So after being scolded from my brother for not updating our blog for 3 months here is a quick post of what we have been up too. Most recently we celebrated Mya's 6th birthday. Mya is growing up so fast. She is big into to makeup thing and was so excited that she got play makeup for her birthday. She puts in on every day, and is even nice enough to share and put some on Brianna as well. This picture below is Mya's kindergarten picture. She loved picture day, we tied her hair in socks the night before to give it the curly look. She doesn't have the curly hair like she used to.

We are currently in the process of buying our first home. Yay. We are so excited. We should close before Thanksgiving. There is still alot that needs to be done in the home; it needs alot of updating but we are excited to make it our own. Here is a little glimpse of what it looks like from the front. We are looking forward to having more space for the kids to run around and play in. We will have almost double the space that we have in our apartment.

Besides the house thing not to much else is happening. We are still waiting for Madelyn to walk. Hopefully soon. she will be a year old on Sunday the 22nd. Adam is in speech therapy and is doing so much better with his talking. He still has a long way to go but its better than it was before. Brianna is... Brianna thats all I can really say about her. She drives me nuts most of the time but I still love her.

Fun little bike ride

I took a couple of hours after work on Saturday and went up the Whites Creek Trail and Dry Pond Trail. It was all together probably an hour ride up and down. It was a blast. I think I found a new hobby. Al though I will probably break my bike since it is coming up on 10 years old.


It was a nice workout going up and suprisingly down as well. My feet were tensing up at the bottom of the ride. I'll have to see how far it was but I'm guesing a couple of miles up and then a couple down. I probably topped out at near 8000 feet or so. There were some pretty good climbs in there.


It was certainly beautiful. The lower half of the trail was all covered and shaded by pine trees. When I broke off to the Dry Pond Trail it goes up the more barren south face. Up top is a cool looking meadow that is I guess a pond or was (hence "Dry" pond). It was fun.


I'm looking forward to checking out all the other trails that link together. We have the Thomas Creek Trail, Whites Creek Trail, Galena Creek Trail and some other connecting trails. All this is 10 minutes away and in the pretty Sierras.


I got some pics with my phone. Here they are.

Here's a little section of the trail on Dry Pond Trail. Fun single track on the south face of the mountain.

This is Dry Pond with Mt. Rose ski resort in the back.

When you reach the top this is what you see.

Here's a look back at the Sierras.

Our Family Vacation!

We had the opportunity to take a much needed family Vacation. We went to Utah for the "Watkins Family Renuinion" and to Celebrate my Grandfathers 93 Birthday. We had a blast. Here are the highlights of our trip.

The reunion was an Indian theme.

My cousins put together a parade for all the

young children. Mya is too shy to participate

in things like this but not Brianna. If you can't

tell she is the one in the Bright pink swimsuit.

As long as there is water or dirt involved

Adam is happy. Directly below is Adam

playing in water during the program portion

of the reunion. To the right Adam was playing

in the dirt outside of the cabin after church in

his Sunday clothes.

We were fortunate to be able to stay at the Watkins Family cabin just past Sundance up

in the Provo Canyon. The cabin is atleast 50 years old and still has the original "Kelvinator"

refridgerator. That still works. I absolutely love this place.

My parents took us shopping to the Provo Mall and bought the girls new dresses.

Here they are sporting there new dresses. Notice "Grandpa" behind the screen.

"SILLY GRANDPA"

We were able to do some target shooting. Jason had to buy a BB gun for us to use.

Mya and Brianna got a kick out of shooting the gun. Jason tried to help Adam but he

didn't really like that idea.

Brianna and Mya sure love their Uncle Morgan. He was so nice to take them fishing one

morning and Mya even caught a fish. But it wiggled its way off the hook before they

could get a picture of it. They don't get to see family very often so when they do

they would much rather be with them than with us.

Thanks Morgan for playing with the kids and taking them fishing.

Grandpa trying to teach Brianna how to fish.

She's good for about 2 minutes then she's done.
Me with Madelyn.




Mya caught another fish with Grandma's help. She sure loved this and surprisingly didn't

mind touching the fish. Brianna would rather climb and play than stand and fish.

Grandpa's trademark. Holding kids in the air, and Madelyn loves it.

Jason and Morgan decided to make a good fishing hole just behind our cabin by building a dam. Here is a before and after shot. Jason decided to get in the river which is probably about 32 degree's Morgan couldn't let Jason show him up so Morgan had to get in as well. Boys will be boys.



Adam loved relaxing with Uncle Chris. Chris eventually put Adam to sleep doing this.

BRIDAL VEIL FALLS

We hiked up Bridal Veil Falls and cooled off a little. The kids did surprisingly well hiking.

They just didn't care much for getting sprayed by the cold water.

Madelyn loved it up there and didn't mind the spray as much as the other kids.

Hence Briannas pouty face.

It had been years since I had hiked the falls and I loved the opportunity to be

able to do it again.

ROCK CLIMBING

We were able to spend some time with Megan and Ben Jason's sister and her husband.

They took us rock climbing at Rock Canyon. Everyone got to try even Adam.

Before we left we met by brother at a park near his work for a picnic and to say goodbye. The kids loved playing with their uncle Chris and showing off there tricks.




Since Mya hs started school she has taught

herself how to do the monkey bars. Look at that concentration.

We've decided to call Madelyn "Bright eyes" or Blue eyes whichever comes out first.

Thanks Chris for taking time out of your day to spend time with us. We love you.

OUR ADVENTURE GOING HOME.

