Color Me Rad Reno

A couple months ago, my friend Darcie asked if anyone wanted to do a race.  I love running fun races so I jumped at the opportunity.  Darcie, Stacy and I drove up to Reno early Saturday morning to run the Color Me Rad race.  My parents kept the kids Friday night for me which was SO nice of them.  After we picked up our packets we took our before-all-the-color picture.

 I posted that picture to Instagram and my friend Brittany commented that her husband was there working.  I heard them mention something about JP over the loud speaker so I kept an eye out for him. We ended up finding him and it was so fun!  Jason and I knew JP and Brittany from our Provo years and they are the coolest couple.  I wish Brittany had been there.  JP totally hooked us up with t-shirts and color packs, it was awesome.  

Me and JP.

 The race was really fun.  I would hardly call it a race because there were so many people it was hard to actually run the whole thing, and it was a little less than a 5k.  We had a ton of fun and I look forward to doing it again.  JP even said they might have one in Fargo, ND next summer.

After the race we went and ate at Peg's Glorified Ham and Eggs.  It was SO good.  I love breakfast food and so it was really perfect.  I can't wait to go back with Jason.  When I got home I took a nap and then babysat my cousins two boys while she went to a wedding.  They were so cute and good and we had a really fun time.  Here are all four boys eating dinner.  

Husbandless

Jason left to go back to North Dakota this week to finish things up out there and I have been seriously down in the dumps!  He will most likely be gone for 4 weeks.  That is a really long time and I miss him so much already.  I have been lonely and in a funk all week, but things are looking up.  I'm working three days a week covering a maternity leave, so that keeps me really busy.  The office is less than 5 mins from our house which is really nice, and my cousin Maggie comes over and watches the boys.  We love Maggie, she has been SO awesome.  Anyway, I am just trying to stay busy and patient with my boys so that the time flies by.  Here are some pictures from before Jason left.

The boys and I made pizza a couple weeks ago.  These guys love sitting on the counter helping me.  I love it because cooking is one of my favorite things to do and I love doing it with them.

We went to the Gold Country Fair.  I LOVE corn dogs, especially fair corn dogs.  This one was a huge disappointment.  The batter was runny in the middle...bleh!

We missed the Svetzs this summer and we were happy to get together and play games before Jason left.

One of my BFFs Stacie and I got together for breakfast so I could meet her little bundle of joy.  We hit up Target afterwards.

Jason bought his plane ticket for last Sunday, Max's birthday (happy birthday Max daddy is abandoning you for a month...haha).  We decided to celebrate on Saturday.  We went to the American River and played in the water.  Both grandmas came, so the boys had lots of fun.

After that we came back and had cake and opened presents.  I was too lazy this year and just bought Max a cake.

Max is a very loved little two year old.  I am happy to report he is finally talking!  Probably not as well as he should be, but he can definitely communicate, and his little voice is pretty much the sweetest thing I have ever heard.  Two of his favorite words are "Ollie" (Ol-ye), and "yellow" (ye-yo), it is too cute.

We were so lucky the weekend Jason left because Jan watched the kids Friday night so Jason and I could go to the temple and my mom watched the kids Saturday night so we could go out for dinner.  We ate at Bravo: A Taste of Peru and it was delicious.  

Later that night I found this present from Jason.  He is so thoughtful and I seriously love it.

This week Ollie got to take home Polly panda, his preschool mascot.  You are suppose to report what you did with Polly the next day.  We played Monopoly Junior.  

 How cute is my sunbeam class?  Tomorrow is our primary program and I am really looking forward to it.

Max and Owen playing a duet on the piano.

Grandma got matching shirts for the boys.  I love dressing them alike, it is so cute.  Now I know why my mom use to do that to me and my sister.

Whew!

It feels really good to just dump all these pictures on here and tell myself I am now updated.  We have been really busy since we got home and so to make my life easier I am just going to post the pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Letty moved to Provo :( so before she left we tried to see her as much as possible.  One night she stayed over and we took lots of goofy pictures including this duck face.  So attractive.

Jason turned 32!  On his actual birthday we went and saw the Bourne Legacy and got sushi.  I had a bigger surprise planned for the weekend.

 I am so in love with these boys it isn't even funny!  Seriously, how are they so cute?

They helped me bake Jason a carrot cake.  The day after his birthday we had a happy birthday Jason/farewell Letty party with some of our extended family.  

