Christmas in Colorado!

Ok, last of three posts for the day-- HOORAY! So, to finish off our recap of 2010-- we can't leave out Christmas! In AZ, it's pretty hardcore to really get into the Christmas spirit (considering it's still about 85-90 degrees outside), so I really try to decorate as much as I can in the house and listen to Christmas music non-stop to try to get into the right spirit. It worked pretty well this year! Here's our little Christmas tree and the front room. We had to give back our 4 ft. tree this year because we knew that the Bubs would just be pulling it on top of himself the whole time. So we got a mini Christmas tree that could go on the top of entertainment center. Baby-proofing: CHECK!

We had the chance to go to the Mesa, AZ temple to see the lights before we left for Colorado. It was certainly a different experience from Temple Square. We weren't bundled and there was no snow!!!!

Now fast forward a few days. We got to go to Colorado for Christmas! It was a rough start getting there-- the transportation took a bit longer than we had planned, and the Bubs didn't sleep (for the whole two weeks), but other than that we had a FABULOUS time! The theme for this year's Christmas was a Medieval Christmas! We all became either knights or damsels in distress and it was AMAZING! We started out the festivities with (of course) Gingerbread Houses:

The Bubs is pretty excited about making Gingerbread Houses!

Sar's beautiful Cathedral.

Mom's outhouse... oh, I mean, Tower. Lord Albert's?? Prince Alfred?? Something similar to that....

Jonathan's impressive first go-around with gingerbread houses-- yep, it's a catapault!

My Dad not looking too happy with his efforts this year. He made the Round Table.

Me with our Christmas Coat of Arms... so clever!

Brett and his Sword in the Stone.

Dinner was AWESOME!! Mom and I made our first attempt at Cornish Game Hens (which turned out SUPER yummy), we found some amazing hearty bread, we made up our own

broth-y soup, and had our ale (of the ginger variety, of course!) We also had some dried fruit and nuts to round out the evening. Perhaps my favorite thing about this dinner was the gusto that the men-folk had about being medieval! Ripping into the Cornish Game Hens, burping quite loudly, and my favorite: my dad shouting "MORE GROG, WENCH!!!" It was quite the evening!

We, of course, ate by candlelight :)

The whole evening was SUPERB, and one of the best Christmases I've experienced! The activities included Jousting, Juggling, Castle Building, Catapaulting, a Search for the Holy Grail, and to finish up the evening: a Knight's Quest (which was an AMAZING obstacle course, which I will have lovely memories from for forever [thank you Sara for the falling pants, Mom for the bow and arrow shooting, and Dad-- just overall awesomeness.] Ahh-- what good times!

So yeah, Christmas was awesome. We got to have a fantastic Happy Duke Year with some pretty fantastic Balderdash-ness. (ZOOPS!) It was super hard to leave Fort Collins (since I don't know when I'll be back) but it was a wonderful 2 weeks!!!

A BIG Moment in Nik's Life

That big moment happened on December 11, 2010. I competed in a Sprint Triathlon, and guess what... I FINISHED! That was the goal from the start, so I was pretty excited to accomplish it. It was the craziest/hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I think it's comparable to child birth. I hated it while I was in the midst of it because it was SO hard and I was SO tired-- but man, crossing that finish line... there's not much that can compare! So, here's the story:

The race was up in Anthem, AZ-- so we had to drive about 25 minutes to get there. Luckily, my best friend, Sarah, took Bubsy for the day so we didn't have to worry about him. The race started at 11:00, but we got up there at 9:00 so I had plenty of time to rack my bike, get my timing chip, and get body marked. By the time the race started, I was so nervous, I thought I was going to be sick.

