It's the end of the Year as we know it...

(Have I used this title before?!-It feels familiar) 

Oh well. After over 500 blog posts since I was pregnant with the twins, I don't know how many more new and creative titles I can come up with. I am very happy to have gotten my most recently printed blog book in the mail the other day. It makes me feel like I am doing my part for preserving our family history. The kids already love looking in them now, I know they are going to have a lot more fun later.

That all being said, I am now playing catchup with pictures and our recent events.

 This was taken while she fell asleep on me one morning at 9 a.m. Kate had put herself to bed about a half hour previous(after biting Nathan-love self punishment). When I saw Kate napping, I immediately asked Addison if she wanted to lay down with me on the couch. If they were this tired so early in the morning, it was really all about sanity for the day(and um, not because I got to watch the previous night's episode of The Voice....). Laying on the couch and watching t.v at 9 a.m. is unheard of so of course it must be documented!

 I feel like the twins and I have these daily adventures in a secret world from the other three. Here we are at Target eating soft pretzels shopping for groceries. The girls got to pick out gloves in the dollar spot at Target. Kate then let me know that you cannot pick your nose while wearing gloves because they will get dirty. I think she might have been even showing me her boogers in this picture...with Kate you never know.

 Here we are again eating pizza and ice cream at 10 a.m. shopping for groceries. Man, all we do is eat shop for groceries! 

Killing time while we waited for Nathan to get out of school. I'm a little nervous once they are in Kindergarten I will be making collages of myself waiting...if anyone sees this please stop me.

I won a gift basket at the gym for a haircut and color. I gave her free reign, but said don't cut it short. I've been really good about growing my hair out. It's past the point of awkward and I am actually enjoying it. I haven't even had the urge in a long time to chop it off. Maybe I will be Crystal Gayle soon. If you don't know who that is (and my children really won't), then here you go, just so the joke makes sense

And if it actually this long I will take a picture of myself just like this...or not...

On to Thanksgiving. The last few years we have run a 5K on Tday morning with family. This year my ankle was shot, and it gets a bit expensive. We opted for a 12 mile bike ride instead. The kids loved it!

 Mr. Speed Demon himself. He HAD to be the fastest and beat everyone.

 This was my cargo. After the ride, my ankle was killing me so maybe this wasn't the best decision made, but the twins would live in this bike trailer if they could. Who wouldn't want to be pulled around while you lounge with a shaded cover.

 We didn't realize until we got there her helmet was too small. We told her if she falls, lean to the left.

 Grandma and Boppa getting ready to go

 Uncle Curtis and other crew

I think he was mid trying to do angry face:)

We ate lunch at Haggin park before heading back. Our giant party got some smiles and nods on the bike trail. There were more kids than adults, so maybe they were just being sympathetic.  

 Thanksgiving isn't complete without Apple Hill. Well, that isn't true. All I need is a caramel apple.

The sun was a bit blinding. But it was a beautiful day.

Apple doughnuts...the reason the kids like Apple Hill

We also ran into the Morgans again this year. Nathan and Madelyn were so excited to see each other. 

 Bailey actually got his Arrow of light and started Boy Scouts a while ago, but they didn't have the bridge to do the official ceremony. He finally got his new neckerchief and was welcomed a few weeks ago.

He has been working super hard in school lately. This picture was one Sunday he got in the car and was downright giggly. If you know Bailey, this is rare, as he is more my even tempered child. He's usually just right in the middle. I wanted to document his outward display of pure excitement:)

Nathan writes all day long, or draws. He loves to tell everyone about his "crush" Eliana. He made this for her before school.

Emma and her friend Isabelle before they sang with their class at the school Christmas sing along. I think they called it "Holiday" sing along but I have no reason to be PC on my blog:) 

Emma loves performing so this was the highlight of her week.

At this show, my mom and I showed up in the same shoes. 

 We just had the weekend getaway for Ben's work in Napa. This is the White Elephant gift I made.

