Pinterest Has Taken Over My Life

Yup, It is True.  In fact, Kris has threatened an intervention, but he can't find any of my girlfriends who would support the intervention ('Cause they are busy doing craft projects With Me)!

It all started with a pin from Erika.  She wanted to make bleach pen shirts.  So, we planned a one time craft day.  Seriously, I'm going to just try it out once.

The Pinterest Party Crew

The finished shirts (Sarah had to leave early, but her shirt made the pic!)

Then, Erika came up with an awesome idea by taking a few different pinterest pins and combining them into a sweet Personalized Lazy Susan idea! ... I swear ... I can stop doing crafts anytime.

Alisa's, Amy's and Erika's finished projects
Amy's Wine bottles are "Ram's Point Winery" and "Cannode's Concoction"

This past weekend, we decided to celebrate summer by making the most beautiful flip flops based on a pinterest idea Sarah found.  We only finished one shoe; so ... we decided our next craft day will entail finishing the 2nd flip flop and getting a pedicure ~ I mean really - How can we have cute flip flops if our toes aren't as fancy as the flip flops?

We are also taking about a day etching glass, sewing some cute clutch purses and maybe some new pins that we find over the next couple of months.  OK, I can't quit, but... Look at all the Wonderful items and fun memories we have created together! Who would Want to quit?!?!  Too Much Fun!

Happy Mother's Day!

How does Amy like to spend Mother's Day?  Well; sleeping in is the first key (although you can see in the pics that we had munchkins in the bed before 7am).  She also really enjoys breakfast in bed and of course some yummy COFFEEEE!  As soon as the boys crept in our room at 6am; Kris grabbed them and asked them to help make waffles for mommy.  They were thrilled.  Amy never really fell back asleep, but it was nice to listen to the hard work downstairs as she stayed cuddled up in bed.  She then heard the boys walking up the stairs practicing their "happy mother's day" shouts.  Cutest thing Ever!

Next thing she knew; they silently (ok, Not-so-silently) crept up to her bed and shouted Loudly "Happy Mudder's Day!" to wake her up.  We enjoyed some waffles and coffee before opening presents.

Some of us were still sleepy
(or just being lazy - ha)

 Present time! The boys worked SO Hard on their presents at school.  Karsten made a flower with hand print petals, a painted wooden frame with him on the telephone and a cute coffee card.  Kasey made a flowerpot pic with the stems as his fingers, a beautiful card and a painted wood flower picture frame.  So spoiled!

"Look Mom, I Say Hello!"

We told the kids we had to start getting ready.  That meant putting on our swim trunks, finding our hats and shoes and getting in the car.  What? You Don't go out on the boat in a Pirate shirt, swim trunks, a backwards cowboy hat and your mommy's high heals?  Yup; getting ready for boat day was a little challenging, but sure was Fun!

As Karsten says currently:  "Knee-Ha!"

Our boat was having a sleep over at Chatfield; which allowed us to stop by for a big Happy Mother's day hug!  Kasey picked out some Lovely flowers for Grandma and the boys were more than excited to give them to her.

Then it was time to go out on the boat.  I'm not sure why, but... we ended up with only ONE Picture on the boat even though we were out there for 6 hours.  Oh well; guess we were having too much fun tooling around on the water to be bothered to take the camera out!

Mother's Day was especially important for us this year and it landed on the same day as Kasey's Birth mother's Birthday!  What better way to celebrate than with CAKE!  Kasey picked out the cake and told me she Loves Spider Man (hmm... Wonder if she really does~ha). 

Happy Birthday to the Amazing Woman who carried my Son and honored me with the title of Mom for his lifetime, a gift that allows me to celebrate Mother's Day with him.



Rugged Maniac 5K

If you were to have asked me a couple months ago whether I would be interested in a Muddy, 5K, Obstacle course; I am pretty certain I would have said "No, Thank You".  However, recently a good friend approached me with an idea.  She had a race she could no longer participate in due to scheduling conflicts and she wondered if I wanted to take her place.  Um... Zero Training and it is Two Weeks Away... Umm... O... K...?....

Before the race - showing off 3 of the obstacles and the Big Hills.
That's a nice white t-shirt.

So, I jumped in full force and was ready for my race.  I learned after I said yes that it was to be held at the Thunder Valley Motocross Park.  I have never watched motocross; however, I can now tell you ... those bikes Love HILLS!  This race was pure torture ~ AND ~ So Much Fun!

Amy making her way to the first obstacle

You can spot me in all the pics as I am apparently the only one who didn't get the memo about Not wearing White to a Mud Race.

"Made it to the top, one obstacle down... Many more to come..."

"Up and over the wall, when do the hard obstacles start?"

"Finally breaking a sweat on the downhill"

The race was 3.1 miles in length with over 20 obstacles and trust me when I say more hills than I could count.  The obstacles included log jumps, a tire pit, a cargo net, crawling in a mud pit under barb wire (3 Times!), Eight A-frame wall climbs, crawling through a 25 foot long winding tunnel (can you say Claustrophobia!?!?), a 100 foot water slide, rock climbing, a rope pull, a balance beam, jumping through fire (not kidding!), and don't forget numerous mud pits to weigh down your shoes a bit while you charge up those countless hills.  Wait - What part about this is fun again?!?!

