Chasing Sunsets!

Growing up in North Idaho, we always had beautiful sunsets. One of my childhood memories is chasing sunsets with my mom and some of our best friends! Our kitchen window looked out on our field and that was where the sunsets would take place. My mom would load us in our station wagon right when the sunset would start and drive out through the prairie and fields towards the sunset, watching it as we went. We would often call our friends on the spur of the moment when the sunset would start and they would jump in their car, meet us at our house and we would follow each other, chasing sunsets! We saw some great sunsets! My mom still calls me and says, have you seen the sunset? We love watching them where ever we are. Just tonight I called out to my kids and their friends, "hurry, come see the sunset!" And they all came running! The sight was spectacular! We had major thunderstorms and lightning this afternoon and then the rain poured! There is nothing like an eastern thunderstorm! Right after all the rain dumped it was blue sky and puffy clouds! So tonight at dusk when we went out on the back porch to watch the sunset, the humidity was hanging over the forest like a mist and it was so quiet and peaceful! The kids found water in all the seashells we had collected on one of our trips, we found some slugs and huge spider webs--the kids loved it! The lightning bugs were out and we had a great time! I would have loaded them all in the van but there weren't enough seats for all the kids that were over and I would probably get lost if I tried chasing a sunset out here! :) I don't think the GPS has a "follow the sunset" setting! But we do and we love it!

Bunnies and Birds and Bats...Oh My!

We have lots of wildlife around here and we are really enjoying it! We found a little nest of bunnies in our back yard a week or so ago and they are so cute! Today the little bunnies came out of the nest for the first time, there are 4! They are so small and cute! We go look at them everyday, it's the highlight of the morning every day before school. Rodney also found a robin's nest under our deck in the backyard, he found it when there were 3 eggs in there. On saturday we looked and the birds have hatched! Now when you look at the nest there are just these beaks poking up from the edge of the nest, it is very cute too! We also have fireflies! We went outside tonight and found lots of them, they are fascinating to watch! John caught one and gave it to Rodney and it was fun to watch it light up in his hands, Joey didn't know what to think of it! Rodney let it go after a while so it even survived the captivity! :) While we were out finding fireflies Julia saw the bats, there were several flying all over the neighborhood they were kind of cool, but a little creepy! We have also seen several foxes out around the neighborhood in the evening, we are glad we have a fenced in backyard! We think that is why the bunny decided to put her nest in our backyard, no foxes! We found a really funky bug yesterday, it looks like a centipede body but with lots of long legs that looks like spider legs, there are about 26 legs! We don't know what kind of bug that is yet, we might have to do an internet search! So even though we don't have pets we are having a good ol'time with the animals!

My first 5K Race!!!

Well, I have decided to start running! Mostly due to my sister Kim's motivation and also one day at the gym all the elliptical machines were in use so instead of waiting a really long time I said "why not?" and got on a treadmill to run/jog! Mind you, I am a beginner so it's more like jogging than running but I'll eventually get there! :)So my first race was the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure and it was amazing! There were over 45,ooo participants! Plus all the other people there to watch, it was very exciting! We all got up at 5am to get into DC on time, and we found an awesome parking place just a few blocks from the starting line! The kids were loving the atmosphere of excitement, Rodney thought it was so cool to have the streets blocked off, he decided to lay down in the middle of the road by the starting line! They had several celebrities there to kick off the race, the crown prince and princess of Serbia were there and spoke to us, and the Vice President was also there and spoke to us! His wife is a big supporter, so he was there with her. There were a couple singers who sang some songs, they are famous but I can't remember their names so they aren't too famous to me! :) LOTS of PINK everywhere! We started the race a little after 8am and it took me 5 minutes just to get to the starting line there were so many people! John and the kids were there to see me off and John said the crowd was going through the starting line for at least 15 minutes! And that was just the runner's starting line, they had another section a few blocks down that was the walkers starting line! The route was so fun to run! They had Constitution Ave. blocked off and we started off running in front of the National Archives, then in front of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and then in front of the American History Museum. Then over in front of the White House! And on down the street, we turned around over by the Viet Nam Memorial and came up by the Washington Monument, on by the Holocaust Museum, ran along the National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castle and around over by the Air and Space Museum. We ended up over by the Capitol building! It was a long race for me since I"m not use to doing this type of thing but I loved it!!! I even beat my best time I had at the gym! At the gym my normal time for a 5K is 49 minutes, the best I've ever done it in is 47 minutes. At the race I did it in 43 minutes!! So I was happy about that! John and the kids were at the finish line waiting for me and that was awesome, he is so nice to get up so early and bring all the kids down to support me! They were giving out pink capes and Julia got one for her and me and put it on me when I crossed the finish line, she is so cute! I even have pictures of my really red sweaty face! :) Then we walked around with the kids, they had lots of booths out like an Expo and had tons of free stuff. Yoplait and Fuze drinks were major sponsors so we had lots of yogurt that day! yummy! Over by the Capitol they had complimentary snacks for everyone so we had a little picnic over there with apples, bananas, pretzels, applesauce, granola bars, lemonade and apple juice! We had fun walking around the mall enjoying everything, then we walked through the sculpture gardens on the way back to the car and headed home! We were very tired after getting up at 5am!