now that I have finished reading the Stephenie Meyer, "Twilight" series, I can refocus on blogging and catch up :) You've gotta read them, SO GOOD! I couldn't quite decide who's team I was on but once I finished "Eclipse" and wasn't very sad, I guess I'm team Edward. Dieing for the next book to come out!! In the mean time, I'll just reread them all.
My dad loves cowboy. He is probably the only resident of Newport Beach and possibly Orange County that wears cowboy boots daily and a cowboy hat when the occasion is right. He also makes sure that his grand kids are decked out in the same fashion. Before we moved to Italy he bought them all boots which they loved and recently when he was here, he restocked their supply. After a mess of boots left for the sales lady to clean up, we found the perfect ones.
And then he thought Mom needed a pair. I've never owned cowboy boots and never thought I would. But I saw these and couldn't resist. I'm excited to strut my stuff in Italy.
is money well spent. This is the first time I've taken my kids and we all loved it. For $10 I got 50 tokens, every ride/game is one token and of course there is the tickets and prizes at the end! I haven't played skeet ball in so long. All Abbey wanted to do was ride the rides rather than get momma's money worth and win tickets. But I cannot believe how much fun I had there. highly recommend it.
Brody and Cloe with their prizes they picked
Had I posted this the day of the triathlon, there would have been a title like "I never want to go to hell again". And the reason being is the swim.
But first of all, this was a great triathlon, it raises money for Share a Smile Foundation that helps the poor in UT and in different countries that need dental work. It was a really nice course and it felt good to complete it after only 2 weeks or real training. I've been running all year so I was already in cardio shape, I just needed to wake up those tiny little swim and bike muscles. It started with a 400 yd swim which they had you line up according to your time and then they started you 20 seconds apart. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. Mind you i played water polo in high school, was always in the ocean body surfing and swam in college, I know how to swim. But for some reason I freaked out because I needed to stretch and I couldn't stop and then my chest got tight and I couldn't calm myself down and there were tons of people standing on the deck waiting to start which made it absolutely unacceptable to stop and let them see my weakness. I was dying and then I got out and the rest of the race was fine :) I took a second at the transition to compose myself and then got on the bike for an 8 mile bike which my dad later told me I had the bike in the lowest gear "what was I thinking!" I was scared to mess with the gears too much because I didn't want the chain to fall off. Can you tell I'm quite the experienced biker? And finally a 3.2 mile run. Have you ever ran after biking? That would also fall under the category for the title "I never want to go to hell again". But my dad who is an experienced triathlete told me you can train your muscles to not experience the pain of the transition. Which I'm assuming requires more than 2 weeks of training. But it hurt! When I knew no one was around I walked a couple steps and then ran. But once I found "gangsta party" by tu-pac and snoop on my ipod, I was good to go. I ended up finishing 1:19:52. My dad came to town for my sister's baby shower and I convinced him to do the race with me. He did ZERO training and beat me by 9 minutes and got first place in his age group!! way to go dad!! With adequate time to train I recommend a triathlon, they're kinda fun, but I'm also into the self torture stuff so it might just be me ;)
this is the only action shot I got and I stole it from my friends blog. Lindsey is in the 2 piece and is the one who got me to do the race and I'm in the red suit behind her.
yeah! we're done! and dad with his first place ribbon!
I'm a little behind, being half way around the world and all, but I finally read "Twilight". I started Tuesday night and finished this morning, it was so good. Although I'm a little tired today. After I put the kids to bed, I started reading and couldn't put it down till I forced myself to go to bed in the wee hours of the morning! If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. I'm jealous my friend Shauna went to a signing ;) I'm excited to read the next one but am going to give myself a couple days before I get emerged into another book. Maybe I should focus on the triathlon for now, oh, and Corine's baby shower!
It's great, the kids are cheap, you only have to do one game to entertain them and when they get distracted you can always take one of their turns. Oh, and I should add, that's the only way they got strikes. booya!
she gets excited easily :)
It was so fun to watch them Cheer each other on
the kids loved watching the balls come out and I was just waiting for a pinched finger
I helped Abbey push her ball down the "ball slide" or it would never make it down the alley and the kids would stand around me holding me while they waited in suspense to see what would happen. I loved Abbey's little hands on my arm.
so cute!!
Saturday we went to play with cousins and early that day we had a wonderful August, Utah, rainstorm. When it let up, the kids went outside to play. A couple hours into it, Katelynn was making a big deal about the boys being gross. We went outside to find them covered in mud. By where the mud ended up, it looked like there was a mud fight, some rolling and some lathering of mud on their arms. And as punishment, Uncle Jeremy hosed them off.
and a little triathlon update, early that morning I went on a 8 mile bike ride then ran 3 miles to practice. I went with my bud Lindsay (who talked me into doing this tri) and she kicked my butt! It was freakin hard, what am I getting myself into? But it's gonna feel awesome when I cross that finish line. 5 more days!!!
