Hanksville Headlines

Chuck E Cheese sends us on our way...

2012-02-12T19:30:00.002-07:00

On December 28th, after a long morning of packing bags, we dropped Kevin off at Taber's work for a factory tour, and then headed out to Chuck E Cheese's for one last party before we had to leave the wonderful Rigg residence and return to the Hanks home in Chicago.

The kids all enjoyed a delightful pizza dinner before gathering their coins and hitting the rides and games.

Teya thoroughly enjoyed the games, but the younger kids mostly just wanted to go on the rides.

One of their favorite rides was actually a flight simulation. They took turns riding it together and had a blast!

Brooklyn and Lily also took the opportunity to pretend they were racing each other. Brook was pretty proud of herself for beating her sister (because her car was screwed into the ground a little further ahead than Lily's) and boasted about it for half the night!

The kids could have stayed there all night, but alas, all good things must come to an end, and we had to peel them off the rides and head to the airport.

The good thing about going to Chuck E Cheeses before flying with our kids... THEY WERE WASTED! Brooklyn passed out so hard that Kevin had to carry her across the whole airport, to the taxi, out of the taxi, and into her bed... and she never budged!

Anyway, the flight was a breeze and the girls adjusted to being back home in no time. It helped that they got to veg out by spending endless hours watching their dad play Zelda... I would have protested but it was just so very "Hanks" of them that I couldn't put an end to it :)

The Day of Dates

2012-02-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

The 27th of December was a Day of Dates! We started off the day by sending Kevin and Taber out for a "Man-cation" (aka Man Date, or Guys Day Out). They partied hard by watching Mission Impossible at the theater, eating burgers at a manly restaurant, and hitting the bowling alley for some Candlestick Bowling!

In the meantime, Becca and I took the kids to Imajine That for a Mommy and Me date. They enjoyed crawling through logs...

Shopping...

Painting...

Sliding...

Dinosaur Wrestling...

Driving...

And Problem Solving!

It was a great little place for the kids to play and an excellent way to let them run out all their extra Christmas energy! :)

Anyway, we got back from Imajine That at the same time Kevin and Taber got home from bowling. Then Kevin and I quickly handed our kids off to Taber and Becca and headed out for our own date!!!

We went to Giacomo's in Boston and had an incredible time! Our waiter looked like a mob boss and actually informed Kevin that he couldn't order what he wanted! Then he told Kevin what he was going to get and promptly brought it out :) It actually ended up being the best food EVER so we didn't mind. Plus it really made the experience that much better.

Once we were done eating, the waiter told us we were to go down the street to a gelato shop for dessert. We obeyed and were NOT disappointed! Then when we were stuffed to the brink, we turned on the GPS and did a little geocaching before heading home for bed!

The Boston Children's Museum and the Freedom Trail

2012-02-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

The day after Christmas we were able to spend the morning playing with our new toys (including Auntie Becca's new digital SLR that took most of these pictures) and having a fashion show in all our new clothes! Then, after many great poses for the camera, we packed up our kids and headed to Boston for some more fun!

Once we got into town, we dropped Kevin off on the Freedom Trail to do a little sight seeing on his own whilst Becca and I dragged all the kiddos off to the Boston Children's Museum. It was a very cold and windy day so we were all happy to play inside while Kevin ran around town exploring History!

When we arrived at the museum the girls didn't waste any time checking out all the exhibits that were on display...

And soon they found all the fun play rooms. The sand room was Lily's favorite. She started out playing with the shovels and rakes and eventually ended up swimming on the floor through a giant pile of spilled sand and licking the sand off the floor! She caused quite a commotion with the other parents :)

The girls also enjoyed playing peek-a-boo through little holes in the wall, building sand castles, and splashing around in the water room.

There was just so much to do at the museum and the girls had a blast getting all their crazies out.

It wasn't long before Kevin made it back from the Freedom Trail and joined in on all the fun. He danced with the girls in front of a green screen that made them the stars of an Arthur episode...

And taught them all how to hula hoop like a pro!

But soon the kiddos were all worn out, so we packed them back up and headed home for some good grubbin' and a wonderful night of sleep!

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Soon Christmas morning came and there was definitely MAGIC in the air!!!

Brooklyn and Lily woke up first and we had to try very hard to contain them in our bedroom until everyone else was awake. Luckily that didn't take too long!

Teya and Brinley weren't far behind and after some hugs and a story book, Taber and Becca got up too and we all headed toward the Christmas tree and stockings!

Taber and Kevin got me and Becca matching robes to wear while opening presents, so we quickly put them on and then got ready for the explosion of excitement that was to come.

And then it EXPLODED! All Brooklyn asked Santa for this year was a pet fish and a candy cane. As soon as she saw them, she was bouncing off the walls in delight!

Here she is making fish kisses to Mr. Starlight

Lily didn't ask for anything, but Santa guessed that she might like this little hammer and peg set, and he was right! We couldn't get her to open anything else after she found it by her stocking.

Once we were done seeing what Santa brought, we got to open our gifts to each other. It was so fun seeing every one's reactions to their gifts and I'm pretty sure they were all thrilled with what they got :)

Even Cam was overjoyed with the huge amount of paper to crawl through and all the noise making toys that were strewn about the room!

After all the present unwrapping was through and we'd all eaten a sugar filled breakfast, we got dressed and headed to church. The girls looked super cute in their new dresses from Auntie Becca... especially lugging around the little doggies that I crocheted them :)

Anyway, it was a perfect Christmas filled with family and fun. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-05T12:16:00.003-07:00

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Kevin, Becca and Taber went out for a 13.1 (or more) mile run on the Applefest Half Marathon course. They all wore Santa hats to get in the spirit of things and received many friendly honks and waves in return. And while they were out... I held down the fort until reinforcements could arrive :)

Once everyone was back from running, fed, and showered, we started going on shopping splits for last minute gifts and to prepare for the Rigg's Christmas Eve party!

Then right before the party started, Taber took the girls to drop off some "12 days of Christmas" gifts. They were very stealthy and well prepared for the drop as you can tell by the map Taber is planning out for everyone :)

Unfortunately, Brinley started barfing her guts out just minutes before the guests arrived. But no worries! Becca kept her game face on, got things cleaned up, quarantined Brinley upstairs with a puke pail and some movies, and then got the party started!

She and her friends had thought of everything! Chicken nuggets and smiley fries for the kid plates, gingerbread men for the children to decorate and Christmas cartoons to keep them entertained...

And lots of yummy Cafe Rio style food for the adults to munch on whilst engaging in conversation uninterrupted by little people!

When dinner was done, we had a great Christmas program, complete with music and a very cute (and CRAZY) Nativity... and then we sent everyone home to their beds so Santa could come and pay us all a visit!

Getting our Christmas Prep ON!

2012-01-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

On the 22nd and 23rd of December, we started to pound out the rest of our Christmas preparations. Basically that meant me and Becca went shopping, Taber and Kevin watched the kids... Kevin and Taber went shopping, Becca and I watched the kids... Me and Kevin went shopping, Becca and Taber watched the kids... you get the gist of it. A lot revolves around your children when your house contains an almost-1-year-old, almost-2-year-old, 3 year old, almost-4-year-old, and 5 year old!!!

But don't worry! The kiddos had limitless fun whilst the adults were getting things under wraps! They had a blast playing on the trampoline, in the playroom, and in the craft room too.

And we managed to get them out to the park between shopping trips as well! And BOY were they excited about that!

It was pretty funny watching Becca and Taber gush all over Camden at the park. He is the cutest little boy on the planet so you can't really blame them :)

Meanwhile, Brooklyn kept us pretty busy spotting her while she practiced climbing like her Daddy.

Teya was at school when we were at the park, and although she was missed, Brooklyn and Brinley played GREAT together!

We all had a blast enjoying the unusually warm winter weather, but soon it was time for Lily and Cam to go down for naps. So Becca and I headed for home with the babies while Taber and Kevin stayed a little longer so the girls could play...

Ummm...errr.. or so they could play!

During our shopping days we also managed to go out and see the movie "Arthur Christmas" and to have some pretty groovy dance parties complements of Auntie Becca... See for yourself!Stay tuned for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day adventures!

To be continued...

Settling In...

2012-01-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

When we woke up the day after our arrival, Taber had to go to work (poor guy) while Kevin, Becca and I held down the fort. We mostly just relaxed and played with the kids until Taber got home.

The girls did TONS of art projects, including some gingerbread houses, and pretty much kept themselves entertained the whole day!

Although, I did take the opportunity to spin the girls in the office chair for awhile... and then watch them try to run away :) Hehehe!

When Taber came home be was surprised by a new blog book from Becca. He, in turn, surprised her with some beautiful roses. (It was their 10th anniversary.)

Then Kevin and I volunteered to babysit so they could go on an anniversary date. It was sooo much fun hanging out with our nieces and nephew. This trip was our first time meeting Cam so we were just eating it up!

And I think Becca and Taber had a pretty good day as well :) Happy Anniversary guys. Glad you made it another AWESOME year!

New Hampshire or Bust!

2012-01-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

On December 20th, the girls and I cleaned up the house, packed our bags, picked Kevin up from work, hopped in a taxi to the airport, and then began our evening flight to New Hampshire to spend Christmas with my sister Becca and her incredible family!

It took a little tag teaming to keep the girls entertained and quiet, but things actually went pretty smoothly. At the airport, Kevin took turns watching the girls and feeding them food from McDonald's whilst I took one girl at a time and ran them up and down the halls to wear them out for the flight.

On the plane we were well equipped with stuffed animals, coloring supplies, and Dora the Explorer! The girls did great, which meant mom and dad were still sane when we arrived in NH at midnight.

And lucky for us, we were greeted with an enthusiastic Becca who set the tone for the rest of our fun-filled vacation!

When we got to the house we were met with wet kisses supplied by Monty-the ever-licking-dog and lots of hugs from Taber... and eventually Teya, Brinley and Cam! Yes, we woke up the whole house, stayed up till 2 in the morning, and then hunkered down to await our early morning wake up call from all the excited little kiddos and 7 days of partying Rigg style!

To be continued...

A New Christmas Break Tradition?

2012-01-02T14:24:00.001-07:00

Perhaps! Personally, I LOVED the beard, but I don't know if Kevin can handle the irritation again. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted :)

Christmas Preparations

2012-01-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Christmas season keeps everyone busy! Here is a little of what we did to get ready for the holidays:

We went through all of our clothes and toys and took the things we didn't use any more to donation boxes around town so other little kids could enjoy them...

Brooklyn worked hard designing our Christmas card so I could send it out...

Then I spent a lot of time making presents for everyone on the Christmas list. I didn't manage to get pictures of everything, but this is the gist of it...

As Christmas got closer, we decorated our house from top to bottom...

And then we packed our bags and flew out to New Hampshire to spend Christmas with my sister Becca and her family! More to come on that later.

Scary Moments in Motherhood...

2012-01-01T12:13:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago my entire family got Croup. For the most part it was just an annoyance, but after a little while Lily started to get a little worse off then the rest of us. Then, a couple days into it, I went to get her up from her nap and was handed a major surprise.

She was really emotional so I put her on the couch and went to turn some Dora on to help her feel better. As I was switching on the TV I heard her coughing again and quickly glanced back to see if she was okay. What I saw was my little girl COVERED in blood! It scared the hooby jooby out of me and I immediately ran to pick her up, stuck her in the sink, and called my mom in a panic. The blood was coming from her nose, out her mouth when she coughed, and in bouts of vomit. It totally freaked me out!

Turns out, she had such a bad bloody nose, it was leaking into her stomach and causing her to cough and vomit blood. It took about 15 minutes to get the bleeding to stop and then another 15 minutes to scrub all the blood off of her. Here is a picture I took of her after about 5 minutes of scrubbing. Saddest most horrible thing in the world!

Moral of the story?

1. Motherhood can be REALLY scary!
2. Anyone who can call their mom for help at the drop of a hat is a LUCKY and BLESSED individual.
3. If your kids get Croup, use a humidifier so they don't get dry throats and sinuses that can lead to terrifying bloody noses!

Thanksgiving in Detroit

2012-01-01T11:45:00.004-07:00

For Thanksgiving this year, Kevin, Jennie and I, packed up the girls and headed to Detroit to spend time with Andrew, Sharon, and Eve.

Early Thanksgiving morning, Kevin and Andrew left to participate in the ward Turkey Bowl. They don't remember if they won or lost, or even who's team they were on, but they had a ton of fun and got REALLY muddy!

When they got back from their game, Kevin and I packed up the stroller and headed out for our annual Turkey Trot. We didn't have enough money to register for a real one this year, so we had our own "Poor Man's Turkey Trot" on the streets of Detroit and on a nearby track :)

After we conquered our 4 mile run, we showered and began preparations for our amazing Thanksgiving feast, complete with Kalua Turkey, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, jello salad, and pie... LOTS of PIE!

Then it was time to veg out! Lily took her usual place on Jennies lap where they watched Dora the Explorer via the iPod, read scriptures, and snacked on leftovers.

Brooklyn also managed to lay claim on someone... her Uncle Andrew. Unfortunately for him, she is a little less peaceful than Lily which resulted in Andrew getting poked, prodded, and pounced on for hours on end!

And dear old Kevin vegged out Nintendo style (with a little company from Andrew.)

The next day we headed over to the Henry Ford Museum (compliments of my sister Erin).

We saw LOTS of planes, trains, and automobiles.

And some weird statues as well! (3 out of the 5 people in this picture are fake.)

And then we let all the kids play to their hearts content... adult kids included.

But of course, Brooklyn's favorite thing at the museum was not inside, but outside... and not technically part of the museum either :)

That night we enjoyed a fondue party and a Stargate marathon before heading to bed to rest for our long drive home in the morning.

We had so much fun with the Smith's and are so grateful for their friendship and hospitality. The food was great, the activities were great, and the company was fantastic!

A Surprise Visit

2012-01-01T09:07:00.003-07:00

Right after my birthday, I got a surprise visit from my BFF/Cousin Jennie! And by surprise, I mean Kevin had just come back from a business trip and told me he left a bag at the airport and we needed to go get it. When we pulled up at the curb I looked out the window and saw this girl standing there and thought to myself... "Wow, that girl looks a TON like Jennie... wait a minute, that IS Jennie! What are the odds that she would be at the airport at the same time we are picking up Kevin's bag? We should offer her a ride. I wonder where she's going? I hope its to see me..." Then I saw Kevin returning to the car WITHOUT a bag and it dawned on me (yes, it took that long) She IS coming to see me and its a SURPRISE!!!

