Life in January

January 2012 has been full of family time, snowboarding, and basketball. Thursday nights have been dedicated to family games, mainly Tob annihilating us in most them, although Nojah dominated in Yahtzee and Lex and Racko this week. Our weeks have consisted of 1- 2 days of snow play thanks to our recent storms and Friday afternoons and all day Saturday high school basketball games.

I am really enjoying the basketball games and find them hard to miss when we have too. This still surprises me since it's not my kids playing, but Tob coaching. However, I love basketball, and I love my husband, so I guess it makes sense. Our kids sometimes get tired of all the gym time and my butt is permanently calloused from hours on end on wood benches, but it's family time and we love it. Concession stands, half time games, and other kids company keep Nojah and Lex entertained during the 4 games each day. The bus rides for me bring back a lot of memories of being a teenager and actually scares me to parent them, but I am still keeping my fingers crossed that my kids will make relatively smart decisions and are respectful the majority of the time. I am realizing it won't be long before they are those teenagers on the bus.

As far as snowboarding goes, Tob and I have been up once together and the kids and I ride Friday before the games or Saturday before the games. The kids are improving and it's nice to always have someone to ride with. Nojah is a little more cautious and has a hard time not instantly being good at something, but continues to work hard. Lex has very little fear and flies down the hill at high rates of speeding taking a breather waiting for her brother at the lift. The riding and weather was so great this last Friday Nojah, Lex and I happend to miss Toby's JV game but he forgave us. :-)

I really was hoping for some great inspiring coaching, snowboarding, winter pictures but haven't picked up my camera to actually shoot them this month and have nothing for you.

Sundays have been our day for relaxation and today I planned to run. Being benched at the basketball games tends to cut into my scheduled long runs on Saturdays. I really WANTED to run today and fully intended to, however my sweet little girl came to me this morning and said "mom, do you think we could hike up to the W today?" and I was not sure how to say no, nor did I want to say no, so we off we went talking and walking, with the dog up the hill over the top and down around to home. Some days "we" time just has to overrule "me" time and this was one of those days. As I have said before they are only little once and I am thinking it will be easier letting them grow up if I know I have been along for the ride.

Happy January ALL!!

What's wrong with this picture?

This picture was taken 1 mile into the eagle cap wilderness a week ago today.

I went out to try and run the New Years 5K again today. Yesterday I failed miserably and only logged 2.36 miles and left me feeling like it was truly the WORST run of the year. So today I decided I would find the strength and get it done.

I started out with the intentions of running 3.1 miles for the day (after all I do have a 12 hour shift tonight) and ended up running a 9.8 mile loop in 1:45:32. It was a beautiful day and the voices in my head told me to "just keep running". As I passed a spray painted message on the road at mile one that said "This is for you Tater, will love you always" referring to a 3 year old little boy in our small community that died 2 weeks ago in a tragic drowning I told myself just keep running, run for Tayte. The weather was perfect and I really wanted to start the new year out right so I kept running. I thought about the 2 virtual races I missed (Halloween and Christmas) due to work and bad weather and thought I can do all three today, and kept running. I was lost in my thoughts staring at the beautiful mountains that surround me and the quiet sounds of country life and I just kept running. Towards the end of my run, I thought about how my hip hurt and my legs were done, but just kept running until I made it back home. I have to say it has been the best run I have had all year!

Thank you Kiley for keeping me running. Happy New Year to all and Here's to a New Year of running!

Highlights of 2011

Another year has come and gone quickly in our household. Today we are taking the time to re-cap the past year and think about some of our goals for the upcoming year. I hope everyone has had a wonderful, fulfilling, year with family and friends!!

January- Spending 10 days in Bangladesh at the Banglahope Orphanage with Nojah, 106 + beautiful children and many more new friends.

February-Tob coaching the 4th, 5th and 6th grade basketball team, snowboarding, skiing, and reading.

March-Becoming Chicken farmers, Planting a garden (in our house), Our first NBA basketball game, discovering AZURE standards, more snowboarding and a few visits with the grandparents.

April- Coaching the minor league Oriole team, Mountain biking trip to MOAB Ut with some fantastic girls and becoming pig farmers.

May-Saying goodbye to Hop after a gruesome death thanks to Myah and saying hello to her new chicken Flower (thanks to Candi and her family).

June- Baseball All-stars tournament, first hikes into the wilderness, Solstice triathlon and the kids duathlon.

July-New furniture, more hiking with great friends and to new places, a backpacking trip into Aneroid to stay in the beautiful 1900 cabins and a new home for Luna.

August-A week long camping trip with my family, a trip to the water park with friends, Toby's family reunion, and the end of our pig farming, RIP in our freezer Flo :-) and our first eggs.

September- The start of a new school year, Football for Nojah and Soccer for Lex and coaching for mom. Competing in the Wallowa lake triathlon as a family.

October- Toby's big 10 day Idaho hunting trip with friends, Chicken 4-H, and a lot of canning.

November-Sandy and Karls wedding, an OSU football game, and a girls trip up to Chief Joseph.

December-Toby being offered and accepting the highschool JV basketball coach position, Christmas tree hunting, the start of snowboarding/ski season and holidays spent with family.

Happy New Year!!
Here's to an amazing 2012...........