"I'm just going to do a short 4-mile run today and I'll do the 11 miles tomorrow"

...a sentence I never imagined I would utter. It didn't strike me as weird until my mother-in-law (who is visiting - yea!) said with a laugh, "'Just' 4 miles?" My previous super weird and out of the ordinary is my new normal. Two weeks from tomorrow! (Half marathon in Leavenworth, for the non-regular readers) I'm excited. Actually, I'm excited for the half and the training has me even more excited about the full marathon I hope to do early next year. That's going to kick my booty. But I figure that even a year ago I never imagined myself running more than, like, 5 or 6 miles at a time. So I'm already defying my own expectations. It feels good. Got to get to bed for that 11.1 miler in the morn - my longest so far. And I bought new special running socks so that on this long run I don't end up with 6 blisters on my left foot and 4 blisters on my right. You heard me. And I'm talking gnarly blisters. They're gone but callouses are forming. I was told to not be surprised about losing toenails. Sweet. For the love of the run, I guess. And I think I can finally say that I love running! That was a goal for me.

Bits n' Pieces

I married an engineer. 'Nuff said.







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We all made the trek to UW to watch the UW vs BYU game...as you can see by Ty's colors, we were cheering for the Cougs. And we weren't disappointed! For those of you who saw it, we too thought the "celebration" call was lame...but BYU blocked that kick which isn't an easy thing to do, so they still deserved the win. Such a fun game to be at and the weather was perfect! Kind of an interesting experience being on someone else's home turf cheering for the opposing team. And by ineteresting I mean a little frightening! :)

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My husby ROCKS!

He placed 35th in a triathlon he did on Saturday...I can only dream of placing so high. Maybe one day I'll be hard-core enough. I am so proud of Ty. He does everything so well and looks SO good doing it!


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In case you were wondering, THIS

is what happens when you put a two-year-old down for his afternoon nap after he took a half-hour nap in the morning. He does not go to sleep. Instead he totally trashes his room in the name of playing with every possible toy and non-toy. Oh, and then when you finally decide he's not going to sleep after he yells for 5 minutes, "Mom, I'm awake!" and you go in to get him, you will find him totally naked, holding out his basketball uniform and he will matter-of-factly say, "Want to wear my uniform!" like everything he's just done (including the fact that he isn't wearing a thing) is totally normal. And you - the mom - will just have to laugh because it's quite funny!

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For those inquiring minds who have wanted to know how potty training is going...THIS should answer your question. Max is rockin' the potty training! We always tell him that we're so proud of him...the other night as I was putting him to bed we were talking about going on the potty - he reached out and touched the tip of my nose with his finger and said with a smile, "You're so proud." Too true, Maxwell T! *It's not 100% perfected yet, but he is pretty much accident-free and is telling us when he needs to go. He even stays quite dry at nights and has come in and asked to go potty in the middle of the night.*

Well, well, well...what do we have here?

Let the potty-training begin!

We're giving it a try. He's super good at holding it and not having accidents in public (so far). Today has been an accident-free day both at home and at the store. We just began the process on Tuesday. The problem we started having was that he just wouldn't go until he got in his pull-up for nap or bedtime. Too good at holding it! I thought, "Oh great! I'm going to give my kid a urinary tract infection because I'm trying to potty train him." So today we bought one of those little seats that fits on the toilet seat because I thought that if he was more comfortable to just sit then he would feel more free to go. It worked! He went like a champ two times before his nap. We'll see how it goes this evening. I'm not getting my hopes up too, too high, but I am excited to see if this sticks. If it doesn't, he's only 2 and we'll try again in a few months. *Thanks for the bathroom decoration idea, Carrie...he was in awe!*
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This morning on the monitor I heard Kelly start talking...then I heard Max's door open...then I heard Kelly's door open...then "Hi, Kelly!" and lots of giggling from both of my kiddos...then some rustling...then I came in and took this picture (can you tell Max thought he might be in trouble? We've had to have some talks about not going into Kelly's room and waking her up, but I assured him all was well since she was already awake):
*Oh, and I do dress my children in pajamas...Max had just stripped them outside of the crib because he was poopy and wanted to be changed - that's according to the Maxster*
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Labor Day morning found the Washington Fosters hiking Green Mountain. Kind of chilly at the start, lots of clouds, but we had enough cloud break at the top to snap the above picture. Usually from this point you can see both sides of the Peninsula - Puget Sound and the Hood Canal - but it was too cloudy. Still a beautiful hike, though, and the kids were fabulous!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max is a funny little man. Here are a few things he's said lately that have made us laugh:
#1) These cute twin boys about Max's age just moved into the ward. We were having them over to play at our house for a few hours so that their mom could get some unpacking done. On the way over to pick them up I told Max that we were picking up Benjamin and Matthew to come and play. Well, the Book of Mormon Reader must be sticking, because a few minutes later Max asked, "Mom, we're going to pick up Matthew and King Benjamin?" :)
#2) Max's favorite song is 'Families Can Be Together Forever'. It's the #1 request when we put him down at night. Often we'll start to sing something else and Max will say, "No, no, no, no...'Family'!"(his name for the song) A few weeks ago in sacrament meeting a family in our ward with 4 little kids did the program. For the musical number the mom and her two oldest children sang 'Families Can Be Together Forever'. Max had been playing, but he heard the music and froze for a moment, then he looked up with wide eyes and very excitedly said, "That's MY song!" I think he really couldn't believe that they knew it too. He was very attentive during their musical number, so thrilled to hear "his" song at church. It was a fun look into that little mind.
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Kelly's 6-month birthday present to herself - unclogging her tear duct! Hooray! I realized the day after she turned 6 months that I hadn't had to wipe a goob out of her eye all day...and I haven't had to since. I bet she's even more excited than I am since it means that Mom won't be picking at her eye a million times a day anymore. Good work, Bo-Belly!