 At the Friday night dinner. Our room was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. We found a great pizza place in Napa to eat at Saturday. The food they give us at the dinners all weekend while very nice, is just not our cup of tea. I guess especially since we don't even drink teas:) That is really how much we would rather have a good pizza. When Ben makes partner and I have to plan this whole weekend everyone just might get Round Table.

Spartan Beast: You'll Know At the Finish Line

 I'm still not sure exactly what we know now that we finished the Spartan Beast. What did I know at the finish line? That I was stupid.

Ok, so that might not be entirely true, but those thoughts crossed my mind many times during our 14 mile excursion through the mud slicked cow pie field of Van Vleck Ranch.

I'm not sure how far back I should go to set up this post. But, there are a lot of factors that go into why Ben and I paid money to be tortured for 6 and a half hours. Last year, Ben did the Tough Mudder, a similar race in Tahoe. I remember thinking at the time that there was no way I could ever do anything like that. The thought of why he even wanted to do it baffled me. I did end up doing a small 5K mud run earlier this year and really enjoyed it. After that, I thought maybe we would do a few more like it. Instead, along comes a living social coupon deal for half off entry into the Spartan Beast. Ben and I decided to go for it since I had been training pretty hard at the gym already. There were so many things I could do at that point in time I never thought I could do before (hold a plank for 5 minutes just to try to win a water bottle...) that I thought why not?

We paid for the race and we both kept training. In the last month before the Spartan, Ben made this little fun guy:

 Almost 30 pounds of fun in a back pack. It's name is The Punisher.

We both took turns training with this pack strapped to us. If you have never attempted this before, and really like to make your life miserable, feel free to borrow Punisher at any time. He's great for doing 100's of jumping jacks and slamming into your back, or making your thighs groan as you do that 150th leap frog in a parking lot...No really, he's super fun to have around-the life of the party. He even has a special patch just to show how fierce he is. 

The day finally comes and of course it is rainy and windy and COLD!!! We later found out this is the worst weather a Spartan has ever been run in. Yay us...

Here it is momentarily clear and we snapped a before shot. Ben decided to wear his combat boots. I opted for barefoot shoes and multi layers of compression spandex wear. A few minutes after this picture we were running to the car to hide from the pouring rain until it was our turn to start. 

 The pictures the photographers got in between horrible rain were amazing.

Here are some examples of some of the hills we had to go up and over. I lost count how many of these we went up and down, but in the mud these are even more fun. I still have dirt under my nails from clawing at the side of hill to keep from slipping as I climbed up. Running the course was difficult and dangerous.  It is a cow field which means there are small holes everywhere, and these were slippery as well. Every step was a chance to roll your ankle. I had already injured myself prior to the race and my left ankle is weak. We ran on every flat surface we could and then looked like we were bad roller skaters the rest of the way. I was grateful for all the core balance training I have been doing just to keep myself upright. Most people were in our situation, walking as carefully as they could from obstacle to obstacle. 

 Ben going head first over a mound and under the barbed wire. This was the obstacle of 100 yards of barbed wire and three mounds to get over. The mounds were so low that you had to slither over them, hoping you didn't catch yourself on the sharp edges.

 I remember this very moment. I remember lots of moments just like this as well when I know I had the same look on my face. Without a ton of upper body strength, I had to rely on my legs to push me through the mud and under the wire. This was a tough obstacle, but probably the one I liked the most (no heights!)

I wish I had pictures of us at all of them. Just a few of the others were: having your feet tied together and having to bunny hop up and back down a slippery hill, picking up a large boulder and running it up and back down a line, dragging a cement block up a hill on a chain and back down, balancing on posts, wading through thigh high mud trying not to lose your shoes, climbing ropes, climbing walls, climbing hills...climbing everything. 

 Ben was great at wall climbs. I wish we had a picture of the way he would freak everyone out by hooking his arm on the top and practically doing a handstand over the top and flipping over. He has a gnarly armpit bruise to prove it!

Lots of up and down and over...

