Gymnastics Meet

Jaidyn and Addy participated in their first ever gymnastics meet on Saturday morning. I had the pleasure of bringing Reid with me all morning as Wes and the neighbor were starting in on building the bar for our basement. The neighbor has a 3 year old son so I was able to leave Levi home so that they 3 year olds could entertain each other. It is always fun trying to keep Reid contained for hours at a time. And I honestly was a little embarrassed as I had a nice crumb pile of Goldfish crackers under my chair. I think Reid did anything but put them in his mouth. Jaidyn and Addy are both in different levels so we spent the entire morning in the gym through both sessions. Jaidyn competed in the 7 year old Intermediate Division and placed 2nd with a score of 9.6. She was ousted out of the top spot by a half point. She performed her routine beautifully and even completed her front limber which she has struggled on the past couple of weeks in practice
. Head stand roll down
  Going into a back kickover Addy also had a fantastic routine. It was amazing how she performed when it came time to compete and didn't even appear to be nervous. I could barely take pictures my hands were shaking and I'm fairly sure I held my breath through both of their routines. Addy scored a 9.5 and received 1st as it was the high score out of the 5 year old Beginner Division.
 Going in to a head stand
 Pike roll down
 
 At the top of the pyramid with a 1st place trohpy!

 The remainder of the weekend primarily has been spent working on the bar downstairs. Our neighbors have been fantastic through it all and are very creative. We love the look of it and are excited about having the finished project. Hopefully we will be able to finish most of it up next weekend. Through the duration of the weekend I think Wes may have even acquired quite a few handyman skills (hard to believe for those that know him well).
 
 She begged me to help stain, but it was only about 15 minutes until she was ready for other things!
 

Field Trip To The Discovery Center

After a huge guilt trip given from Addy and a huge save from Nana I was able to go with Addy on her school field trip to The Discovery Center. I originally wanted to go with her on her trip, but I didn't want Levi to miss out on his preschool both days this week and we weren't supposed to bring younger siblings along like I was able to for Jaidyn's zoo trip earlier in the week. But after making a late evening call to Nana she made the drive the next morning to stay with the boys and cart them around for the day. Addy was such a busy bee and never stayed at one activity station for long. I was exhausted after spending the day amongst the kindergartners, but it was nice getting to spend some one on one time with Addy. I loved their purple tie-dyed shirts everyone in her class wore. It made finding her group super easy all day. Addy's favorite activities at the center was the life size electricity producing hamster wheel, the gigantic bubble blowing machine, the pretend play supermarket and the ATM machine (we made many visits where she consistently took out $60-$70, geesh!) Hamster Wheel Bubble Machine News Anchors talking about the weather Supermarket Fast Cash! Lunch!

~ Field Trip to the Zoo ~

Yesterday, the boys and I were lucky enough to accompany Jaidyn's class on a trip to the zoo. We had such a nice time. This is just another perk of staying home with the kids and having some flexibility in my schedule. Levi asked me this morning if we could go back to school again and go to the zoo. He really felt like he was "big time" amongst all the other older kids.








Levi passed off his wafer cracker as he wanted no part in getting licked by a gigantic giraffe tongue.

~ BIG St. Louis Weekend ~

On Friday afternoon we picked the girls up from school an hour early so that we would be able to get on the road to make our haul to St. Louis for the weekend. We made a short detour about halfway there to take Grandpa out to eat and visit with him for a little bit.



Our initial reason to go to St. Louis was so that Wes could participate in his first marathon. But I talked my sister in to running the half marathon with me and then we also decided to take the kids along for the weekend so it turned out to be a family event. Some of our Saturday plans were chalked up and changed due to the constant rain all day long, but we still had a great time with all the kids while visiting the race expo, eating at Mcdonald's instead of a picnic at the park, and going to the Magic House. While we weren't headed to the stadium to watch the Cardinal baseball game, we still wore our St. Louis Cardinal baseball attire to support our favorite team. Later in the evening we met up with lots of family at my Aunt's house for a pasta dinner and drinks.



At the Magic House...



Blowing gigantic bubbles!

Water tables

Water wall

Levi was completely entertained playing at the Service Station in the makeshift town.

Reid and I played in the ball pit. I finally sat completely in front of him to block the continuous line of balls he kept throwing out.

I don't even remember the exact purpose of this bar, but Jaidyn used it to show us her pull-ups and used it a gymnastics bar flipping around it several times.

The kids weren't quite sure what to think of the static ball and Levi and Addy wouldn't even attempt it. Reid is the overall winner!! He had the perfect hair for this hair raising event!









Both the marathon and half marathon had a 7:00AM start time. The rain had pushed through leaving the morning temps about perfect with just a little bit of a breeze.


I never should have ran as I am paying for it today and had to make an early morning trip to the doctor's office. I had been attempting to let my foot heal from the plantar fasciitis that I am dealing with, but deciding to run 13 miles on it without completely healing wasn't one of the smartest decisions I have ever made. So I am spending most of my time sitting (that is why I am finding time to do this post today) as I am not able to put much weight on my foot and walking is very painful. My sister and I did hang together until around mile 9 as I finally convinced her to go on as I knew that last few miles were going to be much slower and I was going to struggle to finish. I finished with a time of 1:53 which was a ways off from my PR, but I was still extremely thrilled with that time considering the pain I was experiencing.
I didn't get to see Wes in the starting corrals as there were probably close to 25,000 packed in on the street and he left us early to go the corral as Jill and I decided to wait in the long line at the porta potties for one last chance of using the bathroom. I did get to see him coming down one street about mile 10 after one of the turns that us half-milers made while the marathoners kept proceeding on. I was able to briefly get his attention and receive a thumbs up from him. The next time I saw him was as he breezed through the finish line...


He just finished getting his finishers medal placed around his neck.
Wes finished with a time of 4:22:00 and honestly didn't look like he was just completely exhausted. For some reason his body doesn't make him feel the pain and fatigue the same way mine does. I know it wasn't quite the time he was hoping for, but he still had a great run and will be able to cross that challenge off of his bucket list too. Way to go, Wes! I am super proud of his dedication to his training the past few months and to his effort during the run.