Zombie Half Marathon

Last weekend, Derek ran a half-marathon.  A couple days beforehand, he decided he wanted to take Smith on his first race.  So we got him a warm outfit, and they were ready to go!  It was soooooo chilly.  I kept thinking Smith would get cold, but Derek said he was perfect the entire race.  And when I met them at the finish line, they only cold one was me.  Derek did really well (and he didn't even train!).  Mostly, he just liked being in a race again, he misses all his marathons. 

Pre-race shot.

Getting seriously bundled up.

Last 20 yards. 

I hope he can do some more next summer. Derek said he got lots of comments about getting passed by a stroller!

Chop Chop

Well, I've been debating chopping off all my hair since I was pregnant.  But everyone told me that pregnant ladies shouldn't make rash decisions about their appearances.  But, baby's here and now my hair is not!  I chopped it all off yesterday and so far I'm loving it. 

Utah Trip and More

I know it's been a while, but I have a some what decent excuse...both of our cameras are broken.  I'm dying, I haven't been able to get as many pictures as I'd like.  We still have our camcorder, which is awesome, but I like having stills too. 

But, regardless of my camera not working, lots has happened in the last month. (I just have no proof) In September we went to Utah.  It was a MUCH needed and wanted trip, and way past due!  Smith and I flew down for a week, and then Derek joined us for the second week.  When I only get to go home once a year, one week just won't cut it!  Smith was the PERFECT baby on the flight down.  First, we had a 7 hour flight to Dallas, and we sat by a bunch of grandparents coming home from an Alaskan cruise, and they were all sooooo nice to me.  I never had to worry about lifting any of my bags, or reaching for things out of my diaper bag in the middle of the flight.  Grandparents are officially the best seat neighbors on a plane.  And on top of that, Smith slept the ENTIRE flight.  My only complaint was that my arm got tired!  He was amazing.  We then had a 5 hour layover in Texas, and this was the middle of the night now, but since Smith had slept so well, we just walked around with the stroller, ate, and walked some more.  Again, perfect.  Then we had a 3 hour flight up to Salt Lake and, wait for it....he slept the ENTIRE thing again!  I was so worried about flying down without Derek, but I had worried for nothing.  Note to flying mothers, fly at night!!!  It's hard to stay awake for mom, but soooo worth it to have a sleeping baby!

Our Utah trip was so awesome.  I was so excited for everyone to finally meet Smith!  Oh, and a little side note to all the other older siblings out there: when I think about going home, I still imagine it will lots of people, all my bros and sisters there.  It was SO STRANGE to go home and have only Mykal and Judd there.  Setting the table for 5 instead of 8 felt so funny! I guess younger siblings have to grow up too.  Awesome trip.  Got to hit my crafty max for the year with mom, speedmitten with Mykal and Judd, Cafe Rio trips, shopping with the kids and lots and lots of just watching Smith in the family room.

The best was the weekend when Maddi and Draker came home, so everyone was home, except Clark (missionaries don't get weekend getaways I guess!). We had such a great time. Someone asked us is we had any fun plans for the weekend, and Mom and I thought about it, and we really didn't! The fun was all in just having everyone home! Here are some of our pictures from that weekend.

(All the glasses in my family make it awful hard to get a good picture!)

The other awesome part of our trip was going to REXBURG!!! I know there are the many Rexburg haters of the world who vow to never return once they "finally" get out.....but I am not one of them. I love Rexburg and I adored my time there and I hope to end up in a small town similar to it whenever my little family gets the chance to settle down. We got to go see our baby Jo's site.

My little sister had gone and cleaned her stone off so it was all nice, clean and shiny when Derek, Smith and I went to visit.  We took some little pumpkins out for a taste of the season. 

And we got to visit some of our FAVORITE people in the world!

Katie (and John and Madysen).  It was so fun to see Katie and to FINALLY get to meet her

not-so-baby-anymore baby.  Mady was sooo cute and we had such a good time staying with them.  Too short of a visit.

And Kellie!!  As always, it's lovely to see Kellie.  I have a feeling she won't be happy about this picture choice....sorry friend!  I'm so grateful my friends made the efforts to make time to see me while I was there.  I have GREAT friends.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip.  The flight home went beautifully, both our flights had gobs of empty seats, so we had tons of room and were given tons of snacks!

Other news, it's COLD here in anchorage.  A freezing 26 degrees this morning.  But is has been pretty lately.  And I'll take the snow-less cold for a month or so.  The weather is just making me crave all the warm carb-infused treats that scream Autumn to me.

Smith is doing so well.  It took a while to get him back on track after our trip.  But we are back to 2-3 naps a day and 8-11 hours at night.  I know, I'm spoiled.  He can roll over now, but not on purpose. And he's a laughing machine!!!

New Toys

So, you know how Chariots are hundreds of dollars......but SOOOOO cool?  Well, they are.  They can be a jogger, a bike trailer and a cross-country skier.  And we wanted one BADLY!  But we just couldn't justify spending that much money on something we didn't technically need, sense I already had a regular stroller.  Then.....some of Derek's friends from work had a second child, so they got a double chariot and GAVE us theirs.  GAVE!!  As in for FREE!  How rad is that?  We have had so much fun with it.  It is so much easier for me to run with Smith in the Chariot, and we love hooking it up to our bikes and hitting the coastal trail.  It's been such a fun blessing this month, and we are excited to pull Smith behind us while we X-Country ski this winter!

See, he loves it!  He actually loves just being outside.  It was really hot this day, so on the way home, we lifted up the plastic cover, and only left the screen down. I never looked back to check on him, because he was so quiet and being good.  When we got home, he was COVERED in dirt that sprayed him through the screen!  It looked like had had eaten a dozen oreos, and had all sorts of black eye boogies.  But, he was happy so mom was happy!

We've been using a Bumbo more and more.  Smith is to the point where he likes to be UP!  He'll lay on his back for a little while, but he'd much rather be sitting up in the Bumbo or propped in the corner of the couch.  Even the carseat is too flat, we'll look back at him and he'll be doing crunch after crunch trying to sit up higher.

Contrary to this particular picture, he can hold his head up.  All though his favorite thing to do is dip his head down and suck on the part that separates his legs.

And lastly, just my current favorite picture and desktop background!