Merry Christmas

The kids love thier new pajamas, in fact Lyndsee went berserk when she opened her "footlers." The only problem was they are so warm she was cooking in the house. She had to keep opening the door to cool off.

It was a beautiful and Yummy Christmas eve spent with my parents then home for PJ's, watching the Nativity and off to bed.

Luckily the kids all made it onto the Nice list and have had a fun morning trying out their new stuff. We'll be headed to Michelle & Tony's soon for more Christmas fun.

I hope the holiday is as nice for you as it has been for us!

Birthday Girl

She's 14!

Amazing, smart, funny, silly, easily distracted, friendly but still quiet, tumbling, straight A's, lots of friends, a cell phone, texting, messy room, straight teeth, on yearbook staff, track, honors classes, handstands, reads constantly, hates to run, loves York, wants to go on another cruise, loves her cousins, high school soon!

We love her and are so proud of her. 

Christmas Running Party

Islands Running Club after what I hope will become an annual running party! Pictured above are the party attendees after our yummy breakfast. Top row: Karen and Lindy (we let them stand on the fireplace so they could be in the back row of a picture for once.) Front row: Cynthia, Barb and Lisa.

Saturday morning Lindy and Karen started bright and early, so they could have 18 miles by the time we got to breakfast, I joined them 6 miles in for a total of 12 and we picked up Lisa with 10 to go. Lisa was very disappointed when she realized she could have taken an even shorter option to breakfast but we needed her every step of the way! I had mapped 10 miles from my house in what took us in a Z pattern, Lisa of course complained every time we weren't heading directly to the restaurant. :) Barb chose the biking option today and parked at the restaurant and biked for two hours so she would be equally sweaty while eating with us.

The run was great as always. We took a new canal and I really liked it, nice and smooth (no speed bumps to trip on), and it was fun to run through Freestone Park, with lots of runners out and about. We went to Joe's Farm Grill and all got delicious breakfasts. We need to talk to them about adding hot cocoa to the menu though, that was a disappointment. Next time we will have to bring packets and get hot water there.


After breakfast we had a running gift exchange. It was so fun! We had all chosen a running related gift valued in the $10 - $15 dollar range and then we played the 'stealing' game. Karen was first and kept getting stolen from but we all ended up with really nice stuff! Its fun to get and give new gear!


I had left a car at the restaurant the night before so I drove everyone home and hated for it to end. I had looked forward to this run for weeks and felt just as excited for it as I do for races, etc. I hope we can do it every year and I hope more people will be able to make it in years to come, but I'm so glad we had our core group there this time.


Here is an idea of the fun gifts: ininji toe socks, balga socks, blinky light, long sleeve tech shirt, fuzzy socks, aluminum water bottle, ragnar jewelry. Everything was popular, but everyone ended up with the right gift for them. Merry Christmas! I can't wait for next years running party!

Really?

The kids went to see Dr. Johnson today for their dental cleanings. This is what Logan chose for his prize.  It sort of scared me when I looked at him as I was driving along.  I think he wears it well!

Sticker Fever

Another Two Races Down

I ran the Long Beach Marathon three weeks ago with a time of about 4:34ish. (Pace 10:25)

I ran the Women's Half Marathon in Tempe today with a time of 2:06ish. (Pace 9:35)

I'm super happy with both those times.  The marathon was 23 minutes faster than my previous one and my half was about 6 minutes faster. I think I may have maxed out on increasing my speed, but I'm still having fun.

Today's race was fun, especially since almost everyone I was with got PR's so we were all super happy. Now I just wish Lisa would run some more races with me :). Come on Lisa!!! I need you!

Have a great week.

Halloween Present

Here they are! Lyndsee was a beatiful Christmas Present. She got sooooo many compliments and extra candy! The costume was her idea and she was so proud of it. Logan is a crazy man in a straightjacket. I'm not sure this is a costume...I'm definitely keeping the straightjacket around in case of emergencies. :)  Brianna is a nerd, complete with duck tape suspenders and goofy glasses. It was a nice Halloween. Scott and I really enjoyed trick or treating with the kids. We kept it a family affair and we all enjoyed a nice night out together.

Happy Fall!

I also had to add this picture of me and my girls from our church party. Can you see how thrilled they are to be with me.  I guess they didn't like my costume...By the way, yes, that is a live goldfish Lyndsee is holding. We came home with three!  They are still swimming despite thier names. Logan named his Dead. Brianna named hers Turd and I think Lyndsee's is Sunshine - thank goodness for little girls.

Halloweens Past

I don't want to buy my kids Halloween costumes this year. We have so many, they are really expensive and I am really hoping to encourage them to come up with something creative. Unfortunately creative sometimes means less money, more time, which is short. I thought I would post some past Halloween pictures for your viewing pleasure.  I do love Halloween.

Sweet Snow White (4)

Bad Spider (2)

Garden Fairy (5) Pirate (3)

Tink (1) Army Man (4)

Mermaid (6)

Chefs!

Hermione (7) - with Colten stock as Harry :)

Snaggle tooth Pirate (5)

Pooh (2)

Love this pic! Spider Man (6) Snow Fairy (8) Butterfly (3)

Butterfly (3)

Pirate (following in her brother's footsteps) (4)

Troy Bolten (7)

Gothic Fairy (10)

My all time favorite costume - made by Grandma Baxter - Lyndsee is so sad to have outgrown it! (5) 

Egyptian (11), Wearwolf (8), Bumblebee (6)

Witch (7)

Penny (12) and Bolt

Too Much Candy (10)

Trampoline

Lyndsee has been doing this for at least an hour.  I wish I could work out that hard and just think it is fun!  I'm so glad we got a trampoline, even though it takes up a lot of the yard the kids love it.

Whooo Knew Turning 39 Could Be So Fun?

