THPRD Family Triathlon 2012

Two years ago, right after we moved to Oregon, we heard about a family triathlon (that we had just missed) and we determined that we really wanted to do it.  

Unfortunately last year we were out of town.

This year we were in town and we were all over it!

Getting our numbers on our legs...

Waiting for our heat to be called.  We were heat #6...

K and C were on their own for the bike ride.  

Rich ran alongside T, who booked it on his little bike with no training wheels.

I rode behind J, who rode a little more cautiously since he decided two days ago to bump up to a bigger bike...  

It's hard to run and take a photos of someone else running at the same time...

This is my gang at the finish line.  I am SO proud!

And just for the record...my abs to prove I was there :)

We swam 50 meters

We biked 2 miles

We ran 1/2 mile

We are a family of triathletes!

Summer 2012: Week 6

{Monday} Library Day: Hillsboro Library
What a beautiful, HUGE library.  A bit of a drive, but fun for our Monday exploration.

{Tuesday} Baking Day: Top Pot Donuts
In April our family went to Seattle and I was introduced to Top Pot Donuts.  Life changing event!
Turns out that Top Pot has a donut cookbook and our library had it.  After having it sit in our library basket for an embarrassingly long time, we finally pulled it out and made Top Pot Devil's Food Cake Donuts and top Pot Old Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts.  Nutmeg was the secret ingredient in both.
Surprisingly, the old fashioned donuts beat out the chocolate donuts for favorite.

{Wednesday} Water Day: Conestoga Splash Pad
It was a perfectly beautiful summer day, until the kids got wet and then they declared that it was "cold".
Only in Oregon!
Needless to say, our visit to the splash pad was shorter than planned, but we filled our free time with a visit to Dairy Queen to cash in a library reward.  No complaints of cold while eating ice cream!  Hmmmm.

{Thursday} Craft Day: Bomb Pops
We dove into the chicken coop again for day #2 and basically completed it (shy of painting, putting on the shingles and attaching doors).
But I couldn't claim chicken coop for a second week of Craft Day, so we pulled out the popsicle sticks and made Bomb Pops - great fun for the kids!
The kids (outside of K) never did figure out how to make them, which means that mom put them together, the kids threw them to watch them explode and then handed the sticks back to mom to put back together.  Definitely a hands on activity for mom :)

{Friday} Exploration Day: Wilsonville Murase Park & New Friends
I admit that Friday was another chicken coop day...but the kids didn't mind because they met some new friends that moved in around the corner and they spent the day playing with these new friends and they were in heaven.  So I justified my working on the chicken coop because the kids were spending their Exploration Day exploring new relationships....

Also, I justified skipping out on a formal exploration activity because on Tuesday evening we had gone as a family to Wilsonville and tried a new (really good) pizza place and introduced Rich to one of our favorite parks...the Murase Memorial Park.  We stayed until the sun went down and it was the perfect summer evening!

Other happenings this week:

C attended a week long basketball camp from 9-3 each day, thus the lack of photos and participation by C in this weeks activities.

2012 Summer Olympics in London Opening Ceremonies - watched by K & C on the lawn of a neighbors home while the ceremonies were projected onto the house for a jumbo screen effect.

Rich reconnected with a friend that he has known since grade school as our family was invited to a BBQ at Miles and Marah Cluff's beautiful home.

Our summer is flying by!!!

Bullwinkles Family Fun Center

On Saturday we had a corporate summer picnic held at Bullwinkles Family Fun Center - one of my kid's favorite play places.

The difference between this year and last year's visit was remarkable.  

J was tall enough to participate in many more activities, including driving his own boat, rock climbing and doing laser tag.  

T's stamina had increased such that we stayed 2-3 hours longer than last year with minimal wining :)

K and C are already asking if next year we can stay until closing - a real possibility.

K tried her hand at BINGO and walked away with the backpack that she had been eyeing.   I think all the kids were converted to BINGO after that and next year may find my kids playing BINGO until the prizes are all awarded.

just keeping up with the big kids

Less than two weeks since J took off on his bicycle sans training wheels, T decided he would prefer the same kind of freedom.

So once again, big sister K took care of the training wheel removal and turned the bike over to T and off he went....literally.  

And he just kept going!

Rich and I were called out to see his success and it was hilarious.  

He pedals SO fast!

The first time he went straight into the bushes.

Next he went straight into Rich (who was bent over with his back turned) to which T said,"you need to watch out dad".  Or maybe T could watch out!

He took off again and collided with Jake - which we totally saw coming.

His next attempt he was heading full tilt toward Rich's car and with only a foot or two to spare he slammed those brakes.

Nothing phased him.

Oh, it was funny!

Yesterday, after 24 hours of being an expert at his new skill, he went and asked the 10 year old across the street to come ride bikes with him.

What a kid!

Slug Bug

"GREEN ONE"

"Where?"
"I saw it first!"

"I said it first!"

"I saw it before you said it!"

Welcome to my world!

I had no idea how many slug bugs were around until K taught the boys the slug bug game.

Now we see them everywhere!

And we fight a lot more in the car.

Our summer is going great.

How about yours?

Rich's new ride...

We are officially reducing our family carbon foot print....

