Winter Fun

An evening iceskating at the Gallivan Center followed by Christmas lights has become one of our favorite holiday traditions. About a week ago, the temperature was still in the 50s - that's too warm for us so we waited until it dropped to the 20s before we ventured out.
Are kids just impervious to the cold? I don't know how Diggity could stand to sit right in the snow - even with snow pants on that had to get chilly...
Anushka may have not be the most coordinated child on the planet but "she's tougher than steel" according to Whitt. She probably fell on the ice 50 times while iceskating and never cried and never quit. By the end of the evening she could make it around the rink without holding on.
A couple weekends ago, LB went to Bryce Canyon with some good friends to help decorate The Stone Canyon Inn for Christmas. On our way home, we stopped in Escalante for lunch and to hike around some cool rock formations.
This is the view from the balcony of the inn at sunset.

Yesterday, Anushka got to be 'Santa Lucia' in her school class and we talked about Christmas in Sweden.
Diggity was her star boy and for once he behaved. I was worried he'd start hitting people with his star but he was great.
At the end, our litte Lucia served cookies to her class. It was a lot of fun.

48-24...We WON the Bet & the MWC!

WAY TO GO UTES!!!
After the blue decorations our friends put up last year, I have literally dreamed of this day for a year. I just never had any idea it would be quite this sweet - undefeated season, MWC champs, and BCS bound - again!
Tonight, we got together with some fellow Ute fan friends for the game. We felt some stress in the first half but the second half was all Utah. The moment it ended, we headed straight to our cougar-fan friend's house with the U Fight song blaring. Here are a few shots of the house after we were finished...

BB made that red U and it actually lights up - so cool! Our friends (sitting in the middle) were great sports about the whole thing. They came out while we were decorating and laughed along with us while we painted their house RED RED RED...

Funny Conversation

I was eavesdropping on Anushka and her friend today and here is a sampling:

Friend: I'm smarter than you because I'm older than you.
Anushka: Not all older people are smarter than younger people.
Friend: OK maybe we're the same smart. But what about your mom? My mom is always smarter than me.
Anushka: My mom is smart but sometimes she's not even as smart as me. Like I know the capital of Greenland and she doesn't even know that!

~sigh~

10 & 0 baby!

Jasmine and Buzz Lightyear

Happy Halloween Friends! We thoroughly enjoyed the evening with great friends and family. Here are some shots of the kidlets...

Ten-Thirteen

Happy Birthday Chris Carter!

In honor of the (evil?) genius mind that created one of the great series of all time - not to mention the host of fabulous characters he used to tell his sometimes twisted stories - Mulder, Scully, The Lone Gunmen, Krycek, Mr. X, and certainly the Cigarette Smoking Man a.k.a. Black Lunged Bastard (to name a few).

Thanks to Mr. Carter, my roommates and I spent many a creeped out evening together and had excuses to throw parties, tape 'X's in our windows, and shine lights on them in order to signify the beginning of another season. His only flaw with the series was probably dragging it out a season or two too long - but his efforts should be commended. Just a California surfer at heart, he has been quoted to say "The day I swan around in expensive suits is the day I hope someone puts a bullet in my head." My kinda guy...

Here's to ya Chris - Happy 1013!

We Love Fall!

Fall is definitely in the air. The nights are brisk and darkness falls earlier each day. Today we took a scenic drive along the course of one of BB's bike races - the Timp and Nebo loops. We saw beautiful fall colors and were surpised by the amount of snow that has already fallen.School is in and Halloween is around the corner.Anushka ran her first race - a 2 mile fundraiser fun run.

One perk about fall (sans writers/actors strikes) is the return of the fall tv season. Thanks to our creative buddy Whittney, we had a fabulous "Office" Party last week for the return of one of our favorite shows. The party included Schrute Bucks placemats, staplers in jello, a completely UN-P.C. and Michaelesque 'diversity day' game and shooting garbage into a trash can contest.


No one dressed up (but that also meant no disgusting t-shirts - Chris!) but it was a great night anyway.

Me In Pics

PSM had this on her blog and it was fun making so make one of yourself and let me know so I can check it out...

a.Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr.com Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
d. copy the mosaic image (right click, save image as) to your computer.

