We Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Apparently it's time for my annual post. Pathetic, I know. But despite how it might appear on this blog, our family is indeed alive and well (and growing!). Here's to 2011 ... maybe I'll even manage to post two whole times during the year!

Merry Christmas to All!

A Really Crappy Home Repair Project

The thrill of first-time home ownership wore off pretty quickly for us. About a month after we moved in (almost 6 years ago), we discovered that our house had some pretty serious sewer problems thanks to pipe-invading roots. Unfortunately, the problem came to light when we had a home full of house guests. It's not so fun to tell your guests that there will be no showering or flushing for the duration of their stay.

Anyway, over the years Bill has become quite proficient at cleaning out the roots with a rented auger. However, the problem kept getting worse, and the most recent back up required a professional to clear the pipes. We decided it was time to bite the bullet and get the sewer line replaced. Fortunately Bill's brother Jake is a plumber and he was kind enough to make the trek down to Blanding to take on the crappy task (ironically, my kitchen faucet completely stopped working the day before he came, so I had a little extra work for him). Thanks to Jake, our front yard is all torn up and our wallets are a good deal lighter, but dang those toilets flush well! And now I've officially crossed over into the realm of too much information.

The torn up yard. I'm not at all into landscaping or yardwork, but this sight made even me a little sad.

Joshua might have a career in excavation ahead of him

Check out the huge turd Jake dug up!

Jumping over the trench provided endless entertainment

No comment on this one

Much to Amanda's delight, Jake brought his daughter Abigail with him. They always have fun together, and Abby was even able to tag along at Amanda's dance class.

And in an unrelated photo, here's Joshua on his first day of preschool.

Hobblecreek Half Marathon

(Disclaimer: Despite how it might appear on this blog, let me assure you that Bill and I really do have a life outside of races. I think. OK then, back to regularly scheduled blogging.)

On Saturday Bill and I, along with two of my sisters and many friends, ran in the Hobblecreek Half Marathon. I have to say, I really wasn't looking forward to this race. My running has been put on the back burner lately in favor of swimming and biking, so the thought of just running for 13.1 miles wasn't very appealing to me. My sisters seemed to share my negative attitude. Nevertheless, we dragged ourselves out of bed (having had a sisters-only night at my aunt's cabin) at an obscene hour and made the trek to the starting line. The race started in Hobblecreek Canyon and wound down the canyon into Springville, then over into Mapleton. It was a good course with lots of moderate downhills and no killer uphills.

I've done several races along with my sisters Amber and Erin, but we've never actually ran a race together. With this one, we were all anticipating a similar finish time (around 2 hours), so we decided to try running together. We took turns pacing, and just generally pushed each other to go harder than we would have gone on our own. In the end, we crossed the finish line side by side, with a faster-than expected time of 1:51:31. Fun stuff! Bill had an awesome race. He was shooting for a 1:50 finish, but ended up at 1:40:17! Afterward we headed back to the cabin for a very decadent breakfast, of which we earned every bite.

Thanks to my friend Leslie (who is an amazing runner but sadly broke her foot and couldn't do the race) I have some pictures to share:

Coming out of the canyon. Amber's on the left, I'm in the middle, and Erin's on the right. And no, I'm not actually getting ready to flash the camera. Leslie and I aren't that close.

Finish line! Woohoo!!

Sister Power

Bill had a flower waiting for me at the finish line! OK, not really. All of the female finishers recieved a flower. That's totally worth running 13.1 miles for, right?

Back to School

School started up again yesterday. The kids were so excited about a new school year. I've been hearing the phrase, "I can't wait until school starts!" about twenty times a day. Caleb is in first grade, Amanda is in Kindergarten, and Joshua will start preschool next week.

We started the morning with the traditional photo in front of the tree:

Then Joshua and I walked to the school along with Caleb and Amanda. That went smoothly other than Amanda skipping across the street and tripping, scraping up her hands. Thankfully her tears were short lived.

Checking to see if the coast is clear.

Amanda's war wounds

We got to the school before the doors opened, so I tortured the kids with some more picture taking.

Caleb and Amanda had no trouble going to class. No tears or separation anxiety from those two, and none from me either.

Amanda and her teacher Mrs. Redd. She was Caleb's teacher last year, so Amanda felt right at home with her.

The happy Kindergartner

After school, Amanda reported that her favorite part of the day was getting her picture taken and measuring her height. Caleb said his favorite part was eating lunch in the cafeteria and having three recesses. That sounds right to me!

Moab Triathlon

Are you tired of triathlon posts yet? Sorry, but here comes another. Last Friday night we went to Moab along with our friends the DeWitts and Betheas for a tri. Bill and I did the race along with Cristi and Joanna, with their husbands Chas and Derek providing photography, race support, and cheerleading. This was a small local race, so it was very low-key and relaxed, and it was a great way to spend a Friday date night. This race was kind of weird in that it went run-swim-bike rather than swim-bike-run. Here's the play-by-play:

Prepping before the race.

