It's Been Way Too Long

Of course I've been meaning to update this for months, but I think I feel like I need a certain amount of time to do it and that never happens.  So even though Anna will probably wake up soon I'm going to get started anyway. We seemed to have had a busy summer.  It was pretty uneventful, but it went quick enough and it felt like we were busy.  Mary took swimming lessons and did a 3 week preschool summer camp.  John did a couple of externships and took some classes.  I started training for a marathon. And Anna pretty much tagged along.  There were many more details to the summer, but my memory and time allotment won't allow much more than that unfortunately.  I'll post pictures though.
Fall is here!  It is definitely my favorite time of year.  The leaves, the excitement of a new school year, the cooling air, I love it all.  Mary, who turns 4 1/2 today, is very busy for a preschooler.  She started preschool, and while she does love it and her teachers, she is still very anxious about leaving her mom.  She's learning a lot already and loves to tell me about what she learned that day and who got into trouble.  It seems that she is perfectly well-behaved when she's at school and primary.  I guess that's why she goes crazy at home.  Her anxiousness to go to school has been wearing on us a little so last night for family home evening we went on a walk to feed the ducks and then came home and talked about Priesthood blessings and then John gave her a blessing.  Amazingly she sat very still through the blessing.  She doesn't have school today so we'll have to see how she does tomorrow.
Mary has also started a singing/dancing performing group class.  She absolutely loves it.  Her class is called Kiddin' Around.  They started the first day learning Christmas songs for their Christmas concert. We are so excited to see her perform.  If I had to pick one thing that I think she will be good at and really enjoy it is this.  She's constantly singing and acting so this class is perfect for her.  I hope she continues to enjoy it.  She also started soccer again.  Now you may remember the horrors of last year's soccer experience.  I did and was reluctant to sign her up again.  But I'm so glad we did.  She is doing terrific and seems to have fun.  In last Saturday's game she actually scored 2 goals!  They were in the other team's goal, but fortunately it's not a big deal at this age.  Interestingly enough both goals were in the wrong goal, not just one.  I guess she is more comfortable with that direction.  Her coach was very nice and said great job Mary, just try to remember we are going the other way.
Anna is just about as busy as an 18-month old can be.  She climbs into and on top of everything you can imagine.  She knows where all the snacks are and can pretty much take care of herself.  She has the sweetest personality, yet she knows what she wants and will be danged if she doesn't get it.  She wants to do anything and everything her big sister does and Mary is really great about letting her play with her...most of the time.  The other day Mary had a cape on and it looked like Anna was trying to put on a blanket like a cape so I said, Anna do you want a cape like Mary.  Anna looked at me and took off down the hall toward the kitchen screaming, cake cake cake.  She proceeded to cry about eating cake for the next 15 minutes.  She's learned no pretty well.  She loves to go outside and will tell you she wants to swing and slide and play in the gangox (sandbox).
John has started his second year of law school.  He has definitely relaxed a bit so we see him a bit more than we did last year.  The girls just love their daddy and want to play the second he walks through the door.  He is doing an internship at Hill Air Force Base and really enjoys it.  He is very interested in doing JAG.
I've been training for a full marathon.  It's been a good experience.  Since I have to bring the girls with me I've gotten much stronger pushing the double jogging stroller between 4 and 7 miles every day.  I've been having some knee pain lately so hopefully I can push through for 3 more weeks.  The race is October 13th.