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Yes....yet another beach post.
But as I told my dad today, "We don't have mountains so we have to make due by going to the beach."
Maybe going to the beach so often softens my longing for the beautiful, magnificent Rocky Mountains.
Almost...but not quite.
We're making the most of the beach while we can, one thing is for sure, the girls adore it!
Here a few of my fav pics from the day.
I am in love with Nouvelle's belly. How can you not want to just munch it all up!?
Head to the beach again, sans hubbies, just to survive the day!
It took me twice as long to get all my kids and everything ready for the trip by myself, and a lot more effort to get all of us safely from the car to the beach; but it was worth the time and energy - to have another fun summer beach trip before our chances slip away into autumn leaves and falling slow.
I think Sage was secretly happy when the lifeguard told us no flotation devices were allowed (yeah 'cause that's safer). Thankfully high tide was so late that day she could easily play in the water without giving me a heart-attack. Cadence spent most of the day pushing her dump truck around on the sand, in the water, and 4-wheeling over the rocks. Nouvelle was mostly content to just sit and dig in the sand. I was glad that the kids were entertained for the day, somewhere outside of the house and where I didn't feel like melting!
I'm so glad Amy and Beck wanted to come along! It makes for even more fun for the kids and some great adult interaction for myself!
Do pictures of my cute kids at the beach ever get old? I don't think so!
Mr. E. Coli approaches the stage, recieves his award, turns to the audience, gathers his thoughts for a slight moment and says:
"I would like to thank the Marshall girls for allowing me to take complete control over their bodies, family, and home for the past 2 and half weeks. I am much more powerful than any puny, measly stomach bug, or flu virus. I have the ability to kill toddlers at my very best, and drive parents to the brink of insanity at the very least. You WILL have to wash your hands all day - to the point of near rawness - to make sure I don't spread . But that is only minor compared to the GI symptoms that will devastate your bodies - leaving you trapped in your homes on beautiful, sunny summer days. I am so honored that your parents could spend hundreds of dollars on pediatrician visit co-pays, ER visits, urine, stool, and blood tests, and medicine; Not to mention the nights of lost sleep.
Oh and a little shout out to Lymphadenitis, who took over once I was gone, just to, you know, reek even more mania and misery to the Marshall family. "
Screw you Mr. E. Coli. Screw you.
Just to spite you we went to the beach as soon as everyone was feeling better, and had a marvelous time WITHOUT you!!!!
Awhile back a friend of mine made a comment that if he didn't know me and were just going by my photos on facebook he would think that all I do is run.
And though it does feel that way at times (especially while training for a marathon in a horrid Boston winter and a 50k immediately after that), I swear there is a lot more that I do than run..... or perhaps there isn't...
But it's just that documenting the daily in's and out's of my life is usually not very post worthy. I told him no one would want to see pictures of the things I do all day.
And just to prove my point I decided to document some of the daily things I deal with and do.
What a typical day/week is full of in my day to day life:
Crying
Dirty floors
Poopy diapers...so many that often times I can hardly keep up with the diaper pail that fills up so fast
Dishes
Potty Assistance
More crying
Fighting
Laundry
Pouting
Unexpected, unimaginable, and unacceptable messes (yes that is poo in my bed)
Time-Outs
Picking up toys 100 times a day
Tired/Irritable children at the worst time of day - when I'm also tired/exhausted and trying to make dinner
Sick kids up all night; cleaning up throw up/diarrhea/boogers, stuffy noses, bringing water, bathroom trips/etc.
Did I mention crying?
This doesn't include HAIR BRUSHING BATTLES, BATH TIME, TEETHING TRAUMA, MEAL TIME MASSACRE, NAIL CLIPPING BRIBERY, POST-PLAYGROUND DIRTY HAND AND FEET CLEAN UP, SASSING, ETC. ETC. ETC.
I don't think my children enjoyed me running for a camera at the most in-opportune times. I guess we take pictures of mostly just the good stuff for a reason - and even some of those good moments are hard to always capture.
Some people think blogs are just for "bragging." Well maybe for some it is, but for me, I just want to remember the good times a bit more than some of the above. I love my kids but I really could do without some of the aforementioned - and I'm sure some of the images may leave you haunted for awhile yourself.
Guess I'll stick to running pictures and a few other fun events for the time being, if it's ok with you!
. FABULOUS . FOOD . FRIENDS . FIREWORKS . 5K . FUN .
Sunday night was food and friends at a pot-luck party. The kids ran around crazy and had a marvelous time.
That was followed up by watching the fireworks at the High School.
