Monkeying around

Somehow I now have a 7, 6, 4 and 1 year old.  If my kids are getting old, that doesn't mean that I am getting old, does it???

Tornado turned 4 at the end of the month. Since he turned an even year, we had a family party.  And what better way to celebrate with family, than by having extra family?

Nana and Papa came to visit!  It was so fun to have them.  The weather was not the best, but we all enjoyed the company.  Here is Sunrise doing something he does often- desperately wanting to follow his brothers.

But that night he got right down and snuggled with them.

Nana and Papa brought gifts for Sunshine's birthday too, since it was only the week before.  Our kids love Trio blocks.

And here is the birthday boy when he woke up from his nap that day!

He just loved being the center of attention.  Sometimes being the 3rd kid can be rough, but he really is a good sport.  He is our funniest and most entertaining child.

Dad and Sunrise had a good time on the couch together while Tornado was opening up presents.  Sunrise has been so snuggly lately.

Cloudburst and Sunshine were so excited to see what Tornado opened up.  He really liked the presents Grandma wrapped in newspaper with a giant "D" on the front.

Later that night we tried out a new place here in town called Monkey Island.  It has blow-ups, a small arcade and an ice cream shop.  The kids LOVED it!  It was so fun to let them run around and jump to their heart's content.  They all slept well that night.

After we got home, we had the fabulous monkey cake.  It is one of those cupcake-puzzle cakes and Sunshine, Nana and I had decorating it together.

Like the new jammies?

And like the snow we got?  I tell ya, we always get snow before Halloween here.

And one last fun tidbit.  A lot of people ask where Sunrise gets his sunshiny blond hair from.  Well, Nana found a darling old picture of herself.

See any resemblance??

And this is a picture of Papa.  I think Sunshine takes after him.

We had a great trip, and as always it went by much too quickly!

I'd like some mo' Moab please

Fall break conveniently fell on Sunshine's birthday this year.  Since we only do friend parties every other year,  we decided to take a trip.  But where to??  Which place would give some pretty awesome memories?

Why, Moab of course!  We went with some friends.  We loaded up the RVs, hitched up the rhinos, and we were off!  We found some great trails.  We started on Fins N Things, then went to Hell's Revenge.

There were some amazing trails, and some amazingly-scary precipices that we scaled.  It was stressful, but such a rush!  Sometimes I think we were willing the rhino up over the top by sheer will.  And a lot of screaming.

In Hell's Revenge, there is an infamous spot called the Devil's Gate.   You do not want this to happen to you on Devil's Gate.

Randall went up first, then Thunder did.  They each let out the rope on the winch just in case, but they both did great.

The kids had a grand old time hiking around and getting dirty.

On Friday morning, Sunshine opened a few presents, and then we were off to the trails again.

I drove for a while.  But after the kids kept screaming "let Dad drive!" I decided that I had had enough fun for one day.  It was pretty stressful driving, knowing that I could kill my entire family with one wrong turn.  But hey, we're still alive!

Little boys throwing rocks...

... and big boys throwing rocks.

The family picture!

For lunch time entertainment, we went back to Devil's Gate and watched other people attempt to make it up.

There was a whole group of cars.  One got stuck, but no one flipped.

Later that night we went to Zax Pizza for Sunshine's birthday dinner.  Good stuff, that Zax pizza.

We were able to meet up with some friends.  The Morrise's, who live in our neighborhood (and I somehow forgot to photograph) were camping in Arches, and also my old friend Lynette from high school, who happened to be in town.

This is the big bday cake I made before we went down.  Thank goodness it survived the trip.

Since all of our family lives far away, Sunshine got lots of phone calls.  Here he is talking to Nana and Papa.

We ended our trip by playing at the same park we played at 2 years ago, but they moved it!  All of the equipment was there, but it was totally rearranged and moved.  It was like playing in the twilight zone.  But a great end to a great trip!

Gpa visit

Sunshine has always been very interested in animals.  In fact he says the perfect job would be to study animals... and then eat them.  Hmmm.  Well, anyway, a couple of months ago he was talking to my dad, who still lives in New York, on the phone and they were talking about birds.  Sunshine asked Grandpa about bird houses and if he could come here and build one.  Surprisingly, Grandpa said Sure!

He was able to come out in September for a few days, and we had a great time hanging out together.  He found very specific plans to build a house for the Mountain Blue Bird, which searches for houses just like this one to nest in.

The hole in the front of the house is the perfect size for Mountain Bluebirds, but no other species.

Sunshine had a really great time with Grandpa, going to find lumber, cutting, gluing and nailing things together.

And on game day, we even got this Penn State alum to don BYU gear!

We managed to make it up in the mountains for a cookout.  I say "managed" because we left late, then couldn't find our lighter, and had to drive in the rhino for a while to find an available fire pit.

