Whew, Do You Ever Feel that You Need a Vacation to Recover from Your Vacation?

We recently returned from a fabulous vacation to Disneyland with my parents and my sister (with her family.). We had such a wonderful time. The lines were short, the weather gorgeous, the company great, and we stayed in a fabulous hotel.  The only problem was exhaustion. Seriously, my legs and feet were screaming by the end of the day (and we stayed until the last moment possible every night).

The kids were all at great ages to take to Disneyland. Lucas was just tall enough that he could ride all but the scariest of rides (and a few of the rides he insisted on riding freaked him out a bit, but he was determined to ride them all). Dane was even tall enough for Indiana Jones, and surprisingly, really enjoyed it. The older three enjoyed California Screaming (we rode it several times, since the wait time was never more than 15 minutes). Jared, Liam, Max and I LOVED Hollywood Tower of Terror (Joelle rode it, but wasn't a big fan). I think the family favorite ride had to be Toy Story Midway Mania, where we all donned 3-D glasses and enjoyed a Midway game experience. Nobody could beat Jared's high score, but we all sure gave it a good try.

The last several days have been filled with recovery from our vacation. I came home exhausted and needing to do laundry.

Here are a few photos from our trip for you to enjoy:

Wasatch Back

I know it has taken me a while to post about our Wasatch Back race, but Jared and I finally finished editing our photos from the race.

The Wasatch Back is a 12 person relay that runs from Logan to Park City, UT. The team splits up into two vans of six runners. The first six runners start at Logan early in the morning (well early in the morning if you are a slower team like us...the BYU men's Cross Country Team didn't start until 6:30 PM and still slaughtered us!). Since Jared and I were in the second van we did not have to get up quite so early. We left Syracuse at around 11AM and headed to Liberty (the location of the first major hand off between the vans).

By the time we finally got the first hand off (around 2 in the afternoon) it was pretty hot! Jared was runner #7 (the first runner in our van) so he took the first leg for us. It was warm, but he did great, finishing at a great pace! I took the baton (which was actually a slap bracelet...you remember those from the early 90's right?) next and ran 3.4 miles. The first mile felt great and I ran it quickly, but it started to feel pretty hot after that and my pace slowed just a bit. I still finished in great time, running my miles at less than 10 minute pace (which was my goal). After my hand off Jared and I cheered for the rest of our van as they raced on in the heat. Jared served as van photographer, making sure to get great photos of our entire van (unfortunately I was not as good a photographer and got very few of him =( Something I plan to remedy next year!). We also served as water boy/girl and made sure our runners had the water they needed (there were no water stops along the way for the runners, so each team had to supply any needed water).

After our van was done with our first legs we ate lunch at Snowbasin (a very yummy pasta salad provided by Lisa...THANK YOU Lisa it was PERFECT) then headed on to the next hand off point. We pulled out our sleeping bags and found a patch of grass where we all relaxed. Two of our van mates brought guitars, so we all sat and enjoyed their music and sang along to a few numbers. It was nice to have some relaxing downtime.

Our turn began again around 10PM when Jared took the baton for his night run. Running at night was quite involved. Each runner was required to wear a reflective vest, a head lamp, and a butt light (yep, a light over your butt or close to it). It was definitely interesting running with all of that extra gear. Jared's leg went up a pretty steep hill, and he did awesome, especially with little to know hill training. Syracuse is pretty flat, so most of our running was done on the flat trails that run through town. Next year I am determined to find some good hills for training. I hear that there are some great ones out on Antelope Island that I want to try. At the top of the hill Jared handed off to me, and I began my decent. Seven miles, the first five and a half down a gradual hill (the map made it look like it would be much steeper...) with a few rises here and there. Running down hill that far is definitely interesting. The first 2 miles I went out pretty fast and then realized how much farther I had to go so I slowed up a bit. I am not sure if that was a good idea or not...the control it requires to go slower down hill made my legs tighten up a bit. The last mile and a half felt like forever winding through town. They threw in a nice little up hill there in the end for good measure!

After that I was exhausted, nodding off occasionally in the van while the rest of our team ran their legs. At one point we could not find one of our runners (it is VERY difficult to identify an individual in the dark...everyone starts to look the same with their vests, lights and head lamps.) He had changed the location of his butt light, throwing us off completely. It took a while to find him, but in the end all was well and he got a talking to about changing his lights =). After handing off the baton to the next van, we headed to the location of our final major exchange.

