I get it now Dad

Okay so I may have been a little slow on the uptake with this one but I TOTALLY get it now.


When we were kids at home my Dad always had certain things he said, for example "Don't touch the walls" When we would walk down the hallways with our hands out running our fingers along the whole way.

Yesterday and Today I have been cleaning, a ton, my house was truly in dire need of a deep clean and I am finally prioritizing for it. Were talking walls, baseboards, doors, window sills, blinds... DEEP CLEAN PEOPLE. My Magic Eraser and I are good friends again.

After wiping so many gooby finger prints off the walls I kept thinking, "Man Ty, when are you going to learn, Don’t touch the walls" HAHA Then I got a good chuckle out of that being said in my head in my Fathers voice.

It got me thinking all the other things he said too, that list includes, but is not limited to:

~"Don't touch the roof" (This is while in the car of course, he didn’t want our sticky finger prints on it. Have you ever tried to clean or replace the lining on the roof of a car? Yeah super tricky and annoying)

~"No Chanting" (after watching the movie 3 Ninjas again on Netflix last night with Matt, I thought it would be awesome because it was a favorite childhood movie. Really I just got annoyed with "Rocky loves Emily" being chanted over and over)

~"No Perching" (We had a step going from the living room to the kitchen, we weren’t allowed to eat in the living room so we would stand on the very edge of the step to watch T.V. where all our food crumbs would fall into the living room, so came that phrase. We had to take a step back into the kitchen)

~"Who's flicking something" (This is another thing while in the car, we couldn't tap the window over and over or in our van we couldn’t mess with the ashtrays because my Dad has a keen sense of listening to the vehicle he is driving and he needed to make sure that noise wasn't coming from the engine or anything like that. Plus, its just plain annoying listening to that ashtray be flicked up and down)

~"The last time I wore them, I left them...." (We had a bad habit of taking off our socks and shoes in the living room and forgetting to bring them with us when we went to bed at night. Eventually my Dad, and my Mom sometimes, would start hiding our shoes to remind us if they were where they were supposed to go you would find them easier. It always started with one of us kids saying Dad/Mom, do you know where my shoes are? You think this would be fun, but it wasn't since we needed shoes to be able to walk to school)

I still remember the first time my mom accidentally hid one of the Spence boys shoes because they left them at our house… she thought they were our shoes. A true welcome to the family ritual I guess. HAHA All the boys learned my Dads rules pretty quickly though, especially the, “Who’s flicking something” in the car during those long California road trips.

So anyways I get it now, I know why my Dad had all those things he said over and over. It only took a quarter of a century, but lesson learned Dad. I will no longer Perch, Touch the Roof or Walls, Chant anything, flick anything and I promise to always put my shoes away at night.

Thanks for being so patient with me! :) Now, if only Ty could learn faster than I did you've truly succeeded. 

Random Things

(1) The play is coming along great, Suzanne and I are tired of practicing all ready but we are excited to be in the finished product. We're getting our costumes together and for one segment we are in a marching band. Anyone around here have some Band instruments we might be able to fake play on stage for about a 3 minute segment? I am also in need of a white long sleeve button up dress shirt to borrow. Suzanne and I are waiters at the Harmonia Gardens. Suzanne all ready has one. Also, if anyone has some old fashioned dresses or shirts and skirts we can use let us know! The play is set in the 1890's.

(2) Matt, My Mom, Will, Preston, Colton (who hasn't swam in a pool for 2 years), Braden, Nate and Jordan have signed up to help break a world record. Matt thinks it would be cool to be a world record holder so he told everyone else to be too. It is June 11-12th Orem city is having people swim one length of the pool one at a time in a 24 hour period. They need at LEAST 4000 people to do it to break the record. If anyone else wants to do it with the family they signed up for Saturday morning at 8 am. HERE is the link.

