Rigby Lake Triathlon- May 2011

Mike and I competed in the Rigby Lake Triathlon again. It was over Memorial Day weekend and was very cold again like last year. I don't know why we do this one... But this year we were a little bit more prepared than last and we knew what to expect. (Thanks to Chris for taking pictures for us and cheering us on. It's so nice to have someone there at the finish line and to have some pictures of our race!)

Here's Mike, setting up his bike and transition area and freezing his butt off!
Me, wondering why we are here...


Getting all ready to get in the frigid waters. (very attractive!):
Mike running up from the swim:
Me running up from the swim, a little disoriented:

Me trying to get my stuff on for the bike portion with numb hands and feet:

Mike coming back to transition on his bike:

Me coming back to transition from the bike portion of the race:
Mike sprinting across the finish line:

Me, not really sprinting so much. But I think I can finally feel my toes here...:
Yaaaay, we're finished! And look, the sun finally decided to come out, now that the race is all finished...:)
The best part of the whole race; a free massage! Aaaaaah!
Mike's in heaven!
Nice job, numbers 80 and 81!

I got first place in my division!! And cut a bunch of time off of my last year's time! WootWoot!

Next year the Rigby Tri will be on July 14th, my birthday and hopefully a lot warmer!!

Dancing Queen!

For the last two years, Asia has been dancing with the Dance Depot and has loved it! They are a very well put together company that has AMAZING choreographers! And they wear pretty modest costumes and dance very modest routines. Here is Asia's final pose for her dance "Magic Carpet Ride." (She's the tallest one in the front with her arms up.)

Check out those lashes!
Flowers from her Daddy:
And some fro-yo from Orange Leaf to end the wonderful night:

Great job Asia, you did awesome!! And you were the most beautiful dancer there!

Random Spring Fun!

Mike and I were able to take a little trip to Boise to go see Wicked. My parents and sister were able to come down and stay with our kids so we could go on a mini vacay. They're always so good to come and help us out! The show was kind of a disappointment for us. I know a lot of you are gasping as I say this, but it just wasn't my favorite... I actually got sleepy and closed my eyes for some of it! I guess with all of the hype about it for 4 months before we went, I was expecting more. I would rather see Les Miserables or Phantom any day. It was good, the songs were fun, but I just wasn't feelin' it. The best part was just getting away for a couple of days! Oh, and going out to eat at Tucano's Brazilian Grill!

Here's the stage before the show with the map of OZ as the curtain:

Waiting for the show to start:
We stayed overnight in Boise with Nathan and Amy and Mike's mom and dad. We got up the next morning, went for a jog by the river (I LOVE Boise for their jogging and biking trails by the river!), and then headed for home. We stopped at Shoshone Falls just outside of Twin Falls to see how much water was flowing. And this is what we saw:
Lots and Lotsa Water!
It was a wee bit nipply out there!! Ha Ha!

Asia had been learning about life cycles in first grade and specifically learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. They were able to watch a caterpillar make a chrysalis and then become a butterfly! She even got to bring her butterfly home. She named hers Lilly. It didn't fly away, it just stayed on her little damp washcloth and hung out! I thought that thing would be flying all over the house, but it just stayed in Asia's room for a couple of days. We thought it was mean to keep it inside any longer, so we said our goodbyes to Lilly and let her loose on to one of our beautiful tulips. Hopefully she didn't blow away with the wind!

Asia was a little scared to hold it, so her big brother held it over her hand:

Ethan holding Lilly:
Nothin' better than holding a beautiful butterfly and eating an ice cream cone:
It really was a pretty little butterfly:
My old wrinkly looking fingers holding Lilly:
A dandelion to suck nectar from and a leaf to lay on:
My nephew is on a ballroom dance team and is an awesome dancer. His team is actually in China right now performing all over and seeing the sights. Well, to raise money for this China trip, they held ballroom dance lessons for those wanting to try it out. I tried to get Ethan to try it, but he said, "No way! I'm not dancing with any girls!" (We'll see what he says about that in 6 more years!) So, Asia wanted to try it out with one of her friends. It was 5 hours of instruction with a little show at the end for the parents.

Blurry, but here she is waiting to dance:
And of course, the end pose:

She had fun, but still likes her Dance Depot and her teacher Laurie. I guess we'll be doing more jazz next year...

And one more thing. We have been noticing a pair of ducks in our front yard lately and thought that was pretty odd. There is a canal near our house, but have never seen any ducks hanging around until now. They would waddle in our front yard and into our neighbors' front yard. I thought, there must be an egg somewhere, otherwise why would these ducks be hanging around. Sure enough, I watched those ducks and noticed the mamma waddling over to our little potantilla bush. She squatted down and sat down under the bush. Here is what she was sitting on:
Now, these 2 ducks weren't the smartest. They picked the worst spot to lay their precious little egg! They should've scoped out the joint before settling in. If they had, they would've realized what a busy, loud, and chaotic spot it was! There are always kids around, cars driving in driveways, and mailmen driving right by. I watched and there wasn't 30 minutes that went by where there wasn't something or someone spooking those ducks off of their precious little egg. Poor little thing! I didn't know what to do! We went away for the weekend, came home, and there was no sign of the mamma or pappa duck. So sad! They had just abandoned their little egg. So we left it there for a few days, hoping they would come back, but they never did. We figured the egg was a dud by now and we had to get rid of it. It was a sad occasion, but hopefully those ducks learned an important lesson!!

