Tri to Stop Her

I have been trying for a long time, with little success, to get Abby to do a triathlon. Finally, with the persuasian of her good friend Brandi, she signed up for the Jordanelle Triathlon, held at Jordanelle Reservoir during August.



Abby trained in San Diego, doing her running along our sweet canyon trail, and her swimming at the clubhouse pool. She did some stationary biking at the gym, but had not even taken a ride on a real bike until the week of the triathlon. We taught her how to clip in and out of her pedals on the bike two days before the race. Luckily, she is a lot smarter than I am, because I fell over frequently learning how to do this simple act...she didn't fall once.



On race day, Abby headed to Jordanelle early. Sadie and I arrived, thanks to the Race Directors who gave us a three-mile walk to the transition area, just as Abby was getting out of the water and onto the bike. Sadie and I hung out and threw rocks into Jordanelle until Abby returned from the bike.



Abby quickly made the transition from bike to run, and was soon high-fiving spectators as she headed out on the 5k run. Unfortunately, this was right about the time the temperature was rising, and fast. (I don't understand why they started the race at 10:00 am, why not six or seven, and get it in before the heat...?)



Anyway, the next time we saw Abby was as she was rounding the corner to the finish line. She looked FANTASTIC as she crossed and put her arms up in relief!!
Just when I was thinking that Abby and I were going to be triathletes together for the rest of our lives, Abby crashed into my arms in exhaustion and said, "I am NEVER EVER EVER going to do that again!"



Despite Abby's angst and exhaustion, Sadie and I were proud that she endured to the end and is now officially a TRIATHLETE!!!




That's right....just Tri and stop her!!

Leaving on a jet plane

Chase took off about a week before us to drive our car across the country to our new home in D.C. Before he left we tried to squeeze in as much fun as possible. Here's what we did before Sadie and I headed on the plane (lucky us...can you imagine riding across the country with a two year old?) We let Sadie have her "bi bi"(pacifier) only on flights to avoid any unpleasant tantrums. Aren't we nice?
Pretty much our lives consist of carousels and more carousels. Every time she sees one, we have to ride. Lucky for us, she only demands one ride and doesn't want to make mom sick by going again and again. Here we are at the rides near the Alpine Slide in Park City.
I guess our parents always paid for us to ride the alpine slide. We had no idea how expensive it is...BE WARNED...it's like $10 a person, including Sadie!!
They were so funny about Sadie having her own seat on the lift. She wasn't allowed to sit on our laps but was allowed to sit in between us with a 12 inch gap between the bar and the seat. She totally could have fallen through. We put her on our lap as soon as the guy yelling at us was out of view.
Check out that enthusiasm. I will never understand Sadie's expressionless face whenever she should be looking...well... like me!!
More Carousels at the Hogle Zoo. This is truly one of my favorite zoos. You see the animals up so close and this is coming from someone who had a membership to the San Diego zoo.
Go Leopards!!!

The Ya Ya's!!

The best part about my 10 year reunion was having all my bestest buds in town (minus Kim...boooooo hooo). We got together as much as we could because we knew it would be a while again before we saw one another and our kids. Les just moved into a new house with an awesome back yard. She has quite the eye and has made such a beautiful home for her family. We all congregated at her home for a little play date with all the girls. Sadie had a ball going down the slide into the pool. Silly Sadie preferred to observe rather than play with Isabella and Lucy. Every once in a while we'd see them all running around together. These little tykes are so cute. It's funny to see how they all look exactly like their moms and Sadie is the only one who reads Chase all over her face. I can't wait until we can all get together again. Being with the girls always produces some of the funniest conversations ever uttered. Whenever we got together we stayed up as late as we could until Mo (new sleep deprived Mom) drifted off in her arm chair. Happy days. Kim if you are reading this, there wasn't a moment that we didn't think about you and miss you terribly.

You wouldn't know we had just moved here from San Diego. Sadie is about the pastiest little thing I ever did see!! Things haven't changed a bit. Les has always put our sun tans to shame and Lucy most certainly has inherited her beautiful pigments.

Yet another month has gone by!!

