(The first Speedy Photo Catchup post and an explanation is back here.)
This picture is from spring 2014, but if you trade underwear for the diaper it could have been taken yesterday.
Scott is in there, under the pile of kids. 🙂
Oh I’m so grateful to have a husband to share the craziness and happiness of everyday life with little kids.
We take a fair number of road trips and this is a very typical scene:
We’re picnicking at a random stop by the side of the road, Scott is reading Narnia out loud, and we’re just enjoying the moment. In this case, we’re driving back from Washington where two of Scott’s sisters live. We’ve taken that drive a half dozen times in the last year.
Cousins are always worth the drive and we were especially glad we could come see one get baptized!
I’m not sure he was quite as thrilled to have us there after this picture. 😉
We’re old-fashioned on our trips… no ipads or devices, no food in the car, just a shared audiobook or the alphabet game out the window and then a grassy spot to stop and run around with a picnic.
One time I was driving back from Washington without Scott, and one of our kiddos threw up five times. That time we had some extra stops to run around (and hose off). That time was not my favorite, but it didn’t scare me off of road trips for life, so that’s a win.
My Mother’s Day haul last year:
This girl has given us a run for our money lately, and it’s good to look a year behind remember all that sweetness is still in there, wrapped up with some feistiness and her admirable zest for life:
2014 was the year of the half marathon for me. I hadn’t been able to run without pain in ~8 years but armed with a foam roller I was able to thoroughly enjoy it again and I completed three half marathons. Running my first half mile convinced me I was so far out of running shape that it was a long shot to prepare for a half marathon, but I followed the program from Run Less, Run Faster and got ‘er done. I wrote a little about my first race, the Newport Half back here. The method calls for intervals at the track and I must say this is not a bad view first thing in the morning:
We had a family campout in the backyard for the first time, complete with a fairy tale read by flashlight and hot chocolate in the morning:
Caitlyn taught Daniel how to fly that morning. 🙂
My family reunion last year was one of those can’t-believe-this-is-actually-happening occasions. We took our combined 11 kids, ages 8 and under, on a Disney cruise to Alaska. Even the littlest (Daniel) was absolutely entranced with the magic of it all. We hopped on a train in Salem, met some California cousins for the ride up, spent some extra days in Vancouver and enjoyed every minute of our time on the ship. Ok, not the minute when we realized we lost Daniel and hadn’t noticed. That was a bad one, but the Disney people acted like it happened all the time when they paged us…
(I thought Scott had him, he thought I had him. I should have had him.)
5 great memories from the trip:
1) Running all around Vancouver at midnight. With a grandma at the hotel room to watch sleeping kids, Scott and I ran miles and miles around the city, checking out the night life, the wildlife in the huge park, and the lights reflected on the water. It was a heavenly date.
2) Caitlyn nearly took out Ariel. She was so enthusiastic to meet the princesses that she got a running start for this hug. It was awesome.
3) Caitlyn’s connection with Cinderella. They compared shoes, talked animatedly for a long time, and Cinderella ended up getting our room number and sending Caitlyn a personal note. I’ll admit to being a little swept away in seeing a princess through a little girl’s eyes.
4) Glaciers and seals and whales and misty fjords. Ok, that’s more than one moment but I love Alaska and the rugged scenery. It was absolutely incredible to watch a pod of whales “bubble net feeding” and be close enough to smell their awful breath.
This float plane trip was entrancing in its beauty but we made a bad call and took motion sickness-prone Caitlyn along. She was miserable, poor thing, and had to stay buckled in her seat instead of snuggled up with me or Scott. You can see it in her face here:
5) Time with family. Ok this is not just a single moment either, but I am so incredibly grateful for aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins who genuinely love my kids.
This is Caitlyn dancing with her Uncle Don. 🙂
More catch up to come…