Tahitian Noni Summer Party

We had a great time at Rich's work party. They were going for an Olympic theme this year, we ate Chinese food and steak...it was all really yummy. There was so much to do: bounce houses, inflatable slides, rock wall, little carnival type games, balloon animals, a photo booth, craft projects, shell necklaces, hair and face painting, Beijing acrobats, not to mention all the yummy treats: cotton candy, nachos, snow cones, crepes, popcorn. Let's just say this is definitely my kind of party!!


Max had a blast...he loved playing basketball and he got a 'spiderman' balloon that he was so excited about. He played a little too rough with it I guess cause one of his arms popped and he kept saying spiderman's muscles broke, it was cute!


Alex spent a lot of time making this mask and he was really proud of how it turned out. I can't even count how many times Alexa went back for more cotton candy, she LOVES the stuff. I was just enjoying my strawberry crepe (I won't tell you how many I had).

Alex spent most of his time on the inflatable slides and made a new friend. Max didn't really like the slides but Alexa got him to go on a small one. Rich pretty much ditched us all night, he sat and watched Noni Idol and didn't really participate in the rest of the activities.


The kids all got their hair painted and Max an Alex got Batman painted on their cheeks. I wasn't that thrilled when they all came back with colorful hair but what do you do??

They had these Chinese ladies that would write anything you wanted them to in Chinese, these are Alexa and Alex's names...notice how different they are, that made me wonder if they were imposter's!! The photo booth was really fun, we had a great time and can't wait until next year to do it all again!!!

Reunited

After hours of aimless wandering around Salt Lake, my family FINALLY arrived (an hour or so later than planned). We had several phone conversations about where to meet for dinner and it was getting us no where...finally my cousin Mandi and I decided on "Chuckarama" so that's where we met. We ended up walking across the street to "Training Table" because Melanie and Amy are babies and hate "the chuck".
It was a "girls night" except that we had Alex and Max (Rich was camping with the scouts so they had to come, plus I missed their guts and wanted to play with them too). My cousin Mandi planned this little outing since she is heading back up to Logan for school in a week and wanted to get in some "bonding time" with her mom before she left...she was so thoughtful and invited us all too, Thanks Mandi!!
I got to see Max after missing him all week and he was really excited to see me...he looked different to me (it was probably just in my head but he really did)!! He was CRAZY during dinner and was running around everywhere. I am not sure why but he felt like he needed to take off his shirt (someone must have mentioned "the hulk" or for some other strange, unknown reason). He is a crazy bug!!
Amy and Melissa thought it was fun to mess with the order takers and kept playing on the phones (not really but I just wanted to spice up the picture...you know make it a little more interesting). They are crazy too!
Max was all over the place, up and down on the tables and chairs and doing laps around the place barefoot and shirtless, yeah where the heck was his MOM?? He spilled my 32oz. diet coke (thank goodness for refills) all over the table and Amberly (sorry Amb). We caused quite a scene and were there for a long time (it would have been longer but it was freezing cold in there, I bet that was so we leave...)

The 10:00 News

When we got to our cars we noticed that it was almost ten o'clock and time for Channel 2 News . We were really close to the studio so we decided to go and watch the news from outside the studio. This isn't a first time for many of us...I have been a few times and last time we were there Brian Mullahy invited us in and gave us a tour. I love the ten o'clock news for some reason and also love causing a scene so this was a great opportunity for me!!

 

It was SUPER windy and pretty chilly but we got there right on time and started waving and yelling at Shauna and Mark through the glass. It wasn't long until a Security Guard came out to keep an eye on us. If you ever watch the ten o'clock news on channel 2 you have probably seen (and made fun of) the people jumping up and down in the background...yeah on Friday night that was us!!
Sterling Poulsen came out and was totally laughing at us (he probably thought we were crazy to be so excited about the local news). It is a great time and I highly recommend it. Its pretty amazing to watch the weather especially, he just has a big green screen behind him that he points to...it takes talent. I was sad that Roland Steadham wasn't there (he probably called sick cause it was SO windy and he didn't want to leave the house and risk his hair to get messed up). He is my favorite weather guy, so fun and cheesy!!
When Dave Fox came out we all died laughing because he had on his shirt, tie and jacket but then when you saw the bottom half he had on shorts, flip flops and pretty clean shaven legs!! It was great we laughed really hard and loud (I am pretty sure he heard us through the glass)!

 

The Security Guard was awesome and got Mark, Shauna and Sterling to come out after the news was over and chat with us for a few minutes. That was really awesome of them and we got some pictures of course! What a great night!

