The Dentist

Jared and Kamryn went to the dentist the other day for their check up.

This was their 3rd visit to the dentist.

The hygientist did a great job with the kids.

They were watching "Finding Nemo". The cleaning was a little more ticklish on Kamryn.

The dentist said both of them did a great job and that their teeth look great. It's so nice to hear that. I guess it pays to start taking them to the dentist when they are 2 so that it's easy when they are three.

Unfortunately going to the dentist myself isn't so easy. I went in for a check up last week and I had 3 new cavities. I went back in yesterday to have them filled. I really HATE going to the dentist. It is quite an ordeal for me and by the time I left after an hour in the chair I had a bad headache and was in a foul mood.

Marathon Pictures

Check this link to see pictures from the marathon by the official professional photographer. He took some pretty cool pictures. It's interesting looking at them - most parts/roads of the race I don't really remember. It's all kind of a blur. I'd really like to go back and drive the route to really see it.

Marathon Report

It's Monday after the marathon and I am alive!!
I am very sore and could barely walk yesterday and this morning. I'm doing better this afternoon after walking 1/2 mile on the treadmill, sitting in the hot tub and then the kiddie pool at the Rec Center.
If you want a report on the actual marathon, go here.
I've been asked some good questions from good friends.
1. Has this been a life changing experience? Yes - in many ways. I proved to myself that I really could finish a marathon. It took disciplined training over 6 months time. That is the important thing - the consistent training is really what I was going for. I've always started exercising but quit after a couple of months. This is the most consistent and dedicated I've ever been in my whole life. Now I just need another goal to keep me going.
2. Would I do it again - the marathon itself and the training program? That was easy to answer - YES!! YES!!!
The marathon itself was very difficult and I can't imagine doing a lot of marathons but I do want to do at least one more (the St George marathon) in the future.
I learned a lot about myself in the process of training for this marathon. I liked the training program and having a specific training program telling me what to do each day was perfect for me.
I also learned that there are certain distances that I enjoy running. I don't really like doing the 5K distance - too short and I just get into the groove and the race is over. I enjoy any distance between 5 - 13 miles, especially our training runs that were between 8-12 miles. I really want to do some 1/2 marathons now - I think that would be the most enjoyable and do-able for me.
PS Some tidbits about the marathon not included in my race report:
**You can see in 2 pictures on the slideshow a guy who is all bandaged up and bloody. He was being worked on at the very first aid station (Mile 1). We don't know for sure what happened but we figure he tripped at the very beginning of the race and probably got stepped on too. He is amazing! I would have been out of the race right then. But he kept going and finished. I wish I could have talked to him.
**The first place finisher is from Kenya. We saw him the night before at the pasta dinner and I said to my fellow chics, "there's the 1st place runner and I bet he's from Kenya and I was right on both counts :)
**Just found out today that one girl who we know (Laura Whiting Kiessner) that was at the pasta dinner with her husband, ran in the marathon and finished just ahead of Desiree. She was at the pasta dinner with her husband, Honko, and he was feeling bad because everyone there was running the marathon so he registered and ran the marathon and finished with her - with no recent training. How does a person do that?

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR SUPPRORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT!!

Marathon Slideshow

A Shameless Plea

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY - Marathon day!! Along with 3 of my running friends (we call ourselves the "running chics"), I am running in the Top of Utah Marathon. It starts in Black Smith Fork Canyon and ends in Logan. We start at 7:00 am but will have been up since 4:00 am so that we can get ready and to the bus pick up by 5:00. Our main goal is to finish but we would love to finish in under 5 hours - 4:59:59 would be awesome.
My plea is this - pray for me. And pray for it to not rain. The forecast is for rain - 30%. That forecast is what has me the most worried.
And if you want to you can check the progess of the race here. I am number 2937.
thanks for your support.

