Lake Powell

We were able to go to Lake Powell for a week again this year with some of Ben's family.

I love taking this kind of trip where we are literally "off the grid".

My kids love the water and it is so fun to have nothing but swimming to do all day long.

Or taking a nap, or reading . . . I did lots of all three!

Austin came home with a few cupfuls of seashells to add to his Lake Powell seashell collection:)





My girls are such daredevils!

So, Ben's family likes to play this game called "Tube Wars".

Everyone gets on a tube, and while riding around, start shoving people off and 

fighting to see who can stay on the longest.

All three of my girls think this is the best game ever, and don't have a problem 

with getting thrown off a tube.

I'm kind of scared of this game, but I did manage to play it a few times :)

I have to appear like a fun mom sometimes!

There was also a small cliff close to where our houseboat was.

My girls and Austin jumped off this cliff into the water multiple times!

To continue being a "fun mom" sometimes, I jumped off a couple times too.

I didn't go as high as my girls, but I jumped off a cliff :)

A few fears were faced this week :)

Until next time!

Remix

Ben is involved with music happenings at BYU.

Last year, he came home with some tickets to a concert put on by kids in a music camp called Remix.

This camp is directed by the director of BYU's group Vocal Point.

We took our whole family to this concert, and Abby fell in love with it.

She knew she would be old enough to do it this summer and was 

even willing to earn money to help pay for it :)

So, we let her sign up this year!

This is an awesome experience for someone who loves music, 

who loves to sing, and who loves to perform.

( I never would have done this at her age . . . I would never even do it now:) . . . I don't know where she gets this confidence, but it is awesome to see!)

Abby spent 6 days with this group!

It is a full day camp, running from 9 to 5, with two nights of the week running until around 9.

One night they did a flash mob.  And another night there was a concert performance.

It kept her busy, but I think she learned a lot of things that will help her in other things she wants to do with singing and performing.

4th of July the Ranch

Ben's parents live in Wyoming.

They live on a ranch and have couple horses.

We took our family out there for the 4th of July to have a relaxing holiday!


It was really such a relaxing time.

I started running this summer, and decided to make sure I ran while I was there.

Such beautiful scenery!

The kids all had a great time playing with cousins, eating food, going to a parade, 

and watching fireworks . . . and then lighting off a few of our own.

District Track Meet

This summer has included a lot more running than normal!

Halle continued on to the local Hershey track meet for the 800 meter race.

She came in second, which qualified her to run in the District meet held the middle of June.

Once school was out, we signed her up to be a part of the Springville City track team.  This was MUCH more helpful to help prepare her for her race than just running around with me :)

At the District meet, Halle came in third.

She didn't qualify to move on to the State meet, but we are pretty proud anyway!

Way to go Halle!

Running a 5K

Here we are at the Art City Days 5K.

This is my second 5K that I have run . . . EVER. 

But let me back up a little.

About a month ago, my family attended a free 5K Family Fun Run.  And I had no idea how life changing this event would be for me!

 I had recently started running a little more on our treadmill in addition to some other workouts I do . . . but I didn't really have any goals with the treadmill.

I actually have never really liked running.  

Whenever I would try it, all I could think about was how hard it was, how much it made body hurt, how hard it was to breath, and when can I stop!

Anyways . . . at the 5K last month, for some weird reason, I decided to run it.

My only goal was to not walk.

I had to keep running or jogging.  

It didn't matter to me how long it took.  

I just wanted to know if I could even do it . . . without walking.

I not only only was able to do it, I was able to do it at the same pace I had 

been running (slowly) on my treadmill!

I cannot believe what a rush it was to finish a race that I wasn't sure I could even do!

And it was FUN!

I couldn't stop thinking about it all day . . . for several days after in fact.

I started looking up other races.   I couldn't wait to go out and run again . . . and see what else I can do!

I signed myself and two of my daughters up for another 5K (pictured above).  

I was able to get my sister (who is a real runner) to do it with me!

We ran that race yesterday.

Lisa (my sister) ran with me despite my slowness, but it was so good for me to run with someone who could go faster.  She pushed me further than I would have done by myself.  I was able to run the 5K about 4 1/2 minutes faster than the one I did last month!

My daughters did it too and they were great.  Halle beat me by a few minutes (my daughter who loves to run).  Abby did great and finished not too long after me.  She did an awesome sprint at the end!

I think now I will work on training for a 10K!

Hiking to Timpanogos Cave

This is a hike I have wanted to take our kids on for a while now.  

For some reason though, it just never happened.  

Finally, I decided to just put it on the calendar.  (Scheduling into our lives the things we want to do . . . I should do this more consistently:))

Anyway, we did it.  

ALL of my kids walked the WHOLE way.  

Even Austin.  

Even Gwen who used to tell me she didn't like hiking.  Now she seems to like it!

And they all seemed pretty proud of themselves!

It was really fun.

The day we went it wasn't HOT!

I don't think I have ever hiked  Timp without it being hot, 

or trying to beat the heat by going really early.

We actually took a lot of pictures.  BUT, they are now lost on a corrupted USB drive. :(

I guess we will have to go again :)

Run for Fun

Halle loves to run.

I think that is why she likes soccer so much, and why she is good at it.

She can just keep  going and going.

Today was the Hershey Track Meet for Halle's grade.

She chose to run the 400 and the 800.

She has been practicing this year.  

Sometimes she would run on the treadmill.  She would run outside.  

I was only able to take her to the track once . . . but she ran then too.

She was pretty nervous last night about how she would do.

Today she won both of her races!

Now on to practicing for the local meet in a few weeks!  

We researched what the winning times were at the actual Hershey Track Meet in 

Pennsylvania last year. 

 So now we sort of know what to work towards.

Way to go Halle!