MauldenNews April 2012

This April was warmer than usual and quite beautiful, with many blue-sky days and flowers. We've even had some warm evenings. 

I really liked this picture by my friend Tammy.

Had a WONDERFUL weekend with 2 of my sisters...here we are in order, by age and inversely by height...aren't we gorgeous???

We went to an Easter egg hunt at Sugarhouse Park with friends...love the expressions here...

and we made our own colorful eggs with good old Pabst tablets and vinegar. 

Sam turned SIX with a swimming pool party...

and then we had 2 totally awesome weeks with Nana (Bryan's mom). She is wonderful beyond words. 

Finally...even though April may be over...as you can see...

...the fun never stops around here.

See you next month! Love you all,

Sarah

MauldenNews March 2012

This month we enjoyed watching winter transform into spring.  I try to remember to enjoy and appreciate the little ordinary things...a warm cup of coffee, first flowers blooming, the longer evening light, a good night's sleep.

The kids still like to sleep on the floor, bundled up burrito-style. I frequently find Alle curled up on top of her heater vent in the morning.


Bryan and I celebrated our birthdays this month. Both of us were lucky to be able to take the day off from work. We're grateful for another year of good health, good fortune, and the gift of family and friends.

 The candle-lighting is always fascinating.

Isn't he awesome?!?!? 


Other fun activities this month:


- kite flying! We finally got some good windy days and successfully flew our shark kite. It eventually ended up high in a tree, irretrievable, but it was a learning experience. :-) We have also learned that a $3 Spiderman kite from Walmart can be worth hours of fun.


- workouts - I completed my 90-day P90X challenge with stronger abs, bigger shoulders, and the ability to do kickboxing moves without falling over as much. It's a good home workout program and I'll probably do it again, but for now I'm really happy to get back to running. We have a new leader in our Galloway program this year and she informed us that we'd been miscalculating our walk-run ratios last year. So I'm starting over with new information and new training tactics and it will be interesting to see where it goes! I'm hoping to run another marathon in the fall - I want to run 10 marathons in 10 states, so I need to find one outside of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. Anyone want to meet up and do the Denver Rock & Roll in October???


Book(s) of the month: I really enjoyed the audio recording Being Peace by Thich Nhat Han. I also started reading Wild by Sheryl Strayed - her account of solo backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail when she was 26. Her only weapon was "the world's loudest whistle" and she hiked for days at a time without seeing a single person - I bet it's more heavily populated now. I have actually hiked portions of that trail above Donner Lake and in the Desolation wilderness area. It makes me want to do another backpacking trip someday. My last attempt was sometime around 1994, when we tried to go with my dad to Yosemite and got snowed out in September.


And that's all the news. See you next month!