2nd Chance Prom, Mother's Day and Anniversary

It's 2nd Chance Prom time again! It's always fun to go to this every year. We get a bit sad if we're unable to go some years. It's just fun to dress up and have a fun night out with dinner and dancing. We don't get to do that very often. We went with some good friends of ours and had a terrific time eating at Garcia's and then dancing the night away. I like seeing what dresses the ladies wear. Some go all out and wear actual big prom dresses. Most wear church type dresses and some wear just pants. There were some pretty sa-weet dancers this year too! I'm a people watcher so this is a great event for me! And I love to go dancing with my hunkie sweetheart too!

The next weekend was not only Mother's Day, but it was also our 12th anniversary! So it was a great weekend for me especially! Mike kind of got the short end of the stick this year, having to share with me and all, but we still had a great weekend together. Friday night we got a babysitter and went to a wedding reception for one of my young women. Then we went to dinner at Billman's. (prime rib=yummy!) and then on to the Extreme Ballroom recital. We have a nephew, a niece, and many friends' kids that dance to the Extreme! It's always an awesome show and I'm still trying to convince my older 2 kids to try ballroom dancing... Maybe next year!

Then Saturday morning we had a nice jog around the river with the older kids on their bikes and the youngers in the double jogger. It was chilly, but sunny at least. Then we got to check out the Farmers Market downtown. I've never been to the one here and it was kind of fun to check out all the "granola" type things going on around our city! Ha Ha! Then we got some gourmet cupcakes from Love at First Bite. We got an assortment which included a bacon cupcake! I couldn't believe it, but it had actual bacon on it! It had maple frosting on the top so it tasted like pancakes and bacon with maple syrup. It was actually pretty tasty!!

Then the hubby surprised me with a pedicure with one of my besties, Rose. We went to Austin Kade Academy which is a beauty school here in town. They do an "ok" job, and it was cheaper than going to the Vietnamese place! And they turned out pretty cute: red with black zebra stripes. Rowr!!

Then we met up with our hubbies and our good friend Chris and went to dinner at Blue Hashi. We had yummy, yummy sushi and tempura. Mmmmm! There's nothing better than good food and good friends to share it with! Then it was off to see Limitless at the Paramount. It was a pretty good movie. I wouldn't see it again, but it was very intriguing...Then we had to finish off the evening with some fro-yo at Orange Leaf. Yum-o!

The next day was Mother's Day. It was a great day with food made for me and presents all over the place! My kids made little pictures for me and made breakfast: pancakes, eggs, ham, and OJ. Here are some of the pics the kids made. They are turned in my pictures folder, but for some reason they're not turned here. Sorry! Don't get a kink in your neck trying to look at them!

This one is from Jacob that he made at church:
Ethan's gift he made at school. It says "I'll try to be more responsible". He's always losing his things or forgetting to do stuff, so this is a great present from him!
And another little note from Ethan. It says "Dear Mom, You are the best mother I ever have (probably the only mom I'll ever have) Love your favorite child Ethan. " I laughed so hard!

Asia made a beautiful butterfly and bird for me:
Our babysitters had the younger 2 make little cards for me. Here's Jacob's:
And here's Mia's:
And another one from Mia:
And one last one from Jacob:
Oh, and I got a new ring for our anniversary:

Phew! I think that's it! What a crazy, busy, fun, relaxing, needed weekend!

Easter 2011

The Easter Bunny made his regular appearance on the Friday night before Easter Sunday. So Saturday morning the kids woke up to see their Easter baskets filled with all sorts of fun stuff! The kids let us sleep in until 8 and then we all crept downstairs to see what surprises were hiding for us. The Easter Bunny loves to bring eggs filled with money and candy. He also likes to fill the baskets with books and fun outside things to get us excited about warmer weather... He didn't bring any new Easter outfits this year since the kids already had a bunch of dresses and ties. Maybe next year.


Then we were all able to go to McCowin Park for a local Easter egg hunt. It was separated into age groups, so Ethan and Asia went with their dad, Jacob went with Mariko who was visiting for the weekend, and I had Mia. Mia was so scared at first and didn't know what to do. She started looking around at the other kids and then there was no stopping her!

It was so cute watching the little 1 and 2 year-olds picking the eggs up! What was even more funny was the parents yelling at their toddler to get as many eggs as they could and finally just picking them up themselves! Yikes! What some parents will do just to get a little egg filled with cheap candy... Just sad! We had fun anyway!
Then on Sunday we had a lovely Easter program at church, followed by a super yummy dinner at the in-laws'; ham and funeral potatoes. Yum-o! Then my mother and father-in-law had an Easter egg hunt in their backyard. Each grandkid had their own specific egg color to find. Even the adults has some special eggs for them. Everyone had a great time!

Checking out the loot:

I finally found one!!
I think Ethan was one of the first ones finished:
Mia had the most fun I think!

Fun times! I'm especially grateful for the sacrifice of our Savior at this time of year, and for the wonderful example He is to me. I'm so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and for our Eternal Family! We are just beginning... :)