I smell a rat...

Nana Covey called everyone together for a Friday night celebration at Chuck E. Cheese - where a kid can be a kid. Lance was hanging out with Nana because his parents are at Lake Powell with the Black Pearl and friends. It was fun to run around and win tickets and money and eat pizza. However, Chuck is not the most kid friendly character. I think most kids are actually freaked out by him.

Would you really want a picture of your children with a rat? We couldn't resist with the cousins.

Our family picture was amazing. They have a sketch machine that is awesome - even if everyone isn't looking at the same time.

Someone always pays when things are free

Camille won tickets to CATS that was playing in Salt Lake from a blog competition. She generously hosted a girls night out that started with going out to dinner and ended with "not a sound on the pavement". It was such a treat. And they were great seats and it was a fun show. I am pretty sure that it was even more fun because the tickets were free. Thanks, beal!

It was weird for all of us to be without our babies: Johnny Quattro, Nigel Harvey, Laurel & Maisy and Lulu Bug spent the evening with their dads so that we could enjoy the show sans bebes. Weird, but not so much that we couldn't have fun and rush back to them. Seriously, thanks for such a fun night, uncle beal.

twenty six point two

These shots are just to let you know that this story has a happy ending.

The celebration shot - all 6 C's together. It's been a while.

Shout out to my dad, Scott, and to my sisters, Catie and Carlie-Sue for training for and completing the Top of Utah Logan Marathon. It was so emotional to be there and cheer for them. People can do amazing things. My family members give proof of that. It was fun to be there and even more fun to eat the lime ricky and tator tots at the Burger Bar in celebration. My true confession (well, I have two) is first that I always thought it was the Burger Barn, which I think is a little more quaint than Burger Bar, but oh well. Childhood innocence shattered, I guess. Then, I had a Big Ben Elk Burger and it tasted like cleaning solution to me. I hated it. Everyone else was extolling the virtue of elk meat, but not for this cow eater. No, thank you. The Burger Bar is in Roy, Utah where my dad grew up. He would take us there when we were little and the burgers were as big as my head. HUGE. Now that I'm all grown up, the burgers don't seem as big, although they are significantly bigger (and better) than your Big Mac (except I would choose the Mac over the elk meat every day of the week despite Morgan Spurlock's research).

We were set up on the 24 mile marker and there were some energetic drummers right behind supporting the marathon. It was awesome because every runner would look at the drummers as they climbed the hill and we were right there so we got to look into everyone's face - all of these crazed masochists, fighting and accomplishing and conquering. It was beyond inspiring. I was in tears as I watched two women running together - one holding the other's arm for support so she could keep going. Incredible to see the human spirit prevail.

It was a wonderful day and I'm so proud of all of us. It was hard work to cheer. I was exhausted by the end of the day, truly and I didn't run one step. Congratulations to Dad, Catie and Carlie for the thousands of steps they did run. I'm proud to be your daughter/sister.


The cheerleaders camped out at different spots of the race trail. Divide and conquer, people.

This absolutely epitomizes my dad to me - reaching out to some little kid who is totally excited to be acknowledged by the tall buff guy that just might be Mr. Clean incarnate. My dad rocks.

I don't really understand why she is smiling...masochism is a complex disease to understand.

The pace setter wraps it up.

Mellow Yellow

Johnny is such a mellow and fun kid. He hardly ever cries. When he does, you know he's trying to communicate something to you. (i.e. I'm hungry, I'm tired, I have poop touching my bum, I want to pinch you, etc.) Even in the womb, he was mellow. This is Johnny giving me the A-OK sign at about 4 months. Can you see the three fingers sticking up in the A-OK gesture? This kid is adorable.

And here is happy go lucky Johnny with his auntie caui (rhymes with maui) proving that he's just got so much to smile about (because the food, sleep, poop, pinching needs have been met. Someone needs to cut that kids fingernails because his pinch is deadly).

Back to School!

Johnny Quattro and I thought we should put on our glasses to help us to feel smart since I am going back to school this week. The first week of class is officially over and it went well enough that I decided not to quit. It's my last semester of classes and then I just have to write my thesis. Hello, light at the end of the tunnel!


I have already got a parking ticket on my student account, however I was not the driver. Not to point any fingers, but his name rhymes with Schmon Huvee and he is not 10 months old if that narrows it down for you.

Johnny also donned a special T-shirt welcoming home Aunt Collette from the land of summer pest-control sales. If you can't read it, the T-shirt says, "You're looking at 1 BIG Collette Fan". We decided it wasn't blaspheme to cover up the cougar because collette and cougar share the same first 2 letters, so it was only a partial cover up. Welcome home, Collette! We are so happy you are back and safe and loaded with money. You rock!

What's in a name?

