M.O.M (My Own Marathon)

Globe is a special place. For example, there will be a nice 250k dollar house and right next door will be a double wide. For another example, there are about 12 old antique shops and zero Costcos. People do things just a little bit different here. 

Enter a really nice man named Bryan Chambers who loves running.  He always puts on his own marathon. Its actually called the MOM race. It stands for My Own Marathon. He organizes the whole thing for free. 

So Kenzie, Aaron and I sought out to do it. They picked me up a little before 6am and off we went to conquer the MOM race. It started up by the Pinal mountains. 

When we got there, we were just waiting for all the other racers to show up. We didn't have to wait long. All 7 of us arrived.

Then Bryan made the start of the race official by having us sing the national anthem. He had the actual music playing, and Aaron pulled up a picture of the American flag on his phone. At that point, it was time for the race to begin. 

We had the choice of running a 5k, 10k, half or full marathon. He had marked the race the day before and left mile markers along the route. He also dropped water bottles along the road for us. 

He had his daughter and his wife drive along the routes the whole morning making sure that everyone was OK. They also took pictures

I decided I would do the half marathon. And guess what? I won. I came in 1 out of 2 competitors! They even gave me an old bowling trophy for my efforts! Kenzie won the 10K and Bryan won the full marathon.

It was a fun and very unique experience. Who knows, maybe one year the MOM race will be a Boston qualifier? 

Besides the quirkiness of the race, I think this was my next favorite thing that day

Oh wait, and this

This just showed up on my doorstep 2 months after the race.

Ha!

PS The lady on the top is Bryan's actual mom. LOL!!!

Soccer 2.0

Last year, Avery attempted to play soccer for the first time. Mostly, she chased butterflies, picked grass and occasionally kicked a soccer ball. 

This year was a different story. 

She actually cared. 

She actually wanted to score.

 She actually did score! 

One game she pulled a hat trick.
 It was funny though, because some games she was totally into it, and other games she sort of just reverted back to last year and ran around. 

I'm glad she is getting a little more competitive and into the game, but lets be honest, her favorite part of any sport is the treats afterwords.

 Best motivator ever!

Thanks for your sacrifice

Its pretty tough to get visitors to come and visit us. I don't know why?

 I mean, the view is amazing. Cactus for miles. *

We have the most amazing stifling heat. *

We have great pets such as scorpions, cockroaches, tarantulas and black widows. *

We have a pretty hopping town with a population of 7 thousand.* 

Yeah, well, why I scratch my head wondering about why people don't come more often, you go ahead and read about the rare occasion it did happen.

Tracie and Mumu came! With Dom Dom and Charly.

It was a quick visit* (see why above) and we had a great time

Thanks for coming peeps! I'm sure it will be a great while till you come back, although its like 4 degrees right now where you are and like 50 degrees here, so maybe its not as bad as it seems?

 Mi casa es su casa

PS Tater, I realize I stole some of your pictures off your blog. I had mine all ready to post, but then you posted first and I liked yours better. So sue me.

6!

My first baby is 6 years old.

That is two hands now! Man it has gone by fast. I remember when she was 5 1/2 lbs heavy and her favorite hobby was to cry hysterically for hours like it was yesterday!

For her birthday, we decided to go to a place called "girly girlz." It was a fantastic idea because THEY supplied the venue, THEY decorated it to the nines, and THEY provided the entertainment, ya know, as long as I provided the dinero. Which was OK by me!, I probably would have spent the same amount of money on all the Pinterest fails doing my own birthday party. 

This is how it went down...

First off, the guests:

Brooklyn, Anabelle, Elyse and Avery

If the girls weren't already excited about the party, walking in the actual place amplified it to the point of giggles and a lot of jumping

The teenage girls got working right away on hair and makeup

I've never seen Avery sit so still! 

The next step was accessories. 

I've never seen Brooklyn's eyes so big!

Then the tea party began

 And then the birthday song

And just like that, the party was over... well that is until we realized that the little cookies and crackers weren't enough food. So then the royal party shifted to fast food. 

McDonald's didn't even know what hit them.

This was Avery's actual birthday

Her Kindergarten class sang to her and asked her questions and then ate doughnuts. She was the most popular girl in school that day.

And then our little home celebration

Happy birthday Avery!!!

You are skinny and stringy

You have lost 5 teeth

You love the monkey bars, you have callused hands because of them

You are a very deep thinker and you ask a million questions. Usually by 6 pm I ban all questions because I don't have the energy

You are always up for doing anything

You are very independent. At school, you don't just have one best friend, you sort of float around from friend to friend (mostly you play with whoever is around the monkey bars).

You are really getting into reading

You love when I read you chapter books, you are currently really interested in the Titanic

You are so loud

You still sing all the time, and you have a mean vibrato

You are sweet and sensitive, sometimes you let Brooklyn walk all over you and sometimes I want to tell you to just sock her because you are the oldest and she needs to respect you... but I don't

You love having friends over

You love sugar

You love watching movies

You are becoming a little bit of a Daddy's girl, but when it comes down to it, I can always get you to team up with me and wrestle against him

You are the only 6 year old girl on the planet who doesn't like Frozen (although sometimes I catch you singing the songs and playing with the dolls)

You are becoming very responsible

You are gaining a testimony of Jesus and Heavenly Father

You still can't ride a bike, but you can scale a wall

You don't dress up in princess dresses very much anymore

You are the best older sister to Isla

You have the best toothless smile, and I love when your nose crinkles up

I love you Avery Grace and I think you are the best 6 year old around!!!