Happy Birthday Sean!

I totally slacked and didn't get a post done for Sean's Birthday. His birthday is on the 12th and I have got to say we had a great day- he even said it was one of his best birthdays ever. He had the WHOLE day off of work- yay!! After we dropped Brooklyn off at school we took Gracie to Paula's and then him and I went to lunch and spent the afternoon together running errands- not too exciting but it was just the two of us so it was very enjoyable. And then that night we went to Texas Road House with our families. When I went in to get our seats- I asked them if they did anything for Birthdays and they pointed to a saddle sitting there and said we have them sit and that and sing to them. Of course I didn't tell Sean what was coming- so he got to saddle up and and be given a very loud "yee haw!" I try not to get too mushy on my blog, but I have got to say that I have such a fantastic husband! He is such a good daddy to his little girls- they love him so much. As soon as they hear him at the door they go running waiting for him to get in with the biggest smiles on their faces. Sean works so hard for our family- between working and going to school he stays plenty busy and I am so thankful for how hard working and supportive he is! We love you so much Sean!

"YEE HAW"

Las Vegas Ragnar Relay

So last weekend the 9th and 10th- I participated in my first Ragnar Relay in Las Vegas!! It was a BLAST!!! Leading up to it I was starting to get anxious about going because I was leaving the gals for 4 days and 3 nights. Brooklyn has had sleepovers here and there, but I have never been away from them for that long. My supportive teammates kept encouraging me and telling me that I could do it. And I did- I missed them though! We left thursday night and drove to St. George. Our starting time wasn't until 11 AM. We had such a great team- there was me, my sis-in-law Chelsea, good friend, Karlie, my friend from my ward Lori, my sister's sis-in-law Mallory, and my good friend Kara. My friend Lori had run the Wasatch Back twice, but for the rest of us it was our first Ragnar. We were so excited to start. Mel started us off and then our second runner was Karlie. We gave Karlie water and were getting ready to leapfrog ahead and a runner started yelling at us and pointing to the tire. We looked and it was F-L-A-T!! Not just a little low, but flat. Crap! So LUCKILY for us there was a another team "Hell on Heels" ahead of us. (We ended up being close by them the whole time and we would cheer for each other- they became our adopted team). They had a guy in their car that got out and was going to work on changing it- thanks Rob. So Rob got out and I hopped into their van and they took me to my starting point. Poor Karlie didn't know what was going on and was wondering where we were. I gave a water bottle to the volunteer where I started from and asked him to tell Karlie what was going on- like 2 or 3 minutes later and Karlie sitting there not knowing what was going on he told her. So she got in with them and they took her back to the Durango and got Chelsea. When I got done with my run- my team still wasn't back- so I got back in with the other team and Rob made me a sandwich and they got me some gatorade. I might add it was SO hot- I wasn't prepared for that. We really were so blessed to have them. Finally- as I was sitting there my team showed up. It turned out to be quite the ordeal- thank you to the town of Logandelle for helping us out! We ran through the "Valley of Fire" and it was beautiful. We exchanged with the other van and headed toward our first rest stop at Lake Mead. Around this point, I started getting a terrible headache and just wanted to sleep but couldn't. To make a long story short- I got sicker than a dog- the headache was still there and I was so nauseated and dry heaving. I don't know if after my run I was dehydrated and then overhydrated too quickly or if I got some sort of heat stroke or something like that, but I was sick. It was our night run and the run I was looking forward to running. As it got closer to my run we knew that I wasn't going to be able to do it- thanks to Karlie and Chels for doing it. At this point we also learned that our second van had gotten a flat tire. Seriously were we cursed or what? But we got to our second rest stop and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep and when I woke up- I felt MUCH better and was able to run my last leg. When our car was done we headed to the finish line and waited for our team to finish. When the last runner got done our whole team ran across the finish line together it was a good way to end the race! Thanks to my team #199 Wayne's World- we had a blast together and everyone did great!! I couldn't have done this without a great supporting team back home. Thanks Paula for watching Gracie when I left. Thanks mom, dad, Nat, and Brett for helping with the gals on friday night and saturday!! Thanks to Sean for spoiling the girls rotten while I was away they had a BLAST!! Thanks to my sweet girls- Brooklyn told me she would be cheering for me in her heart while I was gone and I could definetely feel it! I love you all!!

