Summer Time

Summer is just flying by and we haven't even done much. The other day I took all 5 kids (something I rarely do) up to the Payson pool. Everyone had such a blast, we will definitely be back.

An attempt to get a picture of all 5 kids....not too succesful

My friends will love me for this pic :)

Some pictureless things we've done this summer:

Quilt camp with the Church girls

A day at 7 Peaks with Stephani's fam

Jonah camping for a week with Grandpa Gary and boy cousins

Tea Party for Bliss girls at Grandma Judi's house

Here's hoping I'll pull out my camera a little more.

Ogden Marathon

I can't believe it has taken me so long to blog about one of the biggest events of my life! After about 7 months of training I ran the Ogden marathon. (26.2 really long miles) I was so lucky to have such awesome running partners to get me out all those cold early mornings. It was not easy sometimes. It was about the hardest thing I've ever done and I didn't do it fast by any means, but I finished. And that was my main goal.

At the starting line, feeling very scared!

All my kids were there with Justin at the finish line.

They even jumped in and ran the last little bit with me!

My running girls that I love so much. And my dad,

he was our driver on some of those cold early mornings.

Lindsey and I stayed together through the whole race.

I couldn't have finished without her!

Even my mom and dad came to cheer me on.

I was so happy they made the trip all the way up

there. It really meant a lot to me!

Me and my boys

We spent the night up in Eden with the kids and

Darlene and Brayden. It was such a fun weekend.

Running the marathon was a pretty great experience. I'm proud of myself for doing it but I'm pretty sure its not something I want to do again. I couldn't have done it without all the support from my awesome running friends and most of all Justin and my kids. There were lots of morning I was off running instead of home getting them ready for school. But they didn't complain (too much) and were there for me in the end.

Kindergarten Graduation

I can't believe this little man is headed for first grade! All I ever hear myself say anymore is, "where did the time go?" First he loved school, then after Christmas break he hated it, then he started to like it again just in time for it to be out. He was just glowing during his graduation, loving every minute of it. Congrats my buddy! Love you!

Easter 2011

This year for Easter we decided we were ready for some warm weather and headed down to Arizona. Justin's mom's family has a big Easter egg hunt and the kids were dying to go visit Ann and her kids so we took off. We drove down with Mike & Steph and so of course our first stop was the Chinese restaurant in Fillmore! We stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam on the way then spent the night in Page(where Justin claims there were bed bugs....YUCK) The next morning we were off to Mesa. It is a way long drive but pretty scenic so that was a good thing. After watching Tangled and Yo Gabba Gabba about 200 times we were there!

Stephani and I decided we have a lot of kids between the two of us

We showed up for the Easter Egg hunt. Most of Justin's cousins I hadn't even met and he hadn't seen in years. I was really glad when Danny got out of the car wearing this. What a way to make a first impression.
As soon as I saw this egg, I knew we'd have some tears!
Somehow my pictures got out of order.....here is my kids and Ann's kids out on the tramp. I just love how these kids can just pick up and have so much fun together even though they don't see each other often.
Back to the Easter egg hunt....Liv, Steph, me & Hailey
The cute girls
Somehow Danny managed to get lots of eggs and no stickers from the cactus.

Jonah was pretty impressed with these big cactus.
Hailey, Ragen & Bethany having breakfast
This is where Danny spent 99% of his time.
Hailey & Ragen making an easter cake, fondant and all. I was sad I forgot to get a picture of the finished product. But it was cute.
Coloring eggs in Ann's backyard
We took a little trip to see the Temple. It was so pretty, I loved it! Justin's parents were married in this temple so that made it a little extra special!
The kids and their sunburns at the temple grounds.
On our way back home the boys really wanted to go back to the Dam and take the tour. It was pretty neat and I loved being so close to Lake Powell......makes me want to go back!
Even though it was a long drive, it was worth it. I love making memories with my family!

Dance Competition

Hailey had her dance competition in St. George this weekend. We always look forward to getting down there this time of year. The girls did great on their dances and we all had lots of fun. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took all weekend! This was just one of the many times we went out to eat......don't worry, the moms were there too.

Such pretty girls!!

Drew, Khloe, Hailey, Sydni, Olivia, McKenna, Macey

More from Danny.....

