Warren Family News

FOTO FUN!!!

2009-11-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Halloween day actually, we headed up to the canyon with Deanna and Weston and had ourselves a little of what I like to call "Foto Fun"!! (I'm not so sure that is the name Sean would give it, however). He thinks just one photo should do it and doesn't really understand the need for different poses in different areas of the canyon. However, he was a good sport about it! I think it helped that he was able to get football updates on his I-phone!! It was a beautiful day up in the canyon and we all enjoyed ourselves. The kid's love getting their pictures taken...there was never a dull moment....one of them was always posed and waiting for their own personal photo-shoot!! Hope you all enjoy the photos!!!

HALLOWEEN 2009

2009-11-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

So here you have it....all of the Warren children in all of their variety of costumes. Of course, Zach picked being a dirt biker and what a handsome one he is. Savannah saw a "Candy Corn Gogo" costume on the internet....so we got to work on making one for her...she used the hat and boot covers from Danielle's costume. Gabby got together with her friend Savannah at school and made a tutu for a "Green Witch" costume....all her own idea! Of course, Danielle won't be caught in anything less than fashionable, so she decided on the "80's girl".....although I told her that was not how I dressed in the 80's! So we've ammended it to a "60's girl" costume. So Friday morning they all headed off to school in their costumes. That day after school, we headed over to "Omniture: An Adobe Company" (its new name now), Sean's workplace, for the annual Halloween Party!! We brought Deanna and Weston with us too! The kids posed with Captain Hook, Darth Vader, The Smurfs, The Tree Guy from Harry Potter, and their very own dad, as Fred Flintstone! What fun!!! And more candy than you could imagine!!! The kids all like to save their Snickers bars for their mom and, of course, their Tootsies Rolls they are all saving for Grandpa!!! Very dedicated grandchildren they are!!!

Pumpkinmania!!

2009-10-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I just decreased the actual cost of my garden boxes by about $30.00 or so due to the growth of 6 beautiful medium sized pumpkins!! I know, I know, Sean is proud of me!!! So here we are carving the beautiful things. Deanna and Weston came over and helped the kids create designs on each of their pumpkins. They even gave them the knives and let them do some of the carving.....which is a step that's been very hard for dear old mom to turn over to them.....but they each did a great job and we didn't even make one trip to the emergency room!! Yeah!!! My job was to roast pumpkin seeds...Yummy! The kids were so excited to do this...thanks for your help, Aunt Deanna and Uncle Weston!

Sean and Michelle in Hawaii, October 8-14th

2009-10-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here we are back on the Island of Oahu. To the left Sean and I are on a boat headed out to snorkel with the Manta Rays (they are just like Sting rays but without the deadly stinger). It was a night dive/snorkel experience. The divers put a light on the bottom of the ocean floor to attract plankton. Then we all came out of the water to wait for an hour or so until the sun went down. Once it was nightfall we all suited up, divers with flashlights sitting on the bottom shining thier lights up and snorkelers on the top shining thier lights down. Then they came, several huge manta rays, mouths wide open doing back flips and coming within inches of Sean and I. They just kept flipping around in the beams of light to catch as much plankton as they could. It was beautiful!! On a side note, it was a bit wavy out and towards the end of the whole adventure, we were all getting a little Sea Sick. On the way back to the boat, Sean decided to give a little of his own "chum" to the fish, if you know what I mean! All in all, it was a great time!! Above middle, we are on the North Shore in Hawaii. Above right, we are near an active volcano near Kona. Thanks a million to my little sis, Deanna and her husband Weston, who took such good care of our children while we were gone!!!

Sean and Michelle in Hawaii, October 8-14th

2009-10-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Hawaii, just loving it, so beautiful!! This is the island of Oahu, near Waikiki Beach. We also went to The Big Island of Hawaii and visited Kona, where every year they have the best of the best come to compete in Ironman Kona. Above is a picture of me with the first two Ironman ever!! The one on the right came up with the idea with a couple of thier buddies to have this race to see which one was the best!! And one Saturday afternoon they set out to do it!! Pretty cool stuff. That's where Ironman got its start! Above right is a picture of Chrissie Wellington, the winner in the Women's Pro group. She beat the old record by 30 seconds. At any point in the race, she can always be seen with a smile on her face! It was amazing to be there just 6 feet from the finish line. The crowds were going crazy for her!

