The Olson Family

picture palooza

2011-11-12T21:45:00.000-08:00

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 :).

Fabulous FIVE

2011-07-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing with my tradition of getting a blog post up no later than the last day of the month following the event. :) Hey...I'm even a day early. Luke turned 5 and got his first official birthday party with invites, decorations, and yes...even a pinata. I don't know what happened to the days of drop your kids off for a few balloons, party hats, and pin the tail on the donkey in the backyard type parties. It seems like these days you have to have an elaborate theme, a full meal for the parents, some form of entertainment, a jump house and a really expensive venue. Well I decided to go a little old school in our backyard. We did kind of have a theme of Splish Splash or in other words...get as wet as you can!

The kids celebrated in a good old fashioned white trash pool. I made up my own bounce house by using our enclosed trampoline and blowing up a ton of balloons to fill it. The kids had a blast popping them all in the first 10 minutes so I didn't get a picture. I thought it was pretty cool! :) Next up was a little slip-n-slide action. The best $10 I spent!!! Of course, I could have really gone old school and used some trash bags, a few rocks to hold it down, and a hose.

Timmy (Luke's cousin) was not a fan..... I think there was a little too much excitement for him.

He preferred the solace of the snack table instead.

Next up was the pinata. I thought the baseball made sense. Poor Lindsay (another of Luke's cousins)...the lone girl. That's a lot of shirtless boys!

only took about a 1000 swings to break that thing open!

I figured if there was an injury it was going to be someone getting whacked in the head with the bat but we ended up with a bee sting instead :( Poor Jake!

And then the exciting unveiling of my Splish Splash cake :). I always think my cakes look like little kid drawings. I'm very excited to do a girl cake in another month!

More shirtless boys....

While all the cake chaos was going on up on the deck...Timmy got a little RnR alone time in the blow up pool.

Finally...present time! My favorite phrase was courtesy of Tryg: "Whoa that is AWESOME!!!"

Party over and two little boys all tuckered out in front of a movie. I love it when they play so hard they end the day like this!

So when I first brought up the idea of having a splish splash birthday party and told Mark I wanted to have a little blow up pool and slip-n-slide the first thing he said was "NO!". A bit surprised by his quick reply I thought..." wow that was a little rash" He then said "It will ruin the grass!". I of course argued that it would do no such thing and thought he was over reacting and being a bit of a party pooper. It wasn't going to be there that long... how could it kill the grass that fast? He finally let me have my way but still held his ground about the ruining the grass thing. Well....apparently he was right. My bad!

Splish Splash a success (minus the dead grass), Mom's a hero, and I don't have to do another birthday party for at least 2 more years when the next one turns 5! Bring on Kindergarten for Luke!!!

bowling, beach, baseball, and bunnies

2011-05-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

It's still spring right? Guess I better post some of these pics from spring break before summer gets here. Mark's sister Jen came down from Visalia with her family and lets just say by the middle of the week, the agenda of activities had me a bit exhausted! The week started off with a little bowling action... It got a little crazy. Note to self: big heavy bowling balls and toddlers probably not the best combination. They definitely had a good time despite the chaos and I think I even broke 100 for my final score. Next up on the agenda...a day at the beach

just a bunch of cute faces...Surprisingly they're pretty clean too.

This one's a keeper for Mom!

I love how the cousins seem to always find a buddy to bond with. Tryg and Timmy playing with their trucks in the sand...

Allie and Luke being goofy....

Nothing beats a sunny day at the beach in Beautiful San Diego! The next day we headed up to L.A. to see Mark and Jen's grandpa play baseball. Hard to believe he is 87!

It was great...the baseball field had a park right next to it so the kids had a blast..

I had to include the drool shot. Tryg and Grace did some bonding of their own...

Next up...the annual Easter egg hunt at the local Westwood club. Luke is quickly becoming my competitive child which I must say I kind of like :). The Easter egg hunts were divided into age groups and each hunt had a few stuffed bunnies for the taking so Luke sized up the competition, got his eyes set on the one he wanted and when they got the green light, he was off. He got his bunny and made out pretty well with the candy too... I was very proud :). CJ didn't really need a basket full of candy...he just hijacked Molly's cheerio tray instead. Then it was back to the house for the requisite Easter egg decorating. Dylan got back from Las Vegas just in time to dye some eggs... After all the week's activities these two win the prize of accomplishing the most bonding time. Tryg and Grace = B/F/F Molly celebrated her first Easter and scored some baby snacks, socks, and sunglasses from the Easter bunny.

It was an eventful week with lots of kiddos, the normal chaos (only one child got lost the whole week), fun times, and happy memories!

birthdays....and a little MJ

2011-04-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Playing a little catch up with birthdays. Tryg turned 3 earlier this year....and yet...the terrible two's are still in full force! He's even picked up a few new tantrum tactics. He got the totally awesome crown in Nursery at Church and wore it all day. Now...anytime someone mentions a birthday, Tryg runs and gets his birthday crown and proudly displays it.

Tryg and his "best friend" Luke are inseparable these days. You can usually find them fighting, playing, or just wreaking havoc...most of the time being really loud and slightly obnoxious!

My "crazies" as I like to lovingly call them.

The last few months have been all about Thomas....so I had to deliver. I think it turned out pretty cute...

Tryg seemed to enjoy it.

I think Timmy was determined to fit the whole thing into his mouth at once.

Happy Birthday to my (hopefully) last baby boy!

Next up was Dylan who turned double digits a couple weeks later. Shopping for a 10 year old is pretty tough. He's at a weird age where a lot of the kid toys are too kiddish but he's not quite old enough for the next phase of IPOD's, cell phones, and other electronic gadgets. So...we settled on a lava lamp, some Padre stuff, his first pocket knife, and a chess set from Brandon and Melanie.

He's been learning to play chess at the local library and has picked it up quickly and loves playing. The only problem...he wants Mom to play and I'll be honest... I just don't have the patience for a game like that. I'm more of a rock, paper, scissors kind of girl. 1,2,3 DONE! He even tried to teach me. Unfortunately...it kind of went in one ear and out the other. Luckily Mark has taken over for me on that one. Dylan's even teaching Luke how to play.

This is Dylan's latest ready made "FORT". Mark's a little frustrated that he built Dylan a whole new bedroom and this is where he wants to hang out! He likes to get away from the "crazies" and I guess this is a good place to hide. I'm not worried....Mark's a little concerned :)

Now for the cake.... At first he asked for a Bey Blade cake. WHAT? For those of you with boys, you'll know what I'm talking about. Basically it's this spinning top toy thing where you collect a bunch of em and then use them to battle eachother. Yea... I talked him into this one instead...

Happy Birthday to Dylan!!! Now....bring on the PRE-teen!

And...we can't leave Miss Molly J. out of this post. Her latest and greatest: SITTING and SPITTING!

I'm loving the blue eyes and dimples!!! Still waiting for the hair...

and....that's THE END!

A better person

2011-03-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

Many of you that will read this have probably heard about the passing of my sister-in -law Kaci Cox. We attended her funeral this weekend. This post is much more personal than I usually will put out there and probably more theraputic for me than anything else. I woke up this morning kind of in a funk I guess. Watching those 6 kids say goodbye...at least for a time to their mother was heart wrenching. I have so much love and respect for my big brother as I watched him several times kneel down next to one of his children so he could explain to them things like why Mom was not going to wake up until Heavenly Father says it's time or how Mom is happy and free from the pain now. He was so patient and strong. I wonder when HE will have time to grieve for his loss.

Listening to people talk about the type of person Kaci was I think has left the biggest impact on me. I want to be more like her...and I feel so far from that right now. I think that's the 'funk' I was feeling today. Kaci "loved the road she was on" no matter what that road looked like. She had an awful cancer that she ultimately knew would take her from her family but she was determined to learn from it and in her words "gain everything she could from it". She used this trial to strengthen her and her family...not the other way around. I know that she was not perfect. I know that she had days when she felt that life was not fair but she made a choice, a choice that each one of us can make no matter what difficult circumstance or situation we find ourselves in.

Kaci didn't have much from a wordly point of view but she knew that she had everything that mattered. I never saw her 'want' for more. She never seemed to care about the bigger house, the nicer car, the fancy clothes. She was so happy with her life and had such a sense of gratitude for her blessings even in the midst of battling cancer....she was grateful! I've thought a lot today about how I measure up to these attributes. I've wondered what would people say about me after I leave this world. I want to be better. I want to love my life more, I want to be more grateful, and I want to make a choice everyday to love the road I'm on. Not the road that I think I should be on or will be on next year...this one right now. The one with poopy diapers, piled up laundry, and dirty dishes. The one where there is no extra money for stuff and where little people try my patience and leave me exhausted on a daily basis. I want to be more happy with all that. I want to be happy like she was. I want to play with and love my kids more. I want to be less judgemental and more helpful and kind to others. I want to never forget how I'm feeling today ...which is why I'm writing it down.

I can't imagine how people go through something like this without the knowledge and testimony that this life is but a mere moment in the grand scheme of eternity and that Heavenly Father has provided a way for us to be together as families forever!! Opposition is a bitter sweet thing. The pain that is felt now will only make the joy of that reunion that much better. They WILL see her again. They WILL get to hug and kiss her again. They know it and because they know it.... they will be okay. I'm grateful for Kaci and all that she has taught me. I'm grateful for the influence and example she has been in my life. She makes me want to be a better person and hopefully I can be because of her.

If you want to feel more grateful or just be uplifted check out these posts from Kaci's blog. I promise they will inspire you!

HAPPY

Just Thoughts

Gratitude, The Diagnosis, and my trip to the ER

If you want to help my brother and his 6 awesome kids check out this website: http://www.helpdavidcoxfamily.org/

Fa LA LA LA LA, lights, and leaks

2011-01-31T23:20:00.000-08:00

I just made it! I told myself that if I get my Christmas pics posted before the end of January then I wouldn't be a total loser. December started with the requisite church party which did not disappoint. The primary kids put on a great show with music from around the world. I kind of felt like I was on the Christmas version of It's a small World ride at Disneyland. Luke was the star of Feliz Navidad Tryg was not a fan. And....he didn't like Santa too much either. Dylan and Luke however did not shy away. At the top of their lists...Lego building sets and Criss Cross Crash. Next up was a Family Home Evening visit to the San Diego Temple to see the lights, sip on hot chocolate and munch on homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Did I tell you that I really like having a girl? ....just waiting for that hair to come in so I can put my french braiding techniques to use!

Cold San Diego air (not to be confused with cold Utah air) and warm coco = good times! Yummmmm....

Then...a couple of chocolate chip cookies later, I began to wonder if bringing the sugar along was the wisest choice. It was definitely hard to keep these boys in a "reverent" frame of mind.

Especially Tryg. Although keeping the kids in check was the usual chore it was still great to be on the temple grounds as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

I think we will definitely be keeping it as a family tradition. Then...it rained for about a week straight and we got a lovely surprise on December 23rd. Just as all the presents were wrapped and we were ready to head to Grandma Olson's, I heard the dreaded DRIP DRIP DRIP! NOOOOO!!! Yep, the leaking started in our office and then a few days later...the bedroom. Of course I panicked thinking we were going to need a whole new roof which would cost a fortune but I decided to kick my attitude of gratitude into gear...Grateful for a husband that knows how to deal with stuff like this, a father- in-law that is always so helpful, a roof (in general) over our heads, etc... It worked pretty well. We still have a dry wall hole in our ceiling that my handy husband will be repairing but the roof is fixed and it didn't cost nearly as much as I thought it would. Merry Christmas to us!

It was off to Grandma's we go for the Christmas Eve festivities. This year we spent the holiday at the Olson's. We've added a few grand kids and spouses over the last couple years and I think we all kind of realized that it may be the last time the Olson clan is all together on the big day which definitely made for a special time.

Mary managed to figure out sleeping arrangements for 12 adults and 10 kiddos without making anyone sleep outside. I personally thought the tent idea in the backyard for the kids was a good one :). It wasn't that cold! Mark and his Dad got a little creative with blowing up the air matresses...

We got a few songs on the guitar from Grandpa.

Presents wrapped: CHECK

Stockings hung: CHECK

cookies and milk out: CHECK

Night before Christmas story: CHECK

Santa's whereabouts checked on the Internet: CHECK (didn't have that one when I was a kid)

As you can imagine 22 people made for a bit of chaos but surprisingly there were no kids crying over toys that didn't belong to them, maybe a little screaming, and lots of smiles.

I think I got about 17 of them (at least in part) in this picture.

I had every intention of getting a Christmas Card out in 2010 complete with a family picture and believe me....getting all my kids to look in the same direction let alone smile is quite the challenge these days. Well...I wasn't able to pull it off in time so consider this our belated holiday greeting:

Hope you had a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from our family to yours!

(Does this count for 2011 too?)

A little catch up

2010-12-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

Yea...I'm playing catch up. What can I say except....I have 4 kids now (3 under the age of 4) and they don't leave much time for blogging. By the time they go to bed and I actually have some time to do something that doesn't require feeding or diapering I'm pretty pooped. We had Molly's blessing on HALLOWEEN of all days which is of course the best day to do something like this. I thought about dressing her in black and orange but decided it probably wasn't the best idea. One of the things I used to day dream about before I had a girl was the idea of my imaginary daughter wearing the blessing dress that I wore when I was a baby. My mother has kept it in mint condition for years and this year I actually got to put it to use.

Me and my sisters. First born....but last to have a girl. A few weeks later for Thanksgiving we made the trek to Alpine, UT to my parent's house (or the MANSION as we like to call it). It's over 5,000 square feet of pure fun for the grandkids complete with trampoline, sand volleyball court, pool table, 50's style diner, movie theatre size screen, and lots of space to run wild.

lots and lots of cousins to play with.... I didn't get many pictures for Thanksgiving for some reason but 7 of the 9 Cox kids were there which equaled about 23 grandkids all under one roof. POOR MOM! It was the usual pure chaos but.... a good kind of chaos. Saturday was the infmaous BYU-UTAH football game and there's no better way to watch it (besides in person) than on Dad's giant screen.

