Family reunion

Every year, my dad's family puts on a family reunion over father's day weekend. This year, a lot of my sister's weren't able to attend and Scott had to attend a priesthood leadership meeting later that day. Needless to say it was a quick trip up to Pocatello and back. I love being able to see my dad's family. It's a little hard attending when my dad isn't there. We sure miss him joking with his siblings and telling stories. It's funny because one of his brother's looks just like him. When I see him out of the corner of my eye, I think my dad is with us. We had a great time and hope to see a better turnout next year.

Young Women's

I've been told it's been too long since I've last posted. So when I see when my last post was, I'd have to agree. So let me fill you in on a little of what we've been doing. After the marathon, I became engrossed in young womens. We went to girls camp at Heber Valley Camp and stayed from monday to friday. What a great time. The best part of the whole week was watching how amazing the girls were at befriending and getting along. It made my heart sore. We hiked, did a challenge course that involved a rope course 30 feet in the air with a zip line at the end, and we were able to have some great food and spiritual experiences. I had a great time and loved it. I was ready to come home, though. I missed my girls and Scott. While I was there, Scott took his boards and passed them. We couldn't have made it through the week without some good friends and his mom helping watch the girls.

Starting out the week in our luxirious cabin

Jacque and I paddleboating

Tired after hauling two canoes into shore with my paddleboat

Getting harnassed

Climbing the pole


On the ropes course

Going down the zipline

Another thing that consumed my time was something called the Youth Spectacular which the church put on. It is a 30 stake production involving 3400 kids from all over the valley. It required lots of practices to learn dances and songs. Our stake learned a country dance to the hoedown. On July 16th and 17th it was presented to all of Ogden and how amazing it was. It was full of energy and helped everyone attending feel the spirit. The young women's president, Shannon, and I were able to be down on the field and participating with the girls which was a lot of fun. I was even able to dance (the boys part) the hoedown when some kids dropped out. It was completely amazing the time and talent that the leaders of the church put into this production as well as the inspiration for doing it. The kids (and I) will remember it for forever. It was somewhat of a challenge to have the support of the young men's leaders so I grumbled and complained. After a shove from the right direction, we were able to have a little support from them. I think it will be huge for those young men's testimonies and hopefully stregnthen them for the better. I absolutely love my calling and the young women I get to associate with all the time.

The North American group performing

Me in the background carrying a bag of water bottles (it was hot!!!!)

