The End of a Chapter

Disclaimer: part of my boob is shown in the below photo.  Sorry Mom!

It seems that breastfeeding Lydia is coming to an end.  She's biting me (hard!) and seems impatient, unsatisfied, and unhappy when I try to nurse her.  And I am terribly sad to see it end!

It's hard to explain exactly why I love it so much (I don't really understand why I do!) so I won't even attempt it on this blog... But the other night I woke Lydia up because she bites less if she's half asleep.  And I nursed her one last time to truly savor and enjoy the beautiful quiet love we share in the wee hours of the night.  And I just cried.  Saying goodbye to this chapter of my life has proven harder than I expected!

Oh, the love I have for her.

Sunrise Running

I've been running again to train for a race next May.  The sunrise and sunset runs are my favorite, though they're often snowy and cold!

Moab February 2016

Todd ran a 55k in Moab last week! That is 33.5 miles!! He is amazing. Photo credit: Kendall Wimmer

While Todd ran his heart out, Avery Lydia and I played at the park and biked along the river. .

After celebrating at the finish line (Todd ran 33.5 miles across steep terrain in an amazing 5 hours 45 minutes!) we went back to the hotel so I could run an impressive six miles on a flat paved trail, which nearly killed me. lol

We got pizza and to Avery's delight, went hot tubbing.



The rest of the trip was spent climbing, hiking, eating, and enjoying the scenery.  I loved seeing Moab with some snow!





Dinosaur tracks



I hadn't seen any petroglyphs in Moab till this trip.  They were everywhere!



Avery LOVED climbing and insisted on re-climbing each problem.

Lydia worked hard at sitting around and looking cute

Spot the toddler's head?



This was her favorite climb, it was repeated 5 times.



Still hard at work!

How Todd could climb for 1.5 hours the day after his race is beyond me.

Grand Targhee

A few weeks ago I went on a girl's trip to Grand Targhee.  We had a great time!  I laughed so hard I cried (and nearly lost control of my bladder) and caught up on some much needed sleep.  It was blissful to be away and in such good company, AND I missed my family like crazy.  As the trip neared it's end I felt recharged and ready to return to normal life.



The Crew



Our eight mile snow shoe

See why we laughed so hard?!  I'm only posting a few on here but there were so many of these...



Casey



Ellen

Yours Truly

Megan

Becca

It was such a great day

Casey's big fall

That time when Becca and Megan broke out into song ha ha

Hamstring stretch!

The fog rolled in every evening.  It was haunting and beautiful

Serious fog!

Look at it roll in

Ahhhhh, exactly what I hoped to accomplish on this trip. R and R.  And Doritoes.

See the hidden message?

Goodbye Targhee, I love you!

The Holidays

Happy holidays!  I'm a bit relieved they're nearly over! 

--THANKSGIVING--

We had a great Thanksgiving in Phoenix with all (but 2) of the Hammond Family!  That's 39 people!

Avery's "talent" was running around during everyone else's talents for the talent show.  She and Henry really had fun together!

Lydia wanted to see how many relatives she could sleep on this vacation. ;)

 

   

 

This was the BEST Thanksgiving!  We played volley-ball, kick-ball, and ran around to really earn our turkey and pies.  Libby took me on an 8 mile run Thanksgiving morning too!  (She told me it was 4 miles and it nearly killed me, lol!)

--DECEMBER--

It's already snowed a ton this year, hooray!  I don't mind the snow, even though I would love to move to the beach. :)  Time to get my ski gear whipped into shape.

 

We have all been sick way too much this year.  I just feel like I have thrown up SO MANY times...  Avery and Lydia have had the flu, plenty of colds, and they just got over hand-foot-mouth and it's been awful.  Even Todd has been sick a lot, which is rare for him.
Here is to a healthier 2016!

Naycorn was sick too

Hand-foot-mouth-arms-legs-face-bum I think?

 

--CHRISTMAS--

Christmas was simple and sweet.  It was so exciting for Avery.  I'm not big on decorating for the holidays but I think I'll make a teensy weensy bit more effort next year cuz she just loved everything about Christmas!

Santa came!

Lydia tasting her exersaucer

Avery testing her helmet and jumprope.

Sweet gift from Lydia to Avery

Wish Todd were in this pic!  He was there, I promise!

Can you tell that I'm not into decorating? The fake tree broke, I was too lazy to fix it. The "believe" blocks we have are re-arranged to say "vile bee." There's also a painted Christmas tree on the mantle with a cat being shocked. Decorating? Meh...