Happy Birthday, Jaxson!

Jaxson turned three earlier this month, and we had such a fun time celebrating his birthday! Sometimes it seems crazy that he is already three, but then there are so many times when I feel like he has been part of our family for so much longer. I am sure a lot of parents feel that way...it is weird to imagine a time when he wasn't part of our family.

Jax has really been into superheroes lately and had been talking about having a Batman cake for several months. Thankfully he was still into Batman when his party arrived. He loved having a Batman cake and seeing all of his Batman decorations. Of course, when it was time to get ready, he insisted on wearing his Spiderman shirt instead of the Batman one. :)

I think that Jaxson must be going through a little bit of a shy phase, because he was super bashful about having so many people come over and getting all of the attention. At one time, he told me that he wanted everyone to stay home. He eventually warmed up to the idea of having everyone there and was able to enjoy himself, although he was super shy when we sang "happy birthday".

Jaxson really did end up having such a fun time. We love having such a great family that would come and celebrate with us. Growing up, we didn't have any extended family around, so I love being able to have all the family over for celebrations.

I always get really sentimental this time of year when thinking about how Jaxson came to be part of our family. I am SO thankful for adoption and for his wonderful birth mother who was able to make the decision to have him be part of our family. I know that he is supposed to be my son. His adoption was such an amazing experience, and I am so appreciative that I am one of the few people lucky enough to have that opportunity. I will never forget the feel of "getting the call" and telling our families that they were going to have a grandson...within just a few short weeks! Yes, giving birth is also very special, but as someone who has experienced both, there is just something so different and so special about adoption.

Halloween!

I'm sure that I think this about most holidays, but I love Halloween! I love all the pumpkin foods and smells and getting dressed up. This was the first year that the kids seemed to have an understanding of what was going on, which made it so much fun! For weeks, Jaxson has been talking about how he was going to be Batman and Aynsley chose to be Ariel/Mermaid for her costume.

We went to a Halloween party with Mike's family and the kids loved being able to dress up and play with their cousins.

I always try to get decent pictures of the kids, but it is tricky when they are both at the age of not wanting to sit still and pose for a picture. Aynsley was being so funny because when I asked her if I could take her picture, she went over and grabbed this little chair that I have had her sit in for pictures before. She sat in the chair and then glared at me for a few seconds to "allow" me to take her picture.

Jaxson was excited to be able to wear his Batman shirt and was a little more willing to let me take his picture. 

Mike's dad has a huge maple tree in his front yard and had raked a big pile of leaves for the kids to play in. I think this was the highlight of the party for Jaxson and Aynsley. They loved playing in the leaves and didn't want to stop. 

Halloween day was also a lot of fun! Halloween is a big deal at my work and I love being able to dress up with my coworkers. This year, we dressed up as a Richard Simmons exercise group and we won the group contest! I think we clinched our victory by performing a little exercise routine for the judges. It made for some good laughs and we had a fun time. The kids had a Halloween party that they went to during the day and they were part of a costume parade through my work. After work, we went trick-or-treating with some friends.

Jaxson was all about going from house to house, while Aynsley was a little more easily distracted. She kept seeing different things (decorations, bugs, etc) and wanting to stop and look at them. I don't think it really connected with her that she would get more treats by going to more houses. Jaxson was not happy when it was time to go home and wanted to keep going out. When we woke up the next day, he wanted to go trick-or-treating again. Maybe he will take after me and have a love for Halloween, too? A mom can only hope...

Fall is My Favorite!

Typically, autumn is my absolutely most favorite time of year. I love the changing leaves, crisp air, fragrant smells, and tasty food. This year I was having a harder time than normal getting into the spirit of the season...I just (and still am not) was not ready for summer to end. I think mostly because I am not looking forward to winter, but I decided I needed to make sure I tried to enjoy this time of year, because it is always gone before I know it!

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to take our annual family fall drive. This never fails to get me in the mood for fall! We drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon, over Guardsman's Pass, and then down into Heber. If you have never taken this drive before, I highly recommend it. The scenery is beautiful! This year, there was already snow in several areas! It made for some different scenery, but it was still beautiful. This was the first year that Jaxson and Aynsley seemed to really enjoy the drive and they both were great at pointing out all of the different colors that they saw.

Last Saturday, we took the kids to Pack's Pumpkin Patch. This is the third year we have gone and the first year that Mike was able to come with us. The kids love checking out all the pumpkins and being able to play in the kiddie hay maze. Aynsley was a little nervous about the maze, but Jaxson loved it! He thought it was so much fun to run around and explore. I love that we have this little tradition and I do look forward to it every year.

On Monday, we had a family night with my parents and siblings at Gardner Village. We got there right after a huge rainstorm, so it wasn't too crowded, but it was definitely cold! It had been good weather at our house before we left, so I left most of our warmer clothes at home. The kids were good sports despite the cold. They really enjoy seeing the witches, but I think it might have been a little more enjoyable for them if it had been warmer and earlier in the day. We ended our night with shakes at Arctic Circle.

