Harry Potter Nerdfest!

Don't judge me! That's what Ben had to tell some people who thought he was a Harry Potter looney! Steph and Jared won the competition so Christa and Ben had to dress up and act in character for dinner and the HP movie. Spells were cast, dances were performed, tears were cried (RIP ..... don't want to spoil the movie) and Jared was exposed as a buddy recognized him from a Star Trek convention is Las Vegas. "Jared Barney! Jared Barney! Kirk! You said you would NEVER take your Starfleet badge off!"

Europe!

Yo everybody! We are in Europe right now and actually have the internet! We have spent a few days in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, and now Italy. In the next 3 days we will hit Lichtenstein, Switzerland and then another part of Germany before heading out of Frankfurt. Pictures are coming soon!

Australia!

I'm finally blogging about our little family trip to Australia in March. Warning: This is going to be a long post (sorry, I couldn't help it!). We were a little spontaneous about the whole thing (of course! how else would we do it?). Ben found a really good deal on airfare and we went for it thinking that we might not find a deal like that again. It was a little hectic to get everything in order in less than a week, especially cause we didn't have passports, but we somehow managed to pull it off.


This is the Gold Coast where we stayed almost the whole time. In fact, I think this was taken right out side our little apartment on the beach. I was in pure heaven listening to the waves crash every night outside our window and waking up to stunning sunrises over the ocean.
Easton loved the warm ocean. The first day we walked out to the beach he willingly jumped right in, clothes and all. Phoenix, let's just say he didn't love it as much as Easton did.

We took the kids up in the tropical mtns. for a little bit of hiking.

Me taking some nature shots with the new cam.
We did this real touristy skywalk thing that offered a different perspective on the rainforest. It was cool, but not worth the money.

I think this is a sycamore tree. super tall. the shot doesn't do this tree justice.
"Eye see you." Sorry chelsea, i stole that from you, i couldn't help it.

We went to SeaWorld one day because the weather was still cloudy. This Ray was eating my hand!
Nature loves me
our little tree hugger
Sea World Rocks!
Phoenix watching the dolphins or something
Easton not watching the dolphins. Can you see them in the back ground? Dolphins are so cute I think. They look like they are always smiling.
Finally, a sunny day at the beach. We camped out man. Our poor kids were getting so sick of it after eight hours a day. Ben and I are beach babies and there's not much one can do to pull us away.
One of the cool things about Australia is all the Aboriginal names that you see everywhere you go. So many of their towns and cities were named crazy things. Ben and I loved Coolangatta. Look at the last item on the list above. What is a "run up hill-hunting dog?"

"pretty bird"
Another jungle hike

This hike was magical. The greenery was insane and this outlook wasn't too shabby either. Once again, the picture doesn't do the view justice. The volcano we're looking at is called Mt. Warning. Sounds scary.

We stopped by "Tropical Fruit World" for an hour and got some eats. Ben is holding a jack fruit, the biggest fruit in the world we were told. These babies actually grow on trees and taste like banana bubble gum.
I prefer dragon fruit (the red one)
As we were a little bit off the beaten path we discovered these friendly pets
Okay, so it's a little weird
This was very weird. We parked in front of this framing store while Ben ran in to ask somebody a question. Is it just me or does this girl look like she just walked off the set of "The Grudge?" Seriously zoom in on her face. Creeeeepy. I just sat there wondering why anybody would display this picture to advertise their business. I think it has the opposite effect.
Byron Bay
So this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We took a magestical hike through the forest, up a cliff where you could see miles of endless ocean, up to a light house that looked like a temple and watched the sunset to boot. I was dying. I could hardly take it all in. I only wished the moment could last longer.











Wow!
I was trying to be artistic here.


Too bad I didn't see the "No Photography" sign till after.
We met a really hip dog at a playground one lovely evening. His owner's gave him a mohawk, seriously. Died blue. Hey, at least he looks happy about it.
Wild Child

They had some sweet playgrounds in Australia and tons of parks. It became clear where all their tax money goes. Above is the awesomest swing ever. Ben and I were having a blast, probably more fun than our kids were having.

Naptime at the beach. You gotta do what you gotta do!
We both got sunburned sooo bad, even after reapplying sunblock every couple of hours. Sadly, we had to skip the beach every other day because we were so crispified. Warning! nudity below. (just Easton's naked bum if you really are scared to look)


We got a really good deal at the Marriott and even though it wasn't right on the beach, we decided to kick it there for a few nights to change things up. The pool was absolutely incredible (too bad we were so sunburned that we couldn't fully enjoy it). They had a huge salt water pool with waterfalls and fish so you could snorkel. Then they had another big normal pool with a lazy river, caves, waterfalls and a water slide.


