Real Running Shoes

I did it.

I bought real running shoes.

Good ones. (I hope!)

Why? Good question!

About a month ago, I decided to add jogging to my walking routine. I've worked my way up to two miles of jogging, then two to three miles of walking. Unfortunately, me knees are starting to feel it. As a kid, I remember my mom's knees creaking when she went up stairs. Mine are starting to sound like hers! I talked to my running friend (who inspired me to start jogging in the first place) and she said, "It's all about the shoes."

So I went to Poulsbo Running in search of some real running shoes instead of the Costco Specials I was wearing. The man there was very helpful. He watched me walk, then fit me with a pair, then watched me run, and told me to run around outside the store to see how they felt. I tried three different pairs, and ended up with these Saucony Progrid Guide running shoes:

They weren't even the most expensive ones I tried on, either! Hopefully they'll solve the problem and I'll be able to continue enjoying jogging.

SNOW in October?

No, it's not really snow, just left-over hail from a crazy storm we had Monday night. Around 9:15 pm it started coming down and lasted for almost an hour. Pea to marble sized hail that sounded like it was going to break our windows, complete with thunder and lightning! I love storms like that, as long as I'm warm and cozy in my house. It coated the yard within minutes, and Tuesday morning there were still traces on the lawn.

Here's what they became...

For the past four or five years, we've invited the Kollodge family and the missionaries over to carve pumpkins. Once again, we had a great evening watching the kids turn their pumpkins into masterpieces.

Ben was a little apprehensive about getting the guts on his hands, so he tried wearing surgical gloves.

Carving pumpkins is still fun even when you're a BIG kid!

Jillian hard at work on the first of her pumpkin's four faces.

I love Ben's devil face!

The missionaries had to leave before we took the group picture, but I wanted to get a shot of theirs...yes, it is the one vomiting! Reminds me of this, hopefully that's not where they got their inspiration!

The rest of the finished creations:

top row: Kylie, Jillian, Adrian. second row: Angelina, Aubrey, Ben. bottom row: Nathan

Voyage #7 -- Agate Pass to Fay Bainbridge

We're half way done! I don't know if we've actually covered half of the coast line, but we broke up the Island into 14 segments and we just finished the 7th one!

This house is right at the tip of Agate Passage. About 10 years ago, we knew the people who lived in the caretaker's cottage and they would invite us down to the beach for BBQs in the little hut you see on the right. It doesn't look like much from this picture, but it actually has a really cool brick cooking area, and the beach is fabulous!

The picture below is of the house at Bloedel Reserve. If you ever visit us on Bainbridge, we'll be sure to take you there! It's a fabulous nature preserve, and only a mile from my house.

We couldn't figure out what the heavy machinery on this barge is for. It's anchored right ouside the mouth of Port Madison Bay. Any guesses?

We skirted past the mouth of Port Madison Bay, since we already explored it last month. The house below is Gretchen's "Tree House", a house they've been considering buying. She calls it the Tree House because of the huge tree growing outside the front windows. She says when you're standing at the window looking out, all you can see is the middle of the tree and it feels like you're really in a tree house.This cute little yellow farmhouse is right next door to the Tree House. I love it! It's been for rent several times in the past few years. Hmmm...maybe if Gretchen buys the Tree House...

On the other side of the Tree House is the entrance to the Point Monroe Lagoon, a very unique place on Bainbridge. It has the feel of a small beach town, all the houses lined up right on the water. Point Monroe is a sandbar and some of the house have double waterfronts, one on the lagoon side, and one on the Puget Sound side. The lagoon is pretty shallow and would be such a fun place for kids to play in the summer!

The beach at Fay Bainbridge was so peaceful. We sat out in our kayaks for quite a while, relaxing in the calm water, wishing we didn't have to go back!

Awaiting their Fate

This afternoon, these five, innocent pumpkins were plucked from their happy home in a beautiful field and now anxiously wait on our front porch to be gutted and turned into crazy creations. The Van Aken children were the culprits, quickly choosing their victims from the Day Road pumpkin patch.

What ever happened to our rule "you pick it, you carry it"?

Ben made these "pumpkin men." I think he's hoping for a lot of snow again this winter!

Aren't I Lucky?

I know you're all jealous that my girls are so dedicated to practicing their instrument that they fight to practice at exactly the same time! I'm so lucky that Jillian chose the trombone and not a more melodic instrument like the flute. At least it saved us lots of money, since we already had a trombone in the family.

Voyage #6 -- Fay Bainbridge to Manitou Beach

It was a bit cloudy and kind of cold, but we think we discovered the key to a great outing...NO wind!