The "great" thing about Spartan is that they lie to you. Oh yes, they are beautiful big fat LIARS. About four miles in, a sweet kind volunteer will tell you "oh I think you only have 12 miles on this course" (the actual distance is never disclosed in the beginning). Then as you near mile 11 thinking you can do it only one more, the water station works say "Great job, only two more miles to go!" So you take a deep breath and push forward, only to come upon the large 13 mile marker sign and look and see you are not close to the end. 

 You approach the end of the course and then see the giant hill and sand bag sitting there waiting for you to take it on a joy hike up and back.

Then you get to scale the side of another hill and come down to the columns with a line of fire to jump over and some gladiators with pugil sticks ready to beat you down. 

This is me headed to meet those gladiators and push them out of my way to where my medal, a tshirt and the best tasting banana ever was waiting. 

The Beast Medal. 

I don't know if I have ever received a medal in my life. I do know that this one looks pretty darn cool. 

It took a grande vanilla steamer from Starbucks to even begin to warm me up and stop the violent shaking after I peeled off my muddy clothes. 30 people from this race didn't finish because of hypothermia issues and 4 were hospitalized. During the course we came upon 8 people hiding in a porta-potty waiting for pick up because they couldn't finish. Apparently they didn't get the memo that you don't run in a sports bra and tiny shorts in this weather...

I cannot tell you how I finished this thing. I kept wondering throughout why I even signed up. Honestly, it is really just to say I've done it. It's one of those things I never thought I would do. I am still waiting for the day for when I think it was fun. Although now writing this and putting together all the pictures, I think that is the fun part. This would be a great time to get sappy and talk about how far I have come, blah blah... Although that's true, I am equally amazed that I love to eat Chinese food:)  We finished the race in about 6.5 hours. The slowest people did it in 9, the fastest in under two. I don't really have a desire to go back and see if I can do it faster,  I am more excited that I completed it and didn't die. And really, I guess I do feel pretty awesome. I think it's hard not to when you finish something like this. But please please don't ever make me do it again!

 

Disney on Ice...a bit belated

A few weeks ago, the twins and Nana and I had a girls night out to Disney on Ice.

This was how the night began an ended. They got a little cat nap on the way to dinner, and looked just like this (only with milkshakes in hand at the end of the night)

Kate is ever so sassy. At first she was like

And then she was like

Such the goof ball. 

 Addison loves posing

The Lion King

 It's a Small World

Fireworks at the end. 

The girls loved the show and were oohing and ahhing the entire time. I didn't realize how many of the characters they didn't know. Not that it stopped them from clapping as hard as they could every five minutes, but I relaized we have some Disney movies to watch for sure. 

Not to be forgotten

The few pictures I took on my phone and meant to include....

We spent a family home evening with the Zambranas carving pumpkins. This is similar to Easter eggs in our house-something that rarely happens.

Yes he is cutting skin off his knee. I don't know why but it was a leftover piece of skin from an injury and he thought it perfectly appropriate to cut it off with scissors. I wasn't allowed to do it for him either.

 A more detailed post is coming about Disney on Ice with the Twins and Nana...The pictures are just on my camera, which is in the garage....and yeah...

 Happily eating and all dressed at 7:50 a.m. on a school day. Had to capture the moment. Hopefully we will have more of these, as we have implemented a new system in the Oram House. More to come on that (as long as it works!)

Yesterday Emma climbed up the punching bag. She's just pretty awesome sometimes:)

Primary Program 2012

 Kate had been practicing for MONTHS for this program at Church. She got a bug the Friday before and fought a 104 temp that weekend. When we told her she might not do the program, she burst into tears because "I worked so hard...sob...sob...sob" Luckily she felt better Sunday morning. Although five minutes into the program she tried to hide and then sat with her teacher, eventually falling asleep. Serious cuteness nonetheless.

 Who can have a bad day with Nathan around? He sang his little heart out in the program and then after his speaking part made the most hilarious sound/laugh. Such the goofball.

 Addison sang every song and swayed back and forth to the music. She even had a mid program embrace with one of her Sunbeam friends.

Bailey's last program and the twins first. Emma and Bailey of course did great, even if they don't do crazy things like the three little ones. Here's to next year!