The Olympics Came to St. George

Back when the Olympics were going, on Marcus and I were at the Browers house and we decided we needed to have our own Olympic event. We were watching track and decided it would be fun as well as motivating to hold our own track meet. So we planned a trip to St. George with a few other couples so we could host the first annual friendly Olympics.

We went down this weekend, and while the weather was quite cold and not exactly ideal, we still had such a fun weekend and the Olympics went off without a hitch!  Those that had kids left them at home and it was so nice to be able to do whatever we all wanted all weekend long, without planning around naptimes and everything else.

First we went out for breakfast and then rode the side by sides out on the sand dunes. It was a lot of fun and a little bit freaky at the same time. We were all covered from head to toe in red sand by the time we were done, even in our teeth. We also got lots of time to play pickle ball, hot tub, play scum, and just have a good time in general.

Saturday morning we headed to the track for our olympics. Who participated: The Browers {Dan and Shalane} The Currits {Tommy and Rilee} The Pughs {Sam and Marie-Reine} The Kearls {although only Bryson participated, and Tara opted out} and Us.

The pressure was on to prove who was the fittest couple. Kidding! This was all in fun. The guys were definitely competitive and the girls had varying degrees of competitiveness. (And when we got there my camera battery was dead, so all pictures are courtesy of my phone.)

First Bryson gave a very funny and awesome speech to open the Olympics. Then it was on to the events:

-A 100 meter sprint

-The shot put

-A 40 meter dash

-A 400 meter run

-The long jump

-The javelin throw (or more accurately a broom throw.)

-And the final event, a couples 2x200

The Currits and Marcus sported their five fingers.  Rilee was the fastest so maybe they helped!  Shalane was an awesome scorekeeper.  And that broom handle was a lot harder to throw than it looked...

...we didn't use a true shot put...but a round cement ball worked perfectly...

The long jump proved to be one of the most fun events, as well as most fun to watch.  Sadly though poor Bryson ended up flat one too many times and thinks he broke his tailbone.  

Sam was the most trained, thanks to his frisbee practices.  The jobs of timing the sprints as well as the cap gun were taken very seriously.  And proof (in my shadow) that I was actually there.

Poor Marcus pulled a muscle in the very first event which definitely put a damper on it for us. He wasn't able to really fully compete in the remainder of the events except for the throwing ones.

It ended up being hilarious and so much fun to participate and compete in an event like this.  I think it will become a tradition and hopefully in the future we can get a few more people to compete.

After we went out for a fancy dinner of fondue and cooking our own steaks on a hot rock.  Dinner was a whole event and lasted more than two hours.  We had such a great time!

Shalane and I made medals and later that night we held a medal ceremony.  Bryson again used his comedic talent and came up with clever individual awards for each person.  

Thanks to everyone who participated, and to the Browers for letting us stay at their place!  Also we are so grateful to my mom for watching Asher while we had our weekend away.  

hall-O-ween

We had a fun Halloween this year.  

Asher and I went to the pumpkin patch one afternoon with Christine and Kylee while we were waiting for our husbands to get home from work.

Marcus and I carved our pumpkins.  We waited until Asher was in bed and peacefully carved away.  

We had a fun neighborhood (HOA) party where Christine snapped these pics.  

I love this one of Asher with his little buddy Kylee in the background.  

Marcus' first place winning pumpkin(s).

Here are most of the girls in the neighborhood with our kids.  We live in such a fun neighborhood with so many cute kiddos!

Here we have Kylee, Issac, Sebastian, Camden, Turner, Jude, Madsen and Asher.  Asher was not being all that cooperative.  I love these cute babies.

On Halloween we went out to Matt and Marilee's house in Daybreak to take Asher trick or treating with his cousins.  At the very first house, a huge man in a gorilla mask opened the door while screaming "rooooooaaaaaaaaar" at the top of his lungs.  Asher took one look and started screaming!  After that he wanted nothing to do with trick or treating.  Instead we went back to Matt and Marilee's and Asher ran around the house and watched all of the trick or treaters come and go.  He loved looking at all of their costumes, and roared at everyone the rest of the night.  He got quite a lot of attention for his cute little costume too.

Happy Halloween! 

Feeding the Ducks

Asher is currently OBSESSED with feeding the ducks.  It started several weeks ago.  He had fed the ducks a few times here and there, when we were on walks or once with granny out in the water near our house. But one day after his nap, he was pointing to the cupboard and really wanting something.  I headed over and let him show me what he wanted.  He reached for the bread, so thinking he was hungry, I broke a piece in half and gave it to him.  He immediately took it from me, got down, ran over to the door and said "go, go, go."  I opened the door and he pointed out to where the ducks hang out in the evening.

