A Whale of a Run, a touchdown, and some Maxisms

Our local Whaling Days was at the end of July.  Max really wanted to do the 1-mile run and so we signed him up.  I ended up going to Vegas last-minute for the weekend, so I called our friend to have him take my number and do the 4-mile I'd signed up for.  Ty loaded the other two kids (he was planning to have the THREE other kids in the jogging stroller, but I took Tucker with me) and they were all set to do the 1-mile.  Ty said that he was taking pictures at the start line when the race began, so he told Max to just start running and he would catch up.  He said that Max took off like a shot and he had to really book it to catch up with him.  When I talked to them on the phone afterward Tyler was telling me that Max ran the whole thing.  Max said, "No, Dad!  I did stop.  I put my hands on my knees and then I started running again."  So he mostly ran the whole thing.  Brother has some wheels.  The race results were that he ran a 9:27 mile and was 3rd out of 12 kids in his age group.  Not too shabby.  Oh, and the picture of Max dancing with Ev was accompanied with a text from the hubs that said, "A little post race tango.  Kind of weird."  Ha! I love my husband. :)

A few hours later it was time for his final flag football game.  During the season he'd gotten some flags, caught a really short pass, completed a hand-off, and been the center.  But he hadn't caught a pass in the air and run with it.  Truth be told, he looked a little lost out there a big chunk of the time.  Since I was out of town, I sent Ty this text during the game to see how it was going:

Say wha????  I was SO proud!  Ty has ingrained in Max's mind, "You may not be the biggest kid on the field, so you have to be the fastest."  In fact, say the first part of the phrase to Max and he'll finish it for you. :)  It's paid off in soccer and football especially.

Big day for my biggest boy! 

Here are a few funny things he's said recently...

• I was on the phone the other day and Max was lying at my feet.  He looked up at me with a little smile on his face and asked, "Mom, have you learned the error of your ways?"  I just chuckled and rolled my eyes.  I'm sure he heard it on a scripture movie or something.
• Last night he said the family prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for "the football team and soccer team that represent our state."
• Max: "Whoa! How are you walking AND nursing?!"
  Me: "I'm talented."
  Max: "What if that was your talent at the talent show?"
• One Sunday morning Max told me that he liked Everett's tie. I told him that it used to be his tie. He said, "My clothes have been handed down for generations." When I laughed he said, "Well, ONE generation." Right. The big 4-year "generation" between the two of you. :)
• Max asked what I was making for dinner tonight. After I responded he said, "Why are they just called Sweet and Sour Meatballs? Why aren't they called My Mom Makes the Best Sweet and Sour Meatballs in the Whole World?!" Flattery will get you everywhere, son. :) 
• Max, Kelly and Everett are in the backyard picking strawberries. I told them that it was time to wrap up since it's almost bedtime. Max responded, "Mom, we might be kids, but we're lovers of strawberries. We need to keep lookin'." So they are picking a few more strawberries. Who am I to get between them and their love of strawberries? (Well, I totally will in about 5 minutes. My love of bedtime will override their love of strawberries)

And a few other things I want to remember...

Max has taken to filling a cup with water and leaving it on my bedside table lately. I wasn't sure how it had gotten there the first couple if times, but I saw him carefully carrying it one night. So cute. 

One night after we put the kids to bed, Tyler and I finished watching the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean. Just as the movie finished we heard a noise and looked back to see Max getting up from the floor in the dining room...where he'd watched the whole thing! Not thrilled about that, but it wasn't the worst movie for him to see, I guess. Sneaky stinker.

One of those Saturdays....

The day started out with one set plan and one idea of a plan.  Set plan?  Meet up with old mission buddies.  Idea of a plan? IKEA.  And the day just snowballed (in a good way) from there.

Tyler has had a particularly busy week and we haven't been able to hang with him much, so I was especially excited about our set plan.  Ty's old mission companion, Rich Lopez, lives about an hour and a half from us and contacted Tyler about a month ago wanting to get together and also do a Skype call with some of their old investigators in Ukraine.  It was so fun!  Another Elder from the mission came, along with his wife and kids, and we all had a delicious brunch, chatted, listened to our husbands speak Russian, waved and smiled at some nice Ukrainians on the computer, and the kids had a great time.  Loved it.

Suzette Lopez told us as we were leaving that we needed to stop at Snoqualmie Falls {snowball idea}since we were right there.  So we parked, tormented our children by making them walk in the scalding hot weather {mid-80's} through a parking lot and down a path to see the beautiful falls.  It was worth it.  Max wore his sweatband and stuck his head in a sprinkler at my urging, we stopped in the shade a time or two, and right by the falls was a little cooler/breezy.  So even though it seemed sketchy at times, we all made it back to the van alive.  {Seriously, you should have seen the sweat and heard the complaints...we're total heat wimps}

Then we hit the road for IKEA.  As we were driving, Ty mentioned, "The temple is right over there."  I didn't realize what road we were on and we decided just as we were coming to the exit to get off and walk the grounds.  The kids had never been to the Seattle Temple before since it's over an hour from us and we're usually going to the temple to GO to the temple.  It was really, really fun.  We saw three couples who had just gotten married, outside taking pictures.  We took several pictures, explored the temple grounds, stuffed as many acorns as we could into our pockets {Max}, and didn't complain too much about the heat. This little side-trip was my favorite part of the day.  And my favorite picture is the one of my kids all squished to me and each other.  We sat down to take a picture in front of the Seattle Temple sign and suddenly Max's arms were around my neck.  Then I felt another little body squish close to him and a third little body squished in as well.  I will forever love that picture because I loved that I could feel each one of them add to the squishy-ness and my heart felt so full.  I love being a mom.

Next it was on to IKEA.  We ate, had an acorn trade at the table, dropped Max and Kelly at the play area {distracted Ev so he wouldn't know what his non-potty-trained self was missing}, and browsed/shopped for an hour.  We came home with an easel/chalkboard/art station for the kids, a watering can, and some cork pads to set hot things on the table.  

We got home, had cereal for dinner since our lunch was so late, watched some Olypmics, and that was that. I sure dig my little family.  A whole lot.  LOVE these kinds of Saturdays.

{Oh, and I forgot to mention that my sandal snapped at the Lopez' home.  Since we were going straight to the Falls, the hubs took my sandal, some duct tape, and worked some engineering magic.  It sounds awful, but was barely noticeable.  Now I need to get some new sandals.  I've had those sandals our whole marriage.  My feet might be a little more stylish.  Darn.}