Ragnar Race: Washington DC

This past weekend Monique & I ran our first Ragnar Relay Race. The course was 199 miles long from Cumberland MD to the National Harbor in Washington DC. Monique some how convinced me in Feb to sign up for this race with a few couples from our Ward. Our Team consisted of 6 couples and were named the Half Fast runners. I really was not looking forward to this event and actually was dreading the thought of having to run for 30 straight hours. We completed the race in 29 hrs 42 minutes.

I hate to admit it but the total experience was amazing. The running was good not great. The trail running, dirt, heat, and hills made for some interesting times. But the company and team unity was amazing. I learned a lot about myself and my teammates after going through this experience together. The Smiths & Buxton's were great company. I actually might consider doing another Ragnar race in the future.


At the Start line! I was the first runner and had to run around a lake for Five miles. What you don't see is all the butterflies in my stomach.


We decorated our Van for fun. (Maybe too much decorating)
This saying was my thoughts at the start and through most of the race.


Here is Van #1 members after finally getting home 37 hrs later.


The Half Fast Runners at the Finish line!



Monique & I at the finish line. (With our team shirts and metals)

Memorial Day Weekend

 New family photo!  I think it shows our true personalities! :)

For Memorial day we went to Valley Forge Park with Yo's ward.  There are a lot of jogging paths going through the park.  People brought bikes, scooters, or ran and walked about a 5 mile loop around the park and came back for pot luck breakfast!  It was such a nice morning and not too hot.  The kids played games and ran around all morning.  

Congratulations Dr. Ruch!

My sister's husband finally got his PhD in Education this spring!  My sister threw a big party to celebrate!  We made homemade root beer and grilled.  My sister hired a caterer for the desserts and salads.  It was quite a party!  Lots and lots of people and their kids came to show their support for Rob! So much fun!

Spring Piano Recital

 This was Ireland's first piano recital!  She played so great especially for her first time!

 Keean's songs were "fourth grade band" and "summer days"

 Harrison played "chinese new year" and "take me out to the ball game" (hence the baseball cap)

Aedan played "singing in the rain" and "reveille boogie"  All the kids did such a great job!

Ann Marie Gardens

Jamie and I took Ireland to meet a friend from school to Ann Marie Gardens.  This is an "art" garden where a lot of sculptures and things are displayed.  Every year they have fairy houses that families or individuals in the community have made.  We walked along the pathways and saw a lot of the fairy houses.  They had face painting.  You could make your own fairy wand and your own fairy house too! Such a pretty place and they had so much fun too!

Warrior Dash

BEFORE

                                                                       
                                                                     AFTER!!

Me and a friend signed up to do the Warrior Dash this spring.  It is a 5k trail run with obstacles throughout the course.  There was a lot of mud and water we had to crawl through.  It was stinky and dirty.............and SO FUN!  My favorite was a gigantic water slide landing into a big puddle of muddy water!  Such good laughs!

Girl's night...plus Finn

Since the boys had their own campout Ireland decided she wanted a girl's night with some of her friends in the neighborhood.  We had a tea party outside on the patio and they painted nails.  Finn came over wanting to know what we were doing and wanted in on the fun, so he got his toes painted too!

                                                         Father's and Son's Campout

Father's and Son's Campout

The campout this year was at Solomon's across the bridge in Calvert County overlooking the Patuxent River.  Beautiful!  A lot of people turned up for the campout as you can see from all the cars!  There was a concert going on that night too that they were able to listen to as background music for their nighttime fireside! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Jamie and the kids have made a great tradition of cooking me breakfast in bed.  Now the kids are getting older they don't need too much help anymore!  They made great cards and went on a scavenger hunt for my gift!  I love being a mom!  It's so fun to see them grow up and see what they are becoming.  

Spring Soccer

                                                                        He Shoots!

                                                                       He Scores!!

End of the Year LMS band concert

Aedan had a lot of fun in band this year.  He loves his teacher and loves being a part of the group.  He was even able to play in festival band with the 7th and 8th graders.  It took him some convincing to participate but he (and I) was glad he did.  It turned out to be more fun than he thought....being with his friends AND playing some awesome music!! Great job Aedan!

Class Science Project

Ireland's Kindergarten class science project was collecting seeds and seeing what they looked like before they were planted and after they were planted.  She had a lot of fun collecting all the seeds.

