Think Snow

Winter used to be my least favorite season. We lived in North Carolina one year and it only snowed one day that winter. I didn't even miss the snow. That was before I learned to ski. Now when the leaves start changing color I get really anxious to start seeing snow up in the mountains. I still don't enjoy being cold. I was just hearing from friends of ours in Iowa this week about the bitter cold temperatures there. (It was something like -18 degrees Fahrenheit this morning.) I really don't miss that at all! After moving back to Utah I decided that we have almost the ideal climate here. We get to enjoy all four seasons without having the bitter cold of the Midwest or the heat and humidity of the South. So when it is too cold to do anything else I love that we live so close to the mountains with lots of snow. This week has felt almost more like March than January but hopefully we'll get some more powder soon. Here are some recent pictures from Snowbasin. We love the benefits of Jason's job there! Not only do we love to ski but it is great to get out of the valley on the bad inversion days and see some beautiful blue sky!

Some Thoughts

It's been a rough weekend for everyone in our family. Andrew and Jared had the hardest time with Charlie dying. Jared has always been a sensitive child and he was just heartbroken that our little bird had died. I would think he was doing a little better and then look over to see tears streaming down his cheeks. I was sad about the bird dying but I was even more sad to see my kids that I love so much hurting so bad! I couldn't keep my own tears from falling as I watched Jared cry. As I was sitting in church Sunday I thought of the story in the New Testament when Lazarus dies. When Jesus arrives he is greeted by Martha who is weeping and says, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Jesus knew he had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead yet the scriptures record that "Jesus wept." I think this is significant. Jesus wasn't sorrowing because Lazarus had died, he was weeping because of the sorrow of those he loved. Just as I cried when I saw my children so sad, Jesus still feels our sorrow just as he did Martha's then. Life is hard sometimes but I'm so grateful to know I have a Savior who understands no matter how big or small.

Yesterday we all woke up feeling like it was not a holiday. After a lot more tears I decided we needed to get out of the house and do something fun. We sent a text to all the cousins and took a trip to Gateway Discovery. It really was a relief to have some fun and think about something besides the bird dying. Here are a few pictures of the fun day. I'm glad a couple of my sisters-in-law could make it on such short notice!

Andrew, Jesse, and Jared on the Life Flight helicopter.

Everything the kids ever dreamed of doing in the sink but I won't let them!

Kaitlyn loved planting the flowers and playing in the house!

Winston, Andrew and Jared as news reporters.

Last night when we went back to the pet store to pick out another bird. Andrew and Kaitlyn both wanted to get another one. Jared didn't. Andrew ended up winning since it was his Christmas present. Jared seems ok about it now and is starting to like the new bird. Andrew picked out a blue one this time and named him Herkey. (In case any of you don't know that's the name of the Iowa Hawkeye mascot.) Now we get to go through the whole process of taming another bird. I'm having nightmares that this bird will die too. If you have any tips on keeping parakeets alive please let me know! I don't think my kids can handle another one dying!

Sad Day

I woke up this morning to a sound that breaks my heart. Andrew was crying and it wasn't the type of crying when he's mad or fighting with his brother. He was really sad. When he woke up he went downstairs and uncovered the bird cage and Charlie was dead. My boys are devastated. This little bird really worked his way into my kids hearts in the last couple weeks. I feel so bad that my kids have to go through this. We'll get another bird but as Jared put it, "I don't want another bird; I just want Charlie!"

Why I Run

This is a post I've been composing in my head for a while. Now comes the task of putting it on paper. This all started when I met my new sister-in-law, Cecilia. We were in Italy for the wedding and had just run the Boston Marathon a few weeks before. One of the first questions she asked me was why in the world I would run a marathon. I really laughed when I saw this You Tube video because it reminds me so much of the conversations I've had with Cecilia about running.

So this is for all of you out there like Cecilia who relate to the girl in the video. If you are a runner you really don't need to read this post because you already understand but for those of you who don't I'll try to explain the madness. Here are some of the reasons I run.

I run for my health. I list this first not because it is the most important - just to get it out of the way. One day I was at Beus Pond doing a speed workout and there was a guy walking his dog. He asked me if I was competitive or if I was just doing it for my health. I laughed and said, "both." It's like being able to give up cookies and ice cream to be healthier. But I don't. They just taste too good. The same goes for running. I enjoy the health benefits of running but if that were the only reason to run I probably wouldn't. Having said that, I do love that I will most likely live a longer, healthier life because of what I do!

