Friday, May 9, 2014

Thanksgiving Point


Included in my race packet was 2 passes to all the sites at Thanksgiving point! I think that paid for my race right there. So the girls and I visited all 3 places for free, and had a great day.
Here we are in the Dinosaur museum. C and V loved this water/sand area where they buried, found, and bathed dinosaurs over and over

The two of them combined weighed about as much as a velocirapter. I thought they looked bigger in Jurrasic Park. I think I could take one, with its dinky arms and all ;)

When we first came into this exhibit with all these big guys, Cambry was really hesitant.

V found this little guy to ride for a minute

Cambry quickly digressed from uncertain to terrified because of the loud soundtrack that was playing over the speakers- it alternated between what sounded like lions fighting and low moaning. Not the best place for my little princess that is hyper sensitive to noise (yes she's the one that's telling the rest of us to be quiet).

We quickly worked our way through all the awesome displays and made it back to sand... this time an archaeological dig, that they naturally loved.

The Discovery Room was more up their alley. Here they got to put these "sail boats" on this table in front of big fans and race them. It was hilarious. C was really trying to do it and V was laughing so hard at her hair blowing around.

V got the strawberry baskets to fly in the wind tunnel

We made a pulley system that did things like make that red umbrella spin and light up a light bulb.

They made some fun (soft) music with these spokes.

The Cambry safe haven:
shape puzzles

While I took Vienna around to do other things, Cambry stayed here and did nearly every single one of these puzzles.

And back to sand. These turn tables just kept spinning while they made designs on them. This mesmerized me too, and I tried to get my hands in there to play, but quickly got swatted away both times by V and C.

After leaving the dinosaur museum, we went to Farm Days, and the girls got to ride ponies!! They were ecstatic about it, especially Vienna. It got a little chilly, so Vienna has on all the layers we could find in the car. haha. Thank heavens I've been lazy about the organization of my car. 
She loved being aboard her "Nay" as she calls them.


My cautious little princess, rode this like a little cow girl.


After taming the coral, we headed over to plant, harvest, and sell produce.

She was telling me about how you have to pick the apples off the tree and pick the carrots out of the ground.

taking the produce to the truck to be sold at the market

Veena took her turn plowing the fields on her tractor.

Next we got to take a little hay ride around the farm, pulled by the horses Holly and Bell. Cambry  whines whenever she's outside and its under 70 degrees (she has my genes) was surprisingly the happiest person to be on that ride.

She even got really close to them!! Shocking!

Veena loved being in jail- thought it was the funniest thing to look out at the world through bars.


Lastly, the Tulip Festival. So beautiful! Some of my race was running through here, and I'm glad I got to go back and take a closer look. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to, because I could tell my time was running short that the girls would still be good sports, but Thanksgiving Point does a phenomenal job with their grounds!

What a trooper this Myla was all day!! No nap, and still happy as can be.








I was barely out of the parking lot when I looked back and saw this. Success.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Tulip Fesitval Half Marathon

April 26th I ran this race. It was so electrifying to be around runners! I love being apart of something greater than myself, and since I love running, this is so invigorating for me. It was cold and rainy the entire race, and it should've been miserable, but it wasn't at all for me!! 

This race was big in my marathon training. Up until this day, I felt like I was "driving with the emergency brake on" during my runs- where I was having difficulty improving my speed and endurance. Somehow that got fixed here, and I'm so grateful that it gave me the confidence that I can run faster and further. 
This course was quite hilly. In the middle of a monster hill on mile 10, I was huffing and puffing. I read a sign that said "Run with your heart, not with your legs." That sign lit a fire inside of me and given me the motivation every run since to push harder and to reach outside of myself to attain my goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon. 
The finishing stretch! It coincided with the 5k, and was a fun chaos bobbing and weaving around people the last mile.


My wonderful support group that braved the cold and early morning to be there with me.

And my poor pruny, blistered feet! One day I promise to take better care of you!

At least I can produce children with darling feet... look at how cute Myla's and Cambry's feet are!


Day out with Grandma

Since my mom is mostly at the yoga studio and rarely home, I decided it was time we scheduled a day where we could have Grandma time. We went down town to the LDS church museum. Cambry and Vienna love being with Grandma Beck.




They loved dancing with Grandma


Myla bouncing around on the oversized blocks

Princess Purple in her castle

Tea Party in the castle

we capped the outing off with a little fishing. 

Frampton Egg Roll

Every year my mom's family does a big competition that starts here:
dying eggs with our own families...



... Then on Easter Sunday we all get together and have the annual Egg Roll. We all bring our decorated hard boiled eggs and roll them against someone else's. The person with the uncracked egg moves on to the next round. 2014 was a sad year for the Rappleyes. We all got out in the first round.


Myla trying to decide if she likes Grandma Beck

Myla and Liam kind of kicked their eggs at each other, which was hilarious to watch.


After eating their egg, they played on the toys during the rest of the tournament... not caring about their losing status (I'm apparently still upset that not ONE of us made it past the first round!).


2013 winner Grandma Ber passing off the Trophy to the 2014 winner Emi