Fun Weekend!!

This past weekend Jake had Friday off because earlier in the week he had parent-teacher conferences. We decided to enjoy the day by hiking up Waterfall Canyon and then having a picnic afterwards. Cooper had a blast and loved to try to reach out and grab the leaves! It was a good work out for Jake to pack Cooper all the way up on his back!

On Saturday we went up to the Xterra Triathlon National Championships at Snow Basin. It was a really cool event to be able to watch with some amazing athletes.

We mostly went to see the one and only LANCE ARMSTRONG! Lance has been a long-time hero of Jake's so he was stoked! The coolest part is that we got to be within only a few feet of Lance to cheer him on in the last part of the biking and both the start and finish of the run.

Cooper even had his bell to cheer on the racers!

Lance at the beginning of the 6 mile run

and Lance at the end of the run:



We are LOVING being able to spend our Saturdays together!

Jake is very overwhelmed with school and work, but he is handling it very well! I've been so proud of him! We just bought him a little commuter car so we weren't putting so many miles on our Subaru.

Cooper is learning to do something new everyday it seems like. He's now crawling on his hands and knees instead of just scooting. He's eating table food and is growing up way too fast on us! We are so grateful and lucky to have such great babysitters to be helping us out while we are at work. (Thanks you guys!) They are seriously the best, especially since we have to drop him off so early in the morning! Cooper is loving the chance to be able to play with other kids. It's been hard on me to have to send Cooper to the babysitter, but I'm sure it will get easier over time (I hope!)

Too bad our fun weekend is over and bright and early tomorrow morning our week starts again!

Lotoja 2011

Jake was on a relay team with the Bike Shoppe this year for Lotoja. Friday night everyone went to Logan for a yummy spaghetti dinner made by Jake's mom, Susan. Cooper had a blast playing with Grandpa Balls' bunny. He LOVES animals!

The next morning we woke up to send Jake off for his leg of the race from Logan to Preston.
Game face!


Cooper, me and Susan, some of Jake's Biggest fans!


He did awesome! Jake handed off the time chip to Jayk to ride from Preston to Montpelier.

The best part is that he didn't even get sick this year!


We decided to head back to Logan while the rest of the team headed on to Jackson. The team ended up doing great! After facing the many miles, the wind and the heat they ended up in 4th place out of 50+ teams!


Jayk, Jake, Matt, and Nate
The team at the starting line, minus Nathaniel.

Way to go Bike Shoppe!

Greys River

We took Cooper on his first camping trip over Labor Day weekend up to Grey's River in Wyoming with Jake's family. This has been their tradition ever since Jake's mom was a little girl and we all look forward to it every year.

Cooper was such a good boy! Jake's Grandpa and Grandma Jensen were nice enough to let us stay in their trailer with them so it was a little warmer for Cooper during the nights!



Jake had a blast playing around on his trials bike and they even went knee boarding from a rope hooked to the bridge. Cooper and I on the other hand spend time just relaxing!

On the last day we were up there Wes and Jake went to ride their motorbikes. They came back to camp and said they had found a cat. They left with the 4-wheeler and came back with this:


Crazy boys! Somebody had set it in the grass just off the side of a back road. Jake wants to put it in his classroom after his Grandpa helps him to fix a few scratches that are in it. I think it's a little weird, but I guess it could be cool in a weird way! Before we left for home Jake had a neighbor camper offer him 20$ but he declined.

Cooper fell asleep as soon as we started on our 4-hour drive home. We looked back a few minutes later and saw this:

These 2 are best buds! Koda is so good to be patient while Cooper is crawling all over her and pulling on her ears and tail.

On the way home we stopped in Henry, ID to see my Dad and step Mom. Cooper got to go on his first 4-wheeler ride and loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa Elwood!




It was a super fun weekend. We're sad we have to wait a whole year to go back!

Good News!

I have some exciting news to share!!!

