Monday, February 27, 2012

Half Marathon Brothers


A while back, Edd decided that he wanted to run in the Jazz Half Marathon.  So he and his running partner both signed up.  After Edd told his brothers about it,  two of his brothers, Eldon and Joe, decided to sign up too! 

So for the next while they did various amounts of training for the race.  Edd would get up early every Saturday morning to go running with his running partner, Kevin, who is in our ward.

Fast forward a little bit...Friday, October 28th was the day the brothers were coming into town!  This was a special day because it turned out to be Stephanie's GOLDEN birthday!!!  :)

Eldon and Stephanie and their two cute girls drove down from Arlington, Texas.  When they arrived, we had a birthday party for Stephanie!!  :)






Meanwhile, Joe and his wife Brittany and their little girl Stella were flying from Utah to New Orleans to join the party!  Unfortunately, they had some airline difficulties with their connecting flight...and didn't arrive at our house until it was SUPER LATE!!!  I think it was about 2:30 when they finally arrived in NOLA!  They finally arrived at our house around 3:30!

Race Day came really early for Eldon and Edd.  They got up at 5am...and were tempted to wake Joe and take him along...since he had paid to run!  But they left Joe behind.   The race started at 7am.  The race route started at Lafayette Park in downtown New Orleans and went down St Charles Avenue and through Audubon Park and then back.  Some of the best scenery in New Orleans, but not when you are running a half marathon...especially since the roads and sidewalks in that area are VERY BuMpY!!!

Here are all the brothers when Edd and Eldon got back from the race! 










After the boys got cleaned up from their race, we went to Fontainebleau State Park.  We waded in Lake Pontchartrain...
 and played in the sand for a little while. 


























This is Eldon and Stephanie's little girl Sophie, who just turned 4.























This is Joe's wife, Brittany and their little girl, Stella!  Stella turned 1 in December!  This was the first time we got to see Stella!  Aimee and Mattie had so much fun playing with her!  :)





















After we played on the beach for a while, we walked along the nature trail that takes you through Alligator Marsh.

























We didn't see any alligators though because it is too cold in October for the alligators to be out...they were all hibernating somewhere near by!
















When we got back to the house, Edd took advantage of a great photo opp and got some cute pictures of Eldon and Stephanie's girls.  Ellie was about 9 months old.  She just recently turned 1!  :)

Later on, we all got all dressed up for our ward Halloween Party!  All the kids looked great in their cosutmes!!  :)


















































Sophie was a princess, Ellie was a fairy, Andrew was a hobo, Aimee was a get well package, Bethany was Kim Possible (a Disney character), and Mattie was SMARTY PANTS!  Mattie was pretty excited because she won one of the awards handed out for best costumes!!  :)


While we were at the party, I got this picture of Edd and Elder Gubler, who was serving in our ward at the time.   Edd's Grandma is Beth Gubler Prince.  After a few weeks of searching, I figured out how Edd and Elder Gubler are related!!  Elder Gubler is Edd's 4th cousin once removed.  Elder Gubler and our kids are 5th cousins!  :)


A long time ago, there were two Gubler brothers, Johannes and his little brother Casper, who lived in Switzerland.  They joined the church and came to America.  Once they arrived in Utah, they helped to establish Santa Clara!!  Casper Gubler is Beth's Grandpa and Edd's great great grandfather.  Johannes Gubler is Elder Gubler's great great great grandfather.





Here are some pictures from the parking lot while the kids were Trunk-or-Treating!!  :)


























Stella was a mouse and Thomas was a puppy dog!  :)


Sunday came too quickly!  Eldon and Stephanie loaded up their van and headed back to Arlington.  We were sad to see them go!  We had a great time visiting with them and playing with their sweet girls!!  :)

Joe, Brittany and Stella were able to go to church with us.  While we were waiting for Edd to get home, I took some pictures of Joe and his cute little family!!  It is so fun to see Joe as a dad!!  :)


























Once Edd got home from church, Joe and Brittany had a little time before they had to fly home so we took them down to see French Quarter!  We started at St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.  Then we walked around the Quarter for a little while.









We ended up by the Mississippi River...where we took some pictures by that NATCHEZ steam boat!  


Brittany snapped a picture of us too...only Bethany and Aimee came with us!  :)  It was so fun to have Eldon and Joe bring their families to come visit!  We had a super fun weekend with them!!!  Thanks for coming to visit us!!!  :)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Happy New Year 2012

Our week of CoUSiN CrAziNeSs continued...we drove home from Austin on Thursday, while my sister, Carolee, and her family were driving to our house from Jacksonville, Fl...where they live!

Eliza was excited to come play with her cousins!!!  Here she is opening her Christmas present from us while her mom watches!  :)





















We had a great time playing with Eliza!!

It was perfect weather for playing at one of our favorite parks...


KOOP PARK, a.k.a. "THE ALLIGATOR PARK"!  :)

I tried to put captions on the pictures but it messed up their placement...I need to figure why!!  Until then I'll just have to write about them!  :)


While Eliza, Thomas and Mattie played over in the park area, the big kids played frisbee across the street in the field.  While Eliza ate her lunch, Mattie and Thomas ran around together for a little bit playing their favorite game of "GRUMPY OL' TROLL" minus the troll...which was me!  :)  Of course, playing in the sand was a hi-light!  When the BIG KIDS finished playing, they joined us on the playground, just in time for some pictures!!  Aimee was more than thrilled!  :)
Eliza...she is 2!  :)



All the kids!
Eliza, Andrew, Mattie, Thomas, Aimee and Bethany :)
New Year's Eve was quite the fireworks show!!!  The fireworks started before it got dark and went on all night long!  There were at least 3 different neighbors doing fireworks!!  Here are some shots from the neighbors in the cul-de-sac behind our street.

The house below the fireworks is across the street from us, where my friend Laura and her family live!  :)




























































































We didn't have to go outside to watch fireworks though,  because we had quite the show from our kitchen windows, that started around 4:30 and went on all night long!!  While we watched the fireworks, Carolee, Aimee and Mattie made hairbows and hairclips!  :)
Aimee's hair bow!  :)















When I went outside at midnight to watch the fireworks, it was almost like a war zone!!  It was so smokey, there were big booms and the whistle of fireworks shooting up into the sky that could be heard all around...even from outside of our neighborhood!  But very beautiful with all the fireworks all around in the sky!!  :)

The fireworks finally ended around 12:30-1ish!!

On New Year's Day, Carolee, Tim and Eliza went to church with us.  Then we headed home for some yummy dinner!  After we ate, the kids went out to the trampoline to play a few more minutes before Eliza had to drive back home!  Edd took a few pictures of Carolee, Tim and Eliza together on the trampoline...maybe I can stick one in!

"sTaTiC eLuXtRuXitY"
Someone used to call it that!!  :)

Carolee, Eliza and Tim
Thanks for coming to see us!!  :)
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