Mandy's Birthday Wish List

Here it is! The highly anticipated, highly researched birthday list 2009! You see, I must confess there is a guilty pleasure among my family members. As grown adults, we still give each other birthday presents every year, each and every one of us. Yes, it gets a little old sometimes, after you've doled out cash for the 14th time that year, but when it comes time for your birthday- I swear, its the best thing that happens to you all year! Makes me feel like a kid again! So, every year, I get at least 6 phone calls with the same question- "What do you want for your birthday?" In response, we have started carrying around "lists". (Janna started it)
And that is why, this year, I'll be unabashedly posting my list online- as a favor to you, dear siblings. To make your shopping just a little easier. Just consider it a little birthday gift from me to you.
So, without further adieu.........

THE LIST


1. A sporty pair of sunglasses. I'll try to demonstrate what I mean by sporty. I'm looking for something like these....

Not so much like these.....(love you Jami)

2. Cute Jewelry

3. A new Ironing Board (lame, I know. I recently saw one for $12 at Wal-mart, but couldn't figure out how to get it home in my cart with 4 kids & all my groceries. It's really a matter of convenience)

4. A cute pair of Mountain Bike Shorts

5. A collection of good music.
Here's my dream......I want someone who owns a lot of great music to copy me some of their favorite albums, or even make some "mixed tapes". I just really like good music, but don't have the time or the patience to acquire it. Another bonus, this could be a really inexpensive gift that would mean a lot to me.

6. 2 Euro-sized pillow inserts. Sold at Target for much less than Pottery Barn. I have Euro shams for my new bedding, but so far, havent been able to afford pillows to go in them. How sad :(

7. Big square baskets to put on the floor by my back door & have the kids put their shoes in them when they get home. Destined to fail, right? You can't blame me for trying

8. A new fall Purse. Isn't this one the cutest? Its by Juicy Couture and is only $350. Ya right! A Target special will do just fine.

9. Book- "The Time Travelers Wife"

10. Mountain/Road Biking Gloves

11. New P.J. pants. These are the ones I told Heather about from Aeropostale. When I went to buy them, they were $39.00. REDICULOUS! Now they are on sale for $19.99. More reasonable. Hint Hint

Chicago Trip

Well, we did it. We survived the 2600-mile round trip drive to and from Chicago, IL. And I have to say......it wasn't too bad! The kids actually had a fun time in the car, they weren't too monstrous, and Noodle didn't throw-up once. I (Mandy) drove out with my MIL Lesli and my 4 kids and my niece, Bella. Seth flew out a few days later so he could get some work in, and then drove home with us. We stayed with Seth's brother & wife & their four kids, so -grand total- there were 14 of us in their house. It was crazy and fun and exhausting and everything a summer vacation should be. I know what you're all thinking- but actually my in-laws did not drive me crazy. They are really quite normal people, and Lesli was a slightly better driving companion on the way out than my dear husband was on the way back! (sorry Seth). I thought we made an excellent team. Maybe we can even do it again next year! (maybe......)

The Navy Pier just outside of downtown Chicago is a board-walk style beach area built right on the shores of Lake Michigan. We had such a fun day there. We went on a boat ride on the Tall Ship Windy, rented bikes & tooled around the marina, and of course, took the kids on the giant ferris wheel.

The Chicago Skyline.....oh, how romantic......

Grandma with all the kids.....and a stray jogger.

These were the funniest bikes you've ever seen. We had to get two to fit all of us. There are four sets of pedals, but trust me, one person really does all the work! The kids loved them!

The Horse races at Arlington Park

The kids loved cheering for their favorite horse, which they chose based on how cute its name was. Wasn't a bad system, actually.

Chris bought the girls matching dresses & proper "horse-race hats". They were so dang cute.

Legoland! The kids favorite thing- Not the parents. uggghhhh!


The home of my girl, Oprah. I had to go see it. Unfortunately, they do NOT tape shows during the summer. Boo!

Waitin for the train. We had to ride the Metro into downtown Chicago, as it is nearly impossible to drive anywhere downtown. Seth and I didn't believe them and tried it ourselves. It was a nightmare!!!!!!

Wrigley field- home of the Cubbies. We also really wanted to go see a game, but ironically, no one was playing at home while we were there. When we drove past they were having an Elton John/Billy Joel concert. Man, I'd have loved to see that show!

We made the kids get out of the car in their pajamas when we crossed the mighty Mississippi. They weren't too thrilled to see it, but I thought it was cool.

