TylerandCompany

Sweet Potato quesidillas

2012-01-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

I don't ever want to forget this recipe. My friend Christi Byrd made these all the time. They may not sound amazing but they are so tasty.

2-4 sweet potatoes (2 big ones or 4 small ones, there should be double the amount of sweet potatoes as to beans)
Shred the sweet potatoes (I grated them, but you can also cut them into skinny sticks)
Steam them in a little water (or oil) till soft
Add lots of cumin- like 1-2 tsp.
Also add some onion chopped small

then add 1 can of black beans

Put this yummy goodness into a tortilla shell with some cheese. We warmed it up lying flat in our fry pan so the shell was crispy. Then top it with some avocado mango salsa.

2 avocado, 1 mango, a bunch of tomatoes, a few green onions with a little lime juice drizzle on top.

AMAZING! my kids loved it.

Ella ... my big girl

2012-01-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

Ella loves her new Primary church class. It just so happens that "her" Zumba dance instructor is her primary teacher also. Tyler really enjoyed the Zumba class too.

Tyler is so busy inventing things in his room with his Legos, most of my pictures are of Ella.

But wow. He is so creative. Today he made a train with train tracks, and a conveyer belt that loads pieces into the train -... then the train is a side dumper so it can dump them out the side.

Here Ella is helping me peel sweet potatoes. She loves to help me in the kitchen. I figure the mess will get smaller in time ... right?

Tonight we had family dinner at my parents house. A sweet memory of my father will always be of him playing guitar. Here the kids get to play along with him.

...And they danced as he played. Ella and Jordan are good little friend cousins.

I laughed when I pulled up to my friend Shannon's house. Ella loved driving this CAT.

And when she got it stuck she picked it up and shifted it over. She is one tough little girl.

Well... this is daddy bonding time. Darren is teaching her how to pop a wheelie. (Like she really needs to be taught how to crack her head open... I think she will do that on her own one day)

Christmas Break

2011-12-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

I need to take more pictures. These are just quick shots from my phone.

At the Park with Grandpa. Playing follow the leader

Rachel, Rob and Ely came for Christmas. Ely came sick and I think we got his bug and spent the last two days throwing up. I can't imagine how terrible that would be with a little 18 month old... sorry Rach!

Ella loved a princess dress she got from Grandma H.

Driving to Logan to spend two days up there. Ella was eager to get there!

The kids gave movie tickets to Grandpa H. so they could go to the movies with him! They chose what kind of treats they wanted to take with them.

Tyler ate 4 doughnuts at one time and hot cocoa for dinner one night at Grandma B's house. This was him after he finished off the 4th one. He was DONE!

Toby Balls

2011-12-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

On Sunday December 11th, 2011 Toby got to go back up to Heaven.

We had taken him to the vet 13 days prior. The vet told us he had Lymphoma.

He had two large lymph nodes pushing on his throat. He also had two large masses pushing on his lungs. This made it hard to eat and hard to breath.

He started on pain pills and was able to eat dog food for a few more days.

But after a few days we had to cook his food for him.

These are some fun time we will remember with our Toby dog.

Swimming in Logan

His cute little face

When he was younger he loved to chase his tail .

At one time he was a little tiny puppy. That was 11 year ago.

We took these two days before he died. He was having a hard time breathing.

We love you Toby.

My sister in law sent us a beautiful book called Dog Heaven. The kids keep asking to read it over and over. It is about all dogs going to heaven and being able to run and run and run and swim and get loved by little angel children. We know these are the things Toby is loving about Heaven right now.

Darren and I wanted to know when the best time to put Toby to sleep would be. On my birthday, Saturday night, we came home from the Neighborhood Christmas party and Toby couldn't walk any more. He had been having trouble. I slept with him in the kitchen. Darren and I would have to carry him out several times in the night to let him pee. Then in the morning we called my Dad who came over to be the kids. The clinic we took him too was beautiful. It was 7:30 in the morning, we were the only ones there. It was quite and peaceful. It was the right time.

Kids Cyclo Cross race

2011-12-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Darren just finished his last bike race of the year. This was his big finally... pounding it up to the finish line that was just around the corner.

Tyler did awesome in his race.

In this video he yelled to Darren that he was passing other kids. He was super excited.

Ella was awesome. She was the only racer in her 3 and under division who could pedal.

She should/could have done the big kid race.

Our happenings thus far...

2011-12-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures I want to remember

We had to put Toby to sleep last Sunday morning. I would like to right a short post about that later.

But he had one good day right before he died.

I was so excited to see him eating real dog food I had to take a picture of it!

For the most part he was only able to eat soft foods for the last week of his life. Ella made this meal. She peeled the sweet potatoes. Then Toby gobbled up the sweet potato, scrambled egg, tuna meal.

Toby love to eat tuna but inhaled the vienna sausages.

One after noon I ate the most delicious calorie free meal. Ella and Tyler were in and out employees. They served me all kinds of good food.

We had a neighborhood party. Ella is front and center in the blue outfit. Tyler is up there too but out of view. Ella can't wait to go to primary on January 1st and be with the big kids.

This is poor Kyle... actually this is not poor Kyle. He is good at getting the kids all riled up. Then he gets pounded on for a while.

This is one of Ella's favorite things to do. She can paint her own fingernails and toenails pretty good.

Our Toby Dog

2011-12-05T20:28:00.001-08:00

Darren and I have had Toby for almost 11 years. I often joke that our honeymoon phase didn't exist because we got a puppy 6 weeks into our marriage. Responsibility!

Toby has Lymphoma which is progressing very fast.

He enjoys walking to school with us in the morning. But just in the last week he cant make it any more.

The kids love him a lot.

I told Darren last night as we gave Toby some extra love... I hope in heaven Toby will tell us we were good owners. I hope he has a good life. but I could have always done more ...

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-12-05T20:09:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We went for a mountain bike ride at Wheeler Farm.

A great way to burn of a few extra calories before dinner right!

Ella still loves to wear a skirt all the time. Even when biking!

After biking we grabbed some lunch at home and went up to Alta for their free skiing. Tyler got in 4 great runs and Ella did well with two. I am delighted to see they both remember how to ski from last year.

We had a wonderful family dinner at my mom house. We even got some nice game time in after dinner.

Then we drove to Logan the next day. Ella loves her babies right now. She also loves to "get ready for the ball".... "hurry we cant be late.".... anyway. Here is her baby headed to Logan.

After Logan we went to the aquarium in Sandy. We had our Clark cousins there. The highlights... besides the cousins ... were petting the sting rays in the tank and seeing the penguins.

That night Tyler got to sing with his Kindergarten class at the local Zions bank. Then the bank turned on their Christmas lights. We ate cookies and drank milk. We were delighted our cousins came to cheer him on.

Tyler also continues to build legos. This is his tow truck.

The Titan with the Climbing Club

2011-11-29T09:39:00.001-08:00

I need to type up this post and be done with it...

I have been putting it off. so here goes

We drove down to Moab to the area know as Fisher Towers. We hiked in 3 miles to an amazing camping spot. We set up camp in the dark. Slept and got ready for the next days adventure.

My pack weighed 70 pounds. It had food, water, camping gear and lots of climbing gear in it. It was interesting to feel that extra weight crushing my knees, my back... It was eye opening. Don't carry extra weight around... it hurts!

Our campsite.

This is what we were going to be doing. We had to place little cams in the rock... expect them to hold and then climb on. We were secure with a rope attached to us but I was not ready for this.

Luckily I wasn't hauling up this much gear on my back for 900 feet

but I still had plenty and it WAS heavy!

There is me in the purple coat... don't I look nervous! My rope tied to my back would slowly come loose ( I didn't realize it until it was slipping from my back) and at 400 feet would fall to the ground. At that point I started to get really scared. I had just watched a movie clip of the Vertical Limit movie right before I came and instead of a rope falling in the movie it was a person dropping to the ground... I started to shake. I should not have watched that silly movie clip....

This spot where the people are sitting is 600 feet up. That is where I lost it. Ang is amazing and brave. I am not so much. I thought I was... but I am not! I had just watched my rope fall of my back.(yes I was still tied in) and I had seen two people take some good falls and heard some scary screams from others who had fallen. No one was too hurt. In rock climbing you just fall but being up so high was not good for me.

I started to cry and wanted to go back down. Thanks to Ang and AaronWhite, I kept going but only using my ascender to go up the rope and no rock climbing skills.

800 feet above the ground.. I was shaking. A LOT! (another guy had just fallen here)

That is our camp site down there.

This was the top. I was so glad to get there. Sadly I had left our head lamps in our back back at the duck- 300 feet down. so since it gets dark at 5:30 we had to descend down 300 feet in the dark.

Once my head lamp was on it was fine. slowly rapping down 600 feet takes some time but when you cant see the ground it doesn't matter.

Aaron was my hero. He and Ang got me down. Because of my loosing it... Aaron hauled down all my gear... which had a bad ending. He accidentally dropped it 600 feet to that ledge in the picture below. It fell in the dirt which was good but it fell on a ledge of another tower. Not to the ground.

So on Saturday morning Aaron was amazing... he climbed the whole Titan Tower again. Then he did a 650 foot repel down to this tower, got the gear, then repelled down that tower to get our gear safe. If you look up three pictures to the one with a foot in the left corner, you would look down on the huge repel Aaron did to get the gear. The gear dropped a LONG way!

You can see a little tiny white helmet by the big crack. Aaron coming off the 650 repel, got our gear and now coming down the second tower.

This is the picture zoomed out.

So .. wimpy me stayed on the ground Saturday. Ang in the center of the photo, went up with our friend Jennifer. I was so relieved.