Anyway, we were lucky enough to get her for 2 whole weeks, with some side trips thrown in for good measure. One was to DC where Jennie had a job interview that she nailed (and later accepted) and the other was out to Detroit where we had Thanksgiving with our other cousins, Andrew and Sharon (more to come on that later.)

We didn't do anything too crazy or adventurous while Jennie was visiting. We (and by "we" I mean "I") mostly just enjoyed taking care of the girls and attending to the regular needs of a household as a tag team instead of an individual. The girls loved having the extra body around though. I think Lily enjoyed it so much that she decided Jennie could be her special mom and I could be Brooklyn's. She became very possessive over Jennie and VERY attached.

They played tons of games together, read books, and played hide and seek in boxes...

And pretty much ANY time Jennie was sitting down, Lily was in her lap :)

But don't worry. We didn't spend the whole trip being mommies and maids. We got to eat out a few times, have some girl time, and we even went Geocaching together.

It took us a while since we were lugging little girls around on our shoulders, but we eventually found not just one...

But TWO geocaches before heading to Red Robin for a delightful dinner!

Oh! And I mustn't forget, Brooklyn found this fuzzy caterpillar while we were out (and begged if we could keep it as a pet)...

And Kevin got to show off like the crazy man that he is :) Fun times!

Then on the 28th, after we got back from Detroit, we got to celebrate Jennie's 29th birthday! Yay for birthdays! Kevin made an amazing Texas sheet cake with Symphony bar topping for us all to eat, we sang, opened presents, ate pizza, and just enjoyed each other's company.

We felt so blessed to spend some more time with Jennie and can't wait till we get to hang out with her again. Thanks for the visit Jen. We love you!

Naomi's 29th Birthday

2011-11-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

On November 12th, we began celebrations for my 29th birthday! (Since my actual birthday was on Sunday.) And let me tell you... my little family delivered BIG TIME!

We started out that Saturday with a little Geocaching (my first present of the day was a Geocaching app) around our neighborhood. I got to wear my brand new running cap that Kevin bought me and push my super awesome running stroller (a very early birthday gift) along the way.

Our first stop was in a nearby corn field, and since the stroller wouldn't quite fit between the corn stalks, we sent Kevin in alone. It was a little creepy watching him disappear so quickly into the field, but I had faith in his innate sense of direction.

While we waited for Kevin to return, the girls kept themselves busy by collecting random things from nature. They were pretty cute with their little sticks and seed pods!

Anyway, It didn't take long before Kevin found the first cache in a pill bottle under a tree. He happily signed our name on the sheet inside and then made his way back to us so we could start searching for our next cache.

At this point the girls were a little confused as to why their Daddy didn't bring back any treasure from the cornfield, but they decided to continue humoring us in hopes that the next cache would be much better.

And it was. It took us deep into some random woods by our house that we didn't even know about. The girls had to walk since the stroller would never have made it, but they liked tromping around in the dry leaves so it wasn't a problem.

Soon we found the cache and the girls were pleased when they got to trade a pin coushin for a toy car.

Once we were done going through the treasures and reading the notes inside, I signed our name on the list and then we headed back to the stroller and then on to Dairy Queen for some ice cream!

The next day we dressed up and went to church... and when we got home Kevin got to work making me the Pork Barbacoa Salad from Cafe Rio and an AMAZING apple pie for dinner. Then it was time to open more presents. YIPEE!

I got this amazing Alaskan Nativity from my BFF Jennie...

A Texas lover apron from Kevin and the girls...

And this ridiculously AWESOME knife set from Kevin's mom! It was seriously the best birthday a girl could ask for and I can't wait to celebrate many many more! Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so special, especially Kevin who made every single second count. Love you guys!

The Hot Chocolate 15K

2011-11-22T08:40:00.001-07:00

On November 5th, Kevin and I dropped the girls off at the babysitters and headed downtown for the Hot Chocolate 15K! Last year we participated in the 5K and had so much fun that we decided to kick it up a notch and go for the distance in 2011. Unfortunately, I've been really sick over the last few months and had a super hard time training. By the time the race came up, I'd only run a total of 5 miles at a time. I was terrified to attempt running over 9 miles without sufficient training, but Kevin convinced me that the combo of race day jitters, the training I HAD done, and his companionship, would pull me through to the end. So I didn't back out, and guess what? He was right! The second we got to the packet pickup the night before, I knew I could do it. There was just so much excitement in the air, how could I not at least give it a try!
Here is a video of all the excitement from start to finish. It was a pretty amazing event!

When we got there we actually found our friends that we ran the Ragnar with earlier this year (which is pretty amazing considering the crowd.) We dropped off our gear together and then headed over to our corral. There were over 40,000 runners so we all had to start on different streets.

Soon the race music started blaring and we all began pushing toward the start line... it took a few minutes to get there, but then we were off!

About a mile into the run I realized that I had not sufficiently emptied the ol' bladder before the race, and with all that bouncing... well, I knew I was doomed if they didn't have porta potties along the race route. Luckily they did, and after a 5 minute wait in line I was empty and ready to run again!

Anyway, there were so many runners participating in this race that we were NEVER alone on the course, which is actually pretty nice if you are a slower runner. That way its not as obvious that you've fallen behind! :)

Another nice thing about the race... Kevin was with me the whole way to cheer me on and take some pictures to prove we actually did it!

And in true Kevin fashion... he also took plenty of pictures of himself along the way. As you can see, running at half his normal pace to stick with me left him with tons of extra energy!

As we closed in on the last mile his energy finally started to rub off on me...

And soon we were hauling down Michigan Ave to finish off a beautiful, scenic run in perfect weather, on a perfect day!

Once we crossed the finish line, we were all greeted with Ghirardelli chocolates! WOOHOO!

And yummo fondue trays!

And of course, some delicious Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate!

When all was said and done, I finished in 1:50:45. Five minutes past my goal time (which means if you take off the time for my bathroom stop, I actually hit my goal!)

Of course, having not trained properly, I was absolutely WASTED when I got home. So when the girls went down for a nap, I gladly joined them!

And Kevin? Well, he was rewarded greatly for joining me for a lovely Saturday jog :)

Total Randomness...

2011-11-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Because not every picture requires its own post, we often end up with a bunch of random pictures that we love but don't know what to do with. Thus, the random picture post!

A few weeks ago I took this picture at our church building. Someone just decided they were mad at the Mormons so they busted a few of our windows, broke our fences, and tried to run over our air conditioning units (but couldn't get their car past the chain linked fence that they bent.) Sad and immature, but such is life!

I know this is gross, but I had to post it. Kevin totally took a manly dive off of a 2x4 and ended up with this beast of a wound on his shin... Ouch!

Lately Lily has decided that she is a Koala Bear. It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing, she will climb right up and make herself at home. Super cute!

This shot was taken when we were hanging out at a sports store a while back. We were pretending that we could afford riding around on cool bikes like these :)

On another visit, we also took the time to pretend that we were dog owners. I WISH!

Something fun that has been happening at our house as of late...

my girls are FINALLY becoming friends!

They read together...

Snuggle each other...

And even like to dress alike :) Life is getting pretty fun!

This shot is to remind me that my kids do, in fact, look just like me!

Kevin took this shot the other night when I was reading the girls bedtime stories. I just love how engaged they are. It makes me happy that I am raising kids who love to read!

And to end, we took this shot of Lily after she realized she could reach the box of sugar on the shelf next to her highchair. Who knows how much she consumed before we actually caught her. I guess she just didn't think her bananas were sweet enough!

A Hanksville Halloween!

2011-11-11T14:17:00.001-07:00

Although I've never really liked Halloween (due to a "you're too fat" experience I had years ago) I really got into it this year. I suspect it has something to do with having children, but whatever the case, we really had a blast this year!

I even went out of my way to decorate so we could all enjoy the season together.

Brooklyn and I worked hard to dig out the garden so we could plant a skeleton (after which she informed me that she was allergic to skeletons... but only the dancing kind.)

Kevin and I carved some fun pumpkins.

Brooklyn, Lily and I decorated the inside of the house with spiders and paper mache spider eggs

(sorry uncle Craig!)

And I even made themed costumes!

(Lily's was purchased, but I made the rest.)

Anyway, the celebrations started on Friday night when we walked over to the clubhouse for some yummy food!

After that we headed over to our church building for a Halloween party and some trunk-or-treating.

They had a lot of fun games there, but all the girls wanted to do was get their faces painted and color on the chalkboard!

When the games were done, we went outside and loaded our candy buckets at the trunk-or-treat... then we went home overly stuffed and over stimulated!

When Halloween actually rolled around the following Monday, we headed over to Burns and McDonnell for some Cubicle-or-Treating :)

The girls went from desk to desk trying desperately to gather as many M&M's as possible. But eventually Lily decided the candy wasn't worth it any more and she started giving her candy back desk to desk. Then she laid on the floor, said "night night mommy" and refused to get up. That was our cue to head home to take naps and enjoy our spoils.

We earned so much candy between the church and the office that we decided not to go out trick-or-treating that night, but we still had a wonderful holiday and will be working off all the calories we earned for months to come!

Johansen's Farm

2011-11-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

The other day I was supposed to go on an "F" themed date with Kevin... but when I came down with the Flu instead, Kevin ended up taking the girls to Johansen's Farm without me. But that's OK. I got some much needed rest, and the girls got some much needed daddy-daughter time.

Once they arrived on the farm, they had an endless list of fun things to do, like holding and petting little animals...

Having staring wars with bigger animals...

Pretending to be silly animals...

And hanging out with their favorite animals! (Yes, the turkey was actually Brooklyn's favorite animal on the entire farm! Thanksgiving is going to be very traumatizing for her.)

But that wasn't all! They also got to run through a corn maze...

Jump around in the bounce house and slide down an enormous balloon slide...

And join Daddy for a super awesome hay ride!
(Lily's favorite part of the evening.)

Some highlights from the adventure:

At every fence Lily crouched down low and Brooklyn climbed up high to get a good view of the animals :) A very adorable site to behold.

Brooklyn had more fun with the free hay than anything else on the farm!

And Lily became an animal rights activist...

Until this goat decided to headbutt her into the dirt! (Indeed, you are looking at a picture of the very event as it unfolded!)

But when the sun started to go down and the girlies started to get tired, they had to say goodbye to the awesome farm and head back home to their well rested mommy!

And when they went to bed that night, their little minds were filled with happy little memories of pummeling Daddy with hay in the barn!

<br>Y

The End

Happy 29th Birthday Kevin!

2011-10-31T10:02:00.002-06:00

On Thursday, October 27th, we celebrated Kevin's 29th birthday!

(This collage was created completely with pictures from Kevin's phone that he took of himself this past year... it is a pretty accurate depiction of how he spent much of his time...hehehe!)

We didn't really do anything extravagant for his birthday this year since we were all pretty sick and since we already bought his main gift last month (a KitchenAid that has been lovingly used almost every day since it's purchase!)

But he still started out the day with decorations and doughnuts from his friends at work! And then when he got home, the girls and I had decorated the house with balloons and confetti, wrapped his presents, and baked him the BEST LASAGNA known to mankind (Kevin's favorite food!)

After lasagna, Kevin opened an Alaskan knife from cousin Jennie, a homemade man-apron to go with his KitchenAid (from me), some groovy Lord of the Ring Pez dispensers from my sister Becca, and an amazing reflective biking jacket and gloves from his mom and dad. (A life prolonging gift that I am very grateful for since Kevin insists on biking to work no matter how dark or cold it gets!) He also received multiple bags of M&M's (another favorite) and some cute cards and pictures drawn by Brooklyn and Lily.

When present opening was finished, we put the girls to bed and then sat down to watch our favorite show (NCIS) whilst eating Kevin's favorite Cheesecake that he made himself using his beloved KitchenAid.

At first I felt pretty bad about the low key birthday, but in the end, it turned out to be a very relaxing and pleasant day spent celebrating the life of my favorite person on earth!

Happy birthday Kevin, we love you!

A VERY Late Post on some VERY Awesome Visitors!

2011-10-30T21:38:00.000-06:00

So, do you remember that time... a while back... when Kevin's cousin Eric came to visit? Well, exactly one weekend after that, Eric's older brother Andrew brought his family out from Michigan for a weekend visit! (Yes, I know we are SOOO lucky, and I am SOOO behind on blogging!)

Andrew, Sharon, and Eve arrived in the evening on September 1st and were able to visit and relax with us for awhile before we sent the kiddos off to bed in preparation for a long day of travel the next morning. Then on Friday morning they took off for Nauvoo for a little site seeing before returning to our house for a good night's sleep!

The following day, we hopped on the train and headed downtown for a little more site seeing... Chicago style!

Once we got downtown, we took a water taxi to Michigan Ave where we could start checking out all the awesome architecture. On the way there, Brooklyn discovered a little port hole on the side of the boat where she and her kitty Prance saw the world from a different perspective. I took this picture of her by leaning over the boat and hanging the camera over the hole from the outside of the boat... Then I got busted for hanging over the boat! (Totally worth it!)

After we finished our little boat tour, we hauled our strollers up a couple dozen stairs and onto Michigan Ave where we began taking in the sites and sounds of Chicago.

And it was a beautiful day (although a bit warm for the time of year) to see Chicago!

It was also super nice to have another couple around to take pictures!

Kevin and I usually end up taking pictures of ourselves everywhere we go... kind of like this one of us at the Willis Tower (AKA Sears Tower).

But with the Smith's hangin' out, we were able to get a shot with the whole family! (Of course, that didn't mean Brooklyn and Lily were actually looking at the camera!)

Amidst all the camera sharing, we even got a great shot of Kevin and Andrew (and a random lady in the background) at The Bean!

At the end of our afternoon tour, we headed over to these fountains to let the girls splash around while we all cooled off our feet.

And then we grabbed some Popsicles for good measure... and I don't think the girls minded one bit!

That night we all slept like babies and were able to wake up the next day refreshed for some Sunday chillaxin! We tried multiple times to get pictures of all the girls in their Sunday attire the next morning, but this is the best shot I could get. They were just so distracted by each other! :)

When we got home from church later that day, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner and some more good conversation before bedtime. The Smith's drove back home the next morning packing with them much love from us and our girls. We had a great time with all three of them and can't wait until our next visit!

