Pikes Peak Hike

We did it!!! Wahoo!!! Last Saturday, Ben and I completed the hike to the top of pikes peak. This was no small walk in the park! It rocked our socks!
It is a 12 1/2 mile hike. We started at 7000ft elevation and ended at 14,110 ft. Needless to say, the last 3-4 miles of the hike we were a little short on oxygen.
It took us about 6 1/2 hours to summit. There was snow the last few miles and on top and it was freezing! It was so cool to be up there though and to take in the amazing view, wow! It was gorgeous!
A really nice girl in our ward watched the kids for us, so we were able to hike with just the two of us. It was really fun to be alone with Ben and just be surrounded with so much beauty. It was great!
I am so proud of us. We have hiked all summer to get ready for this. We have done 10 hikes with the kids on our backs and one hike with just the two of us. So far this summer we have hiked 11 times and camped twice.
We kind of have a freakish love of the mountains, but it sure keeps us in shape, and our kids love it too.
Hiking buddies are always welcome!
(The picture of the mountain is what the peak looks like from our house.)

Valley of Fire....Here I come!!!!!!

Hello everybody,
Yes, I am absolutely and completely officially INSAINE!!! I am going to be doing the Valley of Fire Marathon in 10 weeks. Yes folks, all 26.2 miles of it. I have been training for about a year now, and I am finally where I need to be. This is it!!!
I have run two marathons in the past, but those were before I had kids and my body was quite different. It has been a long journey this time to get to where I need to be. Much harder I must say.
The marathon is in Vegas, so it will be a 12 hour drive to and from. Total of 24 hrs in the car. Lots of time to think about the crazy decision I made before the marathon, and lots of time to sit and cramp up after running the marathon. ;)

Anyway, I am going to begin the long runs this week. Wish me luck! And uh, if anyone wants to do this with me...I would love you FOREVER!!! Common, you can do it! You get gatorade and a cool shirt ;)

Family picture time!

I am sure you all know the joy that comes with family picture time. You get the kids all ready, they get messed up while you get ready, you get the kids ready again, then they are hungry. You starve them so they don't get dirty and race them to the picture place before they can fall asleep or get dirty.
Once there, you get in a full day's workout making them laugh or smile at just the right time. Needless to say, we only do this once a year.
We were soooooo happy this time though, because we got some great pictures. Hooray! It paid off! So, here are some of the pictures. Welcome to our family. ;)

The rest of the pictures

More of us.

Mr. Toad

This week, Mr. Toad, our "tadpole," finally got his arms. He is now a complete frog. (however he still has his long tail...hhhmmmm) He got his legs a long time ago. He has been the ugliest creature we have ever seen, but really interesting to watch as he mutates.
I was in the pet store looking for a leash today (Chamonix pulls me so hard on our runs, that I literally have sprained my fingers where I hold the leash...time for further action) ANYWAY...I was in the pet store and decided to ask someone what a frog/tadpole/mutant eats.
I described our enourmous tadpole to the guy and he said, and I quote, "Holy Smokes..you don't have an ordinary frog, you have a bullfrog! Who the heck gave you a stinkin bullfrog!"
I came to find out that bullfrogs are a danger to the ecosystem and that I need a lisence to even have one. Thank you Walmart for not knowingly selling us a bullfrog tadpole thingy. Good ol' Walmart. And I thought I was being such an educational mother buying my kids a tadpole that they could watch grow.
So, the guy said that our frog will get so big that he will need to eat mice and small birds! EWE!!! We will also need at least a 20 GALLON TANK to hold him!!!! He will get HUGE and really really loud.
It isn't legal to sell him to anyone, or to give him away, so we just get to wait until he is enourmous, eats his tank-mate Mr. Goldfish, keeps us up all night, and then try to give him to some lab or some school biology department. Oh wow, and we thought a dog was a lot of work.