Saturday, November 12, 2011

picture palooza

Okay....Olson Family Picture Palooza is here! I'm finally getting some photos up and I'm sorry to all you faithful on-lookers that have been desperately waiting for these....all 2 of you :). I know it seems kind of lame to post all these pictures now but they are more for me than anything else. This is my family photo album and If i don't do anything with them they will just sit in my computer forever. So if you don't want to view our summer slide show you might want to tune out now. First up...4th of July at the annual Poway fireworks show. As you can see my boys were in their normal true form.. Molly sporting her red, white, and blue... Luke didn't like the noise very much but that's okay cuz Grandpa made him some homemade ear plugs. Grandpas are the best!
I managed to make a fool out of myself by taking surf lessons with Dylan this summer. Although I must say I think I did pretty good. Luke however made a point to tell me "you're doing it wrong mom!"
We made our annual trek to Yosemite with all the kids for some good old fashioned camping in the dirt. We even brought an extra kid to keep Dylan company. My sister Tami, her kiddos and my parents joined in the fun as well.
Lots of boys as usual...LJ and MJ will have a great bunch of protectors when they get older.
We hiked...
We soaked up some rays.... we bonded....
And where else can you go to church in your grubbies?
Nothing beats good times in Yosemite!
We had plenty of great beach days. Jenny took her annual 3 week vacation in SD so the kids had a blast playing with the cousins.
I love these faces! Good way to keep them contained. Of course, CJ would have no part of that. He's more of a free spirit and sometimes we would find that free spirit all the way down the beach stealing beach balls from a stranger! My sister-in-law Melanie recently added baby Ian to their clan and Jenny threw her a totally cute shower. Here's a pic of the girls at that shindig...
I met my long lost niece Julienne for the first time. That's her in the purple with my two younger sisters. Long story...but here's the bottom line, my oldest sister Robin gave up her baby for adoption like twenty something years ago and she recently was re-united with her so we got to meet her too. Crazy thing is she lives like 10 minutes away from me and we are in the same stake and never knew it. Pretty awesome story! Mark was a great sport with all my marathon training this summer, letting me get lots of long runs in while he played Mr. Mom. I loved running downtown and he made the most of it by taking the kids sight seeing at Seaport Village.
My official "I feel old" moment was when I attended my niece Courtney's wedding in August up in Utah. I remember holding her as a baby and I was in College then! Yikes! My brother Kenny and his wife Jane also dropped the bomb that they were expecting baby #1. My mom wept :)
My niece Courtney....isn't she gorgeous? Sooooo jealous of that hair!! Little MJ turned 1 in September. Still no hair though :( Maybe the next birthday we will get pig tails. She just started walking.......and screeching. I call her my little pterodactyl. She will let you know when she wants something... usually right in the middle of church!
I told everyone that we only wanted "girly" toys. No cars, trucks, etc.. Obviously mom is the one that wanted to see some girl toys in the house. She got a baby doll and a stroller and then quickly decided that the baby doll just slowed her down as she threw it out and proceeded to race around the house with just the stroller like the boys do with their trucks. I'm thinking that the sweet, nice, and quiet thing that Timmy does is a cover as you can see in the picture below:)
But little miss princess got even in the end as she has learned from dealing with her brothers. So I have a thing about care bears. I don't know why...I think they just remind me of being young and carefree....that and they're just so cute and cuddly. I was very excited to finally do a girl cake. This is by far my favorite!
Molly gave her approval as well. A couple weeks later we headed up to Utah for my marathon in Logan. I've been calling this one my "Post Molly Marathon" because I set a goal when I got pregnant with her to do this one a year after she was born. It was a much smaller race then I was used to. Only 2,000 people compared to 40,000. I was pretty nervous about the 5,600 ft. elevation I'd be running in....given that I had been training at 0 ft!
Well the elevation wasn't too bad, it was the POURING RAIN, THUNDER, LIGHTENING, and yes....HAIL that was a challenge! Once you got past the "SERIOUSLY ? It's hailing on my head? feeling, it was kind of fun and made me feel tough :). It wasn't very cold or windy so that was a plus. I loved having my kids out there giving me high 5's! I felt pretty good the whole way and even finished off the last .2 miles with a "cox kick" Here's a little evidence with a frame by frame just to prove it. Yes, I know I'm competitive....just can't help myself :) Luke especially liked the rainbow colored port-o-potties
I told myself that I would be happy with a sub 3:40 marathon given the elevation and I ended up with 3:38. That works! This was probably one of my favorite marathons. My brother-in-law Kyle finished his first 26.2. Way to go Kyle!
I love my support crew! Of course my biggest support always forgets to put himself in a picture. I have the best husband! He sacrifices his stuff, watches kids, hides Gatorade along my routes, taxi's me to start lines, and never complains....all so I can have a little "me" time. Love him! Well that concludes the Olson family picture palooza. Stay tuned ....in a few months I'm sure they'll be another one :).

9 comments:

  1. i think i'm one of the two people that was waiting for an update. :) way to get caught up! love all the pictures - fun to revisit the summer. and i agree with Luke - those rainbow colored porta-potties ARE cool!

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  2. great post! i too have been waiting for a blog update. :) thanks for keeping us updated!

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  3. Picture palooza is a great way to do it! I made it all the way to the end :)

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  4. F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!! love it!! I miss summer already - please don't make us wait for an update like that again - I mean afterall - you only have 4 kids...come on :)

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  5. that was fun to read!! I loved all the pictures... good job. I need to do an update from May till now.. ugh :)

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  6. So much to comment about and I've already forgotten half! I think I held Courtney too when we went to Utah for a visit! Crazy! We are totally old!
    I totally want to learn how to surf! Good for you!
    Great job on the marathon...that is something I have ZERO desire to do but applaud those of you who do! I just don't enjoy running long distances!
    Molly will eventually have hair!...Alexis was a bit bald for the first year and then it really came in! Hopefully she will get it soon!
    Your family is adorable and you sure lucked out on an amazing, supportive husband!

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  7. Loved, loved, loved ALL the pictures! What a great history. All of your comments are true. I want to go to Yosemite!! Aren't you glad I gave your phone number to Mark! Love, Mommy

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  8. Lots of fun memories...glad we could be part of some. And, yeah, Timmy's facade is quickly fading...here come the terrible twos :( Poor Molly knocked down on her birthday!

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  9. Yes, Joanne I do read you blog. Sorry I don't comment more. I love it, but am anxiously waiting for MORE!!!!!

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