InCrEdIbLe!

I think I've recovered. My 8 or so loads of laundry are done, the ironing is finished, my cupboards and fridge are full and I feel somewhat caught up on sleep. BUT I feel forever changed by the experience. I love road trips, I love having Ty to ourselves for extended periods of time and I love nature; this was really my perfect vacation! That's not to say that there wasn't some drama - Kelly screaming because she's SO done being strapped in her car seat, me being snappy and then crying because I'm SO done with not being able to stay clean for more than 20 minutes, Max bleeding because he keeps falling down on hard surfaces because we were always on hard surfaces, mosquito bites and Ty’s sun burn...to name the most memorable. All family vacations need a flair of the dramatic, right? We drove a total of 2,942 miles and camped in a tent a total of 9 nights. We had some reprieve from camping in Chico, CA, visiting Ty's aunt and uncle and then our last night was spent in a super nice hotel suite that I feel like we totally deserved after so many nights in nature! :) Now it’s back to reality…good thing “reality” isn’t so bad either.

Mount St. HelensOur first night we drove just 2 1/2 hours to our campsite near Mount St. Helens. I wasn't prepared for how amazing Mount St. Helens would be! It is massive and the destruction from the 1980 eruption is still so obvious in the landscape for miles surrounding the volcano. I just didn't realize how many people and how big of an area were affected by its eruption. Our campsite was so beautiful there...we loved it and were surprised by how impressive the whole experience was.

Chico, California - Uncle Jim & Aunt SallyIt was so nice to shower and sleep in such a comfortable bed. Jim and Sally know how to treat their guests. Max and Ty went swimming, we were treated to a delicious dinner and dessert and it was so fun to hang out and visit with them and their son Alex who is home for the summer from college. We contemplated staying an extra night, but decided we'd better not so that we could spend as much time as possible in...

Yosemite!Wowzah! That's all I can say. Okay, it's not all I can say. If we were surprised by the beauty and breadth of Mount St. Helens, it was NOTHING compared to our feelings about Yosemite. Tyler and I just kept saying to each other, "This is BEAUTIFUL!" "Isn't this incredible?" "Oh wow!" "Can you believe this place?!" Our only regret is that we didn't have more time there. We'll go back again someday.








Oceanside, CA - Mann Clan Reunion!
11 adults, 12 kids ages 5 and under, 4 campsites, 6 tents, a few days at the beach, the San Diego Zoo, a visit from the candy fairy....a whole lotta fun! The cousins all played really, really well together. Nate and Jenn stuck it out through 3 of their 4 kids getting the flu (which amazingly passed to no one else in the fam) and we all just really enjoyed our time together. Can't wait for next year - especially since I won't be planning it. :)

At the campground....



9 1/2 hours at the San Diego Zoo (few naps and zero meltdowns by kids OR adults...amazing!)








Harbor View BeachPerfect, slightly overcast (read: surprisingly nice and cool) day at the beach in Oceanside!


Like I said, the perfect vacation! Too bad our kiddos won't remember a lick of it. We'll show them the pictures. :)

The Fosters Fantastic Family Vacation

We're hitting the road! Mount St. Helens - Yosemite National Park - Oceanside, CA....see you in a few weeks.

This is how I roll....

The Kellster is:

• 4 months old (what?!)
  
• 13 lbs (very average weight)
  
• 25 inches long (tall drink of water)
  
• rolling from front-to-back and back-to-front! (check out her very first rolling action below) She has since improved dramatically - in the five days since she began - and acts like she's been doing it all along. Still, getting that arm out from under her body once she's rolled onto her tummy can sometimes prove a difficult task. But that gets the best of all of us at times.
• laughing; but only if you're making a really funny face or tickling her. No charity laughs from this babe.
• loving her big brother. Really, Max can always make her smile and she loves to watch him play. She's lucky because he's about as sweet as they come in the big brother department.

• still giving the full-body smiles. I really need to capture it on video. It's not just an upturned mouth, but an open mouth, smiley eyes, body wriggling experience. We love it.