I'm not coordinated enough to do anything else! That was a joke I had with my high school cross country coach. I told him if I was good enough to play another sport I wouldn't be a runner and there was some truth to that. For some reason running has always just come naturally to me while nothing else has. I remember in 6th grade when we started running the mile. I was amazed when I beat everyone in the class, even the boys.

I'm competitive. It doesn't matter if it's Candy Land, UNO, Foosball, tests when I was in school, or running. I love to win. Hopefully, that doesn't come off sounding too cocky. I know I'm not the best at anything. I'm certainly not the best runner around. That's just my personality and what drives me to be better. I'll never qualify for the Olympic Trials or anything like that but I am good enough to win some local races and to me that's a lot of fun. I hate to finish behind people I know I can beat. It's rare for me to leave a race without at least an age group prize but even at the races when I know I won't win anything my competitiveness pushes me to be the best I can be. For instance, last year when I ran the Boston Marathon I knew I wasn't coming home with anything other than a finisher's medal. I still wanted to run the best I could. I hired a coach and trained harder than I ever had for a marathon. I ran a fantastic race and loved every minute of it. I loved the crowds and the exciting atmosphere. I loved having so many runners around me to keep me going when I was tired. I even took three minutes off my PR. No one does that at Boston. The course is way too hard! Later that day in the hotel room I looked up results on the internet and found out I had placed 188th! That may not sound impressive if you don't know about the Boston Marathon. Boston is one of the world's most prestigious marathons with some of the world's best marathon runners. There were over 11,000 women in the race and most of the non-elite runners like me had to get there by running a qualifying time so it is competitive even at the recreational level. A top 200 finish was better than I ever would have dreamed.

I run to make friends. A lot of my running is done alone because it's hard to work out my schedule to fit with others as well as find runners the same pace as me. Whenever I get a chance though I love to meet up with friends for a run. Some of my best friends over the years have been friends that I made while running. Jason and I even met when we were running cross country at SUU. Some of my friends are also my fiercest competitors. A lot of my friends weren't my friends at all when we first met because we were always racing against each other. Once we started training together we became really good friends and found we could help each other out a lot by pushing each other through hard workouts. It's hard not to be friends with someone after doing 3 hour marathon training runs with them week after week! I have made friends with all kinds of different people that otherwise I wouldn't have ever met!

I enjoy running. I'm always surprised when people tell me how much they hate running and what can they do to enjoy it. I really don't have an answer because that has never been a problem for me. Sure there are mornings I don't want to get out the door (especially this time of year when it is cold and dark) but I always feel better when I am done and I almost always enjoy my run once I'm warmed up. Sometimes I enjoy just going for a relaxing run with friends and sometimes it is a lot of fun to run hard and push myself to improve. That's really what it all comes down to. I love to run!

Charlie

Here's the post I know you have all been waiting for! Rumors have been flying (literally!) so I better get the story straight. When I went to primary Sunday one of the girls said, "I heard you got a parrot!" Charlie's not quite a parrot but here he is.

For those of you that haven't known me for very long it might come as a bit of a shock that we got a pet. Anyone that has known me for a long time though knows that I really love animals. When I was a kid I won a gold fish at a church activity (a real one!) I'm not sure what my parents thought about that but I loved having my own pet. I remember one day when I was trying to clean his bowl I accidentally dumped my poor fish down the drain. I was so sad but my dad was able to rescue the fish and he lived for a while longer. I also brought a toad home from school that I was really excited about. What I really wanted was a dog. I begged my parents for years to let me have a dog. Our next door neighbors had two German Shepherds and I would spend hours at the fence playing with them. When I was 11 they finally gave in and we got my dog Alex who instantly became part of our family.

I always thought I would have a dog as an adult but we spent a lot of years in apartments when we were first married. We had some fish but that was it. When we finally did get a house I realized having a dog didn't sound quite so fun anymore. I was already overwhelmed with taking care of two small children with a husband that was always gone for his medical residency and decided the last thing I needed was a pet to take care of. As my kids got older my feelings really didn't change. I didn't want the responsibility of a pet and when I finally got my dream home and started buying some nice furniture I didn't want a dog to ruin it. That's when Andrew started asking for a dog. After we told him no several times he decided to ask Santa last year with no luck. This year I was starting to feel guilty and we decided to give Santa permission to bring a pet so Jason and I took a trip to the pet store trying to decide what kind of pet would be good for Andrew. Fish seemed a little dull, I've never liked cats (no offense intended to any cat lovers out there!) rodents are just gross and I'm deathly afraid of snakes (lizards aren't a whole lot better.) That's when we found the birds and they started to sound a lot more appealing.

