I love FALL!

Fall is my absolute favorite season of the year. I love the 70 degree temps, the crisp mornings, the smell in the air, and the start of school, volleyball, and football! I also love the colors of fall with the changing leaves. It's just beautiful. I only wish it could last longer! Anyway, today was just a gorgeous day, so we decided to spend some Sunday evening time down at "the river bottoms." This is a little place just about a mile or two from our house on some of the ranch's land, but it feels like you're out away from the entire world when you're there. It's just BEAUTIFUL! Here's how we enjoyed our evening:

A little game of KICK THE CAN!

Getting absolutely filthy!

A walk down to the river.

Precariously crossing the little water in order to get to the BIG water.

The BIG water! You know how kids love this.

I loved this little series of photos: (my thoughts) Mylie is so funny!

EEWWW, gross nose!

These pants are already dirty, so what's a little snot at this point?!?

Triathlon STUD Tony

Yesterday, Tony competed in a team triathlon event called 8 Hours of Triathlon in Denver. It's a one of a kind event, and this is his second year doing it. Someday, I hope to either do it with him or at least be there to see him do it, but so far, it's conflicted with volleyball both years. Tony loves doing it, and is thinking he wants to try the solo event next year--a little crazy, but cool!

The way the race works is that your team has to complete as many triathlons as you can (tag-team style) in eight hours. You can divide up the legs any way you want. So Tony did one swim, two runs, and three bikes for his team. He did it with his brother Matt, sister Haley, and a friend of hers. I wish Tony had taken a picture of their whole team, but he did get some other good pictures.

The swim is in open water, and since it IS the end of September, the water pretty cold. Thank heaven for wet suits! (By the way, if I ever do this with him, I will NOT do the swimming. I think I'd have a panic attack out in that open water and drown!)

This is their team camp where they would wait their turn, rest, and refuel.

Here's a handoff. Tony just finished swimming, and has to give the wrist band to Matt, who will swipe it at the beginning and end of his bike ride. This way they can keep track of all the teams.

An added perk of this race is the cool shoes they give to the first however many people that register. These are triathlon shoes and Tony loves them! They are a little bright, but are well-made.

Congrats, Tony!!! You are AMAZING!

The BIG 6!!

So my little boy turned 6 this month! I can hardly believe it. He's growing up so much. Right now, he LOVES kindergarten and football. When I told my dad that Connor's favorite thing about school is recess, he said, "Good." I agree.

Connor got a football and some cleats for his birthday. He was SO excited!

Connor is very easy to please with a birthday cake. He always just wants cheesecak--the jello no-bake out-of-the-box variety. Then decorate the top with a couple toys, this year: race cars! I love it! Mylie, however, has already put in an order for a barbie princess cake, and I don't have the first clue how to do that! So any cake decorators out there . . . HELP!!

Just a random photo. Connor wanted to see how big he could blow up a balloon without it popping. I never imagined it would get this big. He was pretty proud of himself.

And finally, last week I got a phone message from Connor's teacher. When I heard, "Hello Taffy, this is Mrs. Woodbury," I didn't think I wanted to hear the message. Oh great! What's the problem. But then she proceeded to tell me that Connor was going to get an award at school called "Kindergartener Caught Being Kind." Tony and I both went to school the next morning to watch him get this award. Here he is holding the award, which has a picture of him opening a milk jug for another kid that couldn't figure it out. Simple, I know, but this is the kind of thing that makes a mom SOOOO proud.

Preschool Mylie

The first Wednesday after Labor Day, Mylie Jo started preschool. She just goes once a week to a preschool taught by myself and a group of my friends. We all have kids the same age, so we rotate who teaches. I've done this with Connor for the past three years, and FINALLY this year it's Mylie's turn. She is so excited and loves it! Every year, we just get together and decide what we want to do for a curriculum. We have bought a curriculum before, and made up our own as well. This year, I'm super excited about what we're doing. When it's my turn to teach, I'll do our basic intro stuff (weather, song, letter introduction, etc.) and then read a children's book of my choice. Then I do activities (crafts, games, etc.) that go along with the book. SO FUN! Anyway, this month, the mom that taught chose four awesome books! If you have young kids, you may be familiar with Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom; How I Became a Pirate; If You Give a Moose a Muffin; and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I don't teach until January, but if you have any awesome children's book that would make a great preschool lesson, let me know! I love teaching my kids preschool and look forward to my turn.

That Falling Feeling

Today Connor brought home a book about earthquakes. He prefers non-fiction, and likes books that tell us something "important." So earthquakes was the choice this week at library. As we were reading this "bedtime story?" it taught about earthquakes of different magnitudes. It also had a map of the US showing where small, moderate, and major earthquakes occur. We discovered that we live right on the border of the small and moderate zones. We also learned that some earthquakes can barely be felt, and as we read about that, Connor interrupted me with a great theory. "Mom, you know when you're having a dream and you feel like you're falling?!? I bet that's actually a small earthquake, but we just don't know it because we're sleeping!" Possibly . . . possibly. Not a bad theory for a 6 year old.

Weird . . .

So, at 4am Mylie was standing at the side of my bed whispering, "Mom, mom." I rolled over, thinking, please don't be doing this (she wakes me up often in the night). I was expecting her to tell me she had to go potty or ask me to lay by her. Instead, she says, "What day is it?" I had to think for a second, it being the middle of the night and all, and said, "Monday." She said, "Oh," and turned and walked back to bed. Weird . . .

Pocatello Half / ME Weekend

This past weekend, I spent two days doing what I called "ME Weekend." Sounds pretty selfish, I know, but it was just two days! Anyway, I love to have a purpose to my running, and training for a race always motivates me. It just so happened this year that I was able to find a race that was on a weekend that my team wasn't playing, and my sister's team WAS. Even better, they were playing in the same town as the race! I couldn' have asked for a more perfect situation. So I was able to take in a ton of watching volleyball, which I LOVE, a ton of watching Olivia play volleyball (even better!), two days spent with my family (minus anybody younger than 15), and a half marathon.

The race went really well. My goal was to PR, and I needed a 1:48 to do that. Secondly, I really wanted to run an 8 minute mile pace, since that's the pace I've been trying to train at for about the past 6 months or so. I said I'd be thrilled with a 1:45, but just a PR would be okay with me. Well, the weather conditions were perfect, the course was mainly flat, and I felt good. I surprised myself, beating 8 minutes at every single mile, and finishing in 1:41:24, which is a 7:44 pace. I was even more stoked today to learn that I took 3rd out of 57 runners in my age group, 8th out of 197 women, and 31st overall out of 303 runners, males included! It was a very rewarding experience, and a great way to top off my ME weekend!