Happy Campers

This weekend our friends Maile and Dave organized a big labor day camp out. It was our first time camping with the girls and even though I was nervous about the kids being able to sleep, they both did awesome! I think all the great activities like s'more roasting, exploring in the woods, fireworks, and watching the campfire really wore them out. I thought we'd have to lay with them for awhile to get them to fall asleep but we put them down a little after 9 and Teya just hit the pillow and was out! Brinley required a little more coaxing, but after a couple lullabies and back rubbing she was gone too. With both girls out we headed back to the campfire for some good chatting and bonding time with the other adults.

Teya woke up once in the middle of the night because she had to go potty. It was pretty cold though and when she realized she'd have to get out of her sleeping bag and brave the outhouse she changed her mind and just held it till the morning! (bladder of steel!)

Anyway, It was a really fun time and great to know that our girls are champs when it comes to camping! Enjoy the pics!

Yummy S'mores!!

Chocolate S'more face

Some pics of the campfire crowd. I think there were around 13 families that came. It was a great group!

Teya exploring the "spooky woods"

Our cute little tent. It looks small but it actually fit all four of us really well!

I brought the girls in the tent to change them into their jammies and they got all crazy hyper in there!

Teya was pretty excited about the sparklers! Huge props to JP for bringing those, they were a big hit with the kids.

This is Brinley right before we put her to bed. She was SOOOO tired! (can you tell? : )

And here she is waking up in the morning with Daddy.

Can't get enough of her big fat cheesy smile! How can you not be happy waking up to that face?

And one more Brinley smile. (couldn't resist) This one is during breakfast with some granola remnants on her face. The epitome of a happy camper : )

Friday Foto (and video!)

Today's Friday Foto is from earlier this week when Teya had her very first visit to the Dentist. Doesn't she look so grown up in that chair? I can hardly stand it! She was so brave and did a great job.

Sadly she does have a cavity that we're going to have to get filled. I think it has to do with the fact that she hated brushing her teeth when she was little. We'd have to pin her down and she'd scream, kick, writhe and cry. It was so horrible that being a light weight 1st time mom I might've just skipped it a couple times. Luckily now she's a great brusher and the good news is she's taught Brinley to love brushing her teeth as well. So even though Brinley is pretty much guaranteed to need braces (the poor dear has her mother's crooked teeth) I don't think she'll have any cavities, at least not when she's three.

Here is a great video of the girls brushing their teeth together. Brinley spits and everything, all thanks to the good example of her big sissy. Gotta love the persuasive power of older siblings!

Kitchen Warriors

It may have taken us 3 1/2 hours, and I may never attempt such an ambitious recipe again, but Maria and I are claiming kitchen warrior status for the homemade lasagna we made for our men last night! Here is a link to the recipe http://mylasagnarecipe.com/ Let's just say it involved us cutting up fresh basil leaves, grating a pound a real mozzarella, and throwing in spices I've never cooked with, like fennel seed. Oh yeah, we are hard core!!! (all you REAL hard core chefs are like, "aw, cute, Becca thinks she can cook now... bless her heart") But seriously! We felt so accomplished! (Of course, I think it would've taken me 5 hours without Maria and I probably would've had a meltdown somewhere in the middle) Still, I'm patting myself on the back for trying something new. I'd also like to mention that we made homemade bread rolls, fresh green beans, and a strawberry poppyseed salad for extra credit. Our men were quite appropriately blown away, and I'm giving myself the weekend off cooking because I EARNED it! : )

Keeping it Real Campaign 2009

So I was blog surfing yesterday and came across the Let's Get Real 2009: Perfect people lie Challenge. I found it refreshing and somewhat liberating, but I didn't know if I had the guts to do it! After thinking it over, a couple of things have convinced me to be brave and snap some pictures of my house in all it's natural glory.

1) Every time anyone comes to my house unannounced I find myself bumbling out disclaimers like "oh please excuse the mess, it's normally not like this..." who am I kidding? Of course it's normally like that. I have little children. Even if I followed them around cleaning 24/7 I don't think the whole thing could ever remain tidy for longer than 15 minutes. (unless I had them in straight jackets, but that's just wrong...) So yeah, I think step 1 is for me to stop the denial and accept that my house is a house that is lived in, and therefore, messy.

2) I was talking to my friend awhile back about "The blog induced depression" That one can go into after reading about other people's "perfect" lives. Well we ALL know that NOBODY'S perfect, so here's to a little bit of imperfection!

3) And finally, I read this quote off another friend's blog who accepted the challenge and it just really hit home to me. She said, "I'm learning that I'm only going to be in this stage of my life once...and then it's going to be gone & if i don't make the most of it & try to enjoy each day...messy house or not...I'll look back and regret it...everything turns out to be okay. eventually things get put away (it may be days later), but it all gets done, eventually!"

