Colt

Colt has been doing some pretty cute things lately. One of my favorite is when he sees the other kids getting ready for swimming he will yank down his pants and yell ta da. He is so proud of himself. Of course the sad thing is usually the kids are going to swimming lessons and he can't go. Of course this always makes him so sad. He will drop his shoulders and his lower lip will stick out. This kids is so dramatic.

The other day we were at Cherry Hill and we were getting ready to head home. All the kids were getting a snack and drying off before we headed to the car. I glanced over to Colt and noticed he was falling while he was sitting. Poor kid can't miss his nap. I am sure we will have a lot more incidents like this over the next couple of months.

Eliza's Dance Rectial

This is our third year taking dance and Eliza loves it. She is getting really good. For three days our lives are taken over with dance. On Thursday we have a dance rehearsal. The rehearsal starts at 5:00 and we were able to get out of there by 7:00. On Friday night we have a Dress rehearsal. We usually take Eliza into Target to get her pictures taken and then we head off for the rehearsal and once again we get home at 7:00. Finally on Saturday it is the big night. She is very psyched and loves it so much. Of course on this night she wants to stay for the entire show. Everyone will come see her and then will leave. Eliza and I hang out together until the bitter end. Of coures to her it always ends with a trip to McDonalds. I am always so happy when it is over, but it is so much fun that we always end up doing it again.

Ragnar Day 2

I didn't think that I would be able to sleep out on the field, but apparently I was out like a light. Anne said we had bum wars and that she tossed and turn. I don't remember any of it. When we woke up at 2:00 everyone was gone. It was really creepy. Kind of like Twilight zone. The night had turned really cold and no one wanted to get out of their warm bags. We were all fairly awake and chipper. This seemed to stun Tandy. He was still pretty dead to the world. Of course he was always the chipper one. Always very willing to get out and support and he was there for every exchange. Of course my favorite thing is he would talk to anyone so we found out a lot of things that were going on. He was like our little informant.

Preston with his happy grin and two thumbs up. He always had a smile when we passed. That kid was amazing.

Once we were packed up we headed up East Canyon. I was the first one on board and it was my shortest, but hardest run. Most of it was up hill. Only Anne, Tandy and I got out of the van. The rest stayed inside where it was warm. It was soon time for me to go. I had to run up a pretty steep hill and then it leveled out for a bit before it was another big hill. I started running really slowly, but my muscles felt frozen so I decided to walk the first little bit to get going. Once I reached the top of the first hill I started to run and immediately got a wicked side ache. I would run as long as I could before I would have to stop and walk. Nothing I did would get rid of it. I finally came to a good down hill and just went for it. I ran as fast as a I could. Of course in the process I lost my tail light. A girl ran past me and told me I dropped it. I stopped and went back aways to find it, but I realized it would take to long so I continued on. Lucky for us another team picked it up. The rest of the run was a blur. There was one final hill that I ended up just walking it. It was a monster. Of course because of this at the end I was able to kick it up a notch and speed past a girl at the finish. It was my first kill. I really don't know my pace, but I was only about 6 minutes slower than they had predicted so I didn't feel to bad. Still I wish I could have done a little better

Preston was up next and the poor kid froze and was overheated at the same time. It really sucks to run at night. Ann was up next with a long 10 mile run with no van support so we headed to the next exchange and fell asleep again. After sleeping for a little while I woke up and decided to put my contacts in. They went in pretty well, but my left one was giving me some problems so I took it out to rinse it. Unfortunately I used hydrogen peroxide to wash it off with. My whimpers or screams seemed to wake everyone up. Jeff quickly gave me some saline solution and Kim and I went inside to rinse them it off. When we went inside we ran into Stephanie from the other van. She had obviously just woken up and was really confused. She didn't know where any of her team was and then had a panic attack when she thought they should be running. We reassured her that she had at least a couple more hours. Poor thing I know exactly how she felt.

The next couple of exchanges were pretty much a blur, but Kim's exchange to Tandy. That is when we ran into Speedo guy. I luckily stayed in the car so I didn't have to see him, but apparently another girl was telling her teams about this really nasty guy with a speedo and really straggly hair that was running around. What she didn't know was that he was right behind her. He walked in front of her and so "Oh you mean me" and then mooned her. I was glad I didn't have to see that. Tandy wrapped up his run and we headed off for some breakfast at 11:00. Amazingly enough none of us were really hungry, but we all tried to eat something. We were able to find a nice park and just camp out. Everyone was able to sleep a little until John started to call. First they said because of the heat we could start earlier. This didn't make sense to us because that would put Anne and Jeff running Ragnar hill in the heat of the day so we turned them down. Plus we all needed some sleep. A little while later we got a call saying that van 1 was struggling and we could start before they finished so that we could get done it time. Everyone had had a good nap so we decided to go for it. This also took some pressure off of van 1 trying to get done so that we could get going. I was the first runner so I started off and it was hot, but not as hot as it was yesterday, but everyone on my leg was walking so I was able to breeze by them. I did have to stop a couple of times because my side still hurt, but I still finished under an 11:00 minute mile so I was happy, plus I killed 6 people. This was the start of our slaughter. It seemed that everyone was able to annihilate people on the course. Preston even did 9 for his leg. He was able to run up this hill that everyone was walking. He did awesome. We told him he could walk, but he ran most of it.

