May in Colorado

To start off the month: Happy Mothers Day Colorado. Here is a gift from mother nature.

It was a LOT of snow. The trees didn't handle it well and once it melted I went out and sawed off all the broken branches.

 To take a break from the snow and actually have some fun we had our first outing to Chuck E Cheese. Paxton loved it! We were there for quite a while because they had a fun house maze that didn't need tokens. He played in that thing forever. We had to convince him to go on other rides but we probably should have just saved our tokens for next time.

Pax ended up loving the one with "the scary guy" where you just drive through a course. He did that one with Daddy a million times and ended up getting his name in the top 3. We'll have to look next time and see if his name is still there.

The weekend before Memorial Day I signed up for a 5k. I have only run one in the last 8 years and only had a couple weeks to "train." I really didn't want to be last since I knew it was a race with few participants. Luckily I was not last and I didn't do too terribly either. This is the beginning of the race. It was all BYU alumni that live in the Denver area. They gave us all free black shirts but I am the one in pink.

 After all the registered racers finished they had a kids race and gave them all free matching black shirts as well. Pax didn't want to wear his but it didn't matter because he looks super adorable anyway.

 I don't think he really understood what was happening but he started running and didn't stop.

 Paxton got a medal for finishing his race and was so happy that he ran so fast.

The Monday after my race was the real race. The Bolder Boulder. A 10k. Sugi was running it and did awesome according to most standards. He was not pleased with his time due to the fact that during his training he ran faster than during the race. I blame it on the fact that we stayed in a hotel the night before the race and got VERY little sleep. The hotel also said they would have breakfast available early for all the racers and that did not turn out to be true so all he ate in the morning before racing was a tiny bowl of corn flakes.

Our hotel was beautiful but we thought since it was May it would be nice outside and booked a hotel with an outdoor pool. It was freezing and not at all possible to swim in. So instead, Pax, Lucy and I noticed a nice lake nearby and took a little walk while Sugi tried to relax at the hotel.

So, the Bolder Boulder is huge. Thousands of racers. I was tracking Sugi on my phone and noticed that after we dropped him off at the starting line we were going to have to book it to get to the stadium to watch him finish. I had Lucy in the bjorn and Pax on my shoulders and mega blisters on my feet. I was totally bummed that we were going to miss the finish and not get to cheer him on. I checked my phone one last time and realized he was about to be passing by. Pax told me not to stop because he had to go potty...it was not enjoyable. However, I stopped just in time for a little break and this handsome dude came running by.

 I'm talking about the guy in the teal shirt.

We celebrated a job well done with a trip to Cracker Barrel. I love that place!

The fun never stopped that day as we ended up making a fire in the backyard for some s'mores and finished the night with pizza and a movie.

Later in May, my sister Tiffany was diagnosed with breast cancer between stage 3 and 4. She was much more courageous about it than I would have been. She seems to be doing well and as of this post she is 1/3 of the way done with chemo.

Also in May, I burned my hands. I decided to walk to a park real quick with Pax and Lucy one day. We had been playing in the sandbox and with some bubbles beforehand. We were out for just about 45 minutes because it was about to rain.

(Caution: the following picture is gross.) Nobody got sunburned but my hands looked pretty red when we got home. Then next day they started to swell and I took off my ring. That night I put on some aloe vera and noticed them starting to blister. When I woke up in the morning this is what they looked like.

Initially I thought it was a sunburn but after talking to people and seeing the intensity of the burn, it has been suggested I may have had a highly photosensitive chemical on my hands. Any diagnosticians out there with a verdict? I can't think of anything that it could have been. I could not use my hands at all. They hurt so badly. I ended up calling my mom jokingly (but seriously) asking if she could come help. She recently started her new job but asked them if she could take the rest of the week off (it was only Monday). She came the next day and was a huge help. I couldn't even lift Lucy out of her crib or get my kids dressed or change diapers. She did all that plus cooked, cleaned and did laundry. She really saved me. Thanks Mom and Bruce! I'll never forget your willingness to come so quickly.