(Yael, Sheila and I ready to run)

(3) Yesterday Ty and I got to run the Special Olympics Torch with a bunch of Cops. My work signed us up and it was SO FUN! Those Special Olympics kids were SO cute, they were excited about EVERYTHING, the Officers let them sit in the cars with them while they closed down a few lanes of State Street and did a procession. We all ran in the middle with 10 Motorcycle cops in front and 2 cars and the "Command Center" (a beefed up motor home) behind us. We'll make SURE that my work signs us up next year. I bet Ty will love it EVEN MORE next time. Bad part was we had a flat on the jogger the whole way. Eh we made it anyways, it was only a couple miles.

(Top Flite XL 7000)

(4) Matt put his old clubs on KSL yesterday, he is FINALLY getting new clubs. He has decided on a pretty spiffy set (see above) so he needed to get rid of the old ones for some extra cash to pay for the new ones. He had two sets, one incomplete set with no putter. He put them on yesterday afternoon and by 4 one set was gone then last night at 10:15 some people stopped by and bought the other set! Wow! We both thought we should have charged a little bit more BUT I think we made a fair amount on each set. I think both we sold for only 5 dollars less then what Matt spent on them and he used them for a season :)

(Trek 3700 in Matte Blue, Jimmers less expensive cousin :)

(5) We got the insurance money from the Insurance company for the stolen Jimmer. I e-mailed the media director for the BYU Men's Basketball team explaining what happened and asked for Jimmer's snail mail fan mail address so we could see if he would ever sign a NEW bike that Matt will be buying soon. The fella didn’t write back for quite a while and I had pretty much forgotten that I wrote the e-mail until yesterday he e-mailled back and said that Jimmer would LOVE to sign the new bike and to let them know when we have the bike and when we can come down to campus and Jimmer would do it! SWEET! We were pretty dang stoked about that. Oh, and just in case any one is wondering, AMFAM appraised Jimmer’s autograph at 100 dollars, I wonder what it would be if he goes to the NBA? :)

(6) Matt and Preston have this crazy idea that they want to enter into the Wild Cow Milking contest during the Strawberry days rodeo this year. So I got all the info ready and the teams need to sign up this weekend. It's a draw system so after you sign up only a few randomly chosen teams will compete. If you want to get together a team too let me know I have the phone number to call.

(Here is an example of the sport... pretty hilarious)

Man us Spence’s seem to be getting into everything these days... but isn’t that what life is all about? Getting into everything?

Have a lovely day all :)

Warning: Very Long Things I have noticed about Ty post

I give you my permission to skim, this is really just for me to remember :)

(1) He LOVES food, seriously… he doesn’t care what it is, if it is spicy, sweet, sour, juicy, dry, crunchy, mushy, cold, warm, a fruit, vegetable, meat or grain… he likes it. He eats whatever we are having and ALWAYS wants more. I’ll cut up everything, for example the other night I made sweet and sour chicken for dinner he ate, a whole chicken nugget size Chicken piece, Broccoli, Rice with sauce, Strawberries, Grapes, Carrots, Pineapple, Cantaloupe and Red Pepper. After everyone was done eating he still wanted more. Crazy right? I’ve never SEEN a kid that likes everything so it shocks me and I thank him daily for never spitting anything out because he doesn’t like it.

(2) He has learned how to throw a fit, which doesn’t EVER work… but he thinks it will work sometime I guess or else why would he keep doing it? He flops on the ground and throws his head back or forward, usually causing pain hence making him cry harder. He’ll throw anything that is by him and keep at it for a while until he forgets why he was crying. This has been heightened by more teeth coming in… only one more for now.

(3) He doesn’t give high five as much any more, but he still LOVES to clap. If ANYONE is clapping ANYWHERE, in music, on a movie, in real life, he stops whatever he is doing and starts clapping. Usually if any grown ups around him say, “Yay” and he’ll do it too. OH and any time he burps he claps for himself… no idea where that came from.

(4) He is standing up for longer periods of time with out holding on to anything, but he thinks it’s funny to just fall over because someone is always there the catch him. He shuffles pretty quickly across the furniture now too.

(5) When something always goes somewhere and Ty finds it, he tries to put it back. 2 examples, we have covers over all the electrical outlets, sometimes we forget to put them back in after plugging something in. Ty will find the outlet cover and crawl over to an open outlet and try to put it back in. Also whenever I take my shoes and walk off he’ll see my shoes and pull them over to me and try to put them on my feet.