 

Ann at the start of Ragnar Hill. She is pumped and ready to go.

Jeff not so much.

Anne's knee had been giving her problems. We had iced it, and given her some Tylenol, but it still hurt. I finally gave her 4 ibuprofen and 2 Tylenol to help with the pain and she had her knee wrapped. When it was her turn to run she was feeling pretty good and took off. Her run was brutal and very hot, but she did awesome and kept chugging away. As we were following her up Guardsman pass we noticed the van wasn't idling very well. We were almost out of gas, but there was no where to get any. Or only choice was to keep going up. There was no where to turn around and we had to be there for Ann just encase her knee gave out and we had to throw Jeff in. When we got to the exchange we all got out to cheer Anne on. Ross left the keys in the car and went to talk to the EMT to see if they might have some gas or know the closest place to get some. Pretty soon Preston comes bee bopping over and Ross asked him if he locked the door. He said yes of course. The keys were still in the car.

The guys working hard to get us back on the road.

The guys immediately started working on how to break in while I asked the EMT if he had something they could use. They were able to pry open the back window a little bit. They managed to dismantle the window latch and were trying to reach in to unlock it when the window just shattered, all over Tandy. He had it in his hair, down his back and he hoped not down his shorts. They took him over and hosed him down, but he spent the next hour picking glass out of his hair. During this time Ann had come in and we had sent Jeff on. We had to first sweep up all the glass and then we were off. We were still worried about the gas, but now we were also worried about Jeff. We finally caught up to him and he was doing great. He got a quick drink and meet us at the next exchange.

The aftermath.

The next leg was Kims and man it was brutal. She had to start up hill and then had a ton of really steep down hill only to finish off with a monster hill at the end. We sent her off with Anne reassuring her that her friend thought this was the prettiest run and she really enjoyed it. Once again it was a non van support so we headed into Park City looking for gas. We finally found a gas station and pulled in. Ross and Tandy gave each other high fives saying they knew we had enough gas. When Tandy got out to fill it he realized Ross had pulled too far forward so he asked him to back up a little. Ross went to start it and we had run out of gas. It was really too funny. So we all jumped out and pushed the car. I am just glad we made it that far.

Both these girlds did amazing. They had crazy hard hills, but they never gave up. It was so fun running with them.

Look we are still smiling, even Jeff

We filled up the van and headed to the last exchange. We had Greg met up with us to put all the vaulables into our van and to transfer my stuff and Jeff's stuff so we wouldn't have to come back. Then we waited for Kim. Kim came screaming in and clollapsed on Anne. She was so tired and the leg had been so difficult but she did it and still kept up her 10:00 minute pace. It was really amazing. Tandy was soon off and we headed into Park City High School for the finish line. We met up with van 1 and they looked like the walking wounded. Everyone visited for awhile and then met up with Tandy to run or should I say limp to the finish line. Everyone was very stoked it was over. Most of our van got away without any major injuries. Ann's knee was the worse. My Achillas Tendon was really tight and I was sore all over, but Anne suggested an ice bath and it made the world of difference. Preston had one blister and Jeff was a little sore. So it was a succesful run, but man I am glad it is over.

 

We of course can't forget all the kills that we had. The best was when Preston killed Crazy Lady.

 

Ragnar Day 1

Already to head out. Notice that we are all still smiling. Well everyone, but Jeff