I have been loving the sunny weather that we have had the past few days and so we headed out to the park yesterday. It was the perfect morning to be at the park...sunny and warm enough for the kids to play without jackets. We went up to North Canyon Park instead of staying at the ones by our house. This is one of my favorite parks in the area and I think that Jaxson and Aynsley enjoyed going someplace different. They were having so much fun and didn't want leave. Hopefully we have a few more sunny days that can be spent at the park before it gets too cold.

I am so glad that we have been able to enjoy this time of year as a family. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in everything that has to get done and feel overwhelmed, but it is these simply family times that mean the most and put everything into perspective.

The Big Cottonwood Canyon Marathon!

A couple of weeks I checked one of my goals off of my list...I finished my first marathon! I chose the Big Cottonwood Canyon Marathon for a couple of reasons. First, I ran the race's half marathon and absolutely loved it. Second, the scenery in the canyon is beautiful, and third, I appreciated the fact that it was mostly downhill.

I started training in March with a goal to just be able to finish the race. When I first started training, the prospect of running a full marathon seemed impossible. The furthest I had ever gone before was a half marathon (13.1 miles) and I didn't see how I would be able to double it. Despite an injury in August, by hard work and persistence paid off and I was able to make it.

The race begins at the top of Guardsman's Pass and goes down Big Cottonwood Canyon for just under 17 miles. I was really worried about it raining, but it turned out to be a beautiful day for a long run. The canyon was beautiful and provides such a great backdrop for the race. 

I felt really good running down the canyon. I was relieved to find that the tendonitis that had been bothering my knee wasn't acting up and I was excited for the remaining miles and felt pretty confident. 

That confidence and excitement lasted until about the 19th mile, when I could feel that I was getting more tired. I kept telling myself that I only had seven miles to go, and that running seven miles was nothing. I could do it! Then I started to hit "the wall" around miles 20-21. The wall is a very real thing. It was like instant fatigue set in and it took all my will power to keep running instead of walking. I kept looking at my GPS watch and it seemed like the miles were going super slow and that I wasn't making any progress. I definitely slowed down quite a bit for the last six miles and I would try and tell myself that the faster I went, the sooner I would be done and could rest, but if I tried to go too fast, I felt sick to my stomach. So, I had to be content with my slow jog and keep going. I think that there was one point around mile 23 or 24 when I seriously wondered why anyone would want to do multiple marathons...I just wanted this one to be done! 

Finally, I past mile marker 25 and I knew that I was close. I pushed myself to go a little faster and soon the finish line was in reach! It was so encouraging to see my family waiting for me on the sidelines and when my mom came and ran beside me for a few minutes, I got more energy to surge ahead to the finish. Finally, I crossed the finish line, received my medal, and found someplace to rest! 

Running a marathon has got to have been one of the hardest (if not THE hardest) things that I have ever done. It was hard physically and mentally, but I am so glad that I stuck through the months of training and finished the race. Pushing myself like this helped me appreciate how far I have come as a runner and how much potential that I have. Even though it was hard, I would like to train for another marathon in the future. I love the way I feel when I run and I can't wait to see where it takes me. 

Happy Birthday, Aynsley!

Aynsley turned two a couple of weeks ago, so we had to celebrate! I can't necessarily say that the time has flown by and "I can't believe she is already two"...I don't say that in a mean way, but in some ways it seems like she should have been two a long time ago. I guess it helps having a brother who is just ten months older than you are. She really seems to have caught up to Jaxson developmentally in a lot of ways, so it seems like they are more like twins.

Anyway...Aynsley has liked "Finding Nemo" for the past several months, so we decided to have "Nemo" inspired party. I wanted to keep it somewhat low-key, but we did plan an underwater themed menu (submarine sandwiches, "seaweed" (aka salad), "seashells" (pasta salad), etc). We also borrowed a huge blow-up swimming pool from Mike's mom, thinking that the kids would have fun swimming and playing in the water, while the adults mingled outside. Unfortunately, it started to rain as soon as all of our guests started raining. Between the rain and thunder, nobody dared to venture outside, so we had to squeeze into our house.

Aynsley was excited to see her presents, but once she opened the first one or two, she was done. She was just happy to try and play with what she had already opened and didn't seem to care that she still had more. Jaxson was more than willing to help her out and proceeded to open up most of her presents. Unfortunately, he ended up being quite upset when he was told that the gifts were for Aynsley and that he couldn't keep the toys away from her. He was not happy to learn that his birthday is not for a few more months!

Next up was cake and icecream. I tried out a new recipe for Aynsley's cake, and it turned out good, which was a relief! We had cupcakes for the rest of the kids (didn't take any pictures) and let each of them blow out their own candle.