Little America

After the news was over it was time for bed so we went and got checked in to our hotel. We had adjoining rooms and that was really nice. Alex was so tired and he fell asleep early. We stayed up (most of us) and watched the Olympics and talked until 3am. We also made a midnight gas station run for drinks! The following pictures are pretty self explanatory so I will keep my commenting to a minimum.
This picture deserves a comment. My oldest sister Melanie has some pretty strange sleeping habits. She fell asleep quite early and she insists on having like 3 pillows on her head (she does it at home too). Well we got pretty noisy and woke her up. When she got up she looked in the mirror and said "I never look like this" referring to her crazy hair (apparently she usually wakes up looking great and she was really confused as to why she looked so crazy!)
This is what the room looked like after we got back from our "coke run", we weren't even gone that long. They eventually woke up and either joined the party or moved to another location and fell back asleep (Melissa)!!
We got an early "wake up" call (a lady from my work) at about 8:30am and we couldn't go back to sleep thanks to Amy turning on the TV. It was funny because when we got up Max was missing (I put him on the floor between the 2 beds), I didn't hear him get up in the night but I guess he went into the other room and stared at Monica until she woke up kinda freaked out so he stayed in her bed the rest of the night.
It was a great overnighter, thanks again Mandi. We all went shopping at the Gateway and Mandi and Annette stayed at the hotel and layed out at the pool.

Seven Peaks

Melissa and Steve took Alexa and Alex to Seven Peaks friday afternoon. It sounds like they had a great time (especially in the wave pool)!! They spent the afternoon there and then Steve dropped them off in Salt Lake to meet up with all of us!!
I worked and then left for Salt Lake myself to try to get in some last minute school shopping but had NO luck!! I ended up wandering around Target for like 2 and 1/2 hours waiting for the rest of my family to get to Salt Lake so we could go to dinner.

Amy, Owen and Max

Melanie dropped Max off at Amy's since she had to work. Amy took the boys on a stroller ride and they played and had a great time. Then they went up to my Mom's house for a little while before it was time to leave for Salt Lake to meet up with me!!
What a great way to fall asleep, they don't look very comfortable...especially Max.

E-mail from my Sister

Hi Ang

Max was a total precious last night. It took us about 15 minutes to wake him up, but once he was awake he was perfectly happy. I don't think I have ever really seen him sit down and eat. He sat up to the counter with the kids and ate 2 hotdogs, 2 juice boxes and chips. Mom has probably been starving him this week. After dinner they rode bikes and then he and Jake wrestled. The only fit came when it was time to put pj's on. After being kicked in the stomach a few times, I got his pj's on and he laid on the floor and screamed and kicked, we tried to just ignore him. Finally Dave took him into Brooklyn's room to have a talk. Dave walked out with Max hugging him and Dave sat and held him on the couch and they watched football, it was quite cute. They went downstairs to sleep and watch sponge bob. Max wouldn't lay down until Dave went down and they slept by each other with the other kids. This morning I asked him if he wanted to play with Owen and he said yep, thank you mel. It was adorable.

Melanie

My sisters all took a kid home last night so my mom could have a break (they have been there since Sunday night). Melanie obviously had Max, Amy took Alexa and Melissa took Alex. I hope they have cute stories to tell too...

Melissa and her husband Steve are actually on their way to Seven Peaks right now with Alexa and Alex so I hope she takes some pictures for me!!

Night out with the Girls

I went out to dinner at The Spaghetti Factory last night with some friends (thanks for inviting me Jen). We had such a good time laughing and laughing. It was Jen's bday and she was the spotlight of the evening (I have a feeling she probably always is, not just on her bday), she is hilarious and my cheeks were sore from laughing SO hard.
Thanks again for letting me tag along...it was great fun!!!

NO kiddos this week...

That's right, I am 'kid free' til Friday!! It is kinda sad and quiet here but I have been able to catch up on my blogging. Monica and Amb left for home yesterday and took the kids to my Mom's for the week.
They LOVE spending time in Logan and with school starting next week this was their 'last chance'. Thanks so much Mom for taking on three extra kids for the week!!
Rich is hoping that we will be able to get some things accomplished while we are alone...we'll see, just kidding that would be the 'smart' thing to do!!
Miss you already kids but I know you are in great hands, thanks again to all my family for being so loving and supportive!

