Can't wait to see our family pictures!!

My cousin Jamie is awesome! She recently took family pictures at my brother's homecoming. She sent me this picture as a preview.....makes me anxious for our family ones. They will be coming soon. Check out her photograhpy at www.jamiepoort.com Thanks Jamie and we can't wait to see the rest of the pictures.

Ole "Crusher" at the rodeo

So, we decided to take the kids to see "Ole Crusher" in action at the rodeo. Good thing we went, because he gave us a behind the scene personal tour.....

Garry and Cindy (she and her husband are the main ones in charge of the rodeo and provide a lot of their own stock for the rodeo) talking and working at the chutes.

When I snuck up to the chutes to take Garry's picture, I saw long curly blonde hair from the back. I was wondering to myself, who this young thing was and why Garry was engaged in such deep conversation...then she turned around and I saw that it was Cindy. Wow she looks great from behind...not many people do. :) Glad to know it was Cindy and not some young thing!! Kylie was unsure if she really wanted a picture of this "rodeo clown".

This was taken right after he gave us a tour of the stock, the cowboy trailer (where they go to grab their gear), and luckily only Nate saw the half naked cowboy changing off to the side of us. I guess he didn't expect a family with kids to go walking by. Come to think of it...wasn't it a Thursday...dang it! We should have joined in too! :)

Fishing at Kids Pond

We went fishing at Kids Pond last Saturday because our family reunion was cancelled. The kids just had to go fishing, so off we went. Jacey took off to find her favorite fishing spot. The girls really liked having their Dad take the time to help them learn how to fish.

Alexa was very proud to say she fished by herself.
This is an action shot of Tyler casting out....He said he wants to be as good as Kyle. Kyle has an apprentice in the making.

Tyler caught two of the three fish.

Kylie and Jacey just kept going over to the cooler to stare at the fish.

Jacey wasn't sure what to make of the fish.

Kylie caught a fish too! I just LOVED this picture and had to include it. Too Sweet!

As you can see we had a fun time fishing. Alexa tried and tried and got a lot of close calls and bites on her line, but just couldn't land the fish. Next time for sure!

Nate was accepted in the radiology program!!!!

I wanted to let everyone know that Nate was accepted as one of three students to attend the Weber State University radiology out-reach program. He was one of 70 that applied and one of 21 they interviewed. I am so proud of him. The odds were stacked against him, but thankfully Heavenly Father's hand was in it. He starts in August. We are so excited. Go Nate!!!

And it Snows, Snows, and is still Snowing!

Many people rather enjoy the snow, I don't. Tyler, Nate, and Kylie really enjoy the snow. They decided to be creative and have fun together. This is what they made... An Igloo!! Tyler can fit scrunched up inside, Alexa fits, and Jacey has plenty of room...

Although she didn't like actually being inside it.

Kylie who helped build it, was too cold and wanted to stay inside. She was nice and warm, so she wouldn't come out to get a picture taken in it.

I did It! I can't believe I survived.

Okay, about 6 six weeks ago, my friend Kristen mentioned to me there was going to be a 1oK run in Zion National Park on November 7th and asked if I wanted to run it with her. I was open to the idea. I had six weeks to train for this. I can do it. Right? I sign up. I start training. I am doing okay. I think this is a possibility. I might not be the last person. Then life catches up with me. Midterms...kids...house....life! I don't train for the race for about the last 2 to 2 1/2 weeks before the race. I give up. It was only $20. Oh well. Kristen calls a couple days before the race. Yep, I commit to still do it. I know, it sounds crazy. What the heck....I am going to die in the middle of the race course. My biggest fear is that the police car or shuttle will be following behind me because I am the last runner. So....

Here is Kristen and myself before the race starts. We start running in Sprindale and run to Grafton. Can you see the fear in my face? I know I am going to pass out on the run...or should I just walk? We line up when the announcer says, "2 minutes to start". Oh no, don't I have another 5 weeks to train. What in the world am I doing here! Everywhere I look there are a bunch of totally fit people that look just at ease. This is their element and I am out of mine. Then the gun goes off. That was surreal. I start running. I have no idea what I am doing. I just keep following the crowd of people that keeps passing me. I lose Kristen in the first 5 mintues of the race. I have no idea where she is. Great, I am all by myself...... Luckily, the scenery was beautiful. As you can see from the pictures...that Nate took while I was trying to run.... and run....and walk....and walk....and then try to run some more..

After what seems like an eternity..well not quite..I finally see a mile marker sign. My hopes are dashed...can it really be only mile marker 1...NOOOOO! Wha Who!!! It was mile marker 3!! I am half done. I can't believe it. I go from utter despair to actually believing I might actually accomplish this. I now think I can do this. The first water station will be in .1 miles. There it is, I can see it. Yes, the next water station is only 1.5 miles down the road. I can do this. I keep going. I make it to the water station. Only a little farther to the finish line. Then mile 5 came. I pass the sign and my lack of training began to catch up with me. My muscles start to cramp a little. I start to slow down a little. Then, out of no where, Kristen slapped me on the butt and said "come on"! It's just what I needed. We ended up finishing together. I sprinted the last few yards to the finish line, as you can see from the next picture. My crazy hair tells it all.

My eyes have to be deceiving me. The time on the clock cannot be right. I actually made it accross the finish line!! I did it!

Tyler & Nate were there cheering me on. It was exillerating seeing and hearing them cheer me to the end of my first race.

Look at our red faces!! We actually did it. (Well, I knew she could do it. She was valiantly training). We are releived it is all over. YES!!

My official time was 1:08:02.1

I cannot believe I ran over 6 miles in a little over an hour. Wow. For me, this was a miracle. It made my whole day. I came in 95th place overall and 16th in my catorgory (25-29 years). I think I might just do this again...but with A LOT more training. :) My average min/mile was 10:56.

Thanks Nate, Tyler, & Kristen for the support and slap on the butt I needed to get me there.

(oh, yeah...there were around 400 people that were running it and I made it in the first 100!)

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch in Paragonah(can be misspelled because this is Alisha typing). We had a lot of fun,unfortunately we got there too late in the season. As you can see, there were quite a few pumpkins that were rotten. Note to self, go earlier next year! We even brought our new puppy with us. His name is Grizzly!
She liked to explore all by herself!

Grizzly trying to pick his pumpkin.