What happens in Vegas...

....does not stay in Vegas at all. It really affects Daniel's season. 

For the second year in a row we joined Daniel in Vegas for the WCC tournament. They beat St. Mary's on a last second shot on Thursday night so I packed up the girls and headed down Friday morning. All 3 kids were champs on the drive. Sadie and Elise have always been good car travelers, but Millie was good too. We stopped in St. George to stretch our legs, go potty/change diapers, and feed Camille some baby food. 

 When we arrived Daniel made a bunch of trips to the car to get all the stuff. Sadie sent some selfies and Camille chewed on the remote. We also hung out with Amber and Tyler Dunn for a bit. They just happened to be in Vegas for a work conference. We miss them. That night we went to the Rio buffet with the team, which was probably a mistake. Our kids were tired and grumpy.

 
Saturday we were at the pool all day. 6 hours. My older kids got a little pink, even with multiple applications of sunscreen. Camille floated around in her shaded floatie and just loved life. Some anonymous kind stranger paid for poolside lunch for us (and the another assistant coach's family) so we didn't even have to go back to the room to eat. It was a great day. Daniel came and joined us for the last hour or so.

 That evening we met up with the Dunns for dinner at Cafe Rio where Sadie choked on a mint, Camille dumped out a full cup of water, and Elise continually declared she wanted to go to bed. Daniel went to the WCC tournament men's games that night and I took the girls back to the hotel to sleep. Camille would not sleep so she and I hung out in the bathroom together. I also spent an hour cleaning sharpie marker off the hotel room desk chair.

 Staying in a hotel room with 5 people gets a little cramped, but I think we made the best of it. Camille slept in her pack and play in the walk-in closet and the older girls slept on an air mattress we brought. We used the stroller as Camille's high chair when she ate in the room. The girls did a lot of coloring and show-watching when we were in the room.

On Sunday we went to church with the team. We rode on the "school bus", as Lou calls it. According to the girls, the second best thing about Vegas (the first is swimming) is riding on the bus with the team. Sadie always finds a player to sit with and ignore us. I can't say enough how great the players are with my kids. We had a quiet afternoon with naps and Sadie took a short dip in the pool. We had a nice team dinner that night.

 I made the mistake of telling the girls on Sunday that they could go swimming Monday. BYU's game was at noon so we rushed and swam from 10 to 10:45 AM (we got there before it even opened) and then changed, ate lunch and drove to the BYU-Gonzaga game.

We got there with about 12 minutes left in the first half. BYU trailed the whole first half and was down by 10 at halftime. It kind of felt like more of the same- they had lost to Gonzaga twice this season. BYU hung around in the second half and came back and won at the very end. I could not believe it. I was SO happy for them. This year I have gotten to know the players a lot more and I not only want them to win because I am competitive, but because I really like them. All my pictures after the game came out blurry. Elise was tired and asked to take a nap.

 Sadie took a picture with one of our favorite players, Kylie Maeda.

 Daniel had to stay to watch the next game so I took the girls back to the hotel for...more swimming! What else? We swam with the Stewarts (another assistant coach's family) until it was almost dark and then went to McDonald's for dinner. The team ate a late night take-out meal from Cheesecake Factory, which was one of my favorite meals. Our kids were all fast asleep in the room and we ate in peace down the hall.

Tuesday morning we started to pack up a bit before the game because the WCC sends the women's teams home immediately following the championship game, no matter the outcome. I actually bathed the girls (yes, that was their only bath the whole trip- swimming totally counts as a bath, right?) and we arrived early for the game. 

We sat 4 rows up from the team. The people behind us offered to take a picture. I was so anxious for the game. Just wanted it to be over.  BYU shot amazingly well and dominated San Francisco the whole game. It was kind of anticlimactic championship game when the previous 2 games were so exciting. 

 Last year Sadie cried when BYU lost to Gonzaga in the championship game, so seeing that BYU got the trophy was a big deal to her. We joined the team on the court for some celebrating and pictures. Elise played with the confetti and ended up making a big mess with it in the locker room later.

Elise's favorite person is the team's former trainer, Andie. Lou latched onto her at the tournament in 2014 and this season she always looks forward to seeing Andie after the games. Andie is awesome. After the Gonzaga game she walked me and the girls all the way out to our van, carrying Elise most of the way. Sadie also sat with her for all of the championship game.

We went back to the hotel, finished packing the car, and got on the road by 6:15 PM. We got to bring the trophy home in our car since the team was flying back. I laughed as Daniel carried the big trophy out of the hotel and seatbelted it into the back seat of the van. With a 1/2 hour stop for dinner and the time change (1 hour later in Utah) we got home by 1 AM. For the first time ever on a family road trip Daniel let me drive. That makes him sound dumb, but he doesn't like to be the passenger on road trips. He was exhausted so I convinced him to let me drive and I did the last 3 hours home. He kept saying that it was actually kind of great.

 The girls were sad to watch Daniel bring the trophy into the Marriott Center a couple days after we got back.

Shenanigans

The end of February/beginning of March brought several new and interesting experiences. 

1. Sadie drew all over Elise and then tried to clean it off. This is why it is all smudged. They told us it was pirate day. Elise has a treasure map drawn on her legs.

