Easter Dinner @ China City

China City didn't offer the typical Easter dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, jello, etc....but it did offer yummy chinese food and a chance to get together.

P.S... I can now say I've officially tried sushi and I only gaged a little.

AZ to FL

Gators, beaches, pools, swamp tours, games, funny faces, movies, waterparks, restaurants are just some of the fun things we did while we were in Florida.

While Heather and Rich vacationed in the Bahamas, Jason and I had a blast hanging out / babysitting our cute nieces Bryn and Brooke. We have not seen these girls for 2 years. It took a couple hours for them to warm up and remember us, but it was hugs and kisses the rest of the time.

Tuesday we went to the beach and ate dinner at Boston's. Both Jason and I tried scallops and grouper for the first time and loved it. We aren't huge fans of seafood, but we are becoming more adventurous every day. We drove down the famous A1A, where we saw million dollar homes and yachts. It was beautiful.

Wednesday was filled with swamp tours, gators, lizards, and snakes. We enjoyed getting up close to the gator in the swamp. They came right to the boat - that was kinda scary!! We were able to hold our first gator, and after some convincing Brooke held one too. For dinner Rich cooked his delicious BBQ. Everything tasted so yummy. Jason and I even ate more scallops - two days in a row, we are on a roll.

Thursday was a little overcast and really windy, but we decided to head to the pool, and go to what Brooke calls a "fancy" restaurant - Dennys.

Friday was more bad weather so we decided to keep the activities indoors and go to Monsters vs Aliens. What a cute movie. After the movie we had to make a couple pit stops because the girls are the biggest princess fans and had been asking if the could buy the movie Thumbelina. Being the awesome aunt and uncle we are - we made there wish come true and surprised them later that night and watched Thumbelina. Their reactions were priceless. They couldn't believe we bought them this movie.

Saturday, the girls decided they really wanted to go to the waterpark. Four hours of entertainment for $8.00 - what could be better. They went down the slides maybe a hundred times. Each of them had the bruises to prove it. Sorry - Rich and Heather, we tried to return them in the same condition as when you left. The night ended with ice cream and the movie Bolt.
Sunday the weather was just perfect, and the girls really wanted to go to the pool again. How could we resist. We played in the water for hours. Brooke and Bryn were jumping off the side of the pool - showing off their swimming skills. After the pool, we packed up and drove down the A1A again to see more of the beautiful homes and drive through the beach towns. We stopped at that fancy restaurant again - that's right, Dennys.

Monday, spring break was over for the girls. They both woke up, got ready and went to school. We missed them during the day. The house was so quiet.

Tuesday, we are back to the real world in Arizona. Sometimes, I wish I were a kid again and didn't have to worry about bills and work. Don't you?

We had such a great time with Bryn and Brooke. Thank you so much Rich and Heather for trusting us to take care of your kids. We enjoyed every moment and would do it again in a heartbeat. We are only sad we couldn't enjoy more time with you guys. We love you guys!!!

The Watson's vs. The Rattler

There you were, we saw you from a distance. We thought you were trash at first, but then we saw you coiled up - ready to strike. We weren't sure what to do. Do we save ourselves and turn around or let you carry out your natural aggression. It took all of 2.8 seconds to decide to save ourselves, and then we heard the thud.

We're sorry Mr. Rattlesnake. We realize you were no match for the Mazda heading toward you going 50 MPH. We did look in our rearview mirror to check on you, and you seemed fine. Infact, you were still coiled up - ready to strike. But sadly, when we returned from our trip to the lake, we saw you lying lifeless in the same spot. Our hearts were heavy, and we both had the heebie-jeebie's in honor of you.

Birthday's @ Fiddlesticks

With our birthdays being so close - Jason's on March 14th and mine on March 17th, we have the joy of celebrating them together. The other day Jason and I were talking about how we are getting older, and how we got to where we are today. It seems like just yesterday we were graduating High School. (To be honest - I still feel like i'm 16. Is that bad??) It has been 10 years since I graduated, and I seriously have no idea where the time went.

