Instalife----September

Thank goodness for Instagram! I promise I really do take photos on my real camera, but man...these days have been full! Fun, full, and I'm not going to lie a little exhausting at times. There are days I look around and wish I could squeeze a few more tasks into each day, but oh well...such are the days as a household of 5!

School time is here again.

Ainsley and Aubrey shared in Aubrey's excitement to be going to kindergarten!!

Face-painting fun after the Cause & Event race. Ainsley "ran" with me in the stroller and wore an official race number too. About halfway through the race she started telling people "I hurt my knee during my race." Must be hard to be pushed for 3.1 miles!!

Its a family event! Ella ran her very 1st race- 1 mile. She did great and we were so proud of her for completing it. Neal took 3rd in his division for the 5K. I walked with Gina as she was trying to nurse her stress-fractured leg, she didn't have to ask me twice to walk not run.

This year we got Halloween costumes a little early. The church had a superhero weekend and the girls wanted outfits to wear for that event. I, on the other hand, was not willing to buy 2 costumes for each girl. The compromise was that we are Batgril and Wonder Woman for Halloween this year and could wear costumes in September.

Remembering to take time on our walks home from school in the morning to enjoy the "Ainsley sized" things of the world. Each morning we stop at this same retaining wall and sit because "its an Ainsley sized bench!"

Race time once again! 3.1 miles, more running than obstacles (and either I'm stronger or the obstacles were much easier than the past races!) and for a non-beer-lover, the BEST spiced banana beer!

Some days just don't go as planned. This was one such day. From the moment I woke up, things just didn't my way. Our morning progressed in this manner and moments into church, I got paged back to the kids wing. Ainsley had pottied in her undies, dress was wet and shoes were wet. Icing on the cake, no dry clothes in the van. We only live 5 minutes from church but of course Ainsley fell asleep on the way!!

Never trust when a 2 year old is quiet. Fortunately it was only bandaids this time, at least they are easy to clean-up!

Family pictures 2014 by CRoeMedia.com

Its a little muddy but SO MUCH FUN!! Warrior Dash 2014

There ya have it. Maybe/hopefully soon I'll fill in the pieces in between. If not, at least you know what we've been up to and the adventures we are constantly having.

Instalife---August

I had grand grand plans to go back and make detailed entries to get the ol' blog back on track. Here we are getting the reality....Its October and if I don't play catch up then I'll become overwhelmed and just quit. So, we will enjoy Instagram and the high points while saying "so long" to summer!

We spent the last week of July in the Bend-Sunriver area. 11 kids, 6 adults, 6 mile bike ride with 3 waterfalls jumped into/slid down, 5 mile bike ride around Sunriver, 10 thundereggs dug, more s'mores eaten than we probably want to admit. SO M U C H FUN!!!!

This picture on our way home so beautifully captured our week--a few rain clouds couldn't damper our week, the fun always shined through!

Sneak peak of Kerner family pictures! 9 kids, 8 adults.

Another sneak peak of the family pictures. We were so blessed to be able to use the farm of a very loving family from our church.

Cousins and dress-up, always making memories!

9 years of doing life together. 9 years of high highs and learning times. 9 years that I could never imagine doing without you!

Family fun night at Oaks Park with daddy's work.

Ending the night on the Ferris Wheel. Perfect ending to a great evening!

Parenting tip #1- baby powder applied to sandy kids makes for effortless/painless sand removal. Parenting tip #2- keep said baby powder away from said sandy kid or have fun cleaning!

Beautiful sunset, beautiful family, beautiful memories.

Saying goodbye to summer on a gloomy day with donuts!!

Instalife----July

The bits and pieces of our July!

Aubrey was so So SO excited to lose her first tooth!!

We spent every morning for 4 weeks at the pool for swimming lessons. These 2 decided to have some fun decorating a picture!

Scars heal, glory fades, all we're left with are the memories made...Life is short so go on and live it! 6.89 miles, 2 hours 46 minutes (Neal finished an hour before the girls did!) Of all the races we did this summer, this one challenged me the most. There was SO M U C H upHILL running. We completely skipped 3 obstacles, but just like the rest its quite the feeling when you finish...without dying ;-)

Ella had had a sore throat for a while, slowly she started developing a swollen gland on the right side of her neck and once the little sore appeared in her throat I took her in to the doc. The doc looked in her mouth, didn't seem too impressed with the throat so she continued examining. After she looks in Ella's right ear, the doc smiles and said "Did you know you have something in your ear?" I thought the doc was just being nice talking about Ella's earring. Then she said, "No...really. She has something in her ear!" A bead!?!? Ella started to cry. I tried to calmly tell her, "Well you put it in there!" Apparently it had been in there so long that she couldn't even remember how or when it got in there. Oh kids!!!

And this just barely touches on the fun of our July!! Stay tuned. I'm slowly but surely plugging away...post by post...bringing the ol' blog back up-to-date...

Instalife-----June

Love spending just a few minutes away from the rest of the family with this girl. She is growing up so quickly!

Good thing Neal isn't bothered by a little mud ;-)

Cutting off some length to enjoy the warmer months.

Last family skate night. The local skating rink closed its doors forever.

Aubrey also wanted in on getting a new summer 'do!

Ainsley decided to give herself "a makeover." So beautiful!

