Mother Teresa 50 Years Young

For the past few week my siblings and I have been working on something special for Mom's 50th birthday. I know she requested not to have a surprise party so we decided to surprise her in a special way. I met with everyone and we came up with a plan to decorate the park (where we were holding the party at) with balloons so that when mom showed up she was surprised. 

Also we decided to put together a book of 50 reasons why we love her, personal letters and pictures of her. Then with all the individual reasons Tyson designed a collage of them all then sent it to Jesse to print out on his vinyl cutter and put it on a painted board. Seeing the book and plaque some together was so neat.

The best part was the look on her face when we each took our turn reading our personal letters and all the reasons why we love her. There wasn't a dry eye there as we shared our love for this dear woman.

Might I mention that we celebrated Chantel's 20th birthday as well. She's such a sweetheart. I just love this baby sister of mine. She just had her baby one month ago and is fitting into her skinny jeans (which feels very unfair to me, but I'm very for her). Like I said already that I love her, but I think I love her too much at times that I tend to mother her. I have loved watching her grow up and become the most natural mom herself. She's full of love and spirit and I feel so blessed to call her my sister!

Happy Birthday Mom and Chan! You are 2 women in my life that I couldn't go without.

A Lagoon Day That Didn't Go As Planned

I had the day off today and a day off on a Friday for this working mama doesn't come around very much. So I braved Lagoon A Beach by myself with these 3 munchkins. Worth it! As these boys get older and older I find myself grasping for every moment I can spend with them. 

 Always love me a little Fynnie snuggles. He stayed with me the whole time while Ryker and Cyrus would go ride a water slide and then come back to check in with us.

 At lunch break I got a kick out of them all eating their lunches in their tubes.

 After several hours of being there it was time to go and get dinner. I was feeling awesome that we were all together and I hadn't lost anyone or had anything crazy happen. Well I thought too soon because I experienced one of the biggest fears of any parent. I lost Cy as we were leaving Lagoon. He was missing for 20 mins and it was the longest 20 mins of my life.

 I have to thank my heavenly Father for watching out for him. When I finally saw him I burst into tears with such gratitude for him.

Here's the story...
We were actually leaving Lagoon and passed the fountain at the front area and Cy asked me "I wanna make a wish" so I gave him and Ryker a penny. I sat down as they walked back to it (20ft away)... They came both came back telling me they forgot to make a wish after throwing the penny in the fountain. Haha, so I gave them another. They went back.

I checked something on my phone. When Ryker came back I noticed Cy wasn't with him, so I asked him where Cy was. He didn't know. We searched that whole front area for 10 mins. I finally went to security and filled out paper work to give them info on Cy and then all the security guards around the park were notified.

I went back to the fountain hoping Cyrus would be there. That's when I called Jesse (who was at work). At this point my mind is going to all those dark places. Did someone take him? Is he ok? I'm praying. I'm a mess on the phone. Jesse suggested going to look at the truck. Maybe he left the park thinking that we left too? Jesse said that he would leave work to come and help me. I made Ryker swear to stay at the fountain while I walked to the truck with Fynn and the wagon.

We parked forever away. The walk back to the truck I was crying and praying out loud for Cy to be ok. I'm sure every person I passed was thinking I was nuts. But I didn't care in that moment. I was on the hunt to find my child.

About 3/4 of the way there, I see Cy walking towards me. I burst into a sob and ran to him. Never felt more happy to see him. Prayers of thanks were said, many tears were shed, and hugs shared. I held him so tight and was surprised to see that he wasn't crying himself. (I found out later that he was worried he was going to get in trouble).

As we walked back to the park to get Ryker, I called Jesse to let him know I FOUND HIM! Oh what a relief. I couldn't stop crying. When we made it back to Ryker, he was crying too. More hugs. Then we went and told the security that Cy was found. We walked to the truck together and once we got there I had this thought come to me "This is a teaching moment Ash, you need to pray." So we huddled together and said a prayer of Thanks to our most gracious Heavenly Father.

Lagoon Season Passes

This year Jesse talked me into buying Lagoon Season Passes for our family. So now that it's summer time we were able to put those passes to use. Even if it was only for a couple of hours. Jesse has taken the boys once or twice already, but tonight was my first time going. Which I felt grateful that Jesse had already done the routine and could show me the ropes for when I decide to brave it on my own with the 3 boys. 

 Even though it was only for a couple of hours it felt good to let go of the To-Do List and just play with my family. It was much needed for my heart!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the man of the house. I don't think these 3 boys will ever fully understand how blessed they are to have Jesse as their Father. He is full of so much patience, love and kindness. We are SO BLESSED!!!! Thank you Jesse for the foundation and security you create within our family and home.

Little Red

The Little Red Bike Ride is one of my most favorite events to ride in. And this year it had much more meaning behind it. Why? Well since my best friend Harmoni is fighting her Stage 4 breast cancer and the Ride raises money for Huntsman Cancer Research it gave me all the more reason to want to ride in it. 

I wanted her slogan #HARMSTRONG written on my arms and legs to ride 100 miles in honor of her.  It's a ride that she loves doing and she isn't able to do it this year. Which just makes me heart break. Next year! Next year we will do it together. 

I recruited my cousin Timalee to ride along with me. She is the one that got me into Little Red in the first place. Which I love her for. 

 The course this year was changed due to some flooding on part of the route. Which made it so we ate lunch at mile 58 instead of 50. Which got in my head a little bit because I was ready to eat at mile 50. Plus it didn't help that due to the course change we climbed alot more by this point. I had a little bit of cramping in my legs but a fellow rider gave me some supplements to help with that. So by the time I had lunch, some water, pink salts, and ibuprofen I was good to go.

Through the painful parts of the ride I tried to enjoy the fact that I CAN feel pain and I'm able to do this. Thinking of Harmoni gives me strength to keep pushing through the tough moments. If she can fight cancer, I can fight the hills.

This was at the top of a really steep hill and we were feeling great. The weather was perfectly warm and we were loving life.

 But the last 20 miles we were fighting the WORST head wind. Which by this point in the day was a HOT head wind. It actually made me so mad. But I used that to fuel me. I can't really explain those last 20 miles, but they got really emotional for me. As I am fighting this head wind I kept repeating over and over again "I am Harmstrong." I was alone by this point because Timalee had fallen behind and I only stay in my pace and I couldn't keep going back for her(I went back at the last mile so we could finish together). But as I was alone, thinking about Harm and telling myself that I am Harmstrong I fought the urge to SOB. The feeling overcame me and I felt a deep love for Harmoni.

 Today was a good, hard, emotional and a proud day for me. Another 100 miles in the books and it was all for Harmoni.

 I had been posting on IG all day about it and right after I made my final post about the last 20 miles, I got a phone call from Harm. I had tagged her in it so she had just read it and called me. But I couldn't understand what she was saying on the other end because she was crying. And that's all it took for me to lose my sob as well. It was actually a really tender moment we shared together. I heard her tell me "I'm so proud of you" and "Thank you for being such a good friend" and "Next year I'm doing it with you". Oh my heart grew a size bigger in that moment and one more love root grew even deeper for her.

I cannot wait to do Little Red next year and I want Harm to do it with me. Even if we do a shorter distance.