Randomness

I had a lot of random thoughts and random pictures on my cell phone and camera, so this post is going to cover a lot of random stuff. And I am going to see how many times I can say random.

• 
  
  First of all, I am loving school. Oakley really started this week and it has been lovely.



• 
  
  We watched Rio for the first time last week and I loved it. Has anyone else seen it? The reason I loved it was because of the music. I was so happy when Oakley wanted to download it.

• Like I said in one of my earlier posts, I am a Mia Maid advisor now and guess who the 1st counselor is? Ardeth Kapp. Yep, I have given 2 lessons with her sitting right next to me. Can I just tell you how nervous I was?



• I was reading a book in my living room a while ago (with the snow on the tree you might think it was a long time ago, but remember that we had snow in June) and this was my view from my couch. It was a perfect setting for relaxing and reading.

• I am missing ponytails, but I love the easiness of my hair. Should I grow it out or keep it short? Any opinions?



• I had this pic from the day of my half marathon. We got up at 3:30 to get ready. I was actually up at 1:30 because I got a call for work and then couldn't go back to sleep because I was so scared for the race. We were on the road pretty darn early. Its amazing what you do for running and racing, but it is so much fun.

• I have been on a diet for 2 weeks and haven't lost any weight. It sucks.



• I was shopping the other day at TJ Maxx and came upon the Halloween aisle. I could have bought everything on the shelf and amazingly I didn't buy one thing.



• My house needs a serious deep clean and I can't bring myself to do it. It is so hard to get motivated when you know the kids will have it messy again in 2 minutes.



• The other day I was driving to work in the morning and the sky was amazing. The picture didn't capture it at all, but there was rainbow, lightning, and pink clouds from the sunrise. It was pretty cool.

• Most of the framed pictures in my house need to be switched out to more current ones. I just always have a hard time going through the hundreds of pics and only picking a few faves.



• Whenever I drive I am amazed at all the really bad drivers out there. It is amazing that there aren't more accidents. Case in point, I pulled up to this intersection and this van was right in the middle of it. They didn't even try backing up which makes me wonder if the driver even knew something wasn't right.

• We have 2 projects that are close to being finished in our house. I have been dying to post the final results.



• I am sad that Summer is coming to a close. It seems like it just started. However, I do love Fall and the attire that one gets to wear when it gets cooler.

• I have book club tonight and I am so excited. It seems like it has been forever since our last one. We have such good food, good conversation, and good fun. I love the group.



• And lastly everyone be prepared for the depressed Amy. I tried running yesterday on my foot and it didn't go well. I am afraid I am out of the running game for 4 weeks, at least that was how long it took last time. And when I can't run or exercise I get angry, depressed, and even fatter than I already am, which just adds to my anger and depression. But here's to hoping I can recover in time to get retrained for the Vegas Ragnar in October. It kills me that I am going to lose some speed and endurance.

So there you have it, a lot of pointless, random stuff in my life. But sometimes the pointless posts are the ones I like the most.

One Morning

Trent and his girls relaxing one morning. You gotta love those days.


And I am dying to redo my bedroom, so if you see any amazingly cute bedding that is gray let me know. And if you have any ideas how I can change the mirrors without a big project let me know that as well. We hate those things.

Will Read for Food

Last year the boys earned a bunch of reading coupons for various resaurants. Like I said in my previous post, they have a lot we haven't used and they will be expired at the end of this month. So we have started using them up.

First stop was Jason's Deli, which is a favorite of mine. I get the turkey wrap, it's delish. And you can't beat the all you can eat ice cream cones...

Even though this pic was blurry I had to add it. I love everyone's faces.

Next up Spaghetti Factory. I know, I said I didn't like this place, but somebody had to take the boys. And they loved every second of it.

However, I do have something that I LOVE there. It is the baked spaghetti squash and I ate Aiden's salad that came with his meal, so it was perfect.

The boys devoured their spaghetti. At home I cut everyone's spaghetti up, so the boys were in heaven twirling, slurping, and eating the long noodles.

So, even though I complained about it earlier, I had a delicious meal and a great time with just my boys.

And to end the night we found some cool Batman lunch coolers for the boys and a back pack for Oakley at PB Kids. Dang window display.

BBQ

On to the next party/event we had over the weekend. I told you our weekend was busy. Jake and Candice were in town so we had a little BBQ at Heidi's Friday night. And as always we had sooo much good food and I was trying not to gorge myself seeing how we had to be up bright and early running.

There is usually a self portrait or two at every event.
The boys relaxed.


The kids and Brooke went down the slip n' slide.

And the girls chatted it up with some delicious oreo truffles.

It was a good night.

The Beach Monkey's Turn 4

We had Paige and Morgan's Birthday Party on Saturday. Every morning prior the girls would ask if it was their party yet. The just couldn't wait.

We decided to rent a huge water slide to celebrate the beach theme and the last day of Summer.

Most everyone enjoyed it. The boys played on it from 11:00 to 7:00, stopping only to eat and do the other party stuff. Paige and Morgan were a little intimidated by the thing, but when everyone left they finally warmed up to it. We were glad they finally had a few runs seeing how it was their party.
Present time! Everyone was so nice, as always.

The girls got to blow out their 4 year old candle, and then enjoy some ice cream from the ice cream bar. Unfortunately I didn't think the ice cream turned out to good, but the toppings were delish!

I can't believe my babies are 4. Is that weird to anyone else?

Hope you had a good one P & M and here is to hoping you won't be as dramatic in your 4th year of life.... ;)

First Day of School

We had a great day yesterday, as I am sure a lot of you did. We did the whole first day of school business. The boys were pretty excited to start first grade and to tell you the truth, so was I.

