Naomi's dance recital

Naomi loves to dance. In fact, I think she is very in touch with her art/creative instincts. I signed her up for a morning parent -child dance class when she was two, it gave us something to do. When she turned three she was advanced to the creative dance class group. Then we took a break from dancing this past summer until she asked me to take her back to dance class in the fall. We signed her up , this time during the evening since she started preschool this year. A few months ago I took the girls to see Ballet West during a ring around the roses performance of the Sleeping Beauty. Naomi was able to go on stage to learn some tricks from the experts themselves. She was very excited then. She asked for ballerina shoes this for Christmas. Yesterday she performed in her first dance recital. She counted down the days and of course was very excited. The choreography was everywhere and nowhere at the same time, but I believe everyone in the audience was able to see past and I'm sure everyone had as big a smile as the one on my face the whole time. Naomi was the cutest thing out there. I love my little dancing girl and I am so very proud of her and her courage to be up in that stage dancing her little heart out.

She saw my family seating up on the front row and ran to them in the middle of the performance.

She was very excited to see grandma.

During class the teacher told them to swing the bear around. This is her adding her little touch to "swinging" the bear around.

They loved the bubbles. She actually tried to catch some with her tongue.

Good toe pointing!

Naomi feels the music.

During the finale she jumped in and improvised a solo of her own.

during her solo

and more solo...

Done.

Feliz Navidad!

The cross training isn't going good. I have practically not made any of them. I have been running and will be taking Christmas week off and then resume running the week after Christmas kicking off our Marathon training schedule!

I am hoping Santa will register me for the race (wink-wink, nudge-nudge), then I will be a happy girl Christmas morning.

Anyway, enough of that!

We are enjoying this season I think more this year than the previous years since we started our little family. We are at a place where things seem to be a little bit less chaotic in a sense, well at least it feels that way for me being an off pregnancy-baby-caring year, no potty training or caring a diaper bag and a stroller around with me every where I go, yes Jocie gets to walk a lot and if she gets tired I can carry her for a few minutes, I rather this than carrying a stroller. I like to keep things simple, so simple that when my make up bag went missing I decided not to buy anymore make up, one less thing for me to worry about! Maybe when Naomi is dressing herself I will take back make up....by then I might be pregnant again.... so never mind. Same thing with my cell phone, after it magically disappeared and didn't show up for weeks I opted not to buy a new one and connected our land line instead, no calls while driving and no frantic searches for the cell phone because baby miss placed it for the hundred time.

Mmmm...how did I go off about that when I inteded for this to be a recap of our holiday season? I think I need to blog more often.

Anyway here's what we have been up to:



The girls get so excited to see snow fall and they can hardly wait to go outside and play. It takes for ever to dress them up , but it's worth it at the end they love it and have so much fun in it, makes me wish I was a kid again.



We set up our Christmas tree the morning after thansgiving. I wish I had taken more picture, but I was busy helping the girls, this was the part when Aaron stepped in.

We spent Thanksgiving with both our families. In the morning we went over to my parents and helped with the cooking and then headed over to Aaron's family's to help with the eating :)

This is Aaron's twin brother Joel. Jocie loved going around the room taking picture with everyone. She is such a poser. CHEESE!

This is Aaron's older brother. Jocie insited to take a picture with him too.

Here we are, the night after Thanksgiving at Temple Square for the lighting on of the Christmas lights. We rode trax and got there late and did not see them all go on at the same time, but it was nice anyway. The girls loved all the lights. Jocie kept pointing and saying "I see more, I see more!" that is lights.

And last but not least I took the girls for a visit with Santa. Naomi is so excited about the whole Santa deal this year. Aaron has taken advantage of that and has been bribing her with the whole naughty and nice list. He tells her he has his number and is going to call him when she is acting up, she cries uncontrollably. Aaron thinks it's funny, I think it's cruel. Anyway, we got there and Naomi went off about her Christmas list, Jocie did not know what to do, she wasn't so sure about sitting on his lap. I think she would have cried have I not jumped in to tell her he was going to bring her a new tea party set for Christmas. Still she wasn't sure. You can tell in this picture.

The girls are excited about Christmas morning. Naomi wants to bake cookies to leave for Santa. Aaron and I are excited about the tamales we get to make and eat! Haha! and of course ecxited to get to see our little ones on Christmas morning. I think Christmas gains it's magic back from when you were a kid after having your own children.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Season. Feliz Navidad!

Still working on it

Today for cross-training I walked, pushed the stroller with two very chunky babies in it. We walked for about 15 to our friend's house and then back for another 15 mins. There! Walking is a form of exercise and valid as cross-training. YAY!

Ran 4 miles on Thursday and tomorrow we'll be running 6 miles. Three more weeks and we start our Marathon training!

Motivation tactic

So I'm trying something new to stay commited and motivated to cross train on my days off from running. When I trained for my first 5K last year it helped me blogging about it here. It was kind of having virtual running buddies to be accountable to. This helped me get over the hump of making running into a habit, now I think I am passed that point and can say that waking up early on certain days out of the week to go running has turned into a routine. However, this is not the case when it comes to crosstraining. I've had a hard time stablishing a routine to do any type of exercise that is not running. Why? I don't know. Why would running in the dark and cold weather be more appealing to me than working out in the warmth and convinience of my own living room? I don't know. Well to make a long story short. I going to start blogging about it, this time on my own blog, and hopefully it will help me now like it did then.

Today is Monday, a crosstraining day and I did nothing. It would be nice to write off grocery shoping, cleaning and vaccuming, making dinner and a total of about 1 hr and 45 mins worth of driving as crosstraining. That's not to mention the melt down Jocie had today because she did not want to go down for a nap. I wonder how many calories I burned just there. Well all of those went down the drain when I ate that piece of brownie Aaron made for after FHE. Good news are I get to burn some of those tomorrow morning!

Anyway, Beth and I are getting closer to kicking off our Marathon trainning in just a few weeks! I'm excited!

What do you do to stay motivated on reaching your health/fitness goals?

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
-running gear
-treadmill
-a maid to clean my house
-new carpet
-new furniture
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
-pottery from my little brother
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
-anything that involves a sewing machine, because that would mean I'd have to learn how to use one and I always wanted to learn how to use one
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
-a rainbow bright doll, I loved it!
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
-a barbie
-a bike
-and everything she sees in Nickelodeon's commercials
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
-tamales!
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
-mmm...probably nothing
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
-anything we can go see on Christmas day
9. Favorite holiday song?
- Oh Holy night
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
-sledding and just being with the family

To enter to win all these cool prizes below simply answer the questions in this meme, make sure to post links back to TodaysMama.com and Provo Craft (use this link: http://bit.ly/4ikY3c ) and tag your friends!

Update

I decided it's time for an update of our little family.

Let's start with Jocie.

Jocie is now 2! It's wonderful seeing her grow and having her little personality come out even more with each day that passes by. She is such a tender-sweet little girl. Saying thank you for every little thing and I love you for no reason goes to show what a beautiful-sweet little thing she is. We are enjoying some one on one time with each other now that big sister is off to preschool. I'm not sure where Jocie stands on this matter. Sometimes it seems like she needs her big sister in order to thrive, be confident and outgoing, which I'm not sure I like. I've also seen her more relaxed and better behaved when we go to the store for example, that I like. She continues to be my little helper, she is Tanks official feeder. During our visit to Mexico this summer she learned the value of a coin; you take your money to the store and exchange it for candy. Since then she is in the look out for money. I have taken advantage of her new discovery and have started to pay them for doing little things to help me. She is all about money right now. She loves it and walks around collecting every coin she finds to later put it in her little peanut butter container that I turned into a piggy bank. She is doing great adding new words to her growing vocabulary, but I'm afraid she is not right there with most of the kids her age, just like Naomi was. I have decided that learning two languages at the same has got to be the reason. I'm a little bit less worried this time, because I know she will pick up when I least expect it. Soon she will be rumbling away with all sort of words both in English and Spanish. Jocie loves fashion and everything girlie, among her favorite things are; lipstick and makeup, high hill shoes, tu-tus (can't forget the tu-tu) every accessory imaginable (purses, hats, sunglasses, bracelets, necklaces, you get the idea). She also has many dolls and stuffed animals which are all her babies, even an imaginary one that she carries around in her cupped hands. Her favorite game to play "Mami" and I'm her baby. She is happy if we call her "Mami" all day long, sometimes if we forget she will remind us "I'm not baby, I'm mami!" We love our sweet spirited little girl.

Naomi.

Naomi is now 4 years old! And started Preschool this year. She was so ready, that the first day of school when we pulled up to the curb she quickly unbuckled her seat belt and pushed the door open and said "OK mom I love you, bye!" funny thing. Of course I informed her that I would be walking her to the classroom. She came in eager to say hi to everyone and introducing herself, telling them that her name was Naomi and she was three years old (she was then). A kid started crying, for his mommy, and I was so moved, but not impressed, to see that Naomi grabbed a kleenex walked over to the little boy , put her hand on his shoulder and said "It's ok, here!" Apparently that little boy made a big impression on her since the first day of school, she comes home talking about him almost every day. I walked out of the classroom on my first born's first day of school thinking "That wasn't bad at all" and with the feeling that she would be OK, and I would too.
She learned to write her name within the first couple of weeks of school after noticing a few kids that would sign their own names in the sign in and out sheets. She showed interest in it and she quickly learned how to write her name almost by herself. She knew how to spell it and read it and I had tried to get her to write it before but she was simply not interested, until then.
One day she came home informing me that she could no longer eat peanut butter, because a kid at school was allergic to it and so was she. There's another kid who is allergic to chocolate but she won't say anything about that. Smart girl! Up until this day, she won't eat peanut butter. She'll get over it.

Aaron

Aaron is working hard to provide for his three girls. He took this semester off from school due to the overload of work at his workplace. Which turned out to be a good idea. I don't know how he would have been able to pull this semester and numerous all nighters at work at the same time. He also has been working in the room we recently added to expand our home. He has done a lot of it with the help of my dad. I think it should be ready by the end of this week. We'll moved the girls into their new roomie bedroom and he will have his own office at home, all along with a TV and XBOX! Lucky!

Me

I'm still running. Slowed down for a little bit and slowly coming back to it. I found a running buddy! Whom I am so thankful for and who is willing to be crazy with me and wake up at 6 am to go running in the cold and dark. We are both excited to start our first Marathon training with in the next few weeks! Yes, running a Marathon excites me! Go figure! I watched the New York Marathon women's winner cross the finish line on TV and I started crying, haha!
I'm also taking piano lessons from a Sweet Service Missionary at church. I think I am doing good. I have recently learned that a good idea for food poisoning anyone or cleansing your colon is making them a pie out of fallen apples. Yeah! What was I thinking!? Some were fresh from the tree, but so many had fallen that only a few were within reach, so I thought "What the heck! I'm going to cook them at 400 F. A little dirt never hurt anyone" I was wrong. Anyway, I learned a good lesson that took poisoning my family and my neighbor. Ha!

Life is good. Sometimes a little bumpy, but still good.

Dandelions

Every time we step out our front door, the girls run onto our big and spacious front yard. I will admit that neither Aaron or I are much of a gardener so we are happy to keep our lawn trimmed that's all. You won't see bushes or colorful flowers year long, except for the lilies and tulips that comeback on their own every spring. What you will see year long are those lovely dandelions. How much I love dandelions! Why? Well every time my little girls run onto our front yard they pick the only "flowers" they can find (dandelions), run over to me, present me with one or two and say: "Happy Mothers Day Mami!"

Every day is Mothers day for me. I love it!

She loves me.

Every day around noon is nap time around this house. I get to put the girls to bed and have 1:30 mins to 2:00 hours to myself. I so love nap time! Well for the past 3 or so days I have been cheated out of it. Naomi somehow won't nap. I'll spend up to 1 hour walking in and out of that room trying to get her to stop playing or calling for me, or emptying the drawers, etc, etc. until she finally falls asleep or Jocie wakes up, then Naomi is off the hook. Today after an hour of it I finally gave up. I just sat on my little couch folding laundry trying to ignore my little monster. Seeing that mom would not give her any attention she walked out of the bedroom into the living room where I was sitting and stood next to me. I wanted to blow up and start screaming to go back in that room, but didn't. I decided that talking would be a better idea. "Naomi, you need to go back in the room and take a nap or you can stay out here but there won't be any TV for you today" and she said,

"OK. What are you doing?"
"I'm folding laundry"
"Can I help"
"Yes"
and she did.

From that I realized that the reason to not want to nap is because she wants to spend time with me. She started Preschool this year and obviously that leaves us with less time to spend together. I felt like a bad mom for not seeing it before, but very happy to know that she loves me that much. I'm so blessed.

A little laughter.

Tonight as we were having dinner Jocie came around the table and stood next to me, got my attention by pulling on my shirt, then pointed to her tummy with a very sad look in her face. She had a tummy ache. I understood her immediately and went down the troubleshooting list. Do you need to go to the restroom? She said no. Do you need to throw up? She said no. I took her to her bedroom and sat there next to her as she laid in her bed, sweating and squeezing her eyes shut, in pain. I was scared and worried. Until Little Naomi came in the room with her sense of humor as always. She sat next to Jocie and told her to just throw up, simulation included. Jocie thought it was so funny that she cracked up laughing. Naomi smiled to see her sister's reaction. "She likes that!" and continued to do it, over and over again. Jocie continued to laugh releasing what seemed to be the problem (gas) and giving us one more reason to continue laughing. She was fine after that. Who would have known that a little laughter would solved the problem?

Pre-school

Naomi ira a la escuela por primera vez mañana. Ah estado muy emocionada y anticipando el dia desde hace muchos meses. Ella esta lista, y yo por un lado tambien lo estoy, pero por otro quisiera mantenerla en casa conmigo y no exponerla al mundo aun. Nisiquiera a cumplido los 4 años! Quien dice que nuestros hijos deban ir a la escuela a tan temprana edad? Quien invento Pre-school? Por que la gente anticipa que los niños vayan a la escuela a tan pequeños si no se estan quedando atras!? Quien dice que deben leer, saber el abecedario y contar hasta el 100 antes de empezar la escuela primaria? QUIEN? Y por que les estoy haciendo caso!?

6 years

Last week on the 15th was our 6th year anniversary. I have to admit that when it comes to dates I usually leave the planning to Aaron. He plans, I find a babysitter. This time was no different. A couple of days before we agreed that he would plan something, and he did. Only we woke up to lightening, thunder and rain and his plan went down the drain. He had planned hiking up to a waterfall. I don't know which one, so he'll have to take me another day. With that, we were left with no plan. We put our heads together (more like we went searching the internet for date ideas) and came up with Geo-caching. We had both wanting to do this for a while, just never got to it. We headed to Memory Grove park, and found a couple ones just right off the trail. One of them was made by a mother who lost her 4 year old son to cancer. She explains that hiking down to memory park from one of the streets above was one of her sons favorite things to do. He'd pick up rocks on his way down and would throw them in the pond there at the park. He would listen to the noise the rock would make as it hit the water, and would then put it into a "plop" or "ploop" category. The woman asks that you take the same hike all the way down to the pond and take a rock with you, and put one into the cache box. It was very touching to know something so personal to someone out there. I felt honored to throw in a rock for this little angel. I hope he enjoyed listening to it hit the water.

After that we went back home and rode trax downtown to the Gateway where we watched two movies, HA! Yes, two movies. The time traveler's wife was great, ask Aaron, he even got teary eyed. District 9 was horrible, don't watch it, such a waste of time and money. We then did a little shopping, had dinner and then picked up dessert at the rocky mountain chocholate factory and headed back home. We had a great, relaxing day. Could not have asked for anything else.

I love my hubby, we have both grown during the past 6 years and even though we have had or ups and downs, we still love each other, more as time passes, and that is the truth.

Where does she get this things from?

Naomi is just such an delight to be around. She is at an age where she will just come up with the most interesting and funny things to say and I promise I am not teaching her this things. This morning for example when we were getting ready to go to the park. This is how our little conversation went:

Mami: Let's get ready to go to the park.
Naomi: Is Anish coming to the park with us?
Mami: No sweety, not today.
Naomi: Anish is wonderful. He is my handsome prince.
Mami: (cracking up in laughter)

And then the other day when we went for a walk on garbage collection day.

Naomi: What is that smell?
Mami: I think is that garbage can. It smells gross uh?
Naomi: Yeah, it smells like BOY!


Or a couple of weeks ago. This I am not proud of. We were walking into church for a wedding reception and there was a lady walking a few yards in front of us. I think Naomi's view from her eye level must have made this woman rear look larger than it actually was that it got this reaction out of her.

Naomi: That lady has a BIG, FAT....(mumble)
Mami: covers up her Naomi's mouth as quick as possible as she sweats and blushes.

Luckily, I think that lady didn't hear her, or just pretended she didn't, or didn't speak English. Either way I was SO embarrassed. I took her aside and we had a little talk about how that could have hurt that lady's feelings and that we do not say things to hurt other peoples feelings. I trust she understood, she is smart little girl.

Geneology. Look at my family tree!!!

Happy B-day Jocie!

Jocie's first b-day.

Jocie the week before turning 2 (4th of July weekend)

Look how big I am!

The look in her face when I walked in the room with a cake in hand was priceless. She instantly proceeded to blow out the candles. She knew what to do. Definitely worth staying up til 1:30 AM making it.

Today is Jocie's b-day. She turns two! yes, once again I realize time flies, but I think I do that every day. Today marks her big girl milestone in my eyes, and yes I star loosing my little baby girl. Sniff!

