The Austin/Butler Family Blog

LIKE FATHER...LIKE SONS

2009-06-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is Nick and Zach's first official Road Race! They had to buy one day licenses in order to compete. In the picture above, they are pumping up their tires and completing the pre-race checkup.

Here is Nick and Zach at the start line. The lady with the clip board telling them the rules.

Here is Mike at the start line. Nothing we haven't seen before, but I still think he's really cute!

This is Mike coming up the hill to the finish line.

This is Nick coming up to the finish line.

This is Zach coming up to the finish line. Standing up, woo hoo!

This is Zach starting his second 16 mile lap. He lost the pack but was still able to maintain 18 miles an hour all by himself.

This is Nick starting his second 16 mile lap. He was able to stay with the pack and averaged 21 miles an hour. And conserved his energy! The boy understands strategy.

Lilly

2009-06-07T20:14:00.001-07:00

Here is what our sweet Lilly looked like when we found her. She looked like an orphan. Her whole body was full of mattes. We have officially claimed her as ours now. I took her to the vet for a full check up. She is healthy, happy dog.

Here is Lilly after her grooming. Because her whole body was full of mattes, unfortunately they had to trim her very close to her skin. I am going to keep her full an fluffy like she was when we found her, but we had to get the mattes out first. The groomer said "she is a work in progress". In other words, I will have more choices for her haircuts once we get her fur in good shape again. Either way, she is the cutest, sweetest thing in the world. She loves her new home and she especially loves Papa.

Litlle Red Riding Hood Century 2009

2009-06-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

My goal was 100 miles from Wellsville, Utah up to Preston, Idaho and back to Wellsville. It was a disappointing ride. I had a personal goal of finishing in about 5 1/2 hours which would be averaging about 19 miles an hour. The last couple centuries that I did, I was very good about pacing myself. I finished very stong both times. This time, I let my big head get the best of me. I started out way too fast, and was determined to stay with a pack of girls that were clearly better than me. I completely tanked by 65 miles. I knew at 40 miles I was in real trouble. I pushed out 25 five more miles and then called it quits. I think I probably would have pushed myself to finish but it so happened Mike and kids were at my 65 mile feed stop and it was entirely to easy to say I quit. If they had not been there, I would have no choice but to finish. I am disappointed in myself, but it was a good learning experience. I have always preached to my boys about pacing themselves. Now, I am the one that didn't do it! I completely discounted how hard 100 miles really is. Lessoned learned. My next century is in August and I will be much more prepared both physically and mentally. But hey, I got a really cute jersey out of the deal.

Salt Lake City Century

2009-06-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

100 miles of pure fun... Yeah right! Okay, maybe the first 50 was fun, but the last 50 was hard. This was Nick and Zac's first century. Nick had some training. Prior to the century, he had done several 30 and 40 mile bike rides which include a lot of elevation. Zac didn't have very much training before the ride. He has only rode 40 miles one time and very limited on elevation climbs. The coolest thing is he just got his bike two weeks before the race! And he pulled off a century! Wow! This was such a great experience for me and the boys. It will be something we will remember forever. Besides, these 15 year old boys won't want to ride with their 39 year old mother forever. I am just happy to be even close to their pace. Good times.

Mike finished the race with his team in 4 hours and 45 minutes. We finished in 5 hours and 59 minutes. Ok. We'll say 6 hours :-)

13th Birthday! My baby girl is a teenager!

2009-03-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

Sammi invited 30 girls to her birthday party! I am not sure how many showed up but it was definitely over 20. They played Rock Band downstairs.

They would hang out by the front door and when a new person pulled up to the drive way, they would run out of the house screaming at the top of their lungs. It was so out of control!

Btw, Mike had been out of town for almost a month straight. He came home the night of the birthday party. I told him he was coming home to 30 teenage girls in the house and I can't believe how well he took it. In fact, he fell asleep! I think he was just happy to be home.

NATIONAL CHAMPION!

2009-03-07T13:50:00.001-08:00

Sammi competed for two days in Las Vegas at the Jamz National Competition. She competes in the Elite Level 5 category. Her team won First Place!!! It's a big deal to win and wear the jacket around. Total bragging rights.

This is a picture of her team getting to go on stage when they announced her team as the National Champions. Only First Place winners got to go on stage.

My camera doesn't have a great zoom on it, so it's really hard to get good pictures of her performance. This picture at least shows the stage they performed on.

Proud Mom and cute daughter picture!

MELLOW YELLOW

2009-02-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the entry way. Mike did the most perfect texture on the wall! It's exactly what I wanted. It's very subtle.

Sammi's my little helper. She helped me trim. Notice the paint in the hair!

