Our New House

We closed! It's finally ours! We're super excited to officially move in this weekend (September 13th - hint, hint...if you're available, come on over!).

Some have requested photos of the inside of the house, so here you go. This is the kitchen. Yes, Becca, we went with black granite. Thanks for the recommendation. I think it looks sweet. The kitchen is the reason I totally loved this floor plan. It opens up into the living room, so I can do dishes, keep an eye on Kaia and watch The Office all at the same time!

Here's the living room. I love the mantel. The TV is coming, to be installed by Brian above the mantel.

This is the entry. We love our huge front door. It's already made moving large pieces of furniture much easier.

The master bath. Yea, we'll finally have two sinks again. Why is it so hard to share a sink?

Staircase to the basement. I really don't want to put up a gate, and I am close to trusting Kaia to go down the stairs by herself. She can do it, but sometimes she gets distracted. At least there's a landing half way down, so it's not that far to fall. :)

Brian's throne. We may never see him again....

Kaia's One Year Birthday!

Kaia turned one on August 26th! Wow - how time has flown by! It really does seem like just yesterday that I was in the hospital giving birth to her! We had several fun birthday parties over the last couple of weeks. She has loved all of the attention! And all of the chocolate!



I always wondered whether or not she would be scared of the cake or just dig in - although I had some idea considering how much she loves putting ANYTHING in her mouth, including dirt, rocks and live bugs. As you can see, she absolutely loved making a huge mess and shoving as much cake in her mouth as possible. It was hilarious.


August 26th is also Kaia's cousin Caden's birthday! He turned 5 - wow! He says he doesn't mind sharing his birthday with Kaia, just as long as he doesn't have to share his presents with her!

My Friend Heidi

My best friend from high school, Heidi, came in to town for her 10th high school reunion. It was so fun for our families to get together for dinner and catch up. I really wish I could hang out with my old friends more often. It seems life is so busy all of the time it's hard to find time for the fun things! Anyway, Heidi, you definitely don't look 10 years out of high school - I can't believe you have a first grader!

300 Warriors

Brian participated in the 300 Warriors bike race last Saturday. Here's a little blurb about the race:

"On the fourth and most demanding day in "America's toughest stage race," 300 citizen warriors will precede the professional teams by 4 hours. Their goal: ride 98 miles and scale 14,778 vertical feet, a feat representing over 28% of the horizontal distance and almost half the climbing in the five-day Tour of Utah stage race. Finishing this ride is the equivalent to riding the Tour de France’s Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and Alpe d’Huez."

He finished it in about seven hours and said he burned about 6,000 calories! He also said it was the hardest thing he's ever done. We're so proud of him!!!

This map is hard to read, but basically the race started in Park City, then they went over to Kamas, back through Heber and Midway, then to the Alpine Loop, Traverse Mountain and up to Snowbird. If you've ever driven to Snowbird, you know how steep it is. Imagine biking up it after you've already biked 90 miles! Obviously, I have no comprehension of doing anything like it.

We have brick!

Hey, it looks like our house with our cars parked in the driveway! We'll most likely close the last week of August. All we need is landscaping, and we're good to go!

Summer Fun!

Bike riding!

Swimming with dad!

Happy Birthday Brian!

We celebrated Brian's birthday pretty much all weekend - yea! He turned the big 3-1 on July 25th. He loves the attention he gets on his birthday, but just don't mention the number! He went mountain biking Friday and Saturday morning (his gift to himself). We had sushi on Friday (his birthday lunch from me). He had Red Lobster on Saturday - his favorite restaurant. We saw Batman Saturday night (a week late - but worth the wait). And cake and presents in between! Happy b-day Bri!