Decorating Pumpkins

Tonight both sets of Grandparents came out to help us carve pumpkins, and after we were done we had Eight pumpkins carved.  It's the night before Halloween, so we are a little late in getting these carved, but we at least got them done before Halloween this year!  Gracie and Isabelle both loved to help and they even got the guts out of the insides.  For the first time Isabelle carved her own, it probably wasn't the safest decision but she did a great job.

I rode 100 miles....on my Bike!

The past few months I have taken up road biking, thanks to the generosity of my Dad letting me borrow his 10 year old Raleigh bike.  I knew I needed to lose some weight and get in shape, and since most of my family rides and loves it, I thought I would give it a try.  Early mornings, riding to and from work, these past few months I have put a lot of miles in.  I felt fairly prepared but knew that I would never be really ready to ride 100 miles, the longest ride up to that point was 30!

So Nick chose for us to end the bike season with the The Tour De St. George.  Of course he didn't choose the easiest course, there was a fair bit of climbing (5000 feet worth) so it was a challenge.  Nick, Ben, my Dad and Me did the 100 mile course, while my Mom, Aunt Norma, and Mariah did the 75 mile course.  The first 12 miles were all up hill and I struggled most of the way up, I felt like I was going to throw up quite a few times, and that was mainly because I ate breakfast too late.  After those 12 miles I enjoyed the rest of the time and had fun riding with the family.  

At mile 85 I was fairly beat and two of the biggest hills of the day were still ahead of me, but I pushed on and despite falling fairly far behind everyone waited for me so that we could ride back into town together.  I really didn't know what to expect but I did really enjoy the day.  The weather was perfect and we spend six hours and forty minutes on the bike, with the stops we finished in seven hours and forty minutes.  Will I do it again?  Most definitely.

Nick's hair after wearing a helmet for 7 hours!

Grandma finishing

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Two birthday parties in two days.  The Ferran Family was last night on the 9th and today, on her official birthday, the Barker's came to celebrate.  The theme was a Halloween Dress Up party, and Gracie loved having all her cousin's come over dressed in their Costumes.  We had soup with bread sticks and Gracie's favorite, Cupcakes for desert.  Gracie was a mermaid for the Ferran Party and Alice for the Barker party.  Brooks got dressed up in his best Pirate Outfit complete with some face painting and the Queen of Hearts made an appearance!  Now there are new toys to play with and a little girl that I can't believe is already four years old!

Gracie got this dog but I think that Brook's is going to be playing with it more than her!

Halloween Pajamas 2011

It's that time of year for Halloween, and the tradition continues in our house with Halloween Pajamas.  Usually the kids get skeleton pajamas but this year we mixed it up with pirate pajamas.