Christmas trip 2009

We had a great Christmas this year, we spent it in California with John's family and had a mini family reunion doing all sorts of fun things in LA and San Diego areas. We started it off by going to a Laker game and then we headed to Disneyland for a day. Next we were off to Legoland and that was Christmas Eve. We ate at Benihana Christmas Eve which was VERY untraditional but there were LOTS of people there (lots of happy birthdays being sung-kinda funny). On Christmas day we just kinda hung out at the hotel and swam and then ate our Christmas lunch at Schlotzky's deli and dinner at TGI Fridays. Once again, very untraditional! We went back to Legoland the day after Christmas and then did some shopping that night. The next day was Sunday and we got to go to our old ward in South Pasadena for church, saw a missionary farewell and got to see lots of old friends! We caught up with my friend Stephanie (from nursing school) for lunch and then headed to our hotel near LAX. We left the next day to come back to Idaho. We had a TON of fun and of course made sure we stopped at In-n-Out, and El Pollo Loco. :) More posts to come but don't expect them all in one day!

Playing in the snow

Nathan LOVES the snow this year...too bad it came and only stayed for 2 days. John is so glad but it makes me sad :( Nathan wants some more snow too so hopefully we get some more before the season is over (I'm sure we will in North Idaho).

Santa!

At our ward Christmas party, Santa came! Nathan was very excited to see him. He waited so patiently and sat quietly while the other kids around him were going crazy with yelling and jumping up and down. As soon as it was his turn he quickly told him that he wanted race cars for Christmas. What a true boy! :)

Nathan is 3!

John had to work around 8 on Nathan's birthday so we got up about 7 to eat breakfast and open gifts before John had to leave. Pretty good haul for a 3 year old! And that's not all...that night G-ma Sally and G-pa Doug brought over a couple of other presents. He had a blast opening presents. At first he had to open the cards, and then he started to carefully open the other gifts and I told him to just rip the paper! So, after that he started getting a little more rough with the paper.


He requested a train cake again this year, so that was nice since I did it last year! You can see he actually got a train this year to accompany the cake.

Nathan is so fun to have around. He is such a loving big brother to Alex and has been telling him lately that he is his best buddy. He loves playing with cars and trains and we're always playing "get the bad guys." He can make a gun out of anything. It blows my mind the way his imagination works. Sometimes I wonder if I had an imagination at all as a kid! Luckily John is around to help with the imagination part. :)

Halloween

We spent Halloween in South Carolina with Tim and Laisa. Here is John with Alex and Tim with Bree. Alex is a hotdog...and Bree made such a cute little monster!

Nathan had to join the picture. He's a monkey! He did so good trick or treating-he actually said it this year instead of just holding out the bag for candy. He was ringing the doorbell/knocking until he got majorly scared at one house--this kid dressed up as "the reaper" with the mask on came out from behind some bushes looking pretty scary with a bowl of candy. Nathan freaked out and ran away to hide behind Tim. The scary kid startled us all but it was pretty funny to see Nathan freak out. He wouldn't go up to any doors by himself after that!

Alex did not like the hot dog costume. It was probably a little warm for SC.

Nathan fell asleep on our way back to the hotel after trick or treating. He has his bag of candy in his lap.

Just a few more pictures of my cute monkey when we got home! I didn't really get a good one on Halloween cause I was a little brain dead and tired after all that running...

Greenville, SC

We went out to an Apple Orchard (in North Carolina) with Laisa the day before the race.


The goats did lick Nathan's hand when he fed them, he thought it was pretty gross!



In Nathan's words, "Alex not happy..."

We ate at Sticky Fingers in downtown Greenville, YUMMY! This was my yummy meal after the race and a couple hours of rest.

Checking one another out, so cute!

We got to roast some marshmallows and make s'mores the night before we left, brought back some good memories of South Pas. We had great time on our little vacation! Thanks Tim and Laisa!

Half Marathon :)

Just minutes before the race started with Laisa and her brother Andy. I only ran with them for the first 10 minutes or so and then I took my slower pace. :) I ran it in about 2 hours and 38 minutes. I would have liked to have run the entire way, but I started walking the uphills since there were so MANY! I finished it though and I wasn't last...that was my main goal.


Me and Laisa after the race. I was so hungry I grabbed food and water before I even met up with anyone...I think I might have even had food in my mouth when this picture was taken :) At this point, it felt better to jog or sit than to just walk or stand. WEIRD. I'm not really sure how people run Marathons or complete the Ironman competitions. It's crazy!

John got this picture of me just as I'm getting near the finish line. YAY! Overall it was a good experience, though I'm not sure I'll do it again yet...