Daniel is hiking. The older 2 are in school. Me and the babes are home.
So what am I gonna do on my berfday:
I'm gonna start off by going to the bathroom-alone.
Im going to tickle the baby's toes and listen to him giggle without rushing onto the next task.
I'm going to have lunch with the best group of friend's I could ask for.
I'm going to pretend Im not in my 30's yet.
I'm going to eat something I shouldn't-bag that- Im gonna eat EVERYTHING I shouldn't- and not feel guilty at all.
I'm going to walk a little slower, because I can.
I'm going to thank my Heavenly Father for a million blessings- big and small- mostly wrapped up in the packages I call friends, family and home.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
First day of School!!!
Today was the first day of school for Mason and Savannah, and a few things have changed since last year. Mason has added a set of spectacles and a tin grin, while Savannah has much less hair :) Mason began fourth grade. I can't believe he only has 2 years left of elementary school! Savannah got her first school lunch today since it was her first day of first grade. She hasn't even turned 6 yet, and she is so small that it's hard to believe she's a big first grader!
They both had a great day and are excited about this new year. Here are a few pictures of the kids on their first day!
They both had a great day and are excited about this new year. Here are a few pictures of the kids on their first day!
Dear Jaxon
Dear Jax,
Today I was mowing the lawn. You hopped on the riding lawn mower and sat right in front of me, snuggled up close. You helped me turn the wheel, and every so often, turned around to look at me. After a while, you tired of it and asked to "gee opp" "(get off). I lifted you off and you darted across the grass with your cute little run. And then you stopped, turned around again, gave me a million watt smile and waved. It occured to me that you won't remember this day, or this seemingly ordinary moment- but I will.
Love,
Mom
Today I was mowing the lawn. You hopped on the riding lawn mower and sat right in front of me, snuggled up close. You helped me turn the wheel, and every so often, turned around to look at me. After a while, you tired of it and asked to "gee opp" "(get off). I lifted you off and you darted across the grass with your cute little run. And then you stopped, turned around again, gave me a million watt smile and waved. It occured to me that you won't remember this day, or this seemingly ordinary moment- but I will.
Love,
Mom
Friday, August 14, 2009
Kids Tri Harder Triathlon 2009
For the 2nd year in a row, my kids got to participate in the Kids Tri Harder Triathlon. They have such a great time and look forward to it all year. Mason has a pretty laid back attitude about it, just wanting to have a good time, while Savannah is cut-throat and swears she has to train and she has to win. This is typical of their personalities :)
For the kids 7 and under, they swim once across the pool (and can wear life jackets), bike around the block and run through a U shaped course in the parking lot. All is said and done in under 10 minutes. For the kids 8 and older, they do twice that, and no life jackets.
Mason and Savannah getting ready to start
Savannah flexing her muscles. While we were in the locker room getting ready, she said, "I sure hope these people trained!" LOL
Savannah swimming. She was first out of the water. She was booking it for a tiny thing in a life jacket!
On the bike, with her too large helmet falling over her eyes.
And running her little heart out.
Savannah came in very fast and was pretty sure she took first. Indeed, she did and she said, "I won 2 years in a row!" She was thrilled. She is a very competitive spirit.
Mason forgot his goggles so he had to use Savannah's pink ones :) He said pink goggles were better than none!
Here he is in the pool getting ready to start!
And riding his bike.
Running away....
Here is Savannah with her first place ribbon and medal. Mason came in 7th in his category. They both said it was a blast and can't wait to do it again. I am so proud of them for their hard work and great attitudes! You kids rock!
For the kids 7 and under, they swim once across the pool (and can wear life jackets), bike around the block and run through a U shaped course in the parking lot. All is said and done in under 10 minutes. For the kids 8 and older, they do twice that, and no life jackets.
Mason and Savannah getting ready to start
Savannah flexing her muscles. While we were in the locker room getting ready, she said, "I sure hope these people trained!" LOL
Savannah swimming. She was first out of the water. She was booking it for a tiny thing in a life jacket!