Hair and Makeup

Last night for YW we had a seminar on hair and makeup. Through connections of some of our leaders we had 3 young ladies talk to our girls about their expertise.
The first 2 young ladies talked about hair and how to take care of your hair. They showed the girls some quick tricks to fix your hair that wasn't too hard or took too much time.
The other young lady talked about skin care and makeup. She even made up one of the girls and showed how natural makeup can look when you apply it correctly.
All of our YW seemed to enjoy the activity and they asked LOTS of questions.
To conclude the activity our Mia Maid/Laurel advisor talked to the girls about what is beauty - inside and out. She talked to them about knowing who they are and to not compare themselves to movie stars who have been made up by a team of professionals. She really brought the spirit in to the activity and concluded with a great message. It was a great activity and one that we will do again. We even talked about doing a slumber party where the girls can experiment with what they learned.

What a Coincidence!

After I dropped off Jared and Kamryn and their friends at school today (they were all so excited to go and the drop off went smoothly, yea) I went to help in Taylor's class. His teacher had the best task for me to do - wrap empty cereal boxes in plain brown paper. That is what I love to do when I go in to help - some mindless task in the back of the classroom so I can quietly observe Taylor, his class and the teacher. I was very impressed with all 3.
Another mom came in to help and while we were wrapping these boxes we chatted. I asked her who her child is and she said Taylor (a girl). I found out that she also has 3 year old twins (both girls) and one of the girl's name is Kamryn (spelled the same). How funny is that?

Overheard in the Car

Yesterday, in the afternoon, I was driving home from my sister's house with Jared and Kamryn. They were kind of arguing about something and I said "be nice." The conversation (or fight would be a better word) that ensued:
Jared: I'm mad at you
Kamryn: No, I'm mad at you.
Jared: No, you're not mad at me. I'm mad at you.
Kamryn: No, I'm mad at you.
Jared: NO - I'M MAD AT YOU!!
Kamryn: NO - I'M MAD AT YOU!!

This continued on for several minutes :)

Swimming

Today I took Jared and Kamryn swimming at the indoor "Splash Zone" at the Rec Center. It's a shame to have to swim inside when it's still so nice outside but that was our only option. The splash zone is open from 12 - 2 on Mon and Wed. I'm going to try to go with the once a week - usually on Wed after preschool but this week it had to be Monday. We got there at 12:30 and no one was in the pool. We were the only ones for a whole hour and then only 2 kids joined us for the last 1/2 hour it was open.
It was so great having the whole pool to ourselves. Jared and Kamryn had a great time and I enjoyed watching them. They played together some of the time and then did their own thing too. They even started wrestling in the water which concerned me but they came out of it okay.
Now Kamryn's crashed out on the couch and Jared is going to join her pretty quick.

Happy Birthday Taylor

Taylor on his 11th Birthday

Doesn't he have a great smile ?!

To celebrate his birthday, Taylor chose to have dinner at Golden Corral with his family

and all of his grandparents.

Taylor enjoyed having his birthday on a Saturday. He got up and watched cartoons all morning until his soccer game at noon. His team won 2-1 and he almost scored a goal. He enjoyed his dinner and then had fun opening a couple of presents from his family - new cords for the PlayStation, a soccer ball and a new Lego Star Wars set. He got money from his grandparents that he wants to use to buy another BIG Lego Star Wars set.

Taylor is a great young man and is very grown up. He is very helpful with Jared and Kamryn and is becoming one of my main babysitters. He loves to play soccer and is doing great this fall as one of the youngest players on his team. He works hard at school and rarely has homework because he does all of his work at school. Taylor is a good friend and has lots of good friends. I love him very much and am proud of him.

It's Impossible!

1st day of PRESCHOOL

Kamryn on her first day of preschool

Jared on his first day of preschool

Today Jared and Kamryn went to Brighton High School for their first day of school at Bengal Paw Preschool. They were very excited to go. They got up at 7:15 AM!! To take up time they had a bath - a long bath. Then they picked out what they wanted to wear - Jared fit right in today at Brighton - all the students were in orange for Homecoming. They even had time to watch Curious George. Kamryn kept asking if it was time to get in the car.

