My trip to Hawaii

So I went to Hawaii last weekend. I feel like I'm turning into a travel snob (I guess if I have to be a snob, that's the one to be). It just turned out that they all came within 2 weeks of each other. I went to Hawaii because Kiki asked me to be her escort to go through the temple. Kiki was baptized when I was on my mission in Hawaii. We taught Kikiana and Melissa. I loved those two girls, but I couldn't even fathom the kind women they would become only 6 years later. Both girls went through the temple and are very active in the church. They both have a solid testimony of the gospel which is such a strength to me. I love them very much and I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to have gone to the temple with them. All thanks to Reed. Thanks baby!




This is when we got out of the temple. Diane and Krisha are two other girls in whose wards I served in. Diane was recently sealed in the temple and Krisha just returned home from her mission in Taiwan.











Kiki and I soaking in the Hawaii sun on Lanikai Beach. I definitely never got to do this on my mission.




This is Kiki, Tea, and Melissa before church on Sunday. Don't they look beautiful?

Cache Valley Triathlon!

This was my first triathlon since Jensen's been born. I loved training for it. It gave me a great reason to get out and workout. I have done several kind of races and I just love doing triathlons. The training never gets boring and the race is a lot of fun.

This was before the race. Poor Jensen, we had to wake him up real early to there on time. And he's not much of a morning person, just like his mom.

Here we are waiting for the swim to start. The swim is 750 meters, which I think is about 1/2 mile. Wetsuits were mandatory because the water is about 62 degrees. This was definitely the toughest for me. The water was so cold it was hard to breath in when my head was out of the water. However, this was my best time in the race.

The bike was the 2nd part. It was 12.4 miles along the countryside. It was beautiful! Last triathlon I did, I did it on a mountain bike, and it stunk. So a friend of mine let me borrow her road bike, and it was a million times better. Thanks Tami!

This was the finish after the run. The run was a 5K, but half of it was uphill. What a great feeling to finish. I finished at 1hr 34 min. I took 6th place in my division. I was very excited.

This is after the race. I was sot happy to be done and not feel like I was going to die. I loved seeing my baby boy after the race.

I was so happy to have my family there cheering me on. It makes a huge difference, when you're running or biking and you have nothing left, just to hear your name. And having people yell, "You can do it!" "You're almost there!" Again, I had a blast and was so grateful for all the support, especially from Reed. He took care of everything; the baby, my equipment, and had a very loud voice. I couldn't have done it without him. Thanks Baby!

Our trip to Minnesota!

We had to leave Jensen. It was very difficult for both mom and dad, but we survived. He could have cared less. He had a blast at Vo's house.

This is the front of U of M the Minneapolis campus.
Reed's trying to show downtown Minneapolis here.
Our friends, Doug, Darci, and Ladd had us over for dinner Saturday night. It's nice to know we'll have some friends when we move there.
We loved Minneapolis and St. Paul. We spent most of the weekend looking for a place to live with little success. I had several interviews at nearby hospitals, which was very successful (then again, if you're a nurse and have a pulse you can pretty much get any job).

Everything there is so green and beautiful. There are lakes and parks everywhere you turn, even in the city. They say that roller blading and water skiing were started in Minnesota, and now we see why. It is a very active state. Everyone was always out in the parks. And the city is so clean, it almost doesn't seem like you're in a big city. The people speak really funny, but are very kind. The weather was fantastic while we were there, however, I hear the winters are insanely cold.

We'll be moving the end of July/begining of August. We will miss all of our friends and family here so much, but we're very excited for all of you to come visit.

Jensen's first tooth!

We are very excited that Jensen finally got his first tooth, although still not visible to the naked eye. Every time we try to show someone or get a picture of it he closes his mouth or covers it with his tongue. But you can definitely feel it when he bites.

I know you can't see his tooth in these pictures, but I thought they were just too cute and wanted to post them anyway.

Apparently now that he has a single tooth we feel that is appropriate to give him solid foods, lots of it (we really didn't give him all this spagetti, Reed was just having some fun).

Stinky, Pinky Eye!

What a sad face! Jensen got pink eye this week. He looked like Quasimoto, poor kid. But don't be deceived by this sad face, even having his eye swollen shut he was just as happy and giggly as ever. What a good kid! I think it was more sad for Reed and I to see. It didn't even bother him. Apparently, seeing out of one eye is good enough.

Go Gophers!

University of Minnesota here we come! Reed was recently accepted to the Carlson School of Business in Minneapolis. We'll live there for 2 years while Reed works to get his MBA. We are so excited. Minnesota was the highest ranked school that we applied to and we feel so blessed. They have a great finance program and Reed can't wait to dive in (my words not his). We have some friends that live there and have already talked to them about living in Minneapolis. We know it will be cold, but we hear it's a great city and just amazingly beautiful in the summer with all the lakes. We would love for anyone to come visit us!

1st Trip to St. George!

We had such a good time in St. George this last week. We are so glad the Mendenhalls invited us to go. We were able to ride our bikes on my favorite, Bear Claw Poppy trail. We swam, played tennis, and saw friends. It was a great time.

Jensen loves his daddy!
It doesn't hurt that he looks just like his dad!

We were able to spend some time with our good friends JR and Aubree and their 2 cute boys, Carson and Brenner. This is JR and Brenner, with his soon to be best friend Jensen

This is us with the Wright's

This is my beautiful friend, Aubree (this is for you, please don't make a not-allie-blog)

Jensen and his daddy watching the Jazz game. Poor guy, we wore him out!


Jensen and his Uncle Ty. Tyler is about to become a dad here in September, and by the way he was with Jensen and Kylie, his little boy is one lucky kid.

Here's everyone at the Pizza Factory. A St. George tradition!

I wanted a picture of our family because I thought we all looked pretty cute. Maybe next time I won't wake Jense up from his nap.

Carson, Brenner, and Jensen. It was so cute when Carson saw Jensen he said to him, "I'm so happy to see you again!" How very formal.

Jensen loved the pool in his little floaty thing.

This one of Reed's favorite mission companions, JD Carter and his son Zach. We're sad that we missed Lacey. Maybe next time.