Not sure how Susi ended up with the best seat in the house. And Jane....c'mon a little BLUE at least? :)

Dad doing his best to send positive vibes their way. We won't talk about how things ended up that day :(. These guys didn't care....they had free reign of the chips, candy and soda! Of course on the day we were leaving, Utah decided to dump a good amount of snow that the kids would have loved to play in. BUMMER! Instead of playing in it we had to drive in it. Dad putting his toy to good use. Everyone had a great time. The usual madness insued but we had lots of laughs, minimal fighting (except maybe between Mark and Susi in the football game :)), and no barfing! The only bad part...the drive home which took 17 HOURS!!!! Yes, that's right....17 hours with 4 kids! Between the snow and the traffic out of Vegas I thought it was never going to end. Note to self: NEVER DRIVE ON THE SUNDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING! One of Luke's favorite things to say now is "It takes a long, long, long, long, long, long, time to get to Grandma Cox's house!"

I figured I'd end this post with this picture. Pretty sure it doesn't get much cuter than that!

Harry Potter, a fire fighter, and a UPS man

2010-11-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Even though we are now into the Christmas decorations in Costco phase of the calendar, I had to post some pics from our Halloween Festivities. We started off with a little pumpkin carving 101.

Dylan, who has previously had issues with the whole touching the gooey stuff...has since overcome that fear.

Each boy did a great job designing their own pumpkin face.

This was Molly's pumpkin :)Tryg was a little confused when he got all the goo out of his pumpkin and then looked into the now hollow abyss and said "where's my candy?" He had been carrying his plastic trick or treating pumpkin bucket thing around all day and was under the impression that all pumpkins are for the sole purpose of carrying candy and treats in them. He was a little disappointed to say the least! I think Luke won the prize of which jack o' lantern now looks most like it's owner?

The boys in their true crazy form....

All done! Unfortunately... a heat wave came in the next day and our pumpkins lasted about 2 days before they were shriveled up and coated in yucky black stuff. They didn't even make it to Halloween :(

Next up....Halloween and some trunk or treating! This year we had a Harry Potter, fireman, UPS man, and a hodge podge of a halloween decorated little girl.

Our Harry Potter. Dylan has read all 7 books (some of them more than once) and is a huge fan. I don't get it but have been roped into seeing the upcoming movie with him that I'm sure will be at least 3 hours long. Ughh! I love my smokey little fireman.

This one usually draws the most "oh how cute!" comments. Special thanks to Uncle Brandon and his UPS connections.

Molly's first halloween sporting her totally awesome leg warmers! We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's TRUNK or TREAT extravaganza. This was quite the event with tons of yummy food, impressive carnival games, and way too much candy! Molly had a good time facing forward (a new milestone in her 9 weeks of life) checking out all the ghosts and goblins in mommy's kangaroo pouch as I like to call it.

This one's not ours. He belongs to Brandon and Melanie. I'm pretty sure this is not what he had in mind when his parents said they were going to the annual TRUNK or TREAT :)

Finally! Ready for some CANDY! The great thing about TRUNK or TREAT....tons of candy in a very small radius equals more bang for your buck! After a successful night of obtaining enough treats to last them at least until Christmas the boys hung out with their cousins and began to sort and trade their treats with eachother.

Luke - "Must eat more chocolate!" And..... a few hundred empty calories and a sugar rush later... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Summertime Favorites

2010-10-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is just my random post of a few summertime favorite pics that I didn't want to go to waste...

No, she's not mine :). This is Gracie (our niece). I really liked this picture, her blue eyes and the angle it was taken at. Mark gets props for this one.

Tryg and Dad..

My boys :)

Love his eyes in this one...

Miss Molly J.

2010-09-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

Our little Miss Molly J. just past her 1 month birthday this week. I can't believe it's already been 4 weeks since she joined our brewd of boys. So far she's survived the loud squeals, screaming, fighting, and wrestling that seem to fill our home most days...

And....I think they've decided to keep her.

Handy husband

2010-09-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

With the anticipation of a new baby the NEED (or maybe my WANT) to do some switching around with regards to kids and bedrooms became more and more of a priority for me. I mean I guess if this was a girl I could have put three boys in one room but I was not liking that idea and really wanted to give Dylan his own space. Dylan is a lot like me and likes to have his "me" time and with 2 little monsters for brothers he was definitely lacking in that department. Not to mention, he's a bit older than Luke and it made more sense for Luke and Tryg to share a room. Our house technically has 3 bedrooms but fortunately lots of other space to work with.

We have this weird long room in the back that we think used to be a deck a previous owner enclosed. It has had multiple names in our house...MOM's GYM (since that's where I kept the treadmill and exercise equipment, the BOWLING ALLEY since it was all hard wood and rather long, or the simply OTHER or BACK ROOM. Here's some pics below of the room when we first bought the house.

It was a very awkward space with some weird cabinets, counter top and a sink. We could never figure out why this room would have a sink??? The kitchen actually had a window that looked out into this room and it included 2 rather ugly sliding glass doors...one from the office and one from our dining room. Very weird!!! And when we bought the house the room came complete with this hospital bed that you see in the picture. Also very strange!

So...I pictured making this room into two rooms...Dylan's new bedroom and another room that we'll call Mark's man room/kids play room. I know those two things don't really go together but I told Mark as long as the kids can play in there, store their toys, and watch movies on his flat screen TV then we can call it his MAN ROOM :).

I had gotten a couple estimates on having an outside company come in and transform the room but in the end we decided to put Mark's handy man skills to work with the help of his Dad and brother.

Phase 1 included mostly demolition.....

Making some progress...

working on the closet....

My deck became the staging/storage area for a while... It's starting to look like a bedroom!

I find it amazing that most men (not all...let's be clear) seem to just know how to do things like put walls up, hang doors, spackle ceilings, install ceiling fans, and do things with electrical wires. I don't get it but I do appreciate it! The boys finally got to help with some painting and Mark got to take a break as you can see.

Well...it only took a few months but it was pretty much finished before Molly came and that's what I asked for. Here are some pics of the finished product... It still needs a few finishing touches (door frame, baseboard,etc..). This area used to be a weird sliding glass door from our office. There were only a few frustrations along the way (and countless trips to home depot)

having to put in 4 ceiling fans before he found one that worked right.
realizing he bought the wrong door after he hung it up.
finding out the closet he and his Dad built was a half inch too small for the closet door.
trying to figure out why 2 out of the 3 outlets now did not work.
wife nagging him to finish.

I love that Dylan has his own space now but I probably love even more that Mark was the one that gave it to him. I love having a husband that knows how to do this stuff....although he probably wishes he never made known his capabilities to me :) ! I guess after all his hard work he probably deserves that MAN room and once he gets his big flat screen TV up in there (probably in about 2015 or so)...I'll post some more pics :)

Pink, pink....and more pink

2010-09-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

This is my all baby stuff in one post. I need to find ways to condense these posts because I have way too much to catch up on. First up...my tutu's and tiara's baby shower given by Jenny Lops (Mark's sister). She definitely made up for all the blue in my life with lots and lots of pink! It was great with tons of yummy food and cute decorations. My favorite...the cream filled cupcakes! Jen did an awesome job with the help of course of Sabrina, Allie, Mary, Melanie, and Mandy. Thanks girls!!!

I got lots of fun stuff. Mary did not disappoint with her homemade quilt for Molly. I loved all the cute clothes, shoes, blankets, and bows!!! Oh...how I can't wait for some pig tails! Meanwhile back at the house....the boys were putting on a daddy day care so that the girls could relax and enjoy. Brandon, Mark and Tom took charge of 7 kids and as you can see they seemed to have at least most of them under control... The female Olson clan....

Next up...my baby girl room that I have been working hard on. For any boys reading this you may want to just skip to the end because I'm pretty sure you wont care about this part :). I actually didn't have to ask Mark to do any painting. The room had green and white walls with lots of blue accents and I simply traded out the blue for some pink. I think it turned out pretty cute.

One of my favorite baby shower gifts... Allie used the fabric from my bumper pads and made this cute bow and barrette holder. I can't wait for her to have some hair so I can actually use them! I got pretty crafty myself and made the cute 'M' wall hanging as well as this paper punch flower hanging. The desk actually used to be grandma's and was an ugly brown old thing but I re-finished it a few years back and absolutely love it so I had to include it in this picture. All and all I was quite proud of my "crafty" self :).

My sister in-law Jane made these bumper pads. I picked out the fabric and she did the hard part. She's pretty talented that way which makes it nice for me :). Mark's mom also worked some wonders on the rocking chair. It used to be her mothers but the fabric was a little outdated and definitely did not go with my color scheme so I picked out some fabric and she managed to re-cover the existing pads and made the cute pillows to bring it all together Now all I needed was a little girl. Molly Joanne Olson joined our family this past Wednesday weighing in at 8lbs 3 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches. Yes, she is my biggest :). I'm pretty sure she'll have plenty to wear for quite a while :)

We are excited to have her join our crazy brewd of boys and I know she'll be well protected in the years to come....

She is perfect and we feel very blessed to have this precious new spirit in our home!

The official kid count now........Boys -3 and Girls - 1

Scotty and Kiley tie the knot

2010-08-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

As part of my catching up on summer blogging. Here are some pics from Scotty and Kiley's wedding palooza in July that I know some family members would probably like to see...

We had a "get to know each other's family" dinner the night before at Rubys on the pier in Oceanside. The food was good, the kids were crazy, and we bonded :).

Mary presented Scott and Kiley with a homemade quilt that was adorable! She's quite the quilting queen now which we all have benefited from in one way or another :)

The sunset and skyline were gourgeous so we couldn't pass up some family pics on the beach before we left...

Fast forward to the next day....hanging out outside the temple waiting for the happy couple to make their debut. The kids of course had pretty much reached their limit of being well behaved by now :)

I'm thinking Tom's next job....Secret Service?

Finally...the happy couple arrives...in flip flops and Vans. Hey at least Scotty decided to wear some shoes:)

The kids had been dying to run down the big grass hill so after they made it through some family pics...we let them dirty up their white shirts. Scotty and Kiley also had a ring ceremony later that day before the reception. The weather was perfect and the scenery was gourgeous. The reception was great too but unfortunately we spent most of the time chasing our boys around so our pictures pretty much end here......yada, yada, yada.......and they lived happily ever after.

Congratulations Scotty and Kiley!!!

Summer Hodgepodge

2010-08-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

This is my "I'm playing catch up post" for the summer. I have 9 days until this baby is born and let me tell you the last month or so sitting at a computer for any length of time has been extremely uncomfortable. So... I have really been neglecting my blog which is a shame because I have all these great pictures that are just sitting in my computer. I don't scrap book or even print them out and put them in photo albums so this blog is the only real use I have for them. I needed to find a way to get them up so here you go. Luke's birthday was first and as you can see he had a great time playing with his friends and cousins. Luke was really into the "UP" movie so that was his request when it came to his birthday cake. His favorite gift....The fishing pole from Aunt Jenny. Which is interesting since he has never fished but that didn't stop him from casting his line from anywhere in the house (without care to the fact that Mom says it's an outside toy). He would then tell us about all the things he had caught that day :)

I just had to include a pic of my 4th of July pies. I thought they were kind of pretty and very patriotic.

Next up was our staycation at San Elijo State beach. We camped for a few nights and had perfect weather. My parents, brother and his wife came down from Utah for a little SoCal sun. As you can see the kids had a blast catching sand crabs, digging holes, making sand castles, and swimming.

Gotta love our awesome wagon which made trucking our stuff to the sand much easier. The kids got to eat lots of junk and things Mom normally doesn't buy...like pop tarts. I also learned that Jane likes to eat the crust off her toast first and then the middle. Who does that???? Our trip was completed with Kenny getting stung by a sting ray while surfing. All I could think when he first came wobbling up to the campsite with blood dripping from his foot...."Isn't that how Steve Irwin died?" Apparently it is a pretty painful experience but he survived and was out surfing again in no time. Luke is very into the "why" questions these days and I'm pretty sure he's asking Kenny in this picture things like "Why are you bleeding? Why did you get an owie?" Why are you making that face?" That takes us through about mid July. Next up Scotty and Kiley's wedding, before and after bedroom pics, and lots of pink! Stay tuned....

Little league....from a mother's perspective

2010-07-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dylan recently finished another year of baseball. I think this was his fourth(if you count t-ball). However, this year was a little different...especially for Mom. Last year he was still in the world of ..."we don't care who wins....you get as many pitches as it takes to hit the ball... we'll even bring out the T if you're struggling...and who's counting strikes and outs, etc..." This year, was a real contrast. We have now entered into the world of...try outs, real umpires, fast pitching from real people (not a machine that pitches slow and underhand), 3 strikes your out, and keeping score. Needless to say it was quite the shock to Dylan's system when he went to his first practice....and a real adjustment for Mom as a spectator.

Let me explain....as a mom I know that logically my kids must struggle in order to learn but it is sometimes torture to watch!!!! Dylan was the youngest on his team and most were in their second year for this league. It was a good thing that I did not go to his first practice. Mark's report included a few tears of frustration on Dylan's part and I'm pretty sure he even softened things a bit for me. Although, Dylan did come back looking like he had fun and wanted to go back so that was a relief. If you know Dylan...he typically doesn't like doing things if he's not great at it right away (Gee...wonder where he gets that from? :)) and many things, especially school, come easy for him. Mark assured me that he would be fine and that it was going to be a great learning experience for him. I knew he was right but I was definitely nervous. Mark signed up to be an assistant coach and spent hours practicing with him. Fast forward to his first real game...Dylan is up to bat for the first time and Mom is a wreck in the stands praying that he gets a hit so that he will have a good first experience. Pitch #1....SMACK right in his ankle!!!! Are you kidding me!!!! His first experience up to bat is getting hit by the ball? He tried to be brave but the tears came as he hobbled down to take his base. I'm thinking..."Great, now he'll never want to play again". I could also hear the scene playout in my mind from the movie Parenthood where Steve Martin imagines his son years after his horrible baseball experience shouting from the rooftops "You made me play second base" as he guns down his fellow students! His ankle eventually swelled up the size of a grapefruit and he limped around the house for the next week. But....he seemed to have no problem going back which again was a relief for me.

The only thing is that that experience left him a little skittish in the batters box. Even though he had no problem hitting the ball in practice, every time he was up to bat in a game, he would jump out of the batters box on each pitch and not swing. He would usually end up getting a walk, and being the 'thinker' that he is, eventually realized that he had pretty good odds of getting walked. Which I'm sure in his mind was probably better than the odds of getting hit by the ball. Of course every time he was up I would get soooo nervous for him I could barely stand it! Between my nerves and having to chase around a 2 and 4 year old with my pregnant belly at these sometimes 2 hour games twice a week... I began to wonder if I was really doing any good there. But I was so afraid that I would miss his triumphant moment when he actually got a hit that I never missed a game. Here's Tryg looking all cute and innocent.... Fast forward again to about 3/4 of the way through the season....still no hit but I think he probably held the record for scoring the most runs for his team without actually hitting the ball. Mark had spent many more hours practicing with him and having those father-son baseball talks like how Babe Ruth failed nearly 70% of the time he was up to bat. We even offered bribes for staying in the batters box and actually swinging at the ball to see if that would replace the fear and over thinking that he seemed to be doing. Good news is he seemed to be having fun, was learning about how to play the game, the importance of team work, and making new friends. All good things....but c'mon I just wanted him to HIT THAT STUPID BALL once!!!

Only a few weeks left in the season...Dylan is up to bat once again and after getting struck out because he didn't swing at the ball earlier in the game you can tell he's a bit frustrated now. As I sit there gritting my teeth and as every muscle in my body tenses up once again, I pray to myself .."please, please..just let him hit the ball!" First pitch....SMACK! Contact with the ball!!! WooHoo!!!I'm out of my seat cheering as I quickly put my sunglasses on because I could feel my eyes start to well up with joy for my little boy. And as Tom Hanks so eloquently says..."There's no crying in baseball!" I certainly didn't want anyone to see the ridiculous emotion I was feeling at that moment. I felt like Steve Martin again from Parenthood where he runs out to the field doing a happy dance because he is so thrilled his son actually caught the ball. Well...that was me....just a little more subdued. It's amazing how the little things in life give us the most joy! Well...he actually hit the ball hard, but right to the pitcher and got out but it didn't matter. When he got into the dugout he poked his head out and said with a big smile on his face..."Mom, did you see that?" He was so happy...which of course made me happy. He even got another hit next time up where he actually got on base. It was a good day!

By the end of the season he was catching pop ups like they were nothing and hitting the ball with no fear. His team actually took first place in the league which of course always makes a season better (at least for us competitive people :)). He wants to play again next year and has aspirations to pitch. After the season was over he got to go to the Padres Double AA Lake Elsinore Storm baseball game with his team and hang out with the players on the field which was a thrill for him. He loved it!

Dylan is a lot like me with regards to learning new things. Growing up, if I wasn't good at something right away I had no desire to learn how to get better and was never a fan of the whole team sport thing. Which is probably why I have stuck with running all these years...it works for me. I know that having Mark around to push him when he gets 'uncomfortable' is a blessing in his life. They also got to spend some real quality bonding time together. Mark was in the dugout for nearly every game and practice, leaving work early most days to be there. I know those times are some of the 'little things' that Dylan will remember later in life. For the record...Mark was right...it was a great learning experience for Dylan...and for me too.

belly pic

2010-07-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

Okay...some have asked when they get to see a belly picture and although I'm not too fond of having pictures taken of me when I'm feeling fat...here you go. Since I have planned c-sections about 10 days before my due date I'm down to about 60 days left...which to me still seems like forever! And as far as we know...it's still a girl, however I think that until I see her parts (or lack of) face to face this girl thing wont really seem like a reality until then. We can't wait to meet our little Molly (or as Luke and Tryg say "Mo-wee")

almost a month later...

2010-06-25T21:09:00.001-07:00

This is my official Memorial Day post 3 1/2 weeks later. I took a ton of pictures and didn't want them to go to waste so better late than never! We had a fun filled day at the park with family and friends starting with a little playground action for the kids... Of course there was the requisite barbecue. One of Mark's many talents...flipping burgers while talking on the phone :)

Then it was on to the homemade potato sack races (minus the potato sacks). Apparently they don't make those any more so garbage bags would have to do. And the adult version.... here we have Scotty and Mark in a tight race. As you can see there was a little shoving and pushing going on...

It looks like Scotty may have just edged Mark out at the finish line but wait....is that Scotty's foot out of the bag? Aren't you supposed to have both feet in the bag? Hmmm.... that may qualify as a DQ! Tryg kicking back after a tough potato sack race

Then it was on to frisbee. I'm not sure what Brandon is doing in this first picture but at least it looks like he caught the next one:) Luke became quite the expert offering Dad some frisbee advice on occasion, "No, Dad...you're supposed to do it this way!"

The boys had a great time with Uncle Scotty as he quickly became their personal frisbee reciever and runner. And this is what happens when you don't wear shoes all day....Nice feet Scotty!! As you can see Tryg was a bit tuckered out by the end of the day. He had endured the playground, potato sack races, frisbee, and even a little baseball all without a nap. I think he also managed to consume hamburgers, chips, guacomole, homemade ice cream, brownies, licorice, and suckers!! I would be pretty ungrateful if I didn't mention how much we appreciate all those that have served and continue to serve this great country so that we can have days like this! THANK YOU!!!

Until next year....

4.0 student

2010-06-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not I have been an official college student these last few months. I decided to take a 3 credit beginning photography class at Palomar so that I could learn to actually use our rather intimidating and expensive new camera. All the camera mumbo jumbo that Mark would talk about literally felt like a foreign language to me. And..I'll admit the idea of getting away for a few hours each week, having adult conversations, and learning a new skill for 'me' was kind of appealing. However...this class was not easy and sometimes a bit time consuming! I actually had to do shooting assignments, write ups, and tests! Can you believe it? Don't they realize I'm old, been there...done that, pregnant, and have 3 small children at home! :) Of course, Mark was very supportive and even talked me out of dropping the class at one time. Well...I finished and even got an 'A'. This would be my first semester ever with a 4.0! :) Ha! Here are some of my favorite pics that I took for various shooting assignments. I learned that I really like photographing people (i.e. my kids) and capturing 'moments' much more than landscape and nature shots as you can see.... My favorites of Tryg...

And my favorites of Luke...

And some brothery love...

(For the record...I wasn't neglecting Dylan..I usually shot them during the day while he was at school :))

And some non people shots ... This one was right after Chelsea King went missing and there were several blue ribbons posted around the city in honor of her. I can now say that I completely understand the mumbo jumbo photo language and know how to work our camera and it's many buttons...(plus I got to feel kind of young...like a college student which was a bonus.) Mission accomplished! Next...I would really like to learn how to use photoshop. I got a taste of it in my class but want to learn more!

71 and going strong

2010-05-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

Can you believe my dad is 71? Many of you know that he had a 6 (not sure what they call that many...quadruple +2?) bypass heart surgery last fall. For those of you that know my Dad, you know that this is a guy who is in pretty good shape so it was definitely a big shock for all of us when we were told that he was going to be having open heart surgery. I hated the idea of my Dad laying on an operating table with his chest cracked open while they stopped his heart so they could fix it (crazy what they can do these days). Well...as you can see, he's made a full recovery.

Last weekend the hospital where he had the surgery had a 5k run for past cardiac patients. There was over 300 participants and my 71 year old dad took 1st place in his age division! He has been doing these 5k's for years and ever since I can remember he would always say..."if I could just make it to the next age division and keep my pace I know I would get some of those awards!" Needless to say, they always seemed to elude him...but not this time (and yes, there was more than 2 people in his age division :)). Way to go Dad!!! Must be those new pipes :)

Here he is with his cardiac surgeon...

Ever since I was about 12 years old and had to run the mile in middle school my Dad was always there giving me advice, the latest research on how to get faster and at every race cheering me on. Running is special to both of us and I'm glad he can still do it. He is definitely an inspiration to all of us. What's next? The Dipsea, a half marathon? Guess we'll have to wait and see. GO DAD!!!!

A little boy time...and a little "ME" time

2010-05-16T21:49:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago (yes, I'm totally behind as usual) Mark decided to take the boys camping. He set a goal this year of taking his boys camping at least once a quarter and so far so good! Last time he took just Dylan and Luke but this time I said "Maybe you could take tryg too?" thinking that he was going to look at me like I was crazy...but he said "I can do that". WoooHooo!!! Score!! One night of complete peace and quiet for me. I could even go out (with myself of course which is how I like it sometimes) for as long as I wanted! Granted, I usually fall asleep these days on the couch by 10pm but that's not the point. I was FREE!!! I was a little excited to say the least :).

Here are some pics from their overnight adventure....

Apparently Tryg liked the smores but not how they stuck to his fingers... Three snug as a bug little boys in a tent. Tryg was loving his new Buzz Light Year sleeping bag (thanks Grandma Olson!). This was Tryg's first time in a sleeping bag and he did pretty well. He thought they were pretty cool and had fun trying to find his brothes in them.Nothing like a little chocolate donuts and milk in the morning. Luke looks a little cold :) What is it about boys and sticks? Luke loves to find them and then take them home and sleep with them. Dylan just hanging out in a tree Not sure it gets much cuter than that! So what did I do? Well...I got a pedicure and manicure, went shopping, and then came home..watched a chick flick and spread out in my bed all night! Nobody woke me up in the middle of the night or the next morning. It was heaven! Allthough I must say that I eventually did miss the little screams and chaos that usually fill our home but it was nice to have a little "me" time. I love that Mark has made this a priority for his boys. It's stuff they will remember forever! THANKS MARK!!!

My first purchase

2010-04-26T21:32:00.001-07:00

Check out my official first "girl" purchase. I dragged Mark to the mall immediately after our ultrasound appointment. Can you tell I'm a little excited? I also bought a big bag of stuff at Old Navy the other day. I assured Mark that I'm officially satisfied......for now anyway :).

I'm not asleep!

2010-04-16T09:55:00.001-07:00

Why is it that men can never admit when they are asleep? Is it less "manly" or something? If a man falls asleep when he doesn't intend to does it signify some kind of weakness to himself? I don't get it. I frequently give Mark a hard time because you know...he's getting older and therefore tires more easily these days. He'll usually sit in his chair and quickly close his eyes. After I call his name a few times with no response he'll say "I wasn't sleeping...I'm just resting my eyes". Of course it could just be a case of ...we've been married for a while now and he's just gotten good at tuning out the sound of my voice I guess. But...he could be literally snoring, dead to the world... and then wake up and say "I wasn't asleep!" I try to assure him that it's okay if he was..I mean he works hard, we have 3 crazy rambunctious boys so he has every right to be tired... but he's stubborn and refuses to admit it.

So....I figured I'd just take a picture

But even while snoozing... what a good Dad! I think he had gotten home from work, let the kids climb all over him and then....simply shut his eyes while in the middle of reading "train song" for Tryg.

Note: For the record..he'll tell you he saw me take the picture and he wasn't sleeping!

Derby time

2010-04-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Somehow we missed the whole Derby hype and realized that Dylan had his annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby in like 3 days! And to top it off....poor Dad has to help make 3 cars because there is no way that Luke and Tryg will be okay not having their own race car.

They got right to work cutting, sanding, and painting...

Of course Mark had to read up quickly on all the time tested race secrets and tips regarding how to make your car the fastest on the track. Grandpa Cox emailed his personal race tactics and strategies as well.

Mark managed to get all three cars in working order just in time. Yeah DAD!! Luke and Tryg's cars got the standard 4 wheels and a painted wood body but Dylan's car received a little special attention implementing at least some of those racing tips. Luke enjoyed showing off his version of a "Lightening McQueen" pinewood derby car. It was a madhouse as usual but the boys had a great time.

The night before the race Dylan said his goal was to do better than last year and he ended up with 7th that year (it was his first). I'm always worried about the possible tears that inevitably come to some little cub scout that doesn't win. I just didn't want it to be Dylan.

At first it looked like Dylan was going to take home 4th but apparently two other boys were also in the running for the same place. We had to do somewhat of "race off" and in the end he ended up with a 6th place finish. Bright side...Goal accomplished!

The funny thing is after the official races were over, the little ones got to put their race cars on the track. Mark put a little graphite on Tryg's wheels of his simple wedge shaped car and he ended up beating most of the other cub scouts. How great!! Our little 2 year old probably would have placed 2nd or 3rd with his very simple and un-enhanced car.

Of course he didn't really care...the ice cream was the best part for him.

The boys had a great night and even more fun hanging out with Dad in the days before the race. Hey...at this rate Dylan may end up with a 1st place by the end of his cub scout career :)

Still only 29

2010-03-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday we celebrated Great Grandma Olson's birthday. As you can see she looks great for 29! :). I got the pleasure of making her cake...which you can see I took full advantage of making it very "girly" since most of my cakes are themed around things like batman, race cars, and space aliens. I actually got to break out the pink!

Allie did a superb job with the decorations as always.

Most of the family (minus Scott, Scotty, Dylan, and Amanda's family) Grandma and Grandpa with 2 of their children (Tom and Dawn)

Happy 29th Birthday Grandma Olson...

We Love You!

A Harry Potter Cake???

2010-03-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Last month was Dylan's 9th birthday (yeah..I'm a little behind). We actually had a small get together with just family for some cake and presents a few days before his big bash. Here's cake #1 that I made for him...

So...a while back I guess I told Dylan he could have a slumber party for his birthday and invite a few friends. He immediately decided that it should be a Harry Potter theme party. Dylan has read all 7 books (which is not very normal for an 8 year old) and I had to remind him that most kids at his party would not yet be familiar with Harry Potter but...that did not deter him. He had 5 friends over plus his 2 brothers. So that would be 7 little boys running amuck in my house!!!! For those of you that have been to our house you know that it is very conducive to running laps and that's exactly what they wanted to do the whole time! We had to continually try to break up the madness with games and activities. A few parties back I discovered the best "quiet" activity....I printed some Harry Potter worksheets, word searches, mazes, etc..and they all just sit there like they're in school. It's awesome! (As you can see Dylan's cousin Jake was not too into the worksheet thing) We also had a "pin the glasses on Harry" game, some crafts, and movies in between the running around playing tag, wrestling, etc.. They took a break to open presents... So when Dylan decided he wanted a Harry Potter birthday I thought to myself...how in the world am I going to make a Harry Potter cake??? Dylan offered many suggestions of what I could put on the cake quoting all kinds of foreign words to me that only a Harry Potter fan would know (which I am not!!). I finally just took one of the covers from his books to copy and free handed it. When I was finished I was pretty proud of my creation... Happy 9 years!!! After cake it was time to "STAY IN BED and watch your movie!!!" time. Not an easy task with 7 little boys. I think Jake came into the living room at least half a dozen times after 1o:30pm begging aunt Jo for some more cake.

Well after Mark and I having to get out of bed to tell the boys to be quiet and go to bed at least half a dozen times I think they finally fell asleep about 12:30ish. We finished off the morning with some donuts and of course more running around in circles at high speeds. Thankfully we only ended up with one injury which was Tryg getting knocked down in one of the chase sessions....and he's pretty used to that stuff living with 2 older brothers.

So...I think Mark and I are done with the whole slumber party thing. Don't get me wrong...they were as good as 7 little boys could realistically be...we're just getting too old for this stuff!!!

Just a few things about our little 9 year old...

He reads huge novels in about the time it takes me to read a few chapters and often gets in trouble at school for reading when he's not supposed to
He's a total perfectionist (wonder where he gets that one? :))
He enjoys writing his own comic books and has written some very creative stories
He's a great big brother...always wrestling, reading to them and putting up with the crazies
I never have to help him with his homework
He likes camping, golf, baseball and is becoming a natural at the piano.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!!

What a cool mom

2010-03-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

Check out my totally cool race track that I built for the boys in our backyard. I must say...I was feeling like a pretty cool mom :).

This is why we live in California

2010-02-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

So it's February 15th, a 3 day weekend, and 82 degrees....gotta love living in So Cal!

We headed down to the San Diego Bay to ride bikes with the kids. Well, we ride and Luke and Tryg get pulled by Dad in the bike trailer. Unfortunately the fam was not complete since Dylan was in Las Vegas with his Dad :(.

First we had to do a little rock throwing with the boys.

It was a gorgeous day!!!

As you can see the kids were ready for their strenuous ride...

So everything was going well. We were cruising along enjoying the scenery and pointing out all the cool boats to the boys. As we approached the USS Midway, Mark slowed down to about a 2 mile per hour crawl as he tried to get the boys attention and point with one hand at the big ship. The rest gets a little fuzzy...I was right behind him and I think the bike trailer kind of clipped this big cement tree planter thing in the sidewalk as Mark sort of fell over the handlebars in a slow motion kind of way. I think my exact words were "oh crap" as I quickly got off to rush to his aid. I found him lying on his back looking a little dazed and confused. Then I noticed the blood dripping from his head! Scary!! Not the kind of thing you want to see! We had a couple bystanders offer to call 911 and one offered a band aid but Mark got up and I quizzed him on what my name was, what year it was, etc.. He gave the right answers so I guess he was okay. We cleaned him up and he wanted to continue with our day so we did. NOTE: no children were harmed in this accident. The bike trailer actually never moved and Luke's comment... "Daddy don't do that!"

Here's a picture of the nice gash in his head....

To fast forward ahead...Mark was feeling some pain in his chest and shoulder and being the loving and concerned wife that I am (and having scary thoughts of him dying in his sleep because of some internal brain injury)...I convinced him to get checked out by a Dr. when we got home. Turns out he got three STAPLES in his head and suffered a BROKEN RIB! This is a guy who used to ride BMX bikes doing all sorts of dangerous tricks and never managed to break a bone and now...this is how he does it! He may have to come up with a better story:) I have a feeling there is a U Tube video out there shot by some tourist featuring Mark's graceful encounter with a tree planter :).

Anyway...back to our beautiful San Diego day...

Next on the agenda...a picnic overlooking the ocean. A little tree climbing. Of course, the day would not be complete without another injury as Tryg was trying to copy his big brother and proceeded to fall out of the tree on to his face! He had a nice scrape/bruise to show for it. Just love this pic.. Then it was on to the promised Merry Go Round ride which they both loved! And....if they didn't cry when it was time to get off of the horsey, they got ice cream. Sooo cute... We managed to ride our bikes back to the car with no additional injuries :) And...as you can see, we had 2 tuckered out little boys. Minus the traumatic incident with Mark's head, it was definitely a day that made us smile and say..."This is why we live in California!"

Happy #2... (and #4)

2010-02-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Tryg's 2nd Birthday. He requested a "Buzz Lightyear" themed party with Lemon Cake of course. Being the good mom that I am....I was happy to oblige :). Okay...maybe he didn't actually ask for those things but I'm pretty sure that's what he wanted.

He had plenty of helpers... Brandon and Melanie get the prize for "favorite present"....a mini buzz lightyear with chopping arm action. Tryg has a way of saying..."to infinity and beyond" in this 2 year old gibberish language. He kind of makes some sounds that resemble "to infinity" and then you hear a clearer version of "AND BEYOND!....whoooosh" So cute! Of course Superman is "BAME" and Luke is "GAGA" who knows how he comes up with those but.... we know what he means :). On to the cake. I was kind of stressed about this one. I know I could just slap some frosting and some sprinkles on his cake and he wouldn't care..but it's just not in me :). Free-handing a Buzz lightyear on top of a cake using nothing but frosting was a bit tougher than I anticipated but I think it turned out okay. At least he knew who it was. Taste testing the frosting.... one of the perks of being the birthday boy.

a close up of my masterpiece....including a little 2 year old's finger :)

Oh how time flies...

Happy Birthday Tryg!

Ahhh....cheap labor

2010-01-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

I love that my kids are getting old enough to pull their weight around here!

DYLAN'S NEW CHORE: folding and putting away his own laundry. He's actually quite good at it. Next will be the dishes...although I already told him I can not be bought on that one. My siblings will know what I'm talking about :) Growing up we each had a night to do dishes but if we wanted to get out of it we could pay my mom 50 cents and she would do them for us! Of course she required the money up front and in cash! I'm not sure what that taught us....maybe that you can get others to do your work for you if you're rich??? :) I don't know. Regardless...it was a sweet deal! Love you mom! :)

A Crazy COX Christmas

2010-01-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010! Before I embrace this coming year, I need to post some pics from our Christmas week in Utah with the FAM. We headed up to my parents "Mansion" as I call it that is nestled in the mountains of Alpine City. This "Mansion" is grandkid heaven since it comes equipped with a sand volleyball court, jacuzzi, built in 50's diner, pool table, play room, giant big screen TV, trampoline, Grandpa's cool race cars, and excellent backyard sledding in the winter. This year we had 2 grandparents, 5 kids, 17 grandkids, and a partridge in a pear tree :). It definitely made for a crazy loud house at times!

We made the 10 hour trek on the 22nd so we could watch the BYU bowl game on Dad's giant screen. As you can see Jane and I were very "into" it. But...hey we should get some credit for wearing our TRUE BLUE at least :).

Luckily we were blessed with a descent amount of snow which turns Grandma's backyard into a winter wonderland. Luke turned into quite the expert sledder needing no help or encouragement from us. playing in the snow.... Grandma admiring her posterity from on high... Ahhh....the newlyweds (still under 2 years). Kenny acting like a kid in his igloo and Jane....not so sure she likes the cold wet stuff.

Brent enjoying his stylin 80's (little too small for him) jumpsuit a bit too much and Tami...not sure what she's doing. Maybe a standing snow angel??? some sisterly love..

I think Tryg had had enough of the cold at this point

Nothing that a little warmth and story time with Grandpa couldn't fix On Christmas Eve at my parents house we always do a little program where we read from the scriptures about the Savior's birth and sing songs while the kids put on costumes and bring the story to life. It's goofy, spiritual, fun, and serious all rolled into one. And...of course Mom is always good for some requisite tears :). We also added a new tradition this year...A WHITE ELEPHANT gift exchange between the grown ups. And, with our family...you can imagine the ruthlessness that came with that one. Still, everyone seemed to come out of it unscathed.

YEAH.....CHRISTMAS MORNING!!! This year Dylan was at his Dad's for Christmas but joined us the day after (always hard for me). Luke and Tryg scored some cool baseball stuff from Santa this year. Having fun spending time together and playing with our goodies. And of course the treats...

Me, Susi, and Jane headed out for a little run in like 20 degree weather!! Was definitely missing my CALIFORNIA running temps. Although I did think to myself, "If I lived here...I could buy a whole new running wardrobe" and that was kind of exciting to me :).

We managed to squeeze one more day of sledding in before the week was over. Throughout the week we laughed, we bonded, we ate a lot, we fought (of course), some of us cried, and some of us threw up! It was a crazy, loud, fun, and chaotic week kind of like Yosemite but with less dirt! But.... all good things must come to an end and I'm pretty sure my Mom was ready to have her house, sanity, and peace and quite back not to mention the in-laws had probably had their cox - fix to last another year :).

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

As you can see Tryg was pretty content, however Luke had a bit of a tough time as he vomitted in the car TWICE! Not fun!! And although I wouldn't trade that quality week with my family for anything....after that car ride home I am definitely looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home next year with no traveling :).

Goodbye pretty lights, my beautiful tree, fun decorations, holiday parties, and cute Christmas jamies. Until next year....

Stupid Candy Cane!

2009-12-17T22:23:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we had our church Christmas Party. Santa made his appearance like usual and as you can see Tryg was not a fan. He was fine admiring the red suit and white beard from afar but up close and personal was a different story.

Dylan just seemed a little too big for his lap but had no problem letting him know what he wanted for Christmas..."The biggest LEGO set ever" I think were his exact words. Then it was Luke's turn. He's at a great age for Christmas this year and seems to get who 'Santa' is and understands that Santa is the guy that brings presents. But....apparently there was one thing he didn't quite understand. After proudly telling Santa that he wanted a BIG RED RACE CAR for Christmas he excitedly climbed off of his lap as Santa reached into his big red bag and pulled out a candy cane and handed it to him. Luke looked a little perplexed and began curiously looking through the big red bag on his own...then sadly looked up and said to us "Where is my big red race car?" We felt so bad......guess we didn't explain that when you ask Santa for what you want he doesn't actually bring it until Christmas :( .

Poor guy....he was expecting a BIG RED RACE CAR and all he got was this STUPID CANDY CANE!

Turkey, Bowling, and BYU

2009-12-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

Of course, I'm always behind getting these things up on time but here is my official Turkey day post. This year my sister Susanne and her family came down from Vegas to spend Thanksgiving at our house. I offered to cook and Susi was happy to oblige me :). I actually like cooking a fancy meal and the entertaining thing so I love it when people actually let me do it. There's just something about taking a bunch of nothing (i.e. ingredients, etc..) and turning them into something (i.e. a yummy meal) that I just really enjoy. Susi has 6 kids and with our 3 it was a bit of a mad house so we decided to let them run wild at the park while the turkey cooked...Almost done.. Happy family....now that they have food on their plates. No matter where we go for Thanksgiving I'm usually the pie baker and I guess that applies when dinner is at my house as well :). I got a lot of experience baking pies when I was the in college and employed as the "baker" at Frontier Pies Restaurant in Provo. I learned a lot of little tricks that I'm able to put to use now. Even though everyone told me to just buy the pies....I couldn't do it! They have to be home made or I feel like a phony :). So...on the menu this Thanksgiving...apple, pumpkin, key lime, and cherry (for Mark as you can see...)

Letting the food settle...

The next day's for cast called for rain and there was no way we were going to stay inside all day with the kiddos so we ventured out to the local bowling alley for some good times. Nothing like 2 and 3 year olds with giant heavy bowling balls to throw around. A little chaotic but we had fun.

We headed home later that afternoon for the BYU - UTAH football game. Tami and her family came down from Temecula as well so the head count now: 6 adults and 12 kids....way outnumbered! We set some movies up for the boys in our room to hopefully distract them enough to keep them out of the game room. I wasn't really planning on them setting up camp in my bed but hey there were entertained.. For those of you that are BYU fans out there you know it was a real nail biter the second half and oh how I wish we had a camera rolling when BYU made that final touchdown in overtime to win the game. Mark and Brent began jumping up and down while simultaneously hugging one another...would have made a great picture! Meanwhile, Susi was showing her enthusiasm by flailing her arms in excitement as she double beheaded my willow tree figurine that was on the shelf. Nothing that a little super glue can't fix. Lots of bonding, fun memories and just a bit of chaos. Great weekend!

FIRE FIRE!!

2009-12-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

So last week, the day before Thanksgiving, my morning started out like any other morning. Dylan was out of school so I had all three kids at home. They were still mulling around in their jamies and I had just finished making scrambled eggs for breakfast. I went to get Tryg out of his high chair and since my kitchen was a mess I looked around for a place to put his tray and strategically placed it on the stove but away from the burner that I had just turned off.

I went about my normal business for the morning and it was probably about 30 minutes later, I was sitting at my desk when Dylan starts shouting FIRE FIRE!! I quickly got up and went to the kitchen and there were a lot of very large flames (probably a few feet high) coming from the now melted high chair tray. I quickly picked the tray up and put it in the sink and turned the water on. That didn't seem to help so now I had a fire on my stove and one in my sink. I thought for a second..."I can fill up a mixing bowl with water and try to dump it on the flames" but I was seriously worried that the flames would catch on the cupboards or any of the junk that was laying around near by before I could do that.

I remembered that there was a fire extinguisher in our pantry that came with the house so who knows how old it was. I had no idea what I was doing but managed to point and shoot and thank goodness it worked. Flames were gone, fire alarms were now going off and lots of smelly smoke filled the house as well as an awful mess in my kitchen. I had to shuffle all the kids out to the deck while I opened every window in the house to get the smoke out. Of course, now that I "blog" I thought....better get a picture. So here you go (sorry, I didn't think about taking a picture of the flames)...