Aiden
Andrew

(Trying to get my boys to smile real smiles proved very difficult-actually impossible.)

Oakley went to Kindergarten orientation. I think she will love it. And I never have a problem getting her to smile for the camera.

At the end of the school day I went and walked with the boys. On the way home our group walked right into a swam of hornets. Andrew (among 3 other kids) was unlucky enough to be stung. Not a good way to end your first day. We did ask the boys what their favorite thing about school was and, of course, it was recess. They were so excited that they will be having 3 recesses now instead of one. I remember that being my favorite "subject" as well.

Here is to a great school year!

Hobble Creek Half

We had a ton of stuff going on over the weekend, but the first I am blogging about is the Hobble Creek Half Marathon we ran on Saturday. It was an awesome race. Jake and Candice drove up from Sin City to run it as well.

It was a beautiful run with the majority of it in the canyon. And it was another down hill race, which always helps.

Trent was the first to finish with a time of 1:15:48 and he came in 12th overall. And since he was the first we don't have a picture of him.
Jake came in next with a time of 1:41:41 and he was 204th

I finished with a time of 1:46:38 and came in 282th.

Candice crossed the finish line with a time of 2:15:46 and 823rd.

It was a great race but I am glad it is over. It was an awesome course and I felt really good during the whole run. I wish I could say I feel that good now, but I can barely walk and my left foot feels like I may have a stress fracture, which makes me very angry. I don't know why I always have an injury. I am starting to feel a little like a hypochondriac-Do I smell burning feathers? ;) Hopefully it is just sore from the race and I can get back to running asap. I've got another race in 2 weeks!

A New Low

I have been really lazy this week. I think the fact that I haven't had to run/exercise as much or go anywhere have been major factors in this laziness. I have been so bad in fact that I wore the same clothes for 3, maybe 4 days in a row. Not only did I do that, but Paige and Morgan did as well. We may or may not have slept in them too.

And Oakley is the photographer. She had a little bit of a hard time getting a clear picture of us. But I am actually thinking I might look a little better blurry....

Nothing

I have nothing to post besides Grey's River and I can't seem to get motivated enough to go through the 300+ pictures and pick only 10 or so for a post. I should promise that I will have one up tomorrow just so I get it done. Because once I promise something I have to do it. Just like Rapunzel.

So until tomorrow you get a picture of Aiden in his ugly night shirt (which Trent absolutely hates) holding up his (and Andrew's) free meals at the Spaghetti Factory that expire on the 31st. Neither Trent or I like the Spaghetti Factory. It is hard for me to justify spending $10 on a plate of spaghetti that I can make at home for $1. However, I do love their spaghetti squash. But I am thinking they need their fun Aunt Brooke to take them seeing how she is in love with that place.

We do have some fun stuff coming up that I will be able to blog about-Jake and Candice will be in town, I have my first half marathon on Saturday, and we will be celebrating Paige and Morgan's 4th birthday with a Beach Monkey theme and a gigantic blow up water slide.

Fun times are ahead here at The Hoard.

Lesson Learned

We started Family Night with good intentions of working in the yard together. From the picture below you would think we succeeded.

Nope. Paige and Morgan were the only ones that "helped" us.
Andrew sulked the whole time because he wanted to know what the reward would be for working. We were trying to teach a lesson about working without knowing what you may get. Cause lets face it, we don't always get a reward after hard work. Anyways, Andrew didn't like that at all, so instead of working or even playing he did this:

Oakley and Aiden simply didn't want to work, so they played in the sandbox.

So, in the end Paige and Morgan were able to go get an ice cream cone for their reward. The other 3 were pretty upset. Hopefully they learned something from this.

And afterwards the girls got the special reward of washing the jeep with Trent. They thought it was hilarious when Trent pointed the air blower towards them and it blew their pants down.

Such a perfect Family Night.

Beehive Camp

They rearranged the YW presidency a few months ago and I was released as 1st counselor and called to be the Camp Director. However, this year our Stake did Trek, so girls camp was cancelled. Seeing how the Beehives couldn't go on Trek, we planned a Beehive Camp. I say camp, but there was no camping. We stayed in a cabin up in Oakley.

The girls were very excited to go. While we finished loading up a few things they got in a game of Spoono.

Sister Clark was my lifesaver. She planned all the spiritual stuff, while I focused on the crafts and the food.

When we arrived we realized we had forgotten the secret sister station. We created these cute envelopes while we were up there. I think it actually worked better. The girls loved it!

And since we were "camping" in a cabin there wasn't much for our priesthood leaders to do but sit and relax.

And we crammed all 8 girls in the loft to sleep, leaving the two bedrooms for Maureen and me. .....And I use the word sleep very loosely.

We had lots of devotionals, which the girls were in charge of. These girls are amazing.

We went on an almost 5 mile hike.

And ate our packed lunch and ice cream at the top.

I wore my new trail running shoes, which don't look new anymore. We had to cross the river a few times and I slipped in while I was helping the girls. I did get to run back to the cabin and really test them out. Even running with them soaking wet they felt really good. I may have to try running up to The Rock now.

The girls did a hilarious skit before our testimony meeting. They did a workout video from the 60's. The 1860's that is. It was a pioneer workout. I don't know how they come up with these things.

They are a great group of girls.

But, as you can tell, I was really excited to be going home. After 2 weeks of camping I was ready to be done.

And my career as camp director was short lived, 2 weeks ago they called me back as the Mia Maid advisor. Which I am very happy about, I was missing my Mia Maids. :)