So without further ado, I bring you, My house.

First stop is my living room. That's Teya on the couch plugged into some cartoons. Yes, I let my child watch a full length cartoon every day while Brinley naps because dog gone it! I need some quiet time too! On the floor is an empty puffs can, wipes from changing Brinley's diaper, Brinley's clothes that I stripped off her before putting her down for a nap, and a freshly drained bottle that I gave her to help her sleep because I am a soft bellied sucker who doesn't have the heart to wean her from the bottle even though she's almost 14 months old.

Next is a close up of the TV stand. Why are there 7 DVD's out of their cases? No wonder Teya's cartoons always skip...And maybe someday I'll think of a better place to keep my hand weights, but today is not that day.

Here's a closer look at our table. Ramen noodles stuck to the table top. Teya's slimy frog to accompany her for lunch. And toy shelves in my dining room because let's face it, that's where all the toys end up anyway!
Let's visit the kitchen shall we? More bottles. I really need to buckle down on the bottle weaning. I will say that the sink actually looks pretty good! (it should considering that I am constantly loading and unloading the dishwasher all day long)

Kitchen counter with a can of Slim Fast, a tribute to my futile attempts to break up with junk food. At least I'm trying...What else? Wipes, baby shoes, my purse, and the mail. Sometimes my counter doubles as a desk, but more often it's just my catch all when I walk in the door.

Here's my "desk" (a.k.a. cheap card table with all our electronic junk thrown on top) I see snacks, my empty bowl from lunch (blogging makes me hungry) the diaper bag, oh and that's a little egg timer by the computer because I'm trying this new thing where I limit my computer time. (As I've already spent an hour on this post I will say that the egg timer isn't working...yet...)

Heading upstairs (brace yourselves, it's about to get scary!) but first, the stairs themselves. Laundry that I need to take up, a bag of stinky old rags, and notice the lovely crayon markings on the wall. Thank you Brinley.

At the top of the stairs is my room. I'm only posting this little corner because you can only be so brave... Bed isn't made, my jeans never made it to the hamper, more wipes and clothes from one of Brinley's many spontaneous diaper changes. Monty's dog food bowl that he drags in our room to eat and his special monkey Zander.

Our loft. Uh... yeah. I think I pulled all that camping stuff out 2 weeks ago to make room in the guestroom for my parents. Then I just left it there because we're going camping this weekend. I guess at the time I thought, "why put it away when I'm gonna use it again in three weeks?"

And since I won't post pics of the bathrooms or my closets of shame, I give you my own crowning jewel, Teya and Brinley's room. No need to describe the beauty you see here. Although I would like to point out the lovely Dora blanket that I draped over the window to block out the light when they sleep. Someday I'll put in curtains, but once again, today is not that day.



Whew! Well it feels good to have that off my chest. Try it if your feeling brave. It's pretty liberating. Also I would like to apologize to my Mom. I know you raised me better than this, but really Mom, we can't all be superhuman cleaners like you! : ) And now I bid you farewell, I think I have a house that needs to be cleaned!

Fried Snickers and the Miracle of Birth

The State fair is in town. Everyone told us we just had to go. Well what do you do at the state fair? I asked.The responses went somewhat like this,

"Make sure you buy the bucket of hot homemade cookies and then go hang out at the all you can drink milk bar."
"OOOO! You just HAVE to get the fried _______ (insert food item here)"
"Cheese curds, do not forget the cheese curds"
"Oh yeah, and don't miss the _______ on a stick (again, think of any food and they probably had it on a stick")

Sooo, we packed up some sunscreen and Rolaids and headed off for a day of gluttonous indulgence and fattening fair food. Within the first 1o minutes of arrival we had already bought Teya a snow cone and an ice cream cone. Personally I went straight for the fried snickers. When I heard they had fried candy bars it just sounded so wrong and yet so right, I had to try it. It was intense but I finished it and still had room for chicken on a stick and a bucket of homemade french fries. YUM!

The crowds were unbelievable. (125,000 people attended that day) My friend Adrienne told me it made Disneyland look sparse. She was right! If you turned around you could lose your family, even if they were standing 10 feet away from you. I saw a family with all the children dressed in bright neon yellow. Not a bad idea...
After I ate my fried food I was pretty much good to go. But we decided to stop by the Miracle of Birth exhibit were they had a ton of pregnant animals ready to give birth any day. We saw baby pigs that were a day old, tiny ducklings, baby chicks coming right out of their eggs, little lambs and a very pregnant cow.

