WOW-can I just tell you how proud I am of my Iron Man of a husband? Last weekend, Regan was in the Half Iron Man competition in Provo. The Swim was 1.2 Miles, the Bike was 56 Miles, and the Run was 13 miles! He was SO tired by the end of the race! He and his friend Jared really just wanted to finish the race, but both of them ended up doing very well and Regan placed 8th in his age division! He is in the best shape of his life right now! You go Regan!
Our friend had his birthday party in style a few weeks ago! I am just sad that I wasn't able to participate in the fun because of being so large! Colby and Amanda Wells are our really good friends and they definently are very adventurous! They set up a 250 foot slip and slide at a park that had a very steep hill. They covered it with dish soap and had a water hose connected to it. I could not stop laughing as all of my friends were going SO fast down this slide! At the end, they couldn't even open their eyes because they were covered in dish soap!
Fun times...maybe I will do it next summer!!!
I am happy to say that we are back in the game of having a computer! We had to buy a new computer and a desk to go with it, but we are back in action! It was a long 2 1/2weeks without having a computer: no blogging, no email! WOW-it actually does dramatically affect your life, for good and for bad. I got a lot of stuff done that I probably wouldn't have, like sorting through our basement-1 large DI pile and 1 large throw away pile and 1 large pile of bins for Regan to make shelves in our garage for!
I realized though that I was out of touch with a lot of friends and family, so when Regan connected the internet to our new computer, I have to admit that I did some blog searching. Yes, I went through my blog contacts and saw what was going on with all of them! I love blogs for the fact that you can see what is going on with your friends and family without having to have an hour conversation with them each! It would probably be good if I were to do that, but with not a lot of time, this is a great choice!
I realized something though...people that don't blog forget that there is such a thing and don't check on your blog occasionally to see what is going on with the family. It was interesting to me that Regan's dad called the other day and wanted to know what was going on with our lives and Regan asked if he ever checks our blog and he said rarely. Regan then went forth to tell him everything that I had blogged basically. It is a great invention, the blog! It is a way for people to check on you without having to do much! I love it and I am really interested in beginning a hard bound book of my blog so I can keep all of the posts and entries, just like a journal!
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we are back and ready to blog again!
Maybe this will keep my thoughts away from having the baby! I am so anxious it's just not even funny anymore! I want to deliver this baby tonight if I could, but I have 6 more weeks!!! Plus, my mom said that I couldn't have the baby until after Ashley's wedding! I'll keep you posted!
ps-because our old computer crashed, all of my pictures are gone as well! Does anyone have a suggestion if how to get them back? Go to Best Buy to the Geek Squad or what? We figured that the computer crashed because it was in the laundrey room and lint and dust were getting inside of it and it was overheating in that small room! Darn, not I guess I will just have to use the extra desk space for my scrapbooking!
It was bound to happen, but it sure was a sad day when it did happen! Our computer crashed and so we are now left with now way of communicating through email and blogging! At first it was really hard to not have the computer, but I am getting more and more used to it, but it still is hard! I am at my parents house on a computer and I feel like I have no idea what is going on with my friends since I haven't blogged forever!
Anyway, just so you know, here is a mini update on our family!
-Regan is doing his 1/2 Iron Man this Saturday!!!!!
-Andrea is WAY TOO anxious to have this baby! I want to have it immidiatly instead of waiting, but the little one still needs to cook a little bit more!
-Riley is learning to write his name and is getting so excited for preschool!
-Sunny is still running our household with her cute girly attitude!
-Andrea is helping her sister Ashley with wedding stuff while the parents are in Argentina for a violin tour with my sisters.
Anyway, hopefully we are back in the world of the internet/computers soon, but until then....
This past weekend, we took the family on a very quick trip to Burley, Idaho for the SpudMan Triathlon! We got to the triathlon at 6 in the morning and me and the kids camped out as we waited for him to start and finish his race! Luckily, there was a little park where Riley played with lots of kids and Sunny and I sat on our chairs and read books.
