Leave it 2 Leavitts

Christmas 2011

2012-01-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

We LOVE Christmas at our house! I start the season by putting up a tree in every room in the house. On the night after Thanksgiving, we flip the switch on the lights to the trees and the outside lights. Yes...I do get alot of grumbling from my family about the insane amount of decorations I have, and about all the work it takes to to decorate the house. But I think deep down inside they love it as much as I do. Whenever they have friends over, they have to show off the trees and have them count how many trees we have. I do LOVE having a tree in every room because the lights warm my heart as it bring the "Light of Christ" to every room. For over one month of every year our home radiates the "LIGHT" and I look forward to when I can set everything up again.

Christmas Eve we have "Prime Rib" and I love it because the BOYS pretty much do all the cooking, and I am soo ok with that!
Cameron had to have a picture of his "Plated" master piece. We were surprised how good his potatoe creation was with his yummy gravy. He just made it up as he cooked, we missed his cooking the last two years.

Here is the hand carved Nativity that Cameron brought to me from the Philippines.
Another thing I collect is Nativities. So when ever I go to another country I bring one home. I love having all the nativities up too!

The kids love our family tradition of getting Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. This year Steve and I even go some. Don't we look so Christmas Cheery!

So at our family Christmas party, Cameron got a "Room a Rang" it is a really light soft boomarang thing that he loves throwing around. I happened to have another one for Casey to toss around too. And crazy enough the things kept ending up on our high selves. Good thing Tineke is light enough for them to lift and she can grab the lost "Room a Rang". It was a fun way to spend Christmas Eve in our new Jammies.

Notice the first picture the "Room a Rang" is green and this one is orange. They were getting pretty good at lifting Tineke up to retrieve them.

This year Christmas started at 7 AM with our SKYPE from Russia! Courtney looked great and we loved being able to see her while we chatted. Although we only got to talk for an hour, it was absolutley the most wonderful hour of Christmas.

Cameron go a RED Ryder BB Gun from Kandace...he was so excited!

Cameron and Kandace opening their gifts. Thanks Dad!

Casey and Tineke Christmas morning. Love the bow!

Even Olly loved opening Christmas gifts.

Hum...just adjusting the beautiful bow!

And of course, the boys had to head outside in the freezing cold to practice their shooting skills.

Casey is a pretty good shot! Must be those cute PJ's!

Cameron modeling his new winter hat. So styling! And even more Styling in the Avator glasses!

And now Christmas is over. I finished taking down the last tree yesterday. We had a wonderful Christmas and feel so blessed that we had family so close to share it with. Next Christmas everyone will be home, and we are looking forward to that. We hope that your Christmas was as wonderful and special as ours. Merry Christmas!

Haupt Family Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

The Haupt Family Christmas party is an event that we all look forward to each year. We usually have someone from out of town that happens to be in town show up. Last year we had Linda an Wylee, this year it was Levi and Torrie and their cute girls. We all have such a great time and look forward to doing it over again next year. This is Levi and Torrie, Torrie is expecting baby #3 in March, another girl. They make the cutest little girls. We were all so glad they could be there.
Tradition! Frosting cookies. Emma was a pro at her cookie frosting!

Steve oversaw the cookie frosting, and made sure they all met the cookie code! Good thing we have him around.

Cameron and Casey were over the broken cookies, making sure the were frosted too. Here is one of their masterpieces. Of course only a few made it this far, they thought their job was to frost and EAT the broken cookies, and they did do a fabulous job of that. At least the didn't spoil their appetites for dinner. We all enjoyed a great meal then moved on to the games.

One of our all time favorite games we play every year...."The Candy Bar" game. Roll a seven or a double and take a candy bar, of course once all the candy is taken from the middle, you have to keep up with who has your favorite candy bar.

Casey just lost the "Snowball Gobbstoppers", it was a hot item that everyone kept stealing.

Vick enjoying her brand new grandson, Jackson. He is only 1-week old, but made it to the family party.

And the highlight of the night is the "White Elephant" gift exchange. Things get more than crazy and every year we have such unique gifts show up. Tony was thrilled with his Monkey itch powder...thanks to Levi!

And then the Elves came out to let us know that we would soon be having a special guest arrive. These two didn't even plan their shirts, but hey, they worked perfect with their job that night.

When Santa arrived, Emma was soo excited she had to take Santa right in and show him her "Elf on a Shelf" Bernard, and he had been watching her all day. Santa was so happy to hear from Bernard that Emma and Charlotte were being soo good this year.

Emma was the first on Santa'a lap, can you just see the excitement in her eyes? She just loved her visit with Santa.

Big brother Tyson and baby Jackson with Santa and his elves.

The Levi Haupt family with Santa.

The Arnett Family, and their early Chrismas gift baby Jackson.

The Vaterlaus family and Santa. Grandma and Grandpa Haupt with Santa
OPPS...I am busted kissing Santa Claus! Hey he is a great kisser!(Except fot that nasty mustache)

And finally our Leavitt family, minus Courtney with Santa. We do LOVE our family Christmas parties, and look forward to see who can make it next year. Merry Christmas!

What the heck happened in November?

2011-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

So I am not sure what happened to any blogging in November, the last time I blogged was for Cameron's homecoming. So here is a fast forward picture show of what we have been up to. Halloween Cameron carved this great pumpkin and Olly dressed up to greet the trick or treaters, so funny. She loved everythime the door rang.

Courtney celebrated her birthday in Russia with her festive glasses and headband we sent her, I am sure she wore them out tracking all day.....what you don't think so? Come on, it's Courtney! November 22nd my cute Nephew Jake got married in the Manti temple. My brother David and his wife came from Oregon to attend. David and Nancy celebrated their 32rd wedding anniversary in November, and they were also married in the Manti temple.
And below are the Newlyweds Jacob and Evelyn Haupt as they are coming out of the temple. They look soo happy!

The next day we were leaving for Las Vegas for Thanksgiving and my cute brothers asked if there was anything I needed done since they were sitting around waiting for the reception to start that night. I told them I needed to finish hanging my outside Christmas lights. So next thing I knew they were all outside helping to hang lights, it was so awesome to walk out and see them all working together and they had my lights hung in just 30 minutes. Hope they come back next year, they are a much nicer work crew than my normal work crew!

Yes, we went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, Austin had invited us months before we knew Jake was getting married. Austin and Cody have a beautiful new home that we got to stay in. Austin and I got up early and ran a Tri Stake 5k at 8 AM, then came back to start the cooking. Here are Steve and Austin enjoying time together.

All Thanksgiving day Leah asked if she could have some of the sparkling cider, we all kept telling her as soon as we had dinner she could have some. So the minute we blessed the food she was wanting her sparkling cider....she was so excited to finally get it! Loved her fancy glass too!

CHEERS! The kids table was way more fun than the adult table!

See....no CHEERING here, just boring talking.

Me, my cute niece Ashley and Austin.

Kandace chillin with Uncle Carlin.

After dinner everyone just relaxed and some even started the "Back Tickle Train"....which I missed out on! Then we played a fun game..."THINGS", let's just say with the Leavitt group there are some things that are TMI.....We had a great time in Las Vegas and even went Friday night and played BINGO as a family. We will have to do this again soon!

And in November we...well Cameron, Kandace and I went to the Premier of "Breaking Dawn", and this is the picture that Kandace took with Edward....Isn't she a beautiful Belle? We had a great November and will next post some of December, before we are another month behind. We are Thankful that we have wonderful family and friends!

Halloween + Homecoming = Family FUN!

2011-11-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

How Cow what a busy couple of weeks we have had! When Cameron came home, we were told that his Homecoming would not be until October 30th, because we had regional conference on October 23rd. So we put the word out to the family that Ocotber 30th he would be reporting. We were suprised that all the Leavitt's came up from Las Vegas to support him. They all arrived on Friday, October 28th, which happened to be our Ward Trunk or Treat, and Steve's Birthday! Of course we had to celebrate both. So here we are at Trunk or Treat, Steve was really looking OLD for his age. Ashely and her two cute boys really loved the Haunted 4-wheel drive.

Quinn looking so grown up in his Star Wars costume.

Austin and her girls. It was COLD once the sun went done, so we didn't stay long at the Trunk or Treat, just long enough to grab a couple of treats.

Tineke, Cameron and Casey hanging out at Trunk or Treat.

When we got home we all changed out of our costumes and just enjoyed being together. Macee LOVED Olly, every time Olly got close to her she would just squeal and laugh. It was soo fun to watch her. Not sure if Olly enjoyed it, she looked a little bit worried.

Next it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Steve. We have a family tradition that we sing as LOUD and OFF KEY as we can. We kinda forgot to tell our visiting family. They were a little taken back with how BAD we sing. We had to explain our CRAZY tradition. Hey, they might even start doing the same thing.....crazy is related! (oh.... and I couldn't find a "2", so we just put two "1"s on the cake, and that is the 511 on this picture) Cameron of course had to carve a pumpkin. He did a 311 patttern on his pumpkin. I forgot to download a picture of the finished product, but it turned out awesome.
Saturday started bright and early. Cameron and I got up and went to a friends house to make "PICO and Tomatillo sauce" for his Taco Bar for Sunday. When we got home, everyone wanted to go shop. We ended up at IKEA for a couple of hours. Cheryl and Ashley couldn't get enough of it, and went back for more. After the shopping trip, we had arranged for Ashley to snap a couple of pictures for our Family Christmas card. We had her suggest what colors to wear, and then we just drove a couple of blocks down to the trail and snapped a few great pictures. This is a sneak peak of one of the pictures she took. Now we need to get Courtney to send a picture for the card.

We had a super busy Saturday. After the pictures, we had to run home and get changed to drive to American Fork for our "Halloween 5K" Cameron, Kandace, Austin and I ran the race. We had everyone else stay home and watch kids and enjoy dinner together.

So, here is Cameron, Olly, Kandace and Austin at the starting line waiting for the race to start. Olly completed her third 5K.....she loves going with us. This race was so FUN, it start at 7 PM, and it was dark. We ran through the cementary, then through a neighborhood, back through the cementary...and it was pitch dark and a full moon, then the finish line was at the AF recreation center. I can check this off my buck list....running a 5k through a cementary....so funny!

Us practicing winning the race....YES.. I just might win!

YEAH...Baby..... I won Cameron in another race, and will be 29 another year! Well, I guess he could have won me if he hadn't stop to let Olly down.

And Sunday Cameron gave his report, then we had everyone come back to the house for the "TACO BAR" Feast! We had a ton of people, and it was soo great to see everyone. Welcome Home Elder Leavitt! Thank you everyone that came to support us this weekend! Only 5-months until we have another PARTY!

Home Again..Home Again...Jiggity Jig!

2011-10-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes counting the days makes every minute go so SLOW! I remember when Cameron left for his mission, I cried for a week. Then I decided to not count the days until he returned, and just look forward to the fast Sundays, and before I knew it there were only two fast Sundays until it was time for Elder Leavitt to come home. So, I am a crazy kind of person, and miss my kids alot. So about a month ago I started planning on making signs for us to take to the Airport, and Steve's Aunt Linda, offered to do her "Card in a Yard" Doesn't our yard look amazing!
Here I am with a couple of signs that I made to take to the airport(Thanks Lexi for helping me). I was just practicing my "Excited Face".

Unfortunatley, I can't say everyone was excited as I was about the great signs I made. Steve was helping me hold the "FINISH LINE" sign, but his knee was hurting, so I had to recruit Casey to come and help me hold the sign. I was surprised how many people stopped to either take a picture of the sign, tell us they were from the Philippines, or that they served in the Philippines, or just tell us how excited they were for us and our missionary. Yeah...the "FINISH LINE" was a BIG hit with our spectators.

Tineke holding a few signs. She was on "Video" crew, so she stood right up front to watch for Cameron to come down the stairs.

Okay, so the story behind the "I See YOU First". There were about four other missionary families there to meet their missionary from the Philippines. Their missionaries came, they had their reunion, and they were leaving, and still no Elder Leavitt or Elder Long, who was Cameron's traveling companion. Finally about 30-minutes after his flight had landed, here comes Elder Leavitt and Elder Long. "SCREAM" "DANCE".....hurry up Elder Leavitt! This is the first picture as he see's us and we see him.

When he called from San Francisco, we told him to look for the yellow sign. And he ran SLOOOOOOOOOW motion to the "Finish Line" He is really going to have to step it up if he is going to beat me in a race any time soon!

Ohhh. The wait was worth every minute of the HUG! I was soo proud of myself, I didn't even cry. Heck, I cried too much when he left, and I must say that I really don't like to cry. Smiling is so much funner!

So after my hug, I had to hug him again for Courtney, she told me to HUG him for 10-minutes then tell him there is plenty more coming when she gets home. Heck, it was a tough job doing all that hugging, but someone had to do it!

Kandace waited patiently for her HUG! I think she kinda likes her Baby Brother!

Brotherly LOVE....somethings never change!

Dad letting Cameron know that his suit is a little BIG! Cameron told us that he took off his suit jacket and left it in the mission office the day he arrived in the Philippines. Two years and 70-pounds lighter, ah...it is too BIG. We went to a tailor today who told us that it couldn't be altared, since the shoulders were way to big, so we went and had him fitted for a new suit today. Dad just inherited a new suit, since it did fit him.

SKINNY Boy!

