Martha's Vineyard part 3: Inseparable

After Taber's meetings were done on Friday we had the rest of the weekend to hang out and enjoy the Vineyard.We hit the beach, went into town, got some nice runs in and ate a lot of good food.

And of course, everything we did had to coincide with whatever Teya and Brinley's new best friends were doing. It's a good thing all of the adults got along because our vacations were unavoidably intertwined as our girls became inseparable. Like us, the Knutsons have 2 girls that are 2 1/2 years apart and Jenny is pregnant with her 3rd which is a boy! Fun how our families match up like that.

So yes, the girls were inseparable. They painted together in our hotel room.

Oogled over Cam together.

Enjoyed hours at the resort playground and kid room together.

Posed for pictures on the fun chairs in the garden together

Played in a fire truck

Visited the farm

Discovered a new beach on the other side of the island with big fun rocks to climb

Rode America's oldest Carousel together.

(The horses are all antiques)

(Love that my Brinley still has her cheeser face smile)

Ate at Sharky's Cantina (AWESOME restaurant in Edgartown where Jaws was filmed)

And basically just had a blast of a vacation together. By the end Teya and Brinley's car seats were in the Knutson's van and they even drove everywhere together. Kaelyn said she wished they could all live together and be cousins. It's so fun when your kids hit it off with new friends like that. They were like 4 peas in a pod.

After 5 lovely days on the island it was time to board our ferry and head home. We finally switched the car seats back to our car after the boat ride and said goodbye to our friends. Martha's Vineyard was beautiful and I'm so glad we got to tag along for the best business trip ever. : )

Martha's Vineyard part 2: Friends Arrive

After our first 2 days at the Vineyard some of the other families of Taber's coworkers came to the island with their kids. One family had two girls, each exactly a year older than Teya and Brinley. They became instant best friends and were inseperable from the moment they met.

While Taber and co were in their meetings, the girls and I were living it up at the beach.

Look at Teya jumping up and down in giddy excitement.

They ran in and out and in and out of the waves, screaming and laughing.

At one point Brinley dropped her shovel in the waves and it was swept away. Fully dressed in pants and a jacket she stormed into the icy water hysterically crying and trying to capture it. She was knocked on her bum, soaking her pants and intensifying the tears. She wasn't crying because she was wet, she was crying because she thought her shovel was a goner.

Luckily Teya came to the rescue and snagged the shovel before it was swept away again. Brinley quickly stopped crying, grabbed the shovel and got back to digging, totally unfazed by her soaking wet fanny.

My happy little digger reunited with her shovel

After the beach the girls also got into a little game of put put, minus the clubs. They just kicked it around instead.

Another happy sunny day at the Vineyard

Night on the Town

During our trip Taber's company hired some babysitters to watch the kids so we could go to dinner with the leadership team. It was my first time ever leaving Cam with a babysitter!! I knew before our trip that they were planning to do this so I worked really hard to teach Cam to take a bottle. He didn't love it but I was able to get him to take 2 before our trip so I was feeling hopeful that he'd do okay.

The night out was so much fun. It felt amazing to change out of my self imposed mommy uniform (t-shirt and sweats, since I don't feel like wearing much else when I'm nursing, chasing after kids, and cleaning all day) and into my "fancy" night out clothes. It was awesome not worrying about negotiating eating deals (if you eat three bites of a vegetable, you can have a french fry...) taking the potty trainee to the bathroom mid meal, bouncing a fussy baby, or reminding anyone of table manners. I just sat back and enjoyed the lively adult conversation and undivided attention of my man.

Apparently I didn't get the memo that we were wearing muted colors and not fluorescent shiny bright flashing blue. In my defense, it's one of 2 dressy shirts that actually fits me right now. Still working on that baby weight. ; )

The dinner lasted several hours, and then everyone wanted to go to a bar for more drinks. (Taber, his pregnant co-worker and I sipped on waters, Shirley temples, and when I was feeling really crazy, a cherry coke : )

After 5 hours away from my munchkins we returned to the hotel to find the girls snuggled together and sound asleep.

This guy was wide awake however, and had refused his bottle the entire time! I guess if he can go 8 hours without nursing at night he was willing to go 5 while I was away before he'd let some babysitter he didn't know give him a bottle. The babysitters said he actually slept most of the time we were gone and then just wanted to be held after that. Guess you don't mess with a Rigg and his food. Seriously!

Loved my night out and always feel like time away helps me appreciate these scrumptious little peanuts even more. Look at them practically holding hands in their sleep! So stinking cute!

Martha's Vineyard Part 1: While Taber was working...

Last week we packed up the fam for 5 days and joined Taber on a business trip to Martha's Vineyard.

Since I'm pretty sure my family has no idea where that is, here is a map for you guys. : ) Martha's Vineyard is an island off of Cape Cod a few hours south of Boston.

On the first 3 days of our trip Taber was working from 8-5, so the kids and I went off on our own little adventures while he took care of business.

On the first day I loaded Cam in the Snugli and herded the children a half a mile from our resort to the beach. Brinley was excited.

It was WINDY! so so windy! But Cam was protected by his blankey and slept soundly the whole time.

The girls weren't fazed by the wind or the freezing water temps either. They hiked up their pants and went straight for the water.

They ran in and out of the water squealing like little guinea pigs.

And speaking of pigs, on the second day we headed to a nearby farm and saw some cute little baby ones. Once again it was windy windy but the girls were troopers.

