Surprise!

The first surprise is that my mom agreed to come to St. George with us.

The second surprise is that she brought Halle with her.

The third surprise is that Brandi and Hunter called on Friday and said that they were on their way (with Cami & her 3 kids.  surprise!)

 When we were in St. George last weekend (Presidents Day) we discovered that on February 25 there would be a Washington City 1/2 Marathon.  And the starting line was right out the back door and across the golf course. 

We pretty much quit our running training last fall and only started running again a few weeks ago.

The furthest I have run been running lately has been 7 miles.

So, on Tuesday I tried running 10 miles.  did it.

On Wednesday, Rick ran 11 miles.  easy.

So, on Thursday, we signed up for the 1/2 marathon.

We couldn't resist since the starting line was right out our back door.

It was a small crowd that seemed to be in the younger age groups.  I was the oldest one there!

It was a fun course.  I would certainly do this one again.  

I loved running through the Virgin River Gorge.

Mile 10 (uphill) kicked my tail and was the only place where I walked (about 1/4 of a mile).

This is also when Rick texted me to tell me he had finished.  His best time ever:  1:52.  wow.

He turned around and started running back to meet me.

He met up with me at mile 11.  I was so happy to see him.  

But I knew it meant one thing:  I would be running the rest of the way to the finish line.

I was mostly happy.

I finished with my 2nd best time ever:  2:39

Rick ran a total of 17.5 miles yesterday.  Wow.

Then it was PARTY time.  

We celebrated my birthday with sandwiches followed by cake and ice cream.

We had planned to go out to eat somewhere nice.

But, this is more my style.  Plus, I didn't want to walk.  at all.

 Brandi gave me the cute necklace that I am wearing and Rick surprised me with a cute silver ring from Tiffany's.  Big surprise!!

Red Cliffs Recreation Area

Rick pays our fee

Flash Flood Area...good thing we waited until it stopped raining.

Summer

Rick

 Cole

 I didn't get many pictures of Cole since he ran the entire time.  

Rick went ahead with him to keep track of him.

I say, let him run. wear him out.

 Sierra

The only evidence that I was actually on this hike.

That and the fact that the pictures are posted here.

 Sierra

 Taking some self portraits.  I couldn't help it.  It was so funny watching them.

 I love Sierra's expression on this one.

 Sierra & Kris

It was a little chilly as you can see the snow in the background.

But, once the clouds cleared a bit and we were in the sun, it was a great day for a hike.

This one is supposed to be really fun in May, when the weather is hot and the water is clear.

Bakery

This is how we celebrated the Super Bowl:

We created a Bakery.

Rick had some boxes sitting around.

He asked Cole to take them to the garage (to recycle, of course!)

Cole asked if he could play with them for a while.

(why do I buy the kids toys when they are happy with boxes?)

So, they made a bakery.

 They served Valentines Candy,

 and homemade brownies.

 Can you see the tip jar on the left?

 Cole even made Rick pay for his bakery items.

The bakery box is still in the Library.  

I have noticed a few things disappearing such as Lifesavers and gun.

I have peaked in the Bakery windows and there are little containers full of things like dry macaroni.

Because everyone knows that Bakeries sell a lot of, gum, lifesavers, and dry macaroni.

Here is Cole's Valentine Container:

 Luckily I had this container on hand for a different project from the past.

I found some stickers.  I was thinking I still had some tractor and dump truck stickers, but I couldn't find them.

I was able to find some hearts and some letters.

At first Cole did NOT want to put hearts on his container, but it didn't take long for him to see my vision of this project.  

Bless his heart.  He used every single heart sticker from the stash.

We didn't put too much advance thought into this project.

We were still attaching stickers while tying shoes and zipping coat and running out the door to catch the bus.  (complete procrastination)

Also, Cole was super frustrated with me for choosing his valentines.  

They were Transformer Valentines that came with a pencil.  

We folded the Valentines just a bit and the pencils slipped into the slits.  

Perfect.  Not.  Because girls DO NOT LIKE Transformers.  Everyone knows that.  

He was so reluctant to even take his Valentines to school.

I think Sierra finally convinced him that it would be OK to get a Transformers pencil from a boy.

When he came home from school he was grinning from ear to ear with all kinds of candy, chocolate, and sticky stuff hanging out of this little, round, heart-covered box.

Such a hit and he was so pleased to give out his pencils because he got about 5 pencils back--all of them different.

In Contrast...Sierra's Valentine Container:

Sierra had sketches and drawings in preparation for this creation.

She came up with this idea completely on her own. 

And carried it out without any help.

Except the glue gun is still out and construction paper grass is all over the house.

It is called "Love Shack"

Here is the best part...

She had Rick help her download "Love Shack" by the B-52's.   

Then she got permission from her teacher to play it on her ipod while her classmates walked around the classroom to judge the Valentine containers.  

It was a competition that she took very seriously and is still waiting for the results.

I'm not sure why all of these teachers think it's such a good idea to send this assignment home for the kids to do. (parents to do).  And I'm not sure why they think it's such a good idea to make it a competition.  It was almost like Reflections and Science Fair all over again.

To My Valentine

One of my "Vintage Valentines"

Oh, how I love these.

This one was never sent through the mail so it doesn't have a postmark or date,

but the ones that do are all about 95 to 100 years old.

The only thing is says on the back is, "To Elsie"

I'm not sure why school teachers think it's so awesome to send the kids home with a challenge to decorate their own valentines day boxes.  

And I'm not sure why my kids take on the challenge to design the most creative valentine box complete with music...

