We're still alive. The end.

Just kidding! You didn't think I'd let you off that easy, did you?

Nope, I'm going to make you read every last thing about what we've been doing. So sit back, relax and listen up.

We took another trip to Utah. Are you surprised? Didn't think so. We're looking into having a subway installed between our house and Heber City. With all the gas we use driving there, we figure it might be cost effective.

I had my Scentsy Convention in Salt Lake City and Chris had his 20th class reunion all at the same time, so we couldn't resist the opportunity to go kill three birds with one stone. Scentsy, the reunion and catching up with the Wrathall family.

This is the only picture I took of the convention. I know it doesn't look like a convention...it looks like I took my 5 year old daughter out clubbing! But Scentsy had a party to celebrate their 5th anniversary and all the families were invited. It was called Cirque de Berserque and they had all sorts of performers doing cool stunts and entertaining our kids. Jantzen tried really hard to resist the dance floor, but in the end she gave in and danced her little pants off. This is at Mirror Lake, where Keaton caught an albino trout and earned his fishing merit badge. It was so pretty up there! We packed a picnic and spent the day relaxing by the water.
It was so nice.

This is at Provo Falls on the way up to Mirror Lake. So pretty!

I'm such a sucker for these hand in hand daddy/daughter pictures.

I also like to try to take nice family pictures for those Christmas cards I never send out.

But Carson....

apparently....

doesn't.

Photoshop, anyone?

Check out this cool slip-n-slide! We borrowed it from some friends to use at a church activity for the kids that I'm in charge of. It's actually from an old billboard. Well, I got it home and decided that it just wouldn't be right if we left it folded up in the car. A good Primary President would test the product before she turned a bunch of kids loose on it, right? So I hope the Snells don't mind, but we had a blast on it! I love this kind of fun. No batteries, no remote controls, and no sitting around looking at a screen.

We had to use a little dish soap to make it extra slippery.

Now we'll just sit and watch for the grass to die from a Palmolive overdose.

Duct tape fixes all problems.

Lately I've been doing a lot of running in preparation for another half marathon. Why do I do this to myself? Well, it's hard to put it into words, but I guess I must like it! It's interesting because while I'm running all I can think about is being done. But when I'm not running, I spend a lot of time thinking about it. Although it may seem mundane, every run is a new experience. If you ask me how my run went, I'll always have something to say. Wanna know what I have to say about yesterday's run? Too bad. I'm gonna tell you anyways.
Yesterday was my long run. I do one long run every week, usually on Tuesdays. All the other days are between 3 and 5 miles, a track workout (400m repeats) or a stretch/strengthen workout. But yesterday was my first 7 mile run since last year. So I was a little bit nervous, but not too bad. I just take it one mile at a time.
I got up at 6 am so I could run before it got hot. (Note to self: that was NOT early enough!) I was out the door just before 7 am and by the time I could see the big sign at the hospital it read 79 degrees. By the time I actually got to the sign it was 80. I rounded the corner and within about a quarter of a mile there was another one of those reader board signs. It read 81. Holy cow! It wasn't even 7:30 yet! I know 81 degrees doesn't sound that hot, but keep in mind that there is NO SHADE in this town, the sun was beating down on me and I was running! Needless to say, I lost over two pounds during that run, and it all came out my pores.
That run was so brutal. Definitely the worst one I've ever had. I even have battle wounds. A blood blister on my foot and, well, um, um...Let's just say that the new sports bra has a seam that rubs! Too much information, I know. Forget you ever read that.
So in conclusion, here's what I learned:
*I need to find a cool shady spot to run. I may resort to running circles around my maple tree.
*Duct tape works for preventing blisters. Now that I've had two blisters in the same spot, I will definitely be putting some on before my runs.
*3 for $10 sports bras are not a good deal.
*I may try using duct tape instead of the bra next time.

To the 4th of July and beyond!!!

Oh my stinking heck!

We have had so much fun lately that I don't even know where to start.

It's been one party after another here at the Wrathall household. This is a picture from Keaton's birthday party. His birthday was actually in March, but since our house was totally torn apart in March we postponed it until June, when our house was only partially torn apart. Partial is so much better than total.

Then a couple of days later we had Carson's birthday party. His birthday is in December, but since it's so close to Christmas he always has his party in June. Don't you love how we celebrate our kids' birthdays at random? That's the thing about being parents. You can do whatever you want!

