Mini-Tri

A week ago today I did something incredibly crazy for me - - - I participated with my friend Nikki in a mini-triathalon! I'm incredibly out of shape (much to Nic's consternation) and ended up not having time to train or work out ahead of time like I had planned. All in all I did really well tho and ended up having a good time. I didn't push myself too hard since I wasn't interested in times - I just wanted to finish! My final time was 1:16:29 - not bad for just getting off the couch!

The first event was swimming a 1/4 mile. I thought that would be fine, but quickly found out that there is a HUGE difference between swimming 8-10 laps in the pool, and swimming a 1/4 mile in open water!

Next was the 6 mile bike ride. I just kept telling myself I was out for an afternoon bike ride. I was so focused when I came in and put my bike up, that I totally forgot to take my helmet off and started the running portion still wearing it. Duh! I had to come back, take it off and start up again.

The final leg was a 2 mile run (walk in my case). I was struggling with a really bad side ache by this time,but I pushed through and came in strong. Woohoo! I finished!!! Nic was so proud of me, and I felt great for having done it!

Family Times & San Francisco

Life keeps happening so quickly that I'm having trouble finding the time to keep our blog updated or send out the usual family emails. I sure wish we could add a few more hours to the day! Lol.

As always we've had a busy and fun few months. We've had a family friend Anneli visit, Little Livy's Open House, Easter, a baby shower for my friend Tammy (being induced this week), lots of niece & nephew time, Myriah's birthday, flying for Nic, my dad & Allison visiting and a fabulous Girls Weekend in San Francisco with my best friend Sarah.

Last weekend my dad and Allison got to stay with us one night on their way through town. It was so much fun! They arrived a little earlier than planned which we were excited about. Fiona, Dave & Kenzie joined us for a fun family dinner and playtime at the park. Kenzie was so excited to join us in throwing a softball around after she got done playing on the swing. Nic decided it'd be funny to do "airplane" to me. As you can see, Fiona (and I) weren't sure how well that'd turn out! Lol. It was so wonderful to see them!

This weekend I was lucky to get to join my "BFF" Sarah in SF for a shopping filled birthday weekend with her and her family. It's hard to believe that next June will be 20 years of being friends! Man, time flies!!! We literally took the phrase Shop Till You Drop to heart and spent all day Sat shopping, trying on clothes and just having fun together. I love these women! That night was FABULOUS Italian food to celebrate Sarah's & Sam's birthdays, followed by church the next day and good family time to celebrate Mother's Day.

Jamie K got to come in to town the end of March for Robin & Livy's Open House. That was such a fun week! We spent the whole week having girls nights every night. Kenzie got to hold Livy and be a "big sister" for a bit. She was on cloud 9 and so protective of her! So many friends came to the Open House that we hadn't gotten to see for quite a while - it was a wonderful time!

Myah had her 7th birthday a couple weeks ago and we all got to go celebrate with her in a Hawaiian themed party. It was so much fun. The whole family (minus Jake) got to be there.

Kids & Babies

I got to have the girls over Wed night for a small girls night putting the announcements together for Robin's open house. We all enjoyed passing Livy around and cuddling with her. She's such a doll!

Nic and I had such a great weekend! We got to have Katie spend the night Friday night, then Sat morning Katie & I picked up Amber and Kenzie and the 4 of us girls headed to the pool for some fun in the water (Nic had to do airplane stuff). It was a blast! Katie loved being a "big sister" to Kenzie for a while, Kenzie loved having Amber there to jump to when I was playing with Katie and Amber loved the chance to go test out the work-out equipment for a bit at the Y. Afterwards we headed to Subway for lunch where Kenzie got to order her first ever to-go sandwich. Katie and I dropped everyone else back off and then she and I had 1 on 1 time playing Clue. I love my nieces!

Sat night I picked up Kenzie again after a Zumba class and brought her home for a night with Uncle Nic & Aunt Sarah (so Mom & Dad could have a date night). I put her hair in curlers for Fiona so it'd be adorable for church the next day. Between Katie Fri night and Kenzie Sat night, needless to say I did NOT get much sleep this weekend. Nic is working at the Station tonight so I'm going to bed EARLY!!! :-)

Babies

What an exciting time of life... I am surrounded by babies and don't actually have to go through labor myself (at this point). :-) Life doesn't get much better!

My cousin Shari and my dear friend Robin both had baby girls on Monday Feb 22nd. Little Persephone and Laura Olivia "Livy" are very welcome additions to our family! I love being an aunt!!! I also have many friends and 1 sister that are pregnant as well. I'm so excited for Tammy, Nichole, Marshanne and Fiona to have their sweet babies so I have even more to play with. Here are pictures of Little Livy. Shari has cute pictures of Persephone on her blog site.

Flying

Nic has been flying quite a bit lately for the CAP (Civil Air Patrol - for those that don't know he's one of their Maintenance Officers). Their maintenance facility is down in SLC so anytime he has to fly a plane down there he guarenteed at least 4-5 hours of flight time that day, which is awesome! Here's a picture of just why Nic loves to fly so much...

It is so peaceful up there and absolutely gorgeous! Our niece Amber has also started with the CAP as a cadet, so you can imagine how proud Nic especially is of her. She wants to be a pilot which we're quite tickled about. He's been teaching her how to shine her boots, do a proper salute and about-face, etc. It's been so much fun!

Do red-heads have more fun or do blondes?

Well, I'm not sure the answer to the more fun question yet, but I'm certainly enjoying finding out. I finally got around to fixing my hair since I colored it and took a few pictures to post. (Nic is flying cadets around right now, so you get the fun of the "self-taking" angle in the pictures.) :-) The more I get used to it the more I love it. I kept a streak of blonde in it for fun and love the effect.

2010 Has Begun

It's hard to believe we're finishing the first week of February already! Where does the time go?

Christmas was a wonderful, fun-filled, family-centered crazy time of year for us. We got to see just about all of our family which was so cool! Rhyll flew up for Christmas, Dad & Gang came down from Washington with Gma & Gpa, Kailey flew up from St George and of course we got to see all of the local family as well. There was lots of laughter, presents, games, dinners and catching up. The highlight for me was getting to join Rhyll going through the temple. The downfall was that Whitney and Ben didn't get to make it up this year. :-( Kailey's flying squirrels were definitely an unexpected fun addition to the group this year!

I have vascilated back and forth about setting goals this year but after being inspired by reading some of my family and friend's goals, I finally sat down and wrote some up. (Now I just need to print them out so I actually look at them and work toward them!)

I got a wild hair the other night and decided I was ready for a change... So I decided to become a red-head! I don't have very good pictures yet, but here's a start...