My heart was definitely racing and my voice was shaking as I called Mark to tell him what happened. Turns out he had made eggs before work and left the burner on that I placed the tray on :). He felt really bad and came home to help me clean up. That stuff really makes a mess! We spent most of that day cleaning up trying to get ready for Thanksgiving the next day. Good thing I didn't go out to run errands like I was planning. That would have been bad. Luckily nothing was damaged except for the high chair. Here's what's left of the tray. I guess I'm going to need a new one.

Of course looking back at it after the fact....I thought DARN, I should have just called the fire department. By the time they got there half my kitchen would have been destroyed and then I could have gotten a new one! Of course Mark reminded me that we would have had a hefty deductible and our insurance costs would have gone through the roof. Oh well....everyone is safe and our home is in one piece which I'm grateful for just in time for Thanksgiving!

The BEST of NY

2009-11-15T20:16:00.001-08:00

So I'm finally posting the rest of the NY trip. Besides running the marathon we got to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. My parents were kind enough to play house with our kids while we were gone. THANKS mom and dad!!! I had never been to New York City so I wanted to see all the standard NY stuff....

Our view from the plane coming into NY. I just thought this picture was kind of cool and would make a good advertisement for SW airlines.

Our first stop when after we checked into our hotel was Time Square. It was pretty neat to be able to see all the stuff you see in the movies and then realize it's always much smaller and less 'grand' than you see on TV. It felt a lot like being on the strip in Vegas. We found a great little authentic Italian restaurant for dinner called Bella Napoli where we were the only people in the place and everyone spoke Italian. It definitely had a 'mob' feel to it :). The food was great!

Mark felt very loved since they posted his name on some giant electronic screen.....just for him :) We took a walk to Rockefeller Center and stumbled across the Fox News Channel Studios and had to get this picture for Mom and Dad (total Fox News junkies) . I tried to find where Shepherd Smith, Glen Beck or Neil Cavuto might be exiting the building but no luck :) Watched the ice skaters at the infamous Skating Rink in Rockefeller and saw some interesting characters. It is way smaller than it looks on TV. We definitely got our fill of the subways and my thought after a few days of that..."I love my gas guzzling SUV that I can get in anytime I want all by myself!" We also had a few cab rides. The first one from the airport was your typical scary and not so customer service oriented foreign cab driver. A couple days into our trip we actually got off at the wrong subway stop but figured we weren't very far from our hotel and decided to walk. Needless to say it wasn't a very nice neighborhood and I was sure we were going to get an authentic NY mugging so we hailed a cab and this driver was totally nice and when we got to our hotel he said "It's on me". How nice is that? On our frequent subway ride on the #7 train we passed by this area where everything was covered in graffiti but in a very 'artsy' way. It was actually kind of pretty. The day after the Marathon we did some more sight seeing. We headed over to the sight where the World Trade Centers once stood. They had everything kind of covered up and this was about all we could see of the construction that is going on. It was very sobering to walk down the street where so many people literally ran for their life that day. We also took a Harbor Cruise where we got lots of great pictures and I actually learned a lot about the city thanks to our authentic NY tour guide. Below are some of the best....

The NY skyline...

Ellis Island I love this one..

and this one...The Brooklyn Bridge. more NY skyline..

Some other stuff we did:

Had a NY hot dog and Gyro from a street vendor
Finished my race in Central Park so I'll check that one off the list too.
Managed to find the only hole in the wall Mexican restaurant in all of Time Square
Ate some NY pizza
Heard enough fire truck and police sirens to last me a lifetime
Rode the Staten Island Ferry (just me)
saw Grand Central Station
figured out what all the codes, colors, shapes, and numbers mean on the subway system.

Stuff we didn't do:

Go to the top of Empire State Building. I really wanted to do this but when I found out it costs $20 a person I passed.
get mugged (yeah!)
ride bikes though Central Park (ran out of time)
buy a fancy purse from a street vendor..there were plenty of them but I'm just not a 'purse' person.
see a broadway production

I was glad I got to experience NY city but after 5 days there I was very happy and grateful to come back to my quiet home and big car in San Diego!

Happy 5 year anniversary to us!

Three little cowboys

2009-11-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

So this is my official Halloween post a few days late. Since we were in New York for Halloween this year we obviously didn't get very many pictures. Grandma and Grandpa Cox took the little ones TRICK or TREATING and Dylan spent the weekend in Vegas with his Dad. I did manage to dig these photos out for a little comparison purposes. I love this homemade costume! I found the vest years ago at a thrift store, the chaps I made out of an old jacket (Yes...I can sew when motivated :)), and the hat was given to Dylan as a gift when he was little.

Can you guess which one is which?

New York City Marathon

2009-11-03T07:21:00.000-08:00

Well....I did it! All the months of training finally culminating into 3 1/2 hours of joy, pain, nerves, misery, tears, and happiness all rolled into one. Sunday was the world famous New York City Marathon and I was lucky enough to be a part of it (me and 43,000 other finishers). I wanted to write down the experience before I forget all the little things. I'll post our whole NY experience later but for now here's the marathon stuff....The day before the race we headed out to the expo to pick up my bib number and other goodies...and of course spend way too much money. I did get to meet Grete Weitz (she is a world class past 9 time NYC marathon winner) so that was very cool. Here I am the night before getting everything ready. Mark will attest to the fact that I am a bit of a stress case the day before a race. I was freaking out about how I was going to get to the Staten Island Ferry that I was scheduled to depart on at 5:30am. We had to take the subway and I wanted to make sure we knew exactly what train we were taking and that there was a plan 'B' if the train broke down, crashed, or whatever. He was kind enough to put up with my craziness. I was also checking the weather every hour hoping and praying the rain that kept lingering around November 1st would magically disappear. So....once my 4 separate alarm clocks went off at 4am (ughhh...which by the way is 1am California time) it was time to hit the subway. I usually have nightmares that my alarm clock doesn't go off and I'm late to the start, or I realize that I don't have my shoes when the gun goes off, stuff like that! It was pretty tough to fall asleep. I think I got about 4 hours the night before. Of course Mark came with me since there was no way I was navigating those subways by myself at that time. It was fun seeing all the nearly passed out, still drunk party goers stumbling off the trains from their all night Halloween parties. We made it to the Ferry and this is where I kissed my husband goodbye and ventured out on my own towards the start line on Staten Island. It was very surreal when the boat passed by the Statue of Liberty in the still mostly dark sky and reality started to set in as I thought "I'm about to run the NY marathon....how cool is that!" After a boat ride followed by a crowded bus ride, I finally made it to the "start village" where the only thing to do now is wait for about 2 hours until it's your turn to start. Luckily we only got a few drops of rain but the ground was very wet, so here I am keeping my bum warm on a couple garbage bags. I made several trips to the port-a-potties, painted my nails to match my shirt (had to keep myself busy), stretched every muscle, and did a lot of people watching (There were some interesting ones - like the foreign old guy that felt it was okay to just srip down to his speedo and change his shorts for all to see). At last it was time to make our way to the Verrazzanos-Narrows Bridge to line up for the start. As you can imagine trying to get 43,000 people across a start line can be quite a process. They actually have 3 start lines with 3 different 'wave' times each 20 minutes apart. Within each start 'wave' you're assigned a corral kind of like cattle according to your projected finish time. Luckily I was in the first wave so I got to start with the first group. The start was definitely the best part. After we are 'herded' like cattle to the start line, you can hear the national anthem as several helicopters with cameras buzz above your head (I waved....maybe you saw me:)). A cannon goes off to signal the start and through these huge loud speakers you hear the song..."New York, New York" as you begin your 26.2 mile trek across the bridge into Brooklyn. It was awesome! And oh yes....let's not forget all the lovely men relieving themselves off the bridge within the first mile... probably saw more than I needed to. Hope there weren't any passing boats beneath. It's all part of the experience I guess. So everything was going great, I was feeling pretty good running well under my goal time of 3:30. At mile 4 it was still pretty congested making it hard to really settle into your pace. About mile 5 I made my way to the side to grab a cup of water and after a couple sips while running (which is an art form in and of itself..), I totally ate it!!! The ground was really wet where they were giving out water and my left foot just slipped out from under me and BAM I was on the ground with my legs in a semi split. I quickly got up and kept going, did a mental check of all my joints and everything was fine. Thank goodness I didn't twist anything....just looked like a dork I'm sure! And after all that....all I had to show for it was this little scratch. Pathetic! A little dripping blood to show off my 'battle wounds' would have been nice! Meanwhile...my support team (i.e.Mark) was busy racing around New York via subway trying to get a picture or two. This course really was lined with spectators from start to finish. It was crazy! Some of the interesting signs I saw people holding, especially in Brooklyn and the Bronx were..."STOP YOUR CRYING", "NO ONE MADE YOU DO THIS", "YOUR ONLY *$@!*! OPTION IS TO FINISH" and "RUN B*@!*" I know they meant it in an inspiring kind of way. Only in New York! :) . Here I am at about mile 9... At this point I'm still feeling really good, not yet questioning why the heck I'm doing this. People often ask me what I think about for 26.2 miles and for me yes, I'm soaking up the experience, etc.. but I'm also thinking alot about numbers....calculating what kind of pace I'm on, if I continue that pace what I will finish in, if I slow down a little what will that do to my time, etc.. I really try to run 1 mile at a time and focus on each mile's time and whether that puts me ahead, behind or right on target for my goal. At this point I was about 6 minutes ahead of my goal time. It was also around this time that I saw a male runner stop near the crowds in front of me, get up on his tippy toes, and kiss his boyfriend I presume that was cheering him on. That about made me want to puke up my GU!! (sorry if that offends anyone) The course takes you over 5 bridges and through the 5 boroughs of New York: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan. We then run a few miles through Central Park to the uphill finish. I'd say it was about mile 17 or 18 that I started to hurt. Things began to slow down a bit. The hills did not go unnoticed as they did in the first half and each mile marker seemed to take forever to come into view. About mile 21 and 22 I started not to care so much about my time anymore and just wanted to finish. My legs ached and just did not want to turn over anymore. The negative thoughts creep in like "why the heck am I doing this, what was I thinking, this sucks, I'm sooo not doing this again!!" But....you keep on going, counting down each mile. I really tried to enjoy the last couple miles as much as possible, not worrying so much about my time but trying to take in the scene and the roaring crowd. Here I am about mile 25... The last half mile there are signs every hundred yards counting down letting you know you have 400 yards left, then 300, 200, etc.. All I could think was "C'mon already!!!!!" And then there it was....the coveted finish line!!!! I even mustered up a "cox kick" in the last 200 yards. As I stopped my watch and my legs the reality sets in as I thought to myself "I just finished the New York Marathon!! WooHoo!!" Then I thought "I think I'm going to stick with half marathons from now on." My time: 3:36:03 (about 8:15 minutes per mile). Not my best, not my worst. I figured I'd be between 3:25 and 3:40. 3:29 would have sounded a lot better...but I'll take it :). That course was brutal! I ended up finishing in the top 15% of men and women,top 4% of all women (which includes all those Kenyans:)), and top 7% of my age division. Not too shabby for the worlds largest marathon with the world's best:) Below are some pictures of other inspirational runners around mile 25. The picture on the left is a blind runner being led by a guide, gotta love tigger (don't ask my why but I'm sure he has his reasons), the runner pushing the handicap girl, the obvious proud British runner, and how about the old guy in the center! Here's the thing though...this picture was taken before I got there so did he run faster than me??? What the heck? Maybe they started the old people earlier??? I hope so!!! So after the finish we are once again 'herded' like cattle down this very long kind of corridor where we got our medal, water, etc.. This was honestly the most painful part of the race for me. Walking seemed to make every muscle in my legs want to cramp up. When we were in the start village you could give your bag that contained your personal stuff (i.e camera, jacket, etc..) to a UPS truck that corresponded with your bib number. Once you finished you were to pick up your bag in your corresponding UPS truck. So as I'm walking in pain the first UPS truck appears and it says 65,000-65,999. The trucks were all lined up length to length and they started with the highest number and worked their way down. Well my number was 11,631 so I had to walk the length of well....a lot of trucks!! I wanted to cry!! My legs had never hurt that bad in my life! I finally made it to my truck and out of the park where I had planned to meet Mark. I found the first corner I could, called him and said "You're going to have to come to me because I need to sit!!"

He found me!! I just have to give him some props because he has been so supportive from taking time off of work to watch the kids while I got my long training runs in, putting up with my craziness and stressed out personality in the days before the race, and running all over New York for his own little marathon trying to capture the adventure on camera!

People wonder why in the world a sane person would pay $180 to run 26.2 miles and put their bodies through such torture on purpose. Well for me there are a lot of reasons: I have to have a long term goal that I'm constantly working towards. I feel lost without one. I'm competitive and this is how I curb that craving. It makes me feel healthy and all cleaned out on the inside. It makes me feel like I can do something that is not so 'ordinary'. But probably the most important reason is that it is 'my thing'. It represents my independence and signifies something that is all mine. When I am out there I am Joanne....not a mom, not a wife, but just me! It's part of who I am and that is sacred to me. I'm so glad I have a husband that 'gets that' and a healthy body that allows me to do it. I feel very blessed!

Will I run another marathon? Probably! I relate it to child birth. Right after, we say things like "we're never doing that again!" and then....we forget the pain, we remember the joy and we go back for more.

Vegas Baby

2009-10-16T21:24:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I decided to be spontaneous and Dylan, Luke and I took a road trip to Vegas. My sister who lives in Vegas was planning on running a 5k and for those of you that know me and my sis....know that I couldn't just let her show me up like that :) J/K.... sort of. Plus, the race was hosted by none other than the infamous Donny Osmond! Who could pass that up? Anyway, we left Dad and Tryg to bond at home, Dylan was going to be visiting his Dad, and I figured Luke would have a great time playing with his cousins and we would have fun spending some alone time together.