This is just some random rest stop in Wyoming.....or was it Nebraska? Anyway- notice the wind is blowing Makenna's hair straight sideways. For some reason I get a kick out of that. Road trips- you gotta love 'em!

Jackson Hole & Jellystone

It's been awhile since we visited our condo in Jackson. In fact, we realized this summer that Smurfy has never even been, so we decided it was definitely time! We snuck up for a quick trip over the 4th of July weekend & had so much fun. We even drove up to Yellowstone for a day to see Old Faithful, but the kids weren't so much interested in that. They just wanted to look at animals. They could have looked for animals all day. I think that was the highlight of their trip. We started an "animal sightings" record so the kids could mark down what we saw. They counted 4 moose, 2 elk, hundreds of buffalo, 2 grizzly bears (ok, maybe it was the same grizzly bear twice....), an antelope, a fox (does it count if it was dead?), a bald eagle, several deer, and a yellow-bellied marmot. That's just plain fun for the whole family!

Wasatch Back

Yippeee!!! It's over! Ok, we had a blast and I'd so do it again, but I have to say I'm glad to have that one checked off my list. When my friend Brooke said we were doing wasatch back, I thought, "Seriously?" "No, I'm not that kind of runner."
Luckily, they gave me easy legs, great running mates, and perfect weather. I couldn't have asked for more. (Well, maybe for a little less rain at the finish line....that was a bit of a disaster). Otherwise- a great weekend with great friends. Thanks to Amberlee for these awesome pics (I stole 'em from her Facebook), and to Brooke for, as usual, being the running "beast master". Can't wait till next year. (or, can I??????)


Is this guy hot or what???? Their team was called "Running Naked" & trust me, they nearly were. We followed him hanging out the car window, hootin & hollerin for miles!! His wife must have wanted to kill us, but hey, whatever keeps you goin, right?

This guy is hot, too! He was such a great support to me. I was lucky enough to get to run through my hometown & Seth made sure the whole neighborhood was outside cheering me on. It was so, so cool. Then he followed me on his bike cracking his whip the whole time. Not as cool. But it made me run faster, so that was good!
You must love our outfits, right? Our team was called "Sweatin to the oldies". We were supposed to look like we were in one of Richard Simmons Jazzercise classes circa 1992. Sweet. Love you Amberlee!!!!




Nice face, Mandy. Must've needed to poo...... Hey, it happens. (Ask my s.i.l Megan :)

Lake Powell

Ok- I've been informed by some friends that my blog is getting absurdly out of date. To my credit, its only June & this has been one crazy summer!!!! I was going to try to do this in one catch-up blog, but its too hard, so I'm starting with Lake Powell. Earlier this month we were invited by some friends in the neighborhood to go on an adults-only Lake Powell trip. Let me just say a trip like this was long overdue & simply genius!!!!! I don't know what we've been thinking taking our kids to Lake Powell all these years. Don't get me wrong, I love our family trips, but there is something about Lake Powell.....and peace......that go hand in hand! So thank you thank you thank you Erika & Shawn for what was really one of the funnest things we've done in a long time. We made some great friends & had some really good times.






Just a little side note....in addition to all the great fun we had waterskiing, wakeboarding, surfing, etc. etc., there was one scary incident. The men spent one whole evening rigging up a zipline across one of the canyons near our houseboat. They really worked hard to make sure the line was secure and everything was safe. However, they didn't make sure everyone who would be riding said zipline was strong enough to hang on when the handle got jerked out of their hand after a 20-ft freefall. Can you see where I'm going with this????? So, I plunged off the edge of what I'm told was about a 70-foot cliff, dropped about 20 feet, had the rope yanked out of my hands, and continued to fall, super-man style 50 more feet into what had to be the worlds best (or worst!) bellyflop. Man, I didn't know water could hurt that bad!!!!! Every inch of my skin felt like it was on fire, and within minutes of coming out of the water I had bruises on nearly my whole body. It was ugly. Everyone was really freaked out, especially after a second girl also fell off the rope & got hurt pretty badly. Needless to say after that the zipline was dismantled & I believe that is the end of my ziplining career. There was a houseboat full of friendly folks nearby who videoed the whole thing. If I can ever manage to get my hands on that video, I'll post it here for you to mock me endlessly.
In the meantime, I took some photos of my wicked bruises.
"Classic Peg"- right? Noone will get that but my fam- but Oh Well!

Oh- P.S.- You can see more of our trip by checking out the "Beckstrom Lake Powell Crew" link in our blog friends list. We hope to make it an annual trip- it was really the best!!!!