Catch up...big boy style

Soccer...He is really getting the hang of it. The cold dosen't even seem to phase him, us spectators on the other hand would like a bit more warmth. Thursday is his last game.
When Oscar found out that we would be going to Spokane for the Workman's baby Sealing at the Temple, and would be missing the annual bridge run (where we get a jet boat ride back to the start) he was very unhappy. That is until I said we would be stopping by REI to climb the wall. That seemed to even things out a bit.
In fact i think he response to me telling him that we were going to the temple to do something important and he responded...that isn't THAT important. To him the boat ride was more-so.
Here he is sporting his bike gear. He loves to ride. He certainly picked the right family.
Here he is teaching Poppy how to throw the Rocks into the stream. I love watching him explore and embrace the world around him. He is such a great kid! I still can't believe that he will be 6 years old next month.

Catch-up time...Princess style

Typical princess yard-work attire...Poppy was super helpful with her frilly skirt and heels.
Princess pretend sad-face. I told her to show me your princess face...we get this regularly...especially when she starts singing princess songs...
Princess taking her place at the front of the class. During our field trip with Oscar's class to the hospital, she made herself cozy on Mrs. B's lap as we waited for the city bus. Luckily Mrs. B is the sweetest teacher and complied.
Princess taking the easy way down to the stream.
Princess lunch accessories...(no I did not place these objects, merely took the photo.)
Princess getting a lift on her trusty steed. (what a good big brother)
Princess climbing at REI...she loved it! If I would have let her, I'm sure she would have wore her princess dress.
Princess checking out her colony...of ants on our Sunday stroll.

Great Quote

Susan B. Anthony said in 1896. "It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. The moment she takes her seat she knows she can't get into harm unless she gets off her bicycle, and away she goes, the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."

Next Saturday is our Mother's day ride on the trail of the cour de lanes...I can't wait!

Fridged Friendly ride.

Yesterday I embarked on a group friend bike ride to the top of step toe butte. It was freezing cold, and it was about 20+ miles. The midway portion was a sweet climb to the top of the butte (about 2 or so miles) I forgot to set my computer...
It was very COLD!!! Especially coming down off the butte. My calves were cramping from the cold and I thought my nose was goign to freeze off. It was a beautiful ride, but I was COLD! My toes took a few hours to thaw post ride.
Overall It was a lot of fun. I was so happy to be out on the bike.
I have sworn April a no-running month in an attempt to re-hap my hip. It is incredibly hard to not run. I feel so out of shape. So this ride was like a breath of fresh freezing air.
WE did the ride for Andy's birthday, and Rick was the smart one who stayed back at teh house to be with the kids. They had a good time roasting marshmallows my the fire and taking a hike to the nearby river.
Overall it was a fun get-together.
I am hoping to try to get out on my bike a bit more. Spinning is great but it really isn't much of a match to true out-door riding.

Sadly I took no pictures of the event so you can just picture in your mind some rolling wheat fields that are begining to turn green, a good solid breeze, and snow flakes to top the cake.
Delightful!

Girls...

Rick-Do girls always talk this much?

As a preface to his inquiry, I should note that last fall Rick, Betina, and I took a road trip to Logan Utah to run the top of Utah marathon. During the drive (aprox. 11 hours) Rick was annoyed by Betina's and my constant banter. He couldn't believe that we could actually find something to talk about the ENTIRE trip.
We on the other hand, were not the least bit surprised. There are all sorts of things to chat about. None of which, seem to be forced conversation. To rick however, he cannot fathom having/enjoying, talking about so many things.
Last night we went to our Stake conference adult session with another couple (being green and car pooling). This other woman and I found all sorts of things to chat about on the 8 mile journey. Gardening, where we grew up, pregnancy, who our OBGYn's are. Where she will be delivering her baby this summer...etc.
The husbands were pretty much quite the entire ride. (no big surprise)
Now, I do not expect, nor could I imagine Rick discussing/sharing so much self divulging information, he is after all an engineer/lawyer. But I find it amusing that he cannot stand to be present while the rest of us do.
While some people sqwirm with silence, my dear husband delights in it. And I delight in him.
Although, I do not expect him to understand anytime soon, why it is that some people actually like talking to each other, rather than it being a chore.

Spring about our house

Nope, our tree does NOT look like that yet...I am merely showing this picture so that you can look at the left side of the picture, at the round bushes in the background.(This was the only picture I could find of the bushes...I suppose that may reflect my distaste for them)...I do however LOVE the beautiful dogwood, that will probrably not bloom until the end of next month.
Because as of last Saturday those ugly bushes are no more. Ricky removed the 6 ugly bushes to reveal a pretty little yard. You can see the flower bed we worked on last year, and hopefully soon we will add a pretty white picket fence with some wild flowers along the side walk.
A great change from the prior ugly evergreens, laurels and the token Oregon grape...there were 6 bushes total.
This is what happens when the weather turns beutiful and we find ouselves with this sudden itch to spend every weaking moment in the sunshine. It only lasted for two days however, as of Monday we were back to being cold with snow. But at least the bushes were gone.
Rick also made us a sweet little chicken coop that we painted tonight. Oscar loved painting Poppy, can you tell who ended up the most painted?
No need to fear...I have been doing my share of the work, pruning the fruit trees (two apple and one crab apple). Here is a couple of bundles of the water shoots. Now we just need to find a use of the abundance. If I were a bit more crafty i might find a use...so if any of you bloggers in our area want some tiny little branches for some creative outlet, let me know!
So although I have been a bit absent, we have been busy. I think that is how it goes some times. We find ourselves doing all sorts of blog worthy stuff, but no time or desire to post it.
Spring has sprung and we are happy to be enjoying it.

