So Thankful!

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Maquels house this year.  Lots of food and family!  I guess the boys were having too much fun running with cousins, I didn't get a picture of them!  But I snapped plenty of this cute girl:

Getting into Grandma's purse...

Jayme and Lawni...

A few of the cute Girl Cousins...

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Stroke of Genius Closing Day

To celebrate the end of our first unit of study this year, we had an art show and music recital.  In honor of Martin Luther, the boys sang "A Mighty Fortress is Our God", written by Martin Luther.  They also did a duet to Mary had a Little Lamb on their recorders.  

Here is Tanner with his Fresco, inspired by Michelangelo and Leonardo, for the art show...

And Hunter with his Solar System painting, inspired by Galileo...

It was a nice way to celebrate everyone's hard work throughout these last few months!

Ragnar Run

A few months ago a friend of mine said she was doing a Ragnar Relay and her team needed an extra runner.  I didn't know what that all entailed, but I was free that weekend, and knew I needed some motivation to get running regularly again so I said sure!  Turns out that a Ragnar Relay includes 12 people, 2 vans, 200 miles, very little sleep, lots of running (including in the middle of the night), and a very fun couple of days!  The race was in Vegas and it was freezing.  It was actually snowing at the starting line.  Aside from while I was running or sleeping, I was cold the whole time.  Nonetheless, we had a fun time and I now have a new van load of friends!  

I was so nervous about leaving Charity (I weaned her for this race-so obviously the first time I have left her overnight.)  But, between Ladd and my mom, everything was well taken care of at home while I was gone.  And, I will tell you, it sure was nice not to have to cook or clean up after anyone for a couple of days.  I was desperately overdue for a break from my day job!

The three legs I ran equalled 14 miles and it was great.  I was not sore at all afterward and felt very good about the race!  My team actually beat my brother and sister in laws team.  I can guarantee this will be the only time I will beat them in a race though.  They are super fast and I am NOT!

Here are the 6 teammates in my van:  Aaron, Sarah, Kelly, me (blanket and all), Kristi, and Debbie

The other half of our team was Kristi's sister-in-law and her friends and we called them the "Utah van" because all of the girls were from UT.  It sure is a small world because one of my BFF's from high school/college's little sister was in the "UT van!"  So fun to see Jessica!  Here she is all bedazzled at the finish line.  (We were all supposed to be wearing Chevron socks, running shorts, and Boas but our van opted to cut out cute and wear pants and try to stay somewhat warm:)

Running really is addictive because as soon as I got home I started thinking of other races that I can do (maybe this time races that allow for a bit more sleep though!)

Galileo

Along with the Reformation, we've been learning about Galileo and the solar system.  This called for a field trip to the Griffith Observatory (one of my favorite places).   Guess who we met there?  Galileo himself!  He taught us about his life and what he knew of the solar system during his time.

Galileo attracted a lot of attention.  The Observatory president came out and asked him to sign the official guest book.  Many famous and prestigious people have signed it through the years, but they didn't have Galileo's autograph yet!

Inside, we saw a model of Galileo's telescope...

And learned even more about him at the Planetarium show.

It was a really fun trip-even Miss Charity was saying "lililo" all day in honor of Mr. Galileo!