Montana

Here are some pictures from our Montana trip that we took in mid-August...Some things I'll remember...driving to Montana and back without Cory and stopping to use the bathroom 3-4 times each way. Brooklyn staying dry the entire trip. The pouring rain the entire trip there (serious rain!!) Visiting the Zoo, The Grand Bagel, Pickle Barrel, meeting Andrea and Katie for dinner....kid-less, going on an adult-only dinner with my family that included rocky mountain oysters (there seems to be a food theme here and I didn't eat any of the oysters!!), having a garage sale for my parents, antique shopping and finding an 80+ year old chandelier for $17 (soon to be Brooklyn's bedroom light), bike rides, playing in the waterfall, throwing rocks, late nights, talking with my dad on the porch swing, helping my mom go through her "stuff," playing card games, listening to my dad play piano and the kids dancing, and playing with cousins...just to name a few...

The kids always wanted to eat out back by the waterfall. My kids may or may not have thrown chicken nuggets in the water...

The kids with their cousin James

Sweet brother

At the Zoo--kind of a lame zoo but a zoo none-the-less. I love Brooklyn's arms behind her back. She walked the whole time and kept telling me she was "tired" but she didn't whine or cry. We were only there for about an hour anyway.

Brooklyn and Ethan with James

Brooklyn with Grandpa and his parents in background

To say that the kids were infatuated with the water is an understatement. They threw their rubber toys up the waterfall and watched it come down. They loved it!

My sister with her daughter Ashlyn

This is Briggs face when I told him he had to come inside

My parents have a beautiful garden

Briggs took this picture of me and Ethan. Sure love my little boy!

Kindergarten

Here's a look at our first-ever kindergardener!! And here's to many more first day school pictures to come! Briggs was so excited considering he's been ready for about a year!

This was him saying "happy first day of kindergarten."

Iron man it is...

You can see how he is walking how eager he is to get there quickly...

Way ahead of us...I don't think he's going to have hard time when we leave him...

Putting his backpack up

Sitting at his table with only girls...lucky boy ;-) Can you see Ethan in the background. He wanted to stay with Briggs...

I am also happy to report that no tears were shed ;-) He couldn't be more excited and we are excited for him!

Day 1-Utah trip

We took a quick trip to Utah this week and it was really quite fun. You never know if it is going to be disastrous or fun when you are only gone about a day and a half but it turned out great. We got to town around 5:00 pm and shortly after headed to dinner at the Mayan restaurant. The kids LOVED the divers! It was pretty fun.

After we got home we took the kids swimming and the boys pretended they were diving. It was a bit chilly so thankfully the hot tub was like bath water and we hung out there most of the time.

We finished off the evening with an episode of America's funniest home videos and a bowl of popcorn; which the kids loved!

Triathlon

This past Saturday Cory did his first Olympic triathlon. Cory's parents were gracious enough to take our kids on Friday night and keep them through Saturday afternoon (which the kids loved!).

Friday evening we headed up for a race meeting for "first-timers" and had a yummy potato bake dinner after that. We headed home and Cory spent about an hour getting everything ready for the next morning and he headed to bed around 9:o0 (and if you know Cory that is SUPER early for him).

At 5 am his alarm clock rang, in the form of a loud fake rooster and about gave me a heart-attack; I told him that if I'm going to wake up to a rooster it better be a real one and be on our own little ranch ;-). We grabbed some breakfast and around 5:30 we headed up to Rexburg to set up his bike in his first transition area and his running clothing in the second transition. It was pretty confusing to me the night before but made more sense as the morning went along.

Cory did awesome in the swimming and the biking but didn't exactly achieve his personal best in the running ;-). He said he can see why people get addicted to triathlons and he is gearing up for another and hoping to hit the running portion pretty hard.

I even think I would like to try for one next year after the baby comes and I get into shape; it was really inspiring to see all of these men and women come together in a common event. Cory said that everyone was really encouraging throughout the entire event and he really appreciated that.

I am really proud of him!!

When we arrived a little before 6 it was pitch dark but the sunrise was beautiful.

Checking out the water

Warming up. The morning was in the 50's and the water pretty cold.

The swimmers a few minutes before the race

And their off...1 mile swim

This picture only shows about a 1/3 of the bikes; it was a sea of bikes

Cory's bike--#19

After the swim and getting ready for the bike portion

Headed off to ride 26 miles. I met him on the trail about mile 22 and he was so surprised to see me there! He did awesome!

Starting the running portion...6.2 miles

His completion medal!!