Bay Area Adventures

PJ had another work trip, this time in the Bay Area, and we were lucky enough to tag along. We had a NICE Residence Inn hotel in San Jose, which was great because of the kitchen and the two bedrooms and two bathrooms! I was able to keep Alex's nap schedule pretty consistent and we parents didn't have to hang out in the hallway while the kids were sleeping (which we've done on a number of occasions while traveling with kiddos and all staying in one room!)

While Peej was out recruiting high school students to come to USC Thornton School of Music, we visited friends and family in the area. First we went to the home of an Elder from my mission. They have two kiddos roughly the same age as my own, so they obviously had a ball playing with toys in the bedroom while we adults sat around and chatted. I know this picture looks like Brian and I have these four kiddos....but his wife was taking the photo and my husband was busy working. But we do make a cute family, right? ;-) Just kidding. Thanks, guys, for the photos, by the way. I love how Avery is "taking a picture" in the picture.
The next day we saw my grandma and my aunt Mary Lynne and her family in Saratoga. We played with the zillion beanie babies and other toys in my Grandma's house, and then ate a delicious spaghetti dinner with Mary Lynne and fam. Avery is becoming rather dramatic lately. The first thing she said when we walked into Mary Lynne's house was, "Oh where oh where will I ever find the playroom???" The playroom was subsequently found, dinner was made and eaten, and then we had a little musical performing---often a Hulme Family tradition.

We were lucky enough to visit with my parents' mission president's wife, Clo Barnes, the next day. She is like a surrogate grandma as well. She made us a yummy lunch and we played with her grandkid toys and talked about my parents when they were missionaries--how weird is that?!?

The next day we visited with my Aunt Kristine and her two boys living at home. Dinner was again delicious, and Avery discovered the toy basket right away! We overheard Ben's awesome saxophone lessons and caught up on everyone's going-ons. Don't ask me why she's trying to gouge her eye out...but everyone else looks fabulous!

We went to San Francisco the following day and checked out the Sea Lions on Pier 39. MAN were they LOUD and there were SO MANY OF THEM!!!I was surprised that the kids weren't afraid of the sea lions. They thought they were so cool.

From Pier 39 we could see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The fog was barely thin enough to be able to see them both.

We briefly hit Ghirardelli Square and sampled a bit of chocolate. Here is the ice cream shop where you can watch the machines that make the chocolate.

That evening we met up with my cousin Dan and his wife Diana for pizza. It was a little crazy trying to get our schedules to work together, but we had a great dinner even if it was a little rushed. Thanks for working us in your day, guys!

We headed up to Sacramento/Wheatland after the Bay Area....I'll continue in the next post.

Visiting the AZ Grandparents

September/October is the really busy travel season for PJ. So, when he had a 12-day trip to Baltimore and Texas planned, I decided to take the kiddos on a little road trip with me to Arizona to visit PJ's parents.

We drove all 9 hours in one day---and they did really well in the car. A lot of that was due to my awesome friends who lent me their portable DVD player for the trip! YES!

We played all week long with Grandma and Grandpa. We played in the playground at their apartment complex, we went swimming every day in their pool, and did fun kiddo things like going to the park, the library, the play place in the mall. The funny part about the trip was that we were with PJ's parents while he was with my parents.

Avery loved watching new DVD's like Madagascar 2 and old favorites like Fantasia. Alex amused himself by walking around the apartment holding a toy in each hand.

The weekend was spent watching as much of General Conference as we could (with the distraction of two children in a small apartment) and celebrating with Grandpa as he passed a big certification exam for his job. Hooray!

After a whole week with the grandparents, we drove to Phoenix, where we picked PJ up at the airport. We hit some rough construction traffic, but got home without incident.

We love that we live so close to
family now (by comparison, I suppose) and we look forward to many more trips to Arizona to visit the grandparents. Thanks so much for putting us up! We love you!!!

Zombie Walk

When Alex was learning to walk last month, he went through the whole "arms sticking out for balance" phase. The effect was hilarious, adorable, and very zombie-like.

