Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from Alex, BreeAnn and MJ!

Big 22

I had a birthday this week and I want to thank my wonderful family and friends for everything!  Besides the huge final I had, it was a great day spent with my loved ones.  Alex was so sweet and went to a lot of work to make me breakfast, planned surprise dinner with some friends, and found the only ice cream cake in Utah.  Thanks for the great day everybody.  Much love.

Winner, Winner Turkey Dinner!

Alex played in a tennis tournament over the weekend and won the 3.0 mens division! He played so well and had so much fun! All of his hard work has paid off! The grand prize was a massive turkey so we will be holding a turkey feast sometime soon!

2 Years!

Alex and I headed to Park City for the weekend to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary!  It's been another wonderful year!  We stayed at the Chateaux at Silver Lake which was so beautiful.  It was so much fun to get away and spend time together. 

We took a drive up to Gaurdsmans Pass to enjoy the great out doors.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear ALEX!

Happy birthday to yoooou!

Granny the Great

My granny passed away two weeks ago and I just want everybody to know what a sweet lady she was.  She was the happiest little lady that I've ever met.  She had such a great love for her Savior and family.  I will miss her dearly but I'm so happy that she can be in a better place with my grandpa.

Such A Slacker!

Last week I was at book club and all of my friends told me that I've been slacking on my blog.  Ladies this post is for you.
So much has been going on in the Sandoval's life so get ready for the longest blog post.
Alex and Eric played in a tennis tournament in Park City a couple of weeks ago.  I wish with all my heart that they lived closer because we have such a riot with them.  Love you guys.  We ate at Dairy Keen, shopped at the outlets and had a slumber party. 

WE RAN THE RED ROCK RELAY! 

I won't lie, it was hardest race I've ever done.  It's so unbelievably hard to climb 500 feet in 6.2 miles on three hours of sleep.  I would say every one had a pretty vicious hill/mountain to run so good job team!  The Dirty Dozen's final time was about 31 hours.  Good job team.  Love you guys.

I was lucky to have my little sister and dad run the race with me.  My dad is a monster of an athlete.  He runs a solid 8 minute mile and is in imaculate shape.  Andrea trained really hard for this race and did so good!  Love you guys.

The Dirty Dozen at the finish.

Tyson, Car, Eric, April, Todd, Kels, Mark Z, Andrea Z, Alex, BreeAnn, Spencer Love and Abby.

Love you guys.

I will be posting more pictures of the RRR so stayed tuned!

After the RRR Alex and I have stayed pretty busy in school.  We are in the process of moving out of Allegro at Corner Canyon.  Alex is playing the Cottonwood Adult Classic Tennis Tournament this week.  He won his first match Monday night and is playing in the semi finals Friday night.  I have a hunch that he's going to rock this whole thing!

Here, There, Everywhere..

Just a couple of things that are happening here, there, and everywhere in the Sandoval's life.  Alex played great in his first tennis tournament!  He didn't win gold but he played great and had a lot of fun.  He played a little conservative and nervous which caused him to hold back a little bit.  It's ok because he got the first time jitters out and will be back for some sweet revenge!  Thank you everybody for coming out and supporting him. 
Last week we finished our finals...good thing because statistics was about to kill me.  Alex is meeting with a graduation counselor this week. YAY!  Since we have two precious weeks away from school, we are headed to St. George to hang and play some tennis!  On the way home we will stop at my sisters to spend some time with her family!  Stay tuned!

Lake Powell

Last week we went on our annual Lake Powell trip with my family.  As you can see, we parked our boat in the best spot possible.  It was fun to take a break from school and work.  Playing catch up is well worth it!  The weather was exceptionally good for July...90-95 degrees instead of 100-105!  Everybody was praying for cooler weather so Alex wouldn't melt.  Good news, he made it home alive!
 

Here Comes the Sun.  This houseboat is a champ.  Love it.

So we might look a little haggard in this picture...

Next week on Keeping up with the Sandoval's:

Alex's tennis match starts this Thursday and he just got the most beautiful racquet today!  The Babolot AeroPro Drive GT.  Here's a sneak peak!  If he doesn't win the tournament, at least he looked good playing!  Good luck!

What a coincidence, Rafael Nadal has the same racquet.

American Idol

Last week I had the chance to go to the American Idol 2011 tour with my mother/sister in law!  The boys stayed behind and went to dinner...boy did they miss out!  It was so much better then I had ever expected!  I usually don't follow American Idol but somehow I got hooked this last season.  I fell pretty hard for Paul McDonald!  When he came out for his performance, I couldn't help but to giggle like a little school girl!  Steve, thank you so much for sending us to American Idol!

Update

I feel like so much has happened since the last post but I'll just tell you a few things that have gone on.  Alex and I have been playing tennis EVERY single night of our lives.  I don't know where this sick addiction has come from but we love it!  We rush home from work, change, grab MJ and head to the courts!  We let MJ run wild around the courts.  He loves chasing the balls!

                                             

This is our second hero aside Michael Jordan...Rafael Nadal.  Alex has spent so many hours following him at the French Open and Wimbledon.  You can click on our blog where it says "King of Clay" and educate yourself about this tennis god.

Alex got braces about a week ago and isn't too happy about the whole eating situation.  As many of you know, braces pack food everywhere!  Hopefully he will adjust soon or else it's going to be a long and miserable 12 months! 