Shannon and Cierra in the background with our North American group

Ogden Half Marathon

My biggest fan

Wow- you're probably wondering how I could have accomplished this task. I've been thinking the same thing. Let me give you a little background information. I ran 3 marathons after I graduated from high school. My last one was in 2000 (10 years ago). I had actually signed up to run one more with Scott our first year of marraige. I was injured and he went on to run it with my sister. After that, I never really ran again which is odd considering I used to go out for a 6 mile run for the fun of it.
Here I am ten years later with 50 more pounds on my body, birthed 3 children, and become incredibly lazy. I've been watching the biggest loser and was inspired to run a half marathon to help me lose weight. So I started out on our treadmill walking for 15-20 min. Then I'd run for the last 5 minutes then 10 minutes when pretty soon I was walking a 5-10 minute warmup and running 20 minutes. I would continue this until I was ready to increase my time. Scott was my task master which was good and bad. He would make me run even when I didn't want to so either he'd be in trouble for making me run or in trouble for letting me off the hook. Poor guy. I finally got to the point where I could run 3 miles on the treadmill and a 13:30 pace. Not too shabby. Then it was time for the real road. That was very hard at first because it's not like the treadmill that will give you a little push off springy step. Finally I was able to run about 4 miles outdoors at the cemetary across the street. That was nice because no one could see me and it was 2 times around the outer perimeter to equal 4 miles. My neighbor, Becca, or Scott would sometimes run with me which I enjoyed but I realized that I was pretty good and keeping myself steady even when I was by myself. Unfortunately I'm still lazy and only got up to just under 8 miles which lead to some shin splints and knee pain. Not good when training for a half marathon but I would really feel good about my runs and felt that I could pull it off.
The day before the marathon, my sister, Angela (27 marathons under her belt), came to stay with us. I had been down to the expo to pick up my clothes. Can I tell you how much I didn't feel like a runner that day. Here I am short, overweight and thinking I could run a half marathon. I was feeling pretty discouraged. I didn't think my heart was in it much and I didn't have a lot of enthusiasm. I knew I should have done better training and felt that I wasn't quite ready to run (neither did Scott!). With those heavy feelings we picked up some Olive Garden for some carbo loading then off to bed.
Early (4:20) the next morning, we were up and dressing. I was shoving a little bit of food down my throat and then out the door to catch the bus. I just kept telling myself that I was just going out for any other run. Angela headed to her marathon bus while I climbed onto the half marathon bus. I chatted a bit with the girl next to me then we were dropped off at the start. I hit the porta potties then off to find my work friends in the hoards of people. I finally found them all after texting them. Fun to have someone you know at the start. Otherwise, it's quite lonely. Finally it was time to start. We were quite a ways back from the start because of our pace time. I have to tell you that I felt pretty good through the whole race. I was warm around the dam and kept thinking that it was longer than I thought. My bladder was on overdrive and I had to visit quite a few porta potties along the way. I was a little bit chilled on my arms and hands through the canyon, and I had to walk a little bit between miles 8 and 9 to get rid of a side ache. But I was keeping a 12 min. pace which was a bit faster than I had trained. I was feeling good with only some minor aches and pains. The markers kept coming up faster than I was expecting and then suddenly you're at the parkway meaning only 3 miles left. Scott, his mom, and the girls were all there to cheer me on. Unfortunately our camera was left at home having been forgotten while Scott had to deal with a sick and fevery Ashley. Scott wanted to run with me but there was a sign earlier telling unauthorized runnners to stay off the course. The longest part of the half were those last 3 rolling miles of the parkway. The little hills felt like big hills and it kept on going. My speed dropped considerably here. Even as you got onto the last stretch, it was still 5 blocks away. I just kept counting, 20, 21, 22 ... 25 YEAH! I made it. After shoving nourishment into my mouth, I met up with my little family. Poor Ashley was still sick and laying on my shoulder (which is not like my non snuggly Ashley). My mother in law took the girls home while Scott and I waited around to see Angela cross. It was fun to see all the people I knew there and more than anything, I realized that I could do it. I had made it and done very well especially with poor training. The next couple of days were filled with stiff and sore muscles, achy knees, and slow walking movements.
There is now a slight desire to do another half marathon and hopefully get Scott to do it with me. Although I didn't lose much weight (darn my appetite), I realize that this is a very attainable goal for me. I think that I'm done with full marathons though. My fat old body doesn't desire that anymore!

Ashley is ONE

Ashley has turned one. Where has all the time gone??? At her apt. she was 17lbs 9oz. and 27 1/2 inches tall. We always thought she was a little chunk but apparently she is a very small chunk in the 5-10th percentile. I have loved every minute I've been able to spend with her. She is so different from Paige yet similar in so many ways. She loves to eat and will put anything and everything in her mouth including dirt! She sometime's can't get it in fast enough and will have multiple bites stowed away in her mouth. She is finally crawling and starts to stand up to furniture. She still doesn't do much cruising but is able to stand a bit on her own, which makes her so excited and tries to do it over and over. She loves animals and has no fear for them. She will crawl all over our neighbors big lab and let's another dog, lick her all over the face. She plays the drop game over and over then she'll lean over and say uh oh! Sometimes it is really cute but frustrates me when it's food she's dropping on the newly washed floor. Funny girl. She loves the tub and loves drinking the tub water like a puppy dog. She thinks it's funny when we tell her no. she definitely has a teasing side. She loves to be chased by dad and will follow Paige all over the house. She loves being outside and will drop everything to crawl to the front door when it's opened up. She is such a joy to me and brings me smiles all the time. I wish she would snuggle a little bit with me, but I'll take what I can get.
For her birthday, we celebrated in conjunction with Scott's graduation party but that may have been a bad idea. No one was around when she started eating her cake (including dad) and she was so full from lunch, she wouldn't eat any of it. We gave her her presents on her actual birthday and I think Paige loved them more than she did. But she plays with them quite frequently now. She loves the farm set and she and Paige play with it quite well. Here are a few pics. Love you, Ashley!

