Ahoy there!

Happy Halloween! My adorable pirates didn't want to take their costumes off all day. They are very excited for trick-or-treating tonight.

Joshy is walking!

Here's a little video of my big man walking down the hallway.

Photography

So I've been toying with photography for a few years now. Never really had any really decent equipment but I got by. I've done a ton of portrait sessions with friends kids and of course my own adorable models. Yesterday I used my brand new (high tech and fancy) camera and did some maternity photos of my sweet friend Lucy. We took about a hundred photos but these are my favorites.

Turning 30

I suppose I expected turning 30 to be a little more emotionally difficult than it was. Everyone always talks about how awful it feels and what a struggle it is to wake up that morning and realize how old you are. But honestly, it wasn't bad at all. Maybe it's all that running but I feel pretty good for being old. But I will have to go through my closet and get rid of a few things. There are some outfits that thirty year olds just can't wear. Don't we all wish a few more people would come to that realization???

Anyway, here are some pics from my big day.

Camping

For my birthday this past weekend, the family and I headed out camping in our new RV. We drove south to Girdwood and camped in the Portage Valley. I rained and snowed on us. Here are the excited kids on the drive down.

We set up camp, started a fire and went out for a little hike. When we got back we roasted hot dogs on the fire. Jake did alright but Jordan kept sticking her hotdog in the dirt. She hates hot dogs anyway. Joshy just sat in his stroller and cried the whole time.

After dinner we baked some cookies. Jake was amazed that they didn't look like cookies when we put them into the oven, but they looked like cookies when we got them back out. They turned out burned on the bottom and raw on the top. Tasty though.

We put Josh to bed in his travel crib and closed ourselves off in the back of the camper to watch movies with Jake and Jordan. I feel asleep pretty quickly and we ended up turning off the movie and going to bed at about 8:30.

Darrin and I woke up to Joshy crying at one point. We ignored him for awhile and then decided that maybe he was just up for the day. So we got him out of bed and looked at the cell phone. It was 4:30 in the morning. So then we had to play with Josh for about an hour before he was ready to go back to bed.

We all got up again around 8am. Jake wanted to eat cookies for breakfast and he got into an argument about it with Darrin. I laughed when Darrin finally said (very sternly) "We aren't eating cookies for breakfast, we're having cinnamin rolls!"

We took another hike before packing up and hitting the road around 10am. We decided to drive throught the wildlife park on the way home.

We made it home before lunch. It was a whirlwind 21 hour camping trip. Here are my sleepy kids on the drive home.

Knee High Naturalist

Every once in a while Grandma takes Jake out to the nature center in Eagle River for activities pertaining to preschoolers. One time he learned about snow and another time he learned about animal tracks. This time he learned about bugs and spiders. He got this fuzzy toy spider to bring home and he refuses to touch the legs. In fact, he was carrying the spider at one point and he suddenly got creeped out and flung it through the air. Jordan is petrified of it so of course Jake torments her with it. Here are a couple of pictures from his spider adventure.

RV

Well, we finally did it. A long time goal has finally been achieved. We got ourselves a "wheel house" as Jake calls it. Meet the newest member of our family.

And this is the living room and master bedroom...

And this is the kid's room. They have already staked claims to their beds.

Ugh

This morning we woke up to this. Woo hoo. We are so excited.

*sigh*

My first 5k!!!

Today I ran my first ever 5k race. It was a fun experience and I met both of my goals including not finishing dead last! I actually finished in 29 minutes 39 seconds which was my other goal, finish in under 30 minutes! Little Jakey and grandma were out on the course cheering me on and taking pictures. This is before the first mile mark. I was at the end of the pack because I wanted to run with some friends. It wasn't long before I was forced to ditch them in favor of meeting my goals.

This is the end of the first of two laps around the lake. Just coming up the big hill. Okay, it wasn't big at all but it really felt big! This was about the half way point.

This was nearing the end of my second lap around the lake before heading to the finish. I had just given my baby a high five. I was so happy he was there cheering me on! That's why I'm still smiling despite wanting to throw up. And yes, that is a six year old running behind me. I barely beat him, OKAY? But I creamed his four year old sister. Sweet!

And this is me posing proudly with my first place plaque! I won first place for women in my age division (19-29 years) but don't get too excited. There were only two people IN my division. But I beat her and that's all that matters.