Its really hard to tell by this picture above but every

one of the cars down there is a police car besides one Truck.

We counted about 28 police cars. He're a quick story; On our drive home we hit traffic. Thinking it was just an accident and that we'd be moving soon we turned the radio to KSL 1160 am which informed us that there was a shooting on the freeway which closed east and west bound lanes. What started as a routine traffic stop ended with a police officer shooting someone. Two hours later they turned us around on the freeway.

Then there was a horrible fire burning up in Tooele canyon. It didn't stop us but it was sure smokey though.

Sorry this is so long but we had quite the trip. Now its back to reality.

Mya's first day of Kindergarten.

Mya started her first day of Kindergarten today and she loved it. Of course the first thing she told me about was playing at recess. That was the highlight of her day. She was a little disapointed that she didn't learn to read today and I explained to her that she will learn to read, it just won't happen in one day. She is definately ready and excited about all the adventures that Kindergarten will bring.

Brianna is so jelous of her older sister. She wishes that she were going to school too. Often times I find myself wishing that Brianna were in school too.

In other news. Jason and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 22. We didn't do anything for it then but the weekend of the 4th of July my parents took Mya, Brianna and Adam camping. The kids had a great time and we enjoyed a nice quiet night together with Madelyn. When the kids came back from camping My parents watched all the kids so we could go out on a much needed date. We spent the afternoon and early evening together. We went and saw Transformers 2, and went out to dinner. It had been a long time since we had gone out on an official date. That evening we went to see the fireworks show in Sparks. The kids had a great time watching the fireworks. Adam especially thought the noise was great he still walks around saying "Boom".

We took Madelyn into see a surgeon about an Umbilical Hernia that she has they found another hernia as well so she will have surgery on July 21st to repair two hernias.

We just got back from a visit back home to see family and friends. We had a great time out on the boat, at a surprise birthday party for a really good family friend, and celebrating Adam's 2nd Birthday, along with AJ's 4th birthday. We were able to spend some time with My brother Chris who was also in town. ( Thanks Chris for spending so much time with the girls, wrestling and sleeping on the trampoline with them. They sure miss you.)

Sorry, no more pictures right now. I will post more later.

Oh the Pain!

I hurt really bad right now. I just got done (yesterday) running the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey.

So here's the scoop. The Odyssey is a 12 person relay. It is a 178 mile course that starts in downtown Reno and finishes there. However, it loops through Verdi to Truckee, to South Lake Tahoe, to Genoa, to Carson City, to Virginia City, back through Sparks to downtown again.

Each person runs three legs. It essentially is a 24-hour race. We finished in 26 hours, 26 minutes. You can check out the race details at renotahoeodyssey.com Check out the Course page. I was runner 8. I had legs 8, 20, 32.

The worst one for pain and total body devastation was the second leg I had. It took me down Kingsbury Grade, 4.3 miles straight downhill. Half way down my calves started wrenching tighter and tighter. Once I stopped, my butt seized. I could tell my quads were tired but my calves were tied in knots. And they still are. That is what is killing me right now. Yeah my quads and glutes are tired and a little sore but I tell you what, it's like my ankles are fuzed.

My third leg was hard but I think it was hard because of how beat up my legs were from the second run. It was on the last one that I was thinking I don't want to run any more. The third run was half uphill and then half down. Even on the downhill I didn't want to run any more. At that point, everything hurts and you're exhausted from lack of sleep.

Here are my stats from each leg:

Leg 8:

Distance- 4.8 miles

Total Time- 37:06 minutes

Time ran- 6:02 pm

Speed- 7.76 mph

Pace- 7:45 minutes/mile

This was my easiest run. Through downtown Truckee. I should have run faster.

Leg 20:

Distance- 4.3 miles

Total Time- 27:40 minutes

Time ran- 2:31 am

Speed- 9.33 mph

Pace- 6:26 minutes/mile

This one was straight downhill. The elevation map shows some uphill, pfffffgh! There was no uphill! All down, all the way!

Leg 32:

Distance- 3.7 miles

Total Time- 28 minutes

Time ran- 9:44 am

Speed- 7.93 mph

Pace- 7:34 minutes/mile

This wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't so beat up. There was a nice 2-mile climb then down.

Totals:

Distance- 12.8 miles

Total Time- 92:46 minutes

Avg. Speed- 8.34 mph

Avg. Pace- 7:12 minutes/mile

I killed it on my second leg! Unfortunately it also killed me. Then I realized one of the guys I ran with ran that same pace on flat ground! For 6.2 miles! Then he ran 7.5 miles at a 6:45 minute/mile pace!

I did well for myself. I wanted to be able to have a 7:30 minute pace. I knew I would be sore, I just didn't think I would be this sore in my calves. Everything else is about expected though. It was a great challenge and something to show myself what I could do. We'll see if I get myself into any other races.

Here are some pictures Leslie took at the finish line. We meet up with the last runner about 100 yards out and we all run in together. We were missing a couple of our teammates in these.

Hair cut and other random pictures.

So I've been promising my sister that I would post pictures of my hair cut. When I went home for a visit a couple of months ago I got my hair cut to surprise Jason who randomly informed me that he thought I should get my hair cut. I asked him if he thought he needed a new wife. Jokeingly he replied "no well yeah now that you said something" So this is the end result.

Since the girls have learned how to ride there bikes without training wheels they had been begging for us to take them on a long bike ride. So Jason took Adam and the girls on a bike ride. Adam loved being in the back pack on the ride.



The Handsom men in my life!

Madelyn is such a happy smilely baby. Thank heavens.