(On a side note- although we had a ton of fun there was a tragedy along the course. On Saturday morning a 35 year old man named Jeremy was giving support to one of his teammates and was hit and killed by a drunk driver. His wife and mother-in-law as well as extended family were on his team and saw the whole thing. Even though running the race there were over 200 hundred teams we really were 1 big team- my heart aches and goes out to Jeremy's wife and his little family of 2 kids.)

Chels, Lori, Mal, Karlie, me, Kara

The flat tire

Valley of Fire

This is cute Mal wearing the get-up that was had to wear at night. (I say we like I wore it)

Finally feeling better and starting my last leg- 4.4 miles

This is our whole team at the finish line

Sweet Taylie

Some of you may have heard of this sweet little girl named Taylie- she was diagnosed with cancer not too long before her mom had her 3rd baby. I heard of this family a month or so ago from a friend and my heart has ached for them. I cannot imagine how if would feel to have to deal with something like this. I know how much I love my sweet gals and all the funny and crazy things they do- it would be heartbreaking to have to see one of them suffer like that.

There are all kinds of efforts being made on behalf of this family to raise money for them. You can find out more by visiting Taylie's webpage at http://www.tayliebug.com. My cute fried Kylene found a sponser who will donate 2 dollars for every post that is made on someone's blog, facebook page, or twitter page. Please post this and tell your friends to post this. And then let Kylene know that you did so- so she can keep track of it all and let the kind and generous sponser know. You can leave a comment on her blog at http://adashofseason.blogspot.com/ to let you know that you did it.

Let's do what we can to help this cute little family!

I Love these Gals...

I know this sounds cliche- but I feel so blessed to be the mom of these two sweet girls! They bring so much joy and happiness into my life! I was lucky enough to have a sister and these two are so lucky to have each other. I love how they call each other "sissy" or "sis". Last week after family night Gracie was on the couch and fell off and immediately started screaming and blood coming out of her mouth. Sean and I took her into the sink and could not see where it was coming from. She bawled and screamed for a good 20 minutes. She let out a scream and Sean and I saw a huge gaping hole in the very back of her mouth on the roof. I started looking around to see what had happened and saw a marker laying right where she had fallen. It had stabbed the top of her mouth. Poor thing! It was a MISERABLE night and following days. Thank goodness for the movie Ratatouille. For some reason she LOVES that movie and can sit and watch the whole thing. I have no idea how any times we watched it- but it was the only thing that would make her happy. Brooklyn was a little jealous that Gracie got to stay up at night and watch it- I walked into the front room and saw the two of them cuddling together. Brooklyn had her arm around Gracie and was rubbing her arm. It was one of the sweetest things I have seen in awhile. It was hard to get mad at Brooklyn when she was taking such good care of her sissy!

