New Mexico Pics

Soooo....apparently I'm more than a year behind on updates here. 

January in review: after spending almost two weeks in Iowa, it was back into the swing of things. Gavin started basketball through the Y, indoor soccer league, and indoor track at the Devaney center, which is a hydraulic banked indoor track at the University of Nebraska. He's keeping us busy Sunday through Wednesday nights.

Sam took a break from indoor soccer, and we got him signed up for karate. He is going Tues & Thurs nights and is doing SO great! He loves it, and is picking it up so quickly. It's also through the Y (and $18/mo - super cheap for two nights a week!).

Chad went to AZ to the Coldwater Rumble 20 mile trail race and took 4th. 

And here are some way old pictures from our trip to Albuquerque in December 2012 because I have yet to unpack the camera cord and can't unload all the pics I've taken this year!

The flag for the National Anthem was hung from a hot air balloon - it was so beautiful

The Baby-er Baby and Other News

November is always an emotional time for me, somehow most of the best and worst moments of my adult life are all wrapped up in November. It's the month we grieve losing Ella, wistfully wonder what life would have been had Gav been born on his 11/27 due date, remember his scary surgery, celebrate marriage, Chad's birthday and Gav's homecoming from the NICU. I can't believe it's been ten years that I have been on this journey - I feel like life as I know it started ten years ago at my wedding, when everything changed so suddenly just days after. Time doesn't heal all wounds, but it does make them less fresh. November used to have me on the brink of tears for a whole month, and now it's (almost) just another month. It is also prematurity awareness month. While I would never choose for things to go the way they did, I have to be grateful for the journey and how it has shaped me. I find myself oddly thankful for prematurity.

So there is my November thankful moment, since let's be honest this is likely the only post you'll get from me this month!

Life continues to be good for us here in Lincoln.

Outdoor soccer has wrapped and Gavin has been tearing it up on the local road racing scene, he even won a 5k in Beatrice a few weeks ago, as in was the first runner to cross the finish line, not just age group. His first youth cross country race was this last weekend where he took 3rd out of 8 kids in his division. We just got his report card and I am excited to start seeing 4's pop up - they use a 1-4 scale with 3 being on track for expectations and 4 being above. 2's need some work and you don't want to see a 1. He's been a solid 3 student, so seeing those 4's is a great accomplishment!

Sam is doing indoor soccer and continues to do well at pre-school. This kid's brain amazes me. His vocabulary is out of control, and he is getting into math, choosing to play flash card addition problems on his Kindle. He is also a major SASS.

Last night he told me "Mom, Gavin was a baby-er baby because he had a binky and I didn't, right?"

I said "yes, but you are definitely way naughtier"

In a reflective tone, he simply replied "yeah..."

Sam cracks me up on a daily basis, he is witty and smart and he knows it. Gavin is working hard at school and sport and becoming more and more responsible all the time. Weird how they have to grow up? I tried to pick him up this morning (just to see if I could) and it was not easy. One of these days I'll look down at him and realize he's no longer smaller than me!

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Mexico, in case I never get around to recapping it. Who wants to take bets on that?

Gav enjoying a bubble bath at the hotel

Beach bum

The parasail

The boys

The fam

 And a few pictures from our trip to the nearby Roca Berry Farms - pumpkin patch. This place had tons of things for the kids to do!

He's the King of the World Haypile

Ski Trip 2013 - 1st ski day

First day of skiing done and I am EXHAUSTED!!

The drive yesterday went very well, we made awesome time and the kids were as well behaved as could be expected. As soon as we hit the mountain we got into some weather, again, to be expected. Rain turned to snow turned to icy roads. But I'll take an hour of stressed out driving because it meant fresh powder!

We are staying at Cirque Lodge at Copper Mountain, on recommendation from a friend. It happened to be a fairly good deal too. We are in a two bedroom condo and it has an awesome deck, nice features, and we have a ski locker, gym, pool, hot tubs at our disposal. It's a bit of a walk to get to the lifts, certainly not bad if it were just me, but far for little kids. Copper Mountain does have these carts all over the place though, that you can use to haul your equipment (and children) around. Remind me to tell you how fun it is to pull a cart + 40 lb preschooler, plus our skis through fresh powder after a long day of skiing. Partially uphill. At least I am getting a full body workout.

