Easter, Vegas style

It was really nice to escape our rainy (and snowy) weather and escape to Vegas for a long weekend. I had to dig our summer clothes out and realize I really need new clothes.

The first night there, we all went a walk and it was so warm! I was in need of a warm evening walk. We played a fun game of night tag at the park (adults too. Well, some of us).

Little Jim was blessed and we enjoyed a wonderful Easter with the family that could be there.

We had an egg hunt at the park.



The "tweens" were teaching Nate how to ride this slider scooter? Not sure what it's called.

Brian is so tough...

My cute mom and dad...

Lani and Dave's family. Such great hosts!...

In Vegas, they don't roll eggs. Or even throw them. They hit them with a bat...

Lots of ping-pong was played too. And it's really nice to have nieces and nephews that are old enough to leave all the kids with. Us adults were able to enjoy some awesome Thai food down by the strip with out kids! Love that!

Miles and miles...

We spent a lot of miles on the road during April. And a lot of miles on our feet while we trained for and ran a half-marathon.

One weekend, we drove up to Moscow, ID for a baby blessing. Yes, that is a long way to drive for a baby blessing, but we really wanted to see Mike (Nate's brother) and Natalie and their cute little baby. We made a fun little road trip out of it. Friday, drove to Boise and the kids (and Nate) enjoyed the pool. Saturday, drove the rest of the way and enjoyed the evening with family. Mike and Natalie took us to see the grizzly bears at Washington State University. It was pretty cool to be so close to those big ol' beasts and they couldn't do a thing to us.

Sunday, more family time and great food. We headed back to Boise in order to break up the driving. Monday, home. So, we drove about 20 hours in 4 days, but it was worth it. I loved seeing new country and we only had one barfing incident. Claire, of course.

A week and a half later, we headed to Las Vegas for another baby blessing. Yes, I know. We are probably the best family supporters out there. Actually, we were just looking for a reason to get away from this cold and rainy Spring we are having. And it was Easter and half of my family were going to be there. So we just had to be there too. But that will be a separate post later because I have too many pictures.

Then 5 days later, we ran our half marathon. My brother-in-law, Jason, has been on a running kick and talked Nate into running the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon with him. Four weeks before the race, I decided to sign up too because I felt like I would kick myself if I didn't. But man, those were some cold training weeks. Seriously. My long runs consisted of wind, snow, hail, rain, sleet, nasty storms, and mud. Lots and lots of mud. But I did it! I went into the race not very confident. I am not a very fast long-distance runner. Sprinting, yes. Even 6 miles I can do okay. But longer than that is always a struggle just to finish. However, that feeling of finishing the race is so awesome.

We stayed with Amy, who was kind enough to help out with the kids. I was pretty nervous the night before and didn't sleep much at all. And to add to that, we woke up that morning to huge flakes of snow falling and at least 6 inches on the ground. Great. Luckily, there wasn't too much snow at Thanksgiving Point and it melted by the end of the race, but it was still a cold, cold day.

So anyway, we thought this race was supposed to be relatively flat. Oh. My. Gosh. I am not sure there was much of any flat spots at all. We wound up and down through the gardens. And more gardens. And down along the river, and back and forth through the golf course. These weren't long hills, just lots of little hills one right after another. Despite the hills, this race was really well organized with great aid stations and they even had pacers running. I started running with the 2:10 pacer and quickly caught up to the 2:05 pacer. But by mile 11 I had to slow down and walk a few times because of those dang hills. Those last 2 miles were so hard. I finished in 2:09:23, which was 18 seconds faster than my first half. I was pretty happy with that, but I still feel like I could have done better on a different course. Utah has quite a few half marathons, most of which are down hill races. And yet, I am pretty sure we chose the hardest of them all. Nice.

One of the nice things about this race was that it covered such little area and we were able to see each other a few times through out the race. I never saw Nate because he was so far ahead (he finished in 1:39. I know. He is fast). But I was able to see Jason and my cousin, Nicole, a few times. Nicole and I ran together off and on and pretty much finished together. That was fun.

The kids ran in a mile fun-run afterwards and really enjoyed it. Dylan and Katelyn did really well, I think they finished in 10 1/2 minutes, which is good for their first race. I think. Dylan keeps asking if he can run 2 miles next time.

We spent time with my grandpa that day and it was really nice to visit with him. We also went back to Thanksgiving Point because we had free passes all day. We cruised through the dinosaur museum and can now check that off our list. We were all so wiped out the whole day, but us adults still went out to Texas Roadhouse and were able to finally sit and relax with out the kids.

Next, I am hoping to get on my bike and start a new hobby. I just really need to practice slipping my clip-on shoes out so that I don't fall. Anyone have advise? I am sure I looked pretty funny the other day while Nate was running beside me trying to help me.

