Kevin, Heather, and Brooke Sandall

When the Relatives Came

2012-02-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

Brooke had many visitors this past week. I say "Brooke" because, let's face it, that's why they all come right?

Jessica flew in Saturday Jan 28 and left the next Wednesday. She is going into the Missionary Training Center a week from today, spending about 10 weeks there, then flying to Bulgaria to spread the happy news and good word of God! We had a great time watching Brooke do her stuff - like cooing, gurgling, expelling all sorts of gas bubbles, messing, eating, and smiling!

Sunday we took Brooke to church for the first time, amidst many oohs and aahs. We do have pretty cute baby, although Kevin thought she looked like a clown in her dress (maybe a little I guess).
Monday we took Jes uptown and ate some Firehouse - can't get enough of that place. Aunt Jessica brought Brooke some shoes from Taiwan, which don't fit yet but are pretty awesome!Smiling for Aunt Jessica!Wassup.Tuesday Jes made us stir-fry and we ate with chopsticks she gave us for Christmas.It was so fun having someone to run with, and play with Brooke, and take her when she's fussy...everything we did was twice as easy with 2 people to look after her. Wednesday we took Jes to the airport and said goodbye for 18 months! I'm so excited for her, she has such a cool personality and will have such experiences. She is a serious inspiration to me and I know she will be the same to people in Bulgaria!

The day after Jessica left, Kevin's parents came to visit for the weekend, to meet their first grandchild! Although the two year old behind us in church did keep calling Jeff "Grandpa" over and over...we decided his beard makes him look much older than 52. Brooke always fell asleep in his arms.He fell in love.Laurie fell in love too with her "babycakes." She called the day after they got home to tell me she teared up on the plane because she could smell Brooke on her hands :(
We had a really awesome time with the in-laws! And they were so good with Brooke, putting her to sleep and cuddling her when she was fussy. I hope she gave them enough smiles for all that. We went on a hike on Friday, and then got Firehouse subs (again).We played cards, watched a couple movies, played with Brooke. Kevin took Jeff to 3 book stores (aka Jeff's heaven) and to REI, where they bought Brooke this:Its obviously a little big...

On Sunday Kevin blessed Brooke in church. It was so perfect :) and so good to have family to share in it.At Christmas my mom brought the blessing dress she had made for my baby blessing. It fit Brooke pretty good...had to pin the bloomers though. Guess I was a little chunkier :) Look how cute she is! We have the cutest baby. Thanks for coming the relatives. It was grand.

6 weeks

2012-01-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

What does it say about you when you take over 100 pictures of your kid in 2 weeks with absolutely nothing special going on except growing up?
Brooke will be 6 weeks old on Friday and she is getting so big...I don't like it :(She was 22 inches long and 9lbs 15oz a week ago at the doctor...so is probably well over 10lbs now.She likes to talk (gurgles, grunts, occasional coo), loves bath time, smiles when she is content, holds her head up very well (she's had those muscles since she was born) and sometimes her upper body goes up too, and has lately been sleeping 4-6 hours at night, very exciting.

Brooke

2012-01-14T06:49:00.001-08:00

Our baby is here! Miss Brooke Sandall.Born December 16th, 2011 at 3:08PM.7 lbs. 5 oz. 20.5 inches longBlond hair (yes HAIR), blue eyes, and rosy skin - a peach baby is what the nurses called her.She's perfect!
And she was one month old yesterday! I can't believe how fast the time has gone.
Coming home from the hospital.First bath at home.I will not apologize for putting way too many pictures up. We love her very much.
Meeting her Shumway family.
First Christmas. One of our friends remarked that December is when angel children are born, and she really is an angel baby! She is so sweet and only really cries when something is really wrong.First trip to the beach.Daddy loves to sleep with her.

She loves to be stretched out like this.Gangsta. All bundled up to pick up daddy from work.
Sometimes when she sleeps she puts her arms out and it looks like she's directing an orchestra. Bum-bum-bum-bum. Bum-bum-bum-bum.
And this doesn't really capture it but she gets so relaxed when she's being burped and fully enjoys being patted. It's pretty funny.
When her belly is full you can hold her and talk to her and she just looks at you. And lately...she adds some smiles :)How she has changed... one day old:One month old:

My friend Katie Rees shot some newborn photos when she was a week old. I'm really excited to see them and will post some when we get them! She can't wait to meet her next visitors and anyone is welcome to come meet her :)

Before She and Santa Come

2011-12-12T07:29:00.000-08:00

We have been pretty determined the last week to be out and doing fun things before our little present comes and we are home-bound for the winter (which of course we are also excited for). This Friday we went to Christmas Town, USA with Sarah and John and walked around.
Bajillion cars.In the bottom left corner you can see me, how small I am compared to the tree! The town starts in August putting up lights.
Free hot chocolate from a local church and a nice photographer telling us how the town used to be.We think this is Kevin's coworker's home. She told him she puts up the ribbon on the front porch to keep people from taking pictures on it!
Saturday morning we went to a Santa's breakfast our church put on, Kevin read a speaking part in the program and everyone was surprised to see us there, as they were yesterday at church as well :). He's so handsome I had to take a picture.And on Saturday, for another date night, we went window shopping at baby stores and REI (which may or may not have been for Kevin), the BarBQ King (one of Charlotte's hot spots), and Christmas at the Billy Graham Library. Lights from the library:
There was a live nativity at the library, which was neat to see (I'm pretty sure Baby Jesus was a fake, I don't think they'd make a live baby be in the cold from 5-10PM every night).with a donkey, camel, llama, sheep... ...and an animal we couldn't identify! Let me know if you know what it is...this is the best picture I could get of it. It looked like a little brown hairy cow-pig, but was actually really cute.It seems like a cool place to bring your small children - they have story time, petting the animals, and a carriage ride to see all the lights around the library.

Its too bad you're waiting so long to be born little sista'...you're missing some nifty times!

Waiting, waiting

2011-12-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Due date come and gone...40 weeks and 1 day...and no baby :( Its okay, we're not too anxious, but we would like it if she came now! In the mean time, here's what our house will look like when we bring her home :)
I made the stockings, I still want to stitch our names on them.
And I made the tree skirt too. They both turned out pretty awesome ya? Here's a better view of the skirt.Love Christmas :)
Now - hopefully signing off until she is here...

Shaw Christmas Party

2011-12-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

So, Kevin loves his job. He feels awesome that he accepted the offer from Shaw Group and is in a great company and meeting lots of good people and doing a job he loves! We went to the corporate Christmas party last night. It was in a fancy shmancy hotel uptown with a live band (that sadly, didn't play any Christmas tunes) and DELicious food and 2 drink tickets per person (which of course, we gave away as the non-alcoholic beverages were complimentary :) It was also semi-formal dress so I finally had an occasion to wear the earrings Kevin's mom brought me from Rome! They're too fancy for church, but they looked great with my dress, belly, and heels! ;) I only was able to meet one person he works closely with though, Brad. Brad has been Kevin's trainer and mentor of sorts - and even though they are technically on different projects now, he still goes to Brad with questions. They also still get to work together as Accumen trainers (a software that analyzes schedules). It was good to put a face to Brad's name. I'm hoping to meet more people Kev works with as he continues to work at Shaw! There were soo many people there and Kevin's so new, we hardly saw anyone he knew. But Brad said the site Christmas parties (when the project goes to site) are a lot more fun. Can't wait for those!

Trans Spontaneous Orchestra

2011-12-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

So yesterday Kevin calls me when driving to the church and says, "Hey, Trans Siberian Orchestra is playing tomorrow night in Charlotte. You wanna go?" And I said heck yes. Let's fit in as much as possible before our package arrives! So spontaneous of us. Usually anything over $20 we deliberate on before we buy. Okay, we're not that bad. But close. Here's us at the concert.

And some pics. Laser show - way cool.
The stage in the air - they stood to play to us at the corners and the middle.
Fire - the heat of which reached us.This is a good view of the inside of the Time Warner Cable arena and how far away we were.
We had never been to the arena so we didn't know what to expect when we bought the seats but everywhere is a good view in there. And the seats were cushiony man! Too bad the NBA was on lockout when the Jazz came to play the Bobcats because we and Mama Sandall had tickets!

It was a blast! And baby was rockin out too. Either that or she was protesting. Pretty sure if she's gonna be a granddaughter of Jeff Sandall she needs to learn to deal with loud rock music. Here's the end of Carol of the Bells.

Turkey - Deep Fried and Trotting

2011-11-28T05:07:00.000-08:00

This year was Kevin's and my first year away from family at Thanksgiving. We couldn't travel anywhere on account of this little tummy of mine (apparently still little enough for a fellow to mistake it as a beer belly this weekend).
Kevin decided he wanted to deep-fry a turkey, a very popular tradition back here. There were deep fry kits and frying oil for sale everywhere, and Kev watched the food network show on deep frying a turkey in preparation. When it was all said and done I didn't take enough pictures! The boys had pulled it out of the boiling grease before I could get there to snap it. But here is the finished product!Thanks for the early birthday Mom and Dad!

We had friends the Gabrielsen's and the Coleman's over, and they made basically all the food but the turkey. Everything was soooo delicious! Again, slacker on pictures but here is John blowing out his birthday candles on his cranberry pudding cake. It was his birthday on Thanksgiving. The Coleman kids, Miles and Mia, helped him.
Also before the deep fry, Kevin ran in an 8K turkey trot! He had signed up as motivation to start really running again. Although that didn't do the trick, he was still able to run to 43rd place out of 4800 people, time 30:10! 6:05 mile pace, which was actually his training pace for 10 miles 6 months ago, at 5000 feet elevation. Oh well, now he knows what training can really do for him! (although he is still amazingly talented). The winner ran around Kevin's fastest 8K time ever (24:49) and was sponsored by Saucony. Here's Kevin comin in at the finish, sprinting to make sure a girl didn't beat him.And some crazy dressed up racers.
Even though family was a skype event this year, it was an awesome Thanksgiving! And our number one thing to be grateful for?

38.5 weeks :)
She's almost here!

Bulgaria, Sofia!

2011-11-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

My sister Jessica has been called to serve a mission in Bulgaria! Speaking Bulgarian! It's okay if you have to look up Bulgaria, I didn't know where it was either. She leaves on February 22nd. She is teaching English in Taiwan right now and received her call in the mail there, so we all skyped when she opened it! It is so crazy! We all just assumed she would go back to Taiwan because she loves it there. But now she will learn a completely new language and live in another new place! Jessica's so awesome. Of all my sisters, I was most surprised when Jessica said she wanted to go teach English in a far-away country. And then also surprised when she decided, right after getting to Taiwan, that she wanted to serve a mission. So you can imagine my reaction when she was called to BULGARIA. :) She always finds and follows God's plan for her. She's so happy!

(thanks to Leeann for the pics)

Mama Sandall

2011-11-14T06:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend Kevin's mom came for a visit, it was so great! We loved showing her Charlotte and enjoying visiting and seeing each other again. She is so easy to love.

We picked her up on Thursday night and spent the night with visiting and yummy dinner (check out our new favorite dish: Green Chili Chicken).
Friday we went to the baby doctor; I am "a fingertip" dilated and although the doctor said she hadn't dropped, we concluded that over the weekend she did! I have much more of an appetite and, if it's possible, need to frequent the restroom even more during the day. So...are we ready for this??

After the doctor we walked around uptown and showed Laurie where Kevin works.
Kevin's building:
Making Grandma Sandall look skinny: Also ate most delicious subs we've ever had, Firehouse Subs. They were truly amazing. Probably will be craving these.

Friday evening Laurie got to meet my neighbor and her daughter when they brought over a baby gift. And then we went to an amazing Mexican place, Cantina 1511. Laurie likes to take pictures of food. Incredible food... Saturday we went baby shopping! Here's me with what Laurie got for us. And now we are all set, just waitin on her! Then we went to the movie Moneyball, pretty swell.

Sunday we went to church and took an autumn drive. Here's some pictures of our neighborhood.
We absolutely loved the visit - but it went by way too fast. My favorite moments were just quiet times talking with my mother-in-law, she's so awesome. And probably when she and her son ganged up on me imitating my waddle, which apparently is funny. ;) Thanks to Jeff for sacrificing her and we can't wait til you come out too!

