Labor Day Weekend

In past years we have made it a tradition of going to Moab over Labor Day Weekend with the Smith Family. We were all planning on going until about 3 weeks before. Reason being is that Grandma Mickey's cancer had come back and they were not expecting her to live much longer. For 3 weeks her kids (Mike and Heidi, Uncle Dave, Aunt Care & Aunt Mare) took turns taking care of her as she was fading away. As they are waiting on pins and needles for her to pass, Mike and Heidi felt that we shouldn't go to Moab because we didn't want to be far away if something happened.

 

So we just had to wait until the very last minute to see what we should do. We knew we weren't going to Moab, so Heidi was looking all over for a condo that we could at closer to home. Thursday (8/28) afternoon she finally heard back from someone about a condo that was available that weekend up in Eden. It was a really good price, so she booked it.

 

Friday morning (8/29) I frantically packed up all of the food I thought we could use and our clothes all in the truck by myself. Jesse was working and was planning on meeting us there since he was already up that way. Seemed silly for him to come all the way home, to turn around and go right back up that way. Unfortunately he had to work throughout Labor Day Weekend. But since we were going to be in Eden he could go back and forth from work and the condo. But we got to spend Friday and Sunday with him. Where if we would have been in Moab, he wouldn't have been able to come at all. So that was a bonus.

 

Andrew couldn't join us Friday day because of work, Mike was taking care of Grandma Mickey, and T&T couldn't come up because Ty was feeling sick. So we were little in numbers. But that's ok. We'll take what we can get.

 

Our plan was to play at the lake all day Friday before we checked into the condo. So once again we were at Pineview. Yay! Being a Friday it was really quiet because there wasn't very many people there. It was heavenly (I checked Ryker out of school so he could be with us).

 The girls were grateful to have Jesse there. He was very helpful with the wave runners and being the non-stressed out one of the group. I think the women having to pack everything up with out a man's help was overwhelming for us. So we were all relieved to get there all in one piece and be able to just relax.

Jesse is just so wonderful. When he is around he brings so much love, security and a sense of fun. So when he isn't around we certainly miss him.

 Of course the three boys were loving playing in the sand. They can spend hours digging. HOURS! I don't know how they didn't fall over from exhaustion. I guess they did once we put them in the car.

 Emily's siblings all share the 2 wave runners. And so we were able to borrow them for the weekend. I have never actually ridden on one before and Jesse took me out on it. And I was scared for my life. He's crazy! I made him take me back to the beach.

Later I drove it around myself and I liked that much better. I guess being behind Jesse driving was just too unnerving for me. I liked being able to have the control of the machine.

We actually got Ryker up on his skis again. He popped up every time like it was Now he just needs to work on STAYING up. But he's definitely improving. It's a shame we couldn't get him to start this out at the first of the summer. The improvement we saw only after two visits to the lake was impressive.

After playing hard, we packed everything up and headed to the condo. We hurried and unpacked our stuff and went out to eat at a yummy Mexican restaurant called Carlos & Harley.

After stuffing ourselves with Mexican cuisine we went back to the condo to get all settled in. The place we stayed at was called Moose Hollow. They were so awesome and only 10 minutes from the lake. It's so beautiful up there. I was telling Jesse that it would be nice to live up there.

Mom, Emily and I took an inventory of everything that the 3 of us brought for food and we made a menu for the rest of our stay. I think we did a pretty dang good job of using up all of the food that we brought.
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The plan for Saturday was to go back to the Lake. By this time Jesse had left for work and Mike and Andrew were with us, while T&T were going to meet us at the Lake. But after we all got ready to go, we looked outside and saw that it was overcast and looking like a storm was blowing in. Ahh Stink!

We thought maybe it would blow over and we could go to the lake after lunch, but by the time things started to clear up we didn't think it was worth paying for only a few hours. So we just played card games while the little ones napped.

