AYA

A few years ago, Jamie was riding with a (much younger) friend who made the comment......and I quote....



"dude, I hope I can ride like you at your age!"

Needless to say, that stung a little and Jamie derived great motivation for all of his riding that season from this comment. Jamie even went so far as to tape the letters "AYA" to his stem on his bikes. Just a good old fashioned piece of motivation, a carrot if you will! Something to strive for! Jamie has grown used to being the oldest one in our cycling group, my oldest child, etc....AYA was just a brutal reminder of this fact everytime he got on his bike.

Yesterday, Jamie celebrated his 40-somethingth birthday (I can't totally rat him out!) and I think he's great at any age!! Yes, some days I want to kick him in the shins for micromanaging me and the household and generally, just driving me NUTS.......but I still love him with all my heart!

Jamester, you are my best friend, confidant and companion of many years and, with any luck, many more to come. I can only hope to be the object of your sweet affection, caring and kindness at any age (AAA).

Happy Birthday Jamester...............you're forever my oldest child!

LOST and FOUND

LOST:  one mid-sized, middle aged (ok, close) mind!

Last seen in August somewhere in Utah.   Doesn't take up much space and exhibits frequent memory malfunctions. 

If found please return to owner:

Whit 

SOS!!

Oh Happy Day!

Did I just say that out loud? It came out wrong! Well, you know........school started today so for me it was a bittersweet kind of happy day!

Let's just say it has been a long, very fun summer with a super messy house 98% of the time and bickering kids in the background a good portion of the time too! whew! I am ready for some peace and quiet and some crowd control. Careful what you wish for..........

This year P-man is starting Kindergarten finally, and will be there all day. This is definitely the bittersweet part. Although he takes great delight in griping at me and all, he is truly a momma's boy and deep down I know I love that about him! I love that he hates to leave my side because I know it won't last so I must savor the moment. He was so excited this morning, he who sleeps until 9, and was up and dressed by 7:30. We'll see how tomorrow goes!! Oh how i love that boy!

As for the girls....this was the bitter part. As usual, we are taking part in the annual first day of school photo shoot and it was GONE! No matter how hard I tried........GONE.......what is gone you ask? That twinkle in their eye when they are so excited to being going back to school.

GONE!!

Anyone who knows Kendall will see that the twinkle is obviously absent this morning! So,so sad! And so young. What a shame. Sierra was just happy to be in front of a camera ............but surely the twinkle in her eye is unrelated to any of today's events!

And, Noah.....we took his picture too, just so he didn't feel left out.

Oh happy, bittersweet day!

Baby girl

So!! For the whole summer I have been about a month behind. Kendall turned 8 years old in early June, her party was on the 27th. Noah turned 4 in July, his party is in 2 days. There is a pattern here. There is, however, a couple of events that I have great remorse for not blogging on much, much sooner. Those events are Kendall's 8th birthday and her baptism.

Kendall was baptized on June 7th. It was a beautiful day among family and friends. Everything went so smoothly, and she just oozed a sweet, loving spirit. While I am not good at articulating how overwhelming it is to watch your child make the choice to be baptized, I must say this is the epitome of a pure heart. I was so touched by the whole experience. I absolutely love watching her as she conitnues to strive to do what is right.

Kendall is my second girl. She continually reminds me that she is my 'baby girl'. She is my shy, quiet, calculated child who has a weeee bit of a temper on her. (I just wanted to be realistic!) But what I love is her sweet demeanor (most of the time) and the quiet stares I frequently get from those enormous blue eyes. I have wanted so badly to capture those eyes, and that stare on film... in her baptism dress........for so long. (For whatever reason, I waited for her to get a haircut first. Oh wait, she hates doing her hair.........just tuck it behind the ear and go!)

My simple, complex, sweet, fiery tempered, beautiful, loving, kind, nuturing, fight picking, music loving, piano practice hating, lanky, creative, intuitive, accepting, afraid of the dark, junk collecting, organizing, mother hen, school teacher, independent, dependent is captured in some of the most adorable photos taken my by friend Kelly( http://www.kellymccaleb.typepad.com/ (shameless plug)). Kelly truly captured the essence of our Kendall.

So beautiful, so simple, so uncertain of her own beauty on the inside and the outside. I only pray that as her mother, I can embrace that essence each day and let Kendall know how very much she is loved! I love you my sweet baby girl!

Happy Birthday Mr. Magic

Happy Birthday to YOU!

I know I have blogged about how Noah magically entered our lives, but now I am struggling with the reality that my 'baby' is 4! Four years ago, my 9lb 5oz 'baby' entered the world as a near toddler (ha!). He who walked at 8 months and now argues with me because he can read his clothing tags and refuses hand me downs that exceed his size ........(whatever!!) is now a little man! Many of our biggest giggles and greatest quotes come from Noah these days! I feel a little guilty about his birthday as we spent most of it in the car on our way to Colorado and he didn't complain at all.