The drive up there was horrible and I was seriously doubting whether or not this was a good idea but hey tomorrow was a new day and we were going to get to see Donny! My sister and I before the race..... Our cheering section.... Yes, 6 of those belong to my sister. Can you believe it? And, she's a year younger than me!! She's a pretty busy woman to say the least. My sister starting the race and me finishing. About 2,000 runners and I got 2nd in my age division and 9th overall woman. I'm not to fond of coming in second but not too shabby for a 35 year old mom of 3 I guess. Running is not Susi's favorite pastime but she did an awesome job, running much faster than I think she thought she would (Shhh...I think she even had fun :)) The kids after the race having a good time. There were plenty of treats and fun stuff for them to do. But wait......where's Donny?

Ahhhh....there he is! He's so dreamy. My pre-teen nieces were quite twitter-pated :) Back at the house Luke was having a blast. It was great! He just disappeared into the scenery with all the other kids Later that day, Luke and I headed down to the strip for some Vegas fun (3 year old style of course). We started with a little snack at the new Serendipity Restaraunt outside of Ceasars Palace.

I thought Luke would really like the water show at the Bellagio but he was not a fan. Apparently he has a fear of water now....at least when it shoots 100ft into the sky. Then it was off to the FAO Schwartz toy store. After scouring all three levels and having him tell me everything he wanted we narrowed it down to one small toy. Mom's favorite section....the candy :) We made one more stop at the aquarium at Ceasars where Luke was a bit sceptical of the big fish but he quickly realized they weren't going to "get him" so it was all good.

I loved having a "date" night with my little Lukie. It was a great weekend despite the awful traffic I had on the way up and back from Vegas. It was fun to visit with my sister, get a change of scenery, and just be able to relax. We will definitely have to do it again!

planes, planes, and more planes

2009-10-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we all headed out to the Miramar Air Show. The little one's traveled in style...I love this wagon! We can fit Luke, Tryg, and all our stuff in here and it folds down so it fits easily in the car. It's great for the beach too when you want to take the kids and don't have a husband to go with you to carry all your "kid" essentials. So there's my commercial...check it out here if you want. Back to the airplanes... Just hanging out.... Luke was not a big fan of the loud F18's. He kept saying things like "I don't want them to shoot me!" Tryg just kept looking at Luke like he was crazy. The ear plugs helped a little.

The sky divers were awesome....

...and I'm loving our new camera. The old one would have never gotten these shots....of course I'm going to need to take a class just to learn how to use it.

The air show is definitely a "guy" kind of place. Although It did make me want to go home and watch TOP GUN....I could go for a little Maverick and Iceman after that :)

The boys checking out the F16 up close and personal...

The giant plane below kept reminding me of JAWS.

We had a lot of fun. It was very patriotic and definitely makes you appreciate the military and everything they do. I loved seeing all those clean cut, respectful young men who have dedicated themselves to serving and protecting our country. I tried to sell Dylan on the idea of joining the military some day but it wasn't working too well. He's a very "cautious" boy and doesn't like the idea of doing anything that might be "scary". I know I would be a very proud Mom if any of my boys ever decided to serve their country.

The best part about the show is it's all free so we splurged and bought each boy an airplane souvenir. I love those airplane noises little boys make. Even Tryg has perfected the "whoooooosh" and Dylan's exact quote on the way back to the car..."That was awesome!" Definitely an afternoon well spent.

A day in the life...

2009-09-30T21:12:00.001-07:00

A day in the life of Luke Olson.....

Being 3 is tough! Just a little tantrum at breakfast time. Not a big fan of the Rice Krispies this morning.

But how can you get mad at that lower lip? I just want to kiss it!!!!

oh my..........

And here we are at dinner time. I don't even know what was on his plate or what the problem was but obviously not a happy camper. Could this day get any worse for our little Lukie? Yep.... "Being potty trained is rough"

The joy of little boys

2009-09-15T22:18:00.001-07:00

Nothing beats a day full of boys! This was actually labor day...yeah, I'm a little late getting these up. Anyway, we started the day at the park to do a little bike riding with the kiddos....which ultimately turns into a bunch of boys wrestling. (Actually everything we do usually turns out that way :))

Luke is learning to ride his bike minus the training wheels. He turned 3 in June and I'd say he's doing pretty good. Check him out...

After bike riding it was time for a little catch and pop fly practice for Dylan.

Then we headed up to Temecula to hang out with my sister Tami and her kids (add 2 more boys to the mix). We all went to the movies and loaded up on candy and soda. Fed the ducks at the pond... luckily no one fell in. I was a little worried a couple times. I figured if someone was going to take a header into the water it was probably going to be Luke. Then we had some dinner at Oscars. Right now they don't eat much but I'm really not looking forward to a table full of teenage boys :) And of course what day full of boys would not be complete without one of these... Poor Lukie! This was back when we were playing catch. No...Mark did not throw him a fast ball. Luke was throwing the ball up in the air to himself when he caught one right in the nose. Just another day in the life of the Olson boys...

Never Forget

2009-09-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

In honor of the anniversary of 9-11. I thought I'd post this great video message about how 9-11 changed one man's life for the better. It's well worth the few minutes it takes to watch :)

Almost 35

2009-09-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

Last week was Mark's 34th birthday. He had a couple helpers to assist him in the opening of his one gift...

Yep...he got a picture of a camera! But only because the real one is being shipped and couldn't get here in time. This is the camera that he has been pining over for months. It's the CANON EOS 50D....and it's not cheap to say the least. So, I will admit that I had some selfish motives here. I was really wanting a nice new camera for my own use as well so I told him he can give the "picture" back to me for my birthday in two weeks...and it may be our Christmas present too :)

say "cheese" I have to preface my cake with the fact that I only had like 2 colors to decorate with so judge accordingly. Mark always gives me a hard time because I'm a year older than him (Actually it's 11 months and 2 weeks if you want to get technical). 35 sounds so much older than 34. When you're 35 you are well on your way to 40. Ughhh!! At 34 you're still closer to 30....so I figured I'd emphasize the 35 part :) Some more help since there were so many candles... Happy Birthday Mark (and no Mark did not ask for the Thomas the Train plates...they were left over from Luke's birthday:) )

A new pair of shoes

2009-09-02T21:38:00.001-07:00

First day of school means another new pair of shoes. Don't you just love the first day? They're all dressed up (in the clothes you pick out...lucky me, Dylan still lets me dress him :)) with their shiny new shoes that stay that way for about a day. Here's a little collage of Kindergarten through 3rd grade for Dylan....

And a little THEN and NOW...can't believe how much he's grown!

Doesn't want much to do with Mom these days...dreading the day that he wont kiss me on the cheek when he says goodbye. After that it's "Can you drop me off on the corner mom?" Another little THEN and NOW. Carson is Dylan's friend since before Kindergarten. They are only a few days apart, go to church and school together and now live just down the street from eachother. "Time for you to leave now Mom"

A few more years for these guys....

So ready for Fall

2009-08-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

With school starting for us this last Monday, I am soooo ready for summer to be over and fall to begin! I have just been craving lots of fallish things like:

wearing jeans and sweaters
burning yummy smelling candles
baking bread and pies
a crackling fire in my fireplace
rotating my wardrobe for church
dressing my kids in pants and long sleeve shirts
not using my air conditioner and seeing my gas and electric bill go way down!
snuggling on my couch with a blanket and socks
the smell of new school supplies
season premiers of good TV shows (so excited for Grey's Anatomy!!)
going for a morning run when it's gray, cold, and foggy. Mmmmm....
sleeping under my covers instead of on top
seeing Christmas stuff in the stores and hearing the infamous carols over the loud speakers
thunder and lightening

Go away hot sticky weather!!!!

....Although I will miss my tan :(

Surfing 101

2009-08-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

Dylan had a little Surfing 101 this summer from Mark and Uncle Scotty. I was a little nervous that he would get frustrated and not like it because he tends to be a bit of a perfectionist .....wonder where he gets that from? :). But..... he seemed to have a lot of fun learning and I'm sure he'll be at it again next summer. Here's a few pics from those lessons

Half way up.....

Uncle Scotty spent some time as teacher too.

And after enough of these...

He was ready to get back to digging for sand crabs and building sand castles.

There's something about little boy surfers that I just love...so cute. I'm looking forward to the day that I get to relax on the beach while Mark takes all of them out to catch some waves :)

Gotta love Craigslist

2009-08-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

So this is my exciting find on Craigslist......It's a Wurlitzer and we only paid $100 bucks for it! It's in pretty good shape, just needs to be tuned.

I've been looking for a piano for a while but when it's a good deal you have to be quick. Here's the thing though....I don't know how to play (I know some basics but that's about it), I think Mark knows one song, and of course none of our boys know how to play either. So why a piano you ask? I had this thought that I really want my boys to learn to play (I've been telling Dylan that girls love it when a boy can play the piano...it shows their sensitive side...but he's not really into girls yet so that didn't phase him). Anyway...I figured I should learn to play. You know..be a good example plus maybe I could teach them and it is a good skill to have. I have this mental image of having a peaceful family home evening with me playing a primary hymn as my boys sing along (ha ha...yeah right!). Hey, maybe I might even be good at it...I have been told that I have good piano hands (i.e. long skinny bony fingers :)) This is what was in it's place before..... The ugly black bean bags that Mark brought into our marriage from his bachelor days. I feel kind of bad since the boys love playing in them but c'mon how long was I supposed to keep those injury inducing, dust producers around? A big improvement don't you think? Or maybe a piano wasn't such a good idea :).......

Round 2

2009-08-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

After a week of Yosemite and one week at home we geared up for round 2. We got reservations 6 months ago for a week at San Elijo State Beach which was a miracle in and of itself (if you've ever tried to get reservations there you know what I mean). We were excited but I was definitely still recovering from the Yosemite trip. We borrowed my parents stylin' old school RV and since Grandma Cox can't pass up a couple days in the sun, they joined us for a few days.

which means...we were kickin' it in the tent. Our campsite was just a few steps away from the sand but unfortunately the back of our campsite was right next to the main road. Needless to say our first night was very noisy and sleepless. I tried to trick myself into thinking that the semi's and motorcycles zooming by were actually the sounds of the ocean...it didn't work. There was even a train that came by about every 30 minutes which Tryg and Luke loved. Every time Tryg heard the "choo choo" he would chime in with "All aboard!". It was all good though because the rest of my nights included a little Tylenol PM, some ear plugs and I was sleeping like a baby!

Pretty much every day was spent on the sand soaking up the rays (what else are we going to do?). The weather was perfect all week! Tami, Brent and kids came down for a day too. Nights were spent around the campfire...and you can't do a beach campfire without the hot dogs (Costco hot dogs for mom and dad of course. I think they took some back in their suitcase to Utah since they don't sell the coveted Hebrew Nationals in the Utah Costco....I don't get it :)) We even talked Kenny and Jane into taking a 10 hour road trip in their new car to join us. Kenny has a hard time passing up the SD surf and as luck would have it the boys enjoyed some 6-7 footers the whole weekend. Brandon and Melanie came down for a night as well and we were good hosts as we gladly provided them with some ear plugs. Grandma and Grandpa Olson also came down for dinner on Friday night. Luke got some of his favorite "bike time" in and even got Grandma Olson to take a ride with him. By the end of the week we were pooped! I was seriously exhausted from sunscreening and showering kids off multiple times a day! That's luke in the towel with his hand hanging out...he was voluntarily taking a nap on the beach which tells you how tired he was. All in all it was a great week and we've got the tans to prove it. I think I'm still finding sand in my children's crevices! :) We're excited to do it again next year.....with a campsite away from the road of course :)

Chaos Yosemite Style

2009-07-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we made our annual trek to Yosemite National Park. This time we had a sweet ride....my new car....which I love! My non-negotiable in this new car was the drop down DVD player and let me say it was a lifesaver! The kids were happy and entertained which means mom and dad were happy travelers too :). Mark did some bargain shopping and found a THULE cargo box and bike rack on Craigslist.... we were good to go!

For those of you that have never been to Yosemite...here's a taste of some of the views you get to see when you're there. It really is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

After being couped up in the car, Luke and Dad took a little bike ride and got some cute pics...

Then it was time to set up camp....guess Uncle Brent needed a quick nap first :)

In Yosemite they have a little trouble with Bears getting into people food and breaking into cars. You have to store all your food in these "bear bins". Luke and Tryg decided to try it out for size. Of course we couldn't go camping without Tryg's bear and Luke's cat....

The great thing about this year's trip was that we had 5 campsites all right next to each other which is a miracle if you've ever tried to get reservations for Yosemite (we have our system). Of the 9 cox kids 7 made the trip with all their kids and Mom and Dad of course were there with their stylin 82' motor home. It was quite the scene with 40 some people in all including 23 grand kids...and 1 dog. We had to use a megaphone most of the time to "round them up" which I'm sure the neighbors appreciated.

Special thanks to Mom who coordinated several group meals for what appeared to be a small army.

Oh and Susi too for providing the massive grill that was "borrowed" from church. It was definitely a lifesaver. Could you imagine cooking for 40 people on a couple of frying pans? Ted and Ken did most of the cooking...since the rest of us were usually chasing kids out of the muddy creek that ran behind our campsites (note for next year: don't get the campsites with the creek!) We got a chance to go on a few hikes. The first one to Vernal Falls. Luke and Tryg didn't have to work too hard.

I thought this was a pretty funny then...and now picture taken in the same spot. Then = Me and Mark....almost 5 years later=3 more

Almost the whole gang on the hike (Dave and Kaci and their 6 kids hadn't arrived yet) Most of our time was spent at the river. The kids had a ball and the grown ups actually started acting like kids daring each other to swim across the very very cold river. Takers - Brent, Mark, Ted, Ken, Jane, Jo, Megan and Kruz. Brrrrr!!! (I was told that Adam and Sydney did it the next day after everyone else left but there were few witnesses :)) Brent also tempted fate and jumped into the icey pool of water at the top of Nevada Falls....crazy!!!

