Weekend Fun (x6)

For the past 6 weeks, my weekends have been full of fun! (Actually, if you include the Saturday that we left for DC, I haven't been home for 7 Saturdays in a row!) Tami asked me if that was just plain tiring, and I guess I've been having so much fun I haven't even thought about that.

1. The weekend after we got home from Washington, DC, I headed down to Utah Friday night to stay overnight and run a half marathon Saturday morning at Thanksgiving Point. When I signed up for the race back in January, I pictured myself running through the beautiful tulip festival on a gorgeous spring morning. After all, the race WAS on April 30th! How it actually happened--I awoke to 3-4 inches of snow on my car, and ran the race in 30-ish degree temperatures, with snow still falling during the first couple miles of the race. I also went alone, ran alone, and drove back home alone. But . . . somehow I still enjoyed it! Call me crazy. I would. Despite the poor conditions, I ran my 2nd best time ever, a 1:46:35, which is an 8:08 mile pace. And I didn't even get sore! And you could even see the tulips, and they were pretty, even with snow on top of them.

2. The following Saturday, I was basking in the 80 degree temperatures in Provo, Utah, while I watched my sisters run in a track meet at BYU. I took Mylie and Mariah with me, and we had fun, although we were dying of heat!

3. The next weekend, I flew out on Thursday night with two of my very best friends (the other ladies I coach volleyball with) for Anaheim, CA. We were able to go to a 2-day coaching clinic and learn from the top coaches in the country--the coaches of the men's and women's national teams as well as other great college coaches. It was so great to learn from them and watch the national teams practice. We learned a lot of great stuff to help us improve our program and had a great time! (But I was COLD--in Anaheim! What the heck?!)

4. The next weekend was my mother-son weekend as Connor and I headed out early Thursday morning for state track. We bundled up, wore our rain suits, and endured 3 days of rain, snow, wind, and freezing temperatures. Sounds like fun, right? It was! He never complained for a second. I'm so glad I didn't have my girls with me, because they wouldn't have stopped complaining for a second! We watched every race, and he didn't miss any pole vault. We were able to see my sisters achieve something I honestly thought was impossible. They tied for first at state with a team of only 6 girls! It was so fun seeing them do their very best in each of their events, despite the conditions. I have now been to state track 15 of the last 16 years, and I truly love it! And now I have somebody to tag along with me who also loves it!

The CHAMPS

Connor with the crazy Uncle Tyson

5. The following week, I headed to Cokeville for a long weekend. The girls and I left Wednesday afternoon, but Connor couldn't come this time since he still had a couple days of school left. Olivia graduated Wednesday night, which I still cannot believe (How has she gotten so much older when I haven't aged at all?!?), and then we stayed through Saturday night. Violet and her baby, Sedona, came up from Texas, so it was fun to visit with them. Tami was also there Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, so I got to spend time with her as well, and the girls had a great time with their cousins. I also stayed through the weekend to help my mom with her annual plant sale, which I enjoy. I also get to pick my flowers first before the customers come--a bonus for being there to help on sale day! I also enjoyed a game night and a spa night and just had a fabulous weekend!

The graduate with two other cuties.

Plant Sale--all set up and ready for customers!

Making cookies with Grannie and cousins

Spa Night--doesn't my mom look relaxed?

Mariah spent a lot of time loving on these cute baby cousins.

6. Finally, this past weekend, I went with my mom and sister, Tami, to Time Out for Women, which was a Christmas gift from Tami and me to our Mom. It was in Pocatello, and we met up with my aunt Susie (Chad's wife) who lives there. She fed us and let us stay with them for the night and accompanied us to the Time Out. It was truly FABULOUS! If you haven't been, you should go to their website, TOFW.com and sign up for one right now! I definitely want to attend another of these events. I was so touched by the Spirit while I was there, and left uplifted and so ready to become a better person. And it's always fun to have a girls weekend!

Tami, Mom, me, Susie

(Somebody said to my mom and Susie, "I can sure tell you two are sisters!" They're not--just sisters-in-law, but there definitely is a resemblance.)

And next weekend, I plan to stay home (gasp!) unless I come up with something more fun to do, I suppose.

Our Little Tumbler

Mylie has really been doing well with tumbling, advancing quickly through the levels. She is now a level 4, and is WAY better than me!

Here are two clips from her performance a couple weeks ago.

Washington, DC

About a month ago, Tony and I were able to take a trip to Washington, DC. The school sent him there for a special education conference, and since his flight, hotel, and food were all paid for, and we had enough credit card points to pay for my flight, I decided to tag along. We have always wanted to go there, and this was just such a great opportunity!

Since he was going to be in conference most of the day for three days, we decided to go a couple days early so we would have time to see more things. (Of course, you need a couple WEEKS to really see DC, so we had to prioritize.)

We flew in on a Saturday evening, and some friends of ours who are serving a mission there came and picked us up from the metro. They fed us dinner and then drove us to the temple.

The temple was spectacular, definitely one of the most impressive temples. We got there when it was still light, and then got to see it after dark when we came back out. We stayed the night with our friends and attended church meetings with them the next day, getting to hear some wonderful conversion stories from people who had recently joined the church. After church, they fed us lunch and took us to the metro stop so we could ride to our hotel.

