May 2010

May started out with a BANG! Noah was running to use the restroom, slipped on a wet floor, and smashed the side of his eye into the bath tub. It was a Wednesday night and Noe was at work. Lucky ME! I was pretty sure that a butterfly bandage was not going to do the trick, what do you think?



It didn't take the doctor more than 1 second to say that there was a definite need for stitches. Let's just say he wasn't happy about it until it was over and he got to enjoy his ice cream!



Noah was the first of my kids to get stitches. I guess I have been lucky for 9 years!



The highlight of the month was my trip to Salt Lake City. I love hanging out with my friends! We all indulged in tasty treats, great conversations, and fun times.





Salt Lake City is a beautiful city and I would love to live there. I love that I can be enjoying the beautiful weather, and within a few minutes I can be freezing my butt off!



The absolute BEST part of the trip was being able to watch a family reunite. After 18 LONG years, Rachell was reunited with her daughter that she had given up for adoption. We were so lucky to be able to share this wonderful experience with their family! It was a night I will never forget. Talk about love filling a room, both from the adopted and birth families!



At the end of the month, my aunt and uncle took the family on the Boulder City train! The kids loved it!

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Does anyone still visit here? Have you given up all hope that I would finally get my act together and post? Get ready for a year's worth of posts in the next two weeks!

April 2010

I have to say, this was my favorite trip yet!

In April, I flew to Salt Lake City to spend the weekend with some of my best friends. Oh, I also had to run 13.1 miles to get to see them! It was time for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. Originally I had wanted to make this my first full marathon, but my knees were dictating otherwise after my back-to-back Vegas and Phoenix races. I eventually gave in and followed my Physical Therapist's advice. I am so happy I did, that was my favorite race yet!

The morning after I arrived, I met up with a camera crew at Rubio's to be on their local news. I had nominated my friend Rachel for their Deliver a Dream contest. Rachel and her daughter Lucy were one of the three finalists.

That night was our traditional trip to Spoon Me with my wonderful friends. We came from Las Vegas, Michigan, and Minnesota, to hang with our SLC friends and have some delicious fro-yo!

Jana, Me, Ronai, Lauri, Suzanne, Tonya, and Rachel


The Salt Lake City Marathon (we did the half) was just absolutely amazing! I can't even begin to describe how wonderful this event/day turned out to be. Rachel and her family had a lot of publicity ahead of time, because they were all running together. It was their daughter Leah's first time running a half marathon and then they received special permission to push Lucy in the jogging stroller.

Most of our group separated into smaller groups or individuals during the run, but we heard the crowd cheering on "Team Coleman: Strong Enough!" I think that is why this event was so amazing. We all had bibs on the back of our shirts, to support the Coleman family. It was also the first race where I felt great during and after. I remember walking back to the car and jumping up on planter and back down, and they were pretty big ones. I was joking and saying, "I can jump up, I can jump down." That was a far cry from what we looked like after the Vegas Half Marathon!

It was definitely my best race! Not only did I make a new PR (personal record) but I smashed my goal time of under 2 hours. I finished in 1:55. The course was wonderful, well, until we turned on to State Street and looked UP ahead! I could have done without that hill at the end of the race.

Rachel and I after the race!



...and we were definitely strong enough!



Even Hopkins came to celebrate with us!


I enjoyed this race (and the entire weekend) so much that I went home and signed up to run the full marathon in Salt Lake City next year! BRING IT!

March 2010

In March, I finally broke out the boys' new bikes to give them a go. They were VERY apprehensive. They loved the safety and familiarity of their trikes. After a little bit of time, they seemed to get the hang of it. Robert was really concentrating hard!



Noah was a bit more frightened of the bike at first, but it didn't take him long to get going. They found out that it was much easier to pedal going down the hill than going up the hill.



We got rid of two of the trikes, but kept one for Matthew. He doesn't quite reach the pedals on his new bike, and he definitely wasn't ready to be moving on his own. He did like to pose, though! We won't give up, eventually he will get a bit taller and be able to pedal the bike on his own.



For the boys' birthday, we rented another bouncy house and invited their friends over. It had been a long time since they had seen any them!



My aunt and uncle were over and helping out as usual. I truly don't know what I would do without them. They helped us set up everything and kept the kids entertained as we prepared for the party.





