O.k., so are blogs like completely outdated now that we have facebook?! Way easier to drop notes and updates there, and obviously I am on facebook way more! Today I started feeling a little bad about neglecting my blog for so long, but not really anything to add since I keep updates going through facebook. Brig is still skating like mad and has a competition coming up soon. Some of her friends are going to compete in Junior Nationals this year.

Yes, life has once again been more worth living lately than reporting on. Brig is getting ready for another competition and the winter exhibition. We have recently switched coaches while her usual coach left to have a baby!! Congrats Rachel! Her new coach is really pushing her and has really helped her reach a little further. Believe it or not Brig is really loving it!?!

John and Brig have been training for a turkey run on Thanksgiving. Brig can even keep her pace for the entire 5K. Amazing! John is done with marathons, but is looking for the next 1/2 marathon to run. With his new job, motorcycling has been rare and he has really been missing it. The fall guys ride was really great for him.

I have just been running every which way! We got to visit Britt and see our new family member Mya!! Talk about adorable, and Hunter is really excited to show off his new sister!! How cute is that!?

Halloween has come and gone and as fall continues to move toward winter (ugh) we are looking forward to Thanksgiving and all the time we will get to spend with our wonderful family! Winter, not my favorite, is o.k. only because of all the wonderful holiday spirit that is soon to take over all. With the holidays fast approaching, we are looking forward to enjoying the seasons to come.

Sweet relaxation!!  We just got back from a trip to Seattle and the Oregon coast.  We went on a ferry ride for the first time ever!  Pike's Market was a little disappointing, lots of onlookers but no buyers leads to no "flying fish"!  They did have some fun by throwing a stuffed fish into the gawkers, Brig about freaked!  It was way too funny!  We are such inlanders, when we were walking through Brig didn't know the smell of fish and thought someone had gone potty in a corner and that was what we were smelling, much better after she found out it was only fish!  

We went up in the space needle with a bunch of people from Louisiana in town for the LSU game!  Ew, we saw a guy with his ears gauged, the hole was ginormous!!!  Everyone at tables around us was making fun, I don't think Brig would even dare consider doing that now!

The Oregon coast was absolutely incredible, and yes we ate at Mo's!!  We had fun climbing to the top of a lighthouse and watching the ocean.  Brig saw a whale, and we all saw a sea lion!  We watched high tide come in and watched the beach disappear!  I guess I didn't realize how seriously high the water got during high tide!!  Anyone that loves gorgeous scenery needs to see the coast, it was amazing!

How is it the month of July always seems to pass in a flurry and before you know it, it is long gone.

I know it's a little late, but Happy Birthday Brigi!!!  I can't believe she is already 10.  Talk about time flying!  This years birthday party was a karaoke party, unfortunately the kids were all too shy to sing.  The grown ups took over, Ruth sang and danced to "Don't Cha".  Too funny!!  She really set the mood for the rest of the night, thanks Ruth!!  Tif, Trev and Britt all sang "The One That I Want", also really funny!!

Back to school has already arrived, not really sure I am ready to say goodbye to summer.  It seems like it just got here.  With all the rain this year the summer has seemed like it has been really, really short.  Not sure when it happened I wasn't ready for kids to be back in school!  

Oktoberfest is the next skating competition, but I will be in florida during that time, so we are still trying to decide if Brig will participate.  Can you all see John doing her hair and makeup?!  Maybe we can convince one of the aunts to help if we do it!!!  For everyone's sake.  Of course, she may get the pity vote from the judges if John does it and it may help her place higher!!!  Hmmmm! Skating is all about strategy!!  What, you thought it was judged fairly?!

Pioneer Days has come and gone, and Brig took part in the parade with the skating rink.  Young kids in tights, leotards and roller blades, what could go wrong?!  All you (overprotective) parents know what I'm talking about!  Thankfully nothing did, and all the kids had soooo much fun they can't wait for next year.  

