Ragnar Relay

Wow, I'm sure behind in blogging, so I think I'll add a few posts to try and catch up.  

In February I had the opportunity to be part of the Ragnar Relay that goes from Prescott to Mesa, Arizona.  There are 12 people on a team, and you each run 3 different legs of anywhere from 3-9 miles.  It was a total of 202 miles, but don't worry, I only ran 17 and a half of them.  Let me just say that it was a total blast and something I hope to be able to do many more times.  It was tough, but so worth it!

This was our team when we met up the morning of the race.  We've been training together for a LONG time, since August, and we couldn't wait to start the race!
Here are the girls from my van.  We were the second van to go, so this was us just before we started our legs of the race.  (Notice we still look fresh, we hadn't run yet. :)
And 30 hours later, we finished the race!!  It was quite an experience, and we ended up taking first place in our division.  (Out of the all women teams!)  There were about 220 teams total, and we got 89th overall.  We were pretty proud of ourselves!!  

Thanks girls for the memories, the fun, the laughter, and I can't wait till next year!

Fun in the Snow

A few weeks ago, our family was invited along with some other families to go to our friends cabin in Pinedale.  These were all families of the wonderful girls I've been running with.  (We have been training for the past few months for a big relay race we're doing that goes from Prescott to Mesa, 205 miles long!  I'll post on that one when we finish it!)  We had such a great time, and got to do tons of fun stuff!!

The 3 older kids and Dave got to go skiing while we were there.  The kids had never been skiing, and were very excited about it.  They loved it and can't wait to do it again.  I was hoping to go also, but Kelsey ended up hurting her leg, and I had to stay back with her and Kyle at the cabin.  It was just fine with me because I ended up having a great time visiting with all my friends and their little ones at the cabin.

Jessica, Ashley, and Tyler took a ski class in the morning, while Dave did some snowboarding.  Dave said they all did great, and even though Ashley was a little afraid of the big ski lift, by the end of the day she got the hang of it.  I guess one time Tyler and Ashley forgot to jump off the lift at the end, and it started to go around at the top, and then last minute they jumped off, with Ashley going first and falling, and Tyler landing right on top of her.  I guess it was pretty funny, but Ashley didn't think so and said it kind of hurt!
These girls look like pros!
This was the only picture Dave got of Tyler skiing.  Thanks Chris for helping out Tyler while Dave was helping the others!
This was Dave's first time snowboarding, and he had lots of fun.  I guess it's pretty tricky to do, but Dave took to it pretty fast.  He's always been a natural athlete.  Way to go, honey!!
The next day the kids got to go for a ride in the Ranger.  They took it up in the mountains and got to do a little paintball shooting.
They set up plastic cups and shot at them.  They thought this was pretty cool.
Here is Tyler getting some shots off.  Too bad his hood is on, it's kind of hard to see his face.
Even Kyle got a chance to try.  Thanks Michael for helping him out.
The adults also got a chance shoot the paintball guns.  The night before the guys all took turns running across the backyard while everyone shot at him.  It was pretty funny.  Dave was a good sport as I took a quick cheap shot at him before he had a chance to say "Go!"  I told him I wanted to make sure my gun worked.  :)

Thanks again Jaron and Meg for the fun time!!!  It was a BLAST, and a trip my kids will remember for a long time!

Rose Parade Floats

While we were in California for New Years, we decided to take advantage of the fact we were so close to the Rose Parade.  Since it wasn't feasible to sleep all night along the parade route to get a spot, we decided to head down to the Rose Bowl a couple of days before the parade and check out all the volunteers building the floats for the parade. 

After getting our tickets, we headed over to the first tent to wait in line.  It was especially hot that day, and the line had no shade, and the kids were a little grouchy.  They were complaining about the heat, saying they were hungry (we made the mistake of taking NO snacks or water, with expensive food vendors all around us!), and saying how the line was too long.  But after 40 minutes, we made it inside, and it was well worth the wait to see those floats up close!
This was the little Elmo float that marched with the real band behind the Sesame Street float. (Do you remember this float?)
And this float was titled "Seaside Amusement" put on by Cal Poly University.  It had a working roller coaster and Ferris wheel.  It was pretty cool.
They had a poster up showing what the finished product would look like.  It was neat to see this so you could visualize what it would look like when it was done.
They were working on the bumper cars that would drive around the float, and it was fun to see what it looked like under the frame work.  
The kids were happy once they had made it inside the tent, and thought it was neat seeing all those volunteers at work!
There was this big room off to the side of the tent where they stored a bunch of their flowers for the floats.  It really was incredible to see so many flowers!!!  
Then we headed over to the other area where they were decorating.  The line for this one was much better as it was shaded the whole time, with a nice wall to sit along.  It took as an hour to wait in this line, but it felt shorter since the kids were much happier.  A nice worker even got us a water bottle from the volunteer stash!
This time it was inside this big building and we were up on this cat walk thing looking down at the floats.  It was neat to see this view of the floats.
There were lots of floats in there they were working on.  The middle one here is the Wizard of Oz float, and since the wizard was so tall, they have him laying down while in the building.  On the bottom left of the picture you can see all the volunteers sitting at tables.  They were cutting up flowers to put on the floats.  It looked pretty tedious!
Seeing the floats being built made me want to see the parade in person some day.  Maybe when the kids are older!