There really isn't a whole lot to report about Saturday and Sunday besides the fact that we were all so happy to just be bums all day long. We did go to church on Sunday morning. But the rest of the time was spent playing games, hanging out and eating way too much food. It was wonderful! It's nice doing nothing sometimes.
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Monday we went back to the Lake after we packed everything up from the condo. Since it was actually Labor Day, the Lake was packed with so many people. We still had a good time, just was feeling like Friday was nicer because it was more peaceful.

That didn't stop us from having an enjoyable time. The girls soaked up some Vitamin D while the boys played in the sand with Andrew.

 We rotated taking turns on the wave runners. I took the boys out for a little spin, but we weren't gone too long because it made me a little nervous with all the boats around. There is a law that you must not be within 150 feet of another boat. But with how many boats and wave runners that were out there, the lake felt suddenly really small.

The boys loved riding with me though. Which made it more fun for me. Cy was giggling over every bump we went on. It was cute.

 Then it was time to bring our fun weekend to an end. We packed up in the car and we headed home. I think Cy was out within 2 minutes of us driving away. Ryker was more like 20 minutes later, but still they were both so tired from our fun day

On the way home I was hoping to stop by the fire station so we could say hi to Jesse while he was working. But he wasn't answering my texts or calls because he was super busy. So it didn't work out for us to come visit. But that's ok. It was good to get home earlier and unpack the truck. I was so exhausted and just ordered a pizza (which I never do) for dinner.

Even though our Moab trip fell through we still made it a fun weekend. It's been 3 years since we have been down there. We are missing it. So things have to work out next year so we can go. I think Jesse wants to try and go down there for a whole week. That would be awesome! Fingers crossed it'll work!

1st Grade

It's hard to believe that Ryker is old enough for this to be happening! Gone all day! Sheesh!

 

He was so excited for the first day though. I couldn't help but feel happy for him. I didn't bawl like I did when he went off to Kindergarten, but I did feel a little prick in my heart thinking about how old he is getting. I think I didn't loose my emotions because Jesse was in the truck with me when we dropped Ryker off. 

WPA starts much earlier than regular Elementary Schools. Instead of starting at 8:55am, WPS starts at 8:00am. And since the school is much further from our house than Bountiful Elementary is we have to leave our house by 7:40am to get him there in time. I was concerned about this. But so far it's working out pretty great (I might change my mind once the winter season is in full swing).

To help Ryker get up in the morning when I'm at the gym, I bought him an alarm clock. He thinks it's pretty cool since it's in the shape of a large LEGO piece. But it makes him seem very grown up. Crazy that my 6 year old needs an alarm clock already.

Nice thing about him starting earlier, is he gets out at 2:30 instead of 3:30. So it feels like we get more of a day to work on homework and do stuff before bedtime.

Boating before School Starts

Ya know? I used to go boating with my family EVERY single week. But it's been about 3 years since I have been able to go with them. My Dad's days off used to be Tuesdays, which I too have off (hence why it was so easy for me to go with them every week). Then he got a new job and it was then Wednesdays, which I don't have off. So it became very difficult for me to go when they went.

 

Well now that Jesse has full days off I decided it would be fun if we could go with my parents on a Wednesday that Jesse had off. So I had to schedule out a month in advance to be make myself take off that Wednesday before school started. That way my entire family (J.A.R.C.) could all be there together. There were a few Wednesdays this summer that Jesse went with my parents, but I stayed behind and worked. So I was really looking forward to going!

 

When my turn came up, the water was perfect and I was excited! My board and I were reunited after 3 long years apart. ;-) It felt so good being out there. I think I had some of the best jumps I've ever done. It was pretty awesome! 

The last time I was with this guy on the lake, he wasn't even 1 yet. Now that's crazy! 

After I had my run, it was Jesse's turn. He is so freaking good at both wakeboarding and the slalom ski. He's the one that taught me how to get more comfortable jumping off the wake. So one of these days I'll have to have him teach me how to slalom like he does. He can cut so well on that right side. It's just beautiful! 

