Carter Biking Video

My family grew up watching the 80's movie classic "Rad" about a boy trying to win a local bike race called "Hell Track" against BMX racers. Here is Carter's version-

Video of our summer adventures

School Days

First day of 1st grade for Carter-all day school this year!

saying goodbye to his brother and sister before he heads off to the bus
They changed the bus stop so it isn't in front of my house anymore-lame. There are so many kids that get on the bus at his stop it's crazy!

Preston started preschool the next day at Learning Dynamics. He loves his teacher and is already making lots of friends.

He was super excited to recieve his own bag. These kids are growing up so fast!

As for this little one, I find her sleeping like this often. She is too funny for words.

Out with the old

It is James and my 10 year anniversary. 10 years. Wow, I can't believe it has been that long! Well, everyone who knows me, knows that I lose things. Usually it's things that I find later like my keys, wallet, and phone. Well about 2.5 years ago I lost my wedding ring. I have no idea where it went! I don't even remember taking it off. My only theory is that I accidentally threw it away and it is gone forever because I have searched my house high and low. Well after looking for about 6 months I decided I needed a ring. I bought one off of ebay for 20 dollars and that did the trick for awhile. Then it started to turn my finger green and got rust on it. It was time for a ring that atleast wouldn't turn my finger green!

Don't you love the silver plating coming off? It was bad! So out with the old...

...and in with the new! James surprised me and took me ring shopping for our anniversary. It wasn't what I had envisioned for my next ring, but the moment I saw it, I loved it! It has elements of my original ring and also has elements of my engagement ring-an heirloom from James' great aunt. Hopefully no more losing rings for me, this one is perfect! It is a great start to our next 10 years together. I couldn't be happier, or have a better husband. I am so blessed.

Girls Trip 2011

We had another great girls trip this year with the Stephenson girls! I left Jackson and went straight to Park city to meet up with my cousins, sisters, and aunts! We had a great time together. I am not sure where all the pictures from the trip are, but this was the only one I could find. We did the usual shop, eat, talk, repeat. We had smaller numbers this year, but still had fun. I found lots of good stuff for Claire at TJ maxx and the outlets, shopping for a girl is so much fun! We also went and saw the movie The Help together. So good! I read the book and thought the movie was just as good. We had lots of good late night chats (I stayed up until atleast 3am every night) and also had lots of laughs. Can't wait till next year!

Half Marathon/Tenney cabin trip

Soo proud of James! He finished the Hobble Creek half marathon this year! He hadn't trained at all for it and was called at the last minute to fill in for my sister's neighbor that couldn't go because of a funeral. He finished in 1:45 which is amazing with no training! He did it with Carl, Melanie, and Bethany. I am so proud of all of them for doing it, wish I could have been there too.



While they were running the race, the rest of us were up in Park City relaxing in a cabin my parents rented. This hot tub was DISGUSTING by the end of the 3 days we were there. Carter lived in that thing! He ended up getting sunburned one day because he was in there so long. I didn't even think of putting sunscreen on him thinking he would only be in for a few minutes. Big mistake.

We watched movies, talked, read magazines, and played with all of the babies. Claire was enjoying all of the attention from her cousins. They all helped her to take about 20 steps! She had never done that before. She is still being pretty stubborn about walking, but since that trip has been a little more brave about letting go.

It was my nephew Nathan's 12th birthday while we were up there and he wanted to play Empire Earth with all the boy cousins. They stayed up there for hours and had a great time.

The view from the loft of the cabin. Also notice those cactus plants? Yeah I got scratched so many times on them. Annoying.

The first night we got there a guy from the HOA came over and told us there was a cougar that had been spotted in the area that had come up to a man and was not afraid of him even after the man kicked him in the face. So we really didn't venture out too far from the cabin in fear of the cougar-but one day the boys were brave and took a hike together.

It was a beautiful place to spend a few days. Thanks mom and dad!

Yellowstone/Jackson with the Coates Family

When my bff Kate invited us to meet them up in Jackson, I made sure to make it happen. We don't get to see each other very often but we always have a great time together! We were only there for 2 1/2 days but we packed in as much as possible. We just hung out the first night we got there in Jackson, then woke up bright and early and headed up to Old Faithful in Yellowstone. It as our 10 year anniversary that day-wahoo! We had already celebrated the weekend before so we didn't really do anything official that day. They had already bought a pass to go into Yellowstone so we all crammed into the Durango and saved 25 bucks. Although we had to warn them about Claire in the car. She is still horrible. They were brave and we survived the 2 hour car ride up.



