Anda's Sixth Birthday

For Anda's Sixth birthday, she wanted to go camping and go to Amazement Square, so we spent a long weekend in Virginia to do both. A good time was had by all.

We started the day with her traditional birthday pancakes with sprinkles (blue this time).

Then we did Amazement Square on the actual birthday. Nana and I took the girls while the boys stayed home with a napping Benjamin. I love Amazement Square, but it's pretty dark, so the pictures never do it justice, but we had fun. 

When we got home, we ate pizza from Anda's favorite upscale pizzeria (Little Caesar's), opened presents, and ate her fish bowl birthday cake.

 

Ben particularly enjoyed the cake. 

The next day, we headed up to my parents' cabin for Part II of the birthday celebrations. A picnic, s'mores, and camping! 

The girls were really excited to sleep in the new tent, but by 9:00, Lilah was just excited to sleep anywhere, so Dan, Anda, and Papa were the only ones who ended up camping. The rest of us roughed it in the comfy cabin. 

Dan says Anda fell asleep immediately when they got back to the tent, but she told me she saw stars and had a great time, so I think it was a success. 

Then to top it all off, she finally got the lizard she has been begging for for months when we got home. She named him Graspy.

Happy birthday, Anda chicken! You are growing up so fast. 

Carter Family Runners

While my parents were in town, we took advantage of their child-watching capabilities and signed the whole family up for races at the Palmetto Half Marathon. (Except Benjamin -- gotta show your commitment to the sport by learning to walk first, buddy.)

The girls did the kids' fun run, and Anda looked great out there, as always.

And Lilah successfully ran her whole first race, refusing to take a break or to wear appropriate clothing. As always.

You go, girls!

I didn't take any pictures of myself, but I did the 5k and came in 3rd in my age division, with probably my best ever official 5k time (27:38), after being injured for two months and not running at all. I was pretty proud!

But the MVP was Dan who came in second over all in the half marathon, achieving his out of control goal of 1:22:00. 

Go team!

Lilah's Third Birthday

Lilah is 3 and I can't believe it.

For her birthday breakfast, she wanted dry Life Cereal...as usual. Ho hum. She doesn't like pancakes or anything, so I tried to jazz it up a little with a candle at least.

Nana and Papa were in town (have I mentioned how much we love living within driving distance of them?) and Anda's class was scheduled to go on a field trip to the zoo, so we tempted fate and tagged along for some birthday fun.

Ben had a blast. 

After naps later, we did presents, cake, and ice cream, like you do.

She wanted a blue kitty cat cake (and a bat and a princess and a penguin...), but did NOT like the cake she ended up with because the cat was too fat. Didn't stop her from eating it, I noticed. 

She successfully became another year older anyway, so I think she still had a pretty good birthday.

Happy birthday to our funny, fashionable, feisty girl!

Winner Winner

So Dan has been running like a crazy person lately, which got him invited to run the Palmetto 200. It's a 12 person relay race, like Ragnar, that stretches just over 200 miles from Columbia to Charleston.

I was not invited, for obvious reasons, so I only have one picture, but it's the only one that matters because out of about 100 teams, Van on the Run WON THE WHOLE THING!

And according to all reports, Dan was the fastest one on the fastest team, which by my calculations, makes him the fastest man alive. Way to go, Dan!

Christmas 2014

Okay, Christmas. Here we go.

The Christmas season was another blur, so here are some highlights.

We saw Santa at our ward Christmas party.

Then again at the zoo.

And once more at Lowe's.

I figure what we lack in quality Santa pictures this year, we will make up with quantity.

We had both sets of grandparents as well as my sister, Amy, stay with us for the actual holiday. It was crowded and fun, as God intended. 

Dan and the girls put on a Christmas Eve program for us all. 

Some participants were more helpful than others. 

The next day, Benjamin enjoyed his first Christmas morning (although he had a nasty double ear infection that we took him in for the day before). 

Anda got the disco ball she consistently asked for (and then some).

Lilah had her moments of Christmas cheer.

But spent most of the day like this. 

And ended it like this. 

Our family's Christmas gift to everyone was the flu, and I don't think anyone got it worse than poor Lilah. Her lethargy and high fever had me worried enough that we ended up taking her to the ER (no one else is open on Christmas--selfish), where she got a chest scan and some Tylenol. She had a spot of pre-pneumonia on her lung, so they gave us an antibiotic and sent us home. 

So with two kids on amoxicillin and one having just finished up her doses the week before, we were finally well enough to get the family band together. 

But the highlight of Christmas (and every warm enough day thereafter) was Santa's surprise gift: they finally got their trampoline!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Sorry we gave you the flu!