Wasatch Back

Thought I should post about this, since I've been talking about it with people for about a year. Ran the Wasatch Back, a little over a week ago. For those that don't know, it's a 188 mile relay race. It starts in Logan and ends in Park City. We had a team of twelve, and each member ran three legs of the race. I had one of the easier legs. My first leg was 6.7 miles(but really was 6.81), 2nd leg was 3, and last leg was 3.3 miles. I did pretty good overall. I had a pretty ugly hill on my first leg, and walked about half way up it. I was congested and having trouble breathing, so thought it would be faster if I just walked and took longer strides. I was sick through the whole thing, ended up having a wet sleeping bag (which meant no sleep), had to listen to Mindy complain about hand sanitizer ;), but in spite all of that I still had a blast and can't wait to do it again.

The team did so awesome! I was really glad Ken put it together, and asked me to be apart of it. Mindy and me looking fabulous. ;)

Ken after his first leg

These are the members of the 2nd van.

Lisa, Kari, Ken, Mary, Joel, and Geoff

This was our van.

Me, Adam, Mindy, Brandon, Martha, and Anette was running at this time.

Mindy after her last leg.

The team running to the finish line with Ken.

We rode this cool tram down the mountain.

Wish we had known about it going up.

A view of Park City from the tram

Lemon Fun

Here's some great pictures of Donovan eating lemon slices. He loves them. He made a funny face every time, but just kept on eating. He begged for more the whole time. He kept Jason and me laughing during the whole time we were eating dinner.

"Operation 61" 10K

I ran my first 10K on Saturday. For those that don't know that's 6.4 miles. I ran it in 1:06:01. I was hoping to get under a 10 minute pace, but didn't quite get it. I think this is about a 10 min 20 sec pace. It still excites me though that I can even run this distance. When I feel a little slow, I just think about how not a lot of people can run this distance. The race was at Liberty Park. You had to run 4 1/2 loops around the park. I've only ran two races, but I've decided that I don't like loop races. I think it hinders me some. The whole time I'm thinking about how many loops I've ran, and how many left I have to go. I drove up with a friend and her friend. Listening to them talk about running, made me realize I am not dedicated at all to running. They have pretty much been lifetime runners. My friend ran it in 49 minutes. She placed 3rd in her age division. Her friend ran it in just over 50 minutes. I was pretty impressed. I ran most of the race with my father-in-law. I felt like he could have passed me up. I'm glad he didn't though, I enjoyed the company.

Well, overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I need to focus on getting ready for the Wasatch Back. I'm nervous!

Van Is 18 Months

Van is 18 months now. I can't believe how fast that went by. I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of him growing. It's crazy how much he's changed in just a year and a half. Van is 26.8 lbs and 33 1/2 inches tall. They say that's 50% in weight and 90% in height. We don't really see how that's possible. We think they messed up on one of those.

Van has been such a great addition to our family. He's so much fun. He is happy most of the time, and he makes it hard for you not to be happy around him. He's learning and growing so fast. He's starting to mimic me, which is a good and bad thing. If I decide to teach him a new thing, he picks up on it in a day or two. He jabbers all the time. It's fun now that the jabbering is starting to make sense...sometimes anyway. I think he knows that he is pretty cute and funny. He tries to get away things by being cute. He also does things that he knows will make you laugh. He has such a big personality. We think of him as being charismatic. We're all glad he's a part of our family and love him very much.

Van is saying new things almost on a daily basis. Some of the words he's saying are:
No, hi, bye, don't, mine, ball, dog, da da, mom, flower, purple, toes, eyes, and geez. I know he can say more, but for some reason I can't think of anymore. He also says little two word phrases such as; oh no, uh oh, oh man. He just recently added "not mine", and "no ball". Today when I was dropping the girls off at school, he started to pout when they got out. I said, "they have to go to school". He said in a very whiny voice,"they're mine". I said, "I know, but they have to go to school". He then said more forcefully, "No, they're mine". I thought it was pretty darn cute.

Anyway, I'm done rambling. I tried to only pick a few pictures, but it was hard. So, here's another picture over loaded post.

Edited portion: After spending a couple more hours with Van.... I forgot to mention that he also says, "up" and "all right!". He says these quite a bit.

At the hospital

1st bath at home


1 month

2 months

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months



9 months

1st birthday

15 months

18 months

Castle Park

Took the kids to the park today. Just thought I would share some pictures. I don't have as many pictures of the girls. They can run off and do their own thing. I have to follow Donovan around the whole time. Sorry for another picture overload post. Van loves going down the slides with his sisters.
He was scared of the swings, but now he loves them.

Mr. Attitude

That's wood chips flying in the air. He hated touching them at first, how quickly he changed.

He was very into throwing them....as you can see.

Fun In The Sun

Van and me played in the backyard today, then went for a little walk. I thought he looked so cute in this outfit. I wanted to get some pictures of him in it, and show them off. Yes it was bright, but I get this face all day long. I just see Jason when he makes this face.

See....
Hims cute.
See the bruise on the right side of his forehead and cheek? He got out of line, and I had to back hand him. Just joshing ya. The poor kid fell, and landed right on Jason's weights. At least he cleaned off some dust though. ;)
Again....and no sun.
Mini Jason
The booger was smiling behind that finger.
I was bugging him trying to get his attention.
Daybreak Lake. This was where we were.

Van Knows Stuff

I haven't really put anything of Van showing off his intelligence. We work on stuff everyday, and he picks up pretty quick. I was actually trying to get him to do animal sounds for me. He was doing them, until I pulled out the camera....of course. I'll try to get that soon, but he's so camera shy. He's known these body parts for awhile now. We're starting to work on some new ones. P.S. I hate hearing myself. I'm annoying.