Here are somethings about Jocie:

Jocie has such a gentle and sweet spirit. She is so calm and quiet and still....when her sister is not around. Otherwise they are both crazies! She is an easy learner, but I fear I have not exploited her intellectual to her full potential. I think it might have to do with having to divide my attention and time.
Jocie is an animal lover. From tiny insects to dogs, horses, any type of animal. She goes crazy every time she spots one, any animal and has a good eye for them. It seems like she is always on the look out for creeping or furry beings.
Jocie is a nurturer. From very very young she started carrying her little dolls around, feeding them, covering them with a blanket, putting them in bed, taking them potty, putting band aids on their awies, cleaning them, etc, etc.
Jocie loves to pretend "she's a baby" It's funny listening to her in her baby- tiny- little- pitch voice when she really is a baby. Ha!
Jocie has been potty trained since 21 months of age! Both day and night. Which reminds me. Where have those extra $40+ bucks a month have been going? ...It shall remain a mystery.
Jocie has been sleeping in a big girl bed for a couple months as well with very little rolling off the bed incidents, maybe 2 at the most.
Jocie loves to play pretend restaurant. She asks "what would you like, water?- que va querer, Agua?" Of course only I understand her, and then she will "bring it" to you. You can order other things besides water: hamburgers, fries, pizza, whatever! She has it all.
Jocie loves the swings. She can stay there for hours if mommy lets her. She throws her head back, closes her eyes and just enjoys the breeze in her face.
Jocie loves and looks up to her big sister. She will literally do EVERYTHING she sees her doing, including repeating her sentences.
Jocie is my tiny little helper. The other day I caught her picking up Tanks food that had fallen out of his plate and then putting it in the garbage without being told. She didn't even know I was looking.
Jocie is a very healthy kid. She does a lot of jumping,dancing, climbing, running, going up and down stairs and playgrounds. She moves, moves, moves continually.
Jocie knows and has taken several trips to time up. She is very conscious of that and will choose doing what she is asked to instead of going to time out.
And on and on......

We are very bless to have Jocie in our lives. I'm thankful for being trusted with beautiful and healthy kids that fill our lives with joy. Listening to their laughter and seeing that little sparkle of joy in their eyes is what I live for.

Te amo pequeñita. Feliz Cumpleaños.

Making the most of this summer

This week has been filled with fun for the girls and me. Naomi will be going to school when the new school begins in September. So I decided that we would make the most out of this summer. I am really having a hard time detaching from her and putting her out there in this cruel world. I know she is only going to preschool, but that's how it starts, right? Three hours a day, 4 times a week this year. Then 8 hrs a day five times a week by the time she gets to kinder garden and slowly but surely I loose more and more time with her. I was, still am, seriously considering homeschooling. It is in my mind. Anyway, we have kept ourselves busy and have spent almost everyday at the park, a different one each day of the week and have the tan to prove it. Well at least they do. I look the same no matter the time of year. Ha!

We spent Monday running errands and cleaning our weekend mess. After their nap we spent the afternoon in our backyard soaking up the sun and playing in the kiddie pool.

Tuesday we headed to the sugar house park, we laid out a blanket under a tree and had a little picnic. They didn't play in the playground for very long, it was very hot that day. Naomi complained that it was too hot and she wanted to go "a la sombrita" under the shade. So we went and played next to the creek instead throwing rocks into the water and picking up worms with a stick. Later that evening we went with Tia Areli and tia Chave to the Arts in the Park performing series at the Murray Park. This week they had a group of Irish Dancers. I love Irish dancers and the girls had a lot of fun watching them too. They came home showing daddy their new moves. Daddy could not come because he had school that night.

Wednesday I took the girls to their music class. They had fun playing the different kind of drums the teacher had to show them and singing and dancing around. After class we headed to the Liberty Park and again sat under the shade of a tree to have a little picnic. It was noon and the sun was scorching hot. Naomi was not very excited to play under the sun, AGAIN. Jocie in the other hand didn't seem to care and had a lot fun in the swings, feeling the breeze in her face as she came and went. She loves the swings. Later that evening we went to another evening concert at the Foothill Anderson Library. The County is having a lot of this concert series all over the place this summer. I got a calender in the mail with a list of all this free events and we are taking full advantage of them, at least we did this week. The band playing there this week was an old blue grass band, but my little girls put on a show of their own as they danced away to those tunes. Oh! How I love to see them dance, so carelessly. Daddy was able to come with us, only to leave short after arriving because he had a church meeting to go to. Blah! and he missed the ice cream we stopped to get on our way home. Oops! Our friends the Collins came too.

Thursday we went to a Pioneer Park picnic concert. Laid a blanket under a tree and had a another lovely picnic with our friends Los Collins (little Skyler and Julieta) while we enjoyed the music. After that we went to the Gateway Mall and had the little ones run around the dancing fountain and get wet. To our luck it started pouring after we had only been there for a good 45 mins. The good thing was no one complained when we announced it was time to leave. Ha!

Daddy had the day off today, and we took advantage of it by going hiking at the Millcreek Canyon. We found a new trail from the one we have been to before. It was not very kid friendly, mainly because it had a big incline. We ended up taking turns carrying Jocie on our shoulders. Daddy thought them a couple of those boy scout songs and I had fun listening to them singin as we walked up that trail. Later in the evening we had plans to see our friends who moved away a few months ago. They invited us over to see their new house and thank Aaron for helping them with the move. Naomi was so excited to see Ema. They are only a few weeks apart and have grown together. Naomi loves Ema and we love her parents. They are awesome people. We miss them a lot so it was very nice to see them and spend the evening together. We talked, ate yummy food, watched the kids play, and lighted some fireworks before coming home.

We've had a full week and it was a fun one too. Like I said I will try to make the most out of this summer because of my big girl starting school and also because it might be a few years before we get to have an enjoyable and easy summer like this one again. It took 4 years to be in the situation where we are finally able to enjoy a little bit more carelessly. Pregnancies, breast feeding, babies and diapers make it a little difficult to really just kick back under the shade of a tree and enjoy it.

I love summer!

