Hold on to your valuables!

That's right, Gavin is our resident klepto! In fact, that's what Brian and I refer to him as. The kid takes everything he can get his hands on! You know when you are wandering around the house looking for something and you ask yourself, "where could I have put that?" That is my life story as of late, and typically the answer is Gavin the kleptomaniac! The other day I opened the cupboard under the sink and out fell all the of the girls' missing flip flops. A couple of weeks ago, neither of us could find our cell phones. We found them at the bottom of the stuffed animal bin in the basement. The scary thing is that he swipes things in total silence, hides them, and can't tell us where he hid them because he can't talk! He doesn't have a particular place that he hoards things either. So it is a guessing game everytime something goes missing. Most of the time it still takes us forever to realize that he took it and we didn't misplace it!
Last night Brian was tripping around in the dark and said, "where are all the nightlights?". We have about 5-6 nightlights in the hallways, bedrooms, and bathrooms so that the kids can get up and use the bathroom without tripping. You guessed it! All of the nightlights are missing! So my answer to him is that he will have to ask the klepto! All of the little doorstop rubber things are missing too!Today Brian's cell phone is missing again. I don't know how Gavin is so stealth! The kid is only 16 months old! I would say don't leave anything where he can get it, but he will find a way to sneak it away from you, and you will spend a lot of time looking for it!

Lagoon '09

Every year in September we go to Lagoon with Brian's extended family. We camp at the campground next to the amusement park. It is a lot of fun and we look forward to it every year. The girls love riding all the rides.
Maya is tall enough to go on a lot of the bigger rides now, so she loves to go on the more exciting rides with her dad and Grandpa Hughes. The girls get to ride on all the kiddie rides with their cousins. There are 4 little girls.
Maya is the oldest and then the other three are all about the same age. It goes Macy, then Kaitlyn, then Riley. They had a good time riding the rides together. It will be fun to watch those girls grow up and see them be friends. I enjoyed having lots of cousins that were my age.
This picture is of two grown guys sitting in a car together on Puff.
It is Brian's brother-in-law Mark, and his friend John (who is married to Brian's cousin). They got in line on the ride to ride with their daughters, but then their daughters chose to ride together, so the attendant person told them to get in the car together! Kaitlyn and I were right behind them, and I was hysterically laughing. The attendant asked if everyone was ready, and everyone yelled except the two boys, so she said,"Are the two gentlemen sitting together back there ready?!" I thought for sure I would wet my pants. They were totally squished into that seat and both trying to pull to the side as to not touch each other as much as possible. It probably is a 'had to be there' moment, but it was definitely a memorable one for all of us!
It was frightmares at Lagoon also. The kids got to go trick-or-treating, and there were lots of people dressed up that had candy around the park.
We didn't make it to any of the haunted houses, but they looked like they would be fun. I hadn't ever been to frightmares before, and it was actually really fun. I wouldn't mind going to Lagoon at that time every year. It was kind of cold in the tent at night though! Who goes camping in Utah at the end of September anyway?!
Later that night, the older adults watched the kids for us so we could all go back into the park and ride some rides with our spouses. Many of you know Brian has muscular dystrophy, so getting on and off the rides is always a challenge. I think he was more tired this time around because it was bad. We finally got a pretty good system down though. John and Shandel were with us so John lifted Brian out of the rides and placed him over by the rail so that Brian could then stand up. I lifted him out once or twice too. It was quicker than letting him try to get out and hold up all the cars behind us. But we created such a scene by carrying him out of the car that all the attendants and riders stopped everything to watch, so everything was held up anyway. I couldn't help but laugh a lot at the two of them because it was hilarious. Bri was a good sport though! Only Tyler and Hillary can truly appreciate what we went through!

Western Days

Why is it that the preschools and schools think it is so fun to have themed days and have the kids get all dressed up?! It is not so fun for the moms! Halloween is one thing, but then they throw in Native American day, Western Days, etc. Who has that kind of stuff on hand?! Not me! I am all for school spirit and wearing jammies to school, but this kind of stuff is over the top for me. I pulled some things together and borrowed things from people (thanks Julie!) in order to pull this simple western outfit off. Luckily Kaity's hair is long so I could just do braids. She was way excited when she went to school. Daddy told her that she looked beautiful and that "Mommy wins again!" I need to keep a tab of when daddy recognizes that I pulled off the impossible again! They totally don't get how hard it is to be mommy and have to pull off all the school projects, holidays, activities. It is a full time job just to do that! Thankfully this one worked out ok.

