The Hardmans

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Off to the Races

Last Saturday I participated in the Art City (Springville) 5k with Seth,

Anika and my sister, Emily. I woke the kids up around 6:30am and

neither of them fell back asleep in the car or during the race.

When I woke Anika up she said, "But, Mom. I'm tired." :(

During the race she would say, "We're going so fast," and ask if were

chasing the cars. The race was sponsored by Nestle, so there were some

fun after-race treats and snacks.

Anika kept herself busy for awhile alternating between a melting chocolate-covered ice cream popsicle and an apple. We didn't stay for the whole raffle after so

I don't know if we would have won anything :(

Meanwhile...

Nathaniel did his first century bike ride. He had fun drafting with random groups of people. We had the camera so he didn't take any pictures. (Nathaniel's part:

It was a really fun ride (this was the Pony Express century in Eagle Mountain).

The first 35 miles or so were kind of rolling hills with a headwind, and I was

glad to be in a long line of riders. Even though they were strangers, and even

though we didn't really talk, we all shared a laid-back sort of camaraderie.

I liked it when I finished taking my turn in the lead and fell back, everyone said

"Nice pull," or "Thanks for the pull" or something like that.

Then there was a 9-mile, 6% climb up to Eureka during which I died. Well, I didn't die, but I went down to lowest gear, and I was just crawling along. I remember sweat poring down my face, inching up the hill, getting passed by other bikers, feeling miserable, and then I looked back down the mountain and I saw other bikers climbing up toward me, and I thought, "These too shall pass." Then I kind of got the giggles for a while, which happens to me sometimes when I'm exhausted.

At the top, which was about half way, we had lunch, and then it was downhill. I was with a group for a while, but it was a much smaller group, and we kept splitting up, and I ended up just riding with one other guy from that group. Then we caught another guy, and the three of us rode together for a while. Once we turned north, toward Tooele, there was a good tailwind, and I was going pretty fast. I can't say how fast exactly, because my dumb computer decided to turn metric (it's not supposed to do that unless you do a factory reset, which I didn't). I do remember seeing 61 km per hour at one point (and that was on a flat stretch).

I was completely on my own for a while, but I didn't mind with the tailwind. Around mile 65/70, I started feeling kind of sick, probably from the heat. When I pulled into the final rest stop at mile 82, I was about ready to throw up. So I laid my bike down (in the sun, because the shade was very limited) and sipped water slowly under the tiny pavilion. After 5 or 10 minutes of that, there was a bang like a gunshot, and it turned out that my tire had kind of exploded. I'm guessing the heat built up the pressure in the tube too much, and it just burst (both the tire and the tube split). I had a spare tube, but no one takes a spare tire along, so that ended my race. 82 miles. It was really fun, and I'm glad I did it. Another time I'll finish one.

Here is Anika with her new friend.

This little girl is so sweet and nice and shares well.

Anika even let her older sister paint her fingernails and toenails. Something I have offered to do several times, but she has never let me. Ha.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Cute Kids

Chillin' at Grandma & Grandpa Aune's

I put Seth in a basket so he could sit up and see, and of course Anika wanted one too.

She had been playing outside, but here she is plopped in front of a movie...

Seth will hardly stay on his back now. He rolls over as soon as we set him down sometimes. When he is on his stomach he spends a lot of time with his arms and legs off the ground. Maybe he's working on his 6-pack for the pool this summer or strengthening his lower back so he can be a stellar sitter.

He is getting good at pushing up too.

Anika and her favorite thing: playing with baskets and containers.

Norwegian Constitution Day & Fun Temple Story

Norwegian Constitution Day is celebrated on May 17th (Syttende Mai).

You can attend a Syttende Mai celebration in SLC at the International Peace Gardens. The celebration wasn't until Saturday, May 19th, but Nathaniel and I happened to do sealings in the Timpanogos Temple on May 17th. All of the couple sealings we performed were for Norwegians! When the sealer was about to start, he mentioned that they were from Norway and I couldn't help but smile. Then I realized it was Norwegian Constitution Day and excitedly whispered that to Than. Then I told the group, and later another temple worker asked how I knew that. I told him that,

"I'm a proud half-Norwegian." We had planned to get to the Temple earlier, but things didn't work out. Once we got to the sealing office we were initially assigned to another group. They almost switched another couple, but then they switched us at the last minute. It had been a hard day and I didn't feel much like going, and I was worried about Seth because he was kind of sick and hadn't nursed that well before. But we ended up in that group and both Seth and Anika were just great

while we were gone. And I felt better after going; as usual.

The whole experience was a bunch of little tender mercies for me.

Here is Anika sailing her viking ship across the ocean.

The stage, some flags and some little signs that represent the cities.

The dancers.

My dad came with me, Anika and Seth. Nathaniel had class and rode his bike to my parents' house later.

SLC Letter Carrier Band

The beginning of the parade.

We're in the parade!

Norwegian hot dogs (polse) wrapped in lefse (a flatbread like a tortilla made from potatoes).

Monday, May 14, 2012

Family

Nathaniel was sitting on the floor holding Seth up in front of him in a sitting position. They were both facing the same way. Anika went over and climbed in between them and made herself at home. Then she made an excited sort of gasp and exclaimed, "We're all in a... in a pile of family!"

So cute and funny. I ran to get the camera and thankfully got some pictures :)

And here is Anika in her new swimsuit cover-up from Kid-to-Kid. She LOVES it.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Sethy, Sethy Superman

Seth is crying in this picture, but one of my favorite things is to watch

Seth (and Anika) as he watches Anika do silly dances and such for him.

He gets the biggest, cutest smile on his face.

Nathaniel likes to lay on his back and hold Seth above him and move/fly

Seth all around while singing, "Sethy, Sethy Superman. Can he fly? Oh yes he can. Sethy, Sethy Superman. Flies away across the land." It is really cute to hear

Anika singing it occasionally while she is playing.

Seth at 3 Months

He is just over 18lbs and 26.6" long (both 75-90%).
He has doubled his weight since birth.

His head is 16.6" around (25-50%).

Seth at 4 Months watching me clean the tub. This was his 4th outfit for the day.
Maybe he was trying to commemorate his being 4 months old.

We love Seth's adorable laugh. Yesterday he mastered rolling over from back to front. Seth always wants to sit up and be a part of the goings on.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Would you call these milestones?

Anika FINALLY let me put pigtails in her hair. I've only ever gotten close

to getting one pigtail in with a lot of resistance. They are a bit lopsided,

but I figured that was as good as it would get for the first time.

Too often now she uses stools and chairs to get things.

"Making lunch" for her animals.

Our Fireman Easter Egg Hunter

Bubble hair and beard.

First-ever pigtails pictured again.

Choosing her own clothes. Actually she has done this for a long time.

Here she is sporting a pale pink skirt with a long sleeve bright green fleece hooded shirt with large bright blue dots. Not long before this picture was taken she was wearing her pajama pants inside out and backwards at about 5:30pm (no shirt).