Amazing...

Ok. So I normally do not post links, but a guy at work who will be taking part in a mini-triathlon sent this out to us and I thought it was worth it. Here is the background in a nutshell...

Rick and Dick Hoyt.

Maybe you already know of this story, and if you do, sorry for the repeat. If you don't, then I think you will find this quite inspiring. Dick is the father, Rick is the son. Dick has competed in several of the Ironman triathlon's and so has Rick. What makes them different is that Rick has cerebral palsy and can't do much of anything on his own. In fact, he only communicates in 2 ways. He can communicate now through the wonders of modern technology, but before then, it was basically non existent until one day when Dick discovered something. What Dick discovered was that Rick would get very excited when he felt the wind in his face. It brought a smile to Rick's face and his eyes would light up. I don't know all the details, but Dick found a way to bring this excitement to his son's life by running with him, or riding his bike with him. It then became a goal to do a triathlon, and then the Ironman. Keep in mind that an Ironman involves an open-water Swim (2.4 miles), Bike Race (112 miles) and the Marathon (26.2 miles) Take a look at this video and then just remind yourself that you can do great things!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHxHapwirw

Got cousins?

So with every large family there comes a time (ususally at weddings or funerals) that you all get together. Well one happened to be last weekend when my Aunt and Uncle came home from thier mission in Africa. So the invite went out to all 33 cousins to come and hang out. A few were not able to make it, but we had a great time.
Here were the members of the Pederson Clan that could make it. Artyom's mom is on the far left and Jon's fiancee Heidi on the far right.

My counsin David and his wifeCheryl graciously let us crash thier house with thier other 7 kids and we had a blast at thier house. Thanks again guys!

This was just a sampling of meal time as we all came for chow time.

And this is the new bouncing baby boy of Dave and Krystals, at only 6 months old, and weighing in at almost the same weight as his 22 month old cousin Sofia. Such a cutie!

Summer Fun...Reunion Pictures

Just some more cute pics I caught at our reunion...

Gotta love Summer

Officially announcing our Ella...

I found this AWESOME girl on KSL.com (if you have not been to this site, you should have a look if you live in Utah..) who offered to make a baby announcement for free as she needed some sample work. Well I totally took advantage and this is what we came up with. Thank you Lana!

That's Amore...

I came home from the grocery store (an outing all by myself!!) and thought I would find Ella crying, hungry and needing to be held. Instead I found this...

Just one of those times that you feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

The Way we were...

THE WAY WE WERE...
Since I know I probably won't be able to post much this week I thought I'd steal this idea from two of my friends' blogs so that it will be listed first for a while to encourage more comments. Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! These can be memories about me or Artyom, Sofia, whatever!
.2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.