The first few days we had Charlie I was wondering if it was a mistake. The poor bird was terrified and just stood on his perch shivering. The kids were so excited to get him but quickly got bored when he wasn't doing anything. After a couple days he started to get a little more active eating, chirping and exploring his cage. We've had him just over a week now and he's getting to be a lot of fun. We've even started taking him out of his cage and he's letting us hold and pet him now. We found his favorite treat is carrots and hopefully soon we can start teaching him some tricks. He's starting to call to us when he wants attention as well as mimic some of our sounds. Andrew is doing a great job taking care of him and cleaning his cage!

So far he has been a great pet. My French sister-in-law thought we were crazy for getting a parakeet. Maybe they don't have pet birds in France or maybe she knows something I don't. Anyway, don't forget to take my poll. I'm anxious to see what everyone else would choose for a pet!

New Years, Scout Camp, Reunion

I wish I had some great New Years wisdom to share but this morning while I was running with my friend, Rachel, she asked if I had any New Years resolutions and I had to admit I haven't really given it any thought. So instead, you get some pictures from the last couple weeks. Maybe, just maybe, if I put more thought into it you'll get something profound later...

This is from before Christmas but it's a cute picture of the kids and their cousins at the Christmas Village in Ogden. We had a great time and got there on a night that wasn't even too cold for December.

New Years has been kind of a pathetic holiday for us. A lot of years we spent New Years Day traveling all day in the car or on a plane on the way home from visiting family for the holidays. It seems like the kids never make it until midnight and when we have tried to go to parties we end up coming home early. This year Andrew had a scout camp scheduled for New Years Eve. Jason decided to go with to help out (which really didn't bother me) but it meant that it was just me and the two younger kids. We enjoyed dinner at my mother-in-law's but again I bailed early to drive home before I was too tired to drive alone. The kids were asleep when I got home so for probably the first time I welcomed the new year alone. Oh well... I think next year I am going to throw a big party to make up for it so plan on it!

Now for the more exciting story...the camp out! After a really mild December it decided to turn into winter just in time for Andrew's very first scout camp! Temperatures in the valley were predicted to be around 0 degrees Fahrenheit for the low, colder in the mountains, and as a mom I started to stress out. I bought a bunch of new winter gear and made Andrew dress in about 10 layers. They did have a cabin to stay in so it turns out they weren't roughing it quite as much as I'm making it sound. He had a great time with his friends snow shoeing and cross country skiing and was thrilled that he finally got to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve. As I was watching my cute 18 month old nephew on New Years Eve that reminds me so much of Andrew at that age I couldn't help but be a little sad that my little toddler has already grown into a boy scout!

Last night Jason had a mission reunion. Pres. and Sis. Espinosa were visiting from Mexico for the holidays. Jason loved the chance to visit with mission companions and see his mission president again. It has been several years since he was able to attend a reunion and I was quite surprised to look around and think how old some of the missionaries were looking. (That's pretty sad when most of the people in the room are close to the same age as us!) It was fun to hear about how many different directions people's lives had gone from a state senator to salesmen and people just finishing degrees and trying to find a job. What was great was to see how positively their time on their mission in Brazil had affected their lives. I wasn't able to communicate with the Espinosa's very well since they don't speak a lot of English but Pres. Espinosa had some inspiring words about their service all those years ago as missionaries and setting goals to serve a mission again later and help our children get ready to serve missions. Pres. Espinosa was a huge influence in Jason's life and he learned so much from him.

Christmas

I love the Christmas season. I'm always a little sad when Christmas day arrives because it means it is almost over. We have loved all the time this month that we have shared with so many wonderful friends and family members. As my kids were going to bed on Christmas Eve we were talking about how hard it is for kids to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. What my kids don't realize is that I am just as excited as they are for Christmas morning - not because of what I'm going to receive but because I love to see my kids so happy! We had a quiet day at home and I loved every minute of it. Mostly, I rejoice in the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love the time to reflect on his birth, life and sacrifice for all of us. Merry Christmas!

Can't wait to see what Santa brought!

We'll soon be getting a pet! Andrew got a parakeet cage and gift card to the pet store.

This is the view we saw of Jared most of the day as he was taking pictures with his new camera. Notice the jersey of his favorite Jazz player.

I think 4 might be the perfect age for Christmas! Kaitlyn loved all her new Barbies and dress up clothes!

Rumor has it that it took Santa hours to assemble this!

Andrew spent all afternoon putting together his Harry Potter castle. We thought a Lego set with 1290 pieces would last for at least a week but we were wrong!