Surprise Chris!

Last Wednesday, my friend, Lacey, and I threw a surprise party for Chris to congratulate him on accomplishing his goal of making it to the Boston Marathon. We had been planning the party for a while and Chris really had no clue. He thought we were going to a preschool orientation for our kids. As we started getting closer though, he noticed there were a few people that probably wouldn't have kids going into preschool. But the party went great and we all had a fun time. About 40 people came out to say congratulations to Chris and of course eat some yummy cake! We even got some Ivy to put around Chris' head as this is what the winners of the Boston Marathon recieve at the end of the race!

Memories!!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Chris Qualifies for the Boston Marathon!

For those of you who have not heard yet, Chris has qualified for the Boston Marathon! He ran the Missoula Marathon on Sunday in 3 hours, 9 minutes, and 41 seconds and he had to run it in 3:10:59 so he had just over a minute to spare. It was a long road of hard work and lots of running miles to get to this point. He attempted this feat in Colorado in May, but came up 8 minutes short, which actually is ok now, because he qualified in his favorite city in the whole world, Missoula, MT. My parents, his mom, Lauren (who ran the 1/2 marathon) and Kelly were all at the finish line cheering him on. The kids and I weren't able to make this trip as we are planning on going to MT in a week, but I was on the phone right after Chris crossed that finish line. Kelly called me screaming and asking me what he needed for Boston and when I told her, she started screaming even louder, "He got it! He got it!" He was so excited and I was so excited for him. He TOLD everyone that he was not going to try for Boston in Missoula because it wasn't as fast of a course as The Roughrider Marathon in Bismarck that he was going to do in September and it's usually really hot in Missoula in July so he didn't think he was going to be able to pull it off. So, he just kept it to himself that he WAS going to try and decided as the cannon went off that he was going to do it. And he did! And not only that, he was 15th overall and 1st in his age group! We don't know what he got for being 1st yet, but it should be in the mail soon! We are so proud of him and we are excited for our trip to Boston in April to watch him run the 113th Boston Marathon! Please send any donations our way and Chris will write your name on his shirt as a sponsor! :)

The Rodeo!

Every year during the 4th of July activities, we take the kids to the rodeo. Chloe has a love of horses and Caiden likes to see how long the cowboys can stay on the horses and bulls. We even got to see some kids try their hand doing some mutton bustin' (riding sheep) and Caiden says he wants to do that next year. We always have a lot of fun at the rodeo. This year, they also had trick riders who did these amazing tricks on their horses. Caiden kept saying, "Oh my heavens, how did they do that?!" A Belle Fourche cowboy got the most points in the bull riding this year so that was a lot of fun to see. The crowd went crazy for him. It was a really great night!

StoryBook Island

In Rapid City, there is a really neat park called Storybook Island. They have a fun playground along with displays from kids' favorite stories including, "101 Dalmatians", "Cinderella", "Noah's Ark", "Winnie the Pooh", and "The Wizard of Oz" just to name a few. The best part of the park is that it is entirely free! We all went on Saturday and had a really fun time. They even did a cute little play called "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" The kids would have stayed there all day if we let them!

Carnival Fun

One of the big events of the 4th of July weekend in Belle Fourche is the Carnival coming to town. Caiden loves all of the rides and last year, we were there for hours and hours. Chloe on the other hand only wanted to ride the carousel over and over again. Not this year though! She wanted to go on all of the rides, including the Zipper! Of course, she didn't go on the Zipper, but she did go on the ParaTrooper which goes very fast and she loved it! Thankfully, we had Lauren with us so she could go on all of the rides with the kids. They all had so much fun! I think Lauren was definitely ready to be done by the end of the night though! But she was a trooper and rode the rides with the kids until after it was dark outside. I think we spent around 6 hours there riding the rides over and over again. Caiden is already talking about going back next year!

The Mile Long Parade

Belle Fourche has one of the most fun parades I have ever been to. It's almost 2 hours long and almost all of the floats throw candy, Popsicles, toys, and lots of other things to the kids. However, some of the floats also have water that they like to throw on you, but if you don't make eye contact with them, (or throw your kid in front of you!) they won't get you wet. The kids always have a good time at the parade and always end up with bags full of candy. We sat by lots of good friends at the parade and all of the kids were really good about sharing their candy and making sure the little kids had plenty!

