Random Smiles

Sometimes it's the random sights that make me smile the most.  Like the squirrels that make mischief on our back porch.  Meet Peaches.  

While Peaches seems to be the cheekiest, we also enjoy watching her two companions, Pickles and Nutsawoo.  Leaping from the trees to our fence to the tramp, these guys are as much fun as the squirrels in Mark Rober's obstacle course.

Next up, the Emerson school garden.  Since Emerson is not meeting in-person, they invited families who have volunteered in the past to come help with the harvest.  These pictures remind me of our picture book, Creepy Carrots.  Let's hope the carrots don't get their revenge.

The garden coordinator Maddie did a great job engaging our kids and teaching them all about the different plants.  I hope next year entire classes of children get to enjoy it!

No better time for pumpkins.

Masking up is a pretty common around our house.  Thanks to the amazing assortment of masks that NomiAnn sent, even our stuffed animals are well protected.

Annika's stuffies usually live in this hamper, but she displaced them when our friend Rose came to visit.  In case you can't tell, Annika stuffed herself in there too.  

A neighborhood bike ride...

...and a lost tooth!  A while back Annika had this obsession with making money.  Once she realized that wealth via lemonade stand was unlikely to materialize, she schemed, "I'll work on getting money by losing my teeth."  Mission accomplished.

Early one morning, Talia joined me well before dawn to run up City Creek Canyon.  With 1370 feet of elevation gain over 11.5 miles, this is no easy feat but she made it!

Well-done, Reddi Whip.  Your commitment is inspiring.

One Sunday afternoon the entire family drove up Millcreek canyon for a wander.  We were all excited to see the changing leaves.

Oh how I love fall!  And my family.

Last but not least, bedtime.  These munchkins are cute, but they still wear us out.  So sometimes we wear them as a blankie.

Sweet dreams!

Eli's Eleven!

Happy 11th Birthday, Eli!  I always find birthday posts a little bit hard.  It's impossible to find the right words to express how grateful we are for a family member.  Eli, you are ever so many sorts of wonderful!  Lego master, Harry Potter aficionado, budding pianist, future engineer, creative writer, math whiz, and more.  You are principled, spiritual, loving, determined, kind, and pretty darn funny.  From the outset you have been our Easy E.  Eleven years later, you continue to go with the flow, changing and adapting even when it's hard.

For your birthday, we had grand dreams of an epic Harry Potter party, meant to rival the Harry Potter party of 2014.  After all, it's not every day a boy turns 11!  'Yer a wizard, Eli.

Instead, it turned out to be a pretty busy weekday, filled with school, frisbee practices, church youth activities and more.  Fortuitously, Eli's class was headed on a Starbase field trip at Hill Airforce Base, so that was pretty special.

Brooklyn wanted to make angel food cake to celebrate.  Sadly, it turned out to be a bit underbaked (my fault) and plopped out of the pan when we flipped it.  Certainly memorable!

Brooklyn was understandably sad about her cake disaster.  I was so impressed when she reappeared in the kitchen with an idea to salvage the project: "We can make parfaits!"  After all, everybody loves a good parfait.  What a tasty way to start the day.

The decadence continued with a Deathly Hallows meat pie.  Happy day!

After school, we headed over to Sugarhouse park for a celebratory dinner with Justin, Brianna, and Ruby.  

Eli's special dinner request: Hawaiian haystacks.

Present time!  Aunt Callie, we purchased this wrapping paper in your honor.

A Harry Potter lego set!  No better way to combine two obsessions.

From Aunt Callie and Uncle Adam we have a new favorite game: Cover Your Kingdom.  Thanks!

Annika's gift to Eli was a giant grow-in-water lizard that she picked out from the Dollar Tree.  That and a pretty cool glow ball.

Last but not least, back home for more pie.  Without time to set, this coconut cream pie came full circle and looked like the angel food cake flop.  Good news is it still tasted amazing.

Aunt Brianna also made a birthday caramel apple pie later in the week, so we were well fed.

Happy Birthday, Eli!  We love you!  Thanks for loving our family, imperfections and all.

Launch Team 2020

Launch Team 2017.  2018.  2019.  2020!  Our family has been participating for so long that it feels a bit commonplace.   I need to remind myself that kids running half marathons is anything but ordinary.  The hard work and commitment demonstrated by these youth is remarkable!

This summer both Talia and Eli trained with Launch Team to run the Big Cottonwood Half Marathon.  As always, training is hard.  I think I enjoyed this trail run through Millcreek canyon more than the kids did.  So beautiful!

Even though the run from the Capitol to the U is farther with more elevation gain, they enjoyed it more in the company of their Launch Team friends.

Go Eli, go!

Victory!  And then another four miles back.

Celebrating the end of our Emigration Canyon run.

Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Launch Team really gets you out and about.

Our final training run through Cottonwood Heights with celebratory ice cream at Handel's.  Here's Eli running with Kim Black, Launch Team's amazing organizer.

At last, race day.  While the actual race was cancelled due to COVID-restrictions.  They still arranged for Launch Team to have an actual race experience, running all the way from Brighton to the Ledgemere picnic area.

A chilly start!  (Blurry too.  It was actually quite dark still.)  

Eli and I were running buddies for the day.

It's kind of hard to run and photograph at the same time.

Meanwhile, Talia ran with a couple of her favorite running coaches, Tara and Nikol.  These gals are fast!

Such a stunning canyon!  For me personally, this was my first experience running down Big Cottonwood, and I loved it.  

Talia crosses the finish line.

Launch Team just wouldn't be the same without Coach Tara supporting us year after year.  Thank you!

Eli and Talia, we are so proud of you both, particularly your dedication even when it's hard.  While I believe Launch Team made this race experience as great as possible under the circumstances, it's still challenging to run thirteen miles without the adrenaline of people cheering around you.  In these extraordinary times, you've accomplished something extraordinary because you are just that...extraordinary!

We love you!