We rolled out our sleeping bags...on the cement in a skate park in Heber (the grass was soaking wet) and tried to get as much sleep as we could before we had to start running again. When I woke up (well I never actually fell asleep so I am not sure you can call it waking up, but I got up after laying down trying to sleep for two hours) I felt sick to my stomach. My last leg was to be a 6 mile stretch that ran gradually up hill. I was completely mentally and physically exhausted. The closer we came to the hand off, the more nervous I became. I felt sick to my stomach and like passing out at the same time. I feel bad now, because I did not take pictures of Jared during his last leg, I was so nervous.

Jared began his 4.6 miles from Heber to Midway, keeping a great pace (especially after no sleep). I can't tell you how proud I am of him. Jared was NEVER a runner until this past year, and to have completed this race is an amazing accomplishment! In Midway, I took the baton and ran the most frustrating leg. Midway is a beautiful little town, and I guess they wanted you to see a lot of it, because I had to turn in so many places I thought I would go crazy. I was exhausted, in pain and could barely shuffle for the majority of the leg. To top it off, right before the end there was a pretty steep hill that about threw me off of my goal not to walk at all during the race. When I finished I was so relieved! Jared and I were done! We had done it! Here is a picture of us in Midway after we were both done:

We hopped back in the van to cheer on our next runners who had to run some insanely crazy legs up VERY steep hills! I am so impressed with how well the did. I can't imagine having to run their legs. They ran through beautiful mountains in the rain. We ran into some car trouble going up the steep hill, but all was well in the end and we made it back down the hill safely, and in time to hand off the baton to our final runner, who would take us through Park City to the finish.

At the finish, we all met up to cross the finish line together. It was an amazing feeling to have accomplished something so difficult. The best part was that Jared and I did it together, we were there to cheer each other on and be a support during the difficult times. I can't wait to do it again next year!!

Jupiter's Dozen 2009

Should I apologize again....

So, I haven't posted in ages. The longer I went before posting the more exciting I felt my next post should be...so I kept waiting for something huge to happen! Well, nothing huge has happened lately (well my parents have arrived safely here in Utah and are anxiously awaiting the day they can move into their new home) so I kept waiting. Yesterday I took my children to play with some of their friends and when I was picking them up my friend commented that I hadn't updated my blog in ages...so here I am with an unexciting update =)

The kids are now out of school, and I am loving it. NO more homework; NO more nagging them to get up and get ready for school; NO more braving the madness of drop off and pick up times at the school. Aaaah...summer time. The kids spend hours outside playing with the neighbors. This leaves me much more time for the things I need to get done. I am sure that by the end of the summer I will be anxious for them to return to school, but for now I am going to enjoy the freedom that comes with summertime.

Both Max and Liam have played baseball this year. Both are really enjoying this season. Liam has moved up to machine pitch and is on the Padres. Max started this year and is in T-ball on the Reds. Watching Max play is always entertaining...he seems to enjoy the downtime as much as the action. When he is not required to catch the ball or hit he is usually seen rolling around in the grass or goofing off in some other manner. Having said that, he has really improved and usually hits the ball off of a pitch as opposed to needing the Tee. Liam has done very well this year also and continues to amaze me with his athletic skills.

Before school ended, the children's school hosted their first annual 5K/Mile fun run. Joelle ran the mile and Liam, Jared and I ran the 5K race. I was so proud of both of the kids for how well they ran their races! I was not able to watch Joelle in the mile as it started just before the 5K, but my sister came to watch the younger kids and was able to watch Joelle during her race. Joelle took 2nd place in the 3rd/4th grade Girls division (and this is the girl who kept saying over and over again that she could NOT do it). Liam took 1st place in the 1st 2nd grade boys 5K. He ran it in just over 30 minutes! It was a hot evening and I am so proud of how well both of them ran. Neither race was easy in the heat, but they stuck with it and did so well. Here are some photos from race day:

Upcoming events include:
-Helping my parents move into their new home this weekend
-Jared and I falling over in the Wasatch Back next weekend =)
-Attempting to potty train Dane so he can go to Kiddie Kollege in the fall
-Watching Joelle in her first dance recital (her costume is sooo cute)
-Heading out to California for two family reunions
-Two of my friends will be coming to visit in July
-Getting back to scrapbooking. I haven't scrapbooked in over a month and I am truly missing the creative outlet it gives me. I am hoping to get going on that again soon (and don't worry, I will share when I create anything).
-Be a better blogger =)

Lukie vs. the Pew

It was a Battle Royal, Lukie vs. the Pew, and it appears that the Pew came off victorious. I guess we better teach this kid how to throw a punch (or atleast not to fall off his sister's lap during church). Now he is sporting his first shiner.

