Mother's Day, Race for the Cure, Wheeler Farm, & SLC Half Marathon

Mother's Day ended up being a great day. Dan came over with flowers, a new cricut cartridge, a musical card (that he had Hayden sign too) and "Cooking Mama" for the Wii as a gift from Hayden. Then we went to my mom's house for brunch and played a bit outside. Later that afternoon we went to visit with Dan's family and enjoyed dinner and good company.

Our "Brady Bunch" pose on the stairs.

Funny Faces!

Brooke and Gage

Mother's Day treats! I learned that these don't transport as well as I had hoped--oh well.

MAY 8TH- RACE FOR THE CURE

Brooke and I joined in the Race for the Cure again for the 2nd year in a row. We also met up with some of my co-workers who were running for one of the kindergarten teachers. In fact, I'm wearing a shirt that my work had made up for her (Betty Leary).

Here I am with the amazing cancer surviver-Betty.

Here we are just before the race started. We were trying to get a pic with the balloon arch in the background. Funny enough, out of the 19,000 people there, we ended up on the news for a few seconds.

After the race I found my friend Kristen and her cute girls.

MAY 7TH-WHEELER FARM

Since we didn't have school Friday, Hayden and I met up with my friend Michelle and her kids (Abby and Ty) at Wheeler Farm. They also brought another friend, Luke, along for the fun.
Above are Luke, Hayden, and Abby after feeding the ducks and geese.

Feeding the birds. After exploring all the animals, we had a fun little picnic lunch. It was so nice to be outside and enjoy the wonderful weather that day.

Petting the baby goat. This is much better than the rat we saw creeping nearby--so glad it didn't get close to us and the kids.

APRIL 17TH--THE SALT LAKE CITY MARATHON AND 1/2 MARATHON

This year I decided to do the Salt Lake City Half Marathon because I thought it would be a good training race before the first Grand Slam Marathon (Ogden in a few days--aaaaah). I went down with my friend Michelle, her hubby, her mom, and another friend. The women did the half and Justin did the whole marathon. We were so lucky that the weather was perfect that day, too. My time wasn't my best (1:51), but it was still fun and a great run. I loved the enthusiasm of the runners and the people watching throughout the whole race.

The Past Week (April 5-11)

Hayden riding the rhino (it took a couple of tries to get him on). Today we took a much needed trip to the zoo. I feel like Hayden just needed some special one-on-one time with his mommy, and walking around the zoo on a nice day seemed to help us both feel better.

Last Monday (April 5) was my sister's (Brooke) birthday. I decided to make a cute little balloon cake in which I used different cake and frosting flavors. To celebrate, we walked around Gardner Village, ate dinner at Archibald's, came to my house for cake, and then did a little bit of Dance Party on the wii. Happy 22nd Birthday, Brookie!

I hope she made a good wish. Brooke actually paused for a moment before blowing out her candles because she was determined to have the perfect wish (I have no idea what it was).

Earlier on Monday, I babysat my friend Jenny's kids while she did some work on their new house. We made pancakes, played, watched part of a movie (that's the pic below), played some more, then made mac & cheese and frosted cupcakes for lunch.

Here's a picture of Dan and I from a friend's birthday celebration a few weeks ago. Dan's dad recently passed away this weekend so it's been a challenging time for Dan and his family. I didn't know his dad very well, but he certainly raised a wonderful son. My love and thoughts go out to them at this time.

Easter, Painting, and Parties

Easter Sunday-April 4
The Easter Bunny left a trail of Easter eggs leading downstairs for Hayden to find. There were 30 eggs in all plus 5 more in his basket.

Hayden managed to find all 30 eggs. Below is a picture of him counting them just to make sure.

After the egg hunt, Hayden started to check out some of the other fun things the bunny left for him.

Here he is opening one of the gifts.

A Toy Story game and a new Zhu Zhu pet (Winkie) to play with Num Nums (I promise I don't make up these names).

Testing out his new Scooter.

Easter Treats
Carrot shaped sugar cookies

Egg and Easter Bunny shaped sugar cookies

Mini Easter Bunny cakes

The big Easter Bunny cake

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter Brunch. Hayden got to go on another egg hunt, and he was spoiled by his grandparents, too. He got a fun dog chair, a Toy Story tent, a basketball, and a baseball stand where the baseballs pop up out of the stand automatically.

Check out all those fun eggs!

Hayden's great grandparents (Bob's mom and stepdad) sent Hayden this cool backpack with some fun little toys inside. He thought (and still thinks) it was way cool. Thanks Mam and Papa.

He also got an Easter basket full of goodies from Grandma and Grandpa, too.

Cousins--we thought we'd get a picture of Hayden and Gage together in their Easter attire.

The mamas and their boys.

What a wonderful Grandma our kids have!

Saturday, April 3
We started off the day going to the Easter Egg Hunt at Draper Park. Here's Hayden with the Easter Bunny. We also got to frost and decorate a cookie before the hunt because there's nothing like adding to the sugar high that kids are already on, right!?

We met Jenny and Kristen there with their kids. It's always fun to have friends at the egg hunt. It was cold, but at least the kids had fun.

Hayden got 3 eggs and a bunch of candy. One of the eggs had a ticket inside, so he got to turn it in and get a prize (a bubble wand).

Here is a picture of Hayden during the actual hunt. He's the one bent over far enough so you can see his underwear just above the top of his pants. Afterwards we went to McDonald's with Jenny and her kids for breakfast. Later that day Hayden and I went to Dan's parents' house to visit for awhile. Hayden had a great time playing with all the kids there, too.

Thursday, April 1

We had a playdate with Michelle and Abbi at Color Me Mine. Here's Hayden painting a dog, and below is Abbi painting a dolphin. Afterwards we met up with Michelle's husband (Justin) and their son (Ty) at Arctic Circle so the kids could eat, play, and get bunnies in their kid meals.

Wednesday, March 31

The book fair was taking place at our school, and Clifford was there. Hayden loves this big, red dog.

Thursday, March 18

We went up to Layton after school to celebrate Layna's first birthday. She's my sister's (Danika) daughter. Here are Layna, Luke, and Hayden having fun at Chuck-E-Cheese.

The boys really enjoyed playing ski ball. I'm sure Layna will be playing soon enough, too.