A Great Race, Fun With a Dear Friend, a Clean Van, And A Wonderful Mother's Day! (What more could a girl want).

Early Friday morning, I dropped my children off at my friends house. (Thanks to all my friends who watch my children while I race. You are all such lifesavers:)).From there I headed to the Naval Base in San Diego. I was off to do my first Aquathon. I was a little unsure how it would go. I usually like the race regardless of what I am asked to do, and this one was no different. It was a great race. There is just something that is indescribable about being out there racing. I love just pushing my body so hard, and seeing how well it can perform. Luckily, I performed well enough to win in the women's division. From there we headed to Brynn's Mother's Day Tea.

This was my first Mother's Day Tea, and what an awesome time we all had. It was cute to see what Brynn had made me. I know she was excited to show me her craft. (Ms. Ruby, who is in the picture with her and her friend Danny, is so creative and crafty). Brayden and Aubrey always get to come with me, and I think they have as much fun as anyone. ( Brayden loves all the treats:)).

On Friday afternoon we met up with my long time friend Hillary (I mean a long time friend. We were cheerleaders together back in Junior High and later college roommates). Anyways, we went to the Flower Field in Carlsbad. There was so many beautiful flowers. Brynn wanted to get in some pictures, Aubrey didn't want to get in any pictures, but Hillary's little girl was good to get in any picture. I loved the picture of her in all the flowers.There was a fun playground, a flower maze, a gem finding place, and just more flowers. It was a nice afternoon, and it was so fun to hang out with Hillary.

I am thankful to each of my children for making me a mom. Each of them add so much to my life.

My sweet Brayden is always smiling. He loves the park and especially the slides. He loves to give me open mouth kisses. He is such my little charmer with is big blue eyes and his long eyelashes.

My friendly, nice, cute model posing girl, Brynn, is full of adventure. She is always climbing, scooting, biking, roller skating, or for her down time she loves doing crafts. She is a good helper, and a good big sister. She has a big heart and is such a good friend.

My spunky, bubbly, little Aubrey just loves to bounce around. She loves make-up and wearing dresses. She loves the park and she try to do whatever Brynn does. She is a sensitive, very nurturing little girl. She loves being with her family. She is one that loves/needs attention

Here is a shout out to Brett and the kids for spoiling me on Mother's Day. Brett got me a DVD player installed in the van( kind of a gift and kind of a sanity thing), some flowers, some cool produce containers, and some fun workout stuff. When I asked why he got me so much stuff he said it is because I have three kids. (More kids= more presents ...um still not worth having more kids right now). Anyways, the best gift of all was that Brett was home for half of the day. It was fun just hanging out at the park. I just took it all in, and I thought about how blessed I was to be a mom. I love each of my kids so much, and I am so glad Heavenly Father has given me a chance to be their mom. I am also so thankful to be blessed with a wonderful mother. If I am any bit of a good mom it is because I had an excellent example of what a mother should be like when I was growing up. My mom is one of my best friends, and for that I count my lucky stars.

It is probably hard to tell how clean my van is, but believe me it is SO CLEAN. For a Mother's Day present to myself I took our van in and got it detailed. It looks almost as nice as it did a year ago when we bought it. (To any of you who had seen my van, you know what a real treat this was).

My cutest little boy had to toughen up tonight. I am trying to get rid of his pacifier, so I cut some of it off tonight. He was so sad. He kept handing it to me. I think he was thinking I was going to fix it because then he would want it back. He would try sucking it, and get so sad. I felt like the meanest mom. He is such a happy go-lucky little boy, and the only thing he really love is his pacifier. We'll see how it goes.

Fun with girlfriends and family

Every year my girlfriends and I from college get together. It worked out that it was down here this year. I was able to meet up with them for the day events. The first day we went to the spa. It was so nice and relaxing. We did mud baths, floated around in pools, had a great health lunch, and then we got a sea kelp wrap. I felt so spoiled. That night they went to Wicked, and I went home to my cute family. Then next day I met them at the beach. We boogieboard, went on bike cruisers, and rode the Flowrider, which is a man made wave. It was a blast, and the funniest part was see all my friends do it. It is always a treasured weekend. It is nice to just do something to feel like a carefree kid of girl once in a while. Thanks to all my friends for making it such a wonderful weekend.

