You say it's "YOUR" birthday...

Happy Birthday MICHAEL RYAN DEAN
"38" sure looks good on you!

Thanks for being the best Husband/Dad EVER.
WE LOVE YOU!!!
Emily, Rachel, Jake, Will, Sadie and Diesel :)

FALL is in the air...and I LOVE it !

Fall is by far my FAVORITE season during the year. Watching the leaves change and fall is so amazing to me. I could just sit outside for hours and watch the gorgeous mountainside. The other night I was at Jake's football scrimmage at Cottonwood Highschool and sitting there with the mountain view was absolutely breath taking. I am so grateful we live in a place that has 4 seasons. We are lucky to get to experience weather changes all year long. I just wish FALL would last a little longer. My favorite thing to do on Sundays is to go on drives and hikes especially when you get to see the awesome leaves changing colors. One Sunday (10/11/09) I said lets get in the car and go see the fall leaves up Guardsman Pass. Well when we got to the top the leaves weren't pretty like I thought and we were greeted with snow. It was quite disappointing that we had missed the leaves and they had already fallen.

The next Sunday (10/18/09) I said lets try Millcreek Canyon maybe Guardsman was too high and we will have better luck up Millcreek. We hit the leaves at a perfect time up Millcreek. The drive was absolutely gorgeous.When we got to the top of the canyon we decided to go and take a little hike and try to get some pictures with the leaves.

The further we walked...the prettier the leaves got.

The path was lined with leaves that had fallen on the ground.

The camera doesn't quite do the leaves justice...they were absolutely FABULOUS :)

So PRETTY!!!

Heading back down.On our drive back down the canyon we found a great spot for some pictures.

Our apricot tree has just started to change colors in our backyard. It usually changes late in the season so seeing it start to change colors makes me realize the leaves will all be gone before we know it....but for now we are enjoying them. HAPPY FALL!!!

Black Widow = CREEPY

Look who found a home in OUR computer. Yep my friends, that is a BLACK WIDOW. You can imagine how Mike must have felt when he opened it up to work on the computer that wasn't functioning very well. It is crazy how much it looked like a plastic spider. It makes me sick to think that there may be others in our house. CREEPY :(
Videos of the Black Widow & Catching the CREEPY thing!!!

ST. George MARATHON 2009

Of course I have to blog about Mike's AWESOME job on the St. George marathon. It is very inspirational watching people finish a marathon. What a great accomplishment...26.2 miles of running. It is crazy to me how many people run in the St. George marathon. Over 6,000+ people register for the race and they actually have to turn people away. I have run 1 marathon and probably won't again...I have to admit I enjoy my 4/5 mile workouts. This is Mike's 3rd year running. He ran it with his brother John. They had a great time running 6 of the miles together during the race. I was so proud of Mike that he beat his personal best time by 2 minutes. WAY TO GO BABE!!!

They left the hotel at 4:00 am to go and sit at the start in freezing weather for 2+ hours. I took pictures off the computer so I would have some for my blog. I love that they all say proof...only means PROOF that he ran the marathon. Don't you worry we bought some to have for our wall so it is OK that I borrowed them for my blog.

Along the course.
The Dean BrosI think this picture says it all. Just glad to be done.

Mike finished in 3:28:19 and John finished in 3:18:39
John beat his personal record by 20 minutes...pretty amazing.
At the finish.

Tonya and I decided to leave the kids at the hotel so we could go and watch and not have to listen to them say they were bored and when would we be done and could leave. Watching Mike finish the race made me wish the kids were there to see him finish. Next year we will definately bring them.Hot tubbing at the hotel. A must for those tight muscles.We explored a little while we were in St. George. We went to the crack in the rock.
Rachel helping Sadie.

Tight squeeze.
Will and Rachel

Iactually went through it. What a tight squeeze. I had to see if I could fit...and I barely did.

Peeking out.Training starts in April for next year...who knows maybe I will surprise Mike and train with him...probably not :)

LET THE GAMES BEGIN...

Fall sports are in full swing (it is hard to believe that 1/2 of the season is already over). Saturdays are crazy busy with 3 soccer games, 1 football game and Rachel reffing soccer. It has been great fun bouncing from one activity to the next.

(Thanks Grandpa Roger for all the great pictures.)

Sadie is a little fireball on the field. She is definately not afraid to get in there and kick the ball. I think soccer might be her sport.

Will also loves soccer. I never really cared much for soccer when I was growing up. I am glad our kids have developed a love for it because it is a great sport to keep you in shape.This is the last year Rachel will be able to play rec soccer with Impact since they only go up to (U14). I hope she is able to make a comp team in the spring because she really loves it. Her age group is really entertaining to watch. The games are always really close and it is fun to see how much the girls have learned by this age.

Rachel is reffing again this year. It sure is good money for a "13" year old.Jake never really cared much for soccer so he decided to try football this year. Those of you that know Jake know that he is a very quiet, shy, mellow kid...but get him on the football field and he is in heaven. He has adapted very well to the game of football. He doesn't hesitate when he needs to make a tackle or block someone. He has been a little behind since it is his first year playing and alot of the kids on his team have played for 3 years already....but luckily he has great coaches that have really worked with him and have helped Jake learn to love the game. He has even worked up to getting to RUN the ball in some plays which he is very excited about.

I love this picture...getting the job done.

Resting after hard work.Go OLY!!!Can't wait for the 2nd 1/2 of
THE FALL SEASON :)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

We went camping over Labor Day Weekend with the Tanner's a family in our ward. We love spending time with them. The kids all get along and Judi and Ryan aren't so bad either :). We camped for a few nights at the Spruces up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a great time of food, hiking, exploring, geocaching, games and hanging out. The weather was perfect...a little cool at night which I loved. Every time we go camping I always say we need to do it more. I know a lot of girls don't like to camp...but I LOVE IT :) All the pictures we got of camping were from Mike's Iphone since the camera I brought was out of batteries. They aren't the best pictures but I am sure glad we had the phone.

We rode the chairlift up to Solitude. It was really fun seeing it without all the snow. We had a great time exploring at the top of the lift.

JAKE

A view from the lift.THE GROUP
Lola, Judi, Mike, Jake, Will, Me, Rachel, Sadie, Sydney, Cohen, Ryan, OliviaExploring at the top.

BEST FRIENDS
Rachel and SydneyHanging by the fire.
I swear Will is at a stage that he always looks so silly in pictures.
We sure love him :)

The Littlest Camper...Cohen Tanner (only 16 months)
The nights were a little hard for him but during the day he was a little trooper.

Hanging out by the fire.
Sadie, Olivia, Lola

Playing cards.

Taking care of Cohen.

GEOCACHING
It is always fun to search for geocaches. Ryan had an app on his Iphone so Mike bought it too. We were able to search for geocaches in our camp. The treasure we find in the cache boxes is alot of fun for the kids.

Walking along the river.
Jake, Will,Sadie, Rachel, Lola, Cohen, Sydney, Olivia

WILL

Breakfast time.

More exploring.Thanks Tanner's for a great weekend. We sure love you guys!!!