If there is one thing I have learned about having triplets, it's that there is no such thing as just have a few kids over. Most of their friends come in sets of 3. There were just a handful of families over, yet it looks like we had a ton!



Sixteen of the kids came from the five of us!



The boys were given their choice of cakes. I asked them if they each wanted their own, but they all wanted to share one of the big Costco cakes. Works for me!



I think the boys loved their birthday and their birthday party. There wasn't a sad face around!



The month ended with Leigha getting her new haircut! She wanted it cut shorter again and she wanted bangs. Cute!

February 2010

Leigha turned 9 years old on February 16, and I still find that hard to believe. My parents came to visit the day after her birthday, so we did some delayed celebrating. I told her it's better that way, I think she ended up getting to celebrate her birthday on 3 different days. How can you beat that?



For anyone that knows my dad, I found this picture hysterical. It's not every day that you see my dad jump on a teeter totter!



Leigha had a pseudo slumber party this year. We had all of the girls come dressed in their pajamas and they had pillows. We had another bouncy house for the weekend and the girls ended up having a pillow fight in there. They painted their nails, had pizza, cake, cookies, and played games.





We always have two desserts for her birthday parties. Leigha doesn't care for cake, so she gets a cookie pie and a cake for her friends.



I think all of the girls had a great time!



Before my parents left, we took a trip to see the Hoover Dam. We have driven over it many times, but we had never stopped to walk across it with the kids.



We checked out the progress that was made on the bypass bridge. I do not envy the people who work on bridges like that!



I hate that their visit was over so fast, but happy that we had those few days together!

January 2010

The New Year started off on the right note. We rang in the New Year together at home. Matthew didn't mind napping with Smokey the next day!



In January the weather in Vegas can be hit and miss. Thankfully, we had some beautiful weather and we decided to take advantage of it by taking the kids to the park to play some ball and exercise. We already knew that Leigha was not a big fan of soccer, so she took off for the slide while the boys kicked the ball around with us.



Watching the boys try to mimic their dad's workout was hysterical!



I will not implicate anyone in particular, but this bus just happened to show up at my house and my kids just happened to take turns at the driver's wheel. It made their day!

Noah



Matthew



Robert



The following weekend was my Phoenix Rock N Roll Half Marathon. I did not intend to run this race because a group of my friends and I were going to do the Surf City Half Marathon 3 weeks later. However, I won a free entry when I was at the Disneyland Half Marathon. For those of you who know me, know that I can't pass up a free deal!



I bought my tickets for $69 round-trip and my friend Holly set me up in a beautiful hotel by the college. It was perfect! Well, except for the actual race. I totally chose the wrong clothing to wear. Instead of wearing a tank top with my throw-away jacket, I wore a long sleeve shirt under my throw-away. I was overheated by the mile 1 marker. Not good. I drank so much water the day before, but I still felt dehydrated as ever. Normally I look for the mile markers, but this time I was just desperate for a water station. I also made the mistake of giving up on the bathroom line after a half hour. My coral was about to go and I decided to hold off. HUGE MISTAKE! I couldn't find a port-a-potty at all for the first few miles. I finally saw a restroom in a park, across the field, and decided to just go for it. Next time I realized it would have been better for me to miss my coral start since the timing chip didn't go into effect until after I crossed the line. Live and learn. I was definitely in a negative mindset for this race and finished a minute slower than my first race. On the positive side, I got to catch up with my friend, meet her kids, and earn TWO medals. That's right--I got one medal for completing the race and an extra medal for doing the Desert Double Down (two Rock n Roll desert races in 6 weeks). It's all about the bling!

It was very bizarre to be all alone at a hotel for two days. I didn't really have anywhere to be, other than the expo and the race. Holly picked me up on Saturday evening and we went out to dinner. We had fun catching up on each other's lives, and filling in the gaps from when Holly and Melissa up and SPLIT right before our show opened in London! CRAZY GIRLS! On Sunday, after the race, I got to meet her two little ones. They were absolutely adorable, and had Holly wrapped around their little fingers. Holly is no match for them! PERFECT! Even though it was kind of relaxing just to hang out at my hotel room, watching infomercials (dangerous), it was nice to go home the next morning and see what Leigha made for me. I missed them and I think they missed me!