Cameron LOVED the yard sign, and I had to take his picture in front of it. He had to go have a close up look before he even came into the house.

Little did he know that his friends were inside the house waiting for him! What great friends he has. Thanks Nic and Diego for taking time to stop in! Of course many of his friends are on their missions, and we will see them soon.

Cameron made sure to go downstairs to give Grandma and Grandpa a Welcome Home Hug.

What a couple of Goof Balls....but I just love these two goofs!

So, Kandace got a puppy in June and Courtney and Cameron named her. Her offical name is Ollyonka JAM JAM. Cameron gave her the JAM JAM. So this was their first offical meeting and I think Olly approves of Cameron. She has been following him around all day, her new BEST FRIEND!

We were all just sitting and visiting then Cameron disappeared and came back in his "U" T-Shirt. Nic is a HUGE BYU fan, so we had to snap this picture.

We are all soo HAPPY to have our Elder Leavitt home. He made us dinner tonight, and we are so glad to have our CHEF back in the house. Welcome Home Elder Leavitt!

Bunco Babes...Girl Trip!

2011-10-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, my daughter thinks I am crazy, I say I just like to have FUN! Last weekend I was able to take a "Girl Trip" with some of my favorite "BUNCO" ladies. We were going to Mesquite,NV to play in the Bunco Tournament for Breast Cancer. They have been going for the past few years, but I always have a missionary just about to leave, so had to miss out on the FUN. This year it fell just a couple of weeks before my missionary comes home, so I was so excited to get away with the girls. This is at our first "PIT Stop. Julie told us that there was some great shopping in Beaver. Of course we had to stop! We didn't find any great deals at the Beaver Valley Chevron, but we did get a great picture in the HUGE rocking chair!
Friday night we had tickets to see "Little Mermaid" at the Tuacahn. Don't you think I make a great Sebastian?

You can't go wrong with the Tuacahn, what amazing scenery all around you! The weather was perfect, in the 8o's, not a cloud in the sky. I had several friends in St. George that were running the St. George Marathon on Saturday morning. I was thinking of them, and hoping it wouldn't be too hot for them.

We had GREAT seats for the play, right in the middle of the stage and the seating. The play was absolutley amazing! I have seen many, many broadway plays, and I must say that this was one of the BEST! The water effects could not be done on a broadway stage, what a treat it was!

This is the stage after the play was over, no photograhy during the play. You can see the stage is wet, and I loved how the actors were on "Heelys" to look like they were swiming under water. At the end, there were even fireworks, now how could you pull that off in a theater inside? What can I say, other than it was AWESOME!

Saturday I got up at 6 AM, went for a 5 mile run, then we hung out at the pool most of the day. When we came in to shower and get ready for the night, Judy and I laided out our outfits, don't we look like Jack and Jill?

Here we all are, ready to ROLL! What site we were. There was a baseball tournament going on in town, and a lot of older men were there at our hotel. They wanted to come and watch our tournament, and they even made our first donation to Breast Cancer!

This is Angela's 91 year old Grandma that came to play in the tournament, and we got her to "Bedazzle" a bra and join in the FUN!

Our whole group. Yes, we were the main attraction in the parking lot that night!

There were 370 ladies at the Bunco Tournament, our group had 24 people. This is my group, "Table Eight". I didn't win anything, which is okay with me. But I had such a great time with my friends, it was priceless.

I have to say, we were a hit with everyone there. We were being stopped by strangers that wanted their picture taken with us. It was just so fun to see all of us being crazy together.

Cute Judy and me. Judy really was a "HOOT", she said now she knows how the Naked Cowboy in NYC feels having everyone stop to take a picture with him. Love Judy!

So.."We are Family....I got all my JetBlue Sista's with me". We didn't go to a beach, or to Europe, but this was one of the Funnest trips I have ever had! I am looking forward to next year's trip. We just don't know what we will do to top our outfits this year...hummm... I am sure we will come up with something great!

Hitting the "Finish Line" for Elder Leavitt...

2011-09-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

In less than three weeks Elder Leavitt will cross the "Finish" line of his mission, and what a race it has been. Just like a real race, and the last few miles are the most enduring, and don't give up miles. He is going strong and giving his all to the end. He has been sick for the past week and in bed. He HATES to be sick and make his companion stay home from missionary work. This is a recent picture of Elder Leavitt and his companion Elder Dela Cruz. His companion makes fun of his Tagalog and he makes fun of his companion's English. He has really enjoyed his companion.
Why is it that Cameron always have to pull the "Goofy" face? This lady was their latest baptism. She took them to this park for a picnic lunch and site seeing.

Enjoying their picnic lunch.

Just driving in the car.....not a Jeepney or taxi.

One of the sites they visited.

We are so excited for him to come home, and know that he will miss the people. What a LIFE adventure he has had and will have stories to tell for a lifetime. Can't wait for him to cross that finish line in three weeks. Go STRONG Elder Leavitt......you don't get to the finish line and quit!

HP Holy Rollers Take Two....

2011-09-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, it is that time of year again when the weather starts to cool down and the guys think they need to get their bikes out for the final rides of the season. Last weekend we hit the road with our HP Holy Rollers for our ride to Bear Lake. The plan this year was to leave early enough that we would be in Logan to meet Marathon Margaret at the finish line as she completed her race "TOP of UTAH". Our plans had a huge damper when Mother Nature decided that we needed some rain and hail just before we hit Brigham City. We forged through the storm and some how made it to the finish line just as Margaret was coming in. So, the funny thing about getting there just as Margaret was coming in, I just hopped off the bike and told Matt and Steve to go find somewhere to park the bikes and come find me. We were two blocks away from the finsih line and as I rounded the corner and saw the "FINISH" arch I felt a hand come over my shoulder and say "Hey Karen, you made it" I turned and looked and there was Margaret running her last block, I started to run with her in all my leathers, helmet and all. Then I looked at my silly self and told Margaret to just go finish the race and I would be there. I can only image what the onlookers were thinking as I was running down the street in my leathers, kinda crazy! So here we all are after the race. You can't tell, but everyone had wet pants and shoes. We all went back to Margaret's hotel and put on dry pants, socks and Steve had to go buy new boots. Then we all went to lunch. Mike and Connie were too cold to continue the ride and stayed in Logan. The rest of us went on to Bear Lake, it rainned for about 5-minutes up the canyon, then it was dry the rest of the ride. I was disappointed that the leaves were not changing yet, I am sure after last weekend they are now changing.
Once we got to the cabin, we all changed and got cleaned up to go and watch the BIG game, UTAH VS BYU at Coopers bar. Holy cow, what a crazy night. We were the only ones in the bar that were not drinking, and the more the U scored the louder the crowd got. Let's just say, it was very interesting being there. We left when the score was 38-10 and poor BYU kept fumbling.

The next morning was BEAUTIFUL! We all went on a nice walk and enjoyed the beauty all arounnd us.

Cute Matt and Margaret....what an amazing lady, runs a marathon then hops on a bike. I still can't believe she did that and kept up with us.

These were about the only fall colors I could find.....but at least there were some colors.

Here we are as we chatted with the neighbors that had just got home from church. We were just leaving to enjoy the ride home.

Bear Lake is so beautiful, next year we are going to try and stay longer so we can enjoy the water.

Matt and Margaret zipping around the lake in front of us.

BLUER than BLUE! The lake is so BLUE!

We had to stop at the beach and snap a quick picture!

Wild things....Matt and Margaret!

We went home a different route, through Randdolph, UT, which took us over some high mountains and into Huntsville.

At the summit, such a beautiful view! But it was COLD! I was glad I had my leathers handy to put on.

The bikes enjoying the view. We had such great weather for the ride home. Steve got a little too much sun...which you will see in a few....

When we got home, Kandace had made us all "HOT Peach Pie" just waiting for us! It was her first attempt at any pie, and it was soo YUMMY!

Yes, I still had my duo rag on from riding all day...but can't wait to have some peach pie!

Poor Matt choking down his pie......he bet Kandace she couldn't do it again? Actually she did last night and it was even better!

And here is Steve...see what I mean about too much sun. I felt bad I kept laughing at him because he looked like an Easter Egg that was half dyed. At least he really enjoyed his pie. We had a great weekend even though the rain tried to ruin it for us. Next year, please let us have more SUN!!!

I Love to see the Temple...I'm walking there someday....

2011-09-11T14:40:00.001-07:00

Bright and early Saturday morning I arrived at the Draper temple to drop my car off, catch a ride to our chapel and walk 7-miles with our Young Women to the Draper Temple. Yes, it was a little crazy, but we found out that there were more crazy young women in the area that walked from the Draper Temple to the Salt Lake Temple. Here are the brave eight Young Women that actually showed up to join us for the "Walk to the Temple"

This is the half way spot a the Historic Draper Park. The girls were in good spirits the entire walk and entertained each other and the leaders.

Along one of the paths a horse started to talk to us, so Chandlor had to go say "Hi" to Smokey the Horse.

See what happy faces they had, and they still had over 2-miles to go. This walk was a challenge for some of the young ladies, but they were determined to do it, and kept right on walking throug sore feet and ankles. We did have a support vehicle that followed us just in case anyone needed to have a rest.

We walked through a tunnel that the girls each stood in one of the characters spots to pose, Cassidy made a great bird!

And then we hit the last mile, it was straight up hill. It was the hardest mile of the entire walk, but they DID IT! Kate even ran up the hill, but she was the only one crazy enough to run the hill.

See, the sign showing the temple is that way......

Almost up the hill. Such a great view of the valley behind them. So wonderful to see three temples from this hill. Where else can you see that many temples from one spot?

Arm in Arm arriving at the Temple!

They DID IT. They took a few hours of their Saturday morning to go for a beautiful walk.

We had eight Young Women and four leaders walk with us yesterday. When we arrived we had a light breakfast waiting for us and the Bishop came us and talked to us about the challenges we will have in our lives going to the temple, but the blessings we recieve inside, are worth every challage to get there. It was a great day, and I am soo proud of these Young Women for making the "Walk to the Temple"

GUR..The Great Urban Race!

2011-08-21T15:46:00.001-07:00

Okay, in January I got this email from Active.c0m about the Great Urban Race. I was so excited and sent it out to everyone hoping to find some people as crazy as me to do this race. The information on the race sounded alot like "Amazing Race" which as a family we watch faithfully. So in March I offically signed up our team "Girlz havin FUN". My cousin Sandy, Kandace Bridget and I were all set to do the race in August. In June I remembered that we needed to have a team costume, so Bridget and I set out shopping and came up with our "PINK shirts and Tutu's" the plaid socks and poka dot bandana's were added for fun. So last Saturday the BIG day was here. Here we are at the starting line to ready to start the race. We were given an envelope with 12 different task and clues and had up to five hours to complete the task. We had our "Phone a friends" on call if we needed them. We started reading all the task, and after we had a couple figured out, we decided we better start moving and figure out the other clues as we walked. Can I just say "Thank You" for SMART phones, it really saved the day for us!
This is our first task completed. Take a picture of a street sign with double letters. "Jane likes coffee but she doesn't like tea..she likes pools but she doen't like to swim,....

We found a street sign with three double letters, we should have gotten extra points don't you think? Next we had to go to a rare book store and figure out more clues, I forgot to take pictures there, but then we were off to the "One World Cafe"

This is a cafe for the people with little money, they pay what they can afford. We all had to peel potatoes to be signed off on this task. It was soo HOT! We were so glad to have this task done. We had to play picture Tic Tac Toe, and take a picture with two strangers to make "YMCA" These boys were up from Provo and thought we were hilarious and stopped and ask if they could take a picture with us, so we asked them to help us in a couple of pictures of our own.

"YMCA" They were good enough to help us twice, since we all had to be in the picture.

As we were walking to our next task we noticed a fountain, another Tic Tac Toe picture we had to have of us trying to dive in a fountain....I think they were thinking a bigger fountain downtown, but hey...it's a fountain and it worked!

Next we had to go to "Wasatch Touring" and pump up bike tires. So here we are "PUMPING", check, another task done.

Okay, next we had to go to Luna Berry Yogurt and drink carrot juice to make a mustache, then take a picture. Here is Kandace's mustache and....

Here is mine. I was laughing so hard doing this that I spilt carrot juice down the front of me..oh well.

It was such a HOT day...it was 98 degrees, and the race started at noon, so we were pretty much running around in the heat of the day. We did have water with us, but running around made it hotter.

Another guy at the TRAX station wanted to take our picture, we got honks and yelling from all kinds of strangers. It was soo much fun! Our next task we had to go to "Planet Fitness" and do jumping jacks, lunges and sit-ups to complete the task. We only had three more task after that to complete...we were doing great!

Our next task was to take a picture in front of this clock at exactly 2:15. Notice, there is another team behind Kandace and Bridget taking their picture too.

Sandy and I taking our picture, there were about 10-12 teams here at the same time, since you had to take a picture only on the 15 minute mark, we were excited to see we were doing soo good in the race.

Next we had to take a picture in front of this sign, and then we were on to our final task....and the craziest!

Our last task was to go to "Good Times" tattoo and get "Inked" Sandy was a little concerned about where this was going???

And here she is completing our final task. It was soo funny. Kandace also got to have an "INK" of GUR on her arm. We ran back to the starting point, and we all were soo excited that we finished the race in 2 1/2 hours with no penalties. The first 25 teams to complete the race would qualify to compete in the championship finals in New Orleans in October. The race staff told us we were close and should stick around to see if we would make it. So we went and got some cold lemonade, and a bite of lunch, then came back to see how we finished.

To our surprise we placed 20th and 21st and recieved beautiful medals. Sandy had me laughing so hard as we showed off our medals..or "Our Major Award" as she was saying.

Bridget and Kandace and their Major Awards. All in all, even though it was like the hottest day ever, it was a BLAST and we would totally do it again. Hopefully I can have Cameron and Courtney join us next time, they would have Loved it too!

Our TWO Missionaries!

2011-08-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

We have been Doubly blesssed this past year to have not One but TWO Missionaries out in the field. Cameron only has two months left until he will return home, and Courtney will be out one year in October. It has been crazy, yet wonderful to have them able to serve missions this past year. I am such a slacker on blogging this summer, so I thought I would share some of their recent pictures they have sent home.

Here is Elder Leavitt and his recent baptism, it fell just one day before his birthday and that was the best gift he recieved this year,

Here is Sister Leavitt with her past companions. They were able to make COOKIES a few months ago, she was so excited to be able to make them, even though they tasted different from the ones she makes at home.

Sister Leavitt and companions enjoying the BBQ on the beach. She said that she loved that the men did all the cooking. The Main meat is called Shashilk.

Here she is near one of the many mouments in Volgograd. There are alot of mouments here because there was a huge battle here, and the Russian's are very proud of it.

Sister Leavitt and Aneka, the little girl in her branch that Courtney helped name Kandace's new puppy after (Ollyonka). Courtney loves little kids and they love her too!

Elder Leavitt celebrated his 21st Birthday on August 7th, and the people in the branch threw a feast for him. He said that now his stomach is smaller, he couldn't eat as much, but it was a delicious meal.

Yum...Yum...One of the members sent home a plate of deep fried cock roaches for Cameron to eat. He said it wasn't that bad and tasted alot like shrimp, only crunchy. Oh the fun he is having trying different foods.

Here he is just being silly. Striking a pose for mom. Isn't he soo handsome???

This is a Russian sunset. Cameron sent us a picture that looks almost the same from the Philippines. Such beauty all over the world.

Sister Leavitt and her new Russia companion Sister Undozyoriva. She loves her new companion.

Courtney's new companion goofing off.....I am sure Courtney taught her this trick!

And this is Sister Leavitt and all the missionaries in her district at her last meeting. Our missionaries are doing great, and LOVE the people they are serving. It is a joy to hear from them on "Missionary Monday" and learn of the many things they have done each week. We are soo proud of our Missionaries, and know that we are blessed because of the hard work they are doing.

Run...Karen...RUN!

2011-07-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

One thing I love to do when the weather is warmer is run a quick 5k on a Saturday morning. Well the past month, that is exactly what I have been able to do. Thank goodness I have great friends and family to join me in my quest. This is the hill on the American Fork 5K, I was running up it, but soon found I could walk as fast as I could run.
At the top of the hill was the Timpanogos Temple, a beautiful site to behold, and of course, what ever goes up must come down, and it was great running down the hill.

My good friend "Marathon Margaret" and her friends ran the 1/2 marathon. They finished after the 5K, and they all ran it in under 2-hours. They are my hero's!

Me and Margaret at the end of the AF Race.

I was shocked to learn that I took 2nd place for my age division. Margaret also placed in her age division for the 1/2 marathon. Wooo Whoo, pretty good for a couple of 29ish year old gals.

Then two weeks ago, I had Kandace and myself all signed up to run the "Lavender Race" a beautiful 5K through the Lavender fields. The kicker was we had to leave our house by 5 AM to be there in time for the 7 AM start time. Kandace did not want to even think about getting up on a Saturday to drive 1 1/2 hours to run a race. So "Life Size Bridget" to the rescue. The drive actually only took an hour and we had plenty of time to walk around the beautiful grounds of the "Young Family Living" farms.

This is the beautiful view of running in the Lavender fields.

Crazy to be running through this gorgeous field, and can you see Mona Lake in the background?

At the end, we found these guys to snap our picture, the only spoke spanish and we were both cracking up at them trying to give the other instructions on how to take this picture.

After the race, we stopped off at the "Krishna Lotus Temple" a snapped a quick picture. It is kinda beautiful, and reminded me of India.

Finally, last weekend I did get Kandace to run the "Draper Days 5K" with me. We got there as they shot the gun for the 7 AM start. I had another good run. Our bishop and his whole family ran the race, so my goal was just to keep up with the bishop. He finished just in front of me, so I achieved that goal. this is Kandace and Olly at the finish line. Kandace had a hard time even walking the 5K, everyone wanted to stop and pet her cute puppy. I told her she was great "Pre-Parade" entertainment.

Here I am with Nicole, and Lisa. I trained with Nicole last week, this was her first 5K. She did absolutley fantastic for her first 5K, she is amazing.

Olly was soo tired after the race. She didn't want to walk anymore, but the cool thing is that we ran into the finish line and everyone was cheering for the cute puppy. She finished in 54 minutes, not bad for such short legs, and her first 5k.

Olly fell sound to sleep after the race. We let her sleep a few minutes before we walked over to the Draper Days Parade.

I had to snap this picture at the parade for Cameron. A Chinese dragon...in Draper, UT. Kinda a strange site to see, but I loved the litte grandma just clapping and so happy to see it.

So now I am leaving for three days to do TREK, so no races this weekend. Then we are doing a FUN race called the "Great Urban Race", it will be alot like the "Amazing Race" We have a team of four, and we are excited to compete in this race. We will post pictures after August 13th. I will try and get more of Cameron's mission pictures up next week. Sorry Cam that I am running behind. Hope you are all doing the things you love to do too this summer.

It's SUMMER time...how did that happen?

2011-07-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

It's SUMMER! I know what you are thinking...DUH! But what many of you don't know is that 7-weeks ago today, Steve had knee replacement surgery. So we have missed out on a few weeks getting him up an running so to speak. Here is his second day home after surgery on the CPM machine. He had to be on this machine for 3-weeks, three times a day. The day this machine left, we all were rejoicing!
So now, fast forward to 7-weeks later and here we are celebrating the 4Th of July. We love SUMMER and all the fireworks and fun things we get to do. Kandace and Bridget enjoying the Riverton fireworks from our front yard, something we love every year!

Last week we got to go to Girls Camp. Steve even went as our Priesthood protection. We had such a great time with the girls, they are all so amazing and our camp director did a fabulous job with our "Amazing Race" theme.

And a week ago Kandace and I got to help at the REAL soccer game and they gave us tickets for our friends and family to come and enjoy the game. Here are most of the people we gave our tickets to. Bridget, Lexi and Elvis also got to enjoy the game.

And here is Kandace and me in our great T-Shirts they gave us for helping to swap people for potential bone marrow donor's for Johan. Extreme Makeover was in town building a house for the Gomez family and at half time they asked for people to come and be swapped to find a bone marrow match for 7-year old Jonah. I also was able to go out and help build the house. I must say that volunteering to help at the home site for Extreme Home Makeover was HARD, HOT work! The volunteer really do all the work on the house. While I was there a camera crew came through with Michael for two seconds, and the only reason I knew they were right by me is I could taste the stronge colonge in my mouth. CRAZY, but it was a fun adventure!

Steve has worked hard on his physical therapy. Friday he got his knee to bend at 127 degrees, a major accomplishment. We celebrated by him riding his motorcycle up the canyon and having a BBQ with friends. It has been a Loooong 7-weeks and we are so glad he is doing so much better now.

Here I am with our great friends Margaret and Connie on our trip up the canyon.

And finally, me and Kandace enjoying the cooler weather up the canyon. Hope you are all having a wonderful summer. We look forward to enjoying the rest of the summer not at home! Maybe I can even ride on the back of the motorcycle next trip up the canyon!

Today I made Kandace and Bridget take a 15 mile bike ride with me, and there was a 5K on the trial we took. Here is Bridget with almost "Charlie ROCKS".

And here we are almost back home. I love SUMMER and being outside! next week we are running the "Lavendar Race" and I plan on staying busy, and making everyone else come with me. Enjoy your SUMMER!!

Happy Birthday Kandace!

2011-06-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

June 16, 1987....A day that was a life changing day for the Leavitt Family. Kandace Kay Leavitt joined our family and it has not been the same since that day. And here she is at one year old, she didn't have much hair then, but look at her now! 24 years later...and still those beautiful blue eyes that light up a room.
Kandace bought herself a birthday present a new puppy.

Here she is with "Ollyonka" or Olly for short. She has had the puppy for two weeks, and is learning how much work they really are. Hopefully by her next birthday she will have the puppy trained and getting more sleep.

Crazy Kandace....that is what we love about her. Always having FUN.

So Kandace decided to throw her own party so she invited a few friends over for pizza, games and fun. Sorry we didn't get AUBS in the picture before she had to leave.

Kandace and her friends just having some FUN.

And the 24 things we love about Kandace in no particular order:

1. A great Daughter

2. Loves her friends

3. Her BIG BLUE eyes.

4. Always wants to have FUN.

5. Paid off her car!

6. Cleaned and Organized her closet...and the world didn't even end!

7. Finds great DI ties to send to Cameron.

8. Makes a great Chauffer for Grandma and Grandpa Haupt.

9. Helps with the yard work.

10. Has a grumpy turtle named Turd!

11. Loves her cousins.

12. Loves to hang out with her Aunties and Uncles.

13. Makes great protein shakes.

14. SHOES...Loves them and has a great collection.

15. Quick texting skills.

16. Drops what she is doing to help a friend in need.

17. LOVES ICE CREAM!

18. A great sport to run a race with, even if she hasn't trained/

19. Great taste in nail polish.

20. Has great clothes to steal.

21. Loves to SHOP any time any where!

22. Makes us Laugh!

23. Has a cute puppy that everyone wants!

24. Always says "Love You" when she calls!

Hope your day was great Kandace!

U2...With or Without You!

2011-05-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Casey, Kandace and I got to attend the U2 360 concert at Rice Eccels Stadium. We have had the tickets for over a year, or I should say I got the tickets for Steve, Casey and Kandace last year to attend the concert. But then the concert was cancelled and rescheduled for May 24th, just one week after Steve's knee replacement surgery. Unfortunatley Steve was not up to going to the concert and I got his ticket by default. So Tuesday night, we got a couple of "Babysitters" Tineke and Margaret to come and stay with Steve while we headed off in "Blueberry" to the concert.

We were there with thousands of other crazy fans. You could feel the excitement in the air. Here are Casey and Kandace waiting for the concert to start.

Casey just LOVES it when I make him take pictures with me...can you tell?

So when we got there we found out that they had closed our section of seats due to restaging and they "Upgraded" our seats. Well when we went to find our "Upgraded" seats they had moved us from row 14 to row 57. Kandace was not happy and grabbed the tickets and said she was going to go talk to them. We didn't think that we would get anywhere, but when she came back we had seats in the middle section on row 16...now that is an "UPGRADE". So, we really did have sweet seats!

The FREY started the concert and they were so amazing!

Oh....me taking more pictures....Casey was just so thrilled, can you tell by the look on his face?

The FREY finishing up their gig. After the FREY there was a change of stage to setup for U2. This is a picture of the camera crew climbing into their seats for the concert. It looked like a fun carnival ride.

Here we are, waiting for U2 to come out and start the concert. Once the sun went behind the mountain, it got COLD, but at least we didn't have any rain!

And finally the concert started....here is "The Edge" playing the guitar. The start of a great night!

The concert was completley sold out! This is a shot of the 360 screenn showing not an empty seat in the crowd.

Bono treating us to " A Beautiful Day" one of my favorites!

Bono and Adam Clayton...."With or Without You"....Made me want to be "WITH" Steve! I felt bad he had to miss this great concert, but I will make it up to him and surprise him with new tickets sometime soon!

And before we knew it U2 was doing their encore and the concert ended. It was such a fun night, great music, great company and perfect....a little cold....weather. Thanks Casey and Kandace for such a fun night! Steve keep up with your Physical Therapy so we can go to another concert soon!

Running with Angels...2011

2011-05-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Running with Angels is one of my very favorite races that I do each year. Of course I don't like to run a race alone, so I always have to talk one of my kids into running with me. Lucky Kandace got to run with me this year, she also ran with me in 2009 so she knew how lucky she really was to run this race!This is a traditional picture we take every year in front of the ARCH. I have a picture here with Courtney and Cameron too, so I had to get one with Kandace!
There were more people at the race this year than I have ever seen before. Everyone is finding my favorite races to run and joining the fun. This is me and Kandace at the start line, you can kind of see the start arch in my sunglasses. COOL!
Running in the gardens. It was so beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky and after rain for a solid week we appreciated every minute of sunshine among the amazing garden path.

More of the beauty in the garden, this is the BIGGEST reason I love to run this race. However, there are alot of hills and the final hill at the end nearly killed me this year. I finished the race in just 33 minutes, not too bad since I couldn't run this past week. After I finish, I always head back and run my kids in.

And this is where I caught up with Kandace to run her in. She was walking pretty fast!

I made her stop for a quick picture so we wouldn't have to come back for pictures. She was in a hurry to see how fast she could walk the course.

Kandace....booking it to the finish line. Are the gardens so amazing?

She did it! Kandace walked the course in 49 minutes! Awesome job Kandace!

After the race we walked around the gardens for a few minutes and took a few shots. Doesn't Kandace look great!

And here I am, not sure what is going on with my crazy hair, but the flowers look good!

And a final shot of both of us before we leave. It was a great start of our day. After the race we came home and helped Steve for a little while, then worked outside in the yard for a couple of hours. When we came in, Kandace said "Mom and Dad are Killing Me" They wake me up early for a race, and work me all day long....AGHHHH! That's the breaks when you are the only kid left at home I guess! Let's see what torture I can find for her next weekend! :) Love you Kandace!

Mother's Day, MTC, and Birthday make for a busy week!

2011-05-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

I must say that this Mother's Day will be one of my favorites. It all started at 8 AM when we got a SKYPE call from Courtney in Russia. She looks fantastic and had such a glow. We were only able to talk to her for 30- minutes because she was at a members home and there were three sister missionaries that needed to make SKYPE calls to their families too. It was the best way to start my Mother's day. Cameron had arranged with us to call at 9 PM because he had meetings he needed to be to. He surprised us and called at 6 PM, just as we were sitting down to eat. This time he was prepared with his own food, and ate a doughnut while he talked to us. I LOVE this picture with him, I just wish we would have thought to get the camera out for Courtney's call. We has such a wonderful time talking to him. This is his last call home before he heads home in October.

Elder Leavitt sending the Love to his BIG BRO and Sista!

Another thing that I really LOVE about Mother's Day is my kids make me all the foods that I love for dinner. This is Kandace and Grandpa sneaking the shrimp cocktail before dinner...busted!

Kandace and Steve making a feast of salads, yes I LOVE salads, so I love that they make sure we have plenty of choices.

Casey showing off the yummy marinated salmon that he made me. It was the BEST salmon, and I enjoyed every bite! I must say I have trained my kids right, because every since I can remember they have made me a fabulous Mother's Day meal, and every year it gets better. I really do have the BEST kids, sorry to tell all you other Mothers out there :(

Wednesday we took Sister Orton to the MTC. Doesn't she look beautiful! She was soo nervous, but stayed clam. We left early so we could stop and have lunch, then we went up to the temple and took a few pictures before we entered the grounds of the MTC.

One final shot with Mom and Dad at the MTC. It flooded back memories of when I dropped off Cameron and Courtney, so I could feel their pain. Audrea will be an amazing missionary and I am soo proud of her and her choices. Her Mom and Dad have done an amazing job rasing her!

Finally, Yesterday was Casey's 26th Birthday so today we got together to celebrate this great occassion. He asked for new wheels for his skates, which are almost as much as a car tire. He was pretty excited for his new wheels! Can you tell!
Blowing out the candles, before the house burns down!Steve singing In his best Opera voice "Happy Birthday to YOU!"And the traditional ICE CREAM cake. He requested chocolate cake and cookie dough Ice Cream. I think we are done with birthdays for a few weeks, when in June we will celebrate Kandace's. Such a busy week, and I didn't even post our couples motorcycle ride. Maybe I can do that this week some time. Have a great week everyone.

PRE Mother's Day fun!

2011-05-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 7th was a day full of family fun! It all started with our annual support of RACE for the CURE. I have been doing this for the last four years, and this year I talked Kandace into going with me. So here we are as the race begins. Check out all the people behind us. They were expecting to have 22,000 people at the race. It was a perfect day to be out supporting this great cause. I have supported my friend Jenn Jewkes the last four years, who lost her battle against Breast cancer a couple of years ago. Here are her sons Joe and Sam who come out every year with their family and friends to also support the on going battle against breast cancer. I couldn't believe we found them in the crazy crowd. Jenn is the reason I started attending this event. she was such an amazing person, and she would be soo proud of her sons for still continuing their support!
Kandace and I had a fun time reading all the team names on the shirts, here are a few of our favorites.
"We support our Boobs, STOP the war on MY RAQ"
Watch out for this guy gals...there really is a "Boobie Bandit". One of our favorites shirts we didn't get a picture of it was a black tank top and on the front there were two HOT PINK hand prints on the boobs and on the back it said "Save second base"! Really, you should all join us next year for the festivities just to read the great team shirts you see.

Just a view of all the people there, the crowd really goes all the way to the mountain. So crazy!

The finish line is at the Gateway. This is just a sign we saw in the crowd as we were walking around looking for Vicki. So true!

Even the men get into supporting the ladies! Mystery men in the crowd.

And here we are at the end of the 5K. We had such a great time talking the whole route and enjoying the great spirit of the whole event.

Oh, and I just had to take a picture of this team shirt while we were waiting for Vicki to walk in the survivor parade. This said "Team Cameron" Grandmother, Mother, Sisters, daughters and Grand daughters. This was for you Cam.

I kept calling Vicki to try and meet up with her, I was walking to meet her and she called and said "I'm in the parade" so a few second later she walked right by me. Doesn't she just look so HAPPY! What a cute sister I have!

This is the survivor parade, just to give you some idea of the amount of people that were there to support these ladies.

Okay, here is me and Kandace again...do you notice anyone in the back? Thanks Tony for making our picture so funny!

Another guy supporting the ladies. He had pink and black stripe tights on too! It was just so much fun to be there. So after the parade I had plans to meet my other sister Linda from Orlando and her family that are here staying with us. She is taking her daughter Audrea to the MTC on wednesday. We met at the Salt Lake Temple to do a session.

Sisters! We don't see each other enough, so when we do, we love spending time together. The Orton's. I really LOVED hanging out with them for the afternoon. I made them take a few pictures. There were so many brides that we didn't even try to get a picture in front of the temple.

And the flowers on temple square could not have been more beautiful! It was the BEST "Pre Mother's Day" I have ever had! Thanks to my great sister's and daughter, who when I got home from the temple took my shopping for a "Hot new outfit", but that is my next blog entry for Mothers Day.

A Baptism in the Philippines

2011-04-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

Cameron was able to perform his first baptism in the Philippines a couple of weeks ago. His mission president recently changed the rules that only members could perform the baptisms to now missionaries can do baptism's. So here is Elder Leavitt and his recent convert. We always love to see pictures of Elder Leavitt, and we are always surprised by how much taller he is than everyone else.
What a beautiful family. In order to be baptized this couple first had to get married. I guess this is a big problem in this country, and the missionaries worked hard to make the marriage happen. Who knew that it would be so hard to find someone to marry this couple. The missionaries had the town mayor perform the marriage it took several weeks of hard work, but they made it happen.

Elder Leavitt in his baptismal clothes. Another little problem is that the ward did not have any clothes long enough for a six foot person, so after cleaning out the font the missionaries had to track down baptismal clothes that would fit this TALL missionary. He was so glad they found some that fit, thank goodness there was another american missionary close by.

And this is the result of all the hard work of the missionaries. This beautiful family now has the gospel in their lives and can someday be sealed together for eternity!

This is who the missionaries are teaching now. This gas station attendant. They found out that the other attendant is an inactive member, so they kinda got a 2 for 1 deal. We love our missionaries and all the hard work they do so that others can have the blessings of the gospel.

Hangin out with the FAM in St. George

2011-04-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

After my TRI everyone wanted to go out to breakfast. So we decided to head over to the "Bear Paw". There were about 16 in our group with all the kiddies, so we had to wait for a while for our table to be ready. While we were waiting, I took a walk with my niece's son Luke. The town square was across the street from the restruant, so we wandered around for awhile looking at all the interesting sites. Luke really liked this statue on the bench, he wanted to site by "Papa". What a cutie, I wish I lived closer so I could hang out with these cute kids.

This is Kandace and Ashely, waiting patiently for our table. Ashley had a touch of the flu, but wanted to hang out with us, so she toughed it out. What a sweetheart. Steve had his motorcycle in St. George and had his "Duo" rag on. Luke wanted to try on the "Duo" rag. I think he almost has the signal that the bikers give each other down. He would make a great biker someday! After breakfast we all headed out to Grandpa Leavitt's house in Diamond Valley to do some 4-wheeling. So this next picture is Elynn saying to Kandace "Kanzest you got holes in your pants". Elynn was quite worried for Kandace having holey pants. We did go shopping, but we didn't find any new pants for Kandace, maybe next time. So the day was perfect for a ride in the mountains. We took off from Grandpa's house and headed straight for our favorite spot in the hills. My cousin Sandy and her husband Jeff had a 4-wheeler too and we really enjoyed our afternoon of riding around.

Sandy and Jeff enjoying the beauty of the mountains.

Steve and me. I forgot I had my hat flipped backwards, it almost flew off my head. Steve had me do all the driving so he could stretch out his bad knee. so we both look like biker here.

Steve and Jeff. They learned while we were doing our TRI that they will both be having knee replacement within a few weeks of each other, They really were having some great chats the whole trip. Here is Sandy and me in our beautiful "Secret Spot". Sandy and Jeff enjoying the sunny day. Little did we know that why we were enjoying the sunshine Salt Lake was being hammered by a snow storm. Glad we missed it!

See how blue the sky was, we just kept going. We did finally have to turn around to head back in order for the guys to get ready to go to the preisthood session and the girls were having a "Girls Night Out" Austin arranged for a babysitter so we could all go to dinner and shopping.

This is where we ate dinner, "25 Main". It was delicous food, the price was great and the best part was there was a little Jazz band playing for us live, what a treat. After dinner we went out shopping and then because we had done a "Sugar Fast" for 3 weeks, we went to Cold Stone for Ice Cream. We really had such a wonderful time with our family, we only wish it could have lasted longer. We will have to plan another family outting soon. but at least we will have all the Leavitt's for Thanksgiving this year, so we can spend more quality time together and they can all do the "Human Race" with us on Thanksgiving Morning!!

My First TRI-SHAC Tri 2011

2011-04-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Once again I was challenged to a race, and you know me, I have to take on a good challenge. So in January I signed up for my first ever TRI. For my birthday in January Steve got me 10-weeks of TRI training, so I went faithfully to my TRI class every Saturday. And faster than I knew it the BIG day arrived. So here are the crazy pictures from the exciting event. I know, this is a terrible picture, but Kandace was so proud of her "INK" job that she got to do to me and my cousin to put our race numbers on our right arm and left leg. Sandy and me showing off our new "INK" arms. We set out all our race gear the night before because we had to be up and ready by 6:15 AM to head out to the race. I didn't get much sleep, I was pretty nervous, and had just couldn't sleep. Last night I slept like a baby!

We "Staged" our bikes and gear for a quick transition area then we found someone to take our pictures. Austin wasn't there yet, so we didn't get a picture before with her. All three of us got to swim at the same time, sorry I don't have any swimming pictures, my support team missed the swimmimg portion which was okay with me, my swimming is my weakest event. After the swim we ran out to our area, I slapped on my biking/running gear and we were off to the races!

Although I never actually saw Austin on the bike, Kandace did snap some great pictures of her biking. She did great on the bike portion.

Here I am on the biking, not a fancy fast bike, but hey it worked for me. Although there were plenty of hills on the bike portion, I didn't really have to hard of a time. Guess it pays to go to TRI training classes.

Sandy on the bike portion. We started out together, but I passed her and we waved everytime we saw each other.

Next was the running. I started out a little wobbly. It was weird to hop off a bike and start running. Even though I had spent months practicing I had never actually gone directly into running from biking, it was a weird start, but after a few minutes I was fine. The weather was perfect and I felt pretty good.

Kandace caught Sandy on her run too.

And this is Austin, finishing the run as we were starting the run. She finished way before me! She did soo good!

I promised my sister Linda I would run the last mile for her, so the last mile I kicked it up a little so she could have a good run. I told Cameron I would finish HARD for him, so once I saw the finish line I sprinted to the finish line for him.

I did it! I could hardly believe it was over and I was feeling so good. This is me waiting for Sandy to come in. I had everyone cheering me in at the finish, Thanks Austin, Cody, Ashley, Jon, Debbie Steve, Kandace, Jeff and all the kiddies! It really helped me to finish HARD!

Here are Sandy and me at the finish line. Everyone else had left so we didn't get a picture with Austin. We went and checked our offical time of the race, I finished in 1 hour 44 minutes and Sandy finished 1 hour 55 minutes. We were 6th and 7th for our age division. Not bad for a couple of 29ish year old cousins . After the race we ate, changed and took off on the 4-wheelers for the afternoon. I will try and get all those great pictures posted for next week. Thanks to my wonderful family and friends for your great support that carried me through this crazy adventure. Sandy and I already have our next crazy adventure signed up for, in August we will do the "Great Urban Race"! We are looking forward to another challenge!

Spring BREAK!!! AKA the BEST 24 Hours!

2011-03-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

First of all, I am a slacker for not blogging for a few weeks. I know that life gets busy, but at least I am finally back at the computer. So a week ago, Courtney's cute room mate that we call "Life Size Bridget" called to say that she was on "Spring Break" and wanted to come to stay with us for a few days. So we planned a day to spend together and had such a wonderful time. Cute Bridget showed up at my door at 8 AM Thursday morning, just as I was putting on my weeding shoes to go out and weed for a minute. She offered to help me weed and plant some blubs that I didn't get in last fall. We worked in the dirt for about an hour. Then we decided to take a bike ride. Since I have been training for my first TRI for the last 3-months, I try to go on a 10-12 mile bike ride on my day off. My great friend Margaret let me borrow a bike, and off we went on our bike ride. We had a great time and got some serious exercise. I can't wait for it to get warmer so we can get some more rides in. When we got back from our bike ride, we did the Jillian "30-day Shred", another thing I have done everyday for the last couple of months. Yes, after these activities we were stinky and tired. So we both hopped in the shower, had lunch and headed out shopping to get a couple of more goodies to send a package to Sister Leavitt for Easter. ( Don't worry Elder Leavitt, I have your back too!)

Our goal for the day was to have Courtney's package in the mail before the post office closed. We DID IT!!! Everything we got actually fit in the package. That was a miracle too! So reaching our goal of getting Court's package off, which was just .03 oz shy of the 4 lb limit, we were able to come home and PLAY!!!!

We had to make TACO's for dinner, in Courtney's honor. They were sooooo GOOD!

Here's Bridget and Tasha showing off their taco's...YUM....YUM! After dinner we sat down to watch a chick flick, when Bridget suddenly had this crazy notion that we should make cookies. So we stopped the movie and made cookie dough, watched for a few more minutes. stopped again to bake the cookies.....and.......

Bridget making "Andes Mint" cookies.

On the cookie baking break we also had Tasha put on a "Brother McDonald" piano concert. Yes, I was totally spoiled by Courtney's great friends. As I sat and listened to Tasha play I was kinda sad for a minute, because we were doing everything that Courtney would be doing.....but it was nice to know that her wonderful friends take care of us.

Tasha playing the piano and Bridget, the professional "Page Turner"! The concert went for about an hour...a whole hour of Heaven on Earth! It was so relaxing.

Kandace and Bridget.....what cuties!

Mamm K and Bridget, I LOVE this girl! We did finally finish watching our Chick Flick, but after that I had to head to bed, to be able to get up for work a 3:30 AM. We had the BEST 24- hours together. Bridget had to leave early the next morning, as she was heading back to Cedar City. I loved spending "Spring Break" with Bridget! In fact, I have signed us up for the "Great Urban RACE" in August, just so she will come and spend time with us again. Of course, she will be stopping in on Mother's Day....Right Bridget? Thanks for the fun day.

Just for kicks....more pictures from Elder Leavitt

2011-03-06T17:19:00.001-08:00

Elder Leavitt sent these pictures home last week. There are some fun ones. It made me think of when my brother David went on his mission to Argentina, we would only hear from him about once a month and maybe every six months get a picture or two. I think we are soo lucky to be able to hear from Cameron every week, and get so many pictures of what he us doing every couple of weeks. Enjoy the pictures, and Elder Leavitt...keep them coming for us to enjoy! I guess this is the entrance to the cave they went to.
Elder Leavitt on a cool bridge by the cave.

At the cave....you can totally tell his mother did not dress him. Where are his hiking shoes????

Okay....a face that makes Mom SMILE! I Love this picture!

I guess he had to do some push-ups to get ready for his next picture.....

Wow....such BIG Muscles! He sure is getting stronger, he didn't use to hold up boulders with a single hand!

I am sure that he is selling the GOSPEL! I tried the number...but no one answered. They must be soo busy with this new sign, the calls are rolling in!

A handsome group of young men. Not sure if this is his branch or what.

Elder Leavitt having fun with the kids again. I looked at the old tire for a while and thought that this little boy probably spends hours having great enjoyment with it, I loved that thought!

Elder Leavitt said this is a road they walk down everyday. Such a beautiful sight!

And this last one is Elder Leavitt crashing on his bed after a long day. He is so blessed to have a bed. We know he is working hard, and also having a little fun. We are so lucky to have such great kids. Hopefully Courtney will be able to send some pictures home soon. I do post her email weekly on her blog, check it out if you haven't read her emails! Have a great week everyone! :)

Double the Leavitt's, Double the FUN!

2011-02-20T14:15:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had a special treat...Austin and Cody with their four beautiful girls came to stay for a couple of days. Cody's Grandpa Okuda had his retirement party on Friday, so they came Friday night and left on Sunday morning. We all had a great time and it was so nice to just have some noise in the house again. I talked Austin into going to my TRI training class on Saturday morning. I had asked Kandace that if the girls woke up to make "Mickey Mouse" wafffels for the girls, something that Courtney normally does for us. When we walked in from our workout, we could smell WAFFLES!
So I have to tell the funniest story. Everyone is eating waffles and visiting. And I hear "Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch....." I look over and Elynn is cutting up her Mickey Mouse waffle and everytime she cuts his ears, eyes, nose, she is saying "OUCH". Yes, we all started laughing. I so miss little kids around the house. They always make you laugh!

After Kandace had finished making the kids waffles, she stole Macee. Macee is the best baby ever. She loves everyone and is so easy going. It was just so awesome to have these girls around. Saturday durung the day, Austin and Cody and the girls went to Coalsville to visit Cody's 91 year old Grandma. His parents and siblings all met there to. There was alot of snow up north and the girls had a blast playing in the snow. (Austin, get your pictures posted on your blog!) We planned for a dinner together after they were done. We had Casey and Tineke and Grandma and Grandpa Haupt come too for dinner.

While we were waiting for Austin and Cody to arrive, Steve and Casey showed Grandpa how to go online and watch movies on Netflex. they made him do everything on his own. Now Grandpa is ready to cut loose, and watch movies.

When the girls arrived, they were all wet and cold from playing in the snow. I suggested putting them all in the tub before we ate so they could get warm. So I ran the jacuzzi and they were so happy to have bubbles and warm!

Kennedy even put on goggles to swim under water.

They had way too much fun blowing bubbles. Cute Leah had a wash cloth and cleaned up their mess as they made it. She is a good helper.

Kandace and Austin had fun snapping shots of everyone all night. Here I am smiling for Kandace.

And Kandace and Austin took pictures of each other taking pictures. We just had a nice night at home and hanging out. I made pulled pork. Cameron's recipe. I was nervoust to make it, since Cameron is a PRO, and I had alot to live up to. All in all, everything was yummy. We are enjoying the leftovers today! Nice!

I did get to take a few pictures, here is Kandace and cute Macee.

Grandma Haupt and Macee. Macee loved snuggling with Grandma.

After dinner the girls made us cookies. I had promised Courtney that we would make cookies with the girls. She always does this with them when they come. So we did our best to keep that tradition going. Steve actually took over the cooking with the girls. Elynn was the first to dive in, she knew that she was going to make cookies, and all through dinner asked if it was time to make cookies yet?

Elynn is ready to go...she washed her hands and put on her apron before making cookies!

All three girls going to town rolling cookie dough balls. After the first batch went in the oven Steve showed them his favorite thing to do with cookie dough....eat it. Elynn loved that idea! You should have seen her cheek full of cookie dough.

We are soo glad that Austin Cody and their cute girls came to entertain us and have fun for the weekend. We hope they come back again soon!!!

The Exciting Adventures of Elder Leavitt

2011-02-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

Elder Leavitt sent a few pictures home the past few weeks, so I wanted to post them for all to enjoy. He is down to only 8 months left on his mission, and the time is flying by. We enjoy hearing from him and especially seeing where he is and what he is up to. Here Elder Leavitt is retreating to his secluded reading room. He said he really enjoys going out to the hammock relaxing while he does his scripture study.
Goofy Missionaries with the kids.

A beautiful rice field. Ohh.... to see GREEN again!

Elder Leavitt with his first companion just before he headed home.

Who are the kids and who is the missionary? Cameron loves being with the kids.

Not sure what this picture is. I am just glad he still has his camera. A few days before Christmas he and his companion were taken to a dark alley and robbed. He had just opened his new camera for his Christmas gift and almost took it with him that day. Thank goodness their guardian angel was with them and no one got hurt and the person that did rob them only got a backpack full of church literature and about $1.50 in cash.

This week Elder Leavitt and his district went on a hike to a waterfall. These are the pictures he sent of his hike.

The waterfall

Just a beautiful picture of the scenery from the top.

More scenery.

And here is Elder Leavitt cooling off in the stream. Notice all the other missionaries in the background. Nice to see that they do get to have some down time to enjoy the country side. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do.

Happy Valentines!

2011-02-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

Nothing say's its' Valentines like Conversation Hearts! Kandace and our little friend James had some fun with my new camera and so I thought I would share with you.
TRUE LOVE...Baby I Love you!!!

I think they were taking these fun pictures for Courtney....but I loved them and wanted to post them.

Yep, they were totally being SILLY WILLIES!

Life is never boring around here....well then again when no one is here, it is totally BORING!

Doesn't Kandace look so HOT! She should totally put this as her FB profile picture!

James LOVES to play games whenever he comes over. When I walked in from work he was sitting at the table playing "Go Fish" with Kandace. When he saw me he looked up and said "Mamma K! Did you miss me so bad you couldn't stand it?" Yes, we do miss our Jamies E Buckets (AKA James) when he isn't around. Thank goodness we have him to make us all smile while Courtney is away. Oh course he also had to tease me about that too. He said "My Courtney..." Edging me to say "Oh no....she's MY COURTNEY" Then with that cute grin he said "Remember we Share!" We wish you all a "HAPPY VALENTINES" And remember

"We Love You"!!!

Macee's Baby Blessing

2011-02-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went back to Las Vegas to attend Macee Keiko Okuda's baby blessing. We were so excited to just get out of the cold for a couple of days, but it wasn't that warm in Las Vegas either. Here is cute Macee. Such a happy, easy going baby.
See, she is trying to smile for the camera. What a cutie!

I got to visit alot with this cutie, such a beautiful baby with dark hair and blue eyes.

Elynn caught me and asked me to help her put on her princess dress. So here is Princess Elynn.

Princess Elynn dubbing her royal Prince...Daddy! And daddy trying to watch the game on TV.

So I was just snapping pictures of everyone and caught Carlin....scratching his head???? At least that is what he told me, you be the judge?

Grandpa Leavitt just happy to be with the family, even though no one would give in and get him a muffin!

A rare moment. Steve with his sister Cheryl, and father. Not something that happens to often anymore so we have to capture the moment when it happens.

And the Leavitt siblings...well most of them. Carlin, Austin, Benny, Cheryl and Steve. We will have to try and catch up with everyone when Guy and Teresa are in town. It was a fun trip, quick, but fun!

Happy 29thish Birthday!

2011-02-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so a month ago I celebrated my birthday. We actually celebrated a day early since it was Sunday and everyone had the day off. You know how it is, life gets crazy on the weekdays! So my wonderful family made me a yummy dinner. Almond crusted Tilapia. Yummm! This was an act of love since no one cares much for fish but me. Steve did a great job! Casey made my birthday cake. Normally I make an Ice Cream cake for birthday's. Another act of Love...Angel Food Cake, Strawberries and whip cream. Double Yummo!
Someone tried to pull a funny and accidently but "52" on my cake, I helped correct that right away. Humm...I wonder who would do such a thing? For my birthday Steve got me 10-sessions for training for a TRI with a trainer. I have gone three times and have a loooooonnnnngggg way to go with the swimming portion. I thought I would die after the first time. but I am headed back again this week! Hopefully I will be ready for my TRI in April.

The morning of my real birthday I had this fabulous surprise in my yard! It was so fun to find at 4 AM as I headed out to work. Kandace took a picture for me. Thank you to Steve's wonderful Aunt Linda and her new business..."Card in a Yard" So fun!

And these cuties came over that night and played the piano for an hour for me. Ahhh...it was the best birthday ever. Thank you Tasha and Bridget for making me SMILE!!! I have the best family and friends ever!

Christmas..Yes, we know it is January!

2011-01-15T18:10:00.001-08:00

Yes, Christmas has come and gone, but now we are taking time to share our wonderful memories. Less than 24-hours after returning from our cruise we hosted the "Haupt Family Christmas party" . One of our favorite holiday traditions. This year was a real treat. Now that Grandma and Grandpa Haupt live with us we are getting a bigger crowd. Linda and Wylee arrived from Orlando the morning of the party, not to come to the party but to pick up Wylee's mother who was being released from her mission. We took advantage of them being here by planning our Christmas party the day they arrived. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas feast, then the festivities really came alive. Every year we have a "White Elephant" gift exchange. Some folks bring real white elephant gifts, and some bring NICE gifts. It is always an exciting event.

Wylee opening the "Christmas Pig" making his second appearance at the White Elephant gift exchange. He stole my gift "Money to Burn" a bag of shredded money and a lighter. He wanted to teach his kids that he really does have money to burn.
Tyson showing us how the flying monkey works. Linda stole this....but Tyson was
happy with the gift he ended up with. We always make sure to bring gifts the kids will want, but then the adults like them too and steal them. Makes the whole crazy event with it! I think that cruising got the best of me, I totally forgot to get candy bars for the candy bar game, next year someone else better be in charge of remembering this, I get busy and forget.

Every year we have a "Special Guest" come to visit the kids. Again I almost forgot, so I had toput a last minute call in to the North Pole, and Santa dropped what he was doing just to come for the kids.

Santa and his elf making sure they remember where they parked the sled.

Santa giving Tyson his gift. Tyson said he had been very good, and so he got his gift from Santa.

Kandace with Santa. She has been very good this year, Santa was proud of her!

