Kids are growing up

So the boys are really growing up. They are starting to listen to us better, and learning a lot. They understand what we are communicating, and that is super fun now. They are picking up on words. Words that they say (though we might be the only ones to understand) are: please, more, cookie, shoes, juice, bye bye, milk, help, cheese, no, ball, papa and poopoo (they get those pixed up sometimes, sorry papa Craig) and that is all I can think of right now. They are so cute, they say "PEEEEZEEE" anytime they want something, and when you look down at them rubbing their chest (the sign for "Please") and a HUGE grin as they say it, it breaks your heart if you have to say no. Skyler can count to 3, but 2 is definitely his favorite number, 1 and 3 are hit an miss. We say 1, 2, 3... GO. He also mimics me when we go through books and say the colors, he also says apple. Connor can say GoGurt (their favorite after nap snack) and mama. As they are learning more, we aren't signing as much, but we still work on it, and I can definitely see how signing has helped with their communication.


The boys are also learning to play and associate a bit more with each other. They push each other around in the laundry basket (until they broke it) and in the toy cars. I think a language of their own is in the works, because they talk to each other and seem to understand each other, though we have no idea what they are saying. They like to sit next to eachother and eat their snacks on the couch. They love to jump on their trampoline, sing and dance. They like to head bob to rap music in the car. We go to the pool about once a week, and they love to go down the hydrotube slide. They really like balls and balloons, especially punch ball balloons. The boys go everywhere and keep us on our toes, and are seriously so much fun it is ridiculous!



I looked out the window and what did I see...... A chicken staring back at me!

That's right, we were sitting around one afternoon, and out of no where a chicken shows up on our front porch.



For Fathers Day I dressed the boys up (see below) but Skyler's shirt, boots and pants were on the big side, I asked David if he looked like he was going to go in to a school with a gun or something, but he said the tie pulled it together, but once we changed him out of his chirch shirt and tie.... I dunno, what do you think?


Sleeping Patterns:

Toddler beds have been a REAL challenge and we have to stay in there with them until they fall asleep. We did get a music player that projects an image on to the ceiling, and that seems to be helping. I think the fact that it stays light so long doesn't help very much either.

Connor still sleeps with his blanket in his mouth


Skyler loves to look at his books before bed


HAPPY FATHER'S DAY
In tribute to David for Father's Day, I would like to say how awesome of a Dad David is. He is so good with the boys, and so supportive of me. I couldn't have asked for a better guy. For Father's Day I got the boys all matching ties, and they looked SO cute for church. I had to speak in church, which was OK I guess. I got to get up and publicly make fun of David for forgetting me on Mother's Day. So I guess we are even!

Utah Summer Games Sprint Triathlon

So I know we haven't posted in a while, and I promise I will do a family post in the next few days. I wanted to do a post on the Utah Summer Games Sprint Triathlon I did last weekend (June 13, 2009). The triathlon consists of a half mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and a 5K (3.1 mile) run. I have been training a bit with the Southern Utah Triathlon club and learning so much. I am really enjoying this sport and changing it up from just running.

So to start out the day I woke up at about 5 AM and left the house with my bike stuffed in the trunk of the Jetta. I got to the lake and set up my transition station. Went and got branded with my race number, division and age on my arms and legs, then basically waited until my wave of swimmers left.

We got in the water, and it was chilly (thank goodness for the wetsuit Dana let me borrow). This was a new experience for me swimming around so many other swimmers, getting kicked, kicking others, running into people, dodging other swimmer, etc. I did the swim, and it was a little more difficult than I expected. This was probably the longest open water swim I have done thus far, and it didn't help that the water was a bit on the choppy side due to the overcast weather.

I got out of the lake, and walked/ran on the asphalt, that had tons of little rocks digging in to my bare feet, to my transition station, got dressed, put on my super cool new shoes and started off on the bike.

Now... anybody who has done this bike course know a little something about..."THE HILL!" This is a hill that is pretty steep and is about 3/4 of a mile to a mile long. You hit it about 3-4 miles into the bike ride. Up until this point I had not been successful at completing the hill without having to stop and walk at least once. This was the thing that made me most nervous about the race, because I was afraid if I got off, I wouldn't be able to get back on. Well, I am proud to announce I made it up the hill without stopping! I am super glad I got my road bike fixed up for this. I bought it about 8 years ago, never road it, and it has been hopping from garage to garage all this time, and taking up a permanent residence in David's Grandma's basement for the last 5-6 years. I took it in to the bike shop and asked what the lesser of 2 evils was, the half way decent mountain bike, or the old road bike. HANDS DOWN it was the road bike, and I seriously LOVE my "new" old bike!

During the bike ride it started to rain just a bit. It was nice because it wasn't so hot, BUT being from Vegas... land of the "slipper when wet" roads, this made me a bit nervous. I did take caution and had a safe bike ride.

Then I got off my bike, put it back, and started right on my run (keeping on my cool new shoes...that's why I got them, good for the bike and the run, since I don't have shoes that clip in to my bike pedals). As I exited the state park, what did I see... my ever so supportive hubby cheering me on! That was so great! I had a strong run, and about 2 miles in I started to wear a blister, since I wasn't wearing any socks. This didn't slow me down though! And I finished the race. Now, I am NOT built for speed, so my time wasn't the fastest, but I felt for ME.... I had a strong race. I didn't even stick around for results, I just packed up the bike and headed home.

We didn't have a camera, so here are a few pictures from camera phones

My transition station



David catching a photo on my run



See the Zazoosh (not so flattering) photos:

The Swim
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/215100807

The run
http://www.zazoosh.com/events/searchPhotos/215?evtId=215&query=262&x=0&y=0

I am bummed I didn't get a picture on my bike, so sad!

I notice that I squint my eyes, so I always look like I am in pain... I promise I'm not :)

Here is my results page as well, again, my times are not very good
http://www.milliseconds.com/participants/detail/805585139

Basically the times went like this:
1/2 mile Swim: 21:57
Transition S2B: 4:40
12 mile Bike: 56:38
Transition B2R: 1:20
5K (3.1 mile) Run: 31:53
TOTAL: 1:56:31

My goal was 2 hours, and I didn't even think I would do that, so mission accomplished!