California

My recent trip to California was slightly different than my usual California trips. This time I didn't get to go to the beach or to Ghiradeli Square in San Fransisco. We didn't drive up to the Oakland Temple or get ice cream at Fenton's. This time I changed diapers, gave baths, went to the library, ate ice cream at Tucker's, warmed up lasagna, and drove to the zoo and back (without actually staying at the zoo). Even though it was different, I had a lot of fun. I was pretty tired at the end of every day but my nieces and nephew's were so good for me. I was especially grateful that we didn't have any major breakdowns, everyone stayed dry all through the night, and everyone was somewhat reverent during Sacrament Meeting. And I can't forget how grateful I was for C.J.'s help. She is not quite 10 but she is so smart, helpful and competent.

I'm pretty glad that motherhood only happens one child at a time (for most people at least). Most likely I won't have to become a mother of 3 at the same time...I think if I take it one child at a time I might actually be able to survive. Knock on wood---I better be careful what I say or I might end up with twins or triplets on my first pregnancy.

An Adventure

Today I'm going on an adventure! My brother Ben is going to Hollywood to accept an award for the animation short he worked on his Senior year at BYU. His wife Valerie really wanted to go with him this time so they are flying me to their home in Alameda, California (near Oakland) to watch their 3 kids. I can't wait to see Xander, C.J., and Mia.

I love going to the airport. It is seriously one of my favorite things in the world to do. Perhaps is the shake'n'bake mix of people, cultures, lifestyles etc... It's also because I love coming in contact with people who are different than me. People who believe different things, love different things, do different things, wear different things...the list could go on. It opens my eyes to just how incredible this world is, and how individual each of us are. The cool thing is that God made us all, and even cooler is that He loves us all. How does He do it? I guess the answer is just that He is God. He can do everything and we can't comprehend it all right now.

BYU doesn't have a spring break so this is my made up individual spring break. I'm so excited!

Run, Baseball, and Part-ay

I woke up Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m.--an hour before I actually needed to wake up. I couldn't fully fall back asleep because I was so excited: race day! Brett and I ran the Rex Lee 10k. The Rex Lee Run is held annually at BYU to raise money for cancer research. Rex Lee was a famous lawyer and president of BYU, who died of cancer. I haven't participated in an actual race since my 1/2 marathon in July so I was psyched. I've been working on getting a little faster than I was last year and was anxious to see how my work had paid off. I ran the 6.2 miles in 49 minutes 27 seconds. That calculates to about 7:59 minute miles! Under 8!!!! I had never done that before, so as you can imagine I am very pleased. It feels so good to reach another goal. I finished 26th out of 156 in my age group and 176th out of about 500 overall. Brett did it about 4 minutes faster than me and finished 107th overall.

I also attended my first BYU baseball game....EVER this Saturday. Brett is a huge baseball fan so I'm trying to learn more about it. I really enjoyed the game more than I expected to. It was actually HOT outside and we got a little bit of sun. People were asking Brett all day yesterday if he went skiing because his sunburn kind of looks like he was wearing goggles. BYU's baseball team beat the University of Utah 11-3. It was sweet.

Then we went to a birthday party for one of Brett's friends from Indiana and ate some of his cake that his wife made to look like Mater from Pixar (Tow-mater?). It looked really great, and tasted great too!

Finally we headed to Jenny's to celebrate Pi day!! Did you know yesterday was Pi daY ? 3.14 (March 14th). We ate banana cream pie, pumpkin, apple, cherry, and rocky road pies, and had conversations about math and random trivia about pie. Do you know the first civilization who used an approximation of pi? Do you know which book contains the earliest approximation of pi? Well I do. We even sang a Pi song to the tune of Oh Cristmas Tree, and Jenny had pi rounded off to like 50 decimal places on construction paper all the way around her living room.

What a great saturday! These are just some pictures I've taken in the last few weeks.

Gettin a sun tan at the baseball game.

My nephew Reid making a silly face.

My nephew Porter smiling big for the camera.

Sing Us a Song You're a Dinosaur

For those of you who don't already know, I have a new niece!! My sister Betsy had a little girl yesterday afternoon: Afton Anderson. I got to see her in the hospital yesterday and she is adorable. I helped my mom watch Betsy's other two children, Porter and Reid yesterday and today. This morning we were watching Little Einstein's (on Disney I think). They always have a classical song that they base their episodes after. Today they turned dinosaurs into musical instruments to tell their heroic story. The Piccolodactyl (instead of pteradactyl) had a baby who was scared away by the Bass-asaurus Rex (T-Rex). It was up to the little einstein's to play their own piccolo to find the lost baby piccolodactyl. I've been thinking all day about the different kind of musical dinosaurs I could create. I came up with triangle-tops, Tuba-saurus, and Viola-Raptor. It's strangely entertaining.

The other day I was walking to institute in a skirt, with my scriptures in hand. It was dark and I was walking fast. I walked up behind an older, heavier set professor-looking man who could have easilybroken my arm. He turned and looked at me really quick, and then looked straight ahead. Then he turned again and said "I thought you were going to catch me and mug me!" I laughed and just said, "nope, not me!" It was really funny.

My sister Hannah got mad at me for not posting any of the pictures she took of herself with my camera over President's Day weekend, so these are for her: