Anderson Archives

Kid's Triathlon

2009-11-03T14:33:00.001-08:00

The day after hiking the Subway, the kids took part in a Kid's Triathlon. I don't know how Zach did it. I was a little sore, but he was fine! I guess that's one of the perks of being 8 years old (one of the only ones, according to him)! Unfortunately, it was even cold in Vegas and the pool was outdoors. The kids did great though, and were able to overcome the cold weather.

Here's Zach jumping in for the swim! BRRR!

Zach Swimming:

Zach gasping for breath :)

Here's Kaitlyn Jumping in - it looks like someone wanted to help her!

Kaitlyn swimming:

Kaitlyn resting on the way back down :)

After the swim, they had to hurry over and get on some warm clothes!

Here's Zach in his transition:

Kaitlyn in her transition:

This is Zach on his bike (he looks serious):

He's not so serious here:

When Kaitlyn was on her bike, she almost did 3 laps, instead of 2!
Luckily her mom was keeping track and chased her down
and brought her back to the transition area!

Zach and Kaitlyn were able to do this with their cousins Sydney and CJ.
All of them had a great time and were so tough to stick it out in the cold!
Here is each one coming in at the end:

Zach:

Kaitlyn:

Sydney:

CJ:

This is one last shot of all of the kids together with their medals. Good job guys!

Hiking the Subway...

2009-10-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

The day after school got out, we headed up to Zion's park to hike the Subway with some family and friends. We took Zach with us and he did amazing. It was his first major hike. My brother, Chad, had the pass so he invited the group. While it is usually starting to get pretty hot in June, on that particular day, June 5, 2009, it was a little cool. If you have ever hiked the Subway, you know that it's better to go when it's pretty warm.

Chad's good friend, Casey, came with his fancy camera and took some amazing shots. He was nice enough to edit all of them and here is a link to his blog:

http://caseyniederhauser.com/subway/content/index.html

He did a great job with them. I borrowed one here to show how many of us there were on the hike (with Casey too):

I do have a few shots that I took with my camera (not nearly as good)! This first one is of Ryan, Zach and I. We had not gotten wet yet, so we were still warm and dry :)

It had been a long time (around 5 years) since I had hiked the Subway. I could remember a few things, but unfortunately not everything. I also realized (after hiking in June) that my other experiences had been later in the Summer when it was a little hot outside and easy to dry off and warm up. Therefore, it didn't matter if clothing got a little wet. This hike was different. It was cold enough outside with the breeze that drying off took a long time. This made it really hard to get warm, also. After all of the water (freezing water, I might add), we only had one dry jacket. We gave it to Zach, who was NOT a fan of the cold water, to keep him warm. I have to admit that I was wishing I had been more careful packing the big ziplocs and long sleeve shirts. (I packed plenty of water, though)!

Here is Zach posing by some greenery in the bottom of the Subway:

This is Ryan, Zach, Me, Ulma, Chad, and two of Chad and Ulma's friends posing on a large rock:

This is Zach posing on some step rocks in the middle of the creek:

Here is Chad, Ulma and a few of their friends by the same rock steps:

Finally, here is Ryan, Zach and I by the rock steps:

After hiking down the river a while, we cam across some dinosaur tracks. Zach thought they were pretty fun:

After hiking along the river for a long time, we came to the side of the hill we had to hike up to the top. It's pretty steep and grueling right away and this is where Zach totally smoked his parents. I guess we didn't do enough stair-training to be ready for this part of the hike :) I was just glad to make it to the top and I had a great time! Thanks to everyone who accompanied us!

Last Day of School!!

2009-10-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the last day of school definitely came fast this year. What a great time the kids had, though. I went in the last day and took a few shots of them with their class so they can remember some of their class mates, since I'm so mean and won't get them a yearbook yet? Who else got a yearbook in Elementary School? Not me!

Here is William and Caleb making one last project in William's class:

This is William's class. Ms. Bean and Mrs. Stephenson are the teachers sitting behind the class. It turned out to be pretty big by the end. When William started in October, there were only five or so and a bunch more joined the class throughout the year. Unfortunately, only some of them will move up with William next year to the afternoon class.

This is Kaitlyn with some of her friends from her class, and of course her brothers.
Morgan is on the left and Sarah is in the middle.

Here is Kaitlyn with Yanelli on the left and Paris on the right of her. Sarah is on the far right again! I think she made into every one of the pictures I took of Kaitlyn's class :)

Here is Zach with some of the kids from Miss Kuewa's third grade class. From left to right, it's Julia, Carson and Whitney that are sitting down and Dominique is posing in the front.

These are some kids from his class that he went to GATE with. They are, from left to right: Ashton, Jazell, Whitney, Carson, Zach, Jacob, and Brandon. He had a great year in Miss Kuewa's class and made a lot of good friends!

Good job in school this year! One more year down and a bunch more to go!

A trip to the Mini Grand Prix!

2009-10-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

In May, William's preschool class was able to meet at the Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix get a look behind the scenes and take a turn riding the rides. Mrs. Stephens', the assistant in his class, husband manages the Mini Grand Prix and was nice enough to let us come down before regular hours also, so it wasn't too crazy and busy. The first thing we did was toured the whole place. This is William (and some others) in the Freezer. It was a huge walk-in freezer and a lot of us could fit in!

Here is William in the kitchen area. I think he got a little thirsty when he saw all of the pizzas they were making. Yum!

While the inside was fun to see, it wasn't anything compared to going on some of the rides. These are the little cars that the younger kids were allowed to drive themselves. Some of them, including William, still had a hard time figuring it out. He had someone come and help him after a few bumps into the wall. This is him "thinking" he is already driving:

Unfortunately, Caleb was too young to ride on those (I couldn't go with him because I was too big). They were nice enough to send someone over with me to the bigger cars and we were able to do a few laps around in the big cars. Caleb did NOT want to get out:

They also have a small roller coaster that the boys loved:

After riding all of the rides outside that we could, we headed inside and they
had some fresh pizza and soda waiting for us! What a nice treat! Here is
William with his friend Noah and his sister:

After we ate lunch, the boys walked around inside a rode a few rides in the arcade. Again, William really thinks he's going to drive this somewhere!

Here's Caleb in a fun car in the arcade:

Here's William in the fun car in the arcade:

Overall, the boys had a great time. We are so grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Stephens for allowing us to come and have a great time. They were wonderful hosts, too. The only downside was that Zach and Kaitlyn were in school and couldn't come and join in :(

Race for the Cure!

2009-10-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

My Amazing Mom!!