Provo River Half Marathon

It was an early start...alarm went off at 4:30am, we had to get on the buses before 5:30am so we headed out. I snapped a lovely 'before' picture and don't we look really awake and excited to be up??
The race started at 6:30am and we had plenty of time to take our last bathroom breaks and wait for all the buses to get down the canyon so we could start. Rich came in first so there are no pictures of him but he did amazing...it only took him 1:23:46 that is a pace of 6:24 minutes per mile. He is INCREDIBLE!!! He placed 25th overall I was told there were 2400 runners so that is quite an accomplishment.
My sister Monica was next to come in at 2:06:41 with an average of 9:40 minutes per mile. She had a great run!! We both think since it wasn't time chipped that we should take a few minutes off our time because it takes a while to get going when there are SO many people on such a small road.
I had a pretty good race. My goal was to take less that 2 and 1/2 hours and I came in at 2:26:54 with an 11:13 minute per mile pace.

I only compete against myself...too bad I'm not more competitive!

It was a great course and the first 8 or 9 miles flew by (I was actually averaging around 10 minute miles until we got on flat ground). I did have to make one stop for a potty break and then when I got to mile 11 (each mile was marked) I thought "ok I can do this, two more miles" but we were winding in and out of businesses and you could see other runners ahead of you but you had no idea where the finish line was. There was no marker for mile 12 so I was really getting discouraged thinking I know I have run more than a mile by now and then all the sudden there were people lined up cheering and that gave me a little boost...where had they been the last 2 miles? I was a sweaty stinky pig and I had bloody toes when I was done but I DID IT!!!
Here is an 'after' picture, notice I'm the only one who looks like they just ran 13.1 miles...they had already recovered by time I finished!! It was a great race and a great accomplishment, now for the "REAL Marathon"

CARB Loading

We ate dinner at "The Old Spaghetti Factory" so we could get in as many carbs as possible for the race in the morning. Just kidding, that really isn't why but it was a good excuse. Max slept through dinner and we all enjoyed our pasta. Rich was craving the spumoni ice cream...that's the real reason we went!!

 

We went to Rich's work for lunch, he works at Tahitian Noni, they have a cafe that has really yummy food. Both my sisters had been wanting to eat there again because it is really good!! We all had lunch and then we went shopping. We hit Target, Old Navy, Ross, TJ Maxx and the Mall. We all made some purchases and had a great time!! We also picked up our bibs and shirts for the race so we wouldn't have to go any earlier than neceassary int he morning. The race t-shirts are so ugly, me and monica were both really mad about it. We paid good money for this race and expect a 'cute' shirt for it! Oh well, what do you do?
We were planning on going to bed early so we wouldn't be so tired in the morning but that never seems to work. We didn't want to miss "The Opening Ceremonies" for the Olympics so we stayed up a little later than we should have, but it was well worth it...I thought it was amazing and was so glad I didn't miss it!!

My BIG Sacrifice

My little sister Amberly has been here with us and Alex is at my Mom's. We did this trade off last year and it was a great time so I had expectations to live up to...and you have to know Amberly to understand that. She was excited to come stay with me for the week and was really looking forward to some pretty exciting activities. We didn't do much on Tuesday so on Wednesday I got off work a little early and we went to the movie "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" we had a fun time and after we went to Macey's for an ice cream cone. Rich wanted chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and that is where me and Amb had our first little problem. She was "not satisfied" with dinner and she is really particular about eating so I knew I was in trouble but there was no reason for her to not be satisfied. Needless to say I found a pop tart wrapper in the garbage can and I guess that was her after dinner snack.
I had told her I would take her to an Owlz game but didn't realize at the time that I had book club the same night, second problem. I decided that I would skip book club and take her cause she was looking forward to it and I didn't want to disappoint her or have her be grumpy with me the the rest of the week (or longer) we went to Wendy's for dinner and then to the game.

It was great weather for a game but Alexa was not that happy about being there (imagine that). Rich opted out of the game too. Max always has a great time and loved playing with Hootz. There was another problem I discovered during the middle of the game that made me really angry and I will not go into it but let's just say it pretty much ruined the mood of the "fun weekend away from home" thank goodness Monica and Alex are coming back tonight. I guess my patience needs some work.
Amberly is an awesome sister but she can be hard to take sometimes, she is constantly asking when her next meal is and what it is, she also asks questions that she already knows the answer to just to make conversation. I can't count how many times she said "whats for dinner" or "just wondering" or "it's not my fault" (that had to do with the before mentioned problem at the game...and it WAS her fault). She also said some pretty mean things to me but I just have to remember that she has 'special needs' and doesn't really try to be annoying or hurt my feelings!!
I love you Amb!