 

On those Wednesdays that Jesse went boating without me, he had tried to get Ryker to ski. But sweet Ryker is so timid when it comes to new things that his fear takes over and he just cries. We know this happens and we know that the only way to get him over those small fears is to push him. Not in a rude way. In a loving way. We saw this several times during swimming lessons. Whenever the teacher asked Ryker to do something new (Such as: holding his breath under water, swimming the length of the pool, jumping off the diving board, or diving off the diving board) he would break down and cry. But the teacher just reassured him that he was safe and everything would be ok.

 

So same thing with water skiing, when we told him we wanted him to try it, he cried. Jesse got him to try a few times when he was with him but he was so upset that things weren't working out for the good.

 

A week before we were going boating, I told Ryker that Jesse and I would be going boating with Grandma and Grandpa, and we want him to try and ski again. Of course he burst into tears. I gave him a moment to cry it out and said that he had to get all his tears out then because on the day of he needed to be brave.

 

So for a whole week, I heard him bring it up to me daily. Worrying that he wouldn't get up. But I just reassured him that everything would work out and that he needed to trust his Mom and Dad!



 

Well, his moment came that Wednesday and he put on his brave face. I could tell that he was nervous but he still got in the water with Jesse. Jesse had made a deal with him that he had to give it 6 solid good tries before he would let him back in the boat. He explained to him that every time he tried he would be learning something. Even if he didn't get up.

 

On his 6th try he got up and went for about 2 seconds across the water. We were all cheering for him from the boat because of how thrilled we were for him. And he was excited as well. But because it was his 6th time trying he was ready to be done. Haha. We all tried to talk him into trying one more time because he would be even better. But he was done. And that's ok.

 

He came in the boat and I couldn't help but feel so proud of bravery! He's such a stud! Also as a parent it was a really good feeling to know that pushing him out of his comfort zone paid off. Jesse and I both knew that once he got up he wouldn't be able to stop talking about it. And it's true! Every person that he comes across (teachers, friends, family, neighbors and ward members) he would tell them that he skied. 

 

After all that, we were starving. So we anchored the boat and ate some yummy lunch that mom had packed us all. Then it was just time to chill! We relaxed on the beach/boat for awhile and then we went and played on the beach. It was fun having two of my sisters there. I had found out the night before that Manda was going to be joining us, so that's was a nice surprise. They are pretty awesome girls! Love them SO much!

 

August has been a very rainy month. Which is really strange for this time of year. So I know that I was very happy to see that the sun came out  for us to play at the lake. I would have been totally bummed if we got rained out. Thank our lucky stars it was a Great Day! And what a way to end the summer. And when I say summer, I am talking about the school summer. I am hanging on to every last warm day! Summer isn't over yet. It just can't end.

Park City Girls Trip



Third Annual Christmas in Park City Girls Over-nighter took place at the end of August. This was AMAZING! Oh I just can't tell you how much I love these women. I've said it before and I'll say it again. But I love being with them because we can be ourselves and there isn't any judgment or drama. I truly am so lucky to have scored so BIG on the Smith Family. Not one of us come from the same mother, but we certainly get along like we do.

 

I know I can speak for my sisters-in-law when I say that Heidi is very dear to all of our hearts. It doesn't hurt that she spoils us by taking us to Park City for a Christmas Present. ;-) But honestly, she is the best Mother-in-law any girl could ask for. I love that she accepts me for who I am and I know that she loves me for who I am. When I'm around her she makes me feel so loved and that I have so much potential. She not only makes me feel that way, but everyone that she comes in contact with.  

Spending a day at the Tanger Outlet Mall was a success! After Wasatch Peak Academy called me that week, School Uniforms was added to my list of things to buy at the Mall. And I scored big at Old Navy. Ryker is suppose to wear either a red, white or blue collared shirt, with either khaki or navy blue shorts/pants. So I was beyond thrilled when the polo shirts were on sale for $5 each.

We all agreed that we want to keep this tradition up. It's a ton of fun and it's something to look forward too every year! Thank you Heidi! We Love you!

Where did August go?

