Thanksgiving in Texas

For Thanksgiving I was in Texas with my family. My mom rented out this place called Jump Extreme. It a room full of jumping toys. I was in the inflateable boxing ring. Watch out!

Jarom being brave. He kept trying to get to the highest spot and jump off. I was suprised he didn't get hurt. I had no idea he was a dare devil! Thats not my bum in the picture (one of my nieces)

My brother, Robbie wanted me to check his pulse. He had just finished racing all the guys.

Jarom had so much fun. He actually did try to take me down this way when I was not looking.

My mom had all my siblings and family pose by this green wall. I think it brings out Jarom's smile. Haha!

Animal Park in Texas

How scary is this picture. Actually the one below. Jarom has a fear of ostriches due to some you tube video. At Thanksgiving we went to a wildlife park that you dive through. We decided to be brave and ride in the back of a truck. My crazy brother Charles decided to throw feed between Jarom's crossed legs. He jumped up so quick as the ostrich went for it. It was so scary. I think in this picture Charles was going to karate chop the thing. By the way 2 people in my family were bit by the ostriches.



Yuck!
The Giraffes were so cool. They were my favorite part. Their lips are a little slimy.
I think in this picture Jarom is feeding the zebras. There is a big sign that says "do not feed the zebras, they bite"


Charles dared me to eat one of the pellets of feed. It tasted almost like some diet food I have eaten in the past. Hopefully no pesticides.

Check this out!!!

This is my mom. Jarom is feed the ostrich over her. It is creepy.

PUMPKINMAN Triathlon

I have been training for a sprint triathlon for a few months. I almost didn't do it cause it sold out. Then they opened 100 more spots. I hurried and signed up. A sprint is 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike (little did I know uphill) and 5k run. In the end I finished the swim in 18:50 the bike in 1:11 and the run in 29:48. It was the hardest thing I have ever done! I tried my best and have no regrets. It was worth it when it was all done. During the race I thought I was crazy for signing up. Jarom still thinks I am. I finished 16th out of 26 women. Now I am pretty sure I will do another one in May called Iron Girl.
Here I was so embarrassed cause I didn't know Jarom and his family were watching me struggle to put on the wet suit. I didn't know they would be at the triathlon so early.

Here I am trying to get on my wet suit. It takes some time.

Jarom helping me put on my wet suit. It is so tight.
This is a friend from church. She did really good in the triathlon. I kept calling her and asking a million questions. Here we are waiting for the horn to signal us to go!
And there I go. It took me a minute to find a space to swim so I wouldn't get kicked. I kept joking it would be cool to get a black eye. Not really. This was harder to swim than in a regular pool. I did a 1/2 mile.

I'm finishing the swim. I should have swam a little further. The rocks were killing my feet. I kept stumbling and and was already tired.
This is were I transitioned from swim to bike. I had to strip off my wet suit and get ready for the 13 mile bike.
Here I am getting on my bike. I knew the rest of the triathlon was going to be hard. I hurried and ate an energy gel supplement. Who knows if it helped.

Jarom kept yelling "don't let anyone pass you". Here is a picture of me passing a group of people. I was excited.
Jarom's parents are very supportive. Sharon made a pumpkin and put it on her shirt and a poster. They would get to the next point and cheer for me as I went by them. It really helped. Later on when I was halfway up a big hill, my chain came off. Luckily this guy stopped and helped me. I was only off my bike for maybe a minute. It seemed a lot longer in the moment.

I just finished biking 13 miles uphill. I realized after that I never touched my bike breaks. My legs were jello. Here I am about to run 3 miles. Jarom is giving me words of encouragement.
Almost to the finish line.

I finally finished! I did it! This was the hardest thing I have ever done. I think I need more training or something. Right away I started thinking about what improvements I need to make or do different next time. Can you believe it there may be a next time.

This is me excited to be done.

This is my friend Julia. We trained on the bike together. This was her first sprint triathlon ever too. It was so much fun doing the race with a friend.

Autumn is her Halloween costume. She is a cute wicked witch! I'm surprised she did okay with the hat.