After checking into our hotel, we went into DC for some sight seeing. We went to Arlington Cemetery, where we saw the changing of the guard, and then we toured the memorials--Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, and Washington. By then it was late, and we headed back to the hotel.

Arlington Cemetery

Washington Monument (taken from WWII Memorial)Monday was our big sight-seeing day. We saw the Holocaust Museum, toured the Capitol, and went to the Museum of American History. We weren't able to get a White House tour, but we did walk over to it and see it from the outside. We then rode the metro to Chinatown, where we ate and then got out of there as quickly as we could. That place was honestly SCARY. We got back to National Harbor (where our hotel was) in time to take a walk along the river (our hotel was right on the Potomac) and see the sights in that area.

The Capitol

Our Hotel: The Gaylord NationalOn Tuesday, Tony had his conference and I headed back to the Holocaust Museum and American History Museum. There is just so much to see in both of those and I loved getting to go back and see more! Some of the exhibits in the American History museum were just so interesting. I took forever in them, having to read every single word and look at every artifact.

That evening, Tony and I took a water taxi up and across the Potomac River to Alexandria, VA, which is a cute old town.

Wednesday morning, I went on a run back to Alexandria, crossing the river on a bridge, which was really cool! About an 8-mile run, but so fun. Tony went to class again, and I headed back into DC to see the Botanic Gardens and the Museum of Natural History. Both were really interesting and completely different from the things I had seen the previous day. Then Tony and I met up at Ford's Theatre, which was closed--BUMMER! We headed instead to the National Archives. It was amazing to see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, an Bill of Rights. We then found a fish market and tried out the local seafood and then went to the Memorials we hadn't hit on Sunday--Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Korean War. All very cool.

Botanic Gardens

Fish MarketThursday was Tony's last day at the conference. I just relaxed at the hotel that day, which was nice. I enjoyed the fitness room and hot tub. I was going to spend some time outside reading as well, but it was pouring rain that day. But the hotel was amazing!

In the Atrium at our hotel
Washington, DC is definitely a place I would like to visit again. There is just so much to see, and we really just scratched the surface. It was an incredible experience to stand where the great leaders of our nation have stood and to learn on-site about the incredible history of this great country, led by divine inspiration and protected by divine intervention. It was truly an amazing experience (and I love the fact that we spend less than $400 total!)

An Upgrade

Almost six and a half years ago, we were given a dining set. It has served us well. It is incredibly sturdy (we're the third generation to use it!), has had enough chairs for us, and can extend really long with a couple leaves.
But I've never really liked it. I'm just not a fan of the ranch-style table and chairs, and the chairs don't really look that great anyway. A couple of them were (partially) stripped at one time and never re-finished. And there are only four of them, so with Mariah's little toddler chair, we had met the max it could hold without buying more chairs, which of course would not match.

So, after years of contemplating, I started looking around a few months ago. I finally narrowed in on the style I wanted, and then finally bit the bullet and paid the money (the most difficult part for me). And I am THRILLED!!! I can hardly believe that this dining set is actually in my house. It seats seven as is (with three on the bench), and has a leaf enclosed in the table to extend it. We hope to buy two more chairs sometime in the next year or so to seat nine. (The lighting in this photo is really gross, but you still get the idea.)

And lest any of you are worried about how much I love this set--I do still love my children more. (But right now it feels pretty close!)

Latest DIY Project

I just finished this cute little kids picnic table this week.

I just love this website, and plan to build a more things from it. I had never built anything before, and although the stuff I've built has not been perfect (I feel like, as a beginner, I'm entitled to a few flaws in my projects), it has all turned out pretty well. And it's a lot of fun!

Teichert Family Weekend

The weekend of April 10th, we were able to spend Saturday night and Sunday with my family. We stayed the night with Tami and Casey in Star Valley, where the kids had a great time playing and having a sleepover with Tel, Kimball, and Owen.

The next day after church, we headed on to Rexburg to attend Sedona's baby blessing. We got there a little early and had a wild time at Vi and Austin's apartment. We had fun holding Sedona,

beating on Tyson,and just having fun! (Love the happy faces in this pic.)
The blessing was beautiful, the food was incredible, and it was so much fun to visit with family. My parents now have 7 cute grandkids!

Connor's Room

Connor's room has transformed very slowly over the past month or so. Once Mylie moved out last fall, he decided that he just wasn't into the little cowboy/cowgirl theme and wanted a sports bedroom. It is finally finished! I was able to do it with very little expense, since we kept the wall color and color scheme the same. Just a few new decor items, and viola--my sporty little guy has his dream bedroom.

This fun gallery was created with a clearance clock ($5), some $2 frames, and Connor's favorite pictures cut from Sports Illustrated.

Connor wanted a trophy shelf, so we just did a simple one and kept his name letters from the room already.
I took his toy box that I had painted red and stenciled cute little cowboy boots and hats onto when he was a baby--stripped it, repainted and used some wallies to turn it into a sports box where he keeps all his sports equipment.

For a final touch, I used my limited sewing skills to sew this fun little window valance.