Halloween with Leeann and John

2011-11-03T04:27:00.001-07:00

My sister Leeann has been here the past 2 weeks! I took her to the airport yesterday :( Her husband John has been working in Greensboro, NC on an assignment, even though they just moved to Manhattan 2 months ago. So she flew down and back with him for a little sister time and a lot of fun.

We went to the uptown Mint Musuem, went shopping, got her a 2 1/2 hour haircut, did some projects, gave candy to one trick or treater on Halloween (our next-door neighbor), went to the doctor (where they told me Thanksgiving in NY with my family is definitely out of the question), and made lots of yummy food! I'm really going to miss Leeann cuz it seems like she always does the dishes...

We also went to my baby shower, put on by my awesome visiting teachers. There were so many people there! So blessed.
When John got here last Thursday we first went out to Nakato then played a little Uno (my choice) and catch phrase. Friday night we ate some dinner in a pumpkin,decorated Halloween cookies,

and play a round of Settlers of Catan (everyone else's choice). I regret to say I am just as bad if not worse in the evening when I'm pregnant...falling asleep whenever we sit down. This is nothing new, my family and roommates can attest. But I missed a lot of good visiting sleeping on Kevin's shoulder :(

Saturday we slept in baby. And then hiked the King's Pinnacle trail at Crowders Mountain State Park. It was labeled strenuous and Leeann was sooo nervous :) I must admit it was pretty steep at the end. It ends in a really high mountain of 1705 feet; we had a really sweet view, including of Charlotte!
Us with Charlotte behind us.

Other sweet views:
Some of us can camouflage better than others.
Kevin wore his Vibrams - this is him taking a picture for a family, but you can see his shoes. His feet hurt the next day.
On the way down we stopped at a camp site and roasted hot dogs and baked beans after the wet wet wood finally caught fire. Here's the boys, still not sure if the fire will keep. Some campers came for their site in the middle of our eating, so we drove home to watch Captain America and eat some more hot dogs. Sunday was traditional queso (which the Gedeborgs loved) and another round of Settlers! I'm so accommodating right?

Thanks for planning the trip and coming to spend some time with us Gedeborgs!

And here is my belly as of yesterday:

35 weeks.

Isn't it just crazy! She'll be here before we know it! I need to get ready man...

Camping, what else?

2011-10-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

We had a friend invite us to the BofA 500 Nascar race for the Sprint Cup on Saturday. As awesome as that would've been, we didn't get the invite and they told us they knew we were either A) at the temple or B) camping. I guess we're pretty predictable. But what else could be better on an October afternoon than exploring this?Almost nothing I would submit.
We headed out Friday afternoon and camped by Lake Morgan, then explored on Saturday and stumbled onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mt. Mitchell.The Blue Ridge Parkway runs for 469 miles along the Blue Ridge of the Appalachians, from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. It is pretty popular around here because there are not that many places to climb up and see out over the country. Plus it's gorgeous!Mt. Mitchell is a right along the Parkway. It is the tallest mountain peak east of the Mississippi - 6,684 feet. We just moved from Cedar City which is 5,846 feet in elevation. This is a view of the peak from far away. Some views from the top:It felt like a mountain, windy and cold at the top, but the Rockies are definitely more jagged, rugged, and have more awe-inspiring views. One of my better pictures. Camping the backwoods of North Carolina 32 weeks pregnant. The only thing that would make this more redneck would be bare feet. One of Kevin's better pictures. He did remark this weekend that he will probably be really good with our kids because he can be at (is perpetually on?) their maturity level.

Of the Fall Nature

2011-10-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we camped on the "Church's farmland" with our ward. As the story goes - in the '70s, the Catawba Indians took in some LDS missionaries who were thrown out of Rock Hill, SC. The chief was converted and gave something like 100 acres of this land by Rock Hill to the church. Some wards put gardens on it, but other than that it's not developed at all and our ward used it to camp last Friday - as a whole ward. This is maybe a third of the cars/tents that camped. Some people just came for the fire and cobbler dessert the night before.Our campsite, sunrise. It was probably the best night sleep I've ever had camping. Not bad for 30 weeks pregnant. I was skeptical of so many people at a campout, but it turned into a really fun night and breakfast. General Conference doesn't start here til noon so we had a chill morning with breakfast made by the youth. Kevin and Brother Dave Kitchen (our young men's president) and his son Evan. Making cobbler. Quite the chefs.

Yesterday Kevin and I went with some friends to the Regal Corn Maze. I forgot to charge the camera so no pictures of us :( We petted animals, including a screaming piglet, successfully completed the maze, then shot cobs of corn out of a really powerful air pressurized potato gun. We stopped and got dinner and then made delectable caramel apples at the Gabrielsen's. Sarah had researched the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel apples and showed us how to make them the real way - including how to cut them when they're done :) The toppings other than caramel were white chocolate, milk chocolate, cinnamon & brown sugar, and cut up butterfingers, heath bar, and snickers. I'm not being sarcastic - some of ours really looked like these! Truly heavenly.

And here is me today. The doctor told me on Thursday she is already head down -- she knows where she's headed! I just hope she knows it's really not time yet!

31.5 weeks

September Rain

2011-09-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

Rain for the past week every single day, its been awesome! Listening to thunder and watching the lightning when lying in bed, waiting out cloud bursts, having cloudy and cool and breezy days. I like fall in the South! Not to mention the changing colors. Here is an acorn wreath I made to celebrate autumn.

And glazed donuts I made also to celebrate. And to help my growing belly of course.

Speaking of.

29 weeks.

And getting bigger by the day. I can't imagine getting any bigger than I am, but she is pushing against my insides right now reminding me of the truth! I wonder if my organs will ever be the same.
I've been asked if I'm "nesting." Not really, being married to Kevin has made us think by the cost when it comes to prep for the baby. But am I E-X-C-I-T-E-D! And nervous, anxious, not ready, but ready, scared, so happy, and hungry. There's not much else to tell, I'm never too tired or uncomfortable or sick. Probably got something to do with zero stress in my life. I'm pretty happy pregnant. But I think I will still make a paper chain to count down to the time she gets here, I can't wait to cuddle her and see her!

Columbia and Congaree Canoe

2011-09-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we got to go to the Columbia, South Carolina Temple and before that, we took a canoe trip on the Congaree River! It was a bit chilly, around 60 degrees but no sun. It has been that nice and cool the last few days in Charlotte. Definitely getting me in the fall mood - making me drink hot cocoa and make an acorn wreath and crave candy corn. Kevin says its worthless candy but I can't resist.

We actually canoed on a tributary to the Congaree River. It was pretty neat, with lots of cypress and tupelo (sp?) trees because its a floodplain (but not technically a swamp? I wasn't really listening when the ranger explained that part). Loading up. We could see the water and moss line on the trees from where the water gets when it floods in late winter or early spring, about 10 feet above us. The water was only 2 feet deep in some areas. These are the cypress trees' "knees" I think. They're not stumps of trees cut down by beavers, which is what they look like. They are actually part of the trees, an extension of their roots and supposedly give the tree oxygen.Cypress trees.
Also there were lots of cypress trees in the water that have been there since the '70s or even before when they tried to log the place, but the trees are not rotting, they are actually preserved. Cypress trees are rot-resistant! The ranger said cypress wood used to be used for shingles on roofs. The things you learn.The current-less river.
One of our guides, a volunteer retired biology teacher.
We're so good at canoeing.

Also, here's a picture of my belly a week ago.

27 weeks.

She is 15 inches long inside me can you believe it? And she can now blink with her beautiful little eyes. Only 80 days til my due date! But who's counting...

Charleston - 3 years.

2011-08-29T16:12:00.001-07:00

About a week ago we took an anniversary trip to celebrate our 3 years together. It truly has been wonderful - every day I thank God for the love we have for each other and for our new little girl inside me. Life is sweet.To celebrate we went to Charleston, South Carolina, a town of many facets. Among other things we forgot the camera and bought a disposable one...

Left on Friday morning in time to get to a horse and buggy tour around Charleston. Our guide was simply amazing, so knowledgable. It was an hour long and he was talking even after we parked the buggy in the stable. Definitely the best thing to do in Charleston. Really some neat stories about people during the Civil War. We got the special Civil War tour, only offered this year (150th anniversary of start of Civil War) and only once a day by Classic Carriage, LLC. Our horse's name was Kevin and our guide said he was the oldest but most reliable and knew the city the best. We didn't buy the camera before our buggy ride or I would've taken a picture of the 2 Kevins! (why is it that animals are always named Kevin?)

Parked at Battery Park and walked around downtown Charleston, cobblestone streets, narrow alleyways, market place where slaves used to be sold. Walked down "rainbow row", old Charleston homes that are refurbished and still used as residences.This is battery park looking up towards rainbow row. The ocean is right behind me when taking the picture. Took a tour of the Edmondston-Alston mansion on East Battery Street, 90% of which was original to Civil War times (has never been removed). They had an original copy signed document of secession of South Carolina, the delegation was held in Charleston and the document was signed within a week of Abraham Lincoln being elected as president.

Friday evening went to Isle of Palms beach, our favorite we decided. Touched Atlantic Ocean for the first time since being here! Kevin's first time ever. It is warm :)

Saturday we went to Fort Moultrie. We decided to forgo Fort Sumter because of the cost. Fort Moultrie has been in that bay the longest of all the forts there and we heard its history from the Revolutionary War until now. This is Fort Moultrie behind me in the foreground and Fort Sumter out in the bay in the background.

Had lunch on Sullivan's Island beach area (the beach of Fort Moultrie) and stayed and played a while. Sullivan's Island - looking out toward Fort Sumter.

We saw a family of dolphins and what Kevin thought was a jellyfish and baby jellyfishes. A local lady told us the "baby jellyfishes" were probably living starfish because they are also purple. Apparently there are tons on Sullivan's Island.Kevin on the far left and dolphins in the middle right of the picture, kind of hard to see.

After cleaning up we went downtown for the night and Charleston had transformed...so much nightlife! Parked at battery park again and met this couple from Asheville who were on their 35th anniversary trip. We took pictures for each other. This is us in front of Fort Sumter.

Then we went to dinner at A.W. Shucks where Kevin got a huge steampot of carb legs, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, and potatoes. I got blackened swordfish with mango salsa, soooo good. I also had to try grits, we're in South Carolina! They were pretty good, flavored like mashed potatoes more than anything. Stopped at an ice cream shop after and walked back through the nightlife and the ocean breeze.

Sunday we went to church and then drove out to this tree:Angel Oak. Thought to be the oldest living thing on the East Coast, over 1500 years old. The park around it was closed but it was neat to see.

Walked on Folly Beach before we headed home, watched some kite surfers which was cool and of course which Kevin now wants to do someday.Folly Beach. I loved the tall sweet grass and southern beach homes with boardwalks out to the beaches. Such a different feel than the Pacific.Such an amazing trip! Even with sunburns which we're still recovering from :)

AND - here's my latest belly! She is such a mover now, kicks all the time!

26 weeks.

Belly

2011-08-14T16:38:00.001-07:00

I think its finally time I post these pictures, and that is because I finally look pregnant. One of these days I'll have to learn to stop and smell the roses (it is a sweet life on the skinny side) but I have to say, I am so happy to finally have a belly!18 weeks (July 1).

22 weeks (July 30).

24 weeks (Aug 14 - today).

Way Down South - GA and AZ

2011-08-08T12:56:00.001-07:00

Last week, Kevin was heading to the Vogtle power plant in Georgia to help out with some scheduling.

(pic from http://www.shawgrp.com/projects/power/vogtle)

His first business trip! He gets his own company credit card to rent a car, pay for gas, get a hotel, and eat really well :) Kinda jealous! He had a good trip and they are back there again this week, hopefully for the last time.

