Father's Day Part 1

Father's Day actually started on Saturday night when Chris got home from Sheridan and his 50K race. The kids had made a scavenger hunt for him and REALLY wanted to stay up and wait for him to come home so he could find his gift (a new tent) They came up with the clues and where to hide each of the clues for him. Caiden wanted to make it VERY hard! Chris didn't get home until 10:45pm but the kids stayed up and were so excited for Chris to his hunt. He was a little less excited as he had run 31 miles that morning and then drove 3 and a half hours home from WY. But he was a good sport and liked his new tent. Now, we need to go camping!

On Sunday morning, we all slept in as we had gone to bed very late the night before and then we hung out in the morning before going to the Chinese buffet (a big family favorite at our house!) for a Father's Day lunch.

After lunch, we headed over to the Fish Hatchery to feed the ducks and the fish, always a favorite activity for the kids.

And then the ice cream truck came by and we just HAD to have ice cream on Father's Day! :)

Our last stop was one of our favorite parks and the kids had a great time! For some reason, they were really into jumping off of things at the park, which leads us to Part 2 of Father's Day in the next post....
But here are some pictures of our fun time at the park!

Father's Day Part 2

Part 2 of Father's Day was definitely not as fun as Part 1. Part 2 starts with the kids jumping off of everything at the park and having a great time! All of a sudden, Chloe jumps down and starts screaming. And then I see the blood. She had bitten down on her tongue as she came down. I got her out of the park as fast as I could and saw my friend, Wendy, who happened to have a few Kleenex on her and I quickly put them on Chloe's tongue to stop the bleeding. We went into the bathroom and got some wet paper towels for her to put in her mouth. The bleeding was a lot at first but then stopped pretty quickly and we thought things were going to be okay. I looked at the cut and it looked like any other mouth cut. Fast forward to a little while later when we are back at home hanging out and Chloe starts screaming that it hurts to swallow. We look at the cut again and now see how deep and big it actually is. I do a little research on WebMD and it says that MOST tongue cuts will heal on their own, but if it's really deep, it will need stitches. So, we decide that Chris will take her to the ER while I stay home with Caiden. I would have made things way worse at the hospital as I don't deal with that kind of thing very well. At first the Dr. debates about putting stitches on her tongue, but in the end decides that the cut is just too deep to let it heal on it's own. Without the stitches, it may heal, but there could be a lot of scar tissue and could affect her speech forever.I also read that the tongue doesn't get infected that often, but if it does, it's very serious. So, better safe than sorry. But in order to do the stitches, they have to sedate her which includes putting an IV in...YUCK. But they numbed her arm first so the poke didn't hurt all that much. She was such a big girl and handled everything very well with no crying! She got 2 stitches to sew the cut together and it looks SO much better than it did. This morning, it was really swollen and she was drooling everywhere and she was in some pain, but with some ibuprofen, she quickly felt better and even decided to go to swimming lessons and had a fun time! We are so thankful that a cut on the tongue is all that happened....it could have always been way worse! Thanks for all of the prayers and good thoughts that you all sent out way during the scary parts!

This is what caused the tongue mishap:

This is the tongue after the stitches....it looks SO much better than it did!

StoryBook Island

On Saturday the kids and I and our friends, Desiree and her kids went to Rapid City to go Father's Day shopping and then to StoryBook Island. For those of you who do not know, StoryBook Island is a FREE children's theme park where kids can visit Snow White, The Cat in the Hat, The Three Little Pigs, go up into Pooh's Tree House, go onto Noah's Ark and those are just a few of the attractions! They also have a children's theater and show short plays there. We saw "The Paper Bag Princess" and it was really cute! The kids had a really fun time exploring and playing and boy they were tired afterwards! Thanks for coming with us Des, Lars, Storm and Sabastain! We had a blast and hope you guys did too! :)

Water Park Fun!

