Why I LOVE Christmas Cards...

     Aren't Christmas Cards great??  I love them.  I love getting "fun" mail almost every day in December.  I love seeing pictures of friends and their families and how they've grown.  I've actually gotten a Christmas card with a pregnancy announcement...very cool.  We got a card from our Bishopbric, our insurance agent and our dentist.  My Mom always sends a beautiful card from an art gallery my parents love.  There are simple, traditional and very artistic and contmporary cards.  One amazing friend of mine sends a CD of cool Christmas music with their card. 
     Mostly I love getting cards from people who I haven't spoken with for years.  There's something about a Christmas card that gives you a free pass when it comes to that awkward.."I haven't done a good job keeping in touch with you moment."  When I send Christmas cards I send them to our close family members and old friends.  I love sending a card to someone that we loved once in our lives to say just that "we loved you once and we remember that at Christmas."  So thank you for all the Christmas cards!  Our door is full to the brim and I'll keep them up as long as I can get away with it! 

Draper Lights

  

    I love where I live. There is a huge sense of community here that I've never felt anywhere else. Last year they started putting Christmas lights on the trees at Draper Park.  This year they started it all off with a lighting ceremony.  It's so nice to live within walking distance of this awesome park.  The pictures don't do the lights justice, seriously this white tree is huge! I guess you'll just have to come see them yourself.  Just be sure to stop by at our house for some hot chocolate afterwards! 

 Funny Fact: My running partner and I have watched these lights go up as we run by in the mornings.  They'd usually have about one tree lit at a time for us to admire.  It was funny to cross paths with each other that night to find out we were wearing the same shirt...a must-photo moment. 

The Path of Destruction

Exhibit A: Breck & Avery in the flour/pancake mix in the pantry

Exhibit B: Three boxes of pasta pulled off of the storage shelf (at MY eye level...I still don't know exactly how they got them down) and dumped into the living room.

Exhibit C: Avery "painting" Tate's homework with mustard.  

Exhibit D: Brecken drawing with a sharpie on my favorite peice of furniture in my house, my bed.
 





FYI:

• All of these pictures were taken in the last two weeks
• I really DO watch them, they're fast and deceptive with their sweet 2-year-old faces. 
• Both found guilty as charged for making our home a wonderful yet crazy and messy place to live.

Disappointing Haircut..

      Last time Tate got a haircut he asked me to "do a mohawk."  So I did & he thought it was pretty cool....cool enough to keep.  These are the pictures of his reaction when I told him he couldn't actually keep the mohawk.  Poor Tate. 

Happy Halloween!

      My Halloween gift to friends and family that read my blog....a Halloween post prior to Thanksgiving.   Happy Halloween. 

We had a great weekend of Halloween celebrations!  Our ward hosted a trunk-or-treat on Friday which was really fun.  We have a great, close-nit neighborhood and it's always fun to get together. 

My good friend Alison dressed up as "Where's Waldo," so cute.  When people asked me where my costume was
 I simply replied that I'd gotten five costumes ready today and was burned out by the time I got to me.  



Alison's daughter Sydney is Keaton's good friend.  She went as Mr. T and Keat was a punk rocker. I
thought their costumes complimented each other very well.



Our friends the Larkin's kiddos.  Claire is a parrot and Laird
is a pumpkin.

       Monday the big boys went to school and I helped with Keaton's class party, very fun.  Then Corey took the kids trick-or-treating while I handed out candy.  The weather held out for the trick-or-treaters and everyone had a great time. 

       Avery was a ballerina.  She borrowed her darling costume from her aunt Hayley who wore it when she was two...so cute.  She really would have rather been an Indian with Breck, but being the only girl in this family she was forced to wear a tiara...sorry sweetheart, but you look beautiful!  Seriously, check out the bum on this costume...I could hardly stand the girly cuteness.  

Keaton originally wanted to be a girl, but this didn't sit well with me (call me a party pooper) so this is what we came up with....punk rocker.   It suited him well and he had lots of fun.  I need to remind him to bug my Mom about a picture of her and Grandpa as punk rockers not so long ago....

Tate wanted to be a black widow which was easy enough...pretty cute black widow.

         McKay wanted to be an Indian with Breck.  Such a sweet boy! 
                                                                                                                                               

 Here's Breck in the Indian costume Keaton wore six years ago.  So cute.  Breck is a tenderhearted kid, but has a stubborn streak and insisted on pulling the wagon with Avery in it. This was originally intended for Corey to pull both kids in, of course.  They were gone for about an hour and a half and made it to less than ten houses...pretty funny. 