Regan told me that he was predicting that his time would be a little under 3 hours so I was thinking to go to the finish line before then. Next thing you know, I hear Regan's name on the loud speaker, so I run with the kids over to see him which was obviouslly too late! I felt so bad that I missed him at the finish line! His time was great though! If he predicted to do a 3 hour olympic triathlon and got 2 hours and 22 minutes, that is GREAT!
One thing that wasn't so great is that a 60 year old man died in the swim at the SpudMan and I was right there when the scuba divers found him and they performed CPR on him! I was just waiting for Regan to finish when they brought him out of the boat onto the marina that I was by and I got so emotional! The swim in a traithlon is pretty scary since you are not wearing a life jacket. Anyway, I was very grateful and relieved when I saw Regan and gave him a hug after he finished his triathlon!
HERE ARE REGAN'S TIMES:
Place Number Name Home Town Class Swim min/100yd T1 Bike mph T2 Run min/mi Total Time Back Penalities
2042 Regan FACKRELL HERRIMAN UT USA
03 M 25 - 29 00:17:13.500 00:01:08.9 00:02:53.200 01:06:55.800 22.4 00:01:40.100 00:53:41.800 00:08:39.6 02:22:24.4 +00:00:00.000
TOTAL: 2:22
We have had a FUN SUMMER so far! We went to Thanksgiving Point (Noah's Ark) with Regan's mom one day and the kids couldn't get enough of the water shooting out of the animals. Sunny was being so funny with her chocolate milk and lid in her mouth, and then Nana bought them a HUGE ice cream cone which they couldn't lick fast enough!
We also went to the Draper Parade and Draper Days, my home roots! It is so much fun to show the kids where there mom grew up and what I used to do growing up! We played so many games at Draper Days and the highlight was getting faces painted. I couldn't believe how still Riley and Sunny sat for the lady to paint their faces!
I still can't believe I did this, but my fun in the sun was a celebration of the summer birthday girls so we decided to go to Seven Peaks Water Park in Provo. Okay, the picture of all of my friends at the water park is slightly embarrasing since they are all so beautiful and skinny, and there is me...large and in charge! I was able to go on a lot of tube rides, the lazy river and the wave pool and it felt so good since I have been DYING of heat lately! What do you expect for being almost 8 months prego?
Anyway, I am trying to do as many fun things with the kids as I have energy for because I know that things will definently slow down once this baby comes! It is hard to do stuff outside with the kids since it is so hot, but I am trying to be that good mom that is fun and exciting! I have found that cleaning my house has been a very hard task! Bending over a lot has made me feel a lot of pressure in my lower area and I sometimes feel like the baby will just fall out! I need to keep this little one inside for 9 more weeks and then it can come out, but until then, I just hope our house will look okay!
Last Saturday, Regan and his 2 friends competed in something called the Tour de Donut! WOW-it was quite the site for me to see Regan enter an eating contest, which is great at, and a biking contest, which he is also great at!
Well, needless to say, Regan won the whole competition! The way the race works is that you ride 7 miles, come to a donut pit stop to eat as many donuts as you can (each donuts take 3 minutes off of your biking time), bike 7 more miles, come to another donut pit stop, eat as many as you can again, and then bike another 7 miles. All together, you ride 21 miles.
Regan ate 18 donuts the first go around, then 7 more the second time. This makes a total of 25 donuts!!!!! SICK!!!!! His ending time was -4 minutes because of the amount of donuts he ate. He was smashing 3 donuts together, drinking a ton of water and just trying to pound all of those donuts down! People were filming and taking pictures of him like he was mickey mouse at disneyworld! Quite the celebrity! And then people would say, 'are you his wife?" and I would say yes very quietly!
WOW-Regan got a huge trophy for his efforts as well as a dozen krispy kreme donuts which he didn't even want to look at after the race! Needless to say, he did throw up after the race and I think some guys that were filming a documentary on the race got it all on video. When the video shows up on youtube.com, I will let everyone know!
