40th Birthday, Reunion, and Such...

Happy Birthday BB!! The big 4-0 was last Thursday and was celebrated by many friends and family members. It was great to see some old friends as well as newer ones and, thankfully, the weather pretty much cooperated because 50 people in our house would have been a little scrunchy.



The piñatas were a big hit with the kids...

Proof that Whitt really loves Jason;)

From the birthday, we headed up to Cache Valley for BB's annual family reunion. The kids had a great time hanging out with their cousins - who treat them like gold. We always love this reunion and have a great time catching up with everyone.

Yo Yo Yiggity Yo

So, my new lingo is "for shiz" based on the movie 'Juno'. Haven't posted in about a month - simply becasue things have been hectic. I love having a job that I can do from home and only gives me work three or four times a year. However, when that happens, things get a little stressful. But - the project is finished...we all survived (lucky for my kids) and now we have a crazy summer to look forward to. Not as crazy as some though - some of you are moving back to the states from Europe and a couple of you are moving from the states to Europe (both of BB's brothers!) The kidlets have been happy and busy as ever - we went to Lagoon today (photos later - the batteries died in the camera) and Anushka has almost mastered the bike with no training wheels. She crashed spectacularly just a couple of days ago. Had she not been wearing a helmet she would have AT LEAST had stitches. Her head hurt anyway but no blood. I am proud of my kids banged up legs:


Actually, neither compare to what my ankle looks like at the moment as a result of a serious hack in a soccer game last week. No photos though. I'm also currently sporting a pretty sweet looking lump on the front of my neck. The doctor thinks it is an infected lymph node and my YW think it's a huge zit - now I bet you're really sorry not to see pictures of me :)

7 Years Ago

April 26, 2001 was about 30 degrees warmer in Salt Lake City than April 26, 2008 and...

• BB had more hair
• LB had less pounds and since then...
• Residences: 4
• Wards: 6 (thanks to 4 splits since we moved to suburbia)
• Cars: 5
• Children: 2
• Jobs: 3
• Advance degrees: 1 (way to go BB)
• States visited together: 38
• States visited with one or both of the children: 32
• Countries Visited Together: 2
• Gallons of Chocolate Milk drank by said children:
• 270
• Number of times a person has commented that BB is one of the nicest people they have ever met: 65
• Major home projects started: 3
• Completed: 1
• Stitches: 3 in Anushka's head, several in LB's stomach and knee, about 20 in BB's eye
• Hospital stays: 4 (2 children born, 1 knee surgery, 1 cornea transplant)
• MRIs: 1 (LB's knee)
• C-sections: 2 (one emergency, one planned)
• Trips to hospital for false labor: 1
• Computers: 3
• TVs: 4
• Fireplaces: 1
• Diapers Changed: WHY would we even try to estimate that?
• Bikes: 7
• Tattoos: 0
• Piercings: No new ones :) (4 in LB's ears but only 2 are active)
• Temples Visited: Salt Lake, Jordan River, Logan, St. George, San Diego, Oakland, Boston, Palmyra, Nauvoo, New York, D.C.

Don't Like the Weather in Utah...

Go to Vegas...
So we did
Last weekend, five of us headed down to Vegas for this triathlon (my 2 friends and I did a relay). If you ever want motivation to get in shape, drag your bootie to an event like this - I would guess that 80% of the women there were in amazing shape - the other 20 were like me - I could pull off the race but could DEFINITELY be in better shape. Nevertheless, it was a blast to be in the beautiful 80 degree weather with girls that made a long drive seem like a jaunt downtown. Our relay team did pretty well - we placed about 6 out of 14 - hey - it was our first. My friend Andrea placed 39th out of about 450 and Cobi JUST had a baby 8 weeks ago and completed the entire race - you go girl! I got this biking photo off of the race web-site. As soon as I get pics from my friend Whit, I'll get some better ones up...

The Trip I Was Slow in Posting (according to MB)

I'm so very biased toward Southern Cal and specifically San Diego - but this last week we took a trip to Northern Cal and I was really reminded of the beauty of the entire state. After driving across Nevada on I-80, I could really see who was in charge of drawing the state boundaries - it's like the scenery changes from "Please, I-swear-I'll-be-good-just-get-me-out-of-this-hell-hole" barren and dry and boring to breathtaking beauty in a matter of mere miles around the California border. BB was working for the week so my cute cousins, Ben, Terri, and Matt hung out with us for 3 days. We went to the Monterrey Aquarium:



the San Francisco Exploritorium:

and to the beach at Santa Cruz (twice):


Each morning, Diggity awoke with the words, "I wanna go the beach Mama." After BB finished up, we headed up to the Golden Gate Bridge and the John Muir Redwoods - I definitely recommend checking them out when you are in the neighborhood...

Happy Birthday Anushka...5 Days Ago

So, yes I'm a total slacker as far as getting a birthday celebration posted. But, in my defense, Anushka's birthday was Saturday and we were leaving Sunday morning for Northern Cal - so it was a BUSY weekend. We were lucky for a couple reasons. Anushka's birthday is the day before her friend Olivia's. Olivia lives right behind us so her mom and I decided to combine their parties. Second, we were lucky because our mutual neighbor and friend just opened a business called 'Young Chefs Academy' and she is in the business of doing parties. So the birthday girls got to invite lots of friends and make their own pizzas and party party party. AND if that wasn't enough, Anushka's family came over that night for more treats and more spoiling. I'd say it was a very happy 5th birthday...

The kids got to make their own dough and everything.
Each girl got to invite 'about 10' - HELLO!


Anush and her buddy Livy

X-Philes Live

Anyone who knows me well knows that I was fairly addicted to The X-Files. My brother referred to it as my 'other religion' on more than one occasion. So, imagine my delight in discovering that my neighbor and friend is a real alien believer. Much of this came out at girls camp last summer - let's face it, lots of secrets are revealed when you get a bunch of women together in a tent with no sleep. So, in honor of all the alien jokes that have been told since, she had a 'prettyfreekinscary' alien party this week. These are some of the results:

Green salad, jello, rolls, ice cubes, spinach dip, pasta - we even food colored our alfredo sauce green - it looked SO nasty on spinach noodles - but actually tasted ok.

Dessert provided:

Alien antennas were an obvious must-have. (The men took theirs off so quickly after dinner that they didn't get to be in our killer photo)

The evening was capped off with the movie "IT came from outer space" - which was a circa 1950 3D movie about shape shifting aliens who crash-landed in Arizona. We learned that 92 degrees is the temperature at which people go mad. The acting was amazing and the screams alone deserved Oscars. With a group of good friends, it was nothing short of side splitting hilarity.