Somewhere in there a few neurons are still firing...

2011-10-18T23:24:00.001-06:00

Post by Kevin:

So it's been a little while since I was able to contribute to this blog. It is not for lack of wanting to though... I've found myself busier and busier everyday with responsibilities, and sometimes after working a long day at work (working = sitting at a computer cranking out structural designs and drawings) the last thing I want to do is get back onto a computer. Add to that a wife who's amazing at all things computer and blogs, and at times I feel a little like I'd be adding my pencil sketch to DaVinci's notebook.

But I had an amazing weekend, and a SUPER fun race, and thus by the prodding of my loving wife, who claims that "he who runs the race should blog the race", I shall attempt to tell the story of my first ever obstacle race!

About two weeks ago, I got invited by a good friend of mine, Justin, to run this race with him. It's called the Spartan Race Series. I'd never really heard of it, and didn't know much about it, but I always know Justin's good for an adventure (same guy who's got me out playing Frisbee every Saturday morning, got me to walk barefoot across 100 feet of ice and jump into Lake Michigan in January, etc.) so I agreed!

Naomi and I managed to get a babysitter for the afternoon (Thanks Shelly!) so we drove down to Marseilles, IL to an ATV park that got taken over by a bunch of nuts just like me who think they could run a course normally navigated by a two-stroke 4-wheel drive ATV!

Not knowing what to expect, I had my normal pre-race jitters PLUS the "what did I sign myself up for?" jitters. Apparently that combination produces the face you see here.

This is what the start/finish area looked like. Because I signed up so late in the game, my heat didn't start until 3:00PM... the second to last. I didn't get into the same heat as Justin either, and I got my head bit off when I called to ask if I could change my heat time. That is not a good question to ask the folks putting on the race a week before the event... they (understandably) get cranky.

I got all geared up and ready to go. The numbers on the arms, legs, and forehead are my bib number, and are meant to make it easier for the photography company to identify you. I also wore an orange shirt to try and make it easier for Naomi to find me. In retrospect, and for reasons that will soon become apparent, both attempts at establishing my unique identity were laughable. Nevertheless, I tied my shoes tight, my shorts tighter (I still almost lost both during the course of the race) and I was ready to go!

I lined up in the chute with about 300 other people to start our heat. We were warned that because we were close to the last group to tackle the course, the course and all the obstacles/challenges would be exceptionally muddy and slippery. They weren't kidding.

The dude that started us up dressed up like King Leonidas and gave us the pre-race speech, complete with the obligatory, and I'm sure not influenced by Hollywood or Gerard Butler in the least, shout "tonight we dine in Hell!!" then they sounded the gong and off we went!

The very first obstacle that we encountered was a giant mud pit that we had to jump into, then wade across and climb the other side. This first obstacle ensured each participant was completely covered in mud and lost all inhibitions about staying clean and dry! Incidentally, as I was climbing out of this pit, I got kicked in the face by a girl, inserting a bunch of mud in my right eye... it took me a good 5 minutes before I could see out of that eye, and for the rest of the entire race my vision was cloudy at best and my tear ducts went into overdrive trying to expel the mud and sand from my eye. Any "angry" looking faces I made during the rest of the race I attribute to this.

Then we began a steady stream of obstacles. Run a couple hundred yards, do another obstacle, run another couple hundred yards, do another crazy obstacle... etc. It was awesome! We first had to climb over several wooden walls, some just chest high that I was able to vault without too much of a problem. One wall though was about 8 feet high with a shear surface (ie. nothing to grab onto) I actually could've probably jumped and grabbed the top of the wall and pulled myself up that way if it weren't for the sticky mud that at this point of the day swallowed my legs up to my shins, making any thoughts of jumping at all just a dream! It was obviously an obstacle not doable solo, so I helped 3-4 people coming up behind me by boosting them up, then finding a kind soul to in turn boost me up!

There were some walls that instead of climbing over, only about 24 inches clear space was available at the bottom, and I discovered that if I pretended I was stealing second, it was so muddy I could simply slide underneath with breaking stride! Some walls had a small 2ft X 2ft window about chest high that you had to figure out how to get through. This one was simple if you just pretended that you were superman, jumped head first through the window, then tucked and rolled into the soft mud on the back side and then kept going!

Other fun obstacles that were encountered during the first 1/3 of the course included:

crawling 200-300 ft under barbed wire through super-slick mud (tough because a fellow in front of me was struggling so I would crawl forward, grab his shoe and push him forward in increments!)
dragging a 40-50 lb cinder block via 6 ft rope through a hilly 200 yd course
running down a rocky, steep ravine that again by this point in the day was full of deep sticky mud that it swallowed the shoes of not a few unlucky souls.

It was at about 1 1/2 miles into the course where we circled back to the beginning for a series of obstacles right next to the crowd of spectators, and thus Naomi was able to snap a few pictures. This rope climb proved to be the toughest obstacle for me, and consequently the one I was most proud of conquering! If you look closely, you can see me coming down the hill in the background.

I even managed to spot Naomi in the crowd during the few seconds that I had to wait for a rope to open up!

At this point in the day after several thousand other poor souls had tried climbing the same ropes, they were so coated in wet, slick mud that it proved nearly impossible to grip the slick rope whilst pulling yourself up. Three knots were provided in the rope that helped near the bottom, but one final oomph was needed to ring the bell at the top. My first several attempts were futile, and I realized my fingers were getting fatigued fast and I needed to change tactics.

That new tactic was to go for a little "golden rule" action and help some other people get up. These two girls were eager for some help and didn't hesitate when I offered to help them get up.

It still wasn't easy, but with a little help they got up without too much trouble.

Note: it's hard giving a person a boost when there isn't anything to hold onto while you try to lift them up. Legs and shoes were equally slick, and add an unsure and slick footing at the bottom of the water pit... and let's just say helping was tough!

Having done my good deed and ready to cash in on some of that good karma, I flexed my rested fingers and tried one more time! I tried asking several people for help in giving me a boost, but no one would come over, so I was left to tackle it on my own. I finally rang the bell when I managed to jam my fingers into the little slot created by the two ropes coming down and joining into one, then pulling myself up and getting my feet to the next knot.

It felt ridiculously good to have finished this obstacle and I very gracefully dismounted from the rope. Wish I could say my landing was so graceful (good thing Naomi didn't get a picture of THAT)!

Then we had to climb a small, slick hill to the next obstacle, again, right in front of a huge cheering crowd!

Naomi got this little gem as I passed her. Good thing I wore an orange shirt so she could find me, right?!
I think I look like a deranged Igor in this picture. Mmmm "me want brain for master..."

Naomi even got me to pause for a second for a good muddy shot!

The next obstacle (again right next to the crowd) was this little inclined wall. If you look at the bottom right of the picture, you can actually see the bottles of dish soap that they would periodically squeeze onto the boards to ensure a coefficient of friction so small it required scientific notation just to express. You can see my head poking up near the back of the ramp as I contemplate the challenge and wait for an available rope.

This was another obstacle that was done better with a little help. One person planted themselves at the base and pushed the feet of the person in front of them, and someone at the top reached down to pull you up. I don't know what it was about me though... I must have had a look about me that said "do not help!" because I couldn't get anyone to help me at the top. The guy I'd helped push in front of me had reached the top and just kept going! Oh well. I was left to pull myself up to the top via another really slick rope! Any obstacle that involve a rope of any kind in this entire course was slicker than slick, and my fingers proved to be the most sore part of my body at the end!

I managed to get a hand over the peak of the wall and pull myself upward. It was so crowded at the top, however, that I couldn't swing a foot around to turn myself around, so I was forced to shimmy my way face-first down the back side until I could get clear and turn myself around. My first thought when I saw this picture was a quote from the movie "Mulan".... I thought to myself "that's right... I conquered this obstacle pretty boy... and I did it with my shirt on!" hahaha
I did manage to turn myself around and get back to the top to help the fellow who had pushed my feet and helped me reach the top. He was very grateful! Then I climbed down and ran(ish) to the next challenge!

This challenge was throwing a spear. You got one chance to hit the bale of hay about 10-12 yards away. This was one of only 2 challenges that I failed! It looked to me like I missed the hay by mere inches... which probably means I missed it by a mile!

If you failed or opted out of any of the challenges, there were volunteers who made sure you got down and did 25 burpees (burpee = doing a pushup, jumping your feet forward, standing up, then jumping up with your arms up to the sky, then going down to do another pushup). Needless to say, they're tiring... and there were some people who had troubles with the obstacles and ended doing upwards of 400-500 burpees over the whole course. They were tough for sure, and provided me all the motivation I needed to try and conquer every challenge!

It made me feel good that almost everyone at the "spear throwing" station also had to do burpees!

After that station we again set off for the last 2/3 of the course, at which point Naomi couldn't get any more pictures! The next obstacles included:

sliding down a steep muddy ravine pitted with rocks (bruised cheeks anyone?)
running through a trail that included plenty of trees, hills, rocks, ravines, mud pits, etc. All those runs I did up Battle Creek and Slate Canyon saved me here!
Carrying a tire for a hundred yards or so, down then back up a ravine . The up part was (of course) super slick and proved extremely hard to maneuver with a heavy hunk of rubber on your shoulders.
filling a giant Home Depot bucket with gravel, then carrying it too through a long course that included traversing a ravine.
a 50 ft super-slick hill where we had to create a chain of people all laying on their stomachs pushing up the feet of the person in front of them. It was wicked tough to get up. Once I got to the top, I found a really long tree branch, propped my feet on a good solid tree root, and held it while several people climbed up using the stick I was holding. Someone else eventually took over "stick-holding duties" and allowed me to continue on my way! Thank you kind stranger!
A set of monkey bars. Again, these bars were so slick it was hard to hold onto them, and I saw a huge crowd of casualties off to the side doing burpees as I approached... you only got one chance to make it across and if you fell you were doing burpees again! I had a secret weapon though, my friend Justin (who ran the heat several hours before me) told me the trick of putting your feet up on the bars and shimmying across the bars sideways, rather than try to traverse it "playground" style (using only your hands). This allowed for some of my load to be taken off my tired hands and I made it across without any problems. Someone even yelled out that I was cheating... but the volunteer laughed, called him an idiot (no joke!) and said "all you have to do is get across! No one said you couldn't use your feet!" I chuckled and thanked Justin as I jogged passed him doing his burpees.
lifting a 40-50 lb cinder block about 20-25 feet into the air via rope and pulley. It was again another slicker-than-snot rope, so it proved to be a very difficult task. After several failed attempts, I got the bright idea to run into the woods behind me and grab hand fulls of dried leaves and grass. Then I wrapped the rope around my arm and grabbed the rope with the dried leaves. The leaves gave me just enough traction on the rope to pull it down enough to wrap my other arm around it and then pull down with that arm. I repeated this several times until the weight joyously hit the pulley and off I went!
A zig-zag patterned balance beam (up-ended 2X6s). This was the only other obstacle I failed ... I guess I need to work on my balance a tad! But I did my burpees and moved on!
More rugged trails, rocks to jump over, hills to slide down, fallen trees to climb over, ravines to traverse, sections of a muddy and stagnant river to cross and work through... etc.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel though...

There were three obstacles remaining between me and my t-shirt and medal... the first of which was this wall we had to traverse. They had nailed up small pieces of 2X4s for hand and foot holds that were of course slick with the mud of the thousands who went before me! You just had to traverse the wall from one end to the other without touching the ground or the top of the wall... if you fell even once... burpees! All those hours spent bouldering with Naomi, Jennie, and Eric must have helped though because I made it across the wall without too much of a problem! Whew!

Next was the jump over the fire... just to ensure that if for some reason the rest of the trail did not rip them off, the hair on the lower half of your legs would be singed off!

The very last obstacle was these guys! Made me feel like the last part of American Gladiators, when the poor skinny contestant gets clobbered by the ripped gladiator waiting behind the paper wall.

These guys were from the Illinois Air National Guard, and I suspect they were especially picked on by their drill sergeant during basic training... because they loved nothing more than to whack you with their jousting sticks, then sweep your legs out from under you when you were disoriented! I think they enjoyed their job WAY too much! To be fair though... can you blame them? I mean, seriously, how cool would that job be?!

Fear not though... I had a tactic for dealing with the over-zealous American Gladiators! I just trailed right behind those two poor fellows in the red and black shirts...

While Mr. Red Shirt and Black Shirt were busy getting pummeled, I snuck past the distracted and over-zealous guardsman with my teeth intact and successfully made it to the finish line!

I was very happy to get my medal!

I even got to sign this really cool wall that now that I've signed it I'm sure will be an exhibit in the Smithsonian in a hundred years.

Just in case you don't believe how muddy I got... Naomi decided to get a close-up. Notice my right eye is closed. That's due to both the sun shining in my eyes and the mud the bothered that eye the entire race.You can even see the stream where my tear ducts worked on expelling as much of it as possible. This picture will also help you understand why our home shower was turned black when I got home and it took a hand full of q-tips to clean my ears! There's something very fun about getting so dirty.

Anyway, it was a blast and a very fun challenge. I have no clue what my standing is, or what place I got, and don't really care too much! I figure that since they held the awards ceremony 3 hours before my heat even started, that they didn't really expect anyone in my group to pull any spectacular times! According to our own time-keeping efforts though, I do know that Justin finished in about 1:05:00 and I finished somewhere around 1:12:00. He's one tough monkey though, so it doesn't surprise me that he whooped me.

I'm sure glad I did it! And as if the day wasn't great enough... that night I got to wolf down an entire Papa John's medium pizza by myself (can't imagine what would make me so hungry) whilst listening to BYU beat Oregon State! Woo Hoo!

(From Naomi: I just looked up Kevin's Stats and he finished 21 out of 441 in the Male 25-29 age group. And 58 out of 1830 in the Male Overall Open Wave. That doesn't count the literally HUNDREDS of people who didn't rank because they didn't finish! Kevin, you are such a stud!)

School is Back in Session!

2011-09-14T18:00:00.004-06:00

Today Brooklyn started her second year of preschool! She was so excited to see her friends and her teacher again (and I was happy to have 2 1/2 hours of play time alone with Lily.) She had a great day and is looking forward to a fun filled year learning about the world she lives in. Here is a list of a few of her favorite things... according to her on her first day back at school :)

Starved Rock, Camping, and a visit from Eric!

