Arizona Centennial (V-Day)

I love AZ.

Tons.

Therefore it's only appropriate that this sweetheart state celebrates its birthday on Valentine's day.

I've been trying to instill a love for AZ in the kids too.

So we've been talking for at least the last couple of months about Arizona's 100th birthday.

They've been super excited for it.

Gwen went with me down to the state capital for the big celebration.

Arizona is the nation's largest provider of copper.

And this copper chopper was commissioned for the celebration.

Gwen got down with the Marines and cranked out 10 pushups to get an "army guy" poster for Drake.

What a sweet sister.

This was a mini USS Arizona.

You know, the ship that was attacked during Pearl Harbor, and you can still see parts of it sticking out of the water there.

Arizona had some key parts in WWII, like the sinking of the USS Arizona with tons of service men on board, and then the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the US communicate with their unbreakable code (the Navajo language).

By far though, Gwen's favorite part was panning for gold.

Here she is with her treasures.

I didn't tell her it's fake though.

Should I?

She thinks she's rich!

Then on the 14th, we had a bunch of people over for Navajo Tacos, cake and ice cream.

I slacked on the pictures, but we had so much fun.

And learned a lot about Arizona too.

Good job on the quiz mom and Tawnya!

How would you do? Can you name the 5 C's of AZ's economy? (sorry Holly, courage is not one of them... but it should be right?)

Or do you know how many Interstate Highways are in AZ and can you name them?

What about AZ's highest elevation?

AZ's nickname?

Oh, and here's a shout out and thank you to Jack and Aubrey for the valentines!

Can you tell the kids are straight out of bed?

Don't hate me because my friends are cool!

Seriously cool. They planned a trip to Hollywood, and FORCED me to go. But really, who wouldn't want to go have a girls weekend and pretend like there are no chores to be done, or cases to be read, or papers to write, or responsibilities to be tended to.

So off to Holly wood we went, like little kids running around the hotel, so excited to have somebody else make our beds. Beds that we get to sleep in on!!

The first thing we did the next day was cruise down to Hollywood to seen all the wonders that Hollywood has to offer. Like a Michael look-a-like.

We couldn't tell if Michael was a boy or a girl, but what ever he was, I love how this Michael didn't stop smiling the whole time. Even hours later when we saw him again, he had his perma-grin on.

Oh and then there were other people who were dressed up and would come up to you and ask if they could take their picture with you, and then they would say that you'd need to tip them for it. So I told these Spidermen that I wasn't going to tip them, and I didn't need a picture. They didn't believe me. But my friend snapped a picture as they were trying to beg money out of me.

1. You can barely make out the Holllywood sign in the back ground.

2. Don't you just love squint into the sun kinds of pictures?

Oh, and when we were walking down Rodeo Drive, we saw a crowd of people gathered around snapping pictures. Was it a celebrity!??! We were so excited to see what it was....

Oh, it was this.

A Bugatti.

A Bugwhatii? That's what I thought.

Apparently this car is worth somewhere between $1.7-2.8 Million dollars. And somebody left it just sitting on the side of the street. Crazy. People were taking all kinds of pictures and even touching it. If I had a car worth that much a) I'd be too scared to drive it, b) I'd be too scared to leave it parked somewhere, c) I'd better have at least 10x that much put away in savings, or that'd be just plain stupid. Well, it's just plain stupid anyway.

Oh, and of course the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

That's where Pretty Woman was filmed.

We had several Pretty Woman moments there...

like fixing our boots on the seat in the elevator.

Oh, and let's talk about the calories consumed over this weekend.

We decided early on that calories didn't count on Saturday and Sunday, and we took advantage of that!

But it's not a good vacation if you don't come home a few pounds heavier, right??

Oh, and this was the lone celebrity spotting we had.
It's Lisa Leslie and her husband. They were adorable!

My hurryandgetyourphoneoutandunlockitandturnonyourcamera pictures have a lot to be desired.

We also tried to soak up so sun at Santa Monica.

And we had so much fun people watching.

People watching is the most fun when you have dark glasses on so you can stare, and phones so you can text and maybe sneak a crazy picture. I won't post the picture of the crazy guy with super short shorts who happened to be everywhere we went, incase he's somebody's uncle.

And then, the weekend had to end.

The car ride home was spent talking about dreams (like winning the HGTV dream home), embarrassments, fears, laughing, and all around good girl bonding.

