October 2017

Naturally, October always starts off with the Marathon.  

We look forward to it every year.  

The town is a bustle. 

 This year, the company that I work for was a Marathon sponsor.

We had a booth at the Marathon Expo.

It was so fun to be there and see all the runners 

and meet new people.

  

3 of Raleigh's cousins were running in the race.  

So we saw all of them at different times 

throughout the day.

It was fun for our kids to meet their second cousins.

 Standing on your feet for 11 hours is pretty brutal.

And some people are inconsiderate. 

I was in a pretty foul mood by the end. 

We all met at the Pasta Dinner afterward and I 

got all refreshed.

 We usually do the Mayor's Walk on the morning

of the Marathon.   But, this year we decided not

to do it and instead, we met for breakfast at Kneaders

and then we went over to the finish line.  

It was just as exciting as ever and again, we met some

really great people.

 This is my favorite picture of the day.

 Raleigh said...  "I had so much fun making

fun of people with Brent."

Like this gal....

Sunday Morning my relations were on the front
page of the paper.  See them there in the background?
But, the real focus here should be on the ridiculous person
that crossed the finish line WITH HER DOG.
What is it with people and pets these days?

I don't know what we are going to do with this girl.

Every night without fail, after her bath, she puts on 

makeup.  Her lipstick coordinates with her pajamas.

And she looks at herself in the mirror for a really long time.

Who's child is this??

And then there's this kid....
No words

Peyton was the most excited kid on earth to go to
her field trip to Staheli Farm.
She insisted that I drop her off at school 20 minutes
early so that she could strategically place herself in
front of bus #1.  Because Bus #1 is always the first
bus to leave the school, and so would naturally be the first bus
to arrive at the Farm.  I was told by my pals that her plan did
not work, but she adapted and had a good time anyway.

When our kids get the flu and they are successful pukers, they get a toy.
Ryker was a victorious vomiter and so Raleigh took him to Target
to choose any toy in the store (within reason) as his reward.
I wasn't there.  I had no say in the purchase.

I am not sure Raleigh was there either....  or at the very least wasn't paying an
ounce of attention to the selection.

I feel obligated to post a word of warning to everyone in the whole world
advising against the purchase of BUNCHEMS.

When you google bunchems, the very first item that comes up is
"bunchems-hair"
indicating that there might be a correlation between the two
that may or may not be pleasant.
Additionally, on the box there is a warning about
keeping the stupid little spikey balls away from hair of any kind.
But, who saw the box?  It was in 45 pieces and in the trash by the
time I got home from work.

Nevertheless, I allowed my children to channel their creativity
and play with the absurd game.
It was UEA afterall and they were quiet for over 2 hours.
KK wandered in after a while and said...  I think I have a problem in my hair.
And she turned to the side and revealed a clump of wretchedness that was
indescribable.  And weaved into the chaos were 3 little spikey balls
that gave NO SIGN of ever being able to be removed.

I started to try and extract them from the rat's nest, but after 10 seconds
I was already frustrated.  And so the calmer, more patient parent took over.
He worked for the better part of an hour using a box cutter and really
big muscles and finally.....  they were separated.
EXCUSE ME.....  but am I the only parent that thinks that
there should NEVER be something on the market, sold to children
that causes this kind of trauma.
A lesser parent would have shaved the child's head in desperation.

She used half a bottle of conditioner on her hair
and after two days of walking around with a clump of hair on the side
of her head, I finally got up the courage to begin brushing it out.
I am certain the neighbors thought I was beating her.

Peyton goes to Activity Days now.  

This month was a Daddy Daughter Pumpkin Carving Night.

They purchased a carving kit with templates.

Of course she picked the most morbid one...  a flaming skull.

Not the butterfly or the kitty.

She's a super fun tom-boy.

At our village we launched our two biggest homes on the same day.

One is a 9 bedroom/11 bathroom

the other is a 7 bedroom/7.5 bathroom home.

They are BEAUTIFUL.

We just had to share them with the community.

So the Chamber came and did a ribbon cutting.

It was really fun.

I snapped a photo of Morgan on her way to work

before the sun was even up.

She looks so cute in her scrubs.

For some reason, she likes putting her hands in

other people's mouths.  I don't get it.

Allie spent a weekend in Minnesota at the Minnesota Kendama Open.

She made it to the Big Stage for the Women's Competition.

She was nervous and so she didn't play as well as she would have liked,

but she had a great time.  

Several kids asked to take pictures with her.

Some of them didn't even speak English.

She signed Kendamas and gave them to a couple of kids.

People really love her.

How cute is this little girl from Japan?

I got a really painful dose of tendonitis.

I was squatting (ONLY 30 pounds) and I felt a pop

in my knee and the next day,  I could hardly get out of bed.

I was crippled for over a week.

During the week, I overcompensated, trying not to use 

my leg muscles and threw my lower back out.  

Then I got a flu shot and rendered my left arm useless.

And then since I was virtually unable to use my entire left side,

I slept wrong on my right side and pinched a nerve in my right hip.

I was literally 90 years old.  

 Peyton and KK go to Nana's on Fridays 

They LOVE it.

This day, they made cookies, they painted,  they read to each other

and they colored.

The days leading up to Halloween were rough.

Our little kids had some strange virus.

Fevers, diarrhea, throwing up, lots of sleeping.

Peyton had it the worst.

Even on Halloween day, she wasn't herself.

She wanted to be the clown from "It".

I do not know how, but Raleigh talked her into being a wolf.
But thank goodness he did

Allie and her friends were Greasers

 Even though she was not up to par,

she still dominated at the Halloween Party Games.

 The perfect costume for this magical girl

A Unicorn

Morgan saved the day on Halloween
Took the kids to school.
Took care of sick Ryker.
Volunteered at Ryker's Halloween class party.
Helped KK get into her costume.
Made it to the Halloween Parade just in time.

Raleigh secretly bought us costumes.
And actually expected me to wear it out of the house.

I had to buy a girdle for crying out loud.
And didn't look quite like the girl modeling it on Amazon.
So. Sorry.

 Poor Ryker had a fever.
And felt completely lousy.

You know a kid isn't faking when they don't

want to go to school on Halloween

 He was a trooper though... He even did a little 

trick or treating

Look at the colors of the leaves on our tree

October 2017

We were sick a lot.

Conference was NOT on Marathon weekend like it is supposed to be.

The weather was warmer than usual.

The colors were beautiful.

We made some good changes

and made some awesome plans.

We laughed a lot.
And loved even more.