View from our deck

Someone was excited to get here

Sam was signed up for ski and Gav and I skied together. Everything went very smooth at ski school drop off and Sam wasn't nervous at all. Gav and I headed for the ski lift - which wasn't very busy! I don't know if it's just like this on Sundays in general, but we were never waiting in lines.

Dropping Sam off

We sailed down some green runs and Gavin had no problem remembering how to ski. It was snowing pretty hard the first hour or so, and then the rest of the day it snowed on and off. It was nice at the base of the mountain, but really cold when we approached the top of a couple of the lifts.

We progressed to some blue runs and then tried to plan out a black. I do find the signage at Copper a little hard to follow. We had a hard time sticking to our planned route due to a trail cutting across a mountain and not being able to make it over there. In the end we only hit one or two black trails, they were really hard! And Gavin does not ski easy - he is really cautious and doesn't get out of control but he also doesn't stop til he gets all the way to the bottom. I love how cautious he is, but that means more turning (more work for the quads) and then not getting a rest break (Copper has really nice, long runs) was making me cramp up a bit. I was also diagnosed with iron deficiency Friday, so the fact that my muscles are not getting / storing / using oxygen as they should doesn't help. Constant lactic acid pain is not the most fun thing.

Last picture, he was getting tired, cold and kinda over it

Around 2:15 we headed back to the lodge where I would have to pick up Sam at 3. Gavin was done skiing, so I set him up with some hot chocolate while I carried his ski's back to our condo and got the ski harness for Sam in case he wanted to ski more.

I picked up Sam from ski school, and was a bit bummed with the results. He couldn't stop, could barely snow plow and could only turn right. Oof. We went into the lodge and met up with Gav and Chad and Sam promptly started melting down while simultaneously insisting he was ok to come on the ski lift and down the hill with me. Against my better judgment, we took off. He cheered up once he got the ski's back on.

We made it on and off the lift without consequence. Woohoo!

I started out trying the harness and he just fell backwards. We then did the Sam skiing between my legs while holding on to my poles, and it worked as long as it wasn't too steep. He was pretty tired by this point and just getting him to put his weight on his own legs (instead of leaning back on me) was nearly impossible. I think it took us about 45 minutes to make it down the run (remember what I said about the nice long runs? I take that back) and not only were my quads on fire but my lower back as well.

So I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to talk him into another ski lesson tomorrow, but I have reservations because I'm not sure he got a lot out of it today. I've heard good things about the harness, so I am now off to google You Tube videos on how to teach a 4 yr old to ski using one.

Wish me luck. And strong muscles. And patience.

Oh and the hubs? He dropped Sam off with us at ski school, helped Gav and I get our gear on, checked out the village, and did some snow shoeing!

We Made it To New Mexico!

This morning we had a very uneventful plane trip to New Mexico via Denver. Only hiccup was a little bit of a delay getting out of Denver and it was minor. When we landed in Albuquerque, we got our rental car and went stratight to the cross country field where Gavin and I ran the course and practiced a fast finish. It's a nice flat course, and hopefully the elevation won't bother him too much! He drew a really good starting box slot, so he should have the best possible conditions for a great race.

The house Chad rented is awesome, and he is the official travel planner of the family now. It's a nice big place in a newish development.



Not the house that you can see in the pic, but the one right next to it is for sale for just $400k if you are interested  :)

We are off to the grocery store and to grab dinner. Trying to be a better blogger, so look for mini updates throughout our trip!

California Vacation (Day 2)

We all woke up Day 2 still not feeling awesome, but headed south to the Long Beach Aquarium. It was awesome! There were so many amazing fish/sea creatures to see. We took a bunch of pictures on my cell phone, some day I will figure out an efficient way to get them off my phone and share them with you.

After the aquarium, we walked around the pier for a while, it was gorgeous out, but a bit windy.

We got back to my dad's and Chad was feeling pretty lousy, so he stayed at the house while the rest of us went looking for a train museum.