On the bike, with her too large helmet falling over her eyes.
And running her little heart out.Savannah came in very fast and was pretty sure she took first. Indeed, she did and she said, "I won 2 years in a row!" She was thrilled. She is a very competitive spirit.
Mason forgot his goggles so he had to use Savannah's pink ones :) He said pink goggles were better than none!
Here he is in the pool getting ready to start!
And riding his bike.
Running away....
Here is Savannah with her first place ribbon and medal. Mason came in 7th in his category. They both said it was a blast and can't wait to do it again. I am so proud of them for their hard work and great attitudes! You kids rock!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Annual GIRL'S WEEKEND- HOLLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My. Family. Rocks ;) Last year we started a tradition of taking a girl's weekend once a year. We have my G-to-the-Ma, my great Aunt Larry (Hot-Mo), my Mother the...no mom, I'm not gonna put the acronym you googled on your work computer here- my short sister, myself (who may or may not have been called a slightly crazy driver once or twice on the trip), my SIL's Lyndi Lou and the Tash-Meister, along with my daughter Savannah and my nieces Janna, Hannah and Kiana (who said her name had to be pronounced Ki-ANNA just to fit in with the rest of the girls ;). 4 generations of Towanda-filled FUN!
My beautiful niece Janna
And my amazing daughter Savannah
We headed down on Friday morning and hit the Oquirrh (or however you spell that) Mountain Temple open house. It was beautiful! Then we headed straight for the nourishment we all live and die for- Tucano's! Hold on, I feel a short ode to Tucano's coming on....
Tucano's- Oh how I love thy protein-filled gluttony. Muahhh
Back to the blog: Really the rest was all about shopping and swimming...and shopping. Oh and eating, and shopping.
We hit the Shade Warehouse Sale. Nuff said. We spent some time at Gateway mall. We went to Gardner Village. We went to the Children's Place, JC Penney etc and did a lot of school shopping. We went to Salt Lake Running Co (seriously you cannot go to SLC and not go there)....it was fabulous. We taught my little sister how to swim (and I am not ashamed to say she will be outswimming me speed-wise any day now, even though I have years more practice). I became Mt. Vesuvius for a moment in time (and no I will not explain it nor post pictures of what the heck that means...let's just say I apparently have a hidden talent when it comes to jacuzzis- I'm quite entertaining really). And we laughed :) Isn't that the best part? We painted our nails (even G-ma and Great Aunt Hot-Mo) flourescent orange and green. On Sunday we went to Music and the Spoken Word at Temple Square (with our flourescent nails on display for all the world to see), and then we headed home.
This is always so much fun. I love spending time with all the girls (well we were missing a couple and I wish they could have been there!!!! Maybe next year). It makes me so thankful for my fantastic family- for these people who love me for who I am (which is not always so great), who can have a good, juvenile laugh every once in a while, who can smile for a million and one pictures and paint their nails odd colors. Im thankful for my daughter, my partner in shopping crime, for being my BFF. Thanks girls for a fantastic time! I love you!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Spudman 2009
I am so excited to blog about this :) What an amazing time it was. On July 25th, me and the girls were able to race in SPUDMAN 2009, in Burley, ID. This race is such a popular one that last year, registration (in January no less) filled up in 17 minutes (over 2,000 athletes), so this year, they decided to make it a lottery. Athletes had until April 15th to sign up and then were informed a week or so after that if they had been selected or not. When I got the email, I started jumping up and down and hollaring. My daughter thought it was hilarious. This is the race I most wanted to do the last couple of years but wasn't able to (since I was doing more important, better things, like having beautiful babies!).
Daniel was also selected, as was my friend Debbie. Torrie had an auto entry since she wasnt able to swim last year because of the tragic drowning. However, Tammy and Hidee did not get in, so we were discouraged. We had wanted to race it as a group.
A few weeks after we got our results however, Tammy and Hidee got an email saying there were more spots available and they had been selected! We were so excited that all of us would be able to race!
