Sam was Harry Potter (we've been reading the books together). He kept saying "Wouldn't it be cool (how most of his sentences start) if I could just ride my broom and meet you at the trunk or treat?" Ben was a pirate since he can't decide yet and we had the stuff. He liked it and played the part well. Lucy was Pinkalicious this year (a book character who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink -- it's a cute book. You should look it up!)
We went to Sam's school's carnival. They had like a 20-foot long path that was the "Scare Zone." Sam went through five or six times. Lucy started going through more times than that and kept chickening out. She peeked her head down the alley once and said "I did it!" And ran away. She wants to be so brave (and really is brave).
We met our cousins at our trunk-or-treat. Here's Gabbi (as a pirate) and Luke (as none other than THE Michael Jackson. And he even perfected his moonwalk).
Here's Ben, Afton (as Purplicious -- the sister book) and Lucy. Ben I think wouldn't mind wearing that hat everywhere he goes, especially if it meant he could bring a sword along too! He felt a little more confident when he was armed, even if it was with flexi-soft-plastic. So I turned the big 30. The "no spring chicken anymore" 30. The "I think she's in her thirties" 30.
Lucy asked me how old I am. "30," I said. "Foaty," she repeated. Lucy can't say her "th" sound (or her r's either). Sam couldn't at her age so it's never bothered me too much, until she just now said that I'm "foaty." That's not OK.
But being 30 isn't as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, I'm actually quite enjoying telling people my age. I feel as if I'm in a whole new club now. It's not as traditionally fun maybe as the 20's, but it has a lot of promise. I feel like I have at least accepted the fact that when it comes to life in general, I have a lot to learn. At 20 I thought I knew everything. But you know what? I guess now that I know I don't know anything, I have also learned to deal with all of the less-than-perfect stuff life throws at me a little better. So I guess I have a few more tools in my belt that will help me this decade. I am really excited for a few things in the next 10:
1) All of my kids will get baptized. And by the time I'm 40 almost all of my current children will be teenagers. Woah!
2) I'll see how long my joints will hold together as I continue my saga of running.
3) All of my siblings will be married, so I'm sure Grandma Kristi will be redefining Grandmotherhood as the numbers will most likely begin growing exponentially. It will be fun to get together and have it be absolute mayhem. Up until now, it's just been mayhem.
4) I'll probably get Ben's baby book finished sometime this decade.
5) Chris and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary. And even our 15th! That's like the hay and pewter anniversaries or something really rivetting, right? But I'm looking forward to us as we increase in wisdom and love through our thirties. I have an awesome husband to weather the storms of life with.
How did I celebrate? I ran the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay. It's a 195 mile relay where me and 11 others on my team took turns running three legs each varying in distance from 3-10 miles per leg. I came, I ran, I survived. Here are my favorite sayings I saw on the vans we competed with:
Ragnar -- what happens in Vegas, still hurts your shins.
It's a 200 mile relay, what could go wrong?
There are a lot of sayings I can't repeat. Maybe it went along with the Vegas crowd or something, but most of them were cool and creative. There was a Dexter van (some of my family might have appreciated that) and an Antoine Dodson van, a monty python themed car, a "running from the law" van where they dressed in stripes, and of course the mullets. They knew how to do a ragnar. They really ran with mullet wigs and cut-off flannel shirts! They had pasta salad in a cooler attached to the bag of their van. And they were all about the spirit of the run. They would drive ahead of the runners and write encouraging chalk messages on the sidewalk like "Mullets love you" or "You rock".
It was fun in a weird "let's run all night and hang out in a van for 30 hours" way. Our van of runners (6 total) was an awesome mix of people who didn't know each other well, and we really came together as we supported one another through the running and other challenges. We nicknamed our van the Chrysler Town and Stinky. It lived up to its name. We made good friends with some other vans, too. Chris asked an older guy in my ward (he was going out there since his daughter-in-law was competing in it) to meet me for my night run since I was scared to run in the dark alone. It was a good thing, too, because it followed a trail that was pretty isolated. He's in his 60's and I could hardly keep up with him! We finished a 5K distance in like 24 minutes. He's tough as nails! People really came together and helped make the whole thing interesting. And the scenery made my early morning sunrise run spectacular even if I'd only slept 3 hours. I loved doing the whole thing with my good friend Sarah! Even though we've known each other for years, you get to know someone in a whole different way when you're totally sleep deprived and getting ready to run at 4 am. Sarah was tough and optimistic through it all. Go Team Hang Tender Toes!!!
Here's where my last fun ended. It really was out in the middle of nowhere and it was beautiful.
Me and Sarah at teh finish line. We'd been woken up to meet our other van at the end and we were really delirious.
The team -- Angela, Barrett, Shannon, Tyler, Shannon, Joel, Angela, and Sarah (missing a few)
Here's our van -- Sarah, Eric, Angela, Me, Matt, and Nichole.
Here's Tyler -- I thought this shot looked like a sponsor pic. 