Crash And Burn

After church on Sunday we decided to go sledding on some hills over by Rilyn's school. We knew that the snow was going to be gone in the next few days so we had to take advantage of it. Last year Casen slept through sledding inside my coat so this was his first time to really enjoy it. He lasted about 3 runs and then he wanted to go sit in the car.

It was cold. Rilyn is my crazy girl! She was all over that hill!

We had to drag her back to the car because her face looked like it was about to get frost bite!

While out on the hill we had 2 little spills, correction, I had 2 spills. The hill had a little berm down at the bottom to catch mud and if you hit it going too fast it hurt so we had to try hard to slow down. It made for some entertaining runs. We have one tube that is faster than the other ones and when Rilyn was in that one, Cody or I had to stand at the bottom of the hill to catch her. I have a few bruises from her flying into me. Ouch. We sent Casen part way down on his own.

He was ok as long as the tube didn't spin. And one time he went down and hit a little bump and launched. He decided he was done after that. Rilyn kept wanting to race down the hill. I can't tell you how many times we had to hike up the hill. At least this year she was big enough to drag her own tube up the hill! Oh and about those spills I took... the first one Casen and I were going down on a tube and hit a huge rock and ripped open the bottom of the tube and sent us down the hill on my back.

It was pretty dang funny. The second spill was my last run down the hill. Rilyn made me race her and I got going to fast to slow down for the berm at the bottom. Needless to say I hit it hard and launched. Cody got a picture of me pre-hit, starting to fly, and after landing.

What a way to end the day. Sunday night we celebrated Ashlee's birthday over the at Lundbergs. We love getting together with our friends. Monday was the Chinese New Year so to celebrate we had a big Chinese feast with the Meads and the Lundbergs (of course I totally forgot to take pictures). It was an awesome time again. I really don't know what I'm going to do without our friends when school is over. Hopefully we can all get into good residencies close together so we can visit! The snow was totally gone by Tuesday. This has been a really sad winter so far. It was still pretty cold and wet so we hung out inside and dreamt of warmer weather. Rilyn and Casen love sitting on the counter.

They're my little buddies in the kitchen. The little man is so comfy up there he can even lay down and watch a movie.

What a goof. We are getting really excited to go to AZ so we dusted off our sunglasses and tested them out to make sure they were ready to go.

Watch out sunshine we're coming for you!

Car Troubles

This week we spent lots of time inside keeping warm. The kids decided to be bow heads one night.

Casen rocked the bow Mohawk and Rilyn had a full headfull. They're too funny. Rilyn and I tried to make sugar cookies with hearts in them.

They turned out looking more like kidneys but oh well. Maybe next time we'll get it. Oh Friday morning I went out to warm up the car to take Rilyn to school and the car wouldn't start. My battery was totally dead! Oh no! Luckily Ashlee was around so she came over to jump me. I guess girls working on cars is not something that happens much over here because we had quite the audience. One of my neighbors even came over to make sure we weren't going to blow anything up. Well after half an hour of jumping the battery was still dead. Bummer. So I had to wait until Cody came home so I could go pick up a new battery. The best part was when I came home and installed the battery. My next door neighbor was so impressed that I could change a battery by myself. I thought it was funny. Saturday the kids and I played in the snow outside.

The snow was a little too soft to make a snow man but we tried and then Rilyn destroyed it. Later, Cassidy and I took Ashlee to lunch for her birthday.

We had quite the adventure driving to Wilkes Barre in the snow. Who knew that when you hit thick slush your ABS comes on and the speedometer drops to zero. It's crazy! Don't worry we made it there in one piece. I got to show off my mechanical skills again on the way home when one of the battery connections came loose. The girls were very impressed that I could fix it without calling Cody for help. It was a proud moment. Anyways, now we finally have some snow so were off to go play some more.

There's always a setback

This has been kind of a bummer week at our house. It all started last Sunday when Casen tried to break my neck by using my hair as a rope when he fell off the couch. Talk about serious whip lash. Don't worry about Casen. My super rope hair worked and he was able to lightly tap the ground rather than smash into it like he normally does. Anyways, my sore neck made training this week super fun. But I survived, sort of, until Wednesday. That's when my ankle really started hurting. Like so bad that I was in constant pain. Thursday the doctor sent me to get x-rays to see if I could have a stress fracture but I'm still waiting for the results. She told me to take it easy for a while and after sitting around for a few days everything is definitely feeling better, except that I feel like a lazy bum. Oh and to top all of that off everyone in the house is now sick. Yeah. Its been a great week over here. At least I have my Napoleon Dynamite wanna be who rocks his snow boots all day to keep a smile on my face.

And my food storage construction workers who build towers out of my stock pile.

Who says you can't play with your food? Now I have to make a tough decision. I'm supposed to run a marathon in February in AZ. Thanks to taking half the week off and my ankle still not being 100% I'm wondering if I'll even be able to run a full marathon so I'm considering switching to the half marathon. The only think holding me back is wondering how I'm going to feel about myself if I do that. Will I feel like I short changed myself or like I gave up or will I feel like I made the right choice? Maybe I'll wait until I do a few runs this next week to see how everything is holding up before I make any decisions.

Welcome to 2012

This year started off great. Casen started nursery

and Rilyn moved up to CTR 5.

They both are loving their new classes. Rilyn is really loving that Smitty and Ashlee/Mike (when Ash has to work) are her teachers. Then to really kick off our new year right Rilyn caught strep throat. WooHoo. Luckily she was feeling better by the end of the week so Cody and I could go out and celebrate our anniversary.

(Thanks Ashlee and Cassidy for babysitting). I've been training pretty hard because my next marathon is coming up quick. Thank goodness it's in AZ because it's getting too dang cold to run outside. Gotta love the treadmill.

Going Out With A Bang

Most of this week was spent sitting next to my big boy who is learning to use the potty.

Lets just say its going to be a very long process but we're very proud of him. Hes growing up so fast! New Years Eve this year was pretty fun. We headed over to the Burnetts for dinner and football then later everyone headed over to our house to play games and ring in the new year. Ashlee brought stuff to make Italian Soda and I had way too many of those.

They're addictive! I can't believe we all made it to midnight. I don't know how many more years we're going to be able to do that. It seems to get harder every year. Probably because our kids have a thing against sleeping in. They think that making it to 7 is sleeping in. Its sick really. This last year really was amazing and quite an adventure. Cody is over halfway done with med school and he turned 30!

We moved to Scranton.

We got to spend lots of time with our friends and got to see our families.

Cody got to go to AZ for the first time in over 2 years.

We went on a lot of fun trips:
Washington DC in April

Allentown in June

East Hampton, NY in June

Palmyra, NY in July

Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA in August

Sleepy Hollow, NY in October

Arizona in November

I ran my first marathon.

Rilyn starting going to a big kid school.

Shes getting so grown up. She loves to pick out her own clothes and she has quite the fashion sense. Casen gets bigger every day.

He can run, jump, climb, talk, and throw a massive fit. I hope that this next year is just as great as the last and can not wait for the adventures that lay ahead of us. There are a few things that we know we can look forward to this year: Cody starting 4th year!! Cody applying to residency and interviewing. The kids and I spending our last year in Scranton (this is a sad thing because we will really miss our friends and will really, really miss not living with Cody for the months he'll be gone but we're excited to spend a few months in AZ). Ashley running another marathon in Feb. Rilyn starting Kindergarten. And many more things to come. Happy New Year everyone!