I Cut My Hair

Actually, I didn't. But I had a similar experience to Char's where I went to upload a blog about just one experience and then discovered a wealth of pictures I had forgotten about that maybe you want to see. So here they are, sans haircut. 

Mom and Dad came! 

Here are the boys talking about the strange world of MLMs. (as if I didn't get enough of this topic all day every day)

Doug--presh!

And Sydney--....!

Billy got a new big 'ol mower! It is like a chariot and he can zip around his lawns like a crazy guy, except that he isn't even zipping around any lawns cus he hired some guys to do it for him! Yep, we have employees and equipment and a real live business. 

I don't know if that video worked, but I hope it did because it is joyous. So yeah, the business is booming and Billy is busier than ever. We love it!

In a strange twist of fate, there was a fire at Morinda. We all had to be evacuated and made jokes about Vivint just starting fires everywhere they go and doing it for job security because everyone needs a home automation system, even noni buildings. Nice try, Vivint. The fire trucks came and put it out in two seconds and we all went back to work. 

Me and Billy went bowling all by ourselves, which was fun but bowling is just more fun with a lot of people. Haha and neither of us bowled over 100. 

More of Billy mowing. On Saturdays I usually just go for a nice long run then drive around with Billy while he finishes off some work.

Here is a beautiful picture of a place I ran to! 

Then (this is the whole point of this blog) this weekend we went camping! It was so fun and so wonderful and so not even cold or rainy or snowy at all! We discovered a new camping spot and even found a place where we didn't have to pay. Woot! 

Sweet picture, eh?

Cool camping spot, complete with coursing river, wild trees, private fire ring, open meadow and beautiful mountain views.

I couldn't get Billy to hold still long enough to get a good picture except when he was taking a picture of me. 

Beavers are so crazy! They do this with their TEETH! 

Every time we go camping Billy practices starting a fire with nothing but his flint 'n' steel. He would have had great success this time, but everything was so wet from a week's worth of rain that it just wouldn't work and we eventually had to get some dry newspaper from the car. 

It was such a joyous camping trip! 

And now we know it is really spring/summer because the snails are coming back. This poor little guy hung out on our screen all weekend until there was a monstrous wind storm on Sunday and blew him right off! Now his butt is just still the screen and heaven knows where the rest of him is....ew...

But notice the sweet shed in the background that Billy built! It is chock full of all your wildest landscaping dream tools/equipment!

Two weeks and Billy and I will attempt to run a marathon through the mountains of Utah and then two months after that and LaDon and I (and maybe Billy!) will run 50k/50m through the mountains of Oregon! 

And that's pretty much it! Nothing too exciting here, but we are happy as can be and busier than you might think. Also, so few days until the family reunion! 

Proof: Billy runs up the Y!

Yesterday was a momentous occasion as Billy ran up the Y for the first time! (Y? To reclaim the Y at the end of his name! )

Ok anyway, it was joyous and awesome and he was a beast and ran up the whole thing and then some!

Not hard to believe, but just in case you need proof: 

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/y-mountain-trail-undergoes-spring-cleaning/article_f28f405a-797e-532b-b8f9-8773cb82887d.html

What a champ!

Billie's Back!

So Billy was gone this whole week to go compete at the PLANET Student Career Days in Fort Collins and defend his title as the national champ of pavers. I was so nervous for his competition! 

One day while he was gone I came to work and our facilities manager came by and was like.. ok, everyone, pack up your stuff! We're all moving to the other side of the building! haha we were like.. what? Why? So it all turned out that Vivint has a building in Lindon that had caught on fire and so we just said, 'Hey, move in with us!" and thus, they are now renting half of our building and we all enjoyed a wonderful few days of moving all of Morinda over to one half of the building. It is joyous! 

When I was packing up, i felt like I was someone in a movie that gets laid off and leaves with their box of stuff and a plant on top. luckily, I wasn't getting laid off. 

We're all a lot closer than we used to be, seeing as we used to each have 2 or 3 empty cubicles around us and now there is not a spare cubicle in sight. It's weird but fine. 

So anyway. The workplace. 

