Still Crazy After All These Miles ...

I'm running again, trying to prepare for the Painters Half Marathon in St. George on January 17. Yes, I'm a little crazy. Especially when getting up at 5:00 to run in this cold. Ugh. More details of my exploits over at my running blog.

Overheard at the Breakfast Table:

After settling an argument between herself and Parker by appealing to Katie's judgment call, Rachel explained her reasoning by saying "Katie's in 3rd grade, she knows everything . . . well, not when the dinosaurs died."

Huh, good to know.

I Survived!

I'm still alive!

I finished the St. George marathon yesterday morning. It's taken me 9 long months of training to be able to say that. Now, I am in much pain, but have a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I was quite an experience to be running with 7,000 other crazy people at 7 in the morning amid a constant rain.

I have chronicled my experience on my marathon training blog. You can reach it by clicking HERE.

A Typical Drive

We drove home yesterday from southern Utah on our way back from the Beatty family reunion. The drive home was a little more crazy than normal, but still typical of most of our drives.

We stopped in Cedar City to gas up and get some lunch for the kids.

We then stopped at the first exit outside of Cedar City because Emily would not stay in her car seat buckled up.

We then stopped at the very next exit to put the crying Emily back into her car seat and buckle her up.

We made it all the way to Fillmore before we needed to stop for a potty break for all the kids.

Then we had to stop in Nephi because Rachel had tried one of Emily's sugar baby candies and decided she didn't like it, so she tried to regurgitate it back up her throat, but she inadvertently sent it back up and out the nasal cavity instead, where it lodged and was stuck about an inch from coming out. Much crying and bleeding of the nose. Thinking we'll just get home and take her to the hospital. Much drama from Rachel.

By the very next exit she had succeeded in blowing the sugar baby out her nose.

In between all these stops many melt downs from various kids for variousd reasons.

Nice to finally make it home and release the pent up children to the back yard to work off much excess energy on the trampoline.

Traveling is too much of an adventure at times.

Photo Update

Have posted a few pics of the kids from our weekend trip and also a link to a gallery of photos from my Mt. Whitney trip. Scroll down to view.

Weekend Fun

We drove out to our property near Duchesne on Saturday afternoon for some "get-out-of-town-and-into-the-wilderness" time with the kids. It's a bit of a drive (about 2 hours to get there), but worth it. There was a thunder/lightning storm passing over head as we arrived and the kids were a little disheartened, but it cleared up pretty soon after we got there. We took our dutch oven and cooked potatoes for dinner. The kids ran around on the rocks; Emily will not take a back seat to any one and very much has that "anything-the-other-kids-can-do-I-can-do-too ... and-don't-you-dare-try-to-stop-me-if-you-value-your-life!!!" attitude. She did really pretty well, actually. Pretty good climber and only a few tumbles.

We also took our new telescope to try out. It was a Christmas present from Robin. The kids really enjoyed looking through it. After dinner we let the kids wander a bit throughout the wilderness; not wandering too far mind you, but that was one of the main reasons we bought the property in the first place - the tromping through the wilderness by the kids.

We then roasted hot dogs and marshmallows to cap off the evening. Good times. We had rented a redbox movie (Alvin and the Chipmunks) for the drive home, which didn't start until about 9:30pm!!

We were feeling pretty good as parents when Ethan exclaimed that this was the "best day of my life!" Of course, the next night at dinner it also said the same thing because the food was yummy, so we're forced to discount slightly the fact of whether or not it really was the "best day" of his life; but still, it was fun.

As promised, here's a link to the photos:

Weekend Trip to Duchesne (July 2008)

Pics of Robin and Matt's Cruise

Two weeks ago Robin and I went on a 5-day cruise out of San Diego down the Baja Peninsula, porting in Cabo San Lucas and in Ensenada on the way back. Robin's parents and her sister Amanda and Amanda's husband, Adam, went with us. A good time was had by all.

Here are a few pics from the cruise: