Lotoja and other updates

So it's been a while since we've updated!!! No, we have not fallen off the face of the earth, just been busy!

Jake has started student teaching at Mt. Ogden Jr. High. He teaches 5 periods of geography and 1 period of P.E. It keeps him EXTREMELY busy but he is loving it and learning a lot! He is still trying to work at the Bike Shoppe every chance he gets. On the days that he teaches and goes to work, he wears 3 different outfits, so needless to say, our laundry load has increased a LOT! He's been working so hard and I'm so proud of him! Keep it up babe and Hang in there...only a few more months!

Jake was also able to participate in Lotoja again this year. He decided to do a relay race this year with the guys from the Bike Shoppe instead of putting himself through the whole 206 miles.


Waiting to start his leg of the race


He did the 3rd leg from Montpelier to Afton...46 miles with 2 REALLY steep climbs! He did AMAZING!!! He even beat us too the the end of his leg and we were in the car! Pretty impressive! He still got sick, but it was for a lot shorter time than last year thank heavens!


After his ride with his proof that he pushed his hardest!!!


At the finish line in Teton Village with the team.

The Bike Shoppe Team took 3rd place out of over 50 teams!!! Way to go guys! You did awesome!

Matt, Jayk, Nate and Jake (missing Nathaniel)


Jake's BIGGEST fan!

His other BIGGEST fans, his parents!!!

Jake has lots of friends and even family in the sport and we are grateful for their friendship and support. Thanks for cheering him on!!!

Jake and his Uncle Mike who finished the race for his 2nd time!

Jake and his friend John H. who has been a big inspiration in many aspects of Jake's life.

It was fun to get to spend a little more time with him throughout the weekend than we usually get to. Sunday we spent some time in Jackson just hanging out before heading home.

We are now 28 weeks along and things are still looking good! We are starting to get really excited! He's an active little guy and is always moving around! I say "he" because we haven't decided on a name yet, but hopefully that will soon come!

Things are going awesome and we feel so blessed!

Weddings Galore!

In the past 2 weeks we've had 2 weddings of some of our most favorite people:

Kevin and Stef, our good friends, were married Friday the 13th. We are so happy for them. It was fun to get together and see all our friends.

P.S. LOVED the Spoon Me frozen yogurt at the reception!

Jake and Kristin, Jeremy and Stacy, Stefani and Kevin, Cody and Jill (who are expecting a baby girl the day before us!) We are so grateful to have such AMAZING friends!


On August 21st Chelsea and Connor (Jake's brother) were married. It turned out to be a great day and we are so happy for the two of them! A big CONGRATS!

It was awesome to get to spend the day surrounded by family!

Our niece Aubrey LOVES Jake. When she sees him she gets a huge grin on her face. She's constantly calling his name when he's around. And she LOVES wearing his boots!



Random picture of Jake and Koda.
As Jake says, Koda is OUR best friend. It's just unfortunate that she minds him better and loves him way more than she does me!


We had another ultrasound yesterday...too bad we don't have a scanner! We got to see a 3-D picture of our little guy (well half of his face at least. He had both of his arms in front of his face which made things a little difficult!) From what we could see I think he's going to look a lot like Jake...he'll be so handsome! We are at 25 weeks and my tummy keeps growing bigger and bigger! We are getting more and more excited each and every day!

Hurt in the Dirt

Last night Jake did the first annual "Hurt in the Dirt" race held at Fort Buenaventura. He did it as a relay with Nate from the Bike Shoppe. Jake went first to run 4 miles and then made the transition to mt bike 10 miles. Then Nate was up.

It was a really tough course...they had to run through mud, water, sand and obstacles. The funny thing is that Nate and Jake hadn't even been training for the race so they had been doing a lot of biking, but not any running.



Well I think they both surprised themselves by how well they did! They seriously made it look so easy! Jake finished his leg in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. They finished overall with a time of 2 hours and 38 minutes.



There were 80 individual racers and 40 relay teams and they took 2nd place overall! They were the first relay team to cross the finish line and took the Shop competition that was held between all the local shops.

This is their traveling trophy that they get to keep at the Bike Shoppe until next year. Way to represent boys! It was such a fun race to watch! Jake is a little sore from the run, but they are already looking forward to next year! He never ceases to amaze me with what he can accomplish! I'm so proud of him! Way to go Babe!

St. George Trip

Last weekend I took a girl's trip to St. George with Jake's mom, aunts, sister and sister-in-law. We had an absolute blast!

We did Lots of driving:


Lots of eating:

and of course...lots of shopping!

One of the highlights of the trip is that we went to see Tarzan at Tuacahn.








It was soooo entertaining! Sitting in the 100 plus degree weather with swollen feet became totally worth it!

The next night we actually got $10 CATS tickets so we decided to go to the show again!








The end of our trip came way to fast (we were gone Thursday through Sunday but it just wasn't long enough!) It was definitely good to get away, but I sure did miss Jake!

Raptor's Game

A few weeks ago we got free Raptor's tickets from South Ogden City. We invited Jake's brother, Jeff, and his family to go with us.

As you can tell, Jake and Carter had a great time...and so did the rest of us!

Towards the end of the game a guy who works for the Raptors came up to Carter and gave him a free ball that the team had played with. He was stoked as most of the players came by after the game to sign his ball, it was fun to see him get so excited. The Raptors killed the other team and it was good to have some fun, free entertainment!

Hyde Park Celebration

First night we experienced the Ash-in-your face fireworks!

The next morning we hung out at the parade:

Then we cheered Jake on at his cyclocross race.

I am definitely Jake's BIGGEST fan, but the rest of the fam is close behind me! We love watching him race and supporting him!

Jake did AMAZING! They rode the coarse for 40 minutes. In that time Jake got a flat tire, but luckily had a spare bike so he was able to switch and still get 2nd place! Good Work Babe!

4th of July Week

Here's a brief summary of our fantastic week:

Friday July 2nd: We went up to watch the Logan fireworks with Jake's family. We enjoyed yummy pizza and treats and lots of laughs while waiting for the fireworks to start!

Saturday July 3rd: We went on a fun bike ride up Green Canyon with Jake's parents. I was pooped but it was totally worth it!


Later that night we went to the Cache Valley Cruise-In parade

Monday July 5th: Traveled down to my mom's family reunion.
On the way we stopped at Cove Fort. It's such a cool place with lots of cool artifacts and history. If you haven't ever been, I would definitely recommend checking it out!

After a few hours of driving we finally arrived at our destination: Summit Chateau Lodge near Brian Head Resort. This was the view from the deck of the lodge. It was so pretty! Jake was stoked to pull out his binoculars and look for deer and elk, which he was successful at finding!

We've been looking forward to the reunion for quite a while now because there is a lot of my family that I haven't seen for over 5 years because they live in Arizona and Indianna! ALMOST everybody was able to make it, so the grand total was 58 of us in attendance! It was so nice to see everyone!

Tuesday July 6th some of us decided to drive to Navajo Lake to bike around it. We had a BLAST and got a work out at the same time!

On the way back to the lodge we stopped at Cedar Breaks National Monument to check out the scenery. AMAZING!

Wednesday it was time to make the drive home. We said our good-byes and had to part. We had such a great time visiting, laughing and getting to know our family better! Thanks to Jake's family for watching Koda so we could go enjoy ourselves! (dogs weren't allowed at the lodge)
Unfortunately it's time to stop playing and get back to work! I hate how fun times and vacations always go WAY too quickly!!!