The Last Few Weeks

Now I know its been a few weeks since I have posted but there is a good reason for it. With the nice weather Boise has been having I don't get to be inside much and when I am I am spending my time doing household chores... But this is a rare day that Casey is sleeping a little late and that means I can get some pictures posted.

Here are a few pictures from the Ogden marathon. Brent ran the full 26 and I did the half. Finished in a time of 1:56 which while I was very happy with that time it was a full three minutes slower than last year. :(

After party at a friend of a friends place in Ogden
After the race
Ali, Myself and ??? (I cannot remember her name) We all did the half
Me, Trina and Ali

For mothers day Brent decided that since he was not able to fix my old bike and we love to bike on the weekends I should get a new one. So we took it out for a spin.

Getting the water bottle holder on with great help from Casey
Caseys new bike. It hooks to Brents bike but does not have any power to make him go faster/slower/stop.
After the ride Brent was working on his road bike and Casey decided that he wanted to help
Loves to help daddy.


Over the last holiday we had we decided to try a fishing trip. As you can see from the pictures it was not the warmest day. Sadly we did not have a single nibble but we did get home before the rain came pouring.
Getting the lines ready
Waiting for the worm to put on his line
The very calm water we fished in
Self taken Got to love it
Another taken by Casey from the back seat

And finally this last Wednesday we took a trip to the Zoo. Casey loves the place and I very much enjoy the animals. The weather was perfect for the day, not to hot or cold and not to sunny. So we spent about two hours just walking/running around and having fun. Then headed home for a happy meal and watermelon. It turned out to be a great day.

Ground hogs
The mighty lion with his two lady lions (One is sleeping right behind him)
The giraffe
The two playful Zebras
Casey and his little meerkat friend. They a very funny little animals.

So that's the past few weeks here in Boise. I will try to do better about the posting but with even more nice weather on the way I wont promise anything.

Casey's Party

I figure since both my husband son are asleep and I have a couple of seconds I will get the pictures posted from Caseys party. I guess party is the wrong word since it was just daddy, mommy, A. Jo and Casey but we did have cupcakes and presents.
Birthday pizza made by my little chef. He did not want ham on his pieces.

Needs a big breath to blow out that many candles. He did not want a cake so we went with cupcakes.
Almost got them all.
Now their all out.

Time for the presents.
Ready to get the show on the road

A Dot - to - Dot book from A. Linda
He had to stop and read the Clifford book before moving on
Still reading his book
Tools from A. Lorie
He used the saw to open the rest of the gifts.

Robie Creek

As promised I am posting about my Robie Creek Run.

This year was my third year of running this race. This was the first race I had ever run. Brent talked me into it not long after we got married and I ran it for the first time in 2004 after doing nothing in terms of training. I finished that year in 2 hours 55 minutes and could not move well for almost a week after. Sadly I think that is when I became hooked on running. The second race was in 2007, why the long wait...Casey was born in 2005 three days after the race so no running that year and as far as 2006 I don't remember why I back out then. But my 2007 race was done in 2 hours 20 minutes and with much better training and less hurt afterwards. Its amazing how training right for something helps. :) As for the race this year...

It was a good race day, the weather was nice for the start. I did not stand there and shiver from the cold instead the nerves had me on edge but that's very normal.

Trina and I before the start.

Robie always has a theme and this year it was the Blue Period. As you can tell from the people many wore their blue attire, the fat lady was in a blue dress and started the race with Devil with a Blue Dress and the end token was a blue crayon. They even had blue corn chips to eat at the end.

The fat lady that sings to start the race.

The crush of people at the start of the race. I'm there somewhere.

This is what is looks like for about the first mile or so. Hard to run without running over someone.

So the race takes you up and over the side of a large hill/small mountain. Having run it before I knew that there were many spots that I would have to walk and there was no way around it but somehow I got mixed up in when the top of the hill was. I was sure it was mile 6 or 7 and was pushing myself to get there so I could have the joy of running down the backside. Nope it was not until mile 8 1/2 so for those couple of mile it was not a good race. But once I hit the top and at 1 hour 30 minutes it was all smooth sailing for me. I love the back side of Robie, all downhill and speed. I was able to get a 6 minute mile on the backside, compared to a 13 minute mile going up the hill. As I said before the weather started out wonderful and stayed nice but just hot. I had sunscreen on for the start of the race and I think I sweated it all off by mile three which meant my poor face is now starting to peel from the sunburn. :( Sad thing in on Sunday my legs felt fine it was my face that was in pain.

There is no better sight in any race that the finish line. Here is a pictures from the paper as I was coming across.

And the after party is always a lot of fun. Get good food, good drink and a chance to listen to some music with friends and compare notes about the race.

The group that ran

Trina and I enjoying our after race prize...beer

The band stand that keeps everyone happy with music

So all in all it was a great race and I will probably be doing it again next year.

I cannot post without a picture of Casey on his bike.

Hes Four

Its hard to believe but at noon four years ago today we were blessed with Casey. As most know Casey was not planned, we were going to wait a few years before kids came into our lives but as normal the plans we had were changed for the better. Its impossible to imagine what life over the last four years would have been like with Casey to fill the days. Maybe a little more sleep and a few less arguments but we would also be without the memories, smiles, laughs, crazy ideas and fun that he has given us.

This picture was taken within minutes of his birth. He captured my heart from the first time he looked at me with those big eyes that reminded me so much of his daddy.

