Northern Exposure 2009

Yesterday, Saturday, November 14th was the annual Northern Exposure 10K/2 mile run in North Las Vegas. Randy has run the 10K the last few years and Travis ran the 2 mile run last year. Well, this year Jared wanted to get involved and Travis wanted to try the 10K. Since we couldn't let Jared run on his own, Randy decided to do the 2 mile run with him, while Travis attempted the 10K. I was a little nervous for them since neither one had run very much to get ready for this event. The race started at 7:30am, so we headed down there about 6:50am to get parked and situated. At 7:20 Travis went down to the starting line to get ready for the big run. There was some problems along the course so they ended up waiting down there until 8:15 when the race finally started. I felt bad for all the runners just standing there waiting. The 2 mile run started on time at 8:00. Here is Travis waiting for the 10K to begin
Jared and Randy before their 2 mile run

Here is Randy and Jared running in after their 2 mile run. Randy said Jared ran the WHOLE way. They ran the 2 miles in 21 minutes. Pretty impressive for a 6 year old. He had so much fun. He is already planning on running again next year.

Here is Travis running in after his 10K. We thought best case senario he would take about 1 hour 15 minutes. But since he has never ran that distance I thought it would be closer to 1 1/2 hours if not longer. Travis surprised us when he came in at 1 hour 5 minutes. The timer in the upper right corner has it at 1:05:47 right before he crossed the finish line. He said he ran the ENTIRE way. He did such a great job. He wants to run again next year and try to break an hour.

Travis, Jared and Randy after the race

Moving on Up Ceremony

Today was finally our last day of school for Courtney and Jared. Along with that, Jared had his "Moving on Up" ceremony. He is now officially in 1st grade. He has mixed emotions about being done with kindergarten. He has loved his teacher and the friends he has made. But he is excited to eat lunch at school and get to stay all day.

Here he is getting an Attendance Award and Governor's Award - he had perfect attendance this year. He has loved school!!
Here is his official certificate for completing kindergarten

Jared and his wonderful teacher - Ms. Ventic

The Lion King

Ashley has been working and saving all of her money for several months so she could have enough to go and see The Lion King. She finally got her wish on Saturday, August 1st. She absolutely LOVED it!! Now she wants to save her money and go again. I got to go with her - she is so fun to watch, it's almost better than the show. It was a great time!!

The end of our trip to California

We left my brothers' house Friday afternoon and stopped by some good friends of ours, the Wells. They had some great snacks prepared for us and the kids enjoyed swimming in their pool while we visited. We were so glad we had the opportunity to stop and see them.

At the Wells

After we left the Wells, we drove into San Francisco for a Giants baseball game. We had never been to the new AT &T Stadium. It was amazing. I wouldn't ever think a baseball park would be beautiful, but it was. It sits right on the water and it was so pleasant and relaxing. It got pretty chilly as the sun went down but we still had a great time.

The view from our seats at AT&T park

Travis and Randy

Jared, Ashley & Courtney

The winning score - Giants 13 - Astros 0

After the game they had fireworks - We all had a GREAT time

Our Trip to California - part 4

Wednesday night we drove up to my brother's house. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. Thursday morning Randy and I were able to do a session at the Sacramento Temple. My sister-in-law was nice enough to watch the kids so we were able to go.

Randy and Sylvia at the Sacramento Temple

This is how the kids spent their day while we were at the temple. They LOVED it!!

This is how kids these days play together - they linked their DS's together and had a ball

We all went to Leatherby's for yummy ice cream

Travis, Nat and Ashley

Me and my brother

My brothers' family

Thanks for letting us come and visit. We had a GREAT time. Hope you were able to recover after we left.

Our Trip to California - part 3

Wednesday morning we packed up and said goodbye to the Andersons. We headed into Oakland and stopped at the temple to go through the visitor's center and walked around the grounds. It was a little overcast so it was hard to see the City, but was still a beautiful day.

The kids in front of the Oakland temple

We then headed over to the Oakland Coliseum to watch an Oakland A's game. Here we are waiting for the game to start.

During the game

The kids at the coliseum

The winning scoreboard - A's 5 - Tigers 1

Our Trip to California - part 2

Tuesday morning we went to the Jelly Belly Factory for their free tour. We went with our good friends, the Andersons, but at the end of the tour we went our seperate ways before we got a picture with them. Thanks Kristy for joining us and bringing Lucy.

The kids in front of the Jelly Belly sign
The kids with Mr. Jelly Belly

The kids with the Ronald Reagan Jelly Belly portrait

Our dear friends, the Andersons. They were kind enough to put us up for 4 nights. Jared adored them. I think he would have been happy to join their family. Thanks for putting up with us.

After leaving the Jelly Belly factory we drove up to Sacramento and drove by our old apartments, work places and other fun places. We took the kids to the capital to see all of the squirrels. That was one of our first dates having a picnic and feeding the squirrels at the capital.