So since Billy was going to be gone over the weekend I decided to take a trip down to Zion where there was going to be a half marathon and I thought it was an ideal situation to advertise for the Top of Zion Relay (which, side note, I started working for them at the beginning of this month. It's fun and good and very close to what I always wanted to do but also somewhat like the 2ft prosthetics adventure, so we'll see if I end up in Tonga or no longer a part of it in a year). anyway, I convinced CJ to come with me and we had a grand trip. this is how it went: 

Friday night I left work and drove to Manti and went to the temple with CJ and Eric. Live session! Cool! But sad that Billy wasn't there. But still cool!

Then Saturday morning, CJ and I both got up a half hour late, scrambled around the house and put together some snacks and bottles of water and jackets and who knows what else to drive down to Zion. And we drove down to Zion with Emery and Brooke and Ram. joy! 

We drove for miles and miles, through beautiful scenery and my excitement and anticipation for Zion and CJ's first experience there was just growing every second until 2 hours and hundreds of miles later we arrived in La Verkin, the city right outside of Zion and i was just fantasizing this wonderful moment of buying an annual park pass when i realized--I didn't have my wallet! And I told CJ and she realized--she didn't have her wallet! And she looked at the gas gauge and realized--we were on empty! And I was just distracted thinking--oh no! How will we get into the park!? 

hahhaah there was MUCH laughter. I will let CJ do the glorious telling of this story, if she so chooses, so check her blog one of these days because it was hilariously hilarious and if we hadn't looked like forlorn, disheveled women with 3 hungry children and scraggly hair, we may just still be sitting in the parking lot of the La Verkin Davis Market at this very moment. 

BUT (spoiler alert) we aren't, and we did manage to get some money so that we could get into the park! And get some gas, which i guess was also important (haha). We advertised at the race then had a quick trip through Zions, which was WONDERFUL!

We went on a hike and Brooke and Ram wanted me to take their picture every 5 seconds, which was joyous

And then we drove home, with just a few extra dollars for some much-needed lunch!

CJ and Eric then spent the night at Stake Conference and then Prom, so i got to spend some time with the chaldrens! 

Keep reading! The best part of this whole blog is about to occur!

So while i was wondering around southern Utah without my wallet, Billy was competing in snow and rain at PLANET and I was so nervous! Sunday morning he told me he didn't get as good a score on his pavers as he thought, so he was nervous about how they would compare to the other people! (I later found out his score was 195 out of 200 so come on. That's like almost perfect)

Anyway, Sunday morning they had the awards ceremony and Billy texted me to say that HE WON!!! Woohoo! Defending champ defends his title to the last and comes away with the gold!

The only dorky part is, as you can see, his name is spelt Billie. Haha his supervisor has a daughter named Billie, so of course, that is what was submitted as his name. hahah so good job, Billie. I'm proud of you, no matter how girly that certificate looks. 

i wish I had the pictures of his paver patio, but it was pretty much just like last year's and very simple, so too bad. Bottom line, Billy dominated all those people. Just look at THIS and it will be clear why. (but keep in mind that this is a work in progress too)

Anyway, that's all. I started a giant cross stitch like Jamie's and I started running again (knee injury) so all is well. And the best news? Billy's back!

FIF. TEE. MIGH. UHLS!

It's official! I'm running my first 50 miler this July!

Holy 50 miles! That's a very long distance and I am STOKED!

During my research of this race, which not only initiates my life dream of becoming an ultra marathoner but also marks another state off my list (Oregon), the site presented a solid 4 lengthy paragraphs in way of course description. I read with great delight every description of every turn along the rocky trail and every mountain view I would experience and which of the three aid stations I would encounter when and was all very excited and even exhausted by the time I got to the end of the 4th paragraph, only to then read "From Siskiyou Gap, the return is the same route as going out."  

Yes, those 4 paragraphs were only describing the first half of the race. I will actually be running 8 paragraphs worth of words! (and I'm sure I'll have much more to say about it when I'm done!)

All and any are invited to attend and help carry my crippled, limp body from the finish line to the car afterwards (and after you first carry LaDon's once he finishes the 50k on the same day!) (Joking, of course, LaDon is going to dominate it!). It is going to be a grand adventure!

Winter isn't so bad!

Winter hasn't been so bad for us because we have been having a lot of adventures!