Our town always does fireworks the night before the 4th so as to not compete with arguably one of the best firework shows in the United States, in downtown Boston (though I have not dared brave that experience with children).
Our town turned 300 years old this year (yes people, older than the United States itself. How cool is that!?) so it was quite the extravaganza this year!
It was a late night but the kids loved the fireworks (well Nouvelle not so much, but I'm sure her little ears will grow into it).
The next morning we dropped the kids off at my friends (Thanks Rachel) so Justin and I could run a local race without strollers!
It was my first official 5k race ever! Yeah. My mom says I'm working my way backwards.
I know, I know. A 5k should be breeze for me! It's shorter than any of my weekly training runs. But I do have to say this; Running a 5k race still had it's challenges for me. 1) It takes me usually more than a 5k to even warm up enough to a decent pace. 2) Pacing yourself on a 5k is very different than say, oh a 50k. You don't have 10 miles to make up for a mile that you ran slower than you'd like. 3) Though a 5k is technically not a sprint, it sure feels like it to a really long distance runner like me; and I haven't been a sprinter for oh, 20 years or so. 4) The weather that morning did not help either. I think it was something like 75-80 degrees with 88% humidity.
But despite all that, I actually did better than I was even expected to! Finishing in just over 21 minutes. I placed 2nd in my age division!
Hey I could get used to this awards ceremony thing! hahaha! It was fun to do another race with Justin and he did his very best to keep up! :)
We went straight from the race to another food and friends pot luck while we watched the local parade!
Though we live only about 15 miles from downtown Boston I do have to say our town genuinely feels like a smaller town: quaint, full of character, with a tight knit family and community feel. It was cool to see people just hanging out on their front lawns all day. The whole town just celebrated all together!
Next we headed back to the High School for some children's races.
We had high hopes that Cadence would be able to complete the 25 yard dash without crying this time. She was all ready to go, so excited and...well....
I'll just blame it on the heat, humidity, and lack of sleep.... She didn't make it this year either. Shucks.
But look at Sage go! Nice form Sage!
We thought it would be funny to see what Nouvelle did given the opportunity. As you can see, WAY back there, she is trudging' along! She was all for it!
She "ran" a pretty straight line all the way to the finish! It was hilarious!!
Here she is running through the line to the end!
I think it's safe to say she came in first in her age division! I guess what else could you expect from the gal? After all, she was running races before she was even born!
And then the mom's raced....100 yard dash....um yeah.
Close...but yes I got beat by a lady in flip-flops! Man she was ripped! From head to toe! Where does she find the time? She had amazing sprinter form and it was all my long-distance runner body could do to keep up! It looks as if she's barely trying! I doubt she even got out of breath!
After a much needed nap for all of us, we had more food and friends mixed with some pool time fun and a refreshing slurpee! Does it get any better than that?
Now that's a girl who just GOES for it!
This picture is worth a million bucks! HAAHA!
Fun 4th of July. I'm so tired now I need another weekend to make up for the last few days!
Yesterday started at 4am, when my friend went into labor! I got the call and zoomed over to her house to watch her two girls while she went to have a baby (Congratulations Jacy!)! Once my excitement for her finally was under control I finally fell asleep. An hour or so after that Justin called.....Cadence wasn't doing well. I had the van and he needed to take her to the ER (*side note - we still don't have any answers on what took her there in the first place - got to love the ER). Oh boy. Sparing the details I'll summarize by saying it was a chaotic morning where nothing was going as we had planned. Somewhere amidst all the shuffle and hustle and bustle I thought it would be a good idea still to go to the beach with all 5 kids - on 4th of July weekend? I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I just thought that in some way having the kids doing something they would love would make it easier to take care of 5 girls 4 and under for an entire day.
In the end I would have to say that I am glad we went. The kids really did have an amazing time. As adults we didn't do much but just make sure that none of the kids drowned, wandered, off, got abducted, or ingested something hazardous. Isn't that pretty much what is at the top of any parent's job description?
"Body Guard and Life Preserver: On duty 24/7; making sure that no children die or are seriously harmed or maimed while in my care."
Thanks to our friends, the Kyle's who met us there with their munchkin, and contributed an extra 2 pairs of eyes to the life guarding duties.
What a joy it was to watch Nouvelle at the beach. So absolutely fun now that she can walk well. She was so content walking around filling her bowl with sand, digging, playing in the water; and let's be honest, probably the best part was being almost completely left alone from her sisters for once! Despite no nap she was, as always, completely pleasant, happy, and entertaining!