2011-09-09T13:06:00.001-06:00

On August 26th, Kevin's cousin Eric drove out from D.C. for one last visit before he gets married to his beautiful fiance, Kayla. We were a little sad that we didn't get to meet Kayla, but super excited that Eric came for a visit.

Shortly after his arrival, Kevin got home from work and we packed up to go camping at Starved Rock National Park. It was dark when we arrived, but we made good time getting our tents up and then me and the girls crawled in bed while Eric and Kevin stayed up and talked about manly stuff.

The next morning I was awoken at 6:00 AM by Lily, who was bright eyed and bushy tailed. She was so cute, singing songs and talking to herself.

After listening to Lily for a little while, I decided to reach my camera over Kevin's shoulder and take a picture to see if he and Brooklyn were really sleeping. Apparently Brooklyn wasn't as happy as her little sister... and Kevin was definitely still sleeping!

To remedy Brooklyn's bad mood (and hopefully give Kevin a little more sleep) I got the girls up and walked them over to the playground that was attached to our campsite.

Brooklyn made fast work of the whole thing. She loved walking on the balance beam and spinning on the flower chair. She also enjoyed climbing up all the obstacles and collecting rocks.

Lily also enjoyed her time at the park. She attempted to climb everything that Brooklyn climbed, loved being pushed on the swing, and even braved the slide all by herself.

Soon the boys woke up, broke down camp, and came and found us. Then we jumped in the car and headed over to the Starved Rock to find some good hikes. After a short consultation with the map, we were ready to go.

But not until Brooklyn staked claim on Eric's shoulders. It seems she had a little crush on him and didn't want him out of her site. ( I deduced this when she whispered in my ear that she thought Prince Eric was very handsome.)

The park was absolutely beautiful! and although we don't really count walking on a flat path as "hiking," it was still nice to be out in nature again.

The girls attempted much of the hiking on their own, but preferred to be on some one's shoulders... which wasn't that bad since it helped us to walk a lot faster.

But it wasn't all work and walking. We stopped several times to goof off and take advantage of photo opportunities.

Which came by the dozens with these clowns!

And of course, because of the little girls who wanted to mimic them.

Soon we reached our destination. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was quite beautiful.

The girls really enjoyed being up close and personal with the water.

Especially when we let them play in it!

After a while we realized that the girls were about to expire, so we put them back on our shoulders and hiked back out.

Once we were out, we hopped back in the car, drove back to Lisle, and spent a little more time with Eric before he had to head back east. It was so much fun to see him again and get a little camping in at the same time. Thanks Eric for a fun filled weekend, and good luck with the rest of your wedding plans!

Burns and McDonnell Summer Picnic

2011-09-08T17:37:00.001-06:00

Every year, Burns and McDonnell throws a summer picnic for their employees. The first year we were with them we couldn't go because of transportation issues. The next year we were entertaining company at the time of the picnic and the year after that, Kevin went and did a laser tag game for the kids while I stayed home with a sick baby. So this was the first year we ever got to go as a family and MAN were we glad we made it!

The food, of course, was wonderful! But the highlight of the picnic for us was the Traveling World of Reptiles show that Burns and Mac had brought in!

The guy they brought in to do the show was an excellent entertainer! He knew his reptiles, and he DEFINITELY knew how to work with overly excited kids... which from my experience, is a VERY hard thing to do!

His show included MANY reptiles, but also some amphibians and THIS hairy guy! He asked if I wanted to touch it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it :)

Toward the end of the show he asked the kids who wanted to hold the baby alligator. This boy volunteered but was surprised when the guy planted a snake on his head as well!

When the show was over, the guy allowed all the children to swarm the giant turtle (who had given the kids rides on his back earlier in the show) and feed it grass!

At first Lily didn't want anything to do with the animals, but after seeing how happy the other kids were, she decided to give Mr. Turtle a chance :)

Soon we were all reptiled out and ready to go home...but not before the girls had an impromptu party on the playground with their daddy.

Anyway, it turned out to be a VERY fun event and we were grateful to Burns and Mac for putting it on. And you can count on us saving the date for next year too!

Our Last Good Byes

2011-09-07T13:31:00.000-06:00

On July 29th, I woke up early with the girls, got dressed and packed, and jumped in the car with my mom to eat breakfast at IHOP before we had to go up to Kaysville, and eventually home to Chicago.

We met Sarah, Tau, and their boys at the restaurant and then enjoyed a scrumptiously fattening breakfast whilst saying our last goodbyes. It was hard to leave them all, knowing that it would be a long while before we would see each other again, but I was grateful that they were able to clear their schedules to bid us farewell.

When we got back from IHOP, Jennie picked me up to go rock climbing ... after which, we went out to eat some more fantastically fattening food before she brought me back to my mom's house to be driven up to Kaysville. Once again, it was a hard goodbye, but so much fun to spend a few more hours with my best friend!

Once in Kaysville, the girls and I got to enjoy a little more Grandma and Grandpa Hanks time, as well as some tree climbing and trampoline bouncing. It was nice to be in the Hanks home when there wasn't any family reunion chaos going on and we could have Grandma all to ourselves. :)

Then on July 30th, a full month after our arrival, we hopped on an airplane and said goodbye to Utah, the beautiful mountains, the amazingly dry air, our good friends, and all of our family.

The girls were pretty good on the plane, which made things a little easier... and we were greeted by the most incredible man in the world when we got to the airport, which made things WAY better! But it was still hard leaving everyone else behind. Luckily, it wasn't long before we had some visitors coming our way! More to come on that... LATER!

Zion's National Park

2011-09-02T15:03:00.001-06:00

On July 22, my BFF Jennie picked me up from my mom's house in PG and we headed South to spend a weekend in Zion's National Park!!

It was so amazing for me to be camping up against the beautiful backdrop of Utah mountains. I didn't realize how much I'd really missed them until I was staring right at them again!

Jennie and I didn't waste any time when we got there. We quickly set up camp, changed our clothes, and then headed out for some hiking!

Everything was so beautiful and relaxing. I'd nearly forgotten how amazing nature can really be... and how amazing a weekend with no children can be as well! :)

Jennie (as always) was an awesome hiking buddy. She knew all the right spots to stop, carried all the water (sorry Jen), never got lost, and was the perfect conversationalist.

On our first day we ended our hike at a rocky pool, but the camera died right after I took the above picture so you can't see how serene and secluded the place really was. It was so nice in fact, that Jennie and I found a nice slanted rock over some soft sand and took a little nap before we hiked back home.

The next day we woke up bright and early for breakfast and a chance to hike The Narrows. When we got to the trail head the squirrels were out in full force and I got to witness, first hand, the potty habits of a rodent!

Anyway, it wasn't long before we reached the water, along with about 50 other hikers (it was a very hot day,) and we charged right in.

The water stayed mostly around our ankles, shins, or knees the whole time, but there was one point at the beginning of the hike where the water went all the way to my neck. Jennie took this shot just as I was heading in.

After a couple hours of hiking we reached a "road block" that we really wanted to get over. By now the hikers had thinned out but we were lucky enough to have a young couple in front of us to watch climb the wall before we attacked it on our own. It was wet and slippery, but with Jennie's awesome rock climbing skills (and the brute strength she used to help pull me up) we made it!

And I'm glad we did! It gave me the chance to take a plunge off some rocks and cool my head down from all the hiking.

Soon after I took the plunge, we realized that we needed to start heading out if we wanted to get home on time. It was much faster hiking out with the currents than hiking in against them, and it was fun to wade back through the deep parts in front of hikers that didn't know it was going to be that way! One little boy saw me sink down to my neck and just gave up walking. He jumped right in and swam across :)

Once we reached the trail head again we took off our shoes, put on some sandals, and started the walk back to our car.

But not before we took an "after" picture of ourselves to document the incredible time we had together! Thank you Jennie for spoiling me rotten and taking me on a much needed side-vacation! Miss you!

Some other Stuff we did...

2011-09-02T11:18:00.000-06:00

As you've probably been able to tell, we did a lot of things when we were in Utah! Here are a few more that I was able to get pictures of:

We got to visit with my cousin Farrah and her sweet kiddos.

They played really hard with the rest of the kids! They swam, swung, played video games, ran around like crazy, played with barbies, and ate some good grub! We loved seeing the Jensen's and were glad they took the time to drop by!

Tony and Liz invited us over to their new home for a BBQ on one of the days we were out there. We played at the park for a little while and then enjoyed some very tasty burgers and dogs!

My sister Sarah and I spent some of our down time crocheting monsters for the kids to play with. I wish I had a video of Uncle Tau snowballing everyone with them. Very funny!!!

My sister Rachel and I were able to go out on a lunch date with no kids! We had SUPER yummy Thai food and enjoyed some uninterrupted conversation too.

But one of my favorite things we did BY FAR was our Harry Potter Marathon. Every night when the kids went to bed we would try our best to make it through the Harry Potter movies. I think it took us three days to watch number 2 because we kept falling asleep :) Luckily we managed to finish them all before we went to see number 8 in the theater. It was the perfect way to end our movie marathon!

Fun with Grandma Uda!

2011-09-02T09:39:00.000-06:00

I've always felt that my mom was the most amazing woman in the world, and now that I am a mother myself, I am convinced of it! She not only raised 8 children all the way to adulthood, but she continues to raise them, her grandchildren, and the many foster children and families that she took in over the years. More amazing still, she has somehow managed to come out of the whole thing both sane and balanced!

So, one of the blessings of being out in Utah in July was to see my mom in action again... and I think I might finally understand how she survived her life all these years. My mom knows two important things: when to let go, and how to let go. When I got down to Pleasant Grove to visit, she had just come home from her mother's unexpected funeral in Virginia to a house full of chaos. But instead of sitting alone in her room to cry and taking 2 weeks off of life to mourn, she played!

My mother, who has many health problems including Rheumatoid Arthritis, got on her hands and knees and PLAYED! She spent time with all the grandchildren, playing Twister, giving piggy back rides, and teaching them how to use new toys.

She took them out to McDonald's, the movies, the play park, and the pool. And she didn't just sit and watch, she joined in on all the fun, going down slides, climbing through obstacles, and sharing an occasional ice cream cone!

And when we got home, she played some MORE! She played London Bridge is Falling Down...

She played Duck Duck Goose...

And she even taught the kids the Hokey Pokey!

My mom is truly an amazing woman and I am SO grateful to have her in my life, and in the lives of my sweet girls who love their Grandma Uda with all their hearts!

Discovery Park

2011-09-02T09:10:00.002-06:00

During our visit to Pleasant Grove, we got to spend lots of time playing with Grandma Uda. One of the many fun things we did together was visit Discovery Park.

The whole park was designed around Scientific learning so there was a lot to do! Brooklyn practiced her climbing skills on the tires, played in the T-Rex skull, ran around the fortress, and touched everything in sight! Lily also had fun swinging with Grandma, kicking around the sand, and playing on the earthquake simulator!

When the girls weren't running around like crazy, Grandma managed to sit them down to build sandcastles!

Lily didn't really get the concept, but she had a blast playing in the dirt, dumping sand on everything, and filling and emptying her bucket repetitively.

Brooklyn, on the other hand, understood EXACTLY what was going on and thought it was great! She concentrated very hard through the whole process and made sure that Grandma didn't forget the important things like a moat, bridge, or flag.

Then after the castles were built and the girls were all tuckered out, Grandma braved the slide one more time so we could take the girls home and put them down for a nap! All in all, it was a fun relaxing day and a great reminder of why we are so blessed to have families.

Uda-Beardsley Bash!

2011-08-31T16:18:00.008-06:00

One of the many benefits of being in Utah again was that I not only got to see my siblings, my parents, and my in-laws, but I also got to see tons of cousins and a few old friends as well!

In fact, our visit just happened to coincide perfectly with Melissa's (my new cousin-in-law) bridal shower, and I was lucky enough to attend with my mom and sisters.

And then later on in the week... my mom invited her sister Carol and all their kids over for a Uda-Beardsley Bash. Just for FUN!

Growing up, the Beardsleys were our closest cousins and best friends, so it was a blast having them all jammed into out house again.

In our two families, our ages match up like this: Bruce is the same age as Becca (or right between Becca and I), Mandy is the same age as Sarah, Ashley is the same age as Jake, and Sean is the same age as Liz. This made for instant companionship growing up and as we've gotten older we've found that we ALL like to hang out with each other (even my older siblings), no matter where we fall in line with age.

Anyway, once the party started it was just like old times! We poked fun at each other, laughed, ate, and even played a round of Vroom! (To which Mandy came out VICTORIOUS!)

Then when all was said and done, we gave hugs, said our goodbyes, and all went home to put our little kiddos to bed! (huh... "our little kiddos" ... never thought I'd be saying that when I was growing up!)

The Bean Museum

2011-08-31T12:49:00.005-06:00

On July 26th (after a failed attempt the day before) Grandma Uda took me and the girls, as well as Sarah, Tau, Noa and Micah, to the Bean Museum!

The Bean Museum is basically a building that's stuffed to the brim with animals who have undergone a bit of taxidermy. It's a pretty ideal destination if you want to see wild animals up close and not have to worry about them eating you.

At first, Brooklyn was pretty concerned about the whole thing. She was confused about all the animals being dead, and worked up about many of them being on display as if they were eating each other. But after a little explaining, she calmed down and walked around the museum saying, "Look mom! It's a dead animal! But that's OK that it's dead, it was already dead, now we can look at it, but we didn't kill it. It's OK mom!"

As she started to get really in to it, I asked her which animal was her favorite. Of the hundreds to choose from, she picked this guy! The ugliest, meanest one of the bunch! Maybe it has something to do with her strange attraction to scary old biker dudes... who knows!?!

The funniest (and most embarrassing) part of the day for me was when we saw this giant rat thing. Grandma was looking in the case and said, "Wow! that thing has really big eyes!" Then Brooklyn, who had a different view then the rest of us, said "Wow! That thing has really big privates!" I immediately looked up at the elderly couple who were also looking at the rat and said, "Hehe...she doesn't really know what she's talking about." Then Brooklyn looked up at us and said, "He has BOY privates!" I was totally embarrassed, but the couple just laughed and with a wave of the hand, walked away :)

Lily, who has developed a ginormous love for animals lately, really liked this guy. She kept petting him and saying, "Good doggie!" over and over again. It was pretty cute :)

Eventually the kids got tired of looking without touching, so we took them into the Museum playroom and let them go to town until all their wiggles were out.

