Pat's Run!!!

Yesterday I participated in the 6th annual Pat Tillman foundation 4.2 mile run at the ASU Sun Devils Stadium!

The Pat Tillman Foundation provides resources and educational support to veterans, active service members and their dependants.
The Tillman Military Scholars program aids all veterans and specifically the ever-growing population of veterans and dependents of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Here's a little more history about Pat Tillman:

The day after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Pat told a reporter in an interview, “At times like this you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in, and the freedoms we are allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”

In 2002 he told the AZ Cardinals that he had decided to place his NFL career on hold to become a U.S. Army Ranger with his brother, Kevin giving up a 3.6 million dollar contract.

Pat and Kevin joined the U.S. Army in July of 2002, committing to a three-year term.

On the evening of April 22, 2004, Pat’s unit was ambushed as it traveled through the rugged, canyon terrain of eastern Afghanistan.

His heroic efforts to provide cover for fellow soldiers as they escaped from the canyon led to his tragic death via fratricide.

Here me and the boys are before the run! I ran the 4.2 mile run while the boys did the 0.42 kids run!

While his AZ Cardinals jersey number is 20, when he played for the ASU sun Devils his number was 42. This is why the run was 4.2 and the kid run was 0.42 both ending on the 42 yard line in the ASU stadium in his honor.

The had a record breaking 28,000 runners come and run yesterday! It was so much fun as we ran in down town Tempe!

Both mascot's from the Sun Devils and the Cardinals lead the race!

While seeing 28,000 people come and honor Pat Tillman what was really special was seeing the military men come and honor him!

Here is a picture of some soldiers getting ready to run wearing full gear including their packs. At one point I ended up passing them during the run and as I did I could hear and see people all around patting them on the back or saying thank you for serving our country.

The back side of our racing shirts!

Me and Adria! This was her first run and she did awesome! She now wants to run the half marathon with me in January! Our friend Kristi was there too, but because of the number of people I didn't see her until after the race! Oh well some many people and so much fun I even improved my running time!!!

When Andrew found out I was doing another race he asked if he could run too, so I signed him up for the Kids run and than of course Hunter and Parker both wanted to run as well. I am so proud of my boys for wanting to get out there and run it was a great experience for them!

They said that there were 3,000 kids signed up for the kids run which started them at the starting line like I did and took them to the same finish line in the stadium.

It was a great day, lots of fun and such a great way to honor a fallen hero.

Jambo-Rama!!!

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF SCOUTING. What better way to celebrate than with a party...a Scouting party that is. Today we went to Jamb-O-Rama which had Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Varsity Scouts, and Venturers who came from all over the State of Arizona to celebrate Scouting’s Traditions, Legacy, and Future at the 2010 Grand Canyon Council Jamb-O-Rama held at Tumbleweed Park!

So almost every Troop had set up different booths where the boys got to go and try, make and do new things, like shooting cork guns, making sword and walking sticks for hiking. There was on booth where they were even making slim.
Kevin and I both were recently called to Cub Scouts, Kevin as the Cub Master and I was called as the Cub Committee Chairman. Going to these different booths gave us some really great ides for future Pack meetings!

Here Andrew and Hunter were racing boats in rain gutters, it was such a cute idea the boys had to use straws to blow their boats to the finish line!

No surprise Parker didn't want to do anything but you can see him helping Hunter blow his boat!

Andrew and Hunter walking a crossed a rope bridge made out of logs and rope!

So the Chandler Fire Dept. was there and were letting the kids climb inside the fire truck!
To bad Parker wouldn't go inside!

I'm glad we got to go and participate in the 100 year Celebration of Scouting!

Scouting was incorporated to provide a program to help build effective character, citizenship, self-reliance, courage, and resourcefulness. I love that they encourage personal values based on religious concepts helping the scouts have the desire and skills to help others. And of course they help kids understand the principles of the American social, economic, and governmental systems and become knowledgeable about and take pride in their American heritage and further more understand our nation`s role in the world and giving them the great respect for the basic rights of all people and help prepare them to participate in and give leadership to American society.

As a mother of 3 boys and a Scout leader I look forward to helping my children as well as those children I work with achieve and gain the most they possibly can from the scouting program!

Random Happenings!

He really wants glasses like his brother so he wear those 3D plastic ones you get at the movies!

My good friend Janette had a pirate party for her son and these are me little mateys!

What age should you start taking your kids to the Dentist?

Hunter dressed up as a Clone Trooper with his Clone bear from the Build a Bear Workshop!