Here are the questions:
1. What is your first name? Elizabeth
2. What is your favorite food? Sushi (this week, anyway)
3. What high school did you go to? Highland High School
4. What is your favorite color? Purple
5. Who is your celebrity crush? James Marsden (my kids have been watching a lot of Enchanted and Hairspray lately. My favorite line, "I'm handsome even when I'm sleeping!" -in answer to a charade type game with the squirrel in Enchanted.
6. Favorite drink? Mountain Dew
7. Dream vacation? Sweden
8. Favorite dessert? Chocolate covered strawberries
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Young at heart
10. What do you love most in life? family vacations
11. One word to describe you? loyal
12. Where do you live? South Jordan

1. Elizabeth or Elisabeth, 2. great sushi lunch!, 3. H Rock, 4. Deep Purple, 5. James Marsden, 6. Vintage Mountain Dew, 7. Stockholm, Sweden 064 - Drottningholm palace, 8. Chocolate-Covered Strawberries, 9. Young At Heart, 10. Family Chicago Christmas Vacation 2002, 11. Hill of Loyal, Perth and Kinross, 12. South Jordan, Aug 2, 2008

My Fun Funny Five-Year-Old

Anushka is not what I was expecting. But she kind of is. I always thought that I hoped I'd have a daughter I could really relate with - which means one that would prefer a soccer ball to a doll and t-shirts and shorts to bows and dresses. But, I've always said that I'd probably end up with a girly girl - and Oh Brother Did I!! She loves princesses, Polly pockets, ribbons in her hair, and dress up games. She's owned about five soccer balls in her life and I'm not sure if she's ever kicked one of them (maybe the pink one). But I wouldn't have her any other way.

• 'Brrr-ing' is a word in our house. Most people say 'freezing' but Anushka is always 'brrrr-ing cold'.


• If a DVD skips or doesn't play anymore, it's 'crunchy,' according to her - and that's how we all describe it now.


• She's picked up some Brittish phrases from 'Charlie & Lola'. She told me that she would do her homework 'straight away' and that my friend Jen told her 'loads of times' that her favorite colors are green and red.


• We're trying to get Diggity to try using the potty. Anushka tried to help us convince him by telling him he could use his 'squirty thing.'


• She's really into geography and can find countries on the globe that I'm pretty sure most adults couldn't find.


• I think this comes from Kindergarten but she's really into saying 'raise your hand if...' (you've been to China, or you've been to Texas)

Murder Mystery Dinner

Have you ever wanted an excuse to be rude to everyone you encounter for an evening? Friday night I had one. I had the sincere fortune of being cast as 'Purple' - the angry rock star whose last song was titled, "I'll Kill You if You Speak Again." I spent the evening telling people I hoped pianos would fall on their heads and that they were stupid and made stupid career/life decisions until *shocker* I was suddenly killed with a butter knife.
Need a recipe for a great evening? Get someone with enough initiative to turn a "We should all get together sometime" idea into a murder mystery dinner at her house Add some truly hilarious women to the mix (btw, the woman in red is Tamara of the 'Trek port-a-potty' story for those of you who have been reading my blog since last summer)Include fabulous food and friendsKaraoke always helps
And Voila! a definite night to remember...

9/11

LOTOJA

= 'Logan to Jackson' = Longest single-day bike race in North America = 206 miles, 3 states, one day, 9000 feet of climbing and you must finish by dark.

Saturday was the big day - BB has been training for about the last six months to complete this crazy ride. I had a great time following him and meeting him at the 'feed zones' to give him *you guessed it* food, drink, a pat on the back and send him on his next leg of the race. It wasn't hard at all :)

I am really proud of him and this amazing accomplishment...

Random Thoughts While Running My First Half Marathon

It wasn't fast. It wasn't pretty. But last Saturday, I completed my first (and most likely LAST) half-marathon. The Top of Utah (TOU) half marathon was a good experience in that I set a goal and accomplished it. I was amused at the really odd thoughts that ran through my head while running:

• Mr. Brightside by The Killers was one of the songs on my iPod and the line that really rang true was "I just can't run, it's killing me"


• Another song on said iPod was Tubthumping by Chumba Wumba and I have to say that CPR always pops into my head when I hear that song - plus she just ran her first half last month and was an inspiration to me (btw CPR - if you read this will you send me an invite to your blog? Daph has my email...)


