The first of many to come...

On Saturday I ran the Revel Big Cottonwood Half Marathon with Jenn Godfrey and Celeste Godfrey.
This was my first half and let me just tell you how much I LOVED it!!
I really did. I loved the course, the finish line, the aid stations, the temperature differences (below 30 to 70's), the pain, the sweat and even the wall I hit at mile 11.
We finished with a chip time of 2hrs 16 min 10 sec making out pace avg 10:24. Definitely a PR!
Bill was hunting so it was great to have Grandma and Grandpa Ellett bring all the boys down to watch me finish. It definitely helped to finish strong.

I'm excited for my next one, or should I say ones. We registered for the Grizzly challenge which is the Yellowstone half 6/13/2015 and then Teton half 6/20/2015.

In the meantime I get to keep training for Las Vegas Ragnar in November!!

stating the obvious...

I have been a crappy blogger.

That is stating the obvious.

I can't seem to keep any goals related to blogging.

Another obvious.

I'm really hoping to do better but I'm just going to see how it goes. I downloaded a bunch (and when I say a bunch I mean 900+ pictures) Hopefully I'll get them sorted and start to back post as I feel in the mood. But for now, I will post the last couple weeks.

Goals

I will be updating the blog once a month or so from now on. This is my new goal. So to start us off I will be posting pictures from our Cruise we took in March. Then hopefully Easter Camping and then a random picture post. For today I'll leave you with this wonderful picture-

Raspberries

In trying to finish the yard this year I have been working on the garden. Now when I say working on the garden I mean clearing out an area of weeds and grass for my raspberries to be planted. I didn't actually plant anything. I did have 7 spontaneous potato plants pop up out of the ground. My big helper!

Ethan's Field Day

Here are some pictures of Ethan on field day. There was one part of the activities where they had an obstacle course set up. It was a great idea.

A little summer fun

Boys will be boys..

This is what happens when you don't have grass and your driveway gets wet. Can't say I'm going to miss the mud puddles. I'm sure the boys wont agree with me. And since they were already a big mess...

Easter Weekend

Alright, to make this easier on myself (because I will never get caught up if I try and edit every picture) I'm going to put all the pictures strait out of the camera.
Ready, Set, Go...

As I said in the last post we didn't go out to the desert for Easter this year, instead we went to Leslie and Colby's house in Moroni.
We had a great time hanging out with family, visiting the farm and looking for goose eggs.
It was warm enough to have a candy hunt outside in the back yard. It was a great weekend.

Easter 2013 (should I really be calling it Easter?)

This year Easter was in March so we decided to take our traditional Easter camping trip in a warmer month. As goes our luck it was actually unseasonably warm over Easter weekend and would have been a great time to go. But we had a great Easter trip in Sanpete County so it all worked out.
We rented a motorhome from Camping World and headed out to the desert. All in all it was one of the best trips we have had.
When I first started going to the desert we had 2 motorhomes, 2-3 trailers and a bunch of tents. As the years have gone by it dwindled down to 1 trailer, 1 motorhome and maybe 2 tents.
Now however, the nephews are grown up and married and need their own places to stay. We ended up with 3 motorhomes, 2 trailers and 2 semi tents (sleeping in the back of a trailer rather than putting up the tent). Plus my Brother and Sister-in-law came out and stayed the night for the first time.

Here are some random pictures from the trip.













While the boys went on a ride Friday night and their traditional "big" ride Saturday, I got the opportunity to teach the ladies how to ride a dirt bike. This was by far my favorite part of the trip.
Now don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot from all the boys throughout the years. Watching them ride, asking questions and briefly riding on back. Ha! but who doesn't like getting dumped off the back of the bike in the middle of the desert to watch a bunch of bikes ride around like maniac's only to be picked up after 20 mins.  That was the only year I rode on the back of Bill. After that I got my own bike.  Let me tell you, its a whole lot more fun to sit on your own bike and watch the chaos ensue, or to be a part of it - if your crazy enough.
Anyway :-) from a girls standpoint, its a lot easier to learn how to ride a bike from another girl. 1. we have more patience than our significant others 2. We don't expect everyone to know what we are talking about when we talk in cryptic terms you would only understand if you had been riding your entire life and 3. we can laugh at each others stupidity and it doesn't hurt the others feelings.