Next up we have our encounter with a snake on our front porch. Remember the sign on our front door that says, "Thou Shalt Remove Thy Shoes"? Well, he didn't. And this is what we do to those who don't obey. He is still in the freezer and he gives me a heart attack every time I try to sneak and get some ice cream.

I scream for ice cream!

Sorry, I just couldn't let that one pass.

Party number three is Daniel's going away party. We managed to pull off a surprise, which is always fun. I can't believe the year is already gone, and we put him on a plane yesterday to head back to Germany.

Goodbye Daniel! We'll miss you!

Don't forget to put schlupfer on your po!

So once all the parties were over it was time for a little trip.

We camped one night at Maryhill State Park in the Columbia River Gorge. That was fun until the sprinklers came on at midnight and then stayed on, hitting our tent every sixty seconds for the next three hours.

The next day we hiked the Eagle Creek trail to Punchbowl Falls and took a dip in the frigid waters. That was SO fun! There were a couple of cliffs to jump off of and the boys all did it several times.

Eagle Creek is one of our favorite places on earth. We go there almost every year and we never seem to get tired of it.

It's gorgeous!

And of course, we had to take a "more bars in more places" shot. Because we were about to lose our tallest bar.

For some reason, Jantzen wasn't excited about taking this picture.

She had a frown and she wasn't afraid to use it.

Then as if all of that stuff wasn't enough fun, we met up with my mom and sisters and headed to the beach for the Fourth of July. We got there early in the afternoon and just hung out all day playing in the water and the sand and the cooler full of food. Some of us ate more sand than food.

But I won't mention any names...

Jace!

Some of us ate more food than sand...

Me!!!

Some of us had weird battles on a log suspended over a fire. Some of us played with fire.All in all it was a great time.

Amen!

Hellooooooo out there! Anyone still here? So sorry about the long absence, but we've been busy around here, OK? Can you give a girl a break? Please????

Last night my sister, Dana started to totally harass me about not posting for so long. So in return I'm posting this picture of her.
Hi Dana! Don't be shy. Nobody likes it when you hide from the camera.

OK. Now that we've got that out of the way let's get serious. First of all, let's travel back in time to the beginning of May when Carson and Jantzen had their track championships and this mob of family descended on my house to experience their last meet of the year.

As you can see, the weather was terrible and we didn't have any fun at all.

Carson fell flat on his face in the long jump,

Jantzen became camera shy like her aunt Dana,

And Keaton's tongue became stuck in the "out" position.

But don't worry. Everything was all better when we ate lunch at our favorite pizza joint afterward. Then things got even better that night when Chris and the kids cooked a delicious dinner for us with chocolate dipped strawberries and key lime cheesecake for dessert. Food always makes everything better.

(Oh, yeah. The results. Carson placed second in the 1500 with a time of 6:05. That puts him 4th in state and 16th in the nation. Jantzen....well, she's probably going to be a dancer, not a track star.)

Then a couple of weeks later we had some more visitors. These ones came from really far away.

Meet Thomas, (you already know Daniel), Tina and Tobias Waller from Germany!
When people come from really far away, there's nothing more to do than to...

teach them how to be rednecks!



Good job, billy bob!

In Germany, it's very difficult and expensive to own a gun, so this was a rare opportunity for them to go postal on some clay pigeons. We don't have very much to offer for entertainment in this little town, but I think this was pretty fun for them.

After our redneck experience we had to redeem ourselves by going to a museum. That was cool, too. But the coolest part was dinner afterwards at Hamley's Steak House. It's a really old western style restaurant, store and art gallery (See? ART! We're not really rednecks!) We got to watch them making saddles and other leather works there.The food was sooooo good. I'm still dreaming about that 4,000 calorie dinner I ate that night. Do I talk about food too much?

Anyways, the next weekend was Daniel's high school graduation...

And Jantzen's preschool graduation!

Hooray for both of them!

And hooray for me because I will NEVER have to drive my kids to school again! Well, unless the weather is really bad, then I might find it in my heart to give the poor little runts a ride. But not those little elementary school kiddos, because there is no better parking spot at that school than right in my driveway. Can I get an amen?

Grab a tissue

I have had this picture sitting in my email for a year now. It was taken by a friend, then sent to me. I didn't know she had taken it. Every once in a while I'll revisit it. I'm not sure why it intrigues me so. It kind of haunts me.

