Christmas in Colorado

Well Christmas in Colorado was a blast. We got to go skiing, climbing, swimming, and played racquetball. We ate so much good food and saw so many old friends and family that we were just dying to see and cant wait to see again.It was so fun to go skiing with my parents, Steve Kris Andy and Jen, and Taryn and Joey. We went to Copper and Keystone, not the greatest snow but it was warm like spring skiing. Taryn and Joey let us stay at their condo overnight while my parents watched Wesley what a treat! My good long time friend Jen Downing and her husband Will had a little dinner at her house too and Taryn and Joey came as well as Kathy and Steve. It was so good to see them, i miss all my Colorado friends. Wesley liked his ride from Jens youngest son Cadence. We also got to go swimming at the rec center, it was nice to get wet! Taryn's family had a great party for a couple of graduations and so we got to see more old friend there too, the Brody family looked great!




We had a rockin good time climbing with our good friends Andy and Jen at The Spot Bouldering Gym in Boulder. So many routes so little time!




fun aprons my sister in Penn. sent us does that mean i will cook better? i wish it were that easy. if it were i would put it on danny more often!



Wesley was worn out but had good naps during lunch and fun in the tub with Issac. Is that Danny cooking down there? Yes he helped me make a delicious but Not nutritious breakfast. And the kids even got to go fishing for candy and toys!




Christmas morning




Around the house fun.




We had a Jolly good time, were able to do lots of fun activities. Wesley loved hanging out with his cousins and it was good to see old friends and family. I wish we were able to get more pics of everything, I'm a picture freak so I'm always thinking more pictures the better.I got no photos with my great friend since Jr. high Veronica and her super cute girl Eliana. We went to the park, ate, and chatted, its always good to talk with her.I am really lucky to have such good long time friends that do a good job keeping in touch, it means the wold to me. And super lucky to have such a great family that is fun to laugh with and that is so kind and supportive. It was quite packed at my parents house, for 2 weeks, it was like a little hotel. Fortunately we all managed to have our own room. Good food and fun all over the place, every corner you go around there was food and great people right there for ya.Wesley liked his little closet that he had to sleep in. There were quite a few closets used for sleeping in fact, good thing they were big and clean. Thanks to my parents for a great time and great hospitality, if it was my house I would probably go crazy. Well that was a long post, your probably glad its over now if you made till the end. thanks-The Bates

Some Pre-Christmas Photos

Pre-xmas fun
Some awesome friends at our ugly christmas sweater party.Good times and sweet sweaters! We missed those that couldnt come.




Lots of snow around these parts. Wesley loves it, doesnt matter to him that its cold. We gotta go sledding though before it all melts.

cute song

I had to post this cute song I just found. I thought i would just dedicate it to Wesley just for grins! Since he just puts up with all that we do and we may not be great parents but we love him so much. Hes gonna be  great, whatever he maybe! click below, it was on youtube.

Goodbye 2008, you were good to us:-)

2008 was a good year like all the others. Heres a tribute to 2008, I will just randomly list some events that took place since im a bad writer. We were able to do many things and see so many great people. Cheers to the many fun places we got to visit like Mexico, Florida, Peru, Chicago, AZ, Las Vegas and Colorado, St. George, and Moab. Man what great trips they were, and since they were so good it just feeds our addiction for travel and play.Cheers to Wesley, he turned a year old in july and then in sept he got his year long helmet off, its been fun to watch Wesley grow and learn to walk and talk and see his personality come alive. Cheers to the new president elect of the USA. Cheers to our old falling apart house, we finished most of our house and the apt downstairs is almost done and ready to be rented soon. Cheers to physical activity, Danny and I were able to do many different races and already signed up for some others for 2009.  We were thankful for the family and friends that were able to come out to slc and stay with us as well. Cheers to the High school reunions, family reunions, birthdays, baby showers, weddings, new pregnancies and parties just for the heck of it, man what good times! We have had a good year and we owe it all to our family and friends who support us and make us laugh. We were able to spend the holidays with our friends and family back home in AZ and Colorado so cheers to our job flexibility! We also say cheers to all the good books we have read this year and all the great old and new music all around the world and new people we have met. Cheers to all the new ideas, thoughts and life changing events. We have really been through quite alot this year and we have enjoyed every minute of it( even the cold times). Good or bad we look back on it all and just remember the good times however my journal might disagree a little hehe. Anyway we have gone through some big changes personally in our life as a little family and we are so grateful for these changes. Cheers to family, Cheers to friends, Cheers to 2008, Cheers to life, Life is beautiful so THANKYOU TO ALL.

