Sunday, May 31, 2009

week in review...

The last week of May was a busy and fabulous week! First of all, it was great to have a 3 day weekend and get more time with Tom. On Memorial Day, we woke early, early and drove to Boulder for the 'Bolder Boulder' an annual 10k which claims to be the 2nd largest road race either in U.S. or the world...it was pretty stinkin' large! They said there were over 54,000 people registered to run it this year. I was the only one to run this race because it's pretty expensive (43 bucks if you register early-50 if you don't and 58 if you register raceday). I actually got to do it for free because a bank was offering a promotion where if you open a free checking account and keep it open for 6 months they'd give you a free entrance to this race. When I went to the bank to do that, they said no one else had taken them up on the promotion yet. Seemed like a good deal to me! Anyway, we got to the race, it was SO full of people! I spent the whole 6.2 miles zig-zagging and dodging around walkers, thousands of walkers! It was so fun though, because they had about a dozen live bands playing alongside the course and people out in their lawns. Some people were handing out marshmallows, Doritos, even beer to the runners...well, it was probably the walkers who were taking that stuff. It was a crazy, but very memorable race. It was also the very first time I've ran that far of a distance (I didn't do so great at training), but I was happy to still be alive and breathing when the race was over!

After the race, we went out to eat, and something bad, very bad happened! We got food poisoning! Only Tom, Max and I ate the same things and the 3 of us all had the same, miserable symptoms...thankfully, Max didn't have much so it didn't hit him too bad. But, by Tuesday morning I was so weak I could barely walk to the kitchen and back to our bed without passing out. The nice thing about food poisoning though, is that it's pretty short lived, so we were able to get back to better shape quickly. It was also nice that Tom got to stay home because he was sick too, and little Miss Taylor (who didn't eat any of the food we ate and was perfectly fine) nursed us back to good health. She was so funny, getting us crackers and giving us kisses! ;-)

I can't remember much of Wednesday or Thursday except that I spent a lot of those days getting ready for my bootcamp. I am putting on a bootcamp right now, that started on Monday and goes for 2 weeks and then I'm doing another session for the following two weeks. So, I ran lots of errands, made lots of phone calls and gathered fun gifts for prizes for the last day. I'll probably talk more about my bootcamp later...it's been a great experience so far! I'm really loving it! Hopefully, the ladies attending it are too!

On Friday, Tom and I got up early and drove to Buena Vista, Colorado to go rafting with his work....it was SO much fun! I loved it and hope to go again this summer! It was also just fun getting to spend the whole day with Tom (and without our typical double date...no offense Taylor and Max! ;-) But, alone time is always SO wonderful! I loved being with his coworkers too while rafting and having lunch. He works with some very fun folks!

Saturday, I spent most of the day getting ready for bootcamp again. Then Saturday night and Sunday, we had stake conference for our church. It was a great week!

Pictures from Memorial Day 2009 at the Bolder Boulder:


my little cheerleaders...

before the race...


this was what Tom and I called "the holding pen" where you waited for your heat to start. They had a heat leaving every 2 minutes!


A picture of the starting line...

me doing my typical wave at my kids wave...the guy behind me looks like he'd much rather be in front of me at the moment!

after the race...this was the University of Colorado campus where the race finished. It actually finished in the big stadium there...you ran into the stadium (this is just outside of it) and then ran around the track there and were done. The stadium was FULL of people! It was pretty neat!

family pic...Boulder was a very beautiful town!after the race...taking a nice rest while the kids played.


Thursday, May 28, 2009

Wedding Weekend: May 15-17th

So, two weeks after our (HUMONGOUS) road trip ;-) where we spent 6 of the 9 days we were gone driving, we left to drive to northern Utah for Tom's younger brother's wedding. It was a really quick trip, leaving on Friday and returning home on Sunday, but we had a great time getting to see our whole family and the wedding. I think our were sort of numb to being in the car for long extended periods because they did quite good. Even still, we've decided that we are done with long drives for a long while. Here's many, many pics (as usual, but I am going to publish my blog into a photobook, so pics are good) from the trip...they're out of order....it actually starts from the bottom. yeah, midway through the drive, we let our kids take over.... :-)

Wyoming pit-stop



Max and Grandpa.

Tom and Jensea, his great cousin friend.
Max LOVED the punch!


This is a Jensen family tradition where all the grandkids pose for a picture while eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts (so they'll mostly be happy) Max still isn't very happy though. Neither is his closest in age cousin Sam (below Max).
Taylor's closest (in age) cousin is Sam too, or Sammi
our family at the receptionour funny, little nephew Jared...
Taylor and her cousin Isaac rolling around playing together.

Tom's older brother John cracking the kids up. These two nephews are Max's age. The one in front was born on the same day as Max.
Sammi and Taylor...they're just 3 weeks apart and we learned on this trip that Sammi is quite the dancer!

big family shots...

This is an immediate family shot...Tom has 9, yes nine brothers and 1 little sis. The funny thing about this picture is that, since his family is so huge, they were actually missing a brother here (he and his wife were getting their kids dressed) but, they didn't realize it until he showed up about 10 minutes later! ;-) Cracks me up!


I made Taylor's dress.....okay, so I tried too. The day before we left, the kids were napping and I had about an hour and a half of free time, so randomly I thought, I should make Taylor a dress for the wedding! More than 5 hours later and after a 2 hour help visit from a friend with a degree in home economics (therefore, unlike me she actually is good with a sewing machine), The dress got done! Hopefully, I won't forget that personal lesson....if you're going to make clothes, invite Andrea to help and don't start the project the day before it needs to be worn! ;-)

Sunday, May 24, 2009

One HUMONGOUS road trip...the farm

Seriously, this farm in Mississippi was the most beautiful, peaceful place! I talk to my brother Jon very often and he always telling me about his animals and the goings on at the farm; it was so great to be able to see everything he's been telling me about. We had so much fun playing outside, Tom and I went on a nice, long run, Taylor LOVED all the animals, especially the big black lab named Max, riding horses, shooting guns, eating fresh food right from the farm! It was just amazing! My brother has always been so hardworking and so talented at making things beautiful (he's a very talented painter and gardener) so it was so great to see all he could do with 14 acres! It was inspiring too and I've got my own little 'garden' growing on our front porch...I even took horticulture classes in college, but have always considered myself a quite pathetic gardener, but Jon really inspired me to keep practicing and working at it...anyway, he are a bunch of pictures of their beautiful farm...

this is way back behind the farm house....


on the back porch...

us early in the morning on the back porch...we'd been driving so long and Tom was so tired so I got up early with the kids and we followed Jon around as he fed the animals...I've really come to love the serenity of early mornings.
this is the front porch...there's a nice big swing on the other end of it. I LOVE porches! I think it's a big southern thing. This house of his is over 100 years old and was actually moved from it's original location. It was actually an old hotel! It looks quite rustic, but it was SO nice! I wish you all could go see it for yourself! It was all just so charming and beautiful!

after our run...my hair just goes crazy in humidity...okay, it just goes crazy all the time... ;-)

the vegetable garden....
Jon running on Shade...
Taylor and I with Shade...
She was quite the poser! ;-)
here's a side view of the farm house...

me riding Lady...

Tom, Taylor and I going for a ride...


Taylor was just in heaven getting to pet and feed all these animals!


the baby horse...isn't he a cutie?
Taylor's first ride on a tractor.

Max standing up...something he still rarely does!

getting ready for dinner....you can see a little of the inside of the house in this pic. I wish I would've taken more pics of it.

ready for bed!