Tyler turned 5 year old

Tyler wanted to have a rocket ship theme for his cake this year. So he spent several days prior to his birthday drawing rocket ships and posting them around our house. Finally on Friday we got to make and decorate his cake. I drew a man in the space ship and Tyler let me know we had to put another circle around the mans head because he needed a space suit on.

Instead of a party this year, he just got to invite a few friends over.

They each got to make some food to eat, play with play dough, and run around in the back yard. Then we cut up the rocket ship cake and they devoured it!
Darren had a race on Saturday. (He improved his time from last year by 13 minutes) Nice job!
But after the race (in Ogden) we met Grandma and Grandpa Balls and Nolan and Corie for lunch. Tyler got a huge birthday cookie with icecream TO SHARE!
We all tried out bowling. Tyler worked hard on perfecting the art.
Ella really did amazing. She could throw the ball down our lane, the neighbors lane, down the gutter (and the gutter things were up) and even behind her! But she wanted to carry that ball alone- by her self! Miss Independent 2 year old!
Finally Sunday was actually Tyler's Birthday. He got some fun presents and has spent most of Sunday and today (Monday) in his room building with his new legos. We had more cake and celebrations with the Harston side.

All in all- I realized one thing. Saturday night Darren and I were up late talking to a friend. His daughter turns 8 next month. ( I still remember us all being newly weds and now he has an 8 year old) Then he commented how fast those 8 years have gone. He said in only 10 years she will be 18- moving on to college. As I reflected on Tyler and his young five years, I have to agree. Where has the time gone. It is moving fast. I need to enjoy every minute of it before it is gone, and he is gone- a mission, college and married!

Tyler's 5th Birthday

Tyler had a three day birthday celebration. As things finished up tonight he was exhausted.

Each friend helped cookie the treat we made. They were magic muffins- a marshmallow rolled in butter and cinnamon and sugar. Then put inside a crescent roll to cook.
Darren did his last triathlon of the year today. It is one he did last year. He improved his time by 13 minutes this year. We are proud of him!

Ella on her bike

Ella took off today- She just started riding! I have been to nervous to let her try to much. It took Darren taking her out for me to realize she is ready. She is amazing!

closing down

I track all my blogs with bloglines.com

But they are shutting down, closing down their website.

I have loved to be able to go on their website and be able to check all my blogs at once. (well they told me when people had updated their blog)

So what else can I use? Ideas?

Telluride 2010 -Day 1

I love my kids... and I love vacations too.

Darren and I took a few days away.

A few days of

- no responsibilities

- no waking up in the night to help a dog or a kid

- no helping a 2 year old go potty

- getting to feed myself first and when I want

- getting to sleep in until whenever

- reading a good book

- Darren time

This is the sunset outside of Moab.

It has to be a good trip when it starts this way!

Telluride 2010 -Day 2: Road Biking

We woke with a great view out our tent window.

Camping really is so easy with just two adults.

We went for a run up the canyon. Fantastic!

It is only a 3 hour drive from Moab to Telluride with some great roads in between.

We took about 5 hours getting there this time and took turns riding our road bikes on quite Colorado back roads.

When we got to The Bear Creek Lodge a nice guy gave us some extra tickets to see a show in the "Telluride Film Festival" that was just winding down.

"Tamara Drewe" was the shows name.

What a gorgeous name

Tamara, not Tamra, but Tamara...

maybe if we spelled it Tumara it would be pronounced right...

AND no we are not announcing just thinking of cute names.

SO....Why do people rave about film festivals. We saw one show and that it was fine. Some people (with in 3 days) had seen over 15 shows! oh my!

Telluride 2010 -Day 3: Mountain Biking

The last time I mnt biked was at least 10 years ago.

I dont mind it at all, I would just rather do other sports.

Telluride is know for several things but our favorites are skiing and mnt biking.

I borrowed a bike from a friend and set off.

With in the first 2 miles I had

- cried

- crashed (with quite a bit of bruising to show for that!)

- and walked the bike several times

Darren was beyond patient. It took us so long.

He would go and wait, go and wait.

