A month of birthdays...

July is a favorite month in the Thorson household (well at least for this Thorson).  This month includes my birthday, Joel's birthday, and our anniversary.  But the month begins with America's birthday-another birthday we love! We began the celebration on the 3rd with a family camp out in our backyard (my kind of camping!).

 Cooking hotdogs and Smores over our new fire pit (a birthday gift from my parents-thank you Mom and Dad!).

 Our backyard set up...the fire was quickly extinguished when a thunder storm came through.  But my family stuck it out in the tent telling "spooky" stories.  I was so proud of them!

 I of course ended up inside with Josie (I was not cut out for the 90 degree sauna that the tent became).  I was wondering around the house and found zombies at the window at around 10 pm!  Spooky!

 Josie on the 4th.  We did a backyard BBQ with our neighbors and she did face painting for the kids! Our day included corn hole, great food, sparklers, local fire works, and another late night for the kiddos.

 My kids were most excited about being allowed to have a coke.

 Just have to toot my own horn...I was pretty proud of my flag cake :).

 Whoops...pictures got out of order but here is Joel and I in our hot 2 person tent with the 6 members of our family!  I think we need a bigger one!

Jesse was happy in his own little corner.  Now why does he have a blanket on?!

Family

June has been a month filled with family.  It was such a blessing to see the kids enriching their relationships with family they always hear about but don't often see.  Thanks to the Fox and Thorson family members who have recently invested in our lives!

It has been 2 years since the kids have seen Auntie Mara.  For those math challenged, yes, that means she had not met Josie until this moment in time!  Of course she was a hit with all the kids and we all had a wonderful time catching up on her travels and life.

 Asher always has lots of hugs for Grandpa.  He is usually stuck to Grandpa's side like glue.

 A large portion of the "Fox" family gathering to celebrate cousin Jess's college graduation.  We were definitely missing and thinking of the family members not there!

 Great Grandma Fox is always smothered by the kids but she seems to like it!

 We had a little shopping day but due to some complications from my foot surgery, I still have some walking restrictions.  Don't tell me I'm the only one that has had visions of racing one of these around?!  Apparently not because Grandpa had some fun too!  I had to keep giving the kids turns on it with me.  Sad to say they do not go as fast as I had imagined.

 The shopping trip would not be complete without a trip for Anna to show off her favorite place: the American Girl Doll store.  Anna has gotten pretty frustrated with Josie stealing all of her babies, especially her precious American Girl Doll Emily.  Big thanks to Grandma for solving this problem for us!  Josie got "Juliet", her own "itty bitty baby" American Girl Doll.  This was good because Josie pulled a doll off the shelf and was holding onto it for dear life and screaming bloody murder when we tried to take it away.  Juliet helped solve that problem :).

 Aunt Kim brought some treasures from Russia.  Doesn't Jesse fit the bill?  I promise this is root beer!

Jesse with his pal Uncle Pat.  Uncle Pat and Aunt Priscilla live an hour from us here and have been true blessings in this whole foot surgery problem! Thank you thank you thank you!

Welcome to Summer

Us sneaky parents decided to officially welcome Anna and Asher to summer by attacking them with water balloons and water guns when they got off the bus on the last day of school.  We got some other parents and younger kids in the neighborhood involved and it turned out to be quite a party!  Jesse and Josie were also excited to be a part of the fun and here is Jesse plotting the attack with Josie.

 Sore, broken toe or not, Anna took off and was hard to catch!

 Asher was one of the last kids to get off at the bus stop and could hardly contain his excitement.

 The smile was so big!

 His water fight with Daddy lasted a long time!  I think Joel was wetter than all the kids!

 We made a nice sign to hang on the door as well.

 Josie getting in on the action.

Okay so I make it sound like I was a part of this big water fight, but I was really a bystander taking pictures as this is how I look as summer starts.  I had a painful cyst on the back of my heal that got extremely aggravated from all the marathon training and had to be surgically removed.  I am supposed to stay off my feet as much as possible for 1-2 weeks.  This is a hard way to welcome your children to summer vacation when they have ideas of parks and pools!  Fortunately I am blessed with wonderful neighbors who have brought dinners and watched kids, and local family (Joel's Aunt and my parents) who are helping out in more ways than I can list!  The nurses in the hospital got a kick out of me because under my drugged condition I kept talking about what a vacation this would be for me...hah!  I have already read 3 books and now all the TLC and HGTV shows are running together.  I am anxious to be enjoying the summer with my kiddos and running again!

Of Divas and Pirates and Motorcycles

 Asher has started swimming with a summer swim club team.  That means hours of the rest of the family often sitting by the pool waiting for out swimmer.  Josie managed to get goggles and a swim cap on, marched right over to the pool, and proceeded to climb in!  Maybe we have another swimmer in our future...