Now he would be happy if all we did every day was feed the ducks.  It's the first thing he asks to do in the morning and pretty much all day long.  And if he sees a loaf of bread, he kinda looses it.  Bread is no longer for him, it's for the ducks.

Lake Powell

Last week we were lucky enough to go to Lake Powell with the entire Webb family.  This is the first time his entire family has ever gone on a trip together since we have all gotten married.  It was so much fun to be together with his parents, all of his siblings, and our nieces and nephews.

We stayed in a hotel in Page, Arizona which was nice to be able to head back from the lake for a hot tub, nice shower, and a warm bed.  Asher loved staying in the hotel.  He especially loved to roam the halls all evening and would have just run back and forth all night if I had let him.  He would stand by the door in our room and say "go go go go go go".  He loved the elevator and learned how to push the buttons.  And he loved that there was a constant flow of new people to say hi to and get attention from.  He made lots and lots of friends over our continental breakfasts and elevator rides.

We had cooler weather, but I guess that is to be expected this time of year.  One day it rained and rained on us, but it was still an adventure (getting soaked and boating back through a crazy hail storm). Asher was happy and hardly even seemed to notice that it was cool.

Everyone was able to kind of do their own thing and have lots of fun.  Asher was seriously a happy camper and loved to play in the sand, in the water or with the ski rope.  He also liked his little tube ride and loved swimming even though I worried he might freeze.

Matt and Marilee's kids were all so good, each of them just played in the sand and water all day long.  Marie and Natalie spent an entire day constructing the most giant and intricate sand castle I have ever seen.  Laura and Phil looked like Ken and Barbie riding the wave runners to the beach.  Matt and the kids buried Scott with so much sand we all thought he was going to stop breathing.  Marcus and the other guys played frisbee on the wave runners.  Scott and Julie hung out in the cubby to stay warm, but were always so sweet to welcome Asher in with them.

In fact, everyone was so sweet and good to Asher and he was constantly held and always taken care of.     There was also plenty of cheetos, cookies and chocolate slipped to him as well.  Spoiled little babe.  I am so happy he has such loving aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins that he is so close to.

And I have no pictures of Laura and Phil!  I don't know how that happened.  Dang it!

Thanks Dave and Marie for such a fun vacation!

Little Man

Life has been a little crazy and so busy lately since we have been out of town practically every weekend.  I am looking forward to things slowing down though and just enjoying my time with Marcus and little Asher man.

Today was kind of one of those days.  You know the kind.  Asher had a rough night last night, he woke up with a runny, runny nose, and he has been pretty cranky the last few hours.  It was one of those nights where I was counting down until I could put that little bug to bed.  (I never thought I would actually do that...I do!)  But there were also little sweet moments, where he snuggled in close and let me kiss his cheeks a million trillion times, or when he calmly held onto his blanket and looked up at me with his big blue eyes, that reminded me of how much I love this little man, and how grateful I am to be his mama.  

This picture pretty much describes Asher to a tee: a rock in one hand and a stick in the other.

Asher is so much fun lately.  He is BUSY, but he is so happy and so fun.  He loves to run around and explore everything, and he is constantly taking everything in.  I love him so much.

St. George

thursday night we headed to st. george and elise and mike came with us.  we had a fun, relaxing weekend and got to hold onto summer just a little bit longer.

we swam at the pool.  ate delicious nielsens frozen custard.  played lots of dice. we played at the park.  hiked the crack in the wall. 

i was able to meet up with some good friends.  i love heidi and jamie and jamie's sweet little millie girl, and it was so good to get to see them. 

we went shopping.  ate out.  and asher was basically constantly entertained by lise and mike who were way too good to him.  

like always we had a great time!

Dog Lake

Last week I was able to hike Dog Lake with Kate and Cara.  What an incredibly beautiful, amazing hike.  We decided to start from Millcreek Canyon (you can also start from Big Cottonwood Canyon) which made it a little longer (3.1 miles each direction) but it was fun to see another canyon.  The weather was cool but sunny, and the colors were absolutely amazing.  The leaves were just starting to fall off the trees at the very top, but for most of the hike up I would say the leaves were still in their prime.

And we honestly saw hundreds of dogs.  Everyone up there had multiple dogs, and I swear we were seeing dogs without any owners.  They were everywhere!  I was a little freaked out at times, especially because these were big dogs for the most part, but Asher was loving it and it gave him lots of entertainment.