Tempe Splash Pad

Last week sometime we took the boys to Tempe Beach Park

They loved it, like always.

Here's Griffin and Trey striking a pose for me:

There were signs everywhere reading "No Running".

Oops.

LOVE this picture of Treyson:

Trey would say,

"Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom. LOOK! I swimming!",

and move his arms front to back.

And, yes, that would be Kai,

standing over one of the fountains,

allowing the water to pelt his crotch.

Typical.

Then the hunger and fatigue set in:

Time to go.

Come cooler weather though, I'm excited to try some new (to me) City of Mesa Parks.

The I Heart Mesa blog shared some of their top picks here.

Maybe I'll see you out there!

Tape for Finger, Glue for Toe

I don't know why I feel the need to post about things like this but it's journaling, I guess.

This past February, I ran with a group of friends in the Ragnar Del Sol Relay and completely drained my body that weekend. I've heard that losing toenails is commonplace among runners but thought,

"That's ridiculous......and disgusting."

Since a few weeks after the race, I realized my toenail was different and I've been able to keep the breaking at bay until now.

(Sorry to the weak in stomach)

The break is nearly halfway down my toe and it's only on that one corner!!!

What am I supposed to do? Cut off that corner and have an "L" shaped toenail?

NO was my answer. I couldn't find any super glue in the house, plus... that stuff burns my nose. So I pulled out my hot glue gun instead. I don't have an after picture but just imagine a flat glob of glue all along the top right corner of my nail and you'll pretty much have the image down pat.

You can't tell from a few feet away though so it works for me.

My second "my body is falling apart" moment happened about a month ago.

I broke my finger moving a couch and figured it was just jammed really, REALLY, bad because I could still move it just fine.

It had bruised almost instantly and swelled up pretty bad the next few days. Swollen and purple, then I burned while pulling out a pan from the oven so it had itchy peeling skin also. Nice.

Still tender to type and play piano after a few weeks, I asked a lady at work to take a few x-rays. Took those images into a specialist and.... yep.... broken.

The picture below is only slightly exaggerated, but I had started to notice that my finger wouldn't straighten out all the way:

and unless I wanted my finger to heal that way, I needed a splint.

Thank heavens it wasn't one of those awkward looking, full finger metal contraptions I sometimes see.

Just a tiny piece I tape on to keep the tip in line.

24/7

For 6 weeks.

Two weeks down, four to go.

Trey turns 2 and Griffin turns 6

I missed documenting about Treyson's and Griffin's birthdays this year.

Oops.

Trey turned 2. And unfortunately we played his birthday REALLY low key and just gave him gifts that morning when he woke up. The only pictures we have are ones of Trey opening his gifts like this one:

Nothing too fancy that day. So I'll add in a few more from random days this summer....

We were lucky enough to go up to Aspen Grove again this summer and over the years this blue half-tube slide has gotten slower and slower. Good thing Trey had the best mom there, who figured out how to actually SLIDE down the slide and not have to scoot the whole way. I just turned his jacket inside out so the soft fleece lining was touching the surface and tucked his shoes inside his hood so the rubber sandals wouldn't slow him down. He LOVED that slide!!

(And, no, he didn't hit this kid at the bottom. Although it might have taught him a lesson. Good thing Trey has the fastest-running-downhill-in-the-brush-mom as well.)

*********************************

Griffin had been into IRONMAN as his birthday rolled around, so naturally, I figured that's what the cake character would be.

(Griffin as self-made Ironman)

But, to my surprise, he asked for the exact cake he had last year:

BOLT

This was last year:

The BOLT character over the one year of play had developed a scratched, paint-coming-off-nose disease that Griffin wanted no part of. So his conclusion was that the only way he could get another BOLT figurine was to ask for the exact same cake. I was looking forward to what I could come up with for an Ironman cake, but this was easier and this was what he wanted.

Griffin kind of tried to play it cool while opening presents and didn't show as much glee as I was expecting for all the gifts he'd asked for.

After telling him his smiles was how people knew how much he liked his gifts, we got my expected cheesy Griffin smiles.

Happy Birthday Treyson and Griffin!!!