Katie, Christian and Alice pop in!

I came home from work Monday to peek in on Aaron at his desk, saw a car pulling up, and Aaron saying "By the way, Katie and Christian texted me this morning and will be here any minute." You mean, the car that just pulled in? It was a fun surprise. They stayed at an Air BnB and we spent a couple days hiking with them. 

First hike was in Snow Canyon. It was perfect weather!

 These two cuties are only a couple weeks apart in age!

Christian is selling hammocks now days, so we tried setting one up to try. 

Tuesday, they were at our home when I got home from work, ready to head to Zion's. We had Valentine's Day lunch made by Aaron, grabbed Jaylen from school and headed out to Zion's.

 We did Angel's Landing since they had never been to Zion's National Park it was a MUST DO!

 We made it up to Scout's Lookout and Aaron was amazing to keep the kids at the lookout while Katie and Christian ventured on up on the chains to Angel's Landing. I helped Jaylen along the first set of chains. He was pretty proud of himself and confident that he made it up. After I helped him back down, I took off out to find Christian and Katie along the chains.

At the top of the first set of chains. It was straight down on the edge of the cliff there!

The steepest, scary part! It's sheer drop off and either side of that rock Christian is on.

We made it! Such an awesome view that never gets old!

 We got alot of rain and snow this year, so there were waterfalls! It was neat to see a big one pouring over Weeping Rock!

We loved having Katie and Christian down to visit! It was fun having a couple days to hike and catch up!

Valentine's and some files to keep

I used this photo for a gift I gave Aaron, and wasn't sure if it was on file anywhere else, so here it is to keep! EQ Ball in Provo, 2005.

Valentine's Day was fun! I put some donut holes out on the table that said, "DONUT you know I love you a HOLE bunch" for the family and gave Aaron a few little treats (a box of gummy worms with "HOOKED on you since 6-12-04" and a box of swedish fish with "Out of all the fish in the sea, I'm glad you chose me.") 

When I got home from training, there were papers taped to the garage door. A cute poem and note from the kids and Aaron.

Jaylen helped me make Aaron a valentine on Sunday. We thought of 52 reasons we loved Aaron, printed and cut them out and glued them to a deck of cards. Jaylen punched holes in all the cards and helped me put them on a ring. Afterwards he said he wanted to create a craft for Daddy. He was on the computer in the office, printing and typing something up. Well, after school on Valentine's Day he said, "Mom! I tricked you! I was thinking about YOU when I made a secret Valentine!" Jaylen is such a sweetheart, I loved his sweet Valentines.

Aaron's the cutest! He had this sitting on the table for me, and also had breakfast burritos all made and ready to eat. He had a picture of us (coincidence has it- a picture from the EQ ball that I also had used!) that said, "Thanks for being my BOO-rito." It was cute and yummy!

Gavin was also so excited to give me Valentine's he'd make throughout the day. He had some construction paper that he'd go cut out hearts and write on and come bring it to me. It was super sweet. I'm very lucky to have such sweet Valentine's!

A 40 mile ride including a ride up the newly paved Snow Canyon!

Liz and I

Aaron is the cutest and best dad! We waited for Jaylen's SEP and he had the boys literally wrapped around him. They love their fun, sweet daddy!

Miles is really getting some personality. He's starting to follow Gavin around and loves to do what he does.

We've had some garage door issues. We had someone come "fix it" but he didn't obliviously fix it since it crumbled on Aaron the next morning. The mental image of this mangled door on Aaron was pretty funny. The cost for a new door that we need is NOT funny.

 Here's some reports from Jaylen's latest SEPs:

I was cleaning out the church bag and this was Jaylen's talk from last year.

 This is Jaylen's Chinese book he made for SEP last fall:

 Miles's measurements for 6 months old:

This feels like the story of our life at home. It's maddening most of the time.

Jaylen is NINE and February fun

2017 is shaping up to be an epic year!

Weekly bike rides with Jodi when she's in town

Gavin was cracking me up, playing with Miles in the bathtub.

Jaylen is so sweet reading to Miles! I love these sweet brothers!

WOW! We brought a pizza to Jaylen's school for lunch. The lunch room was CRAWLING with kids anxious to have in on some food. I'm glad Jaylen gets along so well with his class mates.

Jaylen's request for his birthday was to try out Golden Corral. He is HILARIOUS about these buffets! He comes back with 2 items, but just loves them! He ate about 6 cotton candies and loved the chocolate waterfall.

We stopped by the store for a few things for his party the next day. I let him pick out a piece of cake so we could sing to him when we got home. He picked one out, but as we passed some raspberries he said, "I already had quite a bit of sweets Mom. I just want some fresh fruit instead." I was pretty happy he came to that choice all on his own! So a container of raspberries it was!

Jaylen wanted a nerf gun party. He invited all his school and neighborhood friends over to our neighborhood park. It was craziness, but thank goodness for Aaron! He organized the games and help keep them having fun.

Such a crazy group

Gavin invited his friend Bo to come and keep him company

We LOVE our sweet, smart 9 year old. He's 4'10", wears size 10 in shoes, loves Harry Potter, Pokemon, recording his own shows, being with friends, going to choir, and has endless energy, even after waking up at 5 am every morning.

Aaron and I had a much needed date to see the Piano Guys in Cedar City. They WERE AMAZING! I loved it! It was neat to hear their story of starting in St. George! They were so talented and funny!

Running with Aprill! Such beautiful mornings!

Gavin and I (and Miles in the trailer) made a ride up to school to see if Gavin could pass off his "jedi" training to ride to school. He passed! Gavin is a successful bike rider now!

Isn't this creepy?? His teacher sent this home on his 100th day of school.

The Veyo Loop with Jodi!

Gavin at his friend's house

I went on a 21 mile trail run with some awesome new people! It was raining in the morning, and it made for a beautiful, fun run! I came home feeling super blessed to have a healthy body and be in such a beautiful area!

Spartan training continues with my team!

I really liked this- it's so crazy what being a mom can be like!

I was asked to be a sponsored athlete on the SunWarrior race team this month. I'm excited about it! They'll pay for an Ironman race and 2 half Ironmans, along with my nutrition and training products! I'm excited for the opportunity to go play and do what I love.... without paying for it!