Mark's 29th

Happy birthday to my favorite guy.

He slaved away at Holland Chiropractic all day long. 

We then had a feast of grilled Teriyaki Bacon-wrapped Chicken Skewers and Raspberry Supreme.  (Oh and Nutella Banana Bread earlier.)

I then was absolutely on-par getting both kids in bed before 8 p.m.

I came downstairs,

and he was alseep.

Thank you for all your hard work, lover.  Can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Troublemaker.

My darling little boy loves to throw things.

Especially rocks.

The other night we had some friends over and the kids were all outside thoroughly enjoying themselves while we adults were inside doing the same.

A rapid knocking at our door snapped us out of it.

There were two cops.

"We have a report of some kid throwing rocks at your neighbor's window."

Uh oh.

Well, we brought him to the front door and gave him yet another stern talking to.  But I think this one might have stuck.

It helps to have two tall, uniformed strangers staring down at you.

What didn't help was their amazement when they saw how old he is.  "Wow, you need to get him into baseball.  What an arm!  Is he a lefty?  You could make some money off that kid!"

MacAlister, my love, it may be cute now ... but don't you be bringing cops around any more.  I doubt they'll be so nice next time.

Belen Keeps Growing

She's sitting up.

She's eating food.

She's got two bottom teeth.
And she's sporting pigtails.

This girl is growing up so fast.
Now if only we could figure out this sleep 8-8 business.

Mother's Day

This was the most memorable Mother's Day of my life.

Started off with the hubby stumbling in at 2 a.m.

Continued with Mac and Belen tag-teaming me till the rest of the cousins made get-back-to-sleep impossible.

And then came the phone call to hustle back out to clean up after Matt's 100 mile race.  So off went the brothers and we ladies began to ready everyone for church.

We decided to divide and conquor.  Some went to the 9 o'clock, while myself and others waited it out and went to the 1 o'clock sacrament meeting.

Between the two meetings, I got to chat with these two lovies for a brief (too brief) moment:

And then it was off to sacrament meeting where I got to listen to several young folks talk about how they had the best mothers in the world ... while I grumbled at Mac and he grumbled at me and we had just about had enough of each other.

Then all gathered at Mama Gunn's house.  I was not expecting much.  She had been at the race with everyone else the past few days, running the runners' favorite aide station.  That should give her some reason to finally relax, right?  Silly me.  Chris Gunn had a turkey dinner going for her entire family.  All the grandchildren were getting a little fed up with their fed-up aunties, and so conglomerated around her.  She loved them and held them and kissed them between stirring pots and pulling out silverware.

I was amazed.  Yet again.  Leave it to Chris to consistently blow my mind.

Happiness is a choice, and mothers must chose it.  I am blessed to have such wonderful examples in my life of women who give and give and give until there is nothing left ... and then give some more.

Thank you Chris.  Thank you Mom.

P.S.  Mark later got me a gift card to Ross.  SCORE.

The Babysitting 100

Okay, so I didn't babysit 100 children.  Only 21.  But the work definitely felt comparable to running a 100 mile race.

The three Gunn ladies with babies were the obvious childcare candidates, so Heidi, Rachelle and I took on 3 babies, 4 potty training toddlers plus one more spunky toddler, and then 12 additional kiddos up to the age of 13. Of course the oldest were a HUGE help, when they were around. If you know Taylor and Natalie you know exactly what I'm talking about.



Us three verses the following eight children:

The rest were fairly self-sufficient and played like crazies.

It was a weekend full of adventures. Most memorable include:

• Figuring out how to hold the three babies while taking four toddlers to the bathroom so the remaining toddlers won't try to pick up (Olive, Brooke, and Eva) or roll on (Mac and Seth) the babies.
• Playing referee.  I've got the "share" thing down with the younger ones, but was a little out of my element when it came to hurt feelings of 9 year olds.  Good thing Rachelle and Heidi are so on par.

• The general amount of time it takes to get 21 children ready for ... anything. We had it down to about an hour. Ish.
• The sunscreen train.

• Bathtime.  We only did it once.  I'm sure you can imagine why.
• Meals.  Set up, eating, and clean up ... took a couple of hours.  Moms usually ended up eating dinner around 9 pm after things were settled.

• The night wanderers ... I may or may not have locked my door ...
• Mac and Sampson the dog.  Inseperable.  Mac played with the dog about a thousand times more than he did any of his cousins.

• Updates were hard to come by.  Apparently everyone was busy or something.  Also, the reception was terrible.  Luckily Josh and Katie were fairly on the ball and talked to us regularly throughout the weekend.  We learned about Katie getting ditched as a crossing guard, Mark killing rattlesnakes and hunting down lost runners, Curtis verbally attacking the staff and locking the door, Ashlee's lost contact, Matt stumbling around in a sleep-deprived coma, Chris's awe-inspiring aide station (of course), and the general success of things.

The first couple of days, we three ladies decided that next year Danika, Katie, and Ashlee would be on babysitting duty and we would get to do the race.  But towards the end of the second day and at into the third day we decided ... we might stick with babysitting.

The days were complete chaos.  But the kids had a blast.  After stumbling our way through it, they would crash hard.  And Heidi, Rachelle and I would sit, chat, eat oreos and ice cream and watch chick flicks. 

It was almost ... awesome.

Zion 100

After my time in Logan ended, I hitched a ride with Zack and Ashlee down to St. George.

