Moab

I love Southern Utah!  Sometimes it amazes me how many people that have lived in Utah their whole life haven't been to Southern Utah.  My parents took me there almost every year when I was young, and now I am taking my kids there. While vacations, but especially camping, are an insane amount of work it is so important to me that my boys spend lots and lots and lots of time outside.

I love getting to Southern Utah when it's dark.  Sure it's a pain to put up a tent in the dark, but I love waking up in the morning to the gorgeous red rock of Southern Utah.  For me it's an excitement I equate to waking up on Christmas morning when I was a kid.  It takes my breath away.  

A couple of weekends ago we went down to Moab.  My sister was running in the Moab Half Marathon with some of her friends and she had reserved the group campsite in Archers National Park.  The campground in Arches is awesome and is surrounded by red rock that is perfect for kids to go exploring on.  My kids had so much fun

We knew there was a chance that Chad might run the 5 mile race, but it turned out there was opening for him to do the half marathon.  What?!  Chad do a half marathon?!  He runs 3.5 miles three times a week, but he hates running and his isn't particularly built for it.  However my sister and I were able to convince him to try to run the half marathon.  I told him that the worst thing that could happen would be that he would be picked up by the 'slow' bus. 

Chad amazed himself, me, and a bunch of other people when he finished the race in a decent time.  He wasn't picked up by the slow bus and he finished only ten minutes after my sister.  He didn't pass out at the finish line and although he was sore a couple of days after the race he was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't as sore as he was expecting.  

I love food trucks and saw this one in Moab and decided to try it.  It was sooooooo good!  After we got home I found out it was it's first day open.

The weather was less than ideal for the camping trip.  My sister had reserved the campsite for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.  Everybody but my sister and her family and Chad and I and our little family bailed on Saturday.  We have been camping enough times to know that often the weather isn't ideal.  We stayed Saturday night even after the campground host told us they were expecting 60 mph winds.  And yes it was very, very windy. On Sunday when we woke up it was still windy and very cold and snow was in the forecast, we packed up and left.  We quickly packed up, while being sandblasted, and headed out just in time for it to start raining and snowing.  

We were bummed, but we weren't prepared for camping in snow.

Happy 30th Chad

Saturday was Chad's 30th birthday and for his birthday I got him this-
No I didn't buy a Jeep. Unfortunately we're too responsible to do something that crazy. We just rented that Jeep for the day and did a bunch of this-
Ben thought it was fun, at first. Doing it the whole day was a little too much for him. Jack, wasn't much of a fan of it. We broke up the day for them though by getting out a lot and letting them walk and climb on the rocks.

They loved climbing on the rocks. Jack loved making us nervous. (Ben made us nervous too, but he has a lot more control over his body than Jack does, after all Jack's only been walking for six months, he's still top heavy and working out the effects of gravity.) Within the first couple of minutes of walking of the rocks Jack fell twice and bit his lip and skinned his upper lip pretty good. Despite that, he was fearless and wanted to walk off the edge of the rocks. He wanted to do everything all by himself. And we of course were right next to him waiting to catch him from falling again. Have you ever seen those yoga videos where they do yoga on the red rocks? Ben and I gave it a try.

Today we went hiking in Arches National Park. On our way out of Moab we kept seeing cars, coming the other direction, that had tumbleweeds stuck to the front of them. We soon found out why as we came upon a dust storm and for a couple of miles we watched hundreds of tumbleweeds cross the road in front of us. It was funny to watch and we were all laughing. We didn't escape unscathed and had to stop and remove the tumbleweeds from the front of our car.

Top stories of 2008

My mom heard this suggestion and passed it along to me. If I remember correctly the suggestion was that on every New Year's Eve you sit down with your family and discuss everybody's top stories for the year. We didn't do it on New Year's Eve, but I'm thinking it would be a fun tradition to start. Here's are our top stories of 2008.

Jack

• learned to crawl
• learned to walk
• fell, cut his cheek and had to get stitches
• celebrated his First birthday
• fell in love with a blanket
• discovered toys and played, played, played

Ben

• celebrated his Third birthday
• became potty-trained
• learned to write his name
• rode on Thomas the Train
• started doing Daddy-Dude nights with Chad
• took a tumbling & playschool class through a summer recreation program
• started preschool
• took swimming lessons and loved it
• played, played, played

Crystal

• did a preschool with four other moms
• praticed taking pictures and learned more about photography and had the opportunity to photograph three weddings
• attended monthly lunch group with other awesome moms in neighborhood
• washed, folded and put away approximately 400 batches of laundry, made and cleaned up 1000 meals, changed approximately 3000 diapers, put on my own and little ones shoes approx. 2000 times, read 1100 bedtime stories and picked up a million toys (okay maybe not a million, but it feels like it.
• Turned the big 3-0

