It was a "Running" Weekend

Well Brendan left on Thursday Night for Portland to run in the Hood To Coast Race. It is an annual race where you start at Mt. Hood and run all the way to the Oregon Coast. His whole family participates. I posted a picture of Brendan and his Brothers and Dad. But really his whole family gets involved . .sisters run, brothers-in-law run, there are volunteers, etc. Brendan loves this weekend he gets to hang out with his family and his close friend, Jake from D.C., always flys into run the race as well. It is a team race where they all take legs throughout the 2 days. Brendan says the only downfall to this weekend is the actual running.

Since Brendan was off running, I decided to run as well. My cute friend Nikki called me and said that there was a 5K in Draper to support the families of the National Guard Men and Women that had been deployed, so how could I say no to that. We woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and headed over to the park in Draper to get registered and get ready to run. It was really fun and totally worthwhile!! The picture is of Nikki and me and her cute son RJ who rode in a stroller the entire race and was such a good kid the whole time!!

Disneyland -- August 2007

While we were in Southern California for my cousin's wedding, we decided to go to Disneyland. It was such a fun day to be there with Evan and Anja who are both just both in love with everything Disney!! (Brendan wasn't able to come due to not enough vacation days.)

We were waiting in line to see Minnie Mouse and when it got to be our turn, Evan just ran into Minnie's arms. It was the cutest thing. I totally got a tear in my eye. And then when it was our turn to see Mickey Mouse, Evan walked right up to him and gave him a kiss on the tip of the nose. Again, a tear came to my eye.

As tradition, we ate lunch at the Blue Bayou, in the Pirates ride.

It was such a fun day and being their with the kids made it totally worth it!!

Hunter Wedding in So. California

My Cousin Stephen got married in Southern California. It was so much fun to see our cousins, it had been about a year since we last saw them. And it is always a good time when we all get together.

The wedding was really nice. My Uncle Dave married them, he is a judge. He looked so handsome in his robes. It was fun to be apart of all the festivities. The pictures are of my cousin and my Uncle during the ceremony.

Then there is My Dad and Mom w/ my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sue and My Uncle Dave and Aunt Bobbi. My Dad was smiling ear to ear the whole time being with his 2 brothers.

The other picture is of Kasey, Jessica, and me at the reception.

Oregon Coast

While we were in Portland for the Wedding, we decided to take a trip to the Oregon Coast. On our way we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We took a tour of the factory and learned a whole lot about cheese!! We got some yummy Cheese Curds, or as they call them up there, "Squeaky Cheese!" And also got ice cream and then headed back out on the road through the Tillamook National Forest.

We stopped at Cannon Beach, see picture. This is where the ending of the movie "Goonies" was filmed. Remember when the kids get rescued and the Pirate Ship comes out. Hopefully you all remember that great scene!

We then went down to Seaside and walked around the town and then went out to the beach. We watched a lot of skin surfers and just really enjoyed the day. The Oregon Coast is really a pretty place to visit.

Katie's Wedding

Katie got married in August in the Portland Temple. It was a beautiful day at the temple and everything went great. Katie and Brett seemed so happy and it was so fun to be apart of their big day.

The only thing that went wrong the whole day was that the Wedding Cake Lady thought the reception was on Saturday night and not on Friday night. So while the cake lady was frantically trying to put the cake together, Brendan and Bret (a brother-in-law) tried to save the day by going out and getting white sheet cake to fill in. Well Brendan thought he would be funny by bringing back this Green Alligator CupCake Cake . .everyone had a good laugh. But then finally the cake arrived and the day was saved.

We had a great time with the Burke Family.

Maui -- July 2007

I got the opportunity to go to Hawaii with my Parents, Kasey, Denver & Anja. Now you all might be wondering where Brendan was . . .well you see I get 4 weeks of vacation at work and Brendan only gets 2 . . so I figured I had to go someplace without him and why not Hawaii with my family.

We went to Maui over July 4th. It was so beautiful and so relaxing. We went to the beach every morning . .where Anja loved to build sand castles and run away from the waves. She became quite the beach bumb! In the afternoons we would go explore the Island.

The pictures our of us at the Iao Needle, the Banyan Tree in Lahaina, and then of course of a Maui Sunset . . ALOHA!!

Jackson Hole Pictures -- Cont.

Here are the rest of the pictures from Jackson.

Jackson Hole --Hunter Family Trip June 2007

I thought I would take a second to catch up on our Summer. Our Summer started out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful places to visit. We went there with my family for a few days of site seeing and relaxing. We got to see a ton of animals.

On our hike by Jenny Lake, we actually ran into a Mama and Baby Bear on the trail. (See picture) It was quite a site to see. There are also a couple pictures of us . .one at Inspiration Point and the other at Hidden Falls.

Also the picture of the Tetons was our view from the Jackson Lake Lodge. We had a panoramic view of the Mountains from our cabins. It was an amazing site.

I love this picture of my nephew, we were at Bubba's for lunch, which if you are ever in the Jackson area, stop there. There food is YUMMY!! Anyway, I asked Evan to show me his Peek-a-boo face . . and this is what I got!!

Our favorite story from our trip was about the squirrel. The morning we were packing up and heading back to my parents house . .I was in the bathroom getting ready and all of a sudden I hear Brendan say, "Nikki come here quick." So I walk out to where the main room was and there was a Squirrel. He had come in our door (which was wide open because all the kids were running in and out of all the cabins) so he had come in our door and over the chair and got into this candy bar sack that was on the table. He scuffled around there for a little bit and finally pulled out a snickers candy bar and then ran out of the cabin and under the tree, where Brendan took this picture!! We thought it was great. I guess Squirrels really do prefer Nuts!!