As some of you know, and some of you might not, at the end of January, 2009, my mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. As far as cancer goes, it was the most treatable and she caught it early, but it was still a pretty big shock for us. She ended up having surgery in March and did radiation treatment after that. She qualified for a new type of radiation treatment, because her cancer hadn't spread, and she had five days in a row of radiation instead of having to do it spread out over weeks. She was such a trooper through the whole thing. She is a strong and inspiring person and I'm so glad to have her as a mother.

After running the March of Dimes race in January, I was planning on running the Susan G. Komen race in May when I found out about my mom. I decided everyone one else should also take part, and I called my sisters and my sister-in-law and they also decided to take part. As the race got closer, my mom was feeling well enough to take part also. It turned out to be an amazing event! My mom did a great job, especially with all she had gone through in the months before. Here are some pictures of the event - it was a lot of fun!

This is us right after we arrived at the event. We parked at Cashman field and had to walk a while to get to where the race started. I guess it was a great warm-up :)
Ulma, Jen, My Mom, Me, Tosha

This was taken right before we split up. Some of us did the 5K run (or walk) and my mom did the 1 Mile walk (still incredible after her treatments!)
Tosha, Nicole (friend), Pam (friend), Me, My Mom, Ulma, Jen

Here I am before the race with my Awesome Sisters!!

Here's another shot of us right before the race. My mom wore the pink shirt as a "survivor." There were a lot of pink shirts!

We decided before the race to meet on a certain corner. Thank goodness we did, because there were people everywhere and it would have been crazy to try to find everyone. This is the family shot after the race. Vegas is already starting to warm up and it was hot! As you can see in the background, there were a TON of people there. I think there were over 18,000 people registered to run or walk!

Here I am after the race with some of the friends that ran with me:

From left to right: Pam, Me, Nicole, and Patricia

Here I am with Pam. I sure had fun running with you!

Overall, it was a great experience. It was really nice to be able to have a place to go and show our mom our support for what she is going through. I also feel really blessed that she was able to take part with us. Great job everyone!

It's all about Kaitlyn...

2009-10-08T15:43:00.001-07:00

May 1st, 2009. It's Kaitlyn's 7th Birthday! I can't believe my little girl is getting so old! She is such an amazing girl and I love her dearly. I'm so glad that she is a part of our family!

Here she is with her new desk that she got for her birthday. She loves to have her "own" space where she can organize her things and put everything. She loves playing "office" and is always asking for old receipts. Sometimes she keeps a little too much stuff, but she does have her own space (one of the perks of being the only girl).

Here is William posing with Kaitlyn by her desk. Although I don't have a picture of it, William is Kaitlyn's wrestling partner. They get pretty rambunctious, and occasionally even hurt each other, but Kaitlyn loves her little brother!

For her birthday, we went out to the movies and to dinner. (Not a "friend" party year!) We went and saw "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3D and the kids loved it. After the movie, we met some of the family at Mimi's Cafe. What a fun night!

Here is Kaitlyn with Grandpa and Grandma Anderson.

Here is Kaitlyn and Zach with Grandpa and Grandma Lightman.

Here's a shot of the rest of the family.

Here is Kaitlyn getting ready to blow out the candle on her slice of cake.

I end up collecting a lot of different shots of each kid throughout the year that don't necessarily make up their own blog. So I've decided to talk a little bit more about each of my kids and put together all of the extra stuff I have on each of them, in one post. And what better time to do it, than on their birthday! Kaitlyn has the first birthday of the year, as far as my kids go, and she'll be the first one I can do this for.

The first shots are of her playing baseball. She started playing when she was just four (she turned five during the season) and has continually been moving up every year. The first year (2007) she played "Bubba Ball" with a bigger ball and the coach sucked up close and always pitched. Since there were no strike outs, if the coach pitched a lot of balls and the player was still struggling, they would get out a tee. The next year (2008) she played with a regular sized ball and the coach pitched the whole time again. This time after so many strikes (I think it was 4 instead of 3) the players could get out. This year (2009) she played with a kid on the other team pitching and after 4 balls the coach would come in and finish it off. There was an umpire though, and the kids could still strike out. In 2007 and this year, she was the only girl on her team. I was a little worried (because she's so young) and I was considering keeping her back in coach-pitch, but we decided to move her up. She stepped up to the challenge and she really worked hard and did a great job this year.

Kaitlyn hitting the ball:

Kaitlyn running the bases:

One of the main reasons we moved Kaitlyn up is that we knew who her coach would be if we did. Lanny is our neighbor and his son had to be up in the kid-pitch league and we really wanted him for a coach. He did a great job with the kids and we're glad we made that decision. Ryan was also able to help coach. We lucked out with having most of her games on his days off and he was able to help a lot.

We had a fun party at the park after the season was over. The kids were able to play in the water and run around. I was a good time!

Kaitlyn and Lanny at the baseball party:

Kaitlyn's baseball team and the coaches:

Here is a picture of Kaitlyn with one of her best friends. Although Kaitlyn and Zach are getting old enough to have their disagreeable moments (it seems like the older they get, the more there are), they still love to play and hang out together. Sometimes, for the sake of the game they are playing, they will even dress alike:

Kaitlyn is going to love this picture when she gets older! I guess that's what you get when you mess around with mom's camera!

For a long time (2/05 - 9/09) I babysat a girl almost every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Her name is Danielle and she moved on to Jr. High this year. She and Kaitlyn had some good times and here they are at the park:

The last thing I have that Kaitlyn did is get her ears pierced. She started asking a while ago and while I came from a family (ok, my mom was a very firm believer that we needed to be 12) that didn't do it until we were older, Ryan and I decided that seven would be old enough. So on June 17th, a couple of weeks after school got out, Kaitlyn and I were able to head down to the mall. I have to admit that I was looking forward to this outing myself. I don't get down to the mall very often and Kaitlyn was nice enough to let me do a little shopping for myself. Then it was off to Clair's and "The Event."

This is Kaitlyn getting her ears marked.

They gave us the option of having two people do the piercing so it happens all at once. This worked really well and we didn't have to worry about her backing out after only one hole!

Well, she's still smiling after all is said and done! She did say that it hurt, but she was a trooper and got through it! Good job Kaitlyn!

That's it for now on Kaitlyn. She is such a wonderful daughter and a big help.
I love you, Kaitlyn!

1st Sprint Distance Triathlon!

2009-10-01T15:23:00.001-07:00

On April 17th, I did my first Sprint Distance Triathlon. I ended up talking my friend Megan into coming down from Logan to do it with me (thanks for making the trip, Megan!) and also my husband and brother-in-law, Nate. It was also Ryan and Nate's first attempt at any type of Triathlon, but not to worry, they were awesome! I'm so proud of everyone! We had a great time and I can't wait to do one again!