My hunky hubby

What would persuade me, a self-avowed NON-Morning person, to wake up at 4am on a Saturday, you ask?? The undying love and devotion I feel for my darling husband, of course.

PJ participated in his first-ever Olympic Distance Triathlon on Saturday September 12, complete with his first ocean swim, at Zuma beach in Malibu---and I HAD to come and cheer him on! This was no wimpy Sprint Distance Triathlon like he and I have done a couple of times (with a ~400 meter swim, 10 mile bike, 5K run). No no, this was a whopping 1500 meter OCEAN SWIM, followed by a 25 MILE bike ride, and then a 10 K run! He has been training for this race for months! What a dedicated guy. We had heard that this is the race a bunch of celebrities like to do (Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lopez, etc.) but that's actually the Sprint distance race on Sunday. D'oh! So far my celebrity sightings in LA are still at ZERO.

We left our home at 4:30 am to arrive at the race start by 5:30 and get his race packet and number, set up in the transition area, etc. by the 6:30 am mandatory meeting. The race started at 7am, and PJ was lucky enough to be in the second wave of competitors, starting the swim at 7:05. He bought a wetsuit for the race, which was a really good choice, as I stood in the water up to my ankles and found it rather chilly. Getting out past those crashing waves looked really challenging to me. I'm so glad there were lifeguards posted every 100 m or so along the swim course.

After I watched the race get underway, I took my beach chair and book and snacks and found a nice quiet spot on the beach and read some Agatha Christie. :-) It was a little chilly with the wind and clouds, (perfect race weather) but a nice relaxing morning at the beach WITHOUT CHILDREN for me. I can only imagine how much "fun" PJ was having out in the ocean while I was chillaxing.

I found a strategic spot to watch the bikers go by, and cheered on PJ as he sped by on his mountain bike. I noticed how much FASTER the road bikes were (something he's been telling me forever) and realized that if he ever wants to compete in his age bracket, he needs to get a nice road bike, for sure. Still, he was kicking booty---even more than this guy ---->

I then found a place with a great view along the run course and kept my eyes out for him coming toward the finish line. He was KILLING it on the run! That's really his forte---running fast, even after being exhausted from swimming and biking. They call him the Energizer Bunny at church basketball because he runs hard for 3 hours. Crazy man.

His goal was to come in under 3 hours 15 minutes, but really under 3 hours if possible. He came in at 2 hours 57 minutes!!! He was so happy at the finish line he was almost crying. He got a finisher's medal, which is the first time he's gotten one in the 3 or 4 years he's been doing triathlons. YAY PEEJ!

His thoughts on the race: the ocean swim was the hardest thing he's ever done. And the ocean is VILE---getting it all in his nose and mouth was not fun. He needs to work on the swim, because it took him like 45 minutes to complete, and entire waves of competitors were passing him. The mountain bike is so much slower than a road bike, but he loves climbing hills. A few other racers shouted to him that he was going really fast on that mountain bike, which made him feel good. The run was amazing. He was speeding past tons of people, and thinks he only got passed by one guy right at the end who had an amazing kick.

After the race we walked around and checked out the various booths offering race gear and energy bars and drinks, etc., stopping at the Men's Health booth where they were offering free post-race stretches by massage therapists or something. He said the strecthing helped a lot. Meanwhile I sipped Chocolate Silk samples, and carried all his gear. See what a dedicated wife I am?!?

We went to the awards ceremony, mostly to gawk at the AMAZING times that other people put up---like the pros who finished the race in UNDER 2 hours!---but always with the small hope that PJ finished high enough in his division to medal. They did all the age categories first, and then the "special" ones like weight class and mountain bike. When the announced the mountain bike division, they started with 5th place, and said 2 hours 35 minutes...something seconds. So we figured, bummer, he didn't place. We stopped really paying attention until we heard, "PJ Woolston 2nd place" followed by his time. HUH? He confusedly went up to the stage and stood on the podium while I cheered loudly. Of course I SUCK and forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures of the triumphant medal ceremony (which is also the reason for all these random internet photos you find throughout this post). Speaking of medals, he got a GORGEOUS, HUGE silver medal which put his finisher's medal to shame.

