Bike Video

After I posted the other day, I realized that Reed's bike video didn't load.  So here it is!

Cheers~

Dogs, Bikes and Lagoon

Friday was National Take Your Dog to Work Day.  I didn't know such a thing existed, but it was kinda cool!  My company let us bring our dogs assuming that they weren't aggressive or a neighbor was allergic.  So London got to come with me to work!  He is laying in Stacy's desk, she is out on maternity leave.  This is about all he did all day - good boy!

 Friday after work, I went and saw Stacy and her new baby boy, James.  Cutey patooty!

 Friday night was Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay.  It happens every year and they run right near our house with a major van exchange happening at Snowbasin.  Backcountry.com sponsors a few teams.  So the van that finishes usually stays at our house for a few hours.  We like to walk down to the corner to watch them run.  Reed decided to take this bike that Fogg found at the thrift store (it's a tad smaller than the one he got for his birthday).  This is his first ever real try riding with peddles (no training wheels - thank you very much strider bike!).  I'm so proud of how well he is doing.  He is still a little tentative to go "fast" but he's at least got the peddling and steering at the same time thing down.

Saturday we went to Lagoon Amusement Park for a work outing for Fogg's company.  They paid for everything so that's super nice.  We got entry and food and free parking.  Here is the kids very first time ever on a ride.  

We were able to do a bunch of rides, Nora could even do a handful.  Then we went to the water park part, hit the ferris wheel then headed home.  Both kids sacked out in the car/shopping cart while we did a little grocery shopping.  Definitely went to bed early Saturday night!

A nice weekend with the family! 

Dad's Day

We went camping this weekend with our church.  Guess how many pictures I took?  None!  So this post is without any pictures - sorry! 

We went up to Mantua (between Brigham City and Logan).  It was a nice little campground and a lake nearby.  We ended up going to the pool in Brigham City to cool off for the afternoon.  Reed and Nora both had a great time swimming with their friends Ava and Ethan.  There was a cool waterslide that Reed did 6-7 times, all by himself!  He's getting to be quite the little swimmer!  In fact, we are putting him in real lessons next week.  I'm not doing the parent/tot one with Nora cause A) I can't find time to do it and B) I learned what I needed to teach her when I did it with Reed so I've been doing it on my own really.  I don't see much use in doing the lessons when they are that small anyway. 

Anyway, we had a great time with all of our friends (well a lot of them anyway).  We had some great conversations, some great food, lots of bonding, some fun.  It was a tad chaotic due to the way we had to set up our campers but it was still a great time.  I shut off my phone for the whole time we were there and I really enjoyed just being present.  Hence why there are no pictures.

We went home on Father's Day late morning.  We had a little lunch and grocery shopping then headed home for the rest of the day.  It was nice to be home in time to clean up, work on some projects, etc.  Fogg's gift didn't show up till Tuesday so he didn't have anything to open.  We just spent family time at home.  The kids played on the water table and slip and slide, Fogg did some projects, I did some clean up.  We had a little BBQ for dinner that was quite good.  It was a nice day.

I was going through bills/mail last night and came across the art project that Reed made for father's day that ended up in the pile.  It was a piece of paper cut out like a dress shirt with a little pocket glued on the front, Reed's picture coming out of the pocket.  A red tie that said "I {heart} dad".  On the back was written a few things that Reed must have dictated to his teacher, the answers to some questions.  They made me laugh out loud when I read them.

My dad's favorite color - Red
My dad's favorite food - chicken nuggets
My dad's favorite drink - protein
My dad's favorite thing to do - building

Red - incorrect.  Chicken nuggets - probably Reed's favorite thing, well actually it isn't (PB and J is the most requested food item.)  Maybe cause Fogg eats a lot of chicken breast?  Drink - hysterical cause Fogg always is drinking protein shakes.  Building - what exactly? was Fogg's answer - his dirt bike?  Anyway, so cute to see what he thought.

My hubs is the greatest dad in the world!  I'm lucky to have him parent our kids with me.  He is stern and loving and consistent and tender.  What a great guy!

Some Part of Some Days in Some Lives

I was going to write "A Day In a Life" but this is over some parts of some days in just our life, so that's what you get.

As you can see, we've been busy and it's going to continue for another month or so. And probably during that time we will come up with some more stuff to fill the month after.  Though I'm not a huge fan of the hot weather, it does have a propensity to bring us out of doors and do more activities over the weekend away from home.  We've been gone almost every weekend, and if not for the whole weekend, at least for full days.  The kids love to be outside (so do Fogg and I), we just have to manage the heat a little and make sure that no one is getting sunburnt. 

We love being busy around our house, though it does wear on me a little sometimes.  Not only do I stay busy at home, I stay busy at work and that gets exhausting sometimes!  The past few weeks at work, when it's usually a slow time, has been very busy with some new projects and some new directions.  In addition, I've been out of town a little with work, adding to the craziness.  I've been feeling very worn down lately and had to do some soul searching to figure out how to manage this point in my life, a full time job, a marriage, two kids and all the responsibilities that surround those things.  In addition, having some sort of social life and trying to have fun as much as possible.

So I had a little "come to Jesus" talk with myself with the help of Fogg to help me manage better how I function throughout the day and how I can improve my attitude, energy and life satisfaction.  My finite time is getting shorter every day (though 24 hours is still 24 hours).  I have to prioritize my tasks/responsibilities to make sure that I maximize life satisfaction and accomplishments.  "What is success" we asked ourselves.  This is a question that we are still trying to answer, but in the meantime, I'm going to work on balancing my life better.  Of course, if anyone would like to drop a million bucks in my lap, that sure would help out! ;) 

What's important?

• God
• My husband
• My kids
• My household
• My health and well being
• My relationships with other people
• My work commitments
• My hobbies and entertainment

I'm working on balancing all of these because, though the top 3 never should change order, the others must shuffle based on the month, week or day. Thank you all for helping me on my new journey of finding a happier Meg!  That may mean that I have to step back from some things temporarily or permanently but it will be what I'm supposed to do in order to make a better me.

On that note, I was taking care of what Fogg needed when we were at his dirt bike race in Idaho.  Reed was asking me for food or drink or a toy or something and I told him that I would get it for him when I was done taking care of daddy.  He obviously thought about that a little and the next day, he said to me "I don't want you to take care of daddy, I only want you to take care of me.  And Nora.".  I told him that it's my responsibility to take care of daddy too.  And daddy has to take care of me.  He was really not into this particular concept and really just wanted us to take care of him and his sister.  It was a cute and innocent comment that spoke volumes as to how we need to teach him about a strong marriage too.

I forgot to mention in a post about Reed another funny term he says.  "I was just tricken", meaning joking or playing a joke.  It's funny the way he says it.

Ok, so that's most of my catchup time, thank you for letting me pour my soul a little.  Now for what you've all been waiting for - pictures!

London is getting old.  He lays around a lot more than usual and is getting a little heavier (about 125 now).  For some reason this picture won't load the correct direction, but here is Londy-Boo just laying around.

 Nora is working on a scowl.  She was copying us for some time doing this pursed lips and eyes rolled up look.  Now when you do this her, she will really scowl back, with very little facial expression but a lot of meaning!

 Search and Rescue did a fundraiser at the Texas Roadhouse with some face painting, climb wall, raffles and car show.  Reed climbed a couple of times.

 He also got Spiderman face.  He loved this, loved the attention he got in Costco immediately after dinner.  Was absolutely distraught when I washed it off at night.

 Nora got an arm tattoo of flowers.  She really liked it.

On one of my work trips, it was my 7 year anniversary working for Backcountry.com.  We happened to be out to dinner in Santa Rosa with Marmot Mountain.  They treated me well for dinner, having three of my favorite things for dessert - Port wine, coffee and creme brulee.  So yumm-o!

Well, that's it for now.  Off to another camping trip soon, some fun local weekend activities coming up, visiting Pittsburgh.  Have a great day!

Catching Up #5 - Idaho City 100

Final catch up post!  Fogg participated in a race in Idaho called the Idaho City 100.  It was in the little town of Idaho City, near Boise.  It was actually 120 miles too.  We drove up on Friday afternoon so he could register and set up.  After dinner, we set up our camper and made a fire.  It was nice to just have a family trip, just the four of us.

Self portrait in front of our little fire (which you can't see)

 Reed loves camping

 Nora too!