Here we are posing for a shot. Even though you can't see our numbers, Nate, Ryan and I were 9, 10, and 11. Megan, with the last name of Richards, was somewhere around 280. They went alphabetically, at first, then according to Megan, the numbers were not in order. I wish I would have known because I would have opted to go later. I hated being the first one of 14 in the pool! I wasn't quite ready and had a little trouble getting through the swim. Luckily I was sharing a lane with my awesome husband, who had barely had time to train for the swim, and he got me through it. Thanks Ry! You're amazing!

Another fun part to this Tri, was that Zach and his friend Dawson (Megan's son) were able to do their first Kid's Triathlon also. They were simply amazing! I was so proud of them!

Here they are before it started. Show me your muscles, uh I mean numbers!

Thumbs up! They're ready to go!

Here is Zach swimming. Zach pushed really hard and did the first lap fast (shown here), but slowed down a little on the second lap :) He did really well!

Here he is finishing the whole thing. He had an amazing experience and so did we! Good job Zach! You're awesome!

Thanks to all who came to support! We have such a great family who really helped us a lot during all of the races. Thanks again!

Easter 2009

2009-09-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

In my last blog, I said that the Fair was the last event of the week. I of course forgot about the most important event of Spring Break: Easter. What a great time of year! It's starting to get warm outside and nice, and it's also a time to remember one of the most important events of all time: the Resurrection. I'm so thankful for this amazing event and for its significance, and I'm glad that we are able to recognize it.

In our home, we also enjoy the other part of Easter: the Easter Bunny. The kids woke up to some fun stuff and had a great time eating candy and enjoying their baskets. Here's their baskets before they came to see:

Here they are with their baskets:

I forgot to get a picture of them before going to church, so they are a little bit ruffled in these pictures, taken after church:

After church (and after getting a pictures taken) we all changed clothes and headed over to Grandma Anderson-Lightman's for some Easter activity fun. We colored eggs, ate some wonderful food, and had an Easter egg hunt afterwards. The kids enjoy looking all over their grandma's yard for the eggs. Grandpa is trying to find more difficult places to hide the eggs now that some of the kids are getting older. Here are some pictures of William and Caleb enjoying the hunt:

This last picture is Caleb having a fun time dressing up like the Easter Bunny! What a cutie!

Spring Break 2009

2009-08-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

Spring Break 2009 ended up being a really fun time and we were able to spend some time together as a family.

Besides just hanging out and loving that we didn't have to be "somewhere" at "some time," we were able to go to the fun Dinosaur Park. As you can see from the difference in lighting in the pictures, we stayed for a while.

William wanted a picture of him taken every time he saw the camera. Then he of course wanted to come around and see it right away. Here are a few pics of him in his various activities:

He was so proud of himself for "making this castle" of sand. Good job Will!

Caleb found the sand pile and was in heaven. He wanted his shoes off right away:

Zach and Kaitlyn loved climbing on top of and crawling into the concrete dinosaur egg:

Here are all of the kids posing for some fun pictures in the dinosaur egg:

Overall, it was a fun time.

We finished up Spring Break by going out to the infamous Clark County Fair. Zach and Kaitlyn were really excited to ride the rides this year and would have been over at the carnival longer if it weren't for the Rodeo. Now we know, though. They did waste (they didn't think so) a lot of time waiting in line for the Ferris Wheel. Maybe they will be able to enjoy some more rides now that they have that out of their systems. They loved it, though, so maybe there will just be more waiting:

We also ran into their cousins out with their grandparents. Supposedly this is Grandpa Craig's maiden voyage on the Ferris Wheel. What he will do for his granddaughter...

Here is C.J. enjoying some ice cream:

Here are Zach and Kaitlyn on one of the other few rides they were able to go on - another problem we had, besides the waiting, was Kaitlyn's height :(

Here are Kaitlyn and William on one of William's favorite rides, the merry-go-round:

As all of you know, it's fun to see the kids having so much fun doing something that we used to do. I love seeing my kids have such a great time!

Field Day!

2009-08-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Every year our elementary school does a spring field day. They happened to pick the windiest day of the year for this one, but the kids still had a great time. They have the kids go around to different places and participate in fun relays. Here's Kaitlyn in the "Dribble the Basketball" relay.

She also liked this one. You sit on a little cart and push yourself backwards down to the opposite line, then turn around and come back the same way (backwards). Here's Kaitlyn giving it a try:

Zach was pretty cool in his jacket and sunglasses that his teacher gave everyone:

Here he is doing his favorite event, of course:

At the end of the events, our Principal, Ms. Smallwood, carried out a promise she'd made to all of the students during reading week. She had told them that if they read so many pages (I can't remember how many) that she would tape herself to the lunchroom doors. So here is her (with the help of her staff) attempt at keeping that promise:

Go Scherkenbach Elementary!

Last Game of Winter Hockey & opening day of Baseball

2009-06-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

Since there's only one post for March, I just have to hurry and get it done! Then I'll only be five months behind (for three more days).

This was on March 20th. Zach had his last game of hockey for the Winter Season and Kaitlyn had her opening day of baseball. Ryan and I had to divide and conquer. At least there wasn't too much of an overlap.

Here's Zach after his last game:

His team got first place this season. They worked really hard and had a great time. Zach is still doing great on defense. It's still his favorite position to play and he didn't play too much offense this season. Here's his team:

Here they are with their coach:

After the above shots were taken, we slathered on some sunscreen and headed out to the baseball field. We changed leagues this year, do to some boundary changes, and we're excited to see how this year goes. Here is Kaitlyn's team. She's the only girl this year, just the way she likes it.

Kaitlyn is on the left, second one from the back. I know it's hard to see. I'll put in some better shots later.

Goodbye hockey and cold weather and hello baseball and warm (ok, mostly hot) weather!

Logan, Utah Trip...

2009-06-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's only been two or three months since my last post! As you can see, I started this one a LONG time ago and have been trying to find some pics for it. I've decided though, that I need to move on. Here it goes! (I'm into March now - only 6 months behind!)

This February we had the opportunity to travel to Logan to go to a wedding. We were able to get a great deal on airplane tickets, so we took our first flight as a family. It was good to start with a short flight, as William, even though he liked it, did get a little sick. Everyone else did great. I had a few pictures of this, but can't seem to find them. Oh well.

We just happened to be flying in during the Draper Temple Open House, so we were able to head over and go through it. What a wonderful experience. (Thanks Eric for taking us over to it). It was, of course, beautiful inside and out.

Here's Zach in the church afterwards:

I love this picture! They had a really big one in the church where everyone ended up after the open house.

Here we are admiring it as a family:

Here we are posing in front of it:

After we went through, we were able to pose in front of it (you can tell we've been traveling all day):
Here's another shot of the temple (without us):

We stayed with our good friends, The Richards, and I felt like we were barely able to see them. They also helped watch the kids during all of the skiing, wedding, etc. and we're so grateful for them! We defintely owe them. They need to come to Vegas, drop off the kids, and go to a hotel by themselves. Hopefully we can repay them some day.