So many cute boys...We also did our requisite hike to Yosemite Falls. Mark always gets a picture of Dylan and I walking up the path. Here's a little then and now. What do you think...another year or two he'll be taller than me? (not that that is a big accomplishment :)) So as you can see we even had t-shirts made for this trip. They read.."Tatonka...it's a cox thing". My dad does this goofy dance around the fire that I guess is from the Dances with Wolves movie and that's where the name Tatonka comes from. Like it says, it's kind of a "cox thing". (I've actually never seen that movie all the way through...has anyone?) Luke would have been happy riding his bike ALL DAY LONG and frequently threw tantroms when he had to get off. It was very stressful riding around with him as he had a tendency to look everywhere but in front of him. Tryg's preference for mode of transportation...the bike trailer (another Craigslist find) He often just wanted to sit in there even if it wasn't moving. Most of the grown ups (sorry Susi ) got to go on a kid-less hike from Glacier Point down the Panorama trail which passes by 3 incredible waterfalls. We even saw a bear or two on this year's trip (from a small distance of course which is close enough for me) Going to Yosemite is all about making memories. I'm not going to lie it is usually pure chaos the majority of the week (at least until the kids go to bed). But when it's all said and done we have some great memories. That's why we take the long drive, suffer in the dirt, go without showers, sleep on the ground, live a week in chaos, then do what seems like never ending loads of laundry. The cox kids grew up doing it and now we're making great memories for our kids..... (for more cox footage check out Kenny's video ) Until next time......

Owie

2009-07-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

Poor little guy!

Tryg took a little fall at a friends house the other night in their backyard. He was a trooper and only cried a little and was quickly distracted with some more pool time. When he woke up this morning though.....he looked a little beat up. Still a pretty cute boy! :)

Happy #3 Luke

2009-06-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Luke's 3rd Birthday last week...finally. He turned 3 the weekend that I was out of town for my race so we decided he really didn't need to know that it was his birthday and we celebrated about 10 days later. We figured what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him :)

It has been all about trains lately. His Grandma Olson has a Geo Trax train set that he LOVES. He found a Fisher Price catalog at Grandma's and noticed the new CARS collection complete with remote control Lightening McQueen and Doc. He would frequently point to all the items he wanted. He slept with that catalog until it literally disintegrated! Unfortunately the CARS collection did not come out until mid June which was another reason we waited to celebrate his birthday. As you can see above he made out pretty well. Mom even has a few more pieces to the collection that will probably make their appearance for Christmas. We made the mistake of having him open his presents before cake and it was all we could do to pry him away so we could sing to him.

My masterpiece this year :)

10 things about our little Lukie....

1.) He can memorize simple books in little time and recite them back to you even without the actual book.

2.) He loves his big brother Dylan and refuses to ever give him "alone" time.

3.) He is our only child that has been to an emergency room....twice!

4.) He can sing "I love to see the Temple" on command.

5.) He enjoys riding skateboards and scooters through the hallways of our home and using furniture as his personal launch pads.

6.) His new thing is putting on his Batman jamies and cape, running around in circles through the house singing.."nananananananananana....BATMAN!!"

7.)He loves to sleep with toy catologs or ads. Right now it's the Toys R Us ad from Sunday with the transformers action figures on the cover. We've already taped it twice.

8.) He throws right handed but bats left (apparently appealing to professional scouts according to Mark)

9.) He loves wathcing the Polar Express in 3D with no glasses in the middle of June...over and over again.

10.) He is our Craziest, loudest, demanding, most active and stubborn child....so far.......and has made me seriously question my no-spanking stance :). We LOVE him to pieces!!!!

Happy Birthday Luke!

60 years and counting.....

2009-06-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm behind on getting these pictures posted...but better late than never I guess. The same weekend my Dad and I ran the Dipsea Race Mark and the kids went up to LA to celebrate his grandparents 60th wedding anniversary! Wow...60 years...Mark and I would be 89 and 90 when that happens (Yes, I'm the older one :)) Anyway...here are some pics from that day...

The whole family...(minus me, Craig and Kari, Amanda and Kyle).

The plan was to play a good old fashioned baseball game at a local park to start the festivities. Grandpa Olson (and all the Olson boys for that matter) are big time baseball players.

Each person had a corresponding number on their shirt to represent when they entered the Olson clan...very clever :)

Everyone participated from age 2-85!

It doesn't get much cuter than that!!!

This is what happens when there is no Mother around :)

Makes a great picture though.

The party then got moved to Grandma and Grandpa's house where they had lots of friends and family that wanted to say Congrats.

Had to include this one! Uncle Scotty and Tryg having some bonding time.

Mark was a real trooper playing Mr. Mom for the weekend. They did all come back unscathed and very tired.

Tom, Dawn, Pauline, Don,and Paul.... The original Olson Clan.

Congratulations and

Happy 60th Wedding Anniversary!

The Dipsea Race

2009-06-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it usually takes me a good week to get something posted to our blog so last weekend my Dad and I finished yet another Dipsea race. This was my Dad's third time running the grueling and treacherous race and my second. For those of you that have never heard of the Dipsea it is a very unique 7 1/2 mile trail run that pretty much goes up and over a small mountain. It starts in Mill Valley, California (otherwise known as the home of the Toyota Prius and Obama love bumper stickers) near San Francisco and ends at Stinson Beach. It's unique for a couple reasons. First of all they have a handicap start where depending on your age and gender you have a few or several minute head start on the scratch (male 19-34) runners. My dad has a 13 minute head start on me (but I passed him after about 27 minutes of running :)). It makes it fun because you can usually pass lots of people along the course that started before you. The first person to cross the finish line wins which means a 70 year old male or 11 year old girl could end up winning the race because they had a 20 minute head start. They also run two separate races. First they start all the "Invitational" runners. These are people that qualified in the previous year's race and then they start the rest of the runners (this was where me and my dad were). There's about 1500 runners in all. It's torture just watching all these groups start and having to wait until it's time for you to finally start. My group is one of the last one's to leave the start line.

The course starts off with about 672 steps within the first half mile. Before you even get to mile 1 you are usually pretty wiped out! The first 4 miles are pretty much all up hill and much of it rather steep. The last 3 1/2 miles are down hill with hundreds of more steps and some more crazy steep stuff. Below are a few pics from the course including the beginning of the 672 steps.

Another unique thing about this race is that there are several places along the course where you have to make a decision on which way to go. Either choice will get you to the finish line. One way may be steeper, scarier and faster (indicated by the name suicide below)where the other might be safer but a little slower. You're also allowed to take shortcuts if you know them in certain areas. My dad and I aren't familiar enough with the trails to try that but I'm sure there are some veterans that take advantage. In the end I was happy with how I did...4min. 35 seconds better than last year and I qualified for the invitational race next year. You have to finish in the top 750 spots to qualify and with all the head starts and invitational runners I probably started about 1,400 back so I had to pass a lot of people along the way to earn that spot! That was my goal so I was a happy camper :).

(Just a little inside joke). My dad did great too. He improved his time by 3 1/2 minutes which was awesome. He worked very hard for that improvement training in Utah running up and down the 'Y' too many times to count, wearing his weight vest for added resistance, and practicing going down stairs at record speed. Can you believe he's 70 years old!!! My dad is the coolest! :) A little wiped out and very dirty after the race.

You get pretty dirty in this race so I thought you'd appreciate a few pictures to illustrate. The top 35 finishers get a coveted black shirt to indicate their finishing place. It's the only race I know of where the goal of most is to wear a t-shirt around town with a big # 5 or #22 on it and feel proud.

Our view as we laid on the beach and took a well deserved nap after the race

The Dipsea race is the second oldest running race in the world, 2nd only to the Boston Marathon. I love that I have been able to do both. Dad is already planning his workouts to prepare for next year's race :). As for me, It's on to training for the New York Marathon in November. For those of you that have a peaked interest in this race should check out the movie On The Edge starring Bruce Dern. It's based on the Dipsea race and it's a classic!

A boy and his truck

2009-06-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

Just some pics for the great grandparents. Great grandpa Olson worked for Ford as a Mechanic for over 30 years I think. He gave this truck to Luke a while back and I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing him actually play with it.

Gotta love a picture of a boy and his truck

A little male bonding

2009-06-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

In an effort to get ready for camping in Yosemite in less than a month we decided to get one of our tents out to see if it was in working condition and had all it's parts. Last year we had let someone borrow our tent and then got to Yosemite and realized they had not included the poles when they returned it! That was fun!! Anyway, the boys were quite excited about having this tent on our deck. As you can see Mark was a good sport and decided to do some father/son bonding with Dylan and they spent the night in it.

Mom loved it! See...I'm not the kind of wife that can't sleep when her husband is not right next to her :). I loved having the whole bed to myself that night....Ahhhh

Scarry Scarry Dinosaurs

2009-06-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

So I took Luke and Tryg to the new Dino Mountain at the Wild Animal Park a couple days ago. I had heard that lots of kids were leaving there in tears even though it's pretty much marketed to children. So, I tried to prep Luke by explaining to him that these Dinosaurs we were going to see were just pretend and they wouldn't hurt us. He kept repeating at home before we left..."They're not real, they're just pretend, they can't hurt me!" Well..it was a little scary for a 2 year old as you can see (Tryg wasn't to fond either) and who can blame him but he persevered and made it through the whole thing and as we approached the last dinosaur on the mountain he says...."Yeah...Now we can go home!".

See...not too bad. He looks like he's cautiously having some fun.

Nothing a little carousel ride can't fix...

Don't be alarmed...this face was not caused by the dinosarus but rather that he was only allowed one ride on the carousel.

And, I guess he's forgotten the trauma because he's been begging to go back :)

The perks of not having a "job" anymore

2009-06-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics from some of our latest outings. I titled this post "The perks of not having a job anymore" because I can remember when I was working for the AHA and would talk with friends of mine and they would tell me about how they went to the park with their kiddos that day, etc....I was totally jealous. I soooo wanted to have the freedom to do that with my kids and now I can! Although they can drive me to the point of pure exhaustion and frustration sometimes (especially now that the little ones have learned how to fight with each other) I am grateful that I get to spend these types of moments with them any time I want. Thanks Mark!

On a side note...This JOB of motherhood...way harder than that other "job"!!

Luke and his cousin Danny at the Zoo.

Trygve getting his feet all pruney at the new splashpark in 4S Ranch that we LOVE!! Thanks Krista for turning us on to it! Way easier than the beach :)

My cute boys

If I had a Million dollars....

2009-05-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

So we went to Dylan's open house at school last week. This is where all their 2nd grade masterpieces are on display for Mom and Dad to see. They had a lot of "family" themed projects and papers they had been working on. I thought a couple of them were worth documenting for prosperity...and for a good chuckle. I'm wondering if I should be a little worried about this first one? It's titled:

*********************************

If I had a million dollars to buy gifts for my family, here's what I would do....

"First, I would run home and show my mom the million dollar bill.

I would show her the bill because if I surprised her

she would be mad that I didn't show her the million doller bill.

Next, I would buy a mansion for my family.

It would have six bed rooms.

Each bedroom would have a flatscreen TV and I would also have a butler.

Then I would buy an R.V.

We could get somewhere faster because someone could get up early

and bring us somewhere we need to go.

Last, I would buy presents for my family.

We could have more things to play with.

I would get all of this stuff so we cuold mostly just lay around."

*************************************

I asked him "Don't you want to give some of this money to help people?". He simply shook his head and said "Nahh". Granted the paper was titled If I had a million dollars to buy presents for my family and he is pretty meticulous when it comes to following directions to the letter but I'm just wondering if I should be concerned? Don't get me wrong I would love the RV, mansion, and flatscreen T.V.'s.and he's right, I would be mad if he didn't tell me about the million dollars. Although I may have to trade the butler in for a housekeeper. :)

***************************

He had another paper simply titled: My Family. It was sweet but the interesting part was where he had to pick a word for each letter of F A M I L Y that described us. Here's what he came up with:

My family is special to me because they always help me, make me happy, and they give me advice when I need help....

F - Funny (I'm glad he finds us amusing)

A - Athletic (I assume he's talking about Mom here :))

M - Muscular (Wasn't sure who he was referring to but when I asked him he pointed to Mark ..that's probably a good thing :))

I - Intrepid ( What in the world does that mean? I had to look it up. Turns out it means fearless, brave, valiant - I'll take that!)

L - Loving (definitely important)

Y - Youthful (gotta love that one!)

*************************************

What a funny and sweet little boy we have!

Making my first post count

2009-05-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

For most of you, you will notice that this is my first of what will most likely be very few posts to the family blog. Those of you that know me know that I am not very creative in terms of making things flashy and exciting. So because of that, I will be leaving most of the blogging to Joanne. She has a way of making things exciting and creative. I would say that she has truly exceeded all expectations with this blog. But as this Mother's Day was approaching, I tried to think of something that I could get for Joanne or do for her that would be something that would be truly unique or something that is unexpected. Usually, I end up taking way too long to think of something and then get too busy that I end up having to do something pretty lame. Well, this year was no different, by the time I figured out what I wanted to get, it was too late. So as I was planning my excuse last night, I thought, since I usually get chastised for not being very public with my feelings, perhaps that might be just the thing this year. Those that know me well know that I can come across arrogant and stubborn every once in a great while. I know, shocker! Anyway, I sometimes play down the fact that I have been blessed beyond anything I could have ever expected. I don't know where I would be if about five years ago I didn't meet the most amazing person who would ultimately become my wife. Joanne, you have truly allowed me to experience a greater level of joy than I could have ever imagined. I look at our family and I can not believe how blessed I have been. I am also amazed that you have put up with me the way you have. At times I know I take for granted all the work that you do in order to keep things functioning properly. Not to mention all that you have sacrificed in order to be at home with the boys. Many people don't know what you gave up in order to be with them, but I do, and I don't know many people that could make that decision. Joanne, I cannot begin to tell you how much I love you. You have given me things that I would never have felt I was worthy of. I look at you and what you have been through and what you go through on a daily basis with just our small family and think, "there is now way I could do it." You are and amazing example to me and to Dylan, Luke, and Tryg. Not to mention the countless other who look to you as a source of strength. I hope that someday I will be able to properly show you how I feel about you and what you mean to me. I am constantly amazed at how lucky I am and I know I take it for granted on a regular basis. But when I think about it, I know that what I have is truly wonderful. Thank you so much for all you do for me. You are more than I could have ever hoped for. You have made me happier than I could have ever imagined. I hope that this day I can show you exactly what you mean to me. At least for one. I love you! Mark

It only took 16 years!

