Over the River...

We just got back from a lovely visit to Grandma's house. We did a lot of things: waterskiing, Lagoon, Boondocks, hiking, Rocky Mountain Raceways, Kangaroo Zoo, picnics at the park, playing at Great-Grandma Payne's, dinner with my brothers and sisters, a visit to Temple Square, dinner at Robintino's twice, Cafe Rio twice, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, horseback riding, playing with cousins, dinner with my in-laws, made oriental chicken salad with my sisters and cousins, swimming at Val's house, to name just a few of our many activities!

I think one of the special surprises was that my youngest brother Chris was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood while I was there. How special that was to be able to witness. I've missed being there and being a part of these important events. That was definitely a highlight.

A sad moment was when Chris moved to USU for school. My mom kept comparing the week to Toy Story 3 when Andy goes to college. Brooklyn and my mom kept talking about how much they missed Chris. One of the first things Brooklyn told Eric when we got home was that "Chris moved out of Grandma's house. But he could come back and visit us." I think she really missed him the last week. I did too.

I love watching my brothers and sisters play with my girls. They can get them to do just about anything for them. So much fun. Both Brooklyn and Sadie just adore all of them and wish they could be at Grandma's all the time to play with them.
Cute Jake and Alli!
Chris the billiards champion.
Brooklyn with Alli and Jake at Rocky Mountain Raceways, one of my FAVORITE places! :)
Sadie and Nick.
"Six Feet Under" was the name of this train car at RMR, it was a hearse. It was hilarious!
Mom and Brooklyn enjoying popcorn at RMR.
Sadie was a happy camper with her box of popcorn and her "earphones."
Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma Payne, Alli and Jake, and Jakes brother and parents at RMR enjoying the races.

1 mile PR and Ehab

Despite my extremely LAZY day today, I made it to the gym for my swim. I had a great night. I swam 1 mile nonstop! I was quite excited. I swam it in 35:15. The best part was the man a couple lanes over who I could see was just watching me. I'd swim down and back and he'd still be hanging onto the wall watching me swim. Then he'd swim a lap down and back and watch me do a couple more laps and then try again. Repeat this for about 15 minutes. It was obvious he was watching. That made it all the more fun swimming a mile when I've got some man watching in awe. It definitely gave me more motivation to keep swimming and to swim a little faster. :) Gotta love that competitive spirit.

After I finished my mile he came over and introduced himself Ehab or something like that. He was very impressed that I could swim that far and he said he couldn't keep count of the laps I was swimming. He expressed his frustration at not being able to swim very far without being completely out of breath but that he could run 9 miles with no problem. And the fact that he said he was very competitive probably didn't help that he was being out swum by a girl. :) He was amazed that I could breath and that I swam so smoothly "like a professional." He asked how long I'd been swimming and when I said "would you believe me if I told you 2 weeks?" the look on his face cracked me up. Granted the time I spent on the swim team in elementary school helped me with my form.

I gave him a couple tips and he called me his first swimming coach and shook my hand. He said he hoped to see me again at the gym sometime. He seemed very gracious for the tips and actually swam a little better and was able to complete a few laps without being completely out of breath.

It's the little moments of camaraderie in sports that I love the most. Being able to impart a few tips to a fellow athlete always makes me feel like my education is paying off. Being able to help others always makes me feel good. The fact that he was amazed at my ability always helps you feel good too. I felt like I was kind of sharing my personal triumph and new PR of swimming a mile with him and receiving compliments on my swimming was enough to brighten my day!

Zombieland & Philadelphia, Not Related

Ever have those days where all you do is sit at the computer with your kids in front of the tv and wait for something to happen, like get an email or a facebook comment? That's where I've been at all day today. I have done nothing. I have yet to get dressed and just want to go back to sleep. I must be trying to recover from the weekend trip to Pennsylvania for Eric's exam and gearing up for the next few weeks ahead. Traveling with kids can be so exhausting!

Pennsylvania was fun. The girls and I went to the Please Touch museum in Philadelphia while Eric took his exam. As we were leaving the museum I saw signs to the Philadelphia zoo and followed them. I must be crazy. I had dragged Sadie out of the museum screaming "go the other way!" meaning back into the museum, then find myself following signs to the zoo and pull into the parking lot. Sure enough I got both exhausted girls out of the car and went into the zoo. Nevermind that we had just wandered all over a museum for the last 4-5 hours. Let's go do some more! I rented a stroller figuring the girls could rest their weary legs and I could zip around the zoo. Eric called shortly after we began exploring the zoo and caught a cab and met us there after his test. I love animals and think we all had a good time.

