For the Beauty of the Earth

Leaf People by Sophie & Grace

Every friend I have that blogs has had an entry lately about the beauty of fall. Here is my contribution to the adoration of the world we live in! On Saturday I ran a 10K here. The entire race was on trails around a gorgeous lake. The sun was shining, it was cool and there was no discernible humidity! I ran with a new friend and had a great time. The leaves are just beginning to change, so no color yet to speak of but I was moved by the beauty surrounding me.

I also LOVE running races. Not because I have ever won. (I think once in my 20's I placed 3rd in my age category in the Art City Days Fun run in Springville, Utah. I thought that was really cool. I still have the dorky T-shirt from the race.) I love races because I love to be with so many other runners. All shapes, sizes and colors of people all having a good time and working towards the same goal. I always feel like part of a really cool team or club or something, as silly as it sounds. I love to cheer for other people. If races gave a Miss Congeniality award I would really be a contender. People here in NC don't cheer nearly as much as I am used to. I love to be cheered for and running races is the only time it happens. Wouldn't it be cool if you heard "Whoo, hoo! Way to go!" when actually getting the dishes done before going to bed? Or "Hang in there, the finish is right ahead!" When hugely 9 months pregnant and you can barely move? How about, "Come on you can do it!" When trying to be patient upon hearing for the 19th time in a 2 hour period, "MOM! COME WIPE ME!!!!" Of course all these things would have to be yelled at an appropriate volume to make them a cheer.

Alas, not once in my life has a stranger yelled encouragement to me. Except for when I am plodding along, trying to finish a race. So I will keep cheering and having a blast all while wondering why in the world feeling such pain could ever be construed as fun.

Happy Fall!

By the way, I ran 6 minutes faster then the last 10K I ran in July, Yeah for me!
And I actually ran in pants this morning. It was 52 degrees here. Whoo hoo!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We love you Grandpa Smith! Happy Birthday!

September Stuff & Em's Wedding

 Emilee and Ben's Wedding

 I love this picture! Em is so happy and beautiful!

We met Stan's girlfriend Julie for the first time. She is really wonderful.

 I think I was a little tired by this point....

 Grace & Sophie's first Lagoon trip!

So...here I am again. We got back this week from a crazy, fun, busy trip to Utah for my sister's wedding. If anyone is reading this that I didn't get to visit, I am so sorry! I would have loved to see you. Both of our families are in Utah, so after family and kid stuff there is just not a lot of time for much else.We had fun but I have to say that it is crazy to travel with young kids. I told Jason we are not going anywhere for 6 months during the hardest of our 4 flights and he answered, "6 YEARS!"

Smores at Grandma and Papa's

When we lived in Sandy Grace and Sophie loved to go to Wheeler Farm. It was fun to visit again. 

First Day of Preschool!

Binkie Heaven!

Grace has a huge imagination. She cracks me up all the time with her stories and explanations of things. The other day at lunch Grace said,"I have something to tell you. It's something you can dream about or just imagine. What if there was a really, really,really, REALLY big red fish. As big as a house. And all the people could come and take one bite each day!" We had red fish chewies the day before and I guess she was just showing her inner candy love.

Noah mostly mumbles. He thinks he is talking, but it is just nonsense sounds. She sounds like the adults on Charlie Brown movies. Grace has started interpreting for him. She will tell me, "Noah just said a joke. He said,"What does the bear say to the deer? Eat the trees!" Then she will laugh and laugh.

Luke is talking like crazy. He is using simple sentences and makes us laugh. He just came up to me with my big exercise ball and said, "Mom, bounce!" Sophie is sweet, strong willed and fun loving. She is learning how much fun it is to tease her siblings. Luke gives it back to her already. Good times at the Hardy home.

August

I am an admitted Olypifile. I love them! Can't get enough. I have been staying up late way too many nights in a row to watch. This year has been the Olympics of women for me. So many amazing stories of incredible feats by women from around the world! Age in elite athletic competition is being redefined before our eyes. I wonder if men can continue to compete at an elite level in their 30's and even 40's or if it is just women? Wouldn't it be nice if there was finally something physical women get to do that men can't? Well, besides having babies and the incredible feat of cleaning up your child's bodily fluids without pausing a beat.

I admit I got choked up when I watched Constantina Tomescu win the marathon. She ran such a gutsy race. She wasn't even expected to medal but saw a chance, took a huge risk and ended up winning a gold medal. I thought she was going to fall over every step past mile 20. Obviously that wasn't the case as she ran several victory laps when the race was over. The woman is 38 years old and has a teenage son! How incredible is that?

So many other women in these Olympics have inspired me. The look on Shalane Flanagan's face when she finally realized that she finished 3rd in the 10,000 was amazing. 4 days earlier she had food poisoning so badly she couldn't get out of bed. She couldn't even jog until the day before the race!

Flanagan was in 10th place half way through the race and just kept passing runners. She set a new American record and a personal best. She said, " I just found my happy place and thought of my favorite run at home: 'What am I holding it back for? There's nothing to hold it back for, forever. I'm just going to let it go.' "

So cool! And inspiring. An interesting note, Shalane Flanagan's mom is a former world record holder in the marathon from before women were allowed to run more then 1500m in the Olympics.