And maybe spotting this gorgeous creature watching over the beach helped a little.

We disembarked from Fay Bainbridge State Park with just a glimmer of sun on the water. It later disappeared behind the clouds.

Look mom, I'm really close to the shore, don't worry so much!

The water was incredibly calm. If we sat still for a minute, it was like being surrounded by a mirror.

No other boats were out except this huge cruise liner, way over across the Sound. Even the waves from it's passing were gentle and rolling.

I love this picture of Brooke. Pure calm. Peace. Deep breaths in, deep breaths out. Bliss!

This lovely home sits right past Fay Bainbridge. It fits in nicely with it's surroundings, don't you think?

Unlike this house...which looks like it should be somewhere in England surrounded by a huge lawn, some fountains, and a tree-lined drive.

As we passed this spot, near our destination, I thought about the mudslide that killed a Bainbridge family on Kylie's birthday thirteen years ago (at first I thought it was the day she was born, but then I looked up the story and it happened on January 19, 1997). I'm pretty sure this picture is where it happened. The wall you can see behind the three bottom houses on the right was added after the slide to help shore up the cliff. Very sobering.

On a lighter note, I managed to get out of my kayak without getting totally soaked like I have recently. This picture is from last week, when I got out of the boat, then gracefully tipped over and plopped into the water! Wearing rainpants and boots didn't do much to keep me dry.

The key this time was to have Brooke pull my boat onto shore while I was still in it. Thanks, Brooke! We timed our outing well this week. A storm blew in last night and it's supposed to rain for the next ten days. Hopefully it will let up enough for us to finish up the north end of the Island next week.

Lest you think all I do is Kayak...

That's all I've been posting about lately because it's the fun stuff, but of course my life is full of the utterly mundane as well. And a little bit of not so mundane thrown in every once in a while.

Jillian keeps reminding me to post about "Wicked", which she and I saw two weeks ago (has it really been that long?!) It was so much fun to take her to see her first "Broadway" play! We were fortunate enough to get tickets with a group, so we knew most of the people sitting around us. Before the play we walked from the ferry up to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Dining out isn't something we do with the kids very often. Jillian ordered pepperoni pizza. That's one reason why...Anyway, I enjoyed eating and talking with just her. We ordered a piece of Key Lime cheesecake to take with us, and ate a few bites before we left. I was going to put the box into my purse and sneak it into the theater, not to eat during the play of course, just to have afterwards. Well, I forgot to put it in my purse and when we got to the theater, the ticket-taker saw my big Cheesecake Factory bag and told me I had to throw away my left-overs! Bummer! Bigger bummer was when I told some friends about it when we got to our seats and they told me their ticket-taker told them they could coat-check their left-overs! I almost got out of my seat and went to rummage through the garbage to get my cheesecake back! But other than that, the night was fabulous. Jillian LOVED Wicked, as did I. I've seen it before, but it was still amazing to see again. She is still singing the songs two weeks later, since I bought the album and put it on her ipod.

Last Thursday, Brad had his tonsils removed. We were told it's a much harder recovery for adults than for kids and were expecting the worst. The surgery went well. The doctor confirmed afterwards that his tonsils were in really bad shape. Of course he's going to say that, though. What else would he say? "Oh, they really weren't that bad. Maybe we should put them back in." I was very surprised that right after the surgery Brad could still talk. I was expecting him to be in too much pain. But his recovery since then has been slow. He doesn't seem to be feeling much better than he did right after the surgery. The doctor wasn't kidding when he said it would take two weeks.

And then on Friday Kylie got the flu. She denies that it's swine flu, even though those are her symptoms and our doctor said that's what is going around. She hates missing school because she doesn't want to get behind. She's finally feeling better today, so I sent her to school, but then Ben woke up with a fever and cough. When Nate heard Ben was sick, he said, "Oh great! Now we're all going to get it!" Which is probably true, since Ben isn't the best at covering his coughs or washing his hands. I'll have to be extra vigilant! And keep him away from Brad.

Sunday I was released from my Primary Secretary calling (which I had just started two months ago and was LOVING) and my Sunbeam calling (which I hadn't been released from when I was called to be secretary because I wanted to keep the kids until the end of the year because I love them, too!) and was called to be a counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I haven't been to RS on Sunday for at least eight years since I've had YW and Primary callings. I'm feeling very overwhelmed and out of my comfort zone. We had a wonderful RS activity (can't call it Enrichment anymore!) last night which was the result of the out-going counselor's inspiration. She was so confident and in touch with the sisters and afterwards I just wanted to go home and hide. I'm not comfortable mingling in large groups. I always feel awkward and don't know what to say. My heart is still with Primary! I am much more comfortable sitting with four year olds, eating snacks and talking about being kind to animals.

