drippety drop. It has been sooooo rainy for soooo long. i'm ready for sunshine and star counting and cartwheels and popsicles. and our little garden plants are drowning and gurgling - we need things to dry up a little!

So, what I should really do is a series of short, charming posts - little vignettes of our recent life. But what I'm going to do is a run-on sentence post of some of the details of the past few weeks. There have been lots of fun things. And some not so fun.

First, fun: Henry ran in his school's jog-a-thon fundraiser last week. He ran 15 laps! Probably about 3 miles. Not bad for a kindergartner! Lily ran two laps, too :), which she would be very quick to pipe up and tell you if you were here. It was rainy and cold and miserable so we took the kids to starbucks afterward for some hot chocolate. I felt like we had brought 2 bulls into a china shop - I think we really irritated all those sophisticated sippers, we won't be going back there 'til the kids are at least, oh, i don't know...thirty five.

Ever since he figured out he was the fastest kid in his class Henry's been wanting to run everywhere and race any willing soul. He's also been wearing his soccer "uniform" a lot. (I think this may have something to do with a recent viewing of Airbud World Pup ?) He pulls some long, black socks all the way up to his thighs, puts on a pair of athletic socks and his soccer jersey from last season, and runs around and kicks his ball in the backyard. He was so disinterested in soccer last fall, I didn't sign him up this spring. But I think he's starting to ripen for competitive sports. I am totally opposed to starting kids too early - before they're really ready (and I think there's a lot of pressure to get them involved in a structured competition when what they really want to be doing is playing on the playground next to the field or picking dandelions in the grass). We've made that mistake twice now (T-ball & soccer). I think we're getting to the point where Henry's actually ready to enjoy a sport - it's been interesting to watch the process of maturation, Nate and I have both commented to each other recently that it's almost like a switch has been flipped. All of a sudden he just seems much more interested in athletics - and more capable, too. The one he asks about most is wrestling (!) I really want to be a supportive mom and help my kids find their talents and all that, but, so help me, I just cannot bring myself to sign my baby up for the local mat club and sit in a sweaty gym with the other, more (*ahem*) gruff(?) mothers yelling "git 'eem, Johnny! Git 'eem!"

Not so fun: one of our little monkeys (Lily) fell off the bed Friday afternoon and bumped her head. Except "bump" isn't really the term you'd use for what she did...this was more of a crack or a split, just above her left eye; I knew she needed stitches right away. I called my dad and, miracle of miracles, he answered his phone. He came over, said it probably should be stitched, but thought we could probably tape it up with some steri-strips and spare Lily the trauma of having her face sewn up. She was so brave while my dad cleaned it out and bandaged her up. It's still all taped up and no signs of infection, so hopefully it will heal up ok. And hopefully her eyebrow will eventually cover up the scar. She is so darling - she reminds us before every prayer to pray that her owie will get better.

she had just been making mischief in the bathroom (one of her best talents) and puffed a huge cloud of baby powder all over her head and face. so funny! i could not stop laughing about how silly she looked. at first she was a little embarrassed and wanted me to stop laughing, but then she lightened up and we had ourselves a good chuckle about her dusty mug.

the smudges all over her face are from getting too close to the smelly markers -
she loooves to sniff the smelly markers :)

I know I say this every time I mention her on this blog, but truly, she is such a funny little peanut; I can't really describe how much she amuses me. Life with Lily is several notches more fun. She's started calling me "Emily" quite a bit lately. Tonight she asked me to look for her toothbrush and I was doddling around in the bathroom, wiping the counters, not looking for her toothbrush, and she looked right into my eyes and said, "Emily! Get busy!" And yesterday she was talking to someone on her pretend cell phone and I heard her say, "Yes! I would absolutely love that!" and then when she finished her imaginary phone call she came up to me and said, "Mom, I absolutely love you!" So funny when little people use big words. I absolutely love her.

On Monday, Nate and I celebrated our 8th anniversary and it was easily the best date we've been on in a long, long time. We hiked up a mountain, which was so invigorating and awesome - great views the whole way up and terrific conversation --we talked about a summer routine for the kids, henry and sports, school options for next year, next steps for baby #3, the life we imagine...i could talk to that guy 'til next sunday and still have more to say. one of the best parts of the date was standing on top of that mountain and realizing that almost exactly eleven years earlier we had been at that very spot, only that time we had biked to the summit. i remembered how anxious i was back then about all the impending change - nate was about to leave on a mission. i was about to move to utah and start school at BYU. he had a huge hold on my heart, but i knew we were young. i wondered and wondered how our story would unfold. there are a lot of juicy details in the middle, but...
monday night i looked at nate and just couldn't believe that we had really come to that point - married, kids, happy, eight years (and that we could go home and do things we couldn't do eleven years ago - bonus.) i feel lucky to be his girl. i think he is really neat.

i know that picture is blurry, and i know i've posted it before, but i like it.

speaking of him, he just came out of his office and laid down on the living room floor. he's asleep already. i need to wake him up and take him to bed. even though tax season's over, he's still putting in long days. but it's pretty great to have the flexibility to pick Henry up from school and take him to the library (like he did this afternoon). or take a few hours off to go to the jog-a-thon like he did last week. wait, jog-a-thon? that's where we started this whole thing, isn't it? seems like a nice place to stop.

always more to say...
i'll be back