reunion business

I better start with these pictures from our Steed reunion way back on August long weekend. Sheesh, it's only labor day weekend by the time I get these up!

We started out the weekend in Waterton. It was the most perfect day in Waterton. No WIND and hot and sunny. The kids couldn't stay out of the freezing cold water.

James was just cracking me up as usual. Here he is doing his push ups in the lake.

I was handing out treats to whoever would duck under. Alli wanted nothing to do with treats business, money only! So I told her I'd give her dollar if she went under.

She was a little leery, and didn't think she could do it.

No worries, Dad came along to help.

Sidenote. When we were talking about if anyone would go under we look over and see James coming out from going under. He just went and did it! I was bummed I didn't get any pics of him doing it. But he heard the word treats and he was in!

We all walked down to the old house my Grandma (dad's mom) grew up in. You can see the roof to there. I'd take that view everyday! They must have been snowed in on a regular basis.

Well, that is about the total of pictures from the weekend. Guess I didn't feel like pulling the camera out too much! It was a lot of fun to hang out with my cousins, it's been so long. We see each other here and there at weddings and stuff, but it great to just relax and chat and let the kids play too.

One of my favorites from the reunion was when my aunt was talking about our ancestors. She talked about how it's great to know our ancestors and that whatever we are going through we know that our ancestors went through similar trials and we can always look to them for strength. I learned so much about my heritage over that weekend and I have a true appreciation for the family I am blessed to be a part of.

heck out Rhonda's post for a few more pics of everyone.

thanks grandma karie

Grandma Karie came over for a visit today to get some of the pictures I took in California. I hadn't downloaded a single picture since the beginning of July. So 374 pictures later I am forced to blog!

(we hiked bears hump back in July. the kids were begging to do a hike. they loved it and did the whole thing without needing to be carried. we were kinda in a rush so we were up and down in just over an hour)

In the past month I figured out we have spent well over 70 hours driving I am quite sure. Want to know the best or worst part about it depending on how you take it? I drove about ZERO of those hours! What can I say my husband likes to drive!

(i like how it looks like he is going so fast. we went for a bike ride down in indian battle park a while back, it was so fun to do with 2 kids on 2 wheelers!)

Yes we went to California at the end of July. We were there for a week and took 2 days to drive there and 2 days to drive back.

First thing the morning of the day we were leaving James got up out of bed and stood at the top of the stairs while we were all in the kitchen and said 'is this tomorrow?!' He was so excited. Then the driving began. The kids did pretty good. We left later in the day so the kids would fall asleep and I could begin my love affair with Glee. There was a slight hinderance in the plan when James wanted Mountain Dew to drink at supper which I thought nothing of at the time until he was a hyper hypo still at 9:30 that night. Then we remembered that it has a ridiculous amount of caffiene in it in the States and he drank his whole cup!

The second day was equally uneventful, which is good. Derek would listen to his book on tape through his earphones and thought this was perfectly ok while I thought I should be given wife of the year award for allowing it. The kids mostly watched movies and colored and ate treats. I started out giving them fruit and vegetables which worked through 1 state but didn't last long. And you know those little cheese cracker snacks? the ones that come with breadsticks? Yeah those aren't to eat, James just played with them, used them as pirate ships, soccer guys, and 'painted' with the cheese.

After Vegas and the heat was all getting to us the fights broke out between us. I wanted a turn to watch Glee on the dvd player. (I stayed up the night before until like 1 while we were driving watching them) So the only way the kids would give up the dvd player was if Derek let them play games on his iphone which his book was on. And he had the nerve to give me 'the look' like I was being selfish. HA! So the kids played games while I watched 1 glorious episode. But really, Derek had his earphones out for a total of like 3 hours in a 48 hour trip so I really am pretty much the BEST wife. Then again he did drive the entire trip, but he can't say I didn't offer. Like I said, he likes driving and I shouldn't deprive him of the opportunity. Overall we had some great family bonding time...

So we made it to California and had a great time. I took no pictures driving cause we are a scary looking bunch when we drive, your welcome.

Here in no particular order.

If it looks a little cold out for the beach in july, it was! We had a couple days of lame-o weather, but it didn't even matter we were all having so much fun together!

Ella Alli and Ava playing in the sand

I know it's blurry, but it's so cute of James Kade and Margaret 'surfing' as they called it.

Alli got a really deep cut on the bottom of one of her toes so she never wanted to walk on the sand and insisted on wearing shoes and socks to the beach. this was a really nice day out, but she also insisted on all the layers. my mom and i are totally stumped as to where she gets this part of her personality from...

Grandma Karie, Clarie, Caroline and Sarabeth braving the water. It is cold water and I didn't not go in past my knees.

Can't forget about TomTom!

