Pretend Camping

Last night we went pretend camping in our backyard. We set up the tent and made a campfire. The girls enjoyed playing in the tent and zipping and unzipping the door. We roasted marshmallows on our fire, but the girls were afraid to eat them (too hot!), so they just ate as many non-roasted marshmallows as they could.

 

In this pic, Sydney is saying, "The fire is big!"

 

 

MIssion Complete!

Yay! It's over! Yesterday was super fun, but really tiring. We woke up around 4:15 and left the house around 5, and got to the race around 6:30. The weather was really nice, in the low 60s. After I checked in, we said hello to some of our friends (from Mike's work) and watched them start the race. Keith is one of them, and he & Mike run together at work during their lunch break. He was kind enough to do the biking portion and the running portion with me last year, as well as this year, for moral support. (And this was after he had finished his race, coming in 1st in his age group of 50-54!) I started my swim at 8:03:30 and I was off! I have to admit that the swim was really tough for me for some reason this year. I struggled through, but refused to walk through the water (like lots of people did!). I did manage to pass the guy that started 30 second in front of me, but then during the rest of the race I realized he was probably in his 70s. So, when that was over, I was so relieved and ran to my bike. I got my shoes on okay, but when I put my shirt on, 2 of the 4 safety pins that were holding my number on popped open! Mike was right there and helped me get them back on and then I took off.

 

Right when I took off, I heard a clicking sound near my front tire. I had no idea what it could be, so I just continued to ride as fast as I could and figured that if it didn't cause me to stop, I would worry about it later. Some nice guy rode up to me and told me that it was my bike computer sensor that had just been turned a little and was hitting the front fork, so I didn't worry about it anymore, but the clicking was pretty annoying. My first bike picture is what I actually looked like, and the second is me looking fake-intense. You can see Keith riding beside me.

 

 

After the bike I felt really good, so I was encouraged about the run, which I usually think is the hardest part. I ended up running 9 minute miles, which is fast for me! I finished in 1:32:06, which is 11+ minutes faster than last year!

 

Afterwards, they serve lunch and boy did I need it. I was so drained after the race. I ate 4 pieces of fried chicken! It doesn't sound like the appropriate food to be eating for recovery, but it was so good! We went swimming for a little bit after lunch, but we were all so tired, that we didn't stay long. Mike and Kathryn went down the slide 5 or 6 times. Sydney only went down twice. Once with Mike and once with me. On our trip down, I didn't catch my feet on the landing and I plunged her under the water, which she didn't care for. So after that happened, she was done with the slide. Then we all drove home and took a good long nap!

Wood River Triathlon tomorrow!

My triathlon is tomorrow in Wood River, Illinois! I'm excited about it and I think it will be a fun day. My goal is to do better than I did last year. My number is 128 and my start time is 8:03:30 am CST. I'll swim 450 yards, bike 12 miles, and run 4 miles. So, be thinking about me! I look nowhere this intense or muscle-licious when I'm racing.

 

Afterwards, we get to all go swimming at their city pool which has big water slides! We did this last year and had a lot of fun.

Zachary's Park

After peach picking, we went to Zachary's park. Since the last time we were there, they have opened up the water play area. The girls were hesitant at first, but once they got in they liked it.

 

 

Sydney is a great climber.

 

 

Peach Picking in New Melle

This morning we went peach and blackberry picking in New Melle at Wind Ridge Farms. We rode a wagon out to the back of the peach orchard and picked Jim Dandy peaches. They are so big and so sweet. We tried to come to this farm last Saturday, but the line to check out was 1 hour long and I didn't think any of us could handle that. Plus, it was much hotter than it was today. It was 68 degrees when we got there today. I had to sternly tell the girls not to pick any peach that I didn't approve, because there were so many on the trees and a lot of them were low where the girls could reach them and they weren't all ripe. Sydney took a bite out of 4 or 5 until I finally got the message through to stop! I finally just let her eat one and that satisfied her. We picked 9 lbs. which was pretty easy to do because they were so big. We probably bought 13 or 14 peaches. Then we tried to pick some blackberries, but there weren't many ripe ones left on the vine. We heard that you had to get there right when they open to get those. Kathryn wouldn't try the peaches, but she did like the blackberries, as did Sydney. This picture really shows Sydney's personality. She was making a kind of pouty face in the first picture I took (not posted), so I told her to stop making that silly face, and this is what I got!

 

 

Morrison Sisters July 2008

We went to have Sydney's 2 year old pictures, but Sydney wasn't really in a picture taking mood, so we settled on this one. I think it's cute and shows their personalities.

 

If anyone wants a copy, I have a bunch!

