Ready for Romney/Ryan and the Republican convention

Well, we made it to Tampa and we hit the rode running as soon as we got here.

We've attended dinners, parties, breakfasts, and rallies.

And yes! we are surviving the threat of hurricane Isaac!

We walked to CVS this afternoon in the middle of the storm!

I know, that doesn't sound too smart but it was sunny when we left our hotel room... 

really the sun was shining... I promise!

We are trying to attend every event and activity we can 

so that we can get the full experience of this historic convention.

I guess that is why we took a walk in the rain/storm/hurricane!

I mean, hurricane Isaac is all part of the experience

 and we didn't want to be sitting in our hotel room and miss out on it:)!

We have met so many fun, interesting, committed and exceptional people these past couple of days!

We've made lots of new friends and met up with old ones too! (more on that in a later post)

This morning we heard Gov. Chris Christie and Meg Whitman speak

and we looking forward to hearing from Congressman Darrel Issa and

Speaker John Boehner tomorrow morning before we head to the 1st day of the GOP convention.

We can't wait!  I hope I can sleep tonight!

Gooooooo Mitt!

BYU Cross Country Dinner in Park City

On Monday, Brooke headed out to the BYU Cross Country team camp, which was held up in Park City.

So that night we had all the girls on the XC team over for dinner at Vintage.

This is such a cute group of girls and they were so appreciative and sweet!

Mark put up the "Y" flag in the front of the house!

 Brooke and Coach Shane

It was so fun to have Aunt Lisa and Kib help host the dinner.  Love those two!

 Dinner... yum!

 Cute cousins and teammates, Steph and Brooke.

 Kib, Lisa and their darling Steph!

Brooke is a little happy about dinner!

Nothing makes her happier than a good long run, followed by a yummy dinner!!

 Dad was so excited that Coach wanted to go out on the balcony 

and show Coach his scope and look for some wildlife!

 The two Brooke's on the team, Brooke Rohner and Brooke Holt. 

Such a fun night with Brooke and her teammates!

It was so fun to get to know all the girls better

and we are excited for the BYU XC team!  Go Cougars!

Brooke's Golden Birthday

 I know that we already celebrated Brooke's birthday when all of the kids were in Utah,

but we still did the Holt family birthday tradition of waking the birthday girl up

 with a plate of donuts with candles, singing Happy Birthday!

Even though she was turning 19, she is still a little girls at heart and still loves this tradition...
 and so do I!

And even though Brooke had already opened up her gifts, 

Ashley and I thought that she ought to have something to open up on her "Golden Birthday"

so we asked a few of Brooke's close friends and family to wrap up one simple gift 

from the Dollar Store that reminds them of Brooke with a note or card.

Her roommate, McCall, doesn't know the word "simple" or "one" and wrapped up lots of gifts!

Yes! All those presents that are wrapped in gold foil paper are from McCall.  Love that gal!

 She gave her gummy bears "for the bear!"  Love it!

 Courtney Bassett made this cute note to Brooke!  What a sweetheart!

 Allie and Justin gave her this this puzzle because "she is a hero" to them.

 And a pink pig because she loves pigs!

 Gold medals because she has won so many medals over all these years.

 While lunching at Dodo's in Salt Lake City last year, 
we ordered a banana cream cheese pie and Brooke LOVED it (and so did I!)

So for her birthday, I surprised her and ordered a whole banana cream cheese pie from Dodo's.

It was as delicious as we remembered it was and she was totally surprised!

She got a bottle of Powerade from Tyler because she drinks so much Powerade and so does Tyler.

And Sonya gave her sparkly nail polish because she sparkles 
and since they are sisters, they need to stick together.

She loved both gifts but was most excited about the nail polish!  
Don't get me wrong, she loved the Powerade too 
but she would have loved it even more if she had just finished one of her workouts:)!

 Brooke got a "Kind" candy bar because she is so kind.

 Justin gave Brooke her batteries because she is like the Energizer bunny!

 Dad and I gave her a silly pig card that sang a silly song...

 and a bunch of other pig stuff for this pig lover.

 And then after all the birthday celebration was done,

Dad and Justin gave each of the girls sweet "back to school" blessings and did a beautiful job!

 It was a wonderful day and I couldn't think of a better way to end Brooke's "Golden Birthday!"

A special blessing from Dad is worth much more for then gold!

Mike and Brooke Eddington's Wedding

Since we were in Utah last week, we were able to attend Brooke's wedding in the Salt Lake on Saturday. 