This is right down Regan's alley-eating and biking! Gotta love it baby!
So far, our Summer Temple Trips have included:
-Mount Timpanogas
-St. George
-Jordan River
Yesterday we took all of the kids to the temple to get another picture! They had a fun time playing on the grass and looking at the beautiful temple. After the pictures, we took them to the splash pad and ate lunch. This is a cool tradition and hopefully we can continue to get a picture of the kids in front of all of the temples in Utah this year!
So I am in a scrapbooking rut lately! I just ordered 550 pictures through Walmart.com (great deal-9 cents per print!) and wanted to paint my scrapbook room/laundrey room to get back in the groove! My sisters came over and helped me paing a crazy color in the room-kind of like an aqua green blue color with orange accents! Pretty crazy for me, but it turned out so cute and I have my scrapbooking groove back now because I have some inspiration!
Since my sister just got engaged, I actally am going to hold off on the 550 pictures I just got in the mail and start on her scrapbook and guest book that I will be making for her! Wish me luck!
I am SO happy to announce that my sister, Ashley, is getting married! She got engaged to Brett Bardsley on the 4th of July in Chicago where he is doing his internship! Our family loves Brett and all of us are so excited for the happy couple! I am SO excited to help plan the wedding-it will definently take my mind off of 87 more days until the baby comes!
I have always wanted to be a wedding coordinator, and I love playing with my quartet in weddings, so this is going to be fun! I am meeting with my mom and Ashley tonight to start getting checklists in order since the wedding will be in 2 months! {The Middle of September}!
Congratulations Ashley and Brett!
We had a fabulous time on our family trip to Disney World! We were gone from a Sunday to a Sunday and celebrated Andrea's 28th Birthday and our 7 year anniversary while on our trip! The 1st day we were in Disney World happened to be my birthday and Regan made a big deal to make sure I had a good birthday. He got me some comfy shoes (airwalks) and then before the gates opened to the park, all of the crowd sang Happy Birthday to me! Then he went to the town hall to have me wear a birthday badge all day! Well, I didn't think much would happen with me wearing that silly badge, but all day long, TONS and TONS of people said happy birthday to me! It was very cooL!
We went to The Magic Kingdom 2 times, Disney Hollywood Adventures 2 times, Blizzard Beach, Epcot Center, and the Animal Kingdom all in 5 days! We were going strong from 7 am until 10-11 at night! We walked SO much in the humid heat, went on Every single ride we could and had the time of our lives! Regan was so on the ball with running from ride to ride to get us fast passes!
The first part of the trip, we stayed in this hotel that was $50 a night (let's just say you got what you paid for) and then the rest of the trip, we were in a Marriot Resort that was so deluxe! It had amazing waterfall swimming pools and the room was great! We felt like going from Paupers to Princes! The last day, Regan was determined to go to a "Gator Farm" so we drove to this place where Riley was able to hold a baby alligator with its mouth taped shut!
Thanks to Regan for making this American Family Insurance Trip! It was awesome to spend some fun quality time with our little family!
Sunny was in heaven when she got to go meet 3 Disney Princesses: Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Cinderella! She went right up to them, gave them hugs and kisses and talked to them about who knows what. They loved Sunny because she looked so cute in her Tinker Bell outfit!
Riley's highlight of our Disneyworld trip was going to Jedi Training and fighting with Darth Vedar! I don't have any pictures of it, just a video, but it was SO cool! I am glad he didn't freak out on stage because Darth Vedar was huge and kind of scary! Afterwards, Riley got to make his own light saber!
Here are also some cute pictures of the kids dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell with Captain Hook and Smee! They had a blast!
Yesterday, June 29th was our 7 year anniversary, but we didn't get a chance to really celebrate it because it was the last day of our Florida Family Vacation and we were on the airplane for 5 hours coming home!