Ragnar Relay Race Report

Wasatch Back was so much fun! It's hard to come up with the words to describe it. To begin with this was something I never imagined myself doing. I had read about other people's experience and just knew I wanted to do it, but doubted I would ever get to. I didn't know 11 other runners to put a team together. Through this experience I was able to meet 23 other women whom all share the same joy of running, and realized there's a whole community of us running moms out there. But it was particularly a pleasure meeting the 5 other women in my van with whom I spent 30 hrs with in very close proximity. At the beginning I was more than uncomfortable not knowing anyone, but as the day progressed I learned that indeed I we had more in common than that one thing that brought us together.

It was also funny to see how we all call running "my time" or "therapy." Often I have felt guilty for taking time to fit running into my day, my time, even when my kids and husband are still sleeping. I've felt selfish. Knowing that there are other mommies doing the same thing, makes me feel a great relief from my guilt.

I got to meet some of the moms on Thursday night at one of the "Mommies Got Back" team members house. We each brought something to eat. We visited and tried to put faces together to screen names and blogs. I have to admit it was very intimidating to be amongst strangers and found myself wondering "What in the heck did I get myself into?" The next morning we had plan to carpool to the starting line in Logan. Some of us met at the South Towne Mall's parking lot and met for the first time. Got into a Suburban and made way to Logan making another stop in Roy to pick up a couple other runners. We arrived at another's stranger's parent's home where breakfast was awaiting and the rest of the runners coming from different places would meet. We had breakfast, tried to get acquainted with each other as much as we could and then headed outside to decorate our vans and get into "costumes." Part of the fun in this relay races is getting into character wearing costumes. It was fun. I soon found out of the creativity and sense of humor of these women. I was still very apprehensive and wondering the same thing "Why in the heck did I get myself into this?" I was finding it hard to find someone to click with. Most of the women were older than me, definetly had different backgrounds, and my shyness was not helping. I thought I would just endure to the end. LuckilyI started to feel more at ease once we got to the starting line as we cheered our runners off.

I had leg three, so I had about a couple of hours before my turn was up. It was warmer than I expected it to be after having 2 weeks of non stop rain. I have experience dehydration before and how crappy that can be. I did not want to have to deal with it during this race. I chugged down water all day long and the one before and of course that left me making way too many stops at the lovely porta potties at every exchange point. The runner before me, Mel had a long leg of 6 miles, so when we got to the exchange point I headed to the porta potties thinking I had plenty of time to spare before she got there. Was I wrong!? She was fast. I had barely stepped in there when I heard someone yelling for me "Sarai, she's here, she's here" I literally ran out of there and made it just in time to make the exchange. It caught me by surprise and I took off frantically. I decided from the very beginning, just like all my previous races, that walking would not be an option. My first leg was 4.9 miles with maybe one or two little hills, but for the most part pretty flat and easy. For some reason I feel it was the one I struggled through the most. I think I took off too fast at the beginning and it took me a while to find a good pace. Plus the heat was not helping. I tried to take in my sorroundings, admire the scenery, even got sprayed by a kid with a water hose, had my team members check on me and hand me water a couple of times. My time was about 41 mins.

My team members were all great. I was impressed by all of them. Everyone's legs got complicated at some point, but they all just cruised through their own. Brutal inclines, both going up and down, dusty and rocky trails, etc. We even came accross a herd of cows just after having drove pass our runner. We sat there speechless wondering how that would play out, but were glad to see the problem taken care of and the cows quickly driven clear off the course. We finished with our first set of legs about 30 mins before our projected time, before handing the little slap on metal bracelet with the timing chip in it to the other half of the team. One down two more to go!

We drove around trying to find a nice shade to just crash under. We finally found a church with a nice shaded spot in the lawn that just seem to be calling for us. We made some sandwiches, we took a little babywipe sponge bath, changed clothes in the van, streched, even wished for a stinky porta potty when some of us were forced to take a pee behind the building. LOL! We tried to take a nap when someone realized we were up again in about an hour and we did not even know how to get to our next exchange point which was at least 30 mins away! Yeah, time to panic.

Stay tuned to find out if we made it to our next exchange point in time.

An interesting Fathers Day

This was definitely an interesting Father's Day for Aaron. First he made a trip to the store the night before to buy groceries for me to have something to prepare for him for breakfast in the morning. I had left all of Friday and Saturday for the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay, and had spent all week long planning for the race that I forgot about fathers day with all the excitement and anticipation I had for Ragnar. He knew I would feel like a jerk if I had nothing special for him in the morning. So he went to the store for me, to save me from feeling like a complete looser for forgetting fathers day.
When the girls woke up in the morning I was expecting him to get up to get them and letting me sleep in, I had just gone more than 30 hrs without sleep during the race. The girls kept calling and he would not get up, that's when it clicked. Aaron would have gotten up to let me sleep in instead if I wasn't going to feel like the biggest jerk when I found out it was fathers day! Again, he did it for me. So stumbled out of bed and got the girls.

This is how I looked the morning after Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. Naomi took that picture of me. I was very tired.

I got some construction paper, glue, glitter and markers and had the girls make cards for daddy.

OK, I helped a little.

Then I open the fridge to find out daddy had done a little shopping after I passed out once my head hit the pillow. Thank goodness or his crepes would have been very plain.

Breakfast in bed for daddy.

We were on our way to my parents after church later that day. For some reason I wanted to drive. I never drive when Aaron is in the car, but this particular day he let me. A few blocks before getting to my parents Naomi started throwing up all over, and guess who had to jump to her aid while I drove? We almost had a throw up frenzy when Aaron started gagging. It wasn't pretty. Afraid that it might be the swine flu, he volunteered to go home with our sick child and asked that I stay with my parents that night, so that Jocie would not get it if she hadn't already. He came home to spend father day changing sheets, cleaning up and making rounds to the restroom all night long. The next morning he made an appointment and took our little one to the Doctor. Isn't he a good daddy!? Jocie and I were allowed to come home after finding out that she did not have the swine flu. Phew! Then he went to work and school very sleep deprived. Our hero!
Hope you had a happy Fathers Day knowing that we love you and think you are the best. (I will make it up to you in case that wasn't enough.)

Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay

I'm so excited to be able to be part of this little adventure with 23 other wonderful woman that I do not even know and have never met, but know they must be cool.

It's been about a year since someone in the Marathon Mommies blog (a blog about moms that run, obviously) posted about wanting to enter this race but did not have enough people to complete a team of 12 people. She asked if anyone would be interested in doing this and a lot of us replied to her post, more than what she actually needed. And you know us moms, don't want to make anyone feel bad. So in order to include the multitudes of enthusiastic running moms, two teams were formed: "Mommies got back", and "Energizer Runnies" (I'm part of Energizer Runnies)

Like I said it's been a few months of posts and emails to organize our teams. We all trusted and mailed money to complete strangers in charge of registering the teams. Then we all put our input into designing a t-shirt for the team. Someone came up with checklists and we each took our pick at what to bring. Someone made a list and assign each with legs according to their level of expertise or not, even estimated how long it would take our teams to complete the race based on each 24 women's running pace. People volunteered their vans for a weekend. A pre-race party and breakfast were even orginized! ...Whew! Lots and lots of organization and blogging! he-he! And it's finally here! Friday is the big day!

Why on earth am I excited about riding in a van filled with a bunch of complete strangers (6 of us, Imagine the stink!), runing in the heat, cold, dark (one of my legs it's at 11:30 pm) maybe rain, dirt trails, "sleeping" under the stars, repeat, keep going for 30+ hrs? ....I DON'T KNOW! But I guess that's the beatuy of it. Putting myself out there, getting out of my comfort zone (I am really shy), getting to know new people, challenging my mind and body. Oh what I do for the love of running! This is going to be fun!

Something I learned

Sarai, I have enjoyed reading your posts about how you three are doing while I am down here with my brothers. I have thought about you each minute of each day. I miss you very much and have really appreciated and felt the words that you have written while I have been gone.

This has been a great experience for me. Something about spending time with my brothers is so much fun. Being with them, and talking with them, and listening to them, and joking with them, and hearing their stories, all of these things are so interesting to me. I can't explain the why, as I myself don't completely understand why, but these two guys are amazing. I love them very much, and for you to allow me to come down here with them is something that I greatly appreciate. Also, Ned is an amazing friend who I love. Us four guys have had a blast down here. We have tons of pics to help us try and explain what we did and how much fun we had.

While being down here, I have had some time to think about us and to think about our friendship and relationship. I have learned something about you, even though I wasn't with you. I don't know if I "learned" it, maybe I just realized it. You know... put two and two together. Let me try and explain.

I see how hard of a worker you are, and how hard you try as you take care of our family. You put a lot of effort into making us happy and making sure that we are doing well. I see this and I notice it. I also work hard. I take my breaks though. I make time for myself to relax. I never see you do this. I wonder "how does Sarai do it? How does she work and work and work and never take a break?". Well... I think that I answered that question for myself. I think that the reason that you don't, is because you want to take you breaks with ME, not by yourself or with other people. You want to take your time off to spend it with me. I have been on a different page for a long time, and I realize now that you and I need to take our breaks together. I love you and wish that I could tell you that now to your face. I will be home in less than a day, and I will let you know then how much I love you. But for now I want to let you know that I promise that I will work harder on planning time off for the both of us to spend together. We are hard workers and don't get enough time for ourselves, for just the two of us. Time for us to spend together and hang out together. While this may be a piece of simple wisdom for most people, it has taken me some time to figure this out. If nothing else, this time here has helped me learn that and I am committed to coming back and being a different person as far as working with you to plan time off for our family and for ourselves.

I have missed you girls so much. The place where we are staying is a small bed and breakfast that is one block from the beach. The owners live here on the top floor, with their small family. They have two little girls, Adina (2) and Noelia (7 months). Each day as we get back from our activities, we have these two little girls that we get to see and play with. They have been so entertaining for us. Ryan, Ned and I have each missed our children, and these two girls made that desire to see them even stronger. They are funny, smart, little girls that are a lot like our girls. You would love them. Adina and I sang the pinata song about 100 times this week ("Dale Dale Dale, no piedas el tiro..."). She loves it and finally found someone who knows all of the words, me. We sang it every day and she thought that it was awesome.

The first two days here, Joel and I went deep sea fishing. The first day I spent most of the day throwing up and sleeping on the boat. Sleeping was the only thing that I could do to prevent myself from throwing up again. It was a rather difficult day for me. That night I took some Dramamine (pills to fight sea-sickness) and then the next morning before we left, I took two most. So the second day, I didn't get sea sick at all. It was awesome. I got dibs on the first fish, since i was sick the day before. It was luck that the Marlin was the first fish of the day. Had it been the second, Joel would have gotten the Marlin. Had I not spent most of the first day throwing up, I might not have gotten the Marlin that I got. It was awesome. The fish was beautiful. It fought for about 45 mins. After that, we could quite a few more fish. On top of that, we both got solid sun burns.

The next day, Joel and I went to some Cenotes. These were awesome. One was like an Oasis, or a natural pool. It was cool. There were tons of little fish in it. We would hold a small piece of bread in our hands and within a few minutes, you couldn't see your hand anymore, as the fish would swarm your hand and eat the bread. It was awesome. We have lot of pictures of this and even got some video of it. It was cool. Joel has an underwater camera, and we got it all on there. After that Cenote, we went to the next one. It was an underground Cenote, or as the guide called it, an Underground River (un Rio Subterranio). It was amazing. I don't know how to describe it to you. You are going to have to see the pics when I get back. It was amazing. I would have a blast doing that with you. I want you to come back here with me and go to a Cenote with me. After the Cenotes, we went and got some tacos. The tacos were made with Cochinita Pibil. They were awesome. We washed it down with some dessert. I had a Gansito and Joel had a BubuLubu. It was funny. After that we went to a town and bartered with the locals. It was fun. I got some good prices. We got better prices on some things than our hosts get. The Swine Flu Scare has killed this economy so bad, that the shop owners were desperate to sell anything, so we got great deals. I bought two hammock chairs, which would cost the hosts 500 peses, but I got them for 400 pesos. It was awesome. I bought a Marlin trophy, some stuff for you and the girls and an America handkerchief. Then we went home, had dinner, hung out, and went to bed.