(6) He could sit outside all day, if a door is opened even momentarily he will crawl as fast as he can to the door, when we do go outside he wants to stay there for hours… if the door is shut before he can get out, see observation 2.

(7) He LOVES dogs, he even makes a noise similar to woof woof when he sees one. Big, small, hyper or easy mannered he’ll try to crawl right up to them. He doesn’t mind when they lick his face (but I do, yuck). He’s not scared at all of them! He was a few weeks back but that lasted about 10 minutes, now he sits at the window sill and waits for dogs to come by and he’ll squeal. I always ask the owner before he gets to one if they are a nice dog, otherwise I hold him while he wants to get down the entire time.

(8) He doesn’t like sippy cups, he thinks they are toys. He doesn’t get that there is formula in it…He loves to drink from the straw when we use it as a dropper or he’ll drink from a cup. Hopefully he picks that up soon ‘cause I don’t want to skip the sippy cup stage. A regular cup would make things super messy all the time.

(9) The kid has got the baby booty dance down. When he hears a song he likes he dances, more like bounces, to the music and has a big smile on his face.

(10) He is still in love with Baby Einstein, Baby Galileo specifically. I think he can watch

that one over and over. Thanks goodness sometimes I just need to get things done 

Oh and the other day I found this… I thought it was pretty funny. Now the printer is up on top of the computer desk though… so no more photocopies for him.

Tender Mericies Tuesday: Prepared

Sundays meetings at church were a little, uh, Polyanna-ish. All the members of the Bishopric spoke or taught and they all taught on things that hit pretty close to home for probably a ton of people in the congregation. I am not usually one to get offended or upset about things but I am glad I had an extra bit of preparedness during the week to remind myself to have a humble heart and not a hard one.

Ty and I read in 1st Nephi 16:1-5 Just days earlier:

1 And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear.

2 And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.

3 And now my brethren, if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might awalk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us.

4 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did exhort my brethren, with all diligence, to keep the commandments of the Lord.

5 And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.

I told Ty that day that when someone tells him something, like the Bishop or even us as parents that he needs to change or work on, we do it because we love him and want him to be a good righteous person. BUT if like Laman and Lemuel he gets upset and defensive then that means he knows he needs to humble his heart and heed the words because he really does need to work on them. He is only getting defensive because he knows we are right and he doesn't want to change.

We were counseled to walk a mile in another mans shoes before we judge others (meaning, don’t do it, you don’t know what they are going through). Also we were counseled to leave our cell phones OFF or AT HOME while at church. This is especially a HUGE problem with the Youth of the church during Sunday School they are in the back texting the entire time.... ANYWAYS to make a long story shorter, they hit on a ton of things like that. I know that I can improve on a few things they brought up and I am glad I remembered the lesson I re-learned those few days earlier so I had that reassurance that they were speaking and teaching out of love and respect not trying to blame or point fingers at anyone.

What the no syrup is going on

Can't believe I never took a picture... all weekend!


This weekend was the Bragg Girls Weekend! Well it only ended up being myself, Kristin, Suzanne, Sharon and Kenzie. Britany came down for the end there too... it was super fun.

Friday night we went and saw "Letters to Juliet" it's a chick flick through and through, and the main guy actor was a mix of Heath Ledger and Ryan Fillipe with a splash of Matt Damon in there...Suzanne and I were a little weirded out about it... haha I would give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Saturday we met back up at Suzanne’s house and ate some yummy lunch, did some crafts and I did glitter toes on everyone. It was awesome 'cause Kristin got new colors a week ago... they are pretty much NEON colors. Kenz got Yellow, Sharon got Orange, Suzanne and Kristin got Light blue (we’re talking straight Little Mermaid Blue) and I did Hot Pink! LOVE the new colors... So if anyone wants their toes done with some fresh HOT colors let me know :)

It was awesome to hang out with everyone and a special thanks to Matt for letting me be away all weekend and manning down the fort. He is a GREAT Dad and Uncle.

So Proud!

