Making Up Past Time

Thanks to a "friendly reminder" I am now posting once again after more than 6 months. Sorry about that. All I can say is time flies when you are having fun. Let me catch you up on what we have been doing since then.

Jeremy and Logann at Powell

I think that is called a rooster tail. Jeremy gave us a scare when he crashed super hard and started spitting up blood. He turned out alright though.

Riley LOVES Lake Powell!

Dax showing off on the knee board

I love to surf

Jeremy did the Utah 1/2 (70.3) triathlon. What a stud! We were so proud of him. Bree, Alex, and I wore t-shirts with his face on them to help cheer him on. That was an awesome day!

My first Olympic triathlon was frustrating having my watch stop working, losing my timing chip, and also losing my bike computer. It turned out alright in the end.

Dax's first day of school. What a big kid. He was ready and so excited to start kindergarten.

Grannie passed away this year. We miss her so much. This is our family at the Logan cemetery.

Jeremy and Dax went on a fishing trip with our friend Jason Norris.

Our kids playing at G-pa and G-ma's cabin in Lava Hot springs

Logann the bat, Dax the Dragon, and Riley Bug the Lady Bug.

Dax's Birthday Cake

Grammie Sally's first annual kid's K.

Thanksgiving Day Pinata. Watch out for Riley's swing!

Dax rode cousin Micah's horse. He was almost shaken off. It gave him a bit of a scare. Logann also wanted to ride one, but I wouldn't let her ride alone, so I hopped on the big horse with her. Riley got too cold and waited for everyone back in the car with Jeremy.

McCall and I wrote and illustrated a children's book about patience. We are hoping to get it published someday soon. If you want a copy, let me know.

Logann had to get out on the ice even when she wasn't supposed to. How could I say no?

Riley and Dax had a blast learning how to skate all by themselves.

Our water main started leaking this winter, and did some damage to our driveway. After much disagreement from the city we are going to have it replaced in the spring.

The first "snow daddy" and "snow kid" of the season

Riley's Birthday cake

We hiked the Zion River trail for Riley's Birthday. Turned out to be colder that day than we thought.

We went to Snow Canyon Sand Dunes with the Andrews, and Bartons.

We went back to the dunes with the Zollinger's a few weeks later.

Heckle, our African Swimming Frog died from over-saturation of tank cleaner by yours truly. So we took them to get a new fish, turtle, or frog. They picked out this cute fella. We named him Rocky.

Sarah's Wedding Cake

Sarah Norton (now Lewis) is one of my friends, Jeremy's assistant, and my second cousin. She asked me to make her wedding cake. I was able to practice and learn a lot from my mother-in-law, who is the master cake maker. She let me borrow all of her cake supplies, and answered all of my questions. I had a lot of them. This was a great cake to do because Sarah essentially let me do whatever I wanted. Pretty much, the only thing she told me to do was keep it simple, and have it be chocolate filled. The middle "cake" was fun to do because it was "rice crippie treats." (that is how my sisters and I say it.)
After many hours of preparation, stress of the unknown happening and ruining the cake, the final product was completed.
The only thing that I wasn't prepared for was setting the cake up, leaving it for an hour, and coming back to it all gone! All that work and it is gone in a blink of an eye. It was worth it, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope to do a lot more....

And the First to Cross is...Jeremy Andrews!!

