Our Summer

First of all, HAPPY SEPTEMBER! Fall isn't quite in the air but Im bringing out some fall decor and Im loving the idea of fall. Ace LOVES fall so his excitement is contagious. He loves the color changes, his birthday, and most of all FOOTBALL. So needless to say, the Stryker home is sad to leave behind a memorable summer, but we are ready to fall into autumn. 

Obviously I did a really terrible job blogging this summer. SO, I decided that I would try and wrap up our summer with a picture post and a list of things we did, things we discovered and people we saw.

Things we did this summer:

We did races this summer. I did four different races and Ace did two. He doubled his number of races all in one summer. What a stud:-)!

(tough mudder race in Dallas TX)

(Bayfield CO 5k)

(redrock relay in Moab UT)

(10k mud race in Durango CO)

We did lots of traveling this summer. We traveled by BIKE,

by CAR,

and by PLANE!

Here is a list of all the places we went this summer: we went to TX for the Tough Mudder race, UT three different times and WA where we went to Seattle for Ace's high school friend's wedding. We still have one more trip to Utah planned later this month and a Caribbean cruise in October! Lots of traveling for this little Stryker family.  Here are a few pictures from our Seattle trip.

(this tire was the coolest natural aquarium ever! it was the home to hermit crabs, small fish and one large red crab. it seriously was the coolest thing ever. i just love marine life)

(Pike Place Market)

We attended Shay's wedding. That's right I said Shay. And people say we live in a world without miracles:-). Just teasing Shay! But really Shay and Aleah's wedding was beautiful and we felt so grateful to be able to be apart of their special day. Here are a few wedding pics.

(Christine came out for the wedding and to visit us of course....ok Garret)

(we couldn't get Garret to hold still unless we let him hold this stick)

(COUSINS!)

We did lots of swimming this summer, in lots of different places and sometimes Garret was clothed but most the time he went all natural. 

(even the dogs water bucket worked)

Things we (by we I mean Garret) discovered this summer:

Watermelon. And loved it!

Chapstick. This is what it looks like when you leave Aleah on baby duty:-).

Sleeping in mom and dad's bed. Not my favorite discovery.

People we saw this summer:

 Andrea and Alec

Thanks to Shay and Aleah we saw the entire Beck side of the family for the wedding.

We were lucky enough to see the entire Stryker family, but just not all at once. We saw Asia in Utah once, Christine in Utah once and in Colorado once, Zac and his friend Shaun came for the month of July and then we got to see the other little Stryker family in Utah as well.

Kissing cousins! (Garret and Benton)

And our biggest summer news of all is this little bundle of joy.

 We will be meeting the newest member of our family in February. We are excited and nervous to become a family of four. Garret has been so sweet about the baby thing. He tickles my stomach, kisses it and tries to give it his paci (if that isn't love to a 20 month old then I don't know what is)

Summer of 2012 has really been an amazing summer. I would feel really ungrateful if I hadn't taken a moment to record this amazing summer and to share our wonderful news. Happy Fall everyone!

This is what gardening looks like to Garret.

Garret really is such a great worker but there were really too many distractions for this little boy.

But somehow the rest of us trudged on.

There were 5 adults,

2 kids

1 toddler

1 infant and

one LARGE hat.

 Helping hands make light work.

MOAB: Boys VS Girls Weekend!

May 12, 2012 was a busy day for the Stryker family. We all went to Moab for a crazy day of adventure. However, it was a boys and girls kind of weekend. So even though we were in the same city ALL DAY LONG we saw each other not-a-once. So we made sure to take lots of pictures to really see what the other person did during the day. Lets start with the Girls Weekend.

Friday evening I drove down to Moab, Utah with some of my good friends and we met even more friends once we got down there. There was 12 of us total to be exact. What brought us all together? Red Rock Relay! Lots of running and lots of sun! It was a 70 mile race and each person ran at least 10 miles. 

I really do LOVE running and so doing a relay with other ladies who love running too just made it all that much sweeter. Enough said. Here are the pictures from the girls weekend.

12 ladies 2 teams

"Chicks with Kicks"

"Sisters with Blisters"

We really tried to stay hydrated and cool

But from the following pictures you can see the heat still got to us

Our ride

Finishing together. This was actually take two because we forgot to get a picture the first time around and I was actually at the car changing my shirt. So technically I missed the actual finish with the team...no big deal. 

Lots of fun with some really amazing ladies!

Now onto the boys weekend. Ace and Garret left our home Saturday morning at 6 am. They drove the three hours to Moab and met Ace's college roommate and close friend, Bob. The guys spent the day hiking around Arches National Park. I guess hiking was on the side of chasing Garret around everywhere. Garret is wanting to be so independent these days. He wont let us feed him, he won't let us hold him in the pool (which leads to a lot of face plants in the water) and Ace said he wouldn't let him carry him around very much in the pack. And when Ace took him out he would't hold Ace's hand and instead took off climbing rocks and trails alone. He had lots of scratches when I saw him Sunday morning. Here are some great pictures from the Guys weekend.

Garret's two loves: the outdoors and dogs.

Climbing on EVERYTHING.

What a little explorer. 

Good ol' Bob.

Lacy's two loves!

"Here Bob try this cracker. I already got it nice and wet for you."

Nice toned stomach.

Quite an adventure for a little guy.

Girls weekend was a success. Guys weekend was a success. One successful weekend.

Better late than never

Back in December the BECK family was all together for Christmas. My parents decided to have Jeremey Wade Shockley take some family pictures for us.

By the time Garret was 10 months old my parents doubled the number of their grandchildren. Lots more kids makes picture taking very interesting. See for yourself. These are just a few of my favorite.

(Cayson's face cracks me up every time)

All because two people fell in love.

Adding another Lady to the mix

If you had't noticed, I was getting out numbered by boys in my family. So to even things up a bit we added another lady to our crazy crew. Now before you get too excited, our little lady looks more like...well Sully actually. That's right we have another yellow lab.

Now those of you who know Sully know that he is sweet but truly a menace. He is CONSTANTLY getting out of our yard, chewing things up, barking at passing cars, digging holes in our yard, eating anything we have of value or interest and the list goes on and on. When we went to Florida my parents were happy to watch Sully for us, but by the time we got back my mother politely informed us that Sully had worn out his welcome.

Knowing all this many of you might be thinking, "why on earth would they get another dog if they can't even contain their one?" Well I have actually thought that myself a few times the past few weeks. BUT a wonderful family in our ward had a yellow lab named Callie (not Kali...like my sister. They may be pronounced the same but they are spelled differently so that makes it completely different ok Kali:-)), and she was too much for them to handle so they asked us if we were interested in another dog. We thought Callie would keep Sully in the yard (not so) and that they could be best buds (very true). When Sully is in our yard, instead of running amock in our neighborhood, he is totally happy and content with Callie. They play so well together and have from day one. So Sully gets a buddy, Callie gets a buddy (and she is working off some unnecessary pounds by keeping up with Sully) and the previous owner of Callie lives near us, so he walks home from school and stops by our house on his way home to get his fix of Callie and Sully.

So besides the fact that Sully STILL gets out of the yard, having another dog has been great. They are so happy together and it is great to have another lady in the mix.

(P.S. Callie is closer to the front and that collar around Sully's neck is part of our Invisible Dog Fence. Just another attempt at keeping him in the yard. Hope this one works. Also these two sweethearts are 2 weeks apart. They are going to be able to be buddies for a long time)