Once we got to Old Faithful we waited...

And waited, and waited some more. The kids were getting bored and were hungry. Not a great combination. I love that I look like I am resting my arm on Aspen's head in this picture.

Finally it erupted! Pretty dang cool! James missed it because he was busy chasing Preston through the waiting area. If you look at all of our photos from his Go Pro they have the progression of Preston running away, it is hilarious. Not so hilarious at the time, but now that we are all home and nobody got stolen, it's funny.

We packed stuff for lunches, and got to eat in the forest which was pretty cool. We then planned on taking a hike to the hot pots around by Old Faithful. Carter had not been feeling well the night before and was running a fever. He was a good sport the whole day, but couldn't handle a hike. We decided to just wait for everybody in the car and watch Despicable Me. I felt bad for the poor little guy. Nothing that ice cream in the snack bar at Old Faithful couldn't fix. :) James ended up getting to see Old Faithful erupt the next time around so everyone ended up happy. It was a very tiring day!

The next day was our day to hang out in Jackson. We did the Alpine Slide at the Snow King Resort and loved it. Kate and Chris watched Claire for us while James and Carter rode together and me and Preston rode together. Aspen was in front of us showing us how it was done. We tried to race next to each other down the hill but James and Carter smoked us. I want a rematch! (but not for 35 dollars! haha) After that we walked around town and found this awesome deer outside a shop. I love Preston's head popping out from behind Carter, that kid cracks me up.

We then went to the Sweetwater Restaurant again (the place we went when we came in July), and had a much better experience. Word to the wise, go there for lunch! Much cheaper and better food selection. I got the best steak sandwich ever, I ate the whole thing and it was enormous! I couldn't help myself! I love how they bring you drinks in Mason jars and the charm of the place. Nothing is better than eating outside on a nice day.

The whole gang -except me

We also had to get a family photo under the antlers! Apparantly a girl in a white v-neck wanted in on the photo too.

Kate and I have a similar photo taken of us when we were roommates in college. So glad we got to come back here and reminisce together. We found a fun park to let the kids play in before we had to head out of town. It was such a fun, short trip. I love Jackson. The end.

July/August activities

Wow, what a summer we have had! We have been so busy having fun! I am finally getting around to blogging a little about it. The ward campout was so much fun! We never go because the thought of lugging camping gear and having small children sleep through the night in a tent has never been appealing. We decided to just go up for the night, eat dinner, chat and play with friends. I was pleasantly surprised how much fun I had. We did a group dinner with a few other families and it turned out super yummy. James made his yummy grilled corn which was a big hit.

*photo by Jonathan Canlas

How cute is this picture?! --Carter with his buddy Gavin taken by the amazing photographer/neighbor Jon.

They had all the kids participate in a bunch of relay activities. Carter was in heaven! They also had a water balloon toss with the couples. James and I made it to the final two(We really should have won seeing as the final "couple" was two guys who were friends). Of course I caught the balloon, but it was too far away so the pressure just splattered the balloon all over me. I was drenched, but we had fun!

It was in the beautiful Hobble Creek canyon. It got chilly that night so Preston was super excited to wear his Disneyland sweatshirt.

They had enough water balloons left to do a kid water balloon toss so these two boys were partners. I think they are pretty adorable, but I might be biased. :)

Another day we decided to take a hike up American Fork Canyon to Cascade Springs. James took his Go Pro camera and captured a few shots along the way.

Claire loves the backpack. She could be screaming and you put her in the backpack, she will get a huge smile on her face! The only crazy thing that happened was Preston got stung by a bee when he was sitting on a bench waiting for us. He was so brave and got over it pretty quick.

James went on another rafting trip with my bro in law Carl and his neighbors. He decided at the last minute to go and he had a great time! One of the guys in the group had a raft so they didnt have to pay a guide which also meant they could run the river as many times as they wanted to. After 3 runs they called it a day and ended the night with a demolition derby. I heard it was quite the experience!

