Christmas Eve 2009

Top of Angels Landing 9:30 am...nice run up and an even more amazing view.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

"Tag Your It!"

This is a picture of one of the "Hand Offs" during the St. George Expedition race. Someone else took the picture but we found it on Facebook and liked it so much that we wanted to post it here.

Diaper Cakes!

These are diaper cakes I made for 2 for my friends baby showers. The top one was for emilee who is about to have a little boy and the bottom for Joelle, who's little girl is due next month. If anyone really knows me....I have a bad case of craft-impairdness, so these we a huge accomplishment for me and they were way fun to make too! Now the rest of my friends need to have babies...so I'll have an excuse to make them again!....Anji

Anji's work party 2009 (Dec)

B-Cuz! (Busselbeerg Cousins)

Here is a collage that I complied of the 45 mile (St. George Expedition) race day. The name of our team was B-Cuz which stood for Busselberg Cousins. I am going to remember this day for a very long time because it was spent with family doing something that wasn't easy but super good for us and lots of time to talk and enjoy the experience......always a good recipe for great memories. I have wasted lots of Saturdays in my life but this one will never be in that category. I am grateful to my cousin Randy for putting the team together, running the first leg of the race and passing the Santa team (even if we did blow the lead in the radio hand off....he will never forgive me for that......I was hungry and wanted some potato chips!) and to my nephew, (The Bennie winner!) Brandon for running up Snow Canyon (Say it ain't Snow!) and the final stretch of the race in record time, my beautiful wife for showing us all even with a bum knee that you can still run 6 minute miles uphill, while chewing gum and sporting sunglasses, and to my lovely cousin Melody who broke a personal record for how many miles she has ever run in one day. Even though we didn't break any land speed records....running in any race is better than sitting on the side lines and watching people live life.

It's getting close to mine and Rj's bedtime. (Zowie is always game for a nap)

St. George Expedition 50 Mile Relay Finish Line

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

Here are some awesome photo's of me and my cousin running the Snow Canyon Half Marathon. I knew that they were taking some pictures of me so I was hamming it up a bit. I never knew how good I looked in spandex.....I need to make a mental note to wear them more often out in public. What Form! (ps if anyone is wanting to by the orginals of these photos you are welcome to contact TSS photography)

RJ and Grandpa watching the BYU Utah game....go Cougars!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Wedding fun and fun with the cousins

This weekend was Mindy's wedding (Ryan's Niece). Rj had so much fun playing with his cousins and playing in the leaves at the temple.

Photo opportunity while waiting for Mindy to come out of temple

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

Randy Paul and I at the finish line of the Snow Canyon Half Marathon.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Morning Ritual

For the last couple weeks I've been making protien shakes for breakfast and one day I decided that I would see if RJ liked them and after that we became protien shake sharing buddies....I am much better at sharing then he is....but he is catching on.  He cries sometimes when its my turn for a swig but after he calms down I give it back to him and that how we pass the time as I drive to work and he gets driven to the sitters.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Happy Halloween!

A little cute Dragon wishes you all a Happy Halloween!!!! Ryan's sister Aimee let us borrow this costume for RJ. It fit him perfectly. We only went Trick or Treating to one house....Grandma Vonnie's! She gave him some Gold fish crackers and he couldn't have been happier. RJ loves his crackers....its pretty much the only word he says right now....."CAA CAA"

Catching up on the last couple months!!

I had to start off by posting some super cute pix of RJ. I can't believe he is already 1 yrs old!!!!
I got a new job 2 months ago...which is one of the many reasons why we haven't posted on our blog lately. I worked almost 7 yrs as a RN on the Medical/Oncology unit @ the hospital and I moved to work in SameDay Surgery. I mostly did this for better hours (no more weekends or Holidays!!) and able to spend more time with my new little family.....it sure was hard leaving wonderful friends who were basically my "work" family. In the pic above is my last day at work with 2 of the many friends that I had the privledge of working with....I miss you guys!!!!!!! However, I do LOVE my new job!!! love everyone I work with, the hours, and its been fun to learn something new!

This summer it was fun seeing Mike, Heather and their kids a few times, since they moved from Illionois to Provo it seems like its easier to see them. Spencer was born 2 days before RJ and this summer was the first time they were old enough to play and interact with eachother. Rj's favorite game to play when they were together was "taking the binky" away from Spencer and of course the classic pic of "hair pulling"! It is so fun to see them together. RJ is soooo hyper and seems to get into EVERYTHING and we are hoping that Angelic Little Spencer will rub off on him eventually!!!



The last couple months have flown by so fast and we have done some pretty fun stuff. Ryan ran a marathon and a couple half marathons. I ran a few half marathons, but injured my knee right before St George marathon. :( It has been fun for us to share our interest in running. We haven't really ran races together since before we were married.!! Here are a couple pix after the Provo half marathon. This race was a little bit bitter sweet for me because I ran my best half marathon time and received a top 25 award so I was super stoked, however this race is where my knee injury began. :(


Love the Stephens Family

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Long Over Due Cruise Pictures

Royal Caribbean has the best night entertainment of any of the cruise lines we have been on so far.

Really don't like this picture of me. Anji looks good. This is the day we rented a scooter and rode all over the island. (Anji's favorite day) We had a good time going to the beach and eating exhaust fumes.
This is the day in Key West....funnest day on the cruise....hung out on the beach and rode these bikes all around....got out my Palm Pre and went and found some geocaches and then we left some travel bugs that we had brought from Utah. (We put some miles on those travel bugs!)
This is us on the Island of Coco Kay. Went snorkeling and swam with 5 huge Manta Rays. They had at least a 6 foot wing span.....I was by myself so Anji didn't get to see them. (I saw two other little Sand Rays but they were only about 2 feet across).
This is Anji in front of the Atlantis Hotel before the security gaurds told us to move our Scooter. We went to the Lagoon and saw million dollar yachts lined up for miles. Ahhhhh.....how the other half lives.

2009 St. George Marathon 4hrs.

 
I love the Red Rocks behind me couldn't get a better picture of the Marathon in my opinion. This was taken right in front of the house I grew up in on Diagonal right after I kissed my wife and son. Anji was suppose to run the marathon, but she hurt her knee a few weeks before. She really wanted to run, but wasn't able to. So the day before the marathon I decided to run in her place!
 
Really don't like this picture (the only one that looks cute is Anji...both RJ and I are showing are bad sides). I wasn't feeling very good at the end of the race...about passed out. Then I tried to eat a thick slice of Great Harvest bread and couldn't swallow it nor choke it up. I was still able to breath but it felt like I had a frog stuck in my throat and I got a little panicky. As you can see in the picture I survived the bread and I was really enjoying that ice cream cone. After this picture, RJ pretty much ate the rest of it for me. I only wanted to go home and go the bathroom and take a shower. (I really despise public bathrooms and try to avoid them at all costs...especially port-a-potties)
 
I was bushwacked and really just wanted to sleep. Didn't sleep well before the race and waking up at 4:15 am to run didn't help. I will say that this was the best marathon I have ever run in the terms of recovering. I didn't feel a 100 percent but I didn't feel like death warmed over like I did in the past marathons I have run. Anji is excited because we talked about some other marathons it would be fun to run. I don't think she ever thought I would run another marathon (probably because I have told more people then I can remember that I wouldn't....I am a huge hypocrite)