Two Wheelin':The Sequel

The Need: For those of you who read my original Two Wheelin' post you may have noticed that Mia's first bike was a wee bit too small for her. She would come in from a hard bike ride frustrated and red in the face. "Mooooom, I need a new bike. My dang pedal keeps falling off and my knees are hitting the handle bars!" This was not the typical Mia demand...it was actually legit. Mia needed a youth size bike!

The Confession: It was not in the budget to run out to Costco and pick up a brand new bike for her, but that was MY heart's desire. I had visualized her cruising down the street on a brand new RED bike. My Mommy Pride was threatening to consume me! I didn't want her to have a used bike for her FIRST big kid bike. But instead of conceding to my silly pride, I dug deep and casually said to Mia, "Hey let's go check out Deseret Industries and find you a new bike!" I cringed slightly waiting for her refusal, but instead I received a pleasant surprise. She lit up and said, "Ok, can we go right now?!"

The Conclusion: We found a bike at the DI in American Fork. You won't believe how much I paid for it...ok maybe you will...we were at Desert Industries for Heaven Sake! TEN bucks...not bad huh!? We stopped off at Target on the way home and picked up a few bike accessories. Mia's highlight was picking out stickers to decorate her new bike with. She cruises all day long on her "new" big kid bike and is lovin' it!
The Moral of the Story: Mommy should take a lesson from her little girl. Not everything has to be shiny and new to have great value!

Summer Fun!

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