So I don't know if any of you remember March Madness about ...lets see...about 7 months ago. Well, to sum it all up, I wasn't at all interested but Chase tried to get me involved (to his advantage) by having me fill out my own bracket. By doing this, he hoped that I would have more interest in the games, and not be annoyed when the television was blaring morning, noon, and night with college basketball. Well, I gave in and filled out a bracket....my very first ever. I decided that to make it a little more interesting, we placed a bet and whoever won the most games, got something. I don't even remember what Chase asked for (I think it was an ice cream shake every night for two weeks). My reward was far more noble. I asked that he participate in these blog entries seeing that it is a blog about OUR family. The conditions to my winning would be that he had to do four blog posts (these posts will increase with interest the longer he waits to do them...I've decided that because it's been 7 months...he owes me about 4 more). As you might have guessed I won and Chase has only done ONE post since March. Some might say..wow...that's more than I can get my husband to do...rubbish!!! I've seen blogs where the husband actively participates and I think it's fabulous!! In Chase's defense...he thinks it's lame that all these guys are making him look bad (Resh, JR, Adam, Russ...the list goes on). So to rub it in I am going to do a post that has nothing to do with Sadie or me...how selfless you might say...why yes it is rather selfless. Mainly I want to show off how great my in laws are. They really are a handsome bunch. Chase and all his brothers (plus Pops of course) took a hike up to Lone Peak while we were in Utah. I was invited but deferred seeing that I was participating in a triathlon the next morning. From the looks of these pictures I think I would have been very out numbered, and not to mention, worn out!! Good job guys!!

10 Years!!!

While in Utah I attended my East High School 10 year reunion. I was one of those people who really didn't want to leave high school. I loved it!! I loved having all my favorite people under one roof all at the same time. It was also such a carefree time of life. No worries as far as the eye can see except an occasional nasty girl comment or a boy treating you like dirt (no one in particular...no brain storming now.) The day of graduation was a sad one for me so naturally I was VERY excited to return ten years later to see everyone again.
Chase wasn't too excited about accompanying me. If there's one thing I can say about Chase is he's pretty accommodating and will normally go along with whatever, but for some reason, he wasn't too keen on attending my reunion. I of course made him go with me anyway. I couldn't show up with out him. I needed him for support and also wanted to show off what a catch he is.
The best part of the story is that Chase LOVED my reunion. A bunch of my friends married guys that Chase either went to school with at Highland or are "really cool" in Chase's eyes. He spent the majority of the night talking to Spencer Jenkins, Tom Henriod, and Adam Beckstrom, Stan Bonnemort, and Behrad. It was a relief that I didn't have to worry about him but he was always available when I was sick of the small talk. Actually I was pretty surprised how little small talk there really was. Now that everyone blogs it's so easy to keep up with what they're doing. It made our conversations way easier and better flowing than the usual "where are you living now", or "what does your husband do." It was great. Lauren did a great job putting the whole thing together. I was very impressed with the whole event.
There were a lot of people that weren't able to make it but the greatest void was definitley our best friend Kim who had to stay home because her daughter Grace was diagnosed with Luekemia. She was sorely missed.

The Weber

On our way from the West coast to the East we had a little (three week) pit stop in Utah. I wonder if my parents are sick of us staying there for all of our "pit stops." Now that we are officially in one place (D.C.) there probably won't be as many in the future. We love visiting Utah. It was especially fun to go to the Cannon family cabin up Weber Canyon.

This is one of those places that could be compared to heaven. I love Weber Canyon. We had a great time throwing rocks in the water...of course...are you surprised? We also went on hikes, had boat races, and long conversations into the night after the kids were asleep. The best part was that the entire Cannon family was there.

This is pretty remarkable seeing that the last time we were all together (including missionaries) was like 10 years ago. I wasn't even a Cannon the last time they all congregated. The cabin is small and we fit all 11 adults, 6 kids, 3 toddlers, and 1 infant into it's walls. Here's some pictures:


Sadie and Dad looking for skipping rocks. I finally learned how to skip rocks after 20 years of living with a brother who could do it and gleak too. I never could learn his tricks. I've now mastered one of them.
I love love love this picture. She didn't know I was taking it and has such a happy, content look on her face.
The boat race!! It's a tradition in the Cannon family to make their own boats out of whatever and send them down the river in a race they call the "Regatta." Pops waits at the end to see who wins. The kids really got into it and Holden won the race!! Mills came in second. I think the Chris Cannon family is doping.