My goodness... I have no idea where the month has gone. August was so full of summer activities that I just never found the time to record everything. And come Sundays when I did have time, I was exhausted and probably fell asleep on the couch during post church "quiet time".

The month of August has brought us so many good things I don't even know where to begin. As I was looking back through all the pictures on my phone, I couldn't help but feel happy about how we ended our summer. I think I just start at the beginning when we went on a little hike as a family.

The Monday morning after SpudMan, the boys and I met up with Jesse in Ogden. He wanted to take us on a hike up Waterfall Canyon near his work. So as soon as he got off that morning he was able to take us on the hike. Thankfully Chantel was able to come over in the morning to be at the house with the boys, while I went to the gym and to the grocery store before leaving for Ogden  (I still needed to get my Monday duties in before I went and played).

The hike was a about a mile and a half up. So not too bad. The boys did great. I was really impressed with how well they were climbing up the mountain. I love that the boys are getting big enough to go and do activities like these. Of course Cy loved climbing over the big rocks. The larger the better. One particular rock he climbed to the top and when reaching the top we hear him say "Look Guys, Come 'ear guys, It's Danj-wiss". Well that should be Cy's life long motto. If it's dangerous then he wants to do it. His bravery can serve him well, but there have been numerous occasions that it has frightened me.

Upon arriving at the end of the trail, we reached the waterfall. Jesse said that the waterfall wasn't running as full as it was in the Spring. Him and a few other firemen had hiked it back then and he liked the hike so much he wanted to take his family to the waterfall. The boys of course loved it when we made it to the waterfall, not only because of the tall waterfall, but because of the large rocks they could climb on.

Our Garden has been in full bloom. Everything was producing and we were loving it. Especially the peach tree. Once those ripened we were feeling a little selfish. We of course shared them, but for some reason we were feeling greedy and wanted to keep them all to ourselves. None could be wasted and they all must be eaten. And don't you worry. They did. Peaches and Cream are one of our favorites. That just screams summer!

 

 An exciting day was the day we picked our one and only watermelon. It was the only one that survived the Rats from eating the baby watermelons. Yes you read that right. Rats. Ewww. Jesse suspected we had some type of rodent eating them. And he was right. He caught/killed two of them. And we didn't seem to have any other problems after that. But by that point we only had one watermelon that didn't get eaten. That is, until us humans picked it.

A favorite thing we like to do in the summer evenings is to hang out in the backyard swings. The boys really have enjoyed having these hammock swings in the yard. I love going out there as the day is starting to cool down and we can all be together. It's especially sweet when Jesse is home as well.

 

As the summer was coming to a close. We had school to look forward too. Back in January I had put Ryker in the Wasatch Peak Acadamy Lottery in hopes he would make it in for 1st grade. But I lost hope when I had found out they had pulled from the lottery at the first of summer with to success of Ryker making it in. Well with a week and a half to go before school started, I got a phone call at the salon from WPA. They said a 1st grade slot had opened up and Ryker's name was drawn from the lottery for that spot. I was so excited!

 

This school is a Charter School and uniforms, but that's not what drew me to this particular school. Their curriculum is awesome! It's called Leveling! Each child is tested and they get to learn at the level that they test at. Therefore, if they are ahead they can continue to excel. And if they are behind then they won't feel like they are holding the other students in the class behind as well.

 

They also have an hour of Spanish everyday. :-) And they have 3 periods. One for their home room learning, literacy and Math class. I know I'm not explaining it all very well, I just loved how everything is set up. Oh and they have a great website to help keep parents informed. It's fantastic.

 

After I calmed down from my excited-self I started to feel a little concerned that Ryker would be sad to leave his old school where he had made friends. So I was a little nervous to tell him about it. But when I told him he was thrilled.

SpudMan 2014

As SpudMan quickly approached I would get butterflies in my stomach every time I thought about it. This would be my first Olympic distance Triathlon. Consisting of a 1500m swim, 25 mile bike ride and a 6.2 mile run. So pretty hefty. Not IronMan hefty, but more than I have ever done. But I knew that unless I attempt to do something beyond what I've already mastered (like the Sprint Tri's), I'd never grow! So this was my time to grow! 

