Gracie + Rip Stick =

No need to say anything else.  Poor little girl.  She was so embarrassed, it took forever for me to talk her into taking this picture.  I never knew lips could get that big!

Newly Knighted

I had the opportunity to watch Gracie be knighted into the "Knights of the Math Table".  When you are a student in Mrs. Beck's 3rd grade class, you have the opportunity to be a Knight of the Math Table after you learn your times tables.  I was able to escort Gracie down the red carpet to where she knelt on a pillow in front of the principal, Mr. Esplin.  He then knighted her by touching each of her shoulders with a sword and read the official knighting script.  She then received a medal and a long stem, red rose.  It was very cute and I was glad I got to share the afternoon with her.

Spring Baseball in Arizona

As a family, we had the opportunity to travel with Garrett's baseball team to Arizona.  We love traveling to Arizona for one reason... The Carter Family!  We were able to stay with Russ' sister, Lisa, and her family.  We have so much fun being with them.  The kids and I left Thursday morning at 3:00 am.  We arrived in Phoenix at 9:00 and took Garrett to Diablo Stadium where he met up with his baseball team to watch an Angel's spring training baseball practice and game.  The kids and I then drove to my parent's hotel and got ready for the day.  Then we met up with Lisa, Preston, and Ava for a fun filled day.  We took the kids to Amazing Jake's, a food and games/rides center.  They had a blast!  It was so much fun to see them play together, laugh, and just enjoy being together.

We then picked up Garrett from the Angel's baseball game and went to a mall near the baseball field Garrett was playing on later that night.  That night we went to Garrett's game.  They played a team from Colorado, and lost.  Russ flew in that night, just as Garrett's game ended.  We then went back to Lisa's for the night.
On Friday, Garrett and I got up early and drove into town.  We met up with his baseball team for breakfast and then went over to the Diamondback's spring training practice.  The boys love watching the players field balls and bat.  They especially love collecting foul balls and getting autographs from the players.  We spent the afternoon with the Carter's at Pei Wei.  Then we all went to Garrett's games.  On Friday they played a team from Seattle, WA and San Diego, CA.  We lost both of those games.  However, the team from California was coached by two ex-Major League baseball players.  The boys on those teams had biceps bigger than both of Garrett's thighs put together.  They all looked like they had been shaving for 4 years.  They had beat other teams 26-2 and 20 something to 5.  We only lost each game by 6 and 8 runs.  I felt okay about those losses.

On Saturday, Garrett had 2 games.  They played a team from Arizona and finally won a game.  Then they played a team from Florida, coached by Dante Bichette (another ex-Major League player).  We lost to them by 6 runs.  That night we were able to go to Preston's round robin for football.  Unfortunately, he had missed 2 practices to hang out with us and didn't get to play too much in his games.  When he did play, he was awesome.

Although the baseball tournament wasn't that successful, it was good experience for our boys to play against such good teams.  Garrett played really well.  He hit the ball well, pitched good and fielded awesome.  I think it built his confidence playing well against such good teams.
The best part of the tournament was hanging out with the Carter's.  They are a great family and the kids get along so well.  We were also lucky to have Nana and Papa with us on our trip.  We mostly just saw them at the games.  They did a lot of shopping while they were in Arizona.  We are always grateful to have them with us and we appreciate their support and love.

A Saturday without Sports?

Last Saturday, we actually had NO basketball, NO baseball, NO football, and NO gymnastics.  We were a nervous wreck wondering what in the world we were going to do with ourselves all day.  Jill, Jonathan and Samantha had come down Friday for a football scrimmage at DSC.  They decided to stay the night, so on Saturday Russ took the boys skeet shooting.  They had a good time.  Later, they went over to the baseball fields and did some batting practice.  Because honestly, what would a Hyde do on a Saturday if there were no sporting events to participate in?

After Jill and her kids left, our kids decided they wanted to jump on the trampoline with the sprinklers on and hose spraying.  Russ took some pretty fun pictures of the action.

I have to say, we could use a few more of these days in our home.  The kids had a great day and we were able to get a few things done around the house.