On Friday, Ryan, Zach, Dawson Richards (Zach's friend) and I were able to head up to Beaver Mountain and hit the slopes. It's been a long time since I've been able to go skiing, but other than my knees getting a little sore (I'm getting old!!) it was a lot of fun. It was Zach's first time and he did a great job. It was fun to have Dawson there and he was even patient with me as I tried teaching him (sometimes I can barely get myself down the mountain)! Unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures of us skiing though!

Ryan made up for it that night when he went up and took some amazing shots of the Logan Temple. Here are a few of my favorites:

He does an amazing job and I'm so glad he's having fun with photography! Good job Ry!

On Saturday Ryan and I went to Tyler and Joni's wedding at the Logan Temple. It was an amazing experience and we loved being able to see them get sealed. Congratulations Tyler and Joni!

Zach's Blue & Gold Dinner

2009-06-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of February, Zach (and the family) had our first Blue and Gold Dinner for Cub Scouts. Zach has really enjoyed scouting and we have too. (I hope so because this is just the beginning...)

Anyway, the theme of the dinner was a "State" theme where each of the scouts (or couple of scouts, if they had more than one cub scout in a family) were/was assigned a state to decorate a table around. Zach ended up with Colorado and had a fabulous idea to do some Colorado Mountains as a diorama. I had never made one up to this point in my life, and had to go online to figure it out a little bit. So we headed to Home Depot and Michael's and grabbed some supplies and over the course of a few days made some Colorado Mountains. It was a fun project and almost everyone in the family was able to help out. Here are a few shots of the finished project:

The Front:

A view into the Lake...

The Camping Grounds around the back side of the mountain:

Check out the waterfall and the boat (and of course GI Joe who is supposed to be fishing)!

Here is the back side of the opposite mountain:

All of the scouts (and their families) got there early and set up their tables and got everything ready. Here is what our table looked like after we set everything up:

If you look closely over the snow capped skiing mountain, you will see an airplane flying through the air (it's right over the book). That was Zach's idea. He wanted that airplane to be flying over the mountains, so we wired it right into the mountain!

After everyone had their tables set up, we were able to walk around and judge the tables and vote for our favorite (only one). We have some very creative and decorative people in our ward and we had some great tables. After it was all said and done and the votes were in, Florida ended up taking first place (a very eye pleasing display of oranges and limes with a Disney World theme intertwined), New York was second place (Garren Craig made the Empire State building out of sugar cubes!), and Zach (Colorado) took third place! Good job Zach!

Thanks to the Cub Scout Committee for all of their work! It was a great time!

A Beehive!?

2009-06-22T08:02:00.001-07:00

So a friend of mine (now the visiting teaching coordinator) talked me in to being part of her visiting teaching conference. I'm not going to let myself believe it had anything to do with my fine acting skills, but rather that it had everything to do with my hair length.

She had a bunch of us play the different "roles" of visiting teachers. I was, of course, the "busy bee." I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed by the attention, but I did it for a good cause...

Here is the do!

I did have a number of people who were curious if that was all my hair. Well, for those of you who are curious also, I did have some help. I know I have a lot of hair, but not that much!

One Loooong Day for me

2009-06-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

January 31st was a great day for me. I ran my first "official" 5k with some of my friends for the "Make a Wish" fundraiser. I had such a great time! I'm so glad I was able to to this.

Later that night one of our good friends had some extra tickets for the Wrangler Hockey game. We were able to take all of the kids and have a great time.

Here's the family together, well, almost. Maybe mom didn't take a good enough shower after her run that morning!!

Caleb enjoying the game...

Neil (a friend), Zach and William enjoying the game:

Crazy Kaitlyn!!

Greyson, Brock, Kaitlyn, and William posing for a picture:

Thanks Matt! We had a great time.

Caleb's 1st haircut

2009-06-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

At the end of January, Caleb was approaching 16 months of age, and he had yet to have a hair cut! It was starting to hang over his ears and stick up all over the place (as you can see in this picture). So here he is, getting his long overdue first haircut:

He actually did really well and held still for his dad, for the most part. I have to say that he looked so grown up and old after Ryan was done :( Maybe that's why I kept putting the haircut off...

Before:

After:

You're such a cutie Caleb! Thanks for the great haircut dad!

Caleb's "trip" into the camera bag...

2009-06-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

1/16/09
Tosha came in to Vegas one day and while we were visiting, the kids were playing in the family room. They were, of course, having a good time themselves. Here's a few pics of Caleb that day, before anything happened (foreshadowing):

Next thing I know, Caleb trips head first into his Dad's camera bag! At first it didn't seem too bad, just a small cut and bruise, but as the night wore on, it seemed to get a little worse:

However, that was nothing compared to what it looked like the next morning! It was swollen and puffy and he looked like Quasimodo (from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"):

He could open his eye, though, and he was so good about it! It didn't stay swollen too long, either (thank goodness).

What a tough kid!

Shark Reef Trip

2009-05-31T23:43:00.000-07:00

Wow! I think it's been two months since I've been able to get to my blog! I hope I can get caught up this summer (finally). The second event of the year was on January 10th. Zach's Cub Scout Group ended up taking a trip down to the Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay. It had been a while since we had been down there, so I decided to load up the kids and join them.

Here are William and Caleb, who started out in the stroller, but didn't stay there the whole time, of course. That would have been too easy!

Here are the kids trying to touch the sting rays:

Here they are posing for mom (not one good shot, surprise, surprise):

Kaitlyn and Caleb:

Caleb was in quite the good mood (maybe it's because he was able to be out of the stroller) and put on quite a funny show:

Kaitlyn even got in on the "posing," just not with quite the same attitude as Caleb:

Zach wanted this picture pretty badly. He thought it was pretty funny. One of the things I love about my kids getting older is their sense of humor. They understand things a lot more and the light bulb goes on a lot more. It's fun to watch.

Here's a picture of all of Zach's scout group. Thanks to the leaders and everyone who helped make this a great activity! Thanks for helping me with my "extras" also.

Lastly, here are a few pictures of some of the ocean life we saw. It's really hard to photograph them because the glass is really thick, it's dark, and the light from the flash reflects off the glass. Kaitlyn didn't care, however, and took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of the better ones:

25 Random Things...

2009-03-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

I posted these things on my Facebook page a while back, but I've since realized that not everyone is on Facebook and I also wanted to have a record of it. So here goes... some things you might already know about me and some things you might not (please ignore if you've already viewed on Facebook):

1. I’ve decided that with the exception of chocolate dipped strawberries, I hate fruit in chocolate. No thanks to cordial cherries and orange sticks…but Oh Yeah to peanut MnM's.

