We just got home from a great vacation (more pictures of that to come...maybe later than sooner...) and I got a message on my answering machine that I did indeed win most patriotic for the 5K :) I even get a gift certificate. Yipee!
So I checked the website to see what place I took. We'll leave the men out of these standings...I got 3rd among the women. :) I knew I should have tripped that girl that ran by me at the very end! Just kidding. Kind of.
Although it's not quite the 4th, we celebrate around here on the 2nd.
We started out our day by running in some races. Tyler decided he didn't want to race, but Trevor ran the "fun run" with Hailey, Ashley, and Jason. Jason rode in the jogging stroller for most of the time, but got out a couple times and ran until he got tired. It was really fun watching the younger three, they were really cute and they got all excited about the little flags they got at the finish line. Here are some pictures:
All the kids before the race
Near the finish line
After the race with their flags
My race started shortly after they got done with theirs. I ran another 5K. I'm not quite sure how I placed in this one, because they haven't posted the standings yet. 
Now, don't laugh at my patriotic getup. They said we should dress up and the best dressed would get a prize. I wasn't going for the prize or anything, I just didn't want to stick out as the one who didn't dress up. Turns out, I was the only one who dressed up. Good times. I don't know if I would've picked up the prize or not because we didn't stick around too long after.
After the race we came back and got ready for the parade. We rode bikes to the parade and watched all the entries as the kids gathered as many pieces of candy as they could. I know, you're probably jealous that our town still throws candy and yours doesn't. I would be too.
After the parade, we grilled some burgers and hot dogs and had a picnic outside. We were planning on going to the rodeo, but I think the kids were pretty tired from the days activities. Trevor and I lovingly remembered how fun it was last year to carry all the tired kids with aching legs back to the car--20 blocks away--while they told us just how tired they were with each step we took. So instead we opted to ride bikes to get some churros at Taco John's for dessert and put the kids to bed at the normal hour. Then Trevor and I watched some tv, and then some fireworks from our front lawn. Excellent. Sorry there were no pictures of all THAT fun!
Ashley had a birthday! It's a busy time to have birthday's. I hope she doesn't feel like she got overlooked. I didn't quite get the invitations to any friends before school was out. I know she really wanted to have a party at the bowling alley, but instead we invited the missionaries over for dinner. :) She was really excited for the cake and presents anyway, so it all worked out.
Ashley's a sweet little girl. She loves to play with her friends and with her older brother and sister, and is such a good sister to her younger brother. She really takes care of him and tries her best to keep him happy. She already loves to play Tyler's Nintendo DS, or the Wii, or the itouch, and she loves to ride her bike. The last five years have flown--and I've loved every second I got to be the mom of this sweet little girl. I'm sad I won't get to spend all day with her this fall when she starts kindergarten. :(
We went to the town's annual fishing derby. It was a lot of fun, althoug it was still very cold. We didn't catch any fish, but we sure had a lot of fun trying. It was pretty crowded and the people around us had no problems casting over our heads from behind us. Weird. At one point, Jason was sitting on his camping chair and leaned forward. It folded and dropped him in the water. Poor kid, I stripped him and wrapped the blanket around him and took him home to change. We live pretty close, so we came back and kept on trying to catch the big fish. No dice.
The kids are so excited for school to be out. They had their little "end of the year" gymnastics program (for the girls) and swimming program (for Tyler). It was fun to watch them perform their "skills." The pictures are kind of bad, but I was trying to keep Jason from running out onto the floor (or into the pool) and then the girls were moving. With my phone, it was kind of hard to get one that wasn't blurry.
Ashley:
Hailey:
Tyler:
And we took a trip to the park with some friends. It was fun for the kids to get out and play in the nice weather (finally)! 
We can't wait for more beautiful weather and more trips to the park, bike riding, swimming lessons, etc. I am so excited for summer!
Tyler didn't have a graduation program. But Hailey did for kindergarten and Ashley did for Preschool. Some of the festivities:
Tyler's school does a track meet. This year he did the 50 yard dash, the long jump, and the ball throw. They were only able to sign up for three events :)
Here's the long jump. Which ended up being not so long...we'll give him more time to develop his track and field skills.
This is how Ashley entertained herself during the track meet. Little brothers have it rough.
Hailey's graduation program. They sang a bunch of songs for us and then we had some refreshments. Believe me, I tried to convince her she needed to wear something else. It's not Christmas for crying out loud. She wouldn't listen. I pick my battles.
Ashley's getting her diploma. Her class also performed some songs for us. They were darn adorable. She's excited to go to the big school next year. Or so she says. We'll see when the time comes.
I know, wouldn't that title have been cooler if it were a 10K? Or even better: Marathon? But no, this is not the case. I've never ran in a race before (I mean post high school) So I figured it was high time. There was a race to benefit children (honestly, I should have looked more into it so I could say that's why I did it. All I know is that it was a children's foundation...) and I decided I would give it a whirl.
Now, mind you--I haven't been jogging a whole lot recently so I decided to start out with a 5K and see how that went before trying other things. I know, I know--there are some marathoners that frequent my blog so I'm a little trepidatious about posting this. But it was fun none the less. Plus, I came in fourth in my age group (ages 23-32. That means they're ALL younger than me :) ) And there were way more than four in that group. So I feel like I've achieved something. Here are some pictures...
And you must know by now how much I hate posting pictures of myself. So this is a big step for me.
We've had this moose around town for awhile now. We live close to the river, so it frequents our neigborhood. We knew it's been hanging around in our backyard because we've found some "sign"...
Anyway, I woke up this morning and after walking out the bathroom door I saw a big moose butt next to our back door (the back door is right across from the bathroom door.) She was REALLY close, so it surprised me. The moose was faced with her rear right next to the door instead of away--like the picture above. Startled me.
