Very Fun Trippin'

So I snagged Breanne on Tuesday and we took the kids up to Leif's parents' house to help Nancy put up the apples. We made applesauce, applesauce, and more applesauce. Don't tell Leif, but I think I married him just to become privilege to Nancy's homemade gingerbread and applesauce combo. That "meal" definitely earned its spot on my top 10 favorite foods list. And if you put whipped cream on top....forget about it. They definitely eat that stuff in heaven.

Anyway, I digress....so when we weren't applesauce-ing, we enjoyed the absolutely perfect weather (who knew it wasn't eternally 112 degrees everywhere in the world?), rode 4-wheelers and tractors, watched the SYTYCD finale, and drove into the mountains to roast hot dogs and throw rocks into the creek. Very fun. We headed to IKEA on Friday morning, and then we pit-stopped in Payson for some slip-n-slide action with the Benches who are visiting from Austin. Also very fun. The drive home was nice despite its lateness, and I got up mere hours later to bust out a 19-miler with Heather this morning. Not very fun. Marathon training is yucky sometimes.

I woke up from my nap feeling like somebody had taken a hammer to my knees, so the afternoon swim felt lovely. I just want to give a shout-out to my incredibly supportive husband who lets me maintain my marathon madness despite its effect on my ability to contribute. To anything. I promise this will be my last marathon for a very long time. Unless I qualify for Boston. And then after next April I promise. :)

Quote of the week: "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you want for breakfast." --Gavin

I made these to help pass 6 hours of travel time with the kids. Stole the idea from a link on my new favorite blog. Very fun. (*Since you asked: I put stickers under the bubbles and then taped the bubble wrap down. Then you can play by popping the bubble when you see the object, for example, a bird, or you can say, "Can you find a butterfly and pop it?" Since my kids are a little young, they ended up just popping at will. I would suggest small bubble wrap for little fingers, big bubble wrap for bigger kids. My kids loved it.)

Fun with Grandpa Burton.

Oh, so helpful.

We did somewhere near 100 quarts. In about a day and a half. That's a lot.

I spent a lot of time holding little belt loops to prevent disaster.

See? They didn't like it. Too constricting.

Grandma joining the anti-litter campaign.

Paige said, "No, no, no, no" all the way down. She never really warmed to the slide. It was pretty big.

But very fun, right?

Gavin LOVED it.

Cutest future divers. Ever. Look at those tiny flippers!