First Snow

This morning we woke up to a skiff of snow and within a couple of hours we had 3 inches. Scott sent me a text from Miami saying it would be 78 degrees there today. We love the first snow! When Mercedes got home from school we found whatever winter gear at hand and headed outside. Aspen was thrilled with the Spongebob hat.

DISASTER Weekend

So Scott and I flew out Saturday morning to do the Muddy Buddy race in LA. Just before we left my sister let us know that she had been up sick throwing up all night and couldn't keep the girls for Saturday, so we quickly arranged for Grandpa Fly and an Aunt to take them for Sat. and Grandpa would keep them Sunday. So on the flight I started feeling nauseous, which I attributed to motion sickness. We got our rental car, rented a mountain bike, checked in for the race, the whole while I was still feeling nauseous. We checked into the hotel and I took a nap hoping the motion sickness would subside. I woke up in a fog thinking - I'm not feeling well AT ALL. I then proceeded to spend the next 16 hours curled up in bed or on the floor of the bathroom vomiting and in intense pain. So we couldn't even do the race we flew in to CA to do. Not only did we not do the race I never left the room and made Scott watch after me. Meanwhile at home Mercedes had started throwing up and all I could think about was just getting home to our girls. We could've taken a 10 am flight out Sunday if it wasn't for the fact that we had to return the mountain bike after 11am; so we ended up making it out at 4pm Sunday afternoon. Thankfully I was able to keep everything down all day. I must say it's a torturous thing to be on an airplane when you're still sick and nauseous. Thankfully we made it home without incident to our girls. I do think Muddy Buddy will let us transfer our registration to a race next year - maybe Boulder in August; so start training and we'll all get Muddy! (And NO ONE is allowed to be sick)

Halloween

So Mercedes was a dolphin, for the 2nd year in a row and Aspen was a little devil. If we could have dressed her up as a tornado with angel wings then that would have been perfect. When we first started trick-or-treating she seemed totally amazed that she could just take candy from anyone and keep it; and then eat it. She was very good at saying "Tank tou" (thankyou). When Mercedes was the same age she would say "Thank you, welcome, see ya!" at every house. I love Halloween!

Disneyland Diehards

The only consolation to Scott traveling 3 days a week is mounds of Skymiles and Marriott points which means vacations more frequently than we would normally attempt. We felt compelled to use our season passes to Disneyland again so we headed off over fall break for 6 days of Disneyland mayhem. For Scott and I, 3 days would have been just fine at the happiest place on earth, but my Parents and sister Lexie and her 3 kids joined in and they are Disneyland Diehards. We did spend one morning at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and one of Scott's friends had an extra ticket to an exclusive celebrity party in Hollywood, but other than that we rode rides and ate Disneyland food until we were sick; literally. The day we had to leave I had a few hours with just Mercedes and I (Scott and I didn't exist with Grandpa and cousins around) and we went on so many roller coaster type rides I finally told Mercedes we were done because I was so nauseated. She rode every single ride with a look of pure glee on her face. My sister and I would take the babies back to the hotel every night about 7 or 8 and Grandpa and Grandma would stay until 10 or 11 with the 3 older kids. They had a ball.

We were so busy having fun we hardly took any pictures, and half were on the camera on Scott's Blackberry.

Our last morning; we're waiting in California Adventure for the rope to open.

Aspen and her cousin Casch (aka, the babies)

I learned to always wear my raincoat on the wet rides. From front to back; Cortney, Mercedes, Austin, Lexie, Me, and Scott.

You can't see Scott's face very well, but our niece Cortney said he always looked constipated in the pictures. It was a miracle we got him on Space Mountain since he hates roller coasters.

No we don't know the two ladies in the front but look at Mercedes face. She was like that the whole trip. Her cousin Cortney is sittin next to her with Aunt Lexie and cousin Austin behind.

It was a good thing Mercedes wore her rain coat on the river rapids.

Twilight Quiz

So I'm an 'Esme.' The whole quiz is a bit goofy but it's still fun to see who you are.



Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Climbing Protege

For a Young Womens activity we took the girls rock climbing up American Fork Canyon. Scott always said we needed two kids so there could always be two climbers and two belayers. Is that twisted motivation for having children? Mercedes did pretty well; Scott kept encouraging her to freeclimb and at 10 feet I said enough.


I miss the days of constant adventure vacations. We're in the "Disneyland" phase right (I do love Disneyland too). But it'll be fun when we can take the girls on climbing, biking, kayaking etc. etc. vacations. But I am finding that having children is motivation to discover those things in life that we probably wouldn't on our own.

Catching Up

Ok, I know. I've been really lazy about keeping up with my posting so I'll try and catch you up a little bit. I started working again this summer as a Personal Trainer - the extent of my brain power had fizzled to reading "Barney's Weather Book" over, and over to Aspen. I'm working 3 mornings a week. Positive's: using my brain again and getting back in shape. Negative's: it's just not natural to be at work at 6am and I SO miss my little Aspen when I'm at work. I seriously wish she could stay my little blonde baby FOREVER.

Aspen is now 19 months and such a little cuddler and explorer. I LOVE to hear her vocabulary develop. She can say just about anything now, even though I'm the only one that really understands her. She's named her pacifier a "Lall"(?) and her blanket is a "Me Me." Scott's usually out of town 3 days a week and she's constantly asking "Daddy?" and then answers herself with "Don know?!" She understands almost everything you say; however complicated it may be. She recently had a nasty reaction to her MMR shot and got the measles rash for 3 days and fevered along with cutting 3 molars at the same time. That was not fun for anyone!

Mercedes started first grade and insisted on riding the bus to school on the FIRST day. I kept trying to talk her into letting me take her. They only complaint I've heard about school is its too long (compared to kindergarten) and they boys chase her. I keep telling her that means they like her. She's always asking how things work; like eyeballs and motors. Complicated things that I've got to look up on the internet or in a book. She finally lost her 2nd front tooth (after the dramatic episode where Daddy accidentally yanked out the first one when it got stuck on her shirt while he was helping her take it off). It came out while she was eating an ice cream cone and bit into piece of chocolate she had hidden in the middle of it.

Scott and I are doing something we've never done before; training for a race together! We're signed up for the Muddy Buddy in LA in Nov. which is combination mountain biking, running and obstacles race with a huge mud pit at the end. I am SO out of shape. We've gone mountain biking every weekend and our own workouts during the week and I've got a long way to go. We'll be biking up a steep section of singletrack and I'll yell at Scott "My..heart...rate's...at...190! I...have....to.....stop!" But I'm excited to do it. Wish me luck!