Phoenix liked the "little pool" where people washed the sand off their feet. "just my size."

The boys in the hot tub
Above is Brisbane. again, me trying to be artisitic with my camera.
These guys were all over the place!
We loved the Koala sanctuary!
ooh, he loves me.

We got to pet and hold a baby crocidile. He was so ferocious that they had to tape his mouth shut!
Crocidile Dundee

Feeding the lorikeets

And the kangaroos!
This was a little bit out of Phoenix's comfort zone
And definitely out of Ben's! Check those claws out. This guy wanted his food.
I didn't mind getting up close and personal.
A tasmanian devil looking at a tasmanian devil.
oh the pretty city lights of Brisbane
A view one of the coolest city parks in the world!
On Sunday, we went to church in Brisbane and it was next door to the temple.  So during Sacrament meeting, Phoenix started throwing a tantrum so I quickly took him out.  I was sitting on a big soft chair w/ no one else around so of course I started picking my split ends.  I heard a crackling noise and got up to see what Phoenix had thinking it would be a candy wrapper of some sort.  To my absolute horror he had broken a HUGE cockroach in half! I shrieked and scared him to death in the process.  The worst part was it was still alive and the top half was still moving.  Eew, i can't handle it.
sorry, these are a little out of order.
Our last day we took a ferry ride up the river to see the sights, I loved it. We even caught another glimpse of the temple.
The boys loved the ferry ride as well. They could barely contain themselves.

This is part of that really cool city park I mentioned called South Bay.
One of the loves of my life, oh and Easton too.


The flight was 15 hours long so you can imagine how fun that would be with two crazy boys. We had to be creative...turning barf bags into puppets and hats.

Adorable

So I was looking through my pictures and remembered that I saw a couple of adorable baby costumes during Halloween and snapped some photos.  I thought I'd share even though I'm three months late!  Aren't they precious?

Bloggled.com

Brent Ramey's new blog backup site is up!  Steph and I already backed up our blog for free and it was super easy.   Check it!  bloggled.com

New Family Photos!

I'm back!  Ben has been doing all of our blog entries for the past months because I had no motivation to do so.  I've found a reason to blog again because we got some cute family photos that I want to show off.  My super friend Celine took some family photos of us with her nice camera.  She did a great job and we loved how they turned out.  Thanks Celine!!! Here are my favorites...and sorry so many ; )

Halloween!

This year really rocked the party, if you know what I mean (you don't). Easton had his first school program where they sang Halloween songs, with a rad carnival at the end; so worth the money! We had a couple of parties that were a blast and the kids loved trick or treating. The rain sucked...but some of our neighbors were doing fresh scones, nachos, hot chocolate and spiced cider. We didn't even want candy 'cause we were sick to our stomachs with fried goodness! Easton (Stitch) said he was scared or afraid like a million times. Phoenix was the cutest, fat, waddling rat!

Erin's 30th

Good times up in the mountains! Erin rocked her 30th and we were all there to party! The pictures are in reverse (except for the first one). The boys were asleep at the end after making so much noise with the other kids that the people next door called the front desk and complained!

Lake Powell

We just got back from Lake Powell (last week) and were so bummed that it didn't last longer.  We love that place!  The water was a balmy 65 degrees but the weather worked out so we had sun the whole time.  As usual, Phoenix treated the beach as his personal buffet and Easton loved playing with his cousins and in the water.  We both did as much as we could (skiing, wakeskate, cliff jumping, kneeboarding, tubing, swimming and torped0) but it still didn't feel like enough!  Amelia went boating for the first time and loved it.  She was on the tube most of the time, yelling insults at whoever was driving!  Ben still retains his crown and reigns supreme as the "King of All Kneeboarding".  Next year, baby!!!

This Is How We Roll On A Wednesday Night!

Camping...In The Mountains

About a month ago we went camping with the Whalen's around the side of Timp and had a total blast!  Easton sleeps like a champ camping and loves hot dogs.  We left Phoenix behind because he cries all night when it's cold.  Steph and Summer thought they spotted some elf tracks in the morning, but traced them to the Whalen tent and found Sean's fairy boots out front!  They quickly realized that it was just a false alarm.  There was a hairy moment when the bow hunter (who's camp site we stole) came back with his bow and arrows and .45; he was pretty p.0.'d and we all thought he was going to come back in the night and shoot us!

