The Last Strawberry and Random Shots

 Adalei just loves to color!  She does a great job.

 Elijah and Brielle were enjoying the freshly picked strawberries.  Elijah kept saying, "This is my last strawberry and then I'll eat another one."  He made me laugh.

 Nate was busy at church meetings when I got this picture of Misty and the kids right before church.

 Adalei made this shirt in school. 

 This is a picture of Adalei's kindergarten classroom.

Cute Elijah!  He made me laugh! 

 (Brielle was sleeping in so I missed getting her in some more random shots - next time.....)

The First Annual Kids Dash Sponsored by Dr. Tanner

 I was so excited to attend the first annual Kids Dash in Grants Pass.  Nate had over 80 participants.  Here's a picture of Elijah, Adalei, and Brielle all excited for their races.

 Elijah's race for 2 and 3 year olds was the first race of the day.  Here he is crossing the finish line and eager to get his popsicle for completing the race.

 Brielle ran fast and was also excited to get her popsicle.  She was in the race with 3 and 4 year olds.

 Adalei's race was third and we were thrilled that she was the winner of the race and the first one to cross the finish line with the number two runner not in sight.  She did a great job!

 Nate did a great job as MC for the race.  They were able to raise approximately $500 for several charitable organizations in Grants Pass.  Nate did a super job with the organization of the race.  It was a very successful event and everyone had fun.

 Elijah resting after his race.....

 This girl won $100 for creating the winning design on the t-shirts for the race.  It was $5 to enter the race and each participant received a t-shirt.  (She is wearing the t-shirt with her winning design.) 

 Dr. Tanner had a 3k Challenge race where he challenged the racers to beat him.  Anyone that beat him would share in $50 of gift certificates to the Yogurt Hut.  This picture above shows all of those that accepted the challenge.

 I got this cute picture of Misty and the kids while Nate was running..... 

As you can see below, Nate was the #1 finisher of the challenge race with the #2 runner not in sight.  Since no one beat him, they ran a second race and all participants received $5 gift certificates to the Yogurt Hut.  Here he is crossing the finish line.

This is a picture of his flier that resulted in a successful event.  I look forward to attending next year.  Maybe I'll be in good enough shape to enter the race myself.  But then what would they do without my photos if I was in the race.  I have a whole year to decide.  

Congratulations Team Tanner for a great event!  I enjoyed myself very much.

Walking to Church in Grants Pass

 This last Sunday I walked to church with Misty, Adalei, Brielle, and Elijah in Grants Pass. 

 It was so fun to walk on a beautiful day.

  The kids were so excited to see the beautiful flowers and wanted me to take a picture of each one. 

 You can see that we saw many beautiful flowers.....

 Here's a few of my best pictures.

 The purple ones are my favorites.

 The kids wanted to be in the pictures with the flowers too.

They were just starting to sing the opening song when we got to church so it's good that I didn't take anymore pictures......

Nate #2 Winner of 5k in Washougal, Washington

I was so excited to have Nate, Misty, Adalei, Brielle, and Elijah come visit last weekend. Nate came up Wednesday night for training. Misty and the kids came up after school on Friday. They stayed until Sunday afternoon. We had a great time together and I'm so grateful that they took the time to come stay with me a few days. (I can't figure out how to get rid of this underlining.)

 The highlight of the visit was going to a race at Washougal High School for the school foundation fundraiser.  Here's a picture of Misty and Elijah waiting for the races to start.

Adalei took this picture of Misty and Elijah above.  You can see the stadium in the background.

Below is breakfast before the race.  I made baked oatmeal with fresh fruit.  Elijah loved it.  He ate all his and Adalei's too.  Nate had a hard time eating because all three wanted to sit on his lap.  He's a well loved dad.

 Nate and Adalei were in the first two races.  The picture above is before the race.  Below is a picture of Nate running across the finish line!  He was #2 in a race of approximately 200 participants.  We were so excited that he did so well.  You can see that the next runners were no where in sight.

