Ode to Opa

Since I can remember my family has had less than ideal transportation. We have ranged from the brown station wagon with the rear facing back seat to the many "Maid-mobiles" with plenty of smoke smelled upholstery and magnets on the side, we even had a mini van with a sliding door that fell off on one of my friends from high school when he went to shut it. The latest beauty is the Mazda 626 with 200,000+ miles, oxidized paint and emissions that require prayers every year to pass. A few months ago my brother got in cahoots with all the kids to help my parents out with their vehicle woes and came up with a good gift to assist in the quest for a "normal" vehicle.

(Our cars were never close to this nice)

Fast forward to May:

My dad's birthday was May 18th and he turned 19 for the 46th time although he may not want to admit it. Pete and I have not been home to Utah for a year and realized it would be a perfect time to make a surprise appearance for my dad's b-day as well as at Pete's cousin's wedding. My dad is one of the hardest working honest men I know. He does everything in his power to provide for his family, love my mom, honor his priesthood and support his kids and grandkids. I have learned so much by watching him over the years and am proud to be his daughter. I thought is was only appropriate to help celebrate another year of life of such a great dad. Here is the video of our great surprise. It captures the event perfectly. (and yes, they are wearing matching shirts...)

Happy 19th Birthday Dad, and Happy Late Mother's Day Mom. I love you both and am glad we could help in some little way to give back a small piece of what you have done for all of us.

Bucketlist Marathon with 26 Hills

Last year Pete and I volunteered at the Big Sur Marathon here in Monterey. After watching all sized and shaped people cross the finish line we both said to each other "if they can do it we can do it." That was the moment that the goal began. Fast forward to November or so when we actually had to commit to the marathon and pay for it.

26.2 miles

no. big. deal.

And so, I did the most logical thing, talk my sister Amanda and her husband into joining us. Unfortunately Corey ended up not being able to because of knee problems. The training began and man, the more I ran the more I thought "why am I doing this again?" after 2 hours of running, I just got bored. At least I found I love Jelly Belly sport beans to keep me excited for each 1/2 hour.

Well May 1st rolled around and Amanda came in town. We rose at 3:30am to get on the bus at 4am to drive 15 min down the Highway to Carmel. (5 miles away) too bad the marathon didn't start until 6:45am. Luckily Safeway happened to be open and conveniently had stacks of lawn chairs in stock. We kept warm reading the latest celeb news that no one really cares about and reading up on ideas of decorating. A few hours later a police officer came on the intercom thanking us for supporting Safeway and reporting that people were sleeping on the scanning belts. REALLY? so we were hearded out into the rows of port-a-potties towards the start.

I especially appreciated the sight of many Johns as I had been dealing with GI issues for 4 days beforehand just hoping it wouldn't haunt me during the run.

6:50am: the race begins, all three of us dressed in our camelbacks and underarmour began the adventure. we were doing pretty well although the turn around was pretty rough. Pete stayed with us until mile 18, I was proud of him. Amanda and I pushed ahead until my calves started cramping at mile 20. The fresh strawberries at mile 21 definitely helped but we ended up walking way more than we wanted. We ended up finishing at 4:39:11. not bad for 26 grueling hills, cramping muscles, a large blister and black toenail. Pete came in about 45 min later and I we were cheering him in.

Before:

AFTER:

WE DID IT! WE RAN A MARATHON!!

what did we do to celebrate? go bike riding and eat good food.

I never wanted to run again.

at least that long. I like my saturdays thank you.

until Amanda mentioned Las Vegas Marathon in December.

looks like I'm back to running.

Once again I decided to blog.

Yes it's that time again. When I have received many questions about what we are up to and why I haven't updated the blog in forever especially after our trip to Costa Rica, our adventures to San Fran, Pete's trip to AZ, the mud run and many other fine memory building adventures. So here we go with my attempt to again return to the world of I-want-everyone-to-know-about-my-life-so-I -put-it-out-on-the-internet-pretending-it's-safe.

So at the beginning of the year I got put into the YW presidency so being the good leader, I volunteered to have all the girls and their friends over for a pizza party this weekend. It included a outdoor campfire and smores because we are just that fun. And ended with one of the girls burning her lips on the metal skewers. And the parents trust me with these girls??

I do like the girls in our ward, they are all, well individuals to say the least. Some need more attention then others and many are 13 or 15 going on 10 but they make me laugh. My favorite quote of the night was "I'm not small I'm fun sized."

I was asked by all the leaders to post the recipe for the pizza crust so here it is. I can't take the credit as it is my sister-in-law's mom's recipe:

Larna's Pizza and all things good dough

1 Tbl yeast (I usually use a packet)

1/2 c. warm water

2 Tbl sugar

-let this all rise for 5-10 min-

combine:

2 C. warm milk

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbl sugar

3 Tbl olive oil

mix in:

2 C flour

Scrape in the yeast mix

add flour up to 6 C (I end up with 7ish cups)

knead 10 min

roll out

cook at 350 deg for 15-25 min.

makes 2-3 crusts

Also this weekend I helped Lauren put on a baby shower for our very prego friend Sue. It turned out amazing thanks to Lauren's culinary expertise. Seriously, if I had the money I would fund a bakery for her she is that good. For all the fun, check out Lauren's blog here. Seriously, check it out, and keep reading earlier posts to know about the Mud Run and all of the other amazingly awesome posts from Lauren.