This is a picture as you are coming down the stairs. Remember, I painted the staircase orange. It definitely is going to take me some time to get use to all this color. I think I like it but I will have to let it sink in for a while!

I use to have this scarf hung up in my living room in my Draper house. Everyone seemed to compliment it. The girl that bought the house really wanted me to leave it. I put it in the entry way, and I actually think it looks good. It sort of toned down the yellow!

HOME IMPROVEMENT

2009-01-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness cycling season is over!!! Now, I can have Mike start on some home improvements. I have always wanted to paint a wall orange. I love the tuscan orange look. Not only did I want the color orange, but I also wanted the wall textured. When I say textured, I don't mean the old fashioned popcorn texture. I want what all the new homes have. It sort of looks like concrete. It looks smooth from a distance but when you get up close it has imperfections.

Ah ha!! Plumber butt!!! Here is Mike in his PJ's and a great view of his undies. I kept telling him I wanted the wall textured and he told me there was no way he was going to texture the walls. It's too much work. So I said, fine I'll do it myself. So I practiced on patches in the garage. Nothing ever turned out the way I wanted it. One day, I came home and Mike had done the whole staircase with texture! What if I didn't like it! I told myself if I didn't like it, I would just faux paint over it.

Talk about a shocker! Not only did I get texture on my walls, it ORANGE! At first I wasn't sure I liked it. I really like it now.

This is what the texture looks like up close. I am glad Mike tried it out in the staircase first. It gave him some good practice. I am going to have him do the entry way and I think he has really mastered the application.

Yep... It ORANGE! It's not a bright as this picture shows. I took this picture at night and the hallway light is making it look a lot brighter than it is. The texture isn't as noticeable either. The bright light is making the wall look shiny and the texture looks extreme. The paint is actually matte and the texture is very faint.

HAPPY HO HO DAY!

2008-12-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

Here is She Devil under our Christmas Tree. She sure looks sweet! Since she is just a kitty, I was totally expecting her to destroy our tree. My last kitty could not leave the ornaments alone. She Devil just layed under the tree and really didn't do too much damage.
Santa brought the kids Rock Band for the 360. Let me just say OMG I am glad we moved in to a bigger home and the kids are three levels two levels below my bedroom! It is so loud and obnoxious. But hey, the kids sure love it and that's the point.
Here is a picture of the kids opening their presents Christmas morning. Nick and Zack asked for Zunes. They thought they were only getting the 8gb Zunes and Santa surprised them with the 120gb Zune. They were psyched! Brigit asked for the Ipod Touch. She was very happy because she got the second generation Ipod Touch which has speakers and anti scratch screen. Sammi wanted a new bedroom comforter set for her bedroom. I think she thought she was just getting the comforter and sheets, but Santa also gave her the coverlet blanket and several toss pillows to go with it. Kenzie didn't really ask for anything, so Santa had to guess what she wanted. He guessed right! She loved her portable DVD player along with a few girly movies to watch.
Here is the cutest Grandma in the world. I just had to get a picture of her in her new red hat. Last year, just before Christmas Grandma had fallen down some stairs. She wasn't able to come over for Christmas Eve because she was still in a lot of pain. This year, we were very happy to have her come for Christmas Eve. She is so funny. She makes all of us laugh constantly.
I thought this was a cute picture of Zach. He got a Trek bike jersey. Last summer he started cycling with his Dad and me. He seems to really enjoy cycling and wants to continue getting better at it. I can't help but wonder if this is what Mike looked like at 15 years old.

TWILIGHT PREMIER

2008-11-30T18:55:00.000-08:00

After what seemed like FOREVER, the Twilight movie finally came out! We managed to get tickets to the premier at midnight. In this picture, after waiting in line for four hours, we finally were let in to the theater. It sure felt good to sit down!

Waiting for the movie to start... Sammi, Ali Jo, Olivia and Nick.

Sammi and Ali Jo are sitting on the floor while waiting in the line for the premier of the Twilight movie.

JAZZ BAND CONCERT

2008-11-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

Novemver 12th was Nick's Jazz Band concert. He had the most awesome solo! He has been taking private lessons from his cousin, who is majoring in music at the University of Utah. I can't believe how good he was! He had his head bobbing and everything!

KICKING OFF THE CHEER SEASON

2008-11-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am a proud cheer mom. I'll admit it!!! This is a picture of Sammi (to my left) and Dani, her best friend at their Friends and Family Night. The team learned their routines in August and have been preparing for the upcoming competition season. They performed at Skyline High on Saturday, November 15th. Friends and Family Night gives them the opportunity to test out their new routines in public. It sort of kicks off the competition season. So for the next six months, we sleep, eat and breath cheer! Go Team!!!