My friend, Donna from work was the one who talked me into signing up for the race. And I am ever so glad she did. There was another girl from work (Jessica) that was going to do it too, but she found out she was pregnant and felt that she shouldn't do it.

Donna and I wanted our husbands to come along so we could have a support crew with us. But her husband (Rick) had to stay home to help with Donna's mom. And Jesse couldn't get his shift covered, no matter how hard he tried. I'll be honest on the day that we had to leave I cried to him that I was really sad he wouldn't be there. Something about having him there would give me security.

But Donna and I pulled up our big girl panties and we ventured up to Burley, ID to get our SpudMan on. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive from my house. Not bad at all.

We arrived at the golf course where the starting line was and were they were doing packet pickup and body marking. We had to get our packet before we could go put our bikes in Transition 1.

I knew this was going to be different because it was a longer distance. But I didn't realize how out of my element I felt. It took Donna and I awhile to figure out the system. But after asking a lot of other people for advice we figured it out.

We put all of our bike stuff in T1 and then we went to T2 to put up our running stuff. To mark your place in T2 they gave you a bag with a potato inside and your bib number on the outside. Then we tied it to the racks. (See what I mean by different?)

In T1 they also gave us a garbage bag that we were suppose to put all our swimming stuff into and hand it to one of the volunteers as we were leaving T1 to ride our bikes. (Again something new we had to figure out).

Once we got things all set up in our Transition areas we went and set up camp. We were able to camp right on the golf course which was within feet of the starting line. Quite the adventure right? Especially when you don't have any men there helping you set up camp. So I had to test my skills to see how well I knew how to put up our tent. Thankfully it came really easy and I felt so proud that I was able to get it up. I sent Jesse this picture (below) to prove I did it without his help. Donna assisted but I was instructing it all.

Then we went and ate dinner. They provided a "CARBO DINNER". Yikes. I actually brought along some chicken so I wouldn't feel totally carb loaded. As much as people say it's a good thing to carb load the night before a race, it is all a hoax.  It really isn't a good idea, it doesn't give your body enough time to digest all that heavy food. So I ate my chicken with only a little bit of the "Carbo Dinner".

We were then ready for bed. But had to wait for it to get dark and everyone else around us to quiet down. As we were setting up our bed I realized I forgot my blankets. Crap! It was suppose to get down into the 50's during the night. I was going to freeze my buns off. But thankfully Donna had an old quilt just in the back of her car that I was able to use. That was a blessing sent from above.

We didn't sleep super well through the night and a matter of fact we slept through the alarm and woke up 45 minutes later than we wanted. So we were feeling rushed to get ready for the race that started at 7:00am. We woke up at 5:45am and we had to visit for transition areas again, eat breakfast, change into our tri clothes, visit the porta-potties, get our wetsuits on in an hour and 15 minutes.

I took a picture of T1 in the morning because I couldn't believe all of the bikes. So crazy to see that many bikes in one area. The Sprint Triathlons I've done usually consist of about 400 participants. This one consisted of over 2000. Crazy huh?

They started the swim in waves. Each age group got to go out every 10 minutes. So that meant I was in the second wave. That gave me an extra 10 minutes to get ready, but I was frantically getting all my stuff on. All the while the others are in the water waiting for the horn to blow. I jumped into the water right as the count down finished and just went for it. It was crazy at first because everyone was crowded together, swimming over top of each other. But thankfully I didn't feel panicked one bit. I think the mastered swim class I have been going to has helped with that. The best thing to do during a swim is to stay calm.

I finished the swim and came out of it feeling great! Totally pumped! I even said to myself once I got riding my bike "That was Awesome!".

But before that I had to get all the swim gear into this garbage bag. Once I did I was running with my bike in one hand and the bag in the other out towards the road. Kinda crazy, but it works. We would later pick up these bags at the end of the race.

The ride too was awesome. About half way though I felt like my brakes were rubbing in the back. So I stopped and loosened them up and I was able to keep my mph up higher that last half compared to the first half. Too bad I didn't figure that out sooner.

Then came dreaded run. I have had issues with my IT BANDS for a few years now. I always roll them out and I just can't seem to figure out why they get so bad after I run long distances.

So around mile 2 I could tell they were starting to feel uncomfortable (especially the right side) then by mile 4 my right side was screaming at me. Oh Man it was PAINFUL! But my competitive self doesn't want me to stop. I keep thinking if I keep running it'll be over sooner. Haha. I did stop for like 10 seconds to stretch it. But that's all. I just wanted to get it over with.

When I crossed the finish line I was filled with so many emotions that it overwhelmed me and I just found a spot on the ground and I berried my face in my knees and just sobbed like a baby. For quite some time.

I calmed down enough to walk over to our campsite to get my cellphone and give Jesse a call. But then I sobbed to him on the phone. He was probably thinking, what the heck is wrong with you? Haha. No but I think the adrenaline, endorphins and all the pain in my knee just consumed me and the only way to get it out was CRY.

Donna's swim wave left 40 minutes after mine. So I patiently waited at the finish line for her. When she finished we had to get a picture together with our finishing medals.

So my goal was to finish in about 2 1/2 hours and my official finishing time was 2:31:57. Not too bad for my first Olympic Distance. I didn't want to put pressure on myself to place in my age division because of how big of a race this was. But I was 8th in my age division out of 81. Top 10 finish? I'll take it.

I literally can't wait until next year. I learned so much this time and will know what and how to improve for next time. In the mean time I have gotta get to the root of this IT BAND issue.

Bountiful Tri



About 2 months ago some girls from the salon signed up to race in the Bountiful Triathlon. They asked me to do it with them, but I already had clients booked that morning.

 

As it got closer one of the girls (Jessica) found out she was pregnant. So she no longer felt like she should participate in the race. :( She was really bummed about it.

 

I was trying to get Jesse to take Jessica's entry. But he couldn't get work off.

 

 

Then like 2 weeks before the race my first client scheduled on the day of the race had to reschedule her appointment to another day. So that opened up my morning and I decided I would race in place of Jessica. :)

 

So I was excited to have a little race to prep me a little more for the SpudMan Triathlon I'm doing on July 26.

 

That morning I set my stuff up. It was a little weird not having Jesse there or someone from the Top Gear team. But I was nice that I had this opportunity to race. I do love it so much!

 

This tri was a reverse one. So 3.2 miles run, 11 miles bike and 350m swim. I had never done it in that order before. I didn't know what to expect, but I did know that I would just do my very best!

I started out with the first wave of runners. I knew I could keep a good pace, but I know I wasn't the fastest runner. And that's ok, I just thought I would start out with a steady pace so I wouldn't die out in the end.

It was so freaking HOT that by the end of the run I was so ready to be on my bike. So when I got on it I was just thrilled and wanted to ride fast. The wind felt so good.

I had past a few girls on the bike ride, but I just wanted to continue with a good pace. I was loving the bike ride.

I am almost to the transition area when I hear someone yell to me "You're the first girl"

What? Really? How is that possible?

So I transitioned as fast as I could into the swimming, ran to the pool and dove in. Which I wish I wouldn't have done because it broke the seal on my goggles so there was water filling up on them. And since I'm too competitive to stop and fix them. So I just swam with water in my goggles. It wasn't my best swim, but I did it.

I got out and saw my time up on the screen and it was 1:07: 37.

As I'm trying to catch my breath I see two more girls come out of the pool and they come up to me and say...."This is it. We are podium".

It wasn't until that moment that I realized that I had just taken first OVERALL in the females! Say what?

Still I had to check the print out to see for certain. And here it is! FIRST OVERALL!!

I definetly didn't expect for that to happen! (left to right: 1st, 2nd, 3rd)

I still can't believe that I did it. Even days later as I think about it I'm shocked at myself. Did I really do that? Holy Freak!