Belated Birthday Jackson Trip

We were so excited to have a little weekend getaway to Jackson finally! After the huge mudslide that happened right before we were supposed to go, we rescheduled it for last weekend. I am so glad we did! If we had gone when we were supposed to the weather would have been 40 degrees and snowing! We went when it was 80 degrees and clear skies. It was perfect. We got in Friday night and went to the Sweetwater Restaurant. It was a quaint little place that had great ambiance but the food wasn't that great for the price. James got antelope and I got flank steak which I won't be ordering again, a little too tough for me. The next morning we were up bright and early to head out rafting. We got on the bus with another family from Utah and had a great bus driver named Gene who was also a square dance caller on the side. He gave us a little taste of it on our drive home. It was pretty funny.
We saw so much wildlife on the trip! This is us spotting some bald eagles up in the tree during out 8 mile scenic float. Usually on the scenic float you don't get wet, but we stopped to looked at an aquatic tank that is randomly parked on the side of the river. Since the river is so high this year, the guides never know what the water will be like. We ended up running into a tree to stop our raft and had one of the guys in our group slip out of the boat after trying to clean his shoes off. We all had a good laugh about our scenic float being the most exciting one the guide had ever seen!
Then it was on to the 8 mile whitewater part. It.was.awesome. I have floated this river 4 times before this and the rapids were WAY bigger this time than any other time I have been. They gave us the safety talk of WHEN we fall out of the raft what to do. They pretty much expected someone to fall out that is how much more dangerous the river was this year. A 77 year old man had died the day before we got there. Not too comforting. We did have one guy in our group fall out on the Lunch counter rapid, but he was fine and they had kayakers paddling next to us to make sure everyone was safe. James had his gopro camera and had the guide wear it so you could get the whole perspective of the boat. Here is the link if you want to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3L7t4n1DLM

Hiking back up to the bus after a fun whitewater adventure. I was freezing!! Nothing like a warm shower after being pelted with freezing water for 2 hours.
We got showered and walked around Jackson for awhile. I saw this sign and had to snap a picture!
We went out to the Teton National Park and saw tons more wildlife! We saw buffalo, moose, a badger, chipmunks, swans, antelope, and bald eagles. How awesome is that?!
You probably can't tell from this picture but there was a moose super close to us. He sat and just grazed there all day. We went back that night and he had moved and was even closer to where we were standing. I was nervous he would charge and it was too dark to take a picture. It was really cool though. We went and saw a movie that night and while waiting in line for popcorn we saw Calista Flockhart (from Ally McBeal and Brothers and Sisters) with her son. I was bummed Harrison Ford wasn't with them. She looked super old! First celebrity sighting and I didn't even ask for an autograph or picture. So proud of myself. haha
On Sunday we went to breakfast at the Bunnery and then went down to see Lunch counter up close before we headed out of town to go home. It looks huge up close! Pictures don't do it justice.

We had so much fun! It was so nice to reconnect and have time to just relax and talk without being interrupted! We walked out of dinner one night and it was just so nice to get up and walk to the car without worrying about getting kids in the car! You appreciate little things like that when it doesn't happen very often. My parents were so great to take the kids for the weekend. My dad has a soft spot now for Claire who was a "perfect baby" according to him. That was a great compliment coming from him! We had a great report about all the kids which always makes a mom feel good about leaving them. What a great weekend!

4th of July Celebration

My little patriotic family...except James who looks patriotic, but really is sporting his England pride! I have no red or dark blue shirts (they don't look good on me) so I wasn't included in the photo.

Trying to get a decent picture of Claire is hard sometimes! This was the best we could do!

She loves her Daddy

Saying cheese with Mama

We headed up to Heber and had a great time with the Tenney family. We ate yummy food as usual, and I had fun chatting with my cousins and aunts/uncles. They finally legalized fireworks that shoot in the sky, so it was fun on the drive home to see all of them. Trying to get home off the freeway is always annoying every year because we seem to come home right when the Thanksgiving Point fireworks are finishing. They were rerouting us to get back on the freeway when our road was right behind where they were standing. I lost it on the cop and I think he was scared of what I might do, and let us go through. I was so frustrated after sitting through so much traffic and being told I couldn't get to my house! Also we have had so much construction going on in every route to and from home that I am a little fed up with it! We have a new game plan for next year so that won't happen again. Deep breath! :)
We had a pretty chilled out day, just relaxing (well besides the traffic incident). It was great! Happy Birthday America!