But of course the kids still had a ball, and we all enjoyed the warm foil dinners and cobbler.  It was a short but fun visit!

I had to mention that Cloudburst also finished reading the Book of Mormon this month.  She started reading when she turned 7, in order to read it all by herself before she turned 8.  And she did, all by herself.  She finished before Labor Day, and had a few friends over for a pizza party to celebrate.


And here a few pictures of Sunrise I just had to throw in... lately he just helps himself to food where ever he can find it, whether that be on the table, in the pantry, or in the trash can.

And he likes to "work" on the computer, just like mom and dad.  He gets up in the chair all by himself and bangs around on the keyboard.  We've only had the blue screen of death a few times since he started this...

Car Pool CD #4

A little bit after school started we made a new carpool CD.  I used to listen to the band "They Might be Giants" in high school, and discovered they have now made several children's CDs.  They have one about the ABCs, the 123s and my favorite, Here Comes Science.  They are kid's songs with a great beat!  I also discovered LDS Scripture Rock, which is a group that set LDS scripture mastery verses to music.  Love it!


1- I Am a Paleontologist; They Might Be Giants & Danny Weinkauf
2- Speed and Velocity; They Might Be Giants & Marty Beller
3- The Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space); They Might Be Giants
4- Alphabet of Nations; They Might Be Giants
5- Put It to the Test; They Might Be Giants
6- 7 8 9; Barenaked Ladies
7- The 50 States that Rhyme;  Raggs Kids Club Band
8- 50 States, 50 Capitals; Mr. Duey
9- All the Pennies; Mindy Gledhill
10- Whole Wide World; Mindy Gledhill
11- Defying Gravity (Glee Cast Version); Glee Cast
12- Keep Holding On (Glee Cast Version); Glee Cast
13- Sweet Caroline (Glee Cast Version); Glee Cast
14- Only Hope;  Mandy Moore
15- Wonderful World; Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
16- Naturally; Selena Gomez & The Scene
17- Holding Out for a Hero (Workout Remix); Power Music Workout
18- Bubbly; Colbie Caillat
19-1 Nephi: 3-7;  LDS Scripture Rock
20- 1 Nephi: 19-23; LDS Scripture Rock
21- D&C 1: 37-38; LDS Scripture Rock
22- John 3:5; LDS Scripture Rock

Road Rage

This summer opened up a new world to me- long distance running.  At least it is long to me!  I had never run longer than 4 miles when Thunder took me on a run in May.  We kept going, and going, and going... and ended up running for 6 miles.  I had never run that far, and was pretty astonished that I could run that long.  I had always thought my legs couldn't carry me that far.

After that, I started running with a neighbor who was training for a marathon.  I didn't go on her long Saturday runs, but ran a lot with her mid-week (even at night, screaming at the insane wind).  I toyed with the idea of training for a half.  The breaking point was one Saturday when I tried running 8 miles... and made it!  I signed up for a half marathon race that night.

Race #1: Salt Lake City Half Marathon

My good friend and running fiend Emily ran it with me.  Here we are, all lined up at the start.  We had timer chips tied to our shoe laces to keep track of our official time.

Can you barely see how this road climbs UP the side of that mountain on the left?  That's Little Mountain.  Hmm, who came up with that name anyway???

The route took us up switch back hills for the first 3.88 miles!  That was about 40 minutes of solid uphill running.  I was dying.  I was totally talking to myself, chanting "You can do this.  You trained for this."  But I didn't stop and walk at all.  I really wanted a clean race.  And I made it to the top!

Then the blessed downhill!  We went down through Emigration Canyon and the road was not closed off to traffic.  At a few points along the way, I saw Thunder and the kids yelling and cheering me on.  It was great!  The first time I saw them I was all smiles... by mile 10 I was feeling really tired and ready to be DONE already.

Here is my personal cheering section!  Can you see Thunder's shadow?

Coming in for the finish.  That big yellow banner never looked so good!

I totally sprinted at the end to catch that guy in the red shorts.  I came in at 2:04:41, which is about 9 and a half minute miles.  That's way faster than I trained!

Emily was so great.  She finished about 20 minutes ahead of me and won 3rd place in the division.

I was so happy to have finished!

And then I hobbled around a bit.  The downhill was really hard on my quads.  It was such a great experience!

Race #2: The Dirty Dash

And on to my next race for this summer... the Dirty Dash!  This was such a fun race.  It was a 10K (6 miles) through mud, hay bales, climbing walls, swampy stinky muck and the biggest slip and slide in the WORLD.

I did this race with Jenny B, and we had so much fun! We stayed together through the tough up-and-down course and pushed each other on.

The end was a GIANT mud pit with ropes that made you crawl right down in it.

Or swim, take your pick.  My lovely family was so thoughtful, yelling such helpful things like "get down there!" and "stick your face in it!"

Wahoo, we did it!

There is another race, a shorter 5K in May. I'm signing up again!