Run, Teeny, Run!!

So today was Teeny's half marathon (13.1 miles). She did awesome! I am so impressed by how well she did today, and wish like crazy that I'd done as well with mine, but alas hydration was a problem for me and you know the rest. She had to be at the Gateway at the flippin' butt crack of dawn so she left me here to rally the troops and get us all up there to see her. We left at 7am and Grandma Becky was kind enough to take N and T. So it was just A and I in Salt Lake this morning. There were a ton of runners. I think they said they had 10,000 runners for all three events today (Marathon, Half Marathon, and 5K). I caught up with Teeny at about mile 6. We stopped in a little neighborhood up just south of Sugarhouse Park and waited for about 10 minutes before she came whizzing by. Then, we headed down just west of Sugarhouse and saw her again. A liked watching all the runners and would ask questions about what they were all wearing, or why this person had orange hair, or if I knew that guy, etc.. Teeny looked great today, not tired at all. The weather even worked out perfectly. It was about 45 or so and slightly overcast. We saw her again just past Liberty Park and then caught her finish. The last time we ran a half marathon it took us 2 hours 20 minutes and she finished in about 2 hours and 10 minutes! Really, I am so impressed with her and wish like crazy that I could have run with her today. We ran into Bob and Shirley, and Jacki and Dylan too up at the Gateway. I'm glad they came to see her run. After the run we picked up the twins and headed to Denny's so Teeny could get her 'Moons Over My Hammy' lunch she's been craving for so long. Congrats TEENY and way to kick it in the butt!

This lady in the leopard sports bra really stole the show!!

The color RED.....

This might come off sounding a little gross, but it's one of those things you have to remember. A is a color connoisseur. He loves the color green and we keep him distracted a lot when he gets mad by asking him if he can find something green (a car, grass, leaves, whatever). He asked me a while ago, "Dad, what's your favorite color?". Red has always been my favorite color. I don't know why. It might be because I loved the 49ers when I was a kid and their colors are red and gold, or because the Utes are red and white. Anyway, he finds red things all the time and asks me, "Dad, what color is that truck?", "Red" I'll say, "Hey, it's your favorite color!". He's picked up on us pretty quick. So, this is where the story might get a little 'off color'. Apparently yesterday Teeny was upstairs playing with the boys when A just got up and took off. She went downstairs to see what he was up to and he'd gone #2. More than that though he told her to come look at it (our friend Joey would appreciate this). "It" was red (sort of orangy-red), and he was so excited because it was dad's favorite color and he had to show mom. Awesome. I died laughing when Teeny told me that. There was something else he said the other day too that busted us up, but we can't remember exactly what it was which is why I had to write this one down.

Teeny is running the Salt Lake Marathon this weekend (April 21st) and we'll be at the Gateway at around 9am tomorrow. She's trained well and will do super! We also finished our swingset. Only a week and two days to finish it. We'll get some pics up soon of the events. Happy Friday!

Easter Feaster!

Our Easter Weekend was one continuous blur as we celebrated it with Teeny's birthday. I guess it all started Thursday. We've been looking for a swingset for the boys for a while and Toy's 'R' Us had a pretty decent sell on one that we could save $300 bucks on. We called around and found the last one in Murray and we had to pick it up the same day. So, I took off work early and we headed to Neil and Becky's to get the trailer. By the time we picked it up, had dinner, and got home it was around 7pm and getting dark. We had time to do 2 or 3 of the 31 steps in the instructions before we called it a day. A was pretty excited to work on it with us. He's really into the tools and getting the job done kind of thing. The next morning was Teeny's pre-birthday, but we celebrated it that day because of all we had going on during the weekend. I got up early to get things ready and work on the swingset a little more, and then around 7:30am out comes A in his pj's wanting to help. That was the first place he went was straight to the backyard. He's pretty excited for his own swingset. He came out (shoes on and all) and we worked for about 15 minutes before heading in for breakfast with the other two monkeys. Speaking of monkeys, we have kind of created a tradition of going to the zoo on Teeny's b-day. We had a picnic at a little park that over looked Salt Lake and then headed to the zoo. It was a perfect day weather wise and it was more packed than I'd ever seen it. Spring break for the kiddies I guess. A was great showing us where to go next on the map and just anxious to get to the giraffes. Most of the animals were out and fairly active, except the cats. They were out, but sleepy as ever. The new exhibit is awesome though. It remindes us a lot of San Diego's zoo. N and T were pretty taken by most the animals too. I think A said that giraffes were his favorite, and N and T probably liked the train the most. A loves the train too. Thomas will have a lasting impression on all of our kids. After the zoo, we'd planned a date, but poor Cole came down with strep so we just did a little family dinner at the local mexican joint. Turned out to be pretty fun with the kids. N and T are at a super fun age. N is a tease. He'll offer something and when you go to take it he pulls it away and laughs thinking he's so funny. T has started telling us things. He can't talk all that well, but he'll say 'uh-oh' and point so we have to follow him around to see what happened. Following those two around still amazes us that we have two kids the same age. A has a memory like a book. He remembers everything. Friday night we colored eggs and I'm pretty sure that if we hadn't tried to get A to color an egg anything different than green, they'd all be green. His favorite color. Teeny's birthday was Saturday and we had another fun day with family. Teeny went on her morning run (she's training for the Salt Lake Half Marathon) and I got all the birthday fixin's out. She opened presents and then we worked on the swingset a little more and headed over to Becky's to color eggs. Once A loved the green. It was great seeing Doug, Rach, and Ava. It's been since Christmas! Holy cow we need to get up to Poky a little more often. Ava is just like Rach. Little bossy girl....but dang cute. She'd stand outside and tell those dogs just what to do and where to go. It was really funny. I just love to watch them and the boys play together. I have to admit that we caused a little drama with being paranoid about getting our kids sick and we totally missed seeing Fisher on his birthday. After Becky's we headed home, worked on the swingset some more (the forever project), and Ashlyn and Conner came over to watch the kiddies while we went to dinner with Jodi, Mark, Jane, Jacki and Ryan. Red Lobster was awesome. I love the salmon there and Teeny got pasta. It was funny though, when we sat down all the guys were at one end and the girls at the other end, and when we'd finished I realized that we'd hardly talked to each other because we were so involved chatting with family. It's awesome having that kind of family though. We had a great time and I love seeing Teeny and her sisters get together....crazy. Sunday (Easter...finally) was fun. The weather was kind of cruddy so we hid baskets inside for the kids. Along with the swingset, we got them each camping chairs. They love to have their own little seat. They were dang handsome in the shirts we got them too. After church it was over to the Jensen's for dinner and pinata. Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds. Fifteen kids all swinging at a pinata in the backyard hopped up on sugar is insane. I wonder how we get away injury free from it every year, but it is a fun tradition. Alas, Easter was over and we headed back home for a little downtime as a family. Thanks everyone for making Easter and Teeny's birthday so fun!

A and I made his plane during conference

Teeny and the crew at the Zoo

N was more interested in the elephants than he appears here

Mr. Map!

The munchkins and giraffes....handsome little buggers

Coloring eggs with A....loved the green

T and N on the first easter egg hunt....they got skunked

A did too, but they had fun

Teeny's B-Day!!

The boys and the toys....love them in their onesies!

N loves the dirt, along with A and T

T and Drew...couple of studs

Abram taking a swing at Dora