When they seemed just about ready for naps, we gathered them up to go home. But not before I asked Brooklyn to take a picture with the meerkats. She agreed to, and even decided to pose like them all on her own!

When we got outside to go home, there was a torrential downpour! Not kidding...we couldn't even leave the parking lot. I ran with the girls and hopped in the car, followed by Sarah and her boys. Tau was trying to keep everyone dry but his hat flew away and the wind blew the door shut, leaving him a little flustered and a lot wet! But we all had a blast and it was fun to see rain like that again.

And just for fun, here is a video of the rain storm once it calmed down enough for us to drive:

Swimming the Summer Away!

2011-08-31T12:03:00.005-06:00

During our 2 weeks in PG, if the kids weren't splashing around in Grandma's kiddie pool, they could often be found swimming somewhere else!

We took ALL of the cousins (besides Teya, Brinley and Cam who were stuck in New Hampshire) to 7 peaks on one of our swim outings and it was a CRAZY adventure! There were so many people there and it was such a huge park that it was really overwhelming trying to keep tabs on all the kids. In fact, this is the only picture I got because I had to put the camera away to keep Lily from diving in head first!

Although the adults all needed a major nap when we were done, the kids had a blast! Brooklyn and Lily were fearless (much to my dismay) and charged the lazy river and wave pool as if they were dolphins! It took every ounce of my energy to keep Lily from running in till the water was over her head!

Later during our trip we took the kids to a much smaller pool near Grandma's house. It was just the right size for them, and the adults were even able to relax a little.

Not everyone could make it that day, but we still had Joseph and David, as well as Sarah and her two boys, Noa and Micah. (I didn't get any pictures of the older kids because they were off having too much fun to stay still for a camera.)

It was great having my mom there too. You can NEVER underestimate how useful another set of hands can be around large bodies of water when you have little kids!

In fact, she even got brave enough to take the Grand-kids down the water slide! I took Brooklyn and Lily once as well and it was pretty hard. When I popped off the bottom of the slide with Lily I lost my footing and it took me a second to pull her head out from under the water. Luckily, she thought it was funny. Her older sister would have bawled her eyes out!

Even Aunty Sarah had lots of playtime with the kids. I'm pretty sure she gave at least a dozen dolphin rides during our short time there :)

But fun can't last forever. Soon the kids started to do pee pee dances and complain of hunger, so we packed up and headed for home.

Anyway, it didn't really matter where we went to get wet and wild, when it was time to come home, every single one of the kids were wasted and ready for naps... and so were we!

Back to the Utah Recap...

2011-08-31T11:29:00.006-06:00

Obviously I've been a little unmotivated to finish posting all the pictures we took in Utah! There were over 1,800 on my camera when I got home, so its been a bit of an overwhelming task. That being said, it has to get done! So here I am with some more pictures of my Utah vacation in July.

The day after our Stewart Falls hike, we drove back to Kaysville to say goodbye to Kevin (who had to go back to work...lame!) We spent a few days there just unwinding and relaxing while we waited for my mom and sisters to get back from Virginia. They finally got home and picked us up that following Wednesday and we drove down to Pleasant Grove for some more family fun.

(Since I waited so long to post this, I'm not exactly sure what order everything happened after Kevin left, so I'm just going to post events. Today's event being Grandma Uda's BACKYARD!)

We don't have a backyard at our house...or a front yard for that matter. So walking into Grandma's backyard and jumping into her kiddie pool was a special treat!

The girls were nervous at first, but with the right equipment, they quickly got into it and had fun splashing around with their cousins.

It was really fun to see their imaginations at work while they were watering the fake plants and talking to their imaginary friends!

And if the pool wasn't cool enough, Grandma also had a pretty cool swing set to play on! I think this is the first time Brooklyn ever swung Superman style (thanks to the tutelage of her older cousin Maile)!

Mason (their older cousin) even tried to convince them to combine both things and jump off the swings into the pool. The girls weren't buying it, but Mason had a lot of fun :)

Even Lily and her little cousin Malia had fun playing on the slide together. It was hard to convince them to take turns, but they eventually figured it out!

Throughout the whole trip, both of the girls spent countless hours playing around in the backyard with their cousins. In fact, I hardly said ten words to Brooklyn the whole month because she was having so much fun! It was so neat to see the girls truly enjoying summer the way kids are supposed to and we are grateful for Grandma and Grandpa for letting us crash their backyard!

Lily is 18 Months Old!

2011-08-16T10:00:00.011-06:00

On August 12th, our sweet little Lily turned 18 months old. No, its not a birthday, but it does mean she can FINALLY go to nursery and she has reached a big milestone in her short life! So to mark the special occasion, I thought I would take a look back at how much she has grown:

Lily was born on February 12th 2010. It was a fast process. The doctor sent me to get induced that day after she discovered that Lily was already on her way out! All 8 lbs and 6 oz of adorable chubby goodness came out after 3 pushes and soon we were able to bring her home.

Because she came out so fast, Lily resembled Jabba the Hutt for a short period of time. I'm sure she'll hate hearing about that when she's older, but it always gives us a good laugh!

And besides, within a week of her birth, her head went back to normal and she turned out to be pretty darn cute after all :)

At 3 months old it was clear to me that I would have another little girl that didn't look that much like her mommy. Lily's hair started to curl up and lighten around that time and her eyes showed definite signs of staying blue!

But by 6 months Lily proved to be more like me than I thought! She was totally goofy and had a fantastic sense of humor, and loved to eat! People even started to say she looked like me by then.

At 9 months she proved to be even more of a character than we thought! She crawled like a bear wherever she went, laughed at everything we did, and started mimicking some of the funniest sounds I've ever heard.

1 year brought walking, and thus, dancing! Also, the ability to joke and tease with big sis and follow mommy around like a little satellite.

By 15 months Lily's sense of adventure came out, as well as her ability to communicate. She started to love swimming, jumping, animals, and bugs, and got pretty good at saying "Daddy, Mommy, Brooko, and Milk".

Now at 18 months old, Lily loves to eat chocolate, cheese, pasta, and fruit. She can say many words and sentences including:

Waaaaaaaaaaaater
Milk
No No Brookie,
Up Please
Down Please
Thank you
Good Girl
Good Doggie
Mermaid
Rainbow
See you guys!
Cookie and Chocolate

She can also sing parts of most of the theme songs on Nick Jr. and parts of the ABC song and Twinkle Little Star. She loves to jump off of things, no matter how high or who is there to catch her. She loves chasing bugs down and talking to them, putting doggies in headlocks (Elmyra style) and kissing them to pieces, snuggling her mommy and daddy, being thrown or spun around repetitively, running free outside, playing dress up with Brookie, taking things in and out of boxes and containers over and over again, (which leaves a pretty big mess in my kitchen) dancing like a mad woman, hug attacking her Daddy when he gets home from work, going to nursery, (thank goodness) ...and she LIVES to pick on her big sister whenever the opportunity presents itself!

As for stats: She is 33 inches tall (90th percentile), 27.7 pounds in weight (75th percentile), right on track with her language skills, and a little above average with her physical skills.

We are so grateful to have our little Lily (aka: Lillers, Lilykabilsters, Lil, Lilly-kins) in our lives. She is a handful of independent hilarity and has brought great joy and great adventures into our home! And now I must end this post so that I can stop her from falling down the stairs in a pair of pink high heels!

Happy 6th Anniversary Kevin!

2011-08-13T08:25:00.010-06:00

2004

In case things are starting to blur a little after 6 years of marriage... we met on your birthday in October of 2004 when your cousin and I dropped off a present to you (I believe it was a giant bag of gummy bears). We went on a couple of double dates after that... just not together :) And then I invited you to dance in the BYU luau with me.

2005

You said yes (about the BYU luau thing). We danced our hearts out. Things didn't work out with your cousin and I. You and I started to date. And then a few months later, I said YES!

We got married on August 13th, 2005 and it was a party to remember! We spent our honeymoon in Yellowstone National Park, moved in to our first place at the Lilac Apartments in Provo, UT, and then had a crazy remainder of the year with new jobs and classes, some crazy sicknesses, my first experience with cockroaches, and a lot of things to laugh about!

2006

2006 Brought us to the basement of my parents house for a short month, then to Becca and Taber's apartment behind the Wal-mart in Orem for another 2 months, and finally, to a little duplex near UVRMC and the DI in Provo. I got an awesome new job at the BYU WSR Center, you were working in the Bookstore, and we were both still in classes (you at BYU and me at UVSC).

2007

2007 Brought baby news...not an entire baby, just a big belly. We were still living in our duplex, I finished my Associates degree, and you were almost done with your Bachelors in Engineering.

2008

2008 gave us a run for our money...literally! We had our beautiful little Brooklyn in January, you went to China in May for a study abroad while we...

Moved to Chicago for your summer internship! We subleased Brian and Natalie's apartment in Schaumburg and had a great time exploring our new diggs.

In late August we were back in Utah living in my parents basement in Pleasant Grove while you finished your degree. You graduated at the end of December and then we packed up again to move back to Chicago.

2009

We lived in Downers Grove for our first year in Chicago and had fun making new friends and figuring out how to get around without being stuck in traffic for hours at a time! Then somewhere in the middle of the year we found out we were pregnant again with another baby girl!

2010

Which meant we got to ring in 2010 with a new apartment in Lisle, Illinois and the addition of little Lily to our family!

2011

6 years, 2 children, 8 apartments, and 1,392 miles later, we are still happily married. We've had our rough patches, but each one has brought us closer together, taught us how to serve and forgive one another, and miraculously forced us to grow a little maturity along the way! Thank you for sticking it out with me Kev. I love you (and your amazing pecs) more than you will ever know. Happy Anniversary!

Stewart Falls, July 2011!

2011-08-11T16:30:00.006-06:00

After our 5K mud run, Jennie and I went home and showered, and then collected some family members to hike Stewart Falls with us. We were both surprised and happy that so many people could come. We ended up with Josh, Erin and the boys, Jacob and Scar, Jennie, Me, Kevin, and the girls, and Grandpa Uda and Gizmo!

And might I just say, it was a BEAUTIFUL day for a hike!

We went into the hike knowing that Lily would have to be carried the whole way, and Brooklyn would need some help here and there. It was a 4 mile hike after all and that's a long way for a 1 and 3 year old! But Kevin was a good sport and did his fatherly duty like a pro!

Although the girls spent most of their time on Kevin's shoulders, they were lucky (as was Kevin) to have so many other people around who didn't mind shouldering them for a while :)

Jennie took her turn with Lily at the beginning of the hike. I thought they looked really cute together in their matching orange clothing.

I took Lily for a while as well, and she did her very best to make sure my hair was a disaster by the time she got down :)

Even Grandpa Uda got in on the action. He handed Gizmo (who also got carried the whole way) over to me and took Lily for a while. She LOVED all the attention!

Grandpa also spent some time carrying Brooklyn, or just walking with her and listening to her jabber on about unicorns and fairies.

Brooklyn actually managed to walk the entire 2 miles up ALL by herself! And most of the way down for that matter. But it helped that Grandpa was willing to take it slow and stop for some Gizmo-petting-breaks.

We also stopped a few times for photo-ops...obviously. After all, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of this little guy. Kevin and I spotted this tree about 5 years ago, right after it was plowed over by an avalanche. We've managed to take a picture of it almost every year and in every season since then.

Finally we reached the waterfall (along with about 30 other hikers) and were able to sit, relax, and enjoy the view together.

Brooklyn and Josh were both very deep in thought about that view as you can see here!

We took some time to play around while we were at the falls too. Lily probably had the most fun though since she was the only one small enough to go on the Daddy ride!

I was pretty tired by the time we got there because of our early morning race, but I was SO glad that we went. ESPECIALLY since there are no mountains to be seen in Illinois, and thus, no where to hike.

Kevin wasn't tired though (he never really is) so he spent some time playing with the boys!

And then he and Jake took off to practice being irresponsible and dangerous...

Which of course meant they hiked up the steep cliff to get a better view of the falls.

And possibly drove their wives to tears when they were spotted on the side of the mountain. :)

But despite the craziness, we all had a fantastic time together and I felt SO lucky to have a family who loves me and who were willing to spend the afternoon hiking Stewart Falls with us! Thanks guys, we had a BLAST!

Runner Cross Mud Run 2011

2011-08-06T19:30:00.005-06:00

First thing Saturday morning on July 9th, my cousin/BFF Jennie and I drove up to Salt Lake to participate in the Runner Cross 5K Mud Run. It was done on a Motocross course and was already laden with mud, dirt, and hills, but just for fun the race organizers added in some walls, hay bails, tires, slip and slides, sprinklers, and mud pits!

Jennie and I got there right on time but to our surprise, no one else was there! For a second we thought we were in the wrong place, but it turned out that it was the first time they had ever done the event and things were running a bit behind schedule... which meant we started over an hour late!

But that's okay. It gave Kevin and the girls some time to get dressed and drive up to watch us race and cheer us on!

Brooklyn was particularly fascinated by the whole event and she made and excellent cheerleader for Jennie and I.

Anyway, I wasn't really trying to PR or even run at my regular pace. Jennie and I both just wanted to experience something new in racing, and we did! In fact, most of the participants seemed to have the same attitude. There were people running backwards to retry obstacles, walking and talking on their phones, and hiding in mud pits to attack friends when they passed through. One guy even pretended to be the Swamp Thing and jumped out at some random bystanders!

In the mean time, Jennie and I enjoyed jumping over hay bails and logs...

...sledging through mud pits...

...climbing over wooden walls...

...sliding down GIANT slip and slides and getting launched into GIANT mud pits (which gave me some pretty groovy bruises on my back side)...

...and running up and down hills, racing through tires, and jumping over water holes!

We finished in the dead center of the pack despite our last place start, and we had a BLAST doing it! So, if you are ever feeling like you are in a rut with running, I highly recommend giving one of these events a try!

When all was said and done, Jennie and I headed home for some food, a shower, and a hike up Stewart Falls! More on that tomorrow.

To be continued...

Chillin' with our Provo and PG Peeps!

2011-08-04T08:37:00.005-06:00

Right after we left Idaho, we drove to Pleasant Grove (My mom's house is the gathering place for all things grand) to hang out with all of my family down there.

