Surprise!

My mom turned 60 this week! What better way to celebrate than to shock the living daylights out of her! :)

We decided to do a surprise party for her last minute. We had about 6 days to plan and execute it. And luckily, we didn't allow anymore time, because it was incredibly hard to keep a secret for the woman I either talk to or physically see EVERY DAY! Not only does she live 4 blocks away, but she also babysits my children quite frequently (don't be jealous!). I didn't actually tell my girls about the party, but they knew what was going on since they overheard phone calls regarding the party. They also came with me as I took party supplies, tables, chairs, food, etc to our hosts, the Kupenoffs.

There were a few times that I was sweating bullets, hoping that the secret wasn't going to be revealed. For instance, the day before the party when the girls went with me to deliver all of the above mentioned to the Kupenoffs house. Luckily, I took them swimming afterwards because that evening my mom came to our house and asked the girls what they did today. I quickly answered for them, "We went to Franklin Pool, huh girls?"

Or the day of the party when my kitchen is torn apart and I have 50 loaded potatoes skins laying out, my oven baking at 450*, and my mom calls asking if she can come over. Her freezer went out and she needed to bring her freezer stuff over to put in ours. There was no way I could lie about what I was cooking for so many people for. So, I quickly offered to come get it myself. As if I was doing nothing else, I had to go unload her entire freezer and hall it back to my house. All to keep her out of my house.

Or the night of the party as the entire group of people are quietly waiting in anticipation her arrival and she calls my cell phone. I had no choice but to ignore it. 5 seconds later, she calls Sam's cell phone!

But, the plan worked. Her and my dad were planning on having dinner with the Kupenoff's. We all stood on top of the balcony looking over. After she entered, Debbie told her that she wanted to show her something upstairs. She glanced upstairs and we all yelled "Surprise!" It worked. From what I hear, she jumped 6 feet. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and was using someone elses and I wasn't totally comfortable with it, so I was focused on getting her reaction. What I ended up getting was a blurry mess. Oh well.

1/2 of the group waiting for her arrival

My mom grabbing Debbie after the shock
Debbie Kupenoff (our hostess with the mostest!) and my mom

The food table

We were also celebrating John and Debbie Kupenoff's birthdays! They share a birthday 2 days after my mom, and they were still willing to host a surprise party! We love them!

It seemed as if the drink area took more room than the food. Interesting how that works out!

The Bartender himself, mingling with the other guests

Mom, Marley, and Jeneane

Yakima Youth Track

Well, if mommy and daddy can run, why can't the kiddos?

The girls participated in track this summer and loved it! They got to do running events: 50 and 100 Meters, with and without hurdles, and field events: Long jump and Softball throw. Both girls have potential when it comes to running. Throwing a ball and jumping however, well that quite frankly, is a whole other story! :)

Losing Teeth

If Blogger was a little more video friendly, I would have posted the video of Genevieve's 6 year old cousin Mikayla pulling out Genevieve's first tooth. It was pretty funny to watch her try to yank it out with floss. She got it out about 90% and then I had to finish it off with a good yank with my fingers.
Needless to say, Jenna's fear of the tooth fairy "bumping her pillow and waking her up" was put to rest when she came during the night as quietly as can be, taking the little stub of a tooth and leaving behind a dollar bill and 2 shiny quarters.

And kuddos to Mikayla because Genevieve only wants her to pull out the rest of her teeth!

Half Marathon?

Who would have thought that my husband or I would ever be prepared to run a half marathon? Not us! But we have been disciplining ourselves with training in preparation for a FULL marathon in October (something we are not nearly ready for!) So when we heard there was going to be a 1st annual half marathon in our home town, we decided to go for it! It actually worked out to our advantage because our marathon training has us scheduled to run a 12 mile run that day, so this was only adding another 1.1 miles. What's 1.1 miles right? Ha! After 12 miles, 1.1 is A LOT!!!

Here are Sam and I "pre-race" time.

The Yakima Half Marathon was a Beast of a race! It was known as "Hot and Hilly" which is the only way to sum it up! Unfortunately, it had a late morning start which only added to the heat problem. And it didn't help that it happened to be the hottest day of the entire summer! There was extreme elevation gain in the first 5 miles, leaving us runners exhausted with 3/4 of the race still to go! And the course follows a very open, tree-less area giving us ZERO shade! It was brutal! And then, a big error on the race set-up, was that there were very few water/aid stations! Fortunately, Sam and I wore our hydration belts. I don't know what I would have done without it!

My goal for a half marathon was 2:15. That was a goal for a "normal" half marathon. From what I am told, this was no "normal" half marathon. So I was beyond pleased with my 2:24 race finish! Actually, I am just pleased that I finished!

A friend of mine ran it and compared it to the Portland Full Marathon. She thinks that the full marathon (which she ran last year) may have been easier than Yakima's 1/2 marathon. I found that very interesting!

Overall, it was a great day! And I get to finish it up today with a 90 minute massage!

Sam also had a good race. He is a bit more hard-core than myself when it comes to running. His goal was to break 2 hours. He came extremely close with a time of 2 hours 1 minute!

Now we get to rest for a day or 2 and then it is back to training for the Marathon!

Ugh! I don't want to think about it!

Happy 4th Birthday Jocelyn!

My second daughter, Jocelyn Hope celebrated her 4th Birthday on July 19th! Here she is as a sweet little newborn:

Her older sister took a liking to her right away! This picture makes me laugh because Genevieve doesn't even look old enough to have a baby sister! Boy did I have my hands full!
Look at the sweet angel she is growing up to be!

We celebrated an early birthday with family and friends. We enjoyed a rainbow cake, home-made cake-pops, and ice cream. We were all on a sugar high! On the day of her birthday, we had a birthday dinner with our immediate family. Jocelyn's dinner request: Hot dogs without a bun, chips, and fruit. So...that's what we had! :)

Jocelyn has become a fearless, fun-loving little girl.

We love you Jocelyn!

My feelings are hurt

My mom put my girls down for naps today while I was at work. I got home while they were still sleeping and my mom left. Each one of them, at different times, CRIED when they woke up, because they didn't want me to be there. They wanted my mom. Nice. Real nice.

How do you explain this one?

My daughters are (or were) in the same swimming lesson class. That is, until the end of the session, my youngest daughter got moved up, and my oldest daughter got held back.
Please tell me it isn't always going to be like this in their lives. I think it is bothering me more than it is her!