Here is the Titan. 900 feet of glory. Those are carpet squares on the tower so our ropes wouldn't ruin the soft sandstone. There were 22 of us on this on Friday. High traffic!

It was a beautiful place. and an amazing campsite!

But I liked the campground from this view at the base instead of 600 or 900 feet up.

The day ended great. Aaron saved the gear that was dropped. It was at least 500$ worth of gear. So we were so happy. This is Ang with her arms up celebrating Aaron safely getting our dropped gear...

People were coming down in the dark again on Saturday which meant we hiked out in the dark. That burger in Green River was amazing!

So for now.. I will keep my feet on the ground for a bit. I seem to be getting soft in my old(er) age!

The boys at my house

2011-11-23T14:01:00.001-08:00

Tyler is still all lego.

He is so creative it is amazing. He says he might want to be structural engineer like his Uncle Nolan. He builds something amazing then wrecks it right after because he says he needs the pieces for his next project. So we take pictures, document his hard work and move on to the next thing.

This is a car shop where they fix up your car.

(we have been at lots of car places lately)

It includes a place to sit on the left, a tree in the middle, a building that the roof comes off. You can look inside and see tools, etc. Then a car to work on and a red ramp for the cars to drive up on.

Here is his crane he built.

Here is a boat that includes a satellite on the left side.

This is the 33 year old man I am married too.

He likes to play in the mud. Thankfully he can do his own laundry and clean his own bike.

That is mud all over him.

Notice his shoes, and his chain, and his gears.... oh my

He says this is fun.

Ella loves to dance

2011-11-17T19:56:00.001-08:00

Ella loves to dance. She is constantly changing from one princess dress to another. She is either getting ready for the ball or at the ball or needing music on for the ball.

These two videos make me laugh. I loved to dance as a kid (and as an adult). My friend teaches a free Zumba dance class once a week. Ella dances for the full hour. She starts with a princess gown on and then gets too hot.

Then later on in the day we had our friends Kate and Hope over.

They were all princess ballerinas. Very cute.

The other day I was getting gas at costco. I filled up and got back in to drive away.

The car was dead.

Two nice guys helped me push my car out of the long costco line.

They helped me try to jump it, they helped me scrap away the currosion. But alas... nothing.

Thankful we were close the the Subaru dealer who sent someone over with some big tools

and got the car started.

So we sat.

for 3 hours at the dealership.

This is my kids.

Zombies.

We read books, drank several cups of hot cocoa, and ate even more bags of free popcorn.

What a 6 year old does every extra waking moment of his day...

2011-11-15T09:30:00.001-08:00

Tyler builds things every day. This creation was so great he asked me to video it.

Then his cousins and grandparents could see it.

This is how his room looks every day. I have come to term with it. It is pushed in one corner. It is better than a lot of other things he could be doing ....so sure... let him create all he wants.

2011-11-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Ella was eating a bowl of cereal this morning. She was looking at the bowl of mini wheats as she ate. I had to grab a paper to write this one down-

This was her comment:

I wish I could be a cereal so someone could just eat me up.
That would be interesting
I wouldn't have any legs...
That would be interesting

I love my kids!

A pretty near perfect day...

2011-11-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

This wasn't part of our perfect day...

but this was a moment to remember as long as I am posting right now.

This was my cabbage patch baby ... I have had her since I was very little. All of my sisters have one so mine says Noelle on the neck since I used to go by Noelle. (maybe I could change it back like Laura I mean Renee did!) This baby has been sewed up and loved. And earlier this week Ella loved it some more.

May you rest in peace my cabbage patch baby. She was buried today. In a tall black garbage can.

So on to today... We started with wonderful snow. We went to pick up our bountiful basket. 15$ for all that fruit and veggies... AWESOME!!! They have bountiful baskets all over the US. It is such a steal! Since it was snowing the pick up was INSIDE the fire station. The kids loved it. We took our time walking around.

The kids (and me) think it is so exciting to see what comes every time. The blackberries are long gone and the watermelon, kiwi and pears wont last long either! Fennel though... still need to find out what to do with ... fennel....

We ordered some yummy french bread too.

So logically we had to come home and make some wonderful french toast.

Darren had a CycleCross bike race in this weather. We opted to stay home. It was wonderful. He came home tired, cold and hungry. But happy. Snow and mud is fun to play in I guess.

Ella watched a Tinkerbell movie (in her princess dress) while Tyler built his marble race course. I didn't even have to help him. He is great at reading directions and doing it. He still has hours to go until it is finished.

Finally Darren came home, we shoveled, took Toby for a walk, and went out shopping. Tyler needed new snow boots. Funny how his last year ones don't fit him this year! He is a size 3 now. A 6 year old ... a size 3. Maybe he will be a great basketball player.

Then we stopped at The Pie Pizzeria and had a great free meal (thanks to the company we just refinanced with). It took an hour to get our food so the Pie gave us a free dessert. :)

Ella was begging to go to bed which is great. and it is day light savings tomorrow so sleeping in an extra hour will be wonderful.

Loved the day. loved the day.

Darren is going to sign up for an ironman race. I told him something I heard my mom say as a kid...

While the cats away the mice play.

You bet... we will play and relax every Saturday that he is gone training.

Tyler has been building a lot with Legos lately. He follows instructions great but is starting to create his own things now. Ella wants to be just like him so she made a little ... plane... or rather some lego blocks stuck together with a propellor sticking out... plane... and wanted me to take a picture of her too.

She loves her brother. They sleep in the same room by their own choice and love it. They are great friends. She calls him brother... Hey brother... brother can you help me... thanks brother....

Finishing up October

2011-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween Day. The whole day was fun. I love having big kids that are a bit more grown up. They didn't get grumpy as they day wore on.

Here are a few cousins headed down to Grandma and Grandpas trunk or treat. Their neighborhood is made up of lots of older couples who like to have grandkids around. We played games, ate good good and got a bag full of candy. Tyler is a police man and Ella is a princess.

Tyler was also chosen to be the Eagle of the month in his class.

It means he is a great kid... which he is!

(it was crazy sock day at school)

Here is Ella doing her favorite activity, dressing up with her friends.

(Kate and Hope)

This was our weekend project. We have a mound of dirt in our back yard with a nice retaining wall around it. But over time the dirt settled and made the wall settle funny. So this weekend my great husband rebuilt the wall so it is nice and straight. Yes he is working late into the night with a headlamp. Talk about awesome. I love having projects get finished and so does he!

We celebrated cousin Michael and Jordans birthday on Sunday. The hit of the party was the lego set present on the counter. The boys didn't even come upstairs for cake. They were quite the whole time doing legos.... love it!

Ella and Darren carved a pumpkin.

The girls didn't go play legos they stayed up stairs with Grandpa.

Our 2011 Fitness Challenge

2011-10-31T05:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

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 :(

2011-10-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

(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

2011-10-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Tyler turns 6! 5 days of celebration

2011-09-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

All these pictures are backwards but they will have to do.

Day 3 of Tylers birthday celebration

-- Dinner at our house with the Harston local cousins and Grandparents.

-- Here Grandpa is so nicely playing tea sets with Bethy

--My poor (but totally lucky) Dad has always had to put up with lots of girls. I remember do his hair when I was younger. Here is sports the red ribbons around his neck.
-- Tyler got to share the occasion with cousin Tessa.
-- Uncle Ben played tug of war with the nieces and nephews
--clearly they will win!
Day 2 of celebrations-

--We celebrated in Toelle with Jackson who happened to be here from Florida

-- They are born one year apart.

--The theme of the part Whitney put together was bowling.

-- I contributed the bowling cake.
-- Whit and Cami (sisters) did the party

--We had a very fun and festive party

--Good drinks
- Thanks Cami and (my sister in law) Whitney
--Whitney did the menu. She gave every thing a fun name.
-- Corn on the cob= Corn pins
--Celery, carrots, and cherry tomatoes= bowling balls and pins
--frito chips = spare chips
-- amazing dip= beans down the lane
-- the most amazing thing! Meatball sliders (meatballs on a bun) = Balls on a Roll
--Glad to have fun friends and cousins around

--After we ate we went bowling

-- I am grateful we can do fun things together as a family
-- Tyler loved it
- Ella got into it a lot. You will have to check out her celebration dance movie below

Day 1 of celebrations- Swimming

-- We got invited to swim with friends so we took along some "DIRT" (per request) to share
-- The kids loved the worms--- Connar
-- hanging worms out Ella's mouth
-- Dirt= chocolate pudding, crushed oreos on top with worms crawling out
Day = 4--- Tyler's real actual birthday

-- spent playing and having fun with new toys

-- spent at bike shop eating good food and cake with good friends (while Darren put his new bike together)

Ella's dancing movie

Day 5-- Tyler took treats to school. They sang to him and give him a treat bag.

Summiting Mnt Rainier via Disappointment Cleaver

2011-09-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

I need to get this posted... I don't want to forget the details!

We were gone exactly 72 hours. 3 Days. We left a Thursday at 3:00. We drove until midnight. Slept at a tent sight somewhere in Oregon. Slept 5 hours. Drove to the park. Got to Glacier National park only to see a sign that read:

Sunrise Parking lot- 17 miles

(under the sign said)

Road closed Sept. 6

(it was Sept. 8)

17 miles away after all that driving and we had to do a 2 1/2 hour detour!!!!

We get to the park (finally) and reloaded our gear, changed into our hiking clothes, ate some last good food- and left by 3 PM on Friday.

Our Goal- 24 hours from parking lot to parking lot

This is me at the start of the hike. Beautiful paved trails, flowers everywhere and no snow. Very steep. Very hot.

