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!

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.

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.

Today was the annual Digicert snowmobiling trip up out in Midway, which is right by Heber. It’s beautiful up there and it’s such a cute, little town. Jeffy and I always say we’re going to move there every time we go there. (Don’t worry Mimi!) It just has such a good feeling about it. Anyway, Auntie Laura came and watched the kids for us and we had a really nice time together. I was a little bit nervous this year because last year I went off a jump and got thrown off the ski-doo and was in LOTS of pain for a couple of days. I knew that once we got started I would be fine, but it actually took me a lot longer that I had expected to feel comfortable on it. For the first 10-15 minutes, I was actively scared but then once I got the hang of leaning while turning and all that stuff again, I was just fine. We were out for about 3 hours and I wished we could have stayed out longer, because I felt like I was just getting to the point where I wasn’t scared at all anymore, and then it was time to leave. Oh well. I still had a great time and there is always next year! Afterwards, we had some time to shower and relax and then we had a really nice dinner there at the Homestead.

I love the company Jeffy works for, Digicert. They genuinely care for their employees and are always treating them with wonderful experiences to thank them for all of the hard work they do to help the company move forward. Thank you Digicert! We are so grateful to you (and for you)!

Jeffy and I on our ski-doos sporting our sexy jumpsuits!

Me on my ski-doo on the side of a mountain. I was still a little nervous at this point.

Us and the Heber Valley behind us. Gorgeous.

Another shot of Heber Valley, taken at the top of the mountain. I think the guy said it was 8,840 feet up.

Us taking a break at the top of the mountain. I’m seriously buying myself a pair of these goggles to wear as sunglasses…

Everyone that came.

It’s Valentine’s Day morning, and Beth is lying in bed next to me in a hotel room in Salt Lake, so I thought I’d sneakily pull out my phone and blog about how perfect she is for me. We’ve been best friends for six years and four days now, and I don’t know how I was ever happy without her. Probably had a different definition of happy back then, I guess. She has strengths that complement all my weaknesses, and she has just enough weaknesses to make me feel like I’m contributing something to the relationship too. And now she’s waking up, so I’ll stop.

I love you, Bethy!

So, if any of you live close by, you have seen the awesomeness that has been going on at my house. We have lived here for three full winters now and not once have we ever shoveled the snow on our driveways or walks. That’s why we paid the extra $500 to buy a south facing lot so that we wouldn’t necessarily have to. The sun was our shovel. No longer my friends. My most wonderful brother-in-law Lane has come to the rescue. Not only was he excited about doing it, he did it without a coat on! The kids and I had a great time watching him from inside where it was nice and warm.

I can’t and shouldn’t offer him to any of you but I’m sure if you asked him, he would be more than happy to shovel your walks as well. Right Laney?

So, for the past little while I’ve been feeling pretty guilty about the fact that we don’t recycle. I do take our newspapers to the recycling bin, but I don’t do anything with plastic or metal besides throwing it in the trash. The reasons why I don’t do this, even though there is no excuse, is because my city doesn’t offer any sort of recycling service (SERIOUSLY) and I didn’t know where I would take it even if I did recycle those things. Well, after watching WALL-E about 20 times since Christmas I’ve realized that it’s time I need to be responsible and take this opportunity to teach my children these important things. I know a lot of people didn’t like WALL-E because of the whole people-trash-the-Earth-and-are-extremely-fat part of it, but who’s to say that that won’t EVER happen? And seriously, why should taking care of the Earth be a political thing? Isn’t it common sense, especially to us members of the church, to WANT to take care of the Earth that our Heavenly Father gave to us? Anyway, so the other day I went to the store and bought 3 bins and went home and labeled them each according to what their contents would be. The first day we started this, I was amazed at how much stuff was recyclable and how much less trash we had. The kids have fallen in love with it and constantly ask if there is anything else to put in the bins and because of that I love it too!!

I have looked online and have found some places to take the plastic and metal so now I’m all set. Go me! I hope you don’t think I’m getting all preachy on you because I don’t mean to be, but if you were like me and have wanted to and just didn’t know where to go, I would be more than happy to take your bins with me when I go to the places myself. Thanks for enduring this less than fun post! Earth rocks!

What a fabulous year 2008 was!! As you all know, a year is a crazy long amount of time, and a lot happens in a year, but I wanted to go through all the posts from the last year and put the highlights on here, both good and/or bad.

I started out the year with pink eye and Logan has ended the year with pink eye. Precious.

Logan started walking!!

Lindsay learned how to read. All. By. Herself.

I almost died snowmobiling, but had an awesome time up until that point.

Jeffy and I went and saw the Blue Man Group.

Logan turned one and never looked back!

We took Lindsay to a BYU vs. Utah gymnastics meet that she LOVED!!

Our basement flooded. Again.

I learned the word ba-donka-donk. Totally awesome.

Jeffy turned 31 and I turned 26.

I got new cabinets in my laundry/pantry room.

We did A LOT of swimming!

Went to Cancun and had a wonderful time together as a family!

Bought a new car.

Finished our back yard, and I mean finished!

Jeff and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!

Went to Arizona to spend time with my side of the family and had a blast!

Lindsay started preschool.

Jeff and I started losing weight.

Jeff and I went to New York City. By ourselves. Thanks Mimi!!

Lindsay turned 4 and took swimming lessons and loved them!

Jeffy’s grandpa died.

LIA!!!

Friendships bloomed.

Thanks for the memories 2008!!

Things I’ve Done. To participate just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen an eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing(REI counts, right?)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

37 out of 99