Whenever I open the computer I find pictures funny pictures of Danny he has taken with photo booth. This was one of my favorites.

This kid never quits! Here are a few recent things he has said that I wanted to record.

For family home evening we were talking about natural disasters and what to do in the situation. We were telling the kids if there was a fire upstairs they would have to break the window and jump out. Jonah was talking about all the ways he could break the window then Danny piped up and said, "It won't be hard for me. I'm a Jedi Master and I will use the force to break the window."

The next morning Danny woke up and came downstairs and reminded us we hadn't talked about what to do if....."Aliens attack our planet"

Danny was eating his breakfast and we were talking. I told him he and I were best friends. He said, "actually mom, we're lovers."

Danny came home from school and I asked how his day was and what he did. "Nothing, just went to the principals office." After he told me what he did I tried to convince him going to the office was bad and he just didn't understand. I asked what the principal said to him and he said, "He just asked me if I knew how to milk the cows." He must have forgot the part where he got in trouble.

"I can't wait til dad's a grandpa and he has really hairy arms."

"When I'm a Grandpa, Sydni will probably be dead."

Our Vacation

After a long stressful time on the dairy for Justin we decided we needed a break! We decided to spend a week on the island of St. Maarten and visit a couple of other islands while we were there. I couldn't have been more happy to see some sun after a long winter. We spent a lot of time laying on the beach and it was sooooo nice! We didn't arrive til late afternoon so the first day we just ate dinner then went to bed. We were so tired! The next day we just hung out on the beach right outside our hotel. The water was so clear it was awesome!

This is our hotel from the beach. The hotel was pretty nice and we couldn't have asked for a better location! Right where we stayed is where the cruise ships would dock so there was always lots of people and lots going on.
I think my favorite part of the trip was no cell phones! Justin hasn't been off of his phone much in the last 6 months so it was really nice having no interruptions. And after our days at the beach we would go back to the hotel and skype with the kids so it worked out perfect.
On our 3rd day we took a boat over to a little island called Prickly Pear. Its close to Anguilla which was another island I really wanted to visit but we didn't get the chance. But Prickly Pear was gorgeous and we had tons of fun snorkeling here.

The only thing on this island is this little shack/restaurant. People take boats over here every day to work at this little place and the food was so so good!
I think my favorite part of the trip was the day we went to St. Barts. I got a little sea sick on the boat ride there, but once we got there I was fine. This is definitely the island of the rich and famous. I was hoping to see some celebrities but no such luck. If I could I'd vacation here only! Another cool thing is it's owned by France so my passport now has a French stamp so ya for me!
We spent most of the day right here under these (expensive) umbrellas. We had lunch here and just laid on the beach and swam in the ocean. So relaxing!
After a while we decided to walk around the island a little. We found this cool old church and looked around in some shops. Too bad I didn't bring a few thousand extra dollars with me or I would have bought something. We also found a fun little ice cream shop where we had yummy gelato and did some people watching, my favorite!
We knew we were close to shell beach so we decided to check it out. It was exactly that....shell beach. There were small patches of sand but pretty much all the ground was covered with these little shells. They were so neat and made for some easy cheap souveniers!
Leaving beautiful St. Barts at sunset.
The traffic on the island was so insane! It took us a couple of days to get brave enough to actually drive anywhere. But we were glad we did, other than when we got to our car someone had thrown a rock through the back window. We drove around and saw tons of beaches we loved. This is orient beach and was one of our favorites. We ended up coming back a second time.
We had to find the beach where the planes came in. The runway was literally right next to the beach and when the planes landed you could almost reach up and touch them. It was crazy, and a little scary!
We had heard that there was a night club called Bliss but since we're not really the clubbing type we never went in, but we thought we better at least get a picture, too bad I closed my eyes!

We had such a great time and when the time came, we were ready to head back home. Another highlight of the trip was seeing our good friends Tom and Leigh Anne in Atlanta. They live about an hour from the airport and drove in to see us. I thought it was the perfect way to end such a great trip. But it was too good to be true.....when we got back to SLC around midnight not only was it a blizzard outside but our car battery was dead! After about an hour of waiting and working on the car we were headed home....going 30 mph! I didn't think we'd ever get home but we finally did. And now, we can't wait to do it again!