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.

A week in Paradise!

So, our vacation to the Bahamas was AWESOME!!! We had a vacation of a lifetime! Wahoo!!! It was so amazing. It was so nice to be able to just be together and have so much care-free fun! We felt like little kids all over again!
We loved every minute of it.

We stayed on Paradise Island at a resort called Atlantis for 5 days. This picture doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.



We stayed in a five star hotel and because of some room confusion, we got a room upgrade, so we ended up in a suite! SCORE! It was really fun for us.



Here is the trip in a nutshell:
Swimming in the aqua/blue bath water warm ocean..aaagghhh





Flying down some out of control water slides at the aquadventure water park. (one slide went so fast and so straight down that our backs didn't even touch the slide. It shot us underground through a clear tube that was in a pool of sharks.)

Very fancy business dinners: it was fun to get all dressed up and eat dinner next to the pool with really fancy tables, a band from the Bahamas, candle light, and enough food for an army. (there were 1000 people there from Ben's company, 500 employees and each brought a guest)





Chillin out in our awesome room with an amazing view, watching the olympics, with no interruptions.





Awards night: Another fancy dinner where Ben was recognized for all he did this year. Go Ben!



There were so many other awesome things about the trip, but it would take too long to write every detail, so we just posted the main ones. We soaked it all in and had to pinch ourselves often to really believe we were there. It was great! We are already anxiously hoping for another chance to do this again sometime.




We had a great time and our kids also had a fun week with grandma. She took wonderful care of them, and we didn't have to worry about them. Thank you grandma!

This is great! Makes me laugh every time.

photo booth prank...sooooooo funny!

Fun in the yard

So, my children spend approx. 80% of their time in the yard. NOT KIDDING! They spend the other 20% wishing they were outside. So, I decided to take some pictures of them in their world.

YIPPIE SKIPPIE!!!!!

So, we have two new additions to our family. One is our tadpole, which we have had for a while, but he now has sprouted legs!!! He was the weirdest looking creature ever and now he is just flat out ugly! His little legs are kind of cute though.
We were in Wal-Mart looking for yet another goldfish, and we found these cool tadpoles. We had to bring one home. It is pretty amuzing watching him mutate into all sorts of funny looking things.

We also have a gold fish in the tank, but he was camera shy. The fish's name is Raddy and the tadpoles name is Taddy. Yes, Mary named them.
The picture isn't the best, but you get the idea....right?

The other addition is our DOG!!!!


We have been waiting FOREVER to get a dog. Finally, we have a yard, so first thing first, we must have a dog to put in it. Our family is now complete. ;)
We looked at a lot of dogs but he was the one for us. We are sooooooo excited! Wahoo!
He is a lab/husky mix (isn't that a rad mix). We got him three days ago. We totally scored and got him for free. He is adorable and we love him!! His name is Chamonix (sha mo nee). If any of you have seen any Warren Miller movies, it should sound familiar to you.
We have really wanted a dog to take running, hiking, walking, swimming, ect. We are pumped! I took him on a 5 mile run this morning thinking that it would totally wear him out. After 5 miles of being drug all over town (he has the husky instinct to pull, and I am suprised my arms are still in the sockets), I came home exhausted and he was still ready to party!! Looks like we found the right dog.
Who knows, maybe we could hook him up to the car and save on gas. hhhhmmmmm
p.s. His eye was watering when I took the picture. That line going down his face isn't really there, it was just a sad little tear. Everybody now.....oooohhhh, poor pup! He was just pouting because he couldn't come inside and destroy our new home, nothing serious.

GOD BLESS AMERICA...land that we love

We are so grateful to be free and to be in this beautiful country. We won't forget all of those who have paid and currently pay a severe price to grant us our freedom and what we have today. We pray that the Lord will bless and keep all of us in the years to come. This is a blessed land and we know that it is only through the grace of our loving God that we have this amazing gift. From the bottom of our hearts...we are proud to be Americans.

WAY TO GO BEN!!! and another 24 quote for the day

The day after we moved here, we got word that Ben made Diamond level this year with his company, Cintas. This means that he is in the top 5% in his division in the country!!! It is a really bid deal. As a result of that, we get an extra day in the Bahamas!!! I am so proud of him and all of his hard work he has put in. He has really worked hard and put in a lot of time and effort. Go Ben!

We watched 24 the other night, and heard another classic quote...ready...

"Jack, I am sorry if I may seem a little distant, I am still just getting used to you being alive."
Yet again, I had to pause and laugh my head off. Great show!


p.s. for anyone who wants to get ahold of us our phone numbers are
208-360-0493 Becky
925-989-7759 Ben
runorbust@gmail.com Becky
maynard.ben@gmail.com Ben

