Tired feet but a happy heart

Has it really been a week since my last post? Bear with me, but this post is going to be light on Bronco Babies and heavy on the Bronco Babies' mom. Over the weekend, I participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and had a really wonderful time. I have about 10 blisters on my feet and sore legs but I feel really good about my participation and contribution to such a good cause. I walked with more than 1200 people who raised $2.6 million for breast cancer research and programs and learned a lot along the way.

We walked 22 miles on Saturday and 13 miles on Sunday for a grand total of 35 miles. I can say that it really is one of the hardest physical feats I've ever attempted. Not quite harder than labor with Will but close. Here I am at mile 20 on Saturday. I'm still smiling but feeling a little delirious at this point, too. We saw a lot of beatiful scenery. The walk started in Keystone, Colorado and continued through Dillon, Frisco and then on to Breckenridge for the finish. The picture below is from Sunday. At this point my feet were really hurting and it was hard to put one foot in front of the other. I had to focus on a sign that I had seen earlier on Saturday - "Blisters are easy. Chemo is hard." More beautiful scenery kept us going. We had great weather for the trip - it was only in the mid-70's the whole weekend. Cheyenne and Denver were in the mid to upper 90's so we picked a great time to spend a weekend in the mountains!I had to take a picture of this young man. There were a lot of people along the route with motivational signs and cheers and great attitudes that kept us going. His sign made me giggle the most. At 12 or 13, I don't know that he really knows how much they matter but I appreciate the sentiment. :) Along the route, and especially on the second day, the Avon Crew had rest stops manned by doctors and nurses who paid great attention to your feet! I had blisters the size of extra appendages by this point but it was so nice to be able to let the experts take care of them and patch me up enough to make it to the next mile.

I walked all weekend with my friend Brittany. Her husband and two girls and Glenn and the kids came up on Saturday to see us and cheer us on along the way. It was so nice to have them there! Seeing my kiddos and their sweet faces (and Glenn's too) at mile 11 on Sunday really helped me finish strong.

I'm still trying to fundraise for the Avon Walk as I have two more months to fulfill my fundraising obligation. If you feel moved to donate, go here - http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk/Denver?px=5395344&pg=personal&fr_id=1940. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Back later in the week with pictures of the stars of this blog.

Ice cream and giant screaming tantrums... and the Toy Story movie, too

This weekend, I took both kids to the zoo on Saturday so that Glenn could get some work done. It was a pretty nice day. Grandma H came with us, along with Pop-pop's cousin Darla. The weather was nice and both kids really enjoyed looking at all of the animals. Things were going great until we decided to get some ice cream. (Insert ominous music here).

I ordered a small cone for Will and a large(r) cone for me and Reina to share because while I'm sympathetic to the plights of little sisters, I do not think a 16-month old needs her own cone. I gave Reina a few bites with a spoon and then the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan. Reina noticed that her brother had his own cone and she quickly become incredibly dissatisfied with sharing with me. She folded herself in half, howled, crawled away, shook her head emphatically and proceeded to through a big ol' slobbering fit. Even when I offered her spoonfuls of ice cream, she would hit the spoon out of the way and crawl away crying.

Let me clarify an important point: SHE WOULD RATHER HAVE NO ICE CREAM AT ALL THAN SHARE WITH HER MOTHER.

The storm eventually subsided because I ate the ice cream down to a manageable size (yes, it was a sacrifice but one that I'm happy to do for my children) so that The Queen could have own cone. Here's what the aftermath looked like. "Yes, I have my own cone but I'm still angry and will not be making eye contact with you anytime soon." Look closely and you can see a leftover tear or two trickling down her pretty little face. "Lady, I'm serious about the eye contact!" On Sunday, Glenn and I took Will to see Toy Story 3. He was giddy with excitement all weekend and kept asking if it was time to go to the movie yet. (Note to self: Next time, don't tell him that we are going to a movie until about 15 minutes prior to leaving the house.) It's a great movie and the whole family enjoyed it. There were definitely some scary parts but Mr. Stoic handled it well. He also fell asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the movie theater. Go see the movie!!

This month

It's been a busy month and I haven't had time to write about all of the little teeny bitty excruciating details like I did when I was working part-time. There's too much going on! Here's a rundown of the most important things that have happened this month (in no particular order).

1. Reina's first day at Montessori was on Monday. We had to say goodbye to a really, REALLY great babysitter (thank you Gena!!) which was hard for everybody but it's nice to have both kids in the same building. Reina's adjusting pretty well. Will's happy to share his school with his sister. When I picked them up this afternoon (they are in different rooms), Will saw Reina with me and said "Hello sweetheart!"

2. Canyon's still kicking! She's 15 and definitely slowing down. After a few incidents in the last month, we decided we'd better take her to the vet and get some bloodwork done to make sure that everything was still working. Her tests came back fine! The vet said that she's in remarkable shape for a 15-year old. I'm just glad that she's still with us.

