The Lost Dutchman Trail

We took a fun hike for Presidents Day at the base of the Superstition Mountains.


Afterwards, we stopped at the ghost town which was actually quite crowded!

Happy Birthday!

As the nation celebrated Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday yesterday, our family celbrated Matthew's 10th birthday! We think the following adjectives describe both of these great men!
HONEST
HARD WORKING
INTELLIGENT
KIND
DEDICATED
Happy Birthday, Matthew and Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

(This picture was taken 5 years ago!)

Way to Go!

Kimberly was very excited to get this email tonight.

The Admissions Committee is delighted to inform you that you have been admitted to Brigham Young University to begin Fall 2009. Through your preparation and personal achievements you have distinguished yourself from a very strong group of applicants. We believe you will make a positive contribution to our BYU community. It is a great pleasure to welcome you to our campus to pursue your educational goals.

We thought we'd pass along the good news.

Sedona Marathon - I Did It!

About 4 months ago I got this crazy idea in my head that I should run a marathon before I turned 40! It turned out that there was a Saturday marathon in Sedona (only 2 hours away and beautiful scenery) on February 7, 2009. I told Diane (my faithful running partner) about it and we decided to go for it. We started training in October and got up to 11 miles before I injured my knees in November. I tried to run through the pain, but as it didn't get better, we decided to take the month of December off. In January, Diane went up to be with her daughter who was having a baby for 3 weeks, so we took that month off too. We ran twice after she returned (7 miles and then 11 miles). My knees felt great -- those 2 months of rest really helped -- and so to get the nagging feeling of "I have to do a marathon before I turn 40" out of my mind, we signed up for the marathon and took another week of rest!

ET was so supportive and drove us up to Sedona Friday night. We picked up our packets that night, had dinner, and checked into our hotel. The next morning was beautiful! ET drove us to the race site and saw us off, before going to play a round of golf at a nearby course. The scenery was beautiful, we felt great, and there were plenty of aid stations. The terrain was all hills (or should I say mountains!) and we were pretty tired by mile 21. In fact we were more hiking up the last hills then running. But we did it!


The Start of the Race!

Enjoying the scenery before the race.

ET and me (with ET as the photographer)


Getting ready to start -- notice my bulging pockets full of Jolly Ranchers (Thanks, Maria!)


We did it!

The cute pink jeeps that were at all the aid stations -- it was tempting the last few miles!

The beautiful Sedona landscape.


The cute poster I found waiting for me at home! My children were amazing! They cheered me on the whole way and welcomed me home with this poster and an immaculate house! Thank you!