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.
I beg to differ when it comes to a triathlete.
Mathlete, Craftlete, Sasslete
None of these names can start to compete
With the glorious moniker of Triathlete

On Saturday, August 23, Mom Covey and I competed in our first (and quite possibly last) Triathlon. It was at the Jordanelle Reservoir Park near Heber, UT. We were proud to finish. (I'm almost prouder of the poem. Almost)

We started the race by receiving our numbers to identify us from all the other triathletes. I was #208.

The S should denote Superwoman after what we accomplished (1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run) but instead denotes the type of race we participated in - a Sprint triathlon. The other leg letter option was O denoting Olympic triathlon distance which is twice everything in a sprint. The leg number denoted the triathlete's age by December 31, 2008. So, for a day, I was 28. December 14 will make it official again. It was so cool to ride past people and see whether they had brain damage or not (by committing to do an Olympic Triathlon) and how old they were. We saw a 76 year old gentleman. It was inspiring.

A pre-race picture. We were going to do the whole race holding baby Johnny above our heads while he was in his car seat, but we thought that would be distracting to other triathletes. Maybe next time, dude.

Five minutes before race time, we're ready to get in the water. These swim caps and wet suits are guaranteed to knock 30 seconds off your swim time. Talk about amazing.

We are in the water right by the red TYR floating marker. Mom Covey is adjusting her goggles and I am treading water just to the left of her with one man in blue in front of me. We were psyching ourselves up at this point, making our game plan to swim straight lines. Our heat was the last to start and we had watched plenty of people swimming way more than they should have because they didn't sight on a landmark. The best part of the swim was that I only swallowed one mouthful of lake water. It could have been much worse.

Yay for the half mile swim being over! We finished in the lower end of our heat but were very happy to finish.

Mom looking ready to ride after the transition from swim to bike. Mom was amazing. She made sure we had sleek road bikes for race day. They made such a difference. We raced the course last week to get ready on mountain bikes and the contrast from mountain to road bike is unbelievable. Shout out to Fezzari Racing Design and Karen for sponsoring us in the bike department.

This is me breaking the rules in the transition area. Typical, I know. I didn't realize no riding the bikes in the transition area, but since 900 triathletes had already gone before us (we were the last heat to start) I don't think the race official was too worried when she gave me the warning.

Our only incident was my chain popping off while switching gears going up the one climb. I'm proud to say I popped it back on without too much grief and caught back up to mom. She was a great rider, setting the perfect pace for us. After the bike ride, we dropped off our bikes to the same transition area and took off for the 3 mile run. Mom was amazingly willing to race at my pace - I'll just refer to the 3 mile run as the 1.5 mile run/1.5 mile walk. The good thing is that I was running whenever anyone was taking pictures, so my true confession can never be corroborated, but such it was - half and half. A finish line has never looked so good.

Our champion chearleaders who carried around all the gear and probably put more miles in than our run going back and forth to all of the sites to cheer us on. Thanks, family. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. The only injury of the entire event was a pulled shoulder muscle for Johnny because he was willing to cart everything around. Thanks for the sacrifice, dude.

It was such a great day. Congratulations, us! We are proud to call ourselves Triathletes!

The Moral of the Story

Is that you should do this

instead of this

when your tennis opponent hits an overhead 10 feet away from you. Sorry, dude.

Oh Bring us some Figgy Pudding

Here is our family Christmas picture. Taken now because the prints were free (typical for us, I know - Costco gave away 50 free prints to celebrate their new photo processing). Taken by the talented Katie Covey - thank you very much. Taken 3 months in advance (I'd like to say typical behavior, but it's not true).

The Olympics have been fantastic. My favorite are the swimming events and sand volleyball. It's so exciting to think of the best athletes in the world competing against each other. My Olympic event of choice would be badminton. Why didn't I start training when I was younger? I feel like I could have been a formidable international opponent. Johnny's Olympic event would be wrestling. Don't take him up on it if he offers to wrestle you without any hands. You'll just be ticked because he will still beat you. Johnny Quattro's Olympic event would be foosball. He is always practicing the wrist motion. Look for Team Covey in all of our Olympic glory - London 2012.

Wouldn't it be lovely?

Isaac, Callie, Johnny, Johnny and I are sitting in Canlas' living room getting ready to watch the Olympics in Beijing, China. We are laughing and having a good time when all of a sudden Isaac takes Callie's face in his hands.

Isaac: Mom, you are so beautiful.

Then, he whispers the next part.

Isaac: And so lovely.

You rock, Isaac.

The grass is always greener

The heat of the summer is starting to get to me. I was just thinking the other day of how I can't wait for snow to be here so that I can go skiing again. Yet if I am being very honest with myself, I know that when I am trying to drive in the snow, tires spinning and getting stuck in my own driveway (I will admit I actually did this) I will be wishing for warmer weather. I'll know I'm progressing when I learn to be happy regardless of the weather. However, you can't deny that this picture screams happiness (especially for Aunt Suzy).