 That Friday night we had planned on getting together with one of Jason's best childhood friends.  I found out that one of our favorite singers, Brandi Carlile would be in Grass Valley.  So without telling Jason, I rescheduled our plans with his friend, bought the tickets, and arranged a babysitter.  He didn't know anything until the babysitter showed up that night.  Even then I didn't tell him what we were doing.  He saw this poster as we passed by the concert hall and he was really excited.  We had seen a band I liked (Citizen Cope) in SLC when we lived in Provo, probably about 6 years ago.  Brandi Carlile was there and she was amazing.  We have bought every one of her albums since.  It was so fun to see her again, she is so amazing live.  Check her out!

 The next day Jason's friend Jessica got married in Garden Valley.  My mother in law watched the kids and we headed up for the afternoon.  It was a beautiful wedding, with beautiful scenery.  We were able to catch up with a lot of Jason's friends so it was really fun.

Then on Monday night some of our best friends, the Burtons were in town.  Jason and Jared grew up together and are still such great friends with so much in common, and I love Jared's wife Shannon.  It was so fun to visit with them and see their cute kids.  We really hope someday we will all live by each other.

Jamison and Ollie are only a couple months apart.  They were so cute together on their tiny Specialized bikes and got along right away.

Avery, their daughter, is just the sweetest, petite little thing.

She really wanted some of Ollie's otter pop.  Look at her open mouth!  Ollie was happy to oblige.

A few nights later we were able to get together with Jennie, another one of Jason's best friends.  She was in town for her brother's wedding.  We love Jennie, she is so much fun.

Last week I started covering another hygienists maternity leave.  I am working 3 days a week for 6-8 weeks.  Three days is more than I usually like to work, but since it is temporary I decided to do it.  It has been going well, and I know it is a blessing since Jason will be leaving soon and I want to stay busy.

 Friday night my parents (who didn't "get" to babysit all summer) watched the kids so Jason and I could have a night away.  We went up to Placerville which is a cute little town about 30 minutes from us.  We stayed at the Cary House Hotel which is very old and rumored to be haunted.  It also has the 2nd oldest elevator West of the Mississippi :)  It was a cute place.  Here is Jason in front of one of the haunted rooms.

 While we were there we at a BBQ place that we absolutely love.  We had been there before. We also got a dessert pot pie at Z pie, yum.  The next day we walked around and looked in all the antique shops.  It was so nice to just hang out together.

Looking into the lobby of the hotel. 

 On fast Sundays we rotate having dinner between us, the Boatmans, and my parents (and we recently added Jason's parents).  This month it was our turn to host.  We had 13 adults for dinner.  I made Cafe Rio salads.  It was a lot of fun.  After dinner, as per tradition at our house, we went on a walk.  We were quite the large group.

Owen and Max holding hands.  

Ollie spent the night with Jason's parents Sunday night, so Monday morning, Max, Owen and I headed to Lincoln and I ran a 5k with my dad.  It was fun, although I hadn't run in about a month so I was pretty sore the next day.  I was proud of my 29:37 time since I am usually a little slower than that.

My mom got this good action shot. I always sprint at the finish.

That afternoon I took the boys swimming at Jennie's house.  They set up a big slip n' slide which was super fun.  Here I am ready to go down.

And there I am at the bottom.  Lets just say I had grass EVERYWHERE.

In other news, Jason finally shaved off the beard he has been growing for the last 3 months.  I told him I wanted a picture of him with a mustache, but then it needed to come right off!  I like Jason with a little scruff, it is sexy, but this beard was getting out of control.  I'm happy to have my clean shaven husband back.

I thought he looked like Tom Selleck with his mustache.

Today Ollie started preschool again.  This year he is in pre-K and goes 3 days a week.  He has been so excited and he had a great time.  Here he is holding up a two for his second year at preschool.

And last but not least we bought a treadmill.  I did so well on one this summer and I have been feeling super lazy since we got home.   I told Jason we needed to get one ASAP.  We found this awesome deal on Craigslist (oh how I love Craigslist).  This baby retails at $4200, and we got it for $400.  I can customize workouts and yada yada yada, the most important feature is that it has a pause button so I don't have to completely stop my workout to deal with my children :)  Super pumped about that.

Ok I'm caught up.  What a relief.  Jason leaves to go back to North Dakota to wrap things up out there, in about a week and a half.  I am DREADING it.   He will be gone 4-6 weeks.  I love my husband and  don't like the idea of being away that long.  I have decided this is the only year we will do this, from here on out we will make other arrangements (i.e.: the boys and I will stay out there with him).  I think working will keep me busy and sane so I am really grateful for that blessing.  Other than that we are looking forward to the weather cooling down, and gearing up for the holidays and time together as a family.

Lake Powell Part 2

Ok, so we finally found a spot that we planned to stay at for the rest of our trip.  We were on our fourth night by then.  The spot was nice, but it was at the mouth of a canyon so there was a lot of small boat traffic, which meant a lot of waves for us.  It wasn't a big deal though.  

Here is our boat tucked in its little cove.  I liked that there were lots of areas to hike around.  We went on two hikes while we were there.

We had a little bucket of water for the kids to wash their feet off in when they came on the boat from the beach.  I am in love with this picture of Max.  Too cute.

 We took the boys on a hike one morning. It was really fun.  Everything is fun when you are with Uncle Jeff.  He showed the boys cool animal tracks, found animal bones, found lizards, etc.  The boys loved it.

 We took the little boat out each day to surf and wakeboard.  We also did some tubing and went on a few scenic drives in the boat.

Here is Mike surfing.

Me surfing.  It was my first time.  I had to hold onto the rope most of the time.  It was a lot of fun.

Mike and I jumped off this big cliff.  I said I wasn't going to, because I am must less adventurous these days, but when I got up there I decided at the last second to just go for it.  If I had given those below more warning I would have had a pic too.

Ez caught a fish.

The guys tried for a long time to shoot a fish with the bow. Mike finally caught one with the bow, and Jeff did later also.  We also enjoyed shooting the potato gun filled with a potato and an explosive.  We are really mature :)

I wish I had taken a picture on the top of the boat.  It had lots of lounge chairs and it was so nice to sit up there and relax.  It is also where Jan and Grandpa slept.  In the old houseboat, everyone slept up top, so that is the only way Grandpa likes to sleep.  Jason and I slept on the top one night and it was so nice.  The stars are so bright when there are no lights around, it was beautiful.

Michelle, Jenny, and me on our pleasure craft :)

 Our family going on a tube ride.  Ollie LOVED riding on the tube.  The first time we did it he kept saying "this is the best day ever".  

 Michelle and Taylor, Jen and Ez enjoying a boat ride.

 The boys loved wrestling with uncle Mike.  

On one of our scenic boat rides, Max and Ez fell asleep.  Our kids slept pretty well on this trip because they were so worn out at the end of each day.

 On one of our hikes Grandpa beat us to the top.

A cool crevice we found.

We buzzed Ollie's hair. He has the cutest little head.  I'm glad we did it on our last day, I was worried about it getting sunburned.

 Ollie wearing Shelley's sun hat.

 Michelle wake boarding.  Mike, Eric and I also wake boarded.  Jan and Grandpa both slalom skied.  Grandpa is almost 87 years old and he was able to get up.  It was awesome.  

We weaned Max off his binky at 18 month, but with everything going on we let him use it while we drove and while we were at Lake Powell (as soon as we got home it was gone for good).  Ollie was being so sweet with Max, talking nicely to him and giving him kisses.

The boys enjoying popsicles.

The rest of the week went pretty smoothly.  We had a few other issues, but the guys were able to figure it out pretty quickly.  We had a lot of fun.  I love being all together with Jason's family, we always have a great time.  

We drove back Friday morning to Jenny and Jeff's house, stayed the night there and then made the final push home the next day.  Friday night Jeff took the boys on a four wheeler ride.  It was heaven for three little boys (four if you include Jeff). 

Next year I want to remember to take a group pic of everyone at Lake Powell.  I also want to remember to take a pic of the grandkids before the morning we leave to go home.  Taylor is so loved by her cousins.  I can't wait to see them all grow up together.

Saturday was a long day of driving.  We took the camping trailer home and so we averaged about 60 mph.  It was slow going.  Not to mention we can only go about 2-2 1/2 hours before we have to get gas.  That makes for a lot of little stops, but we made it!  The boys did great, they were real troopers.  We wanted to hurry home because my mom was speaking in stake conference (she was recently called as stake RS pres).  It was so nice to be able to see my family.  I missed them while we were gone.  We are so happy to be home and are even more in love with our house.  It is like I re-fell in love with my house.  I think we will look forward to ND each year, and we will look forward to coming home from ND each year as well.