So, because he was gone all week, my parents concocted a plan to get me to the Gila Valley, AZ for our Crockett Reunion. Less than 3 days later I was on a plane on my way. What an adventure! My mom posted some pictures of the reunion on our family blog: http://keithandkatycrockettfamily.blogspot.com/

Some highlights were: getting to see my sisters Kate and Miriam, my dad for 1 1/2 minutes, and my mom. Visits with aunts and uncles, cousins, and my grandparents. Chats with my cousin Hannah and my cousin's wife Jaynee about our pregnancies - we are all having girls! And lots of stories from the aunts about what to expect... :) Saw precious Jorgan, Hannah's little girl. Kate won the BB gun shoot-out and Uncle Mike gave her a BB gun, tons of bullets, and some pink safety glasses! So proud first gun in the family! (we are all girls, remember?) Mom and sisters took me shopping in Phoenix for maternity clothes that I was in denial I needed. But I can't hide it anymore. Got a big haircut from Aunt Tammy!Spray-painted onesies and tshirts - kudos to Aunt Mary. Hiked to a tree that Spencer W. Kimball carved his name in in July 1911. Heard "crazy Uncle Erwin" stories of life when they were young from all the grown-ups. And had an awesome family home evening around the fire. Great food, great company, great times. Thanks so much Dad and Mom for getting me there!

Wedding Scrapbook

2011-07-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have been asking what I have been doing with my time since we've been here almost 6 weeks now...well this is one of the things I finished, our wedding scrapbook!
In Cedar City we lived next door to a mom who had her own scrapbooking business (kiwilane), so I took advantage of that for Jordan's wedding present:
These turned out incredible (something I couldn't have done on my own), but our wedding was a bigger undertaking. So... I did it on my own. I'm glad I did it because I can now officially say I don't want scrapbooking to be one of my hobbies! :) Its fun to see the finished product though. Here's some of the pages.

Sweet Baby Girl

2011-07-21T03:55:00.001-07:00

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday, and found out our baby is a girl! She's measuring at around 19 weeks. We're so excited to be parents!

Exploring Charlotte: Wilson Creek and Morrow Mountain

2011-07-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

July 4th weekend we headed to Pisgah National Forest, the Wilson Creek and its tributaries. So pretty! But pretty sweaty...apparently between 2000 and 2500 feet gets that way in July, even if it is mountain areas. No one really camps in the summer, more spring and fall.
Our backpacks. We decided after this first hike that Kevin would take the bulk of the load and I wouldn't strap the buckle around my belly anymore.Our first camp site was right at the bottom of this! So awesome! But pretty hard getting up and down the rock w/ packs...We also had a couple slithery friends in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.Our sweatiness after only like an hour of hiking.Our campsite. Very different from the West eh?!Our campsite w/ the falls.Kevin in heaven.The creek.Another fall we hiked to the 2nd day before we camped for the night - North Harper Creek Falls. We didn't get any more pictures the rest of the time we were there but the 2nd night campsite was much more secluded but roomy. Such adventures we have.

Last weekend we went to Morrow Mountain State Park, part of the Uwharrie National Forest, and camped in a campground w/ the Schramms and the Gabrielsens. Fun we already have friends here! John and Calvin were friends of mine at BYU so I guess they were pre-made friends, but hey they're awesome!

June Flashback: Family Reunions

2011-07-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Before we moved to Charlotte we luckily had planned some family time w/ both families. And it was perfect timing to tell them all we were pregnant! Thurs Jun 2 - Sun Jun 5 was spent with my family and Sun Jun 5 - Wed Jun 8 with Kevin's family. We had to get back because the next 2 days were my last at work and we had to pack because we left the next Sun Jun 12! Here are some pictures.
Before SLC temple. We all got to go do one thing or another...so special :)Lunch at The Garden Restaurant.Pre-race photos. Dad, Jes, and Kevin ran the 1/2 marathon. Dad and Jes's first! They did so amazing. And actually Kevin's first too, getting to really compete (he won it of course).Miriam and I ran the 10K. I was kinda bummed I couldn't run the 1/2 but cut it back once I found out I had a baby inside me! Not bummed about the baby of course :)Kate, Leeann and John ran the 5k.Team Shumway represent.And now we have pictures of everyone coming in except Kevin b/c he was too fast no one was at the finish line ha ha. The race people didn't even have the timer set up yet! This is me.Miriam.John and Kate.Leeann.Dad and Jessica!
Sweat stains anyone? :)Mom also had her shirt one but did not get in the picture!Real Salt Lake soccer game, so fun!Miriam's new camera is quality.So excited to be grandparents! But definitely look too young...And these kids are gonna be parents.
Also not pictured, Music and the Spoken Word which I LOVED, our tour of the tabernacle and conference center by this guy with connections (sweet), happy grad party for John (MAC), and NAPS.Some fun shooting pictures from Elko w/ Kevin's fam. Grab a gun.Kevin's dad LOVES his shirt. :)The girls were WAY good shots, if I do say so myself.In case you were wondering, that kid in the middle is Joe. It was rainy off and on so we just headed home for STEAK. yum.We can always count on a relaxing time at the Sandalls, so nice. Pictures not included from volleyball, basketball, and the hand and foot tournament, which the new Grandpa and the new Dad won (why they got paired together I don't know but I think it highly unfair). It was nice having Joe there so we could have even teams! Otherwise, we all know what would've happened...Heather would have fallen asleep on the couch. At least I would have the baby excuse this time.

Charlotte and Baby!

2011-07-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

So, we moved! To Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a whirlwind of events to get us here and we had so much help from family and friends :) We drove out starting on a Sunday evening (Jun 12) and got here on a Wednesday night (Jun 15). Found an apartment the next day (Jun 16). We moved what we had in and explored Charlotte that weekend. Kevin started his new job at Shaw Group on Monday (Jun 20). He is loving it! He is a scheduler and will help in the engineering of a nuclear power plant, then we'll move to wherever it will be built and he will schedule for that project for 4-5 years. Here is what is cool about Charlotte thus far:

1. Humongo trees. This one is in our neighborhood behind where we live. Trees, trees, trees. Its cool cuz most times you don't feel like you're in a city.
2. Squirrels are to the Southeast what rabbits are to the West, they are everywhere! When its cool in the morning and evening they are climbing all up and down the trees all around our neighborhood. They get run over on the road like rabbits. One fell out of a tree right in front of me on my jog this morning! He was okay, scampered away.
3. FIREFLIES! This may be my favorite part. They come out right at dusk and we saw a billion on our way in to Charlotte and now every evening all around in our trees and neighborhood. It is so neat! This is not my pic but really what it looks like!
4. The Lynx train. Kevin rides it in to work every morning and back every evening. We took it to uptown (that's what they call downtown here) the first Saturday we were here and explored.This is looking out from the train station platform at Kevin's stop. He walks up this street to work. Looking out the other direction from the train station is the Time Warner Arena where the Charlotte Bobcats play.

Charlotte is such a beautiful clean city. There are really only a couple blocks of skyscrapers.Kevin's building - the one on the left that juts in and out. He's on the 6th floor I think.
My delicious smorgasbord of seafood at McCormick and Shick's, a fancy shmancy restaurant uptown.Kevin's first day of work. He really doesn't have to wear a suit everyday but we thought he did. He said he felt like an idiot on the first day -- they go even more casual in the summer, like khakis and polos!Our townhome, the 2 tops windows are our bedrooms, the sliding door behind the porch is the kitchen and the other window is the living room/dining room. The door is storage. Looking out from our walkway at our beautiful pink tree in our parking lot.Our front door! No other pics right now b/c still messy!

Here are some pictures of our drive to Charlotte.
Sun Jun 12 - Cedar City, UT to Grand Junction, CO.Mon Jun 13 - Grand Junction, CO to Russell, KSTues Jun 14 - Russell, KS through Missouri through Illinois through Kentucky to Nashville, TN
St. Louis Arch.
Crossing the Ohio (border between Illinois and Kentucky).
Kentucky sunset.

Wed Jun 15 - Explored Nashville. To Charlotte, NC!We got to Nashville too late to go out and see some country stars playin' but we ate at the Wildhorse Saloon for an early lunch the next day and saw how many cool concerts they have there (which would be fun to go back for!) The Parthenon in Nashville, originally constructed in plaster for a celebration in 1897 but the people of Nashville loved it so it stayed and was rebuilt in concrete. It is the exact size and reproduction of the Parthenon in Greece. Also debuted in the Percy Jackson film so we took lots of pictures for Kate and her most favorite Greek Goddess Athena.
The lovely lady Athena. You'll remember her from the movie if you watched it :)Athena's shield with Medusa on it. The rest of the Parthenon was an art museum.
The whole way from Nashville to Charlotte was a downpour. This is crossing the Appalachians right close to the Smoky Mountains, which are "smoky"! :) So here we reside. AND, as most of you hopefully know, we're expecting! 17 weeks along :) This too, happened in a whirlwind. So happy! We got one of these last night and it made it very real. So excited!

Southern Utah University Graduation 5.8.11

2011-05-14T11:06:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Kevin and Lisa graduated from SUU - Kevin with a Master's in Business Administration and Lisa with a Bachelor's in Physical Education and Human Performance. Both families came and we had a grand time with the main commencement and a barbecue on Friday night. We had an earlier Mother's day brunch for our moms.After the Friday commencement.
Kevin's convocation was on Saturday morning at 8:30 AM. Here is him getting hooded (kinda blurry).
Kevin's freshman roommate and teammate on the track/cross country team, Graham Cheever. He also got his MBA this year.
A master's grad!
We went home and had an early Mother's day brunch for our 2 moms, delish! Then my family headed out and we went to Lisa's convocation.
Lisa's getting her diploma.
Of course we had Mexican food that night to celebrate and a round of cards. It was sooo fun to have both families here, a weekend I will never forget!

Congrats Lisa and Kevin!

Jordan River Temple 4.23.11

2011-04-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Such a splendid day. Left at 8:30 AM with Eric, drove to Grandpa Jensen and Bea's where Bea fed us a delicious lunch and we visited. Then we headed to the temple at 1:30. Eric soaked it in man. :) He is so awesome. Here's a pic of us.
Then Dad treated us to Texas Roadhouse and Tina to gasoline and we got home at midnight that night. It went so fast but was so enjoyable to see the fam and be with Eric for the special day. Can't wait til graduation to see everybody again!

The boys are in Wichita this weekend, look out for #60 in the nation! ya!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

We colored eggs last Sunday with the Hooley's. Can't remember the last time I did it. So fun. Such creative eggs!Such wierd people.

Between coloring eggs and making deviled eggs for the first time ever, I really feel like I've gotten into Easter which I've never really done after leaving home. I even gave my young women plastic eggs with candy in them after my Easter lesson in church today. (courtesy of my mother, do you really think I'd buy plastic eggs? Who does that?)

Pictures to come soon from yesterday. We went with Eric to the Jordan River temple for his first time in the temple. Met the fam up there, such a great day.

And this chica moved from our home yesterday! :( She lives in Page, AZ now for the summer, new job, new home. We are most definitely going to miss her.

Also, forgot to blog about going to General Conference. We got to go to the Saturday morning session all together as a Shumway family minus Leeann and John. Ate traditional bunny buns. All took a run while Mom went shopping. Watched "Persuasion" and painted our nails while Dad and Kev went to Priesthood Session. Snowed on Sunday while we watched Conference from our hotel room, which is also kind of becoming a tradition. The hotel room, not the snow. Sweet times.

Mt. SAC Weekend

2011-04-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Both Sandall boys had triumphs this last weekend in Walnut, CA at the Mt. SAC relays and in Azusa, CA at the Bryan Clay Invitational, but all are in agreement that Kevin was a big stud. Here are the results you need to check out:

#1 Mt. Sac Relays Event 115 Men Steeplechase Open B Section 2 (click here for runnerspace video, click here for flotrack)

3 weeks ago at Stanford Kevin ran a 9:15.66 to put him at 39th in the West. Top 50(ish) go to the first round of nationals in Eugene, Oregon. He needed to run closer to a 9 flat if he was going to go. Last Thursday he ran a 9:04.98! It puts him 36th in the West and 57th in the nation! (as of 4/18). Not only did his run get him that much closer to Oregon, its also an all-time PR for him, his fastest was a 9:07.64 in Oregon two years ago. Yup. See his blurb in the Iron County Today.