We were at a track meet and I can't remember why, but I had put her in time out. I'm sure it was something terrible. For some reason, I feel like such a mean mom when I look at this picture. Is it because it was cold and windy and her hair is flying all over the place? But then I think, "No, she deserved a time out whether it was cold and windy or not."

But OH, how this tears at the heart strings!

I have another picture sitting in my email that haunts me, too. It's a picture of Chris and me at the mud baths in Costa Rica. But I think the reason that one haunts me is because I was in my bathing suit.

Yeah, that's definitely it.

Slave Driver

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but...

Wait. Yes I am. TOOT! TOOT!

Today the kids and I totally rocked. We've gotten a little behind lately on the yard work and general upkeep of the house because we've been spending so much time on the kitchen.

Which, by the way, has a tile back splash now, thanks to me! Just ignore that missing tile back in the corner. It's just a minor detail. I'm willing to look past it and I think you should be too. Thank you.

Now I promise not to torture you with any more pictures of the kitchen.

Well anyhoo, all that behind stuff is a thing of the past because check out all that we accomplished today:

Mowed, edged and weed eated (or is it weed ate?) (or weed eatered?) the lawn
Bathed the poor, stinky dog
Washed the Yukon
Went to Home Depot to replace the weed eater
Finished planting the garden
Folded a bunch of laundry
Worked on stripping and sanding the railing to the stairs
Went back to Home Depot because the stripper wouldn't spray. That sounds bad.
Pulled weeds
Sprayed weeds
Swept up a TON of helicopters from our maple tree
Finished grouting the tile
Finished drying out the flood in the basement (don't ask)
Okay, I'll tell you...The stupid flipping flapping ding dang walla walla bing bang water softener overflowed the other day! (I feel better now.)
Cooked a REAL dinner
Vacuumed
Daniel took a ride on a plane:



AAAAAAND we found this:
Can you tell what it is? If you guessed alien from Mars, you're right! No seriously, folks. It's a partially developed bird in an egg. How cool is that? The kids will take turns taking it to school, then Keaton has placed "Dibs" on dissecting it. He also wants to dissect our old weed eater and Chris' cell phone that went through the wash. What a scientist!

Oh, yeah. There's one more thing I did today.

I updated our blog.

Playing catch up on some recent activities

Jantzen had a field trip to a goat farm. She is a true natural with animals. She was in heaven. The only thing she really wasn't interested in was milking the goats and tasting the milk. Those little goats were very patient with her. She carried them around for quite a long time.

And Chris had a "guys day" at Mt. Hood Meadows with his brother Spencer and brother-in-law Brian.

I'm not sure, but I think they were in heaven too. Most of our skiing consists of taking Jantzen down the easiest runs and taking the boys on the intermediate runs. So it's always a treat for Chris to have some time to go on the harder runs. Although we love skiing with the kids, it's exhausting to help them get their gear on, pack the food, carry all the skis to the lodge, buy the tickets, and get everyone on the lifts. This day consisted of none of that hogwash. It was men, snow and skis. That's all.

I'm not sure exactly what this picture is, but isn't it cool? I love when I find little treasures like this on the camera.

Apparently it was a very warm day. But as you can see, my husband kept his jacket on just like his mommy, oops, I mean wifey told him to do.

It was also a day when Jennifer and I would call every phone number for Mt. Hood trying to get a human being. Why? Because our dear husbands didn't check in with us all day long, that's why! And out of the three phones those guys had up there, none of them seemed to be working. And it's not like them to not check in with us. And it would have been just like them to hike somewhere out of bounds and get hurt dropping off some insane cliff. And...And...And... We were worried! But don't you worry. We had the nice fellas at Mt. Hood check the entire parking lot for their cars, just so we could know if they made it off the mountain. Their cars were gone, so we stopped worrying and started cursing their names. It turns out all of their phone batteries died. They knew they had a problem when that happened. According to reports, when they realized what had happened they said something to the effect of, "Oh man, we're screwed!" Because they knew that they had little wifeys at home that would worry about them, then once the worry was gone the rage would come out. I can't speak for Jennifer, but Chris did the dishes that night when he got home. Bad boy! Bad, bad boy! You're grounded. And did you brush your teeth yet? Make sure you get all the sugar bugs off. Then go clean your room.