LoToJa

Once again it's that time...LOTOJA!!! Matt completed his 4th finish. For those who don't know, this is a bike race that starts in Logan, and you finish in Jackson (206 miles all in one day!) I was a little nervous about this year's race because his training schedule has been pretty minimal due to my crazy work schedule and the demands of Search & Rescue and other family stuff. He did as much as he could, but it's still such a huge race that it made me nervous. He did SO awesome though. I was so darn proud of him.







These pictures above are in Montpelier (about 80 miles in to the race). His time was great, but he hadn't eaten much to this point. He was trying to eat some salt potatoes and was gagging on them like crazy. I thought for sure he was going to throw up right there on the spot. I was worried, because he needed to eat and the next stretch was a tough one. It's a 35 mile stretch, mostly up hill. He was able to hold his food down and plowed through the next 35 miles with out any problem. From there the race got better and better, and he was feeling great.




These pictures are at the "King/Queen of the Hill." It's at the top of Salt River Pass. It's quite an incline and super tough. We watched several riders walk up. He did great though, and by this point was feeling fabulous! He was happy to reach the summit and flew down to Afton.





There is no way I could be support crew without the help of Matt's parents, Lee & Debbie. They are awesome. We all drove together, so they were able to help with the kids and to help with food items/water/etc. The kids LOVE being with their grandparents, and I love it too. They are so lucky to spend so much quality time with them.



Here we are at the finish! Unlike last year, we're in daylight still! Matt shaved an hour off his time from last year. His average speed was better, and he looked/felt so much better too. I was so darn proud of him. He had a really successful race. When asked if he was going to do it next year, he said "Oh, of course!" That's a huge indication of how great he was feeling. When I asked him last year he said "Hell no." What a great weekend. We loved being there supporting him and cheering him on. The kids were great in the car (we were in the car for about 16 hours straight...we left Salt Lake at 4:30 AM Saturday morning and got to our hotel at 8:30 at night!) Way to go Matt! You did awesome and we're excited for next year! Let's hope we have a van by then, or else how are we going to do it?!




This is Parker in the hotel in Jackson. How cute is that?

More Camping Photos

Here are some photos from our camping trip in August with Matt's family. We camp at Washington Lake. It's so fun to be together. Matt's brother and his brother's fiance live in California, so it's our opportunity to play with them for a few days. The weather was a little rainy (actually rainy about 80% of the time) but we still had a blast. We had to pack up camp in the pouring rain though. That was a soggy mess, but a fun memory. We had good food, lots of fun, and tons of fishing. Aaron told us dozens of funny jokes too. Amber's favorite was "what do you get when you cross a brown chicken with a brown cow? BROWN CHICKEN BROWN COW"

Amber's First Day of Preschool

Today was Amber's first day of Preschool. Pretty exciting. She was so excited to go. She will love this preschool!



Here Amber is getting busy painting her school bag.



This is her teacher, Miss Dana. She is great. I love her style. Amber's only 3 so she doesn't need this intense schedule. Miss Dana seems pretty laid back, which is totally what Amber needs.



Here are some of Amber's friends that will be in her class, Carden & Jaxon. Amber doesn't have too many girl influences/friends around, so I'm excited for her to be able to play with some girls at school too.

Amber is going to 2 preschools this year, one at Miss Dana's and one at my sister-in-law Mandy's. I couldn't decided which one to do, and so I'm doing both! Kind of intense for a 3 year old I know, but I know she'll love them both. I worried that since one is her Aunt, she'd be a little rascal, so Mandy knows if there are any issues Amber will get the boot! Her first day with Mandy is tomorrow, so I'm excited to post more then!

Labor Day Camping

What a fun weekend we had! I love this time of year. The weather is perfect, starting to cool down a little bit. We go camping several times a summer, but it seems Labor Day is always a tradition for us to go. We head up to the Uinta's typically, this year we camped at a place called "Beaver View." It was a lot of fun, and the weather was perfect! It wasn't too cold, and not too hot either. We spent Saturday fishing at Matt's secret spot (to remained un-named, sorry). Every time we go there we catch HUGE fish. This year was no exception. Too bad I didn't get any pictures to prove it, but they are big, at least 2 pounds (in the other lakes they're tiny, so 2 pounds is HUGE!). Matt's parents have a little fishing boat, so we borrowed that for the weekend and made the trek to this secret lake for a day of fishing. The picture below is Amber on the boat. She is such a trooper and lasted the whole day. Parker on the other hand went a little stir crazy and lasted about 2 hours, which I thought was pretty good for a 1 1/2 year old! Parker was much happier when we got back to shore drinking a Caprisun.









We spent Sunday fishing at a lake called "Moosehorn." It's a shallow lake, so bait fishing works best. The fish aren't huge, but we usually have pretty good luck there too. Sunday's weather was pretty cold and rainy though, and of course the kids were soaked within just a few minutes of getting there. We stayed a couple hours though until we were frozen solid and headed back to camp for some lunch. It was so fun to be back at camp. We just played around camp (hide and seek, took little walks around the Forest) and then all took a little "quiet time." We all eventually fell asleep which was also heavenly!














Sunday night we realized our good weather was coming to an end. The wind picked up and we saw black clouds in all directions. We decided to break camp and head home. We had planned to stay until Monday, but with the idea of breaking camp in the pouring rain, it sounded more appealing to do it then in the dry, windy weather. Once the tent was down, the kids didn't have anywhere to go eat dinner, so they chose a pretty decent shelter, Libby's kennel. Not the most sanitary place I'm sure, but who cares, we're camping, right? They loved it besides, and it kept them put while we were busy packing away. They both fit in there perfectly too. Libby was a little freaked and didn't know where to go. It was kind of sad but funny too.





