"You Gotta Know When to Hold 'Em"

The boys have been hanging in San Clemente this weekend with Aunt Susan, Uncle Dennis, Aunt Sandy, and Namie.  We drove them down to meet Susan Saturday morning in Manhattan beach and then after the drop off Garrett and I headed over to see Matt's new house ......beautiful, close to the beach, great area, house.  We drove back up to Santa Clarita after a quick lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.  Unfortunately there was an accident so traffic was pretty bad going back.  But, we both enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of reading, napping, and movie watching, in addition to getting the kitchen cleaned!  It's amazing how much one can do in an afternoon with no kids around.

The best part was last night though.  We were invited to a friend's house to play a friendly poker game.  It's been so long that we've hung out with just adults, together, after dark! :)  It was a very nice evening/night and we didn't get home until after 1.  That's super late for me!  And we even came home with one dollar more than we brought (super high stakes).  

Today we are heading back down to Manhattan Beach to meet the boys and celebrate Bob's birthday.  Should be another fun afternoon and I'm looking forward to seeing those cute boys again!

Here We Go Again

After a looooong break through the summer the Rileys are back at it.  Yesterday we got our annual passes to Disneyland and enjoyed the day at the park.  Since we hadn't been since May (I know, forever ago) the boys were actually excited to go back.  Kevin was now saying the he was old enough to go on the Indiana Jones ride and Zach is now tall enough to go on the rapids in California Adventure.  They also found ways of keeping cool since it was pretty hot out!

SOAKED!

First time on the rapids for Zach.  He loved it!

And I finally agreed to go on the Tea Cups with the boys.  

Surprisingly, I did not feel sick afterwards.

And since it's Monday I have to do my "check-in".  I'm pretty much doing between 3 and 5 miles each morning and then my long runs on Saturday.  In September I am going to try joining up with the runner's club again and do my marathon training runs with them on Sunday mornings.  So, I honestly don't remember what I did for my daily runs this week, but I can tell you that I did 18 miles on Saturday!  I was very tired and moving slow the rest of the day, but obviously I wasn't too worn out to go to Disneyland on Sunday. :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday and I just wanted to wish her the very best day!  I love you, Mom!

Zach Time

It's been a little strange having just Zach around in the mornings.  The boys became pretty good playmates this summer, which was a relief to me because although I enjoy spending time with them I don't always like to play superman!  So now that Kevin's back in school I think Zach is missing his playmate.  He is pretty good at entertaining himself, but I've been trying to do my best to give him my attention too.

Dorm Days

Garrett's brother, Mike, left yesterday for Colorado where he will be a Freshman at Colorado University.  It's such an exciting time for him and it got me thinking about how 16 years ago I was heading off to Chico.  Here are some of the memories that came to mind last night:

*I loved getting letters from my friends and family.  I did not have e-mail or even know much about the Internet or computers at the time so I actually went off to school with all kinds of cards and pretty paper so I could write letters.  And then would get nice surprises, like the envelope in the picture above, that were so colorful and made me smile! (Yes, I've kept all the letters and read them every so often)

*The first day we moved into the dorm, I was 17 and I had no idea who my roommate would be.  She turned out to be a friend of a friend from Santa Rosa and I was so happy to have someone that I sorta knew.

* I was in the "academic/transfer" dorm which was supposedly a more studious dorm.  Really you could just call it the "nerd" dorm.

*I gained my freshman 15 by eating french toast sticks, omelets, and drinking whole milk during my first semester.  When I came back from Christmas break and I started running on the track and eating salads.

*I joined InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and we had weekly bible studies in our dorm room and every Friday night was Large group with all of the bible study groups from around campus.  

* I don't think I ever went to a "real" party.  Never once got drunk.  But I still had fun doing other things.

* My friend, Steve, and I along with another guy that I don't remember, took a road trip to Oregon one evening, just for fun.  We drove up just past the border, had some Little Ceasar's Pizza, and then turned around and came back.

* I stayed up later that I was used to and fell asleep in several of my classes.  My mom took me to the doctor thinking I was anemic.  The doc said I probably just needed more sleep!

* I had visits from friends from Santa Rosa every once in a while.  One time some friends drove up and about an hour after they left they were back after rolling his Miata, swerving out of the way for a raccoon. I can't remember how they got back home....I think his mom had to drive up.

* I played Ultimate Frisbee on Saturday mornings.  One of the few girls out there, I probably just did it to meet the boys (like Garrett).

That's all I can think of for now.  I remember having a lot of fun and I know Mike will too, probably more than I did!  What are your favorite college memories?

Pain Is Temporary

"Pain is temporary, but quiting is forever."  This is what I hear Lance telling me once a week as I listen to his training run on my iPod.  This week I endured some pain as I had a nice trip over a speed bump and scraped up my shoulder and arm.  The day after I felt like I had been knocked around in the ring.  I had barely gotten down the street with Dodger so I was disappointed when I couldn't even do my run that morning.  But I was happy no one was around to see me fall!  

So with that little mishap and having Kevin start back to school it was a slow week for running.  But here goes anyway:

Monday:  3.0

Tues: 5.2

Wed: 1/4 mile - ouch!

Thurs: 3.0

Fri: 0

Sat: 10

Sun: 0

I'll try and get some more interesting pictures up soon.  Not much else to write about for now!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

First day back was a success.  Kevin seems to like his teacher and he has several friends that he was in Kindergarten with, but not 1st grade, that are now in his class again.  He was a little disappointed that it felt "just like 1st grade."  I guess he was expecting something bigger.  