Andrew dressed up as Darth Vader with his Vader bear from the Build a Bear Workshop!

Okay had to mention this again Andrew loves talking how he met David Henri who plays
Justin Russo on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place.

This past week during spring break Andrew got to have his first sleepover! His friend Levi spent everyday at our house and spent the night twice. Thee first time they slept in the playroom and played video games all night, then later that week when he slept over again they slept in the family room and watched Star Wars. Levi has only one sister so his mom said he loves it at our house with all these boys, and we love having him he is such a sweet kid!

Before Hunter went on spring break his kindergarten class had a project where they made Leprechaun traps! When he got back to school today they had caught a Kid leprechaun but the Daddy leprechaun had come and helped him escape. But they did leave chocolate gold candy!

Hunter and the Worlds LARGEST Strawberry!
And oh how that boy loves strawberries!

The Ostrich Festival

Yesterday we took the boys to the Ostrich Festival that Chandler puts on every year. They have a big carnival with rides, shows and live Ostrich races! It was pretty funny to watch the Ostrich races and the boys wanted to ride them but we had to tell them that it's only for trained professionals! We had a great long day but loaded with fun!!!

This is the first ride the kids did, we were there so long and did so many things plus it was so crowded it was hard to get pictures so I am only posting some of the pictures I took. Andrew and Hunter are the two cute kids in the yellow!

My sweetie watching the boys fly by!

If you can see him there's Parker next to the little girl!

Have I told you how much I love carousels!!!

Everything has it's opposites right? Well...
I HATE Ferris wheels!

I am terrified of heights and the last time I rode a Ferris Wheel I was a freshman in high school. I rode with my Dad and was scared the entire time. So yesterday the 3rd ride we went on scared Parker and he refused to go on anymore. Well later that night he asked to go on the Ferris Wheel which meant that I would have to go because the rules were that parents had to ride with their children. So Kevin rode with Parker and i rode with Andrew and Hunter. Let's just say we didn't make it far before I completely panicked and asked to get off. But my sweet boys understood and it was a good thing cause Parker panicked and they got off right behind us!

Below the boys are on another ride and Andrew is helping Parker across because the poor kid is so scared! I wonder where he gets his fear of heights from!

So we took the boys on this fun tug boat and of course Parker cried the whole time!

Hunter could not get enough of this ride! It was a maze with slides and stuff in it! He kept going through over and over again! We did get Parker to try this one but he went in and came right back out! Silly boy!

So now is what you have all been waiting for the STAR Andrew met from his favorite TV show is...

David Henri who plays Justin Russo on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place! Andrew was so excited and we waited in line for 2 hours yesterday just so Andrew could meet him. The things we do for our children right!!!

The Pinewood Derby!

Andrew had his first Pinewood Derby a few Saturdays ago! He and Kevin were so excited to work on his derby car. Andrew painted it red and then we took him to the Lego store so he could build his own driver for the car!

Here are all the cars from our troop! I think all the boys did such a good job working on their cars they are so creative!

These kids are so great and half of them boys are in my primary class!

The Wolf den getting ready to race!

Andrew did really well with the races! He won some and lost some but no matter what he had a great attitude and I'm so proud of him!

Field Trip!

So today was Hunter's very 1st field trip and I was so excited to be able to go along with his class. We went to the Arizona Museum for Youth! There were 4 parents who went and we each were given a group of kids to watch. I had 4 boys in my group and they decided our group name would be the Star Wars group!

They look like Jedi Knights in training right?

At the museum they had several hands on projects for the kids to do. This one here was making a point of interest with a map of the world. Our group decided on Australia as the point of interest! By the way Hunter said Jedi's don't smile, I guess the other members of my group didn't get the memo!

So for this project they made paper patterns!

Here is the Star Wars group's finished patterns!
And Hunter's smiling!

Here they learned more about patterns and got to play with kaleidoscopes!
just so you know the little boy next to Hunter is his friend Samuel and now I know why Hunter wants me to comb his hair into a mo-hawk everyday!
Sorry Hunter you are not getting a real one!

Crazy eyes!

Here is our picnic lunch at Freestone park!

Here we are finishing our lunch by the bathrooms after it started raining!

And here we are running to the buses as a huge storm hit and we have to finish our lunch back at the school!
Good thing I wore my boots and skinny jeans today, I hate it when the bottom of my pants get wet!

Despite the rain it was a fun trip and I'm so glad I was able to go with Hunter and have so much fun!