October General Conference

2009-10-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

My wonderful friend from Canada came down to see us and go to conference. It was so nice to see her again. I haven't seen her since my wedding!! We served together for 5 months in Argentina. That is practically unheard of!! We got to be the best of friends and it doesn't matter how much time passes, we still feel just as close. She has a daughter, Emily, that is close to Savannah's age and an older son, Austin, who Zach enjoyed playing with. We took some time out to go see President and Sister Lunt. It was so nice to visit again. Lynette is great! I just love her!!

Fall practices and games

2009-10-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Our fall season has been filled with football games and soccer games. Literally every Saturday either Danielle has a soccer game or Zach has a football game or both. Zach has made a total of 3 touchdowns so far! He is so excited when he makes one! It is fun to see the sweet little grin on his face as his teammates congratulate him. Danielle keeps getting better and better at soccer. She is a defender and helps prevent the opposing team from making many goals. This is her second year playing soccer and she loves it. Gabby and Savannah are thinking about playing basketball in a month.

9-25-09, Savannah's Birthday

2009-10-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Yeah!! It's the day that Savannah has been looking forward to all year. As soon as one birthday goes by, she seems to start planning for the next one. This year she had several friends over. We made our own pizzas, made our own tie dye tee shirts (with permanent markers, that's the easy way to do it) and played many games. The girls even made up some dance routines and commercials, yes, commercials!! They all had so much fun!

Weston's Birthday

2009-10-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

We had Deanna and Weston over for Weston's Birthday. We made him his favorite dinner, according to Deanna, philly cheesesteak sandwiches. We sure do love living close enough to them to see them quite often.

Back in the Saddle!!

2009-10-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

After our last race in June, I took the summer off from training and that was a nice break, but it feels so good to start working out again. I biked 35 miles today up to the reservoir in Heber where I met Sean and a bunch of our Triathlon friend to swim in the reservoir. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and the water was warm, but we still needed to use our wet suits. We had a great time with friends and got a good workout in, all while the kids were in school!!

2009-10-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, I still take first day of school pictures! Danielle left, however, before I could get her picture. I think the kids are happy that I don't follow them out to the bus stop anymore and take their picture as they are boarding the bus!! They are excited to go back and be with their friends again! I can still remember the days of feeling anxious and being excited to wear my funnest new outfit to school. It's lovely seeing our kids go through the same feelings of excitement!!

2009-10-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

Our last big bash before Summer, Jake, and Aunt Shannie left. We went to Seven Peaks in Provo and spent the entire day there. We all had fun! It was great to be there with our cousins!! The day actually ended with Savannah and Jake getting very sick and throwing up. They laid in the shade on beach towels and took naps. I think Danielle and Summer actually got sick on the way home. At least the first part of the day everyone was healthy and played non stop. Despite that the kids still said it was one of their funnest days all summer long!!

2009-10-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

This year Zach turned 8 and he wanted to have a football themed party. He invited a bunch of his football buddies and we had an afternoon of water fun!! We had a water slide, played duck duck dump, did water relay races, did an obstacle course that the girls all planned out, played steal the wet sponge. We had his party the day before school started. It was also Summer and Jake's last day here so it was fun to celebrate with them!

Aunt Shannon's Birthday, July 30th 2009

2009-08-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Aunt Shannon surprised us all yesterday and came for a visit. None of the kids, including Summer and Jake even knew she was coming!! They thought we were picking up a friend from the airport! It was her birthday today and we made her our famous hot fudge lava cake!! yum yum!!

Tackle Football Practice, July 2009

2009-08-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, Zach has his dream come true. He is playing tackle football. Practices started this week and he is playing five evenings a week and loving it so far! I took pictures of a game that they played in which you are either the runner with the ball or the tackler. It is one on one and he had to tackle the other guy before he crossed the line or run across the line before getting tackled. He had a lot of fun and did a great job!! His tackling involves a lot of wrestling moves!!!! Is that legal??!! His coaches didn't seem to mind, but the boy that got dropped was a little upset.

