Sunday, December 20, 2009

Merry Christmas from the Andersons!

Dear Family, Friends, and blog followers -

This year has been one of the more eventful years of our married life. We haven’t added any children, nor did we graduate again, but we had a lot happen. Here are some updates from our family and the significant events that happened during the year.

Our Family:

John got roped into running a couple races this year, but he found his nitch in a different mode of transportation, road biking. In June, he sold his motorbike to buy his Specialized road bike and begin training for the Fort Bridger, 24th of July, triathlon. He, Dana and Anika took first place this year. He was recently called to be a Deacon’s Quorum Adviser and enjoys the time he spends with his 16 rambunctious scouts. As many of you know, John is a huge BYU fan, his football team did pretty good this year and they recently beat the Utes, so in his mind the year was a success. He continues the tradition of taking the family to most of the BYU Basketball games.

Dana took up competitive running this year. She began her season with one goal in mind, run the Provo River Trail Half Marathon. She and her sister, Anika, started serious training in June and had a lot of fun running their 6, 8, 10 and eventually 12 mile runs together. This one goal led to many races and experiences that will not soon be forgotten. In October, she joined a team of runner’s from Life Time Fitness to run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay; 24 hours, 188 miles, and 12 runners (each running 3 legs of the race). Her team placed 2nd, losing by only 6 seconds and she came home with a baton that had, “Almost First” engraved on it. She continues to teach group fitness at Life Time Fitness and Gold’s Gym and this year started teaching for the American Fork Fitness Center.

Hailee continues to enjoy and excel in her gymnastics class. She started preschool this fall and she has loved every minute of it. She likes to learn, but mostly she can’t wait to see what the craft is for the day. Dana’s dilemma now is, what to do with all the “cute” things she brings home! Hailee loves princesses. Her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, because her dress is pink and she has blond hair. She is looking forward to Kindergarten this next year almost as much as her Mom and Dad are.

Camryn is in nursery now. She has to begin her 2 hours there with as much drama as she can muster. Tears, screams, tight hugs. . . but she forgets within 20 seconds that she didn’t want us to leave. She’s very social and settles right into her environment wherever she is, making life as a parent on Sunday, much more enjoyable. She has seen her fair share of doctor’s offices in her short 20 months of life, but she will be seeing more of them in the coming months. She has a tufted hemangioma (a purple and red birthmark) on the inside of her left arm. We noticed is starting to grow in July and continued to watch it, despite steroid creams, grow to the point it is at now. She was given steroid injections in the middle of December to hopefully slow the growth until we can get it removed by the plastic surgeon at Primary Children’s in January. We’ll keep you posted.

Events:

House. On February 26, 2009, we closed on our first home in American Fork. If you have followed our moving saga, we had some rough times looking for the perfect home. We wanted a big yard, a finished basement, near schools, a big master bedroom and bath, good size kitchen, and relatively new (nothing 80's or earlier). After many months of looking, we finally found our home on the AF / Highland border. It is not our "dream home", but is very much what we want. It was built in 1994, so it has some updating to do, but we are excited to personalize it to our tastes. We hope we can stay for many years as we love our neighborhood and ward.

Job Lost and Found(?). On September 15, 2009, John received an email from the CEO of Omniture announcing that Omniture was to be acquired by Adobe . . . as in Adobe Photoshop, Flash, .pdf, etc. It was definitely an anxious time for John as he did not know what the acquisition meant for his future employment. Six long weeks later, John found out that he was placed on transition until January 31st, 2009 and given a generous severance package. We were definitely stressed (and still are) as we were not sure that we could find a job at a great company like Omniture, but knew things would work out for the best.

Fast forward 2 months, John now has 4-5 opportunities on the horizon and it is looking more and more like we may even come out with a pay increase and a promotion. Nothing is signed in ink yet, but we are finding that the Lord is blessing us in our time of need. It definitely pays to get your education and professional certifications. We will keep you updated when we have solid news

Mexican Riviera Cruise. In July, John called, and in one of the most spontaneous things he has ever done, told me that he wanted to go on a cruise in December. Dana was really surprised, but very excited to finally go some place tropical and get away from the bitter cold of Utah. Dana’s parents watched the girls (thanks so much!) and we flew to San Diego. We booked it on the Holland America line (which we later found out was more of the 60+ crowd) and had a wonderful time. The food, beds, and service were top notch! Other than the little bit of motion sickness that we had on the first and last days, we loved every minute.

On board, Dana immediately looked for and found the gym so she could continue her morning workouts. John was not as excited, but ended up loving the sea-level workouts. John found that the cooks and bar tenders were Filipino and immediately set out on a quest to find someone that spoke Illongo. He did, and had a great time reliving his time there through hilarious conversation with the staff.

We stopped at ports in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. All the ports had great weather (80 degree plus) and we found something fun and exciting at each stop. In Mazatlan, we rented a beach spot, Dana tanned, and John swam in the ocean. Dana also braved the waves, but was more concerned that she was going to lose her swimming suit than she was about drowning in the crashing waves (they really weren’t that big). “Wow, the ocean is really salty.” – Dana. After that, we did a little shopping in the Golden Zone and at a HUGE plate of Mexican lobster and coconut shrimp – yum!

In Puerto Vallarta, we booked a shore excursion, a rain forest canopy tour, in Los Veranos. John was a little nervous because he is afraid of heights, but ended up having the time of his life zipping over the treetops on 14 lines. The instructors / entertainers were great as they helped us clip into the lines. They were local Mexicans that had a great sense of humor and kept commenting on how good looking Dana is. At the end of the tour, we enjoyed fresh coconut shrimp and Mexican Coke. By the time we got back on the bus and back to the port, all we had time for was a stop as Wal-Mart (yes, you heard right) to call home and buy some Mexican Vanilla.

