Gone with the Wind

As a tribute to my Grandma Rains I read "Gone With the Wind". My grandma died 5 years before I was even born but I've always thought that I'm a lot like her. The sad thing is that no one in the family really talked about her very much for some reason. So her liking this book is one of about 5 things I know about her. I can now see why she liked it so much. Margaret Mitchell does such a good job of bringing the South alive that while reading the book you are taken away.

The book is 1037 pages long so I've always wanted to read this book, the one my Grandma loved and read countless times, but shied away due to its length. The only other book I've read that's over 1000 pages is the Bible and that tooks me months. This book took me 12 days! I thought I knew what it was all about because I've seen the movie a couple of times. I was so wrong. The movie left out a ton of details. You still want to slap Scarlett upside the head and yell at her "what were you thinking" but I enjoyed the book nonetheless.

Michelle's Baptism

I uploaded all the family photos for this special event and then I was going to delete the worst and keep the best. Then I thought all of you could use a good laugh. These photos are awful. Michelle is her usual good posing self but everyone else needs a lot of work. Now you know why I hate getting family portraits done. But I detract from Michelle and her special day.

She is a beautiful 8 year old now. Getting baptized has really helped her want to do things the right way. I got to be more involved with her baptism than with Caleb's so I really enjoyed that.

I love you, Belle!

Marathon!

I realize I'm a few months behind and I don't want to bore you with too many events but I have to mention Trevor's marathon. Last September, both of us ran a marathon but Trevor was only abl to run 11 of the 26.2 miles due to an ankle injury. So we both signed up for another marathon in May. I couldn't run it at all due to having knee surgery 3 weeks prior to the race. But TREVOR COMPLETED HIS FIRST MARATHON! It turned out to be the hottest day of the year so he didn't do as well as he had hoped but I don't care. He finished and I'm proud to be married to a marathoner! As soon as we got home I slapped 26.2 stickers on both our cars (I'd been waiting since last September).

Camping

For the 4th of July weekend we went camping up in the Uinta Mountains. Up at that elevation Spring had just sprung. The wildflowers were blooming and every thing was green. Unfortunately this meant that there were hungry swarms of mosquitoes. But the temperature as great. 70 degrees was cold compared to the mid 90s back home.

This is the Provo Falls. There are 8 of them and it was gorgeous. I never knew that the Provo River started this far north.


The last day we were there the wind was calm and the lake was smooth. You'd never guess from this picture that the day before there were actually large waves on the lake.

Washington Lake - an artist's dream (especially that painter guy on PBS that paints happy little cabins amongst happy little trees).

The sour faces are showing extreme tiredness. This is up at Wall Lake. It was a mile long hike over very uneven trails and each of the kids (except Gabriella who Trevor carried in a backpack) hiked the whole way. I need to point out that the trailhead was at 10,000 feet and Wall Lake was 10,300 feet above sea level! That's a lot of hiking with only a little oxygen in the air.

We had great time though and can't wait to go back - next time we'll be armed with loads of really strong bug repellant!

Promises

I was recently told by my younger brother that he actually reads my blog but was annoyed it hadn't been updated in so long. So, Jer, this is for you. Now you have to be sending me some pictures of you and your house.

Relief

My last post explained how frustrated I am with my knee. Over the past couple of weeks the pain has gotten worse so I went back to the doctor. I'll spare you the details and cut to the chase. I'm getting my knee scoped this Tuesday.

When I first went to the doctor last November they took an x-ray that showed my kneecap would slide out of place each time my knee bent. Since I learned that I've been doing all kinds of leg exercises and stretches, even did a bout with physical therapy. But this week's MRI showed that the cartiledge on the backside of my kneecap is damaged. I'm missing a chunk of it and the rest is frayed and the rough edges are causing inflammation and pain.

Knowing that there is something actually wrong and that it's not just all in my head is a great relief. However, I've never in my life had surgery so I'm quite nervous. In fact today I'm in hyper-cleaning mode. I feel like I'm nesting like before I had a baby. Heck, I'm even updating my blog.

Fortunately, the doctor says the recovery time is pretty short with this particular procedure (patellar chondroplasty). I should be able to put weight on my leg the same day as surgery, and be running again (short distances) in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping all goes well.

Frustration...arrgh!