3. Will's playing t-ball. Well, let's use the term "playing" pretty loosely. Will's parents drive him to t-ball and he marches out onto the field with the rest of his team. From there, it becomes less about the actual game of t-ball and more about the snacks, rolling around the grass and occasionally swinging a bat at a ball. I think we're all a little relieved when the "game" is over.

4. Reina's thisclose to officially walking. In fact, she's probably officially walking. She just hasn't decided to make it official method of mobility. She'll take a few steps and then crawl. She's also learned how to shimmy out of her highchair seat, turn around and then sit with her bottom on the tray. Nope, not dangerous at all. We never had to use the highchair's straps and buckles with Will. I'm not thinking that's going to be the case this time.

5. A few weeks ago, I was jogging on a Saturday morning and passed a big garage sale. They were selling a little stroller for dolls and I stopped and bought it for Reina. I thought it might help her want to walk more. I brought it home and Will was very excited. He immediately took it over and raced around the house with it. Along with the stroller, the sellers included a bag of dress-up clothes that included a tiara. Will walked into the kitchen the other night wearing the tiara and said, "Look Mom! I'm a princess!"

6. Cousins! We had another great visit with the cousins tonight and both Will and Reina have such a fun time with them. Here's the whole gang headed to the park. Happy faces!

T-ball!

Tonight was Will's first t-ball game. He's playing on a team of 3- and 4-year olds from his Montessori school. To clarify a "game" is actually just two rounds of each team hitting and then fielding. Every kid (and most parents, too!) gets to run the bases and the focus is just on trying to get them to understand the game. You know it's going to be a long night when the first words out of your kid's mouth when you get to the field are "is it time for snacks yet?" Ah well, we've got plenty of time to work on his skills. I'm hoping that next week they'll teach him how to slide into second and maybe steal home but perhaps we should just focus on teaching him how to make contact with the actual ball instead of hitting the tee so hard that the ball just sails off.

For those of you who were wondering, there IS crying in T-ball, along with whining, wrestling, laying down in the infield and full-blown meltdowns. At least there are snacks.

Mama!

Reina's starting to talk more. She says a lot of "dis" and "dat" and "mama mama mama." Unfortunately, "mama" doesn't always refer to me. Sometimes it means "Hand me that thing over there that I'm not supposed to play with, mama." Other times it means "I'm not happy with the current situation and I would prefer that you find alternative ways to entertain me, mama." It might also mean "Will's not letting me play with his toy/whack him in the head/eat his food, mama."

But there are a few times when she chants "mama, mama, mama, mama" and then crawls over to me and snuggles up in my lap. Mama.

Road trip!

This week, the kids accompanied me on a work trip to Park City, UT. Grandma Hansen came along as the assistant chauffer, nanny and toddler wrangler. Mapquest indicated that it was about a 6-hour drive from Cheyenne but with two kids in the backseat, it was more like an 8-hour drive. We left on Monday and came back Thursday. It went (surprisingly) well! The kids handled the long car ride with a limited number of tantrums and I think they had fun staying in a hotel room and visiting a new town.

We left Cheyenne armed with new toys and a portable dvd player. Before I had kids, I thought that my children would never need one of those to stay entertained in the car. Then I had a three-year old. Reina didn't have the dvd player (except when Will was napping) but she did have a bowl of snacks and a new phone/piano. Grandma Hansen and I kept thinking that our phone was ringing as Reina played with her new toy. No, that wasn't confusing at all! The roughest day on the trip was Tuesday. Will didn't nap in the afternoon. When my meetings ended for the day, Grandma and I took the kids and the strollers and walked through old Park City. Will didn't even make it out of the car before falling asleep. Doesn't that look comfortable?

Will's mood improved long enough for us to snap a quick picture of the two of them and a giant bronze bear. The hotel had a heated pool and since we are Wyoming-ites, we braved the 70 degree weather for a quick dip. Reina loved it and rocked her new bikini (thanks Aunt Vicky!). Headed home and not a moment too soon.

Reina's first haircut

Reina had her first haircut today. She has such lovely curly locks that I was hesitant to get them chopped. But as you can tell from the last few weeks of pictures, her bangs were starting to get too long and she was starting to look like a surly teenager so off to the hairdresser we went.

It was a bit hectic because big brother (who also needed a haircut as you can see below) was along for the adventure. Reina's refusal to sit anywhere than on my lap made picture-taking a little difficult. Her refusal to look at the camera also made picture-taking a little difficult so here's the side view. And the other-side view.

I guess you'll just have to trust me that she looks fabulous with her new 'do.

Three-Day Weekends

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We did some yard work and some house work. We exercised and took naps. We ate some good food and some really bad (for you) food. And most of all, we had fun.

On Sunday, we took the kids up to Vedauwoo for a picnic dinner, complete with a campfire and marshallows. We met up with some friends and their two daughters (ages 4 and 2) and had a great time.

While we were up there, some of us found alternative transportation. And alternative mouth protection. Some of us demonstrated absolutely no fear by shimmying up and down rocks and stumps of all sizes. Some of us tried marshmallows for the first time and found them very much to our liking. And some of us roared with delight.