#2 Mt. Sac Relays Event 112 Men 1500 Meter Open Section 10

Kevin and Eric ran in the same heat, Eric beating Kevin by 1.5 seconds. (click here fore runnerspace, click here for flotrack). Eric has been waiting for a breakthrough race, and he felt pretty great about this one. Eric - 3:54.26. Kevin - 3:55.78.

#3 Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific Men 5000 Meter Section 2

Kevin usually competes well in the 5k, but he has never ran below 15 min. On Friday, he kept his mile pace at a rough 4:50 for a 14:58.32 finish! He was so excited. He is looking forward to running an even faster 5K now that he's broken that mark.

#4 Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific Men 800 Meter Section 3

Eric hasn't been able to hit below 1:55 in a while. He ran 1:54.97 on Friday. :)

So proud of my boys!

April Wonderland

2011-04-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

Oh to awaken to a bright spring morning full of sun...I mean snow?!If you can't read our window, it reads "Happy April Fool's". Written by some innocent playmister who unknowingly foresaw a big pile of snow on APRIL 8! (if you are the culprit come forward and confess!)

In other news, I went to the indoor track this morning a half hour later than normal and there was waaay less people there, it was nice. Sad though for the lady who tripped over her shoes and skidded across the floor not once but twice! Sad because she was definitely a reserved/quiet sort of adult, really I didn't know if I should reach out and help or let it pass so its not so awkward...luckily I avoided that decision becuase I was on the other side of the track and other people helped her (2 of the 5 people that were there).

Kevin is running at Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont, CA tomorrow, the mile. Eric is running the mile as well. Here is a link to Kevin's steeple chase at Stanford. He ran a 9:15, which he was very happy with considering he wore atypical shoes with socks and he still ran 8 seconds off his fastest. He'll go to Oregon again this spring, the "first round of nationals" (a.k.a. regionals), if he can run a 9:00 flat, hopefully. He runs the steeple again next Thursday at Mt. SAC Relays.

Spring Break 2011 Hole-in-the-Rock and the Escalante Arm

2011-03-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't have spring break and even those who do, you're probably not ever gonna have a Spring Break as awesome or as hard core as this. So if you're the jealous type, you may not want to read on.

Pre-Day 1 (Tues Mar 15): Pick up kayaks in St. George, rented from Dixie State ORAC.

Day 1 (Wed Mar 16) (3/4 mile, 6 times):

Get up at 5:30/6, load, leave at 7:30 AM. Destination: Hole-in-the-Rock. (For those of you who don't know what it is, here's a really great article on it). 3 hour drive to Escalante, 2 hours on a dirt road to Hole-in-the-Rock. Arrive at Hole-in-the-Rock much too excited to begin what would be the longest 6 hours of our lives. With heavily loaded backpacks and 2 kayaks, we looked over the edge of the hole and thought, "Hey look, there's the water! We'll be there in no time!" Wrong. 6 back-breaking, shoulder-wrenching, knee-killing hours later, we were on the beach at the bottom of the hole with barely enough time to jump in our kayaks and make it out to a little rock island to sleep for the night. Eric took this pic one of the times we were at the bottom still dreading bringing the next kayak down. Luckily some brilliant person had suggested we cook our tinfoil dinners before we left, we just had to reheat them. Lisa kayaked over to the island with firewood from Hole-in-the-Rock under her knees so we could eat our dinner :) Our sleeping bags. The wind was many much. And yes, we slept on that rock.
Looking back to hole-in-the-rock from our little rock island (in the morning when you could actually see it).We had a few experiences along the way, including Eric going through minor shock (he almost got smashed by a falling kayak). It definitely made us appreciate the pioneers and what they went through on their own excursion across the unsettled country, blasting out the cliff to get to the river and then rough locking the hind wheels and holding back their wagons as they crashed down the 3/4 mile hole-in-the-rock. "Though the area today remains somewhat isolated, it stands as the legacy of those faithful and tenacious pioneers who cut their way through solid rock in obedience to a prophet’s call." (LaRene Porter Gaunt, "Hole-in-the-Rock", Ensign, Oct. 1995) (Go read the article!)
The Island.

Day 2 (Thurs Mar 17) (14 miles):

We couldn't wait to get on the water. The wind had blown all night and we had zero protection. We ate a quick bagel breakfast and headed out!
Coming into our first canyon - Indian Creek.

Unfortunately, no creek at the end. Just this small cave. If you look closely you can see Eric and Lisa.
Our 2nd canyon was Cathedral Canyon.The end of the water.It had a cool spring at the end with a huge pool.Kevin hiked up and found more coolness.
Our third canyon was LaGorce Arch. By the time we got there it was windy and cold and we were beat. We found a nice cave right around the corner from the arch with a sandy beach and set up camp for the night. We called it the Big Bend. Built a fire. Fished. Gave each other back massages. This is the spring break we came for.
Looking out from our bend. The arch is in the hole of the cliff right in front there. Day 3 (Fri Mar 18) (16 miles):

We explored the rest of the canyon the next morning. The back side of the arch.We hiked a little after the end of the water and we got to a place that looked pretty popular to hike to from the top (names carved in sandstone walls, firepits and trails). Definitely not as cool as the Big Bend.Kevin stepped in the only mud hole you could step in. Kevin strikes again. Coming out, on our way to Willow Creek Canyon. Stopped for lunch at the mouth of Willow Creek.The biggest mistake but definitely most savored part of the trip - bringing a 12-pack of coca cola.Getting into Willow Creek. This might be my favorite picture of the whole trip.There were 2 branches of Willow Creek. This was the first. Tons of driftwood.
The end of the water.Again, Kevin hiked up further and found this:Kevin took pictures of us.This was the second branch of Willow Creek - it started out soooo beautiful, the water was so green. But pretty soon, we found the true meaning of mud.That isn't water they are standing in people - it's mud. One step in it and it had you, down to the waist, with much effort required to get out.
Kevin took this picture after my 3 minute panic stage of yelling at him to come help me while he was taking pictures of Lisa and Eric. I had pretty much accepted the fact I was in there, although it was such a gross feeling. But actually, I made it out on my own. And so did Lisa, I think.And so did Kevin.
And so did Eric! The boys were nice enough to get the kayaks out of the muck.
Kayaking Lake Powell! Look how cool we are.
A look back at the two branches of the creek.Me, walking on water.Heading to Green Cave Canyon (Fifty Mile Creek), our last place for the night.The green water of Green Cave.Our camping spot - the End of the Road.

Day 4 (Sat Mar 19) (10 miles):

Kevin and Eric can be inventive wherever those boys go (together or apart, but they're faster when they're together) - they built a holder thingie to boil our water.We didn't know it when we camped, but we were at the end of the canyon's water (hence we named our camp End of the Road). We had had enough exploring on Day 3, we were ready to kayak back. We didn't even get out of our kayaks. 10 miles to Hole-in-the-rock.Kevin and Eric tried trolling on the way back but it was pretty windy and they didn't have the right fishing stuff I think...worms and such work better than flies on this river I guess.

On the way back we had adventures with waves, floating toilet at the entrance to the San Juan River, talking to a ranger man in a ranger boat (the third person we had seen in 4 days), and most of all the WIND. I cannot describe to you how hard we worked to get in to the Hole-in-the-Rock bay. It was maybe the hardest, coldest, wettest, nastiest thing I've ever done in my life. I don't know how I even got these pictures without ruining the camera.This is about the only picture we have of our camping spot. We were focused on other things such as warmth and warm food and warm sleeping bags and warm cave away from the blasting tempest. We were so grateful for this little god-send of a cave - I don't know what we would've done if we had to sleep at the bottom of Hole-in-the-Rock (our original plan). We called this cave God Loves Us or GLU. I wish we would've taken a real picture of it.

Day 5 (Sun Mar 20) (3/4 miles, 4 times) :

We were almost done taking stuff up before we knew it. Whether we were more prepared (mentally, physically, emotionally) or just knew what we were doing and had a better plan, or maybe it was because hiking up is easier with kayaks than hiking down, but we were out of that hole in 3 hours! We actually had to stop and take pictures because we knew we would want pictures later.
The top baby.Had to set up the camera to get a shot of all of us.Us blowing our brains out because it was the craziest hardest most hard core and thus most funnest thing we've ever done.

Scratch That: California, Roseville Mission!

2011-03-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

So, Eric's mission call has been changed! He has been reassigned (crazy, I know!) to the California, Roseville Mission. Still speaking Hmong, still think he'll stay in the city, but this time instead of a dark, warm, long, water-proof winter coat, he needs to pack 6-8 short-sleeved white collared shirts. :)
Still leaving June 22nd!! I can't wait to have a brother on a mission, I've never had one before!

Minneapolis, Minnesota Mission

2011-03-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

Eric has been called to serve a mission in the Minneapolis, Minnesota Mission! He is leaving June 22nd and will be speaking the Hmong language! (its okay none of us knew what the language was either when he read it - look it up on Wiki!) It is spoken in northern Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. About 5% of the Minneapolins are Asian American, predominantly Hmong American. What an adventure ah!

His call came to Elko a week ago and Mom Sandall forwarded it here, it didn't get here til Monday! We almost had a freak-out (well, okay, someone definitely did), but it came and then the boys got home on Tuesday night from their track meet. Lisa picked them up and I was cleverly playing a you tube version of "I hope they call me on a mission" when they came through the door. Kevin set up a web cam so Mom Sandall could see/hear everything. Eric was so impatient he told Kevin if it took more than 5 seconds to set it up he was just gonna open it. When Eric started reading it I almost got emotional, but then he cracked a joke ("Elder Sandall, that sounds so cool!"). His mission extends from parts of Nebraska in the south all the way to Canada (he does have to get a passport), and has a large chunk of Wisconsin and small chunk of Michigan. But we figured he'll mostly stay in the city b/c that's probably where most Hmong people are. We spent the rest of the night learning bits of Hmong. It is so hard! Eric is super smart though and Lisa just knew he would have to learn a tough language.

A cool/funny part is that Eric and Kevin's meet was in North Dakota, but they flew in and out of Minneapolis! On the same day he was in Minneapolis he flew home and opened his call to find out he was going to Minneapolis. Eric said he definitely wouldn't have been able to focus on the meet if he knew he was in his mission! He hasn't been able to focus on school the last 2 days so I believe him.

Also, it was around ZERO degrees when they were there. Good luck Elder Sandall! :)

4:12 - Husky Classic

2011-02-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

Eric, my new little brother. Here he is:
Cutie right? (don't mind the rest of us).
Even cuter! Ha ha.
But hands off ladies, he's putting his mission papers in. As a high school senior last year he earned a running scholarship from SUU and ran a 4:16 mile. Last weekend, he ran the greatest race of his life...for now. (Ooo that gave me chills to type that. He's gonna be amazing.)

