Fun Times

I am just going to warn you that this post will be a picture overload of a very cute boy in my life. For Mike's class, he had to direct a photo shoot using a model. He then has to use those photos to create a spread selling a product.

Model: Little Man
Product: Hurley Little Boy Clothing Line
Photos: Lots of really cute ones {grin}

While all the photos I am posting would not work in an ad, I love them and think they showcase Little Man quite well. Can you believe he is almost 22 months old? I can't! These are pre-edit. Some of them need to be touched up a bit, but enjoy anyway. :)






This outfit is a 3T and the pants kept falling off. Mike was trying to pull them up far enough that they would stay on. They didn't. {grin}

This is one of my favorites. I am becoming a fan of the pictures with the light very bright behind. I think there is something magical about them.
This fence is technically somebodies yard fence, but we used it. It creates a nice border to the park.
The park we went to was way cool. It is south of Walmart in Orem on Sandhill road. There is playground equipment, a duck/fishing pond, (where we got pictures of this cool bird,) swings that circle around while swinging (think the ride at Lagoon that goes around) a reflecting pond, a fountain pond, and lots of open space. Plus a walkway/maze. Seriously, it is a cool park and we will be back.
The rocks are all around the duck/fising pond and E loved climbing all over them.
Notice the pants falling down?
There was this building that looks like a barn. I told E, "Lean against the door," and this is what I got!

4th of July Weekend

The fourth of July weekend was a lot of fun for us. We kind of did our own thing, but it ended up being fun! Before I start, I must share this picture. Sometimes E likes to go to bed with his stuffed animals hugged tight to him. This was no exception.

On Saturday, Mike, E, and I drove to the SCERA Park to participate in their Colonial Days. It is the second year we have gone and we enjoyed it. We wandered around, saw some Revolutionary soldiers, E and I beat Mike in a Colonial game, we watched pottery being made and we tried to get Mike to sit in the stocks. He wouldn't. I think he knew we would have laughed and not let him out! It ended up being too hot to stay for long and we left to find somewhere to cool down.

After a nice nap, we had some friends in the neighborhood over for a BBQ and Fireworks show. It was fun. Good food, good company, and great fireworks! Because some of the kids had an early bedtime, we did some fireworks in the daylight. I looked up to see this view of my driveway.

The kids loved the fireworks! E would watch them, and then do his own thing. When he watched them, he was engrossed in them.
As a delay until dark we broke out the fixings for s'mores. We learned about smoreos, which, unfortunately, we didn't have the fixings for. You roast a marshmallow and put it between an oreo cookie. Definately something I will try later.

After it got dark we started with more fireworks. I got brave and gave E a sparkler, but wouldn't let go of his hand. He has already had a bad burn and I didn't want him to get another. I got even braver with the 2nd sparkler and let him hold it all by himself so I could get pictures. He loved it!
He held it all over, above him, in front of him, to the side, fascinated, watching it all over. Notice the PJs that E is wearing. He picks out his own jammies and he wanted to wear the Christmas Sponge Bob jammies.

In between riding his trike around, E would occasionally stop and watch the fireworks. He had fun.
One of our neighbor girls had wrapped Jake up in a blanket (he was LOVING all of the attention he got that night.) I knew it was bedtime when I looked over and E had lain down by Jake and fallen asleep.

On Sunday after church, we headed up to join Mark and Sue in camping. We spent the day 4-wheeling (which E LOVES) and E sweet talked Grandpa into giving him many rides. E was so tired that he was asleep before we got more than a 1/2 mile away from the trailor on the way home. {grin}

On Monday, Mike, E, and I woke up early and participated in the 5K for the Freedom Festival. We ended up being about a mile and a half away from the starting line with 15 minutes before the race started. All of my running happened before the race started just to get to the starting line. We ended up walking the rest. E even got out of the stroller and joined in the walking. I was super grumpy (trust me on that) but it was fun. Even though I told Mike (in all my grumpiness) that I would never do another 5K with him, I am sure that we will.

After we finished the race, we found our friends and watched the parade. Our friends got a rockin spot and we watched the parade with about 6-7 families from our ward. It was really a lot of fun.

After the parade all 3 of us took a long nap and then up for another bbq with my family and then over to watch the PG fireworks with Mike's family.

The fourth of July was fun. We are so thankful that we live in a land that allows us the freedoms that we have. Happy Birthday America!

Park Fun!!

About a month ago, on a windy day, we decided to go to the park to fly kites. Once we got there, somebody else had other ideas.
"Kites?" he seemed to say? "They have no interest for me! Look at all of these slides to play on and things to climb on!"

While Mike and I were getting the kites ready to go, E actually took off and climbed up the ladder to the tallest slide. We watched him, not thinking he would go down once he got up there. We were wrong. He went down, and as the bottom of the slide ends at the middle of my thigh, he flew off and face planted it. Thankfully, it was full of soft wood chips. He still went down it again, this time with daddy up at the top and mamma down at the bottom to catch him.

After that, he stuck to the smaller slides. He climbed up and down every portion of the playground equipment. He fell down some, got dusted off and was off again. He went down more slides (shorter and closer to the ground this time.)