On Friday, Chris took off for Sheridan, WY, where he ran a 50K (31 miles!) and I only worked a half day and then the kids and I headed to the Water Park with our friends Amy and her daughter Avryl for an afternoon of fun, sun and water. The kids had a great time and I could tell that swimming lessons are really helping the kids become more independent in the water. Caiden will jump in the pool, going under the water now and even do some "swimming" while he's under there and even Chloe will venture in a little deeper than she has before. She hasn't quite got enough courage to stick her head in the water, but I'm sure she will be doing that soon too! We spent all afternoon there before having to race home for a quick dinner and then Caiden's T-ball game and we were sure feeling being in the sun all day. Caiden fell asleep about 2 seconds after getting home from his game and Chloe wasn't far behind that! Thanks to Amy and Avryl for coming swimming with us and thanks to my little neighbor girl, Brittney for coming with us too and playing with the kiddos all day! Hope you all had fun too!

A Great Hit!

In his T-ball game on Friday night, Caiden had a great hit and hit the ball right at the coach's hat, flipping it off of his head! Go Caid!

Three Years Ago....

This week marks three whole years since we moved to Belle Fourche! Chris actually moved to South Dakota in March, but I had to finish out my school year as I was teaching 3rd grade in Happy Camp and the last day of school, the moving truck was there to take all of our stuff to South Dakota. The trip here went really smoothly (pretty good considering we had a dog, 2 cats, a 1 year old and a 2 year old!) and when we got here, we had to stay in the Howard Johnson motel for a week before our house closed. Our house closed on a Friday and the movers got there that same day to it worked out perfectly. Yes, our house is bright turquoise still, but it had the 4 bedrooms that we wanted and it's right across the street from a park so we looked past the color and one day, we will be able to paint it! :) I really like living here and we all have made some great friends along the way. Here's to more great years in Belle Fourche!

I made the local paper!

In this morning's Butte County Post, you can see my smiling face along with Chloe (eating crackers) while we were participating in the Hayfever 4 mile Fun Run for the Belle Fourche Area Community Center. We ran it on Saturday and it was a tough race as it got hot pretty early and there were a few pretty tough hills! But it was a fun race and we saw lots of our friends. The caption under my pictures made me laugh and I hope it puts a smile on your face too! I definitely wasn't the fastest runner there and I never will be, so it's a good thing I don't run to win the races! ha! :)

Another (Unofficial) Half Marathon Today!

Although it was slower than last week, I ran another 13.1 miles today in preparation for my full marathon which is just 9 short weeks away. That means 8 more long runs (12 miles or more) for the next two months until August 16th when I will run 26.2 miles. It's coming up fast and I feel more ready for it with each week that passes. I also have 2 more half marathons this summer, one on July 12th in Missoula, MT and one on July 25th in Spearfish, SD. I am going to try to run a 20 mile run on July 5th through Spearfish Canyon (which will be the the actual last 20 miles of my marathon) and then a 22 mile run on July 19th when we get back from Montana. Thanks for all of the support that you all have given me throughout all of my running endeavors. It makes it easier to get up at 5am on a Sunday morning for a 13 mile run! :)

Boys Day/Girls Day

The kids have been talking about Boys Day/Girls Day for a couple of weeks now. Chris and Caiden went to a fishing derby at the McNenny State Fish Hatchery. They went to different booths and learned about fishing and got to touch animal hides (his favorite), they ate lunch, they saw Smokey the Bear, Caiden saw his friend, Semele, he won a new fishing pole, and caught 3 fish. He even brought one home to show me and Chloe! He had a lot of fun and then got to go to McDonalds for an ice cream.


Chloe and I started off our day at the Hayfever Race (which in is in a separate post!) and then made our way to Spearfish for some dress and swimsuit shopping. She found a dress that she loved right away at the Little Me Boutique and then we met Kelly for lunch (and dessert!) at Applebees followed by grocery shopping at Walmart, where she found a swimming suit that she just loves, because there is hardly any back on it! ;)



We all met back at home in the afternoon and attempted to go to the Belle Fourche Legion Baseball game, but the paper lied and there really wasn't a game. So we filled up the pool instead and they kids played in that for a while before BBQing some brats for dinner! A perfect summer day!