Anna's class had a pirate week ending in a pirate party on Friday.  The school bus was filled with pirates-it was adorable!  Anna was very into her character.

 Josie acquired this tutu at a community yard sale.  While walking the block, she walked up to a table, grabbed this, and walked off. I guess I was paying for it!  She has worn it nonstop the last few days and will scream if it falls off.  This girl knows what she wants!  I am not sure I am getting that tomboy I was hoping for.  Peeking in on her at nap time, I just see a fluff of pink sticking out. 

 Doesn't the purse complete the outfit?  Yes she wore this out.  I dare you to try and take that purse from her...

 8 was the coming of age line for riding the motorcycle with Daddy.  The boy was beaming!  It just started with a ride around the block.  Now every time we have to go somewhere, "Daddy, can we take the motorcycle?!".  He is going to get to ride that thing more than me!  Yes, I am a bit jealous.

My men

The Temperatures are Rising

 With the rising heat wave and the holiday weekend comes popsicles, slip and slide fun in the backyard, and trips to the neighborhood pool.  We feel like summer has officially begun!

A few of Asher's favorite things

Asher's birthday was a day full of his favorites.  I thought that listing these things would give you a good idea of who Asher is...so these are "a few of his favorite things" (Do you hear the song melody?):

The color green: we have a tradition of decorating the birthday child's door at night so it is the 1st thing they see when they wake up in the morning.  Asher's door was decorated with green streamers and green balloons.  He got up at 6am, saw them and laid in bed too excited to go back to sleep (we don't let them come out of their rooms till 7am).

Monkey bread, orange chicken, and broccoli: his favorite foods.  The birthday kid always gets to pick the food for the day so he  got to eat all his favorite meals on our "celebrate" plate.

 Miniature Golf: In place of a big birthday party this year, he got to choose a few friends to do an activity.  He chose miniature golf (not a big surprise).  Only the boys went.  He got to take 2 good buddies he knew in Ohio and 2 of his besties from the neighborhood.  Joel forgot to take pictures while they were out so this is my one group photo.  They were some happy boys when they came home!

 Carrot Cake: What other child always chooses carrot cake on their birthday?  Only Asher, my vegetable lover.  Every year, this is what he wants as his birthday cake and he devours it! I had to make a batch of brownies too because some of those boys did not want anything to do with the carrot cake! He also wanted mint chocolate chip ice cream on the side-mint he says is his favorite spice.

Friends: Asher loves being with other people and is always looking for new friends to make.  This neighborhood has been heaven for him (and the other kids).  Because of all the friends around us, they have had no trouble adjusting to our new place and life here.  While I was washing dishes I noticed our 2 neighbor girls hanging a sign over our fence...they wanted to surprise him!  It brought tears to my eyes.  They even drew a little swimmer on the corner (Asher made the swim team here and starts next week!).

I am not sure how 8 years has gone by, how the little blonde baby that slept on my shoulder turned into a long legged skinny boy.  My favorite thing about this boy is his positive outlook on life.  He is always happy, showing love to others, encouraged, and believes the best in everyone.  We can't wait to see what God is going to do with such a special boy, and the man he is going to become.

Marathon #3

 I am pretty good at finding this podunk marathons to run.  My 1st marathon was called "24 hour Around the Lake Marathon".  It started at 7pm, went into the night, and was 8 laps around a lake.  This one was the "Potomac River Run Marathon" capped at 350 entrants and was all along a gravel bike path beside the Potomac River.  It was small with an out and back loop we had to run twice, the race director was quirky, no timing chips, and the terrain not ideal, but it was a great experience with lots of comradery between the participants.  In this photo we are walking to the start line...yes through the woods!

 My family was the BEST cheering squad.  The good thing about the double out and back loop is that they were able to park in one spot, play in the woods (watch a water moccasin swimming!), and still see me 4 times.  I counted down the miles till I knew I would see their smiling faces. It lifted my spirits every time.  Joel is a saint to support all my training and take care of this kiddos the whole race (not to mention dealing with all my pre-race anxiety and post race pain)!

 I think this is me at mile 18...you might not be able to see the wall right in front of me, but this is where I hit it.  Up to this point I was running at my goal pace...even a bit faster, but couldn't keep it up after this.  I seriously slowed down and the last 5 miles were especially painful.

 The environment was beautiful though!  I enjoyed it on the first loop but I have to admit it was a blur on the second loop.

My final time 3 hours and 56 minutes....my ultimate goal was to get sub 4 hours!!  A personal record for me!