The cow looked so uncomfortable that a crowd started gathering to see if anything would happen. The announcer came on and said they didn't expect any births to happen before closing time. Still, Taber and Teya went in for a closer look. Not long after they had wiggled into the front row, Mama Cow decided it was time to get the show on the road. A gasp from the crowd and I look up on the screen (they were filming it live) and see two little hooves coming out. At this point I realize Teya is in the front, catching the whole thing live! I kind of freaked out and yelled for Taber to get her out of there (I was already worried about the conversations that would come from this) But she wouldn't leave. Long story short, it was crazy, there were chains, the vet practically crawled into the cow, and my 3 year old has now been witness to the miracle of birth. Here are some pictures Taber took from his phone.

Warning: "graphic" cow birth pictures below. Click to enlarge at your own discretion!

I thought the cow birth would trump everything else that happened at the fair, but on our way home when I asked Teya what her favorite part was she said, " I really liked it when the baby chick almost climbed in my hand but it didn't." Gotta love kids! I'm just glad we all had a good time. : )

Friday Foto

I picked this one because I'm kind of missing my long hair today. Change is good, but I don't think I'll be able to braid it like this again for a LONG LONG TIME.

Salt of the Earth

I'm going to start this post by saying up front that I totally hit the jackpot when it comes to parents. I adore my Mom and Dad. They uplift me, support me, and always make me want to be better. They were able fly out last weekend to watch the girls while we ran our race. In true grandparent fashion, they showed the girls the time of their lives. They had so much fun that when we came back, instead of being greeted with a "Mommy I missed you!" Teya took one look at me, clung to my mom and said, "I don't want Grandma to go bye bye!" Guess I can't blame her really. It's not like I ever take her to the Mall of America and let her ride all the rides, buy her matching bracelets and necklaces or let her pick out her very own slimy tree frog from the Rainforest Cafe. Yeah, I'm definitely not as cool as Grandma. : )

My sister Naomi came out too to help with the kiddos and to support her husband Kevin (who ran with us) at the finish line. There really aren't words to describe how happy it made me to have my parents and sister in town to support us. They are the kind of people that I hope to be. Just good, through and through.

After the race my parents stuck around for a couple days. I loved watching them with the girls and seeing them do all the things I adored as a child. Swinging Teya by both hands through the parking lot, giving her quarters for the gumball machine, singing songs in the car and my Dad's famous "buzzard" tickle finger.

I was also amazed at what a cleaning machine my mom is. I mean, I try to be pretty productive but my mom puts me to shame! For example, after I cook dinner, I'm done. I slaved away making it, I shouldn't have to clean it up right? Not so for my mom. She cooks it, cleans it, then follows us around and as soon as we put our glasses down they are rinsed out and loaded in the dishwasher. I felt like I had this cleaning fairy following me around. I got out of bed then turned around and she had already made it. Threw my clothes in the hamper and two hours later they were washed and folded on my dresser. Wow! the lazy part of me just wants to invite her to move in, but my better side tells me I need to take a cue from my mom and step it up in the cleaning department!

It was also cool being around my Dad. He is the embodiment of the Aloha spirit. He is warm, outgoing, friendly and fun. When we were at church I didn't need to introduce him to anyone. He just went from person to person, introducing himself and making friends. "Hi I'm Becca's Dad!" "How are you? I'm Becca's Dad!" By the end of church I found him in the hall hugging people. Love that guy!
When I was a teenager I was told that my parents were the salt of the earth. At the time I was like, "uh, whatever dude." (forgive me mom and dad, I was a teenager!) Now though I see very clearly that that is what they are. They are good, wholesome, humble, unpretentious, and just always seeking to lift others. I'm so glad my girls got to be around them and have their undivided attention for a few days. I'm also glad I got to be around them and to learn from their examples of how I can be better in every way. Thanks Mom and Dad, you guys are the BEST!

Great River Ragnar Relay

Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

2 Vans, 12 runners, 36 legs, 195 miles.
One Amazing Relay Adventure.

Last weekend Taber and I joined up with my brother in law Kevin and 10 of our friends from church to run the Great River Ragnar relay. It started in Winona, Wisconsin and ended in Minneapolis. We each ran 3 legs ranging in mileage and difficulty. It took us 29 hours, we ran right through the night. It was crazy, exhausting, exhilarating, empowering, fun (funny!) and just a really great time.

Taber's legs looked like this: leg 1: 7.9 miles, leg 2: 5.9 miles, leg 3: 4.3 miles,Total: 18.1miles

My legs looked like this: leg 1: 8.3 miles, leg 2: 7.5 miles, leg 3: 3.9 miles, Total: 19.7 miles

We were split into 2 vans, 6 runners in each. We were in van 1 so we had to leave at 5:30am to be at the starting line by 8:30am. I was a little worried because due to some bumps in the road we only got 2 hours of sleep before embarking on our 24 hour race. Once we got out there though the adrenaline and the support from our team carried us through. We watched Jacey, Spencer, and Doug run their first legs then it was Taber's turn.

