North Carolina Getaway

Every summer, the admissions representatives from music schools all over the country go to a few summer music programs and recruit future students there. These summer recruiting trips have always been PJ's favorites. He has wanted to take me to North Carolina to experience Greensboro and Asheville and Brevard with him ever since he got into music admissions.

Well, this year we decided to make it happen. We left the kids with some WONDERFUL and SAINTLY friends of ours here in Burbank, and spent five glorious days together. It was the best "mini-moon" I could have asked for.

Of course, PJ had to work two different college fairs and stay up with work via his laptop, but beyond that, we were free to sightsee and sleep in and eat out and do nothing to our hearts' content. In Greensboro we took advantage of a "blue bike program" that Dasani has at a park and checked out two blue bikes to ride the trails in the park.

The trails went by some incredible lakes and through gorgeous wooded areas. They were not wonderful bikes, by any stretch of the imagination: one gear, pedal backwards to brake, squeaky and a little rickety. But they got the job done and it was so fun.

We stayed in Greensboro for three days, and then drove 3 hours to Brevard, just outside of Asheville. Our hotel was right next to the entrance to the national forest with a total of 250 waterfalls in the neighboring counties. We decided to go hiking one afternoon and check it out.

Of course nobody told us that you could SWIM at the falls!!! We wish we had brought our swimming suits.

The picture above is Looking Glass Falls.

This one below is Hooker Falls. We were so sad about not bringing our suits that we got up at 7am the morning of our 11am flight home and drove back to the falls to swim in the now freezing water!! But it was totally worth it.

You could walk right up to any of the falls, and we finally did on this one: High Falls. It was rather slippery, but so cool to be right next to the rushing water. Don't ask me why we both thought the appropriate pose was the "chicken wing" pose in these two pictures.

PJ was fascinated by these falls, especially the little outcropping of rocks that caused this big spray in the upper left.

Our non-nature experiences consisted of 1) incredible food at various bakeries and restaurants. PJ showed me his favorite place in Greensboro, Ganache, with AMAZING cakes and delicious entrees. Our favorite breakfast diner served the biggest and tastiest biscuits and gravy I've ever had. We ate lots of barbecue, but I found it odd that none of the restaurants offered any kind of beef---it was all pork and chicken. Hush puppies abounded however.

2) movies, movies, movies. We went to the THEATER and saw Night at the Museum 2, State of Play, and Harry Potter 6. I wasn't a huge fan of Harry Potter, unfortunately (too slow and anticlimactic for my taste) but the others were great.

3) Reading and sleeping and otherwise lounging.

Contrary to my previous beliefs, I didn't really miss the kids. Is that bad? My mom swears it took her 5 days away to miss us, so I guess my 5-day trip was perfect. I was very happy to see them when I got home, of course. I think getting away for awhile makes me a better wife and a better mom. We're taking them with us on PJ's next recruiting trip to Aspen, Colorado tomorrow, so we'll more than make up for lost time with them in the CAR. I anticipate a much less restful trip this time.

Birthday Boy!

Baby Alex is ONE!

I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by.

We had a very low-key, no frills birthday party for him.

Here is KK posing in front of some of the streamers and balloons we put up in the house.

We also had a Happy Birthday sign, but I forgot to take a photo of it. D'oh!

We did the majority of the party outside on the lawn. Kids just played with toys inside and outside, then we had presents and cake & ice cream. Easy.

Here's Alex opening presents.

Here are some of the other kids "helping" him with presents...

Here are several of our guests outside on the grass.

Alex and Daddy sitting in the after-present mess.

Birthday Cake!

I love that you can still see the marking on my arm from the triathlon that morning.

All the "helpers" blowing out the candles for baby Alex.

Cute Family!!!

I absolutely love and adore this baby boy. I can't imagine my life without being his mom. Thank you, Alex, for joining our family. We love you!!!

Castaic Lake Triathlon

Today was my second sprint-distance triathlon. It was at a state park north of Santa Clarita with this beautiful lake and lots of playgrounds and picnic areas. Such a fantastic location!

PJ decided to join and do the triathlon at the last minute because we just got another bike *for free* from a friend, and his Aunt Karen came in town and watched the kiddos at the park during the race.

The swim was first: 400 meters in this perfect temperature water.