I would love to say we are going to have big party for him tonight but sadly he is still fighting with this cold bug that has been going around this year. Also, he had decided that he does not want to turn four and he does not want a birthday party. He is still trying to decide if he wants the presents and the cake. But even a mention of the party and he gets very upset. I didn't think the not wanting to get older happened at such a young age. I think it all boils down to not wanting to be in the center of attention...he has a shy streak a mile wide and having a party would have every eye on him. So we are going to have a nice low key party. Mom, Dad, A. Jo and Tucker are going to have his favorite meal, pizza with pineapple and ham, carrots and ice cream.

Here are just a few pictures of the little guy.

Posing in his new sweater.

Playing at the park.

With his best friend, Tucker.

Favorite past time...riding his bike.

Painting his first pumpkin


The result of playing to hard with Tucker, a fat lip

Checking out the river on one of our many camping trips.

I thank God every day for the joy of being his mother and pray for the ablility to raise him right.

Happenings of the Past Few Weeks

So I know I need to be better about blogging but every time I sit down to write Casey hears me and wants to play his card game. Yes my son loves Solitaire, why his dad showed him how to play is beyond me but what can you do. I have a few minutes now because he is fighting with a cold and is currently taking a nap. Its something I need to write down because naps are almost out of his vocabulary.

Spring is trying to show its face here in Boise as you can see from the pictures.


Believe it or now these are the flowers that I planted a when we first moved into this house and I have managed to keep them alive. I am very good at killing plants. :(

Sadly this year we were not able to take Casey to the Zoo for the egg hunt. He has been fighting with this cold for a couple weeks. So I hid eggs around the house and he had the fun of looking for them. He also had an Easter basket to find and was very happy with the content. In fact the first thing he pulled out was the cars and did not want to look at the rest for a good hour.

With Casey being in school a couple times a week he gets to do a lot of projects. Here are the things he did for Easter.
A basket for all his goodies
A birds nest

We colored eggs this year as well. As you can tell he was very serious when it came to painting the color on.

The finished eggs.

As far as eating the eggs, he was not fond of that. In school they learned about the different parts of the egg and got to taste a hard boiled on. I was told that he took a bite and spit it right out. But dad and mom enjoyed the colored ones.

Some of you know that I run, well this Saturday is Robie Creek. If you have never heard of it check out www.robiecreek.com and you can see what its all about. The short rundown...its an annual half marathon in Boise run around tax time. We start at Fort Boise which is close to St. Luke's Hospital, then run up Robie Creek road (don't think small hill here think small mountain) and down the other side (the fear here is losing control and rolling down the other side). This race is a killer and why I am doing it for the third time I will never understand but I am. I got my number last night and am going to run on Saturday. Hopefully I will still be able to walk on Sunday. It is crazy to put myself though it I know but in the end being able to say I did Robie Creek is something kind of cool. Not to mention the great party afterwards that makes all the pain go away. I will let you all know how it turned out on Monday.

Others thing going on in the life of the Crumleys...not much. Brent is still working at HP, thankfully. I am still working for Casey and Casey is still being a sweet, lovable, stinker. We are working on potty training with him and it has its good days and bad days. But all in all things here are good.

Ramblings from the sleep deprived

Its almost 11:30 p.m. and here I am trying to wind down from another day. I am tired by body is ready for bed but my brain is on overdrive...again. I wish I knew why sleep is so hard to come by these days. Today was a day filled with trying to figure out the mind of a three year old. I sometimes wonder who the little body is that is sitting at the kitchen table. One minute he can be the sweetest thing in the world and the next he is telling me that he hates me. Now I know he does not really mean it but it still hurts to have your little one say it. He can make me laugh and cry all in the spanned of a few seconds and that plays with the old emotions. I just wish I could find a manual that would spell out a few of the things we have to teach our children. I got off easy with the walking stage but then was blind sided with the speech. Thankfully Casey is doing much better with his speech and he loves school, the other kids and the teachers. Next school year we are going to start him in a daycare/preschool program at a local church. It will be two and a half hours a day and three days a week. Hopefully it will help him with his shyness. That is another thing I wish I could understand...he is so deathly shy we had to have his dental work done at the hospital with him fully out. Then today we went in for a followup and he buried his head in my arm and refused to let the dentist even see him. :( Another trial is potty training. With him being almost four years old and advanced in many things I hoped/figured it would be something he would pick up after he got over his initial fears. Sadly I was so wrong. He loves to do everything else on his own so I thought he would love the idea of doing that by himself. If I don't set the timer for every 15-20 minutes there is no chance of him staying dry and he does not care. If anyone has any idea of how/what I need to do please let me now. But after all the gripes above I love him so. I cannot imagine my life without him in it. With the way he gets so excited over the little things, like seeing a fire truck come down the road or an airplane in the sky. The smile he gives on the good days. He makes me appreciate all my parents did/do for me.

Hopefully there is somewhat of a thought above...now to try and sleep again.

Bowling

A couple weeks ago we took Casey bowling again. He loved it and this time we were able to use the same lane for everyone. The bumpers for Casey came up on his turn and then went down on ours. Here are a couple pictures from the game. We went with a couple friends and they have twin boys who are about a year younger than Casey. They loved it as well.

Daddy helping Casey with the ball

Watching the ball go down the lane

Cameron and one of his twins

Here is a picture of Casey after a bath. I went back to get his pjs and he was sound asleep by the time I got back.

One of the many pictures I find on my camera. Casey loves to take pictures of the dog.