November 2014

I have figured out that November is my worst month at taking pictures.  I look back over my archived pics and November is consistently the smallest.  Must be tired from Halloween.

Anyway, a few highlights from the month.  Alicia competed in her last tri of the year.  The Turkey Tri in Orem.  I was super hesitant to compete in this one.  Cold weather training is just horrid to me.  I hate running in the cold, and biking is 10 times worse.  Thankfully I have a wonderful friend who was signing up for her first Tri, and it gave me the motivation to go through with it.

Way to go Bethany!  She has run the WOS relay with me the last 2 years and this year taught herself to swim so she could do a tri.  She got me and another friend, Emily, to join her in this madness!

The day ended up being beautiful!  Thank goodness.

This was a reverse tri, so we didn’t have to worry about swimming and then doing the rest of the events wet.  It was a chilly start, but we warmed up quickly.  Ended up doing just okay with the race.  I was a little bummed that they changed the bike route at the last minute, so instead of 10 miles it was 12 miles and there was a crappy hill 3 times instead of just 2.  Oh well, I have plenty of practice on hills where I live. 

Overall my time was 1:24:56.  Not as good as I would have liked, but I was happy to get it under 1:25:00, even if it was just barely.

Run – 3.1 miles	26.59
T1	1.39
Bike – 12 miles	44.25
T2	0.34
Swim – 350 meters	11.08

My bike was about 4 minutes slower than I would have liked and I was not happy with my swim time.  I felt like I was slogging through mud.  But on the good note, I had my best run, and did place 5th in my division, which was much more competitive than my last race. (and let’s be honest, the 30-34 age range is the most competitive with the women.  All us mom’s trying to burn off some steam from the kids, or prove something.  Take your pick)  I came home and told Dan I’m actually looking forward to next year.  I’m finally up in the next age division, and I may have a good chance at good placements, at least for a year or so.

Thanks to my awesome friends for making me stretch myself in October and November and have a great race.  I look forward to next season!

And to end November.  Mid-November my baby brother signed his National Letter of Intent to play basketball at UVU. They did a nice little ceremony at the high school and all of my family, who are in town, were able to come.  It was great to see Chard honored this way. 

He has worked so hard over the last year to improve his skills.  Hoping to an awesome senior season, and a chance to get to see him play nice and close in college!

Halloween 2014

Here we go Halloween.  One of Alicia’s least favorite holidays.  Costumes, candy, and complete chaos for a day.  Thankfully, my bff  sent over her son’s plethora of costumes and my younger boys had a blast picking out something fun to wear for Halloween.  You’re the best Steph!

The festivities started earlier in the week with carving pumpkins.  Alicia, conveniently, was training for a tri the next weekend, so she happened to have a swim workout to do that night.  Too bad.  It’s all good though.  Dan has coordinated pumpkin carving from the get go with our family.  Turn on Nightmare Before Christmas and get it done!

Dan did a great job taking pictures for Alicia!  The boys did great for about 20 minutes and then got too distracted by the movie.  Including Z.  Oh well, at least they weren’t in the way.

Final products.  Of course Connor had his minecraft pumpkin.  He may be a little obsessed right now.

Ended the night with a treat of Otter Pops.  Dad told them they had to eat them in the kitchen.  Do you think they could push the envelope just a little more?

Halloween Day:

G was a PowerRanger something or other.  He just loved the muscles on the suit.  Haden chose to be Peter Pan.  The hat totally sold him on the costume.  He could flip it off his head just like Peter Pan.

Connor made his own costume.  An Enderman from Minecraft.  He came up with everything on his own.  Z was an adorable Mickey Mouse.  Loved the whole candy idea.  We fought him on treats for weeks after.  Let’s be honest, I’m still fighting him about treats.

And now they are done with the stupid pictures mom and want to get going.  Yippee!  Another Halloween done!

October 2014

Busy, busy October.  Loved it!

Dan got us tickets to see the comedian Jim Gaffigan in SLC.  Awesome!  It was a great date night.

My goofy babies.

Let’s just say that Z gets into everything.  He makes mom and dad tired.

For fall break we took a quick trip up to Logan.  Yep, still trying to figure out why Logan.  Didn’t do anything that we couldn’t have done around home.  However, the pool was nice.  The boys loved taking swimming breaks.

Spent the first morning at Willow Park Zoo.  Yep that would be Z chasing after the peacock’s in the meadow.  The only safe animals were the ones behind the fences.

Spent the next morning up on the USU campus and dropped by the Logan temple.  I love how close you can get to the building.  The boys loved rolling down the hill.

All of them looking at the camera at the same time.  Color me shocked!!

Overall, they really like each other.  Or at least they are pretty good at entertaining each other.

That afternoon we went to the Fall Festival at the American West Heritage Center.  Of course that meant pony rides.

Don’t you love Z’s pink helmet?  Good thing he was more excited about the horse then the helmet.

Then comes the rope ladders, corn maze, bb guns, and hatchet throwing.  (Every boy’s dream!!)

Oh, and did I mention the giant slide….that you couldn’t really slide down.  It was not slippery AT ALL.  I was wishing for some potato sacks to go down on.  Connor and Haden finally started trying to slide down on their coats, with limited success.

We ended the afternoon with a train ride.  Mom sat by herself 3 rows back.  It was heaven!

We started our last day with a round of bowling

Look at those cute feet!

Z’s first time at the bowling alley…and Mom remembered why she hates bowling with young children.  They are super cute for their turn, and super obnoxious for everyone else’s.  I was ready for a nap by the end of the hour.

We spent the afternoon walking the Tony Grove Nature Trail around the Tony Grove Lake.  It was kind of pretty.  I think it would have been better about 2 weeks earlier.  The colors were almost completely gone.  Of course the boys didn’t care about that.  Their goal was to outrun mom and dad and find the tallest rocks to climb.

Trying to get a pic with Mom and her boys.  They cooperated great…ish!

We got back just in time to get to the city center and watch their “Zombie Walk” down main street.  That lasted about 5 minutes.  Literally, there were only enough people that it took less than 5 minutes to walk past us.  Some of the make-up was pretty good though.  G got a little daring with some of the zombies, but most he just stood next to Mom. 

We finished off the trip with the famous Aggie ice cream.  That, I have to admit, was good.  Crappy crowd management at the creamery, but to be expected at a college joint.  Overall, pretty good trip.  It took up the bulk of fall break, and we loved just relaxing together.  I loved that Dad was there to help wrangle the boys!

Oh, and speaking of ice cream.  Z discovered where it was hiding in the freezer, and decided to help himself to a snack.  In the corner.  In the basement.  By himself.  Too smart for his own good!

Well, going to break there and do Halloween on it’s own.  Because let’s be honest.  Halloween is one of the holidays you take WAY to many pictures of the kids!