One Happy Turtle !!!!

This past Saturday I ran in my first 5K. This has been a goal of mine that I started back in Puerto Rico over a year ago. My sister Renee has been diagnosed with MS and this was the 20th annual 5K for MS in Salt Lake City. My whole family participated and even my best friend Collette and her husband Jared.
There were over 3500 participants. At the start there was such a mob of people that we were kinda forced into walking until we could break out. All of a sudden I see my brother in law Ryan just take off (he later ended up finishing 4th place!) Then it was evident that all runners were passing me up. I run VERY SLOW but my goal was just to keep running the whole time. I kept my turtle pace and was cruising along even with some unexpected hills. When I reached the top of one hill I saw volunteers with waters and snacks and I thought to myself "I made it and it wasnt too bad!"
Well it wasn't too bad because it was only the freaking halfway point!!!!
After I got over the initial shock and kept going only to see more hills. I was determined and kept going. Finally I was on the last downhill to the gateway center and I was looking around and I was all by myself. I thought that I had taken a wrong turn but figured out that the runners were way ahead of me and most walkers were still behind me. Anyways I turned the corner and there were volunteers lined up on either side of the finish line cheering and applauding and I just burst into tears. It was nice and embarrassing and I am sure everyone wondered what was going on. I was just really overwhelmed with emotion. #1 It really hit home the whole reason that we were there and that my sister and best friend Renee really has MS. Then #2 I had finally finished my goal to run in a 5K! It was an awesome feeling that even though I was super slow, that I hadn't stopped running (never been able to do that before!). Incredible feeling!
So next year I invite everyone to participate- it is a great cause. Now I think I've caught the fever and I am looking forward to my next 5K here in Fruita next month.

Red sand everywhere!

This last Saturday we went to Moab for the day. Jake used to love going there mountain biking and now we are only 1 1/2 hrs away. The weather was beautiful and sunny. We went on a fun hike at slick rock and had a picnic.
We also climbed up a giant red sand/ dirt hill. Well I shouldn't say "we" as only Jett and Luke made it to the top! It felt like it was straight up and you just sunk down even though the climb was so vertical. The sand was so soft and cool that we finally just kicked off our shoes. Tons of people and their kids just pull over on the side of the road and watch people climb up and then run, roll or jump down. I think the boys made it all the way up 3 times, which was amazing. So fun.


When we got home that night and the boys got out of the car there was literally piles of sand in the car. In the bathtub there is still rings of red sand. On the bathroom floors I keep finding little mounds of the stuff! Our clothes, shoes and socks are still red dirt tinged. But the best is when I just took a load out from the dryer and I open up the door and tons of red dirt just comes pouring out. Can't get rid of the stuff but definitely worth the fun we had!

Funniest thing about Spring Break

It seems that Colorado has a pretty early Spring Break. Luckily it coincided with a business trip to the Big Dog cabin in Island Park, ID (right near Yellowstone). We dropped the boys off at my wonderful in-laws house and headed to the cabin with our best friends from Puerto Rico, Rafael and Osiris.

We had a good time snowmobiling (a 6 hour ride) to the top of the "Two-top Summit". It was pretty cool.
We stopped back to the in-laws to pick up the boys, who were happily running through the house with dirty faces and ice cream sandwiches in hand and they were NOT happy to see us. They have so much fun at Grandma's house and are spoiled rotten.

Picture included of boys hanging off the newest apparatus my father in law bought off an infomercial for my mother in law.
Anyways I took the boys over to the park real quick so they could run around for a few minutes before the long drive back. Jett, who makes friends everywhere he goes, was talking to a girl he met on the playground. She was pointing out some graffiti that was on the slide. Then I hear the following from Jett:
" MOTHER F***er.... I think that is the name of the ship that the Pilgrims sailed over on."

His shoe runneth over...

Yesterday I saw Tommy holding his tennis shoe up to his mouth. I thought he was trying to play like the dog again and biting the shoe. Then I saw him drink from the shoe. I went over and the shoe was dripping wet. Tommy had gone to the bathroom sink and decided to fill up his shoe with water and use it as a cup. Today I found his shoe again soaking wet. Maybe its time to put some cups out by the sink....

Time with Jett

This week I got to spend some fun time with Jett. I can't believe that I am old enough to have a kid in cub scouts but when he comes home telling me we have have to bake a cake for the blue and gold banquet cake auction then I guess I am officially a cub scout mom. He decided on a cake with a sports theme. I have never decorated a cake beyond using frosting amd m&m's so this was all new to me. I got some cake decorating tools and we made a basketball cake. I think it turned out pretty darn cool for my first time.
On Saturday Jett and I got up early to go hiking. There is a group that started going in our ward and I invited our neighbor and her son that is Jett's friend to come along. It was hard to get out of bed and pretty chilly but it was such a great way to start the morning.

