Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Catching Up!

I do realize that it has been almost a good four months since I have posted pictures but there are good reasons for that. Here are a couple of excuses, even if you don't like them. We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona after cheering Darren on at his first Ironman. We sold our house and had to move out days before Christmas Day. I spent every minute either packing boxes and the storage unit, looking for a place to live or shopping and wrapping presents. Along with all the typical holiday parties at school, work, church and family. AND unpacking all of our stuff into a much smaller home for the time being and getting it all decorated so that it felt livable. Blaze had a birthday - he turned 7 years old - crazy!!! Darren and I spent our Christmas present to each other in Vegas in January - a much needed vacation. We have also had a couple rounds of sickness = strep throat, sinus infections, runny nose, cough etc. AND been involved in wrestling matches, swim team practices, Jr. Jazz basketball games, piano practices and recital, drama, scouts, so on and so on and so on. Sometimes I feel we are TOO busy and spread too thin. We also helped in creating a more than successful adoption 5K fundraiser for Colin and Ranie's new baby. I am hoping with the holiday season over - we can slow down a bit and catch up.

SO......where do I start. Oh - I forgot to tell you that I lost all of our pictures from 2010 so I now only have what I have posted - which you know isn't much.

Here are a few pictures from our visit to Arizona. Darren competed in the Ford Arizona Ironman in which he swam for 2.4 miles, biked for 112 miles and ran 26.2 miles without taking a break. He completed all of this in 13 hours, zero minutes and 40 seconds. Absolutely amazing. We are more than proud of him and this amazing accomplishment. He finished much faster than he thought and after the race, realized he could have taken off a good hour from his time if he didn't get that flat tire or the numerous bathroom breaks he took. The kids were great sports including baby McKay, only 8 months at the time. We were up at 5:30 in the morning and didn't crash that evening until midnight. The weather was horrible which made us trapped to our vehicles but we had fun anyway. We had shirts made so that you knew who was on Team DeGracie and we cheered as loud as we could every time we saw Darren coming. Needless to say - he received many gifts from us for Christmas and his birthday related to the Ironman. He now has a bound book of pictures made by Ranie, a framed collage of photos and a professionally framed collage of his picture, bib, medal and plaque. Our family room definitely has an Ironman decor going on right now.

While we were in Arizona, we visited with family and friends, went target shooting with our bows, ate a lot of food, played a lot of games and went on a hike. The boys love it in Arizona and we have had so many discussions about moving there.


Can you tell which one is Darren?














Blaze has his 7th birthday and got to choose were we ate dinner that day and what we did for entertainment. He chose Cafe Rio for dinner, of course, and bowling for his activity. Here are a few pictures of that day.







Super Bowl Sunday! Darren childhood team was in the Super Bowl so we had to get all dressed up. We had signs, balloons and logos all over the house. Tons of food, family and candy. Here is a peak of what we looked like.



Run For Love 5K. Darren helped Colin and Ranie put together a 5K run/walk to raise money to help with the adoption of their new baby. It was on February 12th and we had an amazing turnout. I think it turned out bigger than they had planned which is well deserved. We spent a lot of time getting it all pulled together. I was quite busy with registration and timing that morning so I didn't get great pictures but here are a few of the beginning of the race. You can get an idea of how many runners there were. Canon ran the race as well and finished in 46 minutes. We are so proud of him. I video taped him crossing the finish line. I am sure he grateful for it to be over.






Valentine's Day:
Canon had to make a Valentine's box for his class but they decided to make it a competition within the 5th grade. He came up with the idea of making his look like Reese's peanut butter cups. Here is a picture of the final piece. He ended up winning the top award, Best of Show, for the best box in all the 5th grade. He has had a few self-esteem building moments lately which I am very grateful for. You should really see this in person - he did a great job.




We also had our annual cookie decorating contest but the cookies didn't turn out so we changed it to cupcakes at the last minute. We each decorated several cupcakes and then chose 2 to place in the contest. Our Arizona family members are the judge. Apparently my "I Love Dan" and "I Love Don" cupcakes weren't good enough to win. Pierson's frosting drop actually won so simplicity and then Darren's and Canon's won for creativity. I think we need new judges personally. Anyway - here are few pictures of our evening.





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