The kids are getting older, we aren't

Eli learned how to pedal his trike tonight. After pedaling for a while, he decided that he wanted to ride Alison's old bike for a little bit, which he was able to pedal also.

Last night when I was putting Alison to bed, she said "Daddy, I think tomorrow night I want to put myself to bed." I was taken aback by that, so I just said that we'd see tomorrow if she still felt that way. She mentioned it again on the way to school this morning. After she got her pajamas on tonight, she came out to say goodnight and I told Jennifer what she wanted to do. She still wanted to try it, so I moved her lamp from the armoire onto a bookshelf so she could reach it. I stood outside her door just out of sight, heard her pray, and then add "Thank you Jesus for letting me have a great day, and thank you for letting me have a great day at kindergarten." She clicked the light off and climbed into bed. We haven't heard a peep from her in about a half hour. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this or not!

I ran my first half marathon on Saturday morning. It was ridiculously humid so it was a challenge to stay hydrated. I made it to mile 11 and then my legs cramped up badly which forced me to stop, stretch, and walk for much more than I had hoped. I was over 20 minutes over my target time, but still managed to finish the race.

Sunday I took the kids to the Honkin Haulin Hands On Trucks activity in West Fargo. The kids got free t-shirts, coloring books, play hard hats, and got to climb into a great assortment of trucks - fire, construction, army - just about everything. They had a lot of fun, but the heat was wearing us all down. We took a ride on the MSUM Train, then went to Dairy Queen for an arctic freeze. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Carrie took an 11-mile bike ride to Saint Benedict and back as a training ride for the Headwaters ride.