We had a great time in California.  Sadly, these were the only pictures we took.  Other highlights of the trip were hanging out with all the family (we missed you Tammy and John), going to the park, being spoiled by grandma's cooking, New Years eve dinner at Wood Ranch with mom and dad (thanks Jessica for babysitting), and staying up till midnight to watch the ball drop.  Jessica and Ashley were the only kids who made it.  Tyler tried hard, but fell asleep around 10:30.  It was cute because the first thing he said when he woke up on New Years Day was "Did I make it??!!"  Sorry, Tyler, maybe next year!

Christmas Day

I sure haven't been the blogger lately.  I guess this time of year has got me pretty busy.  Since my main purpose for blogging is to keep a journal/scrapbook of our family, I'll just try and post the highlights of the last month.  I went to my pictures to see what to post, and there were way too many.  So, I think I'll just put this post about Christmas Day, and go back later and post about our trip to California.

The kids were so excited for Christmas.  They could hardly sleep the night before, but finally managed to fall asleep.  We have a 7 am rule, and the kids were obedient, and came in our room right at 7 am.  We have them wait in our room till we get our camera's ready, and then let them head out to see if Santa came.  These are always my most favorite pictures of the day!  

As you can see, they were quite excited to find that Santa had indeed come.
Ashley definitely got the prize for "most excited".  She was a crack-up to watch!

And they hadn't even opened up any presents yet!  I think the anticipation is the most exciting part.
Jessica was thrilled to have gotten an ipod.  She had saved up all year to buy one, and then realized Christmas was just around the corner and she could ask for one for Christmas and then she wouldn't have to use all of her hard-earned money.  She did go out after Christmas and buy an ihome for it, so that was exciting for her!
Ashley also got the prize for most unusual present.  She had been wanting an overhead projector so she could play school with, and she was so excited when she found one under the tree!  She loves that thing, and plays with it constantly.
Tyler had been tired of having to ask his sisters all the time to borrow their Nintendo DS, and was happy to have gotten one for his very own.  I think he wore that thing out on our drive to California!
Kyle was so cute this year.  He really didn't care what he was opening, as long as he was opening something.  He had a great time unwrapping his presents, and was always looking for someone who needed help opening theirs.
And Kelsey, she loved the candy in her stocking the best.  As you can see, Santa comes and touches the kids noses when he comes, so the kids all have black soot on their noses which lets them know Santa came!
After presents, we spent some time playing with toys, and then headed over to Grandma Lynna's and Grandpa Steve's for more presents and dinner.  It was so fun to visit with everyone and hang out.  Grandma made a YUMMY prime rib dinner, and we really enjoyed our Christmas together.  It was a great year, and another year to remember how grateful we our for our Savior Jesus Christ and his life here on earth!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Thanksgiving Pictures

Wow, I haven't blogged in over a month!  What a slacker I've been.  (Just busy, I guess....)  We had a great Thanksgiving last week, and did something we've never done before.  We ate out on Thanksgiving!!  We had Thanksgiving dinner at Seville Country Club.  No one had to worry about cooking anything or cleaning anything up.  We went with Dave's family, and it was fun to do, but different.  We missed the leftovers, but it was nice to just be able to hang out with everyone and get some fresh air visiting on the golf course.  After the feast, we went over and took some family pictures.

It was funny, we took several family shots, and the one we ended up liking the best was the very first one we took.  I always think that's so funny when that happens.  Kelsey is sticking her tongue out, but trust me, it was the best of them all.  It sure is tricky getting 5 kids and 2 adults all looking forward and smiling!

Then we got this cute shot of the kids.  I love how Tyler has his arm around Kelsey.  I think this one turned out great of each of the kids!
Then we got a shot of all the grand kids.  This was even trickier getting NINE kids looking forward.  We almost did it!
Here is our Kyle.  We think he is very photogenic!
Jessica, Ashley, and their cousin Lexi had a great time running around the golf course looking for lost golf balls.  
There was this hill that was a great place to take pictures.  The sky had lots of clouds that looked really cool against the green grass.  Tyler is so sweet with Kelsey.  He loves to make her laugh.
This is Tyler with his cousin Lyndi.  She is 16 months younger than him, but he's always loved playing with her.  She is his good friend, and I think this picture of the two of them is so sweet!