2. More sign making, but the first love notes to boys. Inspired by Valentine's Day, Sadie made these signs for a pair of twins in her Kindergarten class. The one of the left says "I love you Tannr. I theeak [think] you are seeat [sweet]. To Tannr. Love Sadie. Sockr ball". The one on the right is just awesome. A big heart filled with the words "kiss" and "kissing". Then there's "you have to kiss camp Todd [kiss cam- as in the kiss camera they show on the big screen during Daniel's games] or sad Sadie will come. I love you so so so so much. You have to chase me. To Todd. Love Sadie" These notes somehow disappeared before Sadie could bring them to school.  The greatest part of this is we saw these twins outside of school and none of them would talk to each other. The twins and Sadie all hid behind their parents' backs. 

This next note is also very sweet. One Sunday everyone was napping but Sadie. She made this for Xo, a player on Daniel's team, telling her she wants to be a basketball plaer. 

3. A trip to the Puppy Barn. They have all these bins of puppies that parents can hold and kids can pet. They are so cute. Elise has been terrified of dogs lately and this really helped her to see they are nice. 

4. Not new and interesting, but more dance parties.

5. Our second biggest snowfall of the year, which will likely be our last real snow of the winter. The girls threw snowballs at whatever window I stood by and then ate lots of snow.

6. Inspired by a youtube kids channel, Sadie has started crafting by herself. She has made lots of things with just random stuff glued all over, but this globe, as she called it, was actually clever. She went and got some small toys (barbie shoes and doll accessories) and filled up an empty container with water. She also ripped small pies of aluminum foil for sparkle. 

7. Elise wouldn't stop pulling down her pants. I was playing will Millie on the floor and Elise would run by with a bare bum. Everyone time she ran by I would try to pull up her pants, which she thought was a great game. 

8. And lastly, some illness. Sadie's first bout with pink eye, which coincided with a strange rash on her hands. The picture doesn't show it well

And a selfie of Sadie for good measure

Be Tough with 2

One of my softball coaches used to always tell us to "be tough with 2, kid!" if we got 2 strikes on us when batting. That doesn't have much to do with this blog post, except I have been enjoying the time with just 2 kids home when Sadie is at school.

Camille is usually napping for at least half the time so really it is just me and Lou. We play games and work on her letters. At first she really struggled with writing letters, but she has gotten much better since also practicing with the Letter School app. It's kind of a crazy improvement.

Of course sometimes we run some errands too. 

And sometimes Lou just takes a nap and drools all over the couch. 

10

Camille hit the 10 month mark this weekend. She says, big deal, who cares?
As she gets older we think she looks more like Sadie and less like Daniel's twin. Sadie looks like Daniel's family, just not exactly like him. All of Millie's 6 to 12 month clothes are too small, but we don't have much winter stuff in size 12-18 months so she is stuck in tight clothes for the next few weeks until it starts to warm up here.

She is still not crawling. I wonder if she will. She is adept at emptying the bookshelves in our family room.


Camille is excellent at scooting backwards and rotating on her stomach. I didn't get many good 10 month pictures because she just rolled to her stomach and then scooted herself backwards to her changing table.

She loves to stand up on things. She halfheartedly attempts to climb up on things but is happy to have one of her sisters help her up. She also clearly has older sisters who like to do funny things to her.

Elise spent 20 minutes the other day showing Camille how fun it is to scream. Mills giggled the entire time.

 
Millie has been working on cutting her #3 and #4 tooth for 2 months, but they are still not through. Any time she is the slightest bit cranky I blame it on teething. Her upper gums have been puffy and swollen for over a month now! You can see the exact outline of her top left tooth and the gum is hanging below the natural gum line so cover it. Teething is the pits.


She loves when I open the plantation shutters in her room. She will just sit and talk and smile at her window.


Mills took her first bath in a big tub all by herself. Camille is an excellent eater, but if there are flavors she doesn't like she throws up. She really hates the taste of her multivitamin. I tried to give it to her without mixing it and she projectile vomited. The next day I tried it mixed with baby food and she threw up again.

This is her 10 month photo

Run Away

I got a treadmill for Christmas. It took us until mid-January to put it together, which didn't bode well for my fitness goals, but it has actually been great. I have run 3 to 5 times a week since then. I haven't noticed a big difference in my body yet, but I was in the worst shape of my life so I had to start with very short runs and long walks. For the past couple weeks I have been running a 5k each time and then I walk 2 miles at varying inclines. I still feel like I am going to die a lot of the time I am running, but it's a huge improvement over my initial maximum runs of 1/3 mile at a time. I have no plans to run much longer than my 5k's, but maybe some day. For now I just hope to be able to keep it going. I watch Ellen, Chopped, and various HGTV shows while I run, which helps distract me a little. I run at all different times. The only common denominator is Camille being asleep. So either it is during her morning nap, afternoon nap, or when all the kids are in bed. I prefer to just get it out of the way in the mornings. It's hard to get motivated at the end of the day. The greatest part about the treadmill is that I don't have to work it around Daniel's schedule. I have tried gym memberships and classes, but with Daniel traveling so much it was always complicated, even when gyms had babysitting.

Sadie and Elise like to play in the basement while I run. They tend to forget I am down there with them, for better or for worse. The naked rocking horse picture is one of the weirdest things Sadie has ever done. When I finally got her attention and asked her what was going on she said, "what?" and carried on with her nudity. The other picture shows a day when I got to watch the girls work together for 45 minutes on a fort structure. It reminded me that sometimes my kids like each other. 

The girls have gotten very excited about running on the treadmill as well. They frequently have short turns when I am done. Sadie actually went almost half hour (mostly walking) one day. Elise usually lasts about 5 minutes.