Happy Birthday Hannah!!!

One amazing year down and many more to come. We love you Hannah!

Reunions

We started out the month of July at my extended family reunion. We camped at our usual spot up in the mountains above Fish Lake. I realized after the reunion was over that I only took these three pictures the entire time. It was a lot of fun catching up with some of my cousins that I hadn't seen in years. No matter how many times I have been up in these mountains I am always amazed at how beautiful it is.

The very next weekend we headed out to Jake's extended family reunion on the Oregon coast. We were able to spend 8 days in Lincoln City at a beach house that we shared with Jake's immediate family. We split the 14 hour drive into 2 days. I was a little nervous about how Hannah would do sitting in her carseat for that long, but thanks to Baby Einstein, Fig Newtons, and Mo-Tab she did great (we learned that "High On A Mountain Top" is one of her faviorte songs).
I was amazed at how beautiful and green the Oregon coast was. I was also amazed at how cold and windy it was in July! We wore jackets most of the time we were there. Here are some of the things we did:

Lots of hanging out on the beach and playing in the water

Hannah had to be in on all the action- helping to bury cousin Spencer

Playing with cousin Kate

Building sandcastles with dad

We visited the fishing docks at Newport

We went out to the beach at low tide and found some neat starfish and sea anemones

We visited an old lighthouse in Newport

We went to the aquarium in Newport

We did lots of hanging out with family

We spent a lot of time with family at the beach house

Wasatch Back

At the end of June Jake and I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay with some other members of my family. One of the funnest things about this race was the training we did prior to it. It was fun to spend some quality time with Jake and Hannah in the mornings and to be working toward a goal together. It was also a good motivator to get rid of my pregnancy weight. Hannah was usually our alarm clock bright and early in the mornings and then we would head out with her in her jogging stroller. 
The actual race was also a ton of fun. Jake did it last year also, but this was my first time.  One of my favorite parts was running in the pitch black at midnight up a mountain pass. Even though it was up-hill it felt relaxing and peaceful.
The total distance of the race was 188 miles, which is split between 12 runners. I ran a total of 12 miles and Jake ran 16. Our team ran the relay in 32 hours.



Our van members:

me

Jake

Scott (Jake giving him water)

Ben (Scott giving him water)

Aunt Carolyn

Uncle Doug

This is Jake running at about 1:00 a.m. He is all geared up with his reflective vest and headlamp.

Our team truck

Trying to get some sleep. We got a total of 2 hours that night.

Our entire team at the end of the race

Hannah was there to meet us at the end.

Ya Mon!

Back in January Jake and I went to a travel show one Saturday afternoon. We had a 2 for 1 pass and at the last minute decided it might be fun to go and daydream for a little while about all of the fun places there are to visit in the world. Little did we know that the $5 we spent on getting into the show would end up buying us an all expense payed trip to Jamaica. I won the grand prize drawing that day. They paid for our airfare, hotel, food, and some of the water sports. It was a much needed vacation and not having to pay for anything besides our excursions made it that much more relaxing.

So here his the low down on our trip. (Caution- there are a lot of pictures!)

This is a view of the pools and beach from the balcony of our room.

Another view from our balcony of the beautiful sunset.

We took this picture on our first night while we were relaxing on the beach. Our flight left at 1:00am on Monday morning and we didn't get into our hotel room until 3:30 that afternoon. We spent most of that first day catching up on our sleep and relaxing on the beach.

I was never hungry the entire time we were there. They took such great care of us. We could eat whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.

The meals were just the right size and so pretty that I almost felt bad messing up the chef's art work to eat it.

We could order drinks any time of day. They even had a couple of swim-up bars.

The resort had entertainment every night. Most of it was pretty good. This guy was balancing a chair on his forehead with his daughter sitting on it. Crazy!

My first taste of sushi.

It rained every day we were there, so we did a lot of relaxing in the lobby.

Enjoying a drink on our way into Ocho Rios to do some shopping.

A woman in Ocho Rios braided my hair. I only left the braids in for a day because they hurt so bad.

We spent a day at a waterfall called Dunn's River Falls. We were able to hike up the 600 foot falls. It was so much fun and so beautiful. This was my favorite day. (Jake is the guy in the black shorts in the pictures.)

Jake is standing behind me in this picture. Our guide tricked me and positioned Jake so that the water went right over his head and right onto me.

 

More relaxing and eating.

Windsurfing!

 

Reading our books on the beach.

We spent another day at a place called Dolphin Cove. We were able to see and hold a lot of different animals.

We were able to swim with the dolphins. Now I can check it off of my list of 100 things to do before I die. It was such a neat experience. We loved it!

Jake got to drive a little speed boat out on the ocean for a while. The place where the waterfall is in the background used to be McJagger's.

 

Showering in a natural spring.

The best part of our trip was being able to spend some quality time with my amazing husband.

We missed this little girl a ton and are so grateful for such wonderful family who took such great care of her while we were gone. According to them she did amazingly well.