So that's what I've been up to when I'm not kayaking. Let me tell you, I'd rather be out on the water! Or at the theater watching Wicked!

Voyage #5 -- Success!

We couldn't go down without a fight! Wednesday afternoon, we re-tackled Agate Passage and won! It doesn't feel like a complete success, though, since we we had a substitute for Brooke. She had just returned from a week in Hawaii and was home recovering with her youngest, so Izaac joined us instead. The water was much calmer this time, as witnessed by the picture below. About half-way through the trip, Izaac fell asleep!

We took a much needed break when we got to the bridge.

Our arms were burning because we did have some wind on the way out, but nothing like last time! By the time we turned around (we started and stopped at the same point this time), the wind had died down, which was a little disappointing. We were hoping the wind would push us back. It was actually a little harder for me paddling back. It seemed like the current was pushing us toward the shore. Brooke loaned me her boat for this trip, and it was amazing the difference it made. It's much more enjoyable in a good kayak!

There weren't as many beach homes on this side of the Island because there's quite a bit of high bank. But this was one of the lucky ones...private, sandy beach...what a life!

These cool boats were anchored off shore. The big one looks like a pirate ship!

Complete with carved wooden figurehead!

It was great to be out again. I'm beginning to think I'm a little addicted. Everywhere I go near water, I look to see if it's calm, what the tide's like, if there's access, and think, "I should be out there kayaking right now!" When I was driving to pick up Nate at 10:00 the other night and passed Hidden Cove with the full moon shining on it, I thought, "Oooooh! A full moon outing would be great!" Something to keep in mind!

Farewell, Little Blue

I returned "Little Blue" to the store today. It just didn't work out between us. She was too hard to control, and I like being in control! It made me very sad to drive across the Agate Pass bridge and gaze into the perfectly calm water, knowing that I could be out enjoying it if it weren't for the fact that I had to drive two hours round trip to Tacoma to return a faulty kayak. At least I had Saturday's General Conference sessions on my ipod to listen to during the trip. And when I got to the store and explained the reason for my return, the man confirmed my suspicions that "Little Blue" is indeed a difficult kayak to control. Other customers have had the same problem. It made me feel so much better to know that I really don't have a kayaking handicap. Hopefully the weather will stay beautiful and calm so the Fantastic Four can go out tomorrow and re-attempt to conquer Agate Passage.

Rocket Party Success!

Today is Ben's 7th birthday. By coincidence, Jillian and Ben didn't have school for the past three days because of parent-teacher conferences. So I decided to have Ben's birthday party today, on his actual birthday. That doesn't happen very often!

I've spent the past two days getting things together for the games, activities, and craft. We bought a stomp rocket and a vinegar/baking soda rocket launcher for the party. I've learned from past experience to test out the activities I plan for the kids before the actual party. The stomp rocket was a blast (literally!), but we couldn't get the rocket launcher to go higher than 3 feet, so we decided to scrap that idea. We probably could have gotten it to work if we had played with it more, but we ran out of time and it used a whole cup of vinegar each time we tried it. That just seemed so wasteful! I know, vinegar is inexpensive, but still! We made the rocket pinata yesterday, and this morning I created this:

One of the kids at the party asked if it was a vacuum cleaner. Umm...no.

This morning it started raining...HARD...and I scrambled to come up with some more indoor games since it was looking like stomp rockets would be rained out, but fortunately right before party time, the rain stopped! Whew! Prayers work!

When all 8 kids arrived (Ben had a list of about 20 kids that he wanted to invite...it was very hard for him to narrow it down to just 8), we made rockets out of toilet paper tubes, tin foil, construction paper, stickers, and lots of glitter glue.

Once again, I forgot to take a picture of the finished products. They turned out so cute, too! We played a few indoor games: "rocket balloon" which didn't capture their attention for very long, and "snatch it", which was a little better. But they were getting restless, so we went outside to play with the stomp rocket. I expected the kids to all run around and try to catch the rockets, but they practiced their good first grade skills and waited nicely in line for their turn!

Next up was the pinata! It turned out to be just perfect, not too flimsy that it fell apart on the first hit (although we did end up taping the lid onto the bottom, which helped it to keep from bursting open on the first hit), and not too sturdy so that the kids could actually break it open without having to bring in the big guns!



Then back inside for cake,

and presents!This is the aftermath of present opening. Look at Ben's smile, a sure sign of a successful party. Happy Birthday, Ben!