bit before I heard the fall - and then the tears. I didn't come rushing because I just figured it would be a bump. But no such luck. He apparently caught the edge of the tile step with his eyebrow. There was some blood and concern from the older sisters, but fortunately, it wasn't deep enough to warrant stitches. Just a little glue to hold it together while it heals. I'm hoping it won't scar too much, and he doesn't seem bothered by it at all.

Finally...

...the fraggle tooth is gone. It fell out this morning while she played on the computer.Thank goodness. Anything is better than that tooth sticking out at crazy angles all the time. And I love a toothless grin.
It's just too bad that adult teeth are going to come in and change her look completely. It won't make her any less crazy though, I'm sure.

Crazy Hair Day

It's Spirit Week at our elementary school this week. (Oh, it's so nice to have everyone at just one elementary school - but I digress.) Today's theme is crazy hair day - a favorite for the girls (and therefore we spent much more of our morning doing hair than typical.) Since Jonas is in 7th grade, he didn't participate - at least not officially. He generally has crazy hair everyday that we work hard to make look normal.

Samantha's creation. (At least this year it didn't require any wires.)

Amelia's hair - by Samantha. (It was a nice surprise to come home from my run this morning and find that this was already taken care of. One of the few times Amelia didn't mind having Samantha "style" her hair.) Now if someone could just take care of that fraggle tooth in front that has just being hanging there and sticking out at odd angles for weeks! (She won't let us touch it.)

And last, but not least, Duffy's crazy hair.

A little crazy face to go with the crazy hair.

Peter wanted in on the photo action, too. Samantha and Amelia had gotten him dressed this morning and also given him crazy hair (a mohawk - with vast quantities of hair spray.) Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it before he decided to climb in the shower this morning. I'm sure another opportunity will arise - the girls are always trying to "fix" his hair.

Here we are on our way to school, with Amelia's friend Hallee and her crazy hair, But what you should really notice in this photo is Samantha's trombone. (Yes, somehow she talked Shawn into renting a trombone so she could play it in the band at school. We are on instrument overload around here.) I told her that I wasn't going to drive her to school twice a week just because she wanted to play an instrument (yep, I'm the mean mom who expects my kids to use their legs to walk to and from school everyday.) I tried to suggest that she should pick something smaller so she could carry it more easily, but she wouldn't be deterred. (I guess I should be glad she didn't pick the tuba, although it would have gone so nicely with our other enormous instruments - harp and upright bass.) Anyway, after a couple of times of having to carry it, she's been trying to come up with a "solution." So today, she used lots of packing tape and carefully taped her trombone to this little skateboard so that she could wheel it all the way to school.
Of course, once she gets to school she'll have to untape it and she didn't take extra tape, so this was this morning's conversation.

Shawn: "So, Samantha, how are you going to get the trombone home?"

Samantha: "Oh, that won't be a problem. Someone else always carries my case so I can be a one-man band."

I guess that means that she's been playing the trombone for all of the neighbors to hear as she walks home. Hmm, that might not be too bad if she could actually play music on it, but so far it sounds mostly like a sick elephant. (My apologies to everyone on the 1 mile route from school to my house.) And I'm still not sure which of the kids she has finagled into carrying her case for her.

I hadn't thought that my hair was looking too spectacular in it's post-run pony tail, but in comparison to the girls, I guess it looks pretty tame. Anyway, we enjoyed another beautiful walk to school - crazy hair, trombone and all.