He's a Big Boy

Jared on his bed in his BIG BOY Spiderman UNDERWEAR

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!!
We've spent this last couple of weeks working on getting Jared out of diapers and into big boy underwear. He was showing signs of being ready and I knew he could do it - I just had to convince him of that. He's pretty stubborn and unless it's his idea it's not going to happen.
So last week I convinced him to try big boy underwear and that went okay for a day. Then he decided he didn't like the underwear in his drawer and went commando for a couple of days - until we bought Thomas the Train underwear. He had a few accidents but nothing we couldn't cope with. We had a little setback over the weekend because Jared got sick and was back in diapers Sat and Sunday.
This week has been much better and I consider him fully potty trained. He even wears underwear to bed and has never had an accident during the night (I'm very lucky that way). This morning I didn't even talk to him about going potty when he first got up. I let him decide to go when he needed to - and he did. He has a huge bladder and can go 8 hours sometimes without needing to visit the bathroom.
I can't believe that phase is over and it was relatively painless.

Some Perspective

So this morning I was just checking out the announcements page on the running blog I post on and came across this announcement. I checked out the blog listed and spent the next hour reading about a family I don't know and having tears roll down my face as I read. I wondered why do all these tragedies happen and how do people overcome such huge obstacles? I always feel guilty when I read about such hard times that others face and know that I am not facing those tragedies nor do I feel like I could. It just makes me grateful for my family and our health and that we have each other and I will try to make each day count and not take so much as a given.

3 Schools

Today was the first day of school for my 3 oldest kids.
And they are all going to different schools.

Taylor is in 5th grade at Butler Elementary. His teacher is Mrs. French.

Brooke is in 9th grade at Butler Middle School. She had a great first day and has an awesome seminary teacher.

Justin is a sophomore at Brighton High School. I can't possibly be old enough to have a son that is going to high school. And going to MY high school too. Just too weird. He said he had a good day but not too much info out of him.

Traditional 1st day of school picture in front of our house.

16 MILES!

Yesterday my running group did a long run of 16 miles!! That is a long, long run!
We ran out Wasatch Boulevard and through Draper and by South Mtn and near the new temple and down Draper Canal Trail and almost to Ikea!!
The best thing about it was I felt good for almost the whole thing, very little aches and pains, and finished strong and felt like I could go farther. It was very good for me mentally and I actually began to think I might be able to finish this marathon I'm training for and is in less than a month.

Yard Sale

I got this crazy idea on Thursday to do a yard sale this Saturday! Maybe that really is the way to do it - only work on it for 2 days so you don't spend too much time on it.
Taylor has been bugging me for almost a year to help him clean out his room. We finally dug in and did it on Thursday. His room lets great now (picture to be posted later) and we cleaned out about 8 boxes worth of stuff.
I also had the kids clean out their closets and we bagged up about 6 bags of clothes!



so this morning I did the yard sale thing!
I actually had it at my friend's house (she was staying at her mom's this weekend) because she has a much better location for a yard sale. I had to get up early to go set everything out. I advertised the sale from 8:30 - 11:30 and a lady stopped by at 7:15 to see if we were selling yet!
It was an interesting experience to see who came and what they bought. Taylor came and helped me for about 1/2 the time and then loaded up what was left and went to the DI with me. We ended up making about $100 and got rid of a lot of stuff.

Fun Book Club

I just got back from book club and what a fun night!!
We read Brainiac - Ken Jenning's book about his stint on Jeopardy. Amber, who picked the book and hosted tonight had made up her own version of Jeopardy for us to play tonight. We played as teams and I was on the Persian Pickles team. We came from behind, caught up, went ahead with a correct answer on a daily double and then got the final jeopardy question correct (What book did Dr Seuss right on a bet if he could write a book using 50 words?)** and won by $2.00.
Great job Amber!!!
**Answer in the comments

Sleepy Kids

Jared and Kamryn were watching a movie this afternoon and this is how I found them.