Our Trip to California - part 1

I know it has been FOREVER since I've blogged anything. Ashley lets me know everyday that I have been a lazy blogger. I kept thinking I needed to catch up, but I have decided to just start current. Since we just got back from our vacation, it is a good place to start.

We left early Saturday morning, June 27th, to head out to Northern California. Back to where I grew up and where Randy and I met. When we arrived in Concord, it was 106 degrees. Hotter than it was in Vegas. We went to our favorite place to eat, Mexican Burritos for dinner. They did not have air conditioning so by the time we were done eating we were melted. We thought the movie theater would be nice and cool so we went and saw Up. It was a cute movie and definitely cooled us down.

Sunday we went to church at the ward I grew up in, and where Randy and I went for a few years. It is always fun to see and visit with old friends.

Monday morning we went into San Francisco. It was overcast most of the day but the temperature was perfect - about 68 degrees.


We started the morning off by driving down Lombard Street. Randy and the kids then walked up it and then down.
We then went to the cable cars. On the Internet it said a one hour pass was $3.00. When we got there, they didn't sell one hour passes. Just one way tickets for $5.00 or a $10.00 round trip ticket. This was a lot more than we budgeted for so we told the kids we wouldn't be taking a ride. They were all disappointed. As we did all of our other activities we decided Randy would take the kids on the cable car for about a 20 minute ride, get off and walk back to the start. This was a big hit. It's hard to go all the way to San Francisco and not ride a cable car.

We then went to Fisherman's Wharf.

We had lunch at Pier 39. We love getting clam chowder in a sour dough bowl, sitting by the water. We then had fun looking in all the fun stores they have there.

At the end of Pier 39 - with Alcatraz in the background.

Our last stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. It was very windy and chilly. The kids just wanted to get back in the car. I was hoping they would want to walk across, but no one wanted to. Oh well. It will give them something to do next time they go.

Ashley's Birthday

Yesterday was Ashley's 14th birthday. She is so excited to be 14! It is hard to believe how fast time has gone since she was born.

Ashley chose 7-layer dip for her birthday dinner. Yum!
Ashley requested a blue cake this year. Her she is after blowing out all her candles in one try.

Here she is with her presents. She really likes her ipod, so she got an itunes card and some clip on ear rings. She wants to be so grown up. It's fun to watch her develop into such a beautiful young lady. We sure love you, Ashley!

For my book club friends

Last month for book club we read Cornelia Funke's book, Inkheart. It was an enjoyable book for me because the first part of the book I felt like I was reading about my dad. To me, my dad and Elinor are one and the same. On page 64 Meggie asks Elinor, "Why is it so dark everywhere here?" Elinor's answer, "Because I'd rather spend my money on books than unnecessary electricity". Here are a couple of pictures to prove my theory.

My dad in front of a few of his books in his family room. Notice he is wearing his hat and coat. This is normal for him to wear in his house since he won't turn up the heat. His house is usually in the 40's during the winter months. He does use a space heater in his den to keep warm while he's reading, but when he goes to the rest of the house he puts on a coat.

These two pictures are of the guest bedroom where we slept while we were there last week. I didn't get around to taking pictures of his den, closets, kitchen cupboards and pantry where he also has books stashed.

These next two pictures are of his last power bill. When was the last time your power bill was only $9.30?

In this picture you can see from the graph, he rarely uses any power. I think the two months it was higher than normal was when he was out of the country and my sister went over there.

Finishing up our trip

Saturday morning we woke up and said goodbye to my dad and drove up to Randy's parents' new home. Randy was able to go golfing with his dad, two brothers and his brother-in-law. It was suppose to rain all day but the weather was great until about a half hour after they got home, then it poured. Perfect timing. While the men were golfing the kids got to play with 4 of their cousins. This was the first time we got to meet Avery. She was born right after the last time we saw them, which was 9 months ago. Ashley had a blast taking her picture over and over. After golf, we had a great dinner and were able to visit for a couple more hours.

We then drove down to Randy's sisters' home. She waited to color eggs so the kids were able to join in. Jared and Courtney loved this activity. We then played a couple of games, then after the kids were in bed, we stayed up way to late visiting. It was a great time. Thanks Kim for putting us up for the night.

One of my nieces traditions is to make and decorate a bunny cake. This was her and her cake this year. The kids had a great time watching her decorate it. What a fun tradition!

A visit to the Sheriff's office

On Friday we spent the day with my sister. My brother-in-law is a Captain at the Sheriff's Department. We thought the kids would enjoy a tour around his office. Jared wants to be a police officer for Halloween next year so we thought he'd really like it there.
Here is my nephew, Courtney and Travis in a holding cell. Hopefully they will remember how awful it was and never return.
Here is Courtney and Jared in a Sheriff truck. They thought that was really cool. Thanks for the great tour!