Today, Joel and I slept in until about two in the afternoon. It was awesome. I am killing that by staying up so late, but it was nice. After that, I got up and showered, had some fruit and then went to the beach to listen to a book on tape and watch the ocean. I found a nice palm tree to sit under, that was right on the water, and I just sat there and listened to my book. It was amazingly relaxing and restful. We will do that when we come back, I promise. I know that you would love it and would really appreciate it. After about an hour, Joel showed up. Somehow he knew where I would be. We sat there and talked for a bit, and then decided to go back to the house and get the snorkeling stuff and come snorkel. We did this. We were going to go out deeper, but I am a wuss. I am nervous about getting eaten by a barracuda or something. So... we stayed in the shallows and collected seashells for the girls. We got a lot of little ones that they will love. I really thing that they will like them. I found a couple that still had little crabs in them. I let them go though. After that, we went back and showered, had some sodas with Ryan and Ned, ate dinner and then hung out until midnight. Then Ryan and I went down to the beach, walked out on the dock and sat at the end. We were just talking and chilling. It was nice. We were playing around with his camera, cause it was doing some cool stuff with the moon as bright as it was. Then we came back home and I am now here writing you.

The food here has been amazing. These people are great chefs. The first night they gave us barracuda ceviche for dinner. It was amazing. Mauricio caught the barracuda with a spear the day we got here. The second night they gave us some huge Mahi Mahi steaks, since Joel caught a huge Mahi Mahi and brought it back. They cooked it up for us and it was amazing. The third night they gave us some seafood pasta. It was amazing also. I loved it. The pasta was homemade and the sauce was also homemade. The entire dish was amazing. They gave us so much. Ryan finished off my plate and Joel's plate. It was that good! Last night they gave us Mole. It was amazing, and perhaps the best Mole I have ever had. Tonight, they gave us Mango Sea Bass with veggies. It was perhaps the best fish I have ever had in my entire life. Each night dinner we given to us with their homemade bread, homemade guacamole and chips, and anything you want to drink. My drink of choice, Tropical Pineapple. It was awesome! In short, the food was amazing. Each night we gave our compliments to the chef, as the food was just superb.

The owners here are Mauricio and Yvonne. He is from Argentina and she is from Switzerland. They are a cute couple. They speak Spanish, English, German, Italian, French and some Indonesian. They are really smart people. They are young, maybe my same age or just a few years older. They really made this trip even better than it would have been. They are so friendly and their kids made it tons more fun for us. The fact that they would let their kids come play with us was awesome, and then when the food was ready and served, they would also come and hang out with us. That might have bothered us, if they weren't so cool and funny. But they are awesome people that are very interesting. Their accents in spanish and english are very interesting, because they speak so many languages. Like when Mauro would speak english, he would "uncht" instead of "and", kind of mixing German, Spanish and English all into one sentence. It was interesting and fun. Yvonne was similar. She has a European accent and would mix words in once in a while that we would have her explain.

Each morning for breakfast they would give us anything we wanted for breakfast. My breakfast of choice was a bowl of fruit and Tropical Pineapple. The bowl of fruit contains Mango, Pineapple, Banana and Orange. It was amazing to have such fresh fruit. You would have loved it, and will love it when we come back together.

Hopefully you see a little of what we went through down here. I want to experience this with you. There are a ton of things that I didn't get to do, because we ran out of time. I would love to come down here with you and enjoy it. We need to plan it as soon as I get home. I have grown to understand the need for a break, and I want to take a break with you. We deserve it.

I will be home tomorrow night at 7:55 is when we will get there. I will call you once we get home and you can come get me with the girls. I have a surprise for each of you.

I love you baby. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to enjoy this place with my brothers. My only regret is that I didn't come here first with you. We need to come back here together and explore the other things that we can do here.

Mua, Loves, Hugs and Smooches.

While you are still gone

Monday went pretty much uneventful. Mi tia Chave invited us over for breakfast and after that I took the girls on a bike ride to the park near my parents house. Wow! They are heavy! The whole time I was wondering how you do and make it look so effortless, specially when we were going uphill. You are strong, I'm a wuzz.

Anyway. It'd been cloudy all morning, and short after getting there it starting raining. All the little kids and their moms ran to take cover under the little roofed area with the picnic tables, I don't know how it's called, but Not Jocie and Naomi. The rain did not seem to bother them one bit. My thoughts were "It's just water. What is the big deal?" It only lasted a few minutes and then it was gone. No harm done.

After that we went home, had lunch, I put the girls down for a nap and went on a run. It's was a hard run. Every run is hard, but I like it! I didn't like the route I took either. There were no trees whatsoever and even though the sun had been hidden behind a cloud all day long it decided to come out just when I least needed it. Yeah, we are never moving anywhere South from Salt Lake City.

After that I came home and went to the Store with Nathalie to buy something to make for dinner while Mom and Dad stayed with the girls. We made stir fry with veggies, tofu, noodles, and cashews. Yeah, it was yummy, but I doubt yummier that the fresh caught mahi-mahi you probably had for dinner that night. LUCKY!

After that we went through our shower, pjs, books and songs routine at bed time. Naomi asked for you. She wanted to go home to see daddy. I told her you were not home yet, and reminded her that you were in Mexico fishing. She asked "Why?" I said "Because" She misses you. Jocie and I miss you too.

Today (Tuesday):

We woke up before everyone (7am) And had breakfast. Rice cakes and peanut butter, cereal and fruit for the girls and fruit and cottage cheese for me. Naomi got two big aluminum lids from my moms oyas and started using them as cymbals. She said "Look mom! I'm playing the cymbals!" and started marching around the kitchen. I told her to go in the hall way outside Nathalie and Itza's rooms to wake them up. She had fun! Her tias didn't wake up though. After breakfast we got ready to go to Homedepot in search of our Owl to scare away the birds from eating the cherries and we found it! It hangs by the tree as I type. Then we stopped by Smiths to get our ingredients for dinner later. Dad made caldo de res. Came home, put the girls down for a nap and went on a run. I ran to the West Jordan Temple and rescued a little dog from traffic, it's owner lived right across the street from where I found it. She was happy to have "Sassy" back. I also ran across a graveyard and got a mosquito in my eye. Weird. All in one day's run.