2009-05-09T17:15:00.001-07:00

Well, he finally did it! A couple weeks ago Mark officially graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelors Degree in Business from the Marriott School of Management. I say finally because technically it did take him about 16 years...talk about persistence! It's a long story but I'll give you the short version in bullet points (the way I like long stories :))

Mark goes to Ricks college (93-94)
Serves a mission in Washington D.C. (94-96)
Mark returns to Ricks College (97-98)
Moves to Provo to attend BYU night school because he's applied 4 times and been DENIED acceptance as a regular day student (Fall 98)
3 days later Mark returns to San Diego to work and attend classes at a local college (98)
Mark goes back to Ricks college (Winter 99)
Back to Utah to attend the University of Utah (99-00)
Mark decides to give BYU night school another try (00-01) Note: He was advised from guidance counselors that he could complete all the course work via night school and receive his degree. Half way through this year he was then told that he couldn't receive a degree attending just night classes unless he enrolled in this special 'general studies program' which he then did.
Mark leaves BYU to return to San Diego with 1 online class left to complete and 1 class that needed a re-take. The thought was that he could just finish those up quickly at home and find a job, etc.... He enrolled right away in STATISTICS 221.
Mark gets a full time job in the City of Poway and is still working on STATS 221(03)
Meets yours truly and gets married (04) Note: Mark does not disclose to wife that he technically has not received his degree yet :) It became more apparent a year or two into our marriage.
Still working on STATS 221...(04-06)
Has two more children and is still working on STATS 221 (06-08).
Mark finishes STATS 221 and the rest of his requirements!!! (09)

I told you it was a long story! Now keep in mind during his college days he was working multiple jobs to pay for his tuition, rent, food, etc.. That's right he was definitely a self made man. For example at Ricks College he worked part time at Hogi Yogi, construction, installed carpet for a local company, and milked cows for the nearby dairy....ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!! He also donated plasma on a regular basis to make ends meet. All of this on top of studying for his classes! You can see why he thought that finishing up a couple measly little on-line classes would be a breeze compared to what he's had to do in the past. Well...as you can see above, LIFE tends to get in the way and things never seem to turn out the way you plan.

Now for those of you that have been to a BYU graduation know that there are always two days of festivities. The first one is for everyone and there are always some great speakers. This year it was President Uchtdorf of the first presidency and Elder Russel M. Nelson of the quorum of the twelve so that was a real treat.

If you're going to go all the way to Utah you gotta have the standard BYU sign and cougar pictures above.

Mom, Dad and the graduate after day 1 of graduation

Back to my parents house for some celebrating. Now we're on day 2 for the graduation ceremonies. The first day we left the kids back at the grandparents house. The 2nd day of graduation is actually where they receive their degree and you get to hear their name called, etc.. I thought it was important for the kids to see their Dad receive his degree so they came with us. I had heard that these ceremonies can be pretty lengthy especially if the college if they are graduating from has a lot of people in them (Mark's is one of the biggest). Well...I was going in prepared for the worst....

As you can see we had DVD players, nintendos, snacks, etc.. Well, it worked for about the first 2 hours. About 3 hours into it Dylan was in tears because of sheer boredom and the little ones were in complete meltdown mode. Also, if you've ever been in the Marriott Center those seats are extremely uncomfortable and cramped! Of course Mark was about the 1,997 name of about 2,000 called but after 4 hours he finally had his moment of triumph! Sharing in the moment... C'mon, I helped a little...I nagged some, and tried to keep the kids away when he was doing homework:) A bunch of tired and very hungry little boys but very proud of their Daddy! We are all very proud of Mark and his accomplishment. He is a great example to our family of how hard work, persistence, dedication, and a willingness to never give up will always pay off in the end. I'm grateful that our children will always know how important it is to finish what you start and that a good education was a priority to their Father.

Now.... on to his Masters Degree :). Hey you know me....always looking for the next goal :) CONGRATULATIONS MARK!

Finding Joy in the Journey

2009-05-02T23:26:00.001-07:00

So I gave a lesson a couple weeks ago in Relief Society on President Monson's October conference talk titled "Finding Joy in the Journey". He stressed the importance of prioritizing the things that are really important in life and not letting the little things pass us by because they will be gone all too soon (i.e our kids and all their chaos). This was definitely a talk that felt like it was just for me and gave me an opportunity to really take a look at how and if I was truely finding joy in my journey. For those of you that know me, you know that I have a tough time enjoying the little things and being in the moment. I'm such a to do list - goal oriented type of person. After I quit my job last June and found myself having to adjust to a new change of pace, I actually thought that if I made a list and inlcuded things like change six diapers today, put Luke in time out, make Dylan's lunch, etc.. that I would feel better about my accomplishments for the day when I got to cross each one off. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I know that being at home with them is the right thing for our family....and I know that the rewards people tell me about usually come much later, but it is so dang tough for me to really enjoy my journey when things around me are in a state of chaos or when my "To Do" list is looming! President Monson had some great quotes in his talk that I need to plaster all over my house. One of my favorites is "Never let a problem to be solved be greater than a person to be loved". Since giving that lesson at church I have really tried to stop and enjoy the little things that will all too soon be a thing of the past (i.e. the messes they make, the fingerprints all over the windows, the noise, etc..). I know I don't usually share my deep thoughts on this blog but I thought I'd share this one. I took these pictures below when my natural reaction would have been to get a little frustrated but I decided to pause, laugh, get the camera out and Enjoy the Journey.....

I had literally just cleaned Lukes bedroom and the game closet when I stumbled across these impossible to get mad at faces! Seriously though...why do we bother???

And this one....Luke has been really into drawing lately. This time the masterpiece was his face...and arms...and feet. Of course this was not your easy to clean off ink. It took some scrubbing which Luke did not appreciate. I let him wear it for most of the day :).

Easter Egg hunt

2009-04-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a few easter pictures from our all boy easter egg hunt last week.

It didn't take Tryg long to figure out what was going on. He got his first egg and quickly realized ... "hey there are treats in here!" Dylan helping his little bro.

obviously not a lot of hiding places to work with :)

Uncle Brandon giving Trygve a little extra help. Some of the family watching on as the boys raked in the goodies - Grandma Olson, Grandpa Cox, Melanie Olson and Grandpa Olson From largest to smallest...Dylan, cousins - Jake and Danny, Luke, and Trygve. Maybe (fingers crossed) we'll have that girl someday and she can be protected by all these big boys!

Ahh...the infamous Pinewood Derby Race

2009-04-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

It's official...we've entered into the world of Cub Scouts and pinewood derby races! And with three boys, I've got many more years of BSA bliss to come. Dylan joined Cub Scouts a couple months ago and came home from his first den meeting so excited. With Scout Expo, the pinewood derby, cub day camp, etc.. all just right around the corner..what's an 8 year old boy not to love? He also informed me after his first meeting that he's going to need a uniform, wolf book, patches, scout expo ticket, and a pinewood derby car...by next week :). He and his Dad went down to the Scout Store to buy his stuff and when he got home he ran inside to tell me.."Mom I'm on page 38!". He was reading his advancement wolf book page by page in the car on the way home and proceeded to tell me how the advancements work, how many achievements he needs to complete to earn a bead, etc.. It was fun to see him so motivated and excited.

Mark and Dylan went to work on his car right away. As many of you that are parents of boys know, the pinewood derby race is supposed to be about spending quality time with your dad building your car not about winning....but hey, winning doesn't hurt either :) Grandpa Cox even provided a personalized color brochure with expert tips on how to make your car run fast (Grandpa builds real race cars and has been through several pinewood derby races with 5 boys...unfortunately, his first car didn't make it to the end of the track, so he's definitely learned a lot over the years). He was even willing to provide free phone consultations if needed :).

I love these pictures. He looks so grown up.

Of course Luke was not going to just stand by while Dylan had all the fun. He had his own car and had a blast painting and putting his wheels on.

Dylan was a great big brother and helped him with each step. So..remember how this is supposed to be about the father-son thing and spending quality time together? This is Mark checking the wheel alignment after Dylan was in bed. He also spent several evenings searching the internet for any possible derby secrets that might give him (I mean Dylan) an edge in the competition. My Job? Sew the patches on his new uniform. Simple enough...I even felt very maternal doing it. There's something about sewing patches on my son's uniform that made me feel like a good mom. I thought I did a pretty good job too until we got to his pack meeting and realized I had sewn his pack number patch on the wrong sleeve! I don't think anyone noticed but I did feel pretty dorky for making that silly mistake :)....especially since I worked for the BSA for 7 years and should have known better.

At last it was time for the race to begin! It was great to see Dylan so excited. I was pretty nervous and had heard horror stories of kids crying because they didn't win or because their car didn't even make it to the end of the track. My expectations were pretty low... I wanted his car to finish the race and to see no tears.

Before the races began, Dylan got his first award for earning his bobcat. I guess it's tradition to put the bobcat pin on upside-down until they do a good deed and then they get to turn it right side up, so the cubmaster decided to make it easy for mom and just hold Dylan upside down.

On your mark.....get set...go!! Dylan got to compete in a few heats and even won one or two. The goal of no tears? Well...Dylan did great in that department but Luke? Not so good...he had about 25 tantrums throughout the night when he wasn't allowed to put his car in the middle of the track when the scouts were racing.

He did however enjoy the refreshments.

Dylan finished a strong 7th out of about 20 cars which for his first time..we'll take it! Hey the car made it down the track and Dylan showed no sign of tears...I was happy. Now next year will be a different story....mom's competitiveness will probably kick in :). Mark learned a lot too...like make sure you know what kind of track you're racing on. He assumed the track was going to be a little steeper with a longer run out which I guess makes a big difference in the design of your car. I told him he should build his own track for practicing purposes. It might be a wise investment since he has at least 12 more cars to build not to mention the boys would love it!

Overall, the goal of male bonding was accomplished and they're already talking about what kind of car to build next year!

Gotta Teach Them Young

2009-03-20T22:06:00.001-07:00

So those of you that know me know that I'm a big Elvis fan. I get it from my mother. It's been ingrained in me since probably the womb. I figured I'd start Trygve young too. I did not stage this photo. I give him the bear that plays "love me tender" at bedtime and went in to check on him and this is what I saw.....priceless! It warms my heart to see that he's got his priorities straight...Mom and Elvis :) Dad?.....not a big Elvis fan.. he's more of a Beatles guy.

Gil (the fish) moves on to a better life

2009-03-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

So Luke thought it would be a good idea to feed Gil (Dylan's fish) a little snack before bed time. He decided this all on his own and obviously felt no adult supervision was needed. A typical feeding for Gil is about 5 or 6 pellets. Well...the next morning this is what I saw. Luke was more than happy to claim credit for "feeding the fishy". Amazingly Gil was still alive at this point....and probably very satisfied. This was the bottle that was almost full before Luke fed it to Gil.

It was everywhere! All over the floor, in the dresser drawers.... He was quite proud of his accomplishment. I cleaned everything up and put Gil in a fresh tank of water but by this time he was not looking so good. Gil hung on for about a day and a half twitching here an there before he finally gave up the ghost. Now as far as Dylan knows we've had Gil for at least a couple years. He doesn't know that Gil kicked the bucket twice already due to natural causes of course and we replaced him with the perfect look alike....twice. This time we figured Dylan was old enough to take the news. When I told him Gil didn't make it, his first comment was......"I want a dog!"

Another Trip to the ER

2009-03-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well Luke took another trip to the Emergency Room a couple nights ago. This time it was because of a little too much rambunctious play with his brother Dylan. All I know is that it happened in the living room and there were pillows, a fort, and a coffee table involved. He came into the kitchen sobbing with a good amount of blood dripping down his head...enough to make Mom do the infamous AHHHHH!!. Dylan's account was that they were making a pillow bridge from the couch to the coffee table and Luke tried to cross it and fell and hit his head on the table (Gee I wonder why a pillow bridge wouldn't hold him :)). Once Dad cleaned it up you could see it was only about a 1/2 inch cut above his eyebrow, but it was split wide open so we thought he might need a couple stitches. .....BAD IDEA....

Dad took him to the emergency room at the hospital just down the street from us. I figured they'd be back in a couple hours...WRONG! Poor guys were there for 6 hours!!! RIDICULOUS!!

After a few hours Mark was convinced he could stitch it up himself. Let's just say there were a lot of uninsured individuals that were treating the ER as their routine care. It was way past Luke's bedtime....what a trooper.

Now, remember Dylan's account of what happened? Luke has a slightly different story in the video above. It looks like they need to update their expected wait time poster to include 1/2 inch laceration - 360 minutes!!

...and to top it off, when the doctor finally came in to see him, he decided they could just "glue" it. He didn't need stitches after all! I know I should be grateful that it wasn't worse...and I am, but c'mon - 6 hours for a $3 bottle of glue! Luke did a great job - didn't even shed a tear or wince when they were fixing him up....I think he just loved staying up until 1am! The nurse was very nice and gave him a little stuffed dog for being so patient (which he takes everywhere with him now). You could tell that Luke has now had a little experience with doctors and hospitals since his first instinct was to check the dog's ears.

Now back to who's to blame for this 'incident'. Was it Dylan??? I don't think so, he and Luke were in this together and the coffee table dent proves that Dylan did not hit him. You can't really blame a two year old for wanting to jump all over the furniture...but we can look at who has given him the idea that this type of behavior is okay???

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you exhibit A and B (make sure your sound is up) and then you tell me who's the real culprit here??? :)

If you know our little Lukie, you'll know that this probably wont be his last trip to an emergency room and if you know Mark, you would also know that he probably wont stop encouraging the craziness either:) Ahh....the joy of boys!