Happy Birthday Harrison!!!

Double digits this year!  He had water themed gifts this year.  He got a snorkel, flippers and his first pet!  A beta fish!  All through growing up Harrison has wanted a dog.  Jamie told him that when he turned 10 and if he still wanted one he could get one for his birthday.  The day came creeping up and reality for Jamie set in.  Jamie is not really a pet person.  He didn't think Harrison would continue to want a dog, and he was trying all kinds of things to sway Harrison from wanting a dog ...even building his own room down in the basement! :)  Well reality set in on Harrison too.  He started thinking of all the responsibility that comes with a dog......and he opted for a fish!

pool fun!!

Day of Service

In April our community does a day of service where everyone helps the community in different ways.  Our church did a few services.  My kids were involved in putting on a music program for a local senior living center.  Keean and Aedan played the piano and Harrison and his friend Finn played their band instruments.  The kids had a fun time performing and I think the patrons enjoyed it too! :)

Robotics team

                                                                   The Lego Solars

Harrison is always trying something new and this year was no different! :)  He wanted to join the robotics team at school.  They met all year once a week to learn about robotics and other things.  At the end of the year they had to build a robot and have it go through an "obstacle course" and do different maneuvers with the robot.  They had to give a presentation as well.  For this being their first time doing it I think they had a great time.  We'll see if he sticks with this next year :)  I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to try another club after school next year....stay tuned! :)

Easter!!

The kids still enjoy coloring easter eggs for easter.  There are so many egg hunts in the local area that instead of doing our own egg hunt, the easter bunny comes and hides their easter baskets.  He sends them on a scavenger hunt leaving clues all over the house and yard.  The kids absolutely love scavenger hunts.  I kinda like 'em too :)!

Happy Birthday Ireland!!

Our birthdays have been pretty low key this year.  No one has had parties, but our friends across the street just happen to have the same birthday as Ireland!  Well, we HAD to have them over and share dinner together!  She opened her presents which consisted of her cowgirl hat, a pair of shoes, and a rug for her room...that's what she asked for and that's what she got!   Ireland has been such a blessing in our lives!  She is just so fun to have around.  She is usually independent.  I think she has just the right amount of girly stuff, but can play tough too!  I am so happy she is with us and we love her so much!

Our little getaway

                                                               William and Mary College

                                                                Colonial Williamsburg

                                                                      Pocahontas

                                                                       
                                                                        Jamestown

With Lynne in town Jamie and I decided to leave her with the kids and skip town for a couple of days. You would be surprised at how hard it was for us to find a couple of days to steal away, but we made it work!  We stayed pretty local and went down to Williamsburg.  It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive.  Colonial Williamsburg was good, but I loved the little campus of the William and Mary College.  Everything was so quaint.  The streets were all brick with fun little colonial shops with a college feel.  I also loved Jamestown.  They had a great archaeological site they have done a lot of work on with a lot of relics found in the area!  Since Anthropology is my college degree I found it very interesting how much they knew about the settlers there because of the things they left behind.

Harrison!

Harrison had the Elementary solo and ensemble performance while Grandma was here so Grandma got to hear him play his saxophone with a friend from school.  They played great together!  It was so fun to hear.  I always hear him playing by himself but it was fun to see how they played together and balanced each other out.  Harrison has so much fun with his music.  He just takes it and runs with it!

Washington DC

We rode the metro into the city with Lynne.  It has been a cold spring so the cherry blossoms hadn't come on yet.  Normally this time of year they would be blooming.  So we took a picture of the tree with some buds starting to form :)  We saw the new Martin Luther King Jr. monument.  This picture is only half of it!  It is massive and incredible.  We saw all the monuments and saw the bureau of engraving and printing.  That was really neat to see all that paper money in one building!! Wow!  32 million dollars per pallet!  Yikes!!  We bought the kids a souvenir.  It was a bag of money!  $150 worth...shredded up!  They didn't appreciate it or see the humor like i thought they would.  When money is printed and there is a flaw they cannot put it in circulation so they reuse them by making things out of them for us to buy :).

It's Sugar!!

I am sure I have blogged this before, but, awe well!  This is one of our family's favorite stores!  Giant sized candies!  Need I say more!?