It's exciting at the same time! It makes me feel so grateful for my health and fitness. It also gives me the motivation to be better and try harder.

 

With SpudMan coming up this will be a great way to carry me into it. I'm anxious and excited for SpudMan. It'll be my first Olympic Distance so my goal is to just finish! It'll be a great one to start out with! 

Garden Up-date

Ok. Taking down that tree and building these garden boxes for our yard is working out beautifully. Look how well things are growing. When we tried to grow a garden in summers past they never go this big.

 

It's a beautiful site to see when we walk into our backyard.

It is also a very rewarding feeling to see fruit growing.

Gardening is a trade that must be learned. And I know we still have a lot more learning to do. But we have learned so much the past few years and we are starting to see the pay off of that knowledge.

So much fun!

Thank you Jesse for building these beautiful boxes! You are amazing!

It's not over yet.

4th of July was over, but our little Stay-cation wasn't. Sunday was a good rest day and Monday was the usual clean up the house and run to the grocery store, swimming lessons and gymnastics kind of day.

 

That night though Chantel came over around 5:00pm to watch the boys so Jesse and I could go on a bike ride. I hadn't been on my bike since the relay and it was killing me to get out and ride. But since it was SO hot, we decided we better go Mountain biking instead where it would be cooler.

 

Jesse loves mountain biking and I love road biking. But I do enjoy changing things up and being more rounded. The thing with mountain biking is I can climb all day! No problem. I can actually keep up with Jesse on that part, maybe even go faster than him. But when it comes to downhill I turn into the biggest GIRL. Not going to lie, it freaks me out quite a bit to go down hill.

 

Jesse on the other hand LOVES it and is REALLY good at it. It's quite impressive. So I start to feel bad that he goes down a ways and then waits for me to catch up. Then goes again, then waits. He's being nice because he doesn't want to go too far ahead just in case I get hurt or something. But I feel bad holding him back.

 

Anyway, besides my downhill chicken-ness we had the best time together. I love that we can do these sorts of things together. 

 We made it home around 8:00pm and it was a rush from that point to get ready because we were taking the boys to the drive in theater that night. YAY!!!! So I packed up some dinner in the cooler, popped a bunch of popcorn and put it in a big paper bag.

We grabbed the blowup mattress, bunch of pillows and blankets so we could be all cozy in the bed of the truck.

I don't know who was more excited about this, me or the boys. I was loving the fact that we had a truck and that the boys were getting old enough that we could do things like this.

 I snapped this picture right as the movie screen turned on. They were in such awe by it. Haha. I was just loving it.

 I was seriously loving this moment with my little family. I mean look at the boys faces? Cy is in hog heaven with his big bag of popcorn. Ryker was thrilled with the fact that he got to have all three of his blankets with him.

Memory Making Moments is what this is called! I can't wait to do this again!

"Stay"-cation

4th of July landed on a Friday this year. Which makes for a nice long weekend. I decided to take that Friday and Saturday off for the holiday celebrations. And with me not working Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays I got 5 days off in a row. The best part about it was Jesse's 6 days off landed on this weekend. So we got 5 whole days together. Giddy is the word that comes to my mind when I would think about a FIVE DAY STAY-CATION with my little family.

 

To start things off we were invited to go watch the Eaglewood Fireworks at our friend Brett's house. His back deck looks out over the golf course and is really close to where they would shoot fireworks off.

 

While we were waiting for them to start shooting off the fireworks we got eat dinner and watch the sunset. It was pretty awesome. I told Jesse that one day I would love to have a deck like this one and we could sit out there every night to watch the sun go down. 

I was so excited that I got to spend 5 whole days with this guy 24/7. Sometimes it's nice to take a break of the everyday "stuff" and just be together. Having fun! And that's exactly what we were planning on doing. 

We were spoiled being this close to the fireworks. Watching them from Brett's deck was awesome! Every time one of the big loud ones would go off, we could feel the deck shaking. Pretty awesome.