Winter blues hits me hard and i feel bad for Danny who has to be around this grumpy girl the most. The shoveling, the scraping, the slipping on ice and being cold is not my idea of a fun season. Yeah sure you look outside and its beautiful when you see the fresh fallen snow, the white city, but for the most part, time to enjoy it is limited. Things are more expensive it seems and things just get to be a hassle. But since Wesley seems to enjoy the snow i do like it more because of that but i get cautious for him Since age is creeping up on me i cant do the things i used to, i get hurt easier and recover slower so having fun in the snow is not as fun when you have to be more cautious. I hate being too cautious when it comes to adventure. With some things like summer sports and activities i don't know before I'm probably going to get hurt but when i go snowboarding i know i most likely probably will since it wont be as much fun if i don't come close to being hurt. I also know that going skiing or snowboarding is super cool so hey how can i stop when the pressure is on and i am striving in life to be so cool by freezing my ace off and throwing myself down a mountain. However there are some rare cases that the snow is so good that you can do whatever and you dont feel like you wasted your money or time. I guess I'm not cool enough to say that i like it no matter what, or I'm a snow snob, but whatever it is i just like to have fun, stay warm and not get hurt in the snow. For some odd reason in my mind i would rather hurt myself climbing, biking, playing soccer or whatnot. To me snow is only good for falling in when very deep, giving the earth moisture and looking pretty, other than that i say "i hate you snow you depress me, you need to be warmer and not so slippery ok!!The sun is very nice to me, i love outdoors and to me its better when its warm and maybe i just like the actual activities more. Anyway here is a video clip(my front flip attempt) of a great day in the snow that makes me and snow have a better relationship. It was good to me one or two days out of the year cuz i could try this and know i wouldnt get hurt.
front flip attempt

P.S.

I have to post this comment to really get it out so here it is: P.S. I really suck at the layouts of our posts and forget to spell check. Sorry i get too lazy to organize them all nice. Hope they are ok enough to read anyway. Happy Holidays to you all!

Thankgiving in AZ and Chicago

Thanks gving in Arizona was fun and warm.We were able to enjoy the weather and be outside. On Thanksgiving day we ran the Mesa Turkey Trot which was 6.2 miles. It was alot of fun and no hills like Utah. Then of course we ate a bunch and then hung out and played some fun games. The Danny and I went to Chicago for his works sales shindig and that was a lot of fun too but we sure missed Wesley a lot since we left him with his aunt Vanesa for 4 days. While danny worked hard I hung out with another lady and we went to some great art museums, an aquarium and looked around town a bit. It was freezing, windy cold, snowy, bitter cold and did i mention freezing. The cold air that comes off of the Lake just bits through your clothes especially badly when its windy. However it was still fun and beautiful. We got to walk around a little the first day since it was not that bad but most days were too cold to even walk a couple of blocks. Dannys work payed for the expenses there and they took us out to such nice restaurants. Its a very classy exciting city and if it werent for those colder than utah winters i would move there. Maybe i would anyway but it seems like the older i get the less i like the cold. So Chicago was really fun and the huge McCormick center where danny had his Radiology Marketing thingy was huge. The boothes were practically little house inside the center. Well then I flew back to Az to get Wesley and hes seemed a little shocked and confused when he saw me. I thought he would run up and give me a hug but know it was more like hey where have you been and dont you ever do that again. He just starred at me for a while. Since then the last couple of days he has been more clingy but thats ok i love the comfort of his clinginness. well then in Az Danny returned a couple of days after me and we hung out in Az for a little while longer playing fun games going to see fake snow in Tempe and listening to a band there as well. Wesley loved the music there he was dancing around and looking for friends to talk to, i think he was that bands biggest fan. And then the good times came to an end. Thanks to everyone in Az for thier great hospitality and fun.