Scarlet and Jake were watching Rachel's kids while she was with my mom in Virginia for my Grandma's funeral. So we gathered all the kiddos and headed down to BYU to visit my old boss LaNae, shop at the Bookstore, and visit the Museum of Art.

The kids put up with us while we were running our errands, but then they were rewarded with ice cream and a fun visit to the museum. And the nice thing was, the museum was small enough that we saw everything before the kids got too tuckered out!

When we DID finally take off for home, the girls were both wasted. It took them about 3 minutes before they were completely passed out!

Later that night we tried letting Lily sleep in a big girl bed for the first time. A little while into the night she fell off the bed and crawled over to Brooklyn to see if her big sister would comfort her and let her snuggle. Brooklyn rewarded her efforts with a swift kick to the head and a flat out rejection to share her bed. I heard the whole thing through the wall and then went in to comfort Lily and put her back in bed. Incidentally, we still found her like this when we went to wake her up in the morning!

(Update: Since we've been home, we purchased a big girl bed for Lily and she is sleeping in it like a champ!)

The next day Josh and Erin came over with their boys and we all had a GREAT time together watching movies and drinking Root beer Floats. The boys even convinced Uncle Kevin to play a few games of Chess for old time's sake. After their game, we were all off to bed to get some rest before my race in the morning and our hike to Stewart Falls! But you will have to wait to hear about that!

To be continued...

GREAT Grandma and Grandpa Hanks!

2011-08-03T07:30:00.005-06:00

The morning after our marathon play date with the Bluth's, Janna and I woke up early for a run and then got everyone ready for a trip to Saint Anthony to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Hanks!

When we got there, Brooklyn immediately attached herself to Grandma Hanks! They had so much fun playing hide and go seek and running a muck in the living room while the little girls ran circles around the coffee table.

Soon Grandpa came in from working outside and then Grandma fed us an INCREDIBLE lunch!
Brooklyn was pretty excited to see her Grandpa and it wasn't long before she was wearing his hat and following him around every where he went.

After lunch, Grandpa pulled out the 4 wheeler and let us all take turns riding around the property on it!

Then we let the girls loose to play in the dirt!

It was a total dream come true for them. There were so many things to touch and explore and Brooklyn's imagination was working in overtime!

It took Lily a little longer to decide if she liked having dirt between her toes or not. But once she decided she liked it, she was unstoppable!

After a while, Grandpa had Kevin help him unhook the tractor so he could take Brooklyn on a little ride.

It doesn't get much cooler than that for a 3 year old!

When the tractor ride came to an end, the girls did a little more exploring with the farm equipment and then Brooklyn followed Grandpa around while he was killing weeds and watered everything that looked like it could still be alive. :)

Then we said our goodbyes, gave a few more hugs, and hopped in the car to drive to Pleasant Grove, UT for yet another fun stop on our vacation.

But not before Grandma loaded us up with a bunch of treats and a lot of love! Thank you Great Grandma and Grandpa Hanks for letting us spend the day with you. We all had SO much fun and love you more than you know!

To be continued...

Idaho or BUST!

2011-08-02T10:15:00.008-06:00

As soon as we were finished taking family pictures on Tuesday, Kevin and I packed up some overnight bags, hopped in the car, and drove to Idaho with Janna and Tyler to see their new home.

We got there in the early evening and took the grand tour. Then we just ate, relaxed, and let the girls run wild before it was time for bed.

First thing in the morning, Janna and I went for a nice run together, picked up a stray cat, got home, fed our kiddos, and then took the cat back after realizing no one was going to be able to keep it :)

Then Kevin made some bread dough before we took off for the local zoo. (It turns out that altitude really does make your dough rise differently. Ours was overflowing by the time we got home!)

The zoo was right down the street and was the perfect way to start the day. (Even if Lily REALLY didn't want to sit on the tiger's back.)

I was AMAZED at how many animals were out and about! They were all wide awake and active, which made our trip EXTRA fun!

Another thing that made the trip fun was that the animals were really close to the path and were easy to see. Also, the path was short and simple for little kids to travel... which definitely made things better for the parents!

Anyway, the animals were so active that we even got to be up close and personal with this little guy. He was just hanging out on the window, perfect for a photo-op!

At the end of our animal tour we stopped in at the petting zoo! It was basically a large cage with tons of goats who were VERY used to being clobbered by little children.

Lilly was bout the same size as the goats but she didn't seem to care. She LOVED feeding them and kept patting their heads and saying, "Good Doggie!"

She and Brooklyn were quite the little pair, chasing around the goats and giving them all their love!

Brooklyn even got in on the grooming action before we decided it was time to head over to the carnival rides right outside the zoo.

The rides were the first we've ever seen that didn't have a height limit... SO, Brooklyn finally got to ride a Ferris Wheel! (Something she's been begging to do since she was only 18 months old!)

And as you can see, she had the time of her life with her Daddy by her side.

Lily and Audrey even got to go on a ride! Although Audrey was pretty scared of the ride attendant. It was pretty funny actually. She was fine riding in the airplane, but every time she flew into view of the guy, she would start screaming!

Lily, on the other hand, was pretty indifferent to the whole experience. But at least WE had fun watching her fly around :)

After the rides were over, we took the girls home and put them down for naps so that we could go to the dairy when they woke up!

Once we got there, they got to pet baby cows...

Some ponies...

And some more goats. (Who seemed a bit grumpier then the ones at the zoo.)

Then we all enjoyed some AMAZING ice cream together before heading over to the soccer fields to watch Tyler coach his team!

When we got there, Kevin showed his great maturity by rolling down the hill to the fields below. Brooklyn was pretty impressed! :)

Then we watched Tyler take charge of the Melaleuca team and play a great soccer game!

They were doing pretty good while we were there, despite their very small team and the fact that none of the girls on the team could get a sub!

But alas, after a crazy long day of fun and excitement, the girls couldn't take it any more. So, we had to head home before the game was over. Once we got there, we put all the kids to bed and then Janna and Kevin went to a video arcade while I watched the girls. When they got back, they brought Thai food and we all enjoyed a fantastic dinner before heading off to dream land.

To be continued...

Hangin' with the Hanks Crew!

2011-08-01T11:05:00.012-06:00

After the Smith Family Reunion finished and all our guests started heading for home, we were left with the immediate Hanks family. Since we don't get the chance to be together at the same time very often, we decided to treat it like a mini Hanks Reunion!

We mostly relaxed and enjoyed talking and spending time with each other, but we also tried to do fun things for the cousins to enjoy. So after church on Sunday, Janna, Kevin and I decided to take the kids to the duck pond near by.

The ducks were used to being fed and weren't afraid to come up close, which tickled the girls pink because they were able to feed them right out of their hands. Then Lily and Audrey took turns chasing the ducks and quacking out loud before we meandered back home.

The next morning, Kevin woke up early and went on a 30 mile bike ride... for FUN! The rest of us just slept in and lazed around with the kiddos.

It was really fun just sitting around and watching how well they played together. Wes is 9 months older then Brooklyn and Sydney is 9 months younger than her, so they are all VERY close in age and were best buddies!

Audrey and Lily are only a few weeks apart in age but are too young to really interact with each other. But that's OK. They both have enough personality to keep themselves entertained for hours without any help from us!

Although we DID occasionally have to entertain the kids, it mostly just came in the form of hugs and snuggles... and let me tell you, there was PLENTY of snuggling to go around!

Anyway, once the rest of us were ready to crawl out of bed, we got the kids dressed and walked over to see the 4th of July parade.

There were a ton of people in front of us so it was pretty hard to see, and the kids didn't seem to understand what was going on anyway, so we didn't stay for long.

But Kevin and Brooklyn made sure they had some fun with the camera first, and then they gathered some candy and headed home with the rest of us.

Later that day we released the children on Grandma's backyard. They had lots of fun playing on the trampoline...

But then again, so did their Daddies. Especially Kevin who has miraculously managed to maintain his flexibility and bouncing skills as he has aged.

Soon Audrey decided she wanted a change of scenery and jumped into the swimming pool fully clothed! Her cousins quickly joined her (but to their dismay I made them put on their swimming suits first) and they had a great time splashing around together.

The next day, our gracious mother decided to babysit all the kids while the adults went ROCK CLIMBING!

Once we got there, we each took turns climbing, watching each other, thinking about climbing, making fun of those who were climbing, and rubbing our sore arms.

The Biological Hanks kids are all built like monkeys and didn't seem to have trouble scaling the walls.

The rest of us didn't take long to pick up on it though. In fact, Sara seemed quite adept to the whole thing.

Although we all tried our hardest, we couldn't climb long before our limbs gave out on us. Turns out you actually have to be in shape to climb a wall! Who knew? :)

Once we gave up, we spent the rest of our time watching Kevin and Brian (who both have humongous biceps and did not pay me to say that) climb the more difficult routes. They were both very good and Kevin actually earned himself a 1 hour back massage by reaching a particularly hard rock and then doing pull ups on it!!!

Afterwards, there was even a little time for a ping pong match between Brian and Janna.

When they were all done, we woke up dad (who was supposed to be taking pictures but managed to sleep through the ENTIRE event) and headed home to get cleaned up for our family pictures.

The pictures were taken at a nearby park, and although they turned out beautifully, it was kind of a nightmare to get them taken! The kids decided to be cranky, crazy, wiggly, and/or uncooperative during the whole thing, but with a TON of adult power, we finally got this picture...

And then we were off to see more places and people! To be continued...

JWS Family Reunion: Day Two, Part Three - The Luau

2011-07-13T10:48:00.008-06:00

Because the theme of our reunion was story telling, we decided to end the event with the story of Grandma and Grandpa Smith's life (Extremely condensed) using Polynesian dances!

We had a little prep work to do first though, such as finding matching costumes and painting all the Uncle's faces.

And while we were prepping, family members enjoyed some AMAZING Polynesian food, as well as some fun games, and photo ops.

Soon we were ready to dance and began the show with the hula Meapa'ani Kinipopo (a sports song) to tell how Grandpa Smith met Grandma because he was looking for some people to play basketball with and found the LDS church. A group of men from the church told him he could play if he started to attend regular meetings. He agreed and it wasn't long before he met Grandma.

The next dance was Ku'u hoa (My Friend), a hula that talks about love and courtship. We used it to tell how Grandma and Grandpa soon fell in love and married in the Temple in Arizona!

The Maori Haka was next on the docket and was performed by all the sons in the family (minus Uncle Jim who was on his mission). The Haka represented the craziness in Grandma's home after she had six sons in a row and no daughters to speak of.

Then ALL the women danced Fakateretere to tell of the grace and femininity that entered the home when Grandma and Grandpa's first and only daughter was born!

Next the younger men danced the Fa'ataupati (slap dance) to tell how Grandpa's life was when he went off to war... hanging out with stinky dudes all day, sleeping in tents, and smacking away the mosquitoes!

After that, I danced E Tui/Terina (Poi balls) to tell how Grandma had to use and learn MANY skills to run her home on her own while Grandpa was off to war.

We ended the story portion of the show with a Sasa done by all the young grandchildren to show what an amazing posterity Grandma and Grandpa Smith have created!

And just for fun, my siblings and I gave a short show after the story telling to allow everyone a moment to relax and unwind after their own performances.

Soon the luau, as well as the ENTIRE reunion, was over! But not before we ended the night with a quick clean and push up competition. (Won by cousin Shawna...what an amazing woman!)

Thank you Smith family for helping us to have such a fun and successful reunion. It was an event to be remembered!

JWS Family Reunion: Day Two, Part Two - The Carnival

2011-07-12T11:41:00.005-06:00

After we all had the chance to shower off our sweat from the 5K, we began once again to gather at the church for some more family fun!

Everyone came wearing their cool new color-coordinated family T-shirts! They were then given carnival tickets that would allow them to play each game and get their yummy food.

It was pretty hot outside, but it didn't take us long to find ways to keep ourselves cool.

We ate in the cool shade underneath the pavilion to keep the sweating to a minimum... unfortunately Dad and Ken got a bit toasty standing at the grill for so long!

Luckily, we had plenty of snow cones to share with our fearless chefs, as well as anyone else who was willing to dye their tongues green for a moment a frozen bliss.

Along with the snow cones, we had a cotton candy machine! I know its nothing more than a giant ball of fluffy sugar, but I really LOVE that stuff! And as it turns out, Brooklyn didn't mind it much either :)

We also had a giant bounce house that kept the kids (and adults) occupied for hours. Brooklyn spent most of the day inside it with her new found friends.

Besides all the treats, food, and playthings, we also had several booths set up with games. Prizes were earned at each booth, including our drink for the day and our chips that went with our lunch! (Playing for our food really helped everyone to feel motivated to participate!)

Although it was warmer than we would have liked, everyone enjoyed playing the multiple games we had available and it was fun to see all the little kids working so hard to get all the tabs on their tickets punched. When all was said and done, we cleaned up and started setting up for our family luau. But you will have to wait a little longer to hear about that! :)

To be continued...

JWS Family Reunion: Day Two, Part One - The 5K

2011-07-12T09:01:00.005-06:00

On the 2nd day of our reunion, we all woke up early for the family 5K that was organized by Tyler and Janna. And let me tell you...no expense was spared! They had water stops, a start and finish line, trophies, medals, raffle prizes, and a sweet post-race breakfast!

They started us out with a 100 Meter Dash for all the little kids. It was pretty funny to watch. The older kids had a pretty good handle on things and were out and back in no time! But several of the younger kids got distracted half way through and started to play in the grass, or simply wandered off once they'd forgotten what they were supposed to be doing. Brooklyn got to the turn around point and told the adults that were standing there that she was afraid if she kept running her legs might fall off! This, of course, resulted in Brooklyn crossing the finish line wrapped in the arms of Uncle Phil as he sprinted through to the sound of her yelling, "FASTER! FASTER!"

Once the children had all received their shiny new canning-top-medals, we lined up for the 5K. Many of the older children participated in both races, and one of them even took third place overall in the 5K!

The course went out and back so I was able to see a lot of the runners as they passed me on their way to the finish line :) It was actually kind of neat because I knew who won first, second, and third place long before I finished the race. I even got to see Janna, our incredible event organizer, run pass me in record time, pulling a spectacular race face for the cameras!

Jennie was nice enough to run the whole thing with me despite my dramatic attempts to suck oxygen out of Utah's thin air. I finished in exactly 33 minutes and was pretty pleased that I could still pull that time with my burning lungs! I guess all my time in Chicago has made me soft after all!

