H A L L O W E E N 2009

Big Trees State Park

This last weekend we loaded that family up and headed to Big Trees State Park. These trees are incredible to see in real life. If I am correct in my information, the trees in this area are not the tallest trees (like in the Redwoods), but are the fattest/widest trees in the world. You can see how tiny the kids look next to the trees. And they don't taper towards the top either! They are fat all the way up!

Then we found these little "chalet" cabins just down the street from Big Trees. The kids had a blast sleeping in the "triangle" cabin.

Then on Sunday we continued on our trip to a lake called Lake Utica where we canoed and hiked around on some great rocks. We had the whole lake and area all to our selves. We are definitely going back to this place when it's hot and we can swim.

St. George Marathon 2009

We did it again. First let me say congrats to Matt, who killed it again, my cousin Destiny, who completed here first marathon with an amazing time and a smile on her face the entire time, and to my good friend Lacey who was 2 months+ pregnant. You all inspire me. The weather was amazing, the terrain was beautiful, the race was awesome. My time was slow 4:37, but I beat my last years time by 2 minutes. I wish I was faster, and I'd like to blame it on my lack of time to train from the move, but maybe it's just a lack of commitment. Not sure, but I really only trained for 2 months. It's only been less than two weeks since the marathon , and as I drive around the city and track 26 miles in the car, I can't believe anyone runs 26 miles straight. But we did.

While in Utah, we also got to take the kids to Zions to climb around on someof the rocks.



Then, my mom came back to Cali. with us for some more fun. We went to Bishop's Pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins and go on a hayride.


Aren't these awesome! At the pumpkin farm there was this field of sunflowers.

Apple Hill

It may not feel like autumn around here, but the fall activities are definitely starting up. I LOVE this time of the year. Today we went to a place called Apple Hill. Apple Hill is this fun area just up the hill from us with over 50 ranches and farms filled with apples, vineyards, breweries, and Christmas tree growers. In the fall there are all sorts of fun activities for families and kids. So today we went apple picking. Lily won't eat any apples, but the boys must have eaten at least 5 apples each within 1 hour. But Lily did drink a whole glass of fresh made apple cider and it was DE.LI.CIOUS! Here's some pictures of our day.

Lily

Just playing in photoshop and wanted to post this fun picture of Lily.

Labor Day Camping

We finally took our kids camping for the first time in their lives. I know that many of you take your kids camping as babies, but I just never wanted to attempt to take twin baby boys camping. Well, now that my kids are older, it was a lot of fun. We went with some of our new friends here in Folsom close to Yosemite. The kids had a great time sleeping in the tent, hanging out with their friends, doing art projects, swimming in a small river, and just getting dirty.

Lily had her first grade pictures taken the other day. I'm not a big fan of "school pictures", so we just order a class picture and take photos in the morning before school. Here is our big first grader. Lily is LOVING school and making all sots of new friends.

Short and Sweet Post

I don't have a ton of time to write details or edit pictures, but we have had a fun and busy summer and I wanted to post about some of the things we have been up to. So here it is short and sweet.

~Lily lost here first tooth~

~Grandma came to visit and we went to Six Flags~

~Then Grandma took us to Lake Tahoe for 3 days~

~We went to Utah for week with all the cousins and Matt's family. (We were supposed to go to Oregon, but Matt's day got in a nasty cycling accident, so we went to see him in Utah instead.)~

~ Lily started 1st grade~

We Are Alive

It's been a long time since my last post, but for good reason. A few weeks ago, we got a phone call from Matt's work. They had a job available in the west coast and wanted to know if we were interested. Interested is an understatement! Of course we're interested. We've been trying to get west for a while now, and FINALLY we made it. So where did we move? Sacramento, California. How awesome is that!. We'll be living in Folsom, a suburb of Sacrament. So as you can imagine, since the phone call everything has been a whirlwind. Between Lily finishing school, our anniversary, the 4th of July and then the move we've been MIA. We are currenlty living at the Residence Inn. Gotta love breakfast every morning and no cleaning. Our stuff will arrive next week.
We went to church last Sunday. I LOVE the wards out here!. Everyone has been awesome inviting us over for dinner, to the park and swimming. I think we are going to like it here. We met a great family who has invited us over to swim twice and to dinner. They have two girls Lily's age, which has been a blessing since she was so sad to leave her Erie friends. Here are a few pictures of the kids swimming.

Happy Birthday Matt

Yesterday was Matt's BIRTHDAY. Just want him to know how much I LOVE him. I'm telling you, he is the best husband and dad out there. Not sure what I did to deserve him.

Summer is slowly coming and we've been able to enjoy a few sunsets at the beach. Here are a couple of pictures of Jack and Lily enjoying the evening.

Finally, Lily has started soccer. She had her first game last week. It is a hoot to watch these 5 and 6 year olds run up and down the field.

Keys 100

The Keys 100 is not for the light hearted. Ninety degree plus heat, blistering sun, humidity soaking you to the bone and cars going by at highway speeds requires a certain dedication and awareness. Many racers have used it for preliminary Badwater training, and some runners have called it a “suffer fest”. ~ Lisa Smith-Batchen Blog

With that said, we had a BLAST! 100 miles, team of 6, from Key Largo to Key West, 15 hours and 51 minutes. It was sooooooooooo hot and so humid, but we had such a great time with our friends. We rented a 15 passenger van, called ourselves 'Buns on the Run', and packed the van with tons of yummy food and drinks. We each ran 2-3 legs of the race with a total of 15-18 miles each. I ate so much food and was never full. Thank you so much Cece and Chris who organized everything and let us stay at their hacienda.

Buns on the Run Team

The Party Van (check out our little buns with running shoes!)

My Man!

100 miles of THIS!

We took the boys along too (they had a babysitter the day of the race), but they had some fun too. Our friends Chris and Cece have two fun boys to play with, and we were able to hit the alligator farm, beach, and several trips the to key lime shake place.

At the alligator farm. There were seriously thousands of them!



This is the best shot I got of Jack with the gators. Sorry it's blurry.