Towards the end of the month I got to surprise the kids with something special. I took them to see Disney on Ice. It's always kind of hard for me to watch, as I really do miss skating, but it is getting easier and easier with each passing year. I miss some parts of touring, but there are many things I don't miss.



The kids loved it, especially the boys when they saw all of their favorite cars.



We all had a great time!

December 2009

I am the queen of procrastination (not that anyone didn't know that already)! I waited until December 24 to take the kids to see Santa. The kids waited patiently in line to see him. I think they knew that they better behave so that Santa would be visiting them that night!



I think the kids have been very good this year, well, for the most part!



Christmas morning was very fun! I just never imagined that I would enjoy watching other people open gifts more than getting one. The looks on the kids' faces was enough to fill my heart. The bed-head was pretty dang cute, too!



I am sorry, Santa, but Mom and Dad brought the most rockin' gift for Leigha this year. She had been begging for a DSi, but I kept telling her no because she just got the DS for Christmas the year before. Considering she didn't really have anything big on her wishlist, I decided we would surprise her.



The boys loved all of their gifts, but I think these might have been the most dangerous toy they could have received. With their shadowy past, they not have weapons handed to them. It's all about killing each other now, I am so proud!?

Cliff Notes

One of my biggest downfalls is getting behind in my blog. Once I am behind I find myself truly overwhelmed. I could just post what's going on now and go back later and fill in gaps, but I have this issue that it must be in the correct order.

This summer my main "to do" list included: scanning old photos from my parents (check), cleaning out closets (check), organizing the boys' triplet clothes (just a bit of a stroke on that one), and catching back up on my blog. I have 1.5 weeks left to get this all accomplished. So here I go, the cliff note version of the past 9 months!

Vegas Rock n' Roll

December 6, 2009

I was so excited for the Vegas Rock n' Roll Half Marathon! I had friends flying and driving in from Oklahoma, California, and Utah. For some of them, it was their first half marathon. After we went to the expo on Saturday, we all went out for Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. Later that evening we met again for dinner at PF Changs. We made our plan for most of us to meet at my friends' hotel at 4:30 a.m. I knew parking would be a bear the morning of the race.

I think I made it to bed around 1:30 a.m. and my alarm was set for 3:30 a.m. I really don't recommend that little amount of sleep before a race. Unfortunately, I do this quite often. I made it to their hotel and we hung out as everyone got ready.

Rachel and I sporting our Athleta Twist Tops


We all had a little bit of a breakfast, stashed our belts with some "fuel", and we were ready to go!

Eric, Aaron, Joe, Leanna, Rachel, and Cathy


I have to admit, that was a pretty miserable morning. It was freezing outside, it was overcast, and it was NOT fun! Thanks to Joe and Leanna, my hands stayed warm for awhile because they brought hand warmers. I never would have thought about that. Jackie was at a different hotel on the strip, so we never caught up with them that morning. The rest of us huddled around our starting corrals.

Once our corrals started, I loved the first 6-7 miles of the race. I was running a great pace and felt great. Unfortunately, around mile 8-9 I began experiencing some sever stomach cramping. I started to think that my choice of food at Buffalo Wild Wings was not my best idea. I had to stop and walk from time to time until the feeling would pass. On the way back towards Mandalay Bay I started feeling better. I could see the hotel and I thought the end was near. Unfortunately, you can see that hotel from MILES away! It's a huge tease to be able to see the finish line, but be so far from it at the same time.



My goal for this race was to finish in under 2 hours, but I pretty much knew that was shot since I had to walk for a bit. I ended up finishing in 2:03. Even though it was not my goal, I made a personal record. I shaved off about 3 minutes from my first race at Disneyland. I was still proud of my run!

My friends and I picked a spot to meet at after the race. Wouldn't you know they had taken it down by the time we finished?! Eric, Aaron, Rachel, and I met and decided that we could not wait for Joe and Leanna (SORRY GUYS!). We were freezing, our bodies were aching, and there were two kids waiting for us back at the hotel. That's our excuse and I am sticking to it.

There has never been a funnier sight, than watching the four of us wobble back to the hotel. Every curb, even if it was just 4 inches tall, was like climbing a mountain. I am not too sure why I hurt so much, but Rachel and Aaron had a GREAT excuse---something along the lines of not training?!

Even though the weather wasn't ideal, and we were all in some pain, I loved having my friends there!