 It was a beautiful day and always a wonderful experience to see such a happy couple,

 who are so in love, sealed together for "time and all eternity."  It was lovely!

Mike and Brooke outside the temple.

Brooke and her sister, Anne.

This picture makes me so happy!

Here we are together, Brooke's Young Women leaders, 

me, Julie Raybould, Carrie Motley and her sweet mother, Stefani.

Brooke, Allison Garvey and Ashley waited outside the temple.

These kids were so happy to share this day with Brooke.

Anne Barton and my Brooke have been for years.

Allie and Justin

Mom and Dad

All the crew from Granite Bay with the lovely bride and groom!

Congratulations, Mike and Brooke!  We are so happy for you two!!

Hiking, fishing, ziplining, swimming and more Canyons summer activities

Summer at Canyons is always fun and there is alway lots to do,

so we tried to take advantage of as many activities as possible with the kids this past week.

 The boys went on "a little 1/2 hour hike" which turned into a couple hour hike.

The boys are heading out on their little hike, 

while the girls took the gondola ride up to meet them at Red Pine Lodge...

where we met up with the boys a couple of hours later,

and they were very hungry by the time they made it up there.

After lunch we took the chairlift up and took a little hike to...

the lake pond up on the mountain.

We got Kimber a chair so she could sit and relax a little.

She was a good sport and didn't want to miss out on the fun even though she is pregnant.

We rented a paddleboat and we took the boat out on the pond.

 Tyler grabbed some poles and went fishing...

and Brooke joined in on the fun...

 They didn't catch anything but had a lot of fun trying 

and vowed to get better poles and come back next summer.

 After taking a little rest, Kimber was ready to take a turn on the paddleboat.

 While we paddled around the pond...

 taking pictures and enjoying the views...

 Dad and Brooke...

 and Tyler were intense about this fishing thing.

 Tyler waited patiently for the fish to bite...

 and waited...

but they finally gave up on the fishing and took a break.

They looked so cute in their matching BYU gear that I had to get a photo.

 We enjoyed a nice hike back to Red Pine Lodge...

 and the beauty of the aspens and pine trees.

 And we made it back to the lodge and took the gondola down the mountain.

We were tired and hot...

 so we headed to the pool to cool off.

 Even dad joined in on the fun.  I love Brooke in this photo!

She is still a little kid and can't keep her eyes open for the picture! It cracks me up!

 The next day we took the gondola back up the mountain

 to do the zip line adventure at Canyons.

 We started out at the demo zipline, where the guides taught us how to our equipment 

and get us used to the feel of the zipline.

 Once we each took a turn going on the demo zipline, 

we made our way over to the Red Pine zipline.

 Allie and Justin raced each other.   

Once we all made it down the Red Pine zipline, 

we were ready for the Look Out line.

 We had to take the Look Out chairlift over the canyon.

Ashley, looking good in her zipline gear.

 I volunteered to go first because I was so scared and just wanted to get it over with.

 Yeah, that's why I was so scared... that is what I was looking at...

yeah... that canyon is what I was going to be zipping across in a minute!

 All ready to go... and still scared!!

 Dad and I raced across the canyon and at first, I was scared to death and screaming...

 but then I realized that I was beating Dad and got excited 

and pulled down on the handle (which makes you go faster) as hard as I could

 and sure enough, I won!  I guess my competitiveness overcame my fear!

 Brooke, of course, had no fear.

 And neither did Ashley.

 Another view of the canyon.

These two are getting ready to go.

 Ashley and Brooke, crossing the canyon.

 I'm not sure who won that race and I don't think these two seem to care.

 Allie barely edged out Justin.

 The instructor told us that you pull down to go fast, lift up to stop, 

but you can get the most speed by lifting the handle up just a little bit 

and he called it the "sweet spot."  So here is Tyler, trying to find the "sweet spot."

 He's still looking for it... unfortunately, he didn't find it, in fact, it kind of slowed him down 

and he almost stopped before he got to the end of the line.

 Fortunately, he is a good sport and still had a smile on his face as he reached the bottom.

 Both of these boys had a good time.

 We took another turn on the Red Pine line and so I had to take another picture of "the little girls"...

 and our instructors wanted to get in on the photo fun and posed for us!

Hey, Kate, Courtney and all of Ashley's other lunging friends,

check out the lunge on that girl!  Nice pose!

At the end of our zipline experience at Canyons.

We are a happy crew and can't wait to do it again next year!

Always a good time at Canyons!