Camping

Nate took the boys camping near the end of October. They had a great time! A highlight for them was seeing 4 deer, 3 armadillos and a ground hog. Nate made some awesome memories with his boys!

Race Day

Sarita and I ran the KC Half-Marathon this October for the third time. This was our fifth half-marathon, with three in KC, one in Springfield, and one in Bolivar. My dad trained and ran the race again this year, beating his time from last year. My friends Ashley and Rachel raced, as well as Ashley's husband Chris. Sarita's husband, Tony, also ran. As a really special gift to me, Nate trained and ran in the race, too. He is normally the photographer for events like this, so we don't have many photos from the big day. I was able to capture these with my iPhone.

Before:

After:

I am so thankful for Sarita Vernon. I think we started running together around 2004 - that's eight years that girl has put up with me! I used to think we were really compatible running parters...until I found out she had broken race records when she was in high school. Now I know that she is just really kind to run with me. But I'll take it! She is an amazing woman! I would run 13.1 miles with her any day. :)

Cooper is 5!

If there were any remaining "baby" in this little guy, it disappeared when he turned 5. Did I type that right? Is he really 5? It is impossible for me to grasp that 5 years have passed since I brought this little guy home from the hospital for the first time. Much has changed in our lives over five years, but God has been faithful. Here are a few pictures from Coop's birthday:

Here is his "I'm-getting-ready-to-open-my-presents" face. (Those of you who know him well know he would NEVER smile for a camera if there weren't presents involved.)

Here is his favorite present - LEGOS!

We had a small (okay - not so small) gathering of friends to celebrate the big day. It was SUPER fun to have our house full of friends! Here are the boys (minus Cale):

And here are the girls (minus Mya):

Blowing out the candles on this LEGO cake!

California

In August, our family went to Laguna Beach, California with Nate's family. We stayed in Nate's Granparent's house for the last time - the house has now been sold.

It was such a neat time to be able to introduce the boys to California. California has been such a big and important part of Nate's life.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The Family on The Point

Here is our family at Sea World.

Cooper and Miles, enjoying the beach.

Grandma Bethell taught all of her Grandkids how to catch sand crabs.

St. Louis

Last weekend, we visited St. Louis with our friends, the Dinwiddies. What a trip! On Saturday, we "toured" the City Museum. I'm not really sure what to say about the experience except WHAT FUN! Here is our family before we went inside - Miles is already giddy with anticipation.

Look at all this stuff to climb on! All the men in my family climbed up into that airplane. I took pictures from below. :)

This is a gigantic slide we all went down. (The boys were SO brave!)

This is another picture of the gigantic metal jungle gym outside.

They LOVED this ball pit. The first time in, they played pretty hard. The second time in, near the end of the day, they just lounged on the balls.

The boys are climbing through this metal tunnel.

Here is another view of the airplane.

Here is the 10 story slide we went down. (It's actually a garbage chute from an old shoe factory...I'm pretty sure they cleaned it up a little bit...)

And here is the REAL reason we went to St. Louis...Nate and Chris got to go to a U2 concert on Sunday night. I wasn't there, but Nate said it was amazing!!

Grandpa's Birthday

My Grandpa Holtwick turned 80 this last week, and our family gathered on Sunday to surprise him with a birthday party. It was very fun to see family that we don't see very often, and it was even better to be gathering to celebrate my grandpa.

We took some family pictures, and believe it or not, I think all 4 little people are looking at the camera in this one!

Miles' Birthday

Miles turned three this past weekend. I can't believe my baby is not a baby anymore! Here are a few highlights from his day:

Cooper helped Nate pick out a cattle truck and some horses.


Miles decided he wanted to have a Thomas birthday party. I borrowed a Thomas pan from a friend and spent 3 or 4 hours creating this:

I asked Miles several times what friends he would like to have at his birthday party. Each time (over a series of several weeks) he would answer, "Nora. Just Nora." So here, sharing a stool with him while he blew out his candles, was the guest of honor:

Oklahoma!

Our family traveled to Enid, OK, in late May to spend time with our family. Here are a few highlights:

• Spending time with our new nieces/cousins - Claire and Katie. (I didn't get a good picture of Katie...)



• Seeing a snake trying to eat a fish - YIKES!


• Fourwheeling and fourwheeling and more fourwheeling.



• Learning the depths of my mother-in-law's love for me as she dug through the trash can looking for my lost keys. (She found them, too!)

• Fishing




• Celebrating the Pence family as Katie and Claire become legal members of their family. The Lord put this family together - it is evident. What a blessing to share in the celebration!

Prom

Bolivar High School had their Prom last weekend, and the memories of our senior prom filled my mind. We were so young and wild back then. Because it as our 2nd prom together, we decided to be crazy and go in leathers on a motorcycle. Thankful Kansas didn't have a helmet law at the time, so I didn't have to worry about my hair getting flattened. (And was definitely thinking more about my hair than my safety.)

Family Movie Night

Last night the boys and I watched a movie together. The boys chose "Hero of the Rails" for our movie. It was a super time to snuggle, and also, I confess, it was a good time for me to just check out for a little while. However, the irony of the break for me was what came next. Oh my goodness the questions came rolling. The movie was over around 6:30 and the rest of the night was consumed with something that looked a little like this:

Why was Hiro the first train on the island of Sodor?
How did he get to Sodor?
What time of day do you think he came? Morning? Maybe nighttime?
What island did Hiro live on before Sodor? Do you think it was Misty Island?
How old was Thomas (Henry, Percy, Gordon, Edward, Deisel, etc.) when Hiro was on Sodor?
Why wasn't Thomas (Henry, Percy, Gordon, Edward, Deisel, etc.) on the island with Hiro?
Why did they call him the Master of the Railway?
What does Master mean?
Why was Hiro blue and green?
Why did they paint Hiro black?
Why did they leave Hiro to rust in the wilderness?
Why didn't they bring Hiro his new part?
Why was Spencer so mean in Hero of the Rails?
Remember when Spencer (fill in the blank), wasn't that mean, Mama?
Why did Spencer follow Thomas around?
What was Thomas trying to do?
Why did Thomas keep Hiro a secret from the other engines?
Why did Spencer want to send Hiro to the scrapyard?

And on and on and on and on. That kid's brain NEVER stops. At our last book club, the amazing Jacki Dublin shared about how she has really been trying to listen to her son when he is talking her ear off. To validate him. Not just to nod and grunt, but to HEAR him. I think about how when Cooper is a teenager, I will want him to come to me with his questions, not his friends. I want him to remember how open I was with questions. But last night, after about an hour of explaining a movie that I hadn't fully watched (shhhh...don't tell!), I had to ask Cooper to give me 5 minutes of no questions. Maybe next time I'll endure.