Girls Trip to Park City

All the girls together from L to R Shauna, Cathy, me, Jacque, Aunt Mary, Melanie, Rachel, Aunt Chris, and Shannon (not pictured-my mom, Sarah, and Cherrill)

Yes, I know I look like a cow in this picture but it had everyone together.

We ate at the Loco Lizard Mexican restaurant-it was very good!
The girls (Jacque, Mel, and Rachel) in front of Legers Deli
Me and my sister Melanie shopping on the last day
My mom found this purse for 10 dollars and was so proud of it!

This girls trip was so much fun! Every year now, for 2 years running we have a girls trip for all of the girls in my mom's family. Last year we went to St. George but decided to go closer to home this year to Park City. We stayed at a condo called Stillwater next to Jordanelle Reservoir. There was TONS of shopping at the outlets, talking, laughing, eating, and fun. I had such a good time and it was a nice break especially since the day after I left both of my boys were throwing up. James was a good sport and took great care of them. I am so grateful for such a wonderful family and to have awesome cousins and aunts that I can have a blast with! Thanks to all that came, it was so fun.

First Triathlon Completed

Getting his number put on at the Logan sprint triathlon-this after a good scrub in the shower still looks just as dark as when he started! #282 for life!

The Triathletes: Brooke, Brant, and Carl Whiting with James

First event:Swimming 500m James did the breast stroke the whole time and still managed to pass quite a few people(pretty impressive considering I don't really know how to swim!)
Second Event:12.5 mile bike ride

When transitioning from swim to bike his chain fell off,but he took it all in stride!

Final event:3.1 mile run
This was the hardest transition for James. After getting off the bike he felt like he couldn't run. About halfway through he finally found his rhythm and sailed his way across the finish line in 1 hour 28 minutes! I was so proud of him! We have now created a monster and I think he has the triathlon bug. He can't wait to do his next one, and wants to keep in his training mode so that he can beat his time.My brother-in-law Carl, the veteran, who got James to do the triathlon, finished in 1 hour 10 minutes. Way to go boys! This whole experience made me so excited for my race in 6 weeks...it is coming up so fast!

Goodbye Mindi

Last night we had a goodbye dinner/30th birthday party for Mindi (left)who is moving out of our neighborhood to Bountiful. Hands down one of the coolest girls I know. It was a fun girls night out at Spaghetti Mama's restaurant with lots of laughs-my face and stomach hurt by the end! We'll miss you Mindi!!

8 Months Old

I can't believe that our little baby is 8 months old already!! He is such a joy in our lives and we just love him so much. Here are a few of the things he has been up to lately...
He got his first 2 teeth last week On Saturday night I was putting him to bed and I knew he wasn't going to right away, so I decided to leave the door open a crack and watch him. Sure enough within about 30 seconds he had pulled himself up to stand! We took this picture and then James moved the crib down to the lowest setting! Walking here we come!
He can actually wear hats that are the size for his age unlike someone else we know...
He is Carter's best buddy and they are playing so cute together. I hope they will be good friends. 8 months,we have enjoyed every second of it, Love you Preston.

The Zoo

We just bought a year pass to the zoo and we finally went as a family on Saturday. It was nice because I didn't feel like we had to see everything all in one day and we ended up leaving after an hour. We stood and waited for the elephant show and by the time we actually got to see the elephants Carter was done. So we went and saw "The Ghost of the Bayou" which is an albino alligator from Louisiana. It was pretty cool. The other pics are at a playground there before we decided to pack up and go home...notice the first picture Carter was supposed to be "holding" Preston but ended up just letting him fall out of his lap! Preston was not happy about it!

Swimming on the 4th

Preston, me, Kevin, and Carter
The Boys

Kate on the diving board

We had a fun 4th of July celebration this year! For the last two years Bethany's sister Stacia has been nice enough to let us swim in her pool which we love! We remembered our camera for this, but forgot to take any pictures of the rest of the evening. After swimming we went over to my cousin Megan's house for yummy barbeque, fireworks, s'mores, and watching Goonies outside!! Does it get any better than that? We hope you all had a safe and lovely holiday!

Roast dinner feast

James made the best roast dinner on Sunday! Roast, gravy, roasted potatoes, yorkshire puddings, asparagus, and green beans. I can just feel myself getting fatter! Honestly after dinner was over I had to lay on the couch for a good half hour before getting up because my stomach hurt from eating too much. Shameful, but so good. Carter also enjoyed it. Here are a few pics of the little guy striking a pose!

Gratitude

I just wanted to copy my cousin Megan's idea for today and do a gratitude blog-I am so grateful for my two wonderful boys! I heard some really sad news today of someone losing their 6 month old baby boy to S.I.D.S. It just made me think once again how fragile life can be and to cherish every day that I have with these wonderful little guys. I just wanted to take a moment and let them know how much I love them! I hope this didn't sound too morbid, it just really hit home with Preston being so close to that age.

Come Find Me

Carter is really into hide and seek right now and wants to get us all involved. So James and Carter are usually the hiders and Preston and I are usually the finders. Tonight Preston was tired of being a finder and wanted to join in the hiding festivities. I had to capture the moment on film.