The entire Gunn family was gathering.  We were here to put on a 100 mile race around Zion National Park.

Remember my post on this book?

















Well, Mark's brother Matt has become Caballo Blanco.  He's all beardy and hairy and runs 30 miles or so a day because he just loves it.

It's a little bit impressive.

What's more impressive is that he's turned a love of his into a business that can (potentially) support his family.

Matt dreamed up a race 100 miles long through the gorgeous landscape of Zion National Park.  He ran and ran and ran, and came up with countless neat things to make it a race nobody would ever forget.

(How anyone could forget simply running 100 miles straight is beyond me.)

It's called:

(Click on the picture to go to his website.)

And it was a huge success. 

Luckily Matt the do-er is married to Danika the communicator ... it makes for a very important team when pulling off enormous things. 

Matt is also very lucky to have seven siblings.  Nearly every one came to help make the race happen.

Everyone drove down Thursday night.  They went straight out to the track to help with some last-minute set-up.  The race began 6 a.m.  They went all day.  At night, they took turns sleeping 2-3 hours(ish) and then got up to keep it going.  They went until 2 a.m. Sunday morning, came home and slept 5-6 hours, then headed back out for clean up. 

When all was finally said and done, we came together exhausted, zombie-like, and very Caballo Blanco-ish.  Mark's beard was especially fuzzy.  He said he felt like Timmy Timmons on Sandlot when the vacuum explodes in his face.

I was on babysitting crew.  And that is an experience that deserves its own post.

I cannot believe what that Gunn family can do when their forces are all put together.

Obviously, this weekend proved it's quite a bit. 

Runners posted their experiences here:

http://truelovehealth.com/2012/05/17/zion-100-running-100-miles-takes-more-than-cycling-legs-and-heart/

http://www.abccoon.blogspot.com/2012/05/zion-100.html

http://trailaggie.blogspot.com/2012/05/zion-100-race-report.html

https://www.facebook.com/allie.gunn.50#!/media/set/?set=a.10150803505940732.397641.679425731&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/allie.gunn.50#!/media/set/?set=a.10150803505940732.397641.679425731&type=1

http://laeasymeals.com/2012/05/14/zion-100-race-report-dnf-part-i-miles-1-35/

http://suannontherun.blogspot.com/2012/05/journey-is-award.html

2012's First Logan Trip

It seems I will still be needing to figure out ways to get up to Logan for the next couple of years.

This time around, my good friend Lindy discovered $60 flights to SLC.

That lovely price in addition to the knowledge that she would be on the flight convinced me to snag up those tickets and go see the family. 

I'll tell you what, that's the way to fly with two kids:  bring a friend.

Mac was happy as could be.  He is definitely pro-Jet Blue as they have you walk out to the runway to get on the airplane.  He couldn't stop talking about the "Big, huuuuge pa-lane!"  And the awesomeness just continued on from there as we went "Super fast, up up up high in the sky!"  We looked for tiny cars and Nana's house, and were very disappointed when the clouds got in the way. 

Belle nursed, slept, ate a pretzel, cooed at everyone around us, and laughed as we made our bumpy descent.

Upon our arrival, my wonderful sister Rachel whisked my two kids away and had them both laughing in no time.

Belen began to "thumb" things, just like her brother used to.

She loved Bumpa's dark eyes.  She knows exactly where hers came from.

These two spent a lot of time like this.

And the Barney's came and visited!

Brielle is a babe and loves her hair all curly.  She tells me not to worry when Malia doesn't want her hair curled.  "She's just kind of a tomboy.  I don't think she even wants to go to her own prom."

Belen loved her six new moms.

We played all sorts of games. 

Rachel and Brigette got their nails done.  Malia and Brielle bought some stick-ons.  With tiger stripes.

Brigette got to do some serious room re-decoration shopping.  She and Rach are all about bright colors, it'll be awesome.

Night games happened each night they were here, and this studly brother of mine made sure all the boys got to play German Spotlight.

Little Alyssa is the funniest little jibber-jabber-er I've seen.  I never would guess there was such a scare when she was born ... her scar is barely noticeable and she is as happy and full-of-life as any toddler.

And of course, Auntie Jen is as babe-ish as ever.  I love her.

The rest of the week, we hung out.  I didn't see any friends.

But I did read a book.  And took naps.

And convinced Mom she needed a little paint to go with her new countertops and back splash.

Unfortunately I don't have a final picture of the paint, as Mom wouldn't let me finishe the last day we were there.  "I just want us to relax and play.  No painting." 

And so we played.

We love these Logan trips.

Through Mac's Eyes

Ever since I got my fancy-schmancy camera, I have been less vigilant as to where my little digital camera disappears to.

Significantly.

Turns out, it's become one of Mac's favorite play-things.

And actually, I approve. 

It's really fun to see how he documents the most important things in his little world.

Mommees holdin Stister

Daddoo

Marble

Stister jumpin

Lotta lotta jumpin

Small twampoline

Hoop



MackyCalister

Mommy's Purse

Mommy paintin

Tiny blue rocks

Blue inside house.

Stister smilin

Jesus Stories

T.B.

Under Mommy's Bed
(Favorite hiding place, and also favorite place to sneak under and sleep during the middle of the night.)

Mommy's leggies

Macky Jesus Stories

I hope he doesn't break it ... but I don't really want to keep it away from him. 

I like these too much.