Home Sweet Home

We are officially here in Colorado springs! We are done unpacking and are now just finding our way around and LOVING the scenery and the awesome town!
Our trip here took about four days. It actually went really smoothly considering we had two cars, two kids, and four days on the road. The only down fall was Mary getting bit by a black widow on our second night in the motel. She ended up throwing up for the next two days, and was very sick and miserable. Lucky for me, she was in the car with me, so I got to smell it and clean it up every hour our so. BLAH!! We felt so bad for her. She is a tough kid though, and she is o.k. now. We really can't complain, because the trip was way better than expected.
After just being here almost two weeks, I think it is safe to say that WE LOVE IT HERE!!! Holy smokes, we knew we would like it here, but this place is incredible! It is gorgeous! We are right next to the mountains and we can't get enough of them. Everyone is so friendly and our ward is great. What a place to live!
The elevation just about killed us our first few days. We have been living at sea level for 14 months now, so coming here to 6800 feet literally knocked us off our feet. The day we moved in, we just unpacked out mattress and put it in the living room. We spent that evening laying on it with headaches and trying to breathe. Not fun! We had some killer migranes and have been really foggy headed and tired. Going up the stairs makes us feel like we just ran a few miles. We are getting used too it though. I even went running the other day and didn't completely die.
We love our house and we feel blessed to be able to get the home in time. It was a close race. We are renting until we find a house to buy, but we really like this one and wouldn't mind being here for a while. The kids are totally loving having a yard, and so is mom.
Anyway, this is getting way too long. Just wanted to let you all know we are here and we are so happy to be here. Thanks to everyone for posting comments. We love them and it is so great to hear from all of you.

A shout out to 24..the best show ever created

As many of you know..I LOVE LOVE LOVE the show 24. AAAAHHHH, if only I were watching it right now. Anyway, we were watching it the other night (taking a much needed break from packing) and I heard the best quote ever. It is now my favorite quote, so I have to post it. Ready everyone...

"The only reason you are still conscious right now, is because I don't want to carry you." -Jack Bauer-



If you haven't seen the show, this may not be funny at all, but I about died laughing, and had to pause the show to regain my composure. Oh, the simple things of life. Aren't they great!

Bring on the chaos!!!!

So, as I said in our last blog, we had to leave Idaho early because of illness (Mary was sick with croup, and Ben's mom was sick). Little did we know...that was just the begining.
We got home from our trip Tuesday at 2:00am and by Thursday Sam was sick with croup as well. He was up ALL night Thursday night, and by Friday morning he could hardly breathe, and a little voice was telling me something was really wrong, so I took him to our pediatrician.
Right when we got there, she hurried and shot him in the leg with epinepherin, which is now a fat bruise in his thigh. Sam's was really struggling to breathe. That didn't work as well as planned, so she shot him in the other leg with some type of steroid. I was pretty freaked out by that point. She put him on a nebulizer for the next ten minutes and suprisingly, he sat still for that. After monitering him for a while, she didn't have anything else in the office that could help him, so she sent us to the hospital. We spent the next day and night there.
Poor Sam was poked and prodded for the next few days. He had an I.V. in one hand, a moniter on his toe, X-rays, ultrasounds, blood work, ect. It was an interesting night because Sam tosses and turns and he kept getting tangled in his I.V. and his moniters. It was nuts. We didn't really sleep.
To top it all off, he was not allowed to eat any solid foods. They were afraid that his throat was still pretty closed and the food would get stuck. The poor kid was starving by the time we got out of there.
When we finally got the o.k. to leave the hospital we went to pick Mary up at the Lupoi's house. (friends of Ben) They were so nice to let Ben and Mary sleep there and to take Mary the next day.
They have a lizzard there that eats red ants and Mary brought the container of ants over to me because she wanted to feed the lizard. As I was saying no and grabbing the container, it spilled and red ants went everywhere! We all flipped out!!! Mary cried, Ben tried to get some of them and ended up getting bit a few times (which is actually pretty painful), Sam was trying to pick them up, and I was staring in disbelief! We found the raid and finally killed all of them. We had to vaccum them up off the carpet and wipe down the desk they were running around on as well. We went on an ant hunt through the rest of the house and killed some stragglers. We felt soooooooo bad! It wasn't even our house! AAAGGHH!!!
We left the house clean, but smelling very strongly of raid. What a way to repay people who totally helped us out. Wow.
So, now we are home and furiously trying to pack. We are moving in a week and planned on using the weekend to prepare and find a house. Obviously that didn't happen, so now we are in crunch time and frantically trying to secure a house and get packed.
To top it all off, Mary woke up this morning with Pink eye..yippee, can't wait to see how quickly that spreads.
And there you have it...another Maynard adventure to add to the rest.
The End

Our rockin' awesome vacation

Our vacation to Idaho was a blast and we loved it! We planned on spending equal time with both of our families. Due to illness, we didn't get to see as much of Ben's family as we hoped. We did have a great time with them though and we love them just the same. Below are some pictures Lonnie took while we were with them. We aren't sure why they are small, but hopefully you can still see how good they are.

We love reunions

We must say, the reunion was a HUGE success, and we loved every minute of it. We went to the temple, went waterskiing, had lots of bonfires, I did a Mary Kay party (picture of us holding our Mary Kay "goods" is below), we attended the Academy Awards, visited with friends and family, celebrated my Birthday, shot stuff, did crafts, hung out with great grandpa,and a whole lot more. I probably posted WAY too many pictures than any of you care to see, but we had a blast and we love to share our good times with friends and loved ones. We can't wait until next year when we can do this all over again.