Monica and Alex spent the day at Lagoon (11am to 10pm, it was Alex's birthday present from her) and they had a great time but she didn't take any pictures for me, I will get her for that!! Alex was so exhausted when they got here at about 11:30pm that he just face planted on the couch and fell asleep.

To Logan we go...

Me, Alex, Max, Alexa and her friend Maddy got in the car and picked up Rich from work and were on our way to Logan for the weekend. It has been a really long time since we have been and I was really anxious to get there. The traffic wasn't the best but we finally made it. Most my sisters were there waiting for us so we caught up for a while and then decided it was time to eat.
Usually we end up eating at like 9:00pm by the time we all figure out what we want. We were all really hungry so we decided to head to Fredricos for some pizza and salad. If you are ever in Cache Valley it is well worth the trip. It's up by USU and really delicious!! We were all there except Steve and Jason and had the backroom to ourselves!! We were loud and had a great time. I love going out with a huge group of people it makes it SO much fun!!

 

After dinner most of us headed to the mall. We went to American Eagle and there was a sign that said "free t-shirt" for trying on jeans...you know we all tried on jeans and scored free t-shirts (even Rich got in on the action), some of us actually bought the jeans. (I can't believe I didn't get pictures of this).
We were all prepared for a "late night" because of the release of "Breaking Dawn" all the bookstores were having parties and then putting the book on sale at 12:00am. We went to Kohl's (I still hate it even though I got a great deal on some shoes) and then of course to Walmart because a shopping trip isn't complete without it.
By the time we got to the party (not much of a party really) everyone was in line to purchase the book so we just stood in line.

My sister Melissa was making fun of all the people who were really intense and taking things way too serious. She yelled "you better run fast before they sell out" or something like that to people who she was like 2 feet away from, I thought she might get beat up but luckily we all got our copies and got home about 1:00am.
It was a great day!!!


Saturday

Me, Rich and Monica woke up early (not early enough) the next morning to go for a run. We run a half marathon next week and needed to get in a "long run" we drove up Blacksmith Fork Canyon and ran 10 miles. I thought it would be a great easy downhill in the breezy canyon but that isn't what it was. It was HOT and not much shade and not really that downhill. Luckily I am the slowest so by the time I was done they had already gone for water and I took my shoes off and put my feet in the river (it was taunting me the whole time I was running). It was a pretty good start to the day.
We went back to my mom's for our usual Saturday morning donuts. The kids all slept in and so I decided to take a little nap, so did Monica and Rich. The rest of the day we stayed at my parents house and just talked and stuff. Alexa, Kenzie and Maddy decided to get wet and jumped on the trampoline for a while.

 

The other kids did too earlier in the day but I didn't take pictures. We decided to have a "Weber dog" with our corn on the cob (Logan always gets theirs later than us so I brought some cause my parents LOVE it!! My dad is such a great "Weber master" and it was "one good hot dog"

 

After dinner we put up the badminton net and the kids had a great time playing and Max thought it was awesome and wanted to be on a team too.




The three girls headed home with Melissa and Steve to have a sleepover (see Melissa's blog for the slide show) looks like they had TONS of fun!!

Monica took Max and Jake home with her and Alex went home with the Clark's.


Sunday

Me and Rich were able to sleep in since my parent's church doesn't start until 11am. It was really nice. After church we hung out and went down to Monica's office to play on the computers (we were pretty bored). Everyone came up for dinner. Dad whipped out the Weber again and we had delicious hamburgers and fruit and jello and baked beans...yummy. Batman made an appearance...I was surprised he didn't wear his costume that much (he wears it all day at home). Everyone thought he was really funny.

Monica made peanut butter fingers for dessert and they were so good. We played American Idol on the Wii and everyone was really impressed with Maddy's vocal talents, everyone wanted her to keep singing. We had a really nice day. Max slept over with Monica again and Alex went to the Clark's again.


Monday

Rich has stared working 4 tens at his job that rotate Mon-Thur then the next week Tue-Fri so every other week he will have Fri-Mon off. I am excited because we will be able to get away for that much longer and he will be home more which is always a plus!!
We didn't do too much today, mostly everyone was at work so I took the girls shopping for a while and then we all met up for lunch at Old Grist Mill for sandwiches. We shopped some more and then had dinner and said our good-byes. It was great to be able to stay an extra day. We left Alex at my Mom's and traded for Amberly for the week she is really excited to "have a break" and I am "thrilled" to have her!!
Alexa asked me for my camera on the way home so I guess I will post some of the ride home.






They are gross...but we love them. Thanks for coming with us Maddy, we hope you had as much fun as we did.
I miss you all already!!!