University of Washington Huskies
    2011 UW Invitational - 1/28/2011 to 1/29/2011    
             Dempsey Indoor, Seattle WA              

Event 8  Men 1 Mile Run
===============================================================
NCAA Auto: $ 3:59.00                                   
Dempsey Rec: R 3:55.76  1/30/2010   Chris Solinsky, Nike 
Name                    Year School                  Finals
===============================================================
Finals                                                    
1 Batty, Miles                 Byu                    4:00.91
2 Primm, Cory                  Ucla                   4:02.10
3 Centrowitz, Matthew          Oregon                 4:04.01
4 Schmitz, Tommy               Saucony                4:04.27
5 Tully-Doyle, Colton          Washington             4:05.20
6 Cronrath, Matt               Washington St.         4:05.51
7 Bywater, Joey                Washington             4:05.78
8 Crawford, Scott              Ucla                   4:06.12
9 Cosby, Jacob                 Byu                    4:06.76
10 Hickerson, David             Washington St.         4:06.79
11 Kimpel, Andrew               Washington St.         4:06.95
12 Soberanis, Ryan              Washington             4:07.13
13 Johnston, Benjamin           Byu                    4:07.45
14 Robertson, Karl              U. of Victoria         4:07.48
15 Watson, Cole                 Oregon                 4:07.72
16 Reed, Chris                  Western Oregon         4:08.99
17 Fuller, Travis               Byu                    4:10.41
18 Jones, Ryan                  Byu                    4:10.62
19 MacQuitty, Phillip           Ucla                   4:11.40
20 Sandall, Eric                Southern Utah          4:12.45
21 Sodaro, Steve                California             4:12.47
22 Blume, Kyle                  Washington             4:12.90
23 Theriault, Madison           U. Calgary             4:13.05
24 Lawrence, John               Portland State         4:13.41
25 Parry, Trey                  Portland               4:13.48
26 Larson, Kyle                 Western Oregon         4:13.64
27 Weirich, Brian               Byu                    4:14.21
28 DaPonte, Drake               Eastern Washington     4:14.86
29 Knight, Spencer              Ucla                   4:15.25
30 Sorenson, Simon              Eastern Washington     4:15.82
30 Eborn, Dallas                Southern Utah          4:15.82
32 Carpenter, Zachary           Portland State         4:16.56
33 Gadayan, Francis             Bay Area Track Club    4:16.99
34 Brockerville, Ryan           Simon Fraser           4:17.81
35 Meis, Chad                   Seattle Pacific        4:18.53
36 Forster, Keir                Unattached             4:18.97
36 Arcos, Raul                  Long Beach St.         4:18.97
38 Wakefield, Brett             Simon Fraser           4:20.63
39 Dhanani, Samir               Simon Fraser           4:21.36
40 Williams, David              Portland               4:21.90
41 Sears, Kelton                Seattle U.             4:24.91
42 Bozarth-Dreher, Mark         Portland State         4:29.33
43 Young, James                 Simon Fraser           4:30.19
44 Auld, Chris                  Seattle U.             4:30.46

I'm so proud of him, even though I just get to swoop in at the last moment to get some proudness. No raising him (Mom, Dad) or putting up with him (Kris, Lisa) or training with him (Kevin). I'm still as proud as a peach. A lot prouder than shown by the victory rock-hard-crusted cheesecake, which I may or may not have made.

They're in New Mexico this weekend and I can't wait to hear how they both race! Maybe I'll get a decent dessert up for their return.

My fabulous husband

2011-01-25T19:36:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, I have a pretty great husband. He loves me so much. For example, in the past week he has:

- Washed dishes for me
- Prepared the lesson for our Sunday School class even though it was my turn (and it was pretty much the greatest lesson we've ever had in there)
- Taken me to St. George to go to the temple, just to drive straight back when one of us forgot our temple recommend (no names mentioned...). And then it turns out our recommends are expired anyways.
- Taken me out to eat at AppleBee's.
- And most importantly, he has put up with my complaining and picking at details in things that don't matter one bit, when he is so much exactly the opposite. Sometimes it pains me to think how far I have to go to become as easy-going, adaptable, and carefree as he is.

Plus, he's way cute. I love the man I married.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

Some way overdue pictures of Christmas. Looking at them all makes me remember how fun it was! All pics courtesy of Mom Sandall, because - although I am ashamed to admit it - we did not once pull our camera out.

The second or third night we were there the Sandall's celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! What an amazing couple and parents they are, and how I love that not only did I marry their incredibly-good-for-me son, but they have pulled me in the way no one else ever can, and I have truly become a part of their family.
Speaking of pulling people in...this chica (who spilled sparkling cider all over herself that night, heaven knows how)is now living with us! She just left for her first day of work at Brianhead Ski Resort and we are glad to have her around, she's already been an awesome help to me (dishes, grocery runs...) and I'm going to be so glad to have her when Kevin starts traveling.

Kevin and I made stockings to hang at the Sandalls.

Family pictures with Ruth, ping pong tournaments, creaming the boys at Hand and Foot, surprise visit from Jon and Brittney!, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Eve Program, Christmas Morning. Christmas with the Sandalls! It was a blast. Thanks for having us Mom and Dad Sandall. :)

We also got to celebrate Christmas at my house and everyone was there this year too. I don't have any pictures but some highlights were:
- Eating Christmas morning waffles
- Getting rocked by Kate on the Wii
- Caroling!!
- Creating treasure hunt clues and having to figure them out. Kevin and Eric's were most creative, almost too creative because we basically had to tell everyone where the last clue led.
- Settlers of Catan with Leeann and John
- Going shopping with my Dad for a tent for my Mom because we're the "camping experts" and because he didn't want to be put in "the doghouse."
- Singing "Another Year Has Gone By" for Mom and Dad. Kate created a powerpoint for it and anything you ask Jessica to play she plays and sings it perfect the first time :) It was so fun getting to sing together and my parents love when we do.

You know why its the most wonderful time of the year? Because we get to spend it with family :)

Here's to Vacations

2011-01-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

Raise your glass. We had a wonderful trip home. Pictures will come later but we spent all of our time with family, played lots of games, caroled, took family pictures, and of course celebrated Christmas. :) For now, here's a pic of my fam the night we went caroling.

We got home last week and celebrated Kevin's 25th birthday on Wednesday! Such an oldie. I made the cake (courtesy of Mom Sandall we had the family fav), decorated the table, and invited people over, even though Kevin just wanted to sleep (lam-o!). I don't remember what this picture is supposed to depict.
We ate c-eh-ke and opened presents. Kevin got the long awaited extended edition of LoR trilogy... ...how happy is he?
At least this happy. And proud.
He's also just as proud if not more of his other birthday present, some sort of DVD drive for the computer, but I forget to listen to all its gadgets and meaning. Whoops...

We celebrated New Year's with the Hooley's (also forgot to take pictures then), it was a way fun night with Clue (thanks Kris!), hand and foot, Martinelli's, and great friends. :)

Also, Kevin made a house of 52 cards. One lifelong goal accomplished. Or maybe just an hour of Christmas break killed. Here's to getting back to routine!

Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the year...

2010-12-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

I love that Charlie Brown christmas song. I've been a little obsessed with Christmas, much to the dismay of my coworkers. One of them actually commented to me today that she is getting legitimately sick of Christmas music because they're being played too much in the office. Bah humbug! Who gets sick of Christmas carols? Luckily my husband can deal.

Here's our Christmas tree! I love it so much! We got it last Saturday with Dirk and Lauren (pictures to come later from them). Lauren and I slaved over decorations while the boys went repeling that afternoon. :) Not really, just went shopping and watched A Christmas Carol until they came home and took us to Texas Roadhouse, yum!
You can see me in this one!
Our beautiful nativity from the DeArrieta's (for a wedding present good idea eh?)

Looking forward to: finals being over for Kevin so he can just sleep, eat, and run (what a life eh?), Miriam coming home, and maybe Lisa living with us (cross your fingers!). But for now, just loving life, living in much hope for a bright future with plenty of hot cocoa, twinkly lights, and love to go around!

Okay, maybe I love Christmas a little too much...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

At Thanksgiving time there is always time for...
readingfamilyamazing foodcute craft makingand running in negative 10 degree weather! The white stuff on our eyelashes is frost after the 5K Turkey Trot at 11 PM Wednesday night. I'm so glad my Dad is as crazy as me, it was a blast!

Brantleys from American Fork came and joined us on Thursday. We had an amazing meal, suuuch good food. And the next day, we made tamales! My mom was so excited to make them, she was so cute. They are delish for sure. When we had leftover corn husks, Jessica got this idea in her head to make a corn husk doll and started it, which of course made me want to make one. They turned into corn husk angels. Look how cute! Hers is a cowgirl angel and mine's just an angel :) And now time for Christmas! We are cutting down our very own first Christmas tree, I can't believe I haven't blogged about getting the permit before, I'm so excited. Oh wait, maybe I have. So excited! These bells my mom and I made are cinnamon ornaments that hang on the tree. We have lights, popcorn and cranberries, red and green christmas balls, even my cousin Rachel and Kate painted us some little clay ornaments! I can't wait. Thanks to my mom and Grandma Sandall for the rest of our ornaments! Also, Kevin has had this for about a month now, which I love and won't let him shave: He even had to get his new driver's license picture with it last week. Yessss...documented for at least 6 years. Hope you can see it in the picture ha ha. Happy Holidays everybody!

November

2010-11-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

November has flown by. Regionals/cousin Christopher Crockett's baptism/meeting Caitlin! was one weekend trip (which I'm really mad that we forgot our camera for). Here are a few pictures from a the weekend before that, we went camping and repelling around Leeds Creek, down closer to St. George where its still warm. Eric spent actual real money on repelling gear! Although it hurt his heart. So of course we had to try it out.Eric's hammock made from parachute fabric. We all had to try it.
This is where we camped. Beautiful eh?

And...repelling Yankee Doodle.
Eric was first.I was second.
It was at this point I started to freak out and Kevin had to put the camera away, hence the next picture is this one, me taking it from the bottom:Then Kev.
This picture looks like he meant to do that. I'll just let everyone think he did.So, anytime we came to the stale water holes, the boys were such whiners! They did not want to get wet, especially Eric. What sissies huh? On this water hole (one of the first before they knew how many more they would have to cross) they created a zip line. Kevin went across first, then used his weight to pull the rope taut and we clipped our carabiners directly onto the rope and were going to zip down across the water! Only, Eric had a little hang up. And sorry the video is sideways! Kevin has tried many a time to teach me the wise ways of the camera, to no avail yet.

After working out the kinks, my zip down the line went better.

Creating zip lines and such took too much time, so they resorted to crossing the water holes in various body stretching methods, such as this one.

Also, Kevin got his motorcycle license finally. And took the new license picture with his mus-tache. I am in love with it. He looks so handsome and cheeky all at the same time. You'll see it when we put up pictures of Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Halloween

2010-11-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

We had a Halloween party at work (my friend Aubrey was a whoopie cushion) as well as one put on by the Hooley's! Lot's of fun with eatin donuts competition, bobbing for apples, battle of the sexes, cheese ball throw...Get it Mark.
I didn't get very wet.
Kevin did.
Action shot! (Jeffrey Kinsel)

Home Meet 10.9.10

2010-10-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the home meet three weekends ago, Mom Sandall came and it was so fun!
Peanut Butter M&M's for b-fast. Always nutritious.
The start.Eric leading the pack.
Kevin wanted to catch these UVU guys so bad but there wasn't enough time.
His valiant try/bangin' finish.
Don't you love my new family? I do.

Tyler & RaeAnna 9.23.10

2010-10-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to go home and see Tyler and RaeAnna get married! Tyler is one of Kevin's best friends from high school. Their wedding was rained out of the outdoor backyard park of a setting :( but it was still lovely, gotta love weddings! We also got to see the fam and spend some quality time with them, love the fam!

Serious Business

2010-10-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago the track/XC team had their kick-off party. Complete with:

THE Root Beer Mile (trash can not for the root beer cans...use your imagination)
Eric swept it. Just like Kev his freshman year. Kevin says, "I guess it must be a freshman thing." This video makes me laugh. Its pretty typical of how the first 2 root beers went - Kevin finishing his root beer while Eric is half-way into his next lap. I guess married folks can't hack pop the way they used ta! Kevin didn't even finish his second root beer cuz everyone else was long gone. Note coach's remark in the background, "You're killin' me."

4x600M (these guys are serious about it)
Cam squeezed out Eric just at the end! Valiant effort Er'c.
A couple grad students, friends since roommates freshman year
Naked brothers
and, according to Kevin, the funnest group of guys he's ever had as a team (this is not all of them). They're real chums!
The boys are in Terre Haute, IN for pre-nats this weekend. Pictures to come soon from last weekend's home meet!

Behunin Canyon 9.11.10

2010-10-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from our adventure (finally got them from Mark):

BEHUNIN CANYON 9.11.10

As you might remember, the last time I posted about repelling, I told a story of fear and tears. I literally bawled the first time I had to go over the edge. As much as my teachers (Brock and Karl) kept repeating that I needed to lean back and trust the rope, I didn't understand because I didn't know how it felt. I kept lowering myself over the edge, haggardly breathing, but was really just hanging on with my top hand. NOT GOOD. I freaked out and grabbed the rope with both hands and was hanging over the edge with the strength of my own arms. My hands are sweating just rehashing all this! They hoisted me back up and I broke down. Kevin said he has never seen me more terrified. Somehow I finished that canyon, with only 3 repels all under 40 feet (I know I'm such a whimp!)