A little piece of Heaven

Russ and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in Mexico.  We stayed at the El Dorado Royale Spa and Resort.  It is an all-inclusive resort that his company, Alsco, sent us to.  We had some great experiences while we were there.
Russ left on Sunday, Feb 19th, to get some fly-fishing in before I got there.  Although the fishing was not the best, it still beat a good day at work.  The kids and I were able to communicate with him via facetime each night he was gone.  Technology is amazing and I am so grateful that we could see him each night and know that he was okay.
I left on Thursday with some of Russ' co-workers and met up with Russ at the airport in Cancun.  We were transported to the resort where the luxurious 5 days began.  Our resort was located right on the beach and I could be standing in sand just 50 yards from our room.  The temperatures were in the low 80's everyday... I was truly in heaven.
On Friday, we spent the day exploring around the HUGE resort, playing in the ocean, and attending the company awards ceremony and dinner.  It was a good night and Russ was recognized as a top performing Service Manager (and for 5 years in the winner"s circle).  Way to go!

Saturday was our favorite day.  We were able to go to Chitchen Itza and see the Mayan pyramids/ruins.  It was AMAZING!  We had a tour guide who explained all of the details about Chitchen Itza.  We learned so much about the culture and traditions of the Mayan people.

After we left the pyramids, we were taken to a little authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch.  The food was yummy and the experience was fun.  They had some of the workers dressed in the traditional clothes perform some dances while we ate.  After lunch we were taken to a Cenote (sin-oh-tay) in a neighboring city.  That was the coolest experience of all.  A cenote is basically a sink hole in limestone that has fresh water running into from underground.  It is about 60 meters deep.  The surroundings make you feel like you are in a jungle setting.  There were rope swings and cliffs to jump off of.  Even I did the rope swing... me, who is afraid of heights.  One of the couples we went with took some pictures of me braving the rope-drop into the unknown.  As soon as she sends the pictures to me I will add them to the post.

The next day was spent snorkeling and feeding the crazy fish in the ocean.  One of the resort guests from Pennsylvania taught us that if you bring food into the ocean, hundreds of fish would come to the feast.  It was  insane.  At first, he threw some fruit loops cereal into the water and the fish came screaming up all around us.  Then he held a banana just above the water and the fish started jumping out of the water to take bites from the banana.  Russ threw some of the cereal at me and I had fish slamming into my legs and stomach to get at it.  Not going to lie...it kinda freaked me out.  Anyway, while snorkeling we saw hundreds of little hermit crabs, box fish, coral, and so many other amazing sites.

The food was fabulous and we spent a lot of our time sampling at each of the restaurants offered there.  The Mexican and Japanese restaurants were my favorites.  I loved the mango salsa, guacamole, sushi, spinach and fruit smoothies, and fresh tortillas.
Thanks to Russ' company for the great vacation, and Russ' employees that worked so hard to get us there!

The Klondike 2012

Grant was able to go on his first Klondike adventure for scouts.  He had a great time.  His troop won the overall contest and were given dinner certificates to Golden Corral.  Saturday afternoon, on the way home, Russ took the scout troop to lunch at Golden Corral.  I am sure the workers enjoyed all 19 of them coming in not showered, smelling like campfire, and all worked up from having not slept most of the night.

Second Miler award

Russ received an invitation a few weeks ago for he and I to attend an awards ceremony.  Russ was being given an award for his efforts as scout master.  They were going to have dinner and at some point in the evenings events Russ would be awarded the "Second Miler" award.  We were not sure what that was, but free dinner and a night out together sounded nice.

As we entered the building, there was a horrible smell.  I couldn't quite tell what it was, but it wasn't good.  We found some friends in our ward and sat with them.  There were about 100 people at the banquet.  They did some little introductions and described the schedule for the evening, then they served dinner.  I soon found out what the horrible smell was.  I do not want to sound ungrateful, it was just very comical.  We had chicken breasts that were so overcooked my plastic knife broke trying to cut it.  The smell was coming from the burned dutch oven scalloped potatoes.  The dinner rolls were super yummy and I wish I had a few more to eat.  We had some canned green beans and some iceburg lettuce with ranch dressing.  But my favorite was dessert.  Who can screw up dessert?  We were each given a piece of cake.  I took my first bite and my taste buds went into a complete state of confusion.  What were the strange flavors they were experiencing?  How about lemon cake with peanut butter frosting.  Yes, it is true- it is very possible to screw up a dessert.  

Anyway, after dinner Russ and about 20 people were recognized with the "second miler" award.  They did not explain what the award was, so we are still are not sure what it means.  But with a dinner like that, we are certain it is quite prestigious.