How many are left?

I have a confession...I'm bored with social media. I haven't blogged in so long and I don't really miss it. I feel like I've been through some growing pains and changes in my life and blogging isn't what it used to be for me. I can't really explain it. I have lots of good intentions to post fun things I've done or made but then I don't. I get busy doing regular, every day life stuff and blogging doesn't seem that important. Here's a rundown on what's been going on in the last few months:

-I did my first ever marathon. I was happy with how I did. I wasn't in it to get a good time, just to do it.

-We went to Matt's Mom's family reunion...met some new people that are really cool people.

-Tanner went on his summer adventure with my Mom and 2 of my sisters to Legoland, Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park. They had a blast and Tanner still talks about it

-School started. Tanner's in grade 3 and really likes his teacher this year. She's one of the newer teachers and she seems to be really good.

-I've made a ton of stuff (food) from Pinterest. I love it!

-Thanksgiving was quiet.

-Matt's nephew, sadly, passed away last week

-I had an ear infection for 5 weeks and was mostly deaf in the infected ear. It was not fun. I had to stop running because I could hear my ear fluid swishing around in my ear and it threw me off balance a bit. It's fine now. I saw a specialist and it's been cleared up.

-Tanner got an expander appliance in his mouth. He was a trooper. We can already see a difference

-I entered the world of cell phones. It's really handy to have but I try to be careful not to be obsessed or connected to it all the time....because seriously, some people can't live without it. I can. I don't take it every single place I go.

-We went to the Calgary Temple. It is beautiful! I think it's my favorite temple.

-I have made some new friends...yay for that.

-I got hooked on Downton Abby. Do I really have to wait for season 3?????

-Finally read the book Pride and Prejudice. I loved it.


Anyways, I think that about wraps it up. We are happy and healthy and enjoying life.

a trip down memory lane

Here's a trip down memory lane for 'ya

This is us at our Grandma's house. Notice how we are all dressed in the same top? Awesomeness!

This is me

Here's my sisters and I all in order of birth. Amy, Me, and Megan....again, matching!

Look at my walkman...do you remember those?

Here's my Grandma in the picture from previous...oh and Melany is in there too.

Once Melany was born, she was our baby for playing house and we loved her to pieces. This was pretty typical of us, all trying to have our turn at pushing her in the swing

When my Mom and Dad finished the basement, my Uncle Peter did the bathroom and this is the hole in the floor for the plumbing. I was the only one brave dumb enough to climb into the hole. 

I LOVE this picture! Even though our eyes/faces are barely visible, I just love the memorey of this picture. We all had new easter dresses and were getting ready to head to church.

This is the Russell family farm. We spent MANY hours/days out there. This was our vacation home in a way. We loved it out there. 

I'm not really sure who's horse this is or where this picture is taken but I love that we were all together.

I think this is Megan...but it might be me. I laughed when I saw this because I have a picture of Tanner sleeping with a box of KD and when he stayed at my Aunt's house, he slept with a family picture that my Aunt had of us. 

My Mom made us this white dress for our baptism and we all wore it. My Mom still has it.

Setting up the Christmas tree.

We loved the snow and spent a lot of time outside building snowmen, snowforts, and sleeping out there in the winter.

This is proof that Amy and I actually got along and played. 

Mom at Cameron Falls.

Picking peas was a HUGE tradition and yearly love.

My Mom and Dad

We slept outside in the winter and my Dad always made sure we were warm. This is a morning after.

More of Amy and I

Here's another snowman

Amy and I sharing my blanket watching a show

Hanging out in the backyard. We spent hours and hours in the yard.

Birthday parties with crowns.

Jsut a random eating picture

My Gandpa and Grandma lived in Vernon B.C and we went out there one summer to visit. 

Amusement parks

I still do this look sometimes

If you look close, my Dad and I are making a very similar face...one of my regular faces I still make. 

 I put this on here to show you how beautiful our wal-paper was. I mean, I would love to put this up all over in our house right now....

I found this one and just wanted to share. Melany put these mattresses on the stairs at my Mom and him and Tanner slid down them. She's such a fun Aunt.

Pictures!

So I deleted some old pictures so I could post some newer ones...so get ready for an overload people!

Tanner recently watched the movie Wolverine and he decided he wanted to "play" wolverine in the car on the way home from Calgary so this is how he played. Have you heard the Popcicle Stick Wolverine story? That's a good one too if you haven't heard it.

I really love this man more than I can adequately express! And I really love taking pictures of us in the car...lame, but whatever!

 Here is what we did to celebrate 1 year in our house! How exciting. We really lived it up with our favorite thing to do...fire pit it up

 We went up to Calgary for a work bee at my Mom's. We try to do this every year and this year mowing the grass was Melany's job, but I couldn't wait so I did it...you can see why. Love 'ya Mel!

                                 I tried to steal a bite of Tanner super juicy, yummy pear but...

                                                      he wouldn't have anything of it.

                 Emerson finally showed up to the work bee (with Megan, Dean and......