Happy Birthday Mr. Magic, Mr. Mischief, Mr. Batman, Mr. ________............anyone who knows you can probably insert their own word behind Mr.. We love you!

Yes, that is Noah sleeping in the closet in Breckenridge! Guess he's not all grown up after all!

Grueling and Heinous

Breckenridge

Hard to believe we were just the arrival of warmer weather and NOW, we are writing about celebrating the 4th of July! YES, these events were in such close succession!

This year we decided to road trip it for the 4th and head to Breckenridge, CO. Additionally, we were persuaded by our crazy alter egos to participate in a 50 mile mountain bike race called the "Firecraker 50". Once we arrived in 'Breck', we took a small pre-ride and LOVED the trails. We were feeling pretty good about things, until race day. We obviously pre-rode the best parts of the course. Don't get me wrong, it was some superb single track...mixed in with some truly wicked (as in HARD) terrain. In the course description it specifically states:

"Come see what the local mountain goats ride every day. Each 25 mile lap has 5400' of climbing. Fortunately for you a bunch of that is on the climb out of Breckenridge on the old narrow gauge Railroad grade. The race starts the 4th of July Parade in a neutral start format by start wave. From there the odyssey sends you into the Backcountry. There are a couple of grunty little climbs , a couple of long lungbusters , some absolutely rippin' descents and plenty of contouring flume and singletrack for you to mash on your big ring (or your only ring if your sick enough to go singlespeed, right Jamie Pogue? (ok I added that part)).Take my word for it, the course is a full-on MTB course. It has it all and it's no gimme!"

Funny!!?? No where in there did I see the words 'grueling or heinous'! Trust me, it matches the description, minus these two adjectives!! OK, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, (very little) but it was tough and dirty! It's always bad when you finish a race and undress to find dirt INSIDE of your clothes. (Much less, if your children don't recognize you by anything but the color of your bike.) Our faces were so dirty (i love how the dust cakes on your teeth)! SADLY, NO ONE took any pictures! Toni Pilling was an amazing support crew/babysitting service but not one of us thought to take pictures until we had all showered off and were ready to sleep!

It shouldn't go without mention that Jamie and BP both finished way ahead of me, although equally dirty.

BP- 4:48 and some change

Jamie- 5:01 (that's my honey!)

It was a great day in the saddle and a tremendous challenge to my legs and lungs and my MIND! Somewhere in the middle of my second lap I simply checked out.....I didn't know if my legs would allow me to finish! As I came through the turn, I remembered Toni saying to me "Brad and Jamie said "Don't let Whit Quit".. so I pressed on. 5 Hours and 46 minutes later..........I finished! only problem..no photo proof (try these links to photos taken by the local photogs, we really did take part in this race!)

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?PhotoCard?id=07D800030009000200070016MBZLLETE

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?PhotoCard?id=07D80003000900010010001BMBZLLETE

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?PhotoCard?id=07D8000300090001000C0018MBZLLETE

My favorite part was crossing the line with my fan club all right there! All the kids, BP and Jamie and Toni all cheering me on as I checked this off my life list.!! (no picture of that either!)

I told Jamie that it is sort of like having a baby. Once the suffering is over, you'd do it all over again........I think I'd love to do it next year so I can take some pictures!!

(OK...I have one picture of my jersey when we got home. After 3 days in a laundry bag, still smelled quite ripe and still filthy! check it out!) Oh, if blogging had smell!!

We did get some great shots of the kids geocaching and messing around! What a beautiful place!

the kids geocaching! Behind them is a big cave/mine shaft. They sent the daddy's in looking everywhere for the treasure when all along, it was right beneath these big sticks right at the front of this picture! ha!

At Last!

At last, dare I say, summer is here. Right up until the last week of school, my kids were wearing windbreakers and dealing with 60 degree weather. DUH!! So unlike Utah weather. My, my how things change. One week later and we are roasting at 95 degrees and my lawn is grasping at it's last thread of life. Ahhhhh summertime.

One of our favorite things about summer is the family trip to Lake Powell! This year we took the plunge and purchased a share of a houseboat. It all happened so fast and just like that BOOM.........we were on the lake having the time of our lives! I love Lake Powell because you are isolated and forced to spend quality family time and simply enjoy the most amazing landscapes around. Take a look and see for yourselves.

Pogues at Rainbow Bridge

girls of summer

!

all in a days play!

the biggest kids there were the dads!

our little patch of heaven!

Many thanks to the Pilling and Kener families for joining in the fun and making this trip FABULOUS! I know it took it's time, but I am happy that summer is here at last!

P.S. I know I am terrible at posting, but hopefully summertime also means increased posting frequency! No promises!

xoxo to all!