Ducks and a boat

Dylan really wanted a remote control boat for his birthday, so my parents got him one. We went to first dam a few days after his birthday to try it out. The ducks were enjoying a leisurely feed from Whitney and Claire...

When out of nowhere, what shall appear?...

A boat!

And yes, Dylan thoroughly enjoyed chasing the ducks with it...

And he has been asking every day if we can go back.

And Nate might have been enjoying this just as much (or even more) than Dylan was.

Our exciting life

Um, I'd like to say that we have been to Mexico, or Hawaii, or on a cruise. But we haven't. We've just been here, mostly. Not a whole lot has been going on. Just the usual day to day routines. Driving kids around, exercising, and getting things done around the house. That's about it.

We've made a couple of trips to the Salt Lake area. It's nice to live closer to my sisters and be able to see their babies as newborns, not toddlers, for the first time. Candace had a sweet baby girl and we've been down to see them a couple of times. We got a hotel one night and the kids had a blast swimming. We also discovered an awesome Chinese restaurant and have been back to taste of its goodness already.

I seem to forget my camera whenever we go somewhere lately and so most of my pictures are from my phone, which tend to be fuzzy. But here is Claire holding Morgan, who is 5 months older than Claire. Claire is OBSESSED with babies lately and she was pretending that Morgan was her baby. (And no, this does not mean we need a baby in the house. Not soon, anyway =)



Oops, these are a little out of order. But we did get out and enjoy the Arts one evening with our great friends the Badgetts. And what a fine evening it was! Those Badgetts are some fun people. They chose what we did for the night and we ended up seeing this person in concert...

What? Can't you tell who that is? Okay, fine. It's Audra McDonald. Still don't know who she is? Well, if you watch the TV show Private Practice you will know that she is the character who plays Naomi. You didn't know she could sing? Well, neither did I. And let me tell you, she is GOOD!! I should have inserted a YouTube video here or at least a picture of her that you can see. Oh well.

Back to baby talk, here is baby Haven herself...

Dylan's been losing some more teeth. This next picture cracks me up. Nate was trying pretty hard to get that tooth out. No success. Ten minutes later, it came out while eating supper.

Dylan went a little crazy when it came out. It was funny to see him running around, not knowing if he should grab a kleenex, or spit in the sink, or find his tooth, or cry, or whatever. He just kept running around while we couldn't stop laughing.

And he turned 7 a couple of weeks ago! Wierd. And me, being the fun mom that I am, talked him into celebrating his birthday with the family. I know! Fun, right? He was all for it and didn't even ask for a party. I think I will try that every year, I didn't even bribe him. Just told him he could chose an activity and where we went for dinner. Of course, he chose the fun park and Golden Corral. Nate and I chuckled as we were playing arcade games and about to head to Golden Corral for our child's birthday. Who does that? Well, we do.

And, I must say. I really outdid myself this year with his cake. I mean really, if you know me at all, this was a BIG deal for me to make something like this. When I told Dylan I was making him a cake this year, he started crying. Seriously. With tears coming down his cheek, he told me he wanted a cake from Lee's. I kept trying to tell him how cool this cake would be that I was making him, but he would cry more. So finally, I lied and told him I would get a cake from Lee's. Nice, huh? And when he came home from school and saw this, he was really surprized that I made it. He was pretty excited about it and quickly apologized. Sad. I really need to do more things like this for my kids.

These 2 sure play pretty good together. Cassie loves to make Claire pretty by putting makeup on her...

We went down for baby Haven's blessing this last weekend and let the kids play at Kangaroo Zoo for a while. These 2 have so much fun together!

We've had 4 babies born between both sides of our families in the last 6 weeks. Last year we had 4 weddings in a few months, next year we have 5 baptisms. Funny how they all come at the same time.

We've been able to see both parents a lot as they pass through and that has been fun for all of us. In the next while, we'll hopefully get to some more baby blessings and we have some races coming up too! And maybe Spring? But really, I haven't minded this cold. Everyone seems to get sick of winter so quickly, but this is when I can stay inside and get things done. I don't mind it one bit. Except for the running part. Running outside is way better than running on the treadmill.

The end.

Cassie's birthday and Christmas

My sweet little girl turned 5! She was so excited to turn 5 because that meant she could ride the bus to school. Oops, guess I forgot to mention that it wouldn't be until after the Summer.

Cassie was so excited to open her much anticipated Zhu Zhu pets from grandma and grandpa Folsom. She "accidentally" saw them come in the mail a couple of weeks before her birthday.