We arrived at Base camp 4 1/2 hours later. That was incredible time. In 4 1/2 hours we climbed 5,000 feet. It was 4.2 miles to base camp. Notice the stone "castle" on the bottom right of this photo. That is where we slept/laid awake... for 3 hours.
We had to go fast because we had little light and lots to do. Here we are next to the castle. Me in purple, Ang in black and Andy Howell in front. We ate a great dehydrated meal and melted tons of snow for water.
Oops- this picture was supposed to be first. This is us half way to Camp Muir. This is the end of the pavement. Time to start up the snow fields.

This is Mnt Rainier behind us.

Weather forecast: Clear, FULL MOON!!!!, sunny, hardly a breeze

We laid down to "sleep" in the castle at 8:30 pm. with only a pad to lay on and our coats to cover us. I am a great sleeper. I fell asleep in minutes. Ang and Andy didn't sleep at all! I slept for 3 hours. They are so kind. They wanted to wake me and start hiking since they couldn't sleep, but they didn't. How nice!

We left at 12:30 am. This is so important. The snow is melting so fast right now (it is september - warm) that during the day time it gets very soft and slushy. It is almost impossible (and totally exhausting) to hike up a mnt in those conditions.

We hiked until 7:30 am. We had planned on hiking much faster than that, but we get off on the trail and ended up going way around a hard part instead of straight up the easy part. BOO!!!

(a few parts had deep trenches cut into the snow by footprints. That is the top up there)

The sun came up. We could turn off headlamps. At this point, we were EXHAUSTED!

Highlights:

- It was dark so we couldn't see the never ending mnt we were hiking up

- Getting lost was terrible for morale and our speed

- We ate pretty good. I started to bonk (be totally exhausted) at one point so we had to pull over

- having basically nothing in our packs was amazing because we left all our extra gear at Camp Muir

- crossing some cool snowbridges was awesome! (I am in front)

We reached the summit- All three of us exhausted. Well- almost the summit. Mnt Rainier is a volcano. This is the crater at the top. The highest point is directly behind us... 400 more vertical feet away - but horizontally it was a long long long way away.
We hiked to mid crater. We could finally untie our ropes. We just wanted to get to the top so we didn't stop and eat like we should have.
Almost to the top!

THE TOP!!! What a view! 14,410 feet up in the world

The people behind us are a group of Russians. They climbed the whole thing with no ropes, no ice axes to stop yourself if you slide down the mnt. They had on jeans and running shoes. FOR REAL!
This was a cool moment to sit and look over the world.
This was not a cool moment... Ang getting sick. Throw up all over. Altitude and exhaustion.
Heading back down was great. Great for my lungs and my legs. But we had planned on going a lot faster. BUT WE JUST COULDN'T! We were all totally exhausted. Totally totally exhausted. Forcing yourself to eat another energy bar or energy food was disgusting.

(this is one of the super cool snow bridges we had to cross. pretty crazy to walk across the ladder and see NOTHING below you)

The sun cups at the top. It is so warm up there the snow is melting so fast.

The crevasses are huge!

Just keep on walking past this ... soon to be a crazy avalanche... spot!

We got back to Camp Muir in 5 hours. We should have been able to do it in 3-4 hours. But we were barely moving. We grabbed our food, ate lots of it! and tried to rehydrated.

Hiking back down the 4.2 miles was only half bad. The first half was great. Running and sliding down the snow was fun. But the last two miles was totally painful. We were back on the cement walk way. My feet were soaking wet and felt like hamburger. It only took 2 hours to get down compared to the 4 hours up... but it HURT!

(my feet at the car- 7 blisters in all-

this picture shows the huge one off the side of my big toe)

This picture is the back of my heels when I took my boots off.

So with getting a bit lost on the mnt, being totally exhausted, not sleeping much for two days, etc... etc... etc... We made it back to the car in 26 hours. Not our 24 hour goal of parking lot to parking lot. But 26 hours was great.

so 15 miles of hiking,

26 hours,

9,500 feet of climbing up...

and of course 9,500 feet of climbing back down!

ouch!

Then we jumped into the car, found the first good cheap fast place to eat. and then all three of us stayed awake because we had too! We had to keep each other awake. We drove for 7 more hours (including the terrible 2 1/2 hour detour!) and parked and slept at midnight. We woke up at 5 am... On the road again... just cant wait to get on the road again!

We pulled into the driveway having been gone for exactly 3 days.

Itinerary-

Drive to Washington,

hike the highest peak in Washington,

drive home from Washington...

all in three days!

ps... I couldn't walk for days after this trip. I had been exercising but not hiking. I couldnt' kneel down to say a pray for 4 days. My muscles were so fatigued they would literally just give out on me as I was walking. Never have I had such pain, not soreness, but total pain in my muscles.

Great trip- glad its done... moving on to the next adventure in my little families life!

Balls Family get together

2011-09-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

I am stealing these pictures off my sister in laws blog. Thanks Corie.

We had a great extended weekend at my parents cabin. We were missing just Aunt Nellie but we thought about you and talked about you all weekend.

If I were to detail what we did together. It would be --- RELAX!!! We sat around and visited.
Here are the three brothers-- I sure think the one on the left is awfully good looking!
We had some cake to celebrate Jackson and Tyler's upcoming birthday.
The Balls clan minus our super cool Aunt Nellie
My sister in law Whitney has two sisters who live here in Utah. Whit and Jason flew in from Florida Saturday. They meet up with her two sisters and caravanned up to the cabin. We loved having them. It made it all so good!
Cousin time was priceless!

Grandpa with Everett
Cleaning fun!
Birthday celebration
The playground
3 sisters. together.

Locks for Love

2011-09-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

The last time I really cut my hair was my freshman year in College. That was in 1998. Well- 13 years later. It is cut. It is so liberating. Short and sweet. I love it.

When I get a good picture of me I will post it! sorry!

Ella and cats?

2011-09-12T20:29:00.001-07:00

I think Ella might be allergic to cats.

This picture was taken hours after she had Benadryl.... poor cute girl

ps.

2011-09-07T20:46:00.001-07:00

I leave for Washington tomorrow... Take 3 at Mnt Rainier. Lets pray I make it up and back safe, fast, and with the success of making it to the top this time!

Darren's Big Race- Point 2 Point

2011-09-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

It seems Darren and I take turns training. This was his big race of the year.

It is called Point to Point.

75 mile race.

9.5 hours of climbing up and down the hills from Round Valley to Deer Valley

to Park City, to The Canyons.

All total 14,000 feet of climbing in one day!

This is mile 30 at Deer Valley. The kids and rode the lift up to the top of Deer Valley to get these shots. He had to bike it!

Darren had 3 other friends riding it. It makes training fun and enjoyable when you have friends to go with. This is Travis Messenger.
This is mile 60 at Park City Resort. 7.5 hours into riding. The sun was out, but still cool.
Here he is at the end. Happy to get off the bike.

Michelle Hollingshead, Darren, and Mike McBride. They are soooooo DIRTY! (Michelle is crazy good. She took first in her division. That it one cool wife. I could never do that! I cant even keep up with Darren on a bike- she can! I was so proud of her!)

I wish this picture was clear. These are Michelle's legs. Caked on dirt.
This is the guy I love. minus the dirt of course.
We stayed at the Canyons resort for 3 nights with the kids. The race finished right outside our hotel window. They had a huge sand pit for kids to play in. The kids loved it more than the swimming pool!

These are the professional pictures of Darren. I wish they were bigger but this will do! It was beautiful riding. But way longer than I ever want to sit on a mnt bike.

Our life this summer

2011-09-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

I posted pictures earlier about the Tuesday night races we have been doing. They have been so much fun. Good to do but nice to have finished:)

Tyler is so fast and confident on a bike!

Darren won some money since he did so well on all the races.
Ella is just amazing.

Darren is on the right- money and plaque in hand- the money has already been spent.
The kids got a medal, a certifiate and "100 Grand".
Ella let me help her with her 100 Grand. It was cold up there. I forgot jackets. Ella is doing her shy face.... oh brother!

Kindergarten

2011-08-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Some how Darren and I have grown up a bit. At least grown older.

Today we took Tyler to Kindergarten.

He woke up on his own at 7:00, showered, got ready, ate breakfast and still had 30 minutes to kill. (if only that would continue through out the year... lets hope!)

Ella wanted to have her backpack too. She walked around with it on her back all morning. She will miss her brother.

This face expression below says a lot. He was so excited. He didn't wear any of his new clothes, he wanted to wear his favorite comfortable clothes.
On a sentimental note. I am one for schedules. I love things planned out. As Darren and I walked back to our car after dropping Tyler off- we only had Ella with us. All that family planning was for nothing. I had planned on having a third member of our family when Tyler went to school. I even had it planned out that our fourth baby would come when Tyler was in first or second grade. My journal has a yearly map started way back in 2008 that shows how old Ella and Tyler would be when baby number 3 and 4 came along. So much for planning! I guess it was fun to think about:)

Needless to say- I was happy to walk away from school with a healthy girl & knowing my healthy boy was going to have a great day at school.

(we did go get some pretty yummy doughnuts after school to celebrate!)

Fun photos

2011-08-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

We babysat our favorite dog the other day. Roxanne. Ella was playing dress up with Roxanne. Doing her hair, making her look like a "princess". (imagine the headband up by Roxanne's ears)

The kids took swimming lessons almost every day this summer. Here they are with their friend Willy trying to get warm.

Fred's Dirty Dash Birthday Bash

2011-08-24T10:45:00.001-07:00

Our friend Katie is one of those super moms. If you want to know how to throw a party ask her!