They had been pretending it was snowing outside and were wearing their gloves and snow hats.

Kamryn

Jared

Brooke even joined in on the snooze action.

The last of Alaska

On our last afternoon in Sitka, Paul and I did a little shopping and exploring. We ran into this bear and I wasn't too sure about him but Paul hit it off with him fabulously.

ATV Tour

On Saturday we did a really fun group activity with everyone all together since the guys were done fishing. We went on a boat out to another island and then went in these Yamaha Rhino ATVs for a 3 hour tour of part of the island. They are like 4 wheel drive golf carts. Paul had so much fun driving that I let him drive the whole time (thus saving myself from the teasing at dinner that went on between the husbands and wives).

Taking a little break in Iris Meadow. We were hoping to see some bears but they didn't cooperate.

More Alaska Photos

Paul and I by one of the Totems in the Sitka National Park.

Paul's fishing group on their last day. That is a halibut, caught on a salmon rod, that weighed about 160 pounds. The guy who caught it (to the right of the fish) is shorter than and weighs less than the fish he caught.

Paul and I just before dinner at The Channel Club (very nice restaurant) in front of the Sitka Sound on our only sunny day.

Report from Alaska

We have really been enjoying our vacation. it's great because this is something we would never do on our own. One of the subcontractors, J&S Mechanical, that Paul works with is hosting us on this trip. Jack, who is president of operations, invited us a long time ago so it's been fun just anticipating the trip and checking out online what we would be doing.

There are 4 couples and then 4 more guys (without their wives) on this trip. We are staying in Sitka at a nice hotel.

Right after we arrived on Tuesday we went exploring in the afternoon. Sitka is a small town - you can drive from one end to the other and it's only 13 miles. The mountains are so cool - coming up right from the ocean. Most of our group walked over to Sitka National Park to see the salmon swimming upriver. It's such an amazing thing to watch. There were hundreds of fish in the river and pretty big.
The National Park was like a rain forest. It was beautiful and lots of great trails to explore. All I kept thinking was what a great place to run.
For dinner that evening we went out as a group for mexican. It was delicious. We thought that was pretty funny to go all the way to Alaska for mexican food.

Big Fish

One of the Silver Salmon that Paul caught today. He had a great time out fishing today. Much better than yesterday where he was SICK on the boat most of the day. All of the guys put in $25.00 and whoever catches the first fish of the day gets $50 and then the biggest catch of the day gets $50. Paul won for first catch of the day.

Me in Sitka national park. We went there on Tuesday right after getting to Sitka. It was beautiful.

One of the leaves in the park.

There's lots more to tell but it's late. We get to sleep in tomorrow so I'll catch it up in the morning.

bye-bye

Paul and I are headed off on a great trip. JS Mechanical, a subcontractor Paul's work uses a lot is taking us to Alaska for a big adventure trip. We'll be gone for most of the week. Paul will be going deep sea fishing for 3 days and has the possibility of bringing home up to 100 pounds of salmon and halibut. Here's some of the things I'll be doing with the other wives coming on the trip:
Whale Watching Tour
kayaking in the Sitka Sound
On Saturday the whole group is going on a 4x4 adventure tour in ATV Jeeps.
Hopefully I'll be able to post from up there.

Camping Slideshow

Camping update

Hope you enjoy the slideshow of our camping trip to Washington Lake. We had a great time the rest of the week that we were up there. We didn't have any more rain but it was quite windy a lot of the time. We went on hikes, did some bike riding - both around camp and on trails. We spend a lot of time out on the lake on our rubber rafts. Jared and Kamryn were very good about wearing their life vests whenever they were near the water and they loved going in the boat with their dad.
Right when we got there on Thursday Kamryn wanted to go out in the with her dad. She helped him blow it up and get everything ready to go. Jared and Kamryn also loved going in my brother's bike trailer and would beg everyone to take them for a ride.
We ate great meals and just enjoyed hanging out in the beautiful mountains by the lake.