2. One of my favorite activities to do with my kids is “wrestle.” It’s more like a big tickle fight. Now that some of them are getting older it’s getting a bit tricky...

3. I hate scary movies. I’m a huge wimp. I don’t mind intense or action packed, but not creepy, scary ones (like "I Am Legend" - hated it).

4. My nickname now is Meesh. I didn’t get it until I was married (thanks Ry) and I’m not even sure where it came from (I was informed by Ryan that my good friend Heather (now Sherwood) gave it to me)!

5. I love to bake. I don’t mind cooking, but baking is my true love – anything from bread to cinnamon rolls to cookies. If I had more time around the Holidays, I would spend a lot of it in my kitchen.

6. I also love to be active and exercise. I am now training for a triathlon. I’ve done one and I love it! I also love being in shape so I can go hiking without getting tired the whole time.

7. If I could, I would play volleyball everyday. I miss playing. Instead, I’ve put all of my energy into #6.

8. I am very anal when I check out at the grocery store about how my items are loaded onto the conveyor belt and then into bags. First it's frozen and cold foods (like dairy products), then it's fresh fruits and veggies, then cans and bottles, then boxed foods (like cereal) and then I like my bread and eggs last. I know, it's weird.

9. I love watching “The Office.” It is my biggest stress relief. I get excited when I know there's a new episode for me to watch.

10. I am a total night owl. I would much rather stay up and get stuff done than get up early and do it, which has been hard lately.

11. It’s been hard lately because I was just called to teach seminary to a class of freshman in February! I’m still trying to get used to waking up at 5 am and preparing a lesson every day!

12. I love to read. If I had more time I would do it much more often (I can't wait until this summer to read "The Great and the Terrible" series. I've heard they're good).

13. I used to think I was organized, but I now realize that it is definitely not a talent of mine. I don't know if I ever was organized, or if having 4 kids is the problem.

14. I never thought that I would be an embarrassing mom, but Zach (my 8 yr old) has informed me that I am. I guess it's embarrassing for him when I show him affection or act too happy around other people. He deals with it well, which is good because I'm not going to stop doing those things!

15. I always start watching American Idol to see the funny auditions and end up getting hooked and watching it through the whole season.

16. I am the oldest of six kids (2 sisters and 3 brothers) and I am closer to them now that we're all out on our own. I love my family!

17. I'm doing a blog for my youngest brother on a mission in the Philippines. I'm still catching up (like with my own blog) but I feel like I'm getting to know him better. the address is: http://randyonamission.blogspot.com/

18. I don't mind watching sports (at least most of them). I mostly like to watch the last quarter, period, half, etc. and I always want to know who wins.

19. I miss the times when I would hang out late (this is the key) with friends and laugh really hard at everything and sometimes at nothing.

20. I love good friends who boost me up and make me feel good about myself. I am trying to be that friend.

21. When I was 8 yrs old or so I was in a hot pepper eating contest. What was I thinking?! Thank goodness for bread.

22. My favorite trip was with Ryan to San Fransisco about 6 months after we were married. Even though it rained and I got us lost a little bit, there was something magical about that trip.

23. I love going shopping for interior decorating items. I just have a hard time putting things together once I get them.

24. I love being a mom and I LOVE my kids. I never expected it to be so rewarding and fun (and hard at times too)!

25. I love being married! I love Ryan and love that he makes me laugh all the time. He's an amazing person!

2009-03-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Ok. So it's been a while (ok, a long while) since I last posted. Between then and now, my likfe has gotten a little complicated. I was called to teach Seminary at the beginning of February and while it's an awesome experience that I wouldn't trade, I have had to put a few things on the back burner, like blogging. I'm hoping to get back on track and work in a few here and there now that I'm getting more used to the schedule. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.

Anyway, back to the blog. My last post ended on 12/31/08 and this post is going to cover the events of 1/1/09. It was a day I set aside to potty train William. It had to be done and I wanted it to be before school started back up again. So I read a book about how to do it without failing and set out to get started. We started by going down to the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace to FAO Schwartz. Why, you ask? Good question. I wanted an "Emma" doll that was talked about in the book that will go to the bathroom if fed water. Of course it was a fancy doll that was only at fancy stores. I decided to make it an outing (somewhat) and I headed down with the kids. We did find the doll and everyone played on the floor piano (like on "Big") and here's a few shots of the kids by the fountains and looking at the fish. Sorry for the poor quality - it was from my phone, since I forgot the camera.

We headed home and I got out the salty foods, water, and M&Ms to start our potty training experience. To make a very long story short, we spent a few hours potty training Emma (what the book says to do), and then lots more hours "practicing" going potty and trying to actually catch a time when he would have to go. We had a "get rid of diapers" ceremony and have not used them since (except pull-ups at night). I wish it had gone as smoothly as it sounds like it should, but we did end up cleaning up accidents for probably two full days and even some times after that. The first two days I thought he would never get it since he only went to the bathroom on the floor (with the exception of one lucky #2 experience in the toilet on the first day), but eventually he figured it out. Thank goodness. Now he is doing great and I am so glad it's over! Good job William!!

The last two events of the year! (12/08)

2009-02-14T15:04:00.001-08:00

Finally, I am getting to the last two events of last year! I just know that one of these days I will catch up to the present... hopefully it's not too long from now!

Anyway, we are very lucky to be pretty close by to both of our families. Because of this, we are able to spend a little bit of time with them all during the Holidays. As it has worked out, we end up going out to my parents house every Christmas Eve, and then we are with Ryan's family either on Christmas or whenever we can (depending on what day it falls on - with two cops in the family it can be tricky sometimes).

We went out to my parents on Christmas Eve afternoon and after eating a fabulous meal, we retired to the family room for gifts and visiting. My Grandma Pitchforth (used to be Booth) was helping us make a batch of her famous fudge. It required a ton of stirring! Good job Booth boys! It turned out great! Here's Kaitlyn making the pass off of fudge for stirring turns:

We were hoping to be able to hear from Elder Booth (Randy) as he was flying to the Philippines (on a layover somewhere) but he couldn't get the phone card to work and he ended up calling on Christmas (not Christmas in the Philippines though). :( Oh well, there's always Mother's Day! Here's a picture our family by the tree:

Here's me with my awesome sisters. I love you guys!

On Christmas, after opening up what Santa brought and relaxing, we headed over the Nate and Vicki's for another awesome meal and some Wii competition. (Thanks Santa!) While I did well with the bowling game (only because I don't have a fancy spin) I didn't do so well with golf. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get better :) Here's the boys enjoying Mario Kart:

Here's Willaim trying to stay away from the tree...