E followed me up the monkey bars and then we were stuck until Mike came and rescued us. We had fun! We explored every nook and cranny.

We had fun to our hearts content."shhh, don't tell Mom and Dad, I could have stayed there longer if they had let me, but the INSISTED we leave to go home. BOOO!"

Sometimes

Sometimes I like to go to sleep with my trucks...And sometimes, I like to go to sleep with every stuffed animal I own.
Sometimes, I like to read with Grandpa Jack (Grandpa Great)...

and sometimes, I just like to sit with him and watch TV.

Lagoon

On Saturday we had a mini Proctor Family reunion at Lagoon. Mark and Sue planned it and it was a TON of fun. They took their trailor and camped out at the KOA and then the Skinners, the Curtis', and Mike and I met them up their Saturday morning. Having the trailor up there was way nice because it gave us a place to go to eat lunch and dinner without having to eat the way overpriced, greasy food you normally find up at Lagoon.

We were at the gates right when they opened, and rather then heading to the popular rides (like Wicked) first off, we went on some rides the older boys would enjoy and they LOVED it! After 2 or 3 of these, we made our way to the kids area where there would be some rides that Little Man and his little cousins could enjoy. This is the first ride they went on. Little Man loved it! He loved the stearing wheel, the new experience, and then the ride started.

Once the ride started, Little Man wanted OFF! The whole time the ride was going around all you could hear was Little Man crying. Once the ride stopped, I was able to go into the gate to get him, but for the little kid rides, the seatbelts need to be unlocked with a key (which is good so that little kids don't unlock them up in the air! He didn't understand why I wasn't getting him out of the ride right away. :( Poor guy, he started off not having a good experience on the rides. He cried on the carousel when he was on the horse that moved up and down. Sue did find when she took him on the carousel later that he was ok if the horse didn't move up and down. He liked feeling in control.

If I was able to get him on rides, he was ok until they started, enjoying playing with whatever item they had on them. But once they started....By the time we went on the ferris wheel, Little Man was exhausted. He wouldn't sit in the seat next to either Mike or I. He wouldn't look out at the view (we did notice that there were so many people there that they were parking cars in the field to the north of Lagoon) and he just snuggled against me. I think it was around this time we decided to call a break for lunch. Seriously, having a place to go was NICE! As we were walking back into the park from lunch we stopped by the fence right under Wicked and watched a couple of the cars as the people took the plunge towards the earth. We all laughed. I am sure that when Amanda, Cameron, and I rode Wicked later, our faces had the same look on them! That look that says the person doesn't know whether or not to be thrilled or terrified for their life!
We truly enjoyed getting to hang out with family and see the older boys discover what Lagoon was all about. The older 2 joined us on the white roller coaster, and for those of you who don't know, it is an EXTREME ride! Just beware! After the white roller coaster there was no way that we could get them on Wicked with us, although, they did ride Spider and seemed to like it. It also was extreme! But the Centennial Screamer is not extreme. Just ask the older 2 boys if you want to know which rides are good to ride on. :)
Although it was fun going on rides and seeing the exploration, and seeing Rosie get soaking wet in Rattlesnake Rapids, one of my favorite moments? Watching all the little cousins play tag with each other while the older boys were riding the Bat! Why didn't I take a picture of it? I don't know, but I did snap this picture after the game of tag. You might ask if Little Man cried all day long? No, he really didn't. When he wasn't riding rides, he was fine and was having fun. But he didn't get a very long nap and it was a long day in the sun and he was tired! But, he is never too tired to steal Grandpas hat!
Lagoon was really a lot of fun. I hope that the next time we have the opportunity to go the rides will not scare Little Man as much and he will find it to be even a more enjoyable experience.

The Half Marathon

A couple of months ago, Rosie told me she was doing the Utah Valley 1/2 Marathon and invited me to participate with her. I seriously thought about it for a few weeks, and then decided, why not? I had waited so long to register that it had sold out and I had to register by signing up for a team. I was a team of one. Yeah me!

As luck would have it, right before the marathon on Saturday, Rosie got sick and was unable to participate. Because of sickness, weather, and the fact that we both had small children, neither of us ended up getting much (OK none at all) training in. We had decided that we were going to go for it anyway and then Rosie had to bow out. The night before I was desperately trying to find somebody to walk that distance with me. My dad saved the day and decided to join me, although he was less than excited about the 3 AM wakeup call.

Saturday morning, June 11th, 3 am rolled around much faster than desirable. I rolled out of bed, got dressed, put on my 5 Fingers and headed out. My dad and I drove down to the Provo Mall where we got on one of many school buses and headed up the canyon. All you saw in front of our bus were more buses. Seriously, who else would be up at such a crazy time of day?

At about 4:40ish AM, we got off the bus to a nice little area with fires lit all over. Let me just say that the amount of fires they had did not match for the thousands of people that were there and it was COLD!
I have to admit, I am a people watcher and I love watching large gatherings of people. I tried to keep myself warm and watched all the people around us. After I got tired of standing, and not about to sit in the weeds, I made my way over to the guard rail and continued my people watching as I played Angry Birds. Seriously, why is that game so addicting?