I was feeling exceptionally brave one day and took all 3 of them downtown for some lunch and shopping. We got a lot of stares and heard, "Oh wow, you sure have your hands full." more than once. ; )

They were actually pretty well behaved at the restaurant but kids have a higher volume level and like to pretend their straws are walrus tusks, so we still got funny stares.

When we weren't at the beach or galavanting around town we explored the property where we were staying. It was really beautiful and there was lots of room for the kids to run free and wild.

Cutie pies by the duck pond

I loved having a break from home and not having to worry about anything but playing with my kids for a few days. It was also great that all of Taber's meetings were at the resort where we were staying so during his breaks he could come visit us. After his meetings were done we stayed 2 extra days and that's when the fun really picked up. Stay tuned for more...

Kicking off Running Season

Taber kicked off the running season 2 weekends ago with the Alton big lake half marathon up by lake Winnipesauke. We booked a hotel up in the white mountains area and decided to make a fun little trip out of it.

Taber ran with his friend Rob, so Rob's wife Darby and I sent the boys to the starting line early in the morning and then came down with the kids about an hour after the race started. We actually saw Taber and Rob running around mile 6 as we were driving to the finish line. They were looking strong and awesome.

While we waited they had a "Kids Zone" set up at the finish line with coloring, toys, leis, and cowbells.

The kids stayed thoroughly entertained.

Well except for Cam who has a tendency to sleep through all our adventures. Sweet little nugget.

When the runners started coming in we headed to our spots on the street. William and Brinley blew bubbles at the runners.

Teya and Maddy rang the heck out of their cowbells and cheered with all their might.

Soon Taber's bright green shirt came flying down the street. 13.1 miles and the guy was still smiling!

He finished in 1:50:54, which is a 8:28 min/mile pace. Hello speedy Gonzalas! He felt great about it, especially since the course was incredibly challenging and hilly. (worse than Applefest for my friends and family who know that course)

Rob finished just a few minutes after Taber and they got some dang awesome medals. (not gonna lie, totally had some serious medal envy!)

The food at the finish line was awesome. They had the usual chocolate milk, bananas, bagels, etc.. But they also had pizza, homemade ice cream and birthday cake! Heck yeah!

Cam woke up when he smelled the birthday cake.

After the half marathoners were finished they had a 1K for the kids. Teya was SO pumped about this race. As it got closer she informed us she needed to stretch.

Brinley said she was going to stetch too. Guess this is how she stretches.

We lined the kids up and gave them a talk about pacing and not worrying about winning but just having fun and all that good stuff. Brinley wanted me to run with her so I lined up too for my 1K workout of the day : )

They had their own police escort motorcade. It was pretty awesome.

The race benefited the make a wish foundation, so all the kids ran holding star wands with wishes written on them by terminally ill children. It was really touching to see. Teya ran the whole way and we were so proud of her.

Brinley came in dead last but she was such a trooper and so stinking cute running her little heart out.

They got medals, water bottles, and suckers at the finish line.

After our busy morning we went back to the hotel where Teya crashed HARD! She never naps but she was out cold for several hours.

Brinley and Taber relaxed with some pool time. Luckily I coaxed Teya out of her slumber to enjoy the pool for a bit, if she missed it she would've been devastated.

I'm proud of all my little runners and excited for running season since I can actually participate in it this year! On the deck we have several 5K's, a half marathon, and a full marathon for Taber in October. Let the running fun begin!

Cinco de Mayo con los Riggs

My kids are 1/8th Mexican so you better believe we were celebrando our Mexican heritage on el Cinco de Mayo.

I busted out the old Spanish teaching decorations with a few new ones to keep it fresh.

Brinley saw the decorations and said, "It's my birfday party!" Teya said, "Why are we having a Mexican party if we're not even Mexican?" And I said, "you are part Mexican." She was pretty shocked. Guess we need to start having more fiestas : )

Mi latin lover, (aka el Guapo) came home with some fajitas, quesadillas and burritos from our favorite Mexican joint, La Carreta.

We chowed down with some festive merengue music in the background and ended the party with some latin dancing.

yum! yum! yum! Delicioso!

Fireside Talk

Thank you to everyone who shared insights and quotes for my talk on Sunday. It all came together very nicely and several people told me that the message was just what they needed to hear. So thank you again to those who emailed, left comments on Facebook, or commented on here. (even though blogger was on the fritz and erased your comments, I still got them in my email : ) Your thoughts helped me frame it all up and it was nice to have so many great perspectives.

Several people have asked for a copy of my talk so I put my notes together with a copy of my slides and made a link to it below. The slide images are low quality so if you want to see them more clearly, once you click the link, you can go to the file button on the left side and click "download original" to get a higher quality file. Also I should warn you that the talk is pretty long (probably takes at least 10-12 minutes to read), so yeah, just a heads up ; )

Here's the link, hope you enjoy it! Daughters of a Heavenly King

Need your suggestions/stories and thoughts

Dear friends, family and anyone who reads this blog:

I need your help! I'm speaking at a stake Relief Society fireside on Sunday and need some ideas on the topic of self esteem and loving ourselves. I have a pretty good outline but would love to add some stories of people's personal experiences or insights on learning to love yourself and feeling confident about who you are.

Here are a few questions you might think about:

-What experiences in your life have helped you overcome self doubt and feel special, beautiful, loved or valuable?
-When you feel negative thoughts about yourself creeping in, is there anything you do or say to chase those thoughts away?
-how do you avoid self esteem pitfalls such as comparing yourself to other people?
- who is the most beautiful woman you know and what makes her beautiful?

Any comments or stories would be much appreciated! Thanks everyone!