No I did not fall off a cliff...

We have had a lot of colds going around our house and I just haven't been keeping up with the blogging! I am resolved to be better and blog AT LEAST once  a week going forward, so check back soon!

Here are the highlights of what has been going on in our house lately:

This beautiful girl turned 9! (Which means I have been a mom for Nine years now...I can't believe it!) and started Dance Lessons (she also started Piano back in January)

This cutie started walking, FINALLY!
(in this picture he is really enjoying the frosting that I left from my slice of cake...I am not a big frosting girl and Lucas was thrilled to help me finish)

My sister came to visit for an interview with a local hospital, and should be joining us in Utah in May!!! (I am soooo excited!)

Other than that, it has been lots of colds, Jared had an ear infection, Liam is getting over Strep (knock on wood that nobody else came down with it!) and just general business a usual in our house. 

Sorry, no good pics from Christmas morning...

I was looking through my picture from Christmas morning and really couldn't find much worth posting. All were spoiled royally, especially by Grandma and Poppa and Aunt Stacy. Everyone got wonderful gifts, including DSs for the older two kids and Hubby. It was pretty funny watching Jared, Stacy my dad and I playing Brain Age 2 on Jared's DS.

Since I don't have any Christmas morning pictures, here are some fun ones of the kids with Santa. Our wonderful neighbors have a fun party every year where Santa comes to visit with the neighbor kids. Dane wouldn't go anywhere near Santa, so sorry, no pics of Dane with Santa, but here are the rest of the kids:

And since I didn't have a Santa pic with Dane, I did find this one of him on Christmas morning. Doesn't he look so cute in his Christmas jammies?

A funny story about the kids and their Christmas jammies:

Usually each kid gets a new pair of jammies from my mom, and they open them on Christmas Eve before bedtime. Since my parents and sister were coming for Christmas, my Mom did not ship their jammies ahead of time. Stacy had to work the night of the 23rd, so they could not leave until about 8AM on Christmas Eve. Normally this would allow them to arrive right around dinner time, which would have been perfect...Well...there just happened to be a big snow storm on Christmas Eve and instead of taking 10 hours, their drive took them 19 hours, most of the drive in chains! Needless to say the kids did not get their jammies on Christmas Eve.

My parents and Stacy finally arrived around 4 in the morning, just in time to set out gifts and for the kids to wake up (I think they heard all of the commotion in setting out the mountain of gifts that my family had brought with them). By 5AM all but Max were wide awake and anxious to go downstairs and see what Santa had brought for them! So, as crazy as we are, we gave the kids their wrapped Christmas jammies, had them open them and of course they had to change out of the jammies they had worn to bed and put on their special, new ones! Yeah, we may be silly, but you HAVE to wear new Christmas jammies on Christmas morning for present opening!

I'm back!

Sorry for the blog neglect. I am determined to be better about blogging; I am even going to make it one of my New Years resolutions. Christmas really kept me busy this year. I made a few of my children's gifts, and that took a great deal of my spare time in December.

One project that kept me busy this year was this one (yeah, you try to get 4 boys ages 14 months to 7 years to sit still...LOL):

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway over at http://www.mommosttraveled.com/ which was a free ebook pattern to make these fun ties from http://www.youcanmakethis.com/! The great part about this pattern was the accompanying ebook that had photo instructions. Perfect for the beginning seamstress (which I am! My past sewing projects have NOT been very successful). I had a bit of trouble on the first one with just one part, but was quickly able to figure it out and move on. The other 3 were simple after that! I highly reccomend this and trying other patterns from http://www.youcanmakethis.com/ . It was such a fun way to have my boys match for Christmas Sunday!

Watch for more posts later this afternoon! I have lots to update, but for now I have to hit the grocery store!

1 year ago today...

My week of bedrest ended with the birth of our beautiful baby boy, Lucas! That's right, our baby is one year old today! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by! We have been so blessed by his addition to our family; what a sweet little boy. He was such a tiny little baby, and is still a tiny boy, but he is doing so well. Here's a look at him one year ago...

And here's a photo from a week or 2 ago....

A cutie, huh?

Happy Birthday Lucas!!

First days of school!

