BolderBoulder

Someday when we all travel around doing races together, I hope we can put the BolderBoulder at the top of the list. So. Much. Fun.

My parents & siblings ran (along with a little friend of theirs) and I volunteered. I had heard that if you volunteered that your registration for the next year was free. Turns out that is just for the first 10 volunteers to sign up, or something like that. But I did get a t-shirt and a pair of saucony running shoes. I worked guarding the race course from cars at mile 6, but no cars ever tried to cross the barriers. A few people asked me directions to the starting line. But for the most part I just watched 40,000 runners go by and the growing party of drunkards across the street from me. They were handing beers to the runners, until they got tired of sharing. A man 50 yards from me was handing out bacon. Most runners regretted taking a bite and tossed their uneaten portion near my station. There was a muddy slip-in-slide, people shooting marshmallows into the crowd, and lots and lots of costumes.

My parents know some big wig in Boulder who can get them tickets to the VIP party after the race in the club house of CU stadium. They also got tickets for me and the elders who live in their basement. The elder's from my ward supposedly ran the whole race in their suits, but I never saw them.

Being Memorial Day, lots of people had race bibs dedicated to their loved ones. My mom ran for my cousin, Ryan, in the Navy and my Dad's step-dad.

Cole and girls

I mentioned that my kids were invited to be models for a photography workshop here in Richmond, about a month and a half ago, right? So here's some that were just sent. I'm completely in love with this boy. The majority of the pics taken were of Cole. They wanted models age 9 and older and all they got was Cole and four little girls (Dayne's age and younger)..so you can only guess that they all fought over Cole. He was AWESOME. Loved every minute of it. Maybe I should put him in modeling?  ;)
*Click on pic for closer view. He's so handsome!!

 Dayne liked dressing up. Her best pics were when she wasn't aware of the camera. I'm hoping to get some more of June, but she was such a goof at the shoot that I'm not sure if the photographers were even happy with the result.  :)

Ruby de Mayo

We bought the regular pinata for the kids, then Adam made a zombie pinata for the ladies. I know you all have nothin' better to do than watch 5 min of our pinata videos, so here you go (me, my mom, lauren & shawntae):

Sunday Video chats

We love family video chats. I found these on Kaia's camera. When is the next one?

Bglife

We are working through the stomach flu this week. Harris is loving life as one sibling after another stays home from school "to play with him". He is especially excited today to have his Ben Net home. He loves her so so much!...






Yesterday Cory took Hazel on a Daddy/Daughter date. Actually she asked him. They went to Jack in the Box (Cory was super happy because she is our only child that likes fries). Then they went on a bike ride on a new "trails by rails" trail near Battle Ground Lake. It was a perfectly beautiful spring evening. As they were driving home she said it was the BEST day ever. Except maybe when Jesus comes (and Cory is thinking well that's appropriate) then she adds and I can finally ride a shark! My girl makes me laugh!









All worn out...


Oh how I love my babies even though this last months weeks have been so stressful with illness, broken bones, and end of the year stuff that I have developed a twitch in my right eye that will not go away. Oh well!

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Four years later..

I was searching through my eastcoastbennetts blog this morning, looking for the date Dayne had her urinary reflux surgery, and fell upon this little gem:

Thursday, January 8, 2009 (we were living in Battle Ground):

to you

To our independent 3 year old:
What a time we've had with you, Dayne! It's really no wonder that you came to us; we have so much to learn from you! In the last month you've climbed on the counter daily, looking for scissors (sometimes getting lucky enough to retrieve and use them). It doesn't matter how many times Daddy, Gma, or mom gets you down. You're persistent. If it's quiet, we know Dayne's doing something naughty. And 99% of the time, you are found with make-up, toothpaste, nail polish, you name it..doing your best to keep it hidden. When we find you, you yell at us, "Don't look at me doing this!" You won't be stopped, however hard we try. The other day, when Daddy was cleaning up a huge bathroom mess you made, and I was in the room more frustrated than ever with the huge mess you created, and trying to get you to help me clean it up, you started singing this, "You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer.." and on you went, in your own little tune. You were happy as ever, and completely oblivious to what Mom and Dad were feeling. At that moment, I knew you weren't trying to cause heartache, you were your own little being. Little Dayners. I can't change you, I can only love you. And I do. You're wonderful, smart, funny, beautiful..and EXTREMELY creative.
Just make sure you let us know your intentions in life.. (;
love,
Mom and Dad

Not much has changed!!