Chad

• Ran 325.96 miles on the treadmill
• Lost 40 pounds, but whoops gained some back the last couple of weeks
• Ran a 5K in under a half an hour (awesome for somebody who hates running)
• Finished teaching his third group of primary kids
• Became a valuable asset at his work, but unfortunately the company was having a difficult time.
• Acquired a new job before his old job was most likely going to let him go
• Discovered he is funny in St. George

As a family we-

Traveled

• Went to Bear Lake in February and went sledding
• Camping in Capitol Reef in April with our awesome family and awesome friends
• Went River rafting in August on the Snake River
• Went camping at Cinnamon Creek in August
• Went to Grandpa Bo's cabin in September
• Took a trip to St George and Las Vegas in November

A few other things that happened this year for all of us

• Simply just enjoyed spending time together as our little family as well as spending time with our extended families
• Spent time with friends like Jennifer & Jeremy, Heather & Joe, Kevin & Christy, Becca & Hans, and neighborhood friends
• Had season passes to Lagoon and went about once a week in the summer
• Flooded out of our basement apartment and displaced for 2 1/2 months

Sometimes our lives seem pretty uneventful and boring, but apparently I have a pretty fun, interesting life. I feel very fortunate for all the wonderful people I have in my life.

My boys

Jack
I can't believe this was taken last year. Time passes too quickly. Look at Jack, he looks so different. Look at those cute chubby cheeks, I miss them. Jack use to look so different from Ben, now he is starting to look so much like him.
Jack is just a bucket of fun lately. He is such a fun age. Yeah, he gets into all the drawers and pulls stuff out and he climbs up on the table or counter and dances, but I know it's just a phase and I'm really enjoying a lot of the things he is doing right now.
He's been a little sick the past couple of days though and isn't he usual mostly mellow, but happy little boy. He came down with a cold last Friday, by Sunday he was having a hard time with his breathing. We gave him some breathing treatments on Sunday. Monday I took him to the doctor where the doctor said that Jack will probably have a hard time breathing every time he gets a cold and it will most likely be something he grows out of. She gave us a prescription for some steroids to help open his airways.
We had to figure out how to give Jack one and a half tiny pills that are super, super bitter. The doctor told us to crush them up and put them in something super sweet. Jack doesn't like taking medicine, even the kind that tastes like candy, so he wasn't easily fooled. It was quite tricky getting him to take the pills. Now I'm afraid he's not going to be wanting to eat yogurt, Leatherby's caramel, or penuch anytime soon.
The steroids make him super irritable, at least he was yesterday. He cried a lot. It was a very hard day for him and a little for me. Hopefully he won't need steroids too often, they are kind of dangerous anyway if taken too often.
Ben
He is such a super smart little boy. His memory is amazing. I thought I had a pretty good memory (or at least I use to). A couple of times this week Ben has remembered things that I couldn't remember right away. He was right and I was wrong.
Lately Ben does this strange thing when he talks, he gets stuck on sounds. He says cat-t-t-t-t (the sounds slowly gets quieter) or couch-ch-ch-ch. He's done this before, then stops for a while, then starts again. I'm not sure why he does it, but when I remember to I'll tell him the letter or letters of the sound he is stuck on.
Ben is soooooo excited for Christmas. Every morning he wakes up and asks me if it's Christmas and every morning he has a meltdown when I tell him that it isn't. Today I get to tell him that Christmas is tomorrow, I'm excited.
Chad
The past month, because of the Christmas season, we've been a little busy. I haven't had enough time to just sit and talk with Chad. We talk, but in short little snippits. I love my kids, but sometimes I really miss having a lot of time with just Chad. I love him more than anything. Before I had kids I use to talk with my friend Tawni about how much I love Chad and how I love spending time with him. I was super in love, I still am, it's just different. Tawni had a little girl and I remember her telling me that marriage changes a lot after you have kids and you don't have the time for each other like you use to, but when she watches her husband with her little girl she has that same 'in love' feeling. She was sooooo right. When Chad is laughing, loving, and playing with our little boys I'm so 'in love' with all of them.

Fortunate

Chad's search for a new job didn't take much searching. We started networking to let people know he was looking for a job and I started searching the classifieds. He applied at about five different places. Earlier this week he got a phone call and went in for an interview. A half an hour after he had the interview they called him and offered him the job. Yeah, that fast. I was expecting it to take quite a bit longer for Chad to find a job. I feel fortunate that it didn't.
Change is hard, but with Chad's work closing down their Salt Lake office, change was inevitable. We've heard a few good things about the company Chad will be working for and they are super eager for him to start. I hope his new job fits him well, I hope he likes it there.