Daddy's Birthday, July 28 2009

2009-08-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

We surprised dad with a homemade cake (they girls did it while we were gone out scout camp) and homemade chicken dinner! I don't know if Zach or Sean was more excited about the Gerber knife he got for his birthday! He also got some socks, jerkey and a knife from his mom. Truly, a man's dream birthday!!

Scout Camp, July 2009

2009-08-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

I took Zach and Jake to Jeremiah Johnson Scout Day Camp. It was a lot of fun! The boys did archery, BB guns, panned for gold, made teepees, played games,

made rope, learned how to throw a lasso at a target and dunk each other, and played tug of war. Both of them said their favorite part was Archery and Shooting. Oh, they also rowed in some really cool ferries!! They liked that a lot too!!

Pioneer Day trip to Temple Square, July 24 2009

2009-08-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite things to do is go to Salt Lake City Temple Square. We love to take pictures there and go into the visitor centers and watch movies and stuff that they have there. The kids love posing for pictures. Yes, even Jake and Zach! After we got done taking pictures and visiting the center, we went ånd got pizza and candy and sat on top of our car to watch the Pioneer Day Fireworks. Then we rode home with the windows down and the music turned up per request of all the kids!! It was even fun for me!! There is something about letting your hair blow in the wind and sticking your hands (well, one hand for me; I had to keep one on the steering wheel) out the windows while you are driving that makes you just feel like a kid again. Great Day Again!!!

"Jonas Brothers" 4th of July Stadium of Fire Concert

2009-08-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Finally, the long awaited (for the girls anyway), "Jonas Brothers" Stadium of Fire Concert has arrived!! I believe the girls took a couple of hours at least getting ready for this one!! There was lots of showering, drying and straightening hair, curling hair, and picking out just the right outfit going on for this outing!! When all of that was done, we headed out in Brenda and Tim's "Big Rig" with burgers and dogs hot and ready to eat when we got there. A little Tailgating was Tim's cool idea! After we ate, it was off to the show. The girls screamed alot and sang alot; Ben was even enjoying it. Mike, Zach and Jake, however, played it really cool!! They were not much into the cheering and screaming for a few "boys" singing!! The evening was great. Tim took us all back home in the "Big Rig" and everyone fell asleep, except for him, I think. Great Day!!!

Hiking Timp and Bridal Veil with the Johnson's

2009-08-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

We spent some days together hiking. We hiked up Timpanogos Mountain to explore the cave at the top. It was a long hot journey with a "cool" reward at the top. The inside of the cave was icey cold. We went from pouring down sweat to freezing sweat! That's gross. The trip back down the mountain was not too bad. Savannah and I must have used the same muscles on the journey, because we were both holding our "butt cheeks" as we walked the next day!

We also hiked up Bridal Veil Falls. It was very refreshing to hike up the falls and take turns standing in the icey cold falls at the top. My new favorite adjective now is "icey cold"!

Dirt biking with the Johnson's and Summer and Jake, July 2009

2009-08-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Aunt Brenda and Uncle Tim came to visit and we rode dirt bikes and jumped on the trampoline. We also cooked out in the back yard. It was lots of fun being with Brenda, Tim, Ben, Lauren and Mike again!

CLIMBING BRIDAL VEIL FALLS, JUNE 2009

2009-07-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

After camping up American Fork Canyon, we drove the rest of the Alpine Loop down past Sundance and ended up at Bridal Veil Falls. We hiked to the top of the falls and took pictures of the kids in the icy cold water!!

CAMPING UP AMERICAN FORK CANYON, JUNE 2009 WITH SUMMER AND JAKE

2009-07-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Can you just smell the campfire? On the spur of the moment we packed up our tent and some food and, oh yes, the kids and headed up American Fork Canyon to camp over night. We didn't have any reservations, but found a really cool campsite right next to the river which we could hear rushing past us all night long!! It rained on us all night and our tent kept us nice and dry!! The kids played on the rocks and posed for pictures.

MANTI PAGEANT, MANTI UTAH, JUNE 2009

2009-07-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

We packed up the crew and headed down to Manti to meet Heather, Richard, Kai, Meili, Grandma and Grandpa and Deanna and Weston. The Manti pageant was great! We also saw our friends, Keena and her kids there.