More Jump4Fun pics

 

 

 

 

Jump4Fun

Tonight we went to Jump4Fun. We really enjoy doing this together as a family. I have taken the girls a couple of times before by myself, but we really like when Daddy gets to come with us. Kathryn used to be very afraid of the Batman slide that they have. I kind of don't blame her because the guy is probably 15' tall and you have to climb through his legs to get into the slide. In the beginning, she wouldn't hardly even look at him, but I think tonight she finally got over her fear. She went through the whole thing, by herself! Yay, Kathryn! And since she wasn't scared, Sydney wasn't scared of him any more either! It's really tiring climbing up, over and through, so by the time we leave, we're all whipped. We all shared an ice cream on the way home and had a snack of jelly toast when we got home.

 

 

 

 

(Notice the giant hole in Kathryn's sock! Classy!)

Daily Grind

Well, I know I haven't posted in a few days, but it seems as though nothing blog worthy has happened. But I know for some of you, it's the daily stuff that you like. So, here is some of the stuff we've been up to. Sadly, these are the only pictures I've taken in the past week or so. The girls are writing in a birthday card for our friend Ella. We went to her birthday party last Thursday. It was supposed to be a swimming party (which the girls were very excited about), but it ended up being rainy and 68 degrees! Crazy, I know!

 

 

Thursday morning I spread bug killer in the yard. Oh! Exciting, I know. Then on Thursday night I went to Marshalls and looked for a new bathing suit (no luck) and then I took the girls to the mall to play on the little playground. We shared a pretzel from Auntie Anne's (I had a free coupon) and I bought 2 pairs of shorts from New York & Company.

On Friday Mike and I went to a going away dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and then we hung out with our friends, the Mears.

On Saturday we slept in a little and we all snuggled in bed for awhile. Then Mike went for a run and I took the girls to a Kids Block Party event in St. Charles. They had booths set up with different things for the kids to do like popsicle (obstacle) courses, jumpy houses, etc. That evening, we all went to Lake St. Louis to try and set a Guiness World Record! Sounds exciting, huh? It was actually pretty fun. The record was for the most people floating on floats and holding hands, or something like that. The record is 863, and we didn't quite make it, but it was fun and it raised money for our friends' non-profit, Unlimited Play. The girls did really well considering we had to float in a line holding on to each other for 45 minutes. Sydney had a little panic attack when she felt the sand in her toes, but she got over it quicky and then enjoyed picking up handfuls of sand and throwing it.

On Sunday I made bread from scratch. A friend of mine from church gave me the recipe and it is so wonderful! The recipe is large and makes 6 loaves (and I'm not talented/patient enough to figure out how to reduce it), so we shared with our friends. It was fun to deliver warm loaves of delicious bread. Kathryn even mentioned to me today that she had fun taking bread to our friends.

I got a fun book from the library the other day called hello, cupcake!. It has really fun cupcake ideas and I'm looking forward to trying some of the cupcake recipes. In the back it has a couple of variations using a box cake mix.

I almost have all the songs memorized from Kathryn's favorite DVDs, Hi-5. Both of the girls like them and I love to watch them dance to it.

I am trying to work on increasing our food storage. I bought a lot of food over the past two weeks and am now working on storing water. I've chosen to use milk/water jugs since it's what I have available. I found a couple of people on Freecycle who are going to save them for me.

I've been working out at Gold's Gym and preparing for my triathlon in Wood River, IL, on August 9th.

So, that's what we've been up to. Sorry there aren't more pictures. I'll try to be better about it.

Sunday Green Law?

The girls and I all matched for church today. It wasn't really planned, but when I realized it, I thought we looked pretty cute. I got my hair cut last Saturday, and you can kind of see it in the pictures. (It's stacked in the back, that's the part you can't see.) Ideally, we would have taken these pictures before church when we were fresh and crisp, but 1) Mike had to be at meetings at 7:15 (so he couldn't take them) and 2) I never have a second to spare before church.

 

 

 

 

Peaceful Valley Lake

On Saturday we went out to Peaceful Valley Lake near Owensville with the Andersons. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their grandaughter, Maura. Kathryn and Sydney were very afraid of the 6 dogs that were there. Sydney was constantly saying, "Puppy coming!" Kathryn was pretty jumpy about them too.

 

 

 

It's no surprise why the girls are scared of me when I make this face! Kathryn wanted to take pictures of me, so she would tell me which face to make and then she would take my picture.

 

Sydney's Birthday Cake

We had a few friends over tonight to celebrate Sydney's birthday. I made a yellow cake with vanilla pudding filling and chocolate frosting. It was delish! She's folding her arms in the first pic, because Kathryn told her to. I guess K thought we were going to pray first. (We didn't, oops.)

 

I love her face on this one. She's trying to blow out the candles. She tried 4 or 5 times, then Daddy helped her.

 

She thought it was yummy! You can't tell it by looking at her though. I think she must have thought that I was going to take it from her or fuss at her for being so messy! (I did neither.)

 

Kathryn's 'tards of many colors

Kathryn has just started a new dance class and I wanted to share with you how cute she looks in her 'tards. Most are from our friends and I got the teal one from the resale shop.