MOAB

After coming home from MN, I had 2 days to do laundry, pack everyone, get the trailer ready with everything since this was our first trip out this year and needless to say, I was busy.
We headed to Moab for 4 days because I was running in the Moab Half Marathon and we thought it'd be a great little camping vacation since we have never spent much time in Moab.
The race went really well and I actually had my best time ever 2 hours and 2 minutes.
On to the next one...

We spent one day in Arches National Park, which is absolutely beautiful!

Sage, Lexi and I hiked to Delicate Arch and what a spectacular site it is! These rock formations are so amazing. Beautiful!

Below is Balance Rock. I'm totally mesmerized by these things...

We also rented a 6 seated Ranger and cruised the red rocks one day too. That was a total blast!

The girls had such a great time. Libby even managed to take a nap amongst all the bumpiness. Good times!

Moab is such a great place to be! I think we've found a new favorite place to go and since we've been to Moab the last 2 years, I think we'll make it a tradition now! We'll head that way every spring if anyone ever wants to come. I guess I'll just always put that race on my calendar!

Where did March go- Lets start with Mall of America!

The month of March has come and gone so incredibly fast. So lets start back a few weeks...
My wonderful mom turns 60 on April 4th and she has always talked about going to the Mall of America. That's right the Mall of America in Minnesota. So with the help from my dad and all of us girls deciding that we wanted to head up north for 2 days of shopping- that's what we did!
Thanks to my mom for having such a fun birthday! We had such a great time just being together as sisters (and I do consider my sister in laws, sisters!)

If any of you have never vacationed at a mall for 2 whole days, no kids, no real agenda, just great time with some of the people you love the most...you should try it sometime!

Above: mom and Mindy just after we landed in MN.
Below: Off for the first day of shopping! WOO HOO!

The first day, we actually only went in 3 stores the first 3 hours- it was AWESOME!
The MAC make up store was one of those. This is mom and me after our make up makeover...so fun!

Above: my sister Katie flew in from Florida to be with us! Her efforts made our trip even that more special! Thanks Kate for being there!
There's a store at the Mall of America for everyone. Right, Katie? :)
Below: In the middle of the mall is Nickelodeon Universe. Its a huge indoor amusement park- so crazy! My kids would have had a blast. And yes, us girls did enjoy a few rides ourselves!

Above: Mindy and I on the log ride! How sweet was that? I love this photo... :)
Below: Shopping, shopping and more shopping!

Above: We saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic" Friday afternoon. Very fitting, don't you think?
Below: Group photo after the movie. I love those girls!

And of course we ate great food and always had great conversation.

To my mom:
Happy Birthday to one of the greatest ladies I know! You are beautiful, wonderful and truly one of greatest women I know. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend, mother and grandma to all of us! 60 years is amazing especially when you think of all that you've experienced during those 60 years and we sure hope you're around for many more years to experience so much more with all of us!
Thanks for the memories in Minnesota- we'll never forget them!
I love you mom!

Ski day at Brighton

Shane and I had so much fun skiing over Valentine's weekend that we decided that we wanted our girls to learn how to ski so that we could go and ski together as a family. Even though it's towards the end of the season, we thought that it'd be good to get a few days in this spring and then get back into it this next winter. We took the girls up to Brighton and they were all in the same class and they LOVED it! When I was 9 or 10, I took ski lessons through a program that Deseret News had at the time. My girlfriends and I had so much fun (right Les and Em?) and I'm so glad that those simple lessons have stuck with me. I'm not a great skier, but I'm an okay skier. At least I can keep up with my kids, for now that is!

Shelb and Sage were rock stars and did so awesome. They're so excited to go back again!

I love the above picture with Lexi holding her arms straight out coming down the mountain. She did great!

