The Naked Truth

Every morning, Monday-Friday, I get ready at the gym, me and a lot of other women. I don't consider myself overly modest, and am not awkward around a locker room but sometimes I'm amazed at what I see - lately, way too much. I'm not sure how some women can feel so comfortable strutting around naked, and how they can't see that they make everyone else uncomfortable. I have all kinds of stories of the craziness, but this week there have been two that have me kind of scarred. First is the woman who is about 75, very white, and not anywhere close to small. Her routine is to swim, take a shower, and then she must not believe in towels because she comes out, rinses and spins her suit and wanders around before moving along to get dressed. Really, I can bring you a towel, a robe, anything to save the rest of us. Today was the most shocking. As I walked in, there was a girl standing at the mirror in the main walkway, blow drying her hair - buck naked! Seriously? She wasn't even in the process of getting dressed, just casually blow drying her hair as if she were alone in her own home. I don't get it. It was pretty funny to watch everyone else walk in and see their reactions but c'mon ladies, perhaps a little more class and decorum.
How are things at your gym or training facility? Any streakers?

I Want This

Of Course I Did

True, I may have just finished working out at the gym, and clearly I could walk just fine, but.....it was raining and miserable so I took advantage of the rockstar parking. I think every parking lot should have a few of these spaces.

James Taylor Knew What He Was Talking About

Oh, Mexico
Way down here, you need a reason to move...
For us, it was happy hour and half priced pina coladas. Leave your load, leave your mind behind...
Most days I didn't ever know the date or time, and I didn't care

The sun's so hot I forgot to go home...

I wish that could have happened

Make everything alright...

We had a fabulous week, everything was definitely alright...more pics and details to come.

Farewell to 2011

New Years Eve I got up early and went to the gym, then spent the day putting away Christmas decorations and cleaning up the messes that made. By the time that was done I was ready to be an old lady and just go to bed early and forget any type of New Years Eve celebration. Luckily, the rest of the crew did not think that was a good idea so we decided to go out to celebrate.

Any party that starts at the Outback,
Has to be a great celebration.

The boys seriously enjoyed their ribs.After dinner we headed to the Towne Center Mall.

We watched some concerts, the kids did a bungee trampoline

And B did some serious dancing with a giant

Wii dance competition.

They had fireworks at Midnight which were really good,

It was super cold but most everyone danced to stay warm

2011 was a pretty good year for us:

Family parties for birthdays, holidays, and just because;

I read too many books and magazines to count;

Tim did one marathon, we each ran two 1/2 marathons;

Tim's first triathlon, the first one for me in several years;

Brad Paisley concert/Stadium of Fire;

Trips to California, Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, Mexico

Bear Lake, Moab and St. George;

River rafting, 4-wheeling, skiing, biking;

And of course, the announcement of our new addition.

Quite a year, I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store.

Ten Years Old

I've been pretty behind on posting, I'm sure my people have been devastated. I used the excuses of the holidays, then vacation, now I'm ready to get back on track. Truthfully, the best part of keeping up to date is for me to have a good record - this is the closest I get to scrap booking or journaling.

Anyway, B turned 10 on December 28th. It is crazy, he has grown over two inches in the last year. He celebrated his birthday at home with neighborhood friends, then spent a few days with us. At his request we went to Lowes Extreme Air Sports with Ada, Miles and Gavin. It smelled like a sweaty boy's locker room, but other than that, so much fun. The kids had a riot. In fact it was tough to get any good photos because they were too busy running around. Nearly all of the activities ended in a foam pit - rope swing, trampolines, climbing wall, etc. I kind of wanted to jump into one myself it looked so fun.

After watching enough kids,

Ada got brave and decided to try the rope swing.

Pretty impressive.

Thanks Tim and E for the help,

She's still just a little too short to reach.

As long as she was up there helping,

E decided to show us her skills.

Baby G doing his best impersonation of a wild animal,

Pretty believable huh?

After jumping we all relaxed with pizza and birthday cake.

B requested my grandma's famous chocolate cake.

Always a good choice.

I was pretty impressed I could find 10 candles,

True, a few had daisys, and others were trick candles,

But, he did have 10 to blow.

Just a little arts and crafts to end the party.

Happy Birthday B, hope 10 is a great year!

Everest

My brother sent this to me in honor of my dog, Everest
I've been giggling ever since.

Christmas

The big day came and went and this is the only pic that I got. The day involved a lot of of resting, lots of family, and lots of food. Perfect.

Ada loved the Apron we got her and was anxious to be a model.

Christmas Eve

Like I explained in my previous post, we were lucky and got to celebrate Chrismas a day early with the kids. I got up early to get breakfast in the oven and go for a run. When Everest and I started out it was dark and COLD and I think it got colder (probably around 12 degrees). Despite the cold, I loved how peaceful the morning prior to everyone beginning their day. As I was freezing I kept thinking about the pioneers from the movie the night before and had a whole new appreciation for the cold they must have felt. I have great cold running gear and still was cold - I imagine that they didn't warm up for months.
Anyway, I got home, expecting everyone to be awake and anxious, but found a dark and quiet house. Tim came wandering out and we actually had to wake the kids to open presents. I only took a few photos, it was more fun just to watch the action.

Everyone was excited about Angry Birds!

The only thing B really wanted in life was an I-pod touch.

I learned all my mom's tricks and saved it for last,

Then wrapped it in a clothing box with dish towels.
Once he got to the small wrapped present,

He was clearly hoping for something good.

The look says it all.

He was the most grateful kid I think I have ever seen,

It made waiting in line at Target till 3:00 a.m.

On Black Friday totally worth it.

Pretty good smiles considering we hadn't even had breakfast.

By the time the real Christmas Eve rolled around,

Tim and I were tired and ended up alone at Outback.

Perfect time to go, no crowds and the food was delish.

Christmas Eve Eve

The kids were not with us on Christmas day this year so we bumped the festivities up by a few days. On the night of the 23rd my parents came over for dinner and a movie and of course, gifts. The kids were all excited about the I-Tunes gift cards. My mom is famous for always giving them packs of gum - luckily they are big enough that the gum never ends up on my floor.

Just a side note, we watched the movie 17 Miracles. It's such a tragic story but the movie was well done. There were so many scenes of people suffering in the snow that I spent the entire movie freezing, then thinking how lucky I was to be inside my warm house.

Once the kids went to bed, we played Santa and set out Christmas gifts. The kids were totally spoiled, but they are really fun to buy for. It's kind of silly because we set out the presents in the front living room and then have to take them into the great room where there is more space for opening, but, I love how it looks. After everything is set out, I turn off the main lights and love to just sit there with the lights of the Christmas tree and all of the prettily wrapped packages.