One of my favorite parts of the 5K was that almost EVERYONE participated! They didn't care if they'd never run before or not, they just got out and did it. There were runners, walkers, skippers, strollers, and shoulder rides, and they all crossed the finish line to loud shouts and cheers from the rest of the family!

Coming in first place was my crippled husband at 20 minutes and 15 seconds! Not too far behind him was cousin Shawna, and then little Mason Smith took third. Not gonna lie, it was pretty crazy seeing him fly pass me at the midway point :)

All the winners were awarded super cool trophies and medals (complements of DI) and then we finished off the morning with raffle prizes (I won a sweet water bottle) and a pancake breakfast! It was such an awesome morning and a fantastic thing to do as a family, as well as one of my favorite parts of the whole reunion. Thanks Janna and Tyler for all your hard work!

JWS Family Reunion: Day One

2011-07-11T13:16:00.007-06:00

On the evening of June 30th, Kevin and I repacked our luau bags and headed out to Utah again for the James and Ruth Smith Family Reunion! (Kevin's Mom's parents.) Despite delays at the airport (when they thought our Maori skirts were bombs and insisted on doing x-ray and chemical testing on EVERYTHING in our bags) we arrived just on time to catch some Z's before all the excitement began.

We started out our first day with some mixers that included thumb wars, rock-paper-scissors, and coin tossing to earn fake money from our relatives and eventually win prizes for the most fake cash. Chocolate bars were also awarded to those who were smart enough to click "like" on the family reunion facebook page before the reunion began. (Yesss! For once my internet addiction paid off!)

After we all got to know each other a little better we went over some family history business and then reenacted a story from our family history archives. Although you can't really tell by this picture, the story was actually quite riveting! There were soldiers and Indians, lawyers and judges, and even a naked lady who got scalped! My favorite part was when the Indians (played by some of the younger boys) were told that their characters were supposed to kill a woman and one of the little boys cocked a fake gun and shot her Halo style! Ha Ha! OK... now that you all think I'm evil, moving on!

When story time was over, we were each given a number from when we joined the family. I was number 91 out of 126 (128 now that 2 more babies were born!) We were also given family T-shirts that had every one's numbers on the back and the reunion logo on the front (that my awesome brother-from-another-mother, Stewart designed for us!)

Once we all had our shirts, we ate lunch and then headed outdoors for some water fun!!!

Most of the adults enjoyed the shade and some great conversation while everyone else got water logged... I would have been one of those marvelously dry individuals had it not been for my husband and his giant Super Soaker!

During our water party, a bunch of the semi-adult family members joined together for an impromptu soccer game in which Kevin earned a humongous hematoma on the front of his shin.

He keeps pretending that he doesn't know where he got it, but secretly I suspect that the Oopsie Club pulled him into a back room and used him as a guinea pig for some crazy stunt they were contemplating doing. Obviously they opted out of the stunt after Kevin's third knee appeared!

While the adults showcased the many unique forms of Smith Competitiveness, the children were off in their own world of water fun. There were swimming pools, slip and slides, wacky sprinklers, water guns, water balloons, sling shots, etc. for them to play with and it kept them busy for hours! I don't even think I spoke to Brooklyn once that day because she was having so much fun!

(Look how cute all the little kiddos are waiting in line for the slip and slide!)

Although I was unable to get a picture of it, at one point in the day we managed to gather everyone together for a stellar game of Human Battleship with water balloon torpedoes. All company considered, it was no surprise when it ended up being an epic water fight fought on either side of a giant tarp. Very funny... Very fun!!!

Once the water games were over, we all got cleaned up, ate dinner, and then started game night. We started with a great family history trivia game, and then ended the night with some Minute to Win It games. We got to watch our family do everything from stacking ding dongs on their foreheads...

to trying to keep multiple balloons in the air simultaneously...

to creating apple towers! It was so much fun and everyone really enjoyed themselves. We also got to watch a really cool video that Brian made before we went off to put the little ones to bed. Eventually I will post it on here when I can get my hands on a copy.

Oh yeah! I musn't forget, we also got to go home with happy bellies! Full of wonderful strawberry and whipped cream goodness! Now stay tuned for postings on day two of the JWS Family Reunion!

To be continued...

The Woodridge 1st Ward Community Luau

2011-06-28T08:20:00.007-06:00

After several weeks of costume sewing and crafting, dance practices and dress rehearsals...

As well as advertising, cooking, decorating, delegating, coordinating, and spreading the word...

Kevin and I loaded our ward members into the church building, painted their faces, fixed up their hair and makeup, and got them all ready to perform in our first ever ward luau that was designed to invite the community and help us share the gospel!

My co-chairs, Zeke Johnson and Nate McConkie, thankfully took care of all the advertising, decorations, and food. Which freed Kevin and I up to teach all the dances, gather and make costumes, and organize and present the show.

About 15 minutes after we opened the doors, Kevin and I, as well as other members from my dance group Halau Hula O'Puanani, started the show with an Ancient Kahiko called Keahi Alapa, that was choreographed by my Uncle Bill Kelly!

Then Kevin and I split in a hurry so we could change for the next dance while Sarah and Christine danced Aoia with the ipu.

Then we were up again to dance Ku'u Hoa... all the while, Kevin was being the emcee between numbers. Needless to say, the man is VERY fast at changing costumes!

When we finished dancing Ku'u Hoa, some more ladies from our halau got up to perform the auana, Wahine Ilikea. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures because our photographer, Liberty Cameron, was behind stage trying to help Kevin paint a moko on his face.

Which of course brings us to the next dance that Kevin and I did, E Tui/Terina from the island of New Zealand. And I'm happy to announce that I didn't hit myself even ONCE while I was doing the poi balls!

Then Christine, Sarah, and Yoshie came back on to perform a Tahitian Otea and end the professional half of our show.

After they were finished, Kevin gave the ladies a final thank you and then began introductions for the second half of our show that would be performed by ward members!

We started by having the Bishopric lead random audience members through a simple Tahitian Otea (and when I say random, I mean they picked people who had it coming to them!)

Then the Elders Quorum got up and performed a sweet Haka! We had about 15 men on stage (or in front) screaming like maniacs and slapping themselves like wild monkeys...it was AWESOME!

Once the men cleared the stage, the Relief Society got up and performed Palehua. And of course, they had practiced to near perfection, sewed themselves matching costumes, and impressed everyone with their grace and beauty.

Next up were our Young Men. They performed a Fijian War Club dance and looked AMAZING in their table-skirt skirts and face paint. The best part? One of the leaders, Dan Deem, made each dancer their very own club fashioned after hockey sticks! :) Creative and effective!

Our Young Women followed the Young Men with a beautiful aparima called Fakateretere. They had all just returned from a week at EFY only an hour before we started the show, yet they still got up and danced their hearts out!

Then the show stopping High Priest group got up to perform a Fa'ataupati, or slap dance. They came out with so much energy and had EVERYONE in the audience laughing and cheering. It was so fun to watch them dance!

The show ended on a high note with our Primary performing a Samoan Sasa. I'm not sure if a single one of them was doing the same thing at any given time, but they were absolutely adorable and totally stole the show.

When the dancing came to an end, our handsome emcee got back on stage, thanked all who participated, and announced our closing song and prayer.

The closing song was performed by our fearless young woman, Amy Hickenlooper. She played the guitar and sang the Hawaiian Hymn, Kanakawaiwai.

When all was said and done, we ended up with one of the most successful activities our ward has ever had. We estimated somewhere between 200 and 250 people in attendance and a very large number of those people were NOT ward members. But more importantly, our entire ward was united through this massive undertaking. Thank you again to all who helped watch our girls while we were dancing, and who helped with costumes, food, decorating, running the stage and makeup, and those who took pictures and video, who helped teach and organize, or who in any way helped us to pull off this magnificent event. It was worth every second of your hard work!

Father's Day Weekend 2011

2011-06-24T06:10:00.005-06:00

Since I got to spend Mother's Day drifting in the ocean on a Caribbean Cruise, I felt it was only fair to allow Kevin 3 full days of Father's Day celebration!

The girls and I started those celebrations on Saturday with a Worship Wall for Daddy!

Later in the day we took Daddy shopping for some new work pants and shirts. That might not sound very exciting, but if you know Kevin, you also know that he sweats all day long and can never keep cool! Thus, he was very excited to get pants made with special "cool max" technology, and a shirt made out of technical running fabric! Kevin DEFINITELY liked his mini shopping spree!

Sunday morning Kevin requested a waffle and strawberry breakfast. So, we granted his request and then took it up a notch by decorating the waffles like watermelon and adding some homemade buttermilk syrup!

The meal was enjoyed by all, but especially Lily who was not above licking her excess syrup off the plate in front of everyone :)

When the syrup was finally rinsed out of every one's hair and ears, we all got dressed for church. I tried to take a picture of the girls with their Dad but it is REALLY hard to get them both to stay still and smile at the same time... Oh well!

After church we enjoyed a nice walk with Daddy. It was a beautiful afternoon and the girls loved running around and climbing trees with their buff Dad!

When we were all walked out, we returned home to make Kevin the cheese enchiladas he had requested for dinner. They might not look like they turned out that great, but let me tell you... They were the BEST enchiladas I EVER had! (and Kevin agreed.) I'd never made enchiladas myself so I just winged it with what we had in the house. Luckily, when our friends (the Noorda's) moved, they left us with a bunch of their homemade salsas. I used a green one for the inside, and red for the outside and it made a world of difference! Mmmmmmm!

And to top off the evening, I made Kevin some Thousand Dollar Bars. Yummo!!!!

The dessert was also enjoyed by all, but especially Kevin who got to take all the leftovers to work to eat by himself (so, that mommy wouldn't eat them all in a single sitting, by HERSELF!)

On Monday, we decided to end the celebrations with a trip to our swimming pool where Kevin and the girls swam, splashed, squirmed, squealed and flew until their hearts were content! It was a wonderful end to our 3 day celebration and a great reminder of why we are all so grateful to have Kevin in our lives! Happy Father's Day Kevin! We love you!!!

Brooklyn's First Trip to the Dentist

2011-06-23T08:16:00.003-06:00

When we first moved out to Chicago, Kevin and I were lucky enough to stumble upon Doctor Ronald Carroll, our amazing Dentist! He originally started out specializing in doing work for the developmentally disabled and young children, but as his patients started to grow up, they begged him to keep caring for them. So now he has a Family Practice and we get to benefit from his years of experience working with young and scared patients.

When Brooklyn first came into the room, he waited for her to approach him (which didn't take long) and soon they were singing songs, counting fingers, and playing peek-a-boo with his face mask.

When it was obvious that Brooklyn wasn't scared of him, Dr. Carroll had her get up in the chair and count her teeth for him.

Then he took a turn counting her teeth in between spurts of neck tickling!

After he was done checking her teeth, Dr. Carroll taught Brooklyn how to brush her teeth the right way. While he was brushing her teeth, she kept telling him he missed a spot, or that he needed more toothpaste. It kept him giggling and he said if all his patients were like Brooklyn, he would have the easiest job in the world!

When they were all done, Dr. Carroll gave Brooklyn a clean bill of health, a new pink toothbrush, and some silly bands. Needless to say, he is her new best friend. And Brooklyn was pretty proud of herself for not having any cavities! (We were pretty happy about that too.) The only bad news... the Dentist said we should start saving up for braces now! Brooklyn's mouth, though loud and well exercised, is too small for all the teeth she will eventually have. DOH!

Chicago RAGNAR Relay!

2011-06-21T20:11:00.007-06:00

On June 10th and 11th, Kevin and I drove up to Madison, Wisconsin to run our very first RAGNAR Relay TOGETHER! Kevin is an old pro at Ragnar races. He started running the Wasatch Ragnar when it was still called the Wasatch Back Relay and hasn't stopped since then. When we were engaged I got to be in one of his support vans and watch him run up the mountain stretch that use to be called "you gotta be kidding me!" and that was it... in that moment I knew I would start to run, and would eventually run a Relay with Kevin. 6 years later and we finally did it!

Van One started us out early in the morning on the 10th. They had a little rain but other then that things went really well. Their van consisted of our team captain's husband, Dan, her brother David, David's son Trent, Trent's cousin Jesse, Dan's daughter Alexa, and Alexa's friend Ellie. Because the van was mostly filled with teenagers who can't drive, Dan and David had to drive all their legs (which is actually pretty tiring) but they survived and had a fun time.

We met up with them a couple ours later and David handed off the bracelet to me since I was the first runner in Van Two. By the time I started running the rain had stopped and the temperature was PERFECT! I ran 4.7 miles on a beautiful forested dirt path, which felt great on my knees and allowed me to run 30 seconds/mile faster then I usually do. Needless to say, when I came in to hand off to the next runner I was pretty proud of myself :)

After me, Rachael (who is the team captain's sister) ran, then she handed off to Jared (who none of us really knew, but I had met last year when he and I ran the Red Rock Relay on the same team...different vans, and I knew he wanted to run all 15 Ragnars this year, so I facebooked him and asked him to fill our last spot, and he said YES! And he was the best addition to the team, and we all loved him! Whew! that was a mouthful) who then handed off to K'lynne (our organized and fearless team captain) who handed off to Livia (who goes to the same church/ward as us and K'lynne) who then FINALLY handed off to Kevin!

Anyway, it was a long wait before Kevin got to run, so he was getting very nervous watching the rest of us go.

But that's OK because we kept entertained by telling funny stories, getting to know the other runners on our team, admiring the legs on "Calf Man", and making fun of the Bootie team that seamed to always be near.

Eventually though, Kevin got to take his turn pounding pavement, and let me tell you... he did NOT disappoint! Somewhere along his 6.9 mile route, he found this guy who was just a little faster them him (a hard thing to do) and decided his goal would be to keep up with the guy. Well, they ran neck-in-neck the whole way and actually looked like they were having a blast together. When we saw them coming up around the bend, both teams (and all the other runners that were standing around) started yelling at them to beat each other. They both put it into overdrive and literally came FLYING through the shoot! And yes... the crowd went wild!!! When we all calmed down, we hopped back into the van and went to get lunch while Van One took over and we awaited our next turn on the trail.