A new addition to the Monsonwave!!

I've been waiting a few years for this. I've been asking, almost begging Pete about it without any giving on his part. And then it happened. Just like that. No fighting, no going back on his word. So, without further ado, I need to announce... We have a new addition to our family!!

We officially would like to welcome Ranger to the Monson's home.

Ranger is 5 yrs old, and comes from another loving military family. He is adorable and super cuddly. He reminds me of our old cat Cookie Monster (yes that was his name). He'll meow until we sit down with him and he just wants to be a warm furball next to us. Maybe he's protective, but mostly I think he is clingy. Also, he refuses to drink just plain water in a bowl so we broke down and bought him one of them fancy circulating water fountain bowls. Man, they think of everything these days.

We actually went into Petco to buy him a collar. Have you been into that petworld? I didn't know pets could be so exciting and so freaking expensive!! seriously? you really want me to pay $50 for a special "de-shedding" comb that will probably work the same as a 97cent walmart special. We did however sign up for the petco "Friends" program. does that make us suckers. Ranger is pretty dang cute. He is itching to go out and from what we hear he is a good mouser, even with being de-clawed in the front. that is pure talent. So this weekend we'll let him roam wild in the streets of Monterey. Hope he can handle it. It's pretty rough out there.

Our Monster Mash

Because I am obsessed with Halloween, mostly with decorating for said holiday we decided (and by "we" I mean "I") that we would host a Halloween party. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a tradition since we've done it a few times already. This year was even better because I had some awesome helpers for both decor and food so I didn't go crazy. Ok, just not AS crazy.

(we went as Nick Fury and Black Widow from the avengers... or Iron Man 2)

We invited people from church, work, and Pete's military crew so it was a pretty random mix which makes for good costumes and awkward introductions. I felt like I was planning for a 10 y/o party with all the awesome games which included: bobbing for apples, donut eating on a string, a mummy pinata, and my favorite.... gourd bowling.

It was super fun and we made really good food, even homemade root beer! The costume contest was a tight one between Link from Zelda, and a terrorist. Not sure how appropriate the second one was, but it was pretty hilarious.

I didn't have time to take pictures so I had to borrow some from Sue and Lauren who were both there so thanks to you both, check out Lauren's blog here to see more.

Pumpkin Festival, who wouldn't want to go???

A few weekends ago, we decided to go to the pumpkin festival at Half Moon Bay. One of my patients told me about it so I got super excited since I love all things pumpkin, and of course all things Halloween.

The pumpkin festival lived up to the hype, we saw some amazing costumes, see for yourself.. I tried chicken pumpkin sausage (it's one you can skip) but the ice cream was totally worth the calories. And every other 60+ older lady was carrying around a pumpkin yard stake. Apparently they were only $4. We even saw another home town parade complete with the winning pumpkin weighing 1,535 lbs!!! thats a lot of pie. Farmer Mike showed off his carving skills and the firefighters thought it would be a good idea to hose everyone in the crowd.

Go GIANTS!

Farmer Mike carving the guy from Megamind

Because who wouldn't want a pumpkin hat?

This one is for you Jackson!

My absolute favorite... the guy from UP!

farmer in the dell... these ones made me miss Czar

yes, those are the orange ladies

On the way home we stopped by the Disneyland of pumpkin patches, that had a hay barrel maze, colloseum complete with gladiator fighting (because who wouldn't want their kid to love to fight), hay rides and a gynormous gorilla. oh, and pumpkins. We were so overwhelmed we ended up going to a smaller pumpkin patch which worked out fantastically.

We're BACK!!

Yes, I realize it's been almost a year since the last post and much has happened since then. It would take a LOOONG novel to relay the events of the past years so I will give a quick update and maybe put in an entry here and there to recall the last year.

We have now relocated to MONTEREY, CA. (yes, it's next to the famous Pebble Beach) Pete is doing military training here so we'll be here for a while. It's an interesting smaller town that is filled with the filthy rich, tree huggers, random international travelers, military families and migrant workers that may or may not be legal... at least I get to practice my spanish.

I work full time at an orthopedic physical therapy clinic and part-time at a Women's Health Physical Therapy Clinic which you can check out here. I'm hoping to drop down hours at the ortho clinic so I can concentrate more on Women's Health, but I'm still trying to figure everything out.

My parents came out to visit to see what life is like out here in Cali, and we ended up going to the Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade. It's to welcome the monarchs back to the peninsula as they are migrating. I think the pictures speak for themselves as to how big this parade was. It was pretty amazing.

So far the move has been, well interesting to say the least. We do love where we live, although we have both decided that California is nice, but not home. Monterey makes me miss the seasons and most of all, the sun. We have fog ALL THE TIME. I guess that's what happens when we live in the bay area. It's going to be very different to go through winter without snow. Overall we are doing well, learning and growing and experiencing life. If you have the time, you should come visit. There are amazing views and we would love visitors.