For New Year's, as most of you know, Ryan has to go with every other cop in Vegas and work down on the Strip. It's definitely not his favorite part of being a cop, but I guess it's something we'll just have to deal with. Anyway, this year we decided to get together with another "Cop widow" family and have our own little New Year's party. We ate pizza, watched a movie and the older four even stayed up to midnight for some Sparkling Cider and messy confetti fun. Before the movie started, the kids decided to dogpile on Zach!

We had a great time with the Becks! Happy New Year! Bye 2008!

Christmas Fun (December 09)

2009-01-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

So I'm getting there... Slowly, but surely, I'm getting caught up to the present. In this entry, I'm going to try to capture some of the Christmas festivities of December. We had a busy month and for me, it seems like there is never time to enjoy the season because there is so much to do. I wish I could sit down and play and sing Christmas music, read a few more Christmas stories, spend more time with those I love, and have more time to contemplate what Christmas is really about. Maybe I'll get better at planning and preparing, or I'll just leave some things out that aren't as important. We'll have to see what I can do to change things. Anyway, back to the fun activities (and they were worthwhile because for all of them I was with people I love).

First of all, we were able to take the kids for an early viewing of Santa on the 13th. Our Elementary School has an annual "Breakfast With Santa (and the Grinch)" and we eat pancakes, sausage, and fruit and stand in line for pictures with Santa and the Grinch. Here are the kids enjoying breakfast:They did a great job with the backgrounds this year (we have an awesome PTA) and the kids did pretty well. William and Caleb were fine with Santa, even though Caleb looks like he's ready to hop down.
However, the Grinch was a little scary for them. William wouldn't even go up to sit by him and Caleb was NOT happy that I put him on the Grinch's lap!

The weekend before Christmas, we were able to head up to St. George and visit with Chad, Ulma and Jen (who happened to be there for work that weekend). On the way up, we were able to capture some of the snow left in the Gorge. It was really pretty.

While we were up there, we did some shopping (I love St. George shopping for some reason) and we were able to go over to Tuacon (for those of you who don't know or who have forgotten, it's an outdoor theater really close to St. George) and see the Live Nativity. They did a great job and it was just the right amount of time (not too long for the kids, but long enough to get a feel for the events that transpired so long ago). I loved the music they used. It was a nice to show the kids, and remind ourselves, why we are celebrating Christmas. Here's a picture of the Nativity:

Here were are trying to keep warm in our seats: (from left to right: Aries (Ulma's cousin), Ulma, Chad, me (holding Caleb), Zach, Jen, Kaitlyn, and Jen's friend Jori is holding William. Ryan is taking the picture, of course)

Here's another picture of the whole group enjoying the lights and the grounds around Tuacon:

The kids were able to see Santa one more time, this time individually. We told them to tell him one thing they wanted most. William asked for chocolate!

It was very cold that night and we were able to go sit by the fire and warm up:

I made Ryan get a picture of the entrance to Tuacon as we were leaving. I loved the lights and water together:

On the way back to Chad and Ulma's, we stopped to get a night shot of the St. George Temple. This was taken from the hill on the North end of town...

We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks Chad, Ulma and Jen!

A December Birthday... (December 08)

2009-01-26T14:28:00.000-08:00

The older I get, the less "to do" I want about my birthdays. It's hard enough for me to digest that I'm over thirty (yes, I'm still in denial) and each year brings me closer to the big 40 (really not looking forward to that). Anyway, Ryan still wanted to do something with the family, and it is fun to see everyone and get together (and of course, eat and not have to cook). We ended up going to the Macaroni Grill - yes, I love Italian - and we had a good time. I still can't believe I'm moving farther from thirty, but my kids will keep me young (I also can't believe there are four of them now). Here's the long table (lots of family!) with everyone. The only bad thing was that the table was so long it was hard to talk to everyone. Sorry about that!

Here I am trying to blow out my only candle. That thing didn't want to go out!

William also made a bee-line for my seat as soon as he saw the piece of cake. He wasn't going to miss out on that!

Before...

After...

And NO, I did not eat all of it myself. Although I think I could have :) Thanks everyone for a fun birthday and for the great gifts!

Snow In Vegas! (December)

2009-01-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

I know it's old news, but snowing in Vegas is a big deal! Especially when it snows two different days pretty close together. While I don't think that they needed to close down school for it, I guess that's what happens when it snows here. We were able to get a few good shots of it snowing from our backyard.

Here's another shot up towards the elementary school. This was the Monday snow storm and the kids are actually in school during this picture.

Ryan was able to take some great shots of the snow on the surrounding mountains.

It was fun to see all of the foothills and surrounding mountains and hills covered in snow that do not regularly have anything at all.
The kids had a good time playing in it also, even though it snowed so late on Wednesday that we had to wait until Thursday and it melted a little before we got to it...
Caleb walking around in it:

William with a snow ball:

Zach's Final Fall Hockey Game! (November)

2009-01-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

Zach had a great season of Hockey (Roller Hockey, that is) this past fall. His team for the season was the Flames and he was able to get the red jerseys this season (his favorite color). He had a great time and really improved on his defensive skills. In fact, he played back on defense 9 1/2 out of ten times (he gets that from his mom - always liking defense more than offense). He is learning to skate backwards and "poke" check to get the puck away from the other players.

His team ended up getting first place for the season and on November 24th, they had the championship of the tournament for their age bracket. The tournament had started a few weeks before (during my triathlon) and as the first place team, they played the fourth place team. Unfortunately, they had a bad game and ended up losing. They began the journey up the loser's bracket the following Saturday (Nov. 22nd) by playing the 3rd place team and winning. On Monday, the 24th, they played the 4th place team again and won. They had an hour to rest and eat some oranges and get ready for the championship. Luckily, they were able to rest enough and played an amazing game and won again! Good job Zach! Here's a picture of his team getting their trophies:

The little guy on the far left is (was?) only four years old. He started the season not being able to get up if he fell and only being able to grip the hockey stick if it was placed just right in his glove. By the end of the season he could get up by himself and was even beginning to move toward the puck. He was fun to watch. As you can see, they all worked very hard and we had a great season!

Good Job Zach! We look forward to another fun season!

My First Triathlon (November 2008)

2009-01-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

I know most of you already know this, but this past November I ran a "Beginner" triathlon in St. George. I wanted a goal to work toward to get in shape. Otherwise, it's hard to get out of bed and run (or bike or swim) - especially now that it's cold outside. Anyway, I actually enjoyed training for it and I got really excited to do an athletic event again (I miss High School Sports!) I was pretty nervous before it started - you can ask poor Ryan who had to hear all about it and listen to me agonize about it - but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (probably because it was only a beginner's distance).Here's me before the race started. Zach says he can see the nervousness in my eyes!

