Some Fuzzy Easter Fun!

Since the only camera I have (that works) is my ipod, our Easter morning pictures are fuzzy.  But at least I have them!

The kids woke up to a fun new toy in their basket, and a pillow pet!  The boys love theirs.  Molly hates hers.  A lot.

 Molly actually got a new pack of cute hair clips instead of a toy, but she was just as happy!  She insisted on wearing these in her hair to look for eggs.

 The kids found all the eggs really fast, and then ate their candy really fast.  Which is why we made them eat breakfast first.

 Molly relaxed on her pillow pet to enjoy some jelly beans.  But she throws it out of her bed every night. Tonight as I was walking out of her room after putting her in bed, I heard her quietly say, "I hate it."  I think she likes it as a toy, but just doesn't like to sleep on it.  I can't quite figure it out, the boys love theirs!

 My goofy Will!  This kid is a character.  And may possibly be the death of us.  But we love him!!

Happy Easter!!

We went to church with Mike's parents because Papa Lon spoke.  He gave a wonderful talk, most of which I actually got to listen to!  Then we had a preliminary dinner with the Claytons before dinner with my family.  Two Easter dinners, it doesn't get much better!

Moab Half Marathon!!!

It was Emily's fault, really.  She got Jane excited about running the Moab Half.  Then she got me excited about running it.  Then I told my sisters they should run it.  Then BAM, we had our team!  We were Running Scared!  (That was our team name)  I was kind of nervous about it since the most I had ever run in my life was 5 miles.  Once.  And it was awful.  A little girl passed me, I mean seriously!  So I actually trained for this race...and it was AWESOME!!!  My goal was to run 10 minutes miles, which I did!  (ok, it was just over 10 minute miles, but we had a strong headwind for most of the race, so I'm counting it!). I finished in 2 hours 16 minutes!  Which sounds like forever.  And it kind of is.  But for my first half marathon, plus hauling around the bun in my oven, I'm so proud of myself!  Running for two is definitely different than running for one.

And since I somehow managed to lose my camera the day before (so sad), I had to steal these pictures off Emily's blog.  Thanks Em!

Jane, Megan (Em's runner friend), Emily, Melissa, me, Jennifer.  It was so fun to run with my sisters!!  And I include Emily and Jane when I say that.  Emily and Jennifer ran the 5 miler because they were recovering from injuries, and the rest of us ran the half!  We had such a fun weekend!  We stuffed ourselves with carbs at Pasta Jay's, explored downtown Moab, got ice cream, ate Subway, and stayed at a much cheaper motel in a town called Green River.  Anywhere in Moab was charging double and requiring a two night stay.  In retrospect, I would recommend staying another night.  Maybe next year!

After the run we went to Jennifer's brother-in-law's friend's house to shower and relax for a minute, then we headed off on an ETERNAL drive to a really cool place called Island in the Sky.  It was a mile in, mile out, which was probably really good for our legs after running 13.1 miles!  My knees were screaming at me (not used to running downhill...murder on the joints!), but other than that I felt great.

The only word that came to mind when we got there was VAST.  It was incredible.  Pictures never quite do reality justice.  Behind us is a crazy drop-off (we were on the "island in the sky") and beyond that was just...expanse.  As far as you could see.  It was really cool.

After our little hike (and LONG drive) we headed home.  We stopped in Price for dinner around 8:00, which was our first real meal of the day.  Not a good idea.  For the pregnant girl anyway.  I felt okay on the ride home, but probably because I was so stressed out because of the weather.  Melissa was taking a turn driving, and while we were in some super long canyon it turned to snow, which turned to driving snow, which was nearly impossible to see through in the dark on the slick road with oncoming traffic.  It was awful!  She was concentrating so hard on staying in our lane, that my job was to tell her when to turn her brights on and off.  I've never been so glad to get to Provo!  When Melissa got home she was sore in her shoulders from being so tense from driving, not sore from the race.  It was crazy!

It was such a great weekend, we had so much fun!  Can't wait to do it again!

Last One...Promise!

What vacation is complete without a trip to Disneyland?  Actually, based on past experience, a very good one!  Kids throwing up, being pregnant (every time), kids with hand-foot-mouth disease, kids who refuse to eat meals and think crackers are good enough...we've had some interesting experiences!  They love it though, and we always let them talk us into it!

We got there before the park opened.  The lines were unbelievable!  We went on a Wednesday (Tuesday?) with forecasted rain, not a holiday week.  It was packed!  Luckily the weather held out, but it was crazy to see how many people were there in the middle of winter on such a random day.

Pretend it's not sideways.  The kids were actually pretty good waiting in line.  Mostly.

Papa was nice enough to stay with the kiddos while Mike and I rode the Tower of Terror!  And then even take a picture of us when we were done.  Disneyland with three kids isn't possible (or at least any fun) without at least three adults.  Thanks Papa!

She snuck upstairs into Grandma's room.  She climbed something.  She emerged victorious!  All of Grandma's bracelets and a necklace.  She loves her pretties!!  

She even decorated herself instead of her sticker book.  This girl kills me!

This just makes me smile!