Before Behunin, I had gone repelling only one more time since my terrifying introduction. So two big feats were accomplished on this trip - 1) my ability to repel w/o crying (still get haggard breathing and sweaty hands), and 2) a 100-ft. free repel! We went with Mark and Dirk and Lauren. Many thanks to them for putting up with me :).
Our first repel (me on rope).
Lauren showing off :)

Where we came from.

Where we ended up! Look familiar? The canyon was a big loop so the hike back to the shuttle was a mere 1/4 mile.
Fun stale water ponds to climb over...
...and repel into! This was our method (as demonstrated by the talented Lauren). Get to the water's edge, hang as low as you possibly can to the water, swing your right leg back behind you to the canyon wall, unhook yourself, and use the taut rope that Mark is holding firm to pull yourself onto the bank. Unfortunately, Mark was the first one down and did not get to use our formula (echoing splashes and colorful words were heard by all).
Dirk on rope.
Technical!

The 100-foot free repel! (Lauren on rope).

Mark coming down the free repel, which was also our last repel...

...so he had some fun with it :). I would never in a million years do this (if you can't tell he's upside down on the rope). Lauren was our other dare-devil. She goes aussie-style, a.k.a. put the harness on backwards and go face-first over the edge (which I wouldn't do in a jillion years). We were exhausted when we got home but had so much fun and we love love love Mark and the Hooleys :)

Happy Birthday Lisa!!

2010-09-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

Today is Lisa's birthday! She is 22. So old! Ha ha, just kidding. In yesterday's post I had a major shout out to Lis, who is the most major light of my life behind my #1 Kev (in a close race for third its Eric vs. my unborn children). Lisa is so amazing (and so adventuresome!). Triathlons, Half marathons,
Writing songs,
Backpacking,
Fishing,
Repeling,
Hiding in igloos,
(where's Lisa? ha ha. :)
And always, always smiling. You can see why she's the life of the party. Beautiful Lisa.
Dad Sandall stayed here on Sunday coming back from the elk hunt with 'the brothers.' We celebrated with pizza, queso, cupcakes and H-U-mungo rice krispie treats (see how they fill up the entire pan?! don't ask me how they turned out that way). Much better than last year's cake disaster. Jeff took us out to breakfast yesterday morning and bought Lisa a new fly case and about 20 new flies (she was pretty distraught Saturday when she found she did not have her fly case...its okay Lisa you didn't end up needing it to fish anyway! :) We missed Mom and Kris and Bruno in the festivities. I absolutely love this family I married into, but most of all have grown to love this amazing new sister I have who not only loves me the way I am, but has taught me the art of dealing with her brothers (one of whom I live with, and honestly don't think I could have ever fully understood without Lisa). Happy Birthday Miss Lisa!

Picking Purple Prickly Pear Jam

2010-09-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Kevin raced! This has nothing whatsoever to do with the post title, just be patient my friends. Check out his time here. He was second on the team this week! Not too shabby for the boy who is still workin' up to his last year fitness and paces. B.U.T...the team wasn't up too par. As you can see on the results, Cam is still smokin' (finished 2nd behind Miles Batty of the Y, repeat of last year's results), but he's red-shirting. This is last year's race start (Kevin's head is right behind Cam's head. gosh big head Cam! ha ha just kidding.) Dallas, Robby, and Kev showed up to the best of their abilities this year (Kevin still isn't where he was last year...but he'll get there), but that was it for the team. Kevin Robison is rockin' it this year but stayed home with an injury. SUU men took 3rd place last year, 13th this year (ouch.). But, some good years is better than no good years, and our team is not in full swing yet. Robby (this is our other way good frosh Robby) could have beat Kevin, but he didn't have his running comp Eric, which is what brings me to the prickly pears!

Eric hurt his quad about a week ago and has been out for a few days, and didn't race. He called Lisa on Friday asking for him to play with her because he was lonely. I, as usual, called Lisa asking what she was doing that weekend because Kevin was gone and I was lonely. If you know Lisa, you know why we called her. If you don't know Lisa, suffice it to say she plays the hardest of any person I have ever known, which is why we always count on her for a good time! Good thing she loves us. We decided to go fishing. Leeds was the first destination. It was good fishing in July, now a trickle. Then Browse Creek, but Miss Tina (a.k.a. the Vibe) could not make it up the washboard 4-wheel drive roads. When we backtracked, Eric spied some fruit on the cactus and was wondering if it was edible! I, brilliant one I am, knew it was a prickly pear fruit and was in fact edible, though tricky to pick and eat because of its thorns. We picked about 50 of them and ended up making this!
Prickly Pear Jam. We followed the directions to a tee from this blog, and although I thought I boiled it too long and that I never reached the gelling point, after sitting over night it became pretty sticky jammy deliciousness! And it actually doesn't taste too bad either...although I'm sad the pretty purply magenta turned the way of the perpetual jam color. Now Lisa can have jam for her pb&j's and Eric can tell the team an awesome, hard-core story about picking prickly pears and making jam with his sister and sister-in-law...while the rest of the team was racing. :)

Also I will post pictures of Kevin's and my adventure a week ago REPELING BEHUNIN. Once I get them from Mark. So totally awesome!

Chocolate Velvet

2010-09-10T18:27:00.001-07:00

You think its the name of a delicious cake or other scrumptious dessert? Try the color of my new hair! My friend Lauren did it for me last Saturday and I absolutely L-O-V-E love it. Its so different from my safe little world and so fun! We had to commemorate the hair with a photo-shoot.

Just in Time for Autumn

2010-09-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

My Summer Projects finished....just in time for autumn, because as much as I love firecrackers, parades, and summer dresses, I also L-O-V-E autumn! Bring it on.

Autumn brings delightful nippy mornings, cross country for my hunk of a hubby, Jerusalem for our little Miriam, and Eric to play with us anytime we want! Take a look at that picture, he looks so cute! :)

So, summer projects...yes. We had a hard time deciding what to get Leeann and John for their wedding, consequently it took me until August (they got married in April) to figure this out and make it, but it turned out so cool! I got the idea from my Aunt Sandra, who made us one for our wedding. I've absolutely loved it in my home, so I hope they love theirs too!
And then I made one for Seth and Jordan, married in July (not too late :). I scruffed their's up with sand paper, I dunno if you can tell from the picture.Also, I got this little outfit for little Caitlin Lorae! I can't wait to meet her! I cut out and ironed on the letters "My Duds", and I was going to stitch around them with the machine but...confession: couldn't figure out how to do it. And Caitlin wasn't going to wait in that belly forever! I bought the shoes though, how cute are they?? So I wrote a note to Caitlin saying we were expecting her to use her jogging duds and become like Uncle Kevin, or, at least like Aunt Heather. Because, let's face it, who can really keep up with Kevin?

Trevor & Katie 7.30.10

2010-09-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Katie Sandall is Kevin's cousin, on the Sandall side :) She and Trevor dated before his mission, and they recently decided to enter the realm of the marrieds. So fun! Katie looked B-E-A-utiful. Here is Kev and his cousin Jared (height exaggerated). Jared is usually bearded and caused quite a stir at the wedding reunion as he was virtually unrecognizable.

It was really fun to be there with everyone! I wish I had more pictures. Trevor is a really fun guy, and fits right in, they will be really happy together!

Vroom, vroom

2010-07-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Our latest:
We love it! We both have our permits, and we ride it when we go most anywhere together. Kevin rides it to work everyday. He has always wanted a motorcycle. When he was on his mission, instead of pictures of him, his companions, or people they taught, he would send home pictures of motorcycles with captions such as "i'm in love" or "drool." (okay, he did send home some good pictures). Anyway, he's loving cruisin the town and I'm loving learning to handle it (I've yet to take it anywhere without him).

23

2010-07-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Birthday Bash BBQ on my 23rd!

Pre-Party attendees - Lisa and Jens for traditional queso. Deelish but didn't eat too much because...

Party attendees - Lisa, Lauren and Dirk, and Mark. Hamburgers (that took way too long too cook), hot dogs, chips, potato salad, fruit, and a beautiful back yard to eat it in! Then candles and cake of course. Great party thanks for coming! I did not get a picture of everyone together :( But its a good thing Lauren took so many pictures of me blowing out the candles because in the first two I look like a squirrel/turtle.
Yes, I blew them all out in one blow (these are some powerful runners lungs people), so yes my wish will come true in this next year! And don't you doubt it.

Bryce Canyon

2010-07-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

We did it! Lisa, Lauren (a.k.a. Lee Shumway), and I, we finished the Bryce Canyon half marathon. My dad was not able to run, which both he and I were really really bummed about. Luckily, he was able to give his registration to my running partner Lauren. I loved running with Lauren during the race. Kevin was really great to drive us there and back (we left at 3:15 AM and got back at 11ish), thanks so much baby! Before shot:

The course was great - pretty steep down hill at miles 2-4, a couple of rises which were actually nice after the downhills, and the rest was either slightly downhill or straight shot. It was great weather, with the sun getting a bit hot around 9 AM when it broke over the peaks of Bryce Canyon.

Lisa finished first with 1:48:53, then me with 1:56:00, and then Lauren (Lee Shumway, 49-year-old male) with 2:03:34. Lauren and I ran together until we ran through Tropic, mile 8, where she stopped to go to the bathroom and I ran on. Little did I know she got stuck in there! The ramp leading up to the port-a-potty tilted when she went in and jammed the door shut. She had to stick one arm out and yell for someone to help her! :) :) Definitely humor highlight of the day. It was really cute in Tropic the water station people had leis on and signs decorated with palm trees and beaches that said "Welcome to Tropic" and "Come relax at our water hole." The race was really fun like that, with really supportive people. After mile 8 whenever I came to a water station I would take 2 gulps of the water then pour the rest over my head, which felt soooo good. It made me just perfect, I never got way too hot. Kevin appeared around mile 11.5, and ran with me in to the finish. Great race. And a 13 minute PR for me! It was definitely the better training (much thanks again to Lauren :) After shot:

Running and Leap Year

2010-07-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

We watched this movie from the RedBox last night. It was not incredible, had a basic love story line, but was amazing and such a good flick! Because a) it was PG which meant no sexual content, language, violence...AND b) they fell in love and got engaged without ever having any touching past kissing! It was incredible. Just for that reason. I loved it. Good flick.
Also, I ran this route this morning...
...and it felt amazing. I am so stoked for this weekend. Run baby.

Sandall Family Campout

2010-07-12T16:46:00.001-07:00

So for my family reunions we usually get together in sometimes places we've never been, go see and do fun things together, and have traditional night-time firesides, testimony meetings, and/or talent shows. Kevin's family? We camp!

Camping activities include:

Fishing. At which I got much better! If I do say so myself. Don't mind Eric's exhibit of mentally slow...as our good friend Forrest G. would say, "It happens."

Tying flies...Eric conveniently forgot his fly tying kit and the other master of the family, Jared, was not here this year. Roger was behind in his orders to say the least.
Chopping and burning huge things, wood or no wood.
Hugging.

Playing ninja, marshmellow wars, uno, catch-phrase, and multi-faceted card games with food terms such as hamburgers, sandwiches, and oreos. (No pictures as I was mostly in on the action).

Building fires, even mini ones. This one Lisa and I built all on our own while waiting for the boys.
Roasting various things. Lisa was quite the favorite for roasting the mallows...she makes them puff to thrice their size! and I'm not lying either.
And, having a grand old time is mandatory. Mom Sandall has dubbed it the "yes" camp, referring the affirmative answer to any question.

Love those Sandalls!

Jordan + Seth July 2, 2010

2010-07-12T16:36:00.001-07:00

My best friend's wedding! Jordan looked amazing, the wedding was beautiful, and the party a party! My favorite part of the ceremony was when Jordan came in, walked down the aisle, and everyone turned to see Seth wiping away tears. They love each other so much! Seth landed an incredible girl, and Jordan an amazing man!

It was so fun catching up with my old best friends from the HS years. I love them dearly...

This is the only smiling picture I got of the groom!

Happy life to the both of you! It will be most sweet.

Camping the Camping

2010-06-27T08:42:00.001-07:00

This was Memorial Day Weekend. We went camping with our good friends the Hooleys. They took us to the prettiest waterfall! We repaid them by taking them to the dumpiest camping spot we could find...but hey at least we know never to go back there again!