Finally it was time to go. We drove over to Brighton and waited for a couple of minutes until it was time to go into their classroom. I think the HS students were as overwhelmed as the preschoolers. J & K have 2 friends from the ward going to preschool with them and that definitely helped. Jared had a hard time joining in the activities at first. While the kids were checking out their new school the parents went in the next room for a little meeting. Jared only came in to find me once. I could tell that they are some of the youngest preschoolers in the class. Hopefully they'll be okay. Class was only 1 hour today - normally it will be 3 hours on Wed and Fridays. Kamryn was ready to go after that hour. I just hope they adjust. It was fun to watch them play on the playground.

All I can say is - FREEDOM (at least a little bit).

Justin

I just wanted to brag about Justin for a minute:
On Saturday was his first soccer game this year. He plays in a co-ed division that is 14-19 year olds. It is really fun to watch Justin play, along with the rest of his team. His personal goal is to try to score two goals. He accomplished that in the game with plenty of time left to play. He had the ball and could have easily scored again but passed it off to one of the girls so she could try to score. We were very proud of him for that. We were talking to him about it and he said that is always one of his goals - to assist the girls to score. I think he might have ulterior (sp?) motives :)
On Sunday Justin spoke in stake conference. He received a call from the stake president while we were in Alaska. He said it's all my fault that the stake president called him because I'm always chatting with the man. (Our current stake president was in the bishopric when I was in the singles ward a LONG time ago. I've known the SP longer than I've known Paul).
Anyway, Justin did a great job with his talk. He didn't seem nervous at all. He didn't just read the whole talk, which he had prepared on his own on FRIDAY night (he was at the Utah game on Sat night) and he was funny and spiritual. To conclude his talk he was sharing his testimony and he mentioned how he loved his family, especially his mom. He then went on to share this story:
"A while ago we were in priesthood and my teacher was talking about missions and he went around the room and asked each person individually if they were going to go. When he got to me he said 'Oh, Justin, I don't even have to ask you. I know your Mom and I know you're going."

How Embarassing

Last Thursday I took Jared and Kamryn to Brooke's church volleyball game. They had a great time playing with the other kids there. At one point Jared told me he had to go potty. So I took him in the bathroom and when I went to help him I realized he didn't have any shorts on - just underwear! I hadn't noticed until then :)

Kamryn's 1st dance class

Arrow of Light

Taylor at his last pack meeting as a cub scout.
He is taking part in the arrow of light ceremony.

Taylor with Alf, his 11 year old scout leader,
after crossing the bridge from cub scouts to boy scouts.

Taylor with his Webelos' leaders - his great-aunt Eileen who is in our stake and Michelle Young who is in our ward. Thank goodness for these great ladies - they helped him all through Webelos. If it weren't for them, Taylor wouldn't have gotten his Arrow of Light. I told them they deserved the mother's pin.

Taylor - proud scout

Happy Anniversary

Dale-Susan Lisa-Paul

We continued celebrating our anniversary by going to Ruth's Chris Steak House on Saturday night (we'd been given a gift card to go there at Christmas time and were finally using it for a fun celebration). Susan and Dale were celebrating their 13th anniversary (Aug 12) and we were celebrating our 17th (Aug 31). Since we were celebrating anniversaries we each got a free dessert with a candle - how cute. We really enjoyed our dinner and being able to visit in a nice peaceful setting with our children needing us (ie bothering us).

17 Years

NOW

THEN

17 years ago in July we got engaged on the U of U golf course. On August 31st we were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
For our anniversary we try to go back to that same course at the U and celebrate our engagement and all those great years of marriage by whacking away at a little white ball.
This year, we went golfing on Friday evening, 2 days before the official anniversary. As luck would have it we had a guy join us for the evening (he was golfing alone and it was crowded so it just made sense logisitically, just not romantically). It did work out because he could be our photographer. And it was okay that he joined us because it was kind of comical night with both Paul and I having pretty bad games that night and our friend was drinking so it got funnier as the night went on. On one hole, Paul and Al hit the same pine tree 3 times in a row while trying to tee off. I was laughing so hard I about had an accident.
All in all it was a fun evening and we are so glad to be together and still have each other :)