Outdoor Adventure

Could the view be any more beautiful than that?
James wanted to take the boys hiking in American Fork Canyon yesterday so we borrowed Mel and Carl's backpack and bjorn and hit the road. James decided that Carter balanced out Preston's weight in the front so he wanted to make sure he could carry them both before we left!
Trying to get a family shot with my arm length...as you see that didn't work too well!
It seemed like we drove forever and finally decided on Summit trail. It was so beautiful!We hiked for about 30 minutes and the boys loved it (James included). Just being able to drive not a far distance to the mountains and hike makes me appreciate living in Utah with all of it's gorgeous landscape. "And I think to myself, what a wonderful world!"

Car Wash

I have been trying to think of things to do outside with Carter to keep him occupied and having fun. Our car was SOOO dirty so I thought it would be fun to wash the car this morning while Preston was asleep. So we got on our swimsuits, sunscreen, and sandals and headed out in the driveway. He really did want to help and actually scrubbed a few parts of the car!
I think his favorite part was soaking the sponge and letting it splash on the ground.
The finished product...don't you just love how it sparkles? If you look close enough you can see Carter in the passenger side playing with the sun visor. He got a little bored of all the hard work! Yay for clean cars!

Where's the Fire?

Carter thinks he is pretty funny, little does he know that this move was first done by his Uncle Kevin about 20 years ago!
Carter got his first "junior fire dept." badge today on our trip to the Fire station. I am so mad that I forgot my camera rushing out the door, because he was loving every second of it. Our ward once a month has a field trip day where we go to different places around town. This was the first one, getting a tour of the fire house. First thing of course he noticed the gumball machine on the way in so he was begging me the whole time to get one. He got a blue one if you couldn't tell my the blue stains on his mouth! Then they watched an Elmo video about fire safety, got to hear what a fire alarm sounds like, saw a fireman in his full gear (Carter was petrified), heard a dispatch on their radios, and got to actually get into the fire truck itself! Carter was a little timid during the class, but not when he was told he could go on the truck! He pushed his way to the front as fast as he could with a huge smile on his face. It was a fun little outing! p.s. the scratch on his face is from an incident with him running with his shopping cart in the kitchen. I am not sure what exactly happened I just heard a crash and he came running to me with blood on his face! Boys...

Norwich City boy

A random pic after a diaper change. Ann Woods got this onesie for Carter and I can't believe that Preston already fits into it. He is 7 months old now, man time flies! He is crawling everywhere and doesn't want to sit still for a second anymore!

Orem Summerfest

It has been a while since I last blogged so these pictures are from last Friday when we went to the Orem Summerfest.Every year they have two days of carnivals, a parade, food booths, cotton candy, and lots of fun rides! Carter got to ride on a few by himself this ride above complete with duct tape and all! Gotta love those carnival rides! He also went down a huge slide with me which he loved. He got to "fish" for a prize, which means he got to put a magnetic pole into the grossest water ever and pick out a metal puck and receive a 2 cent stuffed tiger which I paid a dollar for. We also did one where there were ducks that you just pick up and that determines your prize. He of course got another 2 cent stuffed duck but he thought it belonged in the gross water along with the other ducks, so it got soaked. Nasty. Megan, Mike, and Peter came along with us and we ate some good Hawaiian barbeque chicken. At the end of the night we bought some cotton candy for Carter to make the experience official, but he would not touch it. It totally freaked him out. Whatever! Carnivals are so trashy, and have the weirdest people walking around, yet you can't help but love them! One more rant for the day--Why do people love parades so much? While walking to the carnival the streets were lined with people's blankets saving their spot for the parade the next morning. First of all, so irritating that they are "saving" their spot with blankets, and secondly, who cares about a dumb parade? You will have like 5 marching bands playing the star wars theme, a dance group or cheerleading team do a little routine, and the fire department. Pretty lame in my opinion. What are your thoughts on parades?
He loved the carousel-he kept talking about the white horse the rest of the night!
Enjoying our Hawaiian chicken

Training Begins

The journey begins...My half marathon training starts this Monday June 11th. 12 weeks total ending on Sept 1st. Wish me luck!

Carter's Day Out

Carter spent the day in our new ghetto baby pool loving every second of it! It took us about 2 hours to fill it up about 2 inches on Saturday. The water was from the hose and definitely cold, so he was hesistant to get in for a second time today. As soon as I put my feet in, he was okay with it. I ended up getting him a plastic cup from inside and he sat out there for a good 30-40 minutes just dumping the water, laying on his stomach, and throwing rocks in at the very end!

Later on, James thought it was be a fun idea for Carter and I to have a "Mommy/Son date". His cousins had gone to see Shrek the Third and so I thought Carter might sit through it with all the fun animals and such to watch...WRONG! I had 2 packages of fruit snacks that I had smuggled into the theater that kept him quiet for about 15 minutes. Then he was thirsty. I thought, Okay we will get him a fruit punch and make it official for his first time at the movies. We sit back down, and within about 2 minutes he wants to change seats. So he moves all the way down the row until finally he reaches the stairs. He bolts, and runs up to the next row of seats and is running and laughing all the while. Needless to say, we were outta there within 35 minutes with drink break and all. I couldn't even get mad at the kid, he really did have a great time! So note to self, never take a 2 year old to the movies again!!! This picture just sums up the whole outing with him running out of the shot as I hurry to take a picture. Little punk. Gotta love him.

The Garden

I know that it may not look like much yet, but hopefully in a couple of months we will have some yummy vegetables and fruit produced from these plants! We are definitely amateurs at this, considering our last attempt at growing anything at our last house resulted in one tomato! This time we planted two strawberry plants, 7 tomato plants (we thought the odds would be on our side!), one zucchini, and one yellow pepper plant. Keep your fingers crossed and we will fill you in on the progress...