TN SUMMER VACATION

We spent a great 6 days in TN at Lee's parents house on the lake. Each and every day was spent in our swimsuits and in the lake or swimming pool. The boys enjoyed jumping off the back of the boat, jumping off of the diving board in the pool, driving the lawn mower and tractor, riding in the trailer pulled by the tractor, riding bikes, and just spending time with their Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds, Uncle Mitch, and the McCabe families who were also their on vacation.

I asked Tyler what his favorite part of the trip was and he replied with, "driving the mower and riding on the tractor with the trailor."

I was not at all surprised with his answer. He absolutely loves tractors!

We all had many favorites from the trip. It was a fun-filled family vacation!!!

After a full 6 days of fun and sun, the boys were exhausted. They were excited to be back home and back in their own house with their toys. I'm pretty sure that you couldn't see an inch of the carpet in the playroom yesterday, as they spent the entire day in there playing with each and every one of their toys!

We, of course, took many pictures! You can click on the link below if you would like to see the many more pictures from our vacation.

https://picasaweb.google.com/darceyreynolds/TNVaca2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCOGC-JCUwc7x9QE&feat=directlink

I DID IT!

For the past 3 1/2 months I have been training, along with my great friend, Megan, for the Dam to Dam 1/2 Marathon! It has been an interesting experience and one that I know I wouldn't have been able to accomplish without the support from my family and Megan.

There were a few reasons that I wanted to do this race.

1. I needed a motivator to exercise.

2. I just turned 30 in April, and thought that this would be the time to do it.

3. We are not having any more babies, so my body no longer needs to be elastic! :)

The race was just this past Saturday, June 4th, in Des Moines. I woke up at 4:00 a.m., left the house at about 4:40, arrived at Megan's a little after 5:00 and then her fiance, Brian, took us downtown to get on the bus that took us out to Saylorville Dam, where the start of the race was.

We both felt ready for the race, but even more ready for the whole thing to be over with! At about 8-9 miles into the race, it started getting harder. I have had a couple people tell me that this whole ordeal is 'fun.' I, unfortunately, saw or felt nothing 'fun' about the whole experience. However, I finished and I finished at our goal time! I feel that it was a great motivator for me to exercise, it was a great thing to do since I turned the big 3-0, and I'm still working on the whole getting my body toned thing! ;)

I now have ran a 1/2 marathon and I'm pretty sure that I will never do it again.

Getting up and down the stairs the past couple of days has been pretty painful!

But...I am proud of myself and proud that I actually did this and did it for myself!

I am thankful for my support system and for all the texts that I received on the day of the race! Thank you for thinking of me while I was running and running and running!

Behind this gal in the black tank top is me in the pink tank top. This is right before the finish line!!!
After the race. Brady brought me flowers and Tyler took some flowers to Megan! My wonderful support system! Without them, especially my wonderful hubby, Lee, this would not have been done.

And I KNOW that this couldn't have been done without Megan! In this picture is Brian, Megan, myself, and Lee. Thank you, Megan, for being the best running partner there is! Now we can really celebrate at this year's Big Country Bash!

Brady and I after the race.

Getting a kiss from my proud hubby!

Some more of my support system that came to cheer me on. Josh, Liz, Parker, and Tyler. Along with Josh and Liz, both my mom and my dad came to cheer me on. Thank you to my family for being there for me and believing in me! Love you all!

Here is my training schedule that is still posted on the refridgerator. It shows such a great accomplishment! That 3 1/2 months seemed like it was going to take forever, but now here I am, limping around my house, and it's already over!!!

RANDOM PICTURES

Enjoy some random pictures of the boys.

What starts as a nice cuddly couch....
Turns into a wrestling mat!
Brady got a taste of Iowa corn on the cob for the first time this May!

A true Iowa boy!

Tyler playing baseball with Grandma Mary. He's getting really good at hitting the ball, no T needed! These two can be the best of buds when they want to be! :)

Our three little ones. Tyler, Cali, and Brady all relaxing.

Our sweet little girl, Cali. She has been the perfect addition to our family!

Tyler playing at the Memorial Day party that we went to.

Brady at the party.

All three boys in their work goggles to mow the yard.

MOVIE NIGHT

It's not often that these two sit down to watch TV or a movie, because they are constantly go, go, go! We decided to get them a RedBox movie one night and have a movie night for them. We made some popcorn and they sat, for a while, to watch the movie. I'm pretty sure that they only sat for maybe 20 minutes watching the movie and that was because they were eating popcorn. But, it was fun, anyhow!

I can't get them both to look at the camera and smile at the same time, so here's Brady's smile....

and here's Tyler's.

GROWING UP

Brady is growing up every day. Not only his personality changes daily, but I swear everyday that he wakes up, he looks taller! Brady is now 21 months old. Tyler was 21 months when Brady was born. This is why we thought it was the perfect time to bring a puppy home! :)

Brady has been sleeping in a big boy bed since he was 19 months. When he sits at the kitchen table, he no longer uses a booster seat, but wants to be just like Tyler, so he just sits in a chair like the rest of us. He repeats words that we say constantly and is saying more and more words each day. He has a mind of his own and could care less if his Mom or Dad are around. He's going to do what he wants to do. If we are in the front yard, riding bikes, Brady could change his mind and decide he wants to be in the back yard on the swing. He immediately starts walking to the back yard and doesn't stop to wait for us. He is fearless! He wants to do everything that Tyler does. Brady and Tyler have good moments and not so good moments. The good moments are great and the not so good moments are very frustrating and usually end up with one of them in time-out.

Brady will turn two years-old this summer! I can't believe it!!!

We love you, Brady! Thanks for keeping us on our toes!

GOLDFISH

After winning a goldfish at our school carnival, and 'losing' it a few days later, we gave 2 more fish a chance in our home. We took a family trip out to Wal-Mart to pick out two more fish for the fish bowl. Again, they both only lasted a few days, so we are now done with fish for a good while! The boys did love to watch them and Tyler loved to feed them and make fish faces at them, but they were not sad at all when they were found sunk at the bottom of the bowl, so we decided to stop the fish adventure.

Here's the boys watching Lee pour in the two new fish. Tyler named them Sally and Dorothey.
Here's Tyler making his fish face at Sally and Dorothey.

Brady checking out the fish.

SWIM SWIM

Our new swimming pool for the summer has an elephant slide that the kids just cannot get enough of! They will get their bodies on that slide and down into the water seconds after it just got filled up with freezing cold water. These next few pictures will show you what part of my summer will look like. Add in the water table, swing set, and all of the outdoor toys in the garage and that will be our day to day life this summer! I can't wait!

This was the first day that we blew it up and they were able to try it out. Since then, if it is nice outside, trunks are on and we are in the water!

This was a day that I was able to stay home from work with the boys and spend the day playing. Swim trunks were on by 8:30 in the morning. It started at the water table in clothes. That turned to swim trunks at the water table and then to the swimming pool! It was such a nice and fun day to be home from work to spend time with Tyler and Brady!!!