His first leg was a long one. 7.9 miles. He handled it like a champ though. Keeping a great steady pace the whole time. He passed by gorgeous tree covered hills, small lakes and even got some peeks of the Mississippi. The weather was cool and overcast, perfect for running. It started to rain at one point but he soaked it all in and had a smile on his face every time we stopped to cheer him on him.
He finished in 1:22 minutes and then passed the baton to Kevin. Kevin ran 6.9 miles in record time and before I knew it I was up! My first leg was 8.3 miles. I ran through some pretty gorgeous countryside and really enjoyed the views.
The van stopped every couple miles to give me water and cheer me on. It really helped me to see that van and my teammates on the road. Every time I saw them I straightened up and ran harder.
I had a good hill at the end but I pushed hard and finished in 1:16 minutes. One leg down, two more to go!
Here are some action shots of the runners in our van. Spencer and Jacey were celebrating their 12 year anniversary. I'm sure it was a memorable one!
While we waited for our runners we tried to stretch and get pumped for our next runs.

After I finished my first leg we passed the baton off to our teammates in van 2. It was the first time our whole team was together and it was a lot of fun seeing them. We leap frogged their first runner for a little while and then we decided to head to a park to try to sleep a little before we had to run again.
Vans 1 and 2 unite! It was cool being the 6th runner because I got to see the whole team every time I finished!
When we got to the park we ate some food and then set up our sleeping bags. It was still light outside and there was a lot going on and it was really hard to sleep. I laid there for an hour and finally Taber gave me some earplugs and I fell asleep. I think I got a good hour in before it was time to go and start running again.

Our second legs were at night so we had to wear reflective vests, flashing lights on our backs and headlamps. We also got to shadow our runners on a bike as an extra safety precaution. The night ended up being my favorite time to run. I had 7.5 miles to do but a good part of it was down hill so that was nice. Taber shadowed me on the bike and I loved having him there. He kept saying, "You look great babe! You make it look so easy! Good form!" It was really motivating hearing him say that and knowing that he of all people knew how far I had come to be there. I'm sure 9 years ago when we were dating he never thought I was a girl he could run a long distance race with! Glad he still saw the diamond in the rough : )

Here's a cool pic of Taber passing off to Kevin during our night runs. Taber finished his around midnight and I finished mine around 2am.

After our night runs we went to a high school that had set out wrestling mats in the gym for the runners to sleep on. We were so exhausted that I didn't even eat (even though the last decent meal I had was 8 hours earlier) We just hit the ground and were out. We got 2 good hours of sleep and then it was time to run again.

I spent the morning watching my team finish their last legs. They all seemed so happy and relieved to be done. I couldn't wait to feel the same way. Taber had 4.3 on his last run and he had a HUGE hill about a mile long at the end. When we passed him in the van and saw what he was up against we were sure it would take him awhile. But before we could even hit the port-a-potty Kevin saw Taber and yelled, "Here he comes!! It's Taber!" We couldn't believe how fast he destroyed that hill. I mean it was insanely steep and long. But there he was, coming in at full speed! Definitely an awesome awesome moment! (above:Taber passing off to Kevin, below: Taber right after conquering the hill, and me in awe of my man. )

When it was my turn to run my last leg I thought I would kill it like Taber and Kevin and everyone else had killed theirs. I only had 3.9 miles to do and I thought it would be a piece of cake. Once I started running though my body just kind of shut down. Every step felt like I was pushing against a mountain. My legs were like lead and it took so much energy just to put one foot in front of the other. I hadn't been able to eat much and that combined with the lack of sleep and strain from already putting in almost 16 miles just left me with an empty tank. My team rallied around me and really cheered me on. Taber gave me a great pep talk and I switched over to my marathon survival mode and just started shuffling. I shuffled through it, didn't stop, and after 38 minutes it was over! I had finished and it felt GOOD!
When we were done with our last leg we passed the baton to van 2, wished them luck, and went off to celebrate and relax. We hit up a bagel shop for a well deserved breakfast and then changed our clothes and freshened up. Then we went to the finish line to wait for our team.

My mom and Dad came to the finish line with the girls. We ate lunch with them and my mom gave me an awesome massage! The girls were getting tired though so they had to leave but it was great seeing them there.
Around 2:30 p.m., 29 hours after we started, our last runner was coming towards the end. We all joined him for the last 50 yards and ran across the finish line together.
There were lots of high fives and hugs, smiles and pictures. It was fun for me, Taber and Kevin to take a picture together and know that 10 months ago we took the same kind of picture only it was after our first race ever, and we had only run 2 miles. : )
Here is a picture of our whole team. You'll notice that there are only 11 runners. Darci, our team co-captain and the person who invited me to do this was unable to run due to a death in her family. We really missed her and wish she could've been there.

Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

It was crazy, but if my team is up for it, I will definitely want to "repeat" this experience next year.