They had a little train that went around the museum a couple times.....it was less exciting than the Blank Park Zoo train, and that is saying a lot!

My dad thought there was more to the train musuem than there actually was, so we found a park on the way home to let the boys burn off some steam.

We're Going to Nationals!!

A full recap with pics will be up soon whenever life slows down.

Gavin competed at the USATF Region 8 competition this past weekend in Oshkosh, WI. We already knew he was going to Nationals, as the top 5 make it, and there were 5 or less in each of his events. We didn't exactly tell him he was a sure bet to nationals, we just talked about running his best race.

He set some goals for himself - to break 6 minutes in the 1500m and to break 3 minutes in the 800m.

The short story is he made his 1500m goal with a time of 5:58.64 and narrowly missed his 800m goal at 3:02.02. He was disappointed, but moved on quickly.

So we are headed to Baltimore at the end of the month and making it our summer vacation. We will spend the first two nights with a family friend, spend a day in DC, hit the track for Gav's events Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, and then have most of the day Sunday, all Monday, and most of Tuesday to explore Maryland. Chad hooked us up with a cute cottage on the beach for our last couple nights there.

California Vacation Continued (Day 1)

At this rate we'll have taken our next vacation before I get the write up done on this one! We have had a lot going on lately.


After sleeping in not the best conditions - Chad and Gav in the bed, Sam and I on the floor, with a space heater for warmth (it ws in the 30's overnight and most souhern CA homes don't have heat), we woke up ready to start our vacation. Well, three of us did. Chad woke up with a scratchy throat and not feeling great. I was hoping it was just feeling off a little due to flying (that's foreshadowing for all you English majors).


My dad had appts tht morning so we took off in search of brunch. We headed down a main street expecting to find plenty to choose from. Not so much. We eventually saw a Denny's and figured we'd take what we could get at that point!


We stuffed ourselves full of brunchy goodness and headed back to my dad's to figure out what to do with the boys given the 50 degrees and rainy conditions. About ten miles away was a Jump Zone, which, incidentally we can now find right here at home, but we needed to let the kids blow off some steam. It wasn't terribly busy and it was a pretty good place for the kids. There were several grid sections with square trampolines and then solid gridlines to walk on. There was a special little kids section where the trampolines were not quite as bouncy so it was easier for them to manage. There was also a big foam pit at the end of a row of jump pads that kids could bounce and jump into.


A couple hours of sweaty fun and we were headed back to my dads. Sam may or may not have taken a nap at this point, I remember him really needing one!


After an afternoon of relaxing, we headed to Bob's Big Boy Diner with my dad for dinner. For some reason I have this visual in my head of a movie and some guy going through the drive thru and getting mad and beatin up the Big Boy statue and then later in the movie you see it flying through the air. Chevy Chase or Adam Sandler maybe? Bonus points for anyone that has any idea what I am talking about and can name that movie.





We had an awesome meal of tasty burgers and shakes. The shakes were enormous and super cheap! We seemed to get lucky as it was not busy at all for a Saturday night. We even got to sit in a booth that the Beatles sat in!!

Then we headed back to my dad's and crashed pretty early......to be continued....

California Spring Break Trip Day 0

We didn't get off to a good start for our spring break trip this year. In fact, the weather was the first thing that started going wrong when I started looking at the LA forecast a few days before we were to leave.

We had been experiencing gorgeous and unseasonably warm weather for March in Iowa - sunny, 70's, not too humid or windy. Meanwhile, LA was gearing up for the "worst storm of the winter". The weekend forecast called for 50's and rainy, with highs in the low 60's the rest of the week.

Friday morning, around 3 in the morning, Sam's head felt warm. He had been perfectly fine the evening before, playing outside and taking a walk, but we had noticed he seemed overly "dozy" and zoned out when it was time to wind down. I took his temp. 104. Crap!

I had taken the day off to pack and get organized, our flight not leaving til 6 pm. So I hadn't done much in the way of getting ready to go the night before. I have all day, right? Famous last words.

