The Boys of Summer

These boys spent some good days playing together in the sun. They are all so sweet and still not to hard to keep entertained.

We managed to wear out the slip and slide this year. We discovered that shaving cream is the best medium to really get you sliding.
Summer freedom
"Hi, my job is to play all day."

Guilty

These are the days I feel guilty Dave has to go off to slave away at his job while I stay home and watch the kids. I lovely day at Herritage Park with lots of great people and fun conversation. I just have to remember the mornings when Dave can't wait to get out the door because the kids are already going crazy.
It's days like these that help me get through days like those.

The river is the funnest attraction at this park.

Lincoln is about to dump that full water bottle right into my lap. Now I know what it's like to have on a very, very wet diaper.

Pioneer Day...

...just another good reason to get the neighborhood together and cornhole. Yes I said cornhole. No, you shouldn't be embarrassed. It's the guy's favorite thing to do together this summer. Here they are pulling out the lights so they can play for a few more hours. I finally dragged Josh to bed at 11:00, and turned off the waterslide at 10:30.

Hey mom's. Why aren't you over there cheering on your husbands?

American Fork Canyon

We took advantage of Dave getting home early one day and went up the canyon. We played in the river forever and I loved taking as many pictures of them as I could. The water was such a pretty background:

Then we went up to the reservoir because Dave wanted to go swimming. He even brought his scuba diving goggles because he was really planning on being in there awhile, it turns out it was so freezing only our kids were brave enough to get wet:

(it looks like we need to start making Ammon eat more dinner)

They got their head in :)

And we had some really bad hot dogs. Dave was even grossed out. Only top of the line Hot Dogs from now on, if there is such a thing.

Swim Lessons

My kids are not the best of swimmers, and I feel like it's my fault. I don't expose them to the water enough and so I try to ease my guilt by making sure they take swim lessons. The cousins were in town this year witch made it lotsa fun.

I'm sure the teacher was making Josh do this to Ryan:

When I walked over to take a picture I saw Josh practicing a lot of this. ???? What kind of skill is this? You can't even breath? I wasn't sure if he made it up until it was on his report card.

Lauren. Good at everything she does.

Ethan and Ammon. Ammon liked swim lessons. That was a big step for him. The teacher mentioned that he could move on to the next level next year or just stay at the same level. ;)
My favorite part of the lesson was when they would come hunched over and shivering back to us. So cute.

The Hobbler Half

(Me, Carla, and Staci)
I remember about 10 years ago entering the 5K during theRick's Homecoming week thinking that it would be hard but that I was young and should be able to run a few miles. I did some training for it but when the race came I ended up having to walk some of it! I was a bit embarrassed that I couldn't do it, but at the same time I wasn't surprised that it was so hard, I already knew what kind of an amazing runner I was. And a 5K was a big achievement! I was glad that I tried. Over the next 10 years I didn't make any big advancements in the running department. I would try to get out and exercise but for years never really made it over two miles, and if I did I was thrilled. So after having baby number three, and with 20 something pounds to lose, i decided I needed to get back out and slowly jog around the neighborhood or something. In fact, at first I did just jog around the neighborhood next to us because it was flat and if I ventured anywhere else I would run into hills.
My neighbor Carla, who was just starting to jog too after having her third baby, realized that we were both trying to get out a little and probably both on the same level. We scheduled a time to get out together and would do 2 or maybe 3 miles together and we were thrilled! We just kept scheduling the next time to get together and we eventually started adding new routes which meant new distances. It was hard! But it made all the difference knowing there was someone outside waiting for you to get your booty out there to join them.
I was shocked that we were improving. I had never improved really. I remember the first time I did 4.5 miles! I was so excited. Or the first time I did 6.5 miles. All the new millage we were hitting was so exciting and makes you start to wonder what you are capable of.
We took the month of December and January off because it was cold!!! And life was busy, and it was a nice break. Once we started up again in February it was hard again but we were still improving. I felt like we had never been in better shape and if we didn't do some kind of race now then I might not ever be in enough shape to do one. So the 1/2 marathon was planned! It was scary to commit to it because we still had a lot of new millage to hit.
We generally ran four times a week. A 3mile (fast), a 4mile, a 5mile, and on Saturday mornings we started with a 6mile and that eventually grew until we were up to 12 miles.
Those long runs never became easy, so much so that I stilled wondered if I'd be able to finish 13.1 on race day.
I was a ball of nerves the night before the race. I made us a spaghetti dinner that turned out bad and I still didn't know what I should use to fuel up with 1/2 way through the race. I got to bed really early and woke up around 4:30 to head down to Springville. I could tell I was feeling good the morning of the race, and that was a relief. Once the race got started Carla and I got to talking, like always, and the miles melted away. Around mile 8 we both kind of realized that we were going to be able to do this! Around mile 10 we could hear the party at the finish line, but then our course started to take us away from the sound which was hard. My parents, and sister Shauna, found us around that time and encouraged us along. It was great to have the support and to see others who were genuinely excited for our success. The last mile Carla was ready to take off for the last mile and finish strong. I wasn't! I hit a wall, but knowing I had one mile left and was so close was plenty to carry me through. I told her to take off and I finished up with the same pace. I finished with a time of 2:19. About 10.5 minute miles, slow I know, but I was totally happy with that. When I don't have somebody running with me I run even slower!

(At the finish line)
So the next question always is, Are you going to do a marathon? And the answer still is no. I really liked the 1/2 marathon and could see myself doing that again. The training was hard for me and time consuming and thinking of doing all of that x2 doesn't sound fun at all right now. But I did love the experience. What made all the difference for me in the training was having someone to train with. It was our fun girl time to just talk and talk and having someone whose counting on you to be there doesn't allow you to make excuses. It was a year ago at this time that we started with our little two mile jogs and here we are where we never aspired or thought we would be. Line upon line I guess!

Date with Josh

Josh and I finished off the 4th of July weekend with a date together. We had been trying to think something fun to do together and came up with camping in the yard. Since our front yard is more private then our backyard, this is where we spent the night. Josh took this nice picture of me setting up the tent.

We had lots of fun activities to do while in our tent. Legos, Yahtzee Jr., and looking atJosh's favorite book, "Lego, Star Wars".

We snuggled up together and feel asleep outside. I woke up around 12:30 with the tent on my face. The wind was blowing so wildly that the tent was trying to blow away. After a half hour of wild wind I picked up Josh and we finished our camp-out on the couch inside.
I love you Josh, this was one of my favorite dates with you!