The first event was the swim. It was a 1/4 mile (which doesn't sound like a very long swim-- but try it-- and you'll feel how difficult it really is!) We were in lap lanes and doing a serpentine up and down the lanes. They were letting racers in the water every ten seconds. So picture this: you've got new swimmers coming in every ten seconds. You've got people swimming up the lane and people swimming down the same lane. Then you've also got people trying to pass other people in the same lane that people are going up and down in. Translation: CHAOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so scary and Brett said he counted 12 people in one lane at one time. So, needless to say, I couldn't get into a decent rhythm (which is the only way I survive swimming), therefore by the 4th lap (of 8)... I was DONE. I have never felt so tired in my life, and I still had 4 laps left. By the time I crawled (almost literally) out of the pool, I was devestated. It was only the first event and I could barely breathe-- or walk. So, as I'm almost in tears, I walk to the transition area to get ready for the bike. The whole time I was thinking, there is NO FREAKING WAY I can do the rest of this race. Luckily, Husband came to the rescue. He showed up and started stuffing Power Bar and Gatorade in my mouth and just kept saying, "Just get on the bike! Find a rhythm and go! You're going to do great!" Seriously, if it hadn't been for Brett pushing me, I STILL might be sitting in the transition area just crying.

But, I got on my bike and started to go. The bike was definitely my favorite event (and I discovered a serious LOVE for biking training for this beast) even though it was hard too. It was almost 13 miles and the first mile was straight uphill. WOW. On a mountain bike right after getting my toosh kicked in the swim-- it was a hard first mile. But then the 2 and 3rd miles were straight downhill, which was AWESOME! The bike went in a 4 mile loop that we did 3 times. By the third time doing the massive mile hill, I thought I was going to die. I figured I could get off of my bike and walk it up the hill faster than I was going. Not knowing if that were legal or not, I stayed on my bike :)

After the bike was the 5k. A 3.2 mile run that started out pretty well for me. Until I hit the first mile marker and got an intense cramp in my right quad. NOT FUN. So, I'm walking it out, when I realize that the next HUGE part of the route (it turned out to be a mile and a half) was straight uphill. Uhhh... yeah right. I was so tired, the thought of running uphill for a mile and half made me want to fall over. So, I walked. By the time I crested the hill, I decided I could start running again, and ran until I crossed the finish line!! WOW. What a crazy awesome experience!

I've decided that Triathlon's are a really good thing for me to be involved in. My goal is to do at least 2 a year (depending on where we live, and what races we can find) and another great thing about this experience is my love of biking. For Christmas, Brett got me a new bike that I LOVE. I just wish I could have had it for the Tri! It's blue, it's pretty, and it's as quick as lightning!

Ok, here are some pictures from the exciting event!

My number for the race!

Me and the Bubs before we left for the Tri.

Me and my training partner Linsey right before the race! How happy and naive we were!

Me running to the pool to start the race!!!!

How fast was that?? Here I am crossing the finish line!

Husband greeting me at the finish line!

Brett and me with the awesome sign he made for me!

Lins and I showing off our awesome numbers.

THE END.

Time to Catch Up-- November

Well, once again, the time has flown and I've found that I'm once again WAY behind in my blogging. So, this will be the first of 2-3 posts to catch you up with our lives once again. Rewind to November-- we got our family pictures done! It works out really nicely to get family pictures taken in November because Michael just turned one and we needed pictures for our Christmas Card. So, kill two birds with one stone :) We asked my best friend, Sarah, to take the pictures for us and we ADORE how they turned out! She's a genius!

Had to get a silly Brett and Nik shot in there :)

Our not so little boy!! I still can't believe that he's almost 15 months already!

Chasing the chickens. We took the pictures at this awesome park in Glendale that has chickens, roosters, and a peacock. How cool is that??

This picture of Michael fits him perfectly. He's pretty goofy!

Another part of November that was awesome was Thanksgiving! Brett's family was coming and we were SO excited! Unfortunately, the biggest snow storm in the entire UNIVERSE hit Utah the day that they were supposed to start their trek down to AZ. Brett and I were thinking that they weren't going to be able to make it-- boy, were we wrong! They braved the elements the day before Thanksgiving and drove ALL day. They finally got to Scottsdale at about 1 pm on Thanksgiving day! We were SOOOOO excited that they were able to make it. Our time with them was shortenend quite a bit because of the storm, but we loved the time that we did have!