8 Months and End of Season

The thing about being really behind on blogging is that sometimes it makes more sense to group events together based on similarity rather than chronology.  As I was looking over pictures and thinking about what I wanted to blog about today, I noticed that most of the things I wanted to talk about related to fall and Halloween.  With Halloween coming up this week it made sense to hold all the fall and Halloween activities until next week (I may really regret that decision come next week).  That left two important, but unrelated things, for the this week; Elsie's 8 month birthday and the end of the soccer season wrap up.

On the 22nd Elsie turned eight months.  I say this every month, but how did this happen???? She is not quite crawling but is soooo close.  She transitions from sitting to the crawling position and it is almost like you can hear her wondering if trying it is worth the risk and then she sits herself back down.  She has also started pulling herself to stand but took a pretty good tumble and hasn't tried again since.  So far she seems to be a little risk adverse, but that's ok because I am in no real hurry for her to do all these things.  Elsie has also started clapping and waving bye (sometimes).  Usually if she gives you a wave it is just one of two and then she quickly turns it into a clap.  She has been saying "mamama" a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if "mama" ends up being her first word (wishful thinking?).  She still LOVES her food and is still a terrible sleeper.  I keep telling myself that one day I will get to sleep again.  I guess in the meantime it is just more time we get to spend together.

The other thing for this week is yesterday was the last game of the soccer season for both Merrick and Carrigan.  Carrigan was never really sure that she liked soccer very much and we were just happy when she touched the ball, but she was on a really good team and they went undefeated for the season.  She was sure, however, that she liked the end of season party.  They got treats, trophies, unicorn ears, a unicorn blanket, and a unicorn necklace (her team was the Pink Unicorns).  The team mom went a little overboard, but the girls ate it up.

Merrick's season was the exact opposite.  He loves soccer and is really pretty good.  He spent most of the season as goal keeper and did an amazing job.  His team, however, was mostly made up of boys who didn't really want to be there and they didn't win a single game.  He also had a good end of the year party with a nacho bar and medals.  Jeremy also got some nice gift cards from the team for coaching.

It was a fun season, but yesterday the rain started and I am just thanking my lucky stars that we made it through without a game in the rain.  That right there is a miracle from heaven.

California Vacay

I missed blogging last week because we were on vacation in California with Jeremy's family and if I am being completely honest I was really tempted to not blog today because it is my birthday and there are other things I would rather be doing (like taking a nap...thanks Elsie).  I am SO behind though and so much has happened since last time that I need to at least do a brief recap of the trip.

We got to California on Wednesday late morning.  We took the afternoon to get settled in and then went to the tide pools at Little Corona.  We walked on the rocks, found cool creatures, played in the sand, and saw the sunset.

The next day we went to Knott's Berry Farm.  I had not been there since I was a kid and it has changed a lot.  It now has tons of big roller coasters.  I have always been a roller coaster girl, but was worried that I wouldn't do well with them now that I am older and seem to get dizzy much easier than before.  I have to say I was relived to discover that I still have my roller coaster mojo and loved every ride!  Jeremy and Merrick loved doing the big rides too and Merrick went with us on all but one of the rides we went on.  Obviously, Elsie was too little for the rides and Carrigan didn't want to try many of the rides, but thankfully Grandpa, Grammy, Lollie, and Aunt Savannah were more than happy to hang with the girls.  They spent much of the time at Camp Snoopy and had a great time.  Both kids actually reported that they liked Knott's Berry Farm better than Disneyland if you can believe it.

The low light of the trip came the next morning.  Before we went to Knott's, Merrick showed us a "bug bite" on his leg.  His entire calf was red, hot, and swollen.  We didn't want to miss out on Knott's since we had already bought our tickets so we gave him allergy medicine and made it through the day.  The next morning, when it didn't look any better, we went to urgent care.  A couple of hours and some antibiotics later we were on the way to recovery and even managed to make it to the beach that day and to Balboa Island were Elsie got to taste her first sweet treat (she wasn't too sure about it).

Saturday was the last day with everyone there.  We went to the Discovery Cube.  It is a children's museum on steroids.  Even the adults had a great time...for most of the day.

Sunday we went to church at Grammy's old ward and then in the afternoon we went to Crystal Cove, which has these really cool old cabanas from the 1930's and took some family pictures (I will post those at a later date).

It was such a great trip!  Since getting back life has been a complete whirlwind with lots happening.  Most significantly, Jensen got off the plane and suffered a TIA and ended up in the hospital for three days.  We are so thankful that he didn't have a stroke, like we initially thought, and that he has made a fully recovery.

I have so much more to report from the week we have been back, but that's all for today.  Until next week...

Fun(ish) Run

We have been very lucky this fall.  For the most part our weather has been fairly warm and we have had very little rain.  Friday that changed.  Unfortunately, Friday was also the day of the kid's annual "Fun Run" for their school.  Also unfortunately, when they asked for volunteers, I stepped up.  That meant that the kids got to run in the rain and I got to be out there right with them with Elsie strapped to my chest.

Carrigan ran in the first group.  On her second lap, she got tripped by someone and fell. She came hobbling back to the starting area with the PE teacher and we tried to find her some ice.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any so instead she got one popsicle for her mouth and one for her knee.  Amazingly, after a few minutes of icing her knee, she decided it was better enough to eat her icing popsicle.

Merrick ran in the second group.  Nothing traumatic happened for him.  He just put his head down and ran through the rain.  I counted four laps that he did, but he insists it was five.  Either way it was lots of good running.

For Elsie's part, she was a trooper.  She stayed happy through both groups running and it wan't until the very end that she decided that she had had enough (and boy did she decide she had had enough).

Despite the rain and the injury, it was a pretty fun run.  I told the Principal that next year they need to serve hot chocolate instead of popsicles and then maybe then it won't rain.