Iowa Odyssey

 James at the wheel carving through the Wyoming sage land.

 Gabe the cartographer

 Happy travelers

 Early run in North Platte, Nebraska.

 Iowa state capitol

 Herky fans

 Easter Sunday

Exploring the Mormon handcart monument in Coralville

 Oakley's favorite activity

 Snake Alley, the crookedest road in America.  Burlington, Iowa

 Grandpa and Oakley

 Workout at the track

 Future track star

 Can I have that crawdad, Grandpa?

 Cold Iowa baseball game

 Oakley, the fish

 Wendy's orchestra rehearsal

 Beautiful Oakley

 Oakley got lots of attention from her Uncles

 One of the many state signs we posed for

 Carthage Jail

 Nauvoo Temple

 Carthage Jail

 Kansas City temple open house

 Back in Provo with Brita at the BYU vs Penn Sate volleyball game.

 Matt's homecoming

Home again after 3644 miles and a thousand great memories.

Weekend Exploits

We enjoyed a fun weekend with Brita in Provo for her birthday. We got to see an amazing BYU men's volleyball team beat Pepperdine both Friday and Saturday nights up close and personal.

I ran the Spectrum 10k race without Bill. :( He is still suffering from his sciatic problem. It is feeling better, but he is still not able to run. He did get to ride his bike along the beautiful course of Snow Canyon in St. George though. And, I got a PR 52:18 Woohoo!

We rode in our first bike race (really a ride) in Mesquite last weekend. (38.6 miles) It was a new experience for us to be around bikers. Most of us just enjoyed the ride. Bill, of course, was in it for the race. It wasn't timed, though, hence the "ride". It was definitely different than a running race. The "rest stops" were like a banquet. All kinds of fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, muffins, drinks were available to the cyclists. It was like social hour. It was a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll do more. I think every muscle in my body was fatigued that night. It didn't help that I ran 14 miles on Thursday.

This weekend, we get to go to Iowa for spring break! We are so excited!

the crawler

Oakley is crawling! It's not the most graceful crawl, but she looks cute and she can get where she wants to go. :)

Oakley's birthday wishes

See more here.

Scout

We miss our faithful companion, Scout, who passed away on Saturday. It is difficult not to see him every day. We miss his friendly greetings every time we arrive home. He was a good dog and a good running partner. Although he was not able to run with us the past couple of years, he logged many many miles, sometimes going out as many as 3 times a day when Wendy was home. He definitely left a hole in all of our hearts but we have many happy memories of him. We know he is enjoying running free now.

James: the man

This is James

James is 17.

Today.

Is it just me or is that crazy?

Crazy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!

You can't have anymore birthdays after this one, okay?

I like to call this collection "James: The Making of the Man"

James: the tyke

James: the innocent

James: the little brother

James: the big brother

James: the persistent

James: the warrior

James: the tree hugger

James: the composed

James: the speedster

James: the crusher

James: the jovial

James: The posterizer

James: the suspicious

James: the vigilant

James: the intrepid

James: the owl whisperer

James: the sneaky

James: the devourer of popsicles

James: the fearless

James: the baller

James: the uncle

James: the fanatic

James: the man

oh and James the American Idol.....

You're a great man, James. I love you. Have a Happy Birthday!

kicks and giggles

Oakley's favorite time of day is when Dave comes home. She loves to be bounced, thrown, rattled, rocked..... or as Dad would say thrown through the air "with reckless abandon." :)