A few weeks ago while we were all Disc Golfing Jason kept saying "Hey, You guys!" After he said it a few times I decided to correct him... I said Jason you have to say it like "HeeeeeyYYY YOOOOOOOU GuuuYYYYSSSssss" Eh hem... like this,

Then just the other day while we were all taking a walk, I heard the sweet music to my ears of Jason running up from behind us all saying it just perfectly. Just love that little man, aren't I such a good aunt? :)

Stairs

Ty is finally and frequently traversing the stairs here in the Spence house. If you have ever been to our house you know how steep our stairs are. Needless to say, I haven't gotten and picture or video yet because it freaks me out too much I am usually right behind him or pulling him off the stairs. Thing is he doesn't know how to go down yet. I have tried to teach him but it hasn't quite stuck yet. I bet he is thinking... "Why go down when I can go up?"


I can forsee a big fall coming soon. Hopefully I can catch him because if he does fall it's a long way down and would most likely cause injury.

Oh the joys of motherhood...

Tender Mercies Tuesday: Grades done right

For the first time in Matt's academic career he earned straight A's. He worked SO SO SO hard this semester and it was probably the hardest semester he has taken so far: Business Law, Marketing and Venture Capitol. I know it was divine intervention when it came to his marketing final... life got crazy and he only ended up studying for a day rather then the 3 or 4 he usually puts in. For his Business Law class he studied for a week and a half, 20 pages a day. It sure paid off. I am so excited for him that he gets to see the benefit of all his hard work and study. Ty and I sure appreciate all he does for us, he is working super hard to get a good GPA for his application to MBA school. 

This next semester will be some what of a break, he is only taking 1 new class and re-taking 2 old classes that he got a B and B- in. He took those 2 last summer when Ty decided to come the night of his mid-terms... He kept all his work and papers so those two should be easier and with the re-take being a better grade his GPA should jump higher next semester too. We are looking forward to the day Matt graduates and we'll have him home at night for once!

On a seriously sad note, that good news came last night just hours before someone clipped the lock off Matt's prized and most favorite possession during his first class of the semester on campus at the U of U.

Jimmer, as we lovingly called him.... it was his Trek Mountain Hardtail 6500 Series bright blue slice of heaven that he rode to school every day. We are super SUPER bummed that someone stole it and now we are dealing with our insurance to see how they can help compensate. The bike's retail value was $1100, we are betting that they'll give us Maybe 6 or 7 hundred for it, but we have a 500 dollar deductable so we'll really only get about 1 to 2 hundred for it. We're not sure why this happened or what we needed to learn from this lesson but we are trying to be happy and not worry about the material things... poor Jimmer I bet they'll put him to pieces and pawn him off... Rest in peace we wish you were still with us, if you ever want to come back we will gladly greet you with open arms.

Weekend done right

Matt said this weekend was done to perfection.

Friday evening we had a family night in and watched a movie, I also made Sugar Cookies.

Saturday I went to play practice in the morning while Nate, Tanner and Dallin went with Matt and Ty on a walk to the park across from where I practiced.

We said goodbye to Nate and the boys who were headed home to see how Kelly was doing (poor girl got some stomach bug...that is the worst when you are pregnant!)

Matt, Ty and I headed to Orem to see a good friends soccer game and chat with friends.

We went back to Will and Kristins house and played outside.
Kristin and I went and used a Gift Certificate that she won at an auction and got some new colors of glitter for toes... oh I am SO excited. We also got a few other nail things that we'll have to do some more expirimenting with.
Jason went to a birthday party so I went to go pick him up and bring him to Art Dye Park while Matt, Will and Ty were disc golfing. I sat with the same friend and watched another soccer match while Jason met up with his dad.
We went back to the Wu's again and had a delightful dinner and played some more with the kids before bed.
Will and Kristin put Jason and Sierra down and Will and Matt had an itch to go throw again, so they did... another 18.

Matt found out on Saturday that his summer semester started today, he thought he had another week off. Boy he wasn't too excited about that! He was SO bummed!

Sunday we went to church ate some dinner and headed out with the family to walk the Bridal Veil Falls trail in Provo.

Here are the pictures. It was a lovely day! Matt and I thought it was a shorter walk then it was. We didnt make it to the park before we decided to turn back.

