OnCe UpOn A TiMe

Once upon a time, I had a ClEaN and oRgAnIzEd linen closet.

Then I found MoNsTeRs in it who had a wonderful time messing it up.

Once upon a time (last week in fact) I thought our days on the RoAd had SlOwEd DoWn a bit. I was wrong. We made yet AnOtHeR trip down to my parent's house. The boys didn't mind at all since their CoUsInS were still there from TeXaS.

MaSoN stayed home with GrAm and the rest of us made trek to OgDeN to go to the DrIvE InN movies! Drive inn movies are my favorite! It makes me so sad that they have definitely become a thing of past and I wish we had one where we lived. Conner and Jen's boys were thrilled to go get to see HaRrY PoTtEr (we couldn't stay up long enough to catch part 2 of the double feature, Up). Zack and Isabella were just happy to be there and RuN aRoUnD. Zack kept watching IcE aGe 3 on the screen across the way from us. It looked really cute, we will have to get him to the theatre to go see it. I am also very excited to see ToY sToRy 3 will be coming soon!

Two little CoUsInS getting ready to bump BeLlIeS as part of their AmIgO hAnDsHaKe. So SaD to say GoOdByE before we headed home!

Now we are looking forward to a HaPpIlY eVeR aFtEr!

Wet n' Wild!

This summer has been a weird one. It has been cold and rainy for so long and now it seems like we jumped from 78 degrees to 103 overnight.

We FINALLY got a chance to set up their water slide. The water slide is a family favorite, even our water dog Bear joins in!

I just can't believe it is almost August and this is the first time we have gotten it out this year!

It's not long before the neighbor kids join in on the fun too.

The Open Road

The summer really is flying by. It seems like we have spent more time in the car hitting the open road than we have just hangin' out at home. We have had a lot of fun this summer bummin' around but now I am looking forward to enjoying some time at home and doing some of our local summer activities we enjoy.

We managed to squeeze in a McCall trip. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to visit McCall you simply must go! It is the cutest little resort town that sits right on a beautiful lake, picture perfect. It isn't a "ritzy" resort town like a Sun Valley or Park City, it is laid back and super fun!

Vic and the boys.

Mason trying to get into stuff before we left the cabin.

We were able to hit a few shops and do some water skiing and just enjoying being with our friends. They are so great! Paula and Chris have four adorable boys. Their boys are so cute and playful with Conner, Zack, and Mace. They are so gentle and loving with the little ones but wrestle and romp with Conner (which Conner LOVES!). We just adore those boys and are so happy to have them around (Paula and Chris too of course!).

Mason and Josh. Mace had on this snug life jacket and sort of fell over on the towels. But that is where he happily stayed the whole time we were on the boat, just smiling at us.

Vic wakeboarding.

Zackie and Mom. The day after our trip he kept saying, "More boat Mommy! More boat!"

Conner on the tube.

And naturally we couldn't leave out Tif. Tif is one of the most funny girls I know. Never a dull moment with Tif. The boys and I love her too! Thanks everyone for such a good time.

Tif babysitting Vic's sunglasses.

Everyone headed out on the boat and I stayed on the beach with Mason to TRY and get him to take a nap. Lately Mace has learned his animal sounds. There were little bear figurines in the cabin and he was pointing and growling at them. Well, as I was bouncing him around we walked past a big hairy, and I mean HAIRY guy. Mason quickly points to him and says, "Grrrrrrr." I was laughing so hard, heck at first glace I thought he was a big bear too! :)

Mace on the beach.

We also headed back down to my parents house. The boys were begging to go and it worked out that I had to get some work stuff done and my sister from Texas was there visiting with her four adorable kids. Conner loves and gets excited to see all of his cousins. We only get to see them once or twice a year so Conner was really bouncing off the walls! The kids just play and play and play, having a wonderful time! Jen's kids are fantastic too. So cute and helpful with our kids, if I could take them home with us I would! We miss them so much and value the time we do get to spend with them. They grow up to fast!

Zackie and Isabella before bed. He just loved following her around.

The kids out on Gram and Poppa's deck. Can you tell by almost everyone's PJs that the only time I remembered to get my camera out was at bedtime?!?!

Vic and I have told each other several times how lucky and blessed we are to have such great friends and family. We want you all to know just how much we love and appreciate you!

Big Al's Bruisers- End of Season

Pictured above is part of our team, well the BS'ers of the team anyway. Everyone else makes it to their car to quick after a game to round up for a picture. From left to right: Big Guns Amy, Tif, Al, Paula, Kristen, Big Guns II Noelle, and sandwiched in the middle are Vic and Bob (they don't seem to mind a bit).

Softball finally came to an end. We rallyed back from wayyyyyy behind and won our first tournament game but sadly lost the next two. :( Vic and I had a great time! I think we were the loudest team always laughing and joking around. We finally figured out what position everyone does best at and will be looking forward to next year.

Thanks to all of our buds who showed up for games and enjoyed the season with us. We love ya! Go Bruisers!

The Gray Hair & A Tear

Victor calls me from work the other day and it goes like this:

Victor in a very serious almost upset voice, "Allison!"

Now I am panicked because of his tone and he NEVER calls me Allison,"Yes, what is going on?!?!"

Vic, "When I got to work and took my helmet off to do my hair (because he rides his motorcycle to work) I found a gray hair!!!!!"