That time came somewhere around 10:00 pm. We were all waiting in the van in a parking lot to hear from Van One when we realized they should be coming in by now. So we started to walk over to the exchange, just in case, when I heard someone yelling "345! Your runner is coming." YIPES! I wasn't really ready but I turned on my head lamp, strapped on my vest, and barely made it into the shoot before he did! Then I was off! Kevin was supposed to be running with me at this point (because I'm still afraid of the dark) but hadn't known that David came in already so I had to go solo. No worries though, about a quarter mile in to my 3.7 mile leg, Kevin came running up behind me, pinched my rear end, and scared me to death.

We found out later that some random people had moved/stolen a bunch of signs and 2 of Van One's runners got lost. They only found their way because they were carrying their smart phones and were able to use GPS! In the chaos of trying to find each other, they'd forgotten to call us to tell us where they were, thus, the chaotic exchange. Also, further into the night we realized that dozens of runners came into the exchange only to find their team mates lost and missing... so I guess we were pretty lucky!

The rest of the runs went smoothly, minus some creepy guy that tried to sneak up on Livia at 1 in the morning, and a moment of panic when I thought I was being attacked by gnats, only to find that I was seeing mist in the light of my headlamp... :) and soon it was time for Kevin to run again. We had noticed that the guy he ran with before passed us about 10 minutes before Kevin got to take off on his 5.4 mile leg, so we all tried to convince Kevin to catch up to him. That is a REALLY hard thing to do when you run the same pace and are that far apart, but Kevin came within 2 minutes of catching that guy and we were all very proud!

When we were done running that night we went to a hotel to catch a few hours of sleep before we had to run again. We all wanted as much sleep as possible, so we had timed our wake up call to the T. Unfortunately, we woke up to a flat tire!

We phoned the other team to let them know we might not make it to the exchange and then Kevin and Jared made fast work of changing out the tire for a spare! 20 minutes later we were on the road and MAGICALLY we were only 5 minutes behind Van one, who were slowed by some roads that closed during the night and caused them to lose their runner. We pulled up and I could see David waiting for me. I wanted to jump out and run to the shoot but if I didn't go potty first there would be a much bigger problem to deal with. So, I jumped out and ran to the bathroom, cut in front of 30 other runners (who were NOT happy with me), took care of business, and then started to run my last leg of 4.9 miles.

I was really tired, really sore, and really hungry by the time I started to run my leg and could tell I had slowed considerably! But somewhere in the middle of my run an older gentleman came up from behind and asked if he could run with me awhile. I gladly said yes and about 5 minutes later I could tell he'd pulled me back up to my regular pace. At that point he kindly said goodbye and then I ate his dust, but it was OK because he'd really helped me out.

I kept on running and before long another runner came out of nowhere and asked which way he was supposed to be going. I pointed him in the right direction and prepared to eat some more dust but then he asked if he could run with me too! I said sure and soon realized I'd gained a funny new friend.

He told me some funny stories along the way and tried hard to keep me motivated, but the best part was when we saw the "one mile left" marker. Brian (my new friend) turned to me and said, "Look, we only have a mile left. I know you got some juice left so lets kick it into high gear!" I started to tell him that I didn't think I had enough in me, when he cut me off and said, "No! Let me tell you something. Yesterday I was at an exchange and saw these two guys on different teams running in together. EVERYONE started to cheer and yell at them to beat each other, so they started to run super fast! They came in neck-in-neck and then hugged each other and everyone was cheering like CRAZY! It totally inspired me and now WE are going to do the same thing!" I started to laugh at him pretty hard right about then. He said, "What? You don't think we can do it?" Then I proceeded to tell him that we certainly could, but I was laughing because he was talking about my husband! We both got a good chuckle out of that and then we started to run our britches off! We ran into the shoot accompanied by loud shouts and cheers and it was the perfect way to end my last run!

Now all I had to do was wait. During that waiting period we saw more bums, watched Kevin perfect his cheer leading skills, waited for our runners on scary corners in our stealth van, took many bathroom breaks, and of course, ran. A few of our runners had to do really long runs at this time. Rachael had to do 10 MILES! and Livia had to do 8.2! But they handled it like machines and soon Kevin was up again. The last runner, on the very last leg. He ran a long 7.8 miles into Chicago where we proudly met up with him and crossed the finish line as a team!

It was truly an amazing experience running with my husband and getting to know so many fun people. We had perfect running weather, never above 60 degrees, constant fog and cloud coverage to fight off sunburn, and no injuries or illness to speak of. Our team finished running 200 miles in 29 hours 58 minutes and 26 seconds. We came in over an hour faster then our predicted time! When we were done enjoying the free post-race food and entertainment, we said our good byes, drove home, and passed out cold for the next 12 hours. And yes... it was totally worth it!

Life AFTER Vacation...

2011-06-20T11:50:00.002-06:00

Is there such a thing? To be perfectly honest, when we first got back from our Epic Vacation, I didn't think there was! All of the sudden no one was making my bed, scrubbing my toilet, bringing me gourmet food 12 times a day, entertaining me, giving me naps, or organizing cool trips for me. It was hard to face reality again, but it wasn't long before we got back into the swing of things. We took a good week to mope, and then ramped up our activity level to match our growing schedules.

First on the docket was a walk to raise money for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's disease. Our friend Lucy was a team captain, so we took the girls with us and walked the 5K to help support her. Brooklyn was pretty excited to FINALLY be part of a "race" with mom and dad, and she ran almost the whole way giggling and shouting "I'm beating you!" to everyone we passed. It was very cute and everyone got a big kick out of it. When we were finished, she even got to have her face painted, and Kevin and I came home with loads of free food and drink (complements of Lucy's mom.)

A few days later we hopped on the train to head downtown for the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. It was a cold day and the race didn't start until 7 pm, but we risked it anyway. Our train pulled into the station 25 minutes before the race started and we were about a 45 minute walk from the starting line. So, Kevin stuffed our 30 pound 3 year old and 25 pound 1 year old into our 30 pound single jogger, shouldered his backpack, and started running. I was only responsible for myself and could BARELY keep up with him. We got there just as the guns went off. Kevin ripped of his top layers of clothing, hopped over the crowds of people, and started to run! Despite our chaotic start and his 25 minute accidental warm up, Kevin still managed to run the 3.5 miles in only 20:11! It was a record for him and it was pretty cool for us to watch him come in so fast!

After things started to calm down at our place, we enjoyed some time together replanting our garden (it totally died while we were on vacation). It was a fun activity for the girls and the garden seems to be growing OK...minus a few chipmunk problems we seem to be having. I guess we built the garden on top of their tunnel and now they want revenge. They keep digging up our plants and chewing on the roots just for fun. I think one even yelled at me the other day when I walked outside! YIKES!

At the end of the month we enjoyed a very fun and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend together. We swam in the pool, ate hot dogs and smore's, and just enjoyed each others company. It was great to have that last moment of peace before we jumped into the crazy month of JUNE! But you'll have to wait to hear more about that...

Epic Vacation: New York part 2

2011-06-17T09:29:00.009-06:00

Day 2 in New York was our Marathon tourist day. It was a whirlwind day, and it consisted mostly of traveling to a spot, saying "oooh, ahhhhhh!" snapping a picture or two, then moving on to the next place! We were all totally exhausted after that day from all the walking... but again, it turned out to be a very good representation of what my days as a missionary were like (i.e. out for 12-13 hours, and walking an insane amount - I actually had a companion that kept a pedometer and estimated that in one of my Queens areas we walked on average 10-12 miles every day... which is still shy of the average 13 miles that Amish men walk every day!). It was a very fun day, and we did get to see quite a bit, so here goes!

Our first stop was just down the F train to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. There wasn't too much to see while we were there. It was first thing in the morning, so none of the shops or rides or anything were open at the time. But it was still fun to see the sites... we of course had to get our picture taken with the Nathan's Hotdog Eating Contest sign. I did watch Kobayashi live a few years ago when he broke the world record... so it was pretty cool to see.

We walked for a bit on the Boardwalk to Brighton beach. It was a very calm morning. The temperatures were cool, so there were only a few joggers out; we pretty much had the whole boardwalk to ourselves. There was a picture on the front page of some Newspaper just 2 weeks later when a heat wave hit New York City, and the picture showed the same Boardwalk packed with a whole bunch of people that had no elbow room! We were lucky to avoid the crowds.

We rode the Q train from there up to the Parkside stop to visit one of my areas in Brooklyn, and a street that I worked on quite a bit. The picture above is a tree from Prospect park... we just thought it was cool that the tree was so huge that with the three of us, we could barely touch fingers!

This is a good picture of my apartment on Flatbush Avenue (I lived in the apt directly above the Jamaican Bakery).

Two fun things to note:

1.) You'll notice the bus stopped right in front of that apartment: there is a bus stop for the B41 not 10 feet away from the window where I slept. That route is so popular and used so much that a bus stops at that spot every 7-12 minutes... even at night. It actually took me several weeks after leaving this apartment to learn how to sleep again without the sounds of a bus stopping outside my window every few minutes. (If I think about it now, I can still vividly remember the sounds of the brakes screeching, the hydraulics of the doors opening and closing, the hydraulics lowering and raising the front of the bus to allow people on and off, the bus driver swearing at kids who tried to get on without paying etc.).

2.) I lived in this apartment dead in the middle of summer when the temperatures climb into the 90's, then lower themselves down into the high 80s at night. With a super-high humidity, it made for some very hot and muggy nights (being poor-as-dirt missionaries, we didn't have any air conditioning units either, so the temperature inside was always the same or hotter than it was outside!). What made it worse though, was the Jamaican Bakery that sat below us. They fired up their ovens and started baking at about 4:00 AM every morning. Being right above them, our apartment felt like it turned into a furnace every time they ran their ovens. I joked with the owner one day and said that he could bake his bread right in our apartment because it was so hot! Because of the heat, I never slept passed 4-5 AM in that apartment.

Next we hopped on that B41 bus and rode it up Flatbush to the Brooklyn Arch, a Civil War Memorial patterned after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Very neat and fun to see again.

This was a random sign that had been put up just outside of the Parkside Stop on the Q train.

From the Arch, we walked our way up into Downtown Brooklyn to see the parks, Fulton St. Mall... and of course, get some Junior's Cheesecake. If you've never heard of Junior's Cheesecake, then you're missing out! It is the quintessential New York style Cheesecake (insert drool here). I managed to save up money and go there twice as a missionary, and definitely had fond memories of the fattening cholesterol-laden goodness. Oh man is that some rockin' awesome cheesecake!

From there we made the walk to the Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge is my favorite structure in the world. I think it is a gorgeous bridge, and the history and story behind its construction is fascinating to me. Seeing it as a missionary had a profound impact on me. I fell in love with it, and it became one of my all-time favorite visiting spots during my time there. I can credit my love for this structure as one of the things that inspired me to go into structural engineering (which I got a degree in and currently work in that field... though I don't get to design anything so beautiful as this...) It was also the inspiration behind the name of my first daughter: Brooklyn.

Here are a couple of sweet shots with one of my companions: Elder Bryce Holmes, a really great guy and an incredibly hard-working individual. Then of course the shot at the same exact spot with Naomi, who is a really great gal and is definitely better-looking than Bryce was.

We did get to walk across the bridge into Manhattan which is always a fun experience. I also think that this is where we all got a bit sun-kissed and managed to get a tad sun burnt and exhausted!

This next shot was my mom's idea: Whenever I visited the Brooklyn Bridge as a missionary, I could only go halfway. Technically, the far West side of the Bridge is part of the New York City North Mission, which is outside my mission, and thus off limits! So I never got to cross the yellow checkered plating that makes up the expansion joint that is the halfway point of the bridge! The picture is my first time actually crossing the halfway point and walking onto the Manhattan side of the bridge. Brought a tear to everyone's eye!
Later, we hopped on yet another train to make our way into Queens, but made sure to stop at Canal Street (Manhattan China-town and awesome shopping) and at Grand Central Station (iconic transportation hub and youtube flashdance sensation) Hahaha good times for sure.

We headed out to Queens via my favorite train: the 7 Train. By this time everyone was so tired, it was a blessing to finally get to sit down on a train to rest for a little while. The 7 train is very scenic winding through some awesome sections of Queens. There's always some good graffiti to see near the Citibank building (see below).

We didn't have long to rest though: We got off the train at Flushing Meadows/Corona Park. I love this park. I have great memories of this park during my time in the Corona/Jackson Heights area. My apartment was literally in the shadow of Shea Stadium (which is at the extreme North end of the park, and has since been torn down as rebuilt... go Mets!) There also is the Arthur Ashe Tennis stadium (where the US Open is played) as well as all the cool stuff from the World's Fair back in the 70's. Think Men in Black, and the Alien taking off from the space ship and crashing through the Unisphere! It's a beautiful Park, and I have good memories of playing soccer there on P-days against a bunch of Equadorians (who almost played as dirty as us missionaries did...) having district meetings underneath the Unisphere, and buying Italian Ices for $1 from a tiny Mexican lady from Oaxaca who was the nicest person in the world!

We had just enough time to walk around for a bit to see the park and sit down from a few moments underneath the giant steel globe before heading back to the train. We made one last stop on the M train in North Brooklyn at Knickerbocker Street (aka: 2nd Puerto Rican Island) to try to do some souvenir shopping. But we got there really close to sunset, and I did NOT want us four to be the only white people in this potentially scary neighborhood when the sun went down. Well, make that 3 of us... Naomi could've fit right in! So we didn't spend too much time there, then hopped back on the trains and made our way back down into Dyker Heights to our Hotel. We got to our hotel after 13 hours of sight seeing and I'm pretty sure we all slept REALLY well that night.

The next morning we all rode a taxi to Laguardia to board our flight. Our taxi-driver was a born and raised Brooklynite who took it upon himself to be our final tour-guide whilst in New York. He drove us through downtown Brooklyn and spent his time telling us all about the different sights as we passed them, all the while weaving in and out of traffic like it was a carefully choreographed ballet. The looks on our faces must have been priceless (think Jim Carrey & Lauren Holley in the Limo at the beginning of Dumb & Dumber) We did manage to survive the BQE and got to the hotel with plenty of time to spare. I flew to Chicago, and Naomi and my parents flew to Utah. Naomi picked up our kidlets then flew back the Chicago the next day! I was so excited to see my girls again that I got to the airport an hour early just in case! It was a fun reunion, and the girls were almost as happy to see me as I was to see them!

It was the coolest and most intense vacation I've ever been on for sure! Big thanks to Mom & Dad for inviting us and making it all Possible! We sure love you and are grateful for the memories!