Pizza Pizzaza

All of these pictures were recycled from Summer's blog (sorry!).  We just thought that it would be a shame not to mention how great a fast food cook Ben would make... especially at a pizza joint!  Good times!  P.S. Get some new movie speakers that don't suck!

Dinosaurs!

Two dollar Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point rocked in August!  This was one of the days we went to the dinosaur museum.  The line wrapped clear around the building to get in the first time!  It was so crowded that keeping track of the kids was pretty hard.  Easton did one of his disappearing acts and it took us 20 minutes to find him at the front counter, in care of one of the employees.  Scared the heck out of us!

Camping

This is our favorite campsite in Utah County.  It's at the end of the road past Timpanookie campground and takes a serious vehicle to get to.  We took our piece of junk Mazda, and seriously thought we would have to leave it on the side of the road forever!  Miraculously, the Mazda made it and earned it's new, prestigious nickname: The Golden Nugget, Part Deux!  Honestly, we drove for a couple of hairy hours to get to the site just to eat and sleep the night; left first thing in the morning.  Was it worth it?  Oh yeah!

Always eating dirt!

The Golden Nugget, Part Deux (in the background)

Sliding Rock...Again

Art and Sierra have moved :(  This was one of our last little outings together.  As you can see, Art is physically unable to do anything without the "hang-loose" sign.  Have fun in Michigan!

"F-U-"

When I was pregnant with the little dude (at that time I didn't know I was going to name him Phoenix) we were talking to my Father-in-law's friends, Mark and Randy.  Mark is the flamboyant one and Randy is the serious one in their relationship.  This Marky guy is a character....soooo funny.  Anyway, he was born in the same month as Phoenix would be and was telling me a little bit about our future Leo (their sign).  First off, Marky told me you will have problems with the "F" word.  I was silent, not really knowing what to say then he went on:  "F-U" (I was thinking please don't spell it) then he finished the word with, "N" and laughed frivolously.  Oh my gosh, I was dying of laughter, it was so unexpected.  So Phoenix is our "fun" baby.  He's actually been a difficult baby, cute, but difficult.  I call him Phoenix the fireball.  Those big blue eyes make him look so sweet and innocent.  I always tell people, "good thing he's cute or else......." Anyway, Happy birthday to Phoenix; I can't believe he's one!

Ice-Cream Trance

We recently hung out with Art and Sierra (pre-yard sale).  Phoenix ate a lot of dirt and an ice-cream truck was hanging around with some creepy guy driving it that waved at all the kids.  It reminded me of the Pied Piper story.  You can see in the video how transfixed the kids were by the weirdo, ice-cream man and his van.

Wind Rivers Wyoming

I just got back from a trip to the Wind Rivers in Wyoming.  It was one of the raddest places I have ever been!  The fishing was supposed to be killer, but I didn't take a fly reel and the trout weren't taking spinners so we ate a lot of MRE's!  The trip seriously rocked except for the weight of the pack I carried.  You can see from the group picture that there were a lot of girls... my pack weighed over 70 pounds!  After 30 plus miles of hiking, my body is done.  I have been sleeping ever since I got back.  Thanks for watching the kids, Steph!

Spudman Triathlon 2008

Yea, I did it...my first triathlon.  It was so amazing for me, such a positive experience.  So here's the overview:  It was an olympic tri so a mile swim, 26 miles on the bike, and the run was a 10K (6.2 miles I think).  Approximately two months before the race I pulled a ligament or tendon in my ankle when I was doing some crazy dance moves with my sisters at a party.  I kept doing stuff on it so it didn't heal.  So I put most of my training efforts into swimming which is good cause I had no idea how to swim right.  A lady in our ward let me borrow her road bike and I went biking with her a couple of times before the race.  I tried running again about two weeks before the race and felt so discouraged because of my ankle, wondering if I'd be able to do the race at all.  A doctor looked at it, told me that nothing was seriously wrong with it and it should heal fine in a few weeks.  It must have been partially mental cause from that point on it started rapidly healing.  The race was finally here. I was excited but of course nervous cause I didn't feel all the way ready.  Everyone told me to know how to change a flat cause it's a common thing I guess.  I learned the day before but prayed my guts out that I wouldn't get one.  I knew the race would be over for me if I did. 

 I actually did decent considering it was my first race and I could have trained a lot better.  I finished 8th in my division but should have done elite division cause I would have finished 5th!  I swam the mile in 18 min. (although it was in the snake river), I averaged 21 mph on the bike and averaged an 8 min. mile on the run.  My transitions amazingly enough were smooth and quick (I guess it's important).  Ben was such a great cheerleader and support for me. I don't know what I would do without him. He originally made fun of the spandex shorts I had to wear but then stopped when he realized that EVERYBODY wore them.  Somehow if Ben ever did a triathlon, I still don't think he would wear spandex shorts. 