Fred, her 4 year old son, had a Dirty Dash Birthday Bash. Katie made shirts that included a few cute mud spats on them. (more would be added later)

Here is the course. Run down hill, up and over see saw, jump through floaties, go through tunnel, over board, through tunnel again, then up the hill- end result- MUDDY KIDS!
The kids got timed for fun- it was great. Tyler didnt' want to do it at first but when Ella said she was going next, he said he would too.

through the tunnel

up the hill

Then the kids got to play in the Lehi river behind the house and jump on the tramp. Followed by good food to eat, and more playing in the mud... see Tyler go!

Super duper fun party!

We are glad Dan, Katie, Chloe, Stella, Fred and Clive moved back from Idaho!

Sandy Hot Air Balloon Festival

2011-08-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

I love hot air balloons. I hope Darren will one day surprise me for our anniversary and take me up in one. ... I remind him of this surprise every year...

This year the kids and I got up early to watch the balloons popping up.

Then we got brave and started walking around to see them all.
Our cousins Michael and Jordan came.
Then as we were leaving this guy let the kids climb in the balloon and see the inside. Tyler even got to pull the handle to make the fire shoot up and warm the inside of the balloon.
If you wanted to wait in a little line you could even go up in one for free. True you could only go up a little before they pulled you back down, but maybe next year.

Grandma's Birthday

2011-08-21T21:19:00.001-07:00

Grandma Balls had a birthday this year...

The Tour of Utah (a bike race) was happening. The kids got sunglasses passed out to them. Then sat in the 95 degree weather watching the racers go by.

See Tyler's head (and sunglasses) just barely poking around as the racers zoom by.
After the race we all went to Jonah and Everett's house. We had some pool time, trampoline time, you know... cousin time!
Good food, good company, and a very happy birthday to Grandma.

Mid Week Mountain Bike Series

2011-08-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Darren has been racing every Tuesday night on his Mountain Bike. He is doing very well in his races. He is in the front here, with the white and red jersey on. This is at Solitude Ski resort.

The race series is great because kids get to race for free and for fun. This is Darren and Tyler taking a practice lap before Tyler's race.
Ella did a practice lap too.

The was last weeks race at Corner Canyon in Draper. Darren or Dallz as most friends call him, came in 3rd since the guy in front crashes a few seconds after this picture was taken. This made Dallz stop and therefore the guy in 3rd place won... darn it!

It was a crazy finish.
Tyler is the forth kid back here. With a blue and white jersey on. He started the season doing the easiest race but last week he competed with all the bigger kids doing 4 laps instead of 2. I am so proud of him!
Sadly, I still run with Ella when she races. See her cute red helmet. She is only 3 so her little legs have to spin a whole lot more than kids with big bikes.
Here's the crazy start. Tons of riders trying to get in front. Dallz is on the left.
Tyler --- after finishing his 4th lap!
Ella exhausted. But she did one full lap!
After the race the kids get popsicles and super great SWAG!!! ( free gifts ) The adults get great prizes too. I have new clothes Darren picked out for me. They have bikes, season passes, bike stuff... LOVE it!

Finishing our Hike Season

2011-08-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

We finished our summer of fun hikes with my cousin. Instead of hike one week we had a water day in my backyard. Slip n' slide here we come!

The kids had a blast. We made snowcones and ate lots of good food.
Our very last hike is our all time favorite. If you haven't been to Alta to hike to Cecret Lake you need to go. I saw 2 year olds hiking all the way up to very old Grandma's and Grandpa's. It is an easy hike and pretty easy.
I wish you could scratch and sniff this picture. It is truly a hike to smell right now.
Until next summer.... Kari Howell, Rochelle Marsh, Julie Rupp and lots of kids!

Winding down in August

2011-08-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

We went on a great hike yesterday. There are very few dog areas in Salt Lake anymore... they are decreasing rapidly. It seems everywhere is water shed area so no dogs allowed.

This is a rare gem. We hiked up Neffs Canyon over by Millcreek Canyon. Wow, it was beautiful. There was even water for Toby to drink up.

The best part was the rope swing that was up there. We didn't hike as far as we could have because they kids just wanted to turn around and go back to the swing.
Tyler also "graduated" from Rusty and Rosie Upstart program. If you want to sign your kid up DO IT!!! Wow. You have to live in Utah. I know next year is full. But I just signed up Ella for in one year. It is an amazing computer program that teaches the kids in VERY FUN WAYS: reading, math, and science. It prepares them for Kindergarten. We loved it.

Its free- And amazing--- you just have to get in! Register here

July is almost over... where did the time go!

2011-07-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

A few highlights of our month that didn't get put into other posts.

Darren had a birthday. He turned the big 34 on July 12th. We had to celebrate a few days early because I was leaving for Mnt Rainier on his birthday. I made him a yummy strawberry pie, thanks to the amazing website of bestbites. (Dont look at the website unless you feel like eating wonderful good food)

Tyler discovered he can cook on his own. He made chocolate chip cookies on his own. He followed the recipe, measured the ingredients and ate plenty of cookie dough!
The day after this picture was taken, I was doing something with Ella on the computer... he yelled down the stairs to me "Mom, I need 1/4 CUP of salt. Can you help me measure that?"

That caught my attention. What was he doing cooking and what recipe needs a 1/4 cup of salt? Can you guess? He had gone in my recipe box under the tab snacks (he was hungry) and had found a recipe for play dough. He assumed it was edible play dough and was just mixing it up!

Ella hit her head over the 4th of July weekend on a coffee table at my parents place. It was nice to have lots of medical experts on hand! But we have a scar. I will be ever so vigilant to cover it with sunscreen and hats for a very long time. I don't want her to have a big scar on her forehead forever.

A CRAZY video of us climbing Rainier

2011-07-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

I think this will work. A guy on our team took some video footage of us at 13,000 feet where we decided to turn around. Pictures are one thing but when you can hear what was going on... wow, that is another thing.

Click here: Video

A few great days

2011-07-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

These pictures aren't great quality from my iPhone- but they depict truly happy quality time!

Monday Darren had work off for Pioneer Day. The day ended so wonderful. We had a gift card from my parents for dinner at Chili's. Nothing is better than not cooking and getting a great dinner for free at a good restaurant. Then Darren's work had given us tickets to the Utah Bees baseball game. The kids loved the game. We had all picked out a treat from the store to eat at the game. Ella was buzzing with sugar energy. She was super dooper happy! The fireworks show was the best I have ever seen- hands down! Then as we got up to head home, Ella was asleep on Darren's shoulder within MINUTES! Sugar/exhausted crash. It was one of those happy family moments that makes the tough ones worth it.

This is a picture of a great hike we went on to Willow Lake up Big Cottonwood. Two years ago Darren took this same picture with a moose in it. The moose proceeded to chase us down the trail for about a mile... This time- it was peaceful, quiet, and absolutely beautiful.

Today we went on another hike to Days Fork area up Big Cottonwood. Again, so peaceful, quiet, beautiful. (some tired voices from the 3 years olds in the party, but over all wonderful)
I have a good life, a very good life.

A relaxing weekend away- Bear Lake

2011-07-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

My little family went away for 3 days. We had a great time!

Thursday Darren got to take the kids to swim lessons. They got to show off for their Dad! Then home to jump in the car and drive to Logan. We had a nice lunch with Grandpa/ma Balls. Darren got to watch a stage of the Tour de France. Then back on the road to head over the canyon to Bear Lake.

We went straight to the beach. Played for two hours. Then set up our tent back at our site. I love camping and sleeping next to my kids at night. I also love the big tent we have that fits a blow up mattress for Darren and I to sleep on!

Friday- we headed to Rendevous Beach to spend the whole day. The lake is so high, this was the only sandy spot there was. Pat and Seth came over for the day with some yummy KFC to eat! I love greasy chicken!

The kids built a castle with a mote with their Dad.
At this point, Darren had already ridden his rode bike around the lake. He had donned his wetsuit and swam Thursday and Friday. He has a big race this weekend and in 4 weeks.
They played together all day.
I got my chance to sit and relax. This is what I did for a good 2 hours! Just sit, munch on snacks, and read a good book.
Tyler still loves his diggers. He sits on this big one and pretends to run it.
Friday night we had the delicious shakes from La Beaus. Darren got the classic raspberry which Bear Lake is famous for.

Saturday we did a short mnt bike ride with the four of us in Logan Canyon. Nolan and Corie were up for the weekend to celebrate their upcoming birthdays. I do wish I had taken at least one photo of us all. We ate at Chuck-a-Rama. An all you can eat buffet. And I ate enough carbs to last me a year. It was wonderful!

We stopped by Rob and Rowie's place to see poor Rob with a broken femur. He has a rod in his leg after a small but painful crash on his mnt bike.

Goblin Valley with the Boys

2011-07-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

My Dad- AKA Grandpa - wanted to take his grandsons on a camping trip. He took his son, and his sons in law to Goblin Valley for 2 days. Rob and Ely and Eric and Isaac couldn't make it.

Tyler took his camera. About 200 pictures later... these are the best of the trip.

Michael Clark

Tyler Balls

Jordan Clark

The three boys rode down in the back of the truck. Being boys the whole way down.

They meet the rest of the crew down there, set up tents and settled in for their adventure.
- They played in Goblin Valley. Climbing up and down all kinds of fun structures

- They did a 9 mile hike through Wild Horse Canyon. Pretty tough for 4, 5, and 6 year old boys but they didn't realize they were hiking most of the time. It was just fun!

- They ate good food

- They drove through Canyonlands also
I think most of the girls plan on sabotaging this event next year. We are coming too!

Climbing Mnt Rainier in Washington

2011-07-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

This post has taken me a long time to write because my camera quit working and so I had to wait for others photos. But also, because I was still angry about the trip. And I didnt' want to think about not summiting this mountain after all my effort. So here it is.