Awhile ago we ran up Squaw Peak and Billy rocked it!

I didn't know for sure if he would be good running up the whole thing or even if I would because of too much snow, but Billy just charged right up it and it wasn't even that hard and it was very beautiful!

Running in the winter isn't so bad if you can still run up mountains!

Whenever we grill, like these delicious bbq chicken vegetable kabobs, Billy wears the new headlamp he got for Christmas. haha Grilling in the winter isn't so bad with the proper equipment.

Billy found a steal of a deal on a new pipe, which he badly needed because his was so dented and beat up, not even his dirt biker expert friends could fix it with their specialty pipe-fixing tool. So on a warm day, Billy got to fix his bike and I took Billy's mom to the store, since she has only just recently been able to walk on her foot.

We went on a winter adventure like last year to the nation's biggest white fir with the landscape club. It was quite fun and there was a guy there from Alaska who started this great landscape business when he was a lad and so Billy got to learn a lot of cool stuff from him while we were tromping through the snowy forest. 

Winter isn't so bad for such a big tree!

For months (ever since we were surrounded by wolves while camping at Payson Lakes and realized we had no defense to protect ourselves) Billy has been consumed with finding the perfect knife. Well, he finally found it and it came last week and it is sweet and hardcore and intense and will protect us from wolves!

So, since winter camping didn't seem so bad with such a handy knife and it's not even winter in Green River anymore and Billy will be too busy with getting the business up and going (since it's not even really winter in Provo anymore) at the time of the Green River trip in a couple of weeks, Billy and I took a little weekend jaunt down to Green River for a good 'ol ride 'n' run.

We got there after it was already dark so i was pretty freaked out about, well, just anything that can happen in the wide open desert (I can't believe when I was single I would just go camp without a tent in essentially the same place with no knife or anything and feel fine about my safety) (just a little more paranoid in my old age:) but when we woke up, it was a beautiful desert landscape of joy!

The Utah desert is one of my favorite places! Not so bad in the winter!

(notice the hardcore knife hanging off of Billy's waist. He's so proud!)

Billy was pretty pumped to use his knife to chop wood. It is certainly an intense knife and lived up to the hours of research that found it.

So we rode and ran. Billy can go so so fast on his bike! So he would zoom off into the horizon for miles and I would just run behind and then he would turn around after a time to make sure I was still alive and hadn't gotten lost by forgetting to turn at the pile of cactus (easy to get confused out there. you wouldn't believe how much your most dependable landmark looks like every other dependable landmark out there)

It was so fun! And Billy got to ride like a madman, which brought so much joy to my soul. 

So our outdoor passions aren't so bad in the winter!

And business, as I mentioned, is already up and going. Yesterday Billy went and did a bid on an install for this property, which is a church that a man bought, gutted and built 15 apartments inside. Pretty wild! That stained glass window is someone's living room window! Crazy!

It was good, we hope we gets that job cus it would be sweet. 

And now I am sitting outside on my lunch break, not a shiver in my bones because it's at least 55 degrees out here. 

Winter isn't so bad after all:) 

My Zoey Necklace

This is a post I took pictures for and meant to post long ago, but it is just finally making its appearance. 

Thank you for whoever contributed to the precious little necklace I now wear every single day. I don't know all who was in on it, but it was a surprise when I found out you got it (long ago in October) and I figured you probably all wanted to see it, if you haven't in real life already. 

Those are Zoey's actual real toes! So tiny. The beads are just for decoration. 

Not even as big as a quarter. 

I love this little guy because every day when I'm eating breakfast I look at my pictures of Zoey and when I'm leaving the house I always wish I could take her with me somehow! And then I am happy to remember that I'm wearing her little toes around my neck and that is good enough for me. They made one for Billy too, that he could carry on his keychain if he wants. So thank you for getting me and Billy such a perfect gift!

I won't mind if you ask to see it up close next time we are with each other and it is better in real life too. I know it's not really fair that I wear it at just the right spot where everyone can see what it potentially is but it's a little too close and personal to just peer right up next to it and get a closer look. But I'm happy to show you when we're together. 

Thanks again!

The Break

You are now experiencing the end of my break from blogging in a blog about what happened during that break. 