Sunday on our way to your mom's Naomi saw the temple and asked if we could go there. I promised her we would. So I made reservations this morning and we went today. Tia Chave, Eunice, Areli, Itza, Nathalie and Don-Hee got to come, so that was exciting. Everything was very organized from being shuttled from the parking lot in this little golf carts to even getting refreshments at the end. Before going in the temple we got to watch a little movie about temples and the making of this particular temple. Before the movie started we got to seat there while soft back round music played. Jocie could not help herself and started dancing around so gracefully. Even lifted her leg behind her like a ballerina. She is so cute. While in the temple Naomi asked me if that was were we had gotten married. I told her no, but that we did get married in another temple as pretty as that one. Jocie did wonderful. I had her in the stroller and she did great. Naomi not so much. We had to leave the sealing room presentation because she wanted to stand up on the chairs. She still got a cookie at the end even though I told her she wouldn't. Oops! Naomi said her favorite part was the movie. Go figure! Don-Hee said his favorite part was the swimming pool. LOL. The rain and the surprisingly chilly temperature did not stop us from enjoying our trip to the temple. Wish you were there.

After that we headed back to buelito's home. Went through our bedtime routine and now the girls are in bed while I blog and talk to you on messenger. Only two more days until you get home! Can't wait to see you.

While you are gone........

So Aaron is away til Thursday on a fishing trip to Mexico with his brothers. Yeah, I have to admit I'm a bit jealous, but glad he gets to spend THAT type of quality time with his brothers, whom he loves very much. Meanwhile I thought I'd try to blog about our days while he is gone so he does not miss out on the fun here at home.

Let's see..You left Saturday morning. After that we packed and got ready to move to buelito and buelitas for the week until daddy gets home. Got the girls clothes, my running clothes and Tank in the car and arrived at buelita's to a delicious mexican breakfast awaiting us, warm home made wheat tortillas and all, YUM! My mom knows how to spoil us! She wasn't done making them so the girls were happy to help, as always. After that we picked some cherries from my parents backyard, trying to get ahead of the birds who are starting to eat them. They beat us to it every year, so we thought we better star taking them down half way ripe and just let them continue to ripe in a box or something. We don't know if they will continue to ripe, but i guess we will find out. Tomorrow we are heading out there again to pick some more. We are also going in search of a fake owl to scare away the birds, per Grandpa Mark's recommendation. The girls ate a couple and discovered they weren't quite ready. After that Grandma Kelli and Grandpa Mark arrived with more fresh fruit just picked from their own back yard, strawberries. It must have been a couple pounds of strawberries. They were nice and sweet and we enjoyed every one of them.
Later that day while the girls took a nap, I went running along the Jordan River trail with my sister Nathalie and her boyfriend Don-Hee. They rode their bikes while I tried to catch up to them. Of course I never did, but stayed within sight of them the whole time. Seriously my heart felt as it was about to pop out of my chest, it was a good work out.

After that Nathalie's friend was having a birthday party for her little boy and we tagged along Mexican style, hehe! The girls had a lot of fun, petted an albino snake and a rabbit the magician had as part of the show. Naomi made friends like she always does while Jocie chased after a little Chihuahua someone brought to the party, and picked on every little ant she'd see crawling on the floor every time she'd look down. You know her, she is our little animal lover. They ate their little hearts content with candy and then we came home. Actually we stopped by blockbuster on our way home, Jocie got her hands on some candy on our way to the register and threw a big tantrum when I took it away from her, you know the type where she melts out of your arms and pushes herself away from you with her legs on your chest type of tantrum, along with some screaming and crying to top it all off. Yeah, I bet you are jealous and wished you were here instead of Cancun. We didn't get to watch the movie, it was late and the girls needed to get to bed, so I'm torturing Naomi and having her wait til Monday to watch her movie, you know me, I'm the Nazi Mormon who does not let her kids watch TV on Sunday, and yes of course that meant some more tears and kicking and screaming before going to bed. Are you jealous now? But after a while and some threatening of taking the movie back she settle for a book and a song, oh! and don't forget the back scratching before going to bed.

Today Naomi woke up screaming "Wake up everyone" I heard her and went into the room to get her. She must have been really tired because all she did was ask " Mommy, is the sun up yet?" It's been cloudy here, so she really couldn't tell if it was time to wake up. I told her no, the sun was not up yet, so she turned around and went back to sleep for another hour. Jocie slept in with tia Areli until 9 AM. Yeah, I could not believe it either. While she slept mom, dad, Naomi and I tried to take Tank and Nakon on a walk, but it started raining and we headed back. We went to church with my parents, but I had to leave during the last hour to go to our branch to teach my lesson, so the girls stayed with mom and dad for Sacrament meeting and what do you think I missed while gone? Naomi's first time going up to say her "testimony" So don't feel bad, you weren't the only one who missed it. My parents said she wanted to go up after she saw another kid go up. They said she was really cute and did not need any help with what to say.

This is what they told me she said:
Hola hnos y hnas. Vamos a ir a Mexico. Gracias por mi mami y mi papi y por Jocie, y por Tanke y Nakon. Amen.

After church we went to Grandma Kelli's and helped her pick some more strawberries. The girls played with Molly and up in your mom's little play room, they also enjoyed playing with the umbrellas. We had dinner and dessert, and visited for a while with grandma Kelli and grandpa Mark. The girls had not had a nap all day, so we headed home early to put them to bed. After pj's, a book, a song, and some back scratches they were both out. Now I'm waiting for you to log in so we can chat before going to bed.

I hope you are having lots of fun in Mexico, even though I know you'd be having way more fun with me there. Please wash your hands often and don't catch the flu. Te amo.