It's not all a vacation!!!

Since my last few posts have been about vacation, I was a little worried y'all would think we never work.  To dispel this myth here is a post about boring day to day stuff!!!

Brig has started piano lessons, at first they were great, then she found out she had to practice everyday!!  She assures me she never signed up for that!  Ice skating is still going great and we are preparing for Oktoberfest already!  Also, a parade this friday with the rink to promote the learn to skate program!!  

Our house is once again a construction zone, I know, no shocker around here!  Carpet is on the way, the tiling is done and we are just waiting now for wood to show up to finish the main level floors.  John has been so busy trying to finish all this there have been no races, what a relief!

I am trying to learn a new area at work and learn new personalities!  Some days are definitely better than others.  The best I can say about the people I deal with on wednesdays is they make mids look attractive!  

So you see now our life is something short of glamorous!!  We are just grateful each day for the opportunity that presents itself, there is always something.  Brig has a birthday coming up and will be moving into the older group of activity girls, something all her friends have already done.  It sucks to be the youngest (and only)!!!  Tomorrow she will be spending the day with a friends family at the local amusement park!  I can't believe she is old enough not to need me there!  When in the world did that happen?!  So sad I won't see her all day.  How are you supposed to trust other people to watch your kids the way you do?  Nobody else is as overprotective as me, just ask Brig!  Ah, letting go!

Quick little weekend vacations are sometimes the most memorable, aren't they?!  This thursday, Tif, Britt, Cyndi and I took the kids to Lava Hot Springs.  The big boys joined us on friday, and Trev came up saturday.  We stayed in this really great cabin, complete with trampoline and hot tub!  What an incredible time we all had!  The cousins all had a great time playing together, and Zoe was by far the biggest attraction of the weekend!  I can't believe how completely adorable she is!!  

Of course we went to the pool, and the boys jumped off the top platform, yikes!  If you look close at the top platform you can see Mark, Mike and Trev waiting for their turn!  Tif, Brig, Hunter and I all went off the lower platform and then I decided to go off the middle one just for fun!!!  What was I thinking?!  Something to cross off the list anyway!  Stone loved the water slides and Madysen even went down the super fast slide once.  It has really changed since I was there ten years ago.  Much better time!  There are now four waterslides and a snake in

 the kids end of the pool!!

After the pool on saturday some of us went 

down the river.  I don't ever remember the river being that high!  Or cold!!!  It was so much fun the first time that of course we did it again.  Trev tipped out of the tube once, and there were a couple of times we thought we would lose a few more of us.  Mike wasn't in danger of tipping over, just sinking!!  He went in a double tube with Brig and dragged his hiney over a few rocks!!  Ouch!  John had a wardrobe malfunction ripping out his shorts trying to get on a tube and had all of us cracking up trying to walk back to the car!!  Way too funny!  

Ahhhh!  Sweet Paradise!!!!  We took a cruise to Catalina Island and then to nowhere for 3 days!!!  Talk about relaxing, nowhere to go and all day to get there!!  Catalina Island is just off the coast of L.A.  The Wrigley's used it as a spring training place for the cubs, and then for a retreat for their employees.  It is very quaint and adorable, and suprisingly reasonably priced!!  If you get the chance to go it is sooo worth it!  The second leg of our cruise was supposed to be in Mexico, but with the whole swine flu thing we weren't allowed to go on shore.  As a trade off we spent a few blissful days at sea, that is once I got over the whole seasickness thing!!  Yikes!!  To compensate the lack of shore excursions, the ship had tons of activities onboard for those few days.  We even did a walk for the Susan G. Komen foundation. At the end we got real pink lemonade from real pink australian lemons.  Our cruise director Stu brought them with him.  We saw dolphins swimming at the front of the ship, who knew that really happened?!  There was a 24 hour ice cream bar, and the best chocolate cake in the world at dinner!!  

Brig is displaying her towel animal!!