zion, zombie, mead, candy

we took our kids on a mini vaca last weekend for fall break. 
we stayed in a family suite in Zions for a night. 
 we felt they deserved a little
 R and R with the folks that gave them life.
  it was so great.  muchly needed.
we ate out that night and played games for a while at the hotel
 before they all crashed in their beds.
 

  hot tubbing in the morning...

watching the sunrise...serene.
setting off for our hike
this time we tried 'emerald pools '
it was a gorgeous hikaroo.

the kids waiting for the shuttle with their little baggies of fishy crackers

breathtaking scenery..



seriously the kids killed it on this hike!- liam really was a conqueror
  i mean they whined a little bit...
but i was SO proud of them for making it to the very top pool
it was like 2-3 miles round trip
some of that was steep stair incline...
it was a fun getaway.  
its so nice to go away and focus just on our kids

 

 we went to thriller for the first time ...at tuacahn

 luckily, ricki was smart and brought a blanket; and was nice and let us share
it was freezing!
well, lets be honest...it wasn't northern-utah freezing, just st. george freezing
but still cold enough for a blankie!

 so here we are at carraba's italian restaurant (in henderson, nv)
...a little pasta/carb load
 before JAMI and KELSIE's first half marathon!!
whoot whoot!
kelsie -sitting next to me is jami's friend from hygiene school
and momma max is sitting by jams.

 yes there are many reasons why i love my sister in law, but this is one of them...
refer to top pic.
we stayed at a hotel in boulder city by lake mead, just outside las vegas...
jami's mom, Maxi, came with us and acted as our support group/picture taker/chauffeur/shoulder to cry on:) and we love her for it!

 before the 13.1...kind chilly!

and, after!  they did amazing!!! 
 totally took state! a way-good chip time for their first 1/2!
little miss kelsie didn't even train...what?!
and i love my dear sis!  she got me to sign up and was so much fun to run with...
she even lent me an ear bud when mine stopped working and we ran side by sweaty-side for a while so i could have some tunes! thanks!
 it wasn't that easy running connected by the ears...:)

the lake (mead) was perfect temps...i could have and should have dived in!

 we went sight seeing to hoover dam..pretty cool.
it was only 7 miles from where the race ended.
wish we'd had a tour to learn about it, but we were too tired...:)

that night we had our ward trunk or treat. 
 charlie was adamant that we didn't 'paint' his face. 
 but we had a black chapstick so he did is own make-up
 thinking it was his favortie 'hmmmmm'  (thats what he calls chapstick)
ps. my sister megan, who is SO talented at making costumes for all her boys, every year!
...made these skeleton costumes once for her boys...so i take no credit for them...

there was a gorgeous sunset that night and perfect weather.
its going to be a mild night wednesday too for the real trick or treating ...
blah...more candy! seriously! 

parent and sister time...

my parents came down for a visit a couple weeks ago
... we went to the jacob hamblin house here in town...

we got our decorations out for halloween!

we got our new favorite treat...dairy queen- frozen hot chocolate-
SO SO yumms. 
thanks for the introduction, tash and toph. 
really, now we are addicted.  kneaders has them too, but they are better at DQ i think...

another fav.  we ate at benjas-  Thai delicacies!
ruby tried every dish.  i was way proud of her.
its kinda hard taking kiddos to a nicer sit down place like this
but they were fair behaved...i give them a B.

then my sweetest dad-even with a lack of sleep for 3 nights...(their air bed gave up the ghost)
rode with ruby to school the last morning.  when is the last time he's been on a bike?!
what a great grandpa!!
and he even wore a pink backpack cuz ruby says its too long for her to ride with!
now that is true love.



my mom made blanket forts with the boys and read lots of stories to them...
i should do more of this with my kids! what kind of a mom am i?!

we went to 'time out for women' in logan over this last weekend.  all the girls in the fam.
it was so wonderful.  it really was.
better even than last year.  it's like a spiritual/emotional boost. 
i absolutely love it. and i cherish this time with my sisters since i don't see them as often, its even more special to me.
we go friday and have a sleepover at jaimi's beautiful house and then go most the day saturday too. marty was an angel to 'babysit' the kids:) he took 2 days off work for me to go. love.
my mom is so great to organize this every year and make it happen... she is our rock.

 

can you tell me and michelle are sisters...what are we doing?
  really? hands in our pocket.?

St. George Runathon

OUR first marathon, and we did it together.  October 6, 2012. 
 I was so proud of my husband.  His longest training run was only 17
 and he didn't do as many longer runs as he should have. 
He stepped it up on race day. 
The end of the race was tough.  I tried to make myself
have an out of body experience, so I would'nt feel the pain. 
kind of like i did 2.8 years ago when i birthed my 3rd child naturally... HERE

 Starting line wating game...the nerves were setting in thinking about what we needed to do during the next 4 hours!
these girls-ricki and bri-got me through.  they helped me train.
got my behind out of bed in the early morning hours to run run run.
i wouldn't have done this without a running partner! thats for darn sure!
 marty and i couldn't train together...so thanks sistas!!

we seem so innocent and unaware...ha!
these 'high quality' pics were taken with rickis i phone:)
better than nothing!
thanks for providing memories rick, since i still own a slider w/no internet! 