(Dallin, Nate, Matt and Tanner watching the rushing river... Kelly and I were a bit nervous about it)

(Matt and Tanner throwing rocks in while we watied for the Wu's to meet us)

(Matt pointing out how high the mountains were to Sierra)

(It's a water fall!)

(Walking on the path with the kids)

(Ty was digging the fact he was out of his stroller crawling on a tree)

(Fathers and Sons picture)

Some how Kristin didn't end up in a single picture! What?! Sorry sis, next time i'll get ya!

Modern Marvel

(See the itty bitty cars going across the dam?)

On our drive to and from AZ we had the opportunity to drive on the Hoover dam, we ALSO saw the new bridge they are building to bypass the hoover dam... it was pretty stinkin cool. The picture doesn't do it ANY justice. It is SO HIGH up there! They started on the sides and built towards the middle. Serisouly a modern marvel.

(click here for the website)

As we were going over the dam I got in the back seat to get a better picture. After I snapped a few I looked down at Ty, he looked like this so I couldn't help but snap one of him too :)

Matt and I were guessing how much something like that would cost to build. Matt said 12 million I said 200 million, turns out were were both wrong... but I was closer hehe. (But I went over... so he wins? Isn't that the "Price is Right" rules?)

Q. WHAT IS THE BUDGET FOR THE HOOVER DAM BYPASS AND WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM?

A. The design and construction budget remains unchanged at $240 million. The Colorado River Bridge construction portion of that budget is $114 million. The $240 million budget consists of $100 million in federal funds, $20 million each from the states of Arizona and Nevada, and $100 million in state bond funds. Of the approximate $130 million in bond funds ($100 million plus interest) advanced by the states of Arizona and Nevada, approximately $96.3 million has been repaid.

Run for Freedom!

Okay, really it's the Freedom Run on July 5th... Will, Matt, Preston, Suzanne and I have all signed up to run the 5K. Anyone else want to join? Here is the website. There is a 10K, 5K, and a 1 Mile Fun Run (or walk). Last year Suzanne and I did the mile and got beaten by some five year olds... not this year people, not this time haha. Preston acutally almost died too, hopefully he wont this time... he tried to keep up with Matt. Who knows maybe Matt will have some competition this year!

I think i'll probably push Ty in our jogging stroller with the TUNES cranked up... The shirts look pretty sweet this year and there's talk of finisher medals even... oh yeah!

Tender Mercies Tuesday: I Tri'ed it

All right, I know you all have been wondering how the Triathlon really went. I'll share all the syrup along with the HUGE tender mercy that was given to me while competing.


I wasn't nervous at all at the start. I set up all my stuff and got over to the swim start. I did the Tri with Mitzi, and her friend Catherine. Catherine was super nice. The way they started this race was in waves. They had different colored swim caps designating your age wave you started in. The day before I noticed the 45 and older went last, starting at about 7:20 or so. I went in the 29 and under wave which stared at 7:04. The professionals started at 7:00. I made the mistake of thinking that the last wave was treading water the entire time… and I said out loud “Yeah I felt bad because I thought the old women had to tread water the longest!” Mitzi and Catherine got a good laugh out of that when I tried to change it too “uhh I mean not OLD women,.. just the last wave of women…. Uhhh” Yeah they both beat me so talk about bad karma.

