SUMMER

I LOVE SUMMER. We are having so much fun, playing outside all the time. Going to the pool as much as possible. Today Noelle bought Alyssa a snow cone. We ate it on the tramp. It got all over so I gave Alyssa the hose to wash everything off. Well that turned into a water fight. So much fun!

This is how a 2 year old reacts when you tell her it is time to turn the water off.

A.F. Canyon Half Marathon

Yesterday Noelle and I ran the A.F. canyon half marathon (13.1 miles).  It started up at Tibble Fork reservoir up A.F. canyon. I had never been up that canyon that far. It was really beautiful. I was going to stay with Noelle as long as I could but after a 0.5 mile she started to take off. I couldn't keep up any more. She is a speed demon. As I was running down the canyon I was enjoying the beautiful view (look up at the mountain) and I ran right into a cone and fell flat on my face. How embarrassing! I just got up and kept running and pretended nothing happened. I didn't realize I scrapped up my knee until I finished the race. The run was hard! The 7.5 miles down the canyon wasn't too bad but there was 6.5 miles that was flat and some uphill. I finished it in 2:02. I wanted to finish in under 2 hrs but at the end I just couldn't. 2 minutes isn't that bad. Noelle finished in 1:42. That is a 7.45/mile pace. She is so fast!
My hardest part was that my IT band has been killing me for 6 weeks. I just pushed through training so I could do the race. Around mile 8 it was hurting so bad I didn't know if I could keep going. I stretched it for 10 seconds and was able to keep going. This week I am going to take off of running to rehab it.
I love having a physical goal and finishing it. Next summer my goal will be to do my first triathlon.  

House update

The house is coming along pretty quickly now. We went over the check it out yesterday. The garage door is in, stucco and rock is done. Tiling in the bathrooms is done. Now for cabinets, flooring and painting. I didn't get great pictures of inside (I had the wrong kind of lens on). When it is done, I will post good pictures, but here is an idea.

We really like the colors. It is kind of scary choosing colors in small sample sizes and hoping they turn out ok large.

Alyssa's bathroom/2nd full bathroom

Master bath

She wanted to color on a rock, go ahead my dear....

back of the house

This is the hill at the end of our lot, very scary. We are going to have a fence!

Another view of the hill and a little pond. There is a stream you can hear from here as well.

playing on rocks...

Erin and Jake

I had the opportunity to take engagement pictures of my good friend Erin. She was my roommate for a few years in college. She is getting married to Jake in August. This was my first time meeting Jake and he seemed like a really good guy. I am so excited for Erin. I think they look really good together. Here are some of the shots from the session. I can't wait to see her annoucements!

Bridal Shower

Today we had a family bridal shower for my cousin Nichole. She is getting married on Thursday.  We had some fun games. It was a themed shower, a Tea Party. So we all had to come wearing gloves and hats. There were some tasty treats and fun games. It was fun to get together to celebrate. Nichole has had a year long engagement and they have been together for 2 years. Her fiance just graduated from the Air Force academy and they are not allowed to get married during school. Needless to say I bet they are both very excited their day is almost here. Poor Nichole has 3 finals tomorrow and the wedding on Thursday.

Orem Summerfest

We went to the Orem Summerfest yesterday. We went to the parade with our friends and the fireworks with my mom. Alyssa loves Cohen and Baker. They are 3&5 and she thinks they are so cool. When she talks about them she calls them CoBaker. She followed there lead during the parade. Once she saw that people were throwing out candy she was all over it. Poor girl, we kept her up way to later to stay for the fireworks. She actually fell asleep during the fireworks.

This week we got together one afternoon to celebrate a few things; a cousins graduation from high school, and birthdays of 2 other cousins.  We met at Liberty Park. This park is huge! We stayed by the playgrounds. It was fun to see everyone. Camyrn is Alyssa's second cousin and she followed her around everywhere. Camyrn was so nice to her and played with her the whole time. Before we were going to leave we went over to the splash pad. We waited 30 minutes and it never turned on, we figured it went on every hour for 10 min. I think that is way to spread out. Anyway as we were leaving it turned on so we let Alyssa go play in it. She didn't like the water spraying right in her face but she still thought it was cool. Cohen (another second cousin) is fearless and pretty much just ran straight in.

FYI Ali I have a lot more pictures of Cohen for you

Camryn pushing Alyssa

fearless Cohen

Noelle and Grandpa

Camryn and Alyssa having a drink

So fun!

Cohen



"Hmm do I like this?"



Today we went up the canyon so I could practice taking pictures.  Of course I had to take a few shots of Alyssa as well. She has been sick for the past few days so it was nice to get out. Alyssa didn't last long but it was nice none the less.

Stuff we have done

Here are some random photos of things we have done in the past few weeks.

Alyssa LOVES jumping on the trampoline. She also LOVES her tangled jammies and sometimes doesn't want to take them off!

Russ had to go to a golf tournament with his work. He hadn't golfed since he was in his teens. He was on the CEO's team and was a little nervous. So the day before the tournament we decided to go practice on 9 holes. Alyssa LOVED it. She thought it was so cool to ride in the golf cart and try and hit the balls.

trying to hit the ball...

 Everyday when I get home from work Alyssa wants to get a creamie and eat it on the trampoline. Her favorite is "purple" (raspberry) and she gets me a "brown one" (chocolate). She is funny she always wants to eat it on the tramp. When it is cold outside I will tell her that it is cold and she will say to me
"No mama its nice outside"

playing in the backyard

"Whats that"