Thanks to my amazing friends for whisking me away for a much needed respite.

But I was super excited to come home and hug my babies.

And look what they made.

Thanks babies!!

xoxo

Strawberry

Back to school. Back to school,

to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool.

I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight.

Ya a little Billy Madison fun.

But seriously. It's back to school time at our house.

The kids are still adjusting. Daily homework, riding the bus, school lunch!

Uggh, and me. READING, READING, READING!!!

So we were more than anxious to take our first weekend get away.

I just ignored my many reading assignments, packed up the car, and we headed up to Strawberry with the Stewarts.

We love the Stewarts!

It was so nice to escape the heat too.

Did you know that we have been under an extreme heat advisory for over a week?

That means it's over 110º. Like 115º.

Yucky.

So when we got to Payson Friday evening to eat dinner, and it was 70º outside. My kids were cold, and had to get out their jackets.

Oh, my little AZ natives.

We went to a llama farm. There were goats too.

Drake and Merik got a kick out of feeding and petting the goats!

We also ate a lot of goat cheese, and goat fudge.

Look how cute Gwenny is holding Sophie. She LOVES Sophie!

Also, we could see all of Arizona from up here. Well almost.

But we were told on a really clear day you can see Mt. Lemon from this fire tower!

Don't you just want to kiss Drakey?

We also stopped by this swimming hole that looked more like chocolate milk.

If a kid went under, he'd be lost. Forever.

Luckily the dads were willing to get in and swim with the kids.

Ryan, of course takes the chance to jump or swing off of anything!

Then while they were swimming, a sudden down pour sent them swimming for shore.

So we drove home wet and stinky, but had such a good weekend!

Thank you Drew and Amy!!

last trip of the summer

We were lucky enough to get to go on a trip each month this summer.

When will that ever happen again?!

This last one we went up to Utah for a weekend with friends in Park City, and the excuse was that it was our anniversay. That's right. Eight years baby!!!

On our way up north we stopped in Flagstaff to go to the Cardinals training camp.

It was so nice, and they had fun games for the kids to play too.

Check out Gwen. She's trying out to be a wide receiver.

Almost! If she had her sapped up gloves on she would have had it! ;)

Next up was Drake.

He doesn't take defeat very well.

Then we continued our drive through the night up to Utah.

We drive through the night on most of our long trips because that way the kids sleep.

Because although my kids NEVER EVER fight or whine in the car, at least if you drive at night they have fewer potty breaks.

So the first day we took the kids, along with their much loved cousins, to BYU to douse them with goodies and build the BYU love.

Gwen rather inappropriately, dressed like one of Warren Jeffs' concubines.

And Drake got his Jimmer on.

The next day we kissed the babies good bye for the weekend and met up with our good ol' friends the Wevers. Seriously, we love Tod and Holly!

Also we love Molly and Darren for graciously taking Gwen and Drake for us. They had a good time.
We did as well, laying out by the pool (and getting BURNED - darn high altitude sun) and ordering double entrees at Taggart's Grill.

We also spent a day at the lake, but unfortunately, my killer wake boarding skills will have to go un-pictured. But I think it looked something like this...
Okay, maybe not.

We also hit up the alpine slides.

Way fun.

Oh, and happy anniversary to us.

Tod and Holly in all their glory.

We also had our friends Mark and Bonnie come out for the last night and day, and then also met up with our friends Jared and Holly2 for our last dinner. Too bad we didn't get a group shot. But at least we can look like dwarfs next to the Wevers.

Then we barely made it home for the kids to start school.

Also, you might think it is physically impossible to gain 5 pounds over one weekend. Well I guess my body just likes to be exceptional. Going to Ruth's Chris 2x doesn't help I'm sure.

Ragnar Las Vegas 2010

Real Housewives of AZ. One of the most fun weekends ever! Loved it ladies.

Don't know what Ragnar is? It's a 200 mile relay. 12 people are on your team, 6 people in each van. Each person runs three legs of the race. We started at 10:30 Friday morning, and finished at about 5:00 Saturday evening...one runner is running the whole time! So we really didn't sleep at all. Can I tell you that there is something magical about running on a highway road at 2:00 am? Just your itunes and the stars. Oh, but watch out for tarantulas and snakes!

After the race ended, we headed to the Venetian for a relaxing night in the hot tub, ordering room service and a movie. Perfect way to end it. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we took 4th place for the women's teams!!

