Bow Bubbies...

Poor Bubbies.  Unfortunately you have older sisters who like to mess with you.  You were subject to a huge attack of hair bows.

It's bad, I know.

I'm so sorry my love!

Later we played trucks and blocks, to redeem ourselves.

I love how Mark wanted to haul the blocks around.  I'm so sorry you have to grow up.  It's the best listening and watching you.

Mikayla's Preschool Graduation...

Mikayla has nearly finished a year of preschool. This is the end of the year program.  Her teacher, Miss Slack, does a great job for doing it out of her house.

Mikayla sang the songs and was excited about treats afterwards.

This doesn't have anything to do with preschool graduation but Mark insisted I put a trailer on his "truck."  This is the best we could do and he seemed satisfied to pull around the stroller.  What a funny kid.

He ran the IronMan?? Is he crazy?!

Check out Merril.  He decided to run the IronMan this year!  Nuts, right?  He's been training for an hour each day, 6 days a week.  He's been improving his nutrition over the last few years and is down to around 185 pounds, which is the leanest I've ever seen him.  He's looking great!  

Race day is here!  Merril's prepping his number and wristband.  

Early on May 8th, Mikayla, Juliet and I went out to see him start the swim.  The competitors are staggered by gender and age and Merril's heat started at 7:40 a.m.  We left the house at 7:00 a.m. but the parking and getting a bus ride took forever.  We got to the water's edge in time to see his group go into the water but I wasn't able to pick him out and say hello.

He came out of the water around the 50-minute mark.

He transitioned to the bike and was on his way.  Look how happy he is!

The weather was cold and rainy for the bike.  He was doing okay but we saw a lot of women shivering.  

THen he transitioned to the run.  He paced with these two guys and ran most of it with them.  They kept each other going with stories and encouraging words.

And here he is at the finish with a smile!

He came in at 7 hours and 44 minutes, 48 seconds.  Other racers said that the rain made it super challenging this year.  Merril can't just run the IronMan, he has to run the hard one.

I still can't get over how absolutely fine he seemed after moving for that long.  He walked normally and was happy and talkative.

Our family is so proud of him!  You are amazing Merril!

His official race information: Swim 50:59 Bike 03:44:47 Run 02:50:30 Total: 07:44:49

He was hardly sore the next day and walked around like a normal person.  I'm in awe!

Pajama party...

The Young Women had a Mothers and daughters night.  We were treated to manicures and facials in our pajamas.  Unfortunately, the facials had cinnamon in it which burns!!  We had fun anyway with our super warm, tingly faces.  No makeup, yikes!  

Oh baby Mark.  I apologize.  You keep running around in Mikayla's old pajamas and I don't really stop you.  You are going to have words with me some day asking, "Why did you let me wear that??"  Sorry baby, you insisted.

I swear we're not doing it to be mean to you.  You really like Mikayla's old pajamas.

Mothers and Daughters...

The boys went to Father's and Sons, I mean the Commemoration of the Aaronic Priesthood, and so the girls took off for dinner out.  We went to Prospector's Place, an Italian eatery.  It was kind of raining but we decided to run down to DQ for some ice cream instead of drive.  For the record, I wanted to drive but Maxine told me to quit being a chicken and walk in the drizzle.  I tracked it with my phone and it was .5 mile.  We ate ice cream and were silly.

By the time we were ready to leave.  It was raining, not sprinkling.  We debated what to do but ended up just running and laughing all the way back to the car.  It was a good run but we were pretty wet by the time we got back to the Tahoe.  #gigglygirls

We're jammin...

Our strawberry plants and throwing some good strawberries!  We picked these the other day.  My kids and all the neighbor kids love to search for strawberries.  It's also time to get some strawberry freezer jam made up!

We make it with apple juice so there's less sugar.  (There's still sugar in there, just less.)  Mikayla and Mark were my awesome helpers.

We got plenty finished so Jack can have his favorite jam on peanut butter sandwiches.

As a kid, I remember my Grandma Gordon always had raspberry freezer jam in her fridge.  :)

Bubbies' basket...

