sunday drive

lovely lovely day...

wee!

Lucy loves slides. She calls them Wee. I guess it is because that is what she says on her way down. You would think a very big, tall,dark, black tube slide might be kind of intimidating for a little lady her size....nope. With her eyes fixed on the prize, finger pointed, lightening speed steps, and the sound of wee wee wee wee I knew she had a plan in mind. Yep.... non-stop slide rounds were inevitable. She loved it every time.

Recycle

We have been talking about starting recycling in our house for a while. Canyon has been on our case and lecturing us for quite some time. For some reason it just took me forever to go get the needed bins( I don't know why... really it's not hard). Finally I got the recycle bins and when I got home Canyon was the first to be informed (phew...finally the lectures will end). I told him I finally got some recycle bins. He said "no way" and wanted to see the bins for himself. When his eyes gazed at the proof he got a big smile on his face and said " Yay...this means our family is not going to trash the world anymore" (what? for real you just said that...is what I was thinking) So there you have it. We will not be trashing the world anymore. Leave it to an eight year old to put you in your environmental place.

we'll meet you half way

Around our house "we are meeting dad half way" are favorite words for six little ears. It might just be because half way is one of our favorite past time places. Or maybe it's because half way and some kind of yummy treat are very connected (treats make everything better right?). But mostly I think it's because we know it means we get to spend some good quality time with our favorite guy. Right now time together is a hot commodity because he has been putting in extra hours in the work world. :( Sometimes when we meet up half way he brings a surprise. This time it was......





***Canyon and Ellie are getting so excited to use this lift for snowier times. Miss Ellie will be giving her skis a rest and strapping on a board part-time this year...Yeah!***

afternoon conversation

Me: So you guys probably don't get to see each other at school very much. (they are on different playgrounds)
Canyon: Yeah we do. I see her all the time.
Me: When?
Canyon: Every time I go to the bathroom or recess I peek inside her classroom to make sure she is doing okay.
Me: Really?
Ellie: Yeah he always peeks through the window and smiles at me. He will always protect me.
Canyon: Yep, I will.

Lucky Girl

the hip rider on her own terms

Lucy has always been an avid hip rider. My hip, for her, a perfect fit. Her favorite place to be. Ever since this walking thing has happened she has been a little torn about her favorite place. For instance a few weeks ago we went on a little hike and my little hip rider wanted full emancipation from her beloved hip. She really wanted to be free to roam, free to splash, free to get soaking wet, free to trip and fall on her face. I on the other hand, had other ideas like returning home with a dry, warm, unharmed toddler.

She was very determined to be free.

Finally we came to a compromise.......a dress leash.

happy day

And so the hip cycle continues. When I need and really want some alone time for my a hip she cant get enough. And when danger lurks close by (river, street, ect.) she wants the hip far, far away. I think we need to work on compromising some more. This could last a while.

a fall welcome

Let me start by saying Fall is usually one of my favorite seasons. This year I don't know what has been wrong with me but I have been in Fall denial. I have been hoping and trying to pretend that it is still summer. It's easy with all this nice weather, but can get challening when it gets dark at 7:00! 7:00 ugh... I dread the day when it gets dark at 5:00 (day light savings go away). Over the last couple days my denial has been replaced with warm happy feelings about fall. I have started to embrace it and welcome it with open arms. Who can ignore it's beauty and lovely smell? Certainly not me...not anymore anyway. So I got out my favorite fall leaves and scattered them about the house, lit my favorite pumpkin spice candle, put on a new fall jacket and loved every bit of it. Now that I am nice and cozy with Autumn I am ready to say Fall is once again one of my favorite seasons. Another fall bonus! October has a few things on the calender I am really looking forward to. Stuff like this.

Going to the first game in the new stadium Oct 9th ... oh yeah can't wait.

Ray Lamontagne in concert Oct 28. Really really can't wait for this!

Making the best purchase of the year (season pass).
Sometime before Oct 31st. Getting ready for a fun filled winter of this.

Canyon Cox 2007

The spookiest night of the year October 31st!

(Halloween 2007)

pretty tricky

Hi Lucy

Lucy.... where is your nose?

Your other nose silly girl. (pure genius)

Lucy...where are your teeth?

Not your tongue your teeth (she gives a little harder try)

You are so funny Lucy! I love you!

