Singing in the Shower

Who knew? Dakota likes to sing in his shower just like his Daddy. The other morning when we were getting ready for church, I heard two voices coming from upstairs. One from our bathroom, and one from Dakota's bathroom. By the time I got my camera, one of the voices had quit - Greg's. Dang. Missed that. But, from Dakota's bathroom, I heard the cutest little voice singing a made-up song. Little did he know I was capturing it on video. My little sweetheart!

Look who's 38!

All I know is Doug's a good sport. No matter how you look at it. I have never seen a man be so sweet and willing to cooperate with us women when it comes to picture-taking. We went out to dinner last Tuesday night for Doug's birthday.

Doug wanted Sushi - Em convinced him he wanted Texas Roadhouse BBQ. The rest of us were glad for that. We got right in (Em called ahead), and had a wonderful dinner. No birthday would be complete without a few presents, so the boys surprised Doug with some new shoes (BJ picked them out so they were Pumas of course) and a couple of fun t-shirts.
We all had a great time. We love our get-togethers, and a birthday is as good of an excuse as any to do just that.

Welcome Doug to being 38. Now you are finally as old as Greg.

We love you, and happy belated birthday!

Golfing with the Clydes

So Greg and I went golfing with Tim and Kim on Saturday, and what a great time we had! We'd already packed in a lot that day - between the gym, a 12-mile bike ride, and working in the yard, we were a little on the tired side, but we were so excited to get out and play. Tim and Kim recently joined the Alpine Country Club and extended an invite to us. There's not a lot of us women out there who play, so it's nice to hook-up with other couples who do.

Our game wasn't necessarily "on", but we didn't care. We still had a great time. The weather cooperated; we had a slight breeze, but it was sunny and fairly warm.

Tim couldn't get over my Trafalga golf balls. Hasn't he seen orange, green, and purple golf balls before? Come on! They matched my Gobstoppers - which we munched on all day.

The only incident was when I tried to kill Tim on the 18th hole by pushing my ball to the right. Unfortunately I didn't see where the ball went, so I couldn't even give them fair warning. Greg watched the ball and wondered why I wasn't calling "fore". It wasn't until I heard the ball hit their cart did I realize what had happened.

Honestly, I'm just glad no one got hurt.

Getting out on Saturday really gave me the itch to get out again soon though. We had so much fun. As the season progresses I am certain I'll top the ball less, get under the ball more, and make those balls sail!

Em, are you ready for a great year? Look out Fox Hollow womens' league - we are so going to improve our game this year! Before the end of the season we'll be breaking 100!

Getting to Know You!

The Browns hosted an amazing friends night tonight. Sheena made yummy Cafe Rio pork salad better than Cafe Rio. We then played some fun games. We played a "getting to know you" game (read below), and we quickly found we didn't know a lot about each other. There were a lot of surprises - like Colby wrestling in high school? Or Emily playing the piano? Or Beej actually being nice to his friends? **j/k** Who knew?

We then had to blindfold ourselves and feel the mens' legs and figure out which man was our's. I was pretty nervous. Just what if I didn't pick Greg? How embarrassing would that have been? I lucked out though and chose my man.

Sheena made amazing individual cookies (in trays) for each of us, and we made our own sundaes. They were incredible! So good!

We finished up the night by peer-pressuring Doug into performing his Polish Magic Show and then dancing for all of us. What a treat. He has some amazing talents that man. You just never know what you are going to get with Doug!

Things we learned about our friends tonight:

1. This person used to help (her) Grandpa fly airplanes, like the ones you see at the Provo airport. (Jenny)

2. This person's first car when they were 16 was a Red Nissan Sentra. (Colby)

3. This person's first job was to turn jeans inside out all day long. (Greg)

4. When this person was in Jr. High, on New Year's Eve all their friends dyed their hair purple - thinking it was the wash-out kind - weeks later they still had purple hair and had to cut it all off! (Sara)

5. This person used to hide when being dropped off to Jr. High because their mom drove a pink '64 Ford car. (Darrin)

6. This person was Valedvictorian and Sr. Princess in High School. (Jenny) - and yes, BJ it was a small school - but not THAT small! dork!

7. This person was on the wrestling team in high school. (Colby)

8. This person was baptized in his family's pool in sunny CA. (Greg)

9. This person's first job was working at Penguins Frozen Yogurt as a yogurt scooper. (Sara)

10. This person hiked to the top of Timp when they were 19. (Darrin)
11. This person restored an old totaled Bronco II when they were 17 with their dad. (Sheena)

12. As a leader chaperoning a youth dance, this person was 25 and one of the youth thought they were a teenager and asked them to dance. The spouse said, "they would love to dance with you." Then they were totally embarrassed to find out they were a leader. (Emily)

13. This person was in a car accident where the van rolled 10 times and they walked away fine. (Doug)

14. This person was snow skiing and decided to go off a ramp they had set up for pro skiiers...the landing tdid not stick and the ski patrol went and shut it down right away after they saw them try it! (Sheena)

15. This person has a photographic memory when it comes to numbers. (Kris)

16. There was a tree at the church and they were hitting the tree with a bat and the lady across the street told on them to the Bishop. They had to earn money to replace the tree. Their parents made him and his sister who had nothing to do with it, go door to door selling ice cream all summer long. Years past and the tree grew pretty tall, and they cut it down. (BJ)

17. This person won a karaoke and dance contest on New Year's Eve. (Doug)

18. As a child they played the piano at Brigham Young's home in St. George during a tour. (Emily)

19. This person has jumped off an 80' cliff at Lake Powell. (Kris)

20. This person was always taking care of friends or classmates at school. They would bring someone home and then load them up with food for the walk home. They have had a couple of friends move in with the family. They always wanted everyone to be like family (BJ) - so what happened Beej?

