Utah Valley Marathon

So this is Scotty and me on probably one of the biggest days we've ever had together... next to the day we got married.... oh and the birth of our two children I guess.. :) I kept telling myself that, "If I can birth two babies, I can RUN A MARATHON!!" And not only did I run a marathon, Scott ran one too!!

It was seriously one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Training was really intense and really long... about 5 months long... and Scott and I got to do it together!! The actual marathon wasn't NEARLY as scary as I thought. It was seriously so neat to run it and the scenery along the way was absolutely beautiful!! Even when it rained, or should I say poured on us, I loved it!!
Here's us after the big finish. That's a popcycle in Scott's hand and we probably ate 6 each in about hmmm.. I'd say 7 minutes.

One of the best parts of the big day where my cute, awesome girl friends who surprised me at the finish line!! That's my (above) surprised, exhausted face ;)

I had no idea they (Heather, Alyson w/baby Alayna, me and Brandalyn w/baby Anastyn) were coming (Sneaky Scott knew though!) and there they were to cheer me on and bring me peanut butter M&M's - my favorite!! I loved it and they were so sweet to come!!! Thanks again guys! :)

And of course Lee (far left) my brother-in-law had to join in on the fun!! :) As posted below, my sister Jayme and her family happened to be visiting the week of the marathon and since Lee has ran many marathons, why not run the Utah Valley Marathon with us?? It was hilarious.. he only trained that last week with me and Scott and then ran all 26.2 miles of the marathon and SMOKED us!! Great job Lee!! Glad you could have shared this experience with us!! It was soooo fun!! Oh and thanks again Grandma Sue for taking the kids all weekend!!! Couldn't have done this without your help!!!

Sooooo... anyone wanna join us on our next one?? :)

Finally, a visit from the Cripps...

Finally, a visit from my sister Jayme and her adorable family!!!! It has seriously been forever since they have come to visit us here in Utah and I am so glad they did! We had a lot of fun with them staying at our house goofing off with us :) We had a few adventures together and miss them already!! Please guys, come back again soon!!

Lee (pulling faces of course), Jayme, Brayden, Carson (crying), Savanah, Brielle (not looking), me, and Madelyn. This was the best shot we could get :)

Madelyn and Savanah are my sister's oldest kids and Brielle adores them!! She loves to hang out with them and they are so sweet to her. In this picture they just finished doing a little skit. It was so cute and so creative!

..And this is Carson, my sister's youngest.. We left him alone for awhile with the dress ups and this is how we found him. He wouldn't even let us change his clothes without a fight! It was hilarious!

One of our adventures was to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. Brielle loves this place cause right now dinosaurs are her very favorite.
All I can say is "Land Before Time" is always playing in my head! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE A NEW DINOSAUR MOVIE!?! :)

Cute silly girls!!

I love this picture of the boys -Brayden and Carson- cause one looks a little scary and one looks a little SCARED!!

Bryce enjoying the view from his stroller...

The girls huddled up in the cave...

The sand and water "hands on" thing - anyone know what this part of the museum is called?? The kids absolutely love this part of the museum.

Oh and another favorite part is the "fossils in the sand" at the very end.... not sure what this one is called either :) ..What a fun day!! Besides the Dino Museum, delicious gluten-free meals my sister made for us, visiting till wee hours of the night, and the family marathon (I'll explain in the next post ;0 ), we really did have a good time with the CRIPPS. We loved having you all and can't wait to see you guys again!!

CALIFORNIA..in random order...

Back in MAY -I love how prompt I am- our little family took a glorious trip to CALIFORNIA to visit my family. We had a blast and did SO MUCH stuff while we were there. Newport beach condo (the main event), family parties, grandma's luxury swimming pool (gal I wish I lived closer to that thing), shopping, and more shopping :)... the beach, daily ice cream runs, oh and DISNEYLAND!!! That was our highlight cause it was Brielle and Scotty's first time (well I guess Bryce's too)!! Such a cute, fun place. And well with all this FUN, of course comes a ton of pictures!! The sad sad part about it is.... I LOST ALMOST ALL OF THEM!!! The ones I have posted here are the only ones that saved :( So that's why there's only a random few and I am so sad about it :( They are lost in this computer somewhere so I haven't given up hope!! I will keep looking!!! I am sure all of you know how it feels to loose pictures!!!!!! So here's the ones that I do have and I am actually really grateful for at least these ones :) :)

Bryce taking a bath in grandma's kitchen sink. This is something all the grandkids do at my moms. It's so silly!! I love it!

Me and Scotty at the end of our Disneyland trip. At least this one saved cause I really like it :)

Our family at Laguna Beach. Those kids love the beach and love it so much they can't even look into the camera :)

Oh Bryce Man!! He is such a dollface!! Seriously that kid would be lost somewhere in the ocean right now if we let him keep charging towards that water!!! He would just laugh and wiggle when those waves crashed and head straight for them!!

At the Marriott Beach Resort where we stayed. The pool was definitely a favorite place to be each day!! Oh and the gym too... just kidding! We hardly worked out while we were there!!! Yeah right.. ice cream or work out...??? Hmmmm, I think ICE CREAM and playtime!!! :)

Oh, I am getting more sad as I write this blog post cause I am thinking of all the pictures I am missing!!!! AHHH, oh well right!?! :) Anyways, this is us at Disneyland on the jungle cruise ride. Bryce was so exhausted and passed out for this one..

..But when Bryce wasn't sleeping, this was his face on most of the rides!! Lol!! He just couldn't get enough!! So hilarious!! :)

At the beach again, I believe this was Bryce's first day out.. Before he knew how FUN and EXCITING the ocean was!! That's probably why he's looking at the camera.

Back at grandma and grandpa's house. Brielle's favorite thing to do at grandma's is wake up early and go JUMP!!

..and of course Bryce Man comes to JUMP with us..

What would I do without this little guy!! I love that face to pieces!!!!

I kept telling Brielle to "jump soft cause Bryce is still so so little" ...Yeah she kinda did... and then of course she tackles him cause that's her favorite thing to do with her dad!!

Silly kids!!

In the kid pool at the resort. I am so glad this picture saved cause he actually smiled a "for real" smile. I love it!! :)

And of course a trip with dad wouldn't be the same without some gymnastics!!! Bryce Man stunting with Scott at the beach..

One more shot with dad.. Bryce is getting pretty good at balancing!!
We absolutely loved visiting good ol' CALIFORNIA and are so grateful to have been able to spend time with family there. We will definitely be back... and hopefully this next time I will be better with saving my PICTURES!!! ;)