It's been awhile! May-Dec 2007 update

November 2007

J, D, Jocelyn & Camille run the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot! A little known fact about Thanksgiving is that at the original Thanksgiving the pilgrams and the Native Americans participated in the first 5k turkey trot. The winner was immediately infected with smallpox by these new people. Thus began the other tradition of sleeping after Thanksgiving dinner, only the smallpox was replaced with tryptophan and people now wake up from that nap (source Howard Zinn). Jocelyn and Camille are in a kids running club that meets 3 times a week. The kids train for the first half hour and then play running games for the second half. They trained for this 5K, so somehow I convinced J to run it with me. If you know J, he says, "Running is for people without bikes." It was so fun watching those little legs come into the finish.
October 2007


October brings our favorite competition~ the School's Pumpkin Carving Contest. Camille entered her pumpkin in the Character Category with her version of the TiKi from the movie Night at the Museum (on Halloween Night) "Gum Gum want Dum Dum." Jocelyn's candy corn pumpkin won BEST OVERALL for the whole school!! Both of these are sugar free pumpkins and were approved by the ADA. Just a side note, it takes a wicked long time to glue over 700 candy corns to a pumpkin!


Camille turns 6 and celebrates with a Halloween Birthday. We played games, decorated pumpkins, dipped caramel apples, and cut Halloween aprons out of that funky plastic tablecloth stuff. PARTY!

TRICK OR TREAT

Good thing this girl's dad is a dentist!!
SEPTEMBER 2007



J & D LOTOJA 2007
J's a speedster! (I know, it's hard to tell by the pictures.) I (D) spent all summer trying to keep up with him while training for the LOTOJA bike race. We celebrated all that training while we rode (not raced) our bikes from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming~206 miles in one day! I have no idea who the guy is holding the sign, but a little bit of humor does ease some of the pain! :) Even more amazing is that J did this ride 3 months after having a baby! I (J) just had to put that in because have you ever noticed that people always say "even more amazing is she did this ________ after having a baby. That is amazing, but really impressive would be doing _______ while having a baby.
AUGUST 2007
Jocelyn's Baptism


What a Beautiful day for our family. Can't believe she's old enough to be be baptized. Had to include the picture of Grandma Nelson with Jocelyn because Jocelyn is wearing the dress that my mom made for me when I was baptized 25 years ago. Sure hope all my girls can wear it. :)


FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Jocelyn starts 3rd grade and Camille starts the big K! It is truly scary to think that our girls are now entering that stage in life where they will remember things that happen daily. I guess we have to start allowing them to eat dinner! Truly it is amazing to see your kids grow up and mature. Scary is when you hear about boys in your girls class that think they are cute! Luckily J can intimidate 8 year olds.

JULY 2007
Spudman Triathlon. This is an event where you think of three things that you can do to a potato legally. HA! It is really an olympic length tri in Burley ID that is epically awesome. The swim is down the snake river so you feel a little like Mr. Phelps with the aide of a current. The run and bike sections are really breathtaking if you are there to cheer for someone, if you are a competitor then the black asphalt looks just like all the other asphalt you saw all summer, only much flatter (faster) compared to the Wasatch Front= fun! Our good friend Conrad participated with us. Out of the 3 of us in the car; D took fastest swim, J fastest ride, and Conrad fastest run!


Waterski Girls.
Luckily our girls have an awesome papa, that has a boat, and they are the only grandkids in the state so they get to go skiing pretty much every weekend. We usually go to Utah lake where most people are afraid of the green water, but in reality you have the lake to yourself on Friday mornings. Both Jocelyn and Camille are getting good at going out of the wake, but coming back in takes a little help.

May 31, 2007

On May 31st my sister Darcy passed away from Metastatic Melanoma. It was an aggressive cancer that took over her beautiful body in a short few months. She fought hard and never complained. My mom and dad were amazing being her main care givers. We sure appreciated all the prayers, food, notes, flowers, help. Trials like this would be impossible if it wasn't for family and friends! As many of you know, May 31 is also my birthday! I'll be celebrating us each year!

If you didn't get to see her obituary:
Darcy Heather Nelson-Henderson 2/23/1976 ~ 5/31/2007 Our beautiful Darcy returned home Thursday, May 31, 2007, surrounded by her loved ones. Since March she had battled metastatic melanoma that a thousand "I love you's" and kisses could not cure. Darcy was born Feb. 23, 1976, to Douglas and Debra Nelson in Walnut Creek, California. She will be remembered for her personal flair and her great courage, both in life, as well as in her passing. The loves of her life were her two sons, Rodney Douglas Henderson, age 9, and Cole Zachary Wardle, age 2. Her portrait was her beauty and smile, her laughter and grace. She loved her family and friends, sushi, Christmas, and butterflies. Darcy is survived by her parents; sister, Diane (Jay) Liddell; brothers, Glenn Nelson and Rocky (Aja) Nelson; and best friends, John Wardle and Daniel Henderson. Funeral services will be held Sat., June 9, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. at the Sandy Graniteview Stake Center, 9880 South 3100 East. Friends may call at the Larkin Sunset Gardens Mortuary, 1950 E. 10600 So., Sandy, Friday, June 8th, 6-8 p.m. and Sat., June 9th, at the Church 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Interment Larkin Sunset Gardens. Online condolences: www.larkinmortuary.com

