We Made It!!!

So, the Anthem Fight For Air Climb was yesterday and I am THRILLED to say that all 5 of us (Mom, Dad, Byron, Tara and I) made it to the top!  There was so much anxiety among us all about how terrible it was going to be climbing 56 flights of stairs, but so happy to say that it really wasn't that bad - really!

Our "climb time" was scheduled for 12:45, and we were told to be there an hour early.  We figured out where the start line was, then made our way to the bathroom for one last pit stop (cuz really, we were all thinking that we would be in the stairwell for at least 1/2 hour to 45 minutes!) We then found our way back to the start line hoping that they wouldn't kick us out for beginning before our scheduled time.  Here are a few pictures of us waiting in line before the race started:

Byron was the first in our group to start, and he literally took off running!  I went second and I attempted to take some pictures of the floors as I passed them....sorry for the blurriness of the photos....it's hard to take pictures as you're climbing stairs!

Here we are as we crossed the finish line! 

(No judgement on how we look...you wouldn't look like a model after climbing that many stairs!) 

Byron finished in 11 minutes 16 seconds.
Megan finished in 13 minutes 23 seconds.

Dad finished in 14 minutes 44 seconds

Tara finished in 18 minutes 23 seconds

Mom finished in 22 minutes 8 seconds.

Shot from street level of the Republic Plaza!  We just climbed that!!!

It was such a great time, and really wasn't as bad as we all thought....so far everyone is game to do it next year, and interest from our friends has picked up too!  Here's to starting a tradition!

Renovation Realities Part 3 - Finishing

We are on week who knows....I have lost count as to what week it is, but what I can tell you is that the bathroom is almost done!  We are in the process of putting on/in the finishing touches.  I will let the pictures and the captions under them explain!

The beautiful bath tub!

Tub working WITH bubbles!  Yea!

Close up of the bath tub faucet

Close up of the faucets on the vanity

Linen closet next to vanity

The vanity

Another shot of the glass for the shower

Glass for the shower

Byron has done an AMAZING job in renovating our bathroom.  This has been such a huge project and he has thought about and executed every detail of this bathroom.  Because of him, our bathroom is almost done and it is phenomenal!  Today we went out scouring the town for accessories for the bathroom - and we were pretty successful, but still have a few things to get.  I am hoping in a week or two we will call this project done (including the last 10% of the project that never gets done!)  I can't wait to share the finished project!

Tent Time....

For Christmas the kids got two tents - a princess one from my parents and a tent with a tunnel on it from their aunt and uncle on Byron's side.  There have been many an afternoon where the kids were getting stir crazy and nothing that I would come up with for them to do would entertain them for very long....then I thought of the tents...GENIUS.  We set the tents up in the family room and connect them using the tunnel.  This will provide, no joke, hours of entertainment for them both!  Haylee puts all of her babies in the bigger tent and Carter goes round and round crawling from one tent to the other and back again!

This past weekend was no exception to the kids being stir crazy, so I pulled out the tents and let them at it!  I got some pretty good pictures!

The tents set up

Haylee at the end of the tunnel!

Carter at the end of the tunnel

Haylee had so much baby stuff in the tent with her!

Climb For Your Life

I have been trying to find new and fun ways to exercise.  I love to compete in races, cross country and track in high school, 5K races throughout the years, Race for the Cure, the Sprint Triathlon last year.....so this year, I am already committed to do the Tri again, but I feel the need to do events that are out of the ordinary of the 5K race.

Enter Run the Republic (which is now called Anthem Fight for Air Climb).  Run the Republic is a "race" that is held in a high rise building downtown.  Run the Republic is sponsored by the American Lung Association, which raises funds for lung disease.  Lung Disease, by the way, is the 3rd highest cause of death in the United States. The stairwells of the Republic Plaza are opened to the public for this one day so you get to climb the 56 floors to the top and then take the elevators back down!  Doesn't that sound like so much fun!?

I have been "training" for this for a week now, and let me tell you, it isn't fun!  I have convinced a girl that I work with, along with my wonderful husband and parents to do this with me!  I can't wait. My parents have been working out for so long and have talked about wanting to become more active outside of the gym walls, so I figured why not open them to this!