Mother's Day

I have had a wonderful Mother's Day. When Paige woke up at 7am this morning Scott was up and taking care of her. He came into the bedroom after my alarm went off with my over easy eggs and bacon. Yummy. As we proceeded to get ready for church, he was a big help as always. He then took Ashley to priesthood to feed her so I could enjoy young women's. We were both in awe and I was in tears as Paige sang with the primary. She was so cute. She sang all the songs and even the boys part of Love is Spoken Here. She kept trying to come back down to sit with us after each song but the bishopric would stop her. Then we had a yummy treat after. It was naptime for me after church with Scott getting up and taking care of Paige "needing to go potty", and other interruptions. And even as we speak, he's helping take care of the kids so I can catch up on some blogging. It's funny because being a mother it doing all of the things Scott's been doing for me today but it's always nice to have a break! Mother's Day has been terrific and I am grateful everyday for the opportunity I have had to be a Mother to my beautiful girls. It is truly a gift that Heavenly father has trusted me with the challenge of raising my girls in this day and age. I love my girlies and my sweet husband!

DR. SCOTT ROBERTS!!!!

We made it. Scott graduated with his Doctorate of Physical Therapy on Friday. After 6 years of undergraduate school and 3 years in graduate school, we had arrived. I am so proud of him. He was able to be an amazing father, husband, student and he fulfilled his church calling to the fullest throughout this whole process. When I met Scott, I didn't think he had much ambition in pursuing his education. I look back and realize how hard he worked to accomplish this and the hooding ceremony encompassed all my emotions regarding my pride in Scott. For the ceremony, I had Scott's old mission companion make him some leis. He made a red and black ribbon one from the girls and an orchid one from me. Since Scott is practically Hawaiian, leis were a must. It was really exciting to see Scott's face when Josh College made a surprise delivery to our door step friday morning. This was just after Scott had received a call from a job he's been wanting all through school offering him the PT position. As you can imagine, he was on cloud nine all day. Following the ceremony, we all headed over to Red Robin for a yummy dinner. The next day was our party held at the park. We had the best smoked pork and beans along with all the yummy fixins. Lots of people came and we were so excited to spend this night among family and friends who were such a big support for us throughout these three years. Because I use this as a journal I want to remember all who came so I'm going to list everyone. To the hooding ceremony: Scott's mom Elayne, brother Dale and Cindy Roberts, sister Ginger Hales, mother-in-law Judy Armstrong, sister-in-law Megan Rowley, and sister-in-law Angela and Eric Justesen. To our party, The Galvez's, The Jackson's (Christian and Newall), The Arzac's, The Broadbents, The Roberts (Dale), The Stone's, The Colemans, The Rowley's, The Justesen's, The Joy's, The Roberts' (Mark), The Duncan's, The Roberts' (Sonja), The Roberts' (Elayne), The Armstrong's (Judy), and The Nielsen's. Thanks to all for the support. (In church today they announced in priesthood and over the pulpit that congratulations were in order for Scott in graduating from Massage Therapy School. It's kind of close I guess. :))

Heading to the processional

Scott after the entrance processional

Right before being hooded

Scott waiting to be hooded

Scott being hooded (a very prestigous honor)

Scott hugging Dr. Ward

Scott hugging Dr. Gapmeier

Scott listening to the ceremony after being hooding

Scott looking at us after thanking wives and families

The Gang

Scott leaving the ceremony in all his regalia

Dinner with the gang at Red Robin

Scott trying on his gown the next morning.

A spring wedding!

Scott's brother, Troy, was recently married to Sonja. The wedding was beautiful and Paige had the opportunity to be a flower girl. She told everyone she got to throw flowers on the ground. She was especially excited with the princess dress Sonja made. Scott and I were in charge of baking 125 potatoes for the potato bar. We developed a system of washing, stabbing, buttering, salt and peppering and wrapping. Thanks to our two ovens and our neighbors two ovens, we were able to cook them all. Here are a few pictures of the day.

Paige, the flower girl

The flower girls eating their flower coursages