Here is my big shout out to Kim, Megan and Jess for picking up riding faster than they thought they would, and actually liking it! Its always fun to have something in common with your spouse, but it will be fun to go have girls rides as well. I can't wait!!

Oh, here are some videos too...  as soon as I figure out how to link them I will get them on here.

Summer is almost gone!

I know I've been horrible about keeping up with posts.
So here is my goal:
I will have everything updated before October starts!

In honor of schools starting I have changed the back ground.

Plus it isn't quite time for a change into fall so I have to have something to fill the gap.

Hopefully I will have a post up by the end of the weekend.

Spring is here!! no really, it is.

Want to know how I know??
Because this ...
I happen to look down at the bottle that has been sitting on our counter since September of last year and this is what I saw...

 

I then had the luxury of waiting all day, while Ethan was at school, hoping and praying the moth didn't die before he came home. As soon as he got home I showed him.
 

He was so excited. It was great to watch his face when he got to hold it.
 

Since we have no leaves, grass, flowers, or even weeds for that matter, we decided to put it on the corn stalks that are on the side of the house. Ethan was so worried the moth was cold or the wind was going to blow it to its death. It was really cute.

*An apology is in order. I thought I had a post about Ethans pet Caterpillar but I can't find it. I can't even find any of the 12 billion pictures I know I took of the chrysalis. For those of you that are shaking your head in my direction thinking I'm as crazy as I normally tend to be, I have proof. On Ethans "All about ME" poster is a picture of the chrysalis.
I'll keep looking tomorrow.

Talented.. I think so!

Not only can he point his tongue, which is a little weird, but he can touch his nose and chin with his tongue.

Guess who's 3?

Yep, this brown eyed boy turned 3 this year.


This was the first year he really understood what a birthday is all about... PRESENTS!! He completely understood about getting presents, but when you told him "Happy Birthday" he would say "Happy Birthday" back, we laughed every time.

I don't have any "cake" pictures because frankly, James doesn't like to eat cake or cupcakes or really any dessert except cookies. So we had cookies for his birthday.

 
Uncle Andrew brought home some toy bikes from Afghanistan. They also came with riders as well.

Oh! are we ever into Rescuebots at our house. They get played with daily and the cartoon has had to have a limit put on it of once a day or it would be on all day long.  This is Heatwave in case you were all wondering.


A little before James' birthday we got looking around his bedroom and realized his side of the room was a little bare. Ethan has his "All about ME" posters from school up on his side and James didn't have anything so he got this Cars 2 poster and an Avengers poster that are now hanging on his side of the room.



Grandma Fritsch has an amazing talent of crocheing. She makes all the grandchildren blankets that are personalized to them. They get one when they are born, which is put away until they are old enough not to ruin it, so about the time they get married. But they get another that gets to go on their bed and used every day.
This is James' blanket. His favorite color is Yellow. If ever he has a choice in colors he will always choose yellow (remember the ball throwing at Blast Off?).


This is a "Balance" bike. I wish we would have had this for Ethan. They are by far the best bikes for kids to start out on. It helps them figure out the balancing part of riding a bike. Most kids go straight from one of these to a bike withOUT training wheels.
Since it is snowy and cold outside James gets to ride this around the house. It took all of 1 week for James to be able to go from the family room to his bedroom with his feet up on the bar. I have a feeling Adam will be on it by mid-summer and James will be riding a normal bike. And speaking of Adam....

This is what happens when you let the 1 yr old, that doesn't understand birthdays and presents, sit on the bike and then make him get off...



Isn't that the best tantrum - I didn't get my way faces ever? It makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Winter Sports

The whole family got to go up to Targhee this year to see Ethan race down for winter sports. It was cold, but I'm glad we went.