This is the only time I got to see the top of Mnt Rainier. We are driving away from the mountain at this point. ... we never made it to top, but we gave it a really good effort.

This post is a lot just for me. I am so unhappy about the outcome of this trip. Hopefully writing it out will help me feel better.

I carpooled up to Washington with a great group of people. Wayne and Jennifer Pullman, Aaron and Ang. This picture was taken on Wednesday. Mnt Rainier is behind us, in the clouds.
We listened to an amazing book on the way up and back from Washington. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. This plane at the airplane museum in Odgen now has new meaning.
This is why I feel so rotten about the trip. This picture was taken on Friday- our rest day. The day we should have hiked up to the top but didn't. No clouds in the sky.
So this is our trip.

Group of 10- A great group. But any group can only move as fast as their slowest person, so 10 people didn't move quite as fast as we really needed too.
We slept at White River Campground (4,400 feet) on Wed night. Then started up 3.3 miles to Glacier Basin.
The trail is beyond beautiful. So carrying a 50+ pound pack didnt' seem too bad.

We finally arrived at the Glacier Basin. The clouds were everywhere. We couldn't see anything in front of us.

We ate lunch, filtered some water from the stream and started up this slope ahead of us. It was actually kind of nice to not see the top. It was a ways up there.

Here we are. Hiking up. In the clouds. I am the second one in line. This one went on for hours and hours. (later we would glissade down this, it only took 45 minutes to slide down in)

When we got to the top of the 2,000 vertical foot climb up, we had to hike along the ridge for another hour and a half.

The sun came out for a few minutes. We saw Little Tahoma's peak.

It was our first view of hundreds of crevasses.

Finally time to rope and cross over the crevesses so we can reach our camp, Camp Schurman (9,460 feet)

After hiking for 9.5 hours, 5.2 miles, gaining 5,000+ feet of elevation -we made it to base camp.
This is our wonderful outhouse. I wont write details, but it sure was smelly!

This is Little Tahoma behind us. Ang and I were happy to be there, and eager to get to bed.
This is the view facing Seattle. We were well above the clouds, and occasionally we would see peaks poking through the top of the clouds.
There is a little one room house on the mountain. 2 people are on duty every day. It was a pretty cool spot, but I am sure it gets lonely since they have to work for one week on then one week off. We finally get to bed at 11:30 pm. We had to set up tents, melt water, eat food, and try to get settled.
Friday- This is such a bitter sweet day. This was our day to acclimate. We rested, melted more water, ate more food and then practiced falling into crevasses. This is an amazing shot of my friend Andy pulling himself (prussiking) out of a crevasse.
I dont have a picture pointing down into the crevasse, but it just goes down and down and down.
We had to jump over this one.
I am on the right. I didn't go very far down into the crevasse because I was hungry, and ready to get back to camp.
But it was cool to look down into it. We had to practice saving people. This was good. In retrospect we should have been hiking up the mnt if we really wanted to summit. Although- I am grateful I learned the skills I did on Friday. None of us suspected after such a lovely day of lathering ourselves with sunscreen... that a huge blizzard would roll in in a few hours.
So we ate dinner, I put in my ear plugs and covered my eyes with a nice eye patch cover to make it dark and fell asleep from 6:30 to 11:30 pm. Poor Ang didn't sleep at all, just laid there for hours.

So here it is. Time to summit. We started at 12:45 am. It was dark, but great weather. Notice the crevasse on the left. There are many routes people can go up. We did Emmons Glacier Route.
Then the snow started at about 2:30
Then when the sun was supposed to come- it was still dark. We were totally stuck in the clouds, in the storm, in a mess.
The clouds were so thick around us. I carried up the tall polls in my pack for the group. We started placing this polls every 75-100 feet up the trail. There were many points on the way back down the trail where we couldn't see the next poll in front of us. In this photo below we didn't know were to go. We were surrounded by crevasses. We sat down in the pelting snow and waited for a break in the storm. After 5 minutes we saw a flag quickly appear... we knew which way to go! We were grateful it had cleared for a minute so we could see the flag. There were other times you had to just start walking and then after 20-30 feet you would see the flag ahead of you.
We had to cross over several amazing crevasses. Me again, with the polls sticking out of my back. At this point people were getting cold. We couldn't move as fast. The conditions were terrible. Crossing a crevasse takes time to be sure everyone is safe. We are roped up together so no one will fall in or slide down.
Me again below. We are all getting hungry but who wants to take off their packs and get out food in the crazy weather. You cant even see the next group behind us and they are less than 100 feet behind me. Our gear was frozen, ice on everything. We all had every single piece of clothing and every layer we could have on.
This was the most exciting of our adventure. We had to jump over the crevasse on the right. Land with our ax planted in on the small island. Then stand up and jump over another large crevasse to safety.
Check out this action shot. Wayne is jumping from one side to the island. His wife Jennifer has her ax planted deep in the snow so if he misses and falls into the crevass she wont get pulled in after him. If he had fallen in, as a team we would have to set up an anchor and pull him out. No one fell. Thankfully!
So after only covering 300 feet in 1 hour, we knew we were defeated. This is our picture of our "summit". We were only at 13,000 feet. We still had 1,400 feet more to go. We had pushed on hoping the storm would pass. Hoping we would get above the mess.

The kicker...Our guide/instructors GPS had quite working. Frozen. He didn't know the trail without it. He couldn't see the crevasses until he was right on top of them. We were almost out of flags to mark our trail. Time to turn around. People were cold, hungry and exhausted. We couldn't split up the group to allow half to go on and half to go back... it wouldn't be safe.

I am third in from the left. Those who had started up on Friday had made it down safely. We had missed it. We had sat around camp--- acclimating :(

As we got lower and lower, farther and farther down- the storm was less terrible. We were able to see some of the crevasses we had walked next too. Again, it was nice to hike some of those in the dark. They were LARGE!

At this point, we were so close to base camp. We had a fresh 4-6 inches of snow that had fallen, totally covering our tracks from just a few hours earlier. It was almost a relief to see that we weren't just stuck in the clouds. To see the storm all around us, I guess was good. We had tried to fight it out for 4 of the 6 hours.

We made it back down safely. We ate a good meal, as we were all exhausted. Then packed up heading for home. It took us only 4.5 hours to hike out, compared to the 9.5 hours it had taken to hike in. A big part of it... glissading. What a wonderful thing. We sat on our tail ends and slid down over 2,000 feet of wonderful snow. My friends GPS said his max speed sliding was 11 mph. It was crazy fun.

We got a hamburger and shake in the first town we came too. Found a campsite WITH A SHOWER, and finally fell into bed/our tent at 11:30 pm. Woke at 6:30- and headed for home.

The angry part of me wants to say:

- we should have gone with a smaller group

- we should have gone up on Friday- REPEAT THIS 100 time!!! WE SHOULD HAVE GONE UP ON FRIDAY!

- why did I train so hard and for so long- to get ready for something I didn't summit

- I had babysitters, food in the freezer, everything organized at home--- for nothing!

- I had the gear, the training to use it... for nothing!

but I guess I have to realize..

- Mountaineering is a sport of not always summiting. (even though we could have on Friday!)

- No one got hurt

- I can do it again... someday... someday...

- It WAS a good experience

- I have the skills to do it again- and I WILL!!!

so yes, I feel like I failed, I feel like I wasted my time, but I have to get over it. It WAS a good experience. I just need to finish it. Someday - soon.

Water day with cousins

2011-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

After a few days at the cabin, we came back down to the valley. The kids all came to our house to play with water stuff in the back yard.

This is all the grandkids minus Ely in WA and Seth. There are two more babies on the way also. Very exciting!

These boys can sure have a LOT of fun together! Isaac (Jenny's son), Tyler, Tessa (Candace's girl), Spencer (Chads son). There are 5 boys that are all about the same age. There are 5 girls next. Then 2 small boys. Then we start over with one girl...
Grace (Jenny's daughter)

Spencer, Tyler, Michael (Candace's son)
Tessa (Candace's daughter)
Jordan (Candace's son)
Sophie (Chad's daughter)
We popped popcorn. Drew with chalk. Splashed in chalk. Had a great time.

Our first ever princess party

2011-07-10T05:57:00.000-07:00

While all the little girl cousins were together we had a little princess party. Nothing fancy, just some fun memories.

1. Ella packed up all her dress ups, accessories, and princess shoes in her treasure box. The girls all picked what they wanted to wear.

2. We had our little tea set. They had helped set the table earlier --- they were so excited! We ate little princess food, like strawberries and grapes on toothpicks.

3. Then we decorated magic wands with ribbons.

4. Each girl decorated her own tiara with Princess stickers.

5. We took lots of pictures. (Sophie is such a jokester, she makes the cutest silliest faces for every picture)

They girls loved the "tea"- white grape juice. Bethy wanted lots of it!

Heartland with the Harston's

2011-07-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

Family was in town so we enjoyed some time at my parents cabin. Renee and Ben had a mother and son from Russia staying with them (they are in the center). We are just missing Rachel, Rob and baby Ely. But they were having a wonderful time in Washington enjoying their first camping trip together.

These are a few of my favorite photos. Renee and Beth- Renee can do anything even though she is having a baby in 4 weeks.
My Dad bought a little sail boat. It was fun to pay around on it. And only a few lucky ones got dumped overboard.
Uncle Eric had a great wrestling match. I think it was like 9 kids against one, him! They loved it!
I am delighted Sophie Jane is the oldest girl. All the girls just love her.
We went on a flower hunt with Grandpa down to the beaver ponds.
Toby got in for a really really really gross swim!

Campfire with Dad on the guitar

...::We had a campfire with smores, minus the grahams. We used what we had....wheat thins and multigrain crackers.