Jake got a teaching job! He will be teaching special education at Kennedy Jr. High in Granite School District. It is about a 50 minute drive, so a little further than we had hoped for, but we definitely feel like it is an answer to our prayers! He doesn't know yet what subjects he will be teaching, but he will be working with kids with behavioral issues. He is a little nervous (naturally) but I'm so proud of him and I know he is going to do a fantastic job!

Jake will be doing a program through USU to get his endorsement in special education. Two nights a week (Monday and Wednesday) he will go to class at the Granite school district building. They are going to be some long days for him!

To celebrate we took a trip down to Park City. We have awesome family that was willing to help with Cooper, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible (thanks to Sue and Larry, and Mom and Woody and all others who offered to help!) It was the first time we had left Cooper over night and we never really stopped thinking about him, but it went really well!

We spent Friday at the Olympic Park and had a blast! We had an unlimited pass to the Alpine slide and ultra zipline. Then we upgraded to ride the extreme zipline (but unfortunately we could only ride this one once.) We got some sun and had so much fun! It was also way cool to see the athletes practicing their jumps into the pool. We definitely want to go back sometime to see some of the competitions that are held there!


Riding the lift up

This is the top of the extreme zipline



The alpine slide

We stayed at the Sky Lodge (probably the nicest hotel we will ever stay at). It was our first experience with valet parking, and we decided that we definitely don't like it, we would much rather do it ourselves! Our hotel was right in downtown Park City so it was fun to be able to walk to all the little shops. We had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant that had a salsa bar with about 16-20 different kinds of salsa to try. Some were to hot for our liking but a fun experience!
This is the view from our hotel:

Saturday we went back to the Olympic Park to watch a few young Nordic jumpers practice and more jumping into the pool. We couldn't get enough! Then Jake was a good sport and went shopping at the outlets with me. We had so much fun together, I loved every second of the weekend! It was a much needed break!



We LOVE this kid! And he loves his Lightning McQueen floaty. He is no longer a baby, he's turning into a little boy whether I like it or not! He is so much fun!

Care for Cade

Today Cooper ran his first 5K!!!

We went up to Brigham City to run the 5K that was held as a fundraiser for Cade Wyatt. The theme was "Don't let cancer slow you down."
You can read about Cade here. He is an amazing guy and we were sure glad we could go show our support for him.

This is after the race, that's why we look all tired and sweaty. Jake pushed Cooper in the stroller (if you've ever pushed a jogging stroller, you know it makes the run more difficult, but he insisted! Thanks Babe, wouldn't have been able to make my goal if it wasn't for you!)


Cade is on the left, then my little sister Kylie, and us!
Thanks to Cade for being such an amazing example of faith and courage. Keep fighting hard and know that you are in our prayers!

More summer time fun!

I just had to share this picture:

Cooper crawled right through this basket, and then later got frustrated when he couldn't get out!

My friend Stacy and I have been trying to get together ALL summer long to go swimming and FINALLY we were able to find a time!

(At least 2 out of the 4 of us are looking!)

Thanks Connor and Stacy, we had a blast!

Baby Proofing and Tony Grove

So Cooper is now pretty quick at scooting around on the floor. He isn't full out crawling yet, but I'm sure that will come soon enough. We learned quickly that we can't just leave him, even if it is just for a few seconds and he has toys all around him.

Jake sometimes leaves his bikes in the living room (not my first choice for the bikes, but the only option sometimes). This particular night Cooper crawled over to it and decided he wanted to explore the chain. When I came in just a few seconds later, this is what I found:

We are just glad that we just had some greasy black hands to clean and that the bike hadn't fallen on him or something. Lesson learned though. We need to baby proof ASAP!

We had the chance this last week to go up to Tony Grove in Logan Canyon. This is one of our favorite places! It's gorgeous!

We just wish we had more time to go and play together!


Here is a picture of Jake practicing on his trials bike. He's getting pretty good!