This is Girls' Camp! This is not everyone...I hope I get a better picture of the girls I can post. It was a blast to say the least... :)! Unforgettable memories with these girls.

My Amazing Sister-in-Law

2010-06-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Lisa has now conquered an Olympic triathlon. She was not so happy as this picture shows when she finished. We got milkshakes after.

Summit League Runner-Ups

2010-05-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

My baby's comin' home today. A few victories for our men, team 2nd overall. Not too shabby. A 16 foot PR for our good friend Forrest in the jav, and Hayden won the 10K and freshman of the year award. More results here.

Announcing a New Sandall Addition!

2010-05-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

Best parts of the last few days:

#1
Spring Break in the Snow. We went home to Elko for Kevin's sister Kris's talk in church and caught a home track meet, where his brother Eric ran a 50 second split in the 4x400M. It was incredible. Also incredible was our almost igloo we made.
Master Builder: Warming up after the afternoon, wishing so bad we had had time to finish...no one more than Kevin.
We rented snowshoes and hiked in them.Pretty fun, but not completely successful. Sad because Kevin wants to do it again now. Brrrrrr...

#2
Skip a month and a half. Graduation closure and track meet with family and friends. It was so great. Relaxing, fun weekend.

Here are some AWESOME pictures of Kevin taken by one of the professors. I love watching him run. This picture does not justice to how hard he works (no offense Miriam).#3
Making these with the young women last night. They are pockets for our "pocket mail." We are going to have a blast at girls' camp, these girls are so fun. And didn't they turn out adorable? Our other camp director Susan, is so creative!

#4
The newest addition to our family...backpacks! :) We've wanted these forever since our backpacking extraordinaire with the Sandalls last spring break. We can't wait to use them!
I know I probably bummed some of you out with the title of this post... but stay tuned for more newest additions coming to our little family. The newest and BEST one of all!

Acronyms

2010-03-08T21:48:00.000-08:00

My
Baby will be
A

Master in
Business
Administration!

MBA MBA! :) Kev received his letter of acceptance into the program today. We really are staying in Cedar another year :)! What a hard worker, I tell ya. Just because he aces all his classes with no sweat doesn't mean he doesn't work hard outside of school - running track, interning with the facilities management department, starting a business...and loving me. Boy he does a great job at that! :)

In answer to if the MBA program will be harder than the Construction Management program: a squint of the eye, a twitch of the mouth, and a "Probably."
My bets are on my baby.

A Day for Triathlons

2010-03-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

Sat Mar 6, I completed my first triathlon, under the influence and direction (literally) of my favorite Lisa. 3.0 miles on the treadmill, 10.0 miles on stationary bike, and 400M in the pool (8 laps).

I did not train...hardly. But, it was so fun! And, as usual, an amazing high at the end. I think the best part was, although it was an hour-long race, it hardly felt that way because of the different things you were doing. I was able to push myself as hard as I could b/c I knew the next thing wouldn't require the same muscles. And, to my surprise, I finished 7th out of the women! It was out of 19, but hey I was excited! And, to our wonderment and dismay, I beat Lisa, she got 9th. It was faulty though (bummer). She beat me in the run and the swim, but for some reason my bike time was almost 5 minutes faster than hers. We concluded the bikes were different, and that when you are pedaling at a higher level, you are not really going farther with every pedal...

Anyway, pictures! It was fun cuz I started a half hour before Lisa and we cheered each other on at different stages that way. Also, Kevin stayed home from their meet in Vegas and took pictures of us. I was hesitant for him to watch me, but I loved that he was there. He was so proud of me! (I was so proud of me!)Here is the SUU gym, me running.

Lisa running in likeness of Bruno.

Me swimming. One of the few moments I was actually breast-stroking, not doggy paddling or floating on my back and kicking ha ha. The guy who timed me was really nice. After he informed me he could tell I wasn't a swimmer, he gave me some really good tips! :)

Lisa biking, me rubbing it in her face that I'm done.

In other news, Eric also competed in the Elko Triathlon. He finished the swim at 36th position (out of 40 ha ha...). I can laugh because a) Eric is never in the last spots and b) he finished 9th overall anyway. He's a Sandall. Go figure.

Happy Birthday Momma

2010-03-04T18:06:00.001-08:00

This is my mom.
She is the best!

And that is not a real tatoo.

Love you Mom! Thank you for being the most wonderful mom in the WORLD. Happy Birthday!

Without my Honey Bunches

2010-02-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

This is what I do when Kevin is gone...

Get Lisa to come on a bike ride with me, using both her bikes.
Did not grow tall enough so had to lower the seat of Lisa's old bike.
Couldn't get the seat lowered because the bolts were rusted over, so got on Lisa's new very expensive bike.
Lisa lowered the seat on her new very expensive bike because I didn't grow tall enough.
Got gloves, hats, sweaters, bikes, and the ride on.
Got down the driveway and heard Lisa say, "Oh no, mine's broken!"
Watched Lisa her fix her bike's chain; started riding again.
Rode for about 10 ft and heard something on Lisa's bike tire rubbing against the frame.
Came home, put the bikes in the garage, and went on a jog.

Had twenty minutes to jog and tried an adventure.
Saw a group of 4 deer than another group of 6!
Added ten pounds of mud to shoes on dirt adventure road.
Climbed/ran/stumbled around behind my neighborhood until we found a place where the fence was broken down.
Climbed/fell done a steep hill that led into our neighborhood park.
Ran home.
Took a picture of our totally bust of a work-out!
And had so much fun! I love hanging out with Lisa. She just turns it all into an adventure. :)

NAU Tune-Up

2010-02-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

We got home last night from a "last-chance" meet at NAU. This next weekend is Indoor Conference Championships and some guys had yet to qualify for certain events, including Kev. I was so happy when he invited me along! I never get to see him run. And he is so amazing! So, we took Tina the Vibe and headed out with Royce Orm, Kevin Robison, and Skylar Riggs. An adventure never to forget. The boys were hilarious. Lots of bonding. I forgot my camera in the car at the meet! So sad. But the meet went okay...not good for the other three boys and not good for one of Kevin's races. He ran the 800M in a 1:55.3 (converted) and qualified to run in the fast heat this weekend. He would have qualified in the fast heat of the mile, if it had not been for a little mishap. Call him if you want details. He is running in the slow heat for the mile this weekend. Even with his mishap, I was so happy to be able to see him run and running so good. He makes me proud to be his wife.
We stayed at Uncle Ryan and Aunt Carol's house (they let the boys have the trailer ha ha!), and were fed delicious favorite biscuits and gravy, then headed to Page where the boys ran the trail that overlooks Lake Powell and Uncle Stu and Aunt Eve fed us delicious favorite soup and biscuits (I was loving all those biscuits...as my overlaying gut is reminding me now). We stopped at Horseshoe Bend and took pictures. It was pretty cold and windy there and we came home to snow in Cedar, with another windy storm today. Fun fun trip! I'm so glad I got to go!In other news, this is my new desk and computer! I am the Behavior Assistant/Nutritionist, with the assistant part coming first as that is the part of the job that got me the desk and computer :). I share an office with our Behaviorist/Residential Therapist. He was laughing at me when I took this picture. I am proud.

Nemo...ITouch...Single Again?

2010-02-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

We have made some really great friends while going to school in Cedar - among them are Lauren and Dirk Hooley, Mark Taylor and Whitney Bello. Mark and Dirk are Kevin's good buddies from the CM program; Lauren, Whitney, and I bond whenever 1) they have their weekly "business meetings" and 2) when they are gone. This Valentine's weekend was just such the event. Friday night our husbands/boyfriend were away in Reno competing for prizes and winning free stuff (Kevin won an Ipod Touch, which is everything an Iphone is except without the phone part. A new valentine it would seem this year as he is in love with it... :). Lauren, Whitney, and I seemed to be sucked back in Singles' Awareness life even though fully committed to our men. Whitney works at the steak & seafood place Milt's up the canyon so we went and got a brownie there while we waited for her to get off. Then to the jacuzzi of Stadium Way! I haven't been hot tubbing in at least two years, I forgot how much fun it is! It felt so good. We got hit on by a couple guys with Coke bottles who ran off with Whitney's number (if you like it then you shoulda' put a ring on it Mark!). After hot tub was girl talk until one in the morning. Such a good girls night out.

The boys got home Sat night and we spent a quiet Sunday Valentine's Day, visiting with our neighbors Tracy and Josh Ferguson for dinner. President's Day we were invited to the most fun group date night ever! We went to Pizza Hut with the Hooleys and Mark and Whitney, and then Whitney had made a little Ace of Cakes competition for us! We've never seen the show, but its basically whoever has the best cake wins! :) The theme was Pixar/Dreamworks. We made a Nemo cake! He was the best! Lauren and Dirk made the house and balloons from "Up" and Mark and Whitney built Mater and a Cow-Tractor from "Cars." I didn't get any pictures of their's, but here is Nemo!

Precipitation

2010-01-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Our sky was absolutely beautiful this morning. I shoveled and Kev went to work with some friends. They did not go to their scheduled meet in Flagstaff because they have had four feet of snow this week and more last night. We had the bad storm Thurs night, a lot of wind (I thought I left that when I left Elko!) and I'm not completely sure, I'm kinda bad at guessing these things, but at least a foot and a half of snow ourselves. We woke up this morning to another at least 10 inches. With incredible rain in the Gila Valley, sounds like everyone's getting hit.To Whit and Cortney: This is our neighborhood, I'm taking the shot from our front door looking across the street, but all the houses look the same. All the shoveling is totally worth a garage :)

Christmas in Hawaii!

2010-01-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

Was it amazing? Yes, it was. Pictures can't do it justice, nevertheless a collage is in order.Waikiki our first night in Oahu! B-E-Autiful sunset and Kevin thought the waves were pretty big! ha ha. We just laughed. Played frisbee on the beach after the sun faded. Really a nice quiet night for Waikiki.The Dole Pineapple Plantation...kinda fun :)
The PCC! The most awesome and our favorite! Kate looks like she was made for the hula.I hope this picture is not offensive to people of whatever culture this is from. Kevin looks like a duck.The tram from the PCC took us up to the temple, what a beautiful temple!
Kevin making fire...The fire!
The luau, such goooood food.Pearl Harbor, hallowed ground. Very neat.The swans in our bedroom when we got to Kona, Hawaii. I loved them! Took at least three pictures.Hawaii included Christmas Eve black sand beaches, steam vents, lava tubes and lava glow, a Christmas beach day and fabulous sand castle, and my favorite post-Christmas snorkeling on a sail-boat!! Snorkeling was so much fun! We took a boat out with about 6 other people and the ship's crew (4 people?). We caught a fish which we regrettably did not take any pictures of...I actually thought they had caught one before they did cuz when I looked at the line I saw a good size fish I thought, the kind we catch here (maybe an 8-incher). They were trolling it as bait, and caught the three-footer with the baby fish. We grilled a fillet that night of ocean fish! On Sunday we went to church, took a walk to a waterfall, swung on vines, and had delicious Island-made ice cream.
My next favorite favorite thing of the whole trip was the very last day in Hawaii. Here is the amazing waterfall Kev and I hiked to:Technically it is two waterfalls, the "Twin Falls". One falls about halfway down and then soaks into the cliff. The other more visible one is a 1400 foot drop, 1200 foot free fall. We hiked right to it, swam in its pool. It was absolutely the coolest thing I have ever seen. This is the valley it was in, at the back of the valley:Our directions were like a treasure hunt, including directions like, "Mount the rock levee" and "Enter the reservoir on the left side. There will be a crude natural staircase on the other side." We didn't see anyone the whole way up. And when we could find our trail, this is what it looked like: A real hike through the real rainforest! Incredible! When we couldn't find our trail, we just followed the stream. This was our pot o' gold:

Stress Free

2009-12-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

Congrats is in order for both of us this week...thanks for all the congrats everyone! I was getting texts and calls, flowers and gift cards all day Friday:) I am now officially done with my Bachelor's in Science, Human Nutrition degree. The Sandalls sent me the most beautiful roses! And my mom told me to check the mail before I made dinner :) thanks fam! Applebee's was delicioso. We are also celebrating Kevin's internship that he landed! It is with the Facilities' Management department here at SUU and he is so excited. He has always talked about the career of facilities' manager as a great option. Plus, our Facilities' Manager here is really well known, the best in the state. He is excited to start next semester with them and learn from the best!

