Flagstaff Terrain Mud Run

Dustin and I, along with some friends, participated in the Flagstaff Terrain Mud Run on July 26. We chose to do the 5k race and had alot of fun with it! It was alot more challenging that we had anticipated but we were happy with our time and enjoyed the adventure of it all! We would do this one or something similar again sometime!

Here is our group/team pre race.

(Left: Lauren (HAPT trainer), Ryan, Kristin, Brad (Jeff's friend), Dustin, Me, and Jeff)

Some more pre race pictures!

In a 3 mile run, we probably had about 60-70 obstacles we had to do - with 40-50 of them being jumping over man made horse obstacles like big logs, wooden boxes, etc. The race took place at the fairgrounds and there is an equestrian horse obstacle course around that area and they conveniently used almost every horse obstacle for our race. Other obstacles included: incline to decline monkey bars, slip in slides. vertical and horizontal cargo nets. carrying sandbags and buckets of water, climbing a tall wall with a rope, sliding down a pole, crawling through tunnels or through mud, going under barbed wire or caution tape, and swimming across a bleaker box filled with water deep enough I could not stand! It really was tiring but it was incredibly fun all at the same time!

WE FINISHED!!

Post race pictures!

Ember was a little unsure about us once we came over to say "hi" to her after the race! She kept staring at us trying to figure out what was wrong and then told us we were dirty and needed a wipe! Haha! Cute!

Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Flin for watching Ember so we could do this race and bringing her to cheer us on! She loves her grandparents!! And their visit was a good excuse to get some pictures before church!

Green Frog

 We have reached Week 5! Green frog week! Here is a glance at what we did! 

Explored green objects

Watched videos about frogs

Read other books about frogs

Colored a mini frog picture green

Cut out and made a frog craft

Played with green Easter grass and green objects in a sensory bin

We painted some frog lilly pads green

Then we cut them out, put numbers on them, and taped them to the floor to jump on and help learn counting and numbers some!

I ordered some simple plastic frogs from online and we played with them a few times throughout the week. But the reason I bought them was to freeze them in ice cube trays and let Ember play with them while they melted in a tub of water. She loved this and kept talking about the frogs in the wawa!

(Notice Emmerson's looming shadow about to swoop down on the unsuspecting frogs!)

Another fun week! And these days when we read "Brown Bear Brown Bear," Ember will say the color and animal name when I turn each page! She gets most of them right. Blue horse is still "blue neigh" and white dog is still "white puppy" ;) But it is cute! Also, when I ask Ember if she wants to do "tot school" she will put down whatever she is doing and run to our room and point to our dresser where we keep the "Brown Bear" book. 

Blackberry Picking and Splash Pad

We decided to head down to Sedona's Living Springs Camp for a day trip where Grace Covenant was having their yearly family camp and say "hi" to everyone and pick some blackberries! We went to Wildflower first to get some breakfast.

Daddy and Ember waiting for the food!

Oops! Poor server dropped our food while bringing it out the door :(

Blackberries!! YUM YUM!

Ember was a HUGE fan! She just followed us around while we were picking them saying "Black... more black."

The prized loot!

Grandma showing Ember and showing off Ember around the camp while we played a friendly game of volleyball :) 

Later this evening back in Flagstaff we went to a social for our condo and Ember was eating watermelon right off the rind - I had to share this picture as well! She loves her watermelon... she would have eaten the whole rind if I had let her!

Grandma and Grandpa Flin stayed at the Sedona Summit time share in Sedona after family camp was over. Ember and I headed down for a morning to play at the splash pad and the time share pool. Ember loved it! She still enjoyed the toddler playground more than the water part but had alot of fun!

Parent/Tot Swimming Lessons

This was our second summer doing Parent/Tot swim lessons. We did them with Addilyn and Aleecia again but Katie and Evelyn also joined in on the fun. Ember was more able to do most of the things this time around (not saying she WOULD do them all but she was able) and it really seemed to help her feel more comfortable in the water. Every day when we got her up in the morning she would start saying "wawa (water), kick, bubbles, swimsuit." She seemed to be excited to go but then wasn't always excited to be there once we arrived. One day we walked up to the pool and she said "bye bye." But overall it was great experience and so fun to do it with friends!