Anyways I got in the water, a chilly 72 degrees. It wasn’t too bad though and I was swimming with sleeves and some Triathlon shorts that Mitzi had as an extra pair. I started treading water for about 3 minutes or so, the whole time I was telling myself, “You can do this! This is going to awesome!” I knew I wasn't a strong swimmer so I stuck in the back, kind of in the middle of all the Orange caps. Well the second the air horn sounded and we all took off swimming I instantly freaked out. I was kicked, pulled, poked and pretty much mauled in the water. It was like swimming with a pool of humongous aggressive fish. I literally had a panic attack about 1/4 of the way. I kept swimming trying to break out of the big groups of women swimming. I started heading for the outer edge to free myself and at about 1/2 way around I was going to give up, I stopped swimming and saw a boat, it was there with life guards on it. I was literally fearing for my life and I can't ever remember being so freaked out in my entire life. As I rolled over to my back for one last..."Are you SURE you can't finish" conversation with myself, a gal in a blue cap came swimming up. She was at the far front of the next wave of women coming. There was another orange capped gal next to me who must have obviously been struggling because the blue cap gal stopped. She swam almost doggie paddle next to this other gal while I was floating on my back just a few yards away.
I heard her say, "Hey, how you doing? You look worried."
At first I thought she was talking to me so I looked over, I saw the gal she was talking to visibly stressed and taking staggered breaths, my guess is she was crying. I was on the verge of crying myself.
The blue cap gal continued with, "Hey, I know you can do this, just do some breast stroke until you feel comfortable doing freestyle again, you are half way done with the swim and that is the worst part... are you okay? Do you want me to swim with you for a little while?"
The orange cap girl said "No, I think I can do it." I glanced over to see her spirits lifted and confidence rising as she started swimming with a little more determination. The gal in the blue cap stuck back for another couple seconds then said goodbye as she took off swimming super fast.

This was my change too, as I heard the pep talk I told myself "It doesn't matter about time anymore, just finish, everything will be okay, just focus and finish, swim at your pace, don't try and be competitive." So I went to it. I would love to say that I ended up with an awesome swim time but that is not the case. It was a terrible 27 minutes compared to Mitzi's 17 minutes. I will forever be thankful to that gal in the blue cap giving the pep talk to some other gal in the orange cap. I would have been so disappointed in myself if I had given up. That was so selfless of the blue cap gal to stop and talk with a struggling competitor to buoy her confidence and help her out. This was a SUPER competitive Triathlon where I doubt many others would have done anything like that. It may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, and as I have tried to explain it to others they don’t really understand but to me it was a HUGE deal.

Unfortunately because of the swim I was having a hard time in my brain transitioning from survival mode to competitor mode. The swim gave me such a scare that I was pretty mentally exhausted by the middle of the bike. Now I know I could have pushed myself harder but then I decided to take the pace nice and smooth and just finish the race.

Before the race Mitzi and I decided to do it for Holly, Matt's mom, in honor of Mother's Day and Breast Cancer awareness day. She didn't have Breast Cancer, but she did die of Pancreatic Cancer. Half way through the run I had to say to myself, "Just do it for Holly... doesn't matter what your time is, just do it for Holly." Mitzi said she KNOWS if Holly were alive she would have been there cheering us on with the rest of the family and that possibly she could have talked her into doing it with us. Wouldn't that have been fun! I am sure she was there cheering us on in spirit.

Anyways so here are the pictures...

(Ready to start the race, I WAS excited then)

(I think I am hidden in the water behind the guy in the red standing on the dock, this is the beginning of the swim)

(I can't even find myself in this picture, let the panic attacks begin!)

(Yup, no one told Mitz her cap was goofy like. She's the one front and center with her cap half off, both of us about died laughing about this picture)

 

(Coming out of the water I ran down the wrong row for my bike... I found it eventually)

(Here I go on the bike!)

(Here comes Mitzi on her bike)

(The cheer squad consisted of Dan, Matt, Eric, Kayla, EJ, and none other than the little Ty man!)

(COUSINS! Boy did EJ LOVE playing with Ty guy. He hardly left his side. It was 90 something degrees by the end of the race so they were troopers for staying the whole time.)

(Coming back from the bike I was giving Matt a look of, "Man I could have done better")

(Catherine on the left was in the lead the whole time until Mitzi caught her at the last 1/4 mile... it was a race to the finish and Mitzi won!)

(Going down the home stretch trying to find another gear... yeah didnt have it this time. Oh and check out those white legs! I think summer needs to come sooner)

(YAY! We finished! They even gave us all medals!)

It was such an awesome experience. One of my friends Savannah while running in one of her races said her motivation was saying "I can do this, I had a baby!" She used a tougher experience to talk her way through another rough experience. Now I will be able to say, (not that it is really any comparison to child birth) "I can do this, I finished that crazy Triathlon!" Drawing on strength from a time I didn't know I had any.