 Check out that determined face!!

Cecret Lake (not so secret after all)

     After Corey's big race I was excited to do a few things with the kids.  We always have big plans for camping and hiking, but it's a bigger job than it seems to get out and camping with two two-year-olds has it's own challenges.   The kids had a day off so we called the cousins and headed up to Cecret Lake.  My brother-in-law Jared informed us that the reason for the spelling is because it was named by poor, uneducated miners...interesting. 
     I was so excited to see all of the beautiful flowers so late in the season, a benefit from having a long spring.  Halfway through the hike we met a moose.  He was about 5 feet off the trial and must have been just young enough not to care about any of us or the many people stopping to take his picture. 

   

 There were probably 200 people on the trail, but it was fun to mingle and enjoy the mountains together.  It also made for a few jokes about Cecret Lake not being so secret, thoroughly enjoyed by the kids. 

We were so glad to have Jar and the girls with us!  It's been so fun to get to know them better.  This picture was hilarious and highlights both girls perfectly!!  Gretel is very imaginative and is pretending to be an animal on the big rock while Kaihli strikes a perfect pose!!!  Love, love, love you girls!! 

Corey and Breck



The boys took a lesser-traveled trail and got stuck on the side of a mountain.  Pretty funny, I was grateful we'd taken swimming lessons this summer!



Park City Point to Point

     I had to write a post to follow up on my well-wishes to my husband and his big race so here goes.   This year Corey asked me to crew him which means meet him a the various aide stations and get him what he needs, ie: food, water, ibuprofen, etc.  It was an amazing experience that showed me so much more about this race.  I crewed Corey with his good friend Derek who did the race with him last year.  It was a huge relief to have him there because he knows so much about the race and how to fix a bike if need be! 
    I took my camera with good intentions but it turned out to be a lot more intense than I planned on so you'll see all the pictures I took.  It's not a ton, but it'll have to do. 
     The morning was freezing cold.  The race started at 7 am and it was in the thirties.  Thankfully another bike buddy of Corey's lent him his long sleeve jersey for the first part of the race.   Thanks Drew!!  The top picture was at the first place we were able to see them.  We waited and cheered and Derek rode down a ways to a better spot to pass Cor a water bottle. 
    It was actually pretty funny for me to be there with a bunch of bike buddy's and listen to them talk.  All day long I heard strategy, who's doing what, what gears are being ridden, why Corey shines near the end of the race, etc. etc.   Being a biking wife I'm somewhat used to the "talk,"  but this was more than usual and quite entertaining. 
     Derek did a good job of showing me the trails that the racers were riding which was amazing.  In this race they basically go up a mountain and then down a mountain, up then down, up then down, for almost 80 miles.  It's insane to see what they're doing, I was awestruck.  
     Corey races on a single speed which means he doesn't use gears (it's a tough mtn bike thing, guys who need a challenge like my husband do it ).  Part of racing single speed is that it's an open category so a 20 year old on a single speed and a 55 year old on a single speed compete.  The bike buddy's kept splits of how far Corey was from the first guys and would let him know as he came into the aide stations.  The first aide station Corey was in 3rd and about 4 minutes behind the first guy.  He looked good and focused. 
     At the second aide station he was in second place, but a good 5 minutes behind first with about 22 miles to go.  He came in asking for ibuprofen and coke and left looking a bit tired (funny he'd look tired after riding 55 miles up and down mountains!!)  I was excited he was in second place, but didn't think he could make up the time to get close to first. 

     The finish was awesome.  Derek was keeping watch out for Corey and yelled that the first single speeder came through.  I looked up and thought I'd have a couple of minutes until Corey finished when three of his buddy's groaned as he finished....32 seconds behind first.   They felt his disappointment at being so close to first, but I was amazed.   I cheered, his buddy's talked some more and congratulated him.  He spend a little time tracing his steps finding multiple places he could have made up that time, but in the end he was happy with his finish.  He beat his time from last year by almost 20 minutes...not bad.  
     Corey's dad did the race as well.  He did an amazing job in a very difficult race!   We were so excited to see him finish.  Two friends of ours, Kevin Larkin and Russ Paige were both new to biking and finished in their goal times.  Way to go bikers!!!
     To Corey, I love you babe!  You never cease to amaze me at the way you take on your goals and achieve them!!  I'm so proud of you!