february and march 2017

I could probably split this post into two, but I'm seeing the light at the end of my "blogging marathon" and must keep going!

I'm going to start off with a couple of throw-backs (from the same era). Truman and Liv helped me discover this old gem (from 1997 or 1998?) of Patti and Rog, that Rob must have taken. It's such a cute photo. What wonderful in-laws I've been blessed with. Sure miss you, Roger.

On a much lighter note, I've been trying to organize boxes of old photos and keepsakes and came accoss an old "Lys Over Norge" (Norwegian Ensign) that featured some photos from an event in Drammen that I sang at on my mission. I was dying laughing (along with Rob and Liv!) at this terrible photo of me that was printed. The angle, the glasses, the hair...everything is pretty bad! In contrast, look at the gorgeous woman (Emilie was seriously a professional model) pictured next to me, looking classic and timeless and not at all from the mid-90's.  So funny!

We had some issues with the new sectional we ordered...one section had a different color of leather that was very noticeable. We finally got it corrected, and one Christmas miracle and a long story short later, we have a new matching one!

Hewitt and his buddy Arnav did the science fair together again. They won their division at a school level and were invited to HISEF, a city invitational. As you can see here below, they had a congratulations sign on their board (top right) saying that they won an award and to go to the awards ceremony. Hewitt and I hung around for the next hour until the awards started. I chatted with his teacher in the hallway before the awards and she told me that she knew what they had won, but couldn't tell me. After some introductions and a speaker, they started with Honorable Mention--didn't win. Third place--didn't win.  The boys were getting so excited at this point! Every time they got to the sixth grade "Chemistry" division we would get our cameras out ready to capture their names on the big screen! Second place--didn't win! At this point I'm getting a few tears in my eyes--Imagine that one of MY kids could do so well at a science fair! Here's where this story takes a surprising twist--they didn't win first place or any of the other special awards from Intel, or SRP or anything! We were all pretty devastated. Apparently the tag on the board was a mistake. Hewitt handled the entire thing just great. It was a real bummer that they got their hopes up like that though (and I can't get those two hours of my life back). The boys did a great job on their project and I believe they will still qualify to go to the state competition.

Pretty sweet bike rack:

Here I am with my friend Amy. She was married and baptized in January and I was able to attend both events. We've had her family over for FHE twice, and the last time we were able to log her in to lds.org and print temple cards so she could go to the temple to be baptized and confirmed for her parents. Amy is much younger that me (early 20's) and lost both of her parents at a very young age. It was so awesome to go to the temple with her and see her be baptized for her mom (and one of the missionaries in our branch was baptized for her dad). A member of the Gilbert temple presidency came to the baptistry to speak to us as it was her first time there. It was a really great experience. One of the things he said was that because of this gift she was offering them, she would feel a special closeness to her parents not previously felt. It was interesting that as I was sitting there next to her, I had such a strong impression that my mom was with her mom, helping to teach and prepare her for the covenant she would be offered to accept. It was a very unique and special experience. Rob and I are in the process of completing the temple work for her parents.

After dinner at the Andelin's one evening:

I did the Ragnar Relay (Del Sol) this year (March 10th and 11th). It's been four years since I was last able to do it. I'm not in as good of shape as I was the last time, but didn't hurt my knee this time around which made the world of difference. This time I was in Van 1, which meant getting up really early to start the race off. I was up at about 3:20AM Friday morning and got about two hours of sleep total for the next 43 hours!

A photo of our team appeared on the Ragnar Del Sol Facebook page...pretty cool! This was such a fun bunch: Lillian, (me--I can be fun sometimes), Colston, Rob, Alecia, and David.

Ready to go!

My first leg was NOT what I was expecting. It was seven miles long, mostly uphill (the map showed all downhill so I had stopped worrying about training on hills, unfortunately), and really hot (I should have been wearing cooler clothes)! I think I'm having some trouble regulating my temperature or something because I've had some problems running in the heat in general lately (it wasn't even THAT hot compared to what some others had that afternoon, but the elevation was higher and it was a struggle!). I had told my van to stop once to give me water, as I usually don't drink much on my longer runs. That became a problem for me on the last couple of miles. I honestly shed a couple of tears and was asking myself, "Why do I do this?" but I wouldn't let myself walk. There was a van stopped on the opposite side of the road (to support their runner) and I called out, "Hey, I'm really sorry, but could I please have some water?" I felt bad, but I would certainly help out another team if asked. A guy ran across the highway and I got a quick drink of some Gatorade (without touching the bottle). It was very helpful. I was so happy to have this first and final leg over!

Almost there!

Handing over the baton (slap wrist band) to Rob:

To give you an idea of the heat, Alecia's brother drank 3 liters during his 6 mile run (we started stopping every mile to give water.) It was such a warm weekend--temps getting into the high 90's.  I was so thankful that my other runs were "night" runs. I did 4.2 miles around 11 pm (If I'm remembering that time right), and it felt great! It was cool and flat! 

The tiredness started to really set in after this run. I was runner number three out of our six (in Van 1). We would hand off to the other van (runners 6-12) and get a few hours to eat/shower/rest/try to sleep before it was our turn again.

I was able to sleep from about 1:30AM to 3:30AM Saturday morning and then it was back to business. My last run (4.3 miles) was pretty awesome because it was during sunrise and I was running toward the sun! It was pretty amazing and I kind of had a neat moment of overwhelming gratitude/thinking of my parents that made me start bawling as I ran...I'm sure the fatigue added to the emotion. I tried to get a selfie with the sun as I was running backwards for a second. It isn't the greatest, but serves as a good memory:

A photo of the entire team at our last handoff:

 Other members of my van needed to get home so we didn't hang around for the other van to finish (and get our medals). The six of us went to IHOP for some carbs and headed home. It was a great time all in all.

Sue watched Truman on Friday morning while I was racing (thanks, Sue!). She sent me some really cute photos:

She also put the cutest little video on YouTube that really shows his personality! Click on this link:

Cute Truman Video

 Also that same week (Wednesday the 8th -Friday the10th) Hewitt had a sixth grade field trip to Biosphere 2 near Tucson. He had a great time. My friend Patty (Christopher's mom) was a chaperone and sent me some great photos:

Christopher, Hewitt and Arnav (Hewitt will miss going to school with these boys next year!)

 

Spring Break was March 13th - 27th. We didn't go anywhere which was actually pretty nice. I was able to do some spring cleaning with the older kids around to help watch Truman. Liv went to a crazy hair, pajama party for her friend. She looked so cute:

I took Hewitt, Tosh, and Liv to two movies over break (one each week while either Rob or Burke was home with napping Truman). We saw "Sing" and "Moana" and I thought both were really great. Liv had a "Flat Stanley" project over break so that explains the paper doll in the next couple of photos:

We made and decorated green cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day:

Burke was able to go on Pioneer Trek March 15th-18th. He was looking forward to it and had a great time. Here is a (very fuzzy) photo of his trek family. Ma and Pa Lambson told us that Burke had the best attitude of anyone in their family. 

Here are a couple of great photos that were sent to me (Burke is standing next to Joseph, also in SanTan Branch):

Tosh got to go to a FC Arizona (soccer) game with his friend Kannon over the break:

I'll wrap up this blog entry with the cutest little video of Truman on his scooter. He is quite coordinated for his age, I would say.  He is getting so big!