This week Spencer left on his high adventure early Wednesday morning until Saturday afternoon.  He went hiking through the Zion narrows, went rappelling in St. George, cliff jumping and visited several church historical sites.  He arrived home with an empty jumbo sized Dr. Pepper cup and a empty bag of Dorritos - his choice for a lunch of champions.  His buzz wore off late last night and he finally crashed.  He had a great time and didn't even complain about the blisters he got from hiking all day in water (he improvised and duct taped the bottom of his feet for the other days).  I am grateful for these men who give up their free time to provide such amazing opportunities for him.

Taylor had school three days this week and perked right up when the bus came.  These bus drivers are a little different and it is taking some adjusting.  Tuesday I took kids to the pool planning to run home to meet the bus at 3:40.  In the summer they get out at 3.  So my wonderful neighbor Brooke seeing the bus drivers waiting brought her kids over and gave up their own swim time to sit with Taylor until I returned home.  Taylor has been up and down a lot lately.  Either he is happy and digestive system is working or he is not and nothing works.  It doesn't seem to correlate with how we care for him either.  So a work in progress to get him to a happy point.

With Spencer and Taylor gone that left some girl time at our house.  Girls enjoyed the quiet and slower pace.  We went and rented Allison a viola and started viola teacher shopping.  Robyn got these ginormous new tennis shoes with which she has to jump, dance and stomp on everything. The girls went to their first library class.  Allison's class is 'Nibbles and Scribbles' where they eat treats and write on different subjects.  Its taught by the author of "a Christmas orange" which Allison was very impressed by.  We even had a long girls only day at the pool with some friends.  It was a very girly week.  Friday night we picked up Costa Vida for dinner and met Jeremy at a concert he was shooting.  We had to leave before the main artists came out but we all enjoyed seeing Jeremy in action and doing something different.

The reason the kids and I had to leave early is that we had a very early start on Saturday.  I had to leave at 4 am to run a half marathon race with some friends.  It was down A.F. canyon and was gorgeous.  The only bad part was that my ipod wouldn't work so I ran without any music.  I was thankful for a friend who stayed with me.  And I got 1:54 which was a few seconds faster than my fastest race so far which had been down a steeper course.  So I was quite happy.  Today I am having a hard time walking down stairs or getting up and down.  This is the first time I have done a race that I haven't run four times a week and gotten to higher mileage before the race.  I ran 10 miles a month and a half ago but that has been it.  I have been running three times a week but staying between 4 and 9.  The good part was that I didn't have any injuries this year so far.  The bad part is that my body isn't quite used to it hence the walking shuffle today.  Not sure which way I prefer.

The girls also had an early morning of it.  Allison and Robyn had their first swim meet starting at 7 a.m.  Luckily our respite worker came to stay with Taylor so Jeremy only had to deal with two girls and the chaos of a first swim meet ever.  Robyn had spent Friday night crying for an hour before going to sleep that she would loose or be disqualified.  A bundle of nerves - makes us worry about the teenage years.  Notice the red eyes at the beginning of the meet:
They both did really well especially when you think they have only been doing this for two weeks.  Allison's team won their medley relay and she was very stoked about her ribbon.  Allison did five events and Robyn three - they were tired out.  And since Jeremy was there:
By the time I got there at 9, they were both happy and had figured out the system.


After Jeremy's heroic efforts to handle a morning of swim meet madness he then spent the afternoon putting up baseboards and installing new drip lines in our gardens. Quite the guy. He even took Robyn out late that night for her dessert with dad award for getting her chore card all finished. He convinced her that JCW's milkshakes were much better than Kneaders desserts.
 Robyn after the swim meet had spent the afternoon at a neighbor's birthday party so she was tuckered out and happy by then.  Our neighbor turned 70 so she had a carnival in her backyard - face painting, balloon animals, bouncy house, huge waterslide, cake, treats and BBQ.  Allison came home as she said she was too old for it but Robyn spent the day there in happy delirium.  I hope I do that when I turn 70.