Grays and Torreys

For my birthday my brother and sister in law came to denver and we had the best time!  So for my birthday Shilo and I climbed Grays and Torreys Mountains.  They are two of the 14ers.  Which means they are above 14,000 ft high.  We left early in the morning and had the best time.  Grays had quite a bit of snow on it and when the wind blew it was freezing.  We had to stomp out our own trail since we were the first ones starting up the trail that day.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of the day.

 Here we are putting on our micro spikes once we got to the snow.  We were so glad we had them.  On the way down there were people sliding everywhere without them.  It would have almost been impossible without them.

 And our shadows going up the mountain.

 Me on top of Torreys Peak

 And me again

 And us together at the end, and so glad to be done.  It took us 6 1/2 hours to do both peaks and we were beat by the end.  It was definitely one of my favorite birthdays and will probably be one of my most memorable. Thanks so much Shilo!  And thanks so much to my brother who watched all 5 kids all day!  Best day ever!

Andy's Arm

So two weeks ago from today Andy fell off the monkey bars at school and hurt his elbow.  So I took him to get an x-ray and it was too swollen to see if it was broken or not.  So they put him in a hard splint and I brought him back 10 days later to have it x-rayed again.  It showed a fracture in his bone, so today we brought him to the hospital and he got a blue cast.  I sure am glad it was just a little fracture and nothing too severe.  Here he is doing some sort of a fighting move to show off his cast...he's crazy!

More!

This summer me and my brothers and sisters and a few of the older kids hiked Prater Mountain.  It sure was beautiful

 This is the end of the Odgen Marathon that we did in May.  My sister Rachelle, myself, Bert and Shilo.  This was my best marathon with a time of 4:13.  My goal of under 4 iddn't quite happen, but my last marathon was 4:54, so I did improve some which I was happy about.

 This was the 4th of July at the start of a little race they had for the kids.  They actually all ended up in the newspaper running.  Little Andy ran so hard.....slow....but hard for him I guess, because when he was done he said he didn't feel good and then threw up!

 This was the only picture I got of us at the Bolder Boulder 10k  the nice lade so  graciously cut off my head!:)  This was a week or so after the Odgen Marathon, so it was a pretty crappy run for me, but I still loved being out there.

 Here is Ali and Coleen when we all went out to dinner and icecream.  Arn't they so cute?

 Here is me and my friend and neighbor Milynda at my first triathlon this August.  It was soooooo fun!  I think I'm hooked!  It sure keeps you on your toes hopping from the swimming to the biking to the running.

 Me and Nicki after the triathlon.

 Me and Nicki showing off our stylin' swim caps before the race.

 And here they are again...those bright beautiful caps!

This was after the Star Valley 5k.  I ran it in 22:30 which is my best time yet, but I sure felt sick afterward.  Ali and my mother in law Sandy ran it, along with Bert and shilo and their kids, and her mom.  And my sister and her family.

Here's me and Sam on the Snake river this summer

And Jeff and Sam the same day.

catch up again!

So, I not mentioning any names....but someone has been horrible about posting on this blog!  And one other thing...someone has been horrible at taking pictures this summer....period!  So here is my next attemp to try to sum up what we Wheelers have been up to.  These will totally all be out of order, but hey, some disorderly pictures are better than none right?

So this summer was very hot here.  This was a couple pictures I got of Sam and Andrew playing on the slip n' slide in the front yard.

 I thought they had a lot of fun, but his face kinda looks a little scared!   He did have fun though.

 Ahh, and here we have my littlest Andy on his first day of Kindergarten!  I can't believe my youngest is gone all day.  Lately it feels like there is a little hole in my heart.  I actually feel kind of lonely during the day.  I look around my empty house and hear....nothing.  Oh boy is this what I have to look forward to when I'm older?  Is this what empty nesters feel like?  I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed some down time....and actually the first few days I had all to myself were wonderful, but now I feel a void in my life...  It definately makes me very grateful for my kids.  They are what make life worth living!  They are what brings the spice to life.  I feel so blessed to have these three beautiful children.

 Here is my beautiful Ali, We took a small camping trip to the Poudre River Canyon.  It only ended up being one night, but to me one night in the mountains is worth a month in the city!  It makes you feel so alive!  I love her beautiful smile!

 And here is our little character!  He is acting so crazy lately, so full of life and spunk!

 This was the first time Jeff gave Sam the fly fishing rod and just let him go after it.  Sam was in heaven for a long time....until he fell on his bum and scraped up his knee a little, then he informed me he was never fishing again!   I laughed, only because I know Sam, and two minutes after he stopped crying he was asking when he could go fishing again.

 Sam ...learning from the best!

 This was Ali and Sam's first day of school.  They attend a different  school than Andy so they had different starting dates.

This fall Sam is on a soccer team.  He loves any sport, but assured me that his favorite is baseball.  He also wasn't going to do football because they only do flag football for boys his age and he informed me that, that was stupid and if he couldn't tackle, then he wasn't going to play!  So soccer was his next choice.  He's the one in a blue shirt with red socks.

 Here he is with the red jersey taking a turn at goalie.

Jeff took the kids out to breakfast one morning and let me go for a run.  The kids thought it was a great treat.

