Making 30 look GOOD!

I have to start by saying that I have the best friends in the world. Yours might be good, and there are lots of good ones out there, but mine are the BEST! As our 30th birthday year was approaching we were all feeling a little, um, hesitant to celebrate this milestone. Someone came up with the idea that we should commemorate the big 3-0 by running a half marathon together (I'm pretty sure it wasn't Melanie's idea since at one point she claimed that she would rather give birth than run that far). So after months of training (training myself to run, training the boys to use their manners for Grandma, training Abbi to take a bottle, training Colby not to freak out when she refuses to take a bottle) we left behind 5 husbands, 16 kids, a couple of babysitters and a few Grandmas and headed up to Bear Lake for the weekend.

Needless to say, we were excited to arrive albeit mildly dissapointed in the lack of fanfare at the race packet pickup. Bummer girls, no expo or live band. We stayed up entirely too late the night before the run (carb loading on delicious Hug Hess chicken pasta salad and beer bread), and were still suprisingly chipper the next morning.

And after running 13.1 miles in the cold and rain, we were even more excited to reach the finish line.

What an incredible experience, beautiful surrounding and fabulous friends.

We spent Saturday after the race napping, eating, lounging, eating, watching movies, eating, playing spoons, sitting in the hot tub, and eating. (Hey, we burned a lot of calories on that run!) Saturday night, we dressed up in our finest sweatpants and race shirts, accesorized with our medals and headed out for Mexican food.

Holy Cow! I can't believe we finished that race!

We didn't think our race medals drew enough attention at the resturaunt, so we had to take a bunch of pictures to make sure we looked like tourists.

We ended the weekend by spoiling ourselves with pedicures.

Check out those cute toes!

We had so much fun, we decided to run a full marathon when we turn 40 (or maybe we'll just go on a cruise!) Thanks girls for the fun weekend. And a huge thanks to my mom, Colby and Marcie for watching the kids- it was a well needed break!

We know how to party!

After (once again) enduring the long drive,  we spent our first week in Utah trying to recover from the drive and get our playing in before Colby started at the clinic.  We had a couple of fun lunches with Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, took the boys to see a movie and had a game night with the Frost family.  The week ended with a surprise party for Colby's 30th birthday.  Colby spent the day going to a movie, going out to lunch and playing video games with his brother Dan.  He returned to his parent's house to find family, friends and FOOD waiting for him. Thanks to Ron and Susan for letting us use their beautiful backyard for the festivities.  (I haven't been great at taking pictures the last couple of weeks, so these are a sad representation of all the fun we have been trying to pack in!)

Although I ordered the cake from the local bakery, I can take credit for the clever caption.

There were plenty of kids at the party, but we didn't see much of them.  They spent most of the evening playing on the inflatables in the backyard. (I hate to admit it, but I don't think my boys even ate dinner!)

There were also lots of friends at the party.  It was great to see these four back together again! 

Me and my friends, Kami and Lisa.

The past couple of weeks, we have also been able to attend a couple of major family events.  First, Colby's youngest sister Chelsey graduated from High School. (sadly I don't have any pictures because I was wrestling a tired baby all afternoon- but I was really glad that I could be there.)  We were also able to meet our niece Hazel for the first time.  Hazel is the CUTEST little baby and we were so excited to finally get to hold her.  This morning we were also able to go to her baby blessing.  Taylor gave a beautiful blessing and Crystal made some GREAT food- we were so glad we were able to make it.

Abbi has been especially interested in Hazel and is always trying to eat her hair bows.  We have tried a couple of photo shoots with these two cute little girls and I haven't gotten a GREAT picture, but this one is pretty good.  (Hazel makes Abbi look like a giant!)

So far, Colby's schedule at the hospital has been pretty busy-  but I'm sure we will have plenty more fun things to post about before the Summer is over.