I would go and try not to scream, go and try not to fall off....

12 miles later. I was happy I did it.

Maybe next time I will try to figure out what I am doing before we get there.

Telluride 2010 -Day 4: Ice Lakes

This is the only day with a lot of pictures. But I want to remember it well!

We decided to drive over a pass to get to a place outside of Silverton, CO

to do an amazing hike.

The adventure started here.

Driving out of Telluride to a small town call Ophir.

This is a photo of one of thousands of mines with the tailings

that were dumped out of the mine.

(the part of the rock they didn't want)

We drove down a nice road through beautiful trees.

Then got our first look of where we had to go.

I was so glad Darren was driving - I would have passed out half way across!

The road barely fit our truck. I can't even explain how I felt crossing that. So I wont try!

It was mostly the after thoughts that scared me.

1. I thought about that we need to make a will

2. We need to ask someone to be the caregivers of our children should we die young

3. I thought about the fact that I should have called my sister to tell her where we were going in case the people of Ophir find a beat up white truck with the license plates that start with 222 but they cant identify the bodies because they were so damaged in the roll down the complete drop off and the the truck burned up when the gas exploded!!!! ENOUGH!

Needless to say we drove all the way around when we went home,

forget trying to save half an hour!

At the top ...breathing

We were in the clouds!

And the other side was prettier but not a whole lot better.

This mnt is so steep there are avalanche shoots all down it.

This is the drop off! Really the other side was so much worse!!!

I might have been able to take two steps on the other side before I fell to my death

but this side was at least 7 or 8 steps before you died!

I was so happy to get out of the car.

We started the hike to Upper and Lower Ice Lakes.

Weather Forecast: Rainy with chance of lightening

Last year in Telluride we got caught in a quick summer storm. It wouldn't have been so bad, we had rain jackets, but last year.... we were above tree line when the storm came in. Within minutes we were engulfed. Lightening hitting all around us!

SO...

This year we were all ears!

Thankfully we made it to the top.

But not without being drenched in rain.

You can't even see the mnts in this picture.

I believe in prayer.

I prayed for safety and if possible a few minutes of sunshine.

As we were leaving (we were only on top long enough to take a few photos and listen for lightening- notice no trees!)....

but as we were leaving, it cleared up for a few minutes.

The miners had it very rough 100 years ago,

but they had it rough in a very beautiful place.

The ruins of a mining shack

All told- 2500 feet of elevation gain in 3 miles. And we were hiking morph speed!

We were tired and wet.

A quite drive home, a hot shower, and some yummy mexican food helps everything.

Telluride 2010- Day 5

Thursday- We woke up to sunshine. It was forecast to be raining and windy all day but it wasn't!!!

Darren went out on a mnt bike ride. Doing the same loop we did together on day 2. He cut off over an hour on the time:) I enjoyed a quite two hours on my own reading.

Then time to go. Our vacation is over. Back to kids, jobs, and responsibilities. But it was amazing, perfect, and refreshing.

One of the things I love best about Darren is he is a go'er. A do'er. He doesn't sit around and watch the tube. He has to move. Sometimes I want him to just sit but more often I am grateful he gets me up and moving.

A typical Saturday

Ok- this is totally not a typical Saturday but it has been a very fun one.

We all woke up early. Darren took the kids with him to do a company marathon race. Each person had to run 5.2+ miles in a loop. They took turns passing off the baton and the next person went out to run 5.2 miles. And at the end they had run a full marathon.

I thought it was a great idea.

They had a kid race too.

TYLERS FIRST RACE!!!

Tyler ran a whole mile without stopping. He got his own medal. Super proud of him.

I wish I could have been there. BUT...

I just decided to go do a triathlon. I have been thinking about it. It is the same one I did last year. It was just me. No one cheering me on (well ironically my neighbor happened to be there too) but it was nice and peaceful. I improved my time by over 4 minutes from last year. (last year I trained like crazy, and was nervous too). I am grateful I have been able to just have fun exercising all summer. Sometimes knowing you have to train is a bit stressful for me!

So we came home with 3 medals and 4 tired people.