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)

RJ's New Haircut!

 
 
 

RJ's First Birthday!

Top 4 Smartest Investors........ in the World!

Here are the very best, smartest, investors that I know (in no particular order)

1. Evonne and Jack Sharpe-Both of them have spent numerous hours talking sense into me, helping me financially and doing the final check on my many papers that I had to turn in..... all the way through my Masters Degree.
2. Tom and Jolene Findley-Thanks for trusting me with your daughter and all the time, energy and love you have shown me since.
3. Hildegard Scheuber- I never told this to you while you were alive because you didn't want me to know (Don't be mad.....my mom can't keep a secret because she is a horrible liar). Thanks for my mission...I love you for helping me do that.
4. Anji Findley Stephens- Thanks for taking a chance on me, being my wife, supporting me, raising our little rascal, and encouraging me to be healthy.
   

Day 2 of Cruise

Woke up around 9am and went running 7 miles on the tredmill while Anji slept in.  After working out went to eat breakfast ate lots of fruit some eggs.  Left ship walked off boat rented scooter.  Drove to Alantas and saw some expensive Yachets and lots of things we could never afford.  Got back on the Scooter and drove around Paradise Island.  Found a nice beach went swimming and ran into some fellow cruisers from vegas.  Ate lunch like a couple of beach bums with some fruit we packed off the ship.  Got back on scooter and headed to the bigger part of the island.

We were told that the whole island was only 21 miles around so we decided to drive around the whole thing.  We saw some really nice neighborhoods and some serioulsy scary neighborhoods.  I can't tell how crazy the traffic was and Anji was sure to let me know everytime she saw her life flash before her eyes.  We lived and with a little humility on my part we were able to find our way back to the cruise ship.  
We dropped off the scooter and Anji hit the shops....I tagged along to keep her out of trouble.  Got back on the boat took a nap before dinner.  

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Day 1 of cruise

Once we got on the boat and settled the first big thing we did was go meet our dinner mates.  They were two guys named Chun and Eric. (no they were not gay although we thought that at first also) from Virgina.  Both were currenty going to college in their junior year.  Kind of skipping ahead with this but we really got to know Chun a lot better than Eric.  After the second nigh, Eric stopped coming to dinner I was worried that we offend him somehow but Chun assured us that we hadn't he just was tired and not hungrey for dinner.  There is always tons of food on the cruise and you can easily get full and not hungrey if your not careful.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Dana, Jake, Maddy and Kathrine

A day or two before we flew out...Anji and I remembered that Dana and Jake live in Miami.  We called and after talking they offered us to pick us up at the airport ...we cancelled our hotel reservations and Jake picked us up from the airport.  We had some great talks in the car as we drove home and after the kids went to bed Jake showed us some video footage of his "special training".  I was able to go running in the morning and despite the heat and humidity was able to run around 6 miles. We had a blast hanging out with them and the kids cried and didn't want Anji to leave on the cruise when they dropped us off at the boat. One day I hope that we could go on a cruise together with them...they would be fun to hang out with no matter where you are.  We love you guys and thanks for all that you did for us. 

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Anjils favorite airport......

Well, we are on our way to the Bahamas and we had a lay over in Kansas City and Anji is in love with this airport!...I don't want to steal her thunder so when you get a spare moment be sure to ask her about it.

We are missing RJ already. We sat right behind a little girl about RJ's age and she was good for the most part but she did have her moments...didn't bother me as much as it used to because every she would cry it reminded me of RJ.

Anji loves to sit next to the window and I hate sitting in the middle seat so we had a stranger between us...I pretended not to know her and was asking for her phone number and trying to find out where she lived....I thought it was pretty funny but I am sure I was the only one out of the three of us.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Rj and Murphey

RJ had sensory overload with being around an actual puppy that didn't run away when he invades their personal space

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Up up and away.......

I caught RJ in this position on wednesday.  I don't know what it means but it's the first time I have ever seen him like that.  Could it be foreshadowing of the walking stage?

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

When your running into first and you feel a sudden burst........Diarrhea Cha Cha.....Diarrhea.

RJ has had a bit of the runs (also known as diarrhea or if your from Utah.... Hershey Squirts). So he has been getting lots of baths (as most of his clothes and everything around him gets soiled lots of fun for mom and dad) and he has been quite Musical (also known as the farts) lately. Here was a pic that I shot after one of his baths.

On a side note: RJ has spent most of his young life being constipated and we have always wished he could have a BM (also known as a Bowel Movement or in this house its called a "Poopy") once a day. So we went from one extreme to another. Just goes to show you that you need to learn to find happiness no matter what the situation.

Another side note: Since RJ has been more mobile he likes to chase Zowie. She will be a couple a feet away from him and the RJ will get all excited and do his little army crawl and get real close to the object of his desire and then Zowie gets up and moves. RJ cries and the cycle repeats itself with RJ once again going after Zowie. It's kind of funny to watch and made me reflect on some of the silly things I have done in my life that didn't make much sense. Well got to be going thanks to my Mother we are going to the Temple today.