They organized us into groups, with women ages 0-34 first, then 34+, then men 0-39, and then 40+. Each group began 5 minutes after the previous one. That means I was in the first wave and PJ was in the third. That also meant that anyone who passed me beat me by at least 5 if not 15 minutes!! A little soul crushing, but whatever. :-)

Then we had to climb back up the hill to our transition area and dress for the bike ride. I don't have a picture of us on the bikes, but here's PJ with the bikes on the rack on our car, and you can see Karen in the background.

The bike ride was 10 miles, and there was a fairly significant hill to climb, with a CORRECTIONAL FACILITY at the top! None of the inmates were out in the yard, by design I think, but it was a little weird nonetheless.

PJ caught me about a mile from the end of the bike ride. Dangit. I wanted to get to the transition area again before he caught up with me. But that's ok. We rode together for a few minutes, and then he sped away.

Last was the run: just over 3 miles. It was pretty hot by the time the run started, and there was not very much shade. My water breaks consisted of mostly dumping cups of cold water on my head to cool off. PJ beat me to the finish by like 25 minutes, so then he got the camera and took pictures of my awesome finish.

Here is my time. Not bad for me.

Especially since this past week has been tricky with Alex being sick (which means no YMCA for me) and PJ being out of town and me not getting nearly enough sleep.

Today is Alex's 1st birthday. Hooray!

As I was finishing my run, the words of my mother on Avery's first birthday ran through my head, "Remember how you were feeling a year ago on this day? Aren't you feeling so much better today than that day?" I can honestly say this time around that NO, I felt better a year ago because at least I had DRUGS then. No such luck today.

Here's our triumphant family photos at the finish line. The kids did really well during the race, throwing rocks in the lake, eating a picnic breakfast (we left the house at 6am!), playing with the two bouncy balls Karen brought them--which Avery named Deenus and Deenus,--- and watching all the runners cross the finish line.

Speaking of cheering, Avery has really gotten the hang of cheering everyone on. Here's a short, cute video of her watching people cross the finish line. I see a cheerleader in the making....no, not really. :-)

Thank goodness for Karen (aka KK) coming. She's so great with the kiddos and they absolutely adore her. Here's Deenus and Avery's periscope.

Later I'll blog about Alex's birthday and his party. What a busy day!

How do they sleep like that?

I think sleeping children are some of the most beautiful creatures to behold. They look so angelic and peaceful and make me forget the craziness they put me through during the day.

But the following photos are ones we took while checking on the kids before we went to bed. What the....??? Where's Avery's head? Under the pillow!

How is Alex sleeping completely folded in half? Yes, that's his foot by his nose.

Still adorable.

Visit from Chi Chi and Papa

My parents came out to California to visit us last weekend. It was my mom's birthday and the 4th of July, so we had plenty to celebrate. We had a crazy fun time with them and filled every hour. My mom doesn't like to be called Grandma, so she goes by "Chi Chi," which is the name she called herself (for Sherri) when she was a little kid.

We went to visit daddy at work at USC and saw his new office.

Then we took a tour of campus and made a special stop at the track where PJ and Avery trained for their races on Saturday....much more on that to follow.

I had a concert that night with the Southern California Mormon Choir. This was my "How Can I Keep From Singing" solo.

The next day we took a trip to Costco---always fun, but SUPER busy because it would be closed on the 4th of July. Here's my adorable mom who just turned 60 the day before!

Crazy kiddos

That afternoon we had a picnic at a park under the Hollywood Sign

Alex is just figuring out how to crawl over obstacles in his way.

Saturday we woke up bright and early to drive down to Huntington Beach for our races. PJ and I ran the 5K and Avery did the 1/2 mile. Here we are in the HUGE crowd of runners before the race.

Here's PJ rocking his race at just over 20 minutes.

Here I am finishing my race (with a little moral support from PJ) at 30 min 31 sec --a record for me.

Avery "running" her 1/2 mile with PJ keeping her on track the whole time.

Avery getting her MEDAL at the end of the race!

Some of the local celebrities: the NEW Miss California (after the whole craziness with the previous one...don't get me started), Miss Teen California, Miss USA and Miss Universe were all there. They were actually really nice and posed for pictures and signed autographs all morning.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Swimming party and barbecue at some friends' house later that afternoon.

We had the greatest time last weekend. Thanks, mom and dad, for making the effort to come and visit us!! We love and miss you.