I think the biggest adventure was getting ice cream. It was so hot it was in the 90's and high humidity that day. I got each of us some ice cream. I got a cone knowing I could eat it before it got too messy and ordered the girls each one in a cup knowing this would not be as messy. WRONG! The "cup" was a flimsy plastic bowl with more soft serve ice cream in it than there was capacity to hold in the bowl! We had runny, drippy, sticky ice cream everywhere, clothes, blankies, strollers, hands, arms, legs! I had to stop every few minutes to pour ice cream out of the girls bowls. We left a drippy trail and little ice cream piles in the bushes around that end of the zoo. Sadie was wearing a nice layer of twist ice cream all over her clothes and Brooklyn had a small layer of vanilla on her blankie. It was a disaster. I should have taken a picture but I was covered in ice cream. I certainly didn't grab enough napkins. All in all we had a good time.

I was shocked at the petting zoo. They had the FATTEST goats I have ever seen. I asked if they were pregnant and they said that they weren't. That it was just air from their 4 chamber stomach. Seriously they were almost wider than they were long. Note the blurry head of Sadie. I think she brushed every goat there and used every brush in the bucket. She was running around like crazy trying to get it all in. You can kind of see the ice cream all over her shirt if you look really closely.

I really wanted to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and all the other American history sites that Philadelphia has in abundance, but how do you do that with a 3 and 4 year old? Here let's go to a place where you have to stand in line to look at some bell that doesn't ring and you can't touch. It just didn't even sound like something I wanted to attempt so we didn't. We did however explore Valley Forge where General George Washington camped for the winter to keep an eye on the Brits in Philly. It was fun to see his headquarters and walk the home he stayed in. The chapel where Washington attended was beautiful. The stained glass windows in the chapel all seemed to depict the history of the declaration. It was beautiful. The woodwork was ornate and had a few mosaics of Washington in the bell tower, along with the Justice Bell. A bell that is almost identical to the Liberty Bell except for an added inscription (of which I can't remember at the moment) that women took around the country to use as a rally for their right to vote.

If you ask Brooklyn what her favorite part about our trip to Pennsylvania was she'll tell you it was the playground at the airport. Nevermind the museum or the zoo, it was the airport playground. It was airport themed with a control tower and a working intercom between the tower and the plane. It was pretty cool, but cooler than the Please Touch museum? I guess so.

Joy to the Fishes

I've begun the training. I've swam some laps. You forget how hard swimming can be compared to any other kind of exercise. Breathing is the biggest challenge, running I can breathe as much and as often as I want. Not the case in swimming. Just trying to swim a couple laps was ridiculous the first day. I could barely swim 50m (that's down and back across the pool at my gym one time, once) without needing a good 30 second breather. Last week I managed to swim 400m straight in 8:16 and thought I was doing good, that's 1/4 mile. Only a mile and a quarter more to go to feel ready to break out of Azkaban, I mean Alcatraz. Well here it is a week and a bit later, I've got a few more swims under my belt and I swam 1000m straight in 22:48. That's just 200m shy of 3/4 mile! And I didn't drown! Granted I can touch the bottom in the pool I was swimming in but that doesn't matter right?

Have I ever mentioned that I'm a MUCH happier person when I exercise and achieve something? If only I could turn housework into such a happy experience and get more joy out of it. If you have any ideas please share them!

My dad just completed another swim from Alcatraz this weekend to continue to inspire me. He even dropped his time by 10 minutes from last year! Talk about some amazing time droppage! Way to go Dad!! I'm looking forward to many more laps, many more miles, and probably lots more surprises in my swimming achievements.

Brooklynism's & Sadieism's

Wearing Brooklyn's old Cinderella ballerina costume Sadie says "maybe I can go to the ball in this dress. Maybe I can go to the Dancing with the Stars in this dress."

"Mom can you do a fabor for me?" Sadie

Brooklyn "Mom can you do a big favor for me, well it's not a really big favor its just a medium favor. Will you wake me up in the morning, wrap me up in my blankie so my legs will be warm, and get me some breakfast?"