Angels Landing

Alex and I decided to take a little road trip to Cedar City and Zion's.  Alex has never been to Zions so it's about time I break him in!  We stayed with my sister and her family Friday night and woke up early Saturday to go to Zions.  It was 95 degrees in Zions on Saturday!  It felt soo good to finally get some summer weather!  We hiked Angels Landing, one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done!  My sister warned us that the trail gets a little narrow/sketchy and boy was she right.  As you get to the top, the trail has a chain to hold onto so you tumble 1200 plus ft to the bottom!  I won't lie, Alex and I got a little scared as we arrived to the top.  People were dangling their feet off the edge, enjoying their lunch while Alex and I were
sitting far, far away from the edge.  My little sister was one of the crazies we were just praying that she wouldn't blow away!  We had so much fun visiting with family and spending time together.  We don't get to see the Andrews as often as we would like to so it's always a blast to spend time with them!

Here's the Zollinger/Andrews/Sandoval family enjoying some lunch on the rocks. 

DODGEBALL!

Some of the Sandoval's greatest memories have been made these wonderful people.  You can't beat a little dodgeball on a Friday night!  I would like to take a moment and award Janie Valerio the
MVP!
She blew our socks off with her dodgeball skills!  The next event that we will be doing is THE RED ROCK RELAY! 

Salt Lake City Marathon

As many of you know Alex ran the Salt Lake City Marathon last Saturday.  It was so much fun watching him along the way.  We woke up at 4:00am so we could be to the start line by six.  I felt so cool tagging along with him all morning, helping him stretch and get ready for the race!  When we first arrived to University of Utah, it was raining pretty hard and Alex said to me, "can we just go home and go back to bed?"  I think that was just nerves talking.



   

And he's off!


I have to thank my dad for getting up early and being there at the start line and driving me around every couple of miles to see Alex.  It broke my dad's heart that he wasn't running this race. 

Mile 6.  If you look close enough he is still happy and smiling.  He told me at this point, "I feel great!"....I thought, we'll see if he still feels that way in 9 miles!

Mile 11.5.  Still feeling good...

Mile 14.  My mom and sisters met us at mile 14.  McCall made these hilarious posters that seemed to cheer up the runners.  Alex was laughing pretty hard when he saw them!   

Mile 18.  This is when I started to worry because he kept saying that he was uncomfortable. 

Mile 20.  This spectator decided to wear his belly shirt and play his cow bell!  More cow bell!

I think this is about mile 22.  So many participants looked like they were going to die here.  Alex' parents were at Liberty Park and he was so excited to see them.

THE FINISH!  He finish in 5 hours 10 minutes.  I'm so proud!  I asked him if he would ever do another marathon and he said yes!  He would like to do another one once life calms down a little bit and he has more time to train.  It was so much fun to have our family and friends there to support him.  Thanks everybody for all of your support!

So Close!

Last Saturday Alex ran 20.11 miles!  This is a picture of our Garmin once he was done with his run.  It says that he ran 20.11 miles in 3 hours, 17 minutes, and 46 seconds!  This was the last long run until the big race day which is April 16 for all of you who want to come support him!  Alex woke up at about 5:00am Saturday morning so he could eat a hardy breakfast and start his run.  I kept asking him, "why do you have to leave so early?"  He replied by saying, "I want to be asleep and numb for the first 10 miles!" 

I won't lie, I was so worried that I would get a phone call from Alex at 6:00am asking me to come pick him up!  Instead, I got picture messages all morning of places that he was running past.  Here are a few.. 

I know Alex well enough to know that his mouth was watering at the sight of a sausage egg mcmuffin.

I'm so proud of Alex and I can't wait to see him cross that finish line! 

Home Sweet Home..

Alex and I just got back from arguably the best trip ever!  We went with six other couples to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.  Alex and I left work a little early on Friday to go watch my family run a half marathon in Cedar City.  We had a slumber party at Eric and April's beautiful home Saturday night and then woke up early Sunday to drive to Long Beach.  I have never enjoyed a six hour drive so much in my whole life!  April's suitcase, aka "The Coug", sat with Alex and I in the back seat because Alex and I packed a little heavy!  This could possibly be the most hideous piece of luggage I have seen! 

Once we arrived in Long Beach, Carnival Cruise announced that we wouldn't be stopping in Mazatlan and that we would just spend two days in Cabo and one day in Puerta Vallarta. 

This is everybody prior to getting aboard the cruise ship!

I was so excited when I first laid eyes on the Splendor!  I couldn't even fathom how huge it really was!

I have so much to say about this cruise but words can't quite explain it.  I will post some pictures for now with brief descriptions to give you an idea of how wonderful it was!

We took a boat ride around Cabo and spent the day on Lover's Beach.

I'm a little sad because we did a zip line in Puerta Viarda and my camera died so I will post some pictures of the zip line a little bit later.

I would say that dinner time with all 14 of us together was the highlight of my trip.  It was fun to get together and discuss what had happened that day.  Dinner time was always when we laughed the hardest...great memories were made!

April, Bree, and Kels.

Dustin, Todd, and Alex.

The captain's dinner.

There's nothing like a little pizza and soft served ice cream at midnight! 

Many of our hidden talents came out on this trip...here are a few..

This is poor Dustin's only talent.

As the cruise came to an end we headed to LAX to catch a flight home.  Kaley's dad is a flight attendant and was kind enough to let us use his buddy passes.  We arrived at the airport at 11:00 am and thought that we would for sure get on the first flight home but we didn't.  We didn't even get onto the next four flights!  If you have ever flown stand by you know what I'm talking about.  We ended up sleeping in the airport and got up at 3:30am to shuttle to John Wayne airport.  I'm pretty sure that LAX doesn't heat the building or vacuum their carpet.  It was the longest night of my whole life.  I thought that we would never make it home! 

This trip was an experience of a lifetime and an absolute blast!  I'm so happy that all of our best friends could make arrangements to go because everybody is getting so busy! 

We had to sleep with Alex' t-shirts over us...so cold.