Yesterday we had the biggest snowstorm - I shoveled and this is our driveway when I got done. It just kept comin' down!
Tomorrow our new piano comes! Thanks Mom and Dad! I will post pictures :)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-10T11:23:00.001-08:00

Only one and a half more finals I figured I could spend some time posting. It snowed a lot a few days ago and is still here. Someone made a snow angel butterfly in our front yard. Snow definitely puts me in the Christmas mood. I wonder what I will do without it in Hawaii? I'll just have to get over it. :)
I feel so Christmasy listening to my Christmasy music every minute I'm not studying. I wonder what Christmas will feel like without finals? I love this season:
I went to a RS dinner last night, great video presentation and testimonies of Christ.
Chrysalis White Elephant Party tonight, and bring your spouse! Kev is excited it's at Sizzler's :) We've been trying to find a song to sing for Sandall Family Christmas Program. Kevin wants to sing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and we've practiced with Lisa the round with the clarinets, french horn, and violins (you know the one, "the violins sing with joyful ring" "the clarinet, the clarinet, plays doodly doodly doodly det" "the horn, the horn, it sounds so forlorn") Kevin sounds really good on the horn part. :)
We hosted an Ugly Sweater Christmas party! It was so fun! Christmas Bingo, Christmas Carol Pictionary Relay, and lots of delish food :) This is everyone who was at the party minus a couple (they left early no pic for you!). Kev and I won Christmas King and Queen for the night :)

That is why I love this season. So many friends and so many reasons to have good times. And getting to hear about Jesus Christ everywhere. I love my Savior and am so grateful for Him. I would not have what I do, especially the hope in my heart, without His sacrifice and love for me.

Here are a few pictures of us since I last posted. The first is Kev, Lisa, and their cousin Lauralee after running the St. George 1/2 Marathon. Lisa just bought a really good road bike. She is training for a Half-Iron Man next summer! Then Thanksgiving at the Sandalls, Grandpa and Grandma Sandall joining. Nap after meal for Dad Sandall and his boys.

Published and The Finish of all Finishes

2009-11-05T18:45:00.001-08:00

I'm sort of copycatting Whitney! She just wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Tribune yesterday. It was cool to see her name as "Whitney Taylor." :)
But, in my defense, I wrote this article back in June :) I am published! My research got published in the Utah Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, online here. My mentor just told me a couple days ago that we were accepted, and also they informed us that ours was the best article they received! I was so stoked. Especially because we were also published in a student journal here, and I was put out when I received a copy...it wasn't put together very well. Our tables were split and different fonts used within our article (I did not send it to them that way). I was so excited when were accepted to UAFCS! Pretty good for undergrad research I think.

Also, the race on Saturday was exciting for both Kevin and his friend Cam. Cam is the number one runner on the team, headed to be an All-American. I will be kind of disappointed if he doesn't get an at-large bid for XC nationals in a month. On Saturday, Kev came in fourth at a real good pace, but Cam had to work for his first place finish, as you can see below. The coolest video is here, and more still-shots here.

Good times in Cedar

2009-11-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

Our families came for Halloween! Actually, they came to watch Kevin race. Mom Sandall, Eric, Mom and Dad Shumway, Miriam, and Velma (a.k.a. Kate). It was so fun! Kev did amazing. It was the XC Summit League championships. He got fourth, but his team got second (wierd for them, they are usually first place guys). His construction club built a new podium for the track and field/cross country team that they debuted last weekend as well. Here are some pictures!

Beginning of the race, Kev is on the far left

The stud muffin.

Everyone who came to watch!

Here's Kev and his team in front of the podium. They didn't want to stand on it cuz they got second :(Kate as Velma.

Eric as Fred.

And the rest of the Mystery Gang. The only thing missing was the Mystery Van. Starring as Velma: Kate Shumway. As Fred: Eric Sandall. As Shaggy: Kev and as Daphne, me. Last but not least, playing Scooby-Doo: my Dad. He deserves the most credit for getting down on his knees at every door step. Yes, we all went trick-or-treating with Kate, and yes people thought we were strange. Maybe cuz she was the only asking for candy...

Lisa's Cake

2009-09-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

It's Lisa's birthday today! happy birthday Lis! We made queso and a cake for her yesterday. She did need to supply her own milk, and ours for that matter, but hey, we made a cake! First time ever not from the box. Not because we wanted to, mostly because even after several reminders and prodding, someone forgot to get a cake mix. This is the B-E-A-utiful product.

Despite its looks, it was delicious and Lisa still loves us. I don't know if she got all four candles out on the first try (really I don't know!) And she had a happy birthday party. yay!

On a less disastrous note, Kevin did awesome in his race this weekend! 20+ second PR on that course and second for the team. UC Riverside, about 400 men in the race. The team got third. Go here to see pictures of last week's race, hopefully they have some up of this last weekend up soon! I'm so proud of my hubby! He is amazing.

Politicism: Washington and Zarahemla

2009-09-15T17:57:00.001-07:00

My grandpa recently emailed this article to my family. I don't know some of the names the writer talks about in the current political scene, but I do know that Book of Mormon story, and the parallels he drew are very thought-provoking.
Kev loves to talk politics, and is very opinionated. I feel fortunate to have him as my husband, as I always want to be more in the know, but never am. Kev and his mom can talk about our government and its actions for a lot longer than I can, but I like to listen. I hope to be able to learn and follow more when I am done with school in December.
We love our country. Kev jokes about moving to New Zealand someday, but I only think he really would consider it if he thought we had done all we could to fight for what we believe in on our own red-white-and-blue land. God Bless America. She really is the land of the free and home of the brave still, we just have to be those brave and stand up for the free part.

And thus it begins...

2009-09-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

First road trip of the season! Kev is off to Pocatello today, and thus begins my lonely weekends in Cedar. Luckily, I have friends this year! The team's schedule is online, as well as updates of the races. I hope to see you all in Cedar City for the conference championships on none other than October 31st! (we're already praying for a: no snow and b: no wind). As we will be moving in three weeks I can extend this invitation to everyone...we have plenty of room in our new place! How exciting.

Also an exhilarating update in our lives, BYU football has started and is currently on the rise as the nation's 9th best team. (NUMBER 9!!!!) The game last weekend, won almost singlehandedly by our INCREDIble defense, was yet another source of contention in the Cedar Sandall home. Fun contention, yes...the prejudice of my husband against Provo and the pride instilled in me for the cougs has long been fought out and settled (determine for yourself who won)...but contention nonetheless. I sympathize with Kev's hatred of the fact that every Utahan has either blue or red tunnel vision and we often say, "What is to become of the T-birds?" (Southern Utah's mascot is the tenacious thunderbird, pictured on the left) I am completely loyal to my husband and his school, most especially when he runs. Our cross country/track team is to be watched for in the next few years. However, I let my baby know just when and where I am also completely loyal to my school. Thus, around 4:45 PM on Saturday evening, I donned my blue and white. Though the apparel was creased down the middle from being folded in my drawer, a bold attestment to my support of SUU and him, I promptly heard Kevin making gagging noises. When he was finished being a child, he looked up the Oklahoma Sooners and emerged from the bedroom enrobed in brilliant red.

All joking aside, he was glad for us when we conquered that night, as we were the underdogs, and also as he knows my fierce love for the cougs.

Nutrition Blogger

2009-09-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

I am now part of an official nutrition blogging team. Pretty excited! I just made the first post on FAT. ha ha. Go check it out!

suunutrition.blogspot.com

Running, Camping, and 1 Year Anniversary!

2009-08-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, when I read that title, I'm like "wait, is this kevin's life or our life?" ha ha I've turned into the perfect wife for him I guess! :) We just got home from the vacation of our lives. It started with a visit to Provo, where we stayed with Paul and Cortney, walked around campus, and then ran a half-marathon the next day!
Before the run....waiting to get bused up to starting line.

After, looking hard core!

It felt so good. I told myself before I probably would never do this again, and that a full marathon was definitely out of the question. But I felt so good when I finished! Oh yes I hurt afterwards, believe me, but the thrill was awesome! Lisa and I ran for maybe 2 minutes together then she took off and ended up about 13 minutes ahead of me in the end. I ran the next 6 milos alone, but was encouraged at the 6.5 mark with my family, standing at the bottom of the hill all wearing SANDALL POWER shirts like "You can't handle the sandall" and "Watch out for Heather, there's no one better." I wish I had taken a picture of the shirts, they were all so clever and made me so happy! Kevin ran with me for a few minutes, then ran up to find Lisa. My family found me at 3 or 4 more spots, and thusly I breezed through the last half! My dad gave me the biggest boost - he ran the last 3 miles with me! We hit mile 12 and I was like, no way, where'd the miles go? Cortney, Whitney, and Morgan were at the finish line cheering! I have a hunch Lindsay was too but we couldn't find her :( Thanks for the support everyone!

This is my daily support and inspiration. Kev is so amazing. He has kept up his summer training so well, and has already won over the hearts of his new team since practice started 2 days ago. He is an inspiration to them too. Yesterday they ran what is called a "progression run," dreaded words to fall on the ears of these XC fellows. They run 7 miles around the track, with each lap progressively getting faster. Starting from 90 second laps and working up to 75 second laps, you are pulled if you don't make one lap under its allotted time. If you run all the timed laps and are not pulled, the last mile is a race. It is the hardest work-out, run only 2-3 times a year by Coach Houle. Last year only the top two guys, Cam Levins and Nate Jewkes, finished the work-out. This year, only two finished as well, a new freshman Hayden Hawke, and my hubby! He beat Hayden in the last mile, so he finished AND won the progression run! And to think, last year I thought I had ruined his running career. My husband is a stud!

We also went to Lagoon after the run, such a blast! The next week we spent camping with both families. My family went half hour up the neighboring canyon to a paid camping site. Kate remarked she thought it was funny we drove in on pavement to camp, yet we drive out to our house on a dirt road ha ha. Kevin's family drove three hours to get to their campsite, in the middle of the great Nevada blue, down in a hidden canyon by the Bruneau River.

We hiked a mountain.....
Got to the pass at 10, 445 feet elevation.....
And found this on the other side!
Grand times with grand families: fishing, playing dice, eating, forgetting marshmallows, sunburned hands, fishing, shooting (I was so good!), reading, singing, playing Settlers of Catan (out of control!), fishing, hiking to find no box, loving every minute of relaxation.

On our way home, we stopped in Salt Lake to celebrate our 1st anniversary (which was on Sunday). We went to the Salt Lake temple (so neat!), picked up my newly cleaned ring, shopped a little (10 mins?), and ate at Chili's. We made it home at 2 AM. Good times! I love my husband very much. I'm so glad he said yes when I proposed to him, and that I said yes when he proposed to me!

Fat Man's Misery

2009-07-31T11:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went "canyoneering." Hiking, down-climbing, up-climbing, and, yes, REPELLING. I have never been before, and looked and felt like a loser when I had to be lowered down by strong men because I was shaking too bad to do it. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I did cry. And it was embarrassing. But I did it! Who knew I would be so scared of going off of a 40 foot cliff backwards, attached by one belt/harness to one rope as thick as one of my pinkies. The pictures don't show my trembling body nor tear stains, but we got some good shots!

Kevin was a champ. He slid down like nothin and then was very patient not to laugh at me.

We parked in Zion's Park along the road, hiked by the "checkerboard mesa" and across a plateau and dropped into "Fat Man's Misery."

This is on top, view of the canyon below.

This is the group we went with... our friends Brock, Kate, and Karl providing the equipment.

Repelling!

This is why they call it "Fat Man's Misery"...

Elevator

Such good form...
We got a little wet,
...then a lot wet! This is the river at the bottom, felt so good to take a dip!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-06-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

One last post for the day. I know, I'm already living up to my aspirations. Just wanted to shout out to my mother-in-law, whose birthday is today. She has been absolutely incredible at accepting me into the family and I love her so much! I am so glad she raised such an incredible man for me to marry. Happy Birthday Mom Sandall!