Oscar's first book

(I'm Oscar)

(But I suddenly appeared)

(the crystals are here)

(I picked up the crystals)

(I put them on my dresser)
(I'm Home.)

Notice, he has a current crystal fetish. We just checked out 2 books from the library on crystals. I only wish that they had less complicated names for the darn things. Seriously, I was learning a new language trying to read to him what the "Names" of the crystals were.
Takes me back to the day when I was learning botanical names...

Post grandparent visit...

We have spent the last few days de-grand parenting the Popster...the princess has had to be re-programed to recognize that Mom isn't as compliant to her demands as grandma...
Oscar on the other hand had awakened with a new interest in reading/writing...Thanks grandpa for all of your hard work with his sight words. He asked me tonight if he could write a book for his teacher. He really did a good job on it. I think I will post it later.
truthfully I wish we had the grandparents closer. They seem to be able to connect with the kids in a way that I often don't get to. Not that I don't connect with them, it is just fun to see how much the kids really love their grandparents.
In the meantime...I will continue to primp the princess as much as I can, within reason. And will try to really build on the foundation grandpa placed in lil'o's head.
Thanks Grandma and grandpa for coming to visit! You are welcome anytime...in fact how about you move into my basement permanently.

Yakima Marathon

Pre-race photo...Ricky cooperating as usual

When I was in labor with Oscar and Poppy, Rick was loving and supportive, but always wears a face of confusion as to how exactly to make me more comfortable. He may attempt to squeeze my hand, or rub my back and yet, he really can't do anything to help me. Ultimately it is my pain to endure.
I hadn't really thought of this before, until yesterday. Yesterday marked a first for us as a married couple. It was the first marathon that we have not ran together. Thus far, it has been a joint effort and so we both have trained and pained in each others company.
Post race, we both sit around with stiff legs and let our bellies fill with much deserved food. Then we can chat and retrace each others foot steps of the race, and can visibly see each others perspective.
Yesterday, I was in the spectator seat. I couldn't help Ricky run, I couldn't help him recover at the finish, all I could do was give him a hug and let him walk it off. And then drive him home.
Having both given child birth (twice), and ran a marathon 3 times, I would say that they certainly have their similarities...months of training/pregnancy, culminating with a painful, joyous experience. And at the end of both, you come out a stronger person than you were before.
So, now that Rick is a marathon up on me, I will just calculate my 2 childbirths into the equation and that way I am one-up on him...;0)

Yesterday Ricky and I ventured to Ellensburg, for Ricky's marathon...so while he was doing this:

Blue monkey prep-pose...

Ricky set a new PR but missed the Boston qualifying time by 15 seconds! I know, you can gasp now. He was so close. He did a great job and was very fast. (Although, it may come down to the fact that his Garmin wasn't reading correctly, or the coarse was off a bit) I loved being able to see him in the finish. Typically he is always waiting around for my sorry, slow self to cross.(Doesn't he look angelic? Post-race glow?)

So, as he was doing his race...I was doing a bit of this: Notice the balloons? Those are my contribution to the race. Frozen finger, balloon tying. This is how I earned my post-race food...yeah...sounds rough huh?

Here are the guys trying to get the finish line up before the wheel chair racer came through.This is me with some of the funny finish line set-up crew. They really have it all down to a science. There are specific people who do the same job every year. It was really fun being able to help out at the finish. Although my post-balloon tying job consisted of keeping spectators out of the finish area, it was pretty fun to be in there with all of the awesome action.
I would say the other very cool part about being at the finish, was seeing the first woman come across, she was so fast. She came in at just over the 3hour mark. It makes me want to run sooooo bad!
I just have to keep telling myself that there is a time and if I let my hip heal now, then I can do better later.
After we got home, I did a measly 12mile bike ride and called it a day.
Fun stuff...

Update...

I took the plunge...now we shall see. St. George here we come, that is, if we make the lottery.
In other fun running news...Ricky will be doing the Yakima river marathon tomorrow. I will be volunteering at the finish line. It will be fun to get to see him from the finish line rather than him always seeing me.
Woohoo!

Spring break

Oscar's self portrait...Did a pretty god job eh?

This week has been spring break, and seriously has flown by so fast. Grandma and Grandpa Edge have come into town and so I have had this wonderful hiatus of in-house babysitters, gardener's, adults to talk to throughout the day, the list goes on and on. Currently as I write Grandma and Grandpa have taken Oscar out to the store and Poppy is sleeping.
This morning they spent all morning cleaning my very un-springy yard.
It is so fun to have them around...we just need to convince them to move up here.

Tonight Rick and I will be going to Ellensburg so that he can run the Yakima River Marathon tomarrow. Grandma and grandpa will be here safely with the kiddies and I will not worry one bit about leaving them.
Not to mention the one-on-one time they have spent helping Oscar to memorize his sight words for school. Somehow they have the knack of being able to make him pay attention for longer than 30 seconds!
It has been a great week and we even had a nice day of weather yesterday.
Now, all of you can be thinking of Ricky tomorrow morning...running. I will be volunteering at the finish line. I'm a bit sad I can't run with him, after all this will be the FIRST marathon we haven't done together. However I don't' feel too bad, especially because I know my Hip certainly wouldn't be able to handle it. I suppose there is a time and a season for everything.
GOOD LUCK RICKY!

St. George Marathon???

So, if you are trying to get pregnant, and you don't really know when you will get pregnant. Do you sign up for the St. George marathon lottery?
I could always walk/run the marathon even if I were to get pregnant...or if I begin it, and am not doing well, then I could just bag the race.
Rick has registered for the lottery, so if he gets in then I would be going with him anyway...
Hummm....if I get in the lottery and decide not to do it I will only be out $60. If I don't sign up and don't get pregnant, then I wouldn't be able to run it either way...
Hummmm...any ideas?