Poor little Cassie is the only little girl in our ward her age. And there are even 2 classes. She goes to pre-school on campus, so I really don't know who her friends are. So, like every year since she was born, we have a family party and she gets to pick what we do. First off, bowling and soft-play at the Fun Park. Next, eating at Golden Corral. Yup, my kids LOVE that place. And I really don't mind it either. It is so easy with kids. Then, the Aggie basketball game. Mom and dad may have had some influence on that decision. She really really wanted a picture with the Bull as we were walking to our car. Kind of blurry though...

December is always a busy month with 2 birthdays, Christmas, ward/family/friends/work parties, but I love it! We had the second annual gingerbread making event with the Badgetts at our house this year. And what fun it was!

We made a trek to Salt Lake for family fun. Claire loved the ride...

We met up with Tanya and Candace and their families for dinner and to visit Temple Square. However, some of us didn't quite make the Temple square visit.

We all stayed at Candace's house, bless her heart for always letting us crash there.

The next day we had a big Folsom party. It was so fun to see cousins, aunts and uncles, and especially my Grandpa.

We had a really fun white elephant gift exchange. You never know what kind of things will show up in our family...

Yes, that mouse/rat/gerbil or whatever it was, was wrapped up as a gift. My niece McKenzie really wanted it and ended up taking it home. Lucky Tanya.

With Nate's work schedule, it was easiest to stay home for Christmas. Nate's parents came and spent it with us and it was really nice to have them. We appreciate their sacrifices to be with us. Lisa was kind enough to do the dinner. It was a great Christmas with family, although I was a little tired from staying up so late christmas eve due to some unexpected delays.

The damage. Seriously, way too much stuff.

I am so excited about the nice road bike I got. And I also love the necklace Nate got me from The Vintage Pearl. So special.

So, the day after Christmas was pretty blah. Nate went to work, Claire was sick, and I was really missing my family. So, my brother-in-law called to see if we wanted to take the kids skiing sometime during the break. Heck ya. We ended up with Candace's and Lani's families staying here for the week. It was so fun! It totally lifted my post Christmas spirits. Candace willingly watched Claire so I could go too. The kids did so well and had fun.

We loved having cousins come and play, especially since there was so much snow to play in. Lots of games, food, and puzzles! We really missed Tanya and her family though.

And as if it's 2011! Seriously!

Maybe we will get out of this rental by 2012. Who knows.

A little bit of everything

Wow, I just found a bunch of pictures from the last few months that haven't made it on the blog. And since the only source of scrap booking I may ever do is this blog, the pictures must get on here!

So, in no particular order, here we go:

That pile of leaves looked way bigger in person...

It soon attracted the neighborhood kids...

Cowgirl day at school...

Claire LOVED her bones pajamas and wore them almost everyday in October. They even glowed in the dark.

Dylan played in his first basketball league. And his last. Just kidding. But we will wait another year or 2 until he tries it again. He did make one basket in his first game. Just on the wrong hoop. It was really quite funny...and cute.

A visit to the fire station with Dylan's class...

Crazy hair day...

USU homecoming parade. Claire was quite the entertainer as she ran around yelling "Candy! Candy! Candy!"

Dylan loves playing Bopit. And he is really good at it. He has gotten up in the 90's with his score. Sometimes, he gets frustrated with the "flickit" because he can't quite flick it in time. So one day, I noticed he was up to something and this is what he had created...

Can you see the string tied to the banister from the "flickit" thing? Instead of having to flick it, he just pulls it. Silly kid.



Halloween

making indoor smores...

Pumpkin pancakes...

Trick or treating to great grandpa Darley...

Are you wondering what Dylan is?


I found this on Nate's phone and thought it was pretty funny. He must have taken a picture of the screen after we got off of Splash Mountain. I know, it is a little embarrassing of both of us, but I promise we were just trying to be funny for the camera. Promise! At least Whitney looked natural.

We also went to Vegas somewhere in between everything. And no pictures were taken. Nate had a study course for the 2nd half of his 4th and final boards exam. So we hung out with Lani and her family for a few days. It was pretty exciting, especially the trip to Target and the night we ordered 100 wings and watched UFC. Fun times.

And somewhere else in there, Nate went to Chicago and took his big test and passed!! Yay! This is the final Boards exam that doctors take sometime in the first couple of years after residency. (in case you were wondering)

And last but not least..... I turned 30 on Saturday!! Crazy!!!!!

This is my excited face as I open yet another envelope and find a small paper with blue crayon scribbled on it. Dylan and Cassie each made about 10 of these. They chose blue because it is my favorite color. They must really love me.

Modeling the cute sweater my sister gave me...

And I know those last 2 pcitures are low quality. But I turned 30! They had to be posted!!

We celebrated this special day by attending an awesome Chistmas concert featuring one Jennifer Ward Badgett . It was directed by Mack Wilburg, former Mormon Tabernacle Chior director.

As if I'm 30. Seriously. I remember when my mom turned 30. I think.