This little guy has been nicknamed Bubbies by Jack.  His nickname, like Mikayla's nickname of Bo, evolved from calling him baby.  He now mostly refers to himself as Bubbies and we have little success getting him to say Mark.  It's understandable, we hardly call him Mark.  It has a few  permutations including Bubber and Bubboo.  Anyway, the older kids made him this bed out of an old laundry basket.  He calls is "Bubbies basket."

He took 2 naps in that thing and insisted on being put to bed at night in it (we moved him when we went to bed).  I don't know how his legs didn't fall asleep from being all smashed in the bottom.  

I told him to pretend he's asleep.  He kept smiling.  

Birthday surprise for Daddy...

The day before Merril's birthday, Maxine and the kids wanted to plan a special surprise.  I was not privy to their plans except that I was to get Daddy out of the house for 2 hours so they could prepare.  So Merril and I went birthday shopping.  Merril's preparing to run the IRONMAN (I know, right??!!) and needed a new bicycle helmet.  So we bought that and a few other things and headed back to the house for the surprise!

We were greeted by a completely cleaned house and the restaurant staff of Jamie's Cafe, complete with matching uniforms.  

They ushered us downstairs, where there was a candlelit table waiting for us.  

They immediately brought garlic bread and followed with salad.

We were served spaghetti after the salad course and loved our little dinner.  Mikayla and Mark were starving so they ended up eating downstairs with us.  They were all adorable as they brought down drinks and took our order.  It was delicious and they did a great job!

The next day I planned a big BBQ birthday bash at a park and invited all Merril's friends and their families.  We had it at Nisson park and it was a nice night.  I totally didn't take a single picture.  C'est la vie.  Happy 38th birthday Merril!  I love you more than I ever thought I could.  You are so generous to me and everyone around you.  Loves-J

Jack's end of year program...

Jack is nearing the end of 4th grade and it's time for his program centered on Utah history.  They sang songs about Utah and pioneers.

Jack was picked to be one of the students in the square dancing portion.  He did great!

I brought the wrong camera and didn't get a very good shot but you get the idea.

Boys Trip Back East...

Merril bought a Jeep for a guy in Japan and it had to be picked up back East and driven here (this is the reason the garage shelves started this weekend).  Merril took Jack and Ryan R. and they headed off on an adventure!  They picked up the Jeep in Philadelphia.

 They decided to drive around to some cool spot and went up to New York City.  I tried to convince Jack that it was going to be cold but he didn't believe me.  This is the top of the World Trade Center Tower.

He kept stealing Merril's hat because he was cold.

Breezed past Washington D.C. and the Washington Monument and met up with Dan Moore, who lives there.

The Besens were the big reason that Jack went with Merril.  They were our neighbors for a while and Jack and their son, James, were good friends.  Sharon is about the nicest person you will ever meet and Ted is great!  Their son, Lance, has grown up a ton!

Merril's garage birthday surprise...

I love Merril.  I love Merril's garage....but it seriously lacked organization.  Piles of items littered the floor and drove me bonkers.  Enough is enough.  I set out to hatch a scheme to build shelves for Merril's birthday.  He left town for a few days and so I set to work.  I started in an unimportant corner of the garage to get started.

Things went along pretty well so I moved to a different corner by the garage door.

I learned pretty quick that I'm kind of a weakling.  Theses shelves would go a lot faster if I didn't have to pilot drill all the holes.  But the work moved along and soon I had some good sections!

Then came the fun part!  Fill up all the shelf space and getting stuff off the floor!!

Yippee!

After Merril got home, I was able to ask his opinion about how he wanted the rest of the garage.  And then I set to work.  I didn't want him to finish it because that didn't seem like much of a present.  So I did them all myself.

It's going well but it's still going to take a while to finish it all up.  As I go, I get more ideas of how to store things.  It's a work in progress but coming along nicely!

Update:  I don't feel like I took pictures of anything else this month because I was working on this project A LOT!  It took almost the whole month to construct all the garage shelves.  I'm pretty proud that I didn't lose any fingers.  I got some sore muscles and a few bruises, including this goose egg, which I received trying to take apart a section I'd messed up and the board twisted around and whacked me in the forearm.    

In the end, I'm really please with how they turned out.