This is about as close as Alli and I got to the water. She probably would have been more brave, but the cut on her foot really was pretty bad and annoying for her.

Thumbs up for mini golf, bumper boats and go carts! (our replacement for knotts berry farm, the kids will never know. change of plans after a fifth disease breakout in the house with all the kids, (fever, rash, tired kids) which wasn't as bad as the lice breakout! haha, seriously though, it happened, my kids didn't get it, but those are die hard little bugs.)
How cute of Alli and Ava, and James drowning in the background...
Grandpa turns...? Happy Birthday cinnamon buns by Mindy. I hope she makes me those for my birthday!

and 1 single family pic on the last day while I'm in pyjamas and just lookin good overall.

There's a few pics for ya, just be glad I didn't take pictures of my shopping! The girls also went to the musical 'In The Heights' loved it. and the boys went to an Angels Red Sox game (Derek was in heaven, Red Sox are his favorite team) Sarabeth introduced me to evil tradition of cheap Hagen Daz ice cream down there in a wide variety of flavors. So every time we went to the grocery store we would come home with oh 6 or so mini tubs of ice cream to pass around. Sooooo Gooood! My bum did not appreciate this! It was such a fun trip and clearly not long enough! Thanks for having us Mindy and fam!

Next Post, Steed family FUN!

i was thinking....

i should blog it. But I don't know what to blog and where to start. So I'm gonna do the large quantities of pictures recap of the past weeks events. like a lotta lotta this should be 7 different posts lotta. feel free to skim.

first up:

-totally forgot father's day. well i didn't forget it i just didn't blog it. and now i can't even remember what we did. i know i got derek a present but i can't even remember it. i thought father's day was the sunday before it really was so i don't blame myself for not remembering what i got derek. here's the shot of the day. what a great dad my kids have. it's too bad everyone can't have a derek for a husband...(i couldn't let it die just yet jack)

-then a good time at the stirling pool with fun after at brett's house.

-sunday in waterton

snoozin thomas

kade running around in waterton lake calling it the ocean

look at james toss the rock in like he means it!

-hicken get together in magrath, ridiculously fun.

havin a good chat with great grandma hicken

-July 1st parade! not many pics of the day but it was fun in all the usual way.

when all the kids were getting canadian face paint james opted for the football stripes.

and unfortunately i made the cut for the parade this year.

kill me now.

the class of 2000 had the biggest graduating class ever to graduate from rhs. we started out with all of 11 people on our float. we had to drag people off the street so we wouldn't be a complete embarrassment.

i want to have a stern word with whoever started the tradition of school reunion floats.

amelia is just protecting her newborn while i huck some candy with all my might to the baldry's like nobody's business

-then the actual reunion. i put in plenty of hours planning this party and i have to say it was quite a bit of fun. can't deny, i put on a good party!

-the ol road race. i ran 5k this year and never felt better!

-a bowling day with the steeds cause the weather has been lame-o more than once lately.

-gram's birthday!

-shared my moms day with our 8 year anniversary. we actually went out on our anniversary this year, haven't done that in forever. the weather, once again, wrecked our golfing plans so the same ol dinner and a movie it was .

-in between all this we had plenty of bonfires, bike rides, a trip to writing on stone, pool days, swimming lessons, 2 eclipse viewings for me, work for me as well and i think that's about it?!

i went running

So what do ya know, back again. And how about all those comments, I'm gonna beg like a hungry puppy more often!

I have been doing some training the past few months in the running department. I have been getting up before my kids almost every Saturday and during the week too for a while now. I've been wearing ear warmers and layers of clothing and enduring a couple of the worst blisters of my life. All for the joy of running. Oh the joy.

I ran another half marathon a few weeks ago. It was not my favorite race up to this point in my life. I do still have all my toenails intact with no bruises underneath them this year so that's good right?! It was my slowest time ever so that was lame, but whatever I guess. Remember last year when I ran the same race on the same weekend and how fantastic it was seen here?

(I passed all those people behind me in the last mile, minus the dude walking rubbing it in our face we weren't done and he was. I felt like I was going in slow mo, I don't know how I passed them)

Anyway, I still like running, so I guess I'll keep doing it. This year I trained with a couple friends. I have never trained with people and it was a-ok. I never would have gotten up at 6:30 on Saturdays if I wasn't accountable to them. We had quite the time together. It's surprising how deep your conversations can get while running for a couple hours.

(this is the end, I thought I was going to cry or puke, but I was so cold I did neither.)

