Josh's first race

This past weekend Josh ran in his first 5k! He got 1st place in his age group (30-34) and 5th place over all. His time was 22 minutes and 54 seconds. Two ~18 year olds and one 40-year-old and a 60-year-old beat him. :) He did a great job!

The race was at the Prude Ranch which is about 5 miles from Fort Davis (~2 hours from Sanderson). We stayed the night in Alpine on Saturday and Josh ran first thing Sunday morning. The Prude Ranch is a neat place to visit. Shelby really enjoyed the "PR Funny Farm" which had donkeys, goats, calfs, and chickens.

This is how Shelby would pet the donkey's ear...as far away as she could be, but still touch him. Then she said: Soft! There were some other boys there who helped her to feed the donkey and one of the goats some grass. She had a blast!

There he is!!! As Shelby keeps saying, "Daddy ride school bus? Daddy run in the race? Good job, Daddy!"

There's Daddy's medal for 1st place in his age group.

Now we are getting ready to head to Colorado on Friday!!! Yippee!

A fun day

We had a fun day today! We went to church in Marathon which is always great. Shelby seems to really enjoy the Children's Church. Then after lunch and a nap we feed a friend's cat and stopped at the pool to see some friends. This evening the Bovats came over to play a bit with Shelby. Sydney (grey shirt) and Payten (purple shirt) are here visiting and leave Tuesday. Shelby was so excited to have them over to play!

They all had fun playing in the sandbox and playing with Shelby's big pink ball. The wind was blowing so they'd bounce the ball super high, then run after it wherever the wind blew. Shelby really enjoyed that!
We'll miss Sydney and Payten! Hopefully they'll be back around Thanksgiving / Christmas so that we can see them again. Amriel (left) remains one of Shelby's favorite people here in Sanderson. :)

Josh works all week, then runs a 5k this weekend. Then just one more week and we'll be in Colorado!!! We are super excited! Have a great week!

Shelby's week at the library

Shelby went to four out of the nine days of readying at the library and had a great time! Here is what she made (starting from the bottom):

-a fly

-a very ugly bug

-a butterfly

-a lightening bug, with a jar

The last day they gave out little bug holders and each day she colored pictures as well. Shelby had more suckers these last two weeks then she has had in her whole life! :) It really was a neat time for her and I am excited for next year!

A Buggin' Good Time

This week and last week our library has had a reading hour for the kids. Shelby is a little young for it (meant for 3-5 yr olds), but we have taken her a few times anyway and she really enjoys it. The theme is bugs and Monday they read about butterflies and made a butterfly. I think her favorite part is that they get a sucker at the end of the hour.

Shelby did need some help, but she made a beautiful butterfly and was so excited about it!

This is Shelby and Kara, our neighbor. Shelby adores Kara and always wants to go outside when Kara is outside. If we wait until after 7 then it has usually cooled down enough to go outside for an hour or so. It is fun to watch Shelby interact with other kids. I think she prefers older (6+) kids as they pay attention to her and play with her. :)

Today we went to Alpine and got an ultrasound! It was so fun to see our baby moving all around. Everything looks good and my due date remains around 11/25.

Sunday afternoon

Josh has switched schedules so Shelby and I are on our own for the evenings. Yesterday we got out her pool and she enjoyed splashing around. Love this girl!

New things

Shelby did the dishes for the first time and she loved it! She actually cried when there were no more dishes to wash. Also, one of her favorite things to do over the past few days is "re-organize" our silverware drawer. She gets up on her white stool and stands there and plays until we tell her to clean it up. She does well putting the items away where they actually go, too.

Yesterday we hit up a garage sale here in town and found the Hungry Hungry Hippos game! Shelby has been playing with it all morning. We also got a doctor kit, so she has been giving shots, taking temperatures, looking in ears, etc. I am hoping that this will alleviate some of her fears when we go to the doctor's office next time. :)

Have a great week!

The wedding! Our trip up North! And now...moving!

We had a wonderful time up in Minnesota for Isaac & Trisha's wedding (Isaac is Josh's younger brother). The weather was cool (high's from 60 to 85), there are trees, grass and water everywhere, and seeing Josh's family was fun. The days leading up to the wedding were packed full and we sooooo enjoyed visiting with everyone. Shelby did well on the little amount of sleep she got. :) The wedding was beautiful and went very well. Shelby and Hailey were very sweet flower girls and did their job perfectly. Baby Update: I am 20 weeks today! The baby has been moving all around and I have really felt him/her over the past three weeks. This is my favorite part of being pregnant! Such a miracle!

We have loaded a bunch pictures onto Picasa in the Minnesota '11 album. Also, my mom put some pictures up of the wedding events: Isaac Ham Wedding. Since all three of us had a part in the wedding we didn't get any pictures taken; Josh was Isaac's Best Man, Shelby was one of the Flower Girls and I read scripture (Col 3:12-17).

Shelby rocking on Grandma Mary's deck.

Josh and I at the Twins game. They lost, but we had fun.

After the wedding Josh, Shelby and I took off to the North Shore where we visited Duluth, Grand Marais, International Falls and Warroad. We did a lot of driving! But we saw some beautiful scenery and met some nice folks. We did get to see a bear walking up a drive-way of a country home we drove past. Pretty neat! Especially since we had just heard a few days before that there was a bear in Sanderson in the tree of the house we are moving into shortly. Crazy.

Once we returned to Chan we had one more day to relax. We met Isaac & Trisha at their church on Sunday morning. The worship was wonderful!!! The sermon was great, too. It was a sweet time of fellowship. Then Grandma Mary took Shelby (& Josh and I) to Culver's to get frozen custard for her 2nd birthday. It was a fun time.

Shelby did well on the flight to and from Minnesota. She had a lot of fun with everyone she met and she enjoyed her Grandma a lot. It really was a wonderful trip! We did spend our Independence Day on an airplane and driving, but we hope that YOU had a great time celebrating our freedom!

After church on Sunday ~ Shelby, Josh, Sharon, Trisha, Isaac

~ On the home-front ~

The house we are interested in renting is almost ready! We will hopefully be moving (about 4 blocks away) in the next week or two. It will be great to have this move behind us, and to open up everything that has been in storage. It will be a "Christmas in July" for us. And I am sure a Garage Sale will follow soon after.