S.O.Bs

This is silly.  So back in highschool we were bored one night and invented a clan called The Sleep Over Bandits (SOBs).  Basically we would sneak on people's lawns around midnight, sleep, then leave at like 5 a.m.  We would leave a note that read:

"We slept on your lawn and left before dawn

We don't mean no harm so don't be alarmed,

We're just the Sleep Over Bandits"

That was it.  Once we had slept on your lawn you got to join us.  Our club slowly grew and we had silly things happen like dogs chasing us or the sprinklers coming on.  One time Bret Ashton caught us and started spraying us with the hose.  So we swept the town, but we never hit our main target, our Seminary Teacher Brother Crane.  His house was in Fayette, which was creepy, and it had lots of big scary trees and these dogs that always barked.  We tried a couple of times but backed out.  

Fast forward 8 years.  I run into Denise Frandsen, a former SOB and my good friend.  We start chatting and she decides that we need to finish what we started and hit Brother Cranes lawn.  Somehow she convinced me and a week later at midnight we were sneaking onto his lawn.  Let me remind you Denise is 30 years old and I have a child and am pregnant.  Like I said, silly.  We felt bad the other SOBs weren't there so we proxied them in by writing their names on a piece of paper and bringing it with us.  We faked it a little bit because we just hung out on his lawn for a while, hung the note and left.  I ran into Brother Crane later at church and he knew it was us.  Luckily he didn't think we were too pathetic and thought it was funny.  So there you have it, the SOBs.

The SOBs

Target: Brother Crane's House

We proxied past SOBs in for this important event.  Mandi Jane, Stacy and Sandy Anderson, Mckell Ashton, Monica Jensen and Linsi Christiansen.

Vigor 5K

I did a 5k about a month ago.  But this was no ordinary 5k.  There were crazy obstacles, diving for rings, swinging on ropes, mind challenges and so on.  It was called the Vigor 5k.  It was in Salt Lake and a team race.  When I first found out about the race I wanted to do with Logan and another couple but Logan had just had surgery and we weren't sure if he would be ready in time.  So then I had the great idea of getting my sisters in law together as a team.  It was at 7 a.m. on  a Saturday so we stayed at Hannah's apartment the night before.  Me, Madee and Heather drove up Friday night.  I had troubles with our team shirts so we ran to Wal Mart late that night to get some matching bandannas.  The next morning we headed to the race.  Our team was the very first team to start.  I was a little worried because I wasn't sure how difficult it would be and I that I am pregnant, but it turned out ok.  It was still a pretty tough race with lots of obstacles and big hills to run.  We just had a fun time though and enjoyed ourselves.  We weren't super competitive, but we still had a pretty good finish time and took 7th place out of 13 women's teams. My favorite part was that we gathered an egg, a brick and a balloon along the way and we had to keep them with us or we had to do other challenges to win new ones.  

Before the race.

Bear Lake Bliss

I was so excited that our weekend to Bear Lake turned out.  It was questionable if it was going to happen.  But thanks to my Aunt Marilyn, we were able to get a lovely condo in Garden City to play for the weekend.  It was so fun.  We chilled, watched movies, played games, ate food and enjoyed beautiful Bear Lake.  We went up Saturday morning and were off to a rough start when our vehicle got a flat tire.  It was a little stressful because it was in a bad construction spot on the freeway but we got through it.  We were ahead the other car because Logan had to go up early to shoot a video about his Bioreactor at USU.  So we still made it to the condo first.  The weather was a little stormy on and off but it didn't interfere with our plans.  We ate the famous Raspberry shakes at Bear Lake Pizza and their giant pizza.  So yummy.  We also hit North Beach which was unusual this year due to the high water but it made it really fun.  We love Bear Lake and hope this can become a family tradition.

Jack playing at Bear Lake Pizza

He didn't seem to mind the poring rain

Look at the size of that pizza!

Playing at the beach.  That truck comes with us everywhere.

Gracy building the castle.

Don't worry, it's not real.

Jack's tats.  I know its white trash, but he reacts so funny to them.

Mine, Logan and Gracy's death eater tatoos in celebration of Harry Potter coming out that weekend.

Show off our tats.

"Grace"

Jack loves his cousin Gracy.  He talks about her all day long and is always asking to go play with "Grace".  She is great to play with Jack and can always make him laugh.  We had Gracy sleep over at our house.  I wish we could have done it again, but we ran out of time.  We got some yummy ice cream at Lunds then set up a tent in our front yard.  We popped Whirley Pop and made Orange Julius to eat while we played Pay Day and then watch Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (who remembers this amazing movie!?).  We had so much fun together.  A couple weeks later we went to Mayfield with Miranda and Gracy for the 24th of July Parade.  It was a pretty good parade and we got mucho candy.

Playing chase.

Pay Day.  Greatest game ever.  So glad we made Gracy a fan.

Yes I made her watch Wild Hearts Can't be Broken.  Haha.  The legend must go on!

Watching Curious George in the morning.

The Mayfield Parade.

Two of Jacks favorite things: Gracy and Grapes.

Fireworks

I am way behind so I am going to plow through these next posts.  This is from about a month ago on the 4th of July.  Since the actual 4th was on a Sunday, we were mostly done with our partying but we did light some fireworks for Jack's entertainment.  He mostly liked them but is still at the stage of being frightened by loud noises.

Logan was the lighter as usual

The flash was a tad bright for Jack

RIP to Kitten Rat

Our dear Kitten Rat has died.  The average life span of a rat is is 2 to 3 years so it is quite impressive that he lived to 4 years and Sizzles is still kickin.  He was a mischievous rat but that is why we liked him.  We taught him to unscrew a medicine bottle and remove a toy rat.  It was so funny to watch his little hands go unscrewing it.  He was also greedy and would eat anything.  Us Picketts were taught to give our animals a proper burial so we dug Kitten Rat a little grave under the tree house at my parents where many of our other beloved pets are buried.  We will miss you Kitten Rat!

This is the first day we got them.

We drew a picture to honor his favorite things that we buried with him.

Logan digging the grave.

Kitten's grave.

The Rabbit is Dead

In the "olden days" women used to inject the urine of a woman into a rabbit.  If the rabbit died, you were pregnant. Thus came the saying "The Rabbit is Dead".  This is how we decided to tell our parents we were expecting.  And although we were unable to track down a real dead rabbit (which I would think you could in Gunnison), we did find some lucky rabbit's feet key chains off Amazon which worked just as good.  I left the small box, labeled "To Who Ever" on the kitchen counter at each home.  It took Alice about an hour to find it and she knew exactly what it meant.  It took my mom a day to find it and she had to Google the term.  Haha.  We are super excited and even lucked out with the February baby we were hoping for.  Yay for babies!