So...for our birthdays, I decided it would be fun to celebrate like a kid. We enjoyed Monday night at a local park called Fiddlesticks. They have go-carts, bumper boats, batting cages, driving range, miniature golf, and other rides for the kiddies.

We started off the night with miniature golf. I had two holes-in-one, but Jason still beat me. I now owe him a backrub. Hopefully, he will forget about that ;)




Next we headed down to the batting cages. I have not hit a baseball for years, but I actually did pretty good. I'm not sure how many rounds of balls we hit, but we have blisters on our hands to prove we hit more than one. I stayed in the slow pitch cage, while Jason headed off to the fast pitch for one round. Holy smokes - those were fast. I couldn't even see them coming. He did a great job.




Last but not least, we decided to challenge each other on the go-carts. I personally love go-carts and beating everyone in the lane. I tried to videotape the race, but driving and taping is harder than it looks. I let Jason think he was winning on one corner, but I showed him who was boss. Better luck next time sweetie!!!





We had such a great time at Fiddlesticks, we decided we need to go again soon. Next time, hopefully the rest of the family won't be sick and they can enjoy it with us.

*********

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!!! I love you so much and I am so thankful I have you in my life. I have loved and enjoyed our journey so far, and I am looking forward for more. I can't thank you enough for everything you do for me.

And the SILVER goes to....

JASON!!!

Check it off the sugarless challenge. We have completed our sponsored race portion of the challenge (Jason actually completed it along time ago, but we did this one together). Jason and I ran in the Kiwanis/Wigwam Race this morning. It was chilly at first, but it warmed up to the perfect temperature.

They gave medals to the top three finishers in each age group and Jason came in second. Yahoo - I'm so proud. I challenged him before the race and said, "you're getting a medal today - I don't care what you have to do." I, on the other hand, sucked a little more wind and came in 28 seconds after the 3rd place winner in my age group - if only they gave a medal to 4th place ;) I was a little ticked off at myself, but it gave me something to work on for the next run.

Run. Drive. Sleep. Repeat

YUP!!! You guessed 'er Chester!!! 202.1 Miles.

Let me explain to those who don't know what the RAGNAR Race is. The Ragnar "Del Sol" (here in AZ) is a race from Prescott to Mesa, which if you ask anyone familiar with the state of AZ, they will say, "Are you Crazy, I don't even drive that in my car!" The race is a total of 202.1 miles. Now before you say, " What? you ran how far?" You must know the format of the race. The race is broken up into 36 different legs, varying from 3 miles to almost 9.

So, first you find 12 insanely crazy people and you form your team. In our case, we, Staci (Ashlee's sister) her hubby Bacho and myself, were lucky enough to be asked by some ward members who were looking for teammates. Ash was going to run with us, but doctor's orders stated she better not. She was bummed out, next year though!!! Then of course, you have to chose a team name... "Running on Empty" was ours, for obvious reasons!!


Once the team was formed, you had to decide who would run what leg of the race. The thing with choosing your leg of the race, is once you picked your order 1-12, you have to stay in that order for the rest of the race. So everyone runs 3 separate legs of the race, and you just rotate through the team.

So now to the way the entire thing works. First runner takes off from the start line. The rest of the team jumps in the car and cheers them on as they drive up to the next exchange point. As that person finishes their leg, they pass the "baton" off to runner #2 and everyone else jumps in the car and goes up the course to the next exchange and so on and so forth for 36 different exchanges.... It is interesting though, because you actually split your team of 12 into two separate teams of 6 and while one of the teams of 6 are on the course the other team of 6 is off the course doing whatever you want to, mostly sleeping and eating and sleeping some more....
This format continues on until you finish the entire 202.1 miles and yes your team in out on the course non-stop for as long as it takes. It is very interesting to run at 1 AM along US-60 outside of Wickenburg and have a Semi wiz past you at 65 mph, and the Coyotes howling off in the dark desert on the other side of you... AWESOME!!!


