Food & Fun

Food on the cruise was the best...anything, anytime, anywhere! Notice the giant brownies in front of the girls....Yum Yum Yum
All of us went up the rock wall. It was a fun afternoon of climbing. Matt was the fastest, but Brin did the hardest wall. Jordan and Alyssa both went to the top, I was so proud of them.

Next day

Here are a few pictures of the day after the race. We took showers and naps and felt much better. Stairs were still difficult, as was getting out of a chair, bending over to tie your shoe, driving a car, sneezing...... Way to go Jill and Matt. Hope you liked your first marathon!!!!!!

St. George Marathon 2009

St. George Marathon 2009 was fantastic. It was a beautiful day and we felt great. We survived (only lost a couple of stretchy gloves) and we even did pretty darn well! Emily & I ran in 3:36 and Matt ran 3:56. I am so proud of Matt. He is so awesome and I am so happy for him. Brian was the fastest at 3:34. I can't believe Em and I almost caught him! My darling sister Jill ran her first marathon and had a time of 4:29.

I felt really good during most of the race. The uphill was hard. Matt and I got massages 2 days before and I think that actually hurt our times. My glutes were so sore on the uphill, dang! Good thing Emily was there to keep me moving. By mile 23 I was so ready for it to be over. The crowds in St. George are fantastic. It's like being in a parade and everyone was cheering for us. Little kids held out their hands for us to high 5 them, bands were playing and everyone was yelling for us. That helped so much! I sprinted the last 25 yards and the crowded cheered even louder, it was great.

After the marathon is a different story. I am pretty sure I got dehydrated, because I felt so sick. The worst feeling was waiting in a long line for the porta-potty and just hoping I wouldn't barf on the lady in front of me. I laid down on the grass for a while and my sweet husband got me more water and I was OK after an hour.

All in all, I felt so great about my race and loved that I met my goal of qualifying for Boston. Not sure if I'll go this spring or next, but that is something I would love to do at least once.

Thanks so much to all my family and friends for the phone calls, texts and e-mails wishing my good-luck. You are the best and I love you all.

Brin Cheering at the Mascot Bowl

The 8th grade football team played the local mascots on Tuesday night. The cheerleaders cheered their little hearts out. As you can see, Brinley made a new friend.

Jordan's Baptism Day

Here is my darling Jordan in her white baptism dress. She looked so pretty we just had to have a fashion shoot. I had her posing in the front yard until we got that perfect picture, which is pretty much all of them! She is sitting on picture rock in the front of the house. Everyone sits there for pictures.

Jordan wore the dress that Brin and Alyssa wore too. It is fun to see her wearing it now.

Here is the morning of her baptism. We pulled her hair back into braids to keep it out of her face. She is so sweet and really loves her daddy.

Mom had to get in on the pictures too!
There were 5 children from our ward who got baptized that day. Jordan asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost and I swear, it was like speaking in Sacrament meeting. The chapel was totally full. It was so great to see all the family and friends who made it there to support the kids. We had Papa and Oma, Kimball, Amber and their kids with us. We had a brunch at our house afterwards. It was a fun day for Jordan!

Here she is with Oma and Papa and her new blanket (her comforter). I am also her primary teacher so I got to give her the blanket. Sister Kearns, the other primary teacher, and I made blankets for each one of the kids.

Our whole family posed after the baptism. These Clark kids are sure getting big!

May = Birthday, Birthday, Birthday!

The month started with Matt's birthday. He is now 41. The kids all got him presents and we had a party at home. Later Matt and I went to see the new Star Trek on the IMAX. It was so awesome. The sound was great, the effects were fantastic and the story was so fun. I really liked it, even if there were no Tribbles. Here is the whole goofy family. Happy Birthday Dad!

For Alyssa's 11th birthday party we had a survivor party. We had a bunch of girls who were braver and tougher than I thought. She had a blast and hopefully all her friends did too. Although 1 friend did cry when we had the bizarre food contest, oops. We ate real food (pizza) and lots of gross food too, like kitty litter box treats, gummy worms, scorpion eggs (soy nuts), chocolate covered beetles (raisins) and the best, SARDINES! 4 girls actually ate the sardines and cute little Shaye actually liked them. CRAZY.

We had 2 teams and lots of games for the competition. The teams wore either yellow or turquoise bandanas. The teams were the Super Stars vs. the Blue Sharks. They each made a poster for their teams and we kept score. Each time a team won they would get beads to put on their immunity necklace (the losers got 1/2 the amount of beads). By the end all the kids had lots of beads for the necklaces. They turned out cute!

One of the favorite games was finding the gum ball under the whipped cream. I put 1 gumball and about 8 whoppers on a plate and covered them with whipped cream. The first kid to find the gum ball and blow a bubble won! Alyssa really went for it! (She came in 3rd).

We had a survivor island birthday cake for all those who outwitted, outlasted and outplayed.

Here is the welcome sign for Alyssa's birthday bash. We all survived the survivor party!

Jordan's birthday was next. She turned 8, how is my little girl so big? She had an "UP" party. We invited a bunch of friends to see the movie, then came back to the house for cake, ice cream and presents. Fun and easy = my kind of party :) Each kid picked a balloon to take home and we had bags of treats at the movies. I think we had plenty of sugar for the day.

I tried to make the cake look like the movie poster. See the house floating away under the gumball balloons? I know, not quite the same, but still yummy!

She got some really cool walkie talkies. They will be fun all summer long! Alyssa made Jordan a special 8th birthday poster. Jordan loved the poster and the candy only lasted about 24 hours. Good job Alyssa, what a sweet sister you are!

Spring Break in St. George

Matt and Brin hiked Angel's landing. I still can't believe how high up they were. They are both insane for doing this hike. I swear I had no idea how high up they would be when I said Brin could go. Yikes!

I had to add this picture. Matt laid down and held the camera over the edge. If you look really closely you can see the buses on the road below. The cliff is straight down......

Here are Matt and Brin on the highest point of the hike. I can't believe they did this!!!

This is the trail, yes, it is very narrow and falling off either side equals no return. At least you would have a long time to think about that as you fell for 2 miles straight down.

While Matt and Brin were hiking Angel's landing they came across this sign. I think this is where you were supposed to turn around. Those 2 have no fear! Why is Brin smiling?

We did a fun hike to a waterfall in Zion's park and took this picture of the family. Last time we were here I was holding a 2 month old Ethan in a blankey. What was I thinking!

Here we are, ready to hike a little (really little) slot canyon right above St. George. I had to really suck it in about 1/2 way up.

So we went to St. George for Spring Break this year and met up with the Hansen's. These kids are so shy and would not pose for the camera. Too bad, they are all pretty cute!

My favorite part of this photo is Ian's arm, notice how he quickly placed it over Brin's shoulder right before I took this, sly dog!