Long Over Due

Well the title pretty much sums it up!  I haven't posted anything since October!  I keep meaning too, but around October I started just taking pictures with my phone, because it was so convenient and I always had it with me.  But now I can't figure out how to get all those photos onto my computer....(I'm not very smart that way, so if anyone wants to let me know how it's done....great!)  Anyway, so instead of not posting anything until I get that figured out I will post a few things of a few pictures I do have and try to be better from here on out.  So I will try to sum up our last 6 months....ugh, I am horrible.

We stayed here in Denver for Thanksgiving.  It is probably one I will never forget.  I decided since it was just us for Thanksgiving I didn't want to cook a ton of stuff, and so we decided we would just go out to eat.  We thought that would be a great idea, no clean up and more time to spend decorating the Christmas tree (a tradition I have carried on from my childhood:)  Well, living in Denver we thought there would be plenty of options.  We drove around for what seemed like forever, and everything was closed.  We finally saw an IHOP with cars all around and lights on!  Yes!  We walked in and they said "Sorry, we just closed."  So we drove around some more and saw a Village Inn.  I walked in by myself this time and asked if they were open.  It seemed like a dumb question, the door was open and there were people inside.... they were only open if we wanted pie!  Well we finally found something that was open...McDonalds.  Yep we ate Thanksgiving Dinner at McDonalds.  Boy did I do great or what?  Oh well, I redeemed myself and cooked turkey the next day.

Ali and I were able to go to a play of A Christmas Carol.  Jeff and I were suppose to go, but Jeff ended up working so Ali and I went.  It was a lot of fun going out with Ali.  She is getting so big and fun to hang out with.

Jeff ended up getting hooked up with some Avalanche tickets from work, so he took Ali to that.  While they were there Ali got to participate in the Quest High Speed Challenge.   They had a camera on her and put her up on the big screen and asked her a question about one of the players.  I think they could tell she was a little nervous and gave her a clue.  She got it right and ended up winning a flip video camera.  she was excited....but just a little.

For Christmas we went to Star Valley to spend time with our families. 

One of the fun things we did when we were there was go to Granite Hotsprings with Jeffs sister and her family.  We went on Alis birthday and it was so much fun.  We had to snowmobile 10 miles up into the mountains and then got to swim in a nice hot outdoor pool.  It was so beautiful and a great pool party for Ali's birthday.  I must admit I never thought Ali would get an outdoor pool party for her birthday!

Christmas was great being able to be around family and friends.

Sam played basket ball this year in a city league team.  He had a lot of fun and it gave us something to do every saturday for a couple of months.  He even scored a few points now and then and he was really excited to be out there playing.  We sure loved watching him.

Ali has stayed busy with girl scouts and choir.  Her girl scouts spent a saturday collecting food and clothing for the 9 Cares Colorado.

In January Jeff and I were able to go to Florida for a Medical Conference which was a lot of fun and very relaxing.  We stayed on the beach and while Jeff was in conference I got to run on the beach, nap, and read.  Ahhh, I could get use to that!  It was very cold while we were there, so there wasn't much soaking up the sun, but it was great to go on a date together.  A special thanks to my sister and her friend, and also my parents for making a special trip out to watch our kids.  You guys are the best!

February Jeff went to St. George and met his dad and his brother Korry there to play some golf.  It was pretty cold so they didn't get much golfing done, but Jeff got away for awhile and had some R & R.

In March Bert and Shilo came out to Denver for the Salida Half Marathon.  Me, Nicki, Bert, Shilo, and Coleen all ran.  It was probably the hardest race I have ever ran!  I think it was harder than my marathon.  It was so many ups and downs.  The hills were so steep that no one was running them, everyone was walking up them.  It was on a single dirt trail that was rocky, and a lot of switch backs.  You had to stare at your feet the whole time so you didn't fall off the trail and down the mountain, or twist your ankle.  It was a lot of fun, because I have never done a trail race before and I really enjoyed it.  But it was my slowest half marathon, but I guess thats okay.  Everyone did really well and it was just a lot of fun running with some of my favorite people ever!

us before the race

 Bert, Shilo, Lacey, Coleen, Nicki

Bert, Shilo, and I after the race.  Bert was done so fast he had time to go change and get the camera.  The mountain behind us is one that we had to run up....about 4 different times!!!

For spring break this year we were able to go to Star Valley.  The snow was perfect for coasting at my parents cabin, so the kids had a blast all day in the snow. Jeff had to stay in Denver and work.  We had fun making chapstick and snow shoeing.

Andrew just finished up a session of swim lessons.  He use to be quite scared of the water, but now he is fearless!  He is so cute flopping around in the water!

Okay, I'm caught up as good as I'll ever be!

Shake Rattle and Run/ Roof project

My brother came down for the weekend and we ran the Shake Rattle and Run 5k.  A couple of my friends were there too.  Lots of fun!  I was excited about my time of 25:03.  And my brother came in in under 20 minutes.

Bert came to help Nicki fix her roof that was leaking, so we spent a couple of days helping fix the roof.  It was a great weekend spent hanging out with family.  Nicki and Coleen came over and brought Mario Kart and we even got Bert to play.  It sure was a great weekend.

Star Valley

I was able to take the kids to Star Valley last weekend.  We had a great time hanging out at my parents cabin.  Shilo and Rachelle came and stayed and we made a couple of different crafts and made a couple of batches of soap.  The last day their my brother and sister inlaw and I went on a 9 mile hike in the mountains.  It was so beautiful.  We hiked to McDougal pass.  It was freezing and we followed bear tracks the whole way there!  Thanks everyone for the wonderful trip!