LOTOJA!

Next up is LOTOJA.  This is a 206 mile bike race from Logan, Ut to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  This was Pauls second year riding this.  This year, his brother, Christian, rode along side him.  It was a long day!  Along the ride they have different feed zone where the support vehicles can stop and get food/water/goo to the riders.  Also a little encouragement, it can get pretty lonely out on the roads.  This is when my camera battery died, so I only got a couple of pictures to show the morning before they took off...

 Getting his bike all ready for the 206 miles!

 One quick picture with the wife before taking off...

Ready to go, getting in line for the take off time.

They finished in about 12 hours and 30 mins!  Great Job to Paul and Christian.  This is quite an accomplishment!

What we've been up to.....

Hello all...
So I officially am not a good blogger at all.  I will add that my camera battery has been dead for awhile, and I have no clue where my charger is, but I finally got it charged at my parents and could take pics again.  And for some reason I feel I can't blog with out pictures. Anyway, lets go back a few months...
September:
Paul and I went camping over Labor Day weekend.  We went up Logan canyon, we wanted to stay at Tony's Grove, which is where I grew up camping alot with my grandparents and went fishing there at the lake.  When we got there, all the campsites were full, so we continued to drive around the canyon for probably 4 hours looking for somewhere to camp.  We finally were able to find a spot off the side of the road and we called that home for 2 days.  Once camp was set up the first day was pretty much over, so the second day we explored around a little more.  Here are some pictures from that adventure:

This I Tony's Grove, where we wanted to camp.  We did come up here to go fishing.

After finding our camping spot, we went back up to Tony's Grove to fish.  I had already bought my fishing license for the day and I didn't want to waste it.  It did however, get very cold as the sun went down.  Sad to say, we did catch any fish.

 Sunday we went touring around a few sites.  This was at an underground spring that popped up in this cave!  You cant see the cave very well, but its kinda cool, the water just appears from no where!

 This was our picnic spot.  Our campground didn't have a picnic table or anything, (because it was on the side of the road) so we found this nice place to prepare the rest of our meals to eat at camp.  Paul also got some homework done.

This is back at our camp spot.  Enjoying the fire and the flies!  They were kinda insane for awhile.  Overall this camp spot was really great!

We had a fun time on our last summer get away. This was also party for Pauls birthday.  A pretty great time!

Hoggle Zoo

This last week I had a couple of days off and so Ann Elise, myself and her girls all went to the zoo!!  It was Laura's first trip to the zoo and she was just loving it! The other girls were having fun too, but mostly just wanted to go to the play ground...Here are some pics...

 When we first got to the zoo, Laura was just loving it and running around everywhere!

Riding the log horses! I think Savannah was the most excited!

 Giant Elepahnt tin thing...the end of its nose would spray out water every once in awhile. 

In the background you can see the baby elephant! 

 Mama Elephant (i think) trying to get some food

 This Gorilla came up to the window right in front of me and started pounding on the glass...scared me to death.  Just previously I had asked Ann Elise what she would do if the gorilla came and started pounding on the glass..she responded saying, I would run away.  When it did happen, we both just stood there in fear...we would have died.

 I remember this Lion Fountain from when I was little.  We had to take a picture in front of it...this was take one, Laura is pulling on Savannahs shirt because Savannah made her mad.  She kept pulling her shirt and punching it back into her back...Ann Elise and I couldn't stop laughing.

 Take 2

 Ahhh...the lion is eating meeee

and Ann Elise...

 I got to pretend I was a groundhog

 So did Emma and Ann Elise

 Emma and Savannah finally were able to play at the playground!

 We tried to keep Laura in the buggie, so we send her chocolate!  Yum Yum!

And Finally, a groundhog just sitting on his bum like nothing can bother him.  

The trip to the zoo was fun, but very hot!  We were exhausted by the end. 

Bear Lake

The weekend of the 4th of July, we headed up to Bear Lake with Paul's sister Maria, and her kids.  We left Thursday night and just set up camp there.  Friday we hung out at the lake and swam and played with the kids.  The lake itself was freezing, so I would only go out if I was sitting on a tube above the water.  The kids had a blast with Uncle Paul.  He took them out to see the fish, and created an Island with them out off the shore a bit.  The lake this year has been REALLY REALLY high, I tried to take some pics to show how high, but unless you've been there it will be hard to tell....