Roundup 10K

The 30th Annual Roundup 10K was held on the morning of the 4th of July. Chris has ran this race every year since we have moved here and probably always will as the start line is literally right outside our front door and only cost $10! So what if the shirts look exactly the same every year (but in a different color!) The kids made signs for Chris and were supposed to hold them up at the race and everyone there thought that was really cute. I had to wake them up to go and watch the race so they were a little on the grumpy side, but Caiden did hold up his sign as Chris was finishing and the newspaper even took his picture! And of course Rupert from Survivor was there as he is every year so that's always fun. He's a really nice guy and the organizer of the race works with one of Rupert's charities and that is how Rupert starting coming to Belle Fourche every year. Chris finished in 7th place overall and 2nd in his age group with a time of 40:42 (which is around 3 minutes and 40 seconds better than his previous time on this course.) So, he did awesome!

Fireworks Fun

For some reason, they do fireworks on July 3rd here every year and they do them after the rodeo. Amber and Steve were on their way to Belle Fourche and we were hoping that they would make in time for the fireworks to start. They usually start them around 9:15pm and Amber was going to here around 9:30pm. Well, the rodeo went really long that night and didn't start until after 10pm! It was a long wait for us all, but once they started it was worth it for sure! It was a great show. Unfortunately, Chloe started bawling the moment they started. She did not like the loud noise at all! So, Chris had to take her home, but the rest of the kids really liked them. It was a fun way to start off the 4th of July weekend!

The Erlenbusch Family Comes to Billings!

My best friend from college, Amber, and her family were able to take a little vacation to South Dakota this weekend and visit us. We had SO much fun. We were really busy and did lots of fun things. We watched the fireworks, watched the parade, went to the carnival, went to Storybook Island, and went to the rodeo. We ended the weekend on Sunday morning with church and then they were off back to Billings. It was so good to see them! Our kids and their kids Abby and Kyle had so much fun together. Kyle loved playing Guitar Hero with Caiden and Caiden was so excited to have someone to play with him! Abby is just a doll and always so happy. I hope they had as much fun here and we had having them! Thanks for visiting us Erlenbusch Family!

Chloe Can Wear Pigtails Again!

I know this may sound trivial to most of you, but it's a very exciting event at our house! Chloe was diagnosed with Loose Anagen Syndrome (LAS for short) last October by a dermatologist. It was his 2nd case in over 20 years of his practice, so it's pretty rare. The first picture was taken right after she was diagnosed. The 2nd picture was taken yesterday - I can't believe the difference! It's nothing serious and there are no other symptoms other than having really loose hair that falls out very easily. They don't really know why it happens, but they think that the root sheaths that normally surround and protect the hair shaft in the skin are not produced properly in people with loose anagen syndrome. It seems that because the root sheaths are not fully formed there is a lack of adhesion between the hair shaft and the root sheath and the hair fiber is poorly anchored in the hair follicle. If that makes any sense! I've done a lot of reading on the subject! More girls than boys are diagnosed with LAS and it's usually found in girls with light colored hair between the ages of 2 and 5. We noticed soon after Chloe's 2nd birthday that some of her hair was starting to fall out and it was really thin and frizzy. We waited a while to see if it would grow back, but it never did and more and more came out so that's when we took her in. The dermatoligist knew right away what it was just by looking at her. It mostly affects the back of her head because when she sleeps at night, the back of her scalp is on her pillow and it pulls the hair out. So, looking at her from the front, you may not be able to tell, but there was a point last fall where almost all of the hair in the back was gone. But we noticed this spring that some of it was coming back in. It's still really thin and frizzy, but there is a definite noticeable change. It's a good sign that it happened to her at a very young age, because there is a better chance of it growing back whereas if it happened later in life, there seems to be more of a permanent hair loss. There is no cure for it, but it doesn't hurt or anything and the dermatologist said that by puberty, it should start growing back in thick again and staying on her head. So, even though, some is growing back now does not mean that it is over for her; she could still loose it again many times, but for now, it's fun to be able to fix her hair again! :) And doesn't she look just adorable?!