Rich has put his Toyota Tacoma truck up for sale and is trading in the 18 miles per gallon that it gave him for 80 miles per gallon by driving his new (used) scooter.

If anyone is looking for a truck, let us know.

We will take cash or trade, as long as the trade includes orthodontia for our 11 year-old daughter :)

Time for an update on J

I really need to do updates on each of the kiddos.  J seems to be the one that daily gives me pause so he gets to be my first update...

J and Rich continue to do monthly dates that consist of picking a new donut store and then riding there on their tag-a-long bike.  Rich gets the workout and J gets the donut - everyone is happy!

J asked me this past week why grandparents are so patient. I told him it is because they have been parents for so long, that they have lots of practice. He told me that that makes no sense because parents are NOT patient.

J was trying (unsuccessfully) to get T to stop talking and was getting very frustrated. I asked J what was wrong and he told me that T was “overflowing with talking”.

J and T have been taking swim lessons that start at 11:45. As we were driving to them one day, T asked how long until his class started. The clock said 11:33 but I said “10 minutes”. J, without missing a beat, said, “no mom it’s 12 minutes”. Who taught him to tell time and to do math?

I was telling T to buckle into his car seat and he kept telling me he couldn’t do it – a frustrating ritual because he CAN do it. The third time I asked I said, “T you KNOW how to buckle” and J said, “and you know how to ask nicely mom”.

J is definitely growing up and wanting to be his own person. That means that he gets frustrated a bit more than he used to (with me) but we are working through it. The truth is, he is pretty capable and it's mom that needs to start loosening the apron strings. It just doesn't seem possible that another one of my kids is becoming independent.

J is a very smart boy. He has an amazing memory and his logic is pretty impressive.
J still loves to be outside although he doesn't play with the neighbor boy hardly at all anymore. I wish he still had that social opportunity.
J can be very rough. I warn everyone, "please don't encourage him" because with very little encouragement he goes from 0-60! We are working on that.
J has a very sincere desire to make good choices and he listens and retains a lot from his primary classes.
J is very affectionate on his own terms. He will come up out of nowhere to give me a hug or to cuddle and I love it.  Yet when approached will generally blow you off :)

I hope you know how much your are loved J.  We are so glad you are part of our family!

digging a hole for himself...

T received some gardening tools from my parents for his birthday and it was LOVE at first sight! 

Momma is not loving it quite as much...

Summer 2012: Week 5

{Monday} Library Day:  Beaverton Library
The kids all had their summer reading log to turn in, so rather than exploring a new library this week we stayed close to home.  Lucky for us, our home library is huge and we never tire of it.

{Tuesday} Baking Day: Funnel Cakes
I have very fond memories of learning to make funnel cakes at a church activity when I was K's age.  It turns out that memories sometimes are better than reality - the funnel cakes were fun to make but not much of a hit when it came to flavor.  "Too deep fried" was the vote - I guess I must be doing something right with my children's brainwashing :)

{Wednesday} Water Park Day: Rained out...or at least "overcasted"out

We had clouds and cold weather and even a few rain sprinkles which thwarted our plans for a water park - although, in all honesty, the day was packed and I'm not sure where the park would have fit in!
I thought we could just skip it, but I heard about it all day from the kids who kept saying, "but today is water day, today is water day".  I guess my daily themes have caught on.
We DID however have a water outing for FHE on Monday night, so we will have to count that for our water activity for the week.  We took our kayaks down to Lake Oswego (the city) and launched into the Willamette River at George Rogers Park.  We were on the river until about 9 pm and it was delightful - perfect weather and perfect (beautiful) setting!  The kids are getting stronger in their ability to paddle and it was fun to all be out on the river together, thanks to some friends that let us borrow two of their kayaks to add to our own two.

{Thursday} Craft Day: Chicken Coop
We are so over popsicle sticks at our house - give us 2x4's!!!
In truth, we have been discussing getting chickens for a while and I finally said "go".  We hit the hardware store, as well as the Habitat for Humanity Restore (we are all for using reclaimed supplies) and we set off to make a chicken coop.
It was an all day project, and we are still far from done, but I am very proud of what we did accomplish.  Everyone was involved and we definitely took "crafting" to the next level!  

{Friday} Exploration Day: Blueberry Picking & Milo McIver State Park
We began the day by heading to Hoffman Farms to do the u-pick blueberries that were not available three weeks ago when we went out.  Blueberries are much easier to pick than any other berry and we picked 15 pounds in about two hours.  C was my big helper.  All the other kids were distracted...imagine that!

Our second "exploration" for the day was in the evening when we drove to Milo McIver State Park, where our ward was having a ward campout.  The setting was beautiful and it was fun to go somewhere we haven't been before.  We spent the evening, but due to a commitment the next morning we did not spend the night.  I was an easy sell on not spending the night (I may have even suggested it) but once we got there and I saw that there were only two outhouses for about 100+ people, I knew our decision was inspired!

Other happenings this week:

J & T completed a two-week swim lesson session.  T is slowly getting more comfortable with the water (key word is slowly).

J advanced to the next level and is becoming quite the fish.

K had a week-long volleyball class held at the local rec center.  She is still loving it and is all set for volleyball to begin this fall.