An Evening in Nature

One of the things I love about where we live is the close proximity in which we live to the mountains. For example, we left our house last night about 6pm to have a "Hot Dog Roast" in American Fork Canyon, more specifically Granite Flats Camp Grounds. We had our fun around the camp fire and were home by 9:30!

Now for those of you with small children you can appreciate this brief visit with Nature. We packed a cooler full of goodies, enjoyed the camp fire, let the kids get as grimy as they wanted and were still home in time for baths and bed. It doesn't get much better than that. Can I get an Amen!
I hope to have many more brief visits with nature this summer. If anyone is down for an "EVENING" in the woods please let us know...we love good company!

Two Wheelin'

Ok, so Mia is FIVE and she has been riding just about everything with wheels since she was very small. The one thing she hasn't been able to ride, or maybe I should say, refused to ride is a bike. Every time we encouraged her to ride it [with training wheels] she cried hysterically. Obviously, something about that little bike freaked her out so we backed off.

Well, here we are a month into a new summer and it was starting to bug me that my five year could not ride a bike so I did what every good Mom would do...I tried to SHAME her into riding her bike. I told her that she will be the only five year old on the street who can't ride a two wheeler. It seemed to have little or no effect. And then one day I looked out the window to see her on her little two wheeler cruising down the street! It was a very exciting thing to see. I ran outside and asked who taught her to ride a bike and she looked at me with her most superior look and said, "Who do you think, Me!"

And the rest is history.

Hobble Creek here I come!

So I have waited until now to announce my decision to run the Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon. I wanted to make it through a few weeks of training to make sure I was going to do it before I started telling friends. Well, I am officially through 4 weeks of training and half way through my 5th week.

I am not sure what made think that running 13 miles was a good idea, but despite my skepticism I am actually really enjoying myself.

Myself. That is who I am running with.

"Myself" is not my typical Modus Operandi. I always have to do things with people in order to stay motivated, and of course PEOPLE are the biggest part of my FUN equation. Interestingly enough I am loving my quiet, alone time. I am the star of my own Nike commercial, just me and the road. It has been great. But my guess is at some point I am going to need a partner to get thru the longer runs. Hint, Hint Jules!

Things I hope to get from participating in this race:
Prove to myself that I am not old despite what my Birthdate says.
To be a healthier version of myself.
To see if I am interested in trying a full Marathon.
Prove to myself that I can do something for fun and not get mental about it! I tend to start worrying about how fast I can run :)



So if you guys see me running along side of the road and my tongue is hanging out and my face is the color of the sunset, just honk your support and keep your comments to yourself! :)

Benjamin Has Been Tagged!

Kadyn has tagged a bunch of buddies and Benj was lucky enough to be one of them. We are supposed to give 7 facts about Benj that will absolutely astound you!

Numero Uno. Benjamin was walking by his first birthday April 20th, but just two weeks ago decided to use it as his primary source of transportation.

2. He loves to jump on the trampoline with his sisters. I should be more clear... he loves to be jumped around while sitting or barely standing on the trampoline.

3. Can not make it through sacrament meeting without being taken out into the hall by his Papa Bear. To this day we have not had to take the girls out! Is it really true that boys are harder? Surely, not my son!

4. He is a typical Widdowson Bear and loves back tickles!

5. Benj likes to knock on the bathroom door whenever there is someone in there. It can be kinda embarrassing when we have guests over. I am trying to teach him about letting people have their privacy. :)

6. Sara Anderson is his girlfriend.

Uno Mas: He will answer to any of his many nicknames i.e Benjilito, Lito, Lito Mosquito, Russell (his middle name) Litzy Mesquitezy etcetera...etcetera!
But better than his long list of nicknames, he has his own theme song. His Papa Bear composed it one night after bath time, and we have sung it to him ever since.

Lika hear it...here it go...

They call me Benjilito
I come from Mexiquito
They feed me tacos and burritos
Yeeaah, they call me Benjilito.
(Must be sung with a funny Mexican accent!)