 This was her first time actually saying "cheese".  Love it!

 Oh man, these cuties!

So we got up in the morning and headed down to the race.  The racers had to keep their bikes in this corral overnight.  I thought it was pretty cool looking, seeing all those bikes lined up.

 The way the race worked was a tad confusing but the idea is that they had a certain amount of time to get to each check in.  Anything over that time they got 1 point per second.  Within each section there were timed test sections where they would also get 1 point per second.  The winner of the race was the one with the least amount of points meaning they would get to check in before each allotted time and get through the timed test sections the fastest.  Fogg did great, said it was super duper hard.  It's not exactly a spectator sport, but we got to see him leave, come into two check in's and see him finish!  Here he is with the kids before his start.

 Some of the other racers that we know - Fogg, Justin, Brice and Terry.

 At the start line!  They started 3 at a time.  Fogg is on the far right on the green bike - 60A

 They couldn't start their bikes until the time they had to go, he's getting ready!

 Go!

 Through the Red Bull banner - see you in a few hours.

 While we waited for him to arrive at stop 2 and 3 (the same place)

 Allen is the dad of the group, 1 of his sons and a couple of his relatives raced. He was the gaser, would put gas in each of their bikes when they rolled in.

 Fogg arriving into stop 3, headed out on his last leg after this break.

 He's pointing at me angrily to bring him food and stop taking his picture.

 And at the finish!  The line was pretty quiet, people would just roll in.  But when I saw him, I was so excited that I started yelling at Reed "Here comes daddy!".  It made the rest of the people around take notice and everyone cheered for him coming in!

 Yes! Finished!

 He was tired and dirty but still gave Reed a little ride on his bike.

We had some food and hit the hot springs on the way back to the campsite.  We are so proud of daddy!

The next morning, we packed up and headed into Boise for breakfast.  We made a stop in some town (have no idea) and happened to find this little skills park that Reed played in on his bike.  

Not sure if Fogg will do it again, but it sure was a fun little weekend and a cute little town!

Catching Up #4 - Memorial Day Moab Moto

Oh my, it's been super busy, sorry just getting to #4.  I'll have one more after this one which gets us to 2 weekends ago.  

So we went to Moab over Memorial Day to do some dirt biking.  We were set to have our same group from last year, James and Michelle, Marit and Bill and us.  We also invited a babysitting couple to stay to watch the kids in the mornings so we could ride.  Unfortunately Bill broke his leg the weekend before dirt biking and he had to have surgery!  So we were one couple down, and we sure did miss them!  The house we stayed in was a bit out of town, but quiet and a nice yard.

We drove down on Friday mid day.  Reed had fun with spiderman stickers:

 The kids had fun playing in the yard at the house.

 

 Fogg and I and James and Michelle went for rides on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  The guys did a great job picking good trails for Michelle and I, and they were good distances.  James and Fogg did a couple of night time harder rides too.

Me and Fogg (I'm in the back on the red bike)

 Fogg

 All of us at the top of 7 mile rim.

 Me rolling down the trail

 Fogg doing some rocks

 Me in beautiful Moab!

 We did a ride called Fins and Things near slickrock, I loved it!

 Fogg looking all professional.

 This is about how much air I ever get

 Fogg and me behind him on the slickrock

Each afternoon we went to the pool to cool off.  Both kids had a blast on the waterslides and swimming around in the kiddy pool.  Reed went down the adult waterslide no less than 50 times in the two days and jumped off the HIGH dive 4 times!  What an adventurous (though careful) kid. 

We saw Mater (from the kids movie cars)!  Moab is very much what that movie is modeled after.  They had a Sarge there at some point but when we stopped to show Reed, Sarge was out.  Reed thought that he was seeing the real thing!

Then in Green River we found Lightening McQueen!

The second afternoon, we piled the kids all in our truck to head to the pool.  They loved being so close to one another.  Gracie in the middle!

We ended up leaving on Monday morning to get home and clean up a little before the work began the next day.  The kids were troopers, did great!  Nora finally passed out with toy in hand.

We sure do love Moab and love dirt biking.  We had a blast with our friends and got to know some new ones (the babysitters).  It was relaxing and fun and perfect.  Everything about the trip was great (other than Bill and Marit not coming).  Can't wait to go back!