Our last stop, Cabo, was definitely the most beautiful and clean. We decided to go through the markets to buy souvenirs from the locals. Dana was pretty nervous about negotiating on price, but John was seasoned from his mission to the Philippines. We ended up getting some rings for Dana, some other jewelry, dresses for the girls, and a couple of wood carvings for John’s office. Good memories. After that, we took a water taxi out to Lover’s Beach (or the other side . . . divorce beach). It was a beautiful paradise. John snorkeled and Dana tanned. What a relaxing venue. We will definitely be going back some day. More details and pictures will follow after we get our blog butts in gear.

We hope you have all had a great 2009 (and survived the economic downturn). We wish you a Merry Christmas, and hope 2010 is the best yet for you personally, as a family, and for our country. We love you and hope to see you all at least once this next year.

Love,

John, Dana, Hailee, and Camryn

Sunday, July 5, 2009

2009 Freedom Run 5K/10K


John and I decided to join the the thousands of runners who came out for the Freedom Run in Provo this year. We had a lot of fun and the weather was perfect!

John and 2017 others ran the 5K. Although he is not really a runner (yet!) and hasn't trained as I have, he cut nearly 2 minutes off the first 5K we ran last summer. His goal is to get into the top 25 for his age group, which will mean that he has to shave 3 minutes off his time. Ambitious, but with training, it's possible.

I ran the 10K against 1357 others. My favorite part of the race was coming down University Avenue because there were over 20,000 people lined up to watch parade and that many people cheering me on made mile 3 fly by. Next on my list of favorites during the race was running down University Parkway from 9th east, past the Marriott Center. If you know this road, you know that it is down hill. There is nothing better than running full speed and not feeling a thing!

I ran my fastest mile yet during the race and my overall time put me 2 minutes ahead of my goal. I ended up finishing 68th out of 715 women and 15th in my age group. My goal next year is to finish in the top 50 women, which means I have to cut about 1:15 off my time from this year.

All in all, a good showing and a great time. You can't complain about the exercise and it brings out the competitive spirit in you! We invite anyone to come out with us next year. We have a basement where you can stay too . . . now accepting reservations.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

For my "Lishy"

So, not realizing that today was even bigger than I previously thought . . . it is our 6 year anniversary (ok, ladies . . .back off. I remembered)! Dana and I got married on a cold rainy day 6 years ago in the Salt Lake City temple. We have enjoyed both fun and difficult times in our marriage. Dana has done a lot in her time as my wife. She got her associates and bachelors degrees from BYUI and BYU. She has become quite the successful fitness instructor for Lifetime fitness (thus, the hot bod!). She has become a great mom and wife. Our relationship is quite funny, as Netti may attest to. Living with us, she must think that we either are madly in love or at each others' throats with no in between. We both have our cranky moments, but have a great time teasing each other and just hanging out.

I love Dana's humor, her beautiful features, her motivation, her caring heart, etc. She is still the love of my life and I can't wait to spend the rest of it together. Love you lish!

P.S. For those of you that are unfamiliar, here is where "Lish" came from. We started out calling each other "honey" like everyone does. That grew into honey-licious, of which, I do not know the origins of. Now it is just "Lish" and it has stuck. :)

Mother's Day Pictures

For Mother's Day my mom and aunt patiently photographed my children. I have to say I am very surprised at the number of smiles they got out of them.


The mischevious grin!

Finally, permission to pick up Camryn.
Any hair growing tips??
Cam will love this when she is older!


Thanks mom, Sherry, Hailee and Camryn for making me smile.







Saturday, March 14, 2009



Friday, March 13, 2009

Pictures...

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Camryn's Room

Hailee's Room

Family Room

Kitchen

Friday, March 6, 2009

Update about our home...

We closed on our house on February 26. I think I will always remember that date because of the excessive number of times we had to sign and date the closing documents.

We were all settled in and ready to start leading normal lives, but then we decided to put new carpet in a lot of the rooms, so we are back to mess and chaos. John has decided that tearing out carpet is not really a good career path for him. I think it is pretty safe to say that he'll stick to his office job. Hailee is terrified of the tack strips and insists we carry her across them. Cam could care less; dirt, carpet sheddings, and staples, just makes her life of living a foot off the floor more interesting. I am a little bugged by the amount of stuff that sticks to the bottom of my feet no matter how many times I sweep. The good news is my uncle Jerry is helping us out and Shane is putting in our carpet on Saturday.

So, once carpet is in and the rooms are in their proper order again I promise to post more pictures.

Monday, February 23, 2009

A Place to Call Home!

So if you have followed our moving saga, we had some rough times looking for the perfect home. We wanted a big yard, a finished basement, near schools, a big master bedroom and bath, good size kitchen, and relatively new (nothing 80's or earlier).

Well, after many months of looking, we finally found our home on the AF / Highland border. It is not our "dream home", but is very much what we want. It was built in 1994, so it has some updating to do, but we are excited to personalize it to our tastes.

The last couple of weekends have comprised of painting and updating, and getting ready for the big move. Dana has picked our cute colors for the girls rooms and they are about 95% done with painting and updating. Cam's has a green accent wall (think Tinkerbell) and will have purple curtains and accents. Hailee's is (of course) pink and will have lots and lots of pink swag.

We will update with more pics later, but here are a few to give you just a taste.