One of my most FAVORITE places...

is...LAKE POWELL! I could live there and be perfectly happy. I'm nutso for water toys and almost kill myself wakeboarding, but it's my happy place and ohhh did I have F.U.N!!
Here's a couple of pic's and the THE's to explain them all.


The Houseboat

The Toys

The Slide

The Macarana

The Sunset

The Workout Session

The New Trick

The dislocated shoulder


The Oh so happy kidless Group


The Rainbow

The Torn ACL, MCL, and maybe the PCL :(

The crazy cliff jump

The entertainment

The Lawnmower (ohhh so funny!)

The Wakeboarder's

The perfect ski shot

The to DIE for sunset


Until next time Lake Powell! Hopefully sooner then Later!

Loves,
Jill

I have a....

CUB SCOUT!!!

The smell of Lavender

It is one of my favorite smells... ever. And one of my favorite flowers. There is nothing more serene then a field of Lavender.


Today the kids and I went and visited one of my FAVORITE places. The Young Living Farm in Mona, Utah. They produce just about anything Lavender that you can think of! We walked around their gardens and participated in all the fun activities. My favorite part of course was clipping my own bushel of Lavender. The kids all clipped their own as well.




We went on a Paddle Boat ride, and we all got to wear life jackets...even Lily.

There were lots of fun wagons to climb on and lots of exploring to do.


But like I said, this was my Favorite part...












Loves,
Jill

Wasatch Back = 188 miles!!!

Oh Man what a weekend!! Here we are at the finish line...
THE DIRTY DOZEN :)

A lot happened of course for us to get here.


188 miles eariler...
Here I am decorating the "support van"


I was runner 8, so by the time it was my turn to run, I was about ready to jump out of my shoes! As you can tell hahaha...My first run was a 3.4 mile run through the Ogden Valley. Not bad at all. It was about 4:00 pm so it was Hot, Hot, Hot!


Did I mention that CORY ran on my team?? He was runner 10 and his first leg was 3.6 miles through more of the Ogden Valley approaching Snow Basin Rd. Here he is getting the hand off.


And here he is after his run. Like I said it was Hot, Hot, Hot. 3 + miles is just enough that you can push it really hard and that is what he did.

We kept track of the "Road Kill"...that was one of the best parts of the race for me!

Once we ran our first leg, there was enough time to eat, and visit the Honey Bucket. YES!


Hanging with VAN 2. (Uh make sure you enjoy the company, because you are with them in tight quarters for over 24 hours!)

The night time came and I ran 7.0 miles into the town of Henefer, Ut. It was one of the most amazing runs I have ever run. It was Midnight and cool outside. I was bounding with energy for some reason. I ran 7 miles in 46 minutes and had 47 Road Kill. Oh YEAH!!
When I was done I got into the van and realized we were parked in front of this cute little store... it was fate!


Cory's middle of the night run was 7.7 miles along the Weber River Valley towards Wanship. No pictures, but he had a great run too. At our last exchange we ran into a whole bunch of people from my neighborhood. We all got together and took a picture. I still think it is amazing that we ran into each other considering there were 12,000 runners at the Wasatch Back this year and 1200 teams.


So it was coming time for my final run. We had had very little sleep at this point. We had crossed over to morning time and I was getting ready. I had a 6.0 run left with some pretty good uphill attached to it. I jumped out and got going and by mile 2 I was tired!!! My support van got me through my run as they met me every 1 or 2 miles and gave me water and honked and yelled and gave me LOVE. Here they are, the best cheerleaders E.V.E.R.!


So my last leg ended, and I felt great, but tired. I got 30 road kill that time. Cory was starting to get NERVOUS, because his last leg is one of the steepest climbs in all RAGNARS! It is a 4.0 climb up the back of Guardsmen pass. It is intense and it was hot. It is a dirt road on top of that.
Here he is getting ready... (I have taught him well :)) Yes that is string cheese he is holding.