My 39th birthday has a theme! "Whoooo" knew? I have a bit of an owl fetish (not sure if that's the right word, but I really LOVE owls.) My friends know me well and cooperated this year! Check out the cupcakes made by my talented friend Nicole...

And what about this cute guy?

The face of a 39 year old! I should be proud of those laugh lines, right?

So far a great birthday overall. Lyndsee and I went for Krispy Kreme donuts (a free dozen on your birthday), then I went out to lunch with friends. I've gotten lots of calls, texts and emails from friends and family wishing me well. Thanks so much!

I will "Owl-ways" love you all! (couldn't resist:)

We're Home!

We spent a week in St. George with Scott's parents, sisters and their families. It was a great time! We hiked, mountain biked, ran, swam, played at the park, went to the sand dunes and more. Scott and I were glad to have an extra day at home to recover from a busy vacation before jumping back to real life.

Our biggest adventure during the week was hiking Orderville Canyon through to the Zion Virgin River Narrows. We brought Brianna and Logan with us on this one. It was gorgeous and breathtaking and some parts were scary! I'm glad we went. Scott's mom had her hands full with all of the 8 year old and under grandkids that day (six of them.) They had a fun day and she was even brave enough to take them out to lunch and swimming. We really appreciate her doing that for us! Scott and Brianna also hiked up to Angel's Landing one day. I sat this one out due to my fear of heights. :) I'm glad they went though, I enjoyed doing that hike in college with my roommates one year, but I've never forgotten the scary, steep dropoffs at the top.

This week Brianna will be going to swim team, doing her lifeguard hours and starting FlowRider camp. Lyndsee is finishing up swim team. Logan will have guitar and a week to mostly relax! Lucky boy.

I'm trying to get running again (I only ran once in St. George) but my knee is really giving me problems. I was hoping that by taking it easy on it during vacation it would heal, but apparantly not! I'm going to yoga today, trying to see if some gentle stretching will do it good.

Have a great week.

The picture above is actually from when Logan and Scott hiked the Narrows a few weeks ago with thier scout troop. The water was running higher and faster then, I can't even imagine hiking through the river with more water. It was challenging. I'm glad they made it home safe.

Busy Summer

School got out last Thursday and we had a long weekend with not much going on, but on Tuesday that all ended!

Brianna started swim team and her Lifeguard program. She can't swim at 100% yet with her broken arm, but the cast is off and she has the go ahead to "take it easy" and use it a bit. Two more weeks and hopefully she will have the all clear. She volunteers at the pool some days after swim team (at 7am) and will leave around 11. She is also going to be helping at a summer school a friend of ours is teaching two afternoons a week and has a busy social calendar too of course!

Logan started Flow Rider camp and is doubling up on guitar for awhile. Flow Rider is a surfing machine at a local pool here and he is having a ton of fun, even learning to stand up this week. On the guitar he is learning lots of fun songs and is especially liking playing "Iron Man". This week he is out in the wilderness with his dad and his scout troop. They are hiking Kanab Creek, backpacking for 4 nights and covering about 30 miles. I'm excited for them but nervous about the conditions (hot and dry!) I know Scott will take great care of them though, but I will be excited to get a call from them when they get back to cell phone coverage on Friday.

Lyndsee is my busiest kid! She just performed her spring ice skating show three times this weekend, and luckily we have a little break from skating. She is doing swim team, a summer reading group at her elementary school, and a summer school that our friend is teaching every afternoon. Plus she still has two more weeks of swim lessons. She did her first swim meet Saturday and did fantastic!

Luckily afternoons are pretty much free. We have been enjoying some down time and hanging out with friends most days. The pool is getting a lot of use and they are all getting sooooo brown.

Have a great week.

A Mom Can Brag, Right?

Scott and I are totally proud of our kids but we are especially proud of Brianna today. We got invited to an award assembly at her school today where she received an Outstanding Student award. She was not aware that she would be getting this award so it was fun to watch her reaction.  She was chosen from over 600 students in the 7th grade. About +/- 30 other students were also honored (each teacher got to choose one or two kids to honor, one was an Academic Award and the other was an Outstanding Student award.) She was chosen by her Social Studies teacher for the Outstanding Student Award because of both her academic achievement and her character. While I’m bragging I will go on to say she also achieved a 4.65 GPA this school year by maintaining all A’s this year (she got a GPA boost from her 3 honors classes.)

Way to go Brianna! Wear your medal with pride.

New York - Second Half

I'm finally getting around to posting the second half of our New York trip. This one will be a little more abbreviated.

Throughout the rest of the week we did the following, but not in this order: Ran a race through Central Park. We walked through Seaport Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, etc. We had a yummy dinnner and even better desserts in Little Italy. We rented remote control sailboats in Central Park. We wandered through the Museum of Natural History (it's cooler in the movie, but still pretty neat.) We got cupcakes at Crumbs and Magnolia Bakery, Cannoli's in Little Italy, Cheesecake at Juniors, and Pizza at Rays. We went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway - AWESOME! We played at some awesome parks. We had a nice afternoon at Central Park Zoo. The kids rode the ferris wheel inside Toys R Us. We bought some souvenirs. We went to the top of the Empire State Building. And so much more but those were some highlights. Here are a few more pictures, in no particular order.

I ran a 4 mile race through Central Park. Logan and Lyndsee ran the kids races.

Lyndsee Adopted Laini at the American Girl Store.

We found LOTS of statues in Central Park to climb on.

YUM!

Baxter Street

Awesome Playgrounds!

Museum of Natural History. Nothing came to life (like the movie), but it was interesting.

So many desserts, so little time!

Ferris Wheel at the Toys R Us in Times Square.

Central Park Zoo

We LOVED Mary Poppins

Seaport Village