Ah, the Circus!

My mom got tickets to the circus last night for the girls and for my nephew Austin. I have to admit that I had my doubts as to whether the circus was going to be good or not. I don't even remember going to the circus as a child, that's how long it has been! It turned out to be surprisingly cool. The things that they got the animals to do were phenomenal. They have very talented people who can do amazing and very dangerous things. I thought it was hilarious that everytime they did something extremely dangerous they reminded the kids that they should "not try this at home!" They must have said that 50 times or more. I could just see one of these kids going home and trying to stick their siblings through a giant fan! My Kaitlyn was not amused by the magic tricks at all.
At one point they cut one of the clowns in half. Everyone else thinks it is cool and they are amazed. Not Kaitlyn. "That is sooo rude!" "Why would they do that?!" "It's just pretend Kaitlyn" "NO Mom! I just watched them cut him in half!" "How are they going to put him back together?!" "He can't live without his legs!" She is yelling all this as loud as she can of course. I try to explain to her that it is magic, etc, etc. It didn't work. I don't really even know how the trick works, but I told her that I think that there is another person in the box so he isn't really cut in half. They took him off the stage cut in half of course, so she never did get to see him put back together. Just another conversation with my logical, intellectual daughter who needs everything to have a purpose and an explanantion!
All the kids thoroughly enjoyed the circus. Everytime the elephants came out, Austin would clap and get really excited.
He was not a fan of the clowns, but he sure loved the animals! I quite enjoyed the circus. It was a fun night!

Well...

I know you are all waiting in anticipation to hear the results! :) I actually did not qualify for Boston :(, but I did break 4 hours, which was plan B. I was soooo dang close though! I was totally on target for 20 miles, but I could not keep it together until the end. I "unofficially" came in a 3 hrs. and 58 minutes. That is 18 minutes over my qualifying time, but I am not too discouraged because I beat my last marathon race time by 22 minutes. I felt like I really did try very hard, in fact I am impressed that I finished at all! I was super close to quitting at 22 miles. It took everything I had to keep going. I am happy with the results, Boston would have been better, but I will try again! I am pretty sore tonight, but doing well. One more ice bath tonight, and I think I might actually be walking tomorrow! Which is a good thing since I have a baby blessing to get to. Thanks for all the support from everyone. Hope you are not too disappointed! Stay tuned for the next one!

Down To Hours!

I am finally down to just hours on my countdown to Top of Utah Marathon. Ready or not, the race is tomorrow morning. We will be leaving here in a few hours to spend the night up in Logan. I have raced so many times, but I get nervous every single time! It's just a race! I am probably more nervous due to my goal of qualifying I suppose. We shall see how it all ends up. I'd say "be thinking of me while I'm racing," but most of you will probably not even be up before I am more than halfway done! Keep your fingers crossed or whatever you do to bring good luck! If I am not dead tomorrow, I will try and post with my results! Have a great weekend!

Let the Carb-loading Begin

Of all the weeks that Brian has to support me and sacrifice things for my marathon training, this is his least favorite week. Okay, let's be honest, he hates this week! He hates pasta! I don't know how that is even possible. The kids and I could carb load every week! We could eat spaghetti or any other kind of pasta everyday. We usually have spaghetti when he is working late, but he is a good sport and eats it with us every once in awhile. All you can eat pasta at Olive Garden is like Christmas at the Hughes home! So if you see Brian sneeking out to go grab some fast food you'll know it's pasta night again!

You Gotta Have Your Shoes to Go Outside

I am in my room getting ready yesterday, and Gavin comes in with his shoes in his hands. He is always bringing me stuff, so when he sets them on my lap I just say 'thank you' and put them back on the floor. He picks them up again and starts jabbering about something and puts his foot up so I can put his shoes on. So I ask him if he wants to go outside. (I am always telling the girls to put their shoes on before they go outside.) He gets a big smile on his face and starts nodding like crazy. It's kind of like when your dog brings you their leash because they want to go for a walk. The kid can't talk, but he sure can communicate! I figure at least it only took me two tries to figure out what he wanted! He absolutely loves going outside, and I knew he could hear all the kids outside playing. I was busy at the moment, so I told him he could not go outside. Then the pouty look comes out! For only being 15 months, the kid has mastered the pouty face! Brian is hysterically laughing at this point because he knows that neither of us is going to be able to tell Gavin 'no'. He definitely knows how to work us. He gets away with a lot more things than our other kids did! What a character!!! This picture is from this morning. He is not even dressed yet, but he is ready to go outside!