St. George Marathon

Wow, I'm really behind in blogging!  I've decided instead of trying to play catch-up, I'm going to just post the most recent, and then TRY and get back to the things I missed.  So, this past weekend I was able to run in the St. George marathon with my good friend Alice.  It was such an awesome experience and one I thought I'd NEVER want to do, but since I've been running so much this past year, I decided I'd do it.

Dave and I left the kids home with a sitter, and we got to go up together for the weekend.  It was fun having him there, and he was a great support!  
Here is Alice and I after the race.  We trained together the past 4 months, and it was so fun to run the race with her.  
I had never run with so many people.  There were 5600 people that ran, and it was such a fun atmosphere to be in!  I love this picture with all the people turning the corner.
Dave and Alice's husband Mike got on mountain bikes and met up with us along the course for the last 8 miles.  It was nice having them there cheering us on.  The last 6 miles were brutal!  My legs were so tired and sore, but it felt soooo good to run into the finish line!  It was such a sense of accomplishment.  For anyone reading this saying they could never do a marathon, that was me a year ago.  I actually never had a desire to do one, and said I never would.  I kind of put my name in the lottery secretly hoping I wouldn't get in, but once I did, I knew I had to do it.  I'm so glad I did.  Now that it's over people ask me, "So, would you do another one?"  And honestly, I thought I'd never say this either, but "Yes, I totally would!"

Lake Havasu and California Trip

Well, I'm really behind in blogging, so I'm going to try and play catch-up.  I think for tonight I will try and just blog about our California trip we took to visit my parents a few weeks ago.  We went the weekend before the 4th of July and drove to Lake Havasu to stay a few nights at Dave's parent's lake house.  We had a great time and always love spending time there with grandma and grandpa.

Dave had has surfboard with him since we were going to the beach in CA, so he decided to try and surf behind the boat.  It worked pretty well, and Dave enjoyed it.
I spent a lot of time on the Sea-Doo's driving kids around.  Usually there are lots of other people in our group with us that can help take the kids out, but this time it was just our little family with Grandma and Grandpa, so Dave and I had to do all the driving for the kids.  They loved getting lots of time on them, but after a while it got a little tiring for Dave and I.  
The kids love to knee board, but the knee board got left behind, so Dave let them use his surfboard to do it.  It worked pretty well, but took a big chunk out of the front of it from the rope.  (Luckily Dave repaired it.)  Tyler loved knee boarding.
Here are the girls chillin' on the boat.  It sure was hot there.  Good thing there was lots of water around us!!  You had to jump in the water quite often to stay cool.  (Not that you really ever felt cool.)

After the weekend, we headed to my parents house in Southern California.  We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and got to do lots of fun stuff.

Dave took the four oldest kids to a Dodger game.  They got there early for batting practice, and were able to catch 2 balls.  They were pretty excited about that.
After the game, they let the crowd go onto the field for a big fireworks show.  The kids enjoyed that!
Here they are with their balls.  Some former Dodger player signed them.  (Can't remember what his name was......)
Since one of my favorite things to do when I go visit my mom is go to Kohls shopping, Dave didn't want to just sit around the house with the kids, so he took them for a walk down to 7-11 and bought them slurpies.  They thought that was pretty cool.
I asked the girls what they wanted to do one day, and Jessica said she wanted to go down to Hollywood and see the famous "stars".  So we drove down there with my niece Amber.  We checked out all the strange people, and saw a statue of the worlds tallest man at the Guinness Book of World Records museum.  (We didn't go inside since they charge a fortune for those places!!)
It happened to be just a few days after Michael Jackson died, so we saw the stuff everyone had placed on Michael Jackson's star.  It was really crowded there, and people were taking lots of pictures.  (I used to be a HUGE fan when I was in 4th grade!)

Here we were in front of where the star was.  You can see all the people behind us lined up to see his "star".  
Then we crossed the street and ate at Baja Fresh.  While we were there, Elvis Presley and Marilynn Monroe were there eating.  (I've never seen so many hollywood impersonators as I did that day!!!)

It was fun having grandma spend the day with us!!
The day before the 4th of July we headed to the beach with my two sister's and my brother.  It was fun being there with all of them.  I especially enjoyed boogey boarding with them.  
I was such a wimp with the cold water.  I had to wear Dave's full wet suit I was so cold!  I've definitely acclimated to the hot Arizona weather.  I need my warm water!
Here I am with my 2 sisters.  I am so grateful for these 2 girls in my life!  I have the best sisters ever!
Here we all are chillin' on the beach.  One thing I miss about CA is the beach.  Good thing it's close enough we still get to go in the summers.
While we were there we got to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary.  (I think 42nd or 43rd, pretty crazy!)  We made this big fruit pizza.  It was yummy.  (Yes, I put all that fruit on there.  The blueberries were picked by us while we were there.  It was fun, but a little tedious.)  I am so grateful for my parents.  I'm who I am today because of them.  They are amazing!
Then, for the 4th of July, we headed down to the park by my parent's house for the traditional concert in the park, followed by fireworks.  The kids had a great time playing together.  
Jennaca and Kelsey......
And some of the cousins........
Dave and I.......(I was glad we took this picture.  We don't get very many of us anymore....)
And the last day we were there was a Sunday.  We had some time before church so I french braided my girls hair.  Well, all the nieces wanted it done, so I did theirs, too.  Then my sister's wanted in on the action, so I braided theirs, also.  
So, here were all the girls with their cute hair.  Too bad I couldn't do my own.  Oh, well.  Denise said she hadn't had her hair braided since high school.  It was like girls camp all over again! 

We had such a great visit with the family.  We were planning to drive back after church, but we were having so much fun and didn't want to go home, so we stayed an extra day.  Thanks mom and Dad for letting us come visit!  We always have such a great time there!