If you would like to experience this more fully, scroll all the way to the bottom of this post and read from the down up. Or, you can just go with the option of following the picture uploader that obviously also has a break and read about our last month, out of order!

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Now we are just trucking along and hanging out. Billy started school and is going to build a shed in our back jungle yard and that's about it! Thanks for enduring the backward break blog, hopefully it was still enjoyable!

Since then we traveled down to Monroe for Viana's baptism and Emery's blessing--crazy that Viana is old enough to get baptized! She did great! And crazy that CJ now has our whole family, 5 kids! Emery's blessing was also great. 

That orange spot at the point of the mountain where it looks like that contrail begins is where we hiked to. Pretty dang high!

The small summit you can see poking out in the second layer of the bottom right hand corner of this picture is Angel's Landing, the legendary hike of Zion's (you can see my hike of it here to remember how intense it was) and I thought it was like the highest thing in the world when I hiked it last year and yet we were towering over it! We were pretty high. I was pretty scared. 

But it was good cus in the morning we got up and hiked to the highest point in Zions and were the first to make it there in 2014 (though we had some contenders hot on our trail) (not really, we killed them. But they were friendly). It was a gorgeous hike and a crazy view and we had so much fun.

Billy was super pumped when he managed to start a fire with the flint and steel and little cotton tinders that the Lindes gave us for Christmas. Thanks, Lindes! 

We set up camp and then, I'm only a little ashamed to admit it since I slept through most of it, but watched Avengers in our tent with the hope of staying up until midnight. (obviously didn't work). In fact, I woke up right as the end credits came on and asked Billy what time it was and we laughed our heads off when it was 12:02! Haha we totally missed the new year countdown. 

For New Year's we took a trip to Zion's. Has anyone in this family even ever been there? Well, you should go! It was fantastic.

Ok, fast forward again, we went to Colorado Springs after Christmas for a few days and that was also very fun. Upon arriving we were pleased to see that the Peak was very clear and had hardly any snow and immediately went to drive to the top (I have been to the summit every year since like 7 years ago, and I was thinking that this year would be the first I would not make it up! Close call, making it up on the 29th!) Once we got up there, it started snowing like crazy, and we took a quick look around and a few pictures (all while squealing with joy and showing Billy every rock and cloud that holds such fond memories) before the ranger kicked us off. Dad drove like a champ. 

Also, backtrack, the day before Christmas we still hadn't give the Carters their presents so we took a little trip down there but didn't arrive until like 11 at night and so just set up camp in the front yard! When the Carters woke up in the morning first CJ was surprised and then we worked out a scheme where CJ told us when everyone woke up, we rang the doorbell then jumped back in the tent and they found a joyous surprise on their lawn! It was so great, we just heard Ram open the door and go..."that is crazy!" It was so much fun to go and finally meet Emery, who is precious and huge!

and Christmas was so fun and good. Billy spoiled me silly and I just wrapped up some dirt bike parts for him that he'd already bought for himself and made him that sweet poster (which says I got him a subscription to his dirt bike magazine) but it was still great. 

I had a Christmas miracle and found my wallet in a place where I had looked a thousand times before. 

I took some time this break to finally clean out our Relief Society closet! I wish I had remembered to take a before picture, because it was just a disaster, but here it is now! We had enough paper goods to supply every ward for every activity from now till kindgom come and tons of gratuitous craft supplies (seriously, who keeps the old plastic cups they used to hold paint water in for one activity in the '70s?) and more tablecloths than every stake in zion could ever hope to use. It was very great.

We were pretty happy with it!

We didn't put enough effort into getting a real tree, so we used what we had and enjoyed a tropical Christmas

For whatever reason we didn't even put up a single decoration until right before Christmas. So here is what we came up with three days before.

We started the month of December off with my Morinda work party. Though this picture is hideous for more than just the reason that we are wearing ugly sweaters, it is one of our favorites. The party was crazy. It was in none other than Costco. It was pretty fun, they had little games at which you could win money and then you had to spend whatever you won that night. Not too shabby. We got a huge bag of chicken and a lifetime supply of soap. Nice.  

Good job for deciding to scroll down to start, it will make more sense this way. Ready?