Here are some pictures of Regan throughout the 7 years! Do we look that much different now compared to our wedding pictures? Hopefully not! Anyway, a lot has happened to Regan and I in 7 years! We have both gradatued from BYU, we have gone through 5 cars, lived in 4 places, gone through many jobs, had 2 1/2 kids, purchased a home, and had many many adventures together! I can honestly say that I love Regan more today than when we got married. I know a lot more about him, that is for sure, and I feel like I am able to communitate with him so much better now than when we were first married. Having almost 3 kids has definently brought us closer together.
We have had wonderful times together, and we have also learned how to get through the hard times together. I am grateful for Regan and what he does for our family. He does so much for us and is the hardest worker I know! He won the trip we just got home from to Florida from American Family Insurance by selling Life Insurance. He also won a very distinguished honor while we were on our trip to Florida. For the past couple of months, he has been participating in a group called Junto which is a group for people who are starting new businesses. He was selected out of many people who applied, and every week, it was like he was on the Apprentice. He had many tasks to do with a group, and at the end, he had to submit a video of why he should be chosen to receive $50,000 for his start up company.
Well, basically he was not planning on winnning the prize at the end because nobody has ever won who was not at the final meeting, and he knew we would be in Florida when they made the announcement. Well, Regan got a message from the Junto President one night in Florida saying that Regan had been selected to receive the $50,000 start up money! I am just so proud of my husband because anything he sets out to do, he gives it his all and his best! He is amazing!
Happy Anniversary Regan! I love you!
From 1 violinist to the next...the musical tradition will stay in the family! Dr. Suzuki said, "Only pracice on the days that you eat!" SO that is what we will do! While I was observing other classes, Riley played Game Boy and was just as happy as could be lying on the floor playing his games!
Last week, Riley and I made our 1st tradition of hopefully many. We attended the International Suzuki Institute which was convenientally held in Draper at Juan Diego High School. Since Riley is just learning his Twinkles (the 1st song in the Suzuki Book 1), we attended a Twinkle Class and a Music and Movement Class all week long. When he didn't have classes, we attended concerts, ate lunch at the High School (Riley Loved School Lunch) and observed other violin classes.
His Twinkle Class was very helpful and the main thing that Riley learned was how to focus on playing and practicing his violin instead of just wandering and day dreaming. His teacher, Ms. Yong was great with him and he liked going to this class every day.
His Music and Movement class was full of singing songs, feeling the rhythm with musical instruments, and dancing. He absolutly loved this class and looked forward to it daily.
The highlight for me, as a violin player who attended Suzuki Institute since I was a little girl, and now as a Suzuki Parent was watching my little boy play all of the Twinkle Variations on the stage with everyone at Suzuki Institute. I even had tears because I was so touched by the sight. Let's just say that Riley stole the show! I have never felt like a celebrity until that final concert. Riley was on the front rown just playing his twinkles, but in between each one, the pianist would play an introduction and while she did that, Riley would start bending his knees to the beat and get so excited to play the next twinkle. The next thing I know, the whole entire audience, which consisted of 200 people started laughing so hard! At first I didn't know what they were laughing at since I was video taping, but then everyone around me started to point at Riley and saying, "look at that boy!". He was hilarious! He would be looking at the girl next to him as he was playing and really get into the music!
I didn't think much of it until a TON of people came up to Riley and I and said that he made the concert! The audience even gave the Twinklers a standing ovation and Riley had to bow 4 times! A guy even came up to me afterwards and said that they only reason why the audience gave the Twinklers a standing ovation was because of Riley! As we started walking to our car, tons of people stopped their cars to tell us that Riley did such a great job! Talk about feeling important!
All in all, Riley had a great experience and even was sad that it had to end! It was exactly what him and I needed for violin practicing! After this experience, he told me that he wanted me to continue being his teacher, and that he would "Never, Never, Never stop playing the Violin" just like Dr. Suzuki said!