11 years = love

(Logan, Ut 1997)

This is one of our first dates back in the day. He took me on a hike to the top of wood camp (a mountain in Logan) and then we were going to snowboard down.I remember it being very long and hard. I think he could have pretty much taken me anywhere and it would have been wonderful, because he was wonderful.(Quite possibly the greatest gift to mankind in my eyes). After it was over he informed me it was part of a test. A test for what? I'm still not quite so sure. I guess to see if I was qualified to be apart of Team Cox. Who gives their dates tests anyway?...what snobbery. I guess I passed because about 6 months later we were Mr. and Mrs. Cox.

(subway,2008)

All 11 years have been stuffed to the brim full of the challenges life brings and celebrating life's greatest joys. He has been by my side through them all. 11 years later we still have the best times and adventures together. He easily still remains the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm glad I passed his test.

sub to the way

This hike was unbelievable...so pretty! The picture above is looking back on the subway. It is hard to tell the grand scale of this beauty by the picture. It was so huge and encompassing.

super neat water areas.

The tarantula fell from a tree and almost
landed on us. It creeped me out....I stayed far far away.

Last repel

Subway hike = Happiness

**A few highlights**
Those brave enough to get bonus points in the underwater arch. (not me)
Longest swim was one of the coolest sections with a wedged boulder. (made the freezing water worthwhile)
Beauty around every bend.
Looking good sporting harnesses.
Shane and his waterfall cave.
**Finally**
Shane making a young hippie cry. Shane had a tiny scratch on his toe. The hippie insisted on getting out his medical kit with iodine,drugs, (what kind? don't know... didn't ask) and bandages to fix him up. Shane denied this young hippie (who was very good at yoga) over and over again. I tried to get him to do it...I felt bad for the hippie and thought it would be good entertainment. The hippie even said "it would be more for me than for you...PLEASE." Still after knowing it would be more for the hippie's pleasure than his, and endless begging, he still refused. The hippie ended up crying and put a curse of bad karma on Shane. (seriously this part is true) Shane really and truly how could you to that to him?

exploration

We explored some places we had never been to. A couple small slots and a fun trail to a little waterfall. It had the perfect swimming hole spot to jump on in and test out the water. The smartest wisest ones of the group (the guys) found a 2nd spot that was sure to be crowd pleaser. About a 15 ft jump into a teacup of water...luckily no one was hospitalized. The water seemed pretty chilly but it had nothing on the keyhole water that was yet to come.

(The girls of the trip. After our brave cliff jump/swim)

The Keyhole

This little adventure through the keyhole slot was suppose to take a couple hours to do...but somehow between all of our sweet map reading skills we ended up on just a small 5 hour detour through hoodoo canyon. (that was awesome, nothing better than a good old detour) The hoodoo canyon was pretty cool but by the time we turned ourselves around and started descending down the keyhole we were pretty wiped. The keyhole was short and exciting and had so many enchanting areas. There was also a present waiting for us inside. Ice cold water pretty much the whole way that could have easily put me into a coma, or at the very least caused the loss of limbs. I think the beauty kept me alive. (when they say you might need a wet-suit I guess they mean it!) The last swim was long really long....can't see the end...still can't see the end..maybe around the next bend... this dry bag(used as a floating device) is saving my life long. Like this except no wet suit and none of us could touch the bottom. Sunshine has never felt so good. We could not get any pictures inside the canyon. 1) The camera was tucked nice and warm in the dry bag. 2) Our fingers were too cold to retrieve it 3) We were in a hurry to see the sun. So the linked pictures will have to do. So after all of that the mystery remains. Why was that so fun? In fact it was a blast. Maybe it was because I haven't had an adventure like that for a while. I felt like I was 20 again...but I wasn't so I woke up the next day sore as could be just in time for the subway.

At first Ali was trying to avoid all the water by pulling off fancy stunt jumps like this. Little did she know she was still going to go swimming at least a dozen times. Oh well, it made a cool picture.

(hoodoo canyon)

happy day

Lucy made coming home from a vacation a happy day. When I walked through the door I saw her charming face staring at me. Her eyes were as wide as silver dollars and her smile became unbelievably big. She was moving toward me as fast as her little legs will allow her to with her arms reached out and little fingers wiggling with excitement. I scooped her up and she laid on my shoulder for a moment and then planted a big smacky kiss on my face. She stayed by side for the rest of the evening. I loved seeing how excited she was. I don't ever get to see her that excited to see me because she is mine and I am hers for all the live long day. I was afraid she wouldn't remember me.....I guess she loves me after all. Thanks for the happy day little bird.

