A Riddle

What do the states New Jersey, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, and California have in common?

Here's a hint:


And the answer?

They are home to the colleges and universities which have contacted our daughter the past month in regards to their swimming programs.

Way to go, Krissia!

Cousins

This post is only, um, several weeks overdue.

Here are a few pics I shot of the Gubler cousins at Easter. Please don't feel left out if your child isn't in any of them; I only shot the younger crowd (under five) who were hanging out by Mathison. My apologies :)

Love the different personalities present in this picture:

Mathison and Jett had a great time hanging out together; to look at them, you'd never guess there is a 13 month gap between their ages:

Mathison loves "Baby" Adeline (his name for her):


Sophia in a playful moment:

Guess who got lipstick in their Easter basket?

Here is another picture of Jaylee - this one was taken during our trip to Vegas in February:

Don't my kids have the cutest cousins? (This goes for the ones not pictured, as well!)

This is the Post That Never Ends...

We had a pretty busy weekend, and I seriously debated whether or not to do several posts. In the end, I decided to just do one, albeit rather long, post.

Last Thursday, Mathison was scheduled to have his cast changed. Many of you know that he was born with clubfeet, and although most of the correction was done in his first year, he has one foot that keeps trying to turn in again. The purpose of the cast is to stretch out a tight tendon, and we have to travel to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City to have this done by a specialist. Well, the short cast didn't work as well as they'd hoped, so we went from this:


To this bad boy:
The poor kid wasn't very happy about it; and to tell you the truth - neither am I! It's made things like bathing and dressing soooo much harder. We head up to SLC in two weeks to have it changed yet again, with the hopes of getting it off permanently the middle of June.

Afterwards, I decided to brighten Mat's day by taking him to Jungle Jim's in Sandy. It's basically an indoor arcade/carnival for younger kids. Krissia was with us, as she was headed to Provo anyway for the State Track meet and decided to skip the bus ride. I'm so glad she opted to travel with us; it made for a much smoother ride and doctor's visit having another person along to help with Mathison!

Here is Mat riding in a rocket:

Here's Krissia riding the roller coaster with her little brother. She was such a good sport about it, even though her legs were sticking out the front:

In the bumper car; just look at that proud smile:It was so funny to watch Mathison try and drive. He could reach the gas pedal, but just wasn't quite coordinated enough to push the gas and drive at the same time. As a result, he just turned around in circles the entire time!

We dropped Krissia off in Provo on Thursday night, where she joined the track team. She had no races on Friday, so Mat and I had the entire day to ourselves. We decided to spend it at Hogle Zoo.

Mathison especially like the elephants (this mother had the cutest baby, but it's hiding behind her in this picture):

A tall giraffe:

And a very hungry leopard: Let's just say I'm very glad we were separated from it by the glass; it seemed very interested in Mat!

Here's an attempt at a self portrait; it took several tries to get us both in, and by this take Mathison was definitely finished with picture taking:

Mathison seemed as interested in the playground as much as anything. Where else could one ride a caterpillar:

Pretend one's a turtle:

Or ponder the all important question of which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I think these next photos speak for themselves:


Mathison certainly didn't let the new cast slow him down at all:

Near the entrance of the zoo, they have a giant sphere that's covered in water. I discovered it offered a way to capture some unique reflections:

Saturday afternoon, Mathison and I had the opportunity to support Krissia as she competed in the Utah State Track Meet. She was part of the 4x400m relay....which happened to be the very last event of the meet. After hours of waiting, it was finally time to watch her run. As I prepared to capture it on film, Mathison started ramming himself into my legs. Because of this distraction, this is the picture I shot:No, this is not Krissia. I have no idea who this runner is. By the time I discovered my mistake, this was the best I could do:
Oh, well.

Krissia's relay team did very well, taking a whopping 6 seconds off of their time. Krissia also ran a personal best time on her leg, clocking in at a 1:03.20.

This sweet girl also celebrated her 17th birthday on Saturday: I think it was a little bit of a letdown because there was no official celebration with us being at the track meet. However, DEl and I took her out to dinner the day before he left for China and gave her the birthday gifts at that time. Krissia also said she had dozens of texts on her birthday from family and friends, which helped to make it more special. She is such a sweet, special girl - and I couldn't ask for a better daughter. I feel so lucky and blessed to have her in our family!

Well, that's it for now. Until next time....adieu.

Celebrating Mom

This week's challenge at iheartfaces is "Celebrating Mom".

I've decided to enter this photo:

This is my youngest sister with her firstborn. I caught this moment a few weeks ago during a photo shoot with her newborn; I love the tender reflection on her face as she watches her sleeping son. It brings back the joy and awe I've felt at holding each one of my children as a newborn.

Mother's Day

DEl left yesterday morning for a 2 week trip to China, so we celebrated Mother's Day Saturday evening. He did a great job getting thoughtful gifts, and even rounded up the kids so they could each make a card for me.

Thanks, Honey :)

Mathison was having a great old time:

He helped me open every present:

And had to get in on every hug the kids gave me after I opened their gift:



Here's a glimpse of what our household will be like in six years' time:

While at Primary yesterday, the kids made a small gift for their mothers with a couple of Hershey kisses in it. Mathison proudly showed it to Krissia, then announced,"This is for Mom, but she's gonna let me eat it."

Well, I shared it with him :0)

We made a trip over to Hurricane yesterday to wish our moms a happy Mother's Day. It was fun to visit with them and all of the other family members who had stopped by.

All in all, it was a nice Mother's Day....other than the fact that my hubby was gone. Maybe he'll bring me back a nice, belated Mother's Day gift from China.

After all, one can't celebrate too much!

A Suspenseful Equation

What do you get when you take...

One active little boy:

Who's wearing a cast on his leg:

And a sudden urge to try and remove the cast himself?

Let's just say I feel extremely lucky he still has toes!

2010 Ironman St. George

On Saturday, St. George had the privilege of hosting one of the internationally acclaimed "Ironman" competitions.

For those of you unfamiliar with what the competition is, think triathlon...on steroids. The athletes begin with a grueling 2.4 mile swim in open water. Afterwards, they jump on a bike and pedal for an astounding 112 miles. And if that weren't enough, they finish by running a marathon.

Simply amazing.

I signed up to volunteer at a run station organized by our good friends, Ben and Cathy Ford. Here's what it looked like staring down the line:

The volunteers held up various items and drinks that the runners could grab as they passed. There were sponges filled with water, Gatorade, drinking water, grapes, oranges, bananas, cookies, chips (for sodium replacement), ice, and decarbonated cola (caffeine and sugar). I helped pass out water to runners on the go, and I'm happy to say I had only one botched hand off.

Here's what it looked like as the runners approached our station:They would actually pass through our station two times, as they had a 13.1 mile loop they had to run through twice. As they passed through the first time, they were often excited and smiling. At the next pass (halfway through the marathon), many of them had definitely hit "the wall" and were focused on just putting one foot in front of the other.

There were so many types of athletes competing, both male and female. They came from all over the world; we saw jerseys from Mexico, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil, and the UK, just to name a few. The majority of the competitors were in their 30's and 40's, but we saw a few younger ones, as well as a few grizzled veterans. One fellow that passed through our station was 64 years old! Perhaps the athlete who inspired me the most was a guy who competed with a prosthetic leg. There were also a few athletes who decided to mix things up a little by wearing different accessories during the race. We had two guys with cowboy hats, one with a sea captain's hat, and one with mardi gras beads and headgear. It was nice to see them having a good time, and it sure put smiles on our faces :)

It was also interesting to see how the differently the athletes acted while competing. Some were extremely focused on the race, not talking at all and just grabbing and tossing what they needed. Others asked us where we wanted the trash, and thanked us for taking the time to volunteer.

Here is a picture of the top male finisher as he passed through the station halfway through the race. He finished the course in an incredible 8 hours and 40 minutes! That is extremely fast, even by Ironman standards:

The end of the bike course was on the back side of our station, so I was also able to catch a glimpse of that segment of the competition. Some of the bikers were cycling up to 55 mph when they hit this stretch of the race:

I stayed for four hours, and wished I could have stayed all day. It was so much fun and so inspiring to see these athletes push themselves to the limits of their endurance. I am definitely volunteering again next time!