Just because I love it

Had to share it again..

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

I wish I could have used the Kaiser Chiefs' song, "Ruby", again to make this video...but alas I couldn't find a loophole through the copyright infringements. Anyone know how I could get around that? I even emailed the band in hopes of getting permission, but they haven't responded. The current background song is so horrid that it ruins everything...

Along for the ride

I can't believe how I lucked out this weekend. I heard that Jake Weber needed a female teammate on Thursday @ 4 p.m., on Friday @ 4 p.m. I was dropping my kids off at my mom's (miraculously her schedule was open) and heading off for Fruita. I got to the camp site at 10 p.m., Jake and his friend, Bill, took me out for a night ride on the race course. I thought I was doing fairly well, considering I haven't really been on a mountain bike trail for...hummmm...10 years. Jake was biking slow, "not race pace" as he called it, and kept telling me what was coming up on the trail. Apparently just as he was about to say "and that was the end of the first technical part" he hears my first crash. In fact, I crashed on each of my laps (fortunately missing the cactus each time). Jake was hoping I would take 45 min on each of my laps, I hit 48 & 46. I could have gone faster if I could have avoided the crashes and if I wasn't so nervous about letting faster bikers pass me (I pulled over too eagerly, but they were all so nice and courteous). The guys on my team were such good racers, so fast and so very competitive. In spite of that, they were eager for me to get in as many laps as possible. They even wanted me to take the last victory lap if we had a big enough gain on the #2 team (we were in 1st place for the entire race, there were 16 other teams in our division). That would have meant I would be pedaling up the last big hill, with a huge crowd of cheering fans, as the clock was ticking. Fortunately for me, there wasn't enough time for me to do that last lap (that last hill had some hair pin turns that I never made it through without unclipping and walking a bit, embarrassing). It was so so much fun. No pictures of me riding, tho. I just couldn't work up the nerve to ask one of the guys to take my picture. Then my parents kept the kids for me all day today and I was able to get to another ward's sacrament meeting (I missed ours because I didn't get home until 5 a.m., I had to pull over to sleep for a few hours), unpack, and take a 2 hour nap. A dream come true, really.

Family Food

Adam put an audio book on my ipod titled "The Food of a Younger Land". The author came across a manuscript of a WWII era book titled "America Eats". The manuscript is a collection of recipes and stories from each region of America. I've been learning about what Vermont housewives were cooking up in the '40s, the heated debate over the correct way to make clam chowder (tomatoes or cream?), the inner workings of the maple syrup industry, etc. My favorite was when the author listed off definitions of words used in the diner days. If my kitchen were a diner at this time period, I would be the "greeser" yelling "take it away" after filling each plate with fodder (or feed). I'd make Bulls Eyes (2 fried eggs) and serve a "Jersey Cocktail" (milk, also called "Baby"), but Kaia would much rather have "sinkers" (doughnuts) for breakfast. Lunch is usually a Toast Witch (sandwich, also called "3 Decker"). Dinner is served with "Whistle Berries" (beans) and "Snow Apples" (mushrooms). Then for dessert the kids request "Houseboats" (banana splits, also called "The Works") with "Stack of Berry or Stack of Vanilla" (ice cream). Then all the children happily take on the roll of "Bottle Washer" (dish washer). Haha.