Trying to get a Family picture with Santa...some people were paying attention and some were busy with their new gifts.

All of us with Santa. We had such a wonderful Haupt Family Christmas party, and just think the next one is only 11 months away!

This year we broke tradition and celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. We always have a Prime Rib dinner on Christmas Eve, and Cameron said he would be calling on Christmas Eve and Steve had to work on Christmas. So we decided to just simplfy and do everything Christmas Eve. I have decided that this year was the worst year for Christmas pictures. For some reason I just forgot to take pictures, but here are the few that we did take.

Tineke and Casey open their gift. Notice Casey's gift to the right, he got the Automatic Nerf Gun that he had been wanting....oh the trouble he caused shooting us with it!

Kandace opening one of her many gifts. It was just a little weird to be opening our gifts on Christmas Eve. Steve totally surprised and spoiled me and got me the Cannon camera that I had been wanting for a few years. Maybe next year I will be better at taking pictures!

Okay, the very BEST part of our Christmas Eve was that Cameron got to Skype us and just as we were sitting down to eat, he was calling. So we brought the laptop to the dinner table and told him that we were just sitting down and needed to say the prayer. He offered to say the prayer, and prayed in Tagolic. It was so cool. After dinner, we brought the laptop to the kitchen and he did dishes with us, then we brought him in to open gifts with us. It was like he was right there with us all night. Wow, I love modern technology! We just didn't get to have our Courtney with us. Since she was still in the MTC she wasn't allowed to call home, but her gift to us was a tape of her playing her Harmonica and telling us all about the MTC. Although Christmas day was too quiet, we had the BEST Christmas Eve Ever!

After all the gifts were opened, Steve and I got to just sit and talk alone with Cameron for a few minutes. We wished that we could just talk forever, but he did have to go. We are so proud of our missionaries, and Casey and Kandace, FAMILY is the BEST!. It was a wonderful Christmas and hope that yours was too!

A day in the Life of Elder Leavitt

2011-01-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

Cameron sent these pictures home a few weeks ago and wanted to have them posted on the blog so everyone could see where he is and what he is up to. This is Elder Leavitt with Elder Carlton, Elder Carlton is from Lehi, UT. A great picture with the rice fields on the right and a White Bull in the background.

Elder Leavitt challenging the "Great White Bull" the most furious bull in the land. An inside joke from Nacho Libra, a line that Cameron picked up and nicknamed himself. I guess the furious two white bulls came to a mutual understanding, and no one got hurt. Thank goodness for that!

These are pictures from a Community Service Project. They had to fill potatoe sized bags with dirt. Dirty job, but someone had to do it.

Playing in the DIRT!

Elder Leavitt and Elder Carlton in front of a small Barangay (or village). He said it was the least civilized, unpopulated area he has seen, but it still has electricity.

Elder recived a new camera for Christmas, so he took some pictures of morning life at his apartment. Notice the packages on the floor and the wrapping paper on the table. At least the Missionaries are loved!

Elder Leavitt and Elder Palma, his zone leader. Elder Leavitt is at least a foot taller than most of his companions and other missionaries in the Philippines. He love's the work he is doing, and we love seeing where he is and what he is up to. Hard to believe in 9-short months he will be home. Keep up the great work Elder Leavitt and keep those pictures coming our way!

Cruising...a much needed Vacation!

2010-12-24T05:42:00.000-08:00

Steve is one that really likes to take great vacations. So after Courtney annouced that she was going on a mission we realized we would be down to one kid at home for the holidays. So Steve had a great idea, let's take a cruise for Christmas! LOVED it! We called our good friend's the Cooper's to see if they wanted to join us, and before we knew it everything fell into place and it was time to take a much needed VACATION! We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico at noon on Sunday, after taking the redeye flight out of Las Vegas. Matt and Margaret picked us up from the airport and the week long party began. Here we are in the Rainforest. We took a picture at this same spot about five years ago with the kids.

Just some of the beautiful scenery we viewed on our hike.
We ended up hiking for a couple of hours. Soo fun. Then we had to return car and we headed to the ship.

Here we are leaving the port. Old San Juan is behind us.
Our first stop on the cruise was St. Thomas. Steve had researched and found out that we should take a ferry over to St. Johns then go to Trunk Bay for snorkling. This is Steve and Matt on the Ferry ride over.
Here we are in St. Johns.

Our first view of St. John's....and it got better from here.

The snorkling was AWESOME. This is Matt and Steve snorkling. Margaret and I saw a Barriacuda. We looked at each other and pointed and kept snorkling. There was a snorkling trail that had cement blocks with signs of what you were seeing. It identified the different fish and coral. Soo cool!

Here we all are on the beach at Trunk Bay. The water was so warm and clear, we spent hours enjoying ourselves.

Steve and me at Trunk Bay.

Tuesday was a day on the ship. We found many ways to keep ourselves busy, starting with sleeping in. We were pretty wiped out from taking the redeye, playing all day in San Juan, then snorkling all day in St. Johns. Sleep was a must. We all met around noon for lunch on deck.

Then we all watched the ICE SCULPTING. This is always a fun thing to watch. I could not figure out what he was making, but Matt could tell. Once he stood it up like this we could all tell it was an Indian Chief.

Mininature golfing on the top of the ship. Margaret kicked BOOTAE! Her golf lessons really paid off. It was very intersting trying to golf in the wind!

Here I am with my handsome hubby at formal night. We always enjoy the fabulous food and a chance to dress up.

Wednesday we had planned on spending the day Jetskiing. This is our taxi driver, 81 Hesban. He dropped us off where we were suppose to spend the day. There was a misunderstanding over the price for jetskiing. Let's just say we couldn't afford to spend a month of missionary payment for a few hours of jetskiing. So we called our taxi driver and he came and got us and took us to a great beach by the Hilton in Barbados. We were able to rent a jetski then play in the ocean, walk along the beach and see lots of sites. It actually was a blessing in disguise that we didn't stay at the first place, we had so much more fun on the beach that our cute "Hesban" took us to . What a fun day in Barbados.

Matt and Margaret jetskiing.

Us on the beach waiting our turn to jetski. The ocean was so choppy and rough, we kept saying we were so glad we didn't have to jetski all day.

Me and Steve at a cool fort we walked to in Barbados.

Steve at the fort.

As we were leaving the beach, there was a steel drum player playing Christmas songs. Steve stopped and checked out the drum and how it made different notes. The guy stopped playing and let Steve play for a minute. Let's just say the real player has no competition. But it was fun to watch.

The next day was an island tour of St. Lucia. What a treat this was. We spent the day seeing the whole island, and we even got to stop at one of the locals house and sample all the island food.

Steve, me, Margaret and Matt at the stop to sample the local food. There was an amazing view here.

The PITONS on St. Lucia.

Us, looking over the PITONS. On the drive here we passed though an area that was hit hard when Hurricane Thomas hit the island in October. A huge chunk of the mountain slid down and took out several homes, and a family is stll missing from the slide. As we looked at the devastation caused by the hurricane just two short months ago we were amazing at all the work done to open the roads again so that we could see the beauty of the island.

St. Lucia has an active volcano. Our tour took us to the sulfa springs. All I can say is Pee U! It was soo stinky. I was glad I had just put on lotion and could sniff it. I must say it was intersting to learn about.

Next we took a water taxi over to get a closer look at the Pitons. The tour included snorkling and beach time, but we didn't know, so we just took he ride.

The water is so clear and a deep blue color. Our guide said this is some of he deepest waters in the Caribbean.

Our guide took this picture of all of us, then went to start the motor again, and the engine just sputtered. We ran out of gas. We sat there for a while, then our guide saw another boat coming and hailed him to come help us. The other little boat was full of fresh fruit, so we were happy to know that if we were stuck we wouldn't starve to death. They drained some gas into a water bottle and just when they were trying to start the motor another water taxi arrived. Our tour was wondering what happened to us. We had to change water taxi's in the middle of the ocean. How crazy is that? Another adventure that we all chuckled about later.

After the water taxi incident, our tour supplied us with fresh cheddar cheese and hot homebaked rolls. I thought they looked like a turkey drum stick. They were yummy.

The end of our tour in St. Lucia. This picture has our ship in the background.

This was a store on St. Kitts. I had to take this picture for Courtney. The guys had arranged a dive this day, so Margaret and I had to entertain ourselves. We decided we wanted to rent bikes and ride around the island. We asked several people where we could rent bikes and they all gave us different directions, but we did finally arrive at the bike shop only to find it was closed and had moved to another location. So we walked back to town and just found a tour guide and ask how much for a tour. We were able to find a 3 hour tour of St. Kitts for only $20.00.

St. Kitts has some Britsh influnce. Margaret at a cool phone booth.

Children were lined up on the street playing drums and dancing. It is Carnival this week on the island. It was fun to see. As we pulled off this road and onto the next road which was a bumpy dirt road we all heard a loud pop. I thought a gun had gone off, but our driver ran over a sharp rock. He told us to walk around while he changed the tire. Margaret and I laughed, because of what happened to us the day before. When we told the guys about this, they said they weren't sure if they wanted us to be on any more tours with them. Funny! the driver got the tire changed and we were back on track for the tour.

This is our driver and tour guide. He is showing us the"Lipstick" bush at the botanical gardens. This was so interesting.

Handcrafted textiles at the boanical garden.

Margaret and me in the Botanical Gardens at St. Kitts.

Here we are at the Lava Cliffs in St. Kitts.

The Lava Cliffs.

And we ran into "BLUE BEARD" a the Lava Cliffs...hee...hee.

The Caribbean Ocean is on the left and the Atlantic Ocean is on the right. We were almost in two places at the same time!

Margaret wanted to take a picture with one of the green spider monkeys. We found out that there are more of these monkeys on the island than people.

My with my island friend!

The last day of the cruise we were in St. Maarten. We rented "Rhino Riders" basically jetskis with a big rubber raft on them. It was so fun and our guide gave us alot of infomaton about the island. We got to stop and snorkle, but the snorkling was a disappointment after St. Johns. It was fun though. Steve drove most of the way, but his knees were hurting, so I told him I could drive. Holy cow, Driving was soo much easier than trying to hang on in the back. It was too fun. We have a picture, but had to buy if from the tour, so it wasn't on my camera. Sorry.

Walking the beach in St. Maarten.

The last night on the ship Margaret and I went to the "Towel Demonstration" and learned how to make the cute creatures that had been left on our bed each night. This is Margaret twisting a towel for her creation.

Ta Da....Margaret and her elephant.

Me and my bunny.

And this is our last night on the cruise with our new friends from New Jersey, the Miller's and our waiters. We had such a great time, and hated coming home to the snow. We are already planning a trip to Cancun to dive and play next year. But we also want to go to the Philippines to pick up Cameron too.

Vegas Baby!

2010-12-24T04:40:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that it has already been two weeks since week drove to Las Vegas for Lexi's wedding and Cheryl's surprise party. It was wonderful to be back in Vegas for a couple of days and warm up. Here are the pictures from our Vegas trip. Mr. and Mrs. Elvis Ramirez!
We snapped a few pictures outside the temple while we were waiting for the happy couple to come out.

Me, Life size Bridget and Tasha, my other girls!

All my girls! (Courtney is missing) Lexi's looked soo beautiful and happy. Such a wonderful day and so glad we could be there to share it with her.

More of Tasha and Bridget outside the temple.

Enjoying the SUN!!! We loved being able to warm up. After all the wedding festivities, we ran back to Grandpa Leavitt's house and changed to go to Auntie Cheryl's Surprise party. But Auntie Cheryl was at Grandpa's house when we got there. She wanted to see us for a minute. We had told her we were going to be busy all day with wedding stuff. Which wasn't a lie, we just didn't go to the reception so we could go to Cheryl's surprise party.

This is me with one of my cute "Great Nephew's" Luke. We have been so busy we haven't been able to get to Vegas to meet this cutie. He came right to me and hung out with me until his Granny Cheryl arrived.

Brother's....hanging out waiting for Cheryl to arrive so they could "SURPRISE" her!

Kandace and Derek with Auntie Cheryl. She thought she was picking up Ashley and Jon to go to dinner, she walked in and we all yelled "SURPRISE", I think she was totally surprised to see all of us.

Steve and his sister Cheryl, the birthday girl.

Cheryl with her brothers Carlin, Steve and Tyler and daughter Ashley. Ashley made us all a fabulous dinner and Austin brought a "nothing but Bundt" cake. Such a fun night with family! We left directly from the party to board our plane for our cruise. Hang tight...I will try and get these pictures posted next. I hate being so behind on my blogging.

Thanks We're Giving!

2010-11-28T07:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, my kids have told me for years that I am CRAZY, and this year I took them with me to CRAZY!! For the past 6 years on Thanksgiving morning I go and RUN the HUMAN RACE at 8 AM, then come home and get dinner ready. So as tradition, I signed up the whole FAMILY (Aubs and Derek Bridget are family) and we planned on doing the race again. Oh....but as ole Mother Nature would have it, it was a bitter 7 degrees at start time. Aubs texted and said it was just too cold for her and Baby Harley to make it this year. Everyone else didn't have a good excuse, so I loaded up the car and we drove to the race. Here is just a few of the 3,000 other CRAZY people that were there braving the cold that morning. I really thought that we would not see as many people as last year because to the FREEZing temp.

One of our favorite things the last couple of years was watching for the "HOT" Indian and taking our picture with him. Well, I think our "HOT" Indian had his clothes on, and we had to settle for taking our picture with this Indian riding his horse. He only had shorts on, and had bear legs, too cold for me! See what I mean about CRAZY!

Here I am with my cousin Sandy, who has also ran the race with me for the last 5-years. I had put "hotties" in the toes of my shoes to keep them warm, and long story short, I ended up burning my left big toe, and now have a HUGE BLOOD BLISTER from the "Hottie" rubbing and bugging my toes. Yeah, never doing that again!

Here is Kandace and Derek finally getting to the finish line. I was soo proud of Kandace for making it, because the cold her got her coughing from the beginning.

This is another TRADITION, taking a group picture with the TURKEY. We were missing three of our regulars, Cameron, Courtney and Aubs, but should have two of them back next year, and Life Size Bridget will be there for Courtney. We love this tradition, even if I do get alot of grief for making everyone do it, They always ask me if we are signed up, so they must WANT to do it!

So, last night, since we were all together, I asked everyone if we could go downtown and take our FAMILY Christmas Card picture. Yes, it is still COLD, but I have a wonderful family that gave me 1-hour to take the pictures and be done. So much love an support!

Here is Steve and me at the reflection pool. We took our family picture here, but you will have to wait for the card to see that picture.

Casey and Tineke. This is a great picture, maybe they can use it on their facebook.

Kandace and Derek, cute!

More of the beautiful lights on Temple Square.

And the Nativity, it was very COLD, but it was amazing how fast we moved and how much we saw in the hour they gave me.

As we were walking back to the truck, I looked up and saw this wonderous site, and of course had to stop and take a picture.

And we HAD to take a picture in front of the AMAZING tree in the Joseph Smith building. I truly give THANKS for my wonderful family who is willing to run crazy races with me, put up all the Christmas decorations, go Christmas shopping on BLACK FRIDAY, and best of all venture out in the FREEZING cold to take our family Christmas picture. Yeah, I pretty much have the BEST FAMILY EVER! Hope your holidays were great too!

Just a little TYPHOON....

2010-11-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

These are pictures from Cameron from when the Typhone that hit the Philippines last month. He said that he woke up on Wednesday morning about 4 AM to someone telling him he needed to get out, just as his "Flip Flops" were floating by. The water stain on the door shows how high the water was.

This is the Elders cleaning up after the flood, I guess this is why there is no carpet on the floors. Cameron said that when they were able to return to their apartment the whole house reaked of FISH...yeah, that would need some bleach if you ask me. On top of the fish smell, the power had been turned off, so everything in the fridge was pretty gross too. Where's the scentsy when you need it???

So after looking at these pictures my question to Cameron was what got ruined. Lucky for him only his backpack and shoes were soaked, but he said his shoes "Stunk" so bad, he put them in the sun for a few days, then they were okay. Good thing he has good sandals to wear, just in case. The funny thing about this, is that just a week earlier he was kinda complaining about no Hurricane hitting, he wanted to have the experience. So, I gusess you could say "He asked for it". Be careful what you ask for Cam, we want you to come back in one piece to us!Elder Leavit has had four companions in the last 6-weeks. This is his tempory companion, Elder Dasargo. He was waiting for his mission call, so he was only Camerons companion for about a week.

These are two more of Elder Leavitt's temporary companions. Cameron is looking pretty good, must be the FISH and Rice diet! He wrote last week and said that he will not be transfered this time, and will be in this area for Christmas. So, he has been in this area for 9-months now. I told him he must have something he needs to learn or do before he can be transfered. We are counting the days until CHRISTMAS, when he will be able to call. We love hearing his voice and learning all about life in the Philippines. Thanks Elder Leavitt for sharing these pictures. And thanks to all of you for remembering him during the Holidays!

SHOOT...what to do after you drop off your 2nd Missionary at the MTC!

2010-10-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Courtney gave us strict orders to go have fun and be HAPPY after we dropped her off at the MTC. We had planned on going to see a movie, but the day was so beautiful we all wanted to be outside. We thought about going up the canyon and hiking, or a Nice motorcycle ride. No, then Casey suggested going target shooting out in the desert. Sure, why not. So we all headed home, changed then picked up Casey and headed to the desert.

Here is Casey teaching us the SAFETY rules. So glad that he is trained and did a great job teaching us.
Teaching us the right way to hold it and the safety features. Kandace was the first to go. I think she has a new LOVE!

Steve went next. He got better everytime he went. It was actually kinda fun watching everyone find joy in hitting the clay disk.

My turn. Those of you that know me know that I am NOT a big fan of guns. So this was a huge leap of faith for me. I actually was catching on at the end and who knows, I may have to go again.

I love the look on Casey's face as he looks on at his mother shooting. Will wonders never cease?

Yes, Kandace is hooked. Just look at that stance, so serious!

Listening to Casey telling her "higher...lower..to the left..oh...you got it!"

Oh and in honor of Courtney, Kandace wore her shoes out to the desert. They loved getting out for a breath of fresh air.

We all took turns, then loaded up and headed out for dinner. Casey didn't tell us about the FLIES in the area, and we had left our doors and windows down, so when we got back in the truck, we had hundreds for FLIES in the truck. It took a couple of days to get rid of them, but they are gone now. Anyway, it was a fun was to relieve some saddness. I hope that Courtney and Cameron will be so proud of us getting out and doing something different!

RUSSIAN around to get ready for a Mission

2010-10-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly....I think you will all go into picture overload and be as exhusted as we are after reading this entry. The past couple of weeks have been full of lots of FUN memories. Hope that you all will enjoy all the pictures. These first two pictures are what Courtney gave friends and family that came to her farewell. I know, this second one is "SPECIAL"! She couldn't stop laughing when she made it. Oh, what will we do for giggles and kicks while she is gone?

These are just the pictures we took when we went out to take pictures for her missionary annoucement. I think she had a good time.

Hiding behind an old barrel.

More serious at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

Practing her tracking skills in her RUSSIAN hat. We took these pictures on Monday, and on Tuesday we flew out to California to go to the San Diego Temple.

One of my favorite temples. The architecture inside and out are absolutley amazing!

So, since we were soo close to the ocean we had to go to the beach.

Our feet in the ocean. Burrr..the water was cold. But it felt so good.

We walked along the beach for about an hour enjoying the sights and sounds. We saw this really cool guy out "Kite Surfing", it was like a snow board with a kite on it and they would pull the strings and change directions and fly over the waves. So cool. We really had fun RUNNING in the sand to see who had a longer STRIDE. I actually have a longer stride than Courtney. It was so relaxing to be on the beach playing.

On the beach, the wind had alot of fun with my hair.

Friday, JetBlue gave us tickets to a private REAL Soccer practice. Another FUN day!

Me, Steve and Courtney having a great time watching the REAL players on the field. We even could have gotten all their autographs. I gave my goodie bag to Tony, since he LOVES the REAL team.

Just a few days before Courtney left we all decided to go play at the park. Courtney brought her roller blades to skate one last time.

RESTING, it is alot of work to play so much!

Steve making sure Courtney is physically fit. Aggh....

Saturday Courtney wanted to have THANKSGIVING dinner, then right after we had a talent show and played the WHITE ELEPHANT game. Tasha playing the piano for us...heavenly!

Elvis, Lexi's fiancee played the guitar at the talent show. Some 311 tunes, his favorite band. He is pretty good.

Cody, Casey and Courtney seeing who can drink a glass of water fastest. Casey won, and won the award for "Most Likely to Pee the Bed" Yes, you have to be a little crazy to be in our family or one of our friends.

Kandace's talent "My whole family is CHUBBY"....see what I mean by CRAZY :)

Playing the WHITE ELEPHANT game. Elynn made sure Steve had plenty of help openning his gift. Thank goodness someone was there for him.

Austin won a fabulous shirt, should fit her just right for a few more weeks.

Sunday was Courtneys farewell. She did such a great job on her talk. It was on SERVICE and we all learned and have been challenged. She also sang a beautiful song with her room mate Lexi and her friends from OAKCREST surprised me by singing their theme song. It was a fun day too. This is a picture of all the shoes that came over after to eat.

Austin at the "Leavitt" cousin table. It was wonderful to see Aunt Linda and her girls with their kids. Austin and Cody came all the way from Las Vegas to support Courtney.

And the HAUPTS were in full force too. This is Jake, Grandpa Haupt and Casey having a good visit.

Lexi and Elvis.

Pickels and her fiancee. These two couples are getting married a week apart. Love is in the air!

Sneakers, Courtney and Steve . Yum....TACO BAR!

Aubs and Austin. Aunt Austin (the girl) and Aubs are due with their babies one day apart.

We had about 70 people over after church. Courtney was soo HAPPY to see everyone.

So, Tuesday night Courtney got set apart as a missionary. We had everyone over for dinner and then played games until the Stake President came over a 9 PM. I won Jenga at the White Elephant, and everyone had a blast playing.

The crowd holds their breath...whew, Kandace was able to pull out a block and add it to the top successfully. This was their highest tower, 32 layers high. They were getting pretty good at the end.

Wednesday morning Courtney finished packing....that is a whole different story. We were able to leave a couple of hours early so we could go have lunch and pick up a couple of things before we went to the MTC. We went to "Jimmy Johns" for lunch. Courtney was nervous and just wanted a sandwich. She took this picture for Cameron. Remember...we are a little CRAZY! Courtney enjoying the sun and her sandwich. Hugs for everyone after lunch!

Sneaking some SISTER pictures before we get to the MTC.

Oh, Casey wanted to get in on the fun. Dang, I was just up front missing all the FUN!

The whole Family, trying to take our own picture with the MTC behind us.

The special of the day..."Courtney Sandwich"

We had to make the dreaded drive, across the street to drop off Courtney. So here is Casey and Kandace helping Courtney unload her bags. And her bags are HEAVY, 18 months of everything she will need. She will still need to buy a WARM coat in Russia, but, she should have everything. We all grabbed a quick, and I do mean QUICK hug, the Elder's were waiting to take her away. Courtney told us over and over not to CRY. I tried, but I just couldn't help it.

Kandace got the last HUG, and Courtney tells her not to cry! She is so ready to go on a mission. She has a GLOW that will warm up the MTC and Russia. She was in such a hurry to leave she forgot all her paper work in the truck. Luckily I noticed as we were leaving the parking lot and ran it back to her, or at least tried, they wouldn't let me take it to her, even though I could see her. We all know she is happy, and excited to learn and get to Russia and get to work. Thanks for putting up with the CRAZY Leavitts and the picture overload. Wait until you see what we did after we dropped her off. Courtney would be soo proud of us for going and having FUN! I will post her MTC address on her blog, she would LOVE some mail. Her link is here on my blog, Sister Courtney Leavitt.

Strides Against Breast Cancer

2010-10-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 9th Courtney and I ran our last race together for the next year and a half. We ran the "Strides Against Breast Cancer". JetBlue was an offical sponsor, so we were there with a couple hundred great JetBlue friends and family. It was the perfect day for a race, a little on the cool side, but that just makes me want to run faster! Here we are at the start of the race. over 90% of the people walk the race since it isn't timed. Courtney and I started walking with all my friends, but I just couldn't do it, I had to run.

Jan Pack, our fellow supervisor and Breast Cancer survivor Terry Healy and me before the race.

Courtney and me after the race. I am soo glad that she was a good sport and hung out with me. After the race we had to go up to the Festival of Trees open house, then to the JetBlue Craft Fair. She leaves to the MTC in two days, I will miss having her come with me to all my crazy adventures. At least Cameron only has another year before he gets home. Kandace is on call for now. :)

Fall Fashion Show Frenzie!

2010-10-03T09:50:00.001-07:00

All I can say is there is never a dull moment when you are with the Leavitt Girls! Last night we went to Courtney's friend Lexi's bridal shower. Man, it has been a long time since I have attended one of these festive occasions. We were divided into teams and given 3-rolls of toliet paper and told to design a wedding dress. I was the lucky model...yes by the look on my face, crazy things were being done with the materials given. Okay...my design team now has a plan. Let's get serious girls!
Me with my great design team. Kandace, Bridget and Courtney.
What the heck I should have just put on Kandace's jacket, it would have been perfect for the sleves.

The designers with a great plan for the skirt.

Ta Dah.... the finished product. Yes, my design team made the best dress ever! We may have to bring them back when one of them get married. It was a blast, and when we got home......

Courtney and Bridget put on a "Missionary Fashion Show". They modeled several of Courtney's new missionary outfits. This is Courtney's first outfit. (Image the music like Go Sister, yo sister. and We are family...I got all my sisters with me in the background) Kandace was the sound person, and I was the offical photographer for the fashion show.

Courtney and Bridget working the floor!

Okay, so a little dancing in a fashion show keeps the audience entertained! Right?

What stunning models and fabulous outfits SISTA's

Oh the show just went on and on....Sister Leavitt is so ready for Russia!

Another amazing round of outfits, with a "Super Fly" ending!

And the Grand finale....a Russian Ballet with a twist. Things will be too quiet once Sister Leavitt leaves, but Bridget promised to come and spend a few weekends with us and entertain us just as much as Crazy Courtney!

She didn't model her coat and boots, but I am sure we will see many pictures of them in the next year! Thanks Sister Leavitt and Life Size Bridget for the great treat of this lovely fashion show!

HP Holy ROLLERS!

2010-09-21T19:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, about a year about Steve and his two HP counselors wanted to take a road trip together on their motorcycles. We have all been trying to find a time that would work for all of us, and this weekend we finally made it happen. So we planned and scheduled a date and all met bright and early for the big COUPLES RIDE.

Here we all are in front of the Barth's house, ready to ROLL out of town. Margaret wasn't able to ride on the bike, she just had her knee fixed, so she was our HP HOLY ROLLERS Support Vehicle, and she was the best support ever, always making sure we had everything we needed. Gassing up in Brigham City. We also stopped for lunch. Then we were off. The three HP's. They really enjoy being together, and they are such a great bunch of guys. This is a quick stop in Logan Canyon.

Us at the BEAR LAKE Lookout.

Here is the whole gang. Mike and Connie Barth, Steve, me and Matt and Margaret Cooper. Such a great looking bunch!

The guys ready and just waiting on the gals.

This is Connie and me just goofing off with "Mr. Bear"Matt and Margaret had a friend that let us stay in their cabin. This is the amazing view from our balcony out our bedroom. And the bikes enjoying the beautiful view. Another fabulous view from the balcony.

Steve and I took a walk around and I saw this awesome guy just hiding in the trees. I thought it was kinda cool.

And this is us leaving and heading back. It was way to quick of a trip.

Just a view of the road out, from the back seat of course.

On the way out, we just wanted to stop by "Paris". This is a beautiful tabernacle that the pioneers built. They had to haul the red sandstone by sled across the frozen Bear Lake to build this. We all had a great appreciation for this beautiful building.

Another great shot of the view from the backseat of the bike. There was soo much beauty everywhere we looked.
The beauty and wonder never ended. We really lucked out to have the perfect weather for the ride and the leaves were absolutley amazing! Love FALL LEAVES!

Our last shot on the way home. We had so much fun. Steve has been working soo hard on our basement to get it finished for my parents, that he needed this relaxing weekend. We all decided that this will definatley be an annual COUPLES RIDE. Maybe next year we will all have offical "HP HOLY ROLLERS" shirts made.

Happy 27th Anniversary

2010-09-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. We really think of it as 28 years together, since we met on September 16, 1982. So, here we are in a RETRO picture on Steve's motorcycle. Man, we were so in love we didn't even care that we were dirt poor and that Steve's only reliable form of transportation was his bike. After we were engaged he would drive his motorcycle from Logan to Salem every weekend to see me. Oh...what TRUE LOVE will endure. So, since we have a couples motorcycle ride to Bear Lake planned for this weekend, we kinda just went low key on our actual anniversary. We were going to go to a nice Inn, but oppted out and decided to go to one of our favorite resturants downtown "The ROOF" at the top of the Joseph Smith Building. This is what our view was from our table. Simply SPECTACULAR! The sun was setting and every five minutes the sky changed and I had to snap another picture. As we enjoyed each others company, we admired th amazing architecture of the Salt Lake Temple. A view and appreciation only seen from our table.

I will spare you from all the pictures I took, but as you can see from these pictures, we really did have such an AMAZING VIEW of the temple. As we sat and admired the temple I reflected that 2-years ago we were on the beaches of Hawaii. And this view was every bit as amazing and appreciated. It was such a beautiful night. After dinner we wandered around the building, enjoying the beauty of the Joseph Smith Building. It was a quiet night there and we visited with a few of the couple missionaries working that night. We took this picture walking around temple square, and even got to stop in and hear the choir practing for their sunday broadcast. It was the perfect night, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Thanks Steve for the most AMAZING 27 Years, let's enjoy the next 27 as much as these. We head out in the morning for our Motorcycle ride, so I will post those picture, which I am sure will have some great fall colors, as soon as we get back.

Huntsville Most Holy 5K...and Mr. T

2010-09-05T15:19:00.001-07:00

Five years ago my cousin Sandy challenged me to join her at the Huntsville Most Holy 5k. So Cameron and I trained for a few months, and we ran our first 5K in September 2006. Now, five years later, it is one of my very favorite races to do. Last year Cameron went with me, this year, Courtney had the "Duty". So bright and early (6 AM) Saturday morning we set out for Huntsville. We got there early enough to stretch good and be ready for the race. Here we are at our "Traditional" picture spot, Me Courtney and our cute friend Bridget, ready to start the race. Since my knee surgery, I start out slower, but get into my "Groove" after a few minutes. It was cool out, but after about 5-minutes, I was sweating up a storm. I finished before Courtney and Bridget, but I alway go back run them in. They were walking, so I made them RUN to the finish line. They did great!

Here we are at the finish line, just waiting for the results of the WINNERS!

HOLY COW! We are both WINNER....WINNER..Chicken Dinner! I took second place in my age division and Courtney took third place in her age division. (Yes, there were only three entered in her division...but she Medaled!) It was one of our most GLORIOUS moments ever! I love the Huntsville Most Holy 5K! By the way, it is called this because of the Monk Monastery that is there. They have the best Raspberry "Holy Honey".

So...everyone is a WINNER! The lady who took first place in my age division took off her medal and put it on her dog. Ahhhh...so cute!

After the race we took a minute and drove around the BIG city. Since it was Labor Day Weekend, there were alot of people out on the Pineview resevior on their boats and Jetskies. It was a beautiful day to be out. I was wishing Steve was there on his motorcycle, we saw alot of those too! And here we are after the race, at the reservior. Another fun weekend! But I got to thinking...who will be going with me next year? Kandace.....Casey.....you better start training, you know Dad would never join me!

And now......Meet Mr TURTLE..OR MR. T for short.

Last week Kandace came home with her new pet. She has really wanted a DOG for ever, but Dad says "No". This is her compromise.....

Meet...MR. T. He is still getting use to us, and doesn't have much of a personality. But Kandace is soo Happy!

Mr. T taking a Sunday stroll for the poporatzie.

He is not a fan of the grass...but you should see him RUN...in the carpet! He is entertaining us, and he isn't as demanding as a dog.

Kandace is happy.....and that's all that matters! Welcome to the FAM Mr. T!

NY GIRL TRIP!!!!

2010-08-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

When Courtney got her mission call she requested that we take a Girl Trip to New York to go see a Broadway play, then go to upstate New York. So of course, working for a fabulous airline, I could totally make that happen. This week, we did just that. We left Tuesday night, after I worked a full day, and rode jumpseat to get someone's buddy pass riders on. That is why this first picture I look exhusted already. This is us in Time Square. We had to pick-up our tickets for the play, then we had a quick lunch. This picture is for Dad...since he is ALWAYS watching the NASDAQ, Courtney had to take a picture here.

And here we are on BROADWAY! We have been to New York so many times, it was nice to just do a couple of things, and not try and see everything. It is such a crazy busy place, even in the rain, it was hussling.
"THE LION KING", this is the play we went to this time. Courtney really wanted to see "Beauty and the Beast", I got checking into it and found that it closed in NY, July of 2007. So this was the second choice.

Courtney in front of the SCAR costume. We were both in AWE of the amazing costumes and how the scene's really came to life. So amazing, you have to see it to believe it!

After the play, since we attended the matinee, we wanted to just stop by the Manhattan Temple. We knew it was closed for cleaning, but still wanted to see where it was. The security guard took this picture for us. While we were talking to him, some workers came out of the temple. Then another man. He asked us where we were from and we told him Draper, UT. We told him we wanted to go to a session, but when we looked up the schedule, we saw it would be closed while we were there, but we still wanted to see it. He smiled at us and asked if we had our recommends. We said YES, then he asked if we had them with us and could show him. We both showed our recommends and then he smiled again and said he could let us come in and look around. We found out he was the Temple President. He gave us a private tour of the beautiful Manhattan Temple. Such an amazing experience. One that made our whole trip!

After our private tour, we decided to find somewhere to eat in this quaint little neighborhood. The streets were all tree lined and it really reminded us of "You Got Mail". This is Courtney by one of the cute shops with beautiful flowers. There were several shops wih flowers, we loved it! We did find a great Italian resturant and had a fabulous dinner.

When we got back to our hotel we noticed some missionaries waiting to check-in. I stopped and asked one of them if they were leaving or coming home. They were all coming home, and were all heading to Utah. Of all places, they were coming from the Ukraine! We let them know that Courtney was leaving in October for Russia, they knew some of the missionaries in her mission. Now Courtney needs to tell them "Hi". It was such a fun day!

The next day we flew up to upstate New York, to see the Church History sites. This is us on a cute bench that was at the Rochester Airport. We wanted to bring it home and put it in the back yard. It wasn't for sale and wouldn't fit in our suitcase. We got our car and set our GPS (AKA Chickie Doodle) for Palmyra. Our first stop. The site where the first Book of Mormon was printed.

We met Sister Esper, from Argentina. She was our tour guide. She found out that Courtney was going to Russia and had her be her companion for the tour. She put her name badge on Courtney and gave her scriptures to Courtney, then had her help behind the scene. Doesn't Courtney make a great missionary?

Courtney demonstrating how to put the ink on the letters for the printing press.

After the tour of the printing press, we headed out to the Whitmer Farm in Fayette, NY. It was an hour drive by car, so it must have taken at least 1/2 day on horse back for Joseph to run over to his friend, Peter Whitmer. This is Courtney and Sister Trujillo at the Whitmore farm.

Courtney and me in front of the Whitmer Farm.

After the Whitmer Farm we headed over to the Hill Cumorah. We drove up to the top. I wanted to take a picture of the cool road, but Courtney wanted to be in the picture...so she is.

Here we are at the top of Hill Cumorah. We met more people from Utah. They knew I was from Utah because of my great watch. Funny, I never knew that my watch say's "Your from Utah". Now I know that little secret, I will be using it!

Just s shot from the view at the top of the Hill Cumorah. It was so beautiful.

Next we headed over to the Smith Farm and Sacred Grove. The next picture is taken from the back door of the Smith home, the path leads to the sacred grove.

This is Courtney and me in the Smith family home. The glass case on the table holds the bible that Father Smith read with the family each night.

This is just a picture of the fence that lines the family property. I thought it was so neat.

And this is the Sacred Grove. Courtney and I just sat in the stillness and beauty of the grove. It was so peaceful, and you could feel a great spirit there.

Us, again.

We hurried and changed to our skirts because we had a 6 PM temple session scheduled. So this is us just before we went into the temple.

And this is when we came out. If you look close at the glass, you can see the trees from the sacred grove.

Courtney, outside the temple. After our session we had a great home cooked meal then head to our hotel. Thank goodness I brought our "Chickie Doodle" to help us find our hotel. We ended up at the wrong Radisson, but finally made it to our hotel around 10 PM. What a fun, filled to the brim day.

The next day we spent on planes getting home. We got home around 5:30 PM. This is us on the flight. Ahh.....what a great three days we had. We sure did see alot of blessings happen on this trip, and felt we were soo lucky to have this time together. Glad Courtney wanted to take a GIRL TRIP!

The Last of the Teens at the Leavitts

2010-08-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

So last week, the last of our teenagers said GOODBYE to the TEEN years. Cameron offically turned 20 on August 7th. We sent a BIRTHDAY package to celebrate this milestone in true Leavitt fashion. We hope he enjoyed his birthday PIZZA and BROWNIES he shared with his companions. Here are just a few funny pictures from Cameron's teen years. This is him on the day of his farewell.....ALWAYS the JOKESTER! Courtney just wanted to make sure Cameron got this lovely picture of her playing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cam, on her harmonica. Don't you love her Russian hat in August? They are so RELATED!!!
Here he is all slimmed down, and looking great in the Philippines. Such a beautiful sunset in the background.

Goofing off in Germany! He had to give up this suit for......

This outfit, and handy umbrella.

And here he is being the "Jolly Fat Guy" with his favorite siblings and our exchange student Thomas. He gave up this red suit for.......

This suit and red tie. We hope that he had a FUN Birthday. We know that he is being blessed for the work he is doing in the Philippines, and even though he is getting closer to my age, I still love him and hope he is the same crazy, caring,loving, and strong boy I sent out almost a year ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMERON! Here is our favorite 20-Things we love about Cameron.

20. Strong muscles.

19. Movie Trivia skills.

18. Gopher catching skills. ( Dad is REALLY missing these)

17. One liners...from his favorite movies and TV shows.

16. SHOES...he LOVES SHOES, the more unique, the better.

15. Tech support, he knows how to get us all the latest in techy gadgets.

14. Creative Time together, He thinks of the craziest things to do.

13. Game Skills. He can play any game and make it FUN...even SCUM!

12. DDR moves....can't wait till he gets back and gets us all dancing again!

11. TIES...yes, he had a thing for ties before his MISSION.

10. Most Feared ALBINO BULL in all the Land!

9. Poses for PICTURES....never a dull one in the bunch.

8. LOVEABLE PERSONALITY!

7. SOMBRERO...it has it's own story!

6. EYES...enough said

5. Scripture Chasing skills....no scripture has escaped him yet!

4. Singing....it will melt your heart!

3. Jokes...he has great ones, and can make anyone LAUGH!

2. COOKING skills....Duh has he ever cooked for you?

1. HUGS....they literally take your breath away!

Welcome to the twenties, it's a great place to be!!