Now I'll take you through the race from the bystander's point of view (thanks for taking the pics Ryan!) This is me in line waiting to start the race. I met a great lady (Tracy in the blue) from the Salt Lake area that I got to know and I'll look for this Spring.

Here is me swimming and "gasping" for air!

In this shot I'm in my first transition from the swim to the bike. It was only in the upper 40's when we started the race, so that's why I'm wearing all the clothes. While it made for a comfortable race after the swim, it made me take way too long in the transition area. I took over 3 minutes and if I would have cut off two, I could have almost won the beginning distance for women!

Now I'm taking my bike up the path for the 5 mile ride...

Ryan and I had gone to check in and view the course the night before the race. Although it was dark, I made him drive the bike course so I would know what to expect. I was scared to death because there were a lot of hills and I hadn't practiced any at all (where do you have hills in Vegas?!) It ended up not being as bad as I had anticipated, thank goodness! Here I come down into the parking lot after my bike ride.

The run was the last part and I have to admit that I thought it wouldn't be too bad because I've done a lot of running to practice (or so I thought...) I guess it's a lot different when you don't have to swim 200 meters and ride 5 miles on a bike BEFORE doing that run. Anyway, here I come down one of the last hills into the home stretch. What a great feeling it was to run that last 100 meters knowing I was almost done (especially compared to the first 100 meters knowing I had a mile and a half still to run!)

Overall, it was a great experience for me. As for results, here goes:

In the Beginner Distance I placed 20th out of about 68 runners total (men, women and teenagers).
I placed 8th out of all of the women (all ages and I'm not sure how many - I didn't want to keep on counting).
In my age group I placed 3rd (men and women - about 10 total)
In my age group of females I placed 1st! (about 3 or 4 total)

I was about 8 minutes off the fastest time (a male) and about 2 minutes off the fastest female. I'm sure the results will be quite different when I try it again in April as I'll be going twice the distance...

Valley of Fire Trip (11/1)

2008-12-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that the Holidays really threw me for a loop with my blogging! I'm hoping to get more used to it to be better at it next year. In the mean time I want to highlight a few "happenings" in November and December. Then I can hopefully keep up!

On November 1st, we, and by we I mean Ryan, Me, Zach, Kaitlyn and Caleb (Will was having fun with his grandparents for a special day) headed out to the Valley of Fire. We had such a great time rock climbing at Red Rock that we wanted to try it again. We stopped at the picnic area first and had some hot dogs and goodies and then started on the hike to the Mouse Tank. I carried Caleb in the back pack and Ryan carried his camera bag (which probably weighed more than Caleb!) Here we are at the top of the Mouse Tank rock.

Zach and Kaitlyn had a good time finding holes to climb in so Ryan could take some fun shots of them peeking out. They thought it was pretty cool to hide in the rocks and Caleb thought it was fun to try eating the sand...

On the way back to the parking lot, we went a different route, off the beaten path, and came across an amazing arch. We decided to climb up and get a few shots on top of it (yes, we're crazy!)Of course Ryan was able to capture a lot of amazing shots, so I put a collage together of my favorites. Good job Rye! We had a great time and the kids want to go back soon!

Halloween 2008...

2008-11-24T23:20:00.000-08:00

I'm finally starting to get caught up... almost. Halloween was a lot of fun this year (for me or the kids??) We had parties at school, a trunk-or-treat ward party, and of course regular trick-or-treating. William got to decorate his own cupcake in class, and Caleb had a great time going in to visit Kaitlyn and Zach. He tried taking off a few times, enjoying his freedom, but he didn't make it too far.

Zach and Kaitlyn have always been excited to dress up for Halloween. They look forward to being able to wear their costume afterwards too, and they come up with so many different ways to wear them. This year, much to my demise (ok, not quite that bad) Zach remembered a promise I made him a long time ago. He's always wanted to be this "bloody skeleton" and I kept telling him he had to be eight first. Well, he's eight and he didn't forget (like I obviously thought he would). So here's Zach in his long awaited Bloody Skeleton costume....

I bet he's making quite the scary face to go along with is scary costume; it's just too bad that we can't see it! (We could tell from the sounds he was making). As for letting him dress up for fun in this later... no way. I don't want fake blood all over the place (even if it's an "accident"). Plus, knowing his sister (yes, sister and not brother) it will probably be used again.

Speaking of Kaitlyn, she was of course, mistaken for a boy most of the time. She had a great time in her costume and it fit her well. I have to admit that it is nice not having to do fancy hair and make-up like most girls her age want!

Kaitlyn in her "stance:"

Luckily, Will and Caleb are still too young to care what they are and are more than willing to wear whatever I tell them to. I know that's going to change one of these days, so I'm enjoying it while I can. Will was a football player (number 7 John Elway, of course) and Caleb was a "Tiny Ninja."

After all was said and done and we were home from trick-or-treating, William and Caleb sat down on the floor with their buckets and tried to get away with eating as much as they could before getting caught. Here's our little guys living it up! Yummy!

William's 1st day of school...(Oct. 21, 2008)

2008-11-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

William is going big time... already! I have a lot of mixed feelings about William already being in school. He is so small still and I love having his at home to play with Caleb (who is all of a sudden a lot more clingy). However, because of his late speaking and since we still have a hard time understanding him, I had him tested by the school district. He ended up qualifying to have speech therapy and goes to preschool Monday through Thursday in the mornings. He loves going and taking his backpack and loves being a "big" boy. Now if I can just get him to be a "big boy" who goes to the bathroom on the potty...

Here's William in his classroom on his first day. He walked in and didn't even care if I stayed or not. He started playing immediately and barely said goodbye - I'm the one who had a hard time!

Red Rock and Randy's Leaving! (Oct 08)

2008-11-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well, my youngest brother Randy is finally the ripe old age of 19 and ready to head out on a mission. It's funny how when people who are close to you (whether they're children or siblings or good friends) do big, grown-up things, it makes you feel older. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, we wanted to have one last "fun" time with the family before he left. We all met out at Red Rock (in Logandale) and thanks to my sister Tosha and her husband Joe, be had a great time riding dune buggies, climbing rocks, eating (of course) and hanging out. Ryan took out his camera and was able to capture some great shots during the event. These are a few of my favorites...

Ryan also took some "track" pictures of some creepy-crawlers. Here's one of those shots:

I have to admit that one of my favorite parts was rock climbing. We climbed to the top of Easter Egg Hill and took some great shots. I was glad I could still "hang" with the youngsters I was
with! Here we are at the top:

And here's a few shots on the way down and towards the bottom:

All in all we had a great time and it was also fun seeing family that we hadn't seen for a while. My Aunt Helen and her daughters came down from Logan and we had such a great time with them too. I think their kids were just as dirty as ours after all was said and done. On Sunday we were able to hear Randy speak one last time and spend more time together as a family. Now we'll have to wait another two years for that! Good luck Randy!