And here he is finishing his leg. Did I say he was NERVOUS?? I don't know why, cause he screamed up that hill! He didn't walk once! I still don't know how he did it cause it really is the steepest climb ever. Let's just say I was sooo impressed! I love that my husband can rock it :)
Oh and he is sprinting pass those two people toward the finish line...eat my dust

And here it is all coming to an end...We are crossing the finish line. And the best part about it was my 3 kids waiting there for me to finish. My mom watched the kids and brought them up to the finish line so they could see us finish. Asher is there in the green shirt and he ran across the finish line with me. I LOVE my kids!

It was a great experience, and different then the Vegas run I ran last year. It was great to have Cory with me and share this awesome experience with me.


On to the next race...coming up this weekend. The BONE race in Idaho. Pictures of that and of our California trip coming soon!
Loves,
Jill

BD's only come once a year...

There is only one person on this planet who is perfect for me. Now, thinking eternally here, we all individually have a lot to learn right? And apparently I have a lot to learn about myself because no other person has taught me more about myself then my husband. He knows all of me, the good's, the bad's and the in-between's.
We are a 2 pea's in a pod. He is my opposite in sooo many ways. But oddly enough exactly like me in quite a few ways. Together we make one complete union and I never quite understood the possibility of that. I'm so thankful that we are together, and today I celebrate him.

A couple month's ago Hillary posted this cake that she made. A Key Lime cake. I immediately thought ewww gross...but my immediate next thought was CORY WOULD LOVE THAT CAKE! (I told you we are opposites in many ways)
So I emailed her for the recipe and saved it to make it until today. And of course he LOVED it :)


It was our anniversary (11 yr Yahoo!) on May 14th. That weekend Cory whisked me away to the Grand America downtown SLC. We started the evening off, eating at the Roof which over looks the Salt Lake Temple. We then went to the Grand America, and had a couples massage. The rooms were beautiful with marble everywhere. I felt quite spoiled. This was outside our room on the balcony.



This was last weekend. We went up to Wyoming to run in the Keith Young 5k. (Keith Young is my uncle who passed away of SADS (www.sads.org) There were close to 550 people who competed and Cory got 3rd place out of his age division, and I got 1st place out of my age division and finished the 2nd girl. We love to compete! (We are the same in this area haha)


Cory LOVES the sand dunes. He loves to ride, and is good at it. He is a thrill seeker, and is working on catching air on this thing. Yikes. I like riding 4-wheelers, but I am a water-lover. And I'm still looking forward to family vacations at Powell :)


He is a handyman/painter/finisher/repairer of anything/fixer/etc. Our past 2 homes were fixer uppers and together we have knocked down walls, installed flooring, tile, crown molding, chair railing, built bookshelves, re-sanded hardwood floors, landscaping, cut down tree's (still gives me chills), painted a gagillion times and the list goes on. But we do it together and most of the projects go quite smoothly.


He is a family man. He cares about his kids and would do anything for them. He loves them so much and it showes everytime he walks into the room and the kids scream DADDY! He works from home earning less then he probably would in the "real" world so that he can be home and eat lunch with us, and be with us afterschool. He understands and was taught well about what having a "family" means. I am so grateful for that, and I love his mom and dad so much for being amazing examples to him. They came over to have cake with us. Love you guys!



Happy Birthday to the one I love :)
Loves,
Jill

Bike refurbishing...

Bensen is not very interested in riding a bike. He has a different 4-wheel bike that he is 100% happy riding and has no interest in switching. So naturally I had to get creative and figure out a way to get him on a 2-wheel bike. So I came up with a great idea! I told him we would paint it GREEN! Green is his absolute favorite color. Anything that is green he will eat, or play with it, or wear it etc. So I presented the idea to him, and he LOVED it! So here is the before picture of the bike...

Taking apart the bike was not so easy, but once that finally happened it was on to priming...

Then painting...

I thought taking the bike apart was hard, well getting the new handle bar grip things on there was no easy task either. Thank goodness I had Cory around.

Ta Da!! He loved it! It was great to see him hop right on the bike and want to ride it. He had a big smile and was way excited!

He immediately set a goal to ride to the mailbox and back...

This project took me about a month with the weather being so crazy lately. But its all done now and Bensen is ready to transition to the 2-wheeler!! Just in time for warm-weather :) Loves, Jill