There were other people there at the house. Most of them were Brett's little sister's friends. They all were down on the grass while we stayed up on the deck. But Cy insisted laying on the grass with the young adults. He had his blanket all laid out on the grass and was right in the middle of two girls. We tried to get him to come up with us, but nope.

After the firework show we heard the girls saying how cute Cy was during the fireworks. I guess he kept saying "Oh that one is my fave-wit...no that one is my fave-wit."

I wish I could have heard him saying this, but it was cute to hear it coming from this girl because she thought he was the cutest thing.

The next morning we packed up the truck with all our bikes, camping gear and food to go spend the weekend with the Smith's.

First on the agenda was a bike ride in Provo. The trail was called Rails to Trails. Apparently it's where the railroad tracks used to be and so it's nice and flat with a slight downhill. Nice and easy bike ride. Which was good because we had a variety of experienced bikers. Tayler hadn't been on a bike since she was a little girl. Andrew was carrying Sterling in a little bike seat....

...and Jesse was carrying Cy in the backpack...

...and Ryker was on his own bike. I love this picture of Ryker, he was having the time of his life. He was really impressive that day. All of us have the option to shift our gears to make the pedaling easier or harder. But he doesn't have that option. So he just pedals and pedals and pedals. Several times he mentioned to me his legs were hurting. I just told him that he was building muscle and then he would ride even faster. haha. Our total distance was 11 miles. And Ryker rode the whole way. That is honestly so impressive because I remember a few years ago when I started riding a bike again and thinking 10 miles was a long ways on a bike. And here is my 6 year old doing it! He's awesome!

We stopped around mile 9 to have a little lunch break.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this photo. I had to balance my camera on the fence with the self-timer. Usually when we take pictures like this it takes several attempts to get a good one, but we got this one on the first time.

It's been awhile since we have been able to get a picture of the whole family together. It seems like we always have someone missing. So it's a good one!

After we made it back to the house we all had some down time. The little boys took naps and some of the adults took naps too. Tyson and Tayler left to go back up to Park City to spend the remaining weekend with her family.

When everyone was done resting we started to prep for dinner and get our campsite ready. We had a delicious BBQ that everybody contributed something to. And then for dessert we roasted marshmellows for yummy smores.

I love this tradition of camping out in their backyard. It's so much fun.

Once it got dark enough we had our own pathetic firework show. All the neighbors were lighting up the big arieal fireworks, but we just had the cheep ones on the ground. 

But that didn't matter to us and especially to the little boys. They were totally into it.

We attempted to go to bed when we were all done with our own firework show. But the boys were still to excited. Well I really should just say Cyrus was still excited. Ryker went to bed because he was sleepy, but Cy was hyper. I'm sure the combination of the excitement and smores made for a wired boy. Plus the neighbors were lighting up fireworks consistently until midnight. So we fell asleep to the sound of the booming sounds of fireworks.

 Saturday morning we (the women) made a scrumptious breakfast! Mmmm I love breakfast food. Eggs, waffles, mini German pancakes and berries! We all ate like Kings and Queens. So freaking good.

Then it was time to go to the pool. Usually we would go to the pool that Mike and Heidi own with 6 other families. But I guess it was under construction. So we walked to the public pool in their neighborhood.

Ryker was all about jumping off the high dive.... until we got there and he saw how high it really was. I wanted him to jump off of the high dive SO BAD because I knew once he did it he would love it.... but he wouldn't. He's such a cautious kid.

 Cy on the other hand isn't so cautious. I think I gave birth to polar opposite boys. Cy is almost scary how NOT cautious he is. He isn't afraid of the water AT ALL. He even jumped off the lower diving board (which I wish I would have taken a picture of).

 After several hours of playing at the pool, we walked backed home.

We were all pooped, so the little ones napped while the adults watched a movie and napped as well.

Before dinner we packed up our stuff and headed home. I don't remember exactly what we did that night. I'm sure just bummed around the house and got everything all put away.

It was the perfect way to spend the 4th of July. And our stay-cation wasn't even over yet. YAY!