Well we are excited for the holidays that are coming soon. Like always we will be traveling for it all since our families (most of them) live outside of Utah. This post is not that interesting but I'm just putting it out there anyway. I just wanted to write an update on us before we head off for Thanksgiving. 

Wesley: Im sure you all hear from other people and yourself the new things baby's learn so nothing to exciting but just in case anyone was wondering what hes learning these days here you go. Wesley is learning new things and words and sounds every day. He says(in his best way possible); Hi, Hola, Diego, Cracker, dont(a moms least favorite), baby, tickle, giggle, daddy, mommy, doggie, milk,rock, boo, go, uh-oh, yah yah, e-i-e-i-o,dog sounds, bird sounds,puts his finger over his mouth and says ssshhh and loves plugging peoples noses to hear the funny sounds it makes and my favorite is when he says ow because of the funny face he makes whenever he says it. He getting better at commands like look, sit, no, dont touch, out, and more.He's running, throwing things, dancing, singing, and likes to play the harmonica and guitar, he loves music. We have a video of him playing the harmonica which wont upload but below is one of him singing. It was taken quite a few months ago.(please dont pay any attention to the nasty bum singing with him) He also gives high fives, blows kisses, gives kisses and hugs while patting you on the back and when you say soft he pets anything with his hand softly. He likes to smell things, blow on food, make faces in the mirror and i love when he gives us courtesy laughs. Anyway, i just wanted to list them although you all pretty much know since its what all kids his age start doing.

Josalyn and Danny: Josalyns work is going great and she is getting more and more clients.We are going to have to have the babysitter come more often. Oh and i have to mention this cool book i just finished the other day called Nobility of Spirit by Rob Riemen and highly recommend it to anyone of any kind! Volunteering at the body worlds is going well too. We went a couple of days ago and took Wesleys babysitters for free and we all loved it! Since it was a free night for Volunteers and their families it was super packed, too packed, but still enjoyed every minute of every information. Even when i went back the next day for my shift i was still amazed and enjoyed looking again. Danny is enjoying his job as well and being a great dad, he has not had to travel much lately which is nice but pretty soon he will. We are redoing our downstairs apt. It will be done at the end of Nov. and hopefully we can get a renter in there so if anyone knows anyone looking for a basement apt for rent let us know( it comes with a pool)! Other than that time has been flying by. Why is it when you have a kid it seems like time speeds up? Click on the link below. PS you can find other videos of us on youtube from this too but they are kinda dumb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx8UjdXzHEY

1.2 mile swim+56 mile bike+13 mile run= 7 hours of fun!

Well its over with finally. I finished the Silverman half-ironman after 7 hours and 19 min. There were so many hills, no wonder they call is the most grueling triathlon. My 1.2 mile swim was pretty slow, since i have bad form it hurt my back after a while and then the 56 mile bike i felt a little better but those crazy hills slowed me down for sure and then came the 13 mile run which was my better part, i always can do better in the run even though its last. We swam in Lake Mead it rained the first hour so we started an hour late and then we started the swim and a coupe minutes after it rained again. It was warmer in the water, then the bike was windy and cold but the run was warmer. The weather was the worst part of the whole race but at least we got to do it all, they almost had to cancel the swim part. Can you imagine the full distance ones that swim for 2 miles bike 112 miles and run 26 miles, wow maybe when im retired that would be possible. Most of the people doing the full were retired since they have the money and all day to train. Dannys parents came to watch, it was good to have more fans there. thanks guys! We had a good time with them exploring this part of las vegas. The day before my race though Wesley had a scary fall which turned out to not ne so bad. I freaked out cuz he hit his head on a rock and was bleeding so bad everywhere. Since the head is so vascular it looked worse than it was, we cleaned all the blood and he had 2 little bumps and a small cut. He was fine after when we got home from the event from checking in for the race. anyway there are some pics of the race and of his poor little head you can se the blood on his shirt and the other one is his bath time after, he didnt seem to be in much pain but one week ago he would have been saved by his helmet! well there is probably more bumps and scrapes to come, yikes! The drive back was tiring even though i didnt drive on the way back thanks to danny but it was still tiring. Danny was so kind to suport me in this from the start to the end and  especially since it was his birthday this weekend too!