Half-Marathon of Cherry Blossoms

We had a wonderful weekend in DC! It was fun having Shanno here to visit for a few days!! Brett, Shanno, Jordan and Brian all ran the Washington DC Half-Marathon early Saturday morning and made great time! After the marathon, we all headed straight to the Cherry Blossom and Kite Festival on the National Mall. The cherry blossoms were incredible and we had fun watching all the kites fly in the air around the Washington Memorial. (We even attempted to fly our own kite.) Saturday ended with Shanno making her yummy Asian food! Thanks Shanno, you are quite the cook! Good times!
The Cherry Blossom Festival was beautiful and very crowded, obviously a very popular time to visit DC.
Brett and Jordan at the finish line! It was pretty cold in the morning, so they are sporting their lovely silver space blankets they received in their running packets. Way to go guys!!
Brian and Shanno at the finish line! Lookin' good!! (Brian put good use to his space blanket.)









Shanno and I enjoying the blossoms.


Brian and his wife Heidi in the Metro.
Kids flying kites at the Washington National Monument for the Kite Festival.









This is the kite that we attempted to fly while we were at the Kite Festival. Unfortunately, our kite didn't want to cooperate so it's flight only lasted for a brief 10 seconds, but we still had fun being part of everything. Hopefully next year we'll have a little more knowledge about flying a kite so we can get it in the air. (It was a little embarrassing when a 7-year old next to us got her kite in the air without any problem and we were struggling.)

6 Months and Counting...

We are now at 25 weeks! Only 3 months to go! Here are some pictures for those of you that live far away and can't see the big belly that is emerging. :) (Thanks for the Easter dress mom, I love it!!)

Go Carson..."You've got skill!"

Carson Main was on the front page of the Denver Post today and we thought that was pretty neat so we wanted to post it on our blog!! The Mains are family on the Hamilton side and we love spending time with them! Way to go Carson...'You've got skill!'

Small boy has mighty heart

By Joey Bunch
The Denver Post

Seven-year-old Carsen Main charges across the court at Heritage Elementary School. Though his teammates tower over him because of his dwarfism, Carsen was picked as outstanding rebounder in his last regular-season game. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Here is the entire news article online: http://www.denverpost.com/gasprices/ci_8631581

'I Luv New York'

Do we look like tourists?? (Maybe the T-shirts give us away.) We decided to be adventurous this weekend and head on a two-day get-away to NYC. The adventure started early Friday morning as we waited to load the Chinatown bus. The 4-hour bus ride wasn't too bad, with only a brief 20 min. stop to wait for one of the passengers to buy her breakfast at McDonalds. :) As we approached NYC we could see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building from a distance. Once we were off the bus, we were walking non-stop to see the big city. We loved every minute of our brief trip to New York and we can't wait to hopefully go back again.









On Friday we were able to see a bit of Chinatown and Little Italy, giving us a small taste of each country. Chinatown smelled like fish and was swarming with women in search to buy the perfect purse. Bargaining with the Chinese was a blast and we even came out with some 'great deals.' Unfortunately for the Chinese, several of their businesses have been shut down by the government because of legal issues, but it appears they are finding other ways to still sell illegally. :)

After visiting Chinatown, we took the Subway to Ground Zero. Ground Zero was a humbling experience. We were able to see the remains of the World Trade Center and view the names of those who were killed. Flags were hung all around the area of the World Trade Center. There was a small church across the street from Ground Zero with pictures of those who had died with remains from September 11th.












Visiting at Ground Zero really made all of the events of September 11th seem very real. There was a Bell of Hope given to New York to honor those who had died.









We also saw the remains of a very old tree that was toppled over from the rubble of the Twin Towers.









A Memorial is being built in place of the World Trade Center to remember those who had died and the heroes from September 11th.

Friday night we wanted to truly experience NYC by going to a Broadway show. We were able to get a really good deal to see the musical, 'Legally Blond.'









The music and sets on Broadway were amazing! During the show we were surrounded by many teenage girls screaming and clapping, it was a lot of fun to be a part of everything.