                                                        this ADORABLE boy!

 Tanner's bed is finally completed! It was a lot of work to stain it, but SOOOO worth it. It turned out absolutely beautiful! This picture does NOT do it justice at all.

 What a nice looking family of monkeys. Tanner loves his stuffies.

 We went to a Cradduck family reunion and Tanner found some shade and played with his backugans.

                                                               My nephew

                                                      My Brother in law

                                                       One of my other nephews

                                    This little owl was quite interested in looking at Tanner.

    These are all owls in an aviary. It really took my breath away when I saw it. The birds are all right there.

                                         The Bald Eagle. He was HUGE! and gorgeous!

 They had a flight show. The eagle flew and took food out of the trainers hand. It was an amazing experience.

                              Anyone who wanted to, could help spray off the eagle after.

Tanner holding a barn owl. So cool! We had a 'hoot' at the Birds of Prey Center today!



We've been hitting up the pool almost daily and I've been training for the Raymond Triathlon next month. I am taking a serious beating right now. I run pretty religiously, but to add a 7-10km bike ride plus swimming...this better be worth it...haa haa. I'm just doing it for fun. It's something to work towards and I'm actually really loving the swimming part of my training. Too bad we have a seasonal pool only.

We are having our family pictures next week, which I'm so excited about. It's been 2 years so this will be nice.

 This is 2012's Cardston Kids Marathon picture. It was spitting rain and we ran almost the entire last mile. Then we headed home so we could drive to Salt Lake with my Mom. Oh look! There's Susanne and Shelby in the background.

 My Mom had to take pictures all along the way and this was our first stop. Tanner and I went swimming and had races. It was really fun.

 We got to Salt Lake and we went to this mall that had this train and Tanner and I rode it. It was a really good train ride and Tanner waved at people like he was the king of that train. It doesn't take too much imagination to imagine that scene.

 The Salt Lake City Temple. Oh how I love this place! There were at least a dozen brides around the grounds having their pictures done. We could have spent a whole day there watching groups of weddings.

 We wandered around Temple Square while killing time before we met my Aunt for lunch. It has a mild repetitive theme from when we were there 2 years ago...Water!

              The grounds were so beautiful! Don't you just love that Tanner has his Canada shirt on?

                                                                   See? Water!

                                                           The Tabernacle was lovely.

 We hung out in the evening just watching t.v. trying to stay cool. These were fancy pants chairs. They massage and heat up (if you're cold blooded like Tanner). They were divine! I even slept part of the first night in one.

 Tanner loves to read in the car and he read a great deal while travelling to Salt Lake. Thanks to my Mom for getting him 3 Captain Underpants books.

 The Harlan Taylor run. I came in at 36:35. I was 95th out of 132 people for the 5k. Numbers don't really matter to me. I just like to run. I have a really funny story about this run but I can't share it on my blog so if you want to know, call me or ask me the next time you see me.

 Tanner did SOOO good! He did the 2k and came in at 14:54 and was 34th out of 79 runners. Sadly, no one was waiting for him at the finish line so he had to wait until Matt and the rest of our family showed up 5 minutes after he finished. So sad : (

                                                                       3 cute boys

                                                I just love this picture!

                                                               Best cousins!

 These 2 are going to get into a lot of trouble when they're older....just look at those faces. Oh yeah, Tanner got glasses. Doesn't he look so cute? So smart and studious.

 My Mom was invited to be on the Seniors float for the July 1st parade in Raymond. This caused much confusion to those who were visiting Raymond that knew her (like several of my cousins and a few of my Mom's friends) because they thought she had moved to Raymond. Nope! She's just so awesome that she was invited on the float. It's been a dream of hers for a long time and my Aunty Elaine (one of my Mom's dearest friends) invited her on after talking to the lady in charge of the float. I just love my Mom!

 We drove to Waterton but it was raining so we just walked around and window shopped. We did come across these deer while driving up the road to Cameron Lake. It's just so beautiful there. Tanner really wants to do Red Rock Canyon and I am planning on doing the triple mountain hike. I forget the name of it but you hike 3 of the mountains and you get to put your name in a book to say that you hiked these mountains. It's supposed to be kind of a big deal.

 When we went up to Calgary for the day a couple weeks ago, the boys had a water gun fight. Just a little side story, my Mom has had this yellow sprinkler since we were kids...(even before my Dad died in '91) and it is a bit of a treasure. We used it all the time when we had our fashion shows in the backyard or when we jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath...this was the sprinkler we used. Such good memories. We are all a little surprised it has lasted this long but it's super sturdy and doesn't have any cracks in it or anything.

                                                          It got pretty intense

 They attacked Matt BIG time!

 He had to use the BBQ cover to protect himself. I mean, how fair is it that 2 little boys with water guns attack their Dad/Uncle who has no water gun???? lol

 And this cute little guy enjoyed the sun and fun games going on

Megan finally had to get in on the action too. Everyone had fun!


So that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.