So as you can see, the weather may or may not have had a factor in my time. The snow plow went past us twice. It was a sleet kind of snow with wind that pierced my face and froze it into place. My feet were soaking wet in about 3 mins, but it was ok because I couldn't feel them after 5 mins. I could not get warm for days following. (remember, I hate being cold) I'm not very competitive anymore. I still have goals when I run, but it's hard to get to into it when for the last 3 years I haven't ran a race faster than I did back in the day. It's especially annoying because I actually train harder now than I did back then, I think anyway. I ran another race last weekend and my time bummed me out. I think I'll quit trying for a time and focus on the fun. But if I try and focus on the fun I realize it isn't any fun. Dang.

(Oh wait! I'm having fun!)

So I don't know what I'm trying to say. I just thought I'd talk about running for a while because other people talk about crafting and all and I don't know how to do that so I thought I'd talk about something I like to do. I guess that just about sums it up.

Me and one of my running pals, Julie. I look like I just woke up, I never look good pre post or during a run. See, I'm not always vain, I'll put up ugly stuff too.

ps i hate that i didn't lose 5 pounds with all this work out business before my 10 year reunion coming up in less than 2 weeks. woops vain again!

put it on the blog, rockin like this my job

It's bad. It's bad when my friends and neighbors are telling me I'm a bad blogger. It's bad when it's true.

There was a time when I was full of inspiration and jokes. (haha see? that was a joke.) I was getting 10's and even the occasional 20's of comments. These friends and neighbors stopped me on the street to tell me what a good laugh I gave them or how they didn't fold their ginch either. It was glorious. Lately, for no apparent reason, I seem to have gone kinda out of service. Is there nothing to say? That doesn't usually happen to me. So naturally I still have plenty say.

I'm here to say that I think I'm taking up the blog again. I make no promises other than I should most likely get my act together to post more than once a month. I'll continue to be real, maybe entertaining, maybe not. There will still be pictures, predominately of my own children for my viewing pleasure more than yours, because frankly it would be weird if I posted other peoples kids all the time. I'm talking like this is a favor to my readers, all hail me for coming back to blogging even though I never really even left. But whatever and now that I have said it out loud I better do it or you will have a good laugh at my failure. Either way I would appreciate your continued support in the commenting department, it makes me so happy to know I'm not talking to myself. So even though I say this blog is for me my ego would take a hit if the comments went down and I would be truly devastated. Yep, devastated no other word for it.

Ok, that was weird that I just wrote all that, but it took like 10 mins so I'm leaving it.

So do you know what the rage is? I heard it on tv one time. Hate lists. That's right. You heard me. I guess you makes a video and youtubes it. Well, I don't like the sound of my voice, so I'm going old fashioned. I blog, it's what I do now.

And because I'm nice I'll put the disclaimer. I'm here for you, or is it me, I'm so confused. If something that you do or like falls into my category of hate we can still be friends, we can even talk about it! I'm just having some fun here. I'm not a hater or a negatron, (though some may disagree, you know who you are...) just playin my game.

We know I hate feet but...

I hate long toenails

I hate my nasal problems

I hate tip jars at pita pit or booster juice and the likes, as if you think you need a tip for that

I hate how many shows are on tv about cake and little people

I hate Justin Beiber. I'm so confused at how he came to be. Is he the try hard geeky kid at school who made it because deep down Usher and Timberland are making fun of him and laughing behind his back at his hair and buttoned sweaters?

I hate when stuff breaks especially if I paid for it

I hate being cold

I hate when people sign cheers at the end of their emails

I hate when summer isn't on time

I hate flats, but I wear them sometimes anyway

I hate laundry

I hate baby talk, even when I do it I hate myself for it

I hate people that are too cool for Raymond and have a secret 'I'm better than you' look in their eye because they 'got out' Well guess what, I came back willingly...for the most part.

I hate dull pencils

I hate that I haven't downloaded new music in like a year, A YEAR!

I hate boys names for girls (and that's just me!)

I hate that I have no TVO right now

I hate nicknames (that's just how I feel right now at this moment, it's allowed to change and I might call YOU a nickname tomorrow because I used to really like them)

I hate that I pay a mortgage on a house I don't even live in

It hate 'sugar free' treats. don't healthy up my stress reliever, I want it to be good

I hate when people are like you don't watch whatever show oh my gosh it's so good the best show ever blah blah blah. i'm most likely not gonna take it up so quiet that down will ya.

I hate how bad I am at golf and still want to play it

I hate that I was excited to download the pictures off my camera because I couldn't remember what was on it and there weren't any there which means I haven't taken any pics in like a month. I better go check my dads.

ok, ok I'll stop, but that was some good times.

I found some pictures! And I sure don't hate any of them! Alli had her ballet recital on the weekend. It was cute of course. She was a little more shy on stage than she was at the Christmas show, but of course I was a beaming stage mom and thought she was the cutest.

Also, Alli didn't want a picture with me but I made her and you can tell she could care less, but this is for you Jacklyn cause I thought my hair looked good so I put it in. Yep, still vain, don't hate me for it...