..::Darren and I went for a ride in Park City

..::The family all went to the Oakley 4th of July parade

..:: We ate lots of good food which is fantastic for me

..::We played at the lake a bunch. Just relaxing with family.

Ella and her Girls

2011-07-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

We have had one good week of cousin time. Not enough, but this will have to do. Ella has enjoyed every moment she has had playing princesses, dolls, and anything girly you can think of.

Ella and Grace wrapped up at fireworks

Water day at our house with Sophie, Tessa (and Jordan)

The princesses at their tea party- Just missing Beth

playing on the swings with Grace and Sophie

They were sitting around talking at the lake.... Tessa and Grace

Laying around at fireworks- Sophie, Ella, Tessa, Grace, and Beth is standing with her toes in.

She carried her Dora backpack around with her to every event. The pack was filled with accessories, dresses, shoes and magic wands so that every girl could have enough dress-ups to wear.

We sure wish they all lived here so we could have more girl play dates but we will be happy with what we have!

Moments I want to remember

2011-06-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ella has about 5 pairs of shoes. Of course she loves the ones she can slip on real quick. Her flip flops are number one, and her boots are number two. Mid getting dressed she decided she needed to head outside to give Toby a bone. This is her look that morning.

This picture is why I love iPhones. I was mowing the lawn. The kids were having a relaxing morning. I got this picture without them noticing. Tyler is reading Ella several good books while she drinks her morning chocolate milk.

Northeast Ridge of Mount Timpanogos- 4 Peaks in One Day

2011-06-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday I woke up at 3:15 am. I drove to American Fork Canyon. Meet my group and climbed this... the Northeast Ridge of Mount Timpanogos. We started at the left of the picture and ended almost at the right of the picture. 9.6 miles total. (It felt more like 20) 15 hours of climbing. Total elevation = 5,343 feet of climbing

5:30 am- Started hiking. 5 minutes in we had to take off our shoes, socks, and gators to ford this river. It was wide but thankfully not deep.

Phase one- Hike up three long, steep, snow fields. We put on our crampons and hiked as the sun rose.
Here is the second snow hill on the right. We had to get to the top of that mountain for our first peak of the day.
This one was very long and very steep. We were cooking hot! This is called Wolley Hole I think
Finally got to the top of the second snow field ... one more to go. Time to rope up.

We are climbing Mnt Rainer in Washington in a few weeks. So we had to practice roping up incase of an accident. You have to be about 30 feet apart and not let the rope have to much slack.

The last of the 3 snow fields to climb. We have to make it to the top of this.

8:30 am -Finally we make it here. It was pretty windy all day. Utah Lake looked great in the distance. We were in coats and gloves, the people on the lake were in swim suits.
Our Goal- Hit 4 peaks before the end of the day. We had just summited North Peak - Elevation of 11,383 feet and our end goal was way in the distance. Timpanogos at 11.749 feet. On the way passing North Timp Peak and Bomber Peak.

Buckle in for a long day. You can see some of our climbing group- little ants down in the rocks.
We got closer and closer. Timpanogos is in the distance. We hiked on loose rock all day. A few times having to cross patches of snow. I didn't look down as I hiked on those snow patches, knowing if I slipped it would be a long long long way down. (we weren't roped to each other anymore!) You cant see the trail but just imagine walking along the top of this ridge for hours.
This is a great shot of what we hiked on all day. It scares me to look at the photo. Good grief, what were we thinking!

2:00 pm- We finally made it to the top. The hut on top was a great site to see.
We started to head down. Unfortunately there had just been an avalanche in the past few days on our trail out. It was too dangerous to go that way. So we opted for the next way out... the only other way out... the FUN way out!

We had to glissade on our tail ends. You sit down, you push off, you start to slide and when you get going to fast or come to a cliff you use your ice ax to slow down/stop yourself.

We started at the top of this picture and went forEVER! down, down, down.
Our tail ends were numb by the end. See the blue ski at the top of the mountain where the saddle scoop is... start sliding there ... go until you reach the end of this picture. It was incredible!
5:30 pm- Then the painful part. We were exhausted and had three miles to hike out. Our knees, toes, bodies were TIRED! We pooled our food, ate it ALL, and headed out the last three miles. We hadn't anticipated such a long day. So we literally ate every thing we had!

7:30 pm- made it out of Dry Creek Canyon in Provo. We had to call a friends wife to come get us. She then drove us back to our cars in a totally different canyon (AF canyon). Then I had to drive back to Sandy.

9:30 pm- Pull in the driveway. Eat a bowl of cereal very slowly. No food sounds good which is very strange for me... I just wanted a shower and bed.

10:00 pm- ZZZZzzzzzz

So here's hoping I can hack it on Mnt Rainer in July. OH BOY!

Let the Summer begin

2011-06-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Every summer is packed with fun adventures- and this summer is no different. This is the third summer my cousin and I have hiked with our kids. We have a pretty good group this year. My sister Candace is here from Florida with her 3 kids. It is good to have her back. Of course my cousin Julie and her 4 kids. Kari has been coming now for two summers with her 3 kids. Then a new recruit, Rochelle and her 2 kids. I have 2 kids. Add it all up we are 5 moms with 14 kids.

The kids are troopers. I am impressed how much improved they have gotten over the years. They fall down, and can just jump back up and keep hiking. Today we hiked two places- Rocky Mouth Trail to this waterfall and then over to Little Willow Canyon Trail- both on Wasatch. Beautiful. Enjoyed it all.
It is going to be a great summer!

Chicago with Savage

2011-06-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

Once a year Darren's company does a Manager Leadership Conference. This year it was in Chicago. We got spoiled as usual.

Wednesday night we went a baseball game at the Wrigleys Field. It was such a pouring mess that the game kept getting delayed.

The company rented out a whole house for us. I guess the houses are famous. All the old homes that are across the street from the stadium have been renovated. They now have bleachers on their roofs. There were 4 floors of great food. Big screen TV's everywhere... and more and more good food!
So here is the house! It was so fun. The game finally started at 9:00. We didn't' stay long since we were so exhausted.
Thursday I had the morning to myself. Darren had meetings. At the recommendation of my sister Jenny, I went running down Lake Front Drive. It was great. I ran through Navy Pier, which is so exciting with all the fun booths, food stands, and carnival attractions.
Then I just ran. I did walk a bit as I talked on the phone. But by days end I had done 15 miles! My goal was a half marathon! DONE! My legs were killing the rest of the trip. I got back to the hotel with no time to spare. Everyone (we had 500 people in our group) seemed to be trying to rush up to their rooms before we board the bus- so the lines to get on the elevators were terrible. So. ... I ran up 14 flights of stairs! I was done!
We then headed to the University of Illinois where we assembled bikes for kids in Chicago. We then went to the best museum I have ever seen. The museum of Science and Industry. The company had rented the whole museum out for us. We had dinner in three different wings of the museum. Icecream sundays in another corner. Then we had until 10:30 to roam the massive place at our leisure. We defiantly didn't see it all!

Friday- We both attended meetings in the morning. Then headed to our private showing of the Blue Man group. Darren and I rented bikes for an hour and I showed him where I had run the day before. It is a whole new sport riding a bike on an extremely crazy board walk on a Friday afternoon when all the students just got done with school for the year and head to the "beach". The night concluded with a nice formal, fancy dinner.

Saturday - fly home.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP- food, food and more good food. I didn't have to prepare it, or clean it up. There was so much food, I wish I could have eaten more! Also, I could just turn my brain off for 3 days. I followed the agenda, talked to people and just did whatever they told me to do. My brain and belly loved the vacation!

Wheeler Peak 13,063- Nevada

2011-06-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Wheeler Peak - over 13,000 feet. We hiked the through the trees on the bottom right, up to the saddle on the top right. Then along the ridge . We got to just past the center of the picture on the ridge line. Right before it climbs to the top summit. You can see the line of black rocks coming up at the top.

Well. I am climbing Mnt Rainer in Washington in July. This was a required peak to help in our training. I will state now.... we didn't summit. Here is the short story.

9:00 pm- leave from Provo with friend Andy Howell

12:30 am arrive at Great Basin National Park in Nevada

1:15 am - start hiking

2:15 am- wind increasing- we comment how the wind is kind of annoying

3:15 am- wind and ice increasing- switching from crampons to snowshoes as we climb up the ridge. Wind is increasing in speed. The estimated winds at the bottom of the peak were supposed to be 23 mph.

4:15 am- see the summit ahead of us. Have to cross a narrow saddle to reach the push of 1,000 feet to the top. The wind is so strong we cant even stand up straight. (Andy estimated the winds over 40 mph) On either side we have solid ice dropping for ever. If we had slipped with that horrible wind trying to push us over it would have been very difficult to self arrest (stop ourselves) with our ice axes.

4:16 am- we turn around 1,000 feet from the top.

As we head down I mention to Andy how strongly I felt we needed to turn around. My whole soul was saying TURN AROUND! Andy commented the same thing. We both said it was an instant relief as we turned around. I am glad we listened to the feeling inside.

Finally got back to the bottom. Feeling good about our attempt.

Sang loud songs the whole way home, trying to keep our selves awake. Stopped in Delta Utah for a wonderful cinnamon roll.

The End

First Camping trip of 2011- City of Rocks, Idaho

2011-06-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

We got to go on our first camping trip. If you haven't been to City of Rocks you are missing out. I know I went as a kid and loved playing on the rocks. We stayed two nights. Perfect weather. (don't go in july and aug. It is way to hot)

The kids were great campers. And played for hours on the gazillion rocks everywhere.

Darren played with the kids a lot. He went for a nice mountain bike ride too. We ate good food and loved it!