Max had his first day of preschool on Wednesday. He was so cute! He goes to a great little preschool, that Liam also attended. I am so glad that he is going to get to have this fun preschool experience!




Here are some pictures from the first day:

Today was the first day of school for Joelle and Liam. They are going to a brand new schoool, which will be great when everythign gets done...LOL..for now they don't have a Library, Cafeteria or Gym, and the front of the school where there is supposed to be grass there is only dirt...but it is really a beautiful school and both of thier Teachers seem very nice.

Here are some pictures from this morning:

Back from Sac!

We had a great visit with our family while in Sacramento. It was an exhausting drive, both directions, but it was worth it to spend time with family. The purpose of the trip was to join the family in running the Alzheimer's Association 5k, attending the De Lucia reunion, and to celebrate Jared's sister Marcia's 50th birthday. We also spent time visiting my parents and sister.



Here are some photos from the trip:

Here's our family in the T-shirts we made for the run. It was a fun race. Jared and I ran together for almost the first 2 miles, when he stopped to walk a bit. I was able to run the whole thing, even after a month of no running. My ankle was sore for a day or two afterwards, but is fine now! I am so happy that I was able to run. I got about the same time as my last one aswell, so I didn't get worse for having to ride the bike instead of runing. Hopefully I can work back into a running schedule so I can improve.
Here's the backside of our shirts...they all say "Running for Mom" or "Running for Grandma". The image was designed by our 10 year old niece Rebekah.

Joelle, Liam and our niece and Nephews at the beginning of their 1/2 mile run
Liam totally amazed us and came in around 5th or 6th in his kids race (which had kids from age 6 to 9!). We watched a few older kids come around the corner and then here came Liam! I swear I screamed so loud!
Each kid got a medal for participating. Max ran with 2 of his cousins in the 1/4 mile race for kids 5 and under. He was so cute! Here is he is showing off his medal!
These 2 girls are adorable (Joelle and my niece Eliza, aren't they both beautiful?)! They ran the race together. It was so cute to see them coming around the corner, encouraging each other. What sweet girls!




On the way home from the reunion we were able to attend a birthday party for my good friend Lynnette's son, Spencer. He and Joelle have had a really cute friendship since they were in preschool together. They used to say that they were going to get married. They are still so cute together. Here they are enjoying their dinner:

Saturday night we swapped kids with my Sister in Law, she took Liam and Max (she is a VERY brave woman!!) so they could play with Dallin and Jake and we brought Eliza and Rebekah back to my parents house. They attended church with us at my parents ward, and after church Jared had to get a picture of these three beautiful girls!

It was truly a great trip. We had so much fun visiting with family and friends; our only complaint was that it wasn't long enough. We are planning to go back in November for Thanksgiving.

The results are in...

from my bone scan. The Dr said it looks like I have a stress fracture. UGH. That means, lots of rest. As nice as that sounds, I am itching to run. I actually tried some jogging twice this week, before I heard from the Dr today. I only jogged a half mile each time, but this mornign, did feel some twinges in the ankle right as I was hitting that half mile mark. So, it looks like mostly bike riding for me for a while. I can try walking with some light jogging, but if I feel pain, I have to stop and rest it for another week (wherein I can do alternative exercises, like swimming an biking as long as they don't cause any pain). Luckily, it does feel like the few weeks of rest I have already given it has started to help, as I do not feel pain while walking anymore! So, I am on the road to healing, but it sounds like it will be a long road before I can run any 5Ks. That having been said, I have decided to walk the Alzheimers 5K next week. Many of Jared's siblings will be walking, so I am just gonna hoof it and hope I don't do any damage in the process!

A little funny for ya:

The other day Max was playing outside, as he often does. He had been playing for a while and I was wondering about him, thinking I should probably go check on him soon. I put it off for a bit, and soon we sent the older 2 kids outside to clean up some toys that they had left in the front yard. When they came in they told us that they had finished cleaning, and to that one of them added, "oh yeah, and Max is asleep on the front porch!" I go outside to look and he was sitting asleep in his old car seat that I had left on the porch after switching it out for his new "Big Boy" booster seat a bit ago! Here he is all cute, and sleeping out on the porch!

running again

Some of you may know that at one time in my life I was a good runner. I spent 5 years running Track and Cross Country (between 4 years of Highschool and a year at college), but between getting married, going to work, and having children, running went by the wayside. I have not had success in getting started again, until recently. I ran a 5k race this weekend as part ouf our city's Heritage days, an it was fun to be in a race again. I wasn't very fast, just over 31 minutes, but the experience makes me hungry for more!