When he got off the podium, he felt like that IKEA commercial where the lady is running from the store, feeling like she got a steal of a deal, yelling "Start the car!!! Start the car!!!" We checked the stats board just to be sure and realized that the announcer had misspoken---5th place was THREE hours and 35 minutes or whatever. Wahoo! So it WAS for real!??!

He was on cloud nine all weekend long. I was so thrilled for him. All that hard work and training and money invested had really paid off. Of course, I sacrificed tremendously too be there....getting 4 hours of sleep and walking a couple of miles in flip flops (ok, that was really dumb of me because I couldn't find our car and ended up walking almost the whole length of the beach before I finally did locate it, ending up with blisters and really sore feet. I know, I know, I'm such a martyr.) so I actually fell asleep on the way home. D'oh! I couldn't possibly have been more exhausted than he was....but he was probably still riding that post-race high, so it's a good thing he was driving instead of me.

I'm so proud of my man. He is so great at juggling work and family and training and church and now school without ever making me feel neglected or on the "back burner." He's so incredibly supportive of me and my goals, be they fitness or school or whatever. I think he must be Clark Kent. How lucky am I that he chose to spend his life with me??!!!? I love you, babe.

New trick

I wish you could see better how his eyes are all crazy after he spins. SO FUNNY! I love this kid.

Jammie Party!

A few families in our area got together and created a babysitting swap, where we switch off every month babysitting each other's kids. This has been an awesome way to make sure we go out on dates with our spouses, without the added expense of childcare. We've noticed a nice positive change in our marriage since we started making dates more of a priority.

We owed babysitting from the past two months due to craziness in scheduling, so we had two families' kids over last Friday while the parents went to Stake Temple Night. We decided to make it a bit of a party, with a dinner of chicken nuggets and goldfish outside on the lawn, decorating cupcakes, running races, having impromptu dance parties, and then blowing up an air mattress and watching Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears while munching on popcorn.

There were a total of 7 kids here, ranging in age from 1 to 5. They had a great time! This photo is of the oldest five kids after the two babies went to bed. Avery was in girlie heaven!

Thank goodness for babysitting swaps! Thank goodness for date night! May this swap continue until all of my children are grown and gone.

Escaping the Smoke

As I've sure you have all heard, some IDIOT set fire to the hills behind our home here in greater Los Angeles. I can't begin to imagine the devastation some people are facing right now, losing their homes and everything they own, being evacuated and feeling completely helpless. Luckily, our home has never been in danger, but we are close enough to the fires that the smoke was pretty bad.

So many people were saying that they wished they could get away from the smoke for a few days....and I realized that I COULD! My kiddos are young enough that they're not in school yet, and I didn't have any firm commitments Mon-Thurs, so I took the kids and went to my Uncle & Aunt's home in Santa Barbara. We wished we could have brought daddy with us, but it was a fun trip regardless.

I took the kids to a really cool park one day, then the next day to the beach (neither of which I have any pictures of, unfortunately---though in my defense, I was doing the beach without other parental help, and it got tricky at times.) The next day I went with them to the Museum of Natural History where they had a butterfly exhibit. Avery didn't quite understand the idea of sticking her head in this cutout...

Here's my best attempt at a close up of one of the butterflies.

The museum was located just behind the Santa Barbara Mission, which we didn't go inside, but I got a nice photo it of anyway.


The next day I took the kids to the Santa Barbara Zoo. They loved it! There's a great kids' play area in the middle with an "ant hill" that all the kids slid down on cardboard squares. So fun.



GO AVY GO!!

Here's Mr. Alex going back and forth through this "log tunnel" in the play area. He is SO FAST at crawling now. I think he'll also be walking any day now. Such a sweet and fun boy.

We came back home on Friday and everyone here said the smoke was 100 times better that day than it had been all week. So I guess we picked the right time to leave. THANKS so much to my aunt and uncle for putting us up for four nights! And special thanks to them for performing "minor surgery" on Avery's scalp when she fell off the bed and cut it on the end table. We used Krazy Glue to put it back together!! Her wound is healing beautifully. Now I know I should stock superglue in my first aid kit.