I met up with the Utah Climbing Club on Friday and Saturday and climbed some great stuff. This is in Castle Rock right next to City of Rocks. It is a 5 pitch climb to the top of this tower. Easy fun climb.
The fun thing about climbing on Granite is that your shoes just stick to the rock. So you have to trust your feet and move up the mountain.
I got to climb with a pretty good climber and got to climb a few 10a's. I loved it. and have bruises and scrapes to show that I am not a great climber!
So look it up. City of Rocks in Idaho. Fantastic.

Little Red Riding Hood Century Ride

2011-06-07T13:08:00.001-07:00

Every year the first weekend in June - the BBC puts on a ride called the Little Red Riding Hood Ride. It is not a race, just a ride. You can do several lengths. 30ish, 60ish, 80ish, and 100 miles.

I have wanted to do it for years but never trained and never felt good about it. But this year... I had a great trainer (my husband) who got me a indoor trainer for my bike so I could start spinning inside back in November. For months I spun inside and then in-between the rainy weather I biked outside.

I had lots of friends and family take turns watching my kids while I road- and a few more baby-sitters than we usually get. But the end result was total success.

Angela Isaacs is great- she road with me and made the day memorable in more ways than one.

We wore our SBR jerseys from our bike shop. It was fun to see how many people noticed us in them. They are really cool!

Anyway. We set off to do a 100 WELL! not just finish it but do it well. Ang has done several long rides/centuries before and knew how to do it well!

We did our share of "shameless drafting". We would see some fast riders going past us and jump in behind them and draft! This was the key to a good race. You get to do less work, and go faster. You just have to stay with them! We did do our own pulling too!

This is me at the finish. 100 miles felt like 50 because of the many rest stops with wonderful food:) and because drafting saves your legs, your back ... your energy.

Sadly- Ang crashed at mile 87. She got back on her bike until mile 90. but with a cracked helmet, gears that wouldn't shift, a ripped up jersey, a wobbly tire, and a black spot in her eye that was limiting her vision... she stopped. I am proud of her for stopping!
It is pretty amazing to ride one day with 3,000 WOMAN ONLY riders. I will do it again next year if someone wants to jump in with me. IT WAS AWESOME!

Good times with Friends

2011-05-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

We met some friends for lunch downtown last week. Our kids love to play together. This is the Brigham Young Park next the the temple. We even got to see Pam's husband, Albert. I think I average seeing him once a year. He just finished school and got a job in Southern Utah as a pharmacist.

We tried to capture a picture of all three of us. Pam, Amy and Angela.
2nd try!
Third try might be the best!

Getting ready for Summer

2011-05-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

We got a box in the mail the other day.

BOTH kids loved to play in it!

Talk about cozy

Now we are ready to go camping this summer.

2 kid sleeping bags.

The best part of them is that you can unzip the bottom and add another foot to the sleeping bag as they grow. We should be set until they are really big!

Washington Trip - Spokane

2011-05-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

Our last stop on our trip was to visits my little sister who just had a baby. I got the impression her house is the hub of the neighborhood. She has a box of toys inside her front door that the kids come in and get all the time. According to Tyler this is the "bike dock".
The drive took us 5 hours from Seattle. My AC was not working at this point and my check engine light came on for the entire 5 hours. The car was emitting a funny bad smell. I got it all checked out in Spokane and found that some fluid had leaked out causing the check engine light and smell... so they wiped up the fluid and done... they didn't even charge me. And the AC was easy to fix too. Super grateful!

We had hauled our bikes with us on the trip. So first thing first we had to get Isaac on his bike. We got his pedals off so he could just learn the art of balancing first. It was a delight to hear him say, at 7:30 in the morning ... can we go ride now?

Another one of the highlights of our trip was the nightly wrestling with Uncle Eric. The wrestling match started out with Eric kneeling on the floor saying something like... And in the middle of the ring Daddy Allen, world champion, weighing in at 150 pounds.... Then announcing the kids in a similar fashion. Then they came to the middle and started. There were so many smiles and laughs and tickling!
Four kid against one daddy! My oh My!
We also went downtown one day to a beautiful park. We had a nice picnic lunch and let the kids run around.

Here is baby Miles. He was so sweet. I love his shirt!
Our last day there was beautiful! We got in our swimsuits it was so warm.
It was warm, but that doesn't mean the water was warm. Would you go down the slide this way? Ella sure did! COLD!

Darren said in Utah is was raining and cold the whole week. Ella went sledding in the pool just for daddy.
I think we will have many more fun memories ahead... with all our cousins!
Tyler was feeling rather homesick on Thursday night. So instead of taking two days to get home (stopping in Boise again) I packed up the car late Thursday night, slept for 5 hours, then put the kids in the car at 4:30 AM and started the drive home. It was fantastic. The kids slept for half the trip home. We talked, sang songs, ate good food.

It was so fun to tell Darren as I drove home- "We will be home for Dinner tonight .. will you?"

A day early was so nice. The 10.5 hour drive went by so fast. The kids were wonderful. We loved our trip. It was all I had hoped it would be!

Washington Trip - Seattle

2011-05-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

We loved that Tacoma and Seattle are so close to each other. In just under an hour we were there. My sister Rachel and husband Rob live there, in West Seattle to be exact. Rachel was the greatest hostess. She had great food planned, fun things to see, and sadly more ideas than we could possibly fit in. She catered her itinerary to a Tyler. He has been so excited to see Seattle.

We started with driving our car onto the ferry. This was extremely fun for him.
Rob spent a lot of his time answering questions as fast as he could.
Their little dude Ely was super easy going on all our outings. We are excited for him to start running around with all his other cousins.
We went to a really neat Naval Museum on Bainbridge Island. Tyler continued with is 4,000 questions.

They had a really fun park there with cool water sculptures.
Talk about hostess. Rachel even found the local electric train store. Tyler walked around and around. There were so many neat trains in there. Then we went and got some great ice-cream at the local hub.
Sunday night we went for a super cool drive around the industrial side of Seattle. I think Tyler took at least 100 pictures on his camera of this area. I am not sure how we go so lucky, but just as we arrived at this little look out a little tugboat was hauling this huge empty cargo ship. Those are some big boats.
Tyler loved these big cranes in the back ground. They lift up the containers from the trains and move them horizontally over to the ship waiting in the harbor.... pretty cool!

This is a Missile Radar Detector thing a ma-bo-ber. It is a huge floating ... ship thing. You know, to detect Missiles. It was pretty huge and pretty neat. It is behind the big yellow ship ... which shows how big it is since the yellow ship is pretty huge!
We missed our Daddy a lot on this trip, but we sure had a whole lot of fun!
Darren spent all this time with us away...working! But over the weekend he did get a beautiful mnt bike ride in up at Corner Canyon in Draper. A storm was moving in, but his picture sure looked beautiful.

Washington Trip- Tacoma

2011-05-22T07:13:00.000-07:00

We drove 8.5 hours to Tacoma Washington to stay with our friend Dan and Angenette (Neti) Call. They have three kids, once of which I hadn't met yet... Joseph. The kids love to play with Elena and Leah.

Staying with Neti was a great way to start the trip. We relaxed, played, ate good food because she is a great cook, and splurged on a few good treats for ourselves. We even got a good run in while the kids watched Smurfs at home with Dan.

Neti took us to an old train station. Tyler loves trains.

We got to see some fun glass art work by Dale Chihuly. When I was studying in Israel I got to view some of his art work in Old Jerusalem by David's Citadel. He has a huge bridge going to his museum which is filled with great art work. It was a great "museum trip" for us.

Elena who is 6 skipped school one day to go to the Zoo with us. We went to Point Defiance, which houses the zoo and a huge beautiful park. A highlight of the trip for sure!

I could see countless times on this trip the Lord watching out for us. We would pray as a little family to arrive safely at our destinations. We would also pray to keep a nice happy feeling in our car. But there were other times when I know we were being watched over and protected.

The only imperfection of the whole trip happened in Tacoma. And it was more funny than not. I accidentally turned on the heat at Neti's house. At about 12:30 AM she came downstairs. We were all dying of heat. We realized what I had done. The house was 83 degrees downstairs and felt 10 degrees hotter upstairs. Neti said she was glad we caught it then or they might have been cooked medium well by the morning!

On our last morning there we went to a lovely neighborhood park with a little lake in the middle. We rode around it three times, a mile each lap. I ran, the kids biked. It was a beautiful area. Washington is just so green and lush!

Washington Trip- First stop Boise

2011-05-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

We just got home from a two week vacation to the lovely state of Washington. We were gone a total for 12 days. Darren didn't get to come with us. This is his busy season right now. (His company is getting their yearly audit, he is in charge, he works long long hours = we go on vacation!)

Our first stop was Boise Idaho. 5.5 hours. The kids watched movies most of the way up. The drive was quick and exciting.

We stayed with the LaRiviere's- Other wise know as Dan and Katie's or Chloe and Stella's depending on who is talking.

Tyler was so excited to be there he woke up at 6:30 to play with everyone. so... he and I got on our shoes and he road his bike for 3 miles as I got a nice run in.

Then we came back and played.

Hijacked!

2011-05-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

How long do you think it will take Amy to notice that I - Neti - posted on her blog instead of her? I'm guessing a couple of days. Any other guesses?

UCC event- Towerland in Hanksville

2011-05-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Hanksville Utah. It is in central Utah by Goblin Valley. The area I was in is also called Towerland because there are sandstone towers everywhere.

Our goal, the Utah Climbing Club, was to learn to climb up to the top of these towers.

The trick with this kind of rock climbing is that sandstone crumbles. Quite often you put your fingers on a hold or your foot on a ledge but then ... it just crumbles away when you try to stand on it.