This is me trying to stay warm before the start of the race

About 30 minutes to the start of the race there was a mass exodus down toward the starting line. There were so many people. There were volunteers reminding everybody that the race was going to start on time and to please make your way to the starting line. When the race started I would hazard to guess that we were about 1/8 - 1/4th of a mile from the actual starting line, in the mass of people moving forward. My favorite part of the start? The volunteer stating, "Please make sure that you get credit for this race, make sure your racing bibs are exposed, whatever you have to do to do that," over and over again as everybody crossed over the starting line. I crossed over at 6:03 AM.

Photo courtesy of the Daily Herald

As we started, my dad and I were making pretty good time. We were averaging about 4 miles an hour and we were staying up with all of the other walkers. Not so bad. Then, my shoes started giving out. Not good. Meaning that my feet were not as broken into my Vibrams as I thought they were. By about a mile and a 1/2 the balls of my feet started to burn. Oh pain. I started to walk on the outside of my feet just to give the balls a little bit of a break. By mile 3 I didn't know how I was going to finish the next 10 miles. I tried to call Mike to see if he would bring me some different shoes. No answer. I got a hold of my sister who met me at Canyon Glen (mile 5ish) where I changed my Vibrams for my good ol' broken in Merrils (also not walking shoes really) and I was good to start again. My feet still hurt, but not as bad as before. That would change, trust me.

Mile 3 was the first time I wanted to quit. Mile 5, the marathoners started to pass me. Mile 8, I wanted to quit, but just kept telling myself, it is only 5 more miles. Mile 9, my dad started stopping a lot to stretch his legs. He was having a hard time. I would stop with him, but it was so painful to start walking again. Mike and Little Man drove past me. They stopped with traffic, I passed them, they passed me. I spent about 5 minutes almost catching up to them as they inched their way forward, then they were gone. I guess the whole time, Little Man was yelling at Mike to stop because they just drove past me.

Mile 9 1/2, I tried jogging, but my feet seriously felt like they were just wooden blocks attached to the end of my legs. Mile 10, my dad stopped but told me to keep going. I kept turning around and watching for him (I was a bit worried about him.) I would see him walking behind me, then stopping, then walking until I couldn't see him anymore.

I called my dad at about mile 10 1/2 and asked him how he was doing. I was willing to stop and wait for him if needed, but he told my that my mom was on her way to pick him up. I stopped worrying and kept walking. Mile 12 (only 1.1 miles left!) I seriously wanted to stop. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of how much I would regret it if I got so close and didn't finish. I kept moving. I was seriously hobbling at this point. I called my mom to see if she had my dad yet. Nope, she didn't anticipate the horrible traffic situation and was seriously a couple of miles away. I tried calling my dad, his phone had died and it went straight to voicemail.

At 500 North (only 5 more blocks, I can DO this!) Mike called me. He and Little Man were parked and working their way toward me. We met up at 200 North. Mike and Little Man joined me to walk to the end until the crowd at the finish line got way to big and they dropped off. Here are a couple of pictures of me as I am coming up on the finish line. I don't know if you can tell how tired I am. Training would have been smart. I don't know if I would have made a good pioneer. :)

In the act of finishing the race, we lost my dad. He apparently finished as I was working my way out of the crowed to try to see if I could find him in the racers that were still coming in. We passed like ships in the night and didn't even see each other. We spent about an hour and a half looking for him (mostly Mike because the longer I went without moving a ton the less I was able to move) and never found him. In the meantime, he was passed out on the County Courthouse stairs with a dead phone. We are glad he was ok, but sad he had to walk a couple of blocks further to find somebody to drive him to his car.

I am glad I finished this race. I might have been one of the very last people to come in from the 1/2 marathon and about half of the marathoners finished before me, but I FINISHED! It was such a feeling of accomplishement walking over that finishing line. I don't know if I could have done it if it hadn't been for the following:

1 - All the people sitting along the route watching for their loved ones and shouting encouragement (You're doing good! You're Almost done!)

2 - All the marathoners who would encourage me as they passed me. Seriously, they were running further than I was walking and they took the time to encourage me. It was greatly appreciated and greatly needed.

3 - Mike & Little Man walking the last 2 blocks with me. Seriously needed that.

4 - The emotion of all the people at the finishing line cheering everybody in. Having some friends there also that called out to me by name. Awesome.

5 - Sheer determination and will power, coupled with the thought that I would be SO disappointed in myself if I didn't finish.

I paid the price. I hobbled Sunday but my body has forgiven me (except for the numerous blisters that abound on my feet, they are still there) and for the most part I feel back to my normal self. If, and that is a big IF, I ever do a half marathon again, I will train for it. Even if I only plan on walking, I have learned that I need to be training to walk that far. Our bodies are amazing gifts and can do amazing things, but would do better with a little more preperation. :)

Even though Rosie wasn't able to do the race with me, I thank her for asking me so many months ago if I wanted to do it with her. Now I know I can. :)