Saturday morning we headed off early to see the Rockefeller Center, NBC Headquarters, Times Square, Central Park, Empire State Building, New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church and the Statue of Liberty. New York is definitely the business headquarters of the nation. It was a rainy day in New York on Saturday, but seeing the sites of the sites of the city was definitely worth it. During the day we even got to experience entertainment in the Subway, from break-dancers to preachers.









Here is the ice skating rink at the Rockefeller Center and Brett with the NBC Turkey.
Here we are inside the Empire State Building. When we looked up at the Empire State, half of it was buried in the clouds because of the rainy day, it looked really cool.












Here we are near a small pond in the middle of Central Park. It was a pretty quiet day in Central Park and we enjoyed the beautiful walk. It was great to see trees again after walking through a sea of buildings. We even enjoyed a true New York hot dog after the morning walk.









We took a free ferry to Statton Island so that we could get a close-up look at the Statue of Liberty, she was a beautiful site. We are very glad the clouds cleared up so that we could see her.


Here is a brief video of the break-dancers in the Subway! A huge crowd gathered around to see .


And now the preaching chorus in the Subway...

Oh Baby!

The votes are in!! Those who voted 'GIRL' last week are the winners! As you can tell, we had the first ultra-sound of our baby girl on Monday and we are grateful to know that she is growing healthy and strong. During the ultra-sound, she was moving around, kicking and turning all over the place. The technician even showed a glimpse of her face and it looked like she was smiling. We are very excited to see her in about 4 months! We have downloaded a few pictures from the Internet of what our little girl should look like right now. We are also posting an ultra-sound picture of her tiny feet. (The ultrasound photos didn't turn out very well scanned, so this was the best we could do, sorry.)













I hate showing pictures of just me, but there have been a lot of requests to see my 'baby belly'. (No, I am not having twins... even when people at my work think I am because of my belly.:)) Thanks for the clothes mom and Laura, I love them!

Here is the ultra-sound picture of her tiny feet, aren't they cute!

Beautiful Vermont

This past President's Day weekend we headed for the beautiful state of Vermont with our good friends Jordan and Sara. We were able to see many great sites of the East as we drove up the coast. We even survived the traffic of New York City as we 'cruised' through the Bronx. It was fun to see the Empire State Building and night lights of NYC from a distance.
Vermont was covered in snow and quite a temperature change from DC. We stayed in a little cabin on the countryside, complete with dirt roads. We are very grateful that the car made it through the icy dirt roads, hills and snow, thanks to Jordan's good driving. We only got stuck twice and we didn't even have to push the car. :) The trip included a beautiful day of skiing/boarding on the slopes and a relaxing day of hiking and playing games in the cabin. (We even made pancakes for breakfast, which included the original Vermont Maple Syrup...yum!) Brett tried snow boarding for the first time and he is now converted to boarding vs. skiing- he loved it even though he has quite a few bruises. While we were in Vermont, we stopped by the little town of Sharon where Joseph Smith was born. It was neat to see the prophets birthplace and learn a little more about him. On our way home, we stopped by the Yale University Campus; the buildings we saw were really authentic and old, it was cool. We had a wonderful trip and enjoyed the chance to get away from work and school.









Sara and Me in front of the cabin. The other picture is of Brett trying to keep me warm in below freezing weather.
Standing in freezing rain! (Freezing rain is not the most exciting thing to drive in...yikes.)









Stowe Ski Resort. I took lots of pictures and enjoyed the lodge while everyone was skiing.
Here is a picture of the front of our cabin. The scenery was beautiful, a good break from city life!









This was a typical dirt road that we traveled on, a bit different from DC. The other picture is of Brett standing in front of our cabin that was named, 'The Bear's Den.' :)
Welcome to New York City! This is a picture we took as we drove through the 'Big Apple.' The Bronx was quite a place to see as well. We hope to make it back to NYC in the near future to really see what's inside of this city, but I think we'll ride the metro vs. driving.









The Bronx...(you can't see the graffiti very well in the picture.) We saw a sign that read, "The Bronx Zoo,' and we thought that described the driving pretty well.