STP 2009

I love this race.

Seattle to Portland bike ride, all in one killer day.
We drive down to my parents' house to play and visit and relax
while he pedals and pedals - all day!

I love the finish line in the park in downtown Portland,
the sense of accomplishment and celebration there.
I loved marveling at:
how many calories Derek burned
that I think the DRIVE can be a little exhausting
the great variety of riders that do it in one day
how fast the actual winner must ride
that Derek gets FASTER every year!

AND that we got to the finish line less than 1 minute before he did!

Yikes. I couldn't even get my camera out of the case in time!
But it was perfect! We ate our picnic dinner and played in the water while he showered.

The girls were tentative at first, playing in the fountains and avoiding the water.
They got splashed little by little and it was all over!

At least half the fun was feeling like they were breaking some sort of rule
and getting TOTALLY SOAKED in their clothes!

Grace never got into it. She liked getting drinks with Grandpa's help, though!

And Carver was in HEAVEN. No hesitation with this kid.
I loved seeing him copy big boys and lie on the warm sidewalk
and imitate a racer who was washing his hair in the water.


I know Derek's considering the Ramrod next year instead of the STP...
but can it possibly be as much fun?!

Utah or bust

I shoulda taken pictures of the van. The goldfish crumbified, juice box sticky, full of kid junk to keep them happy 2 days family vehicle.

Ew. Gross.

But we made it there and back in...well, 6 pieces. Since we started out as 6 pieces, after all. And we had so much fun. So much fun I had to cry and cry my way out of Orem. Vacations like that make me realize that what I really want is NOT to have to be on vacation to hang out with Derek's side of the family. The perfect moments at the park up the canyon, goofing around on BYU campus and playing at Westmore park made me want to pick up a part-time job recruiting Craig to Amazon and Steve to UW. Sigh. Maybe never.

In random order, here's some highlights of our trip:

Derek and I poking fun at wedding pictures...

Auntie Hailey with Ellie, Katie, Jack and Lydia

Grace ate her weight in pizza that night. At least 2 HUGE slices.
She didn't have to eat the rest of the week.

We met our friends, the Prestons, at the park.
Grace didn't want to be in the group shot apparently.

Ellie and Katie showing us their best grumpy faces...
I'd say that they come naturally, but that might not be nice of me so you didn't hear it from me.

Amy and Jack pickin' leaves at BYU.

The fam at the Oqquirh open house - one of the highlights of the trip:
it's GORGEOUS and it was so incredibly cool to show our kids the inside of a Temple.

The whole Howell clan on top of the Conference Center.

Lydia learning to do the monkey bars for the FIRST time.
Her cousin Katie IS a monkey and a very good example!!

Katie's brother, Taylor, is a monkey, too.


Carver peeking at me behind the Tree of Life:

Caution - severe brainwashing at work with these three girlies:

Carver was as in love with cousin Sophie as we were.
"hold it?" he said.

And hold her he did!

Derek was being attacked by mini-cougars.

Derek's cousins were SO COOL. I swear just yesterday they were little kids, but now they are all grown-up, beautiful (or handsome, as the case may be), super fun to talk to AND they played with our kids. I'm adopting all of them. Here's Metta with Grace:

And Jana with Carver:

Ellie had a birthday there. She didn't want her picture taken EVER. What a stinker.
This picture says it all. We went to Thanksgiving Point's super cool dinosaur museum for a family party.

The whole Howell family on the 4th of July in our reunion T-shirts:

WHEW! No wonder I keep putting off posting about Utah!
This took FOREVER and didn't even cover the half of it.
You are some kind of true friend if you actually read the whole thing.

Dance Recital

Even BEFORE Lydia's baptism was Ellie's dance recital. Here's a few pictures of her in her full get-up. I wish they'd chosen a different color, but Ellie was happy and that's what matters. And can I just say that she has a LOT of hair, long thick wonderful hair that takes FOREVER to put into ringlets. And guess what? No one else in her class was as OCD as I was about ringlets. Oh, well. In the end I actually only curled about 1/3 of it and wrapped the rest of it around her pony tail. So sneaky, huh?! Saved me a full hour of curling, I bet.

Dress Rehearsal:

Her class was DARLING. Really, I was super impressed. They knew the dance, it was really well choreographed and age appropriate in every way. But the dance recital was another story. Even Lydia kept looking away, knowing somehow that it wasn't right to dance like some of the other classes. Cages for 10 year olds? Seriously? And some of those Mamma Mia songs are way too provocative for little girls! Anyway, we loved her teacher but might find a different studio in the future. Yikes. Here's Ellie with her flowers from that night. I was SO proud of her, I coulda cried watching her perform so well up on stage. She felt so pleased with herself and the beautiful fact that she is the first in our family to be in a dance recital. Any little first really matters when you're #2 in a family!

baptized

On June 27th, Lydia was baptized a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What a beautiful day it was!
She was SO excited and so were we.
Grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins came.
Her dad baptized her and she knew she'd chosen the right.
She wore a pretty white dress afterward to symbolize her sins being washed away.

P.S. I am really behind. Here's to catching up!