Loooong drive and a trip to Pasco

Despite a heated dispute between myself and a member of my immediate family(clue: not Clark, my Dad, or Sister), trembling, shaking, crying and breaking a necklace against a wall...I would say my trip home was pretty dang good. It's hard to see my nieces and nephews grow up through pictures; each time I see them they look so different! Little kids are so much fun and I'm thankful that at the end of the day I don't have to bathe, change, feed and tuck one in! Raising kids truly is a full time job. It is something that I aspire to do but am not equipped to do just yet...

So here is the proof that I made the 9.5 drive there and back. Katie called me "picture happy." But I was just doing my job. I told her she had a personal amateur photographer for four days. It was hard to sort out the nearly 500 pictures I took but here are a few:

I arrived in Pasco the night before my beautiful friend Courtney had to fly back to her hubby and new teaching job in Spain.

That is one extra large swing set. Katie and the kids playin'.

Katie and Teya swinging.

Graceful Chase.

Cole woke up from a nap and got a treat. What a cutie.

Admiring the fish.

Tough as nails.

Second day on the bike, what a natural.

Beautiful sky the night my Dad went up flying solo.

Mom finding goods at a yard sale. Me? Well, Mom kindly bought me a huge container of Dove hair conditioner for a buck. Good score, me thinks.

The county fair is smaller than I last remember...

Taking a break from the "bunny barn" and walking.

Admiring.

The "bunny barn!"

What Cole ate the day of the fair: a couple of baby carrots, part of an elephant ear, fig newtons, cotton candy (as evidenced by the big glob hanging from his mouth) and a DQ ice cream cone. I had to make fun of Katie for his "healthy" diet.

Sweet Taya.

A fist will work just as good as a pacifier.

Mommy and baby girl.

So sweet.

Teya and Grandma.

Nice camera showdown. Dad wins?

Chase's first day of kindergarten!

Cole has the cutest running form.

Rolls and cute socks.

Ty reading to the boys. Is that a book or a motorcycle magazine?

Dad repairing the ultralight after we "crash landed" in a random alfalfa field. No worries, no one died and Dad was completely composed under pressure.

Sisters :)

So glad I had the opportunity to come visit! It was a long drive there and an even longer drive back, but it was worth it!

Lovely Little Weekend

Spending time with family, running, driving...yeah, that basically sums up our weekend. And it was lovely. I really do love taking little (or big) road trips with Clark. We hold fine conversation and laugh a lot, and sometimes get into little arguments.

Mom and Dad Tobler were on their way up to Idaho so they spent a night with us on Thursday. Friday we drove down to Orem so I could collect my bib number for a race the following day and we ended up stopping at the BYU Creamery. Only I don't think it was the Creamery. I believe it was the Creamery outlet. But us Toblers don't fuss over ice cream; it still tasted good.

Indulging. If only they would have had the big waffle cones...

Love those self timers!

Saturday morning I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon, and it just felt awful. So we won't dwell on it. After the race we drove up to Idaho to spend more quality time with Mom and Dad Tobler and other relatives. Walking the greenbelt around the Snake River was so enjoyable. Many photo ops and I think we even got some winning anniversary photos for Mom and Dad.

As you can see, the race ended on grass in a park. The grass may look even, but it was quite lumpy.

Frolicking in the grass along the greenbelt in Idaho Falls.

Anniversary picture. Perfection.

Look at that crazy vein in my arm...nice! The Idaho Falls in the background.

Another anniversary picture.

The pretty Snake River.

I want this truck. In the future. Pink with flames. Rockin'.

Grandma and Richard.

Mom and Dad's favorite picture of the Temple. (Do you guys still want a copy now that you see a larger view of it?)

Sunday we all met up at Brent and Rosemary's in the afternoon for food and fun. And I couldn't help but snap shots of the pretty farmland.

Clark had to lift me onto a bail. My legs couldn't withstand the pain of jumping.

Great eye, Mom!

Indulging.

Gossipers.

Visiting the cemetery.

Such a lovely little trip! I hope we get another opportunity to visit Idaho soon. Before the cold settles in for 8 months...

Lake Mary, Martha & Catherine...and tons of mosquitoes

A few weeks ago Clark and I decided to go for a nice, leisurely four mile Sunday afternoon hike. The trail-head to lakes Mary, Martha and Catherine was situated at the back of the Brighton Ski Resort parking lot. The hike started off quite nice. The weather was perfect, sunny with a brisk mountain breeze. When we stopped at the first lake, Lake Mary, we noticed that mosquito bites were starting to pop up on our arms. Not wanting to turn back before reaching the other two destinations, we kept trekking along the trail, acquiring more and more mosquito bites. By the time we reached Lake Catherine, the third lake, we barely had time to snap one photo before turning around and bolting back down the trail. The mosquitoes were horrendous. Clark went to work two days later and coworkers kept asking if he had been camping recently because there were red welts all over his arms. I must have looked like a crazy lady stomping down the the trail flailing my arms all around my head and body to ward off the assailing mosquitoes.

But the scenery was beautiful.

Clark was not enthused when I asked him to pose for the camera. Perhaps because the trail was a pretty steep ascent and we ended up gaining over 1,000ft in elevation.

Lake Mary

And you can't even swim here. What a waste.

Lake Martha

...And Lake Catherine. We didn't even try to find good lighting for a picture. We saw it, snapped a picture where we stood, and fled.

I can't wait to explore more of the surrounding mountains. Next time we'll be armed with bug spray!

The Coffee Shop Show

Clark and the band played at the Wild Bean Roasting Company the other day. A Sober Rider opened this shop and since the Sober Riders love the band, the band was invited to play at the grand opening. (Ok, just so you know, the name of the band Clark is in is Bastard John. Clark refers to them as "the bastards." I will refer to them as BJ. I think Clark was worried people (i.e. Mom and Dad Tobler) would be upset at the name of the band so I'll just go ahead and call the band BJ so I don't frequently and repeatedly have to type the word bastard.)

I love that they have an anti coffee side of the menu.

Pretty sweet set up if I do say so myself.

Rocking hard.

Like I said, the Sober Riders love BJ and they bought dozens of tickets to the their upcoming show in Ogden on September 18th. Anyone need tickets? I have the hook-up.

I love being "with the band." I got a nice large soda out of it.

PS, having a nice camera is not all it's cracked up to be. I JUST figured out that we have been taking pictures using the lowest picture quality. That's what we get for not reading the 220 page users manual. So, now that I have the adjusted and increased our picture quality, our pictures should turn out much nicer. I was wondering why I didn't notice much different between our old 5 mp camera and the new camera...whoops! At least we still got some good Cali photos and band photos.

Quest to accomplish life goal #2

You can read about my first life goal accomplishment here.

My current focus is on accomplishing one....just one....pull up. Or chin up. Whatever I have to do to lift my body so that my head extends above that horizontal bar.

Right now I only need this 35 lb resistant band to help me.

I'm on my way to making all of my dreams and aspirations come true. Updates will come as long as there are results to update.