Skate Park

I know it seems like I post a lot of stuff about this little twirp of mine, but I tell ya, it's never ending excitement with her. Lexi has been begging me since Christmas, when she got her skateboard, for me to take her to the skate park. Finally, this last Saturday we ventured up to the skate park and let have at it. Shane and I were a little hesitant because the park was packed with lots of kids, mainly teenagers, riding their bikes and their boards. Do you think this slowed her down? Heck no! That girl hopped on her board and was hanging with the big boys. She's a riot!

She insisted on going down this ramp that was way too steep, but I just had to let her go and she made it half way down before wiping out. She just has her mind made up that she can do anything- and most the time- she can!

Look out X Games- I think we have a future rider on our hands!

My world is spinning...

I have benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. What is this BPPV, some of you might ask. Well it is the feeling that you are spinning or that the world around you is spinning. AHHHHHHHHHH! This last Monday morning I went downstairs to do my usual exercise routine and it finished with sit ups. When I stood up, my head was spinning and I had to fall back to my knees. I eventually made up the stairs and began feeling nauseated. What in the world, I thought. I spent most of the day on the couch with every movement of my head throwing me into this spinning motion. Tuesday I went to the Dr. and this was the diagnosis I was given. He said it was from me doing sit ups and that these little stones in the inner ear were dislodged and it caused me to have vertigo! He said it could take a couple weeks for me to completely feel better. What- who has a couple weeks to give with their head spinning?
To make a long story short, this week has been interesting to say the least. Being a mom of 4 kids doesn't allow you to have a couple of weeks to recover. I've tipped over while picking things up off the floor, in the shower, while making dinner, and wrost of all, while pulling my pants up after going to the bathroom. That's pretty humiliating! Each day has slowly gotten better so hopefully, I'm well on my way to a full recovery. And to think I'm going bowling tonight...wish me luck!

Valentine's Weekend

We had such a great Valentines Weekend. We have a family tradition that on Valentine's Day, Shane and I make a really nice dinner for the girls and we try to teach them proper etiquette and manners. It a really fun dinner and I think the girls really look forward to it. We set the table nice and have a couple of courses and teach them what silverware to use and how to place your napkin and all that good stuff. They'll be dating before we know it!

Shane and I stayed at the Zermatt Resort in Midway for 2 nights. It was fabulous! It's such a beautiful place and we LOVE that area up there. The food was wonderful, the outdoor hot tub was perfect in 13 degree weather, massage was much needed after a day of skiing and all around it was a great weekend away with Shane! I love you!

Shane is so sweet. He had planned to have roses sent to our room while we were there. They'er beautiful!

Shea and Mindy met us up at Park City on Friday and we went skiing. I don't think any of us, except for Shane, had been skiing in about 10 years. We took our time warming up but I was pleasantly surprised that I did alright. Kind of like riding a bike- it all came back. Shane is a snowboarder and I talked him into trying skiing since I thought that might put him more at my level. He is so awesome for trying, but it just wasn't his thing! I couldn't help but laugh at him as he fell and got back up and fell again. At one point as Shane was coming down the mountain, Shea asked him how it was going, and just at that moment Shane fell again and said, "I love skiing!" Needless to say he switched over to his snowboard at lunch and had a great afternoon on the mountain!

Here's Shane with such grace..

We had the best weekend. I told Shane we should make that a tradition. We'll see if it happens again next year!

Update..

It's been a while since I've blogged so here's a quick update..
Sage is such an awesome bball player. She runs so fast up and down the court and has her hands up on defense and has a great time. It was fun to watch her play this year!

I love my little Sage because she is game for anything. She always wants to participate and has fun with whatever she's doing. So for a week at school the kids dressed up every day. These pictures happened to be from "Nerd Day". She's such a good sport.

Every year Shane and a few of his buddies travel to Colorado for their annual goose hunt. They've gone now for quite a few years and really have a great time. My favorite is when they come home and clean these yucky geese in my garage and stink up the entire house because the stench is so potent! YUCK!

Glad Shane gets to have some "Man Time" once in a while! :)