Happy Birthday BB

Happy birthday to the coolest guy I know...
He's lived on three continents and speaks 3 languages
He can snow board, ski, rock climb AND make killer stir fry
He is freakin' smart - 99th percentile on the GMAT baby...
He's a food daredevil and will seriously try anything
I have never met a kinder person.  Ever.

If it weren't for him, I'd probably never:
-Climb Angel's Landing
-Have a goal to visit all 50 states (and be only 3 away)
-Embrace winter sports
-Sing the song 'I love my bed'
-Been the mother of Anushka and D-man (duh)

His kids like him because he:
-Keeps them safe
-Signs them up for soccer (he got credit for something I actually did)
-Plays with them
-Reads with them
-Is funny

Here are my 3 favorite people in my favorite place on earth.

ps - I really like that he wears all kinds of hats...

Huntin' Eggs and Climbin' Rocks

OK - it is May 17 and it is COLD. Like barely out of the 30s cold. Easter has come and gone and I'm feeling like a big whiner because I am SO sick of needing blankets and fuzzy socks and the heater on in the house. Nevertheless, there has been some fun to be had...

The kids had some Easter fun with the cousins...

Proof that, despite being much more of a fashionista than me, Anushka truly is my daughter:

Last night the kids did their first outdoor rock climbing.  Along with cousin Matt, the kids donned helmets and harnesses and scaled a pretty good wall:

A Good Day

So a couple years ago, a really crappy thing happened to my friend. I mean REALLY crappy. At the time, I remember feeling a lot of anger (even though it really had nothing to do with me) on behalf of my friend. I hated seeing her suffer.
Over the past two years, I've learned a lot of lessons from this friend. I have seen her turn anger and pain into faith and acceptance. She has been a spectacular mother to her children and has worked incredibly hard to meet her goals. I feel blessed to know her and to be counted among her friends. She might never read this (probably far too busy to read blogs:) but I just wanted to shout out to her on her big day...
Two years later, she has finished a nursing degree and just married a GREAT guy. She deserves it all in a big way. I hope she is relaxing and soaking in some sun...
Happy 5-10-11 everyone!

Worth Waiting For

26 April 2001

April 2011

Gratitude

A few of my friends and I meet together every week to set goals. The goals are personal but we account to each other and if we miss a goal, we owe five dollars. Not much money but it surprises me how well it works as an incentive to keep my goals. In addition to our own three goals, one person gives a 'bonus' goal that we can either shoot for or not (no money owed either way). This week, it was to write down three things a day that we are grateful for. It's been interesting because in some ways this was really hard. I have much to be grateful for - but articulating that can be difficult - at least to write down. I think part of the reason it was difficult was because I had to narrow things down. People in my life could fill many many gratitude journals - I have been truly blessed by the people placed around me. So, if you're reading this (or even if you're not;), know that you are a person for whom I feel mucho gratitudo...

We had our annual neighborhood flashlight Easter egg hunt last week - now one of our favorite Spring events.

D-Man with someone who would top his gratitude journal.  These two are true soul brothers.

The girls had to bundle up a bit but it was all worth it in the end.

My good friend Andrea was telling the crowd that she had a bull horn and she knew how to use it.  I'm still not sure what that meant...
j/k

The mad dash to find the eggs

A New Leaf

I've made this resolution in my head many times - but this time I have a plan that will make it (I hope) stick. Said resolution is to blog at least weekly. I'd like to do it daily like one of my heroes but I think stretching for me (thank you Dawn) will be weekly ... for now. Not that anyone has to or would be even interested in reading my daily blog but it's a good way for me to keep things in perspective and then remember a year from now where I was (hello run-on sentence!)

So, here we go...

While we continue to wait for two Spring days to come together, the family is well and happy.

A few quick hi-lights:

Good Utah Skiing

The kids and I all took lessons up at the Canyons Resort this year. Great fun with cousins and friends - Both kids improved dramatically. Anushka is a daredevil to the hilt - she is all about the speed. She has started to do some black diamond runs (I'm pretty happy on the greens and blues:). D-man is not far behind her...

Another trip to Northern Cal:

One of the beauties of having a job with lots of travel AND having kids in year-round school is many opportunitites throughout the year to take off... We headed up to San Jose with BB again in January. The weather was cold but it was still a great time. We visited a Redwood park, the beach (of course), San Francisco/Chinatown, San Jose Children's Museum, ...and my kids' favorite - the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

Anushka - Birthday #8 I don't know if you can see the little figurine on the cake but it was actually on my 8th birthday cake many many years ago... Anushka and her buddy Livi have birthdays right next to each other which is a good excuse for a big bash - which they had... The party started at our house and ended at Classic Skating - hopefully everyone slept well that night... BaptismI feel really lame that I only used my camera once this whole day - she had many family members and friends come to see her and I wish we had more pics. It was a really nice - if snowy - day. Anushka sang with her friend Leah and we were really touched by all that came to support her.

One Good Weather Day So - the kids were off-track for three weeks and it was cold and snowy/rainy for almost the entire time. Luckily we had one nice, spring day where we could get out with some buddies and visit the zoo. They were all a bunch of monkeys.

AND FINALLY

Conference brought another opportunity for a massive Lego project with BB and the kids. Nice replica of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple - no?

Dear Whittney

Since I had no idea that picture was 'getting you back', I could not have known you wanted it removed. I assume it's the picture of you at my birthday? I have, of course, deleted it immediately. I really want to keep my crocheting, knitting, jigsaw-puzzle-doing habits private so I am acquiescing immediately. Your friendship is obviously more important to me than any picture on my blog. What would I do without you? The picture you recommended is included below so everyone now has a more accurate idea of what you look like.