Helena had her first t-ball game last night. So cute, so funny. It's pretty chaotic as well, but great for her to get the experience. Her friend McKinley from preschool is playing as well and Helena told me she was excited to meet more new friends as we were walking up to the field.
They play 3 'innings' and don't really keep track of outs or try to get anyone out....just 'field' the ball and everyone gets to take a turn at bat. Helena hit three good ones and outpaced all the boys on her team once to field the ball. After the fielded it, she came over to the sidelines to give me a hug. It's so funny how at this age all of the boys are INTO IT...while the girls are just like...OK, whatever. :)
Obviously they didn't take shirt size requests...:)
Ash showed up as she was first on the field and she repeatedly yelled at him "DAD! DON'T WATCH ME!!" I thought it was funny...Ash was annoyed. :) Harper repeatedly ran onto the field to help out...crazy kid!
I'll try to take a video next game...my camera battery died on me halfway through yesterday.
Harper's newest words: "Down!" (said for up and down...as in 'mommy please hold me, or let me jump on the couch') Chips
Ball
French Fries (still working on broccoli and blueberries) Bowl Animal noises for cow, sheep, cat, lion, duck, chicken
Fish
Uh-Oh Spaghettios! (spaghettio's is very unclear, but consistent)
Thank You Please Signs for 'More' and then points at himself Blocks
Books
Yes
"This!" - said when he wants you to give him something, pick something up, look at something, etc. I bet he says 'this!' 100 times a day.
Shoe
Harper's first 'car cart' ride at the grocery store. Blurriness is very indicative of the entire trip.... Yes, we are those people at the grocery store.
Current fascinations: The toilet
Toilet paper Not leaving anyone alone when they go to the bathroom Bats
Balls
Golf Clubs (wooden, toddler ones) Sidewalk chalk
Picking Tomatoes (1 for each hand!)
Planes Any big vehicle on the road that's not a standard car or truck
Hates: Diaper changes Sharing
What? You know you don't like diaper changes or sharing either....
When we went to Michigan, we decided to take advantage of free babysitters (thanks again Grandpa Ash & Grandma Maggie) and take a little mini-break to Sandusky, Ohio to visit Cedar Point -- home of some of the tallest and fastest roller coasters in the world. Months ago, Ash bought us VIP passes to the park...I told him not to tell me how much that cost...but it was worth the money, for sure.
Here's what VIP at Cedar Point means:
Our own personal staff escort for 10 hours (except for a one-hour lunch). Everyone, meet Matt! Michigan State senior, career Cedar Point intern, and all-around good guy who is a major roller coaster NERD.
Matt fast walked with us everywhere....told us where the best ice cream was, the best place for lunch, walked us up ALL OF THE EXIT RAMPS TO GET ONTO THE RIDES FIRST IN WHATEVER SEAT WE WANTED (yeah, that part rocked), he held our sunglasses and cameras when we went on rides...yeah, Matt rocked. Matt also thought Ash & I were like 24. Bonus points! Ha! Can I say rocked any more in this paragraph?!?
So we hit it HARD at the park...Ash was on a mission. We did 30 rides total, including five times on this sucker:
This baby gets up to 120 mph in like 4 seconds. I had to scream loud every time so I didn't lose my lunch. Matt told us a real astronaut rode this and said that the G's were almost as intense as the Space Shuttle. Whoa! We sat in the front every time, I think. At the end of the ride, we literally had dead bugs all over us. It was intense. And fun.
Hard to believe this was actually the first time Ash & I had been to any type of amusement park together. I knew Ash was pretty hardcore about roller coasters, and I thought I was too, but about halfway through the day, I had some very nauseous moments. Which NEVER happens to me. My mom said it's because I'm old, but I think since we were able to get on all of the rides so quickly that my body just needed to sit still for more than two minutes after awhile. I seriously almost puked very high up in the air on top of a crowd of people. That's when I told Ash we HAD to break for lunch and I ended up lying down for 10 minutes in a booth at Famous Dave's. But after one hour of not spinning, flinging, turning, or going at high rates of speed (and some corn muffins and a Pepsi), I rallied and was good for the rest of the day. Matt said we were pretty intense VIP-ers.
Do I look windblown? I was windblown.. (Also, unintentional use of black & white photography here...silly Matt switched the camera settings. lol.)
Cedar Point is in a beautiful spot for an amusement park...on its own island in the middle of Lake Erie. And if you visit, save up the cash for the VIP experience. You won't be disappointed.
My running buddy Rosa pumped at the starting line. :)
I know, it's Thursday and the most current thing I can think to write about is last weekend....but, it was a good one...I promise!
Started off Saturday running the Tooele 10k race with my friend Rosa. It was my second 10k (the first one I ran two weeks ago) and I'm proud to say I did really well (for me). No medals or anything, but I finished in the middle of the pack and improved my time from two weeks ago by eight minutes. (This is the part where I should mention that the race was entirely downhill. Full disclosure here. There were 3 hills at the end, though. Which wasn't nice after running as fast as you can down a canyon.) For some reason I was SO SORE after this one...just now getting over it. I guess downhill works different muscles...is more jarring...no idea. We got a good laugh at the hillbilly-ness that is just west of the Oquirrh Mountains from Salt Lake City. Part of the race was through an open range cow-grazing area...so we dodged some livestock and ran over several cow grates as part of the race. We also witnessed a broke down car or to on the race road and had a portion of the race on a dirt-ish road. :) It was fun!
After the race, I headed home to relieve Ash of his morning kid duties so he could ride his bike before I headed for a girls overnight staycation in Park City with some SLC friends.
Amanda and Anne -- Troopers at about 36 weeks preggers. :) Or as one passerby noted on the street as we were out late drinking..."That's dedication!" Ha!
Rosa and her Seven & Seven.
Jolena and Susanna -- who also had busy mornings doing a triathlon (J) and a 20 mile training run (S)!
The staycation was great -- I got to spend some quality time with new friends and also eat delicious food, drinks, smell the clean mountain air, hot tub on our balcony facing main street, and have a massage at the Deer Valley Resort. It. Was. Fabulous. And relaxing...which is what we all needed.
Heidi, hungover me, Amanda, Jolena, Rosa, Susanna and Anne -- outside the super fabulous Stein Eriksen Lodge spa at Deer Valley.
We spent six days in Michigan visiting Grandpa Ash and Grandma Maggie in early August. It was awesome to be in a cooler climate, and we had a blast catching up with everyone. We spent lots of time chillin' on the back deck and eating some good food.
Harper and I on the deck, him eating spaghetti on my lap. Needless to say I had to change afterwards.
Most of the family at the Cranbrook Science Center.
The kids on the deck in the fort Papa Ash built for them. Helena was very impressed with Papa Ash's fort building skills.
Got in some fishing time. A Galbreath family must!
Harper wasn't too into the fishing....
Maggie & Ash
Ash, Grandma Claudene, and Great Aunt Joyce. They were stopping through Detroit on a bus trip they were on and were able to have dinner with us one night.
Ash's childhood BFF Ryan and his girlfriend Sherri. So glad we got to catch up with him...one of the funniest people in the world to me. :)
Ryan's sister Lindsay's new baby Olivia with H & H2.
H in a fountian in the park...she's not so sure about it. :)
My favorite thing Helena said when we were in Detroit was after she saw a big building with graffiti halfway up one side she exclaimed, "Look Mom! They're not quite done painting that building yet!!"
Another big thanks to Ash & Maggie for watching the kids while we had a little mini-break to Ohio....more on that in the next post. After the kids had been there for two days with them Maggie commented..."My house looks like Palestine!" Yes, welcome to my world with two young kids. :)