The red rock are beautiful and less than a 10 minute drive from our house. I never have been a hiker or much of an outdoors girl but I think I could get used to this!

Vail...15 years later

When I was a a Senior in high school my best Eleanor and I decided that we were too cool to stay in high school a single minute longer and we moved to Vail, Colorado. We left just after Christmas for our senior venture. The idea was that we were sick of high school and really didn't need any more credits to graduate from high school so why stick around? Anyways my friend Eleanor's family had a condo there so we thought it would be the perfect place to go work and save money for college the following Fall.
For a Texas girl moving to a Colorado ritzy ski resort town (the biggest ski resort in the U.S.) was a big adjustment. I think I spent the first week just playing in the snow. Right away we started working bagging groceries at Safeway. (Hey it was $8 an hour which was good money in 1992!) After pushing the mop and gathering too many grocery carts out in the freezing snow, we quickly found jobs working in the Vail Village gift shops. Those were the days of selling ski clothing and souvenirs to rich snobby people, coming home and soaking in the hot tub, and surviving on diet coke and pretzels. We lived there from Jan- April and had so many incredible adventures, which one day I will have to write down. Two of the most memorable involved me pleading guilty to using a fake ID (to get into a night club) and the other involved me and Eleanor going to Kansas city with several bands that we had met when we were at their concerts. After a semester of fun, and before we got into too much more trouble we returned home to graduate with the rest of our Senior class.
It's been 15 years since I have returned to this venue of my wild and reckless days. Yesterday I took Jake and the boys up to Vail, a 2 hour drive, to show them where I used to live and work. The town was incredibly busy with tons of skiers and snowboarders. We found where I used to live and then parked our car and took the bus down to the village. (The whole town caters to the skiers so the bus is free and goes all around town).
The memories came flooding back and it was great to reminisce. We walked into Vail village, and of course all of the shops have changed and it has all been remodeled. The place I worked isn't even there anymore. We grabbed a great little lunch at a Mexican restaurant as we watched all the skiers and snowboarders racing down the hill. I swear we were the only ones not in ski boots.
Of course my boys have never even seen skiers so they were all fascinated. After Vails Village we caught the bus down to Lionshead where we caught the Gondola ride up to the top of the mountain.
The views were amazing and the ride was so much fun! Then we headed back down the mountain for an icecream cone at Haggan Daz. We caught the bus ride back to the condo and took a quick dip in the hot tub before heading home.
It was a great day trip, and it made me of course think of how much my life has changed in 18 years. I don't think I would but oh to go back to the days when all you really worried about was whether or not your hair looked good and whether or not I had enough diet coke in the fridge to last me through the week...

Where's my cabana boy?

I think that my favorite place to be is Culebras. Culebras is a little island off of the East side of Puerto Rico. My first trip to Culebras was as a single gal with my friends about 12 years ago. When we moved to Puerto Rico I insisted on taking my husband and boys and sister in law and we had a fabulous time. Then a few months ago when we decided to move we knew the one thing we HAD to do before we left was head to Culebras. You drive to the east side of Puerto Rico to Fajardo and pay about $3 to jump on the government owned ferry. It is about a 90 minute ride on the ferry. This last time we went some of our best friends on the island, Rafael and Osiris. Born and raised in Puerto Rico and they had never been to Culebras. Most Puerto Ricans dont even know their own island and haven't even been all the way around it. (The whole island of Puerto Rico is only 115 miles by 35 miles!!!!)
Once you arrive on the dock of Culebras island there are several buses waiting to take you wherever you want to go. My favorite place is Flamenco beach. It is the type of beach that you see on post cards. It is the type of beach that you dream about in the Dasani water commercials with the hot cabana boy bringing the lady on the beach her water. The sand is so white and fine and soft. The water is the most amazing color of turquoise and green that you have ever seen. The waves are great to play in but not so rough that they send you doing nose dives to the bottom or knocking your swim suit bottom off. The water is the perfect temperature. You can swim out as deep as you want and you can still look down and see the color of your toe nail polish. There are picnic tables set up under the palm trees or you can rent giant umbrellas and lounge chairs to sit right out under the sand. You are welcome to pack a picnic and cooler for the days adventure but if you're not up to it you can eat the wonderful authentic carribean foods from the vendors and stands under the trees.
So right now as I shiver in my flannel pjs in Colorado knowing that I should be at Culebras right now sitting under the umbrella on the sand listening to the waves roll in and wondering where the heck my hot cabana boy is with my bottled water....