Right after we finished up with cake and icecream, the weather seemed to clear up a little bit and a few kids decided to go outside and swim. Aynsley insisted on wearing her sunglasses when she went out to play. Despite the weather, the party was still a success! We are so glad that we have such great family to come celebrate with us.

The Anderson Family Reunion: Bryce Canyon Edition

Every Labor Day weekend, Mike's extended family gets together for a camping reunion. Usually we go camping near Beaver, but this year we decided to change it up and go to Bryce Canyon. I was excited for the change because I had never been to Bryce Canyon before and was looking forward to checking it out. We rented a trailer (thank goodness!), packed up, and headed down for the long weekend on Thursday afternoon.

The beautiful scenery did not disappoint. This is a beautiful national park and I would have loved being able to spend more time hiking. Unfortunately, lengthy hiking can get a little tricky when you have two little kids. We did manage to hike the Navajo Trail loop, but we each had to carry a child for most of the way down and back up the trail, and I was a little nervous that one of the kids would have a meltdown and fall. The trail is lined with pretty steep drop-offs, so fortunately we did not have any problems.

I think that the highlight of the trip for Jaxson and Aynsley was being able to play with all the little kids. They loved being able to play with their cousin, Kambri, and all of the other kids that were there.

Unfortunately, we had A LOT of rainy weather while we were there. A lot. Just when it seemed to be clearing up, it would start raining again. Good thing we rented a trailer, because we would have been soaked otherwise. I would say that it rained 60-70% of the time. Of course, the weather cleared up just in time for us to leave. We were able to get a few good hours of sightseeing in on Sunday. We drove around to some of the other recommended viewpoints that we hadn't seen on Saturday. It was interesting to see how different the area looked from different vantage points. 

We really enjoyed being able to visit with family members that we hadn't seen for a long time. Mike's extended family is pretty large and there were a lot of people that were there that we don't get to see that often. Camping is a lot of work with two little kids, but despite the exhaustion, I know it is worth it and that it is opportunities like this that will help create a lot of fun family memories. 

Wait, Don't Go!

I am really NOT ready for summer to be winding down. Where has it gone? Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a winter person. At all. To put it midly, I despise the cold and snow. Each year, my contempt for the cold seems to grow...last year I went as far as applying for a new job in California. I know it sounds like I probably just have a bad attitude and need to suck it up and deal with it. I've tried, but I just can't really seem to find any winter type activities that I enjoy outside of the Christmas holiday season. Needless to say, I have been trying to enjoy the warm summer months as much as possible. Fortunately, I think that we have been able to do a few more summer activities the past few months. If summer has to end, at least it can go out in style, right?

We decided to try taking out kids to see their first drive-in movie. We took them to the movie "Planes" thinking that this would be a good choice since they really enjoy "Cars" and hopefully they would fall asleep anyway, right? Wrong. I think the problem started with the fact that you need to get to the drive-in pretty early in order to secure your spot. We were trying to keep the kids contained for about 45 minutes before the movie started, and they just didn't understand why we didn't want them running in the road or why we were even hanging out by our parked car in the first place. I was hoping that once the movie started, they would settle in and enjoy the show, but they were still too restless. We had lots of climbing in and out of the back of the car, followed by requests to go home because they were tired. I guess the experience could have been a lot worse, but I think we will wait a while before trying any type of movie experience again.

A couple of days later, we went to the Bees baseball game with Mike's family. This was our first time taking the kids to a game like this, so we were a little nervous. Fortunately, they both did much better than we were expecting! Aynsley got a little restless, but was able to be redirected and distracted. Jaxson loved the game and now loves everything baseball. Mike's dad bought the kids their own baseballs, and he carries his everywhere with him...he even likes to sleep with it. A couple days ago, Mike had a baseball game on TV and Jax immediately started watching it. Maybe I will have a little ball player on my hands?



Aynsley and Jax hanging out with their cousins at the game.

Jaxson and his cousin (Kambri) showing off their baseballs.

Loving his blue cotton candy tongue.

On Friday, Mike took the day off of work so that we could have a family fun day enjoying the "hot" weather. We planned on taking the kids to the water park...good thing I checked the hours the night before, because we found that it opened up at 4:00pm instead of the 9:00am time we were planning on going. We decided that instead of swimming, we would take the kids up to Park City for a ride on the alpine slide. We headed up the canyon in our shorts and t-shirts and were met with gray skies, wind, cold temperatures, and changing leaves! Leaves aren't supposed to change colors this early, right? We all had goosebumps as we made our way up the ski lift to ride the slide and were keeping our fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain...rain meant that the slide would be closed. The kids were champs despite the cold and enjoyed riding the slide down the mountain. It started raining right after we finished up and were leaving to get some lunch. So much for a warm summer day, but at least we had fun.

Hopefully the warm weather will come back and last a little bit longer. I absolutely love the fall, but I am not ready at all for what comes after it. I would love to find a few more summer activities that we can sneak in before it gets too cold.