First Hair Cut

Recently we gave Austin his first haircut. I noticed during our trip to Utah that he had some"wings" hanging over his ears. I never had to think about cutting his sisters' hair this young, for obvious reasons, so he seemed young, but I didn't want him looking "scruffy". So we let him look at the clippers, while turned on, which fascinated him. He kept fairly still, for a 14-month-old, while Jason shaved just the bottom. Of course it helped that Victoria fed him fruit snacks the whole time! All in all, it wasn't bad and I'm definitely glad we used the clipppers as I did not want to give him a bowl cut!

Zion

We just returned from a family reunion to the Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort in Utah, near Zion National Park, with my extended family. It was a whirlwind of a trip with flying to SLC late Wednesday evening, driving 6 hours to Zion on Friday, then back to SLC on Tuesday and an early flight home on Wednesday again, but it was worth it! We enjoyed every minute of it, but missed Grandma and Grandpa and others who couldn't come. Here are some highlights.

Playing with cousins in SLC

Visiting my aunt Karen on my dad's side

Bryce Canyon Museum

BFF's

Bryce Canyon hike on the way to Zion

Driving with beautiful scenery

Mmmm, sand!

Our hike to Slippery Rock

Swinging

Victoria's first tooth came out!

My tall, "cozy" cousins

Dancing and dressing up

Our huge "cabin"

Looking for lizards

Beatles Rock Band

Kite flying

Animals

My Mom's children and grandchildren

Extremely friendly squirrels

The Narrows

And of course, the BYU bookstore. Go Cougs!

Walking and Talking

Austin loves to walk anywhere and everywhere and with whatever "walking accessory" he can find. He uses his walker (the one inside and the one outside)

the baby doll stroller

even the baby doll high chair

or just on his own.

He will go outside any chance he gets, as that is his favorite place to walk. Yesterday, he walked halfway around the block! He will grab his sandals and bring them to me so I can put them on him to go outside, usually saying "Aht, aht!" or "Uh, uh!"

Which brings me to his "talking". Now, when Victoria was Austin's age, she was saying water bottle, banana, doggie, baby, mommy, daddy.... Of course she was the first, and female, and happens to be very talented in the verbal area. Austin communicates very well, but most everything sounds more like a grunt. He'll say "Uh, uh!" for me to take his sippy and put it on the table, or "Ah, ah!" for me to give him a banana. Of course these are all combined with the motions of reaching for what he wants, so I don't usually have to guess, I always know. He does say "woo, woo" when he sees or hears a dog. He also jibber-jabbers to himself as he plays with things, so at least he's got something going on!

11 Years!

Jason and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary yesterday. It's amazing how fast these 11 years have gone by! We are definitely out of the newly-wed stage, though I don't feel like one of those "old married" couples. Luckily, we had Jason's parents visiting this week and they graciously watched the kids a couple times so we could celebrate by going to the temple on Wednesday and out for a bite to eat and on Friday we got a couple's massage, which was divine! On our actual anniversary Jason and his dad worked on putting our new swing set together, but it worked out well since we had already celebrated.

Other activities we enjoyed while Gramms and Abuelo were here were:

-going to the library

-visiting the botanical gardens and conservatory

-Victoria got to go roller skating with her summer playground program

-attending the theater to see High School Musical on stage

-going to Ann Arbor to see where Jason goes to school and eat at the famous Zingermann's Deli

-visiting the Henry Ford Estate

-enjoying a free jazz concert around the corner from our house in the JC Penny parking lot, where Victoria and Karissa put on a lovely dance concert for everyone

We all enjoyed our time with Gramms and Abuelo!

All Because of a Taco Salad...

Two weeks ago, for my long Saturday run I ran 13 miles and I felt awful! My breathing was off, which led to a side ache for most of the run, and I was really tired. Three days later, when I ran my 7 miler my feet were hurting and I had a couple of pains in my tailbone. Wednesday night I actually iced my feet because they were hurting. Luckily, I had my two day break, and then only a 10 miler the next Saturday. By then I realized what my problem was, when I had no problems before that and I had run a 12 miler and a few 10 milers. The night before that awful run, I had a taco salad for dinner! Of course everyone knows that you're supposed to have a meal high in carbs the night before a big run, some sort of pasta is best. I just didn't really think about it that week. I had been feeling so good on my runs and didn't think 13 miles was very far, compared to 16,18, or 20 miles. We just happened to have our leftovers scheduled for that night and taco salad is what we had. It didn't help, either, that we were out of bananas, my preferred snack before a run for the past 10 years, so I had a plum instead. Needless to say, I have made sure to have a good pasta dinner every Friday night since. It definitely pays off. Last Saturday I ran 15 miles and felt great!! I even managed to pull around an 8.6 minute pace. The best part is that I felt good on my run today and am not dreading my 8 miler tomorrow.

Note to self: Do not eat a taco salad the night before a big run!!

Swimming and Camping

Victoria and Karissa completed their swimming classes for this summer. Though I gave them the option to take anther course, neither of them was interested. Victoria has a ton of fun in the water and loves to get wet, but she always says she's nervous about jumping in and getting her face wet. I could always hear her telling her instructor how nervous she was, even though I was across the pool room, up in the bleachers; that's how loud her voice is! Of course, everyone already knows how excited Karissa is about the water.... Luckily, we've been swimming in our neighbor's pool every weekend for the past month now, so they are actually getting more comfortable even without lessons anymore. Karissa even lets me let go of her now so she can hang onto her ring and sit on a raft without clinging to me for dear life!

Here's Karissa with Jason at her last class. She was actually enjoying herself here!

Victoria was supposed to swim without her instructor here, but didn't feel ready yet. She'll get there!
Last night we went camping at a lovely site. There were some flowers and nice trees, the ground was even freshly mowed! Okay, so the chicas and I camped in our backyard just for kicks. We haven't been in a while and had to cancel our upcoming trip at the lake. To make it up to the chicas, we sent up the tent, started a fire in the pit, had s'mores, and really enjoyed our "camping trip". The first thing Victoria said this morning when she woke up was, "This was the most fun ever!"