I am sure that all four of them are cursing me out every time they walk up a flight of stairs, but at the end of the "race" I'm hoping that they have a newfound respect for themselves - that they CAN do anything, and that even the most painful thing - like climbing 56 stories can be fun if you're doing it with people you love, and for a great cause!

If you are interested in learning more about the Anthem Fight for Air Climb; or to join the race yourself, please visit their website at:   http://www.lungusa.org!  See you at the top!

Countdown

As a kid, I would take trips out to Illinois at least once a year.  I LOVE it there.  I love my family and all of the memories that I have created with them.  Wearing Grandma's wigs, sleeping in the living room and hearing the grandfather clock "dong" that it was midnight (gasp that Cori and I were up that late!!!) and then hearing Grandma yell down the hall, "girls, time for bed" because we couldn't stop giggling.  As we all got older, the trips out were harder (college, new jobs and a lack of finances).  Despite not being able to see my family out there as often as I would like we have done and are doing really well in keeping the updates on life current.

I want the kids to know the family in Illinois just as well as the family here in Colorado, so we talk a lot about the family out there and look at pictures and talk about who is who.  Haylee loves the whole family and has stories about all of the fun things that she has done with each member of the family.  Cori it's the acorns they found in the front lawn, Great Grandpa it's the tractors and how she gets to ride them, Great Grandma it's the Frosty the Snowman book (which we read ALL THE TIME!)  Diane, its the selling cookies and making lemonade at the garage sale...things like that.  So, I told Haylee that Aunt Diane and Cousin Cori are coming out to Colorado for a visit...she got so excited and started jumping up and down...then she said she wanted to make Diane and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa a craft.

One of the crafts we made was a countdown chain......We hung it up in a place where we could see it everyday, and make sure that we rip off a part of the chain every morning before we leave the house....Then we took a picture of the kids standing next to it!  As you can see, Carter was more interested in the light switches than he was for smiling for the picture!

So, let the countdown to Aunt Diane (and the rest of the family) coming out to visit begin!   T-Minus 8 days!  We can't wait!

Renovation Realities Part 2 - Reconstruction

So today marks the start of week 7 of our bathroom remodel.  I am happy to report that I went though my "I'm over this project, over the house being messy, we should have paid someone to do this" phase two weeks ago, and we are now about 85% done with the project!

Here are some pictures. B doesn't want me to show too many pictures that will give away the final look, so this is what you get!

Shower pan installed - so pretty and CLEAN

Getting ready for shower pan

Time for paint!  This was my job

   

Installing Crown Molding - NOT FUN!

Finished Crown - Looks beautiful - NOT FUN INSTALLING!

Mosaic tile being installed

Wall tile with mosaic installed - so pretty!

The long awaited tub!!!

Floor Tile being installed

We have had our ups and downs with things going according to plan, and then not.  It took 6 weeks for our tub to finally get here, when it did, we discovered that the air pipe was on the wrong side of the tub, and they had already laid the tile on the floor.  Thankfully, the tile guys popped that tile up and you couldn't even tell that the air pipe had been there.  It took two guys 125 hours to lay all the tile, but it looks amazing and was well worth spending a week at my parents house and not having B do it all!  The crown molding took 5 hours to do - and we only messed up one piece (not bad for the two of us who have never done crown - oh and if your thinking of doing it - hire some one....it's a pain!) The doors and trim have all gone from oak to painted gloss white, the brass fixtures are gone and have been replaced with polished nickel or chrome....things are coming together and our year of planning is finally coming to light...it looks amazing and I can't wait to show you the final product!

Ahhh.....to be a 1 1/2 year old!

I am always fascinated by my children.  They find new ways to play the same games, their imaginations are endless, and they find some things funnier than others.  I love, absolutely LOVE it when my children belly laugh...that deep down, pure joy, you can tell that they are laughing from the depths of their bellies laugh.  Byron and I caught Carter in one of his belly laughs this weekend.

It was snowing outside and the kids were going insane in the house.  I couldn't take it anymore, so I suited them up in their snow suits and we all headed outside.

Haylee wanted to have a snowball fight, so I was making snowballs for her when I decided to throw one at her stomach area.  Carter saw, and started cracking up.  I then started throwing them at him, and well, see the videos for yourself!  I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes!

Here is another one!

So cute and so much fun!  I love my kids and how much fun they are!!!