 I took some pictures while we waited for the dash for Brielle and Elijah.  Nate was resting above after winning his race.  Below, Adalei was having fun with my camera and taking lots of pictures.  She is getting really good as a photographer as you could see in the first picture above.

 Little Elijah was as cute as can be.  All the kids loved the mascot but especially Elijah.  He just kept hugging and kissing the mascot.  He said it was a bear but I thought it was a cat.  Anyhow, it was just so cute as you can see in the picture below.

 Here's a picture of Adalei crossing the finish line of her race of 1.5k.  She did a great job and seemed to be in the top 25% of the racers.  As you can see below, she received a medal, water, and a Popsicle for participating in her race.

 The very last race of the morning was the dash for those younger than kindergarten age.  The parents ran with some of the kids so I couldn't get good pictures at the finish line.  Elijah and Brielle also received Popsicles after finishing their race.

 After the race, we played at the park but took a break for snack.  I told the kids we were having dirt and worms for snack.  They caught on quick that it would be edible and they loved their treat.  It was a half cup full of chocolate pudding, topped with Oreo cookie crumbs and a couple of gummy worms on top.  They thought it was delicious.

 Elijah was thrilled with some trucks to play in his back yard.  Adalei and Brielle had fun with my dolls.  It was a wonderful time and I am so grateful that they could come visit me. 

Mother's Day Memories with Charity (Holden, Missouri) 2012

 It was a wonderful mother's day weekend.  Charity met me in Kansas City and we spent the weekend with my mom and dad.  Our first stop was to see the newly dedicated Kansas City Temple where my parents are going to be temple workers.  I loved the sky in the picture above and appreciate Charity taking a picture of me below.

 While we were in Independence, Missouri, for a family wedding reception, we saw a few sights.  The picture above is the home of President Harry S. Truman before he became president.  He lived here from 1919 (when he got married) to 1945.  The picture below is of the court house with a statute of President Truman in front.  He was our U.S. President from 1945 to 1953 (before I was born).

 Charity and I enjoyed some yummy banana splits while we were there.  Mom also made a delicious turkey dinner and the cranberries were so good.  I even had them with my ice cream one day.

We played Chicken's Feet with some color dot dominoes (below) and had a fun time.  (Charity and my parents in the pictures.)

 The last morning we took a .4 walk in the hay field below my parent's house.  This is a picture of their pond in the background.  It was beautiful there and we enjoyed the quiet of country living.

Charity found this frog below on the back porch.  He wouldn't jump unless you touched him so I probably could have gotten even closer for this picture. 

We were there for four days and had a wonderful time - we went to the wedding reception, went to church, cooked and ate lots of good food with ice cream every day, watched Fox News and Glenn Beck, played the game, walked, and talked lots!  It was hard to leave as the time went so fast.

Charity got me a beautiful necklace that I just love for mother's day.  I should have taken a picture of that.  I also got four new books from Jason/Ashley which are for my kindle that I love.  I'm already reading the first book and enjoying it.  It was great to have the traditional phone calls and the lovely cards from Misty, Adalei, Brielle, and Elijah!  I am so blessed as a mother to have such wonderful children and grandchildren.  I greatly appreciate Charity coming to spend the weekend with me too.

Awesome Runners!

 I had a great day yesterday attending the Awesome 3000 races in Salem, Oregon, with Nate and family.  Adalei and Brielle were in the kindergarten and 4 year old races, respectively.  Here are pictures above and below of Adalei and Brielle before their races.  They were so excited and happy to be in the race.

 The race was held at the Williamette University stadium.  This is a picture of Adalei's group in the middle right before their race.  They were warming up.

 Adalei took #11 out of 178 kindergarten girls!  She did awesome! 

 They had the parents run with the 4 year olds so Nate ran with Brielle.  Brielle was #6 in the 4 year old race and #1 out of the girls!  Brielle did awesome too!

After the race we celebrated with pizza at a local pizza shop.  Then had Cold Stone ice cream!  It was a fun time!  I'm so glad they invited me to join them. 

In this last picture you can also see that Adalei has lost her first tooth!