Beautiful Zion

(subway photo by shane)

 I feel so lucky to have spent the last five days absorbing in beautiful sights like these. With no kids in tow we had the chance to do hikes like The Subway and Keyhole Canyon (click to see what the keyhole is like.)  It was absolutely incredible. We had the best time. (more pictures and details to come)

(subway photo by shane)

something I love

Lucy does this thing that I just love.....

Right when she knows everyone is looking she gives you a big smile like this.

When everyone laughs, she quickly realizes it is at her. Then she gets really embarrassed and does this.

Stuff like this makes it really hard not to kiss her all the time. (so I do)

lovely lips ladies

There are just some things this five-year old girl could not live without this summer.  A couple of those things included lip-gloss and wearing a swimsuit from dawn until dusk at least a few days a week. Bright and early she would slide into one of her suits and then be out the door. You could most likely find her strutting around, scoping out the neighborhood, looking for little girl subjects that would first and most importantly share her love for lip gloss and second allow her to practice and perfect the art of applying the gloss.  Lovely lips ladies.  

the boy and the wake

 Canyon gave the wake boarding thing a try this summer and did super great. Even getting up was a cinch for him. This might have something to do with his skinny but very strong  stature. He looked so miniture out there on the big lake with his little stick legs holding him up. One time he jumped the gun and pulled his self on up and was just standing there waiting for the boat to move out of neutral.  I really still have no idea how that little trick was accomplished...but some how it was. It looks like he will have to wait until next summer to pull out his wakeboarding tricks again. Isn't it amazing how summer somehow left for good over the weekend? One little cold storm moves through and BOOM summer is gone. It smells different, feels different and just is different. Goodbye summer you will be dearly missed.  

school girl

Ellie started kindergarten last Thursday 1 week and 2 days after Canyon started.  It may have quite possibly been the longest week of her life. Her first day as she put it was "Better than anything ever". She told me all about it talking a million miles an hour. She has been a little disappointed that she hasn't had any homework yet. So I make up fake homework for her to ease her school nerd pain. What a weirdo. I wonder how long this love for homework will last? Now all I need to do is figure out how to set up a spy cam to see what my kids are doing at school. That would be the best to check in on them like that. Until then I will just be happy that she is loving it so much.  

a side note:

when I first posted this I wrote about the song kindergarten baby born in the gravy...Shane has mockingly informed me that there is no such thing as that song and that I am probably the only one who knows it and I probably made it up myself. At first I didn't believe him but after talking with two friends who had never ever heard of it either and pretty much laughed at me I am starting to believe that maybe I am crazy and this song does not exist to anyone but me after all. 

6.2 swiss miles

(Jen, Ali, me, Janelle)

I ran my 10k on Saturday. I know this is nothing compared to all the 1/2 marathoners and marathoners out there but because I haven't ran more than 2 miles since high school this was a lot of miles for me. I was a little nervous before the race. My running partners and I were sizing up the competition. We found an endless sea of people wearing past marathon t-shirts with 0% body fat and bulging leg muscles. This made me think I would have a pretty good chance at finishing dead last. I wanted to run under a 10 minute mile and I did.....but when I was feeling really ambitious I decided I wanted to finish in 1 hour or under. When I rounded the corner to the point where I could see my time on the big clock I realized that I was going to fall short by a few seconds. I'm not going to lie... that really sucked. To make myself feel less defeated I tell myself that if didn't have to stop to tie my shoe or stop to take a gulp of pointless water or if they wouldn't have added an extra hill to the course that I would have pulled it off. (just writing all these excuses is making me feel better already, Oh! and adding that I didn't come close to last place helps too.) Shane and the kids came to watch at the finish. The best part of this was when Canyon came running up to me when I crossed the finish line. I thought he was going to say something like "good job mom" instead he spouted out "Mom two little kids beat you!" That was such a awesome moment, probably my favorite of the day!I knew the kids he was talking about and they were fast. I pretty much wanted to punch them when they passed me. A big thanks to my running girls (jen, janelle, ali). There is no way I could have done all those early morning runs without them. They all made me run a little faster and longer each time. Jen was the running veteran of the team. Sometimes we even wondered why she wanted to run with measly beginners like ourselves. She won third place in her age group with a 7:40 minute mile!! Are you kidding me that is so fast! She is so lucky now she gets to drink her diet coke out of her trophy. Way to go Champion! Next up the Marathon Relay down Provo Canyon. I don't how these running girls talk me into these things, but I'm glad they do.

(Jen and her fancy race mug)