Yes, he thinks he's a rocker.....

Showing off his new backpack.  This wasn't his first choice....he really wanted High School Musical everything, but they only make it for girls.  

Quick Update

Before.....

After

Before.....

After

Amazingly, the boys were in bed tonight just before 8, and both were sleeping by 8:15!  We are ready to start a new school year!!

A Day of Rest

The weekend wore us down.  More specifically it wore Zach down to the point of being sick yesterday.  He had a fever all day and had the privilege of watching t.v. ALL DAY.  Not typically what we allow, but what else is there to do when sick?  Thankfully he slept all night last night and looks like he is feeling much better.

So today is the last day of summer vacation for Kevin.  I am trying to think of something fun to do..... although I know for sure that the day will include haircuts for the boys.  I told them I would let them grow out their hair all summer, but Zach has been begging for a haircut.  

And lastly, before we get this party started, let me do a quick run down of how I've been doing with my running.....mostly to keep me on track:

Monday: 3.3

Tues.:  5.4

Wed:  3.0

Thurs. 5.5

Fri:  2.0 (walk)

Sat:  16.5 (furthest so far)

I finally tried Bob's suggestion of running 10 minutes, walking 1 and it seemed to work well as far as not feeling completely dead afterwards.  I haven't officially signed up for the Santa Clarita marathon, but it's on my list of things to do.  I have signed up for the Rock N Roll half marathon in San Jose though, which is going to be October 5th.  This looks like a fun one and it looks like I will have some good company with me too!! 

Aquatic Center

Another busy day yesterday.  I think that I am trying to pack in as much fun as possible now that I know our summer is coming to an end faster than originally planned.  We started off the day at the park, but since it was already about 95 degrees out at 10 a.m. yesterday, we didn't stay long.  Long enough to hit the baseball around a little bit and for Kevin to make a new "lego friend", who was another boy that likes lego about as much as Kevin.

After lunch we headed to the Aquatic Center.  We probably hadn't been there in two years and Kevin surprised me by not only going down the big water slide but also passing the swimming test for the big dive pool (swim all the way across without stopping), and then continuing on to jump off the high dive.  I was so proud of him!  After jumping off the first time he said, "That scared me to death", but then he continued to jump off two other times.  

Unfortunately the only bad part about yesterday was that they had to close the play area pool early due to "unsafe water conditions".  You can guess what that means, gross!  Hopefully we will not be getting sick from that water!!  

Sorry about the quality of the pictures.  I forgot my camera so I used my iPhone (yes, I got Garrett's hand me down iPhone).  

Back To School

Remember back in June, when school was just out, and I said that this summer the mornings were going to be filled with some kind of educational activity or art?  Well, now it's August and we are finally getting around to doing that.  On Monday the boys wanted to pretend they were in preschool, which was fun except for the baby voices they both decided they needed to use.  We did arts and crafts, played with play dough, learned about shapes, and made homemade english muffin bread for a snack.   Today they amazingly were already in Kindergarten where we learned about letters and then took some field trips.  One trip to the free movies to see Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium followed by Cold Stone ice cream.  Then in the afternoon we took a trip to the library where a ranger was showing the kids all kinds of animals, insects, and reptiles.  A fun day of "kindergarten" I would say.  Almost makes me think I could homeschool these boys.......no, not really.

In the midst of all of this pretend schooling though Garrett and I have been discussing Kevin's real schooling.  We had decided to put him in a private school this year but after months of thinking about this we started changing our minds.  Now, his old school starts next week.  The new school would start in September.  So we needed to make up our minds.  Thinking, talking, thinking, talking.  Ok, so we came to a decision and Kevin will be returning to his old school next Wednesday.  So tomorrow we are going on a date, Kevin and I, to do some back to school shopping.  (And yes, Susan and Sandy, this means we need to discuss the plans we had made for the end of the month.)  I'm feeling good about our decision and feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  Kevin's feeling good too (after the shock of finding out school starts next week).  

Free Fun

On Saturday we went over to Whole Foods where they were having a free kid's event.  Of course I love free things, so I "made" the kids go.   They had a music area with Zach's old music teacher, face painting, planting seeds, and food tasting.  Kevin was excited about his face painting but Zach opted out at the last minute.

Good Reads

Today was going to be my one morning to sleep in.  I didn't set my alarm, but who do you think came in a 5:50 insisting that his bed and p.j.s were wet from water?  And once I'm awake I usually can't fall asleep.  So, I've made some tea and am going to read.  I have finally discovered the joy of reading.  Some of you may have gotten an e-mail from me about this week about the "Goodreads" website.  It's been fun thinking about the books I've read.  I'm not much for books that make me work to get through one sentence.  I read to get away and if I have to think to much then it makes me fall asleep.  I think that's why I never was into reading growing up because reading was always related to school work and I never learned the joys of it (sorry Matt, I'm sure you made reading fun for your students!).  But now that the boys are getting older I've found that they can entertain themselves for a little while and I can actually read during the day instead of waiting until they go to bed and then I fall asleep.  

Anyway, I'm gonna go read now, but feel free to recommend some books for me to try out.  I go to the library almost weekly with the boys and am always looking for a new good book.