Dirty Dash

We are obsessed.  If I could do every race in the surrounding area, I would...unless it's a marathon or something crazy like that. ;)  This past weekend, we took a mini vacation with Jon's sister, Kami, and drove up to Montana to run in their Dirty Dash.  If Jon didn't have to be a grown up and work, we would have gone longer but instead it was just a Friday night/Saturday thing.  But the race was completely worth it.  I didn't participate for 2 reasons. 1-We have kids and someone needs to watch them and 2-My stupid achilles tendon has to be having problems and I kinda got a stress fracture because I was super smart and jumped into my pre-pregnancy running right after I had Aiden.  Apparently that's not good to do after not working out much for a few months.  Who knew? ;)  But, I was really happy that I could take pictures during/afterwards and they looked like they were having a blast.

So, here's us patiently waiting at the hotel beforehand, waiting for the dirty dashers to get ready.

And this is the before picture at the race.  Jon was trying to look really excited...or intense...or something. :)

Patrick and Aiden actually did really well sitting out in the heat watching everything going on.  Little did we know that the Dirty Dash is also a big beer fest(especially in Montana), so there were plenty of entertaining people to watch.

Taking a moment at the end to smile for the camera before coming out of the last mud pit.

Done!

I don't know, I thought my husband was really good looking covered in mud.  It's always nice seeing your spouse having a really great time and letting loose a little.  Especially after an incredibly looooong, challenging school year/years.

Sometimes we don't ask.

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Good job Kami and Jon!  You guys really did look hard core. :)

Next race on the list: Rush Triathlon!  I'm a little...a lot nervous for it.  My stupid foot makes training a little difficult but there's no way we're missing it.  You can bet Karolyn and I will rock it. ;)

Two

Yesterday Patrick turned two.  My baby is two!  I'll talk about his little party in a second, but last night I kept thinking back to when Patrick was born.  How I was feeling when he was born.  It was rough.  This time two years ago I was exhausted.  I left the hospital early(24 hours after delivery) because I was desperate for some sort of normalcy.  The feeling of getting back to normal never came.  Life changed drastically in so many ways and I wouldn't have changed Patrick's coming to this world for anything.  If I could go back to new mother me, I would say, "I know you're exhausted and this all feels new and overwhelming but  this phase will pass soo quickly."  Patrick made me a mother and I'm so grateful for that and that he's taught me to be less selfish.  My time is not my time anymore.  My arms are tired sometimes from two little boys who constantly want held but I'm grateful I have little boys to hold.  Patrick's hugs have helped brighten so many dark days.

So, to celebrate Patrick's birthday we went with a Cars theme.  No surprise there since Patrick is obsessed with cars.  I say cars, but really it's turned into anything that moves: cars, planes, tractors, motorcycles...etc.

  We started Patrick's morning off by giving him this Mater truck.  It's so cute watching him drive this thing up and down our street.  We probably spent a good hour or two driving that around yesterday.  After lunch and naps, we set up for the party and had our family over.  Thank you, mom(grandma), for helping with all the food and decorations!

 The kids decorated their cars with stickers and then we had a little "race."  Little kids are too cute.  I think I was the only one that really cared about actually decorating the cars.

 It was quite the task keeping Patrick away from this cake.  It was his main focus to get those little cars off all night.

                                      

Happy Birthday, bud!  We love you soooooo much!

Aiden at 4 months

Four months.  I don't have a newborn anymore!  I guess I haven't for a little while but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that if he's like Patrick, he'll be crawling in the next few weeks.  Totally not ready for that...

Aiden has been busy this month figuring out how to roll over(finally happened last week!) and how to grab things and bring them to his mouth.  He definitely likes to suck on things, whether it's his binky, his thumb, my fingers, blankets, anything.  He still constantly coos at us and gives lots and lots of smiles and giggles.  Aiden will smile at anyone...his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, people in church or even complete strangers in the grocery store.  As long as he's getting attention, he's happy.  On the other hand, those times he's mad, he's really mad.  I've been completely spoiled with my babies and it kind of makes me scared for the next one.  I trust in certain tools I've learned along the way but every child still has their own personality. :) And for record sake, here are the stats:
    Length-25 in., 65%
    Weight-15.5 pds-85%
Anyway, happy 4 months Aiden!  We love you, little man.

4th of July and a Color Run!

I know you can never get your fill of seeing a million pictures of fireworks and hearing about 4th of July festivities but I'm going to keep it short and say we had a nice 4th.  Actually, most of my little family wasn't feeling well so our morning consisted of resting and homework with a little barbecue and fireworks in the afternoon/evening.  Prepare for a picture overload of this weekend.

I'll say it a million times,  I love Aiden's smile.

Taken earlier when Patrick was in a good mood and still in his pajamas

Crazy hair after nap time!  

Aiden's first time in a high chair.  He's still a little small for it but he was cute in it anyway. :)

  

Also, this weekend I ran my first 5K.  I'm really great at pushing myself on a treadmill but for some reason outside is so much harder for me.  It was a lot of "fun" and the 30 minutes it took to run the race went by really fast but I was tired.  It was the perfect first race to start out on because everyone was there to just have a good time.  Totally worth it.  Definitely want to do it again next year.  So, family and friends who read this blog, put it on your calendar for next year!      

Before the race...

Jon was trying to stay clean the whole time.  Yeah right.

I really loved seeing the finish line.

Can you see those muscles I've been working so hard for!?  Yeah, I didn't think so.

Next on the agenda: Jon is running a mud run(he's super excited for that...haha) with some of his family at the end of July and I'm running in the Rush Triathlon in August.  For those of you who are wondering how I'm going to do a whole triathlon...I'm not. How silly would I look trying to dog paddle in open water?  I'm just the running leg of our little team since I would be a handicap in the other areas. :)  Although, after seeing how hard it was on Saturday to run outside, I'm starting to think I might be a handicap in that area, too...;)