Freedom Run 10K

So I stole this pic from my sister-in-law Sandee's website. Thanks Sandee! I love this pic. It's funny how close you feel to the people you just ran a race with. Aaaah, so much fun! I love Adrian's face-he looks like he's about to blow chunks. Funny thing about him, he ran two days before the race to see if he could do it, then proceeded to run the WHOLE race. Not fair, I've been running for months now and when I started I know I could never have done a 10K. Andres had only been running for a couple of weeks, but runs 6 miles a day now. What a champ! He's such a fun brother-always up for a good time. Me, at least I have tan legs-no amazing running story here. Jamie-not only is he hot, but appearantly he was born to be a runner, yet hates running. Somehow I got him to do this race with us, he kept trying to run during the weeks before, but something would always come up. He finally gave up trying to run the week before, but ran the race and stayed with the group the whole time....until he had to go to the bathroom. All of a sudden he got this huge burst of energy and sprinted the last half mile up 9th east straight to the bathroom, beating all of us (Elisa and I) who had been training. Then there's my sister Elisa. She's great. We both finally like running. Sometimes I would like it, then she wouldn't or visa versa. It has been so fun to get together to run. The last couple of visits we've had, we always get at least one or two runs in just for fun. I love that she and I can run together. We run at the same pace, although I would swear she's only staying with me to be nice. And, there's Alan. I have the most radical brother-in-law! He pushed the stroller the whole way (should I mention we didn't stop, we ran the whole way). I don't know how he did it. I know he ran the race last year in under an hour, so just over an hour for this race was more of a breeze, but he had the stroller with two babies! What a champ.

So this race started the 4th of July festivities for us. We proceeded to head to the Parade-were Jamie's migraine began-and continued on to my parents house for an amazing asado by my dad and an inflatable jump house for the kids. We ended the night with fireworks. I was exhausted at the end of the day. We had such a great time in Utah. Thanks to all our family who took time out of their schedules to see us. Adrian and Katie, your new home is beautiful!

Hopefully next year we can do it all over again!

Pics Please!

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Utah with my family. It was such a fun vacation. Unfortunately, my camera died. I took it out to take photos, and the batteries were gone. Of course we left the charger in Colorado, so now I'm asking for pics. If you have a pictures of us, please send them my way. I'll just name a few people I would like pics from: Elisa, Elisa, Elisa, Elli, Elisa, Sandee, Elisa. I think that should do it.

To: Jamie

Jamie, you're a great Father to our kids and such a kind husband. Even on Father's day you helped me out with the kids, cleaned the bathroom and helped me with dishes after a fun Father's Day dinner. Thanks for all you do for us!

Kids Photos

Do I need to say anything about these? Christian is 7, Nico 5 and Izzy is 9 months. These were taken sometime in May.

Father's Day

I have a great Dad. I have so many memories with him, even from the time I was little. He called me "dulce" and I always felt so loved by him. He taught me to work hard and work through my problems. He taught me to drive a stick shift, to thread a Wire EDM machine, run a molding press, assemble furniture, mow the lawn, he gave me confidence in all that I did. I have been so blessed with such an amazing father. Hope you had a great Father's day Pa!

We had a great father's day today. We had dinner at our house and were able to enjoy Jamie's Dad, Jamie and Todd. I have great in-laws. They are so kind and patient with me and love me even when I'm not perfect.

My favorite memory of Pop is when Jamie and I got engaged and he said, "you know Caro, if you marry Jamie, you marry Steve." He just wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. Good thing Steve turned out to be a rad brother-in-law.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day Pop!

Economics 101 with Nico

I know I've written about Nico a ton lately, but this kid just has so much going on in his life right now. The latest is his Lemonade stand. I bought this cute lemonade stand at a garage sale a couple of saturdays ago and Nico had been dying to try it out. Finally, I let him go at it one day. The kid made 4.25 in almost 1 hour selling lemonade at 25 cents. One lady just gave him money for being so cute and drove away. Everyone else gave more than 25 cents. (I'm beginning to think he should charge 50) Anyway, at the end of the day Nico and I had this conversation:

Caro: Nico, I think I'm going to charge you taxes for selling your lemonade. I'll take half your money.

Nico: What?!! No way, it's my money

Caro: Well, I have to pay taxes, so you should too, don't you think?

Nico: But mom, it's my money

Caro: Alright, I'll settle for tithing at 10 percent. That will only be 40 cents.

Nico: Okay, I can totally do that (he says this with a smile-fills out a tithing slip and I swear the kid couldn't be prouder).

After the incident, Jamie and I began brainstorming on ideas to teach Nico about some basic economics. So we did, this is what we came up with:

Caro: Nico, you were very successful with your lemonade stand and made some good money, but the other 2 lemonade stands in the neighborhood didn't do as well as you did. They didn't make as much money, so we're going to take some of your money and give it to them. This way they can be happy because they also have money.

Nico: Ummm, okay, they can have 1 dollar. (at this point I'm thinking, maybe if we were all like little children we could live in a utopian society, but the conversation continues....)

Caro: Okay, go get your money, I'll take 2 dollars.

Nico: Wait, no, not my money. That's my money, I don't want to GIVE AWAY my money!!! (aaah, basic economics understood by a five year old....so simple, yet so hard for so many politicians, darn)

Jamie and I also thought of scenarios like forcing Nico to hire Christian to work for him at $7 an hour, while Cesar down the street would do it for only $1. Or how about just giving Christian some money because he didn't work, he was too busy playing video games so Nico (who now has money) is forced to give money to Christian who sat around all day playing video games. I would say Nico would quickly quit working and join his brother at video games if he knew that other lemonade stands would subsidize his income for him. Aaaah, so many possibilities. Jamie and I had fun with this one.

Family Night and Uno Attack

"You-know" is how I would pronounce it, but anyway, we played Uno with the kids for family night tonight and I laughed so hard I was crying, here is why:

Caro: Nico, it's your turn, play a card

(with this look of I've got something you wont believe, Nico lays down a wild)

Christian: Nico, don't say Green! What ever you do, don't say Green!

(I've got one card left-a green card. This is known to everyone because Christian had my hand before we exchanged cards. Nico has all his cards face up and has 1 wild-which he played-and 2 yellow cards)

Nico: I say, GREEN!

Jamie and I can't help but bust out laughing. He had no idea why Christian was saying "don't say green," but it seemed to be the thing to do. With this look of, I'm going to do something tricky, he says "Green".

Another play is Nico wanting to push the "Uno Attack" button which gives you cards. If it was his turn to push the button, he would almost be happy about it, even though we told him over and over the object of the game is to get RID of all the cards. If he got a wild card in the process, you'd think he was just handed a bag full of candy. He would lay his cards all face up, except for his precious wild card, and then say, "I'm not going to show you this card because it's a surprise!" Wow, I wonder what that card could be, hummm????

We must have played almost 2 hours. We had a blast. If anyone is looking for a fun family game, this one is great. Even Isabella sat in her high chair and watched while we rolled in laughter over Nico's comments/plays. Moments like these are seriously priceless!