"Triathlon #3"

Joanna, Cristi, and me just before the run. This was the last we saw of Joanna for a while, the little speed demon!

The 5k run started with a loop around the park, but then most of it was off-road trail stuff winding through fields and woods, over streams, through sand, etc. Kind of a tough course!

Bill going from run to swim

Me and Joanna in the swim. That's me on the right. Don't you recognize my arm? The swim was 600 meters (12 laps). You did two laps in each lane, then moved on the the next lane for two laps, etc. It got a little crazy at times with congestion and people trying to swim around each other. I enjoyed the swim though. It felt nice and relaxing after the run.

Swim to bike transition

Heading off for the bike. It was a 10 mile out and back course with some rolling hills. No huge climbs so I liked that! Other than some nasty pot-holed spots it was a nice course.

Post-race cuties. Bill did great!

Here we are displaying our bodymarking. Instead of getting race numbers we just wrote our names on our arms.

Proudly displaying our medals. We came in first (Jo), second (me), and third (Cristi) overall females. Go team Blanding!

Striking the Charlie's Angels pose (or should that be Chas's Angels?)

We topped off the evening with some tasty Mexican food and lots of laughs and good conversation. Good friends, good food, and a good race. It doesn't get much better than that!

Denver - Part 4

Our final excursion in Denver was to The Butterfly Pavilion. I wasn't really sure what this place was all about, but it was recommended from several sources so we decided to check it out. Basically, it's a living museum of creep crawlies. We started in a room full of aquariums stocked with various spiders, beetles, roaches, and other squirm-inducing creatures. Then there was an area with some fish tanks and some other ocean-related items, as well as a place where kids could touch some sea creatures. The coolest part of The Butterfly Pavilion, however, was the actual butterfly pavilion. This was essentially a large greenhouse-type room full of trees, vegetation, and about a million butterflies. The butterflies fly all over, and while you're not supposed to touch them (a restriction Caleb found maddening), we were able to walk around and observe all the different kinds. I get excited whenever I see a butterfly fly through the yard, so being in a room swarming with butterflies was pretty amazing.

The kids had the opportunity to hold a tarantula. Once again, Caleb and Joshua wanted nothing to do with it, but Amanda thought it was so cool she had to go back a second time.

Utterly repellent roaches. The time I spent living in New York City only made me more squeamish of these nasty things.

Caleb was absolutely fascinated by the beehive.

Guess who was the only one who wanted to touch the sea creatures? Amanda, of course.

We were lucky enough to get an up close demonstration on the "birds and the bees" (and the butterflies). As Caleb described it, "They're kissing with their bums!"

For some reason, the butterflies were highly attracted to the top of my hat. It's hard to see in this picture, but there's at least one up there. The butterflies would land there and just hang out. I'd keep walking around and they wouldn't budge. At one point I think there were three or four camped out on my head. The kids thought it was the most hilarious thing ever.

Denver - Part 3

Of course no trip to Denver would be complete without a trip to the Denver Zoo. Sadly, my kids have led a pretty zoo-deprived life. Caleb and Amanda have been to the zoo once (5 years ago), and Joshua had never been. So they were really excited about the prospect of going to a real zoo, and it lived up to all their expectations. We spent the whole day there, walked every inch of the grounds, saw every animal, and had a really good time overall. The favorite animals were definitely the various monkeys, chimps, and apes.

Getting to pet a bunny at one of the presentations. Notice how the petting is immediately followed by a squirt of hand sanitizer.

After the bunny came the snake. Caleb and Joshua had no interest in petting a snake, but Amanda was one of the first in line.

The obligatory "standing in front of an elephant" pose

Of course we had to ride the zoo train, as if we hadn't ridden enough trains already during our trip.

The real highlight of the day. I hadn't had a vanilla chocolate twist cone in way too long. I'd forgotten what a tasty treat that is. I felt like I was back at the Pleasant Grove Pool.

Denver - Part 2

I wanted to take the kids to the Denver Children's Museum, and since the first Tuesday of every month is free admission night, and we happened to be there on the first Tuesday, I thought it was the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, I think 90 percent of the families in the Denver metro area also wanted to get in on the free museum action. Despite the crowds of crazy children, our kids had a great time exploring and playing in the different exhibits. Bill, however, would have been tearing his hair out if he had any hair. He was a good sport though and toughed it out for the sake of the kids. The museum adventures included:

Dressing up like fireman and playing in a full-size firetruck

Playing veterinarian in a vet's office

Building a tractor out of wood and recycled materials

Shooting hoops in the mini basketball court


Playing in the kid-sized grocery store and restaurant

Dressing up like ants, worms, and bunnies and exploring an oversized habitat

(This picture is just so Amanda. That's her classic "mad at my brother" expression.)

The historic Platte River Trolley was giving rides just outside the museum, so we took a spur-of-the moment ride. The kids were pretty fascinated when the trolley stopped to go back to where we started and the conductor came around and flipped all the benches over to face the opposite direction. It was quite the engineering wonder.