 Sophie and Grace got big girl bikes!

 These oompa loompas crack me up!

Emilee and Ben came to visit for Em's Bday! We camped at this nasty campground by Carolina Beach. It was actually a trailer park and was pretty gross. But the beach was a blast!

The boys spent all their time digging in the sand.

Cold Hearted Snake

What do a stick, a piece of trash, a bunch of leaves, a tree root, a piece of tire all have in common? At 6 o'clock in the morning while running they all look like a copperhead snake just waiting to sink it's fangs into my juicy, mosquito bitten leg. This is the land of snakes and bugs and it makes me so uncomfortable to not know anything about the local deadly animals. My running companions tell me that copperheads have a triangle shaped head. Other wise they look similar to the other 290 kinds of snakes that live in North Carolina. I don't think I will be pausing to look closely at anything that can kill me, if not by venom, then by fear. I am working really hard to keep my fear of snakes rational so I can keep enjoying running. My favorite trail was snake-free until just a little while ago. My friend was running there alone and saw a small copperhead. She is not paranoid like me and stopped to take a good look. I guess they are not aggressive snakes unless you scare them, like if you were running and just happened upon one. The really yucky thing, copperheads live in nests all cozied up together!!!!! So if you see one, you can bet his lovely family is close at hand. I am freaking myself out now, so I am going to stop. Just for the record, I saw the hugest, biggest, ugliest spider I have ever seen (besides a tarantula) this morning ON MY FRONT DOOR.

July Stuff

Jason and I just returned from our first vacation by ourselves for a few years. It was wonderful! Who knew traveling was so fun and relaxing? I think I did know pre-children and had just forgotten. On our drive up to Washington DC we stopped a few times, each time was much less then 20 minutes. It was amazing!

My parents were so nice and flew out from CA to watch our kiddos. Once I was actually out the door, it was a lot of fun. I have so much anxiety leaving my kids. I know some of you don't, you should be glad! We don't get to pick what we worry about in life it seems.

We stopped at Monticello on the way up. I had never been before and it was really different then I expected. The home is beautiful, but not ornate at all. The floors and all the decorative work are all wood, no stone, marble or anything like that. It has working clocks that Thomas Jefferson designed and built. He was obsessed with time. The design of the entire estate is pretty amazing. The one thing that he did splurge on was glass. It had to be imported and he had floor to ceiling doors and windows. The whole house if full of light and air, definitely not what you see in other homes of the period. I am now pretty interested in Jefferson, especially his views on slavery. He was the largest slave owner in Virginia, mostly inherited slaves. He did allow his slaves to earn money when their "hours" to him were completed. I'm wondering how he was able to believe and write so eloquently of the freedom and rights of all men, yet own slaves. So, if you know a good biography of Thomas Jefferson that does not mythologize him, let me know.



Jason and I have both been to DC several times, so this trip we just went to the places we like best. We had to save time for the luxury of sleeping in!!!!! We spent most of our time at the the Air & Space museum and several art museums. There is an enormous new annex to the A&S museum out by Dulles airport. It was amazing, even had one of the space shuttles. When we were there we met a former astronaut who was doing a book signing. He is the one in the blue shirt.

I was impressed with the memorials more this trip then ever before. This sounds a little dorky, I even chocked up in the Lincoln. We went to all the memorials at night. They are beautiful all lit up and it was much cooler. My favorite quote of the trip is from Franklin D. Roosevelt inscribed in his memorial: "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.Let us move forward with strong and active faith."

All in all, a great trip. My mom mentioned that maybe they should make a summer tradition of this. I'm all for it!

 First trip to the NC Zoo

 Lindsey and Dan came to visit! We went mining for gem stones. Girls had tons of fun. Boys not as much although there was a lot of dirt to play with!

Happy Fourth

Luke, Noah, Grace (she really is having fun, honest), Sophie and I parading

I love Fourth of July! To be honest, I really love holidays in general, but the Fourth is fun, fun, fun. We went to a parade and festival in downtown Greensboro. The parade was fun, much smaller then I am used to.

There were some striking differences to a Utah parade. Interestingly there was not a single horse and only 1 beauty queen. There were several entries of Revolutionary War Soldiers and colonial reaenactors that gave the celebration great historical flavor. The campaigning politicians were there but also people protesting/politicking for local social issues. No better way to celebrate the freedom of our country then by letting your voice be heard.

This was my favorite part of the parade.





If you are wondering what this is, so was I! At first we thought maybe these cars were advertising for a demolition derby. But the kind people next to us told us they are dirt track race cars. The people in them were hilarious, no waves, smiles or Happy Fourth of July. Just driving down the parade route. The red shirt one guy has one says, "Purpose?" hand painted. I laughed so hard I could take pictures of most of them.

By the way, one of Jason's colleagues told him that her pastor had preached the previous Sunday about how great Utah's Fourth of July celebrations were, that they were the most patriotic she had ever been too, etc.

Happy Fourth of July!