For the past several months I have been training for a sprint triathlon. It sold out so I backed off on the training. Then my friend let me know they opened some spots. I signed up right away. I haven't trained on the bike very much, only on a stationary bike. My friend and I finally rode the "red rock loop" it is 14 miles. The first 5 miles goes up 1000 ft in elevation. It was horrible. I wish I had gotten use to this before the triathlon. This picture is after I made it to the top!

Hoover Dam

A guy from Jarom's class has connections to the Hoover Dam. We got to go on a tour that is no longer offered to the public. It was really cool! We got to go to the bottom of the dam and all over the place. Here are some pictures.

This is the group we went with. We all had a lot of fun!

This is the new bridge that is being built. It is so crazy how high up there it is.

This is me at the bottom of Hoover Dam. It was so cool to see. Its hard to see but there are vents half way up that we went into. In the next picture we are looking out the vents. I don't know what else to call them.

We are looking through the vent in this picture half way up the wall. We were walking in a tube.

This is later on looking down the dam from the top where the public stands. Someone is Jarom's class spit off the edge cause the wind was blowing and we almost got hit. Gross!

Jarom and his Diet Coke!

Jarom picked up a dirty habbit from his mom. He likes to put a diet coke in the freezer just long enough for a little bit of slush to form with opening the coke. His mom is a little better at doing this than Jarom. Jarom seems to always forget about his coke. Finally the worst happened. Can you guess? Of coarse Jarom cleaned it up. It was funny. This took about 5 hours for it to blow.

II had the top of Autumn's hair dyed hot pink again. I took her hair down so it wouldn't get into knots and this is how she looked. It just stayed that way.
The CEO of Bare Essentials make-up line came to Vegas. My friend loves the make-up and that day they were giving free makeovers. We went and got all pretty and then met Leslie, the CEO. My friend is so funny. She wrote Leslie a note and put her resume in an envelope and gave it to her. It was fun. Nicole, my friend has a better picture. When I get it I will put in on here instead of this picture.

I am trying to eat more veggies. I learned at work about spaghetti squash! It taste different. It is crazy how it looks like noodles when scraped with a fork. It was fun to make.

6th Wedding Anniversary!!!!

For our 6th wedding anniversary we got a room at the Pilazzo Hotel. It was so nice. It had an awesome view. My camera wouldn't take any good pictures at night to show the Vegas lights.

This is a blurry picture of our room and Jarom trying to be sexy. Our room had 3 TV's. One was in the bathroom. It had a remote for the curtains. The whole thing was decorated awesome.

One of Jarom's friends is an artist so Jarom took me down to the strip where he works to have him air brush a picture of Autumn on a shirt. It was so awesome to watch him work. He can do anything.
This is the finished product. Amazing right? I am so excited. It looks just like her. I just told the guy to make it cool so I don't look like an elderly lady who loves her dog. He even made her underbite the same. Jarom didn't want that in the picture but that's what makes her Autumn.

Here I am at work. We had a pipe leak overnight so the next moring we were flooded and couldn't check in patients for 2 hours. It was great. Most days I never sit for more than 2 min in a 12 hour period with only a 30 min lunch. It was nice to have a change. We put on patient gowns and took some pictures. These girls are fun.

We are on our way to my in-law's for the 4th. Autumn is tired. She is just letting Jarom hold her like that. I love it. She looks like a little person.

I know this is a horrible picture but I have to show my Texas spirit! I told Jarom I was going to wear this in my 5K fun run. I didn't as seen below. I wore pants. These short were given to me by my friend Becca when I graduated from high school. I still have them. Go Texas!
I did it! I ran a 5K. Everyone else was doing it for fun but I wanted to see how I would do. I timed myself and did it in 25 min. Half was up hill. I didn't think I could do it. Jarom made me stand in the sun so you could see my sweat glistening. Gross. But I am a sweaty girl. Some girls in my ward might do an official 5K in September. I might sign up. We will see.

This is an old picture I found. We could totally be Mr. and Mrs. Smith right?

I just made my 1st carrot cake. Jarom always gets carrot cake at the buffets. I put way too much cream cheese frosting. It was even too much for me. The little blob on top is a carrot.

This is a good picture of how Autumn sits when she wants something. I love it!