Thanks for inviting me to do it with you Mitz, you are a STUD for beating me so badly! Trying to forget about my fear of swimming in open water and never training in open water before hand didn't bode so well for me. Maybe some day I’ll forget how awful it was to swim in open water and TRI again. For now, I think I’ll stick to smaller bodies of water for my Tri's,… like heated pools. :) What is next on the bucket list? A Half Marathon… but most likely next year sometime. 

Arizona Trip Part 2

On Mothers Day Matt treated us all to some Grilled Pineapple and we had steaks courtesy of Dan. Mitzi got the camera out and started snapping pictures of Ty guy.

Monday morning Matt and I both went on good runs, it was SO nice to run on some trails instead of the street like usual. Then we all went on a hike up Granite Mountain and Dan and Mitzi had the PERFECT carrier for Ty. It was super light and Ty LOVED it, we'll have to look into getting a similar one ourselves. Ty actually fell asleep on the way down the mountain.

That evening we went to Monsoon’s a Sushi joint. Matt hadn’t ever had it so he tried it. He, Eric and Dan got a little carried away with the Wasabi. It was pretty hilarious. Thing is at the end Dan took a HUGE bunch of it and put it on the last piece of Sushi, my camera ran out of memory right as soon as Dan about puked cause it was so much... Can't believe I missed it... it was really good times eating with them.

We snapped a few pictures and headed home, the sunset was gorgeous so of course you have to take the classic Arizona sunset picture :)

Now our adventure is over, we wish it was longer, it was so nice and relaxing! Vacations are always nice when hanging with such awesome family. Back to real life now… Boo.

OHH and last night Mitzi found another one of Ty's teeth are coming in, that is what made the drive down so eventful. Ty wasn't the traveler he usually was so he got restless a ton. We couldn't figure him out, now we know why.  

Fun in the Sun

Hey all, we made it here. It was kind of a crazy drive down but uneventful at the same time... lots of little things but we did get here safe and sound around 2 am. Friday we woke up and Dan made us some hash browns, bacon, eggs, toast and cut up some fresh fruit for breakfast... I guess that is what they have for breakfast often. It was GREAT! Growing up when my mom made breakfast it was a BIG deal so I really enjoyed it.

We left for Tempe at about 11 am and went strait to check in for our Tri. Mitzi and I dropped off our bikes and got our packets then we checked into the hotel and layed by the pool for a few hours. I did Matt's cousin Lexi's toes in a lovely green sparkle and I did my toes as well. Matt's cousins Amber and her Fiance Loren came to visit for the evening as well as Eric and Kayla and their son EJ. EJ was actually spending the night at Mitzi and Dan's the evening previous so he was with us the whole time. Boy did he love Ty baby. He would always talk and play with him. Between EJ and Lexi, Matt and I really didn't have to entertain Ty at all!

I'll tell y'all about the Tri more later when I get the pictures that Dan took, i'll just say the difference between training in 50 degrees to 90 degrees AND Pool swim vs. Lake swim is a big difference, AND NEVER call the 50+ age group "old women" or else it will come back and bite you in the BUM! (Yep you guessed it Mitzi beat me by about 15 minutes... HAHA)

(Ty LOVES to play in the dirt and bark... but one of us has to be close or else he'll eat it)

(Mickkkk)

After the Tri we headed back to Prescott then packed up for Lexi's school camp out. It was only about 30 minutes from the house so we just went up for the afternoon/evening while Lexi stayed the night. Matt, Eric and Dan took about a 13 mile Mtn. Bike trail while Mitzi, Lexi, Ty and I drove. We ate some good pot luck camping food (Baked Chicken, Dutch oven Corn Bread etc.) and sat by the camp fire while one of the Dad's strummed his guitar and sang a few songs. It was really nice and peaceful, a good way to end a hectic day. We headed back home around 9:30 and we all went to bed at about 10:30.

(Matt, Eric and Dan going for their ride)

(Mitzi Matt and Ty enjoying the campfire)

Now it's Mother's Day and we just got back from church. We plan on just hanging out and relaxing the rest of the day. :) The men are making dinner for us mothers, BBQ. Gotta love VACATION!