Adamson Weekend in Missouri!

My sister Kristi had a baby this summer!

 The weekend of her baby's blessing, my other Lisa and I met up with our 

Mom and Dad in Missouri for some Adamson fun!

Here we are where Kristi's husband Steve teaches, at Missouri Western University 

in St. Joseph, Missouri.

We visited Liberty Jail.

This was an interesting little museum.

The visitor center is built around a replica of the jail, but where the jail actually was.

After visiting Liberty Jail, we went over to Independence Missouri.

Here is the temple of the RLDS church, which I think is now known as the Community of Christ.

We did not have time to go inside, but I would have liked to see it.

Across the street from this temple, is the LDS Visitor Center.

This Visitor Center reminded me a lot of the one on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Just smaller.

Here is first edition Book of Mormon.

Across the street from the LDS Visitor Center, and next to the Community of Christ temple, is the land we believe to be the temple site for the Independence Missouri Temple.

The area is very beautiful.  It will be interesting to see how everything plays out. :)

The next day, we went bowling.

My niece Ashley likes me. :)

Later that day, we went to Adam-ondi-Ahman.

This place is beautiful.

And so quiet and peaceful.

It was really fun to be there!

My dad has a favorite spot. :)

I may have discovered something here :)

Then the event we came for!

Madelyn's blessing day!

She cried through the blessing . . . it was awesome!

Growing up, my mom always wanted us to stand on the stairs for pictures.

Luckily Kristi's house has stairs, so we could do it again!

Such a fun weekend!

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!