Ella's Girl Scout troop sold so many cookies this year, the troop was able to treat the girls AND their families to a night at Great Wolf Lodge. Great way to welcome in summer!

Happy Father's day to the best daddy! Our girls so are blessed to have a daddy who is all about the fun, loves to pamper them and who takes being a single daddy every other weekend as a challenge to have the most fun possible. We love you!

Feeding the ducks...or the Ainsley! I think for every 1 piece the ducks got, Ainsley got 2!! Ella was able to hold still enough for the duck to take the bread from her hand.

How many cousins can you fit in one side of a Dairy Queen booth?? Ella, Jude, Aubrey and Jenna.

Pretending to be firemen and playing in the ambulance at the Tuesday market.

Its safe to assume that our summer was busy and full of lots of fun adventures. Here's to trying to recap and document all our fun times!!!

Rugged Maniac

Neal and I bridged in the wold of "mud races" this past May. Our first adventure was the 'Rugged Maniac' 3.1 miles, 31 obstacles. I'll admit, it was a lot more fun than I imagined. Being part of a team again, pushing yourself to test the limits of your own strength and the feeling of accomplishment when you complete something you thought impossible...we have definitely caught the "mud races" bug and keep signing up for more and more!

Just a little jump over the fire. Its hard to tell in this picture, but I am already completely covered in mud and we aren't even to mile 1. No one else is covered in mud because I am the graceful one who slipped in the mud crossing and went completely under. All the way, mud dripping from hair into eyes for the ENTIRE race! Thankfully Ryan had a dry spot on the back of his shoulder and he let me dry my eyes as needed ;-)

Neal was a little ahead of the group so he went back and repeated the fire jump multiple times to get the "perfect" photo!

Just a little crawl through the mud with barbed wire over it. Again with Neal hamming it up for the camera. I wonder if he enjoyed himself?!?!

Balance beam over a pool of water.

Sliding down the waterslide and running for the finish. (I find it funny that behind Neal running like he is trying to beat the crowd you can see Cindy and I walking casually because in fact we have already finished.) Again, camera ham!!!

Gina, Cindy and I sliding into the finish!

I made it. First time in my life I have ever run 3.1 miles in any sort of consecutive fashion. We finished in 1hr 10 minutes which for a team of 6 and the waiting at obstacles, I'm pretty proud of that!!

I wish they would have had a person at the ring obstacle. I am so proud that I was able to cross the hanging rings over the pool of water!

After we got home from this race, we set out to find more to sign up for. In July, Neal and I did 'Race the Reeper.' This one was 6.89 miles (only supposed to be 6.2) of uphill insanity!!! It was hot, there were bees and lots and LOTS and L O T S of hills. Neal finished in like 1 hr 40 minutes, I was a little behind...like an hour! with a finish time of 2 hr 45 minutes. But man, I did it and didn't die though some of those hills made me feel like I might.

Up next, Neal is off to run the Inferno at the end of this month. It involves lots of swimming and well, if you remember from the Cozumel post I swim in circles on my back so trying to do it around other people with a timed component isn't probably my best idea. After that we both are running the Warrior Dash, 3.1 mile mud race with 12 obstacles. Our last race thus far on the calendar is an actual 5K. I'll be honest, I've completed all of these races but they involved stopping to complete obstacles and wait for the people to go ahead of you. This is just continuous running, for 3 miles!!

You might say we are hooked, but there are worse things to be hooked on right?!?!

: : Climbed a mountain and turned around : :

Spring's end meant the ranch had finally dried out enough for us to say our final goodbye to Poppa. Spreading ashes was something I have never been a part of and something I honestly didn't know how to prepare for. Even now, 2 months later I still don't know that I can sum up that experience. The view was beautiful, the family was together and yet it was still just indescribable.

This was the panoramic view from the top. The second frame is the sleepy little town of Riddle. Beautiful, somber grey reflecting the event and at the same time so full of life and the things Poppa loved. Driving up there were 2 elk crossing the ridge in front of us; Poppa and Uncle Greg spent many hours/days hunting on this property. Deer running through the fields, the cattle, Poppa's family. We couldn't help but smile as we saw the elk and deer, almost as if Poppa was making his presence known to us that day.

Kids are always a wonderful distraction and are also great at setting the mood. All of them saw the open field as a giant challenge to run through as much of it as possible.

They stopped to smell the wildflowers and truly take it all there was to see. Being "city girls" this was the first time they had literally around on top of a mountain.

Uncle Greg, Kolby, Ainsley, Ella and Aubrey helping spread the ashes.

Blue sky breaking through as we finished spreading. The grey is there but being replaced by light.

These two have such a cute relationship. Kolby walks over to Ainsley, "Whatcha doin'?" "Playing in the dirt." "Oh, ok!"

Lots of driving to get to Riddle, late night/early morning equals one tired little girl. She was so excited to ride in Uncle Greg's truck without her carseat, but even that excitement couldn't keep her awake on the way home.

Grandma had a fountain build and planted a rose bush in the backyard to be her own personal little memorial place. We spread the remaining ashes around the rose bush.

We finished out the day doing one of the things Poppa loved most... EATING!!

We love you and miss you Poppa, but we are so so grateful to the times and memories we hold.