RUSSIAN around to get ready for a Mission

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

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!

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!

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

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

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!