A present from Daddy

Daddy spoiled me and Leila on Mother's day with gift certificates to get pedicures (he was thanking Leila in advance... like 20 years advance... for being a mother).

Where's the pools mama?

When we told Cooper we were going to emerald pools in Zion he got this image in his mind of big swimming pools at the end of the trail and didn't believe us when we pointed to the pool of emerald colored water and claimed they were the "pools". I guess we should have explained better. They did enjoy the caterpillars though.
Cooper just liked throwing rocks into what we claimed were "pools":
I think we got the buddy system down:

Anyway this guy had a sucker and lost it. If you look closely you can see it stuck on his shoulder.
And then he found it and was happy again:
Cooper's last day of school was this week... He'll miss Kara Jo I think.
This lady thinks her pink blanket is a princess dress:

And chubs has upgraded to actually DOING things WHILE he walks:

Goodbye Uncle Tony

Jesse's uncle Tony Manuele passed away last Monday. He'd had some medical complications for the last few weeks and finally chose to go. We had the funeral yesterday and it was very touching and very funny all at the same time, but that was Tony :)
Jesse was one of the Pallbearers:



All of the Manuele brothers and sisters with Clo and Big Daddy:



I have no idea what we'll do at Manuele family events now. Tony was the center of it all. We'll miss you Tony!


You can read his obituary if you click here

Baby Steps

After Jesse watched the Ironman he had to sign up for the Marathon as a baby step towards one day completing an Ironman. In excitement to train and compete he signed up for an olympic triathalon at sandhollow which consisted of a 1 mile swim, 24 mile bike, and a 6 mile run.

I will tell you his time but only after I preface it with this: He did 1, only 1! practice swim before the race, and absolutely NO biking! He just went out and ran 6 miles to make sure he could at least do that part. I couldn't go out to the start of the race but I was planning on going out to see him finish, but I was expecting a call all morning telling me that the dive team had to pull his lifeless body from the lake or that he crashed on his bike or, or, or..... Imagine my surprise when my brother calls me 45 minutes after the race starts telling me that he just saw Jesse get out of the water and transition to his bike! I couldn't believe it! He was actually doing it! So I get out there at around the 3 hour mark because he estimated he would be done in 3 1/2 to 4 hours, and here he comes, trotting in looking fresh as a daisy! His time was 3:11 (way to time it baby! That would be my preferred time!)! And my Sister-in-Law Shawn finished not soon after, although time-wise she came in ahead at 2:52. And no post would be complete without some randoms of these yahoos:
Congratulations my talented and brave (or stupid, depending on how you look at it) husband! I think in the future I will find ways to insert his successes into everyday sentences. Like: "Hey, my husband the triathalete would say this about what we are talking about...." or "Yeah, my husband was tired after his triathalon... I'm sure he'd sympathize with you tired person." It would only get better after he did the marathon and subsequent Ironman.... oh the possibilities!

Happy Day of the Mothers

My friend from Mexico (Jesse's former missionary companion) Mosiah kindly wished me the above sentiment on mothers day :)

Jesse now looks forward to Mother's day almost as much as Christmas because he gets to give so much. He spent weeks pouring over cookbooks and searching the internet to find just what he wanted to make and serve to all his favorite mothers. He then distributed the recipes to the other participating husbands and set to work gathering ingredients.

He wanted me to make invitations that read: "you are hereby invited to attend our annual mother's day dinner which will take place in 72 hours x 3 -24" uh... yeah.
Needless to say they were never made. I did agree, however, to make flan for dessert and my delicious copy of the white cheddar nachos served at FishRock Grille. So the menu was as follows:
Appetizer: White Cheddar Nachos
Salad: Feta with candied walnuts on mixed greens
Soup: Creamy Tomato Basil with artisan bread
Beverage: Cantaloupe Honey Drink
Main Course: Sundried Tomato Chicken over rice with steamed green beans
Dessert: Caramel Flan

I think the majority of us were full after the soup but we persevered so as not to offend our obliging chef.
I was nervous before mother's day because I was to teach Relief Society... the anticipation of teaching almost did me in. I am not good at feeling prepared. After I delivered the lesson (not half bad in my estimation!) I felt glorious! Kind of like one feels after delivering a baby after a long and agonizing pregnancy. I went home from church and while the children were napping I read my book on the couch, from which I had a wonderful view of our before-mentioned loving chef busy all afternoon in the kitchen.
The dinner, the day entirely was magnificent. Thank you husband for your attention to detail and your loving generosity to all the mothers you know and love :)
My friend Kelsi is moving to CA soon... She's been an honored guest at our mother's day dinner for as long as we've been having them. She will be missed!


Marshall got in some quality time with "unkie spunkie"

Annie (soon to be 2nd time mother), and Sara ("mother-in-training" as Jesse put it in his speech).

Graduating Grandma

Not many people say "Hey, I'm going to my Grandma's graduation this weekend!" but our kids did! A few weeks ago Grandma Monique graduated with her Master's degree in Psychology School Counseling from USU and as you can see they were ecstatic about the drive to Ephraim:
Maybe they were a little more excited to get all dressed up to go see Grandma on the stage: I don't get why she has to look so stinkin' good all the time!This guy, though, this guy just takes the whole cake for being cute:


Just stop it. We know you're cute! Let me nuzzle your neck fat you little chubber!

Ironman

May 1, what a great day to swim 2 miles, bike 200 miles, and run 26.2 miles! Or... just help and cheer on the crazy people who DO think that!Our fearless Vaseline sharer:

And garbage picker upper:At the end of the day I thought, man how inspiring, can't wait till next year. At the end of the day Jesse thought, man, how inspiring, I want to run the marathon. ( see how different men and women are?!) No joke. We went home and signed him up. Keep posted for how his training goes!