What happened to the good old days when we took a brown paper grocery sack, painted some hearts on with poster paints and stapled the top down?

more to come.

Happy Valentines Day!

10 years ago...

I figured that if this was big enough to make the news then it must be big enough to make the blog...
First of all, I remember when it was announced that Utah would host the 2002 Winter Olympics.  I had just gotten married a few weeks earlier and our photographer, Ryan, stopped by our house (aka "the Compound") to deliver our pictures.  Ryan knocked on the door and came in for a few minutes to show me the pictures.  The TV was on in the background and we stopped ohh-ing and ahhh-ing over the pictures just long enough to listen to the big announcement.
7 years and a scandal or two later Salt Lake City was the host city for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
We missed most of the scandal business.  We had moved to Mo and then to MI for school.  During Rick's 4th year of medical school, we moved all of our belongings into storage and lived in Utah for about 8 months.  (Well, the girls & I lived in Utah while Rick hopped around the country doing elective rotations for school.  He lucked out and managed to get an easy rotation during February which is when the Olympics were taking place.
I got so into the Olympics.  I saved all of the newspaper articles (and I still have them--I have no idea why...)
We followed the route of the torch from Athens to Salt Lake City (not literally, just on TV, of course).  I remember them reporting live on TV when the torch arrived in Utah, at Delicate Arch.  The Native American music playing in the background.  We took note of when the torch would arrive in Provo, and made plans to be there.  We created our own torch out of an empty paper towel roll, some foil, and some gold plastic wrapping paper (some things never change).  We bundled up and took Summer down to LaVell Edwards Stadium to freeze our tails off while we waited for the Torch.  It was me, Kris, Kyoko, and Summer.  And 10,000 other crazy people.  Mostly BYU students.

It was before the days of cell phones/instead information feed.  We just stood around for about 4 hours trying to stay warm.  There were some BYU students that were camped out next to us.  They were smart, they brought hot chocolate.  They shared.  Poor Summer.  She was only 3 feet tall and couldn't see a darn thing.  The (handsome) BYU student held Summer up on his shoulders for a while so she could see.  After what seemed like FOREVER, we got the message that the torch was on it's way through the parking lot and into the stadium.  They had the route blocked off.  We started to see people running along ahead of the actual torch.  One of them was Governor Leavitt.  Handsome BYU student just tossed poor little Summer into the Gov's arms while I quickly snapped a picture:

I'm not known for my fantastic photo taking skills.  Considering that this was a one chance shot, I did OK.  I actually sent this picture to the newspaper and they printed it!!

Waino, Kristine, Kelli

Kristine managed to get us tickets to one of the events, a ski event in Park City.  We got up at like 4 am to get up there, get parked, get through security, and get a good spot...only to learn that the event was postponed due to high winds.  No worries.  About 5 days later, we did the very same thing.  It kinda felt like we got a 2 for 1 deal.  It was super neat to attend an actual event.  But, it was more than just that, there are all sorts of things going on between the skiers as far as entertainment.  And the people watching...the best.  oh, and I can't remember the exact event, but the Finnish team dominated.  I probably have a newspaper article about it somewhere.

Brandi & Hunter

One evening during the Olympics, my family went up to Salt Lake to see the medals plaza and the cauldron.  Apparently this was the highlight because it is the only picture that I have besides the pictures of all of the buildings with the images of the Olympic athletes on them.
Oh well.  It was fun.  I was really glad that circumstances were such that we were able to be in Utah for this once in a lifetime (?) event.

Hard Bread

Every few days I will turn on my laptop to discover that Cole has been playing with photobooth.

I think it's funny, so I don't say anything.

And he just thinks he is being sneaky.

I know that because he makes videos sometimes and he has said so.

 These were taken on at least 3 different days because of the different shirts that he is wearing...

 Maybe one of these days he will teach me how to use Photobooth...

(that's me in the background reading a funny post about if Mitt wins the presidency will his Home Teachers have to call secret service to make an appointment and other funny stuff.)

Another Cole-ism...

  I had been running.  

Cole came home from school so I made him some lunch.  

Then I told him that I to shower and that he could watch a show in my bedroom while I showered.  

When I got done getting ready, I went out to check on Cole.

I asked him what he was eating.

He said, "I'm eating Hard Bread."

I had to stop and think for a minute what he was talking about.

I said, "Cole, where did you get hard bread.  We don't have any hard bread"

He said, "Well, it was soft bread when I put it in my dresser last week."

Other news...

I got some "Love Mail" today.

Rick signed us up to run the Red Rock Relay.

80 stars are done for the star quilt.  pictures to come.

Honors Choir Concert

Summer tried out for the State Junior High Honors Choir last fall.

The concert was last Saturday at Mountain View High School.  

They spent the entire day on Friday as well as Saturday morning rehearsing.

The exciting thing was that the director was Ryan T. Murphy (appointed the associate music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2009).

He was very strict and very professional and the kids loved him.

He directed them in the same way that they do the MoTab.

He would stop after Every. Single. Word.  Until they could sing it correctly.

 Summer texted us about 2 hours before it started and told us to come early because the seats were filling up quickly.  I hadn't even showered yet, so we hurried to get ready.  We got there 45 minutes early.  Good thing.  We almost didn't get a seat.  Cole and Rick were enjoying the early arrival.

 There were about 5 students from Mapleton Junior High.

Summer is wearing a pinkish-purple cardigan.

There were over 350 students that performed.  

It was pretty impressive.

You might find Summer more easily in this shot.

Summer's friend, Lexi, is in royal blue on the right side.