Our 2011 Fitness Challenge

My Dad, Mom and sister Jenny just finished a fitness challenge. We had to walk/run/exercise 2011 miles. So for the past 10 months we have kept track of our miles (you can look to the right of blog to see the link where we tracked our progress) We finished two month early- YIPPEE!!!

Here is our criteria:

2011 Fitness Challenge

1. walk, hiking, elliptical or run is one mile for every mile

2. biking is how ever long it takes you to run a mile equals one mile bike so I run a ten minute mile so ten minutes on the bike is one mile.

3. other fitness activities like lifting weights, aerobic videos/classes, swimming etc... those are 15 minutes = 1 mile towards your total

Our good friend's father just passed away. This was very emotional for me because it is one of our first close friends who is now fatherless. This challenge made me so happy to see my Dad doing good things. I need my Dad around for a very very long time (and my mom off course!)

Here's to being fit! It has been a great challenge!

Capital Reef for a weekend

Several Fridays ago we drove to Capital Reef for a family camping/biking/climbing/hiking trip. We stayed at the campground which has orchards all over. At night the deers would come in and fill the orchards and eat the dropped fruit. Tyler took a few pictures with his camera.

This is Ella the photographers photo. See our lovely tent.
The real reason for the trip was due to a climbing event. I learned how to climb up walls with cracks in them= Crack climbing.

This is me - a very proud moment. I was leading my first Trad route. Which means I had to place funny looking gear into the rock and hope I placed it well enough so if I fell it would keep me up on the wall.
Darren went road biking through the park so the kids and I rode 2 miles on our mnt bikes. (to the visitor center)
Ella was a great sport but was tired when we got there.
The kids played around on the rocks with their Dad and did some more biking while I climbed rocks.
This is the wall we were climbing. Very grand... very amazing... and lots of cracks.
I was on top rope so I really couldn't fall while I was climbing. You tape up your hands and can even wear knee pads and elbow pads. You shove your feet and fists into the rock and climb up. I am not good at it so it hurt a bit. My drive.... go fast so you can get done with the climb. Thankfully I got a bit better and learned some good techniques so it didn't hurt to bad by the end.

After climbing we went for a hike in a slot canyon named Sulphur Creek. The hike winds back and forth through a slot canyon that crosses back and forth over a river. It is 5 miles long. Ella hiked all but about 1 mile. She was so cold from having to cross back and forth in the river. She asked me to carry her for a minute on my back. I did ... and before I could go-- she was asleep. We got out of the canyon in the dark. We ate at little dinner and drove home listening to the Hunger Games. Kid sleeping with exhaustion.

GREAT WEEKEND!

Ella - and her haircut :(

Ella cut her hair. It was in her eyes she said. So she cut it off. Those are her words.

She was a bit sad when she saw how sad I was. She is an emotional child!

We showered and put clean clothes on and went to get it fixed the next day.
Thank you Fantastic Sams for helping us in our time of need.
Now she will wear pig tails for the next year. Without the pigtails--- it is a super good mullet.
This is what I came home to the other day. A bunch of (cute) fakers!!!
Ella likes to wear a skirt every day. I am not sure how winter is going to go over. Here... flared sleeves, skirt, and boots... on her bike!

Safra's visit to Utah

The last time Safra came to Utah was when I was married 10 years ago. So I was very excited to get her here again! She flew from Israel to Virginia, Stayed a few days with a sick boy, then flew on to me.

With only three days we tried to relax, but still see things.

We have this same picture of us here but 15 years ago. I will dig it out one day.

Orian (who I hadn't meet in person before) he loved me!!!

~he also loved the water~

We stopped at the Blue Lemon for lunch- Fantastic. Then temple square. Followed by the museum. Orian loved Ella and wanted to do what she did. Check out his moves in the video below.
We went up to the base of Little Cottonwood to get some photos.



One day we also went up to Alta to see some snow.
He liked it but he stepped onto an ice sheet and his little foot broke through and got soaked from the icy cold water below.
We also went to Gardner Village with my sisters.Lots of witches here! Ironically my parents were in Israel while Safra was here.
This was my favorite witch. She was on her "EYE" Phone.
This picture made me laugh~
this one too.... they wanted to see all the fishes in the water.

cute!

It was great visit. a really great visit!

Orion loved watching Ella. He really go the hang of the dancing!

October CycleCross

(Side note- we went out to eat the other day. Tyler couldn't decide if he liked the chocolate or strawberry shake better.)

Darren is really into getting muddy right now. He is loving it. All the riders race around a course for 45 minutes. He says it isn't to crazy but some of those riders look pretty aggressive. I wouldn't love it!

They go in mud, sand, up and down hills, and over barricades. Then keep on riding hard.
They have kids race too. Tyler and Ella loved it!

Why we never want to leave Utah

This last weekend we went for a drive up in the mountains. The seasons in Utah seem to be a big thing in our family.

I remember when Darren and I were dating he said we had to date for all 4 seasons- (so he could see how well rounded I was I think) So I passed the test. We even dated 6 changing seasons before we were married.

Now - I dont think we will ever leave Utah because we love the different seasons. Like yesterday it snowed here. We all have the skiing bug now!

But for now we will enjoy fall.

These two are best buds. They love to be together but they also like their time apart. They are different. But when Tyler is around they want to be together and when he is at school, she is very happy being alone doing things by herself. It is good.

Fun pictures

Ella has started preschool. She took these googles to her first show and tell. Maybe she likes to run around being a super hero, or a pilot, or just a really cute little girl.

Tyler would love to spend hours building legos. Here he built a garage with a dump trunk. He is holding his digger he built that has a functioning scoop to dump rocks into the dump truck.
In September my cousin in law Megan (on the left) got baptized. 2 months prior she walked into the church by her house and told them she wanted to learn more about our church. She went alone. Pretty cool. 2 weeks later she told them she wanted to be baptized. She later commented, "I wondered why I had waited to long"- referring to the fact that she had known about our church for a long time and finally took the stop to gain a testimony.
Ella and Darren taking a little (and very long) nap.
Ella loves to teach all her little girl cousins about accessorizing. Her she got a hat and necklace for her cousin Bethy.
We are missing cousin Grace and Sophie but I have no doubt Ella will get them dressed up in her princess gowns when they come.