Last Saturday Jeremy was in the Fire Road Mtn. Bike Race. He entered because his friends asked him to do it with them, so he signed up just for fun. I kept asking him if he was ready or nervous. He said that he would get out on his bike a few times and be okay, and that he was not nervous because he was just doing it for fun, and he was not going to try to win or get a p.r.
Race day came, and he said that he would call me when he got to the top so the kids and I could start heading for the finish line to watch him cross. Well, I got a call, so we went to the park where the finish was, and I asked one of the volunteers when the 60k racers would start coming in. She told me the first ones should be coming in about 15 min. The kids and I found a spot in the shade a ways from the finish line and started reading some library books that we just got, not thinking, or knowing that Jeremy was going to be the first one to cross the line. 15 minutes later the anouncer says "The first 60k rider is coming in, and it is Jeremy Andrews of Cedar City!" I said "What?!?!," and gathered my things, and the kids. We made a mad dash across the park with Logann in our dollar stroller, and Dax and Riley running as fast as they could, to find Jeremy throw himself off his bike onto the grass. His legs were blasted. His calves, and quads were in knots, and all that I could do was apologize for missing him cross again, (I also missed him cross the finish in his first marathon), and tried my best to rub out his legs. As Jeremy lay there, helpless, one of the newspaper journalists was interviewing him. Here is the article: http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20110710/SPORTS/107100311/Prenzlow-Newby-Fraser-win-inaugural-Fire-Road-race
Jeremy said he tried calling, but when I picked up he didn't answer. After the race was over I got a voice mail from him saying, "Nat, I'm going to win. Go to the finish!" That would have been helpful if I would have gotten that message BEFORE he crossed the finish line.
Jeremy's finishing time was 3:03.57
I left the camera at home, but luckily, I had my phone so I could take these high-quality photos so we can always remember that surprising day.
That was a fun day!

Cakes: A Fun Hobby

These are some of the Cakes I have made.

Broken Pot...

Yesterday, I was playing the piano after lunch and Riley showed me that my frog tea pot was broken. It was missing the handle and some frog legs. She told me that the missing pieces were at the dump. I was so, so, so sad because she had thrown all of the broken pieces away, and now I can't fix it. I don't know when she broke it because she doesn't understand time, whether it was yesterday or last week. When I asked her why she didn't tell me what she had done she told me that she cleaned it up by herself so I would be happy. She did a very good job cleaning it up. Dax didn't even know it was broken, and they are always together even when I am not around. Today I understand that she knew she had done something wrong, and didn't want me to get mad at her, so she tried taking care of the mess herself. I will have to work on teaching her what to do in situations like this in the future. I know this won't be the last time something special gets broken in this house.

The Time Has Come, The Time Is Now

Dr Seuss says it best in his book Marvin K. Moony Will You Please Go Now! "The time had come, so... Marvin went."
Dax is now a little boy getting ready to go to Kindergarten. I, unlike in the book, am not ready to to send Dax off to kindergarten. I think Dax is like Marvin. At the end of the book when it was time for Marvin to go, he happily went.
Yesterday I took Dax to South Elementary, home of the Eagles, to register for Kindergarten. We got all of the paperwork filled out, Dax's eyes and ears tested, and turned in. He is ready to go. On the way back to the car Dax told me that he didn't want to go to kindergarten yet because he is just a little scared. I told him that I wasn't ready to let him go yet either. We will wait and see how we feel come the end of Summer. Maybe I will be asking him to "go in an old blue shoe" or to "get a Ga-zoom" and "go with a....BOOM!". Maybe by then he, and I will be more than ready for the time to come.
I love my Dax Man, and have a hard time seeing him grow up so fast. That goes for my other children as well.

Sleepless Little Logann

Logann has been sick with a head cold for the past little while, but I'm sure she is over the worst of it. Now she won't fall asleep at night. For the past three nights she has been up crying. (Last night untile 1 am). We think she falls asleep, just to hear her start to cry again. We get her out and she still cries. Maybe it is the time change, new teeth coming in, her cold is still lingering, or that I left her little night time seahorse at Papa's house. Whatever the problem is, I hope it gets resolved soon. Jeremy and I can't handle many more sleepless nights.

Figured it out!

I have a great phone that my cousin Sher gave to me, and I have taken some pictures on it, but I have not been able to get them off of the micro disc onto my computer. Everyone told me to use the cord that came with it, but for some reason I couldn't get that to work. Then people told me to email them to myself, but I knew that I shouldn't do that because I don't want to rack up my cellphone bill. So I got online and found out that there is such a thing as a micro SD adapter. So I called all of my friends close by until I found one to borrow. Now after a week of trying to get the pictures off of my phone I was able to do it. Here are some of the pictures that have been hiding for so long.