"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!!!