After hanging out there, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more visiting and lots of pie.  It was fun being together.  We have so much to be thankful for, and look forward to spending more time with family over the rest of the holiday season!!

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween this year.  I got to go to not one, not two, but THREE parties at school.  (Thank goodness Jessica is old enough they don't do them with the parents anymore, or I might as well have lived at the school that day!)  So, I started off the day with Kyle at his preschool.  They ate treats and Kyle showed mom and dad what he does at school.  He loved showing us the centers he does each day.  His favorite is the cars and blocks, and we got to spend time playing those with him.  (I forgot my camera at his, so Dave took some with his iphone I'll have to download later.)

Then it was off to Tyler's party at 12:30.  They had some fun Halloween crafts, decorated cookies, and played bingo.  It was fun seeing him with all his friends. 

This was a cute spider hat they made at one of the centers.  I love his big blue eyes in this picture!!  
Then it was on to Ashley's party at 2:30.  (Luckily they all happened to be at different times.)  At Ashley's party they ate treats (check out the cool spider cupcake she made), made some fun crafts, and played games.  Ashley was so happy she said because she got to eat so many treats! (She is our sugar girl!)  
The kids all got to decorate these cool masks.  I thought she did a great job, very sparkly!!

After dinner it was time to go trick or treating.  Jessica was excited because she was invited to a Halloween party a couple of her friends were throwing.  They met up and had dinner, went trick or treating, and played games.  She had a great time and was really glad she went.  She wanted to be a pirate, and I thought her costume turned out great.

Ashley didn't really have any preference of what she wanted to be, so when I found this costume at a garage sale, I had to get it for her.  She has always loved pink, and I loved the pink and black hat with the hair!  So, Ashley was our "diva" witch, and loved strutting her stuff.
Tyler wanted to be a ghost for Halloween.  I thought it was a funny thing for a 6 yr. old to want to be.  I was expecting a superhero or something like that, but no, he wanted to be a ghost.  It was a pretty funny costume, and it was pretty hard to tell who he was with his mask on, but one look at those big, blue eyes and that gave it away!
Kyle was our fire fighter.  Our neighbor Dave is a fire fighter, so he really liked this costume!  Tyler wore it a couple of years ago, and it's always nice to be able to recycle costumes.
And last, our cute Kelsey was Tweety Bird, dressed like a pumpkin.  I got this costume for Ashley when she was little, and I think every one of our kids has worn it!  She didn't like to keep the hat on, but luckily she kept it on long enough to snap a couple of pictures.
Jessica had already gone to her party, but here are the four others.  We thought it was pretty funny how Tyler blended into the door.  And I LOVE Kelsey's face in this picture.  I sure am going to miss this age as she gets older.  She is so fun, and we really are enjoying her!
After the photo shoot, we went trick or treating around the neighborhood, and ended up at the Hunts house to visit with friends, while the kids watched a movie on their garage door.  It was a great night, and fun to see friends all dressed up.  Every one's kids looked so cute!  The kids made out with lots of candy as usual, and now I'm trying to convince them how cool it would be to go to the dentist on Monday and sell their candy to them for $2/lb.  Hopefully they agree!!

1/2 Marathon!

Well, after 3 months of training, the big day finally came last Saturday.  Some friends and I were able to complete our 1/2 marathon, and it was great.  I had done one 5 years ago, and didn't know if I ever wanted to do one again.  About 3 months ago my friends Tiffany and Alice had talked about doing one, and I needed a goal to keep me running, so I said yes, and I'm so glad I did.  Running is not really enjoyable to me, but I love how it makes me feel.  I love the results I get from running, therefore I run. :)

Here we are after the race.  (Thanks Tiffany for the photo which I stole off your blog. :)  The last two miles were uphill, and it about killed me, but I finished in 2 hours 14 minutes and 37 seconds.  My goal was to beat my time from 5 years ago, which was 2 hours and 15 minutes, and man did I barely do that!  (I'm five years older, and have had 2 more kids since then, so I guess that's not bad....)  It was hard, but I'm so glad I did it!  Thanks girls for pushing me, and running with me.  I really wouldn't have done it by myself!  You are all amazing!

Now to anyone reading this thinking that they could never do this, I used to be the same way.  I've always hated running, and when I started I could barely run for 5 minutes.  But you just take it one day at a time.  Start with running for 5 minutes, then the next time do 6.  Keep going, and then one day you realize you just ran 13 miles!!