Santa Cruz Half Marathon, April 11, 2010

Sugar Daddy's were one of my dad's favorite candies so when we found this we had to get a pic of mom with it!

Tiff puking her guts out just 10 min before our race!!

The Start line

The Finish Line!

Mom is so cute, she waited in the wind and rain just to get a pic of us as we were finishing the race! She was so wet and frozen....Thanks Mom!!

She had so much sand on her little feet she had to just go bare foot cause they were getting rubbed raw!

Part of the coast we ran along.

According to mom this is all I did the entire trip! ha ha

All along the highway was just beautiful rolling green hills and fields of strawberries.

Mom was the lucky one to get searched!

Tiff had this idea about three months ago to run a half marathon in Santa Cruz, CA. So we invited Mom to go with us ( Amber couldn't go because of little Nixon, and we missed her tons, it wasn't the same without the full ring of fire!) and we had so much fun there. It rained the entire time, and was colder than Utah, but we made the most of it! We loved the farmers markets, the strawberries and tangerines were so yummy, we ate an entire crate of them while we were there! We stayed at the Intercontinental on Cannery Row. We had fun shopping at all of the little shops around there and ate at a restaurant called the Fish Hopper that had the best clam chowder ever! We went to the Aquarium which made us miss the kids, they would have loved it so much! Tiff ended up in the Er until 1:30 in the morning the night before the race, and then she threw up the entire way to the race...I felt so bad for her. Don't ask me how she did it but she went out there and busted out 13.1 miles like it was nothing!! The race was so amazing....the route we ran was beautiful, I wish I could have ran with a camera to take pics of all of it! I am so glad that Tiff motivated me to do this, I had so much fun and got to go somewhere that I probably would never have went if we hadn't signed up! I am addicted now and can't wait to run another one.... Thanks for going with us Mom and being our little support team!

First Family trip to Kona

This year is Morgan and I's 10 year anniversary so we had planned to go to Kona just the two of us. We were just getting ready to pay for the trip when we started talking and decided that we really wanted to take the kids with us. They love Hawaii so much and we didn't feel like we could leave them home! Morgan is so cute he said that he wanted to take mom with us, so we called her up and he invited her to go with us! We had so much fun, we played at the beach, and the pool, everyday except for two, and on those days we drove around the island and just had fun seeing the island. My favorite part of the island was Hilo. The drive was beautiful and the farmers market in Wiamea was so neat. I love all of the fresh fruit, veggies, and baked breads. We also went to the Painted Church, It is a tiny catholic church that was saved from the tsunami. They still hold their services there, it is so neat. Even though we changed our original plans completely, we had so much fun that we want to make it a yearly thing, just our little family (and mom) getting away somewhere together!

Ashton met this little girl by the pool, her name was Emily and they had so much fun playing together! After swimming for awhile Ashton brought her over to me and said " Mom I have someone new I want you to meet!" I just about died...he is such a little romeo!

Ashton getting his gear on to snorkel for the first time

Ashton and Ali rode the paddleboards while were there. They both did so well!

Grayson let Ashton and Daddy bury him! I think Ashton loved trapping his little brother in the sand!

Ashton was so obsessed with the banana trees so when we found this little one he had to have a picture with it!

We went to the botanical gardens, there were so manybeautiful flowers and a waterfall that the kids thought was so cool!

We ate our first real Thai food while we were in Hilo. The little restuarant was so run down looking we almost didn't go in, but it was so good!

Ali got a Hula outfit at the Farmers Market, the little old lady that helped her was so cute she had to make sure everything was perfect and she even showed Ali how to hula!

Remembering Dad

On March 15th we all got together to remember my dad. We went to JB's for hot fudge sundaes, One of Dad's favorite things, then we went to the cemetary. Everyone wrote a letter to him on a balloon and we let them all go to "heaven!" I can't believe that two years ago we told him we loved him for the last time. We miss him so much. I don't think it will ever not feel so raw when I think of him, little things, like how I loved the way he used to call me "cupcake" when he was frustrated with me, he would make his voice so soft and in control but I knew he just wanted to beat me ....I miss that! We always talk about Dad, we keep him a part of everything we do. Our family will always have a huge hole in it without him, and I can't wait until the day that we will all be together again. My Dad is truly my Hero and I know he is with us always. I miss you so much dad, and I love you.