I hate goodbyes!!!

We've officially moved from San Diego and this time we took our furniture with us. It is so permanent now and that's probably what's making me so sad. Lately I've been a little blue. I don't know how anyone leaves San Diego with out getting a little depressed. I started writing this post a long time ago but couldn't finish it because looking at the pictures of where we started our little family were just too much to bear. I was such a baby the last week of my life in San Diego. I totally avoided phone calls and activities in fear that I would burst in to tears if someone even tried too say goodbye to me. At church I totally lied to everyone and denied that it was my last week in the ward. I am such a coward. I just hate goodbyes and there are so many amazing people in San Diego that I just avoided the whole thing altogether. Packing was a joke. I packed a box and then cried. Then I packed another box, and cried again. It wasn't pretty. I've never really been a fan of change and this just about did me in.

We did all of our favorite things one last time. It's a good thing San Diego is sunny because my sun glasses hid the tears as I said goodbye to Sea World, Shamu, the Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, the beach at Coronado, the nature trail behind our house and especially our home for the last two years. I am going to miss walking to the pool or hot tub. I am going to miss riding my scooter to the grocery store with my hair wet from the pool (it feels so good to ride a scooter with wet hair). I'm going to miss our friends. We made so many long lasting friendships during our time in San Diego. I'm going to miss Sadie singing "Shamu Shamu" every morning, afternoon, and night. I'm going to miss throwing rocks during our late evening walks on the trail. I am going to miss the beach!!!! Need I say more.

Sadie asks me EVERYDAY with out fail if we can go see Shamu. I get all misty every time she asks as I tell her Shamu doesn't live by us anymore. She says "I wanna see da shampoo show..can we go to seee wooold". I'm starting too get all choked up again just writing this. We might have to postpone the post until I am a little more stable:-) At the airport I made a complete scene and bawled on Chase's shoulder for a full ten minutes. However, it was kind of like ripping off a band aid. I just cried and cried but once I entered the airport I stopped. There was nothing I could do from that point on. I still get emotional thinking about it but we're excited to venture into a new realm of life in D.C. Wish us luck (and stability:-)

What a guy!!

Amongst all this chaos, I have failed to mention that Chase graduated from law school....tadaaah!!! Can you believe I forgot to blog about this!!!? What a HUGE accomplishment!!!! I am so proud of him and all that "mushy lovey" stuff you say about your husband. I guess it's kind of anti climatic seeing that we weren't in town for the ceremony and he still not officially done with school. He is finishing up his masters in tax at Georgetown this next year. When he graduates from this tax program, then we'll have all the pics of him in his cap and gown and all that jazz. Only then will he be officially done with school. And we will definitely be celebrating. But for the time being, after his last JD class we went to a restaurant we've always thought looked pretty cool called the Prado at Balboa Park. Chase got himself a celebratory coke and we enjoyed the ambiance of the lights strung all around. There was also a jazz band playing in the a block down the road so we were serenaded as well. Sadie was a champ and ate all our dinner as we nibbled on her grilled cheese. She's got some sophisticated taste buds that kid. I can't get her to eat a PB and J, grilled cheese or anything like mac n' cheese. She'd rather have our fettuccine pasta with artichokes, chicken and green onions. She cracks me up. When she doesn't want to eat something we offer her instead of putting her hands over her mouth she covers her ears and screams "no no no Mommy." While she's screaming we can usually get a few good bites in her mouth. Anyway, I'm going off the subject. Congrats Chase. You're quite a guy!!

Another late night!!

My cute friend Kristi Jones planned a little going away party for me before I head out to D.C. It was another late night. I think us Mom's are so starved for adult conversation that we really take advantage of it when it's there. Kristi rented out the theatre in her apartment community and we watched a total chick flick. Dan of course went way over board and got us each our own tub of popcorn. It was so fun. I came back to San Diego not even knowing these girls (minus Angela) and now I seriously feel like I've known them forever. You make friends fast in San Diego because people come and go so frequently. I'm definitely going to start girls night traditions when I get to D.C. It's essential for our well being. We had so much fun telling our engagement stories (the highs and lows of them:-) and getting slap happy late into the morning. Thanks Kristi for planning it and for sending me out with a bang!!