I am sitting in the car at the 1-mile marker of the 10K Bethy is running, and she just ran past. I think they staggered the starts, so its tough to tell how shes doing compared to everyone else, but shes not too concerned about anyone else (except that she doesnt want to finish last). Its a fun way to start our anniversary, and I am super proud of her.

I am thankful every day that Beth decided to marry me, because she is absolutely perfect for me. Shes my best friend, a wonderful wife, a nearly flawless mother, and pretty much everything I ever would have dreamed of in a wife if I were smarter and knew all the right stuff to dream of.

We spent last night at the Grand America hotel in Salt Lake, capping off six years of marriage with the most wonderful Cobb salad weve ever had. Seriously, if you like Cobb salad, you have to come up here. But anyway, we had a great evening with good food, some time in the hot tub, a movie in our hotel room, and some nice child-free relaxation (thanks Mimi!). Then we got up way too early this morning and watched SportsCenter as we got ready to go (the Dodgers won last night). Its been perfect, although I acknowledge that I think every day with Beth is perfect, so I may not be the most objective person in the world.

I think Ill go drive around and see how shes doing. Happy anniversary, Bethy! Six down, eternity to go! I love you!!!

So, the crazy chick that I am, I signed up for a 10K this Saturday. You know, for our 6th anniversary, I’m gonna run 6 miles. I’m insane. Heidi was so nice to watch the kids for me this morning and off I went. Between new shoes, numb toes, and a constant stitch in my side, I ran it in 1 hour and 20 minutes. It didn’t take me as long as I had feared it would, even though I know it’s not a great time. I’m not doing this to prove anything to anyone. Mostly doing it just to say that I did it, and of course the health benefits of running. But 6 miles is so FAR! Man oh man. But now that I’ve done it once, I can’t use it as an excuse to not ever do one again. I really do enjoy running. Wish me luck this Saturday! I’ll let you know how it goes!

My kids are so cute!

We’ve finally done it. I grew up here and Jeff went to BYU for like a hundred years and neither of us had ever hiked the Y. And since we’re all healthy and active now we decided it was time. It was a lot harder than I had expected it to be but it was beautiful and worth it and fun to be able to do it together. If you’ve never hiked it, there are 12 switchbacks and the 11th switchback is the longest and steepest one on the whole thing. A pretty cruel trick if you ask me. We were about 1/4 of the way up this switchback and Jeff says, “Let’s run it.” I was shocked and proud at the same moment so we started running up this beast of a switchback and about 3/4 of the way to the end we stopped because it hurt so bad. But you should have seen the faces of the people we passed as we were running. They really thought we had done that the whole way up! Totally worth it! Going up was hard and going down was obnoxious. We had a really good time though and thanks Laney and Kelly for watching the kids and sorry again for the throw up.

I’m blowing this baby up.

I don’t care what anyone says, Utah is fan-freakin-beautiful and I’m so proud to call it home.

For some reason these rocks reminded me of New Zealand or something.

Centennial Apartments. That’s where Jeffy and I met.

Side view of the Y.

The Y from the top. If I was still 15, I would have hiked up higher to get a better picture of it, but I’m not, so deal with it.

Lindsay started a Jazz dance class last week and she had a lot of fun. There are just three girls in her class, her and her two friends Ashlee and Emily. I can imagine the good times that will be had by all in that class. She’s such a cute little dancer. I can’t wait for her first recital.

Logan also went to a little creative dance type class last week, but did not love it as much. He sat in my lap the whole time and he wouldn’t even let ME do any of the things Miss Jamie wanted them to do. Oh well. I think we’ll try it one more time and if he doesn’t like it then we’ll skip it and try something else. I really thought he’d like it because he was SOO excited to go to a class for HIM. That hasn’t really happened yet. Most everything we do is something for Lindsay and he just has to come along for the ride. We’re going to try a gymnastics class in a few weeks and I hope he’ll really like that because I want us to be able to do something like that together while Lindsay is at preschool. We’ll see.

Picture this: a woman who isn’t showered, her house is a mess, her kids are half dressed, she’s on the phone with her mom. The doorbell rings. She walks to the door, looks in the peep hole and sees a man she’s never met before, with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a balloon. The woman says to her mom, “I just got a beautiful bouquet of flowers!” The mom says, “Is it from your husband?” The woman says, “I hope so!” The woman then walks to the kitchen to put the flowers on the table, during which her son trips on one of his millions of cars and is screaming, so she still doesn’t know who it’s from. She’s pretty sure it’s from her husband but she just can’t wait to see for sure. She goes back to comfort her son and then asks him if he wants to come see who the flowers are from and he sobbingly says yes. She goes over to the table, takes out the card and reads this:

“Roses are red, pickles are green
You’re not part of my life,
You’re the whole blasted thing!
(I bet you didn’t know you were married to a master poet!)
I love you SOOOOOOOOO much!”

The woman then starts to cry and calls her husband to thank him and tell him that it truly made her day awesome and that she loves him too.
And scene.

Best. Day. Ever.

The week that Jeff was at girls camp, my lovely sister and her cute little boy came to spend the week with us. Ben is almost two but the kids still call him baby Ben, including Logan who is just 7 months older than him and the same size. Too cute. I hope they always call him that. Since Logan and Ben are so close in age, they struggled a little bit with sharing but as the week went on things got better. They both know what they want and when they want it. Ben adores Lindsay and she had a good time making him laugh and playing with him.

We had a lot of fun together! We did some swimming in the backyard, went to the zoo, and went to the Children’s Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point. The kids really enjoyed it all and it was fun to get out and enjoy the nice hot weather! Here’s a bunch of pictures.

The kids chillaxin in the pool.

Ben LOVED the sandbox and they all had a good time playing in there.

Lindsay riding the giraffe like a horse. Silly goose.

Logan following suit, of course.

Watching a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the laptop. Kids are weird. They thought that was more fun than watching it on the TV I guess. But they sure are cute!

Lindsay on the elephant at the zoo.

For some reason, this is the only picture on the camera from the zoo. I vaguely remember leaving my camera in the stroller so I must have a lot on my phone. I’ll put those on here soon. We went to the bird show and the kids LOVED it! It was a neat show, watching the birds fly right over us and at the end, Elaine donated money so they all got to take a picture with a bald eagle. That thing was big! Fun times!
I can’t get enough of them!

Playing in the water at the discovery gardens.

The have a Noah’s Ark there at the garden’s, but it was broken so the kids didn’t really get to swim, but they had their swimming suits on the whole time. They still had a great time though.
The kids coming out of the bear cave.

Ben really liked these flowers and he was being so cute with them.

Walking through the mazes…


Logan and Ben playing in the little waters.

The kids in a cute little lighthouse that had a ladder and they could go up to the top and lookout.

Logan was so cute in this tunnel. They were pretending to sleep in there and then they would wake each other up.

There was a big open area where the kids could build with pieces of wood and they really liked this part. They could have stayed there for a long time!



We had a fun time with Elaine and Ben and we’re glad they got to come visit! For two days after they left, Logan kept asking me where aunt Elaine and baby Ben went. We love you!