LAKE TAHOE...#1

well i took lots of pictures, so i'll have to do a
couple of posts. carrie we all missed you!


travis loved this stuffed bear that was on display
at the erhman mansion. i'm not sure the ranger
understood the concept of 'exchanging brains.'


dinner time with alex


trav is too cool for us


practicing


so pretty

Flight of the Conchords

So, you've probably heard of these guys. Some of their songs are hilarious. Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and look up our favorites: Business time, Think about it, Tape of Love, and Brett You've Got It Going On. They're hilarious!


Also- CONGRATS U.S. Men's Volleyball!!! Maybe it's because there's 2 BYU grads on the team. Maybe it's because one was still playing at BYU when we were there. Maybe it's because one of their names is Lambourne (very cool to see your last name on an Olympic jersey!). Maybe it's because we love to watch it. Either way, we've been following the volleyball this Olympics and are STOKED that U.S. Men's Volleyball won GOLD!!!! I confess, they were in my prayers. (side note- U.S. rocked volleyball this Olympics- no small feat considering Brazil, the #1 ranked teams in the world, was also in 3 of the 4 final matches. U.S. Women's won silver, and both U.S. men's beach volleyball and U.S. women's beach volleyball won gold!!!)

Tahoe Fun!!

Kate & Audrey at the pizza place
BLISS!!
mom showing audrey how cool wearing her sweater is...im not sure it had affect....

I think this is the most expression dads ever shown on camera!
Brett & A-bomb

Tahoe was a lot of fun this year, we missed out on a couple things since we weren't there as long. But it was still a lot of fun. We missed you Carrie and Rod! i dont' have any cool pictures of the dock, or trav jumpin off, kate does though, so kate-post them!

Fame & Fortune

So- we're pretty much famous now. Rod's hospital pic got published in Mountain Bike Action! And my little blurb I wrote with it, too. So Rod can say his picture's been in MBA and I'm a published writer!!!

Rod hasn't even gotten his copy in the mail yet; his brother-in-law in Virginia just happened to buy this issue and see Rod in it! So of course, we just had to go buy it....

If you blink, you'll miss it.....

Every time I drive by this sign, I think to myself, "You've got to be kidding me." So this is where we live. Bieber is 2 miles up the road and that's TWICE the size, at a population of 500. The high school and middle schools are in Bieber, and the elemantary is about 10 miles away. There's a family in our ward about Troy and I's age with their fourth on the way. They have a boy Cameron's age and a girl Audrey's age and a 2yr old boy. We were so excited to meet them, they are very nice and we all get along great. So we all have one friend! That's what I figured I'd need to survive here. It has been an adjustment, especially shopping. I actually miss Walmart. There are nights I'd give away a child (or 4) for a Papa Murphy's pizza place. There is McDonalds 40 minutes away....
One of the cats had this special treat for us on our doorstep. Troy hates bats. Screams like a little girl. Seriously. :)

Our latest loyal steed, Neb. Thanks grandpa! He loves the kids and has been great with our other furry beast, Sasquach.

And Cameron is still in love with mud. He asked if Ethan could come over and play with him. He was really upset with me when I told him probably not. He wanted me to call Natalie and give her directions so she could just 'drop him off'. We'll have to work out a visit soon!

This is at Burney Falls, a beautiful camping area with some really neat waterfalls and trails. We've had fun exploring our new area and seeing so many beautiful sights! I think we'll survive here, once school starts I might be a little more sure. It's hard having them all home with NOWHERE to go!!! I thought I'd do a little experiment today, I wanted to see how many times my kids said "mom" throughout the day. It's been driving me crazy. Why does it take 10 'moms' for each child to say one thing? Anyway, by lunchtime I was at 87, give or take a few, and it took too much brainpower to keep counting. I think my brain is running on fumes anyways. So that's how far I got, and then I realized that Alex isn't even saying 'Mom' yet! What's one more...

Beiber Fun!!..and other fun pics! And Happy Anniversary Brooke and Troy!

Sasquatch-The new pup to be Neb's buddy!
Dev shootin' the BB gun

Brett and Trav at the city pool; Trav's favorite thing-other than tahoe and me
Breakfast in Beiber, keep in mind the wisdom teeth were still fresh out. I don't think cam is in pain either....
Cutest Boy!!

Sorry these are out of order. Mom and i had a fun time in Beiber. Brooke and Troy's house is very cute and perfect for a family of boys; mud, dirt, bugs-cam's in heaven. But we enjoyed helping brooke decorate the house, exploring Beiber(it took about 5 min-teasin!). And we even went to the Beiber city pool! (Consists of One pool, and one diving board) The only down side to the trip were the mosquitos, they're pretty bad up there. But it was a fun trip! Thanks Brooke!

AND.....HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY BROOKE AND TROY!!!!!

my half marathon

so, i ran a half marathon on saturday. lest you
think i'm some freak runner- i'm not, but i just
wanted to give it a try. so we got up at 4:30am to get
bussed up provo canyon- the picture is me and ash
getting ready for our big day. we started the race at 6:45am.

everything was fine until mile 8, when my legs started
feeling the burn, and i thought, 'what the h am i doing?'
don't fret though, i pressed on thanks mostly to a little
whitney houston (i wanna dance with somebody),
pirates, and viva la vida on the old ipod.

it's interesting what you think about when you have nothing
else to do but run. mostly i found myself thinking things like
"if that 70 year old man can do it, so can i" or "i can't let this 10
year old overweight boy with glasses and a cast on his arm finish
before me." it was a beautiful run down the canyon though and
the weather was perfect...i also couldn't help but think of the Lord's
admonition to "endure to the end," this was a good object lesson
for me.

then about mile 10 or 11 i thought i might die. but i had
to finish, cause i was so close, so i quickly found viva la
vida again and FINALLY made it to the 13 mile finish line
after 2 hours 16 minutes.

what's the aftermath of an event like this you ask? well i'm
very sore and i look stupid when i walk, but i'm glad i did it
and kinda proud of myself for running the whole thing.