The ship is sinking

First, I'm not really complaining. When Chad got his job we were told that it might not last a week and now he's been there over two years. He's gained valuable experience. And since we aren't in a house right now and we don't have any pressing bills (except for needing to save lots and lots of money) it's okay that he may soon be out of a job.
Chad received an e-mail on Friday from his boss that informed employees that the SL office will be closing before Thanksgiving. What does that mean for Chad? Who knows? There's a small possibility it might mean he will be working from home, but most likely it means that he will be out of a job. Which is exactly why he's looking for one. Also, he doesn't think he wants to work from home. Although, I would enjoy having his commute change from a half an hour drive to a 5 second walk on the stairs. More time with Chad is always good!
Chad is just finding it challenging to be motivated. Who wouldn't? They are pretty much saying, "you won't have a job in six weeks, but until then work as hard as you can." Okay, whatever.

Craziness

As I wrote about in a previous post, Chad's boss was let go seven weeks ago. When that happened we wondered if Chad would be losing his job as well. Monday morning, his boss from California and his boss from Florida showed up unexpectedly, which isn't a good thing. They laid off half of the guys in Chad's office.
Maybe this sounds strange and maybe I'm too confident that Chad we be able to find another job, but I wanted Chad to be let go too. Since he would get severance pay I was already planning a vacation (a road trip somewhere) as well as looking for new jobs for him to apply for. Turns out though, that he isn't being laid off, yet. They will be closing the office he works at and moving stuff to Florida, but that will take months to take care of. Chad's new boss estimated that will take at least until December. Does that mean Chad won't have a job after December? Maybe, maybe not. Will he have a job until December? Maybe, maybe not. Are me moving to Florida? No.
Things are just up in the air and will be that way for months. That's the biggest reason I just wanted him to be let go, so we were done with it and we aren't just left wondering for the next couple of months. Another reason I wanted him to be let go is because one of his friends that he really enjoyed working with was let go and Chad's bummed, so I'm bummed for him. The last reason I really wanted him to be let go was so that we could on a trip somewhere. I guess that will have to wait for a while. I should have gone on the road trip my sister and I were thinking about doing earlier this summer.

Celebrate your Irish Heritage

Our last name was very Irish until Chad's ancestors made a little change to it to make it more Scottish (being Irish was looked down upon). Chad definately looks Irish, especially in this picture. I've always thought it was cool that although Chad has blond hair, he has a red beard. We are fortunate to have our own St. Patrick's Day leprechaun. Now we just need to get him to help us find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I told Chad we should buy a hat like this and he should dress up on St. Patrick's Day and hand out gold coins (chocolate of course) to random people. I just think it would be funny.

You should be jealous

My husband can solve a rubik's cube in 1 minute and 21 seconds. Pretty impressive, huh? I know you're jealous. Chad recently bought a special rubik's cube that he put together himself and it makes it so that he can change the tension which changes how easily it turns. The amount of time it takes him to solve the rubik's cube has drastically reduced since acquiring this new cube. 1 minute and 21 seconds is a lot faster than I could solve it, if I could solve it. I'm sure I could learn how, but I don't know if I want to take the time and effort to learn. Chad and I are very different. He is really good at sticking with things and figuring them out. Although I am kind of impressed with his rubik's cube abilities, I've still been giving him looks like he is such a dork. He has, after all, gone a little bit crazy with it.

Chad is a self-proclaimed geek and he's is a geek by profession. Being a geek is not a bad thing though and I'm lucky to be with him as there are many advantages to being married to a geek. Here are just a few-

1. He has something we call the 'knack'. He is fascinated by how things work and he is good at figuring out how to fix things.

2. He loves gaming. I do not care for it, but I think it's pretty cool that we can use his X-Box 360 to access pictures stored on our computer to watch slide shows on our television.

3. When anybody asks him a question about a myriad of computer programs if he doesn't know the answer he figures it out.

4. He is the network administrator in our home, as much as time allows, he makes sure that the computers and wireless network are in proper working order.

5. Since he is really good at sticking with things until he figures them out, he is going to be with me forever, because that's how long it will take for him to figure me out.

Favorite things Friday

One of my favorite physical features about Chad are his beautiful eyes and his amazing eyelashes. He likes his eyelashes now, but he hated them when he was younger. He got tired of hearing people (especially old ladies) say, "look at those beautiful eyelashes, why do boys always get the long eyelashes." I'm sure that my boys will get tired of people making comments about their eyelashes, but I love them and I'm glad that they got this physical trait from their dad.

Aren't my guys handsome?