This is me on the "Dirty Devil" a 5.9 trade crack climb--- an 80 foot tower. It was amazing standing on top of it. I am about 1/3 of the way up the tower with a red shirt on.
We camped one night in the sandy desert. The sun was hot - thankfully only in the high 70's, low 80's. We had to haul our gear all over.
This is me on top of "The Castle" a 5.10 80 foot tower. I didn't lead any of these towers, meaning I didn't go up first. I am far from that good. But I did climb up nice and steady once the rope was secure on the top!
I got to climb to the top of three towers on Friday.

On Saturday Ang my friend showed up and she and I attempted and succeeded in climbing "The Strummer." We had a "coach" helping us learn what to do to climb this very tall tower. How tall it is, I don't know. But it is rated an A3. What that means is A0 means if the person climbing falls the belayer and the climber will be fine. A6 means if the climber falls the climber will probably be dead of very badly hurt. We climbed an A3. Right in the middle. Thankfully we didn't have to lead it, we just hung safely from a rope a GOOD climber had put up several days before.

Ang is on the big rock and I am sitting holding the rope by the smaller group of rocks.
Slightly out of order, but the desert was amazing at sunset.
You can see our coach teaching Ang how to place gear correctly so she wont fall. We were learning to place lots of interesting things into the rocks. Pitons (metal you hammer into the rock), cams (funning looking jaws that you squeeze together into the rock) and nuts (little small metals pieces to jam into the rock)

And all these things are supposed to hold you into the wall. But we were also learning about aid climbing. We didn't' actually "rock climbing" up this we "aided" up the wall. We used ladders and things called aiders to get up the rock. You can see a ladder Ang is standing in.

This is me with our coach. He was my guardian angel. He stayed with me for the full 3 hours I climbed. I was a bit ... chicken!
You can see some gear in the wall... so interesting to think a little tiny piece of gear can hold me! Well I hope they can, if I place them correctly!

We got off the wall after 6 hours of climbing. Headed into Blondies and inhaled a burger and a milk shake. Then settled in for a long drive home.

It was a great weekend. Definitely an adventure!

Mothers Day Card

2011-05-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

I came home from climbing in Towerland to a great big Happy Mothers Day banner.

The kids had drawn several pictures on it. These were my favorite.

We recently had an ant problem in our home. So Ella drew me a picture of an ant eater.

Tyler and Darren drew me a picture of the mountains and our family.
I love my family!

Tyler's new bike

2011-05-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

The other day Tyler and Darren went to the shop to assemble Tyler's new bike. He has been waiting very patiently but ever so excited. His old bike was so small on him and didn't have any gears. This photo is the morning after the bike was home. Tyler was awake at 7:00 AM. He ran to my room to get me to show me the bike. (They had gotten home around 11 the night before from the shop)

This photo is Tyler showing Ella his bike. I didn't stage it or anything. The conversation went something like... Ella these are the gears. See, I can shift it up here and they change back here. And then look Ella... these are the brakes, they shift right here....

He has put in a few good miles these last few days. He and Darren plan on doing a few little mountain bike races together this summer.

A day at the park

2011-05-03T09:29:00.001-07:00

I spent the afternoon in Clearfield yesterday. My good friend Pamela is moving. There are four of us who have been getting together for years now. Once or twice a year we have lunch in a park or at someones house. My whole goal yesterday was to get a photo of all the kids and moms together because our gatherings have grown over the years, you know... more kids!

We have supported each other through long hours of husbands at school, babies being born so early we weren't sure if they would make it, the ups and downs of marriages and having kids, getting older and these stress (and love) that comes with motherhood. Good and bad, I am glad we have kept up our visits.

I think of these two as the miracle babies of the group.

Rolling down the hill
Pam helping Lee Charles roll...
And this was the outcome... kids were tired, trying to gather the shoes and scattered toy buckets, buckling kids in car seats then me remembering that camera in my pocket!

Amy Balls, Tiffany Erickson, Rachael Willis (and Pamela Noyes above)
Funny story: Ella had a little accident in her clothes. Luckily Rachael had size 9 month old pants in her diaper bag. Ella sported those "capries" all afternoon until it was time to go. So for the ride home she modeled the new look, "vest all a shorts".

Preschool finished!

2011-04-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a little preschool with Ella and Tyler at our house.

We just finished up for the year.

Tyler is writing the Yy words we learned for the week.

Ella is telling me her colors.

We worked on/tried to learn:

A-Z

Calendar skills

Months

Counting to 31

Days of the week

Pledge of Allegiance

Rhyming

Money

Clocks

Weather

Counting by 5 and 10's

Writing

The Kid Artist

2011-04-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I loved to draw.

My Grandma is an artist.

My Dad is an artist.

And most of my siblings are artistically inclined.

But there comes the day when some says, what is that? What are you drawing?

Then you start doubting that you can draw.

I hope my children will continue to draw and be creative.

One thing I learned while studying teaching at Utah State is to say things like...

Tell me about what your drawing?

Tell me about this interesting detail?

(not what on earth is that!)

Ella was very intent on coloring each corner of her paper purple.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Darrren drove to Moab and biked 102 mileson a Mountain Bike on Saturday. It is a jeeping/biking trail called the White Rim Trail. 100 miles on a Mountain bike is like 200 miles on a road bike. Lots and lots of ouch on your tail end.

Then after this great ride, you end up down there. At the bottom of the canyon. So to get out you have to climb/ride/walk your bike out of all these switch backs. I would have cried to be so exhausted and then see this.

We spent Saturday morning at Corie and Nolan's house. It was a great spring morning. We had some trampoline time. Since Nolan was the only Dad there, he had trampoline duty. I think he was tried by the end.

Corie had a fantastic idea. I loved how it made every thing so fair. Tyler could only get the green and blue eggs, Ella the purple and pink and Jonah the orange and yellow. Corie also put good things in the eggs like apple jacks, goldfish, fruit snacks, money, one chocolate per egg. It was a nice reminder that it didn't have to be all candy. It was a great afternoon.

Then we went to my parents house for a Hatch party. My mom always throws a good party. Lots of food and a fun Easter Treasure Hunt. Lots of Aunts and Uncles and lots of cousins.

We left that party and I went for a 50 mile bike ride out to Kennecott Copper Mine. It was a busy and wonderful weekend.

The mighty might snowman

2011-04-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

It isn't very often we have all four of us together at home.

So to enjoy the day and the snow outside, we built a great big snowman.

The snow is melting quick and will fast be gone but we enjoyed it one more time.

Tyler loves to help his Dad with everything possible.

I don't think this snowball even moved an inch, but he sure was trying to be just like Darren.

And Ella tried to help.

Her little grunts make it sound like she is trying so so hard!

It was a lot of hard work

My little snow angels

Time for bed

Conference Weekend

2011-04-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up to no power, a 60 degree house, tree branches touching the ground and inches and inches of snow. Yesterday I had gone for a nice bike ride and done some yard work. Darren had even gotten a light sun burn while he was out during the day.

We were so glad the power came back on at 9:58 so we could watch conference at our house. (conference started at 10:00)

Ella sadly gave up her sippy cups when she turned three. They were such a comfort to her. She adores Toby and gives him plenty of attention. I am grateful his head is attached so well, or I might wonder if it will fall off one day with all the "loves and hugs" she gives him.

Ella sports a princess dress almost every minute we are home. She can change from one to another ... and than to anther within a matter of minutes.
We are happy our friends Dan and Katie are moving back to Utah. Our kids do so well together, and Dan and Katie aren't to bad themselves!

This morning we had such a nice quiet 2 hours of watching General Conference. The kids were occupied so well doing fun packets to keep them in a quiet mode.

Darren and I got to go on a date Friday night. I wanted to remember the answered prayer I got on our date.

For 10 years I have had terrible headaches. As we walked into the temple after a yummy dinner I got slammed with a horrible headache. It went from terrible to worse in seconds. I said a silent prayer that the Lord would help my headache go away so I could go to the temple and enjoy the peace and spirit there. Almost immediately it went away. For the two hours we were in there I was perfectly normal. My headaches never go away like that. Then as soon as we left... it was back with a vengeance. We made it home and I went right to bed.

I really believe in prayer. It has helped me so many times.

Ella is 3

2011-04-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Ella got to share her birthday with Grandpa and Grandma Balls in Logan. Seth got put in as a Bishop for a Young Single Adult Ward.

Cousins Jonah and Everett were there too, along with their parents of course. Grandma bought Ella a princess umbrella but couldn't resist buying one for the other two happy boys.

Ella is all girl. She can change her princess dress faster than you can blink. She has her favorite three and rotates them quickly. Her cake was pink, had sprinkles, and was a castle. It didn't look amazing but she was as happy as could be.

How did I get so old!

2011-03-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

I have a child going into Kindergarten. Registration is tomorrow! Where did the time go.

Tyler had to get his kindergarten shots. He said ouch and ouch. That was it. He is a gem.

What needs to pointed out on the below paper is that he has good vision. Darren and I were both blind as bats, that is until we both got lasik (the best spent money ever!)

I held my breath as they tested his vision--relieved and happy to see that for now he is safe from glasses.
Last night I was exhausted. Darren is working long hours again, and we are only at the beginning of this long two month audit season. Darren had 5 minutes with us before he had to go to some meetings. He asked the kids to be good helpers and get into bed easy tonight. I was just so tired.

1 minute later Tyler runs back down the stairs with his jammies on, teeth brushed and proceeded to empty the whole dishwasher himself.

As I slipped into bed I said a very sincere prayer to thank Heavenly Father for a son who is so sweet, caring and takes care of his mom every day!

Tyler wrote down these words to one of his favorite songs the other day in church.

Families Can Be Together Forever