We didn't have any family in town, mine were all in Lake Powell! stinkers.
but we had some dear friends come and bring our kids.
and made us posters.
and brought us donuts and drinks!
and took all these pics with her phone so we could have some documentation!

SOOO glad to be done.  couldn't stop smiling.  it felt so good to actually be DONE.
St. George marathon is such a fun race.  I've heard that from so many people, but Marty and I both had a great experience...so i believe it
there were 5716 finishers...
 

Ruby made this poster ALL by herself. 
yes, even block-cheerleader letters.  she is a pro. so sweet of her!
it was so fun to have them there at the finish.

these two crazies made it happen, i heart them.
they sacrificed the better part of the day to help us out.
we had my visiting teacher {bless her}come over at 4:45 to sit with the kids till 8
then my neighbor took them till 10
then tash and toph took them and brought them here and sifted thru the craziness of the finsih line and millions of people- with 2 double strollers & 5 kids under 2 feet tall~!!

just like Pres. Uchtdorf said during conference saturday...
we will fail to find joy in the journey if we are so focused on the finish line. 
 i truly felt calm and had fun during this run. i just took it easy in the beginning.
 leading up to 'the day', i kept calling it a race and marty kept calling it a journey, he helped me chill out and think of it as a journey- i did and i enjoyed it so much more. 
you bet i started focusing on the finish line those last 3 or 4 miles-cuz i wanted to stop running!.. but up until then i was having a good time.
 thanks for that perspective honey.  love you.
marty didn't take a picture but his time was 4:31:36!
some other blessings we noticed: 
 no injuries reported between us during training or race day...
the weather was perfect, never got too hot, mid 80's.
i was bothered by that time of the month but no cramping
our kids were well taken care of the whole day
and....we finished! 
check that off the ole' bucket list...

can i just say....

I. love. fall. so. very. much.
we had to sneak away today for FHE
into the land of FALL
(fall here does not arrive until late Oct. early Nov.)

this is on our way to cedar breaks...(a national monument)
just one hour-ish from our home-abode.

it is a bit chilly compared to our home-abode
VERY windy. cold wind as you can tell from ruby's unhappy little face
liam didn't mind-he is our little hiker and wanted to keep going and going....

this is a part of cedar breaks
seriously beautiful
and breathtaking

for reals rube?- do ya have to do the face?
i couldn't stop taking pictures,
i was like a foreign tourist...
it was fall leaves on one side of the road
 and THIS on the other...!

i know its a little redundant,
but like i said, i couldn't stop
and then i couldn't weed any out...
you know your like that too, come on.

{a storm blowing in}

the mighty wind blowing...

 



this was in brian head..
we drove that way home and made a loop
SO different then when we were there a month or so ago...
i could live there all fall-year round (except for the extremely cold wind of course)
why can't fall BE year round.
maybe it would lose it's magic then,
like mini eggs year round-you probably wouldn't have a hernia when they came out in the spring..??

Liam and LOVE

Liam's 5th blasted birthday!  quit it!  quit getting old!!
B-fast in bed, family tradition since I was little...
luckily we got in there before he woke up...little sucker:)
Liam is a sweet, snugly, playful little one with big dark eyes. 
 i love him dearly. he melts my heart most days yet seems to be the one that listens the least when i'm telling him to "clean up his animals"!



grandma D sent this funny shirt...and he got a whole hoop-la of other STUFF from her and other grandmas!>
yes the car seat was a gift.  he was way excited about it. ..come-on!

marty carving the shark...scary shark, for the par-tae! 
no parties next year.  all partied out.  sorry charlie.

me and ruby teaching the boys about sharks...
lots of interesting facts i hope they retained! ha!

there were 3 more boys not pictured.
crazy group.  ruby fit right in and led the pack in all the water games...
you can hardly see her in the back, she just blends right in, size-wize too!

marty and i finally celebrated our {10th}!! year of marriage.
it was in june but we just went this last weekend to *lake las vegas*
its far away from the strip, really quiet and relaxing...
{{shout out to ricki for watching our kids! thank you!!!}}
the first night there in our resort we sat in the hot tub forever,

surrounded by palms and beautiful weather.

we ate out at some really good places.
lunch was at *settebello* in henderson- WAY good
very authentic italian pizza and yummy salad...
 and we got a  sweet vanilla bean cream w/strawberry balsamic topping to share after.
highly recommend to anyone in the area.
for dinner we met up with some good friends whom we haven't seen in way too long
jim and marty grew up together, i love these guys:)

we went to Beattles LOVE that night at the mirage..
i REALLY liked it. marty,-not so much-
he felt like we needed to be 'high' on something to even understand it
what?!  come-on!
i was thoroughly entertained and thought it was fun.

the surroundings to our resort...
GREAT R & R. 
muchly needed.
we went and came as we pleased
took a nap mid-day, went to a movie at an odd hour{bourne legacy} -very good. btw
ate and showered whenever and however we wanted...NO diaper changing!
one thing we planned to do but didn't-Vegas Temple.....
 

bye two night get-a-way!
see you next year, but probably in a different location, and maybe a bit longer!
everyone needs you !!