 The trees are out in the water...before there was a nice long shore after the trees

More trees out in the water

Here is some pictures of the kids having a fun time!

 Jamus is probably up to something sneaky!

 Ryklee playing with bugs and rocks.

 Kelty wants a drink

Maria out in the raft with the kids...everyone is on a raft because the water is freezing!!

We went over to Garden City one day to enjoy some "famous" milkshakes.  Paul and I shared an Oreo one, because they are very large.  The "famous" ones are the raspberry shakes, but we aren't big fans.  We also walked around a little and checked out some shops.  Only one pic of doing this, we are gross and sunburnt, but here is a pic...

Bear Lake was a blast, we are so glad we could spend some time with Maria and her kids while they were up.  They live in Arizona, so we don't get to see them very much!! 

Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef

So for Memorial day we went down to Goblin Valley and Capitol Reef with Paul's parents and brother.  We found a nice place to camp in Hanksville.  The campground had bathrooms, showers and food close by.  My kind of camping! First day there we just ate at the restaurant there and set up camp.  Paul, Christian and I took some pics around the campground, Planking....

Christian Planking ( you can see our tent in the background)

 My first planking attempt

 Paul's turned out really well

Next day we went to Goblin Valley to see the goblins and go on a little hike up some slot canyons.

 Some more planking on the goblins

 A view from a top the goblins...these are pretty neat.  When it rains this all fills in with water and forms these rocks.  There can be flash floods too, even if it was raining like 30 miles away.

on the hike, through some slots, it got a lot tighter than this.

The next day we went to Capitol Reef, it was a Sunday, so we just strolled around and saw some sites.  I had a migraine this day, so I didn't get my camera out at all.  Sorry! It was really windy this day also, so it was hard to be outside.  The wind ended up breaking out tent pole, so we slept in the tent trailer the last night.

  

We headed back the next day and the power was out in all southern Utah, so we had to just hang out for a little while in Springville so we could get gas before we headed home.  Overall, the trip was a lot of fun, Thanks Rick and Marianne (Mom and Dad) 

Sleepover with the Nieces!

For Mothers day, we offered to take Paul's sister's kids for a night, so she could relax and enjoy some alone time.  Her husband is over in Afghanistan right now, so she has the kids all to her self. We took all 3 girls.  Emma who is 7, Savannah who is 4, and Laura who is 1.  It was a pretty fun night.  First we went to the park and played, then walked around and fed the ducks.  Laura seemed to love that, she was laughing and helping through pieces of bread.  The other girls of course loved it too.  Then we came home and had Mac and Cheese for dinner.  Then I put Emma and Savannah's hair in curlers and painted their nails.  Paul played with Laura and kept her out of trouble. ( she is a crawler) Then we took pics and kinda played around until it was time for bed.  We set up the air mattress in the living room and Emma says to us, " Wow, you guys are rich!" In reaction to our a blowup air mattress. Made us laugh! Then we put on Tangled and popped some popcorn.  They were probably asleep with in 20 mins of the movie starting.  Laura even fell asleep pretty quickly and only woke up once in the night.  It was a lot of fun, we took them to church with us on Sunday and Ann Elise met us there.  Needless to say, we were pretty tired from just 1 night of them, can't imagine how Ann Elise does it by herself!  But we def had a great time with them!  Here are some pics:

Girls with their curlers

Paul taking care of Laura's business

After the curlers! They ran around say, Wow Im so pretty.  They also kept asking me if their hair was still curly.  Savannah probably check the mirror every 5 mins to check. 

Haven't Posted for awhile

So...it's been awhile since our last post.  A quick update and then maybe I'll be better at this blogging thing.  We were married on March 18th, and it was a perfect day!  Everything worked out BETTER than we could have imagined, and we still can't even stop talking about that day!  We got married in the Salt Lake Temple in the morning, took pics around the temple grounds afterwards, with just us, and also Family and wedding party.  Loved it all.  The reception was at the farmington community art center.  Everyone that helped decorate did a great job.  My mom put a lot of efforts and planning into the decorations, so Thanks MOM!  Love ya!  Lots of dancing and fun!  We hope everyone that attended had a great time!  I don't have any wedding pics yet, so I can't post them yet, but when they come I will for sure!!