Our race seemed to run very smoothly. Besides some sore muscles, sleep deprivation, and a few blisters, we all seemed to enjoy ourselves and enjoyed getting to know each others "smelly bodies." Just think about it. 6 people, well 5, since one of you you is out running, are in a SUV, you just ran 4-8 miles, you start to stink pretty quickly. But I guess since everyone stinks, you don't notice it, which is a good thing... We all seemed to have smiles on our faces, and lots of energy to cheer on the teammates running. Although, at 2 AM it was difficult to be too excited when you couldn't even keep your eyes open.

People all over the course are dressed up and acting goofy, so I decided for one of my legs of the race to wear the awesome gag-gift Ashlee's Dad gave me, the coolest hat ever. (BTW- I got some good laughs and honks for the wacky hair-hat).

Needless to say, we RAN, we DROVE, we SLEPT (kind of), and Started all over again for 202.1 miles in 36 hours and 26 minutes. We started at 8 AM on Friday, and finished at about 8:30 Saturday night. It really was a fun time and if anyone is looking to do it again next year, let us know, we would love to do it again.

Trivia

A couple times every month I send out trivia to my offices and reward them if they are one of the first five people to send them back to me correctly. I thought I would post my latest one to let you see how good you are at random trivia. I like to think I am providing my offices with a little escape from the daily grind.


NAME THAT MOVIE & VALENTINES DAY TRIVIA

Deep down we all love romantic movies. And, if you’re like me – sometimes you wish you were one of the characters. I thought it would be fun to test your knowledge of romantic movies and see if you can tell me what movies the quotes came from. Also, lets see how much you know about Valentines day.

1. "When they ask me what I liked best, I'll say it was you."
2. "Sleep my Bella. You are the only one who has ever touched my heart. It will always be yours."
3. “The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."
4. "I am just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her."
5. "I love you. You..... complete me."
6. “I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like.....magic."
7. What does the word Valentine mean?
8. How did sailors send messages to their loved ones?
9. What fruit is also known as the “love apple”?
10. What is the winged child shooting arrows at unsuspecting Valentines called?
11. What is the Greek word for Cupid, God of love?
12. Who are Shakespeare’s "Star-crossed Lovers"?

A quick trip...

Hello everyone, it has been a very long time since I posted anything. Mostly because not a whole lot has been going on. Jason and I try to be exciting, but lately we have been duds. However, we were able to get a quick, spontaneous trip in. We went to Las Vegas and St. George over the weekend. Grandma Bensy had her 90th birthday, and we wanted to be there to celebrate it with her. We love Grandma Bensy and are so proud to call her our grandma.

Sugarless bus

What is the sugarless bus you ask...? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like - no sugar. You see, I have a major sweet tooth, and I was sick of dealing with cravings so I asked Colby and Chuck if they wanted to take the no sugar challenge with me from Thanksgiving to Christmas. We all did very well, so we thought we would do it again - only longer this time and with a little twist. Here are the rules:

1. No sugar, No junk food, No fast food, No soda - not even diet, no fried food, basically don't eat anything that tastes delicious.
2. You have to excersice for atleast 30 minutes / 4 days a week
3. You have to sign up for a sponsored race - doesn't matter what it is.
4. Only cheat on the designated days - we have 6 cheat days total.
5. Whoever cheats outside of the designated days, or doesn't complete the excersice task owes everyone in the challenge $50.00. There are 5 of us competing this time.

The NO SUGAR/EXCERSICE challenge will go until May24th. 132 days without sugar - what did I get myself into.

Birthdays & more birthdays

January is a busy month for birthdays in our family. It seems like there is one every other day, so I wanted to put a post up for all the January birthdays and say - Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear....Keri, Chuck, Cami, Mom, Ken, and Layne, Happy Birthday to you!!!

I hope you all had or will have wonderful birthdays. Sorry we can't be with some of you on your special day, but we are thinking of you.