Me dying laughing, "Seriously? You scared my heart over a gray hair!" still laughing.

Vic, "Can you believe it?!?!?! A gray hair!"

So we have to document it. I may be the first one to have to use a walker, but he beat me to gray hair!

And to the tear part of the blog, :( I tore my tendons in my ankle and can't do a dang thing for six, yes count them, six LONG weeks! The doc was nice enough to not put me in a boot but not doing anything for six weeks!!!! If it doesn't repair its self I will need surgery.

This is devastating to me! Many of you may remember my nonexistent running abilities, if you are even generous enough to call it that. Weeks ago when I started running I could hardly make it around my .6 mile block without thinking I was going to die. And now I am up to six miles without stopping.

Boo hoo, poor little me. :( Looks like my nightly cookie baking will be coming to an end. I never knew I liked running so much until I can't do it.

Fun on the 4th!

I am still in shock it is July. Where did June go? Last week Zack, Mace, and me went down to my parent's house. Conner had already been there for a week doing swimming lessons and was very happy to see us. He was having a wonderful time with Gram and Poppa, but I think he was a bit homesick for his family. I had meetings all week and my most wonderful mother in the world watched the boys for me! Thanks Mom!Conner (being a stinker and showing off his Big League Chew), Zack, and Poppa watching my company softball team's game.

Mace leaning in to get more loves from Poppa.

Little fish Conner learning to dive.

Vic flew into SLC on Wednesday to be with us and celebrate the 4th. Of course we had to stop at my new "old" favorite Mexican restaurant, El Matador, on our way home! Yum! Yum! If you are ever in the Ogden area I highly suggest it!

The 4th got off to an early start. . . a really early start! Vic has just started to train for a triathlon so I thought that if he was going to do that I had better get off my fat butt and do something! With that in mind, I decided to train for a half marathon. I am DEFINITELY not ever going to be a super star runner, my whole goal is just to complete it!!!! A few of the gal's who work with Vic suggested a training schedule from MarathonRookie.com for me and also suggested entering a few races along the way just to keep motivated. Soooo, Vic had the bright idea that we would do the 5k fun run that started at 7 am!!!! Who runs at 7 am?!?!

They gave us our T-shirts at registration before the race. I tried to convince Vic that we got our T-shirts we could go home, but he didn't go for it. hee hee

I actually completed it AND didn't come in last! Yahoo! I ran it in 26 minutes and 20 seconds. Not at all my best time, but considering my ankles were so bad that I could hardly walk a few days before, I will happily take it. Vic did it in an awesome 22 minutes and 23 seconds. Way to go babe!!!! (Court, what happened to you that morning?!?!)We had a good time and were happy to have participated. It feels nice to have competed in our first race ever and running together is so much fun. We will be looking forward to many more. (Rock n' Roll Half Marathon in Vegas Noelle?)

All done. Yippee! Yes dear, we will do away with that bandanna. :)

As we headed home to get cleaned up after the race, we had a good laugh. Only in our home town do you see a tractor driving down main street followed by a car with the front seat passenger holding a baby. Gotta love it! :)

We then took the boys over to my little brother's house to watch the parade. The parade was really cute and it was quite nice to see some fun floats and not a just a sign slapped on the side of a truck. The boys had a blast and retrieved enough candy to last them for 10 years!

Conner and Zack showing off their huge bags of parade candy.

Next up for the day's activities were the kid races. Mace may be taking a few steps here and there but he definitely is no walker so we put him in the crawling races. We had to motivate him with a sucker at the finish line but he hauled butt and took first! He even won a silver dollar! I was quite surprised that Zack actually raced this year and he even took third. Conner took second and lost to a little boy named Josh. Josh is the son of one of my old buds Alli. He is a cute little guy and super fast!!!!

Go Mace!

Go Zackie!

Go Conner!

Conner and Josh after their race.

After dinner at Gram's, she brought out her yummy chocolate fountain. The boys love Gram's chocolate fountain. There wasn't a clean mouth in the house!

This picture cracks me up. Conner and Zack were out with their cousins Noah and Shelby doing snaps and I wanted to take their picture. Zack wouldn't look at me so I told him to look at the bird (naturally there was no bird) so he and Noah were trying to find the bird. So cute!

We got the boys cleaned up and in some PJ's and headed down to watch and light off some fireworks. Zack was a little unsure of the sparklers at first but then couldn't get enough of them. Conner and Mace were having a blast and didn't want to see them come to an end. A couple of the loud flowers scared Zack and he started to cry, "No more fieworks Mommy! Go Poppa's house! No fieworks Mommy!" He took a little while but then he started to enjoy the big fireworks and would say the colors of them, which was a big relief after listening to him cry!

Mom holding Zack and Conner.

Dad and Mace.

We had such a good time just hanging out with family and were thrilled to catch up with old friends! It is fun to see everyone and get updated, we wish we saw you all more often! The boys were in heaven the whole time! They had a blast with Gram and Poppa and all of their cousins. Zack said on the way home, "Go back Poppa's house!" Vic responded, "Don't you want to go home to our house? To Zackie's house?" And Zack says, "NO! No Zackie's house! Go back Poppa's house!"

Thanks again everyone (especially you Mom and Dad!) for such a great time. Can't wait til' next year!