It gets stuck in your head and then you sing it for the rest of the night! It's a GREAT time.
So that is our Baby Boy in a nutshell, we love him a little bit!
We tag London Knight, Jade Gardner and Mac Fowers

Mother's Day Over My Birthday...For Sure!

Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -- Lin Yutang

I have decided that Mother's Day is MUCH better than my birthday. I get all of the extra love and attention without having to be needled by that dreadful little number increasing by one. I am thankful for a family that loves me and appreciates me. They are wonderful especially my J-bear! He is so thoughtful and put so much energy into making my day super special. The bar is set very high for Father's Day next month.

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." --Author Unknown

A is for Asthma....

Asthma is a chronic condition involving the respiratory system in which the airways occasionally constricts, becomes inflamed, and is lined with excessive amounts of mucus, often in response to one or more triggers.--definition from Wikipedia
I never dreamed that this little word and its definition would ever have such an impact on my family. Our son Benjamin has been diagnosed with Asthma. Our first experience with an asthma attack was in December of last year. I thought it was a severe cold or maybe even bronchitis. He had a horrible cough that would not be soothed by any of the over the counter cough syrups that are available. When I took him to see our doctor, the doctor immediately said to me, "Let's not rule out the possibility of asthma." After we ruled out the possibility of Pneumonia and RSV he was pretty sure Asthma was our daisy.

I am ashamed to admit that I didn't take it very seriously when my doctor told me Benj had asthma. Honestly, this is what I thought..."I know lots of people who have asthma and they are just fine. Surely, this attack was just a coincidence and it would never get this bad again." I didn't realize how dangerous it could really be. I guess I am the kinda of person who has to learn things the hard way. For those of you who read my last post, we had to come home early from St. George because Benj was sick. Well, it went from bad to worse. By Sunday we were minutes away from Benjamin being rushed to the ER in ambulance and that was while I was sitting in my doctor's office. He had a temperature of 104.7 degrees and was literally struggling for every breath. Asthma was real to me in that moment. I understood better than anyone could have explained to me of how ugly an asthma attack can be. I wanted so bad to trade places with my baby. With every breath that I took I became more frustrated with myself because I was breathing so effortlessly. It is so weird the kind of promises you will make to God if he will just ease your child's pain.

We made it through that 5 day attack with lots of visits to the doctor's office and even more medication. I have a whole new respect for Asthma and I am willing to do anything that is required of me to make sure that my little Lito never gets that sick again! If any one has any good books or websites that you can recommend to me I would love to hear about them.

The Very Elusive St. George Trip!

So, I had an opportunity to go to St. George with some friends in early April. I wanted to go so bad, but circumstances would not permit. I reluctantly said goodbye to that trip and stayed home for the rest of the weekend. I moped with as much intensity as I could muster. I swear it was equivalent to being the only girl who didn't go to her senior prom! Despite all of my doom and gloom there was a glimmer of hope for me. I had another chance to go to St. George the first weekend of May.

Redemption!

My girlfriends and I left on Thursday morning for St. George with just our babies in tow. The older kids were staying home for the weekend and the Daddies were going to meet us in St. George on Friday. It was slated to be a fabulous weekend. Thursday lived up to my expectation. We talked, munched and soaked up the wonderful sun. (Side note: When we left Lehi it was snowing!) So soaking up the sun was a very big deal for me. The kids were being so good. Benjamin was so happy to have me all to himself. He was delighted with all of the attention he was getting. So the sun went down on Thursday, and I was completely satisfied and relaxed. The sun came up on Friday morning and everything began to change. I didn't feel great, Benjamin was starting to show signs of an asthma attack, and my babysitting situation at home was not going exactly as planned. My utopian dream was beginning to fade and fast. Jon and the other Daddies showed up late Friday afternoon. By that time I had a sinking feeling that we would be cutting our trip short. Ok so to make an already long story short...We had to wake Jared and Kelly up at 2 am and ask them if we could use their car to take our sick baby home. Jon had been in St. George for just about 8 hrs at that time and portion of that time was split between work and sleep. He didn't even get to go to dinner with everyone the night he arrived!



So for the second time in two months my relaxing get away to St. George escaped me. Thanks to Kelly I do have some pictures of me enjoying the time I had.