LOTOJA

Last weekend my brother Brian rode in is SIXTH LOTOJA- if you are unfamiliar with this race it goes from Logan to Jackson Hole almost 200 miles. Quite the feat in my opinion. Sean had to work on Saturday and the gals and I are always ready for an adventure so we went with my mom and Chels. My dad, Sher, Brett, and B and Sher's good friends Dan and Sarah did support. We had a GREAT time with a couple incidents. After Soda Springs and before you get to Star Valley, Wyoming you go through an area called Tin Cup. We were cruising along and the next thing I hear from the back of the car is the throwing up sound and Chelsea saying, "Gracie just barfed." It wasn't a little throw-up either and it was the nasty smelling kind- that we had to deal with the rest of the day. So here we are pulled off to the side of the road- my mom and I were trying to get Gracie cleaned up and in clean clothes and Chelsea pulled the true love of an aunt and cleaned up the carseat. THANK YOU CHELS!!! This has happened to Gracie a couple different times when we are driving- poor thing- I think she gets car sick. She was fine after and didn't throw-up any more the rest of the trip. Thank goodness. Back to the LOTOJA- Brian did awesome and I have got to say as cheesy as it sounds that I am so proud of him for completing this 6 times. This year he even received a "major award" (we like to tease him about it) for completing 1000 miles. Good Job, B! The night before the race as he was getting ready he kept saying he wished there was a way he could get out of it honorably- joking around and kept making jokes about his bike breaking or someone stealing it or something like that. Which brings us to incident #2. Brian's bike was in the back of my dad's truck and we were following them. In Montpelier, my dad goes to pass a truck and as he is passing we see the bike come up and then back down and then up and is flying out of the truck going right towards the truck they are passing. I don't remember doing this but Brett and Chels say that I yell out, "OH NO! Brian's bike!!" I start honking the horn- like that is going to make a difference or they can hear it. So luckily the bike misses the truck- it lands right on the handle bars- flips onto the front tire- and then the seat- and skids across the road. Apparently my dad sees the bike fly out of the truck and totally cut the truck off he was passing and slammed on his brakes causing this poor truck to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting my dad. Poor truck- we are sorry that we caused you to have not 1, but 2 heartattacks. So here sits B's poor bike in the middle of the road- I get the flashers on and jump out the Durango and grab the bike. We did make the rest of the trip home without any other incidents! The poor bike didn't fair so well and has a couple cracks in the frame- which means it is history. Good thing it happened after- I guess. All-in-all we had a great time- a fast trip but a good trip.

At Alpine Junction

Brooklyn loved looking at the Snake River

B and his "major award" and if you look closely in the back you can see the Tetons

Speaking of the Tetons- this was our view from the deck of the condo we stayed out. I think these mountains are amazing!

Labor Day

We had an awesome Labor Day this year- Labor Day weekend is also Wellsville's Founders Day. Wellsville has a tradition of firing off a cannon the morning of- starting at about 5 A.M. This year right at 5:11 I woke up startled because the cannon went off right outside of my window. Luckily- the rest of the house slept through it. A couple months ago I challenged my cousin Janalee that we should start training and run the Wellsville Fun Run 5K on Labor Day. The beginning of July we started our training. And we did it!! We ran a 5K. When I first started training, I honestly could not run a block without wanting to die. And little by little my body became used to it. We are especially proud of ourselves because we actually ran the whole thing! That was a major accomplishment for both of us. Thank you Jan for being such a great running partner and for keeping me motivated. Thank you also to our "fans" who came and cheered us on- it was so good to see your faces as we were in the final stretch! After the run we all went to my house and had a delicious breakfast and then walked down to the parade. The parade was spectacular this year- and we managed to get a ton of candy! Wellsville also has a tradtion of having a "sham battle" in this event, there are some people dressed up as Cowboys/Pioneers and then there are the loud Indians. They all are shooting off guns and are VERY loud- not a favorite part of the parade. Brooklyn decided she didn't like it at all and hid behind the stroller. I might mention that Gracie slept through the parade- she would not have enjoyed this either. But, other than that it was a fun parade. After the parade, we headed out to Sean's grandparents house in Stone, Idaho. Sean's grandma spoiled us with a fantastic lunch. They have a 4-Wheeler and a Ranger. Brooklyn LOVES both of these and spends most of her time going for rides. This year Gracie decided that she also LOVES the Ranger. We could not get her off of it. Even when we were done she would sit on it and put the seatbelt on. We had a wonderful day!

Enjoying the parade and Brooklyn hiding behind the stroller

Miss Gracie

Brooklyn and her cousin Becca

THANK YOU!!

I decided that I wanted to do a post thanking Soldier's and their families. I have a friend who is over in Germany right now and her husband is a Soldier. Thank you Heather and Andrew. I have an uncle who has been to the Middle East more than once with the National Guard- Thank you Kevin and Claudia. We have a good friend who was just deployed to the Middle East leaving home 2 adorable kids and his wife who is pregnant and will most likely have the baby without him here. Thank you Steve and Tae. As I have watched TaeLyn I am amazed at how well she is handling Steve being deployed- they are such great examples to me. I have said that I could never be a soldier, but I am so glad that there are people out there who are brave enough to risk their lives in protecting us and the freedoms that we enjoy. So I would like to give a big THANK YOU to the soldiers and their supportive families!