Loggin' in another 100 miles

On May 19th, J and I rode the Salt Lake Century with a few of our favorite biking buddies; Conrad, Anthon & Cami (on a tandem) & sis-in-law Sara (the same one who is faster, younger, & much more beautiful than I. you may hear this over and over because it has become an inside joke on our blogs, although she never writes that I'm younger. hmmm....) The ride starts at the Salt Lake Fairgrounds, heads north up through Bountiful, Kaysville, all the way to Hooper, down and back on the Antelope Island Causeway, and back to the fairgrounds through the same towns. A little over 100 miles round trip. It was quite windy and hot at times, but so fun. Jay said the best way to train for that ride is to put your bike on your indoor trainer and while riding have your wife shoot a blow dryer right in your face! There's only one thing better than a long bike ride with my husband and friends, getting home to 3 little excited girls asking "when do we get to ride a century with you?" and "why do I have to be 10 to get a "race" bike?"
P.S. Sorry the pics are a little blurry, I think the camera was a little sweaty from being in the back pocket of J's jersey! :)

Mother's Day '07

WHY I LOVE being a MOM:

Besides EVERYTHING,
*little smiles that brighten my day
*hugs for no reason
*little notes left under my pillow
*being asked questions I can't always answer, and no one's grading the questions that are
*the sound of singing from the backseats of my car
*choosing who's the boss of who
*being asked, "will you make this for dinner tomorrow too?"
(Unfortunately J said no more leftovers the day he graduated from dental school!)
*loads of laundry~ colors, darks, whites, & PINKS!
*getting what i hoped for for Mother's Day~ a new heart rate monitor with a GPS so I can map where i've gone, speed, elevation, calories, etc. that downloads info to my computer. Too bad that doesn't make you any faster, but definately cooler! Actually J says nerdier. HA! Look out, we'll see what he says after some training with it!
*making school lunches and every once in awile putting a bag of treats in it to share with her friends at school
*"planning" birthday parties months, even years in advance. I think we have Camille's next 5 parties planned.
*having other moms as friends and trying to be like them!

AND the reasons go on and on!!
What a BLESSING to be a MOM!

Camille is Functionally Fluent in Spanish!

May 22, 2007 Camille earns her functional fluency diploma from the ILP Duolingual Education Spanish Program at the McKee Language School. She attended the most darling spanish preschool this year. Each day was broken down into 6 different subjects of play in Spanish~ such as cooking, exercise, acting out plays, singing, etc. The teachers only spoke spanish to the kids and the kids earned tokens for all the spanish words they used to "buy" toys at the end of the day. Camille's teacher said she is the best spanish speaker at the school that doesn't come from a spanish speaking home. We are so proud of her achievement and awe at her love for the language at such a young age. The program was developed by a BYU professor and his daughter runs the preschool. Although the preschool is for profit, BYU has study abroad non-profit programs all over the world, using this McKee method to teach kids in other countries english. If you want you can read more about the nonprofit work at www.ilp.org It's quite interesting.

Class Quilt for teacher

Jocelyn and I made a quilt for her 2nd grade teacher who had a darling baby boy this year. Each kid in the class colored their own baby themed block and signed their name with a permanent marker. It's amazing how creative kids get, ie: a baby eating money?! We heat set the crayon drawings and sewed them together with fabric that Jocelyn picked out. We presented it to her during teacher appreciation week. It turned out darling!

D runs her first marathon!

Yes, that slug coming down the finish way is me!! On April 21, 2007 D finished the Salt Lake Marathon. I always said I'd never do it, but somehow decided it just one of those things everyone should do at least once in their life. Originally I was training for the Moab 1/2 marathon. After running in from that, Jay asked me if I could've kept running another 13.1 miles to 26.2. I thought, "i've trained this far, I might as well keep on going." I highly recommend the Moab 1/2. It's beautiful, still challenging, and you recover a lot faster than the full marathon! The lottery for the moab 1/2 is in November for any of you that want to run it with me next March! I'm undecided if I will do the Salt Lake Marathon next year...

My close V High School friend Heather from California ran the Salt Lake Marathon also. She's fast~ qualified for the Boston Marathon. My time (4:26) qualified me to watch it on T.V.

J and D break Anniversary world record!?

March 25th J and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Most people have a bite of the top wedding cake on their first anniversary, but unintentionally we still had the top of our cake on our 10th! Right after getting married, we stored the top of the cake in J's dad's freezer, forgot about it the first year, lived away from it the next 4 years, forgot about it a few more years, and last year while getting something out of my father in law's freezer I found it and said we'd pull it out for our 10th! Little did I know we'd actually take a bite! World Record? I don't know. Something to laugh about, definately! After 10 years, the poor little cake looked very saggy, didn't taste bad, but definately didn't taste good. After 10 years of marriage, I'm also looking a quite saggy, but life & love is better than ever.

We're Back... Back in Black!

A title for all of my rocker friends. (I did go to Brighton High School)
I've enjoyed all of your blogs so much, that it was time to continue J's start of our family's blog, especially now that our tiny baby blog is 9 months old. My posts may not be as funny or poetic as J's, but at least they'll get posted! (Sorry, Babe!) Here's a few favorite pics from the last 9 months...

D "competes" more like "completes" her first sprint triathlon with much more beautiful, younger, and faster sister-in-law Sara!


lots of messes, and they still continue...



Dancing Divas


Soccer Stars


Another Happy Halloween!


Mom & Camille's first "Turkey Trot"
Camille begged me for a month that she wanted to do the 5K with me. I finallly gave in and signed her up when she said to my mom, "Grandma, is it O.K. if I am sweaty for turkey dinner, cuz I'm going to run a 5K in the morning?" She did awsome. I told her I'd let her say when we'd run and walk. We finished in 42 minutes! My slowest 5K, but definately my favorite 5K!


Our girls aren't your average snow bunnies. They're rail sliding tricksters, seriously. Camille has perfected her rail slide so much that she gets whistles & cheers from the snowboarders watching from the lift. Jocelyn says snow skiing is her favorite thing to do, probably because she is an amazing skiier! Hopefully mom will be able to keep up with them for at least one more season or two!!