I know, some of you may be wondering what happened to the triathlon I had planned on completing. Well, my training had been too patchy (due to illness and scheduling conflicts) so about 2 weeks prior to the event I made the decision that I would not be able to attempt it. It turned out fine, as the bike portion was cancelled due to high winds, the swim was almost cancelled due to temperature and I was VERY sick with a BAD cold that day. Instead of quitting all together, I turned my training to running instead of all 3. I have the trail right by my house, and it is really easy to find time to fit that in to my day if I just get up at about 6:30 and head out for a half an hour.

Ignore the fact that I do NOT look good in short shorts and I look exhausted, but here are a couple photos Jared took of me during the race. One at the beginning and one at the end.

June 15th is a full day in 2008!

We have 3 events to celebrate today: Father's Day, Max's 4th birthday and Dane's 2nd birthday...whew, I am tired! LOL

Daddy with his kids about a month ago. We sure love the Father of our home!

I can't believe he is 4 already! Crazy how time flies!

Isn't this a cute little guy? Well he is 2 and letting us all know that he is a definitive 2 year old..LOL!

Jared recieved my completed Harry Potter Scarf (I have been working on this a bit at a time over the past 2 years...I worked very dilligently at the beginning, but my enthusiasm waned as it took so long to complete. FiNALLY, last night it was completed, and it was presented to Jared this morning. He didn't know I was going to give it to him, as I was originally making it for myself) and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark on DVD. He also recieved a King size Reeses at church.



The boys did well, also. Max recieved a large golf club thing (hard to describe, but it is like a huge golf club with large golf balls), a skate board (this was the most exciting for him!), a water gun and a small, soft dinosaur. Dane recieved a new baseball mit with ball, a pair of new sandals (which immediately had to be put on his feet), a water gun and a small stuffed dinosaur.

We will have Birthday/Father's day cake tonight after dinner.

Happy father's day to all of the fathers!

lots of updates

I have been meaning to update for a while, but I load my photos to our regular computer upstairs (we have had bad luck with lap tops and crashing on us, so I don't trust my photos to the lap top) but I do most of my browsing and general Internet surfing on the lap top. Last Saturday (not 2 days ago, I mean a week ago) Jared's work had a Literacy Fair at the Gateway (An outdoor mall, to which his office is attached). Each child received two books (most were very nice, hardback books!) and Radio Disney was there playing music and hosting fun little games. Dane even won a game and got a Speed Racer T-shirt (which on him looks like a dress!). After selecting books, playing games and a tour of the office building where Daddy works, the kids had the MOST fun playing in the water in the common area at the mall. Around a hundred spouts shoot water, choreographed to music. Here are some photos of the kids having way too much fun getting wet!

Joelle was a bit reluctant to get in the water, so Daddy took matters into his own hands!
Liam was the most enthusiastic about the water, running everywhere and getting the most wet!
Liam and Max were quite goofy together!

While I was taking pictures Max called out, "Mom! Take a picture of me!" How could I resist that cute face?

The kids were off track this past week, thus allowing me to sleep in a bit! It was wonderful to get a little more rest, and tomorrow morning when they go back will be hard on ME! They go back through the end of June, and then they will be off for the Summer.

Now for this Saturday. The best part was NO SOCCER GAMES. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad that the kids play soccer. It is great for them, they enjoy it, and I enjoy watching them play. But, a Saturday without commitments was wonderful, and I was much lazier than I should have been! It was just so nice not to be running here there, and everywhere. We made homemade Pizza's for dinner. The kids always enjoy homemade pizzas, especially since I let them each make their own.

Yesterday I actually did a little bit of scrapping after almost 2 weeks of nothing. Here are the projects that I completed:

Papers here are scrap works (I got them as a prize from the last cybercrop at ScrapAttack Scrapbooking).

Other products used are: Cricut Expression with Opposites Attract and Accent Essentials Cartridges, Bazzil Brad, Prima Flower, HOTP ribbon, and the little bubbles are called Skittles (I don't know who makes them, they were a birthday gift from my awesome sister in law Sarah!)

This card was for a challenge over at Scrap Attack.

Products used are

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms (My Guy and the background check pattern) and Inque Boutique (Stars)

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink

other products are unknown

Sorry about the book, but it has been forever since I updated! If you got this far, Way to go!