Family Pictures and Caleb's 1st Birthday! (October 4th)

2008-11-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

On the fourth of October, Caleb turned one! It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since I've had him. Time is flying by. It also happened to be one of the final weekends that we could get together as a family and take some pictures before Randy left on his mission. We ended up having Ryan's family meet us there to, and a great friend and photographer, Chris Ross, took a lot of pictures for us. The day started out like it was going to rain (and did in some places), but where we were was just windy and a little cold (but no rain). I've added some of my favorite shots. Here's one of all of the families together: We had a lot of fun and you can see from some of the next pictures that the wind did not quit blowing, unfortunately. Here's a few of my favorite pictures of the day:

I have such a wonderful family and we had a great time taking pictures (especially when it warmed up). I just have one more picture, that happens to be my one of my favorites taken that day. I have some amazing sisters, a sister-in-law, and a daughter who posed with me on this one. Everyone looks like a model! You guys are awesome! Here it is:

After getting a ton of pictures, we retired to the field below and had a picnic and celebrated Caleb's first birthday. He had a great time making a mess out of his cake. While he had a better time opening his presents than playing with them (like a normal one year old), he also had a great time playing outside. I'm learning he loves to be outside. Here are some highlights:

After Caleb's "fun" we (all three of my brothers, my husband and Jen) decided to play a game of touch football. I realized how "BIG" my little brothers are now and how OLD I am getting! I don't think my knee will ever be the same! All told it was still a very fun time though.

I Got My Bike! (September 08)

2008-11-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

In September, Ryan and I decided that we wanted to try to do a triathlon. We decided to order some bikes to help us along in our endeavor.

We were pretty excited to receive them and when they came, Ryan put them together for us. We each rode them down to the bike shop and had them tuned and tightened up, and now we're trying to get out and ride them as much as possible. This was my first experience with bikes (besides my banana seat pink and pretty from elementary) and I have learned a lot about even having gears, when to use what and how, "clipping in" and lots of other bike things. I know I have a ton more to learn, but it's been pretty exciting thus far.

We also went down to the YMCA at the first of October and signed up for a family membership. Now we can work on our swimming too. We have a lot of work to do still, but I'm excited to try!

It's Pinewood Derby Time! (Sept. 11th)

2008-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

I figured that I would hurry and get a few of the September highlights in and one of those was Zach's first Pinewood Derby. Zach joined scouts in June and loves it! He doesn't like to miss and enjoys all of the activities. He was really excited to have his first pinewood derby too. We bought the kit at the beginning of the summer, but like most people, procrastinated a little until about two weeks until the event. Ryan got out his "special secret" pinewood derby building book and got to work (when he could find the time). Zach was also able to help when he could. Besides a few paint job glitches, Zach and his dad were able to finish with time to spare. Here's the finished project:

They had to "weigh" in the car on the 10th and leave it overnight. They were a little nervous because they couldn't touch the car after that. (No adding that last bit of graphite!) The big race came and they had the whole track sectioned off and it was set up to be pretty official. Here are all of the cars - ready to race:

Each car would take a run in each lane (there were 4) and the car with the fastest times would win. They ran all of the cars quickly and in no particular order, so it was a little chaotic. Here's the cars on the track and the kids watching:

After all of the cars had a chance to race all of the lanes, the officials and leaders took a few minutes to see the results on the computer (I can't believe it's computerized and so official now - it's come such a long way). The last part of the night was spent giving out awards. They awarded lots of different awards from the best looking to the best paint job, etc., then they gave a first, second and third place medal to three people in each den. Zach ended up getting first in his den! The last awards they gave out were to the fastest overall - out of all of the dens. We knew Zach had a chance, but we weren't prepared to get ... first overall! I'm so proud of Zach and his dad! Here's Zach getting his trophy: Good job boys!!

1st day of school

2008-10-21T14:48:00.001-07:00

So I finally figured out how to blog (somewhat) and got all excited and went crazy and made my blog and now I'm having a hard time keeping up with it. Since I talked about our August trip to Logan in September, I'm going to go in order of events since then, even if they were last month. Then I can hopefully catch up and get used to keeping things updated!

Here goes...As soon as we got back from Logan, Zach and Kaitlyn started school (we got back on Thursday, had open house on Friday and started school on Monday!) Here's a pic of Zach and Kaitlyn on the 1st day. I can't believe how big they are both getting! Sometimes I can't believe I'm old enough to have kids this big. I'm getting so old!

Zach is in third grade now and ended up in GATE also. He's pretty excited to be getting back into school - he loves learning. Zach also started piano this summer. He is doing great and loves to play all of the time (you can ask his dad about this one). He practices his songs for the lesson, then plays around for a while. He has made up quite a few of his own songs. It's fun to see him doing well

Kaitlyn is in 1st grade now and goes all day! I was a little sad thinking that my great helper would be gone all day now. She had a hard time at first because she got so tired after school, but she soon got used to it and is doing great. While she likes learning too, she is definitely more social and loves that part of being in school. She knows so much about all of the kids in her class already.

My first Blog!

2008-09-23T14:38:00.001-07:00

Ok. Now I am officially a blogger! It's been a long time coming, but it's finally happening. I am really excited about keeping track of the great events and people in my life. I also hope it's a way to keep in touch with everyone.

Here is just a little about our family. We currently reside in Las Vegas, NV with our family of 6. Zach is the oldest at 8 years old, then Kaitlyn is 6 years old, William is 3 and Caleb is almost one. Right now Zach and Kaitlyn are enjoying 1st and 3rd grade and Ryan is almost done getting his Bachelor's Degree (he should graduate next May). William, Caleb and I get to stay at home and hang out together.

We enjoy traveling to visit friends, hiking together, riding bikes and playing sports together. Zach is currently enjoying Roller Hockey and Kaitlyn will start something real soon (either Basketball or some kind of Karate class). Ryan is getting into photography and you can catch all of his latest shots at: www.ryantanderson.com. He really enjoys doing it and wishes he had more time to spend doing it. He has also designed some websites that you can see at: www.pristinewebdesign.com. If he had more time in the day, I'm sure he'd do more with these hobbies.

I am just starting to pick up a few hobbies. I want to train for and do a triathlon soon and I enjoy the new bikes we got to start practicing. I spend most of my time with the kids and I can't believe how busy it can be. Oh well.

I'm adding a few pictures from Logan that Ryan and his friend took when we went there in July. We had a great time and hope to be able to start traveling more now that Caleb is getting older!

I'm sure you'll get to know us well through the rest of our blog, so goodbye for now...