Earlier this week I had to give up my spot on the Wasatch Back 180 mile relay team. I feel like I've let down my team but it wouldn't be doing mt knee much good to be running 3 different times within 24 hours - not to mention the steep hills along the course.

Then, yesterday I officially pulled out of the marathon I was supposed to run in May. I transferred my registration over to the 5k (thanks for the advice CarrieAnn). I'm really bummed that I had to "quit" but my knee just isn't cooperating. 3 miles is about all I can run.

The one upside is that I'll be able to watch Trevor at the finish line of his first marathon.

Trevor's Triathlon

Trevor was asked to be on a team for the Blue Mountain Triathlon. In this race, the swimming is replaced by cross country skiing, then there's the biking, followed by the run. Trevor hadn't been feeling well all week and lost his voice on Wednesday night but he did the race anyway. There were some last minute changes to the course so instead of 5 miles it was 5 1/2 miles, which wouldn't have been a big deal except that the starting line was changed too. That meant that instead of running at an elevation of 4500 feet (which is about what our house is at so he's used to that) it was now at 7000 feet and went uphill for 2.5 miles - also he was still sick and had a hard time breathing to begin with. Surprisingly, he and his 55 and 61 year old teammates came in 12th overall and 3rd in the men's teams!

Michelle's clogging

Michelle had her first ever clogging competition. She got 2nd in her solo dance. She also did a great job in her team dance which is the video below (she's the 2nd from the left on the front row then moves to the back row).

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My mom's birthday is March 1st. Her and my dad came in to town this weekend for my cousin's missionary farewell so we threw her a small surprise party. I tried to surprise her with Turtle Brownies with homemade caramel sauce but my first 2 attempts failed so she helped successfully make the sauce - always a mom!

The Newest Talented Bear Cub

Caleb's first ever piano performance was at the Ward talent show. He did really well considering there were a lot more people than either of us was expecting.

At Pack meeting this month, Caleb received his Bear Award, a gold arrow, 3 silver arrows, and the astronomy belt loop. I must say he's the cutest Bear I've ever seen. By the way, he was also awarded "Scout of the Month" for his den!

Megan - Student of the week

Megan was Student of the Week and got to color a poster telling all about herself.
If I could have one wish, I'd wish for a...dog
My favorite thing to do is...watch tv
When I grow up I want to be a...doctor
Nauvoo was my favorite vacation

BYU Basketball

This was our first ever sporting event we went to as an ENTIRE family. I was a little leary of how well Gabriella would do during the 2 hour women's basketball game but she was pretty well behaved - especially while she was napping ;)

Three years ago, our first Valentine's after Gabriella was born we took her with us to a men's BYU basketball game. Here she is 3 years later and taking another nap! Don't you love the tutu she put on her stuffed kitty.

Megan drove us crazy about wanting to meet Cosmo. We chased him down and Megan was thrilled to give him a hug.

Caleb was a little leary about meeting Cosmo but I know he would've regretted it. Michelle had come a few weeks ago with Trevor to a game so she didn't need to meet Cosmo again.

I couldn't believe that I actually caught one of the shirts that the cheerleaders throw to the crowd. That was the greatness of coming to a women's game. We sat on the 11th row - close enough to catch the goods.

Caleb the Bear Scout

Caleb's grandma gave him his first pocketknife. Within 1 hour of receiving the knife he earned the Whittling Chip Award and passed off the requirements needed towards his Bear patch. Below is the penguin he carved out of a 3 inch bar of soap.

Last night was the Pinewood Derby. Caleb came up with his car design and helped in every aspect of the car building. Unfortunately things didn't work out fast for his car. I was REALLY impressed with his good sportsmanship. Any other 9 year old I know that would've lost every race (not even finishing the last race) would've broke down crying. But Caleb held it together even though he was devastated. For that we treated him to a great big ice cream cone!

Near Death

Thank heavens Megan was being watched over last night. An hour after we put her to bed, Megan came out crying about how her night light wasn't working. Trevor and I couldn't understand why that was such a big deal until she explained (after the tears stopped we could finally understand her) that she'd stuck a "penny" in it then it stopped working. Needless to say we asked if she was okay, realizing that she blew the circuit breaker, the nightlight and burned the side of the nickel. If she would've been electrocuted we'd have never known it for a few hours (when we check in on the kids before we go to bed). Once again I'm so grateful she was being protected from above.