• You know the tv show Alias? Wasn't it convenient that almost without fail, every place Sydney had to infiltrate was either next to or attached to some ultra hip, sexy dance club so she could ALWAYS go dressed up and wear blue wigs? (I told you the thoughts were really random)


• Note to self: Next time you train for a long race, give yourself more than 6 weeks to train


• 2nd note to self: Next time you train for a long race, try to avoid stomach flu the week before the race


• There was a group running in front of me that I began to refer to in my mind as the 'Tanning Salon Trio' - talk about some leather skin - the cool thing was that they were all skinnier than me and somehow I ran past them (sadly, many MANY people passed me)

Whittney is still my hero and beat me by almost 20 minutes.

The reward for running was a night at Bear Lake in our friend's 'cabin' - it's really a house about twice the size of ours and right on the lake. It was a great way to end the day - the kids got to ride on the boat, wave runners and play on the beach. I personally enjoyed the sitting on the beach and eating famous Bear Lake shakes. Thanks Landon and Jen!

Mommy Tag

Lei-lei (in the pink chair) tagged Anushka so here we go:

1.What is something Mommy always says? "Besides I love you?" Don't be mean to your brother.
2. What makes Mommy happy? Being nice to your brother.
3. What makes Mommy sad? When I am mean to my brother. (hmmm - not much of a theme eh?)
4. How does your Mom make you laugh? Remember when you were dancing with daddy and I was doing music on the globe? That was funny.
5. What was your Mom like as a child? A sweet kid (nope I didn't coach her)
6. How old is your Mom? UUUM - 27? (I'll take it)
7. How tall is your Mom? 6 (???)
8. What is your Mom's favorite thing to do? Take care of me.
9. What does Mom do when you're not around? Miss me (no self esteem problems here)
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Soccer (yeah!)
11. What is your Mom really good at? Soccer
12. What is your Mom not good at? Rollerskating (how would she know that?)
13. What does Mom do for her job? Taking care of me and sometimes computer work
14. What is Mom's favorite food? pasta (not a bad guess)
15. What makes you proud of your Mom? When she's really really nice to me.
16. If your Mom were a carton character who would she be? Sleeping Beauty (I like the sleeping part)
17. What do you and your Mom do together? Go eat Jamba Juice when Diggity is at preschool.
18. How are you and your Mom the same? We look like each other (I'll take it)
19. How are you and your Mom different? I'm young and you're old.
20. How do you know your Mom loves you? I don't know how I know - cause you're always nice (that might be a little selective memory).

Tag: Ruby, Alexis/McKinley, Livi, a 'Spirited Sixer', Emma, Pickle

Of Summertime, Parades, Reunions, Camping and such...

I realize that it has been almost a solid month since I've posted but - like many of you - I've been a little busy. Here are some hi-lights of summer 2008 thus far...

We finally got to hang with the Paris crew and meet Gavin for the first time. We took no photos of the grown ups but the kids were the best looking anyway. Diggity and Ruby hit it off and Gavin was about as cute as he could be. This was July 24th - a day that lives in infamy in my memory as well as that of a certain friend's father ;) In addition to partying with the neighborhood fam, BB and I ran the Des News 10K and had a great time with that. He is just about ready to tangle LOTOJA and I was foolish enough to sign up for the Top of Utah HALF marathon. I guarantee it will be my ONLY 13.1 mile run - EVER. As much as I want to be as cool as Whittney, it's just not working.

My brother's little boy, Ian Kent, joined our family this summer and we all got together with cousins for a pre-24th of July barbecue and fireworks display - the kind where the kids get to pick the fireworks and then their choice of display is named after them (e.g. "presenting the Blakely Burner!")


The kids were a hit at the Swedish Midsummer festivities!

Have I mentioned that I love our back alley? Anushka's good buddy, Livi, is always up for a bike ride or kite flying while her mom gives the kids rides on the scooter (love ya Whitt)

We took off with some friends to camp in the mountains - it was fun but slightly stressful. There was a raging river directly behind our tent so we were always on the lookout for little ones who might get too curious. That little cutie in the pink chair is Leia - Anushka's buddy that will be in the same kindergarten class in a few short weeks (is that possible?)

Can you ever get dirty enough on a camping trip?

The river wild.


And speaking of camp, it was time again for LB to head out on a couple different trips with the young women - this year featured another gross lake (full to the brim with some sort of green sludge), zip lines, ropes courses, drama, and a group of absolutely hilarious women who were up there as leaders and definitely made all situations much more comical than they otherwise would have been...