HB Valentines

When Sam found out we'd be leaving for California a few days before his school Valentine party, he asked if we could leave a few days later...so as not to miss the party.  I felt really bad he was going to miss it, so we had our own little party at Papa's beach house (because I didn't feel bad enough to postpone the trip).  We went to dinner (as a whole family!) at IHOP.  Literally the only restaurant where all 5 of us will eat at least one thing on the menu.  Needless to say, we almost NEVER take our kids out to eat.  It's just too hard!  Pay for misery?  No thanks.

So...we had our Valentine party when we got home, hence the dark pictures.

 We made Valentine envelopes, which I then filled with Valentines from their friends from home.  (Big thanks to all the moms who accommodated my early valentine request!)

 My babies!  

 We also decorated special cookies (graham crackers) with frosting and valentine sprinkles!

 Fortunately they loved it, and didn't realize that it was a copout for a lazy mom who didn't want to make sugar cookies on vacation.  

 I think their envelopes turned out so cute!  Pretty easy to tell who they belong to (Sam is obsessed with drawing robots, and Will is obsessed with Batman).

Sam wrote a very sweet valentine for Grandma and Papa:

"Thank you for all the nice things you've done.

You are great people, we're glad you exist.

And you're nice."

More HB Fun

We spent a lot of time at the hot tub (not quite warm enough for the pool), and the kids loved every second of it!  I forgot my swimsuit, so Mike and I had to make an emergency stop at TJ Maxx.  Because I also forgot a jacket.  I forgot more things on this trip than all other trips in my lifetime.  Combined.  Anyway, my swimsuit is really cute, but you'll never know since I was the one taking pictures.  :)

Love this!

It's always amazing to go from a climate where everything is either dead or looks dead to amazing planters with beautiful blooming flowers!  I couldn't get enough of it.

Maybe it was coached, so what??  Still adorable!  These boys love their little sister!

She totally had the whole relaxing-by-the-hot-tub thing down!

I just love all the greenery in SoCal!  Being so closely tied to the gardening business, it's hard to imagine a year-round growing season since ours is so much more limited.  Seems nice though.  :)

Looking at all these pictures again really makes me want to go back.  Thank goodness Spring is finally starting to emerge around here!

Huntington Beach Feb 2011

We like to take a winter trip to Huntington Beach every year, which is always rejuvenating in so many ways.  It's nice to get away, it's nice to have warmer weather, and most of all, it's nice to see green plants!!!  February tends to be a dreary month in Utah.  The inversion is ugly.  The plants are ugly.  The weather is just plain cold and ugly.  It's so nice to get away to our little slice of heaven!

This is a total classic Will face.  He's our little goofball!

I love these brothers!  

Cuteness by the fountain.

I love my little buddies!  

Caution: Extreme Cuteness

I may be a little obsessive about it after having two boys, but I love all the girly, cutesie stuff that I get to do with Molly!  I love headbands and curlers and flowers...the whole shebang.  And I love that she loves it!  Today she told me her favorite color is pink.  Pink!  Ah, so girly.  So great.
(I wouldn't care if she loved blue and bugs...but I've done that, twice.  It's so fun to have a change!)

Winter Cluster

Every year we have a "winter cluster" birthday party in the Clayton family.  Because it's when all the cool people have birthdays!  Within a month, all of us get to celebrate!  This picture does not include Thomas or Jeff, whose birthdays are in the cluster within the cluster (Thomas: Jan 25, Mike & Jeff: Jan 26, Molly: Jan 27), or Alta.  Also, one person in the picture is officially out of the cluster.  But he wasn't technically part of the family anyway...

Daddy and his little Princess!  I can't help but just love her little piggies.  They're so cute on her!!

The boys thought it was hilarious to pretend to be Papa and wear his reading glasses.
(Sorry Jane, he was in a lot of my pictures!)
(Sorry Nelson, I know you wish you could be part of a real cluster too.  Maybe some day we'll have enough Spring birthdays to form one officially.)

California Girls...

Ain't got nothin' on this Utah girl!  (Don't you hate it when you get really dumb songs stuck in your head?  Thanks Katy Perry.)

I got some great pictures from our February trip to Huntington Beach (which I still need to blog), but this one is my fave!  These boys love their sister!  Molly is hilarious, she can definitely hold her own against them!  They're really cute with her though.  Even when she's bugging them, they seem to have extra patience with her that they just don't have for each other.  Baby steps, right?

Good Times

It's always fun to see what kids come up with when they dress up...

Little Miss Accessories.  This kid always has something on her head, wrist or ankle.  Often all three.  And she loves to wear "goggles" which could mean actual swimming goggles or sunglasses.  As long as she can wear it, she doesn't care!

I was out in the garage for a minute, and when I came back in I discovered Molly dancing in a puddle of chocolate milk on the counter.  2 is such a fun age!

Just a Little Behind...

And now I can't even remember exactly when we took the kids hiking.  This one was probably September, and it was a lot of fun!  We've taken them on this hike before and they love it.  It's up Little Cottonwood Canyon. 

 Molly was patting the back of his neck and saying, "Mama."  Haha, Mike didn't love the whole "mama" thing!

 Close up of where Mike took the boys while Molly and I waited at the bottom.

 The boys are a tiny dot up in the left corner, just below the trees.

My awesome little hikers!  They lead the way and set a good pace for the rest of us!

This video was when Molly and I were waiting for the boys to come back for their steep excursion.  I think it's hilarious, but Mike isn't amused.  He's glad she calls him the correct name now!