the other day we went to the park with some friends and all I was expecting was a playground. I'd seen the park before and assumed the fountains were just decoration but soon found out they are little wading pools. The kids loved them. First they started with their clothes on and were soon down to the bare necessities, which left them with cute little tan lines that evening. Then we went over to this cool swing contraption. It had six swings and they spun around like a carousel. It seemed really cool until us moms attempted to push the thing while our kids yelled "faster!!" The thing would barely move. But watching Addie and Abbey giggle with enjoyment was worth the effort. They swam some more until us mom's could not stand the sun any longer. It was a gorgeous park and good company.
my mom is an amazing seamstress, which i did NOT inherit, and she whipped up these aprons the other day. She's deciding on what to do with them and the money hungry girl that I am told her to sale them! Any one in the market for a good quality, reversible apron? $20 plus shipping :)
and they come in different prints
to my mom! She hiked mount timpanogas last week! I have no desire to do it and don't think I ever will. I am very proud of her and wanted everyone to know. Yeah Nonna!
Ryan left on Sunday to go to New York for a 3 week session at the Hudson River School of Art. If you know much about the art world then you will be impressed to know that it is being put on by Jacob Collins. I'm excited to hear how it goes. The whole thing has been quite unorganized but he's there and it looks gorgeous and if anything, he gets 3 weeks of uninterrupted time to paint!
So I just registered for a triathlon on the 25th of this month. Now I'm committed. No, I haven't trained and am not in tip top shape, don't you look at the pictures of me on the blog? Oh, wait, I don't post them for that exact reason. But I have been experiencing a bit of a chest cold that leaves me exhausted after running up the stairs so let's pray that goes away soon, like tomorrow. If you want to join me, it's in Orem and you register at active.com, they are actually a lot easier than they seem. And I have fun doing them. Hopefully an event post to follow of the big event :)
This has been the highlight of our trip. My friend Liz recently started a photo business and I couldn't wait for her to shoot my kids! She has the cutest little studio and the kids loved it. here is a sample, you'll have to go to her site to see more. www.dillydallyart.blogspot.com and of course you can always contact her and get a booking ;)
Wednesday Ryan and I drove up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the much anticipated show. He's been working all year and plus some for this show and we were excited to see it pay off.
It was a 5 hour drive and when we got there we picked Ryan's mom and Grandma up from the airport, the poor things had to fly for a whole 30 minutes! We checked into the little Bed and Breakfast we were staying at and it was so cute and the beds were awesome!
That evening we went over to the gallery for the show and Ryan had a good time doing "meet and greet" with collectors and I loved seeing red stickers on paintings. That means more shopping at target! He got a lot of good feed back from his show. You can see it better at www.astoriafineart.com and of course they are all for sale ;)
After the show, the gallery owner's, who we have become good friends with, took us out to dinner. The food was so good! We ate at the Rendezvous Bistro and I had wild Alaskan salmon that was to die for and Ryan had roasted duck. And you don't even know the excitement I felt when they ordered the dessert! We got back to our room and I was on a major sugar low and crashed. 
Thursday, we did some sight seeing and then drove back home to get the kids.
Thursday morning we went up to Payson lakes to camp with Ryan's family and stayed until Saturday night. by Saturday morning I was so ready for a shower but looking back could have gone a couple more days only because of how much fun the kids had. We all had fun but the kids especially love being in the mountains and playing all day and night with their cousins. I loved when we first got up there and I opened the door and could smell that mountain smell, fresh air and the scent of pine trees. mmmmm love it! We got rained on Thursday evening and we were the ghetto ones in a tent, probably the last time we will be sleeping in a tent while camping ;) But then again I also love summer rain storms in the mountains. Friday we went down to payson lakes and went fishing. Actually Jeremy and Kelly fished and the kids held the line once the fish was brought in. But they enjoyed throwing stuff and digging more anyways. After lunch we went 4 wheeling. All the kids loved it. My kids preferred going with dad rather than Mom because dad went faster. Sorry I carried you for 9 months and nursed you after that, i care more about your life! j/k. The kids ran around and played after that and once the fire was lit, they couldn't get enough of throwing things in the fire. "mom is this branch dead? can I throw it in the fire?" "no, if you have to pick it and it's green, it's not dead!" Saturday morning was more fishing and then after lunch we all went to Payson Lake to swim. Freezing cold!! But the kids didn't seem to mind. I got in to swim with them a little and also to rinse off the filth a little bit. We had the last supper that night and headed home. I love camping and I got my fix for the year. Ryan has a great family and it was so much fun to be able to spend this kind of time with them. I don't know how I'm going to be able to get these kids back to Italy!
the big boys loved throwin gasoline in the fire and the little boys love watching it
payson lake and the view ryan was painting
brody's fish. and cloe's, and abbey's and gavin's and sage's. they all got a photo op. with the same fish, but that's how we roll. 
fish guts are always so interesting
of course Ryan painted. Gotta make sure this whole trip is a business write off. and it was a pretty awesome painting for only 2 hours
does he look like he's having fun?
uncle Kelly was the popular one to ride with because he would take them up the steep hill
Abbey and Sage loved this game together
Abbey likes sage :)
Brody and Gavin playing, and they thought it was a very intense game