Well today is the day. Our start time is at 10:00 am. Lucky for me I am in van 2 so we don't start until 4:00. The day started out pretty normal. Errands, getting the house cleaned, etc. At 3:30 the van pulled up and it was time to go. Ross, who was our driver, climbed in and said "I am going to be so sore" We all busted out laughing. He of course was talking about sitting for so long and also that he had done a hard leg workout the day before, but nonetheless it was marked as one of our favorite quotes of the whole trip. In my van we had Ross (driver), Preston, Ann, Jeff, Kim (Ann's Friend) and Tandy (Janet's Husbands ex-wife brother-in-law no kidding). After loading everyone up we were off. We made good time to Liberty and checked in. We couldn't get a hold of Valerie so we weren't quite sure when we would be starting. We headed over to the exchange and waited. It was fun to see everyone really inventive costumes. There was the Unicorns and the Backpackers to name a few. Pretty soon we heard from Valerie that they were about 10 minutes out so I headed across the road to wait. I hear our number called so I checked with the officials to make sure it was the right number when I heard Valerie yelling at me that I needed to get ready. She was so frantic. It was pretty funny. I wasn't quite sure who I was trading off with, but fortunately I saw that it was Stephanie, Valerie neighbor so I was good. Stephanie came running up and slapped a snap bracelet on me. It was really gross as you can imagined. I started off and it was so hot I was dying. I told them I didn't want van support but pretty soon I was dying for a drink. I kept a good pace and finished in good time. I usually run about a 11:00 minute mile, but I finished in a 10:00 minute pace so I was pretty happy. Of course I didn't kill anyone. I was just happy I didn't pass out on the course. It was nice to be the first one done, because then the pressure was off me. Everyone had pretty short runs so we ran through our legs pretty quickly. That is until Kim's leg she had a 7.3 uphill run with no van support. We figure this would be a good time to get some dinner so we headed off to Subway to get something to eat and then headed up to Snowbasin for the exchange. Van 1 was already up there so we caught up with them. While we were waiting for Kim we saw a runner come in without anyone there to meet them. We kept calling their number and even had John go over to exchange 12 to make sure they hadn't accidentally waited there. After about 15 minutes they still hadn't showed up and John thought about going to look for them closer to the exchange and what do you know they were standing there about 15 feet away just shooting the breeze. It was pretty funny. Kim soon came in and she did awesome with a 10:00 minute pace. We waited around while Tandy whipped out his short run and then we headed to Morgan High school to bed down for the night. The plan was to sleep there in the auditorium, but they were charging money so we just slept outside, which wasn't too bad. The night was fairly warm and we were so exhausted we just wanted to get some sleep.

Jeff and Tiffiny's Wedding

May 29, 2012

I have been meaning to get these pictures up, but the last two weeks of school were insane. Throw in a wedding and lets just say it was fun, but exhausting. One of my favorite quotes from the day is when I took Forrest and Ben's picture. I told them they were so cute I could just eat them up. Ben was hilarious when he said, "I don't get it. Why do you want to eat me up? I don't want to eat you." I got a good laugh and just told him that they were looking pretty cute. He just shook his head and walked away. Pretty funny.

Uncle Stephen right after the temple giving Tiffiny a hug. He explained that he had felt the Sahib very strongly in the sealing room and he was supposed to give her a hug and welcome her to the family.

Of course then someone suggested that he was just trying to hug the bride. She's cute, who wouldn't want to get a hug from her.

I think she will make a great addition to the family. Is Jeff giving me the stink eye?

This is how most of the kids spent the reception.

Colt was either chasing someone or

being attacked by someone else. He loved it of course. Me not so much because I could never get him to hold still long enough to get a decent picture. This was the best I could get.

The boys came walking over saying they were doing the buddy walk. After they did this for several minutes they decided it worked much better with only 3 kids.

The rest of the pictures are ones that I thought were just cute. Katie was really cute unless you asked her to smile and then it kinda went south. Elaina didn't want her picture taken at all so she was constintly hiding in Valerie's shoulder.

 

  

Jasi and Katie talking about boys maybe?

It was a wonderful day and we are so greatful that Jeff and Tiffiny let us be apart of it. Welcome to the family Tiffiny.

Sleepy Baby

May 22, 2012

Being the baby is not always easy. On Wednesdays Colt's nap is not always the best. He usually goes down at 1:00pm, but I have to leave at 1:10pm to pick up Eliza for dance so no nap. Luckily most Wednesdays he will fall asleep in the car. For some reason this time he didn't. He seemed pretty happy. I started to think that maybe he was getting ready to get rid of naps. That is until I started to make dinner. He was leaning on his chair playing peek-a-boo with me.  I got a little destracted and when I turned around to say boo I noticed he wasn't really playing anymore. On closer examination I noticed he was asleep.

It was late and I didn't want him to sleep for too long, but I figured sleeping standing up he would probably wake up pretty quickly. I was right and wrong. He did wake up prettily quickly, but he just laid on the floor and went back to sleep. Poor kids can sleep anywhere. Hopefully by summer he can get a little rest since we won't be so busy. At least I hope we won't be too busy.

A Little Bunny Visitor

May 16, 2012

A couple of weeks ago Forrest called me out on the deck to look at a bunny in our neighbors yard. It seems that it had escaped from somewhere and had taken up residences at our neighbors. The kids got a real kick out of it. They would bring it food and sometimes catch it. Our neighbors put out feelers, but it seems like it didn't belong to anyone. Finally one of our neighbors caught it and took it to their home. It had been attacked by a cat and seemed like it needed a little TLC.

The kids favorite part of course was feeding it. I am sure the rabbit appreciated it. Just not all the chasing it took to try and feed it.

Our rabbit will be missed good thing we have a guenie pig to replace it.