So I was thinking we should have a few blogs dedicated to some family recipes. This idea was solidified today when Darla sent a text with one of her amazing recipes. I want to know what you guys are eating. I'd like to dedicate a meal each week as "Family Food Night" so I can say to the kids "this is what your cousins are eating". This info is important for our posterity :).
We usually make up a big batch of pancakes on the weekends to have as quick breakfasts during the week. I'm always trying to hide healthy stuff in the pancake batter. This last batch I put in a bunch of chia seeds and blended it all up. That was a "fail". Here is the basic recipe we use:
"Bewitching Blueberry Pancakes" (this comes from the back cover of my favorite childhood book "Old Black Witch" by Wende and Harry Devlin)
2 1/2 c flour (usually half wheat/half white flour)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cup milk (I use water)
 1/2 oil or butter
1 cup blueberries (or chocolate chips, or banana slices, or walnuts, or whatever)
Mindi's sneaky add-ins: flax seeds, coconut milk, nuts, etc.

18 Hours

I finally got my collage up from our Nauvoo trip. Thanks Darla for your photography skills :). What an awesome trip to look back on.

Adam moved three hives from my parent's place to our house. The next day a bunch of bees swarmed to the top of our neighbor's tree. Our attempts to get them back have failed. I won't tell you the bad names Adam used to describe those traitor bees.

This is Adam fixing Kaia's bike tire. I really really tried to fix the tire while he was gone, but failed. In fact, I tried to fix the tire on the GT & the BOB also and failed on both of those. Which is really worrisome since at this time tomorrow I will be in Fruita, CO about to race in the 18 Hours of Fruita mountain bike race. Here's the story: So I really like Megan Weber. She is married to Adam's friend, Jake Weber. On Facebook today she tagged me and said I should join Jake's mountain bike team for the 18 hours of Fruita race this weekend. Apparently, Jake is part of a co-ed team and their one female racer had to drop out. If they didn't get another girl they would have to forgo the race. I don't know why I volunteered. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive one way for me, I haven't really mountain biked since pre-Sierra days, but I'm super excited. Jake says it'll be easy, Adam assures me it will be really hard. I know better than to believe Jake. But there will be 5 guys & I, we each take a turn on a 7 mile loop, and ride and ride for 18 hours. Apparently it is a really big party to boot. I guess I see it as a once in a life time opportunity to race on a team like this (i.e. they don't care how slow I am, they are just happy to have me there so they can still race). Of course it would be so much more fun if Adam and the kids could join me out there, but alas Adam went back to work today. My mom is excited to take the kids. So it'll just be me, long car trip to listen to my audio books, in a tent all by myself, on a bike in a beautiful place...wish me luck!

May day and before

We went to VA Beach this past weekend. It's been a kind of tradition for Dayne's bday (although I think we missed it last year). Every time we've been to this particular campground, the weather has been perfect (if not a little warm) and the beach has been all that we'd ever hoped for. Not so much this time around. Yes, the forecast was rainy and cold, but we were hopeful, we looked at those HIGHS instead of LOWS. It was colder than the lows, and rainy. Dang it. It didn't stop my three from running to the beach the first night and searching for crabs (none to be had), and then the following late morning. They lasted 15 minutes. FREEZING. Two families from our ward joined us this time and were good sports about the temperatures. But none were as brave as my three little fish.

Dayne and her treasures. She walked all along the beach, shivering.

Cole was thrilled to have three boys to keep his attention. 

June crushing on Camden.

My friend Eliza and her little family of boys joined us during the day (they now live in VA Beach). She and I met when we first lived in Richmond and our ward decided to boot those of us living in the more "ghetto" area of the ward to another ward. And they only gave us one week warning. So Eliza and I were made visiting teaching partners and hit it off INSTANTLY. Then I moved to WA. She (and I) didn't really think we'd stay friends. But we did! Oh boy, is she fun. She's from Long Island and her husband from Chile. She keeps me in line. And she's full of wisdom and sarcasm. Perfect.

...and my pretty little Dayne turned SEVEN. No!!!! Thank you for all the birthday wishes. She felt very loved. But at the end of the day, it was quite late last night, actually, she said to me and Geof., "How come you didn't make me a card, Mom and Dad?" You see, Dayne is our family's official card maker. For everyone. I need a card, I call on Dayne. And she does it out of love. Always creating cards for our family, friends, her teachers, kids in her church/school class. So after midnight, Geof. and I sat in our bed and made two cards for our sweet, thoughtful little Dayne..who is growing up too fast.