I went to the gym early to try to get a long run in. I had injured my calf earlier in the week, but still wanted to try it. It was a zillion degrees in the gym and humid and I just couldn't get into it. Plus I was worried about Sam. I checked my phone and had a text "Sam is really sick. Come home".

I got home, and took Sam to the walk in clinic after I wasn't able to get him in at our pediatrician. They said it was probably the flu, but swabbed the poor kid for strep and checked his ears. Infection. Antibiotics.

Got home, Sam wouldn't take any kind of medicine. The dr suggested zyrtec to try to clear him out before getting on the plane, but he wasn't having any of that. I only got one dose of ibuprofen in him as well, but that wore off well before the flight.

Then I had to stop by target - we picked up a few things to entertain the kids on the flights. Then we were off to the vet to pick up Meatball's vaccination records so that we could board him. Only to find out that his vaccines were not up to date! Last time he had been there, he was being treated for an infection and they didn't want to have the two drugs in his system at the same time. You can't board a pet without current vaccines.

We quickly got an appt for 2:45.

Back to the house. Eat quick, Sam fell asleep, and I packed frantically. I had an appt at 1:45 with my sports dr about my calf. Went there, came home, Sam woke up, loaded him and the cat up and ran to the vet. They were backed up. Waited, waited, and I start to feel mass panic set in. I'm very scheduled. When things are not running on time, and I have more things lined up behind it I start to get major anxiety. We're not going to make the plane!!!

Finally the vet comes in at 3:05 (I figure I have to be out by 3:15 to get the cat to the boarders, get home, get the van loaded, and be headed to the airport by 4). Since he had recently been there she agreed she didn't have to do an exam, they gave him shot and we were on our way. Phew.

Dropped him off at the kennels and called in a sandwich order to Jimmy Johns to pick up on the way to the airport.

Got home right as Gav is getting off the bus. Cram a snack down his throat. Throw everything in the car. Harass Chad that it's time to leave. My voice is getting shrill.

Finally we were on the road, drive through JJ's, grab our sandwiches and make it to the airport by 5. Check in went smoothly except my stupid suitcase was 51.5 lbs. I thought I could just pay for it being overweight, but no, they made me take stuff out! We stuffed a couple items in our carry on backpacks and went on our way. There was no security line (love that about the DSM airport!) and we made it through and sat and ate our sandwiches before getting on the plane.

First flight was a quick hop over to Chicago. I think Sam sat with Chad and he fell asleep. Once in Chicago we had a bit of a layover. Sam woke up, and we played "keep the 3 yr old entertained on a layover". It involved stroller rides around the terminal and stopping to buy chocolates for everyone.

The flight from Chicago to LA was rough. Sam slept on and off and when he wasn't sleeping he was very unhappy and uncomfortable. No doubt his ears and the fact that his fever was 104 and he wouldn't take anything to feel better. We made it to LA, grabbed our luggage and got on a shuttle to the rental car station. Chad waited in the longest line of people ever, and we finally got our car. Both kids were awake at this point, I bought them vending machine snacks to keep them entertained/happy while Chad waited in line. Thank goodness for the little umbrella stroller that I decided to take last minute, Sam spent a lot of time in it!

We drove to my dad's and got there after 1 am CA time. At this point I had pretty much been up 24 hours, as I hadn't slept much since Sam woke with his fever at 3 am. We crashed quickly.

To be continued.......Day 1 - Chad gets sick

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Gavin and I made it back home safely around 2 am this morning. I will post all the details of our trip in the next couple days, but first, here are two videos - the first one was taken on the 28th at Breckenridge and the second was taken on the 30th at Keystone. If you're not the skiing type, you can see improvement by watching his hands and also how smooth and steady he is in the second video. The first day and a half he was sort of wrenching his hands around when he was trying to turn side to side, by the last day he was really bending his knees and using his legs.

Yesterday he was skiing from the top of the mountain all the way to the bottom without stopping. He only fell once - skidding on some ice, and he got himself back up before I could reach him. I was flying after him just to keep up - he really did an amazing job!

Click on the YouTube logo to get a bigger screen view, in the second video, he is in red and will be coming down the middle of the screen from the top of the hill.

Last of Vacation Pictures

"Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare" ~Ed Asner