It wasn't all happy though.  An older man that was in the group after me drown and they couldn't revive him.  Ben saw them administering cpr to him and had to turn away cause it was so sad to see.  I feel for his family.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Canyoneering In Zion

On our way to Havasupai we decided to make a short side jaunt to Zion's to rappel Keyhole Canyon.  It was cold and smelled like dirty socks.  Art was a good sport like last time and let me ride/drown him during the deep swim.

Our Havasupai Adventure

This place was crazy!

Steph and I decided to go up the canyon last month and get some pictures of all of us together (since we didn't really have any)

NO PANTS, POO, AND MCDONALD'S

So we've had a few good laughs (mixed with embarrassment) with Easton lately.  First of all, I was racing to get the boys ready and out the door as fast as I could for one of my aerobics classes that I teach at Gold's Gym.  As I was getting Easton dressed upstairs I remembered that his pants were downstairs and I told myself to grab them on the way out the door.  Of course I forgot and realized it when I got to the gym.  I couldn't not show up to instruct my class so I took him to daycare with no pants.  They probably thought I was the worst mom!

Second funny experience happened at McDonald's last weekend.  I went inside to quickly rent a movie from redbox and in the mean time Easton ran to play on the indoor playground.  In the middle of the process Easton charges by and stands in front of me with no pants on, no underpants on or shoes. Yup, just a shirt.  The people in line behind me start laughing and of course I'm humiliated.  I asked him where his pants where and he just runs off wanting me to chase him.  I was torn with what to do but finished renting the movie cause everybody was waiting.  In the back of my head I knew exactly why he had taken off his pants but didn't want to face up to the fact.  Ben came running in from the car because he saw Easton's bare bum running around Mickey D's.  He grabbed on to Easton's arm to stop him from running around while I went back to the playland to check out the damage....I was right.  He had pooped in his underpants so he took everything off then stepped in it with his shoes so took them off too.  What I nightmare.  Thank goodness it was closed so nobody was in there.  This potty training thing has been really rough.

I hate to admit it, but a month before that he had a similar experience but this time it happened in the playground way up high.  He came out with no pants on and we all looked at each other like, "oh crap."  When Ben went up there sure enough he found a nice surprise.  The sad thing is I don't even know if it was Easton's because it looked dried and crusty.  Who knows how many different feces samples are in that thing.  Anyway, we cleaned up Easton's bum as quickly as we could then went to tell the store manager acting like it wasn't our kid's poo that we discovered because we felt so stupid.  He had to shut the whole area down for cleaning.  I think he called it a "code black" or something.  We did feel pretty bad but were laughing pretty hard inside.  I bet that makes you think twice about eating at McDonalds!

Easton turns three!!!

Yes, it's been a month since Easton turned three but I still wanted to blog about it with the phrase in mind, "Better late than never."  In the slide show are some memorable experiences of his life with us over the years and pictures of him that I thought were cute or funny.  We threw him a little "spiderman" birthday party and invited a handful of friends.  It went good until spiderman showed up and all the kids started crying  and running away.  Gotta love three year olds.

Check out my Slide Show!

Jazz playoff game #1 against Lakers

Does anybody else think these playoff games are intense?  We're always drained by the time were done watching them.  They're crazy loud and we're partially deaf afterwards, but it's worth it.  Go Jazz...Beat the Lakers!  I sound like a cheerleader.

Idol Fans

My crazy sister Michelle talked me into going to the gateway today to see David Archuleta.  I was debating whether or not to go because I knew I was going to see him sing the National Anthem at the Jazz Playoff Game. I think David is a cutie but I'm not fanatical.  I felt like a tiny bobber but I went along anyway just for good times. We actually got pretty close to him. In the picture you see my sisters (Michelle, Heather, Holly), Holly's friends, me, my brother (Nate), and babies. People kept wondering what kind of a boy would wear a heart on his shirt.  I assure you he's not gay, we made him do it.  We got some attention from some local media and TMZ.  Fox 13 put this picture of us on their site.  I'm the one wearing the red shirt, letter "I." Go David Archuleta!!! 

CHECK THIS OUT!!!

So today I found this totally awesome site to download music.  It's legal and all songs are only 14 cents.  I tried it out and downloaded 56 songs in less than an hour.  I just thought I'd tell you about it because I love getting new music and I'm guessing most of you do too.  If you're interested click on the link in the top left corner.  Have Fun!!!