FIRST SNOW DAY OF 2008!!!

2008-11-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

Jericho was born to be out in the snow. After a long hot summer, his dream has come true!!!
In this picture, Jerky Pants is saying "Oh Mommy, I sure love it out here. Let's move to Alaska."
Pics of our house we just bought. We are very excited to live so close to the canyon. We'll probably gets lots of snow but it will be very pretty.

WILLKOMMEN ZURUCK MIKE (Welcome Home)

2008-10-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

This is the city hall in Ulm, Germany. It's a really pretty building.

Mike went to the Mercedes Benz museum and he took hundreds of pictures of Mercedes cars through out the centuries (some were like wagons they were so old). The cars were BEAutiful. Since I can't post all of them, I will show just a few cool ones. This one( above ) was Arnold Schwarzenegger's car.

This is the car that they use to drive the Pope around in.

Their police cars and taxi cabs are Mercedes Benz. Mike didn't get a picture of a taxi cab but this is a picture of an older police car that is now on display at the museum.

This is a castle in Stuttgart. Mike doesn't remember the name of the castle or who the king was but hey.. he got a picture! I can't expect him to think about my scrapbooking needs while he on vacation!

The King's Throne

The King's master suite

The garden in the back of the Castle

A pretty balcony on the inside of the Castle

This is a picture of Mike at Volksfest. It's the same as Oktoberfest but in a different city. This is a German college student that wanted Mike to join the Fraternity. I am sure it was the beer talking but hey, it looks like they were having fun!

Dancing on the tables is very common. Mike told me he even danced on a table but unfortunately, nobody got any pictures of it. Too bad... That 's something I've never seen him do!

There was a live band that even played some American music every once in a while.

"SHE DEVIL"

2008-10-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

Ok... Her name isn't really She Devil. This sweet little kitty's name is Izabelle. Mike always seems to nick name my animals something he knows will make me a little mad! I bought Izabelle at Petsmart on 7/30/2008 and she was only 12 weeks old.
I use to be terrified of cats, especially the tiger striped ones! (I thought the stripes meant they wouldn't be as tame) Once I got used to cats, and could appreciate their playfullness, I really wanted a tiger cat. The more playfull the better!
Izabelle made herself right at home in Timothy's plant. Timothy is the king of the house. I really thought he would show her who the boss was and what the rules were, but he seems to let her do anything she wants. Poor Timothy had to find a new sleeping location... my laundry basket.
This is Izabelle playing with Jar Jar. He too, lets her do anything she wants. They play really rough. Jar Jar holds her down by the throat and she plays dead for like 2 minutes. It freaks me out! I think "oh my gosh, he has killed her this time!"
This is Jericho being introduced to Izabelle for the first time. Izabelle thinks he's her mother! It's really cute. She loves to lay by him. She use to play with Jericho a lot but then she discoverd Jar Jar. Jericho would love to play with them, but it seems that three is a crowd. Sometimes he really looks like his feeling are hurt when they don't include him in the play.

2008 LOTOJA

2008-10-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

On September 6, 2008 at 7:11 am, Mike started his 206 mile bike race beginning in Logan, Utah and ending in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Mike is in the center of the picture waiving to us! After we watch Mike take off at the start line, we are thinking what are we going to eat in the car! Mike will burn over 10,000 calories by the time he crosses the finish line. So while Mike is burning 10,000 calories, we are eating 10,000 calories, consisting of cookies, donuts, chips, crackers, soda pop and anything else that sounds good on a road trip.
This is Mike's first feed zone. He's usually not hungry or thirsty yet but he is very cold because he just climbed a mountain range and it's still very early in the morning.
This is the second feed zone that we feed and water Mike. (There are other feed zones called Neutral Feed Zones where the race facilitators will help the cyclist) We take a long dirt road to get to this feed zone and I am always afraid Mike is going to get here before we do. He takes a different, shorter route. By the time we park the car and run, we barely make it every time. All the other feed zones through out the race are not as hard to get to. This is the only one that we have to hurry to get to.
King of the Mountain!!! The cyclist are timed at the beginning of this mountain. The start of King of the Mountain is the red sign. Mike climbed this mountain at 12 mph. His overall finish was in the 1 percentile. He never was passed on the hill and beat 99% of the cyclist...WOW!
Mike finished the race in 10 hours and 37 minutes. He beat his last years time by twenty minutes. He trained 40-50 hours a week. We moved in the spring one mile south of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Because we live so close to the canyons, he was able to focus on his hill climbing. Besides climbing Little Cottonwood, he also climbed Big Cottonwood, Emmigration, and Millcreek.