"OK, this wall is a little tougher"

"Whee, a water slide"

"I think I got mud up my shorts - Yuck!"

"Whew - Got it! Still having Fun!"

"This is ridiculous, who puts this many mud pits in a race"
ps: Hated the barb wire crawls (did I mention there were 3 of them?)

"Finally through the mud, wanna hug?"

"The finish line" PS still smiling

Yes, it was incredibly tough - Yes, given advance notice I would train next time - Yes, I think this race Needs to be done with a friend - Yes, I had a great time and in fact signed up for one with My Sister in June!  Number one thing I learned?  Bring knee pads to the next one and remind yourself that it is ok to "run" 25 minute miles (completed in 1 Hr and 16 Min).  Don't tell Melissa, but the obstacles definitely take longer than a minute to complete.

"I AM a Rugged Maniac"

After the race.  Not so much a white t-shirt anymore, but still smiling!

Boating Season is Back!

Wow - We have Really been Patient this year to get our boat out.  Kris and I were robbed from the last month of boating season in 2012 due to something that broke on our boat and needed some fixin'.  All winter; we talked about the fact that we were ready to take our boat out on March 1st.  Well; I am just guessing... but... I believe it was snowing on March 1st.  In fact, this was the Snowiest spring I have ever seen!  I have mentioned before, but Kris plays spring softball with the boys.  Out of 6 games... 4 were snowed out!  In fact; it snowed on May 1st!  Yes.. MAY!

On April 27th though... we were blessed with a near 80 degree day!  Boat Day?  Um - Yes Please!  We quickly got the boat ready and out on the water.  And what a beautiful day.  The water was only 48 degrees; which is not even wetsuit worthy per Amy.  She has a hard, fast 50 degree + rule With a wetsuit.  

Yep, the Cannodes were ready for some summer sun!  This was Karsten's first year in a Big Kid life vest (>30 pounds) and he likes it (for the most part).  Sometimes it hurts his chin when he sits, but we keep reminding him that he will grow taller. The two pictures above are my absolute favorite from the day.  These kids sure love the boat and LOVE each other!

Karsten did not miss the opportunity to help daddy drive the boat.  He decided that Daddy couldn't hear him with all that wind and promptly found Daddy's Talky Cone to assist Dad in hearing his Directions - GO LEFT, DAD!... LOOK, ANOTHER LEFT TURN! (Ok, not really like the lakes of MN... we can ONLY turn Left - Go ahead and make your jokes now, Brady Woodard!)

Kasey enjoyed the feeling of the wind in his hair.  He decided he felt like a birdie.  Here he is Flying with Mommy.

What happens mid-day with all that sunshine?  Yep; our kids rock.  They make the decision that they are tired... walk to the back of the boat and crash!  Don't worry; I covered them with a towel after this pic to save their soft skin from the sun.

After a morning with just the four of us and a quick nap ... we picked up Gma and Gpa.  Wow; just a little hour and a half nap and the promise of Gma and Gpa.. and these kids were all smiles again!

Daddy forgot the boy's fishing rods in the garage, but that didn't stop them from fishing.  They took our pool noodles and started dipping them in the water to 'fish'.

Oh, Oh... someone is getting tired Again.

This is the LIFE!

Yep - Perfect Life

Did I mention that Kris got a new Toy for his birthday (from Amy, the kids and Gma & Gpa Mattson).  He has been drooling over a Remote Control Trolling Motor for about six years.  Lucky Boy! His dream came true!  He got a new trolling motor AND a colored fish finder.. How do you Spell 'Spoiled'?!?!? In the Cannode house; we spell it "K-R-I-S"!

Graffiti Run - 5K

Amy saw a post on facebook for an upcoming 5K Run and decided to recruit some friends.  She put out a feeler and got a dozen people interested in doing it together!  She had asked Kris if he was interested, but no such luck.  He asked how the race worked; to which Amy replied - "Well, it is a 5K race through Elitch Gardens Amusement Park and at 5 different points... volunteers throw colored cornstarch at you".  Kris quickly answered back "Wait, you are paying to #1. Run and #2. Have people throw stuff at you?!?! What part of that is fun?  ~ No Thank you!"

So, no such luck with Kris, but we still had a good crew.  Unfortunately, we underestimated how hard it would be to find people at the race and ended up meeting up with only 7  of our 12 people.  Our group did great though.  We had fun 'painting' each other before the race and got even messier during the race.  Jim was not so much in on the getting messy part and thought he could stay clean.  That worked... Until Station #1!  Here are some shots of us "Pre-Race" once we painted each other with color.

The start of the race... with Elitch Gardens in the background

Post Race was just plain funny.  I can't believe how much powder there was Everywhere!

After the race, we decided to head for lunch and ice cream... do you think anyone will let us in their establishment?!?!???  (Thankfully, the answer was Yes!)