JUMP ON IT, JUNE 2009, SUMMER, JAKE, EVA, DANIELLE, GABBY, SAVANNAH, AND ZACH

2009-07-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

For FHE we went to Jump On It and met our cousin Eva there. Then we went to eat at Kneaders afterwards. Jump On It is one of our favorite FHE'S.

LEGACY CENTER JUNE 2009

2009-07-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Relaxing in the pool at the legacy center with everyone after our trip to Yellowstone.

TRIP TO WEST YELLOWSTONE, JUNE 2009

2009-07-12T18:24:00.000-07:00

The day after our Boise race, we were on to a trip to West Yellowstone with cousins Summer, Jake and MaMa. We saw bears, buffalo, coyotes, beavers, eagles, deer, antelope, elk, and of course, chipmunks!

2009-07-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

IRONMAN 70.3 BOISE, IDAHO 2009

Next, we were off to Boise for a little Swim, Bike, Run action.

1.2 miles, 56 miles, and 13.1 miles to be exact. Lots of fun! It rained all day and the water was a little choppy. I did a half

hour better on my time than I did last year. I finished in 6hrs

and 57 min. My goal was to do less than 7 hrs. Sean did it too. We passed each other coming and going on the run. It was fun to see a lot of our friends there doing the same race. Our kids and Mama were there to cheer us on at the end. Feels great to be in shape and accomplish a goal so big!!

2009-07-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Never fear, however, I made sure everyone was fed well after a long hard days work. Nothing like hotdogs and smores to top off the days work.

2009-07-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

I know, I know it's been a while. Better late than never! Ok, this is my weak attempt at summing up our summer so far. First, Heather and Richard came to visit. That was awesome. Also, mom and dad came for some of the time along with Deanna and Weston. One of our big projects was making garden boxes. That was a bigger job than which I thought it would be. One for which I earned the nickname "SLAVE DRIVER" from my sisters!

Zach's wrestling tournament Nov. 12, 2008

2008-11-16T16:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm still learning how to do this. So these are posted in the reverse order of
how I picked them so just picture this in reverse.
At the bottom we have Sean and Zach warming up. I think Zach almost has him! Sean gets to be Ref which means he can't really coach Zach. Then up above we have the "shake hands and lets get it on"!! Then we have the "ankle ride" and finally at the top, "the pin". We all had a lot of fun and Zach won all three of his matches. He loves the sport, just like his dad!!!

Halloween, October 31 2008

2008-11-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

The night before Halloween we had a pumpkin carving contest, boys against girls. Yes, you guessed it, the girls won!! We voted on it!!!

This year the kids all chose their own costumes and we made them mostly from fabric scraps that I had.

Here are all of the kids at Sean's Omniture work Halloween party. Gabby was a lady-pirate. Zach was a ninja. Danielle was Auqamarine. And Savannah was Little Red Riding Hood. Omniture brought in all the cast from Wizard of Oz, even the Munchkins! After the party, the kids trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. Needless to say, there was far too much candy in the Warren Household Halloween night! I still have the jitters from all of the Snickers bars I've been eating!!

9-25-08 Night before Deanna's Wedding Day

2008-10-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Let's just say there was some "scanty-gift-giving" going on. Mom and sisters, Heather, Brenda and Shelly made sure she and Weston had all they needed on Honey Moon Night.

9-25-08, The night before Deanna's Wedding

2008-10-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

The night before Deanna's wedding, we surprised her by flying Dennis and Tony here.
Both my Grandma Gayle and my Grandma Phyllis were able to
come, as well. My sister Heather had just had Meili, and that is Grammie holding her (above). It was like a big family reunion!

Deanna's Wedding 9-26-08

2008-10-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of me, Sean and the kids at my little sister Deanna's wedding in Sept. 2008. It was a great time to see all my sisters and brothers again! My little sister, Heather, had just had a baby a few weeks before the wedding so she was there with her baby, Meili, her 2 yr old, Kailer, and her husband Richard.

10-15-08 My first day at Blogging

2008-10-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

My sister Heather helped me get this blogging thing going. I hope to use it as a way to journal what goes on with our family and also as a form of communication with many of our friends and family.