Thank you so much Sheena and Darrin for a GREAT night! We love you!

Dakota's First Piano Recital

Neighborhood Boy Band

What a treat. Darrin Brown has a great voice. If you ever get him in a room where Rock Band is being played be sure to put him on the microphone. He was a little hesitant at first, but he totally rocked it.

Our men had a good time forming their boy band. With Greg on guitar (alternating with the microphone), Darrin on vocals, Doug on the drums, and BJ on guitar, they were quite the group.

Like all boy bands, this one parted ways too - with BJ bowing out. He got tired of Rock Band in a hurry.

A Mayan Dinner

Last night we took the kids to the Mayan for dinner. I'm not sure who the gangsta' kid is in all the pics. The kids had a fun time, and the moms did too.

Pics of the Race

Our Provo 5K Race

So we had our 2nd 5K Race yesterday. The excitement started on Friday when we went to Fazzoli's to check-in, pick up our packets, and our numbers. They then fed us unlimited pasta (carb-load) for cheap. We took advantage of that - almost making ourselves sick. Yesterday morning Sheena showed up at my door bright and early - early being the key word. I wasn't quite ready. I was still syncing my iPod and charging my Garmin. We picked up Emily and off we went. It was cOlD outside yesterday. We put on our headbands, jackets, and gloves. The wind was blowing, and their was a freezing chill in the area. The adrenalin was pumping though, and through the cold we kept our excitement. After strapping on our time-chips, they blew the cannon, and off we were. We wanted to maintain between an 8-8.30 pace. The first 1 1/2 miles was easy. The wind was with us. Then we turned the corner, and the last 1 1/2 miles sucked. The chilling wind was against us, and we had to run uphill. Our descent pace quickly dropped. We kept going though. The last stretch like the time before we gave it all we had and sprinted through the finish line. This race kicked our butts. We we were beat. Even though we didn't stick to our ideal pace the entire time, we almost cut 2 minutes off our time from our first run. And imagine our surprise when they announced that both Em and I had placed 2nd in our respective age categories. Proudly we wore our medals home for bragging rights with the hubbies and kids.

...and don't forget Sheena! She was amazing. Sheena just had a baby a couple of months ago, and here she was racing in a 5k! How many women do you know that do that? She is truly our inspiration and the one who got us going in the first place. By August when we run in the half-marathon without a doubt she'll be leaving us both in the dust.

On Life

A Birthday Surprise for Kris

Rylan's Posse (Minus Rylan)

These are the after-effects of a great Rocker Birthday Party. Dakota, Carson, and Parker all went to Rylan's birthday party. The punkers came home with colored hair. And IN character!

Kris' Surprise 30th Bday Party!

Well, we pulled it off. I'm not exactly sure how we did it, but we did. Beej had been talking to me about this party for weeks, it wasn't until a week ago that he finally sent me the "hot list" of who to invite. I quickly sent out email invitations and followed-up with phone calls to make sure everyone knew about the party. Originally BJ and Kris were supposed to be in Florida for a business trip. That didn't pan out, so we had to get creative. Instead, they went up to Park City for the night and came back the evening of the party. Fortunately (and I'm not quite sure how) Kris didn't catch on to the party. We tried several times unintentionally to give it away. BJ and I had been texting back and forth about the party. Kris was snooping around on his phone wondering who She-ra (his "name" for me) was. Before she could read the texts, he deleted them. Then, cute Kathy (her mom) called me one evening to see if I'd gotten the pictures for the slideshow. Kris was sitting right next to me when Kathy called. She looked at me in panic, "Is that my mom?" Kathy had never called me before. Kris thought that since she'd forgotten her phone that her mom was trying to track her down. Numerous things like that happened leading up to the party, but each time we dodged the obvious. BJ wanted to do something extra special for Kris on her 30th, and I'm just thankful I could be a part of it. It was a great night. BJ counted as many as 44 adults and who knows how many kids. We had enough food and fun for everyone. Sheena, Sara, Emily, and I rapped "I want to be like Kristalyn C" for Kris to the tune of "We like the cars - the cars that go boom" by L'Trimm. I'm sure only a few of you out there know that song. Then BJ had a extra special version of "Nice Nice Baby So Old So Old" prepared for Kris. She had to sit on the hot-seat while he rapped away. I'm still hoping to get the video uploaded to the blog. It's something everyone should see at least once. He did a great job and the lyrics were hilarious. He missed his calling as a white rapper - that's for sure. We love our cute friends the Chandlers, and we are so thankful her party was memorable! Love you guys!!!