Attitude is Everything

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Cross Country 2012

This year Jailyn and Andi decided to join the Cross Country team at their elementary school.  In August they started practicing twice a week for 45 minutes at the school and running 2 miles a week with the whole family.  Rich and I would load up Braken and Lauren in the strollers and push them along while running the mile loop with Jai and Andi.  
They had two races, one on September 19th and another on September 26th.  They competed against kindergarten, first and second grader girls from 10 different schools in the county.  There was about 125 runners in their heat.  The first race they both did awesome and ran their little bodies out!  The second race they were  a little better prepared and knew what to expect.   They ran so hard and I could feel their pain as they ran past me telling me they couldn't run any farther, while I was cheering them on telling them they were almost done and that they could finish!  Here are some of the pics we got of their race!

Jailyn stretching and getting ready for the race
      

Andi stretching and getting ready for the race.  I think my two girls might have came from two different planets! haha.

Huggin it out before the race.

Lined up for the race... On your mark.
 Get Set!...
 GO!!!!!!



 The finish line!!!!
 Andi cooling off!
Jailyn cooling off!
 
The Final Stats: Race 1
Jailyn: 7:33 - 4th place
Andi: 9:26 - 80th place

Race 2
Jailyn: 7:32 - 5th place
Andi: 8:41 - 61st place

I couldn't be more proud of these two girls.  They are awesome runners and kicked both their parents booty's every time we practiced with them.  They always try their best and succeed at anything that they try! I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to be a parent (among so many other blessings I have) so that I can be taught by them everyday.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Talon and Mom's Visit

My mom and Talon came to visit us in August for a week.  It was so much fun to have them here and terrible to have to say goodbye again until Christmas.  While they were here we did a lot of fun stuff and did our best to show them a little of Tennessee.  My favorite thing to do here is to drive around and look and all the of estates.  Where we live reminds me of the movie "The Patriot".  Lots of green trees, huge plantations, rural land there are even canons placed in the fields all over the place.  

When they first got here we waited and waited for one of their bags to come, but alas it never did and alas again it was the bag that had all of the "need" items for their stay i.e. makeup, clothes, swimsuits, etc.  We went to talk with the Southwest people and the man there was so kind and decided to have Jailyn do all of the typing and checking to find Grandma's bag.  She loved it!  We made a shocking discovery that my moms bag had been held up by the TSA because of the "questionable" contents.  hmm...what would a grandma be transporting to Tennessee you ask?  Well she had bought bulk spices and decided to bring some to share with me, thyme, rosemary, poppy seeds, cream of tartar...all fairly harmless items.  The way my mom packaged them was a little, lets say, drug-dealer-ish.  She put them all in plastic baggy's and secured them completely and tightly with tape.  So now instead of harmless spices we have a couple green leafy bags a jar of poppyseeds and a white powder substance.  O and I forgot she also had a toy gun for Braken in that bag.  After the TSA checked out the contents and found out it was harmless they were really nice and had my moms stuff delivered to her the next morning to our house.   

Day 1: On the way to our house my mom  saw all the beautiful land and estates (not houses) and saying, I could live there, I could live there, I should take a picture.  That is exactly what I do!  We just went home and chilled for the night

Day 2: We drove around to some of the civil war trails and checked out some of the civil war estates

Day 3: We went to the river walk that I run at.  There is a little stream on the side of it that the kids loved to catch crawfish and minnows. There was also a yellow butterfly that loved Braken.  Braken didn't like the butterfly and was actually terrified of it.  We also went to the zoo that night.  We have an awesome zoo and we have a membership so we didn't have to pay anything for entrance this time!

Day 4: We drove the Natchez trace from Nashville to Columbia and stopped at all the historical stops, and had a blast sliding down the Jackson Falls.  

Day 5:  We went to the Chattanooga Aquarium.  It is huge and has more fish that I would ever want to see in any of the water I swim in.  My brother was in heaven with all of the river monsters and dreamed of the day he will be on the list of world records!  He is definitely on his way because he just won his first bass fishing tournament!

Day 6: We went to church in the morning.  My mom loved listening to all the people talk because of their awesome accents and use of words! We went to Fairview that afternoon and hung out at the park and the lake.

Day 7: This was our last day and Grandma went shopping for a present for Andi's birthday and while we were at the store.  Andi was cruisin' around the corner and stopped in front of an elderly lady and said "move it old lady!"  I did my best to apologize for her and wished I would have just walked away pretending she was someone else's child.  We also went to the temple and then the worst part of the entire vacation came...we dropped Talon and mom off at the airport and sent them home.

We did so much fun stuff while they were here so instead of posting all of the pictures I did a picture Video instead.  Enjoy! (click on the video link) I can't get it to post on here for some reason?

P.S. Mom and Talon we miss you guys so much and can't wait to see you again soon.  We miss everyone back in Utah!


Jailyn

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Andi

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Lauren

Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Braken

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers