Such a cool kid...

Yes, Andrew is one cool kid! Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to go on a field trip with him. We went to the "This Is the Place" monument park. It is "so much more than a monument," as the commercial says. lol I haven't been there in years and it has changed a lot. The kids had a great time pulling handcarts, attending the "Deseret School," dancing, watching the tinsman work and seeing the baby animals. I loved watching Andrew dance. I think one of the girls in his class thinks he's cute. She ran straight for him when they were picking partners. She claimed it was because they were both wearing yellow shirts, but I know better. ;) I had some great photos of all these fun activities but would you believe I accidentally erased them when I got on the bus? I stopped it just in time to save the last couple. Total bummer. At least I have a few to remember what fun time I had hanging out with Andrew and the rest of the 4th grade. How wonderful to spend the day with him and watch him interacting with his classmates. Andrew, you're so cool. :)

CHAD rhymes with DAD

Sarah proudly announced she just noticed this a few weeks ago.
CHAD is one great DAD. The kids idolize, adore him, follow him and love him. It's no surprise they often prefer him, too. (can that be a good thing sometimes?? lol) We love all our DAD's on this day...Papa Bruce, Papa Rick, Papa Pat...and we remember and love the DAD's that are no longer with us. Happy Father's Day!!

We did it. We survived. It was HARD. It was fun???

South Jordan Slackers finished with the very respectable time of 28:17:42.6!

It just dawned on me last night why you train. Yes, you train so your body can do it. But, more than that, you train so that during the race you don't have to think about what your body is doing and you can focus on the mental part. This was seriously hard. It wasn't so much the distances you had to run, it was that you had to do it 1- crammed into a car (just when your muscles have cemented into position, you have to run again), 2- no sleep, none (yes, there are periods of rest, but you try to sleep in the car or in some crazy campground with hundreds of people) and then 3- you have to do it three times.
I am so proud of Chad who ran two of his legs with excruciating IT Band knee pain. Seriously, he's amazing. 30 yards into his 2nd run he was crumpled over and we had Terry (the Superman of runners), ready to jump in. Then Chad stood up and kept going. For 7.8 miles. No kidding. He ran with a great little, stiff-legged hobble, but he did it. AND...he barely lost any time off his predicted time!!! My husband is cool.
I can't decide if this was as hard as I thought it would be or harder than I expected. Either way, it was dang hard. Like, I started my third leg with tears in my eyes hard. Yep, brought me to tears. This is when I realized what a mental thing it is. I can't tell you how much I DID NOT want to run at that point. I was SO done. But, I did it. I even sprinted to my finish.
I guess you could call it miserable fun, which is exactly what I had hoped for. We had such a great time with our team. I was so impressed with our team...what animals. Feeling as good as I did with what I accomplished, made me that much more impressed with what they did. Wow. The distances, the up hills and the down hills...really, really hard stuff. We bonded over laughter and a whole lot of sweat. Our motto..."what happens at Ragnar stays at Ragnar." Chad's already talking about next year. Me? Ask me in 6 months.
(pictures to come)

What....have....I....done??????????

Can you say anxiety?? Uncertainty?? How about a little nervousness??
Chad and I are running the Wasatch Back Relay this weekend.
Somehow, Chad and I were talked into signing up for this by some friends. Mind you, somehow these friends never signed up themselves. I know, I know this is no marathon, but this is huge for me. Before December, I could barely run for 8min without having to stop. This is a 12 person relay from Logan to Park City. A few legs are "easy" (mine...but they wont be easy for me!), most are hard and the rest are excruciating (Chad's). It's safe to say that after 6 months of training I don't love running. I love the progress I've made, I love that I've challenged myself, but I don't think you'll see me running a marathon anytime soon. Chad one the other hand has taken to running like a fish to water. He's been a real natural...that is until about 2 weeks ago when he injured his IT Band. Yep, two weeks before the race. He has stayed off it, stretched it, iced it and bought a $200 prescription cream for it all it hopes that he can make it through this weekend. So here we are, the night before the race, nothing left to do but worry. No more time to train....I hope I've done enough, I hope Chad's knee holds up. I hope the next entry is a happy one!

Grandma and mom take on California...

When opportunity and scheduling connect, what do you do?? You drive to California!! Last week we had a small window where Josh finished school and the other kids were off track (yuck: upper grades on traditional and elementary on tracks). So, at the last minute, I decided we'd better hurry up and enjoy our "summer break" (Besides 2 weeks in July, this is the only time the kids are all free from school!). My mom was able to come along as moral support...Grandma Extraordinaire. It was nice to break up the long drive there by a stop in St. George (thank you Cameron) and visit with Rowena. It was wonderful to see her and her beautiful girls. It just wasn't long enough! Once again, we enjoyed Tammi's generosity and used her condo. It's only 10 minutes from the beach, 25 minutes from Disneyland, and 25 minutes from "Sprinkles" cupcakes...we're talking prime real estate!I found Disneyland tickets for about 1/2 price on Ebay. Initially, I felt like I was making some unsavory deal in the back parking lot. Ultimately, I had to trust the nearly 3000 positive comments on Ebay...and it all worked out perfectly. We arrived at 8am which made for great parking, characters available for photos and quick lines. Since Jenna was an infant last time, it was so fun to see her experience "the magic" for the first time. She loved seeing Minnie, Mickey and especially Goofy. I had to laugh when she wouldn't approach Alice and the Mad Hatter...she had no idea who they were! As the day went on lines got a bit longer...thank heavens for fast passes and G'ma providing refreshments while we waited in line. Some of the favorites were: Buzz Lightyear, Small World, Space Mountain (Andrew and Sarah even went!), Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Soaring Over California, Monsters and the Pixar parade (I highly recommend it!). On the "not so favorite" side would be the Haunted Mansion. In spite of it being Sarah's favorite ride 4yrs ago and Jenna begging to go, I almost had to burst out of the emergency exit with my freaked out little girls! Considering we only had one day, we were able to hit most of the rides on our list. Indiana Jones was the only on we didn't make. We ran ourselves ragged from 8am to 8pm...what a day! We loved Disneyland!
The next day we headed for Laguna Beach. Although "June Gloom" was in full swing, it was still pleasant enough to go. The lack of sun didn't stop the kids from getting wet. However, Sarah got a bottom full sand and declared she hated the beach. lol After the beach, we partook of the local culinary goodness. BJ's pizza, Sprinkles cupcakes, Gelato Paradiso and even an apple pie apple from Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory. Yes, we really did stop at three dessert places. :) While at the condo, the kids loved swimming, mommy hated running (training for the Wasatch Back) and we all loved playing Uno together. We also went and saw "UP." This is one of the better movies I've seen in a long time. I had no idea it would be so emotional. Three minutes in, I was wiping away tears w/ my greasy popcorn napkin. So creative, so well done, so tender. Go see it.

Friday, we headed north to see the Williams family. Along the way, we took G'ma down memory lane. It was fun to hear her reminisce about her childhood. We drove by her school, home and church. We even visited w/ the lady who lives in her house now. It was so interesting to find out the "artist spirit" of the home remained. The homeowners grandmother worked for Hanna Barbara just as G'pa Chic did!Uncle Denny has just had his surgery to get his "metal knees" and was homebound. We had fun visiting with him and Jason (congratulations Jason and Jana!!) who was there to "papa sit." Then we headed to Scott and Tera's for the night. My kids had so much fun with their "Williams cousins." Are they 2nd cousins, cousins once removed...no matter, they connected as if they see each other every weekend! Jenna couldn't get enough of Uncle Scott, Nathan and Jake. Sarah found her soul mate in Gracie. They created a special rock...each has a half with their names on it. Sarah says when they see each other again, they will put the rock back together like their secret handshake! I Grace she could come home with us and I wasn't kidding! lol Andrew had a blast playing with Grant and Spencer. Josh totally enjoyed Andi and Brooke...doing what the big kids do best...hanging out! As for me, it was so great to see my cousins. I've concluded that the Williams really are as perfect as my mom tells me they are (she gets to see them more than me). They are all so talented, giving and fun...all around great examples to me. Wendy treated me to "rock star toes." Thank you, I love my super glittery, pink toes! For dinner that night, we went to Willy's BBQ. Wow...I never knew a pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich could be so heavenly!
The kids were not happy with me as I coaxed them out of bed to hit the road...they were having too much fun! We stretched out our good byes and got on the road about 2 1/2 hrs later than we wanted to (partly, in thanks to Wendy's delicious almond blueberry bread!).What a great trip. Everything went so smoothly and we had a fabulous time!

Finally! Jenna was old enough to take swim lessons at the Guy's house this year. She was so excited to have Miss Amee (her preschool teacher) help teach her to swim. Just the mere mention of water, towel, pool or swimming would send Jenna into an impatient fit. When lesson time finally arrived, she was very cooperative and attentive...trying to do everything that was asked of her. One day, the kids were told to dunk themselves in the water to get their face and head wet. In a quick action, Jenna began splashing herself with the water. What a clever girl...getting her head wet without going under the water! It was also very entertaining to watch her on the diving board. What bravery! Shivering from cold and fear, she would inch her way to the end of the board. When she reached the end, she would promptly sit down, arms reaching our to be caught (ie...lifted down into the water! lol) I think this year was a great start to swimming for her.

Last Saturday was a very special day for Sarah. A day that her parents can hardly believe has come and gone! She was able to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was so excited for her dad to baptize her and could hardly wait to "be all clean." It is so fun to watch Sarah on these special days. She seems to be keenly aware of these milestones and relishes the spotlight these events bring. Immediately following her baptism she said, "I feel like I've been reborn." It was so special to see this new maturity emanating from her. My hope is that this new beginning will only be the start of a strong understanding of the gospel and the peace and blessings it can bring to her life.