Randomness

I finally broke down and got someone to come clean every 2 weeks. I quickly realized we don't have it in the budget to have someone do this. It's glorious and one day I dream of making it happen again. Until then our floors will look as if someone mowed the lawn inside.

Tyler is obsessed with Oxy Clean. He sees the commercial in the morning and one day we were in the store and he was begging me to get it. He stood next to the Oxy Clean and was like Mom there it is! And begged me as if it was candy that he wanted. He even recites the commercial and what it can do. weirdo.

Jill and I took thes went to Knoebel's a few weeks ago and it was so much fun. Zac and Tyler both loved the Whip. The laughter that came out of them was the best sounds ever. I wish I could have got a video.

The summer weather has been absolutely, positively amazing. We haven't used our AC in over 2 weeks.

We did the Wilkes-Barre triathlon on Sunday. It was another good one although our training this year wasn't so good. I rolled my ankle early June and it's still giving me trouble so I didn't have a ton of time to train and Dave had a little stomach bug the entire weekend. We both were slower than last year, but we did it and it was fun. The weather was great, it poured from 4-6am, then the skies cleared up and by time we began the swim the sun was peaking out over the mountains. Chilly, but good. I thought I did really well in the swim and ended up finishing 7 minutes later than last year, which is crazy to me and I'm not ever going to be satisfied with that. I swam well, kept my stroke, my breathing was great and somehow I was slower?? Next year I will get you lake. I got 2nd in my age group and I ran with the girl that finished ahead of me and kept her going then at the end she said to me let's sprint. I had nothing left, absolutely, positively nothing and she got me by 3 seconds. Next year I move to a different age group where the woman just get better with age. I pray that same happens to me! Dave came in a few minutes later and looked like a ghost when he crossed the finish line. He stomach still wasn't feeling well, but he did it too and we'll return next year to kick it a little more.

Another winner this weekend was Tyler! He ran his first race on Saturday. It was the Wilkes-Barre triathlon future triathlete race. He ran a half mile in 4:48 and finished first in his age group. You should have seen him when they called his for first place, it was priceless. He was so excited!

On to lots of pics that have been snapped by nothing more than my phone all summer.

First though, a little ninja warrior action.

One hump down, 2 billion more to go

Recently, I’m starting to have the feeling of “We did it!” We got over a hump. And by hump I mean crossing over to the place where the kids can play, do a few more things on their own, tag along with us as we do things like run, bike, and even swim. This week, we went swimming at the Y and Dave and I took turns doing laps while the other swam with the kids in the kid pool. Another day we went to the Wissahickon, I went running, while Dave and Zac rode one bike and Tyler rode his own bike.

Dave has been gone all week and I didn't have the anxiety that I use to get when he had to go on a trip. Other than Zac having to visit urgent care for an infected bite of some sort things were good. My Mom took Tyler for a few days and Zac and I had some time together. Zac had no idea what to do without his brother around and it broke my heart. For the first day he must have asked "Where's Tyler?" about 20 times. They both had tears leaving each other. Gah, they make me melt.

There will be a kazillion more humps in our life I know that, but I take one at a time, like this pebble, and celebrate the small victories as they come. So here’s to life starting to feel like a little more like life…you know what I mean? Here’s to a few more hot, full meals in my belly (in turn this might mean a little extra fluffiness on my end), a little more running back and forth between houses with friends, a few more relaxing moments and maybe a little swing in that hammock with my sweet tea by the end of summer…we’ll have wait and see :) It’s all good...even if this new stage of life means they drop to the floor and wrestle over something like a blueberry :)

4th of July fun!

We took a little road trip for 4th of July weekend down to Virginia to visit Richard and Debs. It was a really great, relaxing weekend, filled with fireworks, fun playing in their huge huge yard, massages for Deb and I (she's preggers and due in Sept - yippee!), a little shopping for the girls and some hiking for the guys. We had fireworks in town here the weekend before the 4th, we went to a 4th festival in Virginia and then Dave and Richard had a fireworks show for us on Saturday night (the pics below are of our fireworks)! They hosted our circus so graciously, cooking us lots of food, the kids got gift bags with lots of fun stuff, sitting around the fire laughing, drinks and playing. Tyler got to ride his quad all over just cruising around on his own exploring. He's so funny that he knows how to turn it off now and I don't even know how to do that. He's becoming a pro and it makes my heart melt seeing his explore. And on a special note, Zac decided he was going to sleep in a bed this weekend, so he and Tyler slept together in bed both nights. Big step although we're not getting rid of his crib just yet as we have to go out and buy everything for his room when it's time so we'll wait a little longer.

It's funny when you're a parent and see others engage with an truly love your kids. It means something. I can't wait to love their little dude like they do ours! Thank you Richard and Deb for the super awesome weekend! They napped for 3 hours after we left as I think we wore them out a little...good training for what's to come in Sept! ;)

We also celebrated my birthday this week, I got lots of love from my dudes and had a great day welcoming 34. Yesterday we had a beach day and these trips are becoming much more relaxing as they get older especially when they have friends to play with!