Brett and I celebrated our 6th anniversary at the park with our three cute kids. Cute Brett was post call, which means he worked over thirty hour straight with no sleep. H came home and slept about two hours and then he just stayed awake so he could be with me and the kids on our anniversary. I just have to say for the record I am so happy to have been married to my handsome, sweet, loving husband. My love has only grown stronger through the years. We have had alot happen in these six year, but I wouldn't trade any of it.

Brett brother Cory and his wife Lindsey came out for a Disneyland trip, and then they drove down here last week to spend a few days with us. We stayed at Navy Lodge in Coronado, our home away from home as my mother-in-law calls it. It was so fun. We barbecued every night. We went to the zoo one day, hung out at the beach, and then on Sat. we went to the Red Bull Air Races. ( I unfortunately only had my camera on this day). The races itself and the Navy boat show was cool. The time in between about 3 hours was a little long for the five kids. You can probably tell from the pictures that they were a little tired. Anyways, it was so fun to see them and our kids love hanging out with their cousins.

Here is Brynn riding her bike without training wheel. After talking to some of my girlfriends during my girls weekend about tips on teaching their kids to ride without training wheel, I decided to try their tips. They worked and within minutes Brynn was off and riding by herself. She was so proud of herself.

We took advantage of Brett's seven days of leave.

These are picture of our eventful weekend in Las Vegas. We went to Lake Las Vegas, so I could do my Iron Girl race. I drove down on Friday by myself, so I could get my biked checked in and everything all ready for the race on Saturday. It was a crazy busy day. The kids were so good all day. All day the kids were asking to go swimming. Finally at 8:30 at night I told the kids we could go. It was definitely a life changing experience. Without going into alot of scary details. My cute Aubrey was second away from drowning. I thought I could take all the kids by myself and swim at night, obviously I was wrong. By the time Brett got there that night I was so tired emotionally and physically, and mind you the race wasn't until the morning. I couldn't sleep that night and I keep checking on Aubrey to make sure she was breathing. WELL after 3 hours of sleep it was time to get up and do my race I had been training for months. I was very happy and pleased with the way the race went. I ended up taking 6th overall and 2nd in my age group. The best part of the races was crossing the finish line and having all my kids and my husband there cheering my on, esp[ecially Aubrey. Brett got some good footage of me coming in. It is at the bottome of the blog. You'll have to check it out

We ended up stay another night at the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. We definitley splurged on our hotel, but it was nice to have such nice accomidation, and plus it was nice for Brett because the race ended in the little village of our hotel. That night Brynn and I went out and watched the fireworks celebration from the pool. The next day we went out and saw the little village, and enjoyed the man made beach and waterfall. It was so nice to just have a little vacation with just our little family. From here we ended to Utah in one car to visit family and friends.

At first Aubrey didn't want to get back into the water, so she just sat by the flowers. She eventually got back "on the horse" so to speak. We are so happy here little experience had a happy ending.:)

Here is some of our cool features of our new camera. It is super funny to see people look at you when you put your camera underwater.

Brayden LOVES seeing the ducks. He is trying to feed them, but he doesn't quite get it.

Here is the girls having a toast to their vacation.

Brett and I had so much fun skiing. The thing I loved the most was just being able to hang out with him without all the stress we usually have. We even went to dinner after. I think it might have to count as our anniversary dinner. ( We will be married 6 years this Sunday, but he will be on call. So dinner together might have been as good as it gets). :)

The kids loved hanging out with their cousins and grandma and grandpa. The kids love the tractor rides, the dress-up, the jeep, and most of all they love the attention and love they feel from being around family. :)

Here is the "castle" we stayed in. After Aubrey and Brayden went to bed Brett and Brynn went and played games in the arcade. She had the time of her life. She won alot of stuff for herself, and they also won stuff for Aubrey and Brayden. She is super thoughtful that way. We swam the next day, and I think Brayden liked it the most. The pool was so shallow he could crawl in it.

I did the Devil Dog duathlon just last Saturday. I unfortunely had to do it by myself. Brett was going to come, but it just didn't work out. I ended up having a great race. I always just love it when I am out racing. Anyways, I ended up taking 5th overall and 1st in my age group. I wasn't able to get any pictures, so this is Brynn's attempt of taking a picture of me with my medal.( I asked her if she liked that I raced, and she said she only likes it if I bring home a medal. That good motivation to run harder, so I can bring a medal home to her. :)

Here is the kids not being able to leave Brett alone. They love it when he is home. Obviously!

Now we are home trying to get back into a routine. It always takes awhile after we get home to get settled in and things running somewhat smoothly again.:)