Tyler's 7th Birthday

Tyler celebrated his 7th birthday in May, and loved being the birthday boy for the day.

He started his day off opening presents.  
I can't believe how big our kids are getting.  I remember so well when Tyler was born, and how excited we were to have a boy.  And here he is turning 7 on me.  I keep telling him to stop growing but he just won't listen to me.
After opening presents, we headed over to the ice skating rink.  They were supposed to have their hockey clinic that day, but canceled it since it was a holiday weekend.  So they let all the families and friends come skate during that time, for FREE!!  So we took the family and a couple of Tyler's friends for some ice skating.
Kyle got to try it for his first time.  As long as he was holding the wall, or your hand, he was just fine.  
Since we didn't have to pay, we decided to let Kelsey try it, too.  The skates were a couple of sizes too big, but she sure loved it!  I was actually impressed with how well Kelsey did.  She thought she was so grown up out there, it was so cute.
I'm glad I thought to have this family picture taken out on the ice.  It was fun to be out there all together.  
After ice skating, I took Jessica, Ashley, Tyler, and his two friends over to the movies to see Night at the Museum 2.  It was a cute movie.  Then that evening Tyler got to go out to dinner with just his mom and dad.  (We take each of the kids out to dinner for their birthday's with just mom and dad.  They think it's pretty cool to get that one-on-one time with their parents.  Hopefully they think it's still cool as they get older......)

Tyler had a great birthday, and it was fun sharing the day with him.  Happy Birthday, Tyler.  We love you!!!

Tyler's Hockey Camp

During the month of May, we signed Tyler up for an ice hockey camp our friends told us about.  The best part was it was completely FREE!  They loaned out all the equipment, and for all the Saturdays in May they ran a clinic for the boys.  

It was quite fun to watch these boys out on the ice with all their gear on.  It was quite the production to get ready for ice hockey.  Here is Tyler with his buddies Jaden and Ben.  (Tyler is in red.)
His favorite day was the last Saturday when they set up the goals and let them have "free play".  They set out a bunch of pucks for the kids, and Tyler loved scoring goals.  (It wasn't too hard to do with all the pucks out there.)  The funny thing was he kept track of every single puck he hit into the goal.  The first thing he said when he saw me after he was done was "Mom, I scored 47 goals!!"  He was so excited.  
This kid sure loves to play.  We hope his love of sports continues, and we love to watch him try new things.  He thought the hockey was fun, but wasn't interested in pursuing it anymore.  (Good thing since I think it's a pretty expensive sport to play.)  Good job, Tyler!!

Father's and Sons Outing

Dave got to take the boys to the Father's and Son's camp out.  They of course had a great time, and were happy to have that special time with their dad.

One of their favorite things they got to do was to ride in the back of the Nelson's truck up to the water tower.
Once they got there, they were excited to go up to the top.
They thought it was pretty cool to be up so high.
These boys sure loved being together, and of course their dad loved it, too!

And while the boys were out, of course the girls had their tradition of going out to dinner together.  This year we chose Carrabbas, and it was yummy.  We finished off the night shopping, and then renting a movie.  We love this yearly tradition and can't wait to do it again next year!

Jessica's 12th Birthday at Disneyland

We just got back yesterday from spending two days at the happiest place on earth.  It was a great trip, and even more special since Jessica was able to spend her 12th birthday at Disneyland.  She even got a gift card from Disneyland for $69 that she could spend on whatever she wanted at the shops.  She was nice and shared a little with Ashley and Tyler since they wouldn't get the chance to be there on their birthdays.

Here is the birthday girl.  I can't believe she is 12 years old!  Time flies.  She is growing up into quite the young women, and I'm so proud of the person she is.  I tell her all the time, but I hope she truly knows how wonderful she is.  
It was pretty funny how Kyle had to stick his arms out like his big sister did in her picture.  He sure looks up to his older brother and sisters, and wants to be just like them.  Good thing they are such good examples for him.
It's pretty scary to think she will actually be doing this in 14 years.  Good thing it's still a ways off!
We waited in a short line, and was able to have our own special time with Mickey.  Kelsey wanted NOTHING to do with him, and screamed the whole time.  As you can see she is trying to get as far away from him as she can.  It was pretty funny.  She did not like ANY of the characters she saw.
Dave's brother Jeff and his family met us at Disneyland and the kids loved hanging out with their cousins.  These are the girls waiting for everyone to get off of Space Mountain.  Kyle had never been on that ride and was tall enough, so we took him on it.  It was the first ride of the day, and he was so excited.  Well, he got a little scared on the ride, and after he didn't want to go on any more rides.  Luckily we convinced him to go.  Every ride we had to reassure him it was a "happy" ride, and not dark and scary.  I guess we should have waited till later on in the day to do the fast, dark ride!
My sister lives close to Disneyland so we stayed a night with her.  She was able to join us both days, and we had fun hanging out with her and her kids.  She is a trooper going with her three little ones, and little baby she would wear on her chest all day!  Thanks for coming along with us, Denise!  It's always so fun to see you!
Here are my handsome boys!  Tyler was excited because he was finally tall enough to ride the Maliboomer in California Adventure.  He loved it and luckily the lines were short they were able to do it a few times.
As we were leaving, Tyler asked to have his picture taken in front of the big "A".  The girls kept asking him why he wanted his picture taken in front of the "A".  He said "because there isn't a 'T'!"  Makes sense.  I think the "A" is a pretty cool letter myself.  We went over to get a picture and sure enough there was a line of 2 or 3 people waiting to get their picture taken in front of the "A".  I guess it really is a popular letter........

And if you haven't had the chance to go on a roller coaster in a while, go ahead and click on the video below.  This was taken by Dave on the California Screamin' ride.