We packed up right in time. Just as we pulled away the rain started, and it poured! It was crazy how fast it hit. We drove through a couple other camp sites just for fun and to see where we might like to camp next year, and while we were going through one we saw this huge bull moose. It was super close too.








This isn't part of Labor Day, but I wanted to post these photos. Amber is totally in to Play Doh lately. She is happy as can be for at least an hour a day playing with this stuff. The other day this is what she created...






I thought it was so cute! It's like a little Mr. Potato Head. I thought it was very creative for a little 3 year old! The picture below is one Amber took of my growing belly. She is proud of it, and loves to talk to it. She wanted to take a picture, which I guess I'm glad in a way. I need to document this pregnancy like I did the others, right? If only my belly stayed this small until the end! I should do a week by week so you can see how freakishly HUGE I get. That too needs to be documented.

It's A......

Girl! Hooray!!!!!!! We're super excited. We had the ultrasound yesterday afternoon and are certain it's a girl. Matt and I both thought it was a girl, but I've had tons of dreams that seem way realistic where this baby is a boy, so it's made me re-think that maybe our hunch was wrong. In addition, someone asked me Friday night if there have been any similarities between this pregnancy and my other two, and I suddenly remembered that with Amber I had the most clear complexion. No zits the entire pregnancy. With Parker, the day I conceived I got horrible acne that didn't go away until I delivered. Well, with this pregnancy I have had the worst acne ever! It's so dumb! I feel like a teenager going through puberty again. It's horrible and there's nothing I can do about it! These darn hormones. Anyway, so from Friday-Monday I was certain it was a boy, and part of me was disappointed. I don't know why, a boy would be great! I just really want Amber to have a sister, and since Matt is banning any future children, this is our last shot for that. So needless to say I'm so thrilled, in fact I got a little teary eyed when she told us. I know Matt is excited as well. He sure loves his girls!

Choir Retirement

I meant to write about this earlier, but haven't had the time! My dad was involved with the Tabernacle Choir for the past 17 years. He sang with them until he turned 60 (at which point your age "forces" you to retire) but was immediately asked to be involved with the human resources aspect for the men. It came with huge amounts of responsibility and work (not paid work though...this was his calling). He had to arrive early to practices and for the broadcast on Sunday (which meant leave his house Sunday before 6:00 AM). He'd take role and be sure the men were in their proper seats. If you miss practices you're not allowed to perform in the broadcast or in special events (like General Conference) so it's a big deal, and he was always inundated with emails & phone calls with excuses on why choir members wouldn't be there. It was up to him if they'd be able to perform or not...talk about pressure! I know it was a fabulous experience for him, and he loved it all. He has made some amazing friends through the choir. We enjoyed going to the Christmas concerts every year, and will miss his involvement with the Tabernacle Choir.

It was really cool though to go to his last Sunday there (at the Music and the Spoken Word), and be there afterwords for their tribute to him and his official retirement. The president of the Choir, the conductor and President Monson all had a few words to say honoring him and the other person who was retiring that day. We all were very emotional as they paid tribute to my dad. They gave a summary of his life before the choir, and then different accomplishments during as well. It was really fun and super neat to be part of it. I felt so lucky to be able to hear President Monson and be within just a few feet of him (in fact, the picture below Amber took of Pres. Monson). My mom was sure she felt Joyce was there during the broadcast. I was so caught up in my kids misbehaving (and not to mention we watched the broadcast in an auditorium since we had the kids, the Spirit just wasn't the same there with the 30+ other rowdy kids). I'm sure she was though. President Monson even made reference during his little tribute to those who were there that had passed on. It was a cool experience for my whole family.

We're so proud of my dad! Being part of the Tabernacle Choir was a life long dream for him. I'm so happy he was able to be part of it for the past 17 years. I know it's blessed his life in so many ways, and ours as well. Thank you dad for sharing the past 17 years of experiences with us! We all love you!

Week of fun at the Cabin

We spent last week at the old cabin. It was so fun and relaxing. I had family in town from Texas & Arizona so we had seven of the nine families represented. It was nice to be together, but I'm really looking forward to our trip in October with just the brothers and sisters. By the time we got all the kids to bed, all the adults were exhausted and too tired to stay up all night and party. The kids had such a blast though. It's nice to be able to let the kids run around in the trees and play. We had fun riding the 4-Wheelers (thanks again Carrie & Jason!) and thanks to all the uncles & Grandpa who took the kids again and again on rides. We must have put 100 miles on each 4-wheeler.



This is a picture of 4 of the 7 grand babies all born within a year. It's not the best picture, but still cute. I'm glad Parker would even look at the camera. Every time I tried to take him for a ride he'd freak out and cry!



The kids also had fun trapping wildlife in a bucket, we call them "Potguts" but I think the actual name is Uinta Ground Squirrel. We used to do this as kids all the time. It was the highlight. We'd wait all day on the deck and at just the right moment pull the string and catch the little critters. We'd always let them go of course.




Thank you Mandy for bringing activities & supplies for things such as "rock painting." The kids had so much fun. Katie and I both made the comment it's our worst nightmare (paint, mess, clean up, more paint, ruined clothes, etc.) so they're lucky they have an aunt that feels totally opposite.



This is Andy who fell asleep in Carrie's arms on the ride. Brooke is the oldest grandchild, she's 13.



This is a Moose we saw right off our deck. Mandy was pushing three (little) kids on the swings when she heard something running towards her down the hill. She wins the award for fastest thinking in getting the kids to safety!

We had a lot of fun though, have I said that enough? I always hate to see the family leave. I wish we all lived closer. Thank you Mom and Dad for supplying the cabin! What great memories.