Daniel decided to sit this one out since he hadn't been training, so us girls headed up on Friday morning. We took Hidee's trailer and parked right on the course with all the other trailers. This was the way to do it, I tell you! We will never drive clear from Twin because that's the only place we could find a hotel-again!
We had a great time on Friday. Ate, got checked in, set up transition one.....
Saturday arrived and we were ready to go! We were all in the same wave except Tammy, who was in the wave starting 10 minutes after us.
Debbie and I heading down to the water.....
And...off we went....
The swim is current aided so it's fast and fun! It went rather smoothly except that I thought my timing chip was coming off, so I stopped moving my legs, trying desperately to keep it on. However, in a wetsuit, I dont feel like it slowed me down all that much. I did the 1 mile swim in 19:43. When I got out of the water (I always expect to be last out of the water of our group since I am the slowest swimmer), I was surprised to see everyone else still in transition, meaning I wasn't as far behind them as usual :) I had a relatively smooth transition and off I went....
Coming out of T1 and heading into the bike....
About mile 4 of the bike, I caught Torrie (I could see her thanks to our matching shirts. I just looked for the pink circle on the back and knew it was my girls!). About mile 14 I caught Debbie. The bike was going well and I think we all felt good about how well we did. It was a 25 mile bike. I finished the bike in 1:15. I got into transition and Debbie and Torrie were right behind me. I handed off some chewies to Debbie, changed out of my clips and into my running shoes and took off....
Me going into the run.....
By the time we hit the run. IT. WAS. HOT. We don't usually train in the heat since we have to go early morning. I have also been dealing with the knee injury and had not been able to run really in 5 weeks or so. The times I had attemtped to run, it had been really painful and I hadnt made it very far. I had (and still have been) doing physical therapy 3 times a week for it. I was still hoping to do a really good time on the run. But with the heat, my exhaustion by the time I got to the run, and the knee, I wasn't moving as fast as I would have liked. That's the bad news. The good news is apparently everyone else was in the same boat, and as usual the run is where I really made some progress and started passing so many people. About 2 miles into the run, I spotted Hidee's back. I didnt actually think I would even see her. She is a much faster swimmer and a faster biker than I am, so I figured she would be so far ahead of me that I wouldn't even see her. She was the only one I hadn't caught up to yet. It's always so fun to race with your friends and it was awesome to be able to spot them-loved those shirts! I caught up with Hidee about mile 4. That's about the same time I wanted to die ;) It was so hot. And I was so slow-or so it felt! But I kept on movin' along for all 6.2 miles. My goal was to finish the race in under 2:40 and when I crossed the finish line, I came in at 2:34:30! I was thrilled with that time. My knee held up surprisingly well! I'm not sure what did the trick but it was better than it had been for a couple of months!
Me crossing the finish line.... I was in wave 5 so that time is off by 40 minutes.
It was just 2 minutes before Hidee came through and finished in about 2:36.
Here we are sweaty and dying of heat. Then we waited for everyone else to finish. Tammy actually came through just 10 minutes after I did (and she started 10 minutes later) meaning her time and my time were almost identical, even though we didnt race together. When all was said and done, she came in just 2 seconds after I did! Crazy that we were that close and didnt even know it since we didnt start together!
Daniel was also selected, as was my friend Debbie. Torrie had an auto entry since she wasnt able to swim last year because of the tragic drowning. However, Tammy and Hidee did not get in, so we were discouraged. We had wanted to race it as a group.
A few weeks after we got our results however, Tammy and Hidee got an email saying there were more spots available and they had been selected! We were so excited that all of us would be able to race!
Daniel decided to sit this one out since he hadn't been training, so us girls headed up on Friday morning. We took Hidee's trailer and parked right on the course with all the other trailers. This was the way to do it, I tell you! We will never drive clear from Twin because that's the only place we could find a hotel-again!
We had a great time on Friday. Ate, got checked in, set up transition one.....
Saturday arrived and we were ready to go! We were all in the same wave except Tammy, who was in the wave starting 10 minutes after us.
Debbie and I heading down to the water.....And...off we went....
