My handsome husband

Last weekend Mark participated in LOTOJA — a 206-mile (331.5 kilometers) bike race from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY. This was his fourth year doing the ride and his fastest yet! He finished in 10 hours and 20 minutes, taking first in his category. I am so proud of him.
Here are a couple shots of him at home before the race. He still has sleepy eyes. But doesn't he look great in spandex?! :) LOL.

Mark wanted to keep warm before the ride but didn't want to wear a jacket during the race, so he cut this sweatshirt up the back so he could remove it at the starting line without having to take his helmet off. He's a thinker! :)

I'm so glad Mark has found a sport that he enjoys. He played soccer and football in high school but when he got home from his mission he blew out his knee playing soccer. And since he doesn't want to repeat knee surgery, he refuses to play any high impact sports. So biking is a perfect fit.

This year Mark rode with his brother Jared who placed second. To see more pictures visit Jared and Katie's web page by clicking here. Enjoy!

Sisters

My greatest wish for my girls is that they will grow to be best friends.
I read somewhere that siblings are part of each others' lives far longer than any other family member. So in my opinion, if they are going to spend that much time together, they had better love each other.

Millie hates this shirt, but only because I like it. Ivy's shirt was Millie's. It says "Cutie Milly" on it. I have a fetish for purchasing things (usually books) with my girls' names on them.

They both look silly in this one. Ivy isn't the most photogenic baby. I usually only show you the good ones :)

I find it funny that when you ask children to feign affection you can always tell it's artificial. They seriously need to work on their acting skills.

And here you can tell it's genuine. True, they don't always get along . . . but they have their moments.

Millie's 3

Millie's birthday was in July. (I'm a little slow getting this up, I know.) She had a princess party. Here the little princesses are listening to the story of Sleeping Beauty, read by yours truly :)
Mark usually makes the birthday cakes around here but this year he was too busy building Millie's present -- a big girl bed (which I just realized I don't have a picture of!). Anyway, I thought I did pretty good with the cake. If I do say so myself.

With so many princesses in attendance, Millie got a ton of gifts. So many in fact, that I had to stash some in a closet and divvy them out slowly. There's still one more in there.

It's hard to believe my baby's three! Wow, it goes by so quickly.

Slow blogging

Enough with the nostalgia! I'm sick of waiting to get my film developed. I want a digital camera! Hopefully one day it will make it to the top of my list of wants and I'll actually get one. Until then . . . the blogging will be slow.
I did actually use up my roll of film this weekend, but I'm waiting until Wednesday to develop it. (Macey's photo lab has a special on Wednesdays). So be sure to check back this weekend. But as I hate to disappoint, I do have photos to post today. They are a year old, but they were well worth the wait.
One of my best-est girlfriends from high school (a foreign exchange student from Norway) came to visit me last summer. And being 5-months pregnant at the time, I completely forgot to take a single picture during her stay! Luckily, she took lots and I just got them in the mail this week! Hurrah! So without further adieu, here are some of my favorites:

Maria Bergane (pronounced bear-gannah). Naturally a platinum blond, but beautiful as a brunette as well and such a sweetheart!
During Maria's stay, we spent a day in Bear Lake. Visiting the Minnatonka Cave, the beach and Pickleville Playhouse. Left to right: Millie, Ivy :) and me.

I love these pictures of Millie. She's changed so much in the past year.

Isn't she pretty?

I wonder how this would look in black and white?

Mommy and Millie . . . poor Ivy. I have no idea how I was able to bend over like that with her in there.

Here we are visiting Manti High School. It brought back a lot of memories. And getting these photos in the mail brought back even more wonderful memories. Thanks-a-million Maria! Hope you visit again soon!

Bear Lake

Every July we spend a weekend at Bear Lake with Mark's family. This year it was really windy, but Mark and Millie braved the waves.

The wind made Millie's wet body extra cold. She came to shore for a few minutes to warm up but then she was right back out there, even though she was still shivering!

Finally she decided that the sand was much warmer than the water. She loves mermaids, so here she is with a mermaid fin.

After an afternoon at the beach we headed back to the condo to eat goodies, watch movies (I watched "Flower Drum Song") and play board games. Oh, and each year we try to make it to a show at Pickleville Playhouse. This year we watch "Thoroughly Modern Millie." Really good! Can't wait to do it all again next summer.

Planty-Planty

For those of you who don't know, Mark and I have a pet plant :) It's a Hibiscus we picked up on our honeymoon in Hawaii just over 4 years ago. When we got it, it consisted of a little stick with two or three little leaves shooting out of it. And now, like our love, has grown into this massive thing. It has beautiful flowers, of which it has produced a total of 3 during all this time. The first was right around Millie's first birthday (two years ago) and then this month it surprised us with two more!

Here is Millie with Planty-Planty and its third flower. Bloom No. 2 died before I got to take a picture of it. As you can see, it is a very large plant (this is just a third of it). I had Millie stand on a chair so I could get both she and the flower in the photo. Does anyone know how I can get this plant to blossom more often?? I'm open to suggestions.

Family Portrait

Hello again. I just wanted to share our family photo. We had it taken in Ephraim a couple of weeks ago when we went to visit my family. I don't think we'll have another picture taken until we have another baby (give me a couple of years), because it was such an ordeal! Millie refused to take her nap that afternoon and so her eyes are somewhat blood shot in the picture. Then when we got to the studio, Millie found a red marker and got it all over her hand (thank goodness for Photoshop!) Ivy took a nap, but then she refused to smile (which is so unlike her). So considering all that went wrong, I think we got a pretty good shot. I think it is just going to get more difficult the more children we have. Too bad. Also, our favorite photographer is moving from Ephraim to Nashville, so we're going to have to find a new one, luckily we have a few years to do that.