Hayfever 4 Mile Fun Run

Today was the 8th annual Hayfever 4 mile Fun Run. It's at our local community center and either Chris or I or both of us have done it every year we have lived here. It's a fun race and it's really fun to see lots of the local runners and walkers that we know. This year, Chris and Caiden went to a fishing derby during the race which left me and Chloe to race! And let me tell you; pushing 35 pounds up some pretty steep hills is not much fun! But we had a good time and even though I had to walk some of the uphills and Chloe kept telling me to go faster, I finished it! My time was 43:53 so I averaged about 11:45 miles, which was just fine with me for today! I got to see lots of my friends, which is always fun too. There were 3 of us pushing our kids in the stroller division and I came in 3rd in that division! :) Here are some pictures from our race!

The Stroller Division

Scottie and Quinn, Amy and Avryl, Me and Chloe
Jan (and her medal!), Katie and Me

Me and Katie (My Spark Friend!)

Dino Park Trail Race

On Thursday night, Chris ran the Dino Trail Race at the Dinosaur Park in Rapid City. The kids were SO excited to play on all of the dinosaurs and would have all night if they could have. Chris did really well in the race placing 5th overall and 2nd in his division. It was a tough race on the trail, lots of uphill! The kids didn't mind waiting for him this time around as there were lots of dinosaurs to play on!

Deadwood/Mickelson Half Marathon

Chris and I both got to run the Deadwood Half Marathon yesterday, thanks to my sister Kelly who watched the kids for us. She also watched our friend's daughter, Avryl, so both Tim and Amy could run too. All in all, they had 1500 people signed up for the half and over 400 for the full. So, it was a big race. I had gotten sick on Friday night and was sick all day Saturday too so I wasn't sure how this race would end up. But I woke up Sunday feeling ok, so I decided to go and do it and see what happened!
We left the house at 530am in a downpour of rain and it was a madhouse when we got to Deadwood at 6:00. We finally got into the fairgrounds and onto a bus so make our way the start line, 13.1 miles away. I sat next to a girl, Audrey, who lives in Bozeman so it was fun to chat with her on the way. She ended up running a 1:49 marathon so she rocked it out! When we got to the start line, we met up with Tim and Amy and started seeing other friends who were also running. The hour went by fast and after stripping our sweatshirts and pants off, we were left in the 39 degree temps for a couple of minutes. It wasn't too bad though as it wasn't raining at all and as soon as I started running, I was at the perfect temperature. The first 5 miles went pretty well and I ran those in 10:37, 9:49, 9:47, 9:49, and 10:22. I took my first gel at the 5 mile mark in hopes that it would keep me doing at this pace. Unfortunately, after that, I started feeling the effects of being sick the past 2 days and the hill on the course that really isn't much of a hill at all that didn't affect me last year, took me down a notch this year. I had to walk a lot of the 6 mile and it ended up being a 13:00 minute mile. :( After I started running again after my walk break, I ran a few 11:00 minute miles for miles 7, 8, and 9, and got back to running a couple 10:45 minute miles realizing I only had 4 miles left. The last mile was pretty tough for me and I had already realized that I wasn't going to run a 2:16 like last year, but I was hoping I could still be under 2:20. Coming into the finish line, I heard and saw Chris and the kids cheering me on and then I saw and heard Kelly too and then I knew I was done. My official time was 2:19:47 so I'll take it! I asked Kelly how Chris did and she said, 1:28 something so I was really excited for him as he was going for a sub 1:30 for the first time in a half marathon. He had a great race. My friend Amy ran it in just under 2:00 and Tim kicked butt too running a 1:42. Another friend, Jackie, ran hers in 2:10 which is exactly the 10 minute miles she wanted to run! And then our friend, Brian, who was injured and thought he would have to walk a lot of it, cranked out a 1:34!!! Way to go everyone! We went to lunch with Kelly, Tim, and Amy afterwards in Spearfish Canyon at Cheyenne Crossing and I had the best Indian Taco EVER there... it was a great way to end the festivities. It was a great race and really fun weekend!