Rodeo, Vday, 5k+mile run

For a friend's birthday, I organized a girls night out at a rodeo. It was my first time and we had a lot of fun! When we got there the seats were sold out, standing room only. But we got tickets in and found a spot to sit on the stairs that really could not have been in a better spot- we could see the bulls and cowboys right at the chute!

It was incredible to see the skilled cowboys ride the enormous bulls. I didn't get pics of the cowgirls doing barrel racing but it was amazing to see how fast and controlled the horses would do the course.

 

Every time they got off (some by choice, most thrown off) it seemed like pure chance they weren't trampled. One cowboy, after getting bucked off, got thrown by the bulls horns into a total flip- and the guy just landed and walked away while the clowns distracted the bull. I would have been screaming and running for my life!

 

Playing the guitar with daddy. Even Diana is adding her kicks.

 

Diana does an army crawl now, and will continue to make progress towards racing around with her brothers!

 

Valentine's Day morning the kids and I had pancakes! (Jim was at seminary)

Nothing like sugar to start off the day of sugar. Nicole had a party at school, Mike had a vday exchange at preschool, and Jake had a party at Music Makers.

 

Jim gave me two bouquets during the week and I combined them in this colorful arrangement. I love the bright colors and those cool green flowers, but the roses really are my fav.

 

In preparation for Jim's big surf trip coming up, he ran a 5k in Sanford. Yesterday the weather was in the 60s and we didn't think about checking the weather. While we were driving down there, it slowly went from cloudy, to light sprinkles, rain, then light snow, then heavy snow! I couldn't believe it!

We didn't know that three of the youth in our ward had also signed up so it was fun to see them. They each medaled and went super fast, it was fun to cheer them on! Jim had fun warming up with them, and wasn't too far behind in the race :)

 

The snow was thick like cotton, huge snowflakes that slowly began to accumulate. The kids were all trying to eat the snow while we waited. I zipped Diana in my coat with me so she could stay warm.

When Jim came by, Michael was the most excited, shouting encouragement to Jim and giving him a high five as he went by. Jim was so much more prepared this year for the run and he recovered so much faster. It is always a good wake up call for the level of fitness he is at and where he wants to be in time for Costa Rica.

The kids getting ready for the mile fun run. Because of the cold (it was about 34 degrees!) they had a much smaller group this year, but Nicole totally braved it out. She would run fast, then walk, then run fast again. It was so cold she kept her hands in her coat pockets the whole time. Jim ran with her.

 

Before the race Nicole asked if Jim could carry her, but we had to tell her that this was HER race and she had to do it all on her own. Jim could encourage her and give her pointers, but it was all up to her. Really an interesting moment in parenting as I thought about how it applies to life and how we can support and encourage her as much as possible, but her choices are completely her own.

After we got home, we celebrated our surprise snow! Jim took the kids to the sled hill (Jacob had lost his blue coat somewhere and all I had was a little pink one poor kid!) and the back home to make a snowman!

Michael is such a hard worker when he puts his mind to something. He was rolling this all by himself, soaking wet from the snow, having the time of his life.

The completed snowman! Snow continues to fall, but we are warm and cozy in the house showing the kids some of our favorite old cartoons- Duck Tales!

Circus

We had an awesome family adventure to the circus! A friend staying with us watched Diana at the house so it was just the "big kids" out for a late night. We got 6th row tickets which made everything incredibly close, especially the animals. To prevent splurging on $15 cotton candy, I brought lots of snacks the kids never get. Michael downed at least 3 Capri Suns.

 

A little nervous for the start! Michael on Capri Sun #2

Nicole with the little orchestra in the background. It was cool to sit near them and see all of the behind the scenes type stuff they did. The musicians were very talented and played for a long time! The head guy played a trumpet, talked to the people behind the curtain with his microphone and had a headset for his little orchestra. Two pianos and a drum set in a soundproof glass booth as well as some other percussion.

To start it off, the ringmaster sang the national anthem while an elephant paraded a circus lady around the arena.

For the big intro, they had horses, elephants, dancers, and everyone come out to give us a teaser of all the fun. There were four big elephants and a baby. So so so cute! It was pretty neat to see them up close.

Dancers above and clowns below along with horses racing around.

The horses were my favorite part. It was incredible to watch people riding two galloping horses at once, or to see the crazy tricks performed while riding bareback. The men were incredibly althletic to do stunts like going under a galloping horse all the way, or jumping off and on these huge horses.

The lion tamer was a brave brave man. He had 3 tigers, 3 lionesses and this big lion. The lion was practically lazy he was so sedate. Not so with the other ones, and it was crazy to see how tenuous a hold even a guy skilled like this could have. One of the lionesses really was aggressive and once even backed him against the outer mesh. His reflexes were really fast or else he would have needed some serious stitches. Then he said "are you guys scared? not as scared as I am." The rest of it went without a hitch with all of the jumps, making them snarl, pose etc... It was interesting to see how low key the lion was, as well as how they all just seemed to be tolerating the tricks. I don't know what salary would be worth risking them getting fed up with fooling around and going for a real meal :)

These sky dancers opened and closed the balls doing a painful-looking routine, all without anything holding them up. There were landing pads in case they fell, but still!

Acrobats on the flying trapeeze. Good fun!

More high flying action.

The dog and small animal tricks were done in three separate rings and there was a lot going on at once! At the end this tiny little dog jumped from really high onto this pad the man was holding.

Eating popcorn (when Nicole lost a tooth a few days ago, the tooth fairy gave her a voucher for popcorn at the circus).

I feel like I missed so much, but here are some of the acrobats jumping to get three in a row.

An acrobat flipping onto a chair- they had two at once doing the same trick.

The elephants were just so huge! I can't imagine riding one or being so comfortable with them! They always had extra trainers on hand. Being so close I could just imagine if one just got spooked or something and went wild. The music was fairly loud the whole time, the animals didn't seem affected though.

 

Michael's favorite part, by FAR, was the motorcycles in this tiny cage. While preparing, they had to be up on the side to even fit before they started.

 

They eventually fit 8 motorcycles in, and they were going so fast. Once was going from top to bottom while others were going in what seemed a horizontal figure eight. It was hard to tell, though, because they went so fast. Michael was cheering SO loud and kept pointing and yelling for me to watch. Jacob was trying to follow the motorcycles with his head and was moving his whole head and shoulders side to side and around and around. It was hilarious.

 The theme was dragons and each of the acts contributed to the theme of how dragons have strength (strength men), heart (motorcycles), courage (knife guys), etc.

At the end the dragon came out and the ringmaster sang the theme song again with a firework finale. We all enjoyed the evening so much! We got home around 10pm and the kids were exhausted but had the time of their life. Us too :)