• going to eat rice cereal for the first time tonight. I want to wait for Ty to get home so that we can capture it with the camera. I'll report.
• an absolute JOY to have in our home. Never fusses without reason and even smiles mid-scream if you smile at her. We love this little bundle!

I SURVIVED!

I totally did it. I am so proud of myself. I'm sure it's the good kind of pride. :) I swam only once beforehand, got on my bike to ride around the neighborhood a bit on Wednesday, I had a baby 4 months ago...and considering all of those things, I did great! I was pretty darn slow, but I wasn't out there to win any medal besides my finisher medal (which, by the way, is lovely). I really dig the t-shirts that I get from each of these events as well. I pushed myself hard and I finished. I'm already signed up for the next one - Ty came home and signed us both up for one on August 16th. So I guess this was kind of training/getting my feet wet. Hooray for triathlons and doing something hard! It is really the coolest feeling to complete something like this. There are a million and one people who are MUCH more hard-core than me and would consider this a bit wimpy, but I still love doing it and reaching beyond MY ability to accomplish a worthy goal .(maybe not a super appropriate picture (center) - I wasn't lovin' that Ty took it - but I think it's worth noting for my own posterity that I nursed my babe and then got out there and ran a stinkin' triathlon!)

This is my dear friend, Tristalene. This was her first triathlon and she did awesome! She'll hopefully join me for many more triathlons to come. I'm trying to get her to do the half-marathon with me in October....

As you can see, the kids were so proud of their momma. They were totally into it! :) Actually, they were troopers. We woke them up to get in the car a little before 6 a.m. We drove for an hour and a half, got all set up and then they had to still hang out while I actually did the event. We are lucky to have such good kiddos!





EVERYONE should try a tri!

(Yes, that means you! Trust me, I've heard your excuse before - try me and I'll help you realize that you could be out there doing this as well if there is even the slightest desire in your heart)

Braggin' about my Babe!

This is one of my favorite things to do- talk about how great my husband is! I've been feeling the need to do this post because I have especially noticed these few things lately and feel really lucky. I am so very, very grateful that Heavenly Father lead me so specifically to Tyler!

First off, the guy has many, many talents BUT he is not a show-off. In fact just the opposite. He doesn't necessarily hide them under a bushel, but it takes some coaxing to get him to be the star of the show. Sometimes this quality drives me crazy because I feel like he's self-deprecating and I want him to acknowledge how great he is. He just doesn't need the adulation or approval of others to feel good about himself. We had a musical talent show at Church and I figured that he, of course, would want to participate. He sings, plays the guitar and harmonica...so I signed him up. Well, I shouldn't have assumed. I am grateful - and so was the rest of the ward - that he still agreed to go through with it. Hardly anyone knew of his talents and many people said afterward that they were blown away. Listen to his song (I don't know if you want to watch it all - pretty bad camera work on my part, but just take a listen) and I think you too will be impressed with this man of mine. Mind you, it's in the gym at church so the sound quality isn't the greatest.


We get our own little concerts all the time - Max is serenaded often while he's taking a bath. We all love when Dad breaks out the guitar or harmonica. Ty is totally self-taught. He just decided that he wanted to learn the harmonica one day and he plays it all by ear. Same with the guitar. And while he has had piano lessons, he can hear a song and figure out how to play it by sitting down and plunking it out.

Secondly, Tyler is super resourceful. If something needs to be done or fixed then Ty can do it. Recently he replaced the muffler on his car after reading about how to do it on the internet. He built us a new, really nice retaining wall (pictured partially finished here), he painted the exterior of our house last year, he solved the problem with our washer after taking it apart (and it ended up being this tiny piece that I am still amazed he found and identified as the problem), he tiled the master bathroom and laid our bamboo flooring. He took apart our wall and found a pipe that had busted (which we found because water was spraying down the exterior of our house), removed the broken piece and welded the new piece on - that's right, welded. Ty has saved us thousands of dollars by doing these things (and MANY others) himself. And he doesn't just do it to get it done. He researches a lot and makes sure that he does everything WELL.

