Eva Ruthie Tootie-toot

That is what Isobel lovingly calls Eva...

Eva turned 5 on Monday! Holy cow - does that make me old? Bryce and I pretty much let Eva have free reign on her big day - since it's the last birthday she has at home - next year she'll be in school on her birthday. We asked her if she wanted to go to lunch and she said she wanted to go to Bobcat Bite. It's a great hamburger joint, but we asked what she liked there and she said "hot chocolate and fries." Well, if that was her only request, we could go somewhere else. So we went to Denny's but their hot chocolate machine was broken! So we went across the street to Village Inn. Here Eva is - happy as a clam - with her hot chocolate :)

It's a crappy picture because I took it with my phone and she doesn't hold still well :) I wish you could see her outfit. She is wearing this tye-dyed shirt, a plaid patchwork skirt, and two-tone checkered pants - wow!

That afternoon, for her birthday party, we had 10 little girls over to dress up, dance ballet, paint pictures, have snacks and cake. All her choosing. The girls and I (and Karen - thanks for joining me:) danced to Josh Groban for a long time. It was great! At the end, when I was SO ready for the parents to pick up the kids, I decided to let the kids go crazy and we listened to the Twilight soundtrack (thanks Share). They totally loved it! I was exhausted and needed a time-out when we got home, but the girls (mainly Eva) had a great time - so it was worth it. Good thing birthdays are only once a year!

It's funny, now that Eva is 5, she will do her own seatbelt and wipe-flush-wash her hands. Yeah!

Here are some of my favorite things that Eva says lately:

HEY! There's a ROAD-RAILER train! (It's called the Rail-Runner, but it has a picture of a road runner - very confusing)

Mom, you and I are twins - only, your hair is stuck to your head and mine hangs down a little bit.

Mom, I'm going to be hot if I wear a short-sleeved OR long-sleeved shirt.

Eva: How do I look today? Mom: Cute. Eva: Mom, you are supposed to say it like "Eva, that's SO cute!" Mom: Oh, (giggle) sorry. Eva, you are SO cute!

I am sure there are way more - but that is all I can think of at the moment. Please feel free to leave some of your favorite Eva quotes in the comments - she'll love reading them!

WE LOVE YOU, EVA!!

Western Regional EI Conference FUN!

So I spent 4 days in Colorado Springs for a conference. I'd never been there before so we made the most of it. I stayed in a resort with my supervisor, Kristi. When we arrived on Wednesday, we did some research to find out how we wanted to spend our evenings and getting out to move around.
The first evening we found a great creperie and I ate a crepe filled with ham, swiss, and spinach. MMM...
The next night we invited our group from NM to go to Garden of the Gods and hike around. All these ladies are SO fun! We ran around and looked at the huge, fin-like red rock formations with Pike's Peak in the background. Seriously, check out the site - you won't believe these rocks.

We had planned to all go out for Stacy's and Kristi's birthday dinner - but there was a little miscommunication. Apparently there was more than one Macaroni Grill and their car followed the GPS and we followed our own knowledge. We found the right one - they found the one that was closed. Oops. It was a fun to have dinner with my friend Paula from Utah :)

We had to book it out of our last session on Friday to get to Seven Falls before they closed the gate at 5:15pm. We climbed 224 stairs up the side of the falls (that you can see in the picture) and then down and went up the 170-something steps to the better view. Kristi took pics of us and sent them to our husbands - how sweet is that? I guess I should have looked cuter for Bryce ;)

Then Kristi, Sally Ann, and I went to this restaurant with food from Nepal (that we saw around the corner from the creperie). The food on the far left corner was mine:) I had mango chicken and bread with cherries, cashews, and coconut - oh man - it was awesome.

Across the street was a store with clothes from India and Nepal. Sally Ann and Kristi loved dressing me up in this crazy wrap-around skirt/dress thing. Kristi didn't have Barbies, so she was acting out on me. I'm used to it - Share loves to dress me up. Oh - and I did buy the skirt.

Kristi and I had a great visit on the way home and I finally finished listening to Inkheart (I left Santa Fe with only like 1 chapter left and an 8 hour drive ahead of me...I'm telling you, we had a good visit:)

All in all, it was great to have such fun people around and to get out and see some beautiful things. AND eat killer food! I didn't even mention the food at the conference - too much great food all day. I think I need to start running again ;)

The SLC Half Marathon

Most of you who have been dying to know how the half marathon went have either already talked to me or seen Share's blog. If you want to know and see some good pictures, check out her post - it's killer.

THE BIG RACE

Our outfits were so fun and although I wanted to die the last couple miles, I felt really good once I was done. Now Share is trying to convince me to run in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay next year. Anyone who's up for a crazy long run thru the mountains of Utah - check it out and let us know if you're in ;)