I'm a little embarrassed by how long it took me to make this video. I think because I had to listen to just about every song on my itunes before I finally picked my #1 running song anyway. I love Ben Kweller.

Also, don't hate the rose lenses people. They're totally hip. (and that's what happens when you buy your sunglasses from eBay)

Monday

Recovering from an amazing weekend with these wild ladies.
Oh ShowLow, thank you for showing us a good time. Thank you for having cool mornings so I was able to finally get in a long run. Thank you girls for helping me not think about contracts, torts and civil procedure. (now I'm scrambling to catch up!)

I was stuck in this slow traffic coming back into the valley. Aww. This is everyone coming back to reality from a fun escape.

But maybe the best part of the weekend (and this is saying a lot since we heard Elder Scott speak Sunday morning) was pulling into the driveway and seeing Gwen sitting at the window waiting for me with a "welcome home mommy" sign that she made.

see mom run

Our journey began Thursday when I packed up the car with luggage and kids and drove to Utah. Ryan had a closing argument Thursday night so he got to skip the ten hour drive and just fly up Friday morning. Here is Gwen in the Salt Lake airport rock climbing to pass the time as we waited for daddy.

One of the best things about being in Utah was getting to see cousins and take the kids to BYU! They LOVE BYU. They were not instructed to wear their BYU shirts, but picked them out this day because they knew we were going there.

And a trip to BYU would not be complete with out the kids rolling down the hill into the library basement windows. Finals were going on at the time, but the students inside were sure distracted from their studies by our rambunctious kids

Gwen wants to be an artist and have her paintings in a real art museum so bad! So we took her to see the Museum of Art at BYU to encourage her to go to BYU. Nothing wrong with that right? But I do believe I was not supposed to take a picture inside there. So don't tell.

Then we had to show the kids where mom and dad lived when we first got married. No, it was not inside this house. It was inside the basement apartment under this house. 400 square feet. Oh the joys of poor students. And yes...we're still poor students.

Then Saturday morning before the crack of dawn, Catherine and I geared up to run the Salt Lake marathon!!!!!!!

At mile two. Stripping off jackets and feeling GREAT!!

Mile nine. This was after our third uphill climb. Still feeling good mentally, but my left ankle is beginning to hurt. I pop two more Advils and count myself good for 17 more miles.

Mile 15. We run by our admiring fans high on running because we're more than half way there! Ankle hurts a little more, but I push through the pain because I'm running a MARATHON!!

Mile 19. Drake jumps out and starts to run too. I think it's cute and let him run a bit.

After almost a quarter mile, he's still trying to keep up and I tell him he needs to go back to daddy. He starts crying and says he wants to stay with me and grabs my hand.

Awww. Love my Buster Brown.

At 20 miles I was hurting pretty bad! We were at 3:12 so I figured even if we slowed to ten minute miles I should be able to finish right around 4:15 and I'd be happy with that. But at 22 miles the pain was excruciating! I sent Catherine on because I could hardly even jog anymore. It took me an hour and a half to do my last 6 miles! And honestly, mile 25 was just cruel. Pure uphill ugliness!!! So I barely hobbled across the finish with a time of 4:38:39. At least it should be pretty easy to improve on that time.

Gwen with Catherine's daughter Isabell. Couldn't they be sisters?!

My cheerleaders.

Check out the sweet shirts my fanclub were wearing. Ryan's says Team KRISTIN, and of course on the pocket, it labels him as the Captain.

And here I am. DUNZO!!!!!

McPhies and Griffiths.

Why am I holding so much junk in all these pictures? Oh, that other lady that Ryan's got his arm around is Colette. She's Kolby's mom and was so sweet to let us stay with her while we were there. Thank you Colette!!

Riding the train to the car. I'm starving and never want to stand up again!!

Marathon entry fee: $95

Gas to Salt Lake and back: $200

Clothes and shoes: $225

Peeing your pants while running a marathon: PRICELESS

My ankle immediately after is already beginning to swell.

Obligatory Beaver rocking chair picture.

And here's my ankle a day after. Still can't put any weight on it. Went to the Dr. today and am just waiting for him to get back to me about the x-rays. Crosssssssing my fingers it's just a sprain and I can start training for the SheRox triathlon next month!

It looks like an edema ankle. Just call me Cankle.