Third, Ty is an awesome DAD!Not just a good dad who loves his kids, but a really exceptional dad. He is so, so involved and I love that. Just because he's at work all day doesn't mean he's not a part of what's going on here at home. He loves to teach Max new things and see his mind work. He loves to make Kelly smile and laugh. It's nice to have someone who hasn't been with the kids all day come home and be so in love with them because it reminds me to take a step back so that I can feel the same. He takes his role seriously and is great at implementing the Gospel into his parenting. He deserved to feel GOOD on Father's Day because he does everything to be a really amazing father!

Fourth, Tyler is so, so supportive of me. I know I've said it before, but I love how he pushes me to be better by just believing that I'm already great. He's constantly telling me that I have talents I'm not so sure about. And he's not just saying it to score points; I know that he really means it. He makes me laugh when I want to cry, but he also lets me cry when I need to. I love his eyes and his nice, full lips :). I really love going through life with him. I definitely wasn't getting married just for the wedding. THIS is what I wanted - to have a great friend to experience life-it's joys and trials-with. To be married and have a great companion; someone with whom I am "equally yoked". I am SO blessed! So are Max and Kelly and all future kids of this incredible man.

Now for the picture of the week. It makes my heart happy!

What was I thinking?!

This coming Saturday I'll be doing my third triathlon. My first was a year ago, early June, and the second was in July when I was 8 weeks pregnant, nauseated, and going on about three hours of sleep. However, I felt much better about my chances of not collapsing on the course that time than I do about this one coming up. I am NOT in shape for this (having a baby can do that to a body). I will be getting on my bike on Wednesday for the first time since my last triathlon. I swam laps once, just two weeks ago, and will go one more time this week. I've run a little, but not enough to feel very prepared. And to make matters worse, I signed up to swim 1/2 mile. What?! I am NOT a strong swimmer. These are lake swims in cold, pacific northwestern lakes and the longest swim I've done is 1/4 mile. What was I thinking?! Well, what I was thinking is that I wanted to push myself a little and since the other events are relatively short, then swimming is where I could push. I like proving to myself that I can do hard things. Now, I know that I won't die. I know that I can push through the pain. I know that I can totally do this, but I wish that I felt more prepared. Life has been SO busy the past few months and it's left me with very little time or energy to get ready for this tri. I guess I'll just have to look at it as training for the triathlon that I'll be doing in August... I don't feel super worried, but I also don't feel at all prepared. Ugh! Wish me luck!

"Me want to do someday!"

...what Max said as soon as he saw the firefighters doing this:at the local "Kid's Day" with the firefighters. I was a little disappointed because I thought they were going to let the kids gets up close and personal with the fire trucks. Not so. Max was still really thrilled with his "fire engine hat".



Don't let her fool you...Kelly loved every minute of her time there. :)









After insisting that I put on the hat we picked up for Max's friend, Reyes, Max said over and over again in a really excited tone, "Mom, we're being firefighters!" And then he told two men that we passed in the parking lot. Not a bad career choice, Max. Fun to think about what he'll want to do when he grows up!

Just a few words about my little lady. I feel super blessed to have given birth to yet another GREAT baby. She is so good. She only fusses when necessary - tired, hungry, poopy - but the fussing is over as soon as the need has been met. She's been sleeping through the night for well over a month. I sing to her and rock her and she puts herself to sleep in her crib. Her life thus far has flown by! Tyler and I were talking about how it was when Max was a babe - we were anticipating each new milestone about a month before they happened. He was our only one and so it's all we thought about. Recently I thought, "I bet Kelly would be ready to start grabbing toys." Sure enough, I hold a rattle in front of her and her little arm gets movin' until her hand meets the rattle and she grabs on! I remember sitting with Max for hours with toys in front of him long before he was able to do anything with them. Our little girl is growing up fast! And, oh, her smile absolutely melts my heart. Still the full-body smiles - clear down to her toes. I love them!