The swim is current aided so it's fast and fun! It went rather smoothly except that I thought my timing chip was coming off, so I stopped moving my legs, trying desperately to keep it on. However, in a wetsuit, I dont feel like it slowed me down all that much. I did the 1 mile swim in 19:43. When I got out of the water (I always expect to be last out of the water of our group since I am the slowest swimmer), I was surprised to see everyone else still in transition, meaning I wasn't as far behind them as usual :) I had a relatively smooth transition and off I went....
Coming out of T1 and heading into the bike....About mile 4 of the bike, I caught Torrie (I could see her thanks to our matching shirts. I just looked for the pink circle on the back and knew it was my girls!). About mile 14 I caught Debbie. The bike was going well and I think we all felt good about how well we did. It was a 25 mile bike. I finished the bike in 1:15. I got into transition and Debbie and Torrie were right behind me. I handed off some chewies to Debbie, changed out of my clips and into my running shoes and took off....
Me going into the run.....By the time we hit the run. IT. WAS. HOT. We don't usually train in the heat since we have to go early morning. I have also been dealing with the knee injury and had not been able to run really in 5 weeks or so. The times I had attemtped to run, it had been really painful and I hadnt made it very far. I had (and still have been) doing physical therapy 3 times a week for it. I was still hoping to do a really good time on the run. But with the heat, my exhaustion by the time I got to the run, and the knee, I wasn't moving as fast as I would have liked. That's the bad news. The good news is apparently everyone else was in the same boat, and as usual the run is where I really made some progress and started passing so many people. About 2 miles into the run, I spotted Hidee's back. I didnt actually think I would even see her. She is a much faster swimmer and a faster biker than I am, so I figured she would be so far ahead of me that I wouldn't even see her. She was the only one I hadn't caught up to yet. It's always so fun to race with your friends and it was awesome to be able to spot them-loved those shirts! I caught up with Hidee about mile 4. That's about the same time I wanted to die ;) It was so hot. And I was so slow-or so it felt! But I kept on movin' along for all 6.2 miles. My goal was to finish the race in under 2:40 and when I crossed the finish line, I came in at 2:34:30! I was thrilled with that time. My knee held up surprisingly well! I'm not sure what did the trick but it was better than it had been for a couple of months!
Me crossing the finish line.... I was in wave 5 so that time is off by 40 minutes. 
It was just 2 minutes before Hidee came through and finished in about 2:36.
Here we are sweaty and dying of heat. Then we waited for everyone else to finish. Tammy actually came through just 10 minutes after I did (and she started 10 minutes later) meaning her time and my time were almost identical, even though we didnt race together. When all was said and done, she came in just 2 seconds after I did! Crazy that we were that close and didnt even know it since we didnt start together!Debbie came in just after that, and Torrie just a few minutes later. We all beat our goal times by quite a bit.
The husbands (except Daniel) had come up late the night before to cheer everyone on and they were kind enough to take lots of pictures.
Here we are in the outdoor shower. I seriously cannot explain just how good this felt. We were totally overheated, sweaty, stinky and covered in all sorts of bodily fluids. I don't think anything has ever felt this good- ever.
And here we are showing off our....matching circles on our backs :)
The whole crew- Torrie, Debbie, Hidee, Me, and Tammy
The husbands (except Daniel) had come up late the night before to cheer everyone on and they were kind enough to take lots of pictures.
Here we are in the outdoor shower. I seriously cannot explain just how good this felt. We were totally overheated, sweaty, stinky and covered in all sorts of bodily fluids. I don't think anything has ever felt this good- ever.
And here we are showing off our....matching circles on our backs :)
The whole crew- Torrie, Debbie, Hidee, Me, and TammyI had an incredible time! I am so thankful for my girls! Training with them